"Goblins burrowed in the earth, elves sang songs in the trees: Those were the obvious wonders of reading, but behind them lay the fundamental marvel that, in stories, words could command things to be." --Francis Spufford

The dungeon priests were happy to pick up where we had left off, and Blorg kicked off the question and answer session by inquiring about my areas of interest.

***We, of course, read over the report from the first inspector, and I was curious about the order you laid out for your interests. Some of it, I think I understand – you clearly have a scholarly bent and the confusion over your patron deity explains the interest in religious objects. As an alchemist myself, I was curious as to why alchemical ingredients were placed as high on the list as they were. Is it just a broad interest in magic, since that's new for you?***

I hadn't really given the order as much thought as I probably should, and I guess that came through. ***Well, that's most of it, frankly. We had lots of stories about magic and alchemy in my world, and in a lot of ways, alchemy represents something of a midpoint between magic and the technology of my world – I'm still curious as to how much healing potions rely on sympathetic magic, actual non-magical physical properties of the components, and divine magic. I didn't think about any of that consciously, but the interest has always been there.***

Blorg burbled happily, its interior shading a bit pinkish. ***It's a little discussed fact in formal alchemical circles that some of the most basic potions don't require any mana infusion to function. They become more effective when you DO infuse them, but it isn't actually necessary; that's something taken advantage of by hedge witches and village grannies around the world.***

I gave a mental smile. ***Somethings are multiversal, I guess. Most doctors in my world weren't big fans of folk medicine, but a lot of their more formal treatments had roots in folk treatments and the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples. Of course, a lot of folk medicine didn't work very well, and some of it was actively harmful, so that gave them some justification... As for the other categories, mostly I recognize their utility to adventurers and other visitors, but they aren't a point of specific interest for me. I mean, I did always enjoy a good meal and fine fabrics, but they aren't really useful to me in the same way anymore.

I'd probably move the pieces of dungeon creatures up to higher on the list, these days, but at the time, I was concerned that they were the bones of sapient creatures. I don't really like the idea of disturbing graves for my own personal benefit, frankly. Archaeologists in my old world had an unsavory history of what was effectively grave robbing, and I'd like to not repeat that mistake. Dungeon creatures I can add to my own repertoire are a bit different, and I'm actually in favor of having a broad set of choices.***

Throg had more interest in questioning me about my death and rebirth, as well as what limited knowledge I possessed about my patron deity. That rapidly transformed, given my lack of solid memories, into a discussion of what exactly had been redacted in transferring me.

I shared what I could, seeing no particular harm in it. ***My assumption is that the deity brought me over for my technical and professional knowledge but wanted to remove more personal memories that might cause me issues in my new life. Most of what is gone is recollections of my family, friends, and other significant personal relationships. It's odd to me that I can remember every line of the books I read as a young boy, but I can't remember my mother's name or face. It's possible I was an antisocial loner, but I suspect I had a family and friends and I'm just unable to remember them. There seems to be some emotional leveling going on as well. I feel like I should be distressed by my lack of those memories, but I'm not. I don't think I would have agreed to having my memories edited, but I also am not upset by it. I can remember the various houses and apartments I lived in and the classes I attended, but not any of the people who shared those spaces with me. I can kind of sense the holes where those memories should be, but it's not really bothering me. As far as less emotionally fraught information is concerned, I remember everything I ever knew or even heard in passing – even the things the gods don't seem to want me to share...***

The priests eyed each other nervously at that statement. Eventually Kraal was the one to ask, ***How do you know there are things you aren't supposed to share? Can you tell us the kinds of things, at least? If you don't think we should know, by all means, don't tell us, though!*** He seemed torn between his innate curiosity and his desire to abide by the wishes of the gods.

I tried to reassure him, and the others. ***Oh, I got a skill for it – autoredaction. Basically, when I'm transcribing books from my old world, they are automatically prevented from including information the gods don't want shared in this world. That and Learn Languages are the only skills the gods simply assigned to me at level 10. To date, it's only been a few concepts from the technology of my old world that have the potential to be highly destructive that can't be shared. I'm actually a bit curious about how much I'll be allowed to share with Hakdrilda in terms of the basic physical science of my world. I was quite relieved to get the skill, honestly; I really have no interest in unleashing new destructive forces upon the world. Not sure how or if the skill would work in a non-written format, but there's no reason for me to share knowledge the gods don't want to get out. And of course, I really don't want to upset them, if I can help it.***

***Well, that's a relief, I guess*** muttered Kraal.

I had some suspicions about things I shouldn't share with Hakdrilda, after all, though it was certainly possible that the dwarves already had at least some basic knowledge of chemical warfare (as an extension of their research into mining, for instance), but I would carefully avoid discussing nerve gas or the potential to asphyxiate opponents with noble gases or even vacuum pumps. I'd already made the conscious decision not to cross some major ethical boundaries in defending my core, after all. I supposed there was no reason I couldn't place my core in a pure Helium atmosphere, but it seemed wrong to have people expend their final breaths in an artificially high-pitched voice. My humor just didn't run that way... Though I suppose, if I held off on actually killing them, it could be used to put them unconscious. Hmm... I may come back to that one - it might be good to have options that I could make lethal if I wanted to. And neon or argon would likely be a better choice anyways, since the high-pitched voice is a giveaway; I guess Argon might make your voice deeper, if anything.

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Throg tactfully redirected the conversation to safer ground after a short but awkward pause, asking me about my intended theme, my plans for expansion, and the small shaft leading off towards the core of the sky island.

***The idea has been to use the archaeological remains I encounter on the island to generate floors that are based on the former residents. There are some issues with that, though, since I have no idea how many different groups have lived here, or how effective they'd be from a purely "dungeon" perspective. I don't even know how I'd order them. Just to illustrate the issue, relatively recently, I happened across an, I think, gnomish city along that small shaft – I have no idea yet how long ago it was occupied, why it was abandoned, or how I could convert that into a dungeon floor usable by anything but gnomes. What do I do with that? Ignore it? Make a gnome-sized dungeon floor that only small adventurers could visit? Try to scale it up to fit larger adventurers? Hope for access to potions that would shrink adventurers to the right size? The logistical and theoretical challenges are significant!***

Throg seemed a bit perplexed at the notion of a dungeon floor scaled for gnomes and shook her head ruefully. ***Yes, that would certainly put a crimp in the number of adventurers who'd visit you. You could certainly spin off a small side area scaled for gnomes, but I'd think your efforts would be better spent in adopting a less accurate, larger-scaled representation using stylistic elements to build out the theme. That would be my advice, at least – though obviously, I'm a bit biased.*** She waved generally at her massive frame, smiling. ***I have sometimes wondered what it would be like to be smaller than I am. The potions you describe do exist, but the transformation process is apparently quite expensive, doesn't last long, and is uncomfortable to painful, depending on the version. And they won't affect an adventurer's gear, either.***

I gave a mental acceptance of her advice and moved on to the last part of her questions. ***As for the small shaft, there are a couple of reasons for that. On the one hand, I did want to look for indications of past occupations internally to the mountain; it seems like it would be a lot of wasted volume in an artificial construct if it wasn't filled with passages and other internal spaces. On the other hand, I kind of assume that there would be something interesting to find, in terms of the active flight and management of the island, in its best protected, most central portion. At least, if I think of this as a kind of transport vessel, that's how I'd arrange it. I'm just guessing, but if there's a control room of some sort, I'd probably put it either right in the middle or at the very top or bottom. Or plausibly, redundant ones in several places.***

Kraal jumped into the conversation at that point. ***As an enchanter, the sky islands are way out of my league, of course. That said, making the control element central makes sense with regards to mana flow, though I'd also assume you'd need some form of mana gathering arrays at strategic points around the island. Not sure what you'd be looking for exactly, much less exactly where they might be.***

Quest Completed: Discover Your Mission; Reward: Runic Magic Skill

Quest Reissued: Discover Your Mission II – Locate a Sky Island Mana Gathering Array; Reward: Variable but Substantial.

New Quest: Extenuating Circumstances – Determine an Exigent Reason for your Presence on the Sky Island; Reward: Variable, plus Lore

I felt as though that particular set of announcements should have come with more fanfare – flashing lights or a blaring trumpet – though I always hated that kind of thing. In the handful of seconds it took me to register those couple of announcements and calm my racing mind, the dungeon priests had just enough time to realize they'd lost my attention and begin to wonder why.

Kraal was the first to speak, his raspy voice inquisitive, but gentle. ***Vay? Did you need to look elsewhere for a moment? More visitors? Some emergency with Hakdrilda? ***

I'd have likely flushed in embarrassment, had that still been an option for me. ***Ah, sorry, no. No emergency. I just had a couple of fairly critical system announcements is all. Apparently, discussion of mana gathering arrays was enough to trigger my divine quest. The next stage of the quest has me attempting to locate "a Sky Island Mana Gathering Array", so any insight into your "strategic points" would presumably be a big help! Somewhat less helpfully, it's also triggered a second divine quest that asks me to determine "an exigent reason" for why I was placed here. Taken together, I'm assuming I need to find the mana gathering arrays for a specific reason that's at least a little pressing. I can't imagine that bodes well, generally.***

The dungeon priests reacted quite strongly to that, as one might imagine, enjoying the fact that their presence had helped me to pursue the first stages of my divine quest line. The conversation rapidly devolved from there, though, with most of their discussion running off into what deity or deities might possibly be interested in locating the mana gathering arrays on the sky island, and the speculation got a little wild...

Kraal was of the opinion that some deity wanted me to take control of the sky island and pilot it to a particular place for unstated, possibly war-like purposes.

Blorg was more of the opinion that a knowledge of the specific runic magic was the goal, and that I was going to be tasked with sharing advanced mana arrays globally for more peaceful advancement of knowledge.

Throg took a more pragmatic approach, warning me to just wait and see. Her stance was that the gods were frequently inscrutable to mere mortals, and that it was just as likely I'd be tasked with something crazy like transporting a relict population of gnomes to my old world via extraplanar runic magic.

I was just beginning to tell them about the runic magic skill I'd just been awarded, when I fell silent yet again. Before they could start jumping to new, even more excited speculation, I let them know that we were about to have visitors, yet again.

I didn't think it constituted an emergency, exactly, but the goblins were back, and this time they'd come in more significant numbers – the ground squirrels didn't count well, but it was more than last time. The crew of the church's sky ship stood to, and cast off, but didn't actually depart; they backed off the island about 20 feet or so, and just watched the goblins stream past

A few moments later, the goblins began crossing into my territory north of the stream, and the numbers grew until finally fifteen goblins had entered my surface zone, clustered loosely into three bands of five. I informed the dungeon priests, and asked them to warn Hakdrilda. None of them seemed particularly concerned, and I had the sense that each felt they could likely drive off the goblins, if needed, but the polite thing was to let me handle it. The default assumption seemed to be that I'd kill a few of them and the rest would run, taking whatever they could – probably not getting even all the way through the first floor.

As such, I began making my own plans. I could simply let them visit and take whatever they needed from the first rooms, but with present company and an array of other tasks to take my focus, I decided that driving them off would likely be the better option. After all, I didn't need them to keep coming back, really, and they were likely to prove a distraction to me and my varied visitors.

I rearmed the deactivated traps, woke my sleeping creatures, and pondered my further options. I girded my metaphorical loins and prepared for battle – it was time to slay some goblins...

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