The loot ended up being large quantities of shell metal, an alloy that Dalia said the smiths would be interested in, and three dozen bits of slug meat. Even though Dalia insisted the meat was safe and edible, Max made them dump it. Just the thought of eating one of those things made him want to vomit some more.
With everyone healed up and recharged, Dalia cast another light globe, and the group moved out of the snail cavern into another tunnel. This one was clearly carved by hand from the surrounding stone, with a series of glyphs etched into the walls, bunched in clusters every twenty feet or so. None of them could read the glyphs, though Nessa said they looked gnomish, so they moved on.
The end of the tunnel brought them to a stairwell, with stairs extending both upward and down from their level. Dalia, with her natural dwarven sense of direction and distance underground, speculated that this was the same stair that they’d fallen through earlier, and Nessa volunteered to climb up to confirm it. She faded mostly from sight as she activated one of her stealth abilities, and began to climb.
There was a stone door on that level that Max ordered Dylan to close. “Don’t want any other snails or trolls sneaking up on us.” When the door was secured, Max sat with his back to it and closed his eyes. A moment later, Red spoke up. “That looked nasty, guys.”
“Felt nasty too.” Smitty agreed.
“Well, the good news is ya all leveled up!” The leprechaun tried to improve their mood. “Dylan, ya be catchin up fast.”
“Yeah. Sweet, sweet xp.” Dylan mumbled, much less enthusiastic about leveling than normal.
“Everybody take a few minutes to assign your points. I’m… assuming Red can answer questions if you have them?” Max opened one eye and arched his eyebrow at his guide.
“Aye, I can answer some questions for all of ya, it seems.” She nodded, taking a seat on Dalia’s shoulder and favoring the dwarfess with a smile.
For the next thirty minutes, the other two Battleborne asked many of the same questions Max had asked Red, about things like which stats directly effected which attributes, and what she thought their best build options might be. While she was happy to explain the relationships between attributes, with a little help from Dalia, she said she could not make recommendations.
Nessa returned to tell them that this was indeed the stair they had started on. “There are two more landings between here and where we fell through. Both doors are closed. I checked the stairs carefully, and they appear undamaged. There were no traps that I could see.”
“We go up first.” Max decided. “No point leaving monsters at our back if we can avoid it.” He started up the stairs, the others following along behind. Since Nessa said the stairs were clear, they made good time. Max bypassed the first landing they reached, continuing up to the higher level. With the huge gap in the stairs above, he was reasonably sure nothing would be sneaking down on them from the surface level.
When they reached the landing and the stone exit door, Dylan raised what was left of his shield and waited. Max tried the door, but it was locked. Nessa took over, dropping to one knee and producing a pair of slim metal tools. In less than a minute she nodded and stepped back to make room for Max and the ogre tank. The moment Max worked the lever handle and pushed the door open, the ogre stepped through.
There was a medium length corridor ahead of them, stretching some fifty feet till it dead-ended at a stone wall. On either side of the hall two doors stood open, each pair facing the other. Nessa took the lead again, examining the hall for traps. The dust on the floor showed no signs of passage down the corridor, and they quickly reached the first pair of doors. Dylan raised his shield and stepped in front of the door on the right, while Dalia covered the left. Max and Smitty drew arrows and prepared to shoot over Dalia’s head at any monsters in her room. Nessa crouched low and faded from sight.
The room was some kind of workshop or laboratory. Max imagined a mad gnome inventor with wild Einstein hair bustling around between the work bench along the back wall and the heavy steel table in the center. The walls were covered in racks of tools and shelves filled with boxes of seemingly random parts. When Dalia stepped into the room, two overhead lights blinked several times before calming to a steady blueish-white glow. The room was clear of anything living.
“This place has electricity?” Smitty’s mouth dropped open as he leaned into the room, his feet remaining in the doorway. “I didn’t think that was a thing on this world.”
Dalia looked up at him. “Dunno what electricity be, but them lights be mechapowered devices. Gnomes be fond of harnessing mana into storage devices they use to power their machines. Everything from lights to big ol’ steam wagons that move on their own.”
Max blinked a couple times. “I’ve seen that the dwarves use steam in Darkholm. Why don’t you have steam wagons?”
“Bah! They be loud, slow, and always breakin’ down or outright exploding. And if ye hadn’t noticed, most dwarves focus on physical attributes. Gnomes be the opposite, so there be hundreds o’ them around all the time that can recharge the mana storage. The steam systems we use in the city be powered by nature. Heat from the magma chambers or bled from the forges. Water from underground streams. No mana required.”
“Fair enough. Let’s keep going.” Max nodded toward the door. They quickly explored the other three rooms off the hallway, finding similar workshops in each. In the third room, sitting on a table near the door, Max spotted some familiar-looking stones. Picking one up, he Examined it.
Control Crystal
Level 15
Power charge: 10%
Holding it up for the others to see, he asked, “Would these be worth anything at the marketplace?”
Dalia shook her head. “Not in Darkholm. Not many gnomish gadgets around, and I dunno anyone who would know how to control a creature with one o’ them.”
Nessa had a different opinion. “If you were to sell them through one of the auction houses, particularly one of the gnomish auctions, they might bring a significant profit.” She eyed the box of twenty or so crystals. “These might be the most valuable items we find down here...”
“Which is what your quest says you must bring back to your master.” Dylan finished for her.
Max nodded, dropping the crystal back into the box and depositing the whole thing into his inventory. “I’ll hold on to them for safekeeping. When we’re done here, if we haven’t found anything more valuable, I’ll give you half of these.”
Nessa briefly looked suspicious, but quickly adopted a neutral expression and nodded to indicate her agreement.
Having cleared the four rooms, the group moved back to the stairway and down to the next landing and another locked door. This one also led to a group of workshops, six of them this time. Also free of any monsters, the workshops here featured a wider variety of materials. Two of them appeared to be biological in nature, one filled with dried plants and herbs in jars, pots of soil, and what appeared to be an extensive watering system piped across the ceiling. The other was more gruesome, shelves of jars containing preserved body parts next to bins filled with bones of all shapes and sizes. The tools were all sharp knives and saws, drills and pins.
The last room on that level was quite different. There were few tools, but a vast number of scrolls, papers, and chalk boards on the walls. There were several small scale models of machines, including one that looked to Max like a portal pedestal. “This must have been the gnome’s equivalent of an architect or designer’s office.”
“Aye, and there be a preservation spell cast here, or none o’ these papers would be intact.” Dalia offered.
“Actually…” Dylan looked out the doorway. “That’s probably true of all the rooms we’ve been in. Otherwise lots of those tools would have rusted, the furniture rotted.”
“Cool!” Smitty grinned, his full orc tusks gleaming. “This would be a good place to store snacks. Like spidorc kabobs and those ridiculously big eggs. They’d stay fresh for like, a really long time.” Whi
le Max and Dylan knew that the corporal was clowning, the two ladies looked at him like he was an idiot. Smitty just shrugged off the looks.
“I wonder… if I were to study these drawings enough, could I learn to make portals?” Max asked, mostly to himself.
“Aye, possibly. If all the information be here.” Dalia answered. “But it might take ye years o’ study. It’d be faster to bribe a mage who knows the magic to teach it to ya.”
“Or simply hire one to create a portal for you when you need it.” Nessa added.
Max nodded, accepting their advice. But in his head he wasn’t thinking of stable portals installed at fixed locations. He had his eye on personal teleportation magic. The kind that would allow him to move himself, or his group, from place to place in an instant.
“Alright, we’ll just leave this here for now. Let’s head back down and finish exploring this place.”
Chapter 6
The group followed Nessa back down the stairway, passed by the level where they’d battled the trolls and snails, and continued downward. The stairs ended perhaps forty feet deeper underground at a wide landing with a round metal door. The door was at least ten feet in diameter, and was held up by a single massive hinge on its left side. The handle was a spoked wheel that resembled a ship’s helm wheel.
“Any chance it’s unlocked?” Smitty took a seat on the stairs, leaning his bow against the wall. “I mean, if I had a massive multi-ton door protecting my precious album collection, I’d totally leave it unlocked.”
Nessa, still not appreciating the orc’s sarcasm, touched the door with one hand. “Unlikely. Had it been left unlocked, the orcs would not have bothered to close it on their way out.”
Dylan and Smitty just looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Dylan passed on the obvious jibe and instead asked, “Are you able to unlock it? I mean, there’s no keyhole that I can see.”
Dalia approached the door as Nessa ran her hands over it, the beastkin closing her eyes and mumbling something as she worked. Dalia took out a small hammer and began to tap at the stone wall to one side of the door. “Might be we could break through the wall if them gnomes didn’t think to…” She stopped talking as the sound of the tapping changed. A few more experimental hits, and she shook her head. “Nope. There be a metal plate extendin’ through the stone here.”
They waited a few minutes while Nessa completed her inspection of the door. Eventually she too shook her head. “The lock is not accessible from this side of the door. It also has a magical component that I do not recognize. There is an active ward spell, and at least one trap that would trigger should we somehow force the door open.”
Smitty, who had gotten to his feet and was pacing impatiently, turned and walked to the door, giving Nessa a wink as he passed by her. “We have a secret to opening doors on our… in our homeland.” He tripped over his own tongue as he raised a hand. “It’s called knocking.”
Smitty raised his arm and pounded three times with his large green fist on the metal door. There was a resounding thrum of vibrating metal after each strike. He lowered his arm and waited expectantly as Nessa glared at him. Dalia covered her mouth to hide her grin.
They all stood in silence for maybe half a minute before Smitty shrugged. “It coulda worked…” He mumbled as he stepped back, then nearly jumped out of his skin when a loud, high-pitched voice with a metallic echo filled the room.
“Go away! Damned trolls. There’s no food in here!”
“Holy shit, it worked!” Smitty pumped a fist in the air as Max and Dylan searched the ceiling and walls for speakers. “Hey! Uhm, we’re not trolls. We’re… visitors. Yeah. New neighbors come to say hello.”
“Visitors?” the voice repeated. “Neighbors? The only neighbors are hated orcs! Not visitors, intruders!” the statement was followed by cackling laughter that ended quickly. When the voice spoke again, the tone was suspiciously friendly. “It could be visitors. Let them in, yes? Get a good look at them. They’ll never suspect a trap!”
The group exchanged incredulous looks as the door’s wheel spun briefly, then the door unsealed with a soft pop of released pressure. A metallic and vaguely foul scent pushed through the widening opening at them. When the door had opened fully, the voice continued.
“Enter, visitors. Step right in. Lots of interesting stuff in here, yes! Shiny things, tasty treats, gadgets and gizmos galore! Ooh, and secrets, yes! Many yummy secrets to share!”
Max looked at Dylan. “Don’t say it…”
“It’s a trap!” Smitty happily provided. He grinned like an idiot as Dylan offered him a fist-bump and Max shook his head. The two ladies looked between them.
“Ye seem oddly pleased at the prospect o’ this bein a trap.” Dalia commented.
Nessa snorted in agreement. “I begin to wonder about this group’s sanity.”
“Trap? No!” The voice shouted. Then continued in its previous friendly tone. “I mean, welcome, friendly new neighbors. It has been so long since I’ve spoken to friends. Won’t you come in and visit?”
Max sighed with resignation. “Alright, eyes open, shields up. Let’s go say hello.”
Dylan raised his battered and acid-holed shield and stepped through the doorway, Smitty right behind him with an arrow nocked. Dalia followed with her own shield raised, sword in hand while Nessa crept forward, fading from sight as she moved. Max brought up the rear, his own shield equipped on his left arm with his halberd in his right hand.
The chamber they entered was round, maybe a hundred paces across. Several light fixtures mounted about three feet high around the perimeter wall emitted a soft blue glow. Others were dark, and a few blinked on and off intermittently as if shorting out. There were no other doors that Max could see, and the room appeared empty. As they all searched for the room’s occupant, the door slammed shut behind them.
“HA! You fell for my clever trap!” the voice shouted down from above. As all eyes shifted upward, a square section of the ceiling separated from the rest and began to lower itself toward the floor. A moment later cables could be seen attached to each corner of the lowering platform. “You have sealed your fate, invaders! None can defeat me!”
As the platform neared the floor, the group could see a creature standing at its center. At first Max mistook it for a giant spider, but a moment later he realized it only had four legs, and those legs were mechanical. He took a moment to Identify it.
MechaMage Super-Destructo Construct
Level 20; Elite
Health: 10,000/10,000
Max heard Smitty chuckle as he too read the creature’s name. It was just his style of naming. The construct featured four spiderlike legs with jointed segments that attached to a round metal body about six feet in diameter. Centered in the top of the body was a sort of pilot’s seat, with what looked like gun turrets on its left and right sides. Sitting in the pilot’s seat was a little mechanical gnome construct with a clear glass skull that protected what looked like a live brain floating in clear fluid.
“Aha! Another foul orc!” the mechanical gnome’s head turned toward Smitty, it’s eyes flashing with a blue light. “I knew it! Did I not kill enough of your kind when you raided my temple? Have you come back for more?” The platform reached the floor of the chamber, and the construct stepped forward toward the group with much clanking and squealing of rusted metal joints. The nearest shoulder turret shifted to point at Smitty.
Max stepped forward. “Smitty is an orc, yes. But he’s not from one of the orc tribes. He’s with me. I’m Max, King of Stormhaven. As we said before, we’re your new neighbors. We just came to explore this place…”
“HA!” the gnome spider thing interrupted Max. “A likely story! If you’re not with the orcs, then you’re a band a thieves!” Just as it finished shouting, the construct’s two weapons fired. Twin burst of blue light shot forward, one striking Smitty in the chest and knocking him back a few steps. The other impacted Dylan’s shield as he stepped closer to the construct. Another ste
p, and there was a loud clang as he slammed his shield into the nearest leg, impacting a knee joint.
“Stop that! How dare you!” the gnome screeched at the ogre. “Stupid giant orc! I will crush you!” The leg raised up off the floor with a rusty squeal, its sharply pointed foot aimed at Dylan’s face, then froze as its joint locked up. Dylan took the opportunity to rush past that leg and slam his massive axe into a second leg, also at the knee joint. The blow didn’t do any damage that he could see, but the construct did wobble dangerously.
Max, unwilling to cast Boom! at a metal target in an enclosed space, charged forward with his halberd in both hands. He thrust the weapon’s sharp spike up toward the gnome construct’s face, threatening the fragile-looking glass brain pan.
Immediately both turrets focused on Max and fired. The twin bolts struck his chest, knocking him onto his butt and reducing his health by about ten percent. The impact stunned him for a moment, and the giant spider spun on three legs so that the raised appendage was now pointed at Max. As he watched, a tiny version of the spider construct emerged from the main body and scuttled down the frozen leg. When it reached the rusty knee joint, it produced a tube of some kind in two tiny robot arms and squeezed a viscous substance out of the tube, directly into the joint before scuttling away.
A moment later, with the screech of metal against metal, the knee joint flexed slightly. Then it reversed and tightened itself. After a couple more strained movements, the lube did its job and loosened the joint. The leg promptly shot out toward Max, who was just getting to his feet. He dodged to his right, stabbing forward with his halberd at the same time. The leg missed him by at least a foot, while his own thrust impacted the mechanical gnome’s skull and skittered off. The glass was tougher than it looked.
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