“I saw them die, Calruz. Gerial saved me. Skinner got him. Hunt, Corr, Sostrom…they all died. I buried them.”

Corr should be Barr

“Why this dungeon has it” was answered already in the story: to stop the monsters inside from completely slaughtering each other, so that they all have time to grow into the massive traps. You wouldn’t have tens of thousands of face eater moths or shield spiders, both with giant broodmothers that are possibly hundreds of years old, if everything is constantly killing everything else.

Depending on how long the city has been there, how it got buried isn’t too hard to imagine. Yearly rains flooding the entire landscape in 20+ feet of water means lots of silt brought down over time off the High Passes. It might not be much each year, but imagine a layer of just 1 millimeter of silt spread across everything each year. In a thousand years, you have a meter built up. In 10,000 years, the city is 10 meters underground.

Not sure I’d agree with this. Az’Karesh hasn’t given any indication he knew the dungeon was there, and there really aren’t that many undead in the dungeon, either. There are significantly more living creatures. The undead seem to be most likely a product of dead Rhaskgar and cave goblins that don’t get eaten. The infested seem more like fungal parasites or something than regular undead.

The crypt itself was filled with them, yes, but not the dungeon itself. None of the guardians seem to be undead, they can just control them. The Mother of Graves might hint at the actual boss being undead… but could also just be something like a super necromancer, that controls the dead, just as her guardians do.

I would have thought that if Az’Karesh could sense however many thousands of undead Skinner had control over, he would have been high enough level to assume command of them and bring them to the surface during his siege.

Thousands of strong Rhaskgar haven’t been able to make much of a dent in the overall dungeon, over however many hundreds or thousands of years. 5 hobs and a few thousand super weak goblins aren’t gonna do much better.

We know that the enchanted armor and infested aren’t applicable to the invisibility shenanigans of the dungeon. They’d need a lot more than just the redfangs to clear this place. That’s also assuming they figure out some way to deal with Facestealer, as well.

And even if they do, you’d likely have a massive food issue. Unless food can be grown in the city area (which doesn’t have natural sunlight, so normal plants growing would be very iffy) they’d have to survive off dungeon monsters. Which means constant fighting and death for lots of goblins. Not exactly the semi-peaceful life Reiss or probably Rags are looking for.

Erin giving them a portal door could be possible, if it worked at all in the dungeon, which is debatable. But even that would only give them access to the inn, it wouldn’t solve food problems, or goblins being able to interact much with other races, etc.

“She saw them howling at each other, using sign, language, pointing, rushing past her.”

–> using sign language, pointing…

“I told you, they guard the dungeon.”

Calruz’s point is that the infested will not leave the city for the larger dungeon, so he probably should say “guard the city.”.

So this is my first time actually sending a comment on any forum really but also the first on yours. I have been reading your works now for quite some time well only like the last year, since a friend of mine introduced me to the wandering inn. I know thos is like two years in the past but I rather enjoy the longer chapters you really get some good storyline and reaction going in a long chapter so thank you for writing and I look forward to the future.

I think water skin is supposed to be one word, not two.

“Ceria didn’t know what it was—blood magic, or something else, but she had seen that female kill the Gnoll on the {Raskghar’s} altar.”
{Raskghar’s}?

“But that was the only reason {why} she could explain why she hadn’t yet tried to make a break for it or fought back harder.”
Stray word? Something’s off about this sentence but I can’t put my finger on what.

“Where. When?”
Possibly incorrect punctuation.

“The room with the pool of water was a sloping basin with four entrances. The Raskghar clustered around their entrance, watching the other {four}.”
{four} -> {three}?

“Ceria relaxed—until she saw one of the {insect} staring her way.”
{insect} -> {insects}

“Skinner was fear. But {Snatch} is paralysis.”
{Snatch} -> {Snatcher}

“If you let them go, {or} you could strike a deal.”
Possibly stray word.