DAY 700

"Welcome home, Battle Alchemist Hansliss!"

Tinsel boggles as she stands in the open doorway of the local Valleylands army 'estate', wind and rain lashing behind her. Grassbrook is far south enough to avoid the worst of the weather that gives the Rainlands its name but today's summer storm is an exception, soaking the mousekin as she made her way through the town's surrounding area. Even so thoughts of drying off or even closing the door elude her for a moment, as she stares at the woman standing in the mansion's entryway.

"Zappy!? You're here? I thought for sure you'd be up at the dungeon today! ...Also, why are you saluting me? Oh gods, you didn't join the army while I was away, did you?"

The magnetic elemental drops her salute as her semi-flexible face takes on a disappointed expression. "No, but that's how everyone else here does it! Also, aren't you glad to see me? Here, let me get you a towel!"

Zappy quickly ducks into the nearest privy, as Tinsel finally shuts the door behind her and gets to trying to dig herself out of the hole she just made. "Ah, I mean, of course I'm glad! But you haven't been waiting here for me all this time, right? I've been gone for months! Hells, how long were you standing at that door?"

"Not that long, silly!" The elemental returns and cautiously hands her girlfriend a towel, keeping her distance for the moment - she wouldn't want to give the damp beastkin a shock, after all. "The others told me you'd be expected back in the next day or two, and I knew you were almost back because of that!" She points towards the shining necklace Tinsel is wearing, and the sapper grabs hold of its largest piece in a moment of realization. The craftsmanship of the jewelry is poor, but Zappy had made it herself from scraps of magnetic metal and given it to Tinsel as a gift for their first anniversary. Fortunately the Valleylands army isn't too strict about uniforms and accessories, and the mousekin had worn it ever since.

"Oh? This is magnetic, right? You were able to sense me coming just from this, though?"

Zappy nods as Tinsel dries her face. "I've been practicing - and I put some pretty unique shapes on there, you know! I was able to tell you were almost here like, ten minutes ago! So, how was your trip?"

"Well, it was hardly a vacation, I can tell you that. At least I didn't have to cross the mountain pass in the wintertime, but the 'path' is still hardly even a real trail, even after a couple years. I did have a - whup!" Tinsel's report is interrupted when she finally dries off sufficiently for Zappy to risk grabbing her up into a hug, and while her fur does slightly stand on end, the mousekin quickly decides she's fine with that. The pair are silent for a few moments as they embrace, but Zappy does eventually relinquish her girlfriend back to the floor.

"I'm sorry, what were you about to say?"

"Huh?" Tinsel blinks, having forgotten herself. "Oh, right. I did get to see my family for a bit. Sister had another four kids a couple months ago. I swear she's trying to single-handedly establish a mousekin colony over here or something. Cute little furballs, but honestly, I think I prefer not having to worry about that sort of stuff."

The elemental nods. "Honestly, the whole idea of being born all helpless and dumb is still hard for me to imagine. I'm glad I was born smart from the moment I first sparked!"

Tinsel chuckles. "You sure were. So...there are other people around this place, right? Please tell me they're not all out at the Bastard."

"Ha, no, we just wanted to let you and the glowbug here get a chance to say hello before we stepped in - Battle Alchemist." Kalasha steps through an open doorway leading to one of the mansion's sitting rooms, throwing up a somewhat sloppy salute as she does so. The orc Sniper is the second-highest ranking member of the army unit currently based in Grassbrook, but Tinsel had never been very strict about maintaining military discipline, especially with their superiors at least a week away over a mountain range.

"Steadyhand Sniper Kalasha. Anything to report during my absence?"

The orc shakes her head, but gives a brief report regardless. "No major concerns, Alchemist. With the assistance of the Association's training programs, I've recently been confirmed as level twenty-four in my class, while Haylizt reached twenty-three several weeks ago. Banshee and Centaur squads have been running the first four floors of the dungeon every other week, as they were before you left. We've also kept an eye on the town, nothing to report as far as...southern aggression. We have begun noticing the occasional Supreme-tier Challenger passing through Grassbrook, though."

"It's getting that serious already, huh? Well, guess I'm not surprised. I've got some updates for you all, though. How about Grizza? Is our 'landlord' on the premises?"

Kalasha nods. "He is. It's been raining the past three days, so no one's been going up to the mountain if they don't need to. Should I go up and get him? He doesn't usually sit in on our briefings, considering he is a...neutral party."

Her commander scoffs. "I don't know why we still bother with that pretense, if the Rainlanders were going to make an issue of him owning property and dealing with us, they would've done it a long time ago. I'm sure it took em all of four seconds to see through it! But yeah, might as well hear it direct rather than wait for it to filter through this place's gossip trails first."

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"Ooh, ooh!" Zappy bounces on her feet. "Can I come to the briefing?"

Tinsel eyes her for a while before nodding. "Ah, hells, why not. Again, you'd probably end up hearing it all eventually anyways."

The breach in procedure makes Kalasha smirk. "Almost sounds like you don't have confidence in our security processes, Alchemist."

"If the brass have issues with how I run things, they can come over to this backwoods Rainlander village themselves and tell it to my ass directly, with extra tongue. Let's do this in the dining room - I hope you've got snacks, cause I could use a bite."

"I think we have a thing or two..."

There was in fact a box of pastries waiting for the Alchemist, bought just that day from the town's most popular bakery. Tinsel takes her time enjoying three of them as everyone else eventually filters into the room, before needing to spend an extra half a minute wiping jelly off of her fur. Eventually though, she takes a look around the table and does a roll call.

"Alright! Sniper Kalasha, Vanguard Mesht, Priestess Haylizt, Regenerator Jantana, glad all of you are here tonight. Arcanist Grizza, happy to have you. And, uh...Elemental Zappy, thanks for joining us."

As Zappy throws her girlfriend another salute, Grizza asks a question. "Yes, before we begin, are we sure I should be here? I've been spending quite a while now doing my best to maintain a, um...professional separation between myself and my party, and the Valleylands army. If the Rainlanders find out that I'm attending military briefings..."

Tinsel shakes her head at the young drider. "I'd be telling you this anyways probably, even if I had to do it in the form of 'hiring on local support' or some shit like that. And if the Rainlanders are watching us closely enough to know exactly how we structure our meetings behind closed doors, then it doesn't really matter. Besides, this isn't about the Rainlanders."

There's a deep chuckle from the minotaur at the table, as Jantana rubs her chin. "So it's something about the Domain, then?"

"Congratulations, you've passed Basic Elimination 101. Yeah, look, so here's the update from back home." Tinsel sweeps the crumbs away from her portion of the table and puts her palms down on it. "The Dragonlord's been fucking with the dungeons."

Haylizt frowns, as the shadowy tentacles that have replaced her front legs twist on each other. "Fucking how, exactly?"

"We're not sure. Border crossings are way up, although we haven't been able to catch most of them in the act. But fliers - demons or draconics or both - have been spotted heading towards dungeons all over the Valleylands, paying a visit in the middle of the night, and then getting out of town in a hurry. We've started putting guards on most of them, and managed to catch one of their teams."

"Did they talk?" Kalasha grins, apparently fond of the idea of Domain agents in chains. "Were they sabotaging them somehow?"

Tinsel shakes her head. "As far as they told me, they ain't been talking yet. All we know is that they got caught trying to smuggle rocks out of the dungeon."

There's confused looks all around the table, and the orcish Mesht asks the obvious question. "Just rocks? Are we talking...magic rocks? Crystals?"

"Nope! Regular-ass, boring rocks and stones. They did have some mana in them, since they were apparently dug out of the dungeon walls or something. If you've ever tried to blow apart a dungeon wall, you know those can be a little more stubborn than normal stone. But that's all. Our best guess is that the Dragonlord needs them as some sort of physical link to the dungeons for...something."

Grizza tilts his head. "So what would you need from us - or, rather, me, in this situation?"

The mousekin points a finger at him. "First thing, I got a question. Just personal curiosity, wasn't ordered to ask you or anything, but hey, maybe you're an expert. You know all about magic rocks and crystals, right? Is there anything that the higher-ups might have missed?"

The mage considers the question. His party, the Rough Gems, are indeed based around the idea of 'magic rocks'. Other than himself the entire group consists of earth and magma elementals, and all of them spend their days studded with magic crystals, most of them taken from wands or staffs. Still, there's no direct relationship that he can imagine to whatever the Domain's agents might be up to. "Normal stone, even if mana-charged, is useless for making weapons with. Only crystals can transfer energy efficiently enough for it. Maybe if you quarried them by the ton you could build a wall that would be...somewhat stronger for a few extra years?" He furrows his brow as he thinks further. "If...we were to assume a relation to elementals, an earth elemental might be more likely to form around mana-charged rock. But elementals are generally formed when an entire area is high in mana, not just a small pile of stones."

Zappy nods eagerly. "Yup! Unless you can just make them directly, like the Great Dungeon apparently made me!"

Tinsel turns her attention to her girlfriend. "A dungeon made you? Like some sort of dungeon monster?"

Knowing how skillful elementals are at explaining things, Grizza steps back in. "It was the conclusion Tassa and I came to, back when we discovered Roxxy's core almost two years ago. None of the elementals from Worthy Dungeon remember the process, but it seems as if they all have a similar origin. Unless I'm missing something, Zappy?"

"Nope! Sounds about right - don't remember anything before Sincere woke me up! But he didn't make us, he found our cores lying around the old dungeon."

"Hrmm, well, that's probably a dead end." Tinsel sighs and continues her briefing. "Anyhow, it's believed that the Domain is probably doing the same in the Rainlands, but we've got no hard proof. So our job is to be extra alert for any signs of Domain activity in the region, particularly if anyone's trying to fly in under the cover of night."

The Sniper groans. "And how are we supposed to do that, exactly? Even if it weren't raining cats and dogs all week, we can't exactly watch the place from here with a spyglass all day - never mind at night! Do they expect us to camp out on the mountainside for a couple of weeks? How are we gonna explain that to the Rainlanders?"

Zappy raises a hand. "Why don't we just ask Doorman if anyone flies by?"

Haylizt gives her a disbelieving look. "As if the dungeon would just tell us if Domain spies were visiting? They're probably working with the dungeon spirits, or at least some of them!"

"Doorman would!" The elemental grins. "He likes me! I was his apprentice for a while, you know!"

"Huh. I guess that would be, uh, useful intel. Thanks, Zappy." Tinsel takes a drink before resuming. "Anyhow, Grizza, consider this a bounty on information, if your party comes across anything useful. Kalasha, you're in charge of Banshee Squad, Haylizt, you're in charge of Centaur. Get them up to date, and make sure we have someone watching the Bastard every night. Keep track of travelers, especially demons or kobolds. If you find anything, do not engage. Just report back to me."

Kalasha grunts. "What, just let em get away with it if we see them?"

"Oh, if we catch them in the act, we'll handle it. But report back to me first." Tinsel's snout-like face grows a devious smile. "I wanna be there to kick their asses myself."

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