Louis was incorrect when he first arrived to describe this as squabbling. Well - now it was. Words and now paint. Ozend felt kind of sorry that Alice's paint would need to be cleaned up by the barkeep.

"Hey Alice. Come here just a second. I have something I want to give you. Don't worry, no tricks. I'm confident you could easily deal with me if I tried to." He flattered her. Ozend just wanted to have a quick private thought before they entered a dungeon a little ways down the hallway. Something to lift her spirits.

*sorry wron rp*

Alice grumbled, looking back and forth between the dungeon entrance Mimi was quickly disappearing into, and the large man calling her over. As much as the temptation of the dark stairs downwards was, he was probably offering her candy to cheer her up. Such were the benefits of being such a young and talented mage.

"Well, you better make it quick, then." she crossed her arms, taking a few steps closer, but refusing to look directly at him.

"Lady Alice. Thank you for hearing me out." Ozend crouched down to meet her at eye level. He started with a whisper. "That jerk got what was coming to him." Ozend grinned.

"I am a knight with no king. So, little lady, I will be your knight. Your shield so that our foes and spectators may watch your splendors unfold with no interruption." That cheesy grin still painted his face. He meant it. While he was here for her and the others it would be his utmost task to aid them. "Let my service be the first of many that will serve you in the future." With that he bowed his head and stood up. Ready to follow the others down, or to his preference, be at the front.

"...Are you some kind of weirdo?" Alice asked, her face contorting in confusion. "Because I sure don't have land or money to pay a knight with."

"In other words...." Alice scratched her chin in thought.
"In other words, you'd be more my slave than a knight. I already have an excellent familiar anyways, so I'll delegate orders to you through him. For now, I'm going to go magic a dungeon until it gives me stuff."

Without further delay, Alice flipped the blanket-cape over her shoulder dramatically, following Mimi down the dark, mysterious stairs into danger.

Running into the dungeon between the basement and the entrance was almost like running into a different dimension. The air was completely different, the air in the dungeon being much thicker and mustier; While it was cold outside, the dungeon was warm and uncomfortably stuffy; The smell of rat feces and urine which had only a slight smell outside had become putrid to the point it was almost unbearable. To make matters worse, only a few feet past the cellar, it was pitch black. Absolutely no light shone from the tavern past maybe ten or eleven bricks each brick the size of the average person's footstep. Occasionally, the sound of squeeking and pattering presumably from the rats. The walls were sticky to touch.

As Alice walked in following Mimi, a single cockroach scampered out from the darkness and onto Alice's foot. The cockroach squatted in position for a good second or two before skittering off.

The demon manager that had recently signed the party, had meanwhile remained upstairs by the barkeep. "I'll wait here on one of the chairs Alice conjured up. You all don't take too long. The faster you get done, the faster I can send the completion to the SODE and we can all get paid." Vulthathar said, projecting to the bottom of the cellar.

"Oh my," murmured Mimi, placing a hand over her nose as the stench of her first dungeon invaded the nostrils of her Human form, "This place is, um, very pungent."

It was dark too, which wouldn't be so bad if Mimi hadn't introduced herself as a Human. Her perfect organic mimicry had given her the eyesight of the creatures, which was admittedly not great. Then again, their sense of smell also wasn't as good as most other races she could have chosen, so it really balanced out in this situation.

Mimi turned to Alice as the young wizard came up behind her, and gave the girl a friendly smile as Vulthathar called out helpful encouragement at them. It was good that there were at least two pleasant people here, as that had remained to be seen from the rest of the team.

"Alice! Good to have you down here. I didn't bring a light source, so could you use some of your amazing magic to brighten it up a little? It would be much appreciated."

Alice cast a Light spell to illuminate the area just in time to see a small insect crawl across her foot. Trembling, she fell backwards onto her butt, scuttling backwards to the wall.
"Ah." a squeak escaped her trembling lips. Her face reddening, she looked up at Mimi, and released a loud scream.

The room was illuminated by Alice's spell, revealing the bare stone walls. At a glance, it was difficult to believe that the dungeon was in fact a living creature. Before the two girls was a wall with square gaps arranged in a checkered pattern leading to the other side. It seemed that they had only traveled so far away from the cellar, yet there were no other rooms or hallways.

As the room lit up, Mimi took note of the strange checkered gap pattern on the wall before them. She didn't know why a Mimic would present itself in this way at the moment, but she would certainly make note of it in her diary. Perhaps an illustration to go along with it. She really was starting to feel like a real researcher now, and this endeavor would surely bring her one more step closer to contact with the Great World Mimic.

Mimi turned back to Alice to thank her when she saw the girl fall over and scream after having seen a cockroach scuttle over her foot. Mimi didn't understand it, but big sis was scared of them too even though they were profoundly harmless. Maybe it was a Human thing? Mimi really couldn't see it, but she didn't want to blow her disguise.

"Oh, no! A cockroach," she cried in a very poor imitation of fear as she walked over to Alice, "Good thing it's ran off, or else I would be very frightened as well right now. I mean, more frightened than I am. Are you alright, Alice?"

Mimi crouched down to her level and patted the wizard's head, like big sis always did when Mimi got hurt or frightened.

"There, there. It's alright," she said, smiling.

Ozend trailing swiftly behind the two offered Alice a hand back up. "Your tough enough. These critters are small. Another few halls and we might find some ten times as big."

A checkered wall halted their advance. Ozend tilted his head at it. Only one way through and not particularly favorable for him. "Got a plan?" He questioned the rest of the gang gathering.

Bumble descended into the cellar behind the rest of her team, messing with the contents of her bag as she walked. She withdrew the parchment, charcoal and her sturdy glasses case, the former was for mapping the mimic out, the latter for protecting the glasses she no longer would require.

The dungeon was beautiful, large stone bricks tiled the wall the left and right, lightly covered moss and dust, and something sticky too. The matching stone flags beneath her feet looked like they'd been laid down centuries ago, despite the mimic only appearing recently. For some reason Bumble expected fleshy, or atleast ice caverny, she guessed she underestimated a mimics power. A distant light source illuminated 3 noisy figures, their footsteps and voices carried well up the corridor, reminding Bumble her footsteps must be doing the same. She pulled off the heavy snow boots and tossed them up into the light of the tavern, she could retrieve them later, and her foot wraps would suffice on these hard floors. She joined back up with the rest of the team, counting her paces from the entrance and marking the parchment accordingly.

She reached the end of the corridor and faced the gap ridden wall. Peeping through it was obvious that the corridor continued but it wasn't obvious how to get through. Unless you were a rat, they could squeeze through when they fancied.

"Got a plan?"

Bumble could chisel away enough of the stone bricks we could all fit through, but that would take much too long and destroy all her axes. She couldn't think what the big guy could do either. Maybe Alice had a spell to blow open the wall.

"Chair conjurer, do you think you could summon a chaise longue between one of the centre gaps in the wall? The rapidly expanding furniture might blast enough bricks out of the way we can squeeze through ourselves."

Frowning, Alice pushed Mimi's hand away.

"I don't need your pity." she spat, standing back up. She'd show them. She'd show them all. Making a mental note to create a spell that could genocide cockroaches, Alice went up to the wall.

"First of all, the chairs don't expand; they're pulled through a tear in space-time from their home dimension. You'd know this if you weren't such a non-mage plebian." she scoffed, laughing at the hobgoblin.
"Secondly, we won't need to. The gap is big enough for me to fit through." she said. Once again, her small body came in handy as she climbed into a gap in the bricks, squirming her way to the other side.

On the other side of the wall from Alice, was the face of a rat. It stood upright on its hind legs, forelimbs curled up to its body. The rat sniffed around as it fell to the ground with a loud thud. Though it was a rat, it was about the size of an adult dog. It stared Alice threateningly in the face, and let out a loud squeal.

As the rat let out its shrill cry, the sound of rattling came soon to accompany it as rats climbed out through the holes one by one. The other side of the wall, was in fact filled with rats, and they seemed to be nesting within the holes.

Mimi's expression turned slightly melancholy as Alice pushed her hand away and refused to take the help that Ozend offered to her. Without even thinking about the rest of the team, Alice went off and crawled into a hole on her own. Mimi didn't really understand. The young Mimic wasn't pitying Alice at all, she just wanted to be kind like big sis always was. That was how Humans were supposed to act, right? Then why did Alice seem so angry?

Mimi didn't have much time to contemplate all of these new thoughts as a raucous squealing filled the room and gigantic dog-sized rats began pouring out of the wall. Her first thought was to save Alice who was trapped inside a hole at the time, but it occurred to her that there were likely far more rats where the rest of the team was by now. Mimi backed up, visibly frightened of the aggressive creatures.

"I-it might be a good time to tell you all that I have no combat experience and have never purposefully harmed anything in my life. I'm here in a scholarly capacity, so, um, please help!"

Bumble watched as Alice threw a huff and simultaneously threw herself into a rat pit, all while going on about the complexity of her useless spell. Non-mage plebeian was a touch harsh considering Hobgoblins have absolutely no talent of magic. The best your average hobgoblin cultist can manage is at most simple fire magic and short lived demonic ritual summons. The most powerful hobgoblin wizard was Krack'Ow Gar, Shaman of the Blood Gurglers, who once caused a single mighty thunderbolt to strike Og'Og from the heavens in the midst of battle. The results of which are highly contested; some say Og'Og was knocked off his mighty warbear, but continued fighting on foot and others say he parried the attack with his Golembone Club, causing the clouds to disperse immediately. Regardless of who's account of the fight you read though Og'Og demolishes the Blood Gurgler horde and Krack'Ow Gar, nor any other magically gifted Hobgoblin, performs any notable arcane feat again.

As Alice popped through, so did the luminescence, which was a welcome relief for Bumble but likely not so much for the knight. Mimi too had squeezed through which Bumble might have advised against had she not been collecting up the cockroach Alice had been playing with earlier. It did not occur to Bumble to squeeze through too, she figured she hadn't the figure for it any more, being less slim than the other girls. Furthermore Ozend didn't stand a chance of getting through a hole so leaving him alone would be disadvantageous for both herself and him.

She was right, no sooner had the little girls clambered in, huge rats started swarming out. They were ugly motherfuckers, disease ridden and misshapen. They had an early lead on her, but their melee attacks would be no match for her ranged. In a single smooth movement, Bumble turned and launched an axe at an nearby approaching rat, drawing out a second axe for a more distant target. She took aim and waited for a pair of beady eyes to peer through one of the holes. The moment one did the axe was released, looking to land square in the skull and making the rats body plug one of the many holes.

"I-it might be a good time to tell you all that I have no combat experience and have never purposefully harmed anything in my life. I'm here in a scholarly capacity, so, um, please help!"

So Mimi really couldn't do anything? Wonderful. Bumble drew her larger axe. Ozend was going to have trouble fighting with the reduced lighting conditions so she'd have to push into the darkness where he couldn't and pull both Mimi and Alice back through where they could fight as a single strong team and not two severely impaired teams.

"Ozend, straight ahead and mind your feet! I'll cover Mimi!" She shouted as she surged forward.

"Right." Ozend responded to Bumble. Alice's decision to protect her pride could very well cost her. A knight couldn't allow that. Perhaps someone following a different code would leave others to their consequences but that was not Ozend!

Heroically, Ozend rushed forward to reach Alice before she was nibbled upon by both ends. The dog-like silhouettes at his feet tripped him and he stumbled in the dark. The army of skittering and squeaking were terrifying in such a dark environment but there was a bright light outlining his goal. Alice still had her light in the hole. She would be their ace.

There was no choice to be made. Get Alice into the open or be swarmed. He struggled against the rats clamping at his limbs and rose up, dragging them with him. One latching to a leg lost hold and jumped around hissing. The one trapping his left arm was thrown violently against a wall. Ozend waded through the disgusting vermin to reach Alice's light.

"Hang on Alice!" Ozend swatted aside a few vermin in his way before sticking his arms in and pulling Alice out by her feet. She was hoisted into the air onto his shoulders to be kept safe. The guardian was breathing heavily but his spirits surged. "Come on Alice, show these rodents what they get for threatening the greatest wizard ever!" The giant rats grew thicker. "And her faithful knight!"

While Ozend pulled Alice from the stones, he was met with only a slight bit of resistance. Alice's skin rubbed against parts of the wall that were covered in an unsightly mixture of waste products left by the rats and their habits of living.

Meanwhile, rats continued pouring through the other holes, all unusually large save for a few. Most of the rats didn't attack the adventurers per se, but scampered about in a disorganized ocean of flea-infested fur. Some had even made their way out of the cellar and into the tavern, soon to be stomped out by a few groups of pirates.

Vulthathar remained seated, comfortably on a chair whilst smoking another cigarette- it was his twentieth that day.

Alice was already screaming when she was forcibly yanked from her hole, covered in filth and landing in the midst of scurrying rats, scampering all about her.

She looked at that inconspicuous human girl and screamed. She looked at her uppity slave and screamed. She looked at that non-mage plebian and screamed.
Alice did not like creepy-crawlies.

Naturally, the wizard followed her instinct, and cast a simple but surprisingly useful spell: the one that burns things. A fireball shot out from the end of her staff, igniting half a dozen rats to go scurrying around as the smell of burnt hair filled the room.

Mimi choked a little as the scent of filthy, burning hair forced its way into her throat and nostrils. As horrible as it was, Mimi was thankful for the fireball and the disorganized nature of the rats. She stayed away from them as they burned and scurried, and in return she had been thus far unbitten. Alice continued to scream, and this would usually be a cue for Mimi to comfort her, but she didn't want to offend the girl again.

Thus, as she was safe for the moment and didn't know how to assist with fighting the rodents, she decided to start on the checkered wall. Her ability had not yet been honed, but she hoped that she could exert enough influence to allow her team mates access to whatever was beyond that wall.

"Widen the bottom middle gap in the wall," she commanded forcefully in the language of Mimics, pointing to the specified location. She had morphed her throat into her original form's so that she could make the sounds needed for the command, as no humanoid voice box could produce such noises.

What the rest of the party would hear was a horrid, guttural roar unlike that which any Human could articulate, like some terrible beast perpetually drowning in a sea of viscous slime. One who had extended experience with Mimics could tell that this sounded like the noises they would make, though nothing about its meaning could be distinguished. It was a noise that could drive sheer terror into lesser adventurers, and cause more common folk to swoon as terrible as it was.