Kazue hummed softly to herself as she stood at the beginning of the fourth-floor 'puzzle path’, her tails swishing softly. She knew what she wao do, but this o like she really o get it right, because it was going to be her biggest build yet, and it would probably be hard to ‘fix’ anything. So she decided to start with a rest stop. Uhe upper floors, she wouldn’t be able to increase the number of groups going through and it might bee a bottleneck.

  She had this main part of the corridor simply grow outwards into a fairly rge room with some seating and tables, pced a simple hearth along the wall and some other aodations for a basic kit, thewo side rooms, one for a barracks-style sleeping area, the other for a set of washrooms.

  Add some more simple but fortable furnishings, and it was mostly dohe archway leading to the rest of the corridor was fancied up a little and given a door, then to the side of the door she created a pque, listing some rules.

  Library Rules

  1. Be respectful of other patrons.2. Do not make unnecessary noise.3. ing or drinking in the library,except in designated areas.4. Do not damage library property.5. You may write on appropriate provided materials.6. Gaier rewards for not talking through the trial.7. The Head Librarian may remove you at his discretion.

  She double-checked the waiting area and decided to add a few things. To one side of the kit area she altered the wall to produce several built-in pnters growiy mushrooms and a reasonable sele of herbs, and pced a sign saying ‘You eat me’ above them. Oher side of the kit area she created a small waterfall with a free-falliion so that people could collect the water easily, and a matg sign above that saying ‘You drink me’. And rather than have people trying to mess with an actual fire, she decided to produce a steady fme in the hearth via magic, with a valve that would adjust how much of its heat would be directed to the cooking surface.

  OK, enough deying. On with the project. She added a ditional lock to the door, as it would only open if the library was clear, with a default setting allowing 1 party at a time, and an alterting to allow 3 parties. At the end of this se, the corridor expanded into a small chamber with three doors. In normal mode, this would put the party in one of three separate zohat would occasionally ect. In petition mode, the zones would be isoted.

  Now, for the library itself. She had a week's accumution of energy plus everything they had gained from their visitors, and she was going to use it. She formed a rge cavern 150 feet wide and long, and 75 feet tall, then imposed the cept of ‘five stories tall’, every 15 feet representing 1 floor. She then desighree strips 50 feet wide for the different zones.

  The first zone she designated ‘Stack Maze’. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves started to grow in a byrinthine maze with aisles only about a meter across, creating a cramped, slightly custrophobic atmosphere. To enhahis effect she made the entire ceiling faintly glow to create a dim, almost sourceless lighting, and made the air very slightly hazy from the paper dust. But the haze came with a be, at least for true book lovers: that wonderful, musty st of gently aging books. And though the shelving itself was made of wood for proper atmosphere, behind the wood was a bag of yered dungeon stone and steel. Brute force was not a realistic option here. Throughout this zone were scattered alcoves just big enough for a single desk and chair, which would be part of the challenge.

  The sed zone she designated ‘Library Museum’. Slightly brighter lit and with more open space, this was a deceptively open seeming maze of slightly curved corridors eg oddly shaped and sized rooms at ued angles. While books were still a rge part of the dispys, there was also artwork, sculptures, gss cases taining various ‘artifacts’, terpieces of fossilized skeletons, mineral colles, and more. The deliberate awkwardness of the yout was disorienting, especially without any windows for aernal reference point. There were small, office-like rooms set aside here, simir to the alcoves from the first zone.

  And the third zone she designated ‘Grand Library’. The tral area of this zone was a wide open area with a grand staircase leading up to the baly-like sed floor, with multiple broad staircases between each further floor. At the top of the grand staircase was a rge window pah ‘sunlight’ streaming in, and a wild seeming sprawl of green vines grew around it and on the floor in front of it, with smaller vines growing along the edges of the stairs and baly. This setup was repeated in miniature throughout the zone.

  From this tral area spread several corridors into smaller rooms, whi turn interected to form a meandering sort of maze, often interspersed with fortable benches and cozy reading nooks, all desigo tempt visitors to sit and take a little break. However, the designated writing/puzzle area was densed into a few rge tables on the first floor of the tral area.

  The bright sunlit windows were not simple illusions, Kazue had a better idea. The warrens had rger, artificially lit areas with pnts and water, in addition to the cozier sleeping spaces the rabbits could cuddle in. So she took advantage of that and drew some of those closer, enrging them as necessary, to create idyllic gdes to look out upon, with the horizon always fading into peaceful woodnds and clear blue skies. Those st two were illusions, though she did her best to back them up with appropriate materials to help support the illusion.

  Now, for each area two more additions to make the setting more eaining. First, each had a small, well-hidden little shop. Finding the shop was much its own reward, for here one could eat and drink, and speak at higher than a whisper (though still quietly).

  For the Grand Library, there was a set of clues that if followed correctly had ourn a set of ers in the right order and dires to cause oo walk into a slightly dispced space taining a tea shop, with both hot and cold drinks avaible with a small sele of snack food and small sandwiches.

  The Library Museum had a store with many goods avaible, ranging from small curios aos, to ed foods and small drink fsks, to minor potions of both alchemical and magical in. Finding this one required identifying a particur set of objects that should be in a colle together, and visiting them in proper order to plete a story. The area around the final dispy would rotate in a rge circle tered on the wall t one inside.

  Iack Maze, the first clue led to a book with a minor riddle, which gave a clue to the book, until you reached the final book in the . Pulling this book off the shelf caused a nearby shelf to slide open, revealing a starkly lit shop with cool, slightly moist air drifting out as a refreshing breeze. Here were sold chilled drinks and frozen desserts, perfect for queng a parched throat.

  The sed addition to all three zones was simply the fact that the maze-like yout was not static. Generally, the library would not shift while patrons were inside, but one could not expeap out the library and have it be the same the ime ourhere was one important aspect that would shift as needed: arao a washroom could be quickly found whehere was a need.

  And of course the library was not unoccupied. There were ganthros throughout, whether as librarians who could help a patron find books (if you find the librarian), fellow patrons, or the clerks at the three shops.

  The rules posted outside o be enforced, and that would be done initially by these same ganthros. If a patron made too muoise, they could expeediately be ‘shushed’ by the rabbit, which was much more effective than normal, as it inflicted a silence aura on the misbehaving patron, making it so that they could no longer create sound nor hear, and the silence would st so long as they were in the library.

  Simirly, the moment one purchased ‘open’ food, or opened a package of food, in one of the shops they would find themselves being openly watched by several of the rabbit people. The lohey took to finish their food or drink, the mathered to wat silent judgment.

  Additionally, while none of the library octs were strictly speaking bat challehey had advanced abilities of stealth and speed. Were oo attempt to break one of the rules, they would probably find the tool or item they were going to use missing from their hands. These would not be returned and were sidered forfeited to the library.

  Finally, for rule breakers who somehow were not deterred, there was the Head Librarian. Should some poor soul be judged to be undeserving of the library, the st thing they would hear would be ‘ook’ before powerful, e-furred arms grabbed and threw them, which immediately ejected them from the dungeorahis utterance was the only sound allowed to pee the silence aura.

  But as important as all of this was to have the library fun the way Kazue wanted, none of it was her challenge. Scattered throughout the library for a single group, or limited to your zone in a three-party challenge, would be a series of tests. Some would require logid math to puzzle the way through, others would be riddles that might require clever thinking to guess the ao, some would be jokes missing the pune, or other short works that would require creativity to plete satisfactorily. These puzzles would be written out on a piece of part that art of a writing desk or table, and answers o be written on that same part. Correswers and creative respohat fit the prompt turhe ink on the page to a lightly glowing gold, and incorrect responses briefly turned red, fshed, and faded from the page.

  Naturally, not everyone would be able to plete these on their own, even in a group. But this was a library, and libraries held knowledge. If one learhe seal anization of their area, a person could simply try and find proper books themselves. But it was generally more effit to quietly and politely approach a librarian and ask where books on a particur subject could be found, and begin one’s research from there. For some puzzles, the exaswer might even be avaible, but only if you find the right book and search through it diligently.

  The minimum number of puzzles was going to be five, the rules g a dungeon required at least that many challenges. But this was a flexible enviro, and if Kazue or Mordecai had taken a disliking to a persroup before they got here the challenge could be increased. They weren’t sure what the maximum allowed actually would be, but after sulting with her other dungeon, Kazue settled on 10 for the maximum number of puzzles for fairness, as this was mere dislike and not someone having done something worth a worse fate.

  pleting all the puzzles caused a shining doorway to open up near where the final puzzle was pleted. The doorway was filled with an almost liquid-looking silver aura, and stepping into it transported a person to the nding for the stairwell leading down to the floor.

  Finally done, Kazue felt exhausted. The dungeon wasn’t out of mana, but both her avatar and her core had been focused on this task for a while, and only when she was done did she realize that it had been nearly three days. Even the mind of a dungeon core needed breaks, and she had taxed herself with this. The kitsune rexed into her exhaustion aally asked Mordecai and Moriko to take over. She felt Mordecai despawn her avatar and reform it at their baths, where she could enjoy the fort of being pampered and ed by the two of them. That night was the closest Kazue had e to true sleep since she became a dungeon, with even her core dwelling in a near stasis as her mind recovered. An e core would not be overloaded so easily, but she wasn’t there yet.

  Zagaroth