Peek: Conspiracy Theories

Noynur tries to keep the scowl off his face as he jogs his patrol around the Earl if'Gofnar's carriage. He's not trying to hide his displeasure for its own sake, but rather he's been told he looks positively murderous when he lets it show. Being practically the definition of an orcish barbarian makes a lot of people uneasy enough even without him looking actively unhappy.

He's just glad he's not here on his own. Both Jana, the foxkin archer, and Driough the elven mage agreed to come with him, his friends and party members unable to ignore his wild theorizing about what's going on in Fourdock.

The trio had thought they could prepare easily over the winter. While Noynur could find no fault in his investigation, even he thought the dungeon would calm down and secure its gains over the winter months.

The reports that came in once the snows melted had him crush his inkwell in worry as he tried to take notes. Working closely with the Southwood and supposedly subsuming a dangerous deep dungeon boggled his mind at the time, and he still wonders just how close to the truth the reports actually are. He hopes they're exaggerating significantly. Otherwise... he may have convinced his friends to leap into a deadly trap with him.

And that's just the issues with the dungeon. It's no secret the Earl if'Gofnar is corrupt, no matter how deftly he dodges accusations. If Noynur is right, the elf has his hands in a lot of things that, though not technically treasonous, would certainly earn the ire of the Crown if it knew... or if it could definitively prove. Subtle manipulation of the markets in the dwarven Holds, the Principalities, and even the Wanderlands! A single one would be ambitious, but all three would be reckless for all but the most masterful of schemers. When he learned about the Earl looking for adventurers to form a guild in Fourdock, he thought the dungeon there had to be a part of his machinations!

Only for his friends to point out that, if he actually is maneuvering beyond the borders of the kingdom, the Fourdock dungeon would be more of a liability than an asset, something to make those plans moot instead of synergistic. Which lead to a rather sobering question: Which is the bigger threat? Earl if'Gofnar, or the dungeon Thedeim?

He rubs a hand over his face as he continues patrolling, physically rubbing the scowl off as he thinks about his friends instead. As much as they like to mock his theories, they don't question his tactical acumen in a fight, and follow his calls without question on the battlefield. That they would also follow him in this fills him with gratitude, and he tries to focus on that instead of the growing sense of dread about a clash between the Earl and the mysterious dungeon.

They even quit the Red Rose guild with him to come ostensibly work for the Earl. Sure, they made their excuses about the restrictions on gear thanks to the latest negotiations between the adventurers and crafters, but excuses were all they were. Enough others from the guild are along that it made him check the timing for the negotiations, wondering if the Earl had been planning this from the beginning! But the timing just doesn't add up, with the negotiations starting even before Thedeim was supposed to exist! The dungeon could have been discovered in secret beforehand, but the nodes and features that are the threat to the Earl are all very public in their locations, not secreted away in some deep cave. The Earl could not have planned that far ahead. He simply could not have known.

He wars with his thoughts as he keeps an eye out, trying to glimpse the devious machinations of the Earl and the dungeon both. Each are clearly thinking several steps ahead, while all Noynur can try to do is follow their trail and hope to guess where they're going.

The shift in the air pulls him from his thoughts, though it takes him a few more moments to understand what he's feeling. He can see the town off in the distance... and he can see a disturbance in the forest beyond it. For a brief, horrifying moment, he fears his worst-case predictions of the dungeon are coming true before his eyes, but as he watches, he no longer wonders if Thedeim is somehow a Lost dungeon. There is no way a fresh dungeon could do that.

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Inspired by Caleb Williams, who wanted to see the return of the dungeon digest group. I think we'll be seeing more of them in the future, too ;)