Who's the Cutest Little Dungeon Ever?!? YOU ARE
After Kolya and Arben head back to Chrysopolis--the former en route to Round Two, the latter for a sit-down with Bardas Phokas--the rest of the DG is ferried back to the Welsh mainland by some nice Vikings, and heads for the last known whereabouts of the disappearing castle that houses the cup they're after for the Lady. There are some boar tracks about.
The next day, after jetsetting off to Round Two and back, Zombres amazes all by Dispelling Magic SO HARD that whoa, the castle un-disappears (it's more of a tower), along with the white boar that leads people there!! Inside is an unexpected horrorshow: mounds of rotting human remains, piled up as macabre furniture and being gnawed upon by two hags. Having been frankly itchin' for a fight, the DG has at 'em, and manages to trounce them into talkativeness; they claim that all these fleshy bits aren't even from real people, but from a corpse-dispensing golden cup on an upper floor. Indeed, on the second floor is a gilded clay pot one can pull delicious food out of! Neat-o!
On the third floor: huh, another golden cup, this one filled with a clear liquid. An auguring-non-well clear liquid. Leaving that alone as well, the DG continues to ascend, and on the fourth floor finds the cutest thing EVAHR: a scale model of the tower they're in, with surrounding town, populated by wee mousies! Fifth floor: yeah, another golden cup. Gosh darn it. On the sixth floor, an illusory golden cup that's actually some kind of devil trapped in a magic circle. The DG manages to NOT set him free, and is pleased to have their prudence rewarded when they learn that moving any of the cups on the previous floors would have done so. Still, one of these cups will hold the honey of Caer Oeth Anoeth--but which?
Well, time to talk to some mice. They tell an adorable tale (GET IT TALE SOUNDS LIKE TAIL) that their ancestors were once human, and proudly introduce their fiercest and bravest rodents, who guard the tiny tower in their midst. Hmmm, wonder what's inside it? Zombres cuts the Gordian knot as 'twere by shadowly transforming the walls of the tiny tower's fourth floor--which, get this, has an even TINIER TOWER, and inside that? A teeny-eeny-weeny golden cup, shaking in metal bonds as it tries to enlarge. Duly snatched, much to the consternation of the mouse kingdom. But, ehn, they're mice. They'll get over it.
