The party wound their way along the forested valley floor towards the castle; they had just left the area around Callum's caves. As they pushed through the snow, Ravi's voice broke the silence.
"Callum, we like to have an after action discussion when we leave a dungeon. We talk about what went wrong, what went right, and what we could do better," Ravi paused to ensure he had Callum's attention.
"We put our lives on the line every time we enter a dungeon. So, we need to be able to frankly discuss everything without the fear of egos getting in the way; though it's not a method that works for everyone. Would you be willing to join our discussion? Ravi asked.
Callum quickly nodded his head. He was already considering some of what he'd experienced in the dungeon and was eager to hear what veteran adventurers had to say, even if it was stuff he had done wrong.
The period in between his parents' death and his eventual exile had been very rough for him. He had had to develop a thick skin in order to ignore the aggression and unjust criticism of the Hillshire population, so hearing constructive criticism would be a refreshing change of pace for him.
"The usual format will be changed up a little bit, since you're a prospective member to our party. What would you say was your biggest mistake in that last battle and what would you do differently now?"
"I've been thinking about it since the battle ended. I think it was when I activated <
He paused to consider his words before continuing, "I think they were still quite a ways behind me when I was already in the middle of the goblins. If I'd had more awareness, like Boren talked about, I would have noticed that and held off on activating <
"And why did you decide to charge them in the first place? If you had waited a little bit longer, the other half of the party would have been able to get back into the fight."
"I wanted to focus their attention on us and buy you guys some time. If we did nothing, their Skirmishers and Witch Doctors could have pelted you with attacks that Alea wouldn't have been able to block them all for you." Callum said
He also went on to explain the various timers that were counting down and his thought process regarding them. The group walked in silence for a little bit longer when Ravi spoke out once again.
"Callum, we've talked it over and overall you've impressed us. You're still inexperienced and raw, but you don't panic and we feel like you could bring a lot to the party on a permanent basis. Of course, Amarok's welcome as well,"
"You've talked it over, but when did you do that?" Callum asked as the party
"Mostly hand signals with some looks thrown in for good measure. We've been talking about it since we left the dungeon, so what do you say?"
"I'd be honored to become a permanent party member; I guess my answers were the right answers?"
"There wasn't really a right answer, although there were some wrong answers. We didn't think that was a concern with you though, since we mainly wanted to hear your reasoning and thought process."
He glanced over at Callum before continuing, "For the record, I think that your decision to charge them was the right one because of the reasons you brought up."
Osmar spoke up, "Keep in mind though, that sometimes the wrong decision violently and efficiently executed is better than hesitating and doing nothing. When the pressure was on, you didn't freeze up or hesitate like many do."
The rest of the party spoke up also, praising Callum for that incident as well as some of the other things he had done. They also brought up several issues that he needed to work on; most of them were easily correctable mistakes that all new adventurers tended to make.
The praise and criticism wasn't directly solely at Callum though; plenty of other subjects, both positive and negative, were discussed as well. Every party member had at least one mistake or flaw pointed out.
They discussed how no one had warned Callum and Amarok to shield their eyes when they were blinded in the pit, something that was corrected with the wind spell, or how the presence of the empty throne should have been a clue that there was a single Floor Boss.
Since the dungeon had been unexplored, the party also discussed how to change up how they approached the various fights; things like timing, Ability or spell use, formation, terrain, and timing were all discussed.
The party arrived at the castle and dumped all of the excess goblin gear into the storage room. There was an awkward moment when the party realized they didn't know how to split up the loot. They were obligated to pay him taxes and they had to split the loot amongst the party.
Callum promised to bring it up with Folxi as soon as he could. For now, Callum kept the Beast Core and Ravi kept the rest of the loot inside his storage ring; they would deal with finding a better split once the tax issue was addressed.
They then found a table to sit down at and the party members started to perform weapons and armor maintenance in order to restore some of the lost durability their gear had sustained during the dungeon run, Boren taught Callum how to maintain his armor.
Because the other two parties, that had gone to the dungeon, had members that were a higher average level and would likely challenge the next floor, Ravi's party was the first one back from the dungeon. They quickly drew a crowd of onlookers who started to ask about the dungeon.
Many in the crowd were interested in the nearby dungeon and planned on challenging the dungeon; others were simply bored and were happy to find any sort of entertainment. Ravi passed his maps around the crowd and the party discussed what they had experienced.
_____
After dinner, the party met with Folxi inside Callum's room in order to figure out how to deal with the tax and loot issue; she was his acting Steward and handled his administrative issues. Callum thanked Folxi as she exited the room, but the party didn't leave just yet.
Callum offered to buy their shares of the merged Beast Core at a fair market value instead of splitting it back up, now that they were outside the dungeon. None of the party members had a pressing need for a Beast Core and were happy to take Callum's money.
"We didn't get a chance to discuss this earlier because of our temporary celebrity status, but I'm going to adjust the party's XP split for a time. You'll get 100% of the XP until you level up and then Alea will get 100% until she levels up. We'll return to an even split after that," Ravi said.
Callum had no issue with the new split and understood exactly why Ravi was going to make that change. He was six levels lower than Ravi and Boren, the highest leveled members of the party; that difference subjected their entire party to a negative modifier when it came to their XP gains.
The hit to their XP growth would go away once Callum was within five levels of Ravi and Boren. The focus on Alea's growth was due to how close she was to hitting her 30th level which would enable her to pick up her next Ability.
Once they left, Callum and Primrose were able to discuss whether or not she had overheard anything suspicious while Callum was gone. This time, Callum ensured that he spent some time just talking to the little fairy; he didn't want to repeat his earlier gaffe.