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Timmy took our groups to a nearby tavern- and reserved the whole back room. As for why we didn’t just go back to the guild, presumably he wanted to stay nearby to monitor the situation. Timmy sat on the floor- the tavern didn’t have any furniture sized for half-giants. As it was, he was still nearly as tall as me with his rear end directly on the floor. Once we were sitting down, he was still looking at us from above- except for Varragra. “It seems you are done then…” Timmy’s voice was the quietest he could muster- which was still conspicuously loud.
“That is correct,” Alhorn nodded and started explaining in slightly more hushed tones. The tavern keeper came in with drinks and lunch for all of us, and as we ate he and the rest of us summarized our search, then got to the important bit. “Once we found the core, we determined it was differently shaped- like one hypothesis said it might be if the dungeons had fused…”
“I see,” Timmy nodded, “And you destroyed it?”
“Half of it,” I answered and pulled out the bag with the fragments of the core. “We took the shards of that half with us, so it wouldn’t be able to fix itself… if that’s even possible.”
Timmy opened the bag, seeing the fragments of blackness that were inside. “I see. Do you mind if I take these?” he held up the bag.
“Go ahead,” I nodded, “If the guild can use them…”
He poured them out into his hand, then back into the bag carefully. “I almost want to crush them, but Sage Norwood should look at them to see if he can do anything to determine what happened. You’ll be rewarded for the mission of course, and Sage Norwood will certainly compensate you for the value of this- material or research.” There was a knock on the door to the back room. “Yes? Come in.”
Through the door came one of those dressed in the dungeon guard uniform. “Guildmaster! A building has collapsed nearby.”
“Is that so?” Timmy nodded to us, “Well then, enjoy your rest. I have work to get to.” He looked back towards the guard, “Lead me there, I’ll see what can be done.”
I sat for a few moments, picking at the last bits of my food. I had some strength back now, after barely making it out of the dungeon. I stood up, at the same time as Kantrilla. We didn’t even have to say anything to each other, and soon enough everyone else dragged themselves out of the back room after us.
As we walked towards the dungeon, we were stopped by dungeon guards on the street. “This area is off limits. We’re evacuating the area.”
“We know,” Kantrilla nodded, “We want to help.”
The guard shook his head, “We can’t let anyone go this way.”
“Let them through.” Timmy’s voice boomed out from behind them. “They know what they’re up to.” He was walking past behind the guards, and we followed him. He took that in stride saying, “Nobody was in there- we’d already started the evacuations- but things are worse over this way.” Even as he said that, I saw a building lean… then sink. It was only a few feet… but that was a big deal for something the size of a house. It wasn’t meant to move at all, and part of it collapsed. “Look around for anything you can do!” he said as he rushed over that way. I saw him pull away a wall and toss a chunk of the roof into the street as he looked inside.
I didn’t have much energy left after our adventuring, but I still wanted to help. After all, this was our fault. Someone else would have done it if not us- but it didn’t matter. We would have helped either way. Nobody had been sure exactly what would happen with the dungeon destroyed, since most of the time there wasn’t much effect. Collapsing was a possibility, but this was more than expected.
“Young Llyr!” I heard Timmy call out, “If you would come over here, quickly!” I rushed over to him- I saw two people standing outside holding each other as I entered the building. I could see he was holding up half of the second floor. “Ah, there you are. If you would, there’s a young lass a bit stuck in there. I’m a bit occupied here…”
I nodded, getting down on my hands and knees and crawling through a partly collapsed wall. I was glad I had left my shield with Carlos after we left the dungeon… I had no doubt he was just as tired as the rest of us but sometimes it was okay for me to be selfish. I still had my armor, but I was able to fit through well enough. As Timmy said, there was a little girl inside, hiding under her bed and clutching. I held out my hand, “Come on out. Your parents are outside where it’s safe..”
She shook her head, “… I’m stuck.”
I lifted the corner of the bed just slightly- and her with it. Part of her shirt had gotten caught on the bedframe. Once I realized that, I used my other hand to detach her, pulling her away and gently setting the bed down. It was actually the best I could do not to drop it… not because it was particularly heavy, but because I was still exhausted. “Let’s go!”
She scurried out through the gap more easily than me, and after I crawled out behind her and walked past Timmy, he stepped back, letting the section of building he was holding fall. “Good work!” His voice boomed down, “Maybe the next one you can hold the roof up and I’ll crawl into the small spaces!”
I laughed, but even the idea of holding up a building made my arms hurt. Well, reminded me that they hurt some. I’d used my Strength a lot, in stressful situations- breaking down walls mid-combat wasn’t easy.
Outside Kantrilla was waiting, and she gave the girl just a touch of healing magic on her forehead, wiping away the blood. That was actually the bigger part of it- the wound wasn’t large, but the blood could scare the girl. I looked around- there were other people working, but only a few buildings had collapsed so far. It was just that once they started they seemed to continue more- as demonstrated by the building behind us sinking another few feet. The dungeon had been stable and held up the winding passageways, but now that it was falling apart they might not hold up as well. We still had a lot of work to do before the day was done.