Dungeon World 2 -- Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Revinald checked, double-checked, triple-checked, and then – despite the strain on his Power to use his ability – he quadruple-checked his discovery before he sent a page to deliver a message to the Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate’s Head Cartographer. He had only been on the job for a couple of months and he was afraid of making a mistake; he had heard about (and personally seen) Master Ptolem’s temper and didn’t want it directed toward him for wasting the Head Cartographer’s – or the HC’s – time with something unimportant. 

He remembered one scene of when one of his fellow Cartographers, Jeremieh, had been chewed out in front of everyone; what they had originally deemed noteworthy and important had been literally torn apart when it was shown to Master Ptolem. And it wasn’t done in just their small office in the corner wing of the Craytion Kingdom’s Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate Headquarters – which they normally just shortened to DASCK-HQ, or “Dask H Q”. No, it had been in the main lobby later when there were hundreds of high-Rated Adventurers and other executive administrators present. 

The last he heard, Jeremieh had been so mortified that he had left Craytion’s capital of Hawkright to join a group of dungeon delvers aiming a little too high above their Ratings. Revinald never had the inclination to find out what happened after that, lest he potentially incur the wrath of the HC himself for his inquiries.

If Master Ptolem hadn’t been the best Cartographer the Craytion Kingdom – not to mention many of the neighboring Kingdoms – had ever seen, there was no doubt that someone in charge would’ve done something about the high turnover rate his department seemed to suffer under. Revinald was guessing that even the Syndicate Master didn’t want to risk losing their premier dungeon-mapping savant just because of some hurt feelings.

Even if those hurt feelings led to more permanent injuries – like death.

Therefore, well aware of what he was doing might cause some…issues…Revinald still reported the problem he was having to the HC. Because if he didn’t – and Master Ptolem discovered it – then he would lose more than his dignity getting chewed out: he’d lose his job. And there wasn’t much use for a Researcher-turned-Cartographer other than at the DASCK-HQ, so he’d be out of luck unless he went to another Kingdom – who may or may not need his services.

Of course, there was always the option that Revinald could change his class; however, he would then end up losing everything he had worked so hard for, and he genuinely loved what he did.

He could tell when Master Ptolem came down the stone steps from his office on the third floor; the flap of sandaled feet was exceptionally loud in the silence that had fallen over the room containing Revinald and five of his fellow Junior Cartographers. As much as he would’ve preferred to bring this matter to the HC’s attention privately in his third-floor office, the Master hated it when anyone other than himself was in there – the page he sent above was only allowed to knock on the door and call through it. In fact, now that he thought about it, Revinald couldn’t remember hearing from anyone what it actually looked like in there.

“WHO DISTURBS MY WORK? This better be good, or you’ll wish you were never born.”

Revinald got out of his chair and approached, bowing low in respect to the Head Cartographer’s high office. “It was me, sir. I’m sorry to disturb you, but I found something that I believe you would want to see. If I may humbly show you to my station?” Hopefully that was suitably meek enough.

“Yes, fine, fine. Show me what you found so that I may get back to important work.” Master Ptolem didn’t seem overly angry, so Revinald took that as a good sign.

He led the Head Cartographer over to his large workstation, covered with the various tools he used in his work. Revinald made sure that it was neat and organized while he was waiting for the page to deliver the message, so it was plain to see that everything was where it was required for “appropriate” Cartography.  He sat down on the uncomfortable stool he had been meaning to replace, waiting for permission to demonstrate. 

“Go ahead, show me what you did,” Master Ptolem demanded, always looking for mistakes to correct. Whenever there was an issue that came up from one of the Junior Cartographers on staff, this was usually the first thing evaluated because it frequently eliminated user errors.

Revinald placed his hands on either side of the large scrying table attached to his slanted desk, parts of the frame rubbed smooth where many a hand had slid over the aged wood. As soon as he had a firm grip, he activated his Survey ability and concentrated on the extreme northern part of the Craytion Kingdom.

“As usual, sir, I had been Surveying the low-Rated Plant and Earth dungeons to the north to get an updated count and location of those dungeons up there. Everything looked fairly similar, with just a few minor Rating increases here and there – nothing too out of the ordinary. However, right…here—” he centered on a small town (not the northern-most settlement – that was the small village of Northend even farther north – but almost) called Gatecross— “is where I encountered my first anomaly.”

He left the Survey results zoomed into the town of Gatecross, feeling a small lightness in his head as he realized that he had spent quite a bit of Power over the last hour, and pointed to a section just to the north of the DAS-run town, where it appeared like there was a void.

“Yes, I see it – so what? Dungeons tend to move from time to time – we’re still not sure exactly how – and it is especially prevalent here when they Rate-up past the others nearby fairly frequently. It’s not uncommon to see one or two disappear every couple of years, only to be replaced with a brand-new one shortly thereafter,” the HC said, before scratching his head in contemplation. “Though, to be truthful, I wasn’t aware of any up there that were due to move yet. Still, this isn’t something that you should’ve bothered me with. If that was it, we’ll be having a separate conversation – elsewhere.” And then he turned away, already heading in the direction of the stairs.

Revinald nervously stopped Master Ptolem from leaving by loudly shouting, “NO, SIR!” 

The Master stopped abruptly, and the young Cartographer hastily regulated his voice to a lower volume, “I’m sorry, sir – I didn’t mean to shout. I apologize profusely, but that wasn’t all I had to show you.” He bowed his head again in supplication, hoping that he hadn’t just lost his job from his outburst.

“Well, then, let’s see what you have here,” the Head Cartographer said as he walked back to the workstation. He bent down and got right into Revinald’s face when he was close enough, before shouting right back at ear-splitting distance, “BUT IF YOU EVER SHOUT AT ME AGAIN, I CAN GUARANTEE THEY’LL NEVER FIND YOUR BODY.”

Revinald gulped, before whispering back, “Yes, sir. I understand, sir – it won’t happen again.”

He still had the Survey up on his scrying table, which allowed him to try to distract the HC from his mistake by finishing up his explanation of the issue he had encountered. “Um…like I was saying, when I checked the previous records, I saw that it was missing and didn’t think too much of it – I had assumed like you said that it had moved elsewhere for some reason unknown to me. However, as I was recording the change on the map, I happened to glance at the town.”

He pointed toward the town, still seeing the anomaly located right in the middle of the town’s boundaries. The maps they used for recording and updating different sections of the Kingdom weren’t very detailed when it came to villages, towns, and cities; it was enough to know that they were there, as it normally wasn’t important to Survey them – only the surrounding land where the dungeons usually congregated.

Revinald had been Surveying, Recording, and Extracting as much information as he could on this particular section of the north for nearly a week. Not only was the process Power-exhaustive, but as he was still relatively new to the Cartographer Class, he could only progress so quickly – and the information he received was bare-bones compared to some of the other Junior Cartographers. Master Ptolem was on a whole other level, however.

So after a week straight of Surveying the surrounding areas and the hundreds of dungeons located around there, it had become as a bit of a disbelieving shock to see one in the middle of the town.

“Boy, what did you do to cause that error? If you broke the scrying table, that’s coming out of what we’re paying you, you hear?” Ptolem pushed him out of the way and Revinald almost fell off the rickety stool; fortunately, he caught himself as he stumbled backwards, before he watched the Master at work.

Within seconds, it was plainly evident why the Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate put up with the Head Cartographer’s idiosyncrasies and Junior turnover rate. Even given that Revinald was still fairly new at being a Cartographer, he had improved to the point in his Surveying that he could tell the type of dungeon he was looking at (Plant, Earth, Fire, etc.) and get a general idea of its Rating – for instance seeing that it was a low-Rated G dungeon or high-Rated F dungeon. As much as he tried to focus on more specifics, he couldn’t get anything more than that.

Master Ptolem didn’t have that problem, however. When he grabbed the scrying table frame and exerted his Surveying skill on it, Revinald’s results were wiped away and replaced with a highly detailed map that included much more information than he thought possible.

When he looked over the Head Cartographer’s shoulder at the table, he could see almost every dungeon he had spent the last week locating and updating on the master maps. Not only that, but he could see the dungeon type, exact Rating, number of rooms, potential traps and other defenses, and even an approximate Essence range that could be expected to be gained from an Adventurer completing it.  I wonder if I’ll be able to do that one day?

With how quickly he brought up everything with his Survey skill, Revinald briefly wondered why the HC even needed Junior Cartographers working for him; that was, until he realized that someone like Master Ptolem couldn’t be expected to chart and update the literal tens of thousands of dungeons located all over the Kingdom. Based upon conversations with the others he worked with, he had already deduced that the supremely talented Head Cartographer probably spent most of his time looking at the A and S-Rated dungeons. Having better information on those more-difficult dungeons was probably the only reason their higher-Rated Adventurers were doing so well compared to what he heard coming from other Kingdoms.

“This doesn’t make sense. My Survey says that there is a G-2nd-Rated dungeon right in the middle of town – but it has no rooms! Not only that, but it says that it is not only a Plant dungeon, which most of those around the area are, but it is also a Water and Fire dungeon. That’s just not possible – I think you broke your scrying table, boy. But first, let me check on another.”

Master Ptolem got up quickly from the stool he had commandeered from Revinald and strode over to one of the other Junior Cartographer’s workstation. Fortunately, since everyone in the room had stopped to watch what was going on, the woman who was currently working there vacated her seat before she could be shoved out, canceling her own Survey beforehand.

“This is not good, not good. EDDARD!” Ptolem shouted, without looking away from the new scrying table he had commandeered. Eddard – the page that Revinald had sent to alert the Head Cartographer – quickly showed up by the Master’s side, so fast that it almost appeared as if he had been there the whole time.

“Eddard, run and tell Syndicate Master Theodus that I have urgent need of him here and now – Priority Alpha.”

“Yes, sir!” Eddard replied, already running at a full sprint up the stairs which would lead to the main offices.

Revinald had never heard of “Priority Alpha” before, but it didn’t sound good. While everyone was waiting for the Syndicate Master to arrive – I’ve never formally met him before, but from a distance I remember he didn’t look too intimidating – Master Ptolem went from scrying table to scrying table, reactivating his Survey ability each time to check whether or not it was a fluke. Although it appeared to be exactly the same on each table, Revinald noticed that there was a slight difference each time.

“Sir, I’m sure you noticed, but it appears as though the dungeon is…moving?”

The Survey ability was like looking at the current state of the dungeon locations at a certain point of time; not even Master Ptolem could update it fast enough to watch it in real-time. Not that there was normally any need of that, since it was relatively rare that a dungeon around the Kingdom actually moved – only about 3 or 4 every year.

“Yes, I saw that right-away – which is why I sent for the Syndicate Master. Now, stay back and let me handle it from here…and good job spotting this, Revinald.”

He stood there in shock, his mouth gaping open in surprise. Wait…was that…praise? And he knows my name? The two things were so rare that he’d never heard of either happening before; most of the Junior Cartographers were either called “boy” or “girl” – he wasn’t even aware that the Master even knew their names.

Fortunately, his frozen state of shock wasn’t seen by Ptolem, so Revinald was able to recover and move himself to the side of the room where his colleagues were huddled up against the wall, wisely staying out of the way. They looked both jealous at the attention he had received and worried about what he had potentially found.

He didn’t have a chance to talk to them about it, because the Syndicate Master – an unassuming-appearing man that was small in stature, but extremely fast – practically flew down the stairs to end up at Master Ptolem’s side. Although he didn’t appear that powerful, that all changed when his eyes quickly ranged over the Junior Cartographers; Revinald literally felt the weight of the Syndicate Master’s gaze as it fell on him. He almost felt like he was getting torn apart and put back together – all in the fraction of a second it took for the gaze to move on.

Revinald shivered a little as the feeling left him, and he noticed that his colleagues did the same thing; however, he ignored the strange sensation and concentrated on what was unfolding in front of him.

“Show me.”

The Syndicate Master’s voice was soft but commanding; he was obviously one that was used to demanding and getting results, and Revinald almost jumped to obey even though he wasn’t the one being spoken to.

“Right here, Theodus. See that? I’ve already checked on each scrying table and I get the same result. I’d check on mine upstairs, but I’ll probably get the same result. And, although you can’t see it here – it’s moving. Not quickly, but it isn’t stationary either. Now, my Survey results are – without being modest – the most accurate you’ll ever see, but even I’m stumped at this.”

They were both silent for a moment as they stared at the table, but then Master Ptolem updated the Survey – and even from where Revinald was standing nearly 20 feet away, he could see that the strange dungeon had moved the slightest bit.

“As much as I don’t want to believe it, this looks like something I’ve only heard about. Long before I became Syndicate Master, I had heard stories of how someone illegally stole a dungeon core from a dungeon, hoping to utilize it in some sort of Power amplification ability. He was only found out when the Cartographers at the time happened to see an Earth dungeon right in the middle a village where it wasn’t supposed to be – just like you’ve found here. This could be the same, though if it is, it means that someone didn’t steal just one – but three different cores.

“I’m sending a group I trust to look into this – I have no doubt about your abilities, but I need someone there to look into this. I’m hoping that this is just some sort of error on your part, as much as you don’t want to hear that, but the alternative might be worse.”

He turned to leave, but something in Revinald made him blurt out, “What happened to the one that stole the dungeon…core?”

The Syndicate Master stopped his departure and turned his attention back to Revinald, but it fortunately wasn’t the same soul-searching gaze as before. “Oh, he died…along with every resident of that village and two towns nearby when the dungeons learned of the offense. It would do you well to remember that the dungeons are, if not exactly ‘alive’, then at least intelligent and vindictive enough to know when they’ve been wronged and won’t hesitate to wipe out everyone if they decided to.”

And with that, the Syndicate Master left just as fast as he arrived, a blur speeding up the stairs.

Well, that sucks, he thought. Just what did I find?

Only time would tell what he had found, but Revinald tried to put it out of his mind when he and his fellow Junior Cartographers got back to work.