"Odd that the future should be so difficult to bring into focus when the past, uninvited, offered itself up so easily for inspection." — Richard Russo

  Bringing my attention back to the matter at hand, I focused on Ornthalas, who had already resumed speaking.

  “Next, with your permission, I’d like to explore the physical extent of your subterranean growth to get a sense of your rate of expansion, your resident creatures, range of traps, and your overall theme. If you restrain your resident creatures from attacking, I will return the favor. I’d also appreciate it if you disarmed your traps while still allowing me to identify them. I can probably spot them all, but I’d appreciate the courtesy and the time savings from not having to disarm or destroy them myself.

  Following that, I’d like to pause in your core room and try to use an identifying skill on you; it shouldn’t be too invasive and will simply give me a sense of your overall progress towards the next level and your mana pool and regeneration rate. It might provide some clues towards your sponsoring divinity, but it probably won’t.”

  I was a bit uncomfortable with that notion but decided that I didn’t really have anything to hide, and hopefully he’d be able to offer me some insight or at least useful advice. If nothing else, it would likely be helpful to get a reputation for being reasonably accommodating.

  “Finally, I will lay out an array of different items. You are welcome to absorb all of them, but I ask that you do so sequentially to help us identify categories of interest to you. It’s common for adventurers to try to offer the gift of new items to a dungeon, both to generate goodwill and to increase the range of useful items a dungeon can provide. Acceptance of these items isn’t contingent on allowing the full inspection, of course, and you may have them regardless.”

  “Are you willing to show me around?”

  **GREEN**

  “Wonderful. I noticed, of course, that your core isn’t present in this room. Would you please blink your green light once for each room you currently possess?”

  **GREEN** X 9

  “Nine! To verify, you have only been active for about 30-some days, correct?”

  **GREEN**

  “Very impressive. I’m not sure how that stacks up against normal growth rates for a sapient dungeon, but the non-sapient dungeons I’m familiar with tend to add rooms only at the rate of three or four a year for the more active ones. Okay, for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to provide each room a number according to the order in which I encounter them. This will be room 1, obviously.

  *** Notebook of Ornthalas Ravaric – 12th day of the 4th month, 715th year since Foundation.

  9th hour -- Upon entry to first room, sleep potion used to neutralize three Grassland Grizzlies. One dungeon-spawned adult and two natural cubs. New dungeon is sapient, communicating with a three mana light system – green for yes, red for no, yellow for undetermined. Claims to be divinely placed but is unable to identify placing deity or divine mission. Appears to be suffering from memory redactions. Expresses willingness to abide by standard dungeon practices re: themes, mortality rates, etc. Law codes immediately absorbed.

  Expresses willingness to allow inspection tour, which I am now commencing.

  Room 1 opens directly to the surface and extends roughly 20 strides in length by 15 in width to the east of the entrance. Aside from the grizzlies, appears to contain no traps or other creatures of interest. Passages extend to the north and south. ***

  “I don’t see any traps in this room, is that correct?”

  **GREEN**

  “The grassland grizzlies are impressive for a dungeon of your age. Did you kill one?”

  **GREEN**

  “Ah, the mother of those younger ones?”

  **GREEN**

  “Merciful of you to spare the younger ones and clever to recruit them. Very promising from our perspective. Are there any other features of this room I should be aware of?”

  **RED**

  “Well, I’ll proceed then. Would you recommend that I head north first?”

  **RED**

  “South it is, then”.

  Putting word to deed, the elven ranger moved cautiously towards the short passage leading to the second room, where the bear had met its fate. The badger had adopted this room as its den, once I had closed off the original entrance and redirected the main path away from this room. It had to pass through the bears’ den to reach the surface, but that posed no issue.

  “So, a granite badger here and, I’m guessing that’s a trap at the far end of the room?”

  **GREEN**

  “Is it safe to inspect the trap?”

  **GREEN**

  He literally used an inspection skill of some sort to do so, though it required him to come within about 2 meters of the trap zone. He gave a snort, and I assumed he was able to see the system-assigned name.

  He verified that, moments later.

  “Poorly disguised deadfall trap? I like it; it may be poorly disguised, but it’s quite lethal. The placement is a bit odd, though, since this seems to be a dead end. Normally, you’d place something like that in a higher traffic area. Is this a dead end?”

  **GREEN**

  He wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t really have a way to explain the shifting layout I’d recently enacted. He might be able to puzzle it out, but didn’t seem all that concerned, frankly. He did circle the trap to inspect the rear wall but didn’t seem inclined to question the closed off former entrance.

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  “If you don’t want to relocate the trap, you might consider embedding some loot into the stalactites. That will get you some of the dumber and greedier invaders. They’d likely see it as a reward for getting past your bears.”

  A solid idea but one I wasn’t sure he should really be sharing with me. Maybe they make a deliberate effort to kill off the worst kinds of dungeon visitors? I spawned in small sapphires into three of the stalagmites, including the trigger, just glinting a bit at the surface, and he nodded. I got the sense that this was another case where intent mattered, and that while I might be able to spawn in loot with people present in the room, I wouldn't be able to do the same with traps or creatures. I was bound to certain rules, though I wasn't entirely clear what they were, just yet.

  “Nice. Sapphires will likely be well received, even if they make little sense in a stalagmite, geologically speaking. Fits the poorly disguised theme, at least!”

  Crossing back through the first room, I noted that the bears were beginning to stir, but Ornthalas ignored their gentle shifting – either he trusted me to prevent an attack, or more likely didn’t have any concerns about his ability to defeat them a second time.

  He entered the third room, which was mostly empty, forming a sort of passage hall that ended with a modest waterfall at the northwestern end, near the passage to the pond room. He paused at the entrance and cast a wary glance around the space. I think he found the apparent emptiness concerning.

  “Am I missing a trap or creature here? It seems empty.”

  **RED**

  He pondered this for a moment.

  “Is this room just new, then?”

  **GREEN**

  “Are many of your rooms currently devoid of traps and creatures?”

  **RED**

  “But some are?”

  **GREEN** X3

  “So, three rooms that you still intend to add to?”

  **GREEN** X2 *YELLOW*

  “Hmm. I’m right for two, but you’re uncertain on the third?”

  **GREEN*

  “Is this one you intend to add traps/creatures to?”

  **GREEN**

  “This does seem like a good space to potentially add some traps to. And the adventurers will always try to peek behind the waterfall – that's a perennial favorite... You could have some fun with that!”

  Turning westward and following the stream a short distance into room 4, the pond room, he paused at the top of the smaller waterfall dropping into the basin and gave an admiring whistle.

  “You’ve already added a nice water feature here, and I can tell you have taken some steps to make it self-sustaining. We don’t see that all that often on early floors, and it can offer a nice challenge – though obviously this is on the small side. I like the initiative, though.

  I see some fish, but not really any dungeon creatures or traps. Am I missing something?”

  **GREEN**

  It was, of course, the trapdoor snapping turtle. As it happens, the turtle was akin to a large alligator snapping turtle, but with a flat, stony looking growth between its eyes and above its beak. As an ambush predator, it had settled in at the base of the waterfall, dug a small burrow into the gravel there, and disguised itself, awaiting visitors and other food.

  I gave it a mental prod, and it pushed off the bottom and raised its head out of the water.

  “Trapdoor snapping turtle! Those are easy to miss, especially in turbulent water. It’s going to take a bite out of quite a few adventurers, if I’m guessing correctly. Especially if you tuck something interesting behind the waterfall in the earlier room.”

  I appreciate that he’s got some solid ideas to share. I’ll have to go back through and make some adjustments.

  Circling along the eastern edge of the pond, he cautiously made his way to room 5, my other large, mostly empty room.

  “Hmm. I take it this is one of your other empty rooms?”

  **GREEN**

  “Is this the other one you intend to add to?”

  **GREEN**

  “Well, the lack of any special features makes this one a bit tricky to suggest elements for. You could add a puzzle element here, or a small swarm of low-tier creatures, or some sort of environmental hazard. Really, the possibilities are mostly limitless, so I’ll be curious to see what you settle on.”

  With that, he took a quick circuit of the space, then moved to the passageway on the south wall moving into the sixth room. Not much here either, but there is a trap here and I had also managed to spawn in a pair of Lesser Cave Wyverns. I’d set them up with a roost in the southeast corner of room 6, directly across the anklebreaker trap from the entrance from room 5.

  As draconids went, I suspected they must be the lowest grade version, being only about 2 meters long from snout to tail tip, in a dull gray shade, and with essentially animalistic intelligence. They were nocturnal hunters who roosted in caves by day, emerging to seek small game as night fell. Their primary weapons were a venomous stinger on their tail and a nasty bite. Here, I thought they might be effective at luring invaders into the anklebreaker trap, which would make it rather easier to administer their sting. At tier two, they did have a basic stone affinity, which manifested mostly in a natural armor quality to their scales.

  “Cave wyverns too? You have been busy, I see. Oh, and you’re combining them with a trap intended to impair mobility. That makes sense. Shouldn’t be too lethal, though the cave wyverns have a nasty sting for low-level adventurers. Alright, we have passages leading east and west, but we’ve been shaping a circle, generally, so I’m guessing that west is probably a dead end?”

  **GREEN**

  Room 7 is the one that opened out onto the cliffside, and Ornthalas paused at the entrance to take in the view. Fortunately, he was also aware enough to note the trap directly before his feet.

  “Comical Slime Chute? Not sure I get that one. Can I trigger it with a pole safely and take a look?”

  **GREEN**

  Pulling a 6-foot pole from a clearly dimensionally altered pouch at his belt, he prodded the trapdoor and I let it fall open. A quick grin flashed across his face, as he realized the slimes were being used to grease the walls of the trap. The grin quickly vanished though, as he realized from the angle of the chute that it likely ejected victims over the cliffside.

  “Oof. That’s, well, that’s kind of a mean way to go, don’t you think?”

  I gave the shade owl a nudge and it issued a chortling hoot from directly above and behind him. The dungeon inspector’s head whipped around at the noise, and I think he realized that I might have been able to send him down the chute, had I intended any harm.

  He gave a weak, if rather wry, smile and nodded towards the mana lights.

  “You got me. If you haven’t already, you might consider rigging up some way of making the trap only optionally lethal. Few adventurers visiting a new, one-level dungeon are going to be able to fly, so that’s a one-way trip to a very long drop for most. Maybe expand the bottom to include a deeper slime pit that would catch them and damage their equipment instead?”

  **GREEN**

  Hell, as long as we’re milking the comedy aspect, maybe I can make that slime pit issue a massive fart noise by tweaking the viscosity. Not sold on that, though. Fart jokes aren’t really my thing; I like to think my humor isn't quite that lowbrow. If I got a sturdy enough glass, I could try installing a window I could open and close that would drive home the fact I was being merciful... or not. Not sure my engineering skills are up to that without a series of test runs.

  The shade owl cloaked itself in shadow once more, and the dungeon inspector straightened up a bit shakily, and headed back towards the wyverns’ room. Circling carefully around the anklebreaker trap while keeping an eye on the wyverns, he moved into the eastern passage a bit more cautiously. From the entrance, it looked like a dead end, though as he edged his way down the narrow passage he did spot the semi-concealed entrance to my core room. Continuing past it, he did reach the far end of the tunnel and run his hand lightly over the sealed entrance to the second room.

  “Ah, I think I see. This used to connect to room 2, didn’t it? And that explains why the first trap was where it is?”

  **GREEN**

  “You decided to extend the distance from your entrance to your core?”

  **GREEN**

  “Probably smart. You might want to put something here, though, if you don’t want people to spot the side passage. I’m assuming that leads to your core room, since you said you only have 9 rooms and we’ve seen 7 already.”

  **GREEN**

  With that, he doubled back, slipped carefully into the short side passage and entered the core room.