"Straight tribulation is easier to bear than tribulation which advertises itself as pleasure. The one breeds camaraderie and even (when intense) a kind of love between the fellow-sufferers; the other, mutual distrust, cynicism, concealed and fretting resentment." ― C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

The orcs arrived at the edge of my domain by mid-morning, as I'd mostly expected. The Redcrest scouts had informed me that they'd landed by the southern edge of the sky island, which meant they had a couple of kilometers to hike through unfamiliar terrain. It wasn't particularly far, but they'd done it properly, scouting along the way. There were a few large herbivores, and some mid-sized carnivores in the area, but nothing that was apt to attack an armed party of orcs passing through. They had no need to hunt or defend themselves, so cautious movement or not, it hadn't taken them long to make the hike in bright, clear conditions through the grassland and scrubby forest segments.

Shuzug held up a hand to halt the party as they felt the edges of my domain, having basically followed the cliff's edge around to my southern border. He spoke first to his companions. "As the official dungeon inspector, I'll take the lead here. I'll first address the dungeon directly, then advance to the primary entrance. To my knowledge, you will be the first adventurers to delve the dungeon, and I want to make sure the dungeon knows what to expect. Sir Milback, I'll also inform the dungeon that you are on a separate mission, and that you will not be delving with the others or inspecting with me. I've respected your desire to keep that mission to yourself, but I'm hoping the dungeon is expecting you?"

Sir Milback nodded. "No offense meant, but it's a fairly secretive mission. I think it's fair to say that the dungeon requested it be done, so I expect it won't cause you any issues."

Shuzug just stared at him, quizzically. "The practically brand-new dungeon requested the services of a gnome paladin? Now, I'm REALLY curious..." He sighed, visibly mastering his curiosity. "Right, well if you ever CAN tell me what this is about, I'll be grateful."

The gnome had been a bit of a surprise for me when the bronze hawk-eagle had noted him earlier this morning. I could certainly see how the Redcrests had missed him, and I was gratified at the speedy response to my request. I can't imagine it was simple to find an appropriately sized divine representative on such short notice.

Shuzug continued, oblivious to my musings, "The rest of you will need to wait here a bit. I'm going to suggest a standard inspection/delving joint approach, but I don't know that he's familiar with that. By all reports, the dungeon is intelligent and not particularly bloodthirsty, so I expect once I've explained it will have no issue."

They nodded, grinning at his cautious approach and his unusually business-like demeanor. "Sure thing, boss," grinned Lugrub. "We'll just wait here until it's safe to approach."

He broke into a brief smile. "Don't get too cocky, woman. Remember that the reports noted the primary danger was the traps, and think about how imaginative a scholar from another world might be in their approach..."

And on that note, he took several broad strides forward, faced the direction of my entrance, and spoke in an unexpectedly courteous manner.

"Greetings, Dungeon Sylvanus. I am Shuzug, Clan Second to Glasha the Hawk, and an official inspector for the Adventurer's Guild in the Orclands. I am here to perform an official inspection on behalf of the Guild and the Orclands. As you have no doubt noted, I have brought along an adventuring party from my clan to delve your dungeon as part of this inspection. As I know that your prior inspections didn't involve an active adventuring party, please allow me to explain how this traditionally works. As before, we intend no harm to your core, yet in the interest of providing experience and mana for you and experience and loot for the party, in the Orclands inspections simply mimic a normal delve, albeit with the official inspector as a non-participating observer. Following the conclusion of the run, the adventuring party, assuming they survive, will retreat to the surface beyond your borders and wait for me.

I will, at that point, run through the rest of the traditional discussion of your rating for adventurers, your plans for expansion, any suggestions for changes, as well as the usual provision of gifts. Additionally, as a sapient dungeon, I have been asked to assess your appropriateness as a training dungeon for Orcish youth in particular. I should additionally note that we are accompanied by a gnome paladin, Sir Milback Fremmoor, who has been tasked with a quest I am told you are aware of. He will, I think, accompany us until his task is completed or until he needs to diverge from us in pursuit of that task. And, as one final note, we are also transporting a package for you from the Central Archive of the Goddess of Knowledge, which will be placed at the entry shrine for your retrieval."

He broke official character for a moment. "I think that was everything. Frankly, this mission kind of kept growing on us... Okay, I'm going to gather everyone up and we'll proceed to the entrance. The adventuring party will go ahead of Sir Milback and I by about 10 meters in the open, and typically 2-3 meters in most enclosed areas - just to help keep the two of us from getting actively involved."

Shuzug waved the others forward from where they'd been quietly listening to his speech. Lazgar gave him an approving nod and directed his party members into formation. Sir Milback strode ahead, legs working hard to keep pace with the larger adventurers. He held up beside Shuzug. "I'm not truly sure exactly where in the dungeon I'll need to head. From what limited information I have, I expect I'll need to branch off at some point in a direction where you'll be unable to follow simply due to your size. I'd ask you to wait for me by the campsite should you finish before I do – though, of course, if you need to leave before I return, don't worry about it. I should be able to summon a ride in the worst-case scenario. That said, I don't think it should take more than a day or two, so with any luck at all, I'll be back before you're ready to leave."

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Shuzug grunted in response. "I'd expect the actual delve to only take a day or so, but I'll likely need at least a second day to complete the rest of the inspection. I doubt the others will push me to leave you unless you take more than three days to get back, so you should have time."

Sir Milback nodded appreciatively. "Much obliged. Just don't put yourselves out. I'm mostly wandering from one quest to another, these days, so I'm not exactly on a timetable."

The adventuring party having formed up, they started slowly advancing towards the entrance. Not feeling the need to truly defend myself, I'd sent the two non-dungeon generated bears out to forage in the opposite side of my domain. The orcs could, no doubt, hunt them down if they felt the need, but I expected they likely wouldn't. The cubs were nearing full growth, at this point, and I expected them to move out shortly in any event.

That left the other grassland grizzly in the first room to defend the entrance. The adventuring party didn't seem to have been specifically forewarned about the bear, but they were practiced adventurers, and I didn't actually expect them to have any trouble with my creatures; we'd have to see about the traps.

Lugrub took point, as usual, and easily dodged the bear's initial charge, throwing herself to the right as Lazgar lunged in, bashing the bear in the muzzle with his kite shield before moving to the left of the entrance as Ushug came in behind him, axe already raised with a snarling grin on his face. Orbul was bringing up the rear, but it didn't seem as though she intended to use any of her magic unless something went wrong. And from the adventurer's perspective, nothing went wrong. The bear didn't really know which way to turn as the party spread out to flank it. Ushug's initial overhand axe strike was mostly dodged, though he did leave a shallow wound on the bear's left shoulder.

Lugrub had a long knife out, visibly coated in some caustic substance; I got the sense she wasn't expecting to cause major damage unless an opening was provided, but shallow, stinging wounds would presumably help to distract and disturb the opponent. Her initial slashing strike annoyed the bear but didn't seem to do much else. Lazgar's much larger sword and muscular frame did the most damage in the initial exchange. He'd opted against a stab, I'd guess because he was still rather close to the bear and would lack leverage. Still, the sweeping strike, while not hitting any vital organs, opened a rather nasty wound on the bear's right leg, hindering its mobility.

It didn't take long for the party, working fairly seamlessly together to take down the bear. Ushug did take some damage in the form of a claw swipe in the early exchanges, but he'd partially blocked it and cut most of its strength, though there were a pair of long torn incisions from his right shoulder to mid-chest. Not enough to daunt him, though, and once the bear was down, Lazgar lay a glowing hand to his chest and after a minute or so, called off the healing. Ushug was left looking as though he'd been healing for a couple of weeks, scars still a bit purple and angry, but no longer restricting his movements.

Lazgar punched his shoulder. "Next time, dodge! I know you like your scars, but I'm not always going to be able to fix you up."

His sister laughed at Ushug. "If you want him to dodge, just tell him that the next time he takes an unnecessary hit, you won't leave a scar. If he does it again, start taking away the scars he's already got!"

In the meantime, Orbul had strolled in and begun looking about. She spotted the healmint almost immediately and took a minute or two to collect some. I got the impression it was more a matter of long habit than any actual intention to use it herself.

Lazgar called the two siblings back to their tasks just as Shuzug and Sir Milback made their way inside. Presumably out of a desire to keep out of the way, Sir Milback was perched on the top of Shuzug's pack, within easy speaking distance of his left ear. "Just the one grassland grizzly, then?" Shuzug inquired.

Lazgar nodded. "Was there supposed to be more of them?"

Shuzug shrugged. "Were three for the last inspector, though two weren't dungeon spawned but assimilated. Maybe they grew up and left, or maybe the dungeon didn't want them killed to no gain. Guessing you could have taken a couple of young ones too without too much trouble. Though I wouldn't have thought Ushug would get injured in the first room, either."

Ushug flushed a bit, embarrassed, as Lazgar nodded. "He'd have been more careful if there were three, I'd assume."

Orbul chimed in to change the topic. "Some healmint here. Not worth a lot, but handy for beginner adventurers."

Shuzug nodded. "Yes, unless things changed that should be it for this room. I'm assuming you didn't particularly want the hide - did you want the claws, Ushug? They've still got your blood on them."

Ushug laughed good naturedly. "I expect we can skip the hide, but sure, I'll snag the claws real quick. I'm sure I can do something with them."

In the meantime, Lugrub was scouting the room, starting with the obvious connecting paths, but inspecting the whole area. "No traps here I can see. Smells like a badger or weasel in the room to the south - they've got a distinctive musk to them. Hallway to the north ends in a waterfall by the sound of it. Not a big one, though."

By the time Ushug had his trophies, Lazgar decided they should head south first, in order to avoid leaving live dungeon creatures behind them. He took his turn leading the way, though any of them likely could have taken the granite badger without issue, especially without any chance of being surprised.

To be fair, the badger did its best, lunging from just to the side of the door. There was a brief, comical moment as it scrabbled against the paladin's plate mail before the longsword swung in to bat it away. The reinforcement offered by its earth mana prevented major injury, but wasn't up to the task of preventing the follow up lunge from skewering its heart and lungs.

Lazgar took his share of jovial ribbing as well. Shuzug, in particular, having enjoyed the expression on his face when the badger had attacked. Lugrub moved in, all business now, spotting the sapphires and gold threading in the stalactite at the other end of the room. "Now, that looks like bait for the greedy and foolish. What do you want to bet it's a trap?"

Ushug was the only one who needed an explanation for why sapphires didn't belong in a stalactite, and for that matter why stalactites shouldn't be made out of granite. In the end, he'd simply collected a large stone from one corner and hurled it at the stalactite. There was just some minor chipping of the stalactite really, since he hadn't put full force into the throw, but it was enough to trigger the deadfall. To Shuzug's amusement, his sister had mocked Ushug's unsubtle approach. "Great, you dummy, now you can dig through that massive pile of rubble and hope the sapphires weren't powdered in the fall. Pretty sure I could have gotten them loose without setting off the trap. But I guess we aren't really in a hurry, are we?"

Sir Milback continued observing in silence, generally enjoying the air of camaraderie shared by the party. It'd been some decades since he'd last been a formal member of an adventuring party, and he did miss it on occasion.

In the end, it hadn't taken long really to retrieve the few small gems and the small chunk of stone with native gold strands in it and the group returned to the main entry room, after a few fruitless moments of searching the back wall on Lugrub's part. "Feels like there should be a secret door there", she grumbled. I admired her instincts, but obviously, there was no longer a door there, secret or otherwise.

The party reformed in front of the northern hallway with Lugrub taking point. I was curious to see how she'd do with the gauntlet of traps - better than the goblins, I was assuming...

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