Starlit Dollhouse

Three college students stood in front of an ornate wooden door, one markedly different from the other doors they’d come across in the steam tunnels. Where those doors bore a utilitarian simplicity, this door was intricately and lovingly carved, depictions of stars and roses caressing it’s borders. And while those doors wore mundane enough labels, like “Boiler Room” and “Library B3”, this door promised entry to the far more fantastic “Starlit Dollhouse,” the words engraved upon it in elegant gothic lettering.

The first student, a tall, well-built young man named Vance, grinned and ran a finger across the engraving. He had stumbled across the door just the other day while taking a shortcut between the student learning center and the psychology department building and could barely contain his excitement.

“Well? Well? It’s a dungeon, right Jess? It’s got to be!”

Jessica, the second student of moderate height, closed one eye and focused on the door. A screen appeared before her, invisible to anyone else, bearing the words [Starlit Dollhouse] in a sans-serif font.

“Of course it’s a dungeon. Unless you think the college is prettying the steam tunnels up for parent’s day?” She tapped on the engraving. “The [Starlit Dollhouse], just like it says. And don’t ask me what a starlit dollhouse is, because I don’t know. [Identify] gives me names and that’s it.”

“I knew it! This is so fucking cool! A brand new dungeon, completely unexplored. Think of all the money we’ll make!”

“Or all the things that could kill us.” Riley, the last and shortest of the three, wasn’t quite as excited as Vance. Someone had to be the voice of reason, but that Jessica’s job, so Riley settled for being the voice of pessimism. “I don’t know if you remember, Vance,  but we have a hard enough time with dungeons we *do* understand.”

“Yeah, yeah, so we’ll be careful, okay? I wont rush ahead and Jess’ll [Identify] every pebble we come across. We’ll take things nice and slow and back out as soon as we’ve got enough info to sell to the association.”

“So you *do* know you’re not supposed to run ahead...”

Jessica laughed at Riley’s tired sigh. “All right, lets save the fighting for the monsters. Equipment check time. Vance, how’s your mana?”

Vance grinned and snapped his fingers as he conjured a small ball of fire. His [Fire Magic] skill made him the group’s mage, a role he rather enjoyed. He danced the fireball between his fingers with a few deft movements before extinguishing the orb.

“Riley, got your bat?”

Riley drew his bat from its resting position on his back and gave it a few practice swings. It wasn’t exactly a proper weapon, but he’d gotten his [Club Arts] skill with it, so it did the job.

“And I’ve got my knives.” Jessica finished, drawing two knives from their sheathes. Unlike Riley’s bat, they were actually made for combat