Garath mulled over everything he’d just heard. She almost seemed to imply with her verbiage that the Dungeon had an awareness of its own. Before he could ask to verify his deductions, Daisy piped up.
“Why don’t you think the puzzles will be a problem?” the little Elementalist asked.
“Because you are entering The Tower with a Lore Keeper,” Alice explained simply. “My mental capacity is several times greater than that of a typical human.”
Daisy smiled shyly. “I like puzzles too.”
“Are you seeing anyone?” Atlas asked.
Alice once again disregarded the Mage Smith and continued scanning the lineup for legitimate questions.
“What types of monsters should we expect?” Maimon asked.
“Only those you bring with you,” Alice responded cryptically.
Auto looked at Garath meaningfully.
“What are you looking at?” Garath asked, offended. “I’m not a monster…”
“Perspective, dude. You use dark magic and summon demons,” Auto said with a smile.
Athios laughed. “He’s got you there.”
“If that is all?” The Lore Keeper turned to face the dome in the center of the cavern. “The entrance is there.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven – One Small Step for Man
Finally standing before the unassuming doorway that would lead them into the Dungeon, Garath stood in front of his team. He pulled open the door and cautiously looked inside. Try though he might, the Necrologist couldn’t see anything beyond the open doorway. A strange sense of purpose welled up within him as he looked into the nothingness beyond. The preparations were made, the discussions had. After all the work they had put in, it was finally time to take the first step into the Tower of Vy’thishrak. Garath did so with a tempered confidence.
You are about to enter The Tower of Vy’thishrak. Once you enter, the Dungeon must be completed in its entirety in order to exit.
Are you sure you would like to enter?
Yes or No
Garath took a deep breath and looked back at his Party. He smiled nervously, shrugged, and chose ‘Yes’. The experience that followed was similar to the many instanced dungeons he had experienced before. White light consumed his vision momentarily before he rematerialized, now within the Dungeon proper.
Garath marveled at the beauty of the scene in front of him, a terrific forest of browns and greens. It was familiar, but alien. Trees like those living just outside The Tower, nearly too large to believe, rose up from the uneven ground in every direction. Underbrush of lush ferns and saplings competed for life-giving sunlight in the shade below the towering evergreens. The ferns were not uniformly green, but came in shades of blue, purple, fluorescent orange, and even red.
One by one, the rest of the Party materialized, each taking the time, as he had, to absorb the enchanted forest. Alice appeared last.
“What a forest,” Auto said appreciatively.
“No kidding,” Maimon agreed.
Garath turned to face Alice. “What do we do?”
Alice, like everyone else, was turning her head left, right, up, and all around when Garath asked for direction. She turned her resting vacant face to him. “I don’t know.”
Garath looked to the rest of the Party questioningly.
"Fairies!" Daisy shouted, pointing excitedly at glowing orbs of every color as they appeared and disappeared at random throughout the underbrush.
When it was clear that nobody had anything helpful to add, Garath addressed his Party confidently. “Let’s get a lay of the land. Auto, Maimon, Sharon, Daisy, Atlas, stay here. Warrion, go stealth and do concentric circles around them. Myself, the twins, and Athios will go in various bird forms and have a look around. If anything happens, call it on the Raid com. If and when ‘something happens’,” Garath used air quotes, “everyone meet back here. Lead any monsters to Auto and we take them out as a group. Any questions?”
“Your scouts should fly in teams,” Alice pointed out astutely.
“Okay. Yeah,” Garath agreed. “Athios, with me. We’ll go. . .” He paused to look around, every direction seemingly no different from any other. He looked at Alice, and was reminded of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland. He laughed and shrugged. “I guess since we don’t know where we’re going or what we’re looking for, it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
For the first time since he’d met the Lore Keeper, Alice smiled.
“We’ll go that way,” Garath decided, pointing to his left. “Obawon, Jebawon, you guys go that way.” Garath pointed to his right.
Athios and Garath shimmered into Crow form while the twins took the form of sparrows. The scouting parties took off in opposite directions, leaving the safety of the Raid behind to see what this world inside of The Tower had in store for them. It took a fair amount of flapping, and no small amount of Stamina, to get above the evergreen canopy. When Garath finally made it high enough to have a look around, he was confused.
In every direction he only found more of the same, even with his enhanced eyesight. Trees. A ridiculous number of enormous trees. The forest of massive evergreens went on indefinitely, as far as he could tell. There were no rising hills or precipitation to obscure distant areas, just a never-ending forest.
With a few directed thoughts, Garath altered his Raid settings to create a second channel, allowing for communication between only himself and Athios while in beast
