Dungeon Master (Karma System)

Perrin had brought the good cheese into Fey Nights because he expected the first level to be easy.

He and the other members of his party had already completed it twice. They knew not to follow fairies, knew which mushrooms released sleeping powder, and knew that any trail marker left unattended could be moved by quicklings.

That was why Perrin noticed the small blue hand reaching into his pack.

”Hey!” He called.

The quickling vanished. One moment it stood behind him. The next, a thin creature in a patched green coat was thirty meters away with Perrin’s wrapped lunch tucked beneath one arm.

The party healer spoke up before Perrin could throw a fit. ”Let it go, we have more food. Besides we should be pleased that we now know that there are quicklings ahead. We can adjust our plan.”

”Not that cheese, it was expensive.”

Perrin ran after the fey.

His party shouted for him to stop, then followed when he ignored them. The quickling could have escaped easily. Instead, it remained at the edge of sight, waiting until Perrin drew close before sprinting away again.

It left the marked path, crossed a patch of glowing mushrooms, and ran around an old oak.

Perrin followed.

The quickling circled the same tree a second time.

”It is making you run in circles!” One of his companions called out while smothering a laugh.

”It has my lunch!”

The creature turned sharply between two bushes. It doubled back, crossed its own trail, and made three abrupt changes in direction that seemed to lead nowhere. Perrin nearly lost it in the fog.

Then he saw the green coat pass between a pair of narrow pine trees.

There was not enough space behind them to hide anything larger than a rabbit. The quickling disappeared anyway.

Perrin stopped.

A faint film of magic stretched between the trunks. It was almost invisible beneath the fog. He reached toward it, then remembered enough about Fey Nights to pick up a fallen branch instead.

The branch passed through without resistance. His party caught up while he was still staring.

”Where did it go?” Their healer asked.

Perrin pointed between the trees.

”That looks like a portal.” Said their scout.

”It looks like a trap.” Agreed everyone else.

Perrin thought about the cheese that he had spent too much money on, then he stepped through.

The fog disappeared.

He emerged beneath a clear night sky. A full moon hung above a quiet glade. Glowing flowers covered the ground, brightening whenever his boots brushed against them. Hundreds of fireflies moved among the trees, shining blue, gold, red, and green.

In the center of the clearing stood a table. The quickling sat on top of it with Perrin’s lunch open in its lap.

”You little thief.”

The creature stuffed a piece of cheese into its mouth and grinned. The rest of Perrin’s party came through behind him. The table lengthened as each person entered. One chair became five, and a place setting appeared in front of every seat.

A golden notice formed above them.

[Secret Area Discovered: Moonlit Glade]

[First Adventurer Discovery: Perrin Cole]

[A visitor’s first meal is provided without charge. Returning guests must pay the listed price.]

Menus appeared on the table. The party forgot about the quickling paid it no more attention.

Perrin selected roast duck, potatoes, and a chocolate dessert he could not pronounce. His companions ordered cautiously at first, uncertain whether the promise of a free meal concealed some Fey trick.

The food appeared a few moments later. After the healer tasted her soup and failed to turn into a frog, everyone became more adventurous.

Their scout selected a steak large enough to cover most of her plate. The healer ordered a second soup after learning that the menu did not limit the free meal to one course. Their shield bearer spent several minutes comparing desserts before choosing three and insisting they were small enough to count as one when combined.

Perrin stopped caring about the stolen cheese when his roast duck appeared.

The glowing flowers brightened around their chairs. Fireflies drifted close without landing in the food, and the moon remained directly overhead even though they had already spent more than an hour at the table.

”We could keep quiet about this place and then offer to guide people here for a fee.” The scout suggested.

The healer looked toward the pines. From inside the glade, the magical film was easy to see. ”Can you remember the route?”

Perrin pictured the quickling’s turns. ”I can remember most of it.”

”You shouted that it was cheating when it circled the oak the second time.”

”That part I remember clearly.”

Their shield bearer finished his first dessert. ”Someone else will find it eventually. The notice already put Perrin’s name on the discovery. Selling directions will only make people angry when they get lost.”

Perrin agreed. He had entered Fey Nights expecting another ordinary clear. Instead, chasing one thief had shown him that the familiar forest contained something none of the stronger parties had noticed.

”We tell everyone, not only about this place. We tell them the levels have secrets.”

”You know there are other secrets?”

”There should be. Why hide only one?”

It was not evidence, but it sounded convincing beneath the artificial moon.

The quickling remained on the end of the table. It had stolen Perrin’s lunch, but it watched the fresh bread with obvious interest.

”You could have brought us here without stealing from me.” Perrin said.

The creature tilted its head.

”Fine. You can have a roll. Give me back the cheese.”

The quickling hugged the remaining wedge to its chest and vanished.

Perrin heard laughter somewhere in the trees.

When the party finally stood to leave, the table shrank behind them and the used dishes disappeared. Perrin stepped through the magical film first. Fog closed around him, and the Moonlit Glade vanished from sight as soon as he moved away from the pines.

They spent another twenty minutes finding the normal path and then another figuring out exactly how to re-enter the Moonlight Glade. Nobody complained about wasting time, they were all having fun.

***

Earlier, while Perrin and his companions were still eating, Max received the discovery notice over lunch with Anna.

He read the name twice before opening a small viewing screen above the table. Perrin and his companions were sitting in the Moonlit Glade, arguing over whether their free first meal included a second dessert.

”Someone finally found it.” Max said.

Anna moved beside him to see. Her expression softened when the image of the glowing flowers appeared.

”It took them longer than I expected.”

”The route is a tricky one.”

”You designed it.” She said.

The first time Max had led Anna through the two pine trees, the glade contained a table for two. They had eaten beneath the moon, shared wine, and stayed long after their plates disappeared.

Now five adventurers occupied the clearing. One had placed his boots beneath the table and was trying to catch a red firefly in an empty glass.

Max expected the memory to feel less private. Instead, he found himself smiling.

”They like it.” Anna said.

”They ordered enough food to prove it.”

”Their first meals are free.”

”They might come back.”

The discovery notice had been added to the dungeon’s permanent records. Perrin was not the first person to enter the glade, but he was the first adventurer to find it without Max showing him the route.

That distinction mattered to Perrin. He returned to the Sanctuary before evening and told everyone who would listen. Max and Anna heard the story again when they visited the Gilded Rose for dinner. Perrin stood near the center of the common room with three chairs pulled together as an improvised platform.

”You have to circle the oak twice.” He told the crowd. ”Then turn left, right, right, and left. Or it may have been right, left, right, and left. The fog makes it difficult to tell.”

”You were chasing a quickling?” One adventurer asked.

”A quickling that knew where it was going.” Perrin answered

”It stole your lunch.”

”That is not relevant.”

His healer raised her mug. ”The lunch was the only reason he followed it.”

Several people laughed. Others demanded proof. Perrin displayed the discovery notice in his menu, and the room became quieter.

Within minutes, two experienced parties left the tavern and headed toward the entrance to Fey Nights.

Mira sat with Garrick and Anna at a table near the wall. She had spent the afternoon in the Skyyard map room and still carried three rolled up course diagrams beneath one arm.

”Are there secret places in the Sanctuary too?” She asked Max when he joined them.

”If I answered that, they would stop being secret.”

”That means yes.”

”It means I am not answering.” He clarified.

Garrick looked relieved that his granddaughter had asked about the Sanctuary instead of the dangerous dungeon levels.

Perrin climbed down from the chairs and approached Max.

”Boss Clarkson, the notice says I made the first adventurer discovery. Does that come with anything?”

”You received a free dinner.”

”Everyone receives a free dinner the first time.”

Perrin did not appear satisfied. ”The first party to clear a level gets a special reward. The first crew to win a Skyyard race gets its picture on the wall. Finding a hidden place should count for something.”

Several adventurers nearby voiced their agreement.

Max considered it. The dungeon already tracked first clears, fastest clears, deaths, discoveries, and countless other records. Most of that information remained buried inside administrative menus nobody else could see.

”I will think about it.” He said.

That was enough to restart the celebration.

By the time Max and Anna left the tavern, more than thirty people had entered Fey Nights to search for secrets. Some circled every tree they found. Others abandoned the normal path and marched into the fog with maps, ropes, colored chalk, and enough food for several days.

The quicklings watched them from the branches.

Max suspected Perrin would not be the last adventurer they decided to guide somewhere interesting.

Beside him, Anna slipped her hand into his.

”Are you really going to give him something?” she asked.

”Probably.”

”What?”

Max opened the dungeon’s record menu. Names and numbers filled the air in front of him.

”A place where everyone can see what he did.”