Peek: Letters Home

Dear mom and dad,

Laineir and I are doing well after the academy. Our new post is... out of the way, but after the hustle of the academy, I think we're both grateful. We only have to watch over two dungeons, and one is just a month or two past having its borders stabilize, so it should be easy to handle for a while yet. The other is huge and well established, but it's a toybox, so there's nothing to worry about there.

Silvervein is a weird town, and not only because it's independent. If I'm reading the maps right, it's deep below the Wanderlands, but the orcs don't seem to care too much about anything under their plains. Thankfully, the only known route to the surface from here goes through the Southwood, that's the big toybox dungeon, and the orcs would have to send any raiding parties through there. Despite it being a toybox, its Voice is very prideful, and would probably not let them raid one of its sources of mana.

So yeah, no raids here, which is nice. Not that we ever got raided back home, but I remember the stories of towns looted to bare walls. Anyway.

We're getting settled in well. The previous Inspector may have only been here temporarily, but he was good at his job. Rumor says he's on the list for the next Inspector to the Crown, and after meeting him, I can believe it. I've never met Olander Wideblade, but Inspector Tarl has that professional confidence that makes you think he can do whatever needs doing. He's also only a couple days away, if we need help.

I know, how can we be in the middle of nowhere and still be just a couple days from some big-named Inspector? Well, he's also positioned out of the way, I think on purpose, but there's also another dungeon that's out of our jurisdiction, that he watches over. Fourdock.

It's a Cloistered Fate affinity dungeon, so it's definitely a weird one. From what we've seen, it definitely meets that expectation. Its Voice has spatial affinity and likes to make incredibly-long shortcuts, and that includes one not only from Fourdock to the Southwood, but also from the Southwood to Silvervein. It's still a long ways from home in the Principalities, but we're not too far away by letter, I think.

Did I mention Silvervein is full of pale elves and pale dwarves? Well, it is. They're good people, even if they're kinda obsessed with food. They also have a weird relationship with dungeons. They were emancipated by their local dungeon, but it was still lording over them via its priesthood, until the Fourdock dungeon came in and subsumed it. So now they're actually free, and figuring out how they want to do things.

There's even a small priesthood from the Fourdock dungeon, which I would have expected to be shunned, but the people seem to see them as genuine liberators, so at least there's no talk of rebellion or revolution or whatever. The dungeon's name is Thedeim, and even has some weird affinity called gravity. Its priests are still figuring it out, which is just another odd thing for the pile, but they're good people, too.

Which is especially good for us, since they're probably going to be heading the informal delving guild, or possibly sponsoring whatever official one gets going. Laineir and I have been getting to know the two priests, ratkin, and they're eager and hard-working. They're still figuring out proper delving, but considering the two local dungeons, there's no rush on them learning how to handle themselves in a hostile dungeon. They're currently organizing to take a group back to Fourdock to delve there, where there's a lot more variety in combat encounters, but that's still a month or more away, I'd imagine.

So yeah, we're settling in, making friends, and ensuring our dungeons are going to be healthy and profitable. We're both still nervous about orcs potentially showing up to buy information about the dungeons, but we'll do our best to be professional about it. It's part of our duties, after all.

P.S. Laineir here. I read Golond's part, and he didn't miss much, except to say we miss you and hope you're doing well. He's been working hard on his training, wanting to make sure he can keep up with Vanta, the young dungeon. It uses swarms, and he's not very confident with groups, but I'm not worried for him. It only has worms and little disk automatons, so he can easily run away if he has to. Tell the others we're doing fine, too, and let us know if the proper portion of our payment is getting to you. It's supposed to be secure and safe, but there's always room for a bureaucratic mistake.

Love,

Golond and Laineir