An Adventurer’s Grin

Tnel was a bit aimless as he stormed the forest dampened by rain a few hours earlier.

The Omogl Floodplain Forest. They had travelled around 14 hours away from town to get to here. They had been lucky to had not run into any slimes as they pasted through the southern marshlands to get to here as it would’ve surely meant the spoilage of their food.

It was too risky on betting on this same luck for a return trip without trying to scavenge the dungeon for items of value which is why a return trip without venturing into the dungeon was off the table.

Originally, they had intended to venture into Medusa’s Palace further north but had decided to redirect their attention to a Dungeon Shanel suspected was unexplored in this area.

With the confirmation that Myor had indeed neglected to ensure that their wagon was properly packed before they left town, all focus had seemingly been redirected to the dungeon as continuing the full journey with their current supplies would be akin to suicide.

Realizing all this, the group’s trusted Paladin Tnel, who wanted nothing more than to see his comrades getting along visibly cringing at times when arguments dragged on endlessly, decided to be a bit more proactive in trying to better their current situation.

With his hulk- like frame hidden behind sliver toned armor, he scanned the forest hoping to find something to be sculpted.

He was sure that if he procured the right material, Shanel who is known be good at crafting, would at-least be able to make something sleep-able out of it with Mystia or “Chama” as the group likes to refer to her would be able to properly bless it preventing monster attacks as they slept.

The search had seemed mostly fruitless for the first couple of minutes as nothing seemed to catch the distractingly handsome Tall Elf’s eye.

That’s was until he happened upon a circular trench in the middle of this dense forest.

“Is that..a dragon cult flag?”

As he stared, he slowly began to make out the debris inside the trench. A destroyed carriage in the middle of the forest, a far way from the roadway they travelled on to get here.

“I thought you said this place was unexplored so what is this writing doing here? Are you sure you scoped the place out correctly?” Myor had stepped in to have a proper look but had really just wanted an opportunity to scrutinize Shanel.

“Stop trying to drag me down to your level of incompetence. Fil’s Mist has saved all of us more times than I care to count. I have reason to believe it hasn’t led us astray this time either.”

Fil’s Mist, a spell taught to Shanel by his archery master, allows him to sense whether or not different forms of life have been in an area and if signs of them still are. These forms of life appear as different colors of mist with a trail indicating where they have been in the area and the brightness of the color indicating how recently they have been here. This area has shown all but signs of any human or human adjacent life whatsoever.

Dungeons simultaneously try to attract adventurers while keeping themselves hidden. The roadway leading to the dungeon was blocked under several illusion spells with the group only being able to catch on because Shanel detected traces of dragon life in the area.

“So, I’m guessing phantoms?” Mystia mumbled audibly while drawing for her prayer book from the shoulder bag slung over her liturgical vestment.

“it’s possible they could’ve possessed a bear or something to do this, but it’s still a bit strange.” Shanel pondered in response, hand on his cheek.

“Only one way to know for sure.” Myor asserted whilst gripping just below the rusted dragon-winged cross guard of his trusted sword marching towards the opening of the dungeon.

“Wait! I’m against rushing in without Tnel.”

Ymel, gripping her trusted staff rose up to interject the battle ready Myor. He scratched his head impatiently in response while tapping his leg impatiently as if his body was having trouble denying the draw of the dungeon.

Just then, as if he had sensed another argument brewing, Tnel had returned from his search. His huge hands were full.

“A camping kit? Where’d you find that?” Mystia blurted after lifting her head from her prayer book at the sound of his voice.

“Heh. The strangest thing…”

He had proceeded to inform them of his findings which pulled the party away from the dungeon entrance straight into a new investigation.

“There really aren’t any bodies or even signs of struggle besides from the carriage being smashed. If it wasn’t for the supplies and the flag you wouldn’t suspect life being here at all.”

“ I’m not seeing any form of dim life mist around here at all strangely.”

“ There isn’t any death shadow around any of the equipment and the holy water isn’t reacting to anything here so I’m not seeing any signs of demons or ghouls.”

“This isn’t a mirage like the hidden roadway. I’ve tried to spell cancel any bindings placed here and still nothing. Either there’s really nothing here or fairy dust was used to hide something which I really doubt. If that were the case I’d atleast be able to pick up signs even if I couldn’t completely break it.”

After spending some time digging through the rubble, the party all presented their investigative reports.

“Either way, we can all agree that whatever is going on here is insanely weird. I vote on us leaving food be damned!” Tnel asserted not even trying to hide the concern and worry in his tone.

Initially, though he was a bit concerned, he had thought if he had brought it to everyone’s attention they would eventually be able to get to the bottom of it as he felt his companions were far more superior at deducing situations than he was.

However noticing that even with all their brains put together, they still couldn’t figure out what is happening, his concern skyrocketed to new heights.

But there was also-

“No. This is all the more reason why we can’t leave.”

“Huh?!” Tnel’s voice cracked at the absurdity of Myor’s absurd proclamation.

“We have no idea what this is and what even triggered it. We also have no idea how deeply entangled we are in it as well so it would be reckless to bring this back to town and endanger everyone else. Hell, us leaving this area might be us spelling out our own doom.”

Tnel and seemingly everyone else had no real way of refuting this.

“And besides…”

This feeling. The one existing side by side with Tnel’s clear concern-

“This sounds like something thing I would sign myself up for anyways.” Myor concluded smacking his gloved sword hand into his armed fist.

This was it. The other feeling that refused to be buried under Tnel’s concern.

An adventurer’s smile was plastered all over his face. Lost in Myor’s declaration he didn’t even notice that his other friends all fell under this same hypnosis.