"Boss monster?"

"It's an adventurer term. The final and largest threat of a dungeon, like a Tomb Lord, or the creature guarding the great treasure... or a monster a dungeon was built to seal away. The implication would be that Skinner was the most dangerous thing in the dungeon, and the worst is already dealt with.

"Which might still be true; the Face-Eater Moths were all individually not as much of a threat as Skinner. But unlikely, at this point; we're still discovering more and more to the dungeon. The Guildmistress declared the dungeon Gold-Ranked, last week."

"I did not get any patients whose faces had been eaten..."

"They're called that because they bite, I think. I'm not sure they actually go for faces over other extremities. At the sizes we saw you're more likely to lose your head entirely, anyhow."

"I suppose I wouldn't have seen those. Is there any chance the dungeon will be re-sealed?"

"Oh, no chance at all. The work is all too profitable, and exciting. It's the first of its kind in centuries! [Strategist] Dolm still says there won't be a third time: Skinner was imprisoned close to the surface, and the Moths were flushed out by the floodwaters since we excavated the rift entrance, but once we clear the upper floors it'll settle down, he says."

"Has he seen a lot of dungeons like it?"

"There aren't a lot of dungeons like it. Not that were recently in this stage of exploration, that is. Every other known Gold-Rank dungeon in Izril has been around for long enough that they're emptied out through the first dozen or more floors. He's read the same histories as everyone, but he is the senior [Strategist]." He doesn't sound all too reassured by his own words, though.

"Well. I hope he's described the situation accurately."

"If it were an army at our walls, we'd have the authority to recall 4th Company," he says, lashing his tail. "We'd have no problem at all. But the debatable threat of a dungeon doesn't hold water with the army. 4th says they're engaged with the Goblin Lord at Lequiss, and 9th Company is locked down at Rheist. Then there's the Antinium, somehow both more and less helpful than you'd think. And with Manus choosing now of all times to come wave their tail around—" He's talking to himself more than anything at this point.

"I don't know the expression."

"Make a show of... impressiveness, self-importance? We asked for help a few weeks ago, and only now the danger's come and gone they deign lift a finger. Watch them show up, spear a few Rock Crabs and go home to their Walled City and tell everyone they're heroes of the high interests of all of Drakekind."

"Will people believe them if they say that after killing a few Rock Crabs?"

"Aha, but there wasn't any trouble because of their deterring presence, see? I say, they're only here to be seen doing something until the southern fearmongers calm down about the near miss in Liscor, and then they're going to recall their troops and leave us high and dry again."

"...I wouldn't expect trouble in the form of mindless undead or biting moths to be the kind that can be deterred particularly well."

"Oh, not the monsters. The humans—er, the northern humans. I would be surprised if Magnolia Reinhart takes a shot at Liscor while we're on the back foot, but it's on everyone's minds, I'm sure."

"Who is that?"

"The head of the Reinhart family. The north is controlled by the Five Families, human nobles who invaded from Terandria thousands of years ago. The Reinhart lands are just north of us, and we're overdue for a war by most counts."

"Terandria, where's that?"

"The human continent, north of Izril."

"There are humans in Chandrar..."

"Chandrar has a lot of humans, but it's also populated by String People, the Garuda, all sorts of people. Terandria's overwhelmingly human, and they're... quintessentially human, I'd say. All with their kingdoms and nobles and serfs, and extravagant hats."

"...are extravagant hats and nobles and kingdoms and serfs human things particularly?"

"I've never seen a Drake wearing an extravagant hat. Or do any of those other things either, Drakes or Gnolls. I can't say about other species."

"Huh. There are a lot of humans on Golarion so that's what most of my experience is with even when I came into contact with foreigners there, and I doubt I'd have ever realized those were human things and not - large civilization things."