-
Chapter by
MilkingRocks · 12 Nov 2026 -
Colm collects his pay at the Ardglass Guild for escorting a farmer's goat. He gets eleven copper instead of the posted fifteen, because the farmer docked him four after the goat ate Colm's hat and got a stomachache. While he's at the counter, he overhears a tipsy woman named Mags talking about her friend Tobin's discovery: a new dungeon in the north end of Moonlight Grove that isn't in the log book. Tobin's familiar went all the way through without trouble, and he's reporting it to the Guild tomorrow. Colm memorizes the directions, past the charcoal pits to a rock split down the middle, and runs back to camp.
By Guild law, no one can go into a dungeon until the Guild rates it, but the first party inside gets the best loot. At camp, the rest of the party is out: Hedda and Pell are at a bar playing dice, and Tess is with a man she just met. Only Agnes, the party's healer and a nun of Althea, is there, hanging Colm's laundry. He pitches going in tonight, before the dungeon is reported. She objects that it hasn't been rated and that only two of them would go. She agrees once he promises they'll turn back if anything at the door seems wrong, and admits she'd like to know what being first feels like.
To get there before dark, Colm brings out the party's one teleport scroll. They bought it in spring with a rule that it was only for emergencies, and all five had to agree. Agnes points out that only two of them agree; Colm insists everyone will get their cut. She gives in and packs, bringing her prayer book and "the good bandages." Colm carefully writes the location onto the scroll, Agnes grabs his sleeve, and he breaks the seal. -
The clerk counted my pay out one coin at a time. Slowly. Like each one hurt her personally.
“Eleven copper,” she said.
“The posting said fifteen.”
“The farmer docked you four. For the hat.”
“The goat ate my hat.”
“He says it gave her a stomachache.”
The farmer told us she was a very special goat. He made us walk ten steps behind her the whole way so she wouldn't get nervous. She was not nervous. She ate my hat, and then, apparently, she charged me for it.
I scooped the coins into my pouch. They barely made a sound.
Then somebody at the table behind me said the magic words.
“…not in the log book at all. North end of Moonlight Grove.”
I froze. Then I unfroze, because freezing looks suspicious, and started tying my pouch shut. Very carefully. With a lot of knots.
“Tobin sent his familiar in this morning,” the voice went on. It was a woman, and she sounded a few drinks in. “Little owl went all the way to the back. Came out fine. He's reporting it tomorrow.”
“Why not today?”
“Because today he's celebrating, Mags.”
Mags laughed. I kept knotting. The clerk watched me knot.
“So where is it?”
“Past the old charcoal pits. There's a big rock split down the middle. You can't miss it.”
I had tied my pouch so many times it was basically a ball. The clerk raised one eyebrow at me.
“Anything else?”
“Nope,” I said. “Thanks. Great goat.”
Here's what you need to know about dungeons. Rule one: you can't go in until the Guild checks it out and gives it a rating. Rule two, which nobody wrote down but everybody knows: the first people inside get the good loot. Magic stuff. Gold. Everybody after them gets a few shiny rocks.
Those two rules do not get along.
I walked like a normal person until I got out the west gate. Then I ran. I ran so hard a branch smacked me in the face. Then another one did. I didn't care. I had eleven copper and a secret, and one of those was worth a lot more than the other.
======================
Agnes was hanging laundry between two trees. Most of it was mine. I tried not to think about that.
“You're back early,” she said, with a clothespin in her mouth.
“Where is everybody?”
She took the …
This content is age-restricted
Log in to verify your age.
Chapter 2 - Entry in Party of One
Colm and Agnes teleport to the north end of Moonlight Grove at dusk. The jump makes Colm sick, as teleporting always does, and he turns down Agnes's offer of a healing spell. The scroll drops them right where he wrote: past the charcoal pits, at a rock split down the middle with a tall metal door set inside the split. The door is covered in carvings of circles inside circles. Colm finds it strangely calming to look at.
Agnes notices a half-circle of dead, bare dirt in front of the door that gives off a faint sweet smell. She reminds Colm of his promise to turn back if anything looked wrong. He argues that the other party's familiar came out fine. She answers, "Familiars don't breathe," and he has no comeback. He agrees to turn around. Then they face the dark woods with no scroll and half a day's walk home, and he talks his way into "just one touch" to see if the door is locked.
When he touches the door, it shudders and pours out pale purple smoke that smells of the same sweetness. C…