Implode ~ 25!

Following the Grandmaster into the Council room caused all sorts of murmuring to break out among the other participants. Six Masters were seated around the table, seven when Stu took his place. The guards that attempted to enter, clearly to keep an eye on the human, were waved away by the white-haired leader of the city. “Hello, everyone, lovely day to finally share the secrets of the Sage’s Summit with someone else, isn't it?”

Silence met her words, as Joe had no idea what she was talking about, and the Dwarves were far too horrified to comment. Finally, one of the Masters, apparently attempting to keep his temper in check, was able to choke out a response. “Grandmaster, I believe that it is not in the best interests of our people to pursue this line of conversation any further.”

“That's where you are wrong, bucko!” She slapped her cane on the table, generating a resounding *thwack* that quieted the dissenters. “Do you know what this human just did, and has done, for our people? He may be the only option for unlocking the secrets of our past. I know none of you were there, since you have not bothered to leave your luxurious state houses in over a month, no doubt indulging in as much hedonism as possible before our people get wiped out-”

Several of the Masters flinched at the accusation, the simple motion doing more to confirm her words than if she had brought in a team of investigators. “Joe, Master Joe, Major General, defeated Master Stu by claiming his right to one of the seats on the Council. Yes, yes, get your shocked murmuring out of the way. Listen up: he refused the seat. Now, I had already begun looking into his background as soon as he arrived from the goat path, achieving Mastery of one of his skills in the process. This is the Apprentice of Grandmaster Havoc, and the skill that he mastered by traveling here—and defeated Stu with—is merely a fun mode of transportation for him. It is not even his main skill set!”

She shouted the final retort, and the room remained deathly silent as rage seemed to waft off of her in a physical mist. “Would you all like to know who he is? What he is?”

“I would!” One of the younger-looking Masters raised their hand, causing the Grandmaster to deflate slightly and rub at her forehead.

“Still haven't reached the Novice ranks in reading a room, I see. What are we going to do with you, Master Don Punchy? You’re so dopey sometimes.” She muttered the complaint so quietly that only Joe could hear her. Sighing, she waved at the human and stated for all of the Masters present, “This man is a twice-specialized Ritualist.”

All of the eyes in the room turned to Joe, sizing him up and attempting to verify whether the Grandmaster’s words were true. He smiled nervously, not entirely certain where this was going, even if he did have a vague idea. A Dwarf at the table slowly stood. “You cannot possibly be thinking of bringing him to the—achoo—Sage’s Summit?”

“Of course I am, and it is not a question of ‘if,’ but ‘when’. This is happening now.” The Grandmaster gestured around the room. “This is a direct order: get off your lazy butts and open the way.”

“You... he... this is our history as a nation we are talking about!” The Master didn't back down as the glaring intent on him increased, though he did break out in a cold sweat. “We can't just show him… the… achoo!”

“There has got to be something in here that you are allergic to, Master Northwind. You need to figure that out. There is no reason you should be so sneezy with your ranks in wind magic; it's dangerous to everyone around you. As to Joe…” The Grandmaster sighed, clearly trying to figure out how to explain herself. “What you should know…”

The Dwarf was obviously using circumlocution to avoid directly stating what he was hinting at, and that was all the indication Joe needed to be certain of the topic they were discussing. “If this is about your Ritual Hall, that's not what I came here for, but it would be very cool to see it.”

Utterly flabbergasted, the sneezy Dwarf flung his arms to the side and flopped down into his chair. “You told him? That is a national secret!”

“No, in fact I did not even mention that we were going to travel to a building.” Now even the Grandmaster was looking at him searchingly. “How did you know about that?”

“I built one back on Midgard.” Joe casually shrugged as one of the Masters’ eyes rolled up in his head and passed out. “When it was completed, the lore of the building informed me that the Dwarves had built a better one that they had hidden away from the world. To be fair, if you hadn't been so excited about my class, I likely wouldn’t have been able to figure out what you were talking about.”

“Remarkable.” The Grandmaster waved at everyone, then pointed at the fallen member. “Somebody shake Mr. Sleepy awake. We have no time to lose.”

“At least have some decorum in front of the outsider, Grandmaster!” Stu begged of the city leader. “There is no reason to deride Master Dreamstrider like that.”

She didn’t acknowledge any of them, simply gripping Joe by the shoulder and walking away. At that moment, the Ritualist realized that his team members hadn’t been allowed inside. “Pardon me, Grandmaster, but where did my friends go?”

“They were given rooms in which to recover and will be attending a small banquet shortly.” She eyed him with a sober expression. “I fear that you will most likely be too busy for guests in the near future. Friends or otherwise.”

He wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he simply allowed himself to be led over to a large teleportation pad. “Wait, where are we going? Also, I need-”

“Grandmaster McPoundy already reached out and explained your situation,” the Grandmaster countered with a warm smile. “I let him know that if you managed to get here, I would accept your proposal without any hesitation. Here, transfer the teleportation pad to my storage and consider your quest complete.”

Moments later, as the exchange of goods occurred, Joe received the official notification of his success.

Quest complete: Not Lost, but Hidden. Convince at least one more Grandmaster of the Dwarven Society to join your burgeoning settlement. Reward: the location of ‘The Shoe’ will be lost to the Elves and anyone with positive ties to them. Anyone who had stumbled upon this settlement's location since the start of the quest will also be affected by this Quest reward! Settlement ‘The Shoe’ has been removed from all memories of your enemies!

As you are aligned with a Hidden Deity, you gain a secondary reward for this massive accomplishment: Anytime in the next month, you can designate one Skill, Spell, or Ability with triple experience gain during active use. That boon will last for up to one week. Simply say ‘activate skill growth boon’ followed by the specific characteristic you would like to enhance.

“Awesome,” Joe whispered as the enchantment on the floor began to glow. “Where are we going?”

“That is classified, but since you are going anyway,” the Grandmaster winked at him, “there was no location on the Zone that we felt was secure enough to keep this portion of our people's history hidden from the Elves and the Ritualist hunters. Until now, we had assumed that we protected the final Ritual Hall in existence, and the fact that you have created another one has been quite the blow to our collective ego.”

“Sorry about that.” Joe chuckled, not actually caring overmuch about their wounded pride.

“As to the physical location, since there was nowhere on the Zone we felt was secure enough, we moved the entire true Summit of this mountain above the Zone.” The Grandmaster gestured at the teleportation enchantment. “You have likely seen similar constructs all over the place, as enchanted elevators are highly sought-after no matter where you go. This one upgraded the design further, introducing a straight-line teleportation that allows us to pass through hundreds of miles of open air, as well as hundreds of tons of stone. I warn you, it does… tickle.”

“The path to the Sage’s Summit is…” Stu glared at Joe as the human stepped into the center of the magical elevator, “…is open for whoever wants to use it, I guess.”

“Stop being so grumpy, Stu.” Joe chuckled as the Dwarf squinted at him with narrow, suspicious eyes. “All I need to do is jump, right? Well, at least I have that part figured out.”

“Yeah, yeah. Rub it in,” Stu rumbled as he adjusted something on the teleportation device. “Setting to self-sustaining; collection team inbound at minus five.”

“Excellent. If we are correct, artifacts of a far-gone age will have been stored within that building. Designs, crafts, perhaps even something we can use to turn the tide of this war.” The Grandmaster didn't sound as excited as her anticipation should have made her. “Hard to know what was left behind over a thousand years ago. While we can dream, let's not get our hopes up too high.”

“Only way to know for sure is to check it out!” Joe crouched down and jumped, instantly vanishing from the pad as the other Masters began arguing about whose fault it was that he got to go first.

“Looks like we desperately needed someone to come along and shake the hornet's nest.” The Grandmaster rolled her eyes at the bickering over traveling order, jumping slightly and vanishing from sight.