Dragon Breath for Heathcliff

The master path did not care that Herman was a guide.

He led the group deeper into the lower hidden passage until the dungeon reminded everyone that this route was not maintained like the tourist corridors. An ochre jelly struck first and engulfed Herman, turning the person responsible for managing the experience into the first person swallowed by it.

Then maw demons appeared behind the jelly.

The fight was sudden, messy, and clarifying. The party and the hired companions had not bought a curated challenge anymore. They were in the old danger beneath the town's business model, and the monsters treated everyone the same whether they had signed waivers or memorized pricing tiers.

Morgan empowered Heathcliff with dragon breath.

The rat, already strange enough as a teleporting survivor with a dead former master, became stranger still: a small creature carrying draconic force into a hidden route beneath a green dragon pilgrimage town. Morgan called him RB. The rat corrected the shape of the story by giving his name: Heathcliff.

Ash, Maine, Jeremiah, and the others cleared the monsters quickly, but the point had already landed.

The master path was real.

So was the risk.