Touko was sniffing through the workbench, suspicious of the lack of... anything. This didn’t seem like a work room, closer to perhaps a prop of some kind.

"Kamu! Check the perimeter!" she declared. The floating eye did a joyous twirl and moved towards the closest doorway.

"Why? We should pick a way and just move on", Avalash'em said, sounding supremely dissatisfied at being forced to look over a puck sniffing decades of dust up her nose.

Niruk and Gildean were talking in low voices on the other side of the room. Touko had seen Niruk make Gildean awkward before, but this time it seemed to be a mutually beneficial interaction.

Touko wasn't going to pretend like she hadn't thought of finding a new party. It was strange to travel with an egomaniac heraldic, who was the mentor of a frail and withdrawn courser, who was to wed a stubborn snowcapped guy who vaguely mentioned being "destiny-bound" to the dungeon.

Alright. Well, Touko was here because she LIKES the dungeon. No need to be weird about it.

She turned to Ava with piercing green and red eyes, tilting her head sharply to the side. Her best chance with dealing with Avalash'em was to be as unsettling as possible.

"This part of the Dungeon is 90% hallways, Harvester forbid we LOOK AROUND when we find a room with no monsters", she tutted.

Ava looked away from her, suddenly seeming to decide ignoring was the best idea. Touko huffed, turning back to the table.

There was a black vine intertwined with the tools, and Touko nudged it curiously.

A hiss blew out from under the plant, and for a moment Touko thought she'd mistaken a snake of a vine.

Instead there was a blow of heat, and Touko saw a helmeted face manifest from the table, eye sockets empty and mouth barely visible from under a beard. She choked on a shriek, the spirit's nose pressing against hers.

"The Forge? The Forge..." the steam wheezed, enveloping Touko. She clampered back, accidentally pressing something on the table.

The walls started rotating, and the humanoid spirit dissipated. All the coursers fell silent and froze, waiting for the room to stop moving.

After a moment the movement stopped.

"...what did you do?" Gildean asked softly.

Touko was so glad it was them asking, and not one of the hardasses. She shuddered and pointed with a hoof at the table.

"A spirit manifested from the vines! It tried to- I don't know, maybe it just wanted to hug, but I got startled and accidentally touched something!" she babbled, clearly shaken.

Niruk was watching the new doorways with a serious expression, and Touko could hear Avalash'em sigh heavily.

These guys SUCKED. Except for Gildean.

Kamu came back into the room from one of the new doorways, and Touko gasped.

"That links up to where the west doorway was! Kamu went there before the mechanism activated!" she shouted in glee.