Why hello my dear readers! It’s been some time, but I, Travelling Tolly of the Pangera Gazette, am never one to disappoint, and so I return to you with another tale of my travel in the lands of the Colony.

My last missive detailed just a small snapshot of my time in the fourth stratum amongst the ants and those who live amongst them. I dare say you were as shocked as I was at just how many people worked and lived within the great mountain home that they had carved for themselves. My impression, living where I do and speaking to the old biddies over tea, was that the ants were quite closed off from the world and insular by nature, yet it seemed that wasn’t necessarily the case.

I made this point to my dear and precious guide, young Emilia Cretherton, one day over biscuits.

“How is it, my dear,” I asked her, “that the Colony seems so open to visitors and yet has a reputation for being stand-offish and mysterious?”

She nibbled for a moment before sipping her tea, a wonderful, aromatic blend infused with dried fruits and a subtle mix of spices.

“I think that the Colony is far more accessible than most people think, but there are many who are still unwilling to give them a chance. Most people, by far, would rather avoid being around or engaging with monsters when given the chance. The bruan'chii suffer from this bias, and they aren’t technically monsters at all.”

“It seems a little odd is all,” I said, my brow furrowed. You know how little I like to furrow my brow, reader, it’s unseemly! “They’ve been here in the fourth stratum for over a decade, doing trade, commissioning delves, exporting sport apparently. Is bias really enough to explain how unknown this is?”

It seemed to me, reader, that I wasn’t breaking any news at all with my travels, given just how many people I had seen and met amongst the Colony. I wouldn’t say my travels felt like a waste of time, the trip was worth it for the tea alone, but perhaps I wasn’t being as adventurous as I first thought! I have a reputation to maintain after all.

Emelia could only shrug.

“I think that prejudice partly explains it, but also there are many out there who don’t want people to know what the Colony is truly like. There are those of us inside the circle, which includes you now, Tolly,” she flashed me a wonderfully charming smile, “and those outside. Most people are outside, even after ten years.”

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That was when she seemed to come to a decision.

“Come with me,” she said, suddenly determined. “There is something you need to see.”

I’ve said it before, reader, but the mountain nest of the Colony is rather large, as these things go. There is a great deal of structure outside, on the surface of the mountain, that’s where my room is, for example, but the vast majority of it is inside, an enormous organised network of tunnels, rooms, chambers that many never get to see.

With confidence, Emelia led myself and my guard associates deep into the mountain, to places where few two-legged visitors ever pass.

“There are parts of this nest that we won’t visit, not because we aren’t allowed, but because they are designed for the ants exclusively. There’s hardly any light there and the spaces are incredibly cramped. However, the place we are going is still accessible to people, even if the ants built it for themselves.”

She seemed to think for a moment.

“Well, mostly for themselves.”

It was quite a journey into the mountain, reader, and I must say it gets quite warm in there. I was quite flushed by the time we made it to our destination, though any thought of discomfort was chased from my head by what we found.

A solemn, quiet place. That was my first impression. Ahead of us, our tunnel met with several others that seemed to lead off in other directions, and from each of them came a steady stream of traffic. Ants, of course, but also golgari, humans, bruan'chii, a surprising number of brathian and even ka’armodo with their servants in tow. From each I sensed a sombre and serious state of mind as they gathered here in this place.

All of a sudden, I wondered if I was underdressed.

It’s a serious concern, reader! I would hate to have been dressed insensitively for a visit to what was clearly a place of reverence.

I whispered a quiet inquiry to Emilia, but she only laughed off my fears.

“There’s no need to worry about that. She wouldn’t have cared.”

“She?”

“I should explain before we enter. This is the final resting place of one of the Colony’s most beloved figures. They don’t really have the concept of a tomb in their culture. There are a few memorials here and there, but for the most part, when members of the Colony fall, they are allowed to return to the Dungeon. This is one of the very, very few instances where they interred someone’s remains.”

“She must have been very special.”

Emilia could only nod, the beginning of tears welling in her eyes.

“Oh yes,” she said eventually, “she really was.”

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