[Inaugural]
— Madison —
“So I’ve gotta ask, how are your powers holding up with… all of this?” Madison asked the rest of the party her curious question from spider-back, clinging to Taylor’s back as well.
A surprising portion of Dungeon diving was pretty peaceful, she’d found. Awesome views and nothing more to do than walk through them appreciatively. The labyrinth was big, after all. Like, big-big.
Madison didn’t quite understand how they were covering as much ground as they were.
It felt like every corner they turned shifted the monumental landscape. She’d caught sight of one hallway that they hadn’t gone down as it extended impossibly off into the distance until the whole thing… somehow disappeared. Like something straight out of an M.C. Escher painting.
More corridors shifted around them as they passed through. At times, Madison felt a strange sense of moving vertigo, but she couldn’t see the movement responsible. Even as they walked through the labyrinth, she couldn’t help but guess that they were being shifted, too.
The question of ‘how’ hadn’t been answered. Madison didn’t know if it could be answered, considering how much Ancalagon went on and on about Mystery.
‘Magic,’ She decided to herself. ‘It’s gotta be.’
And largely? She left it at that.
More than a little bit of her was still freakishly curious, of course. But she didn’t feel like she had the magical knowledge base to delve further into the Mystery, peeling it back layer by layer as her Sensei would.
Sensei would master this place. Maybe she had, in the past adventure that the Dungeon pulled from. Madison wasn’t nearly that advanced. Still, the movement of the labyrinth hadn’t been harmful so far. Not actively malicious. The sense Madison got was more of… a house settling with creaks and groans from the foundation.
The labyrinth just kinda did that. It was an amazing and curious thing to experience.
One corner would lead back to a corridor they’d already passed through, but at the end of that corridor, something new would await them.
One corridor led to a great hall that circled a pit without bottom. Grand pillars of carved marble marked the edge. Statues overlooked all who walked around the pit. Then, as they circled the pit back to where they started, the same entrance corridor would lead them somewhere new, deeper and deeper into the labyrinth.
They were lost as all hell, but it was the good kind of lost, with new things to see everywhere they looked.
All under the starry cave ceiling so high above. All surrounded by the stories of a civilization, and the animated remnants of the same.
Still, when they weren’t having encounters with those remnants, the party was free to speak in voices thick with wonder and novelty.
“God, don’t even get me started…!” Leet exclaimed in response to Madison’s initial question. “I feel like I’m going mad! In the best way! So many new materials to work with! This isn’t bronze, you know? It just looks like it! And the engineering examples to take inspiration from! And the labyrinth itself! And-! And the magic! Oh, man, the magic!”
Uber chuckled, “Same, but differently, for me. My power mostly cares about the adventurer card. Skills and stuff, imprinted straight into our souls, or whatever. I think it’s taking notes.”
“Hm, I think I know the feeling…” Taylor said. “But how is it for you, specifically?”
“Well,” Uber began. “Did you know Rogues learn a whole new language at level 1? Thieves’ Cant, straight to the dome. To the soul, even. English is my first language, but Thieves’ Cant is now, like, my soul language.”
“Oh, wow…” Madison blinked. “That sounds heavy.”
Uber continued with a nod, “My power’s meant for skilling stuff. If I know what I’m trying to do, I can perform it perfectly. I’m not Victor, stealing whole skills outright or anything. It’s much more focused. But now, with the adventurer card business, my power’s… seeing whole new methods of skilling. Deeper than just muscle memory and automatic performance. So yeah, I feel like it’s taking notes.”
“That’s pretty cool,” She considered. “I wonder if you can jump levels when it comes to Rogue skills. Like, if your power can get it down, can it recreate the class features early?”
“I-…” Uber paused. “Maybe. I think I’d have to see them for myself first. So maybe if I got the Hoard’s Rogues to demonstrate for me, my power could try its hand at recreating the performance. Even then, though, I feel like it’d be a thing of trial and error, and it won’t be nearly as ‘complete’ as leveling up for myself.”
“Maaaaannn~…” Madison playfully whined. “Parahuman powers are still cool and useful, even with all of this new stuff. I’m a little jealous.”
A moment later, though, she broke the bit to grin, “Not that jealous, though. I think I’ll take real freakin’ magic any day!”
Taylor giggled, “Yeah, I think parahumans might honestly be at a slight disadvantage. Trying to mesh powers and magic, and all. It can be distracting.”
“Oh, for sure,” Leet nodded. “I don’t know about you two, but my power’s constantly switching between, like, having fits and pushing too hard to integrate my Artificer stuff with what it can do. It’s had some luck with the mundane artificing skills — the actual act of putting stuff together, I mean — but the magic side of it tends to be what causes those fits.”
“Really?” Taylor asked. “My power and my spirit, at least, get along like gangbusters. The Fighter feats don’t really apply, I suppose. Kinda their own section in my toolbox.”
“They’re still magic,” Madison nodded. “But, like, ‘mundane’ Magic. More… down to earth, as oxymoronic as it is to say that about any magic.”
“Maybe my power’s just especially opinionated. Like it’s refusing to do anything twice, and it’s getting frustrated when it can’t understand why things aren’t happening consistently for it,” Leet shrugged, only to pause after the words left his mouth. “… Wait, that actually… fits…?”
“Yeah, sounds about right for your power, bro!” Uber laughed, slinging an arm around Leet’s shoulder. “Guess we’re learning just as many new things about our power as we are about all the magic stuff. They don’t want to miss a thing, so they’ve gotta be more… open and involved and all.”
“Yeah…” Leet replied with a slow nod. “And it doesn’t help things that I’ve got two kinds of magic running around for my power to come to terms with. Or try and fail to do so, at least.
“Daedalus has taken something of a guiding shine to my power. He calls it a ‘useful prototyping tool’, but still, he and the Artificer stuff are, like… separate, ya know? Similar, but definitely not the same. So it’s not quite a perfect fit between all three, despite how much they have in common.”
“Well, yeah!” Madison chimed, happy to flex what little magical knowledge she had. “The spirits are partners in magic. The Nature stuff is you. Different Mysteries at work, ya know? Sensei made that much pretty clear to me.”
“And then, powers fall… where?” Taylor asked curiously.
“No idea!” Madison grinned. “But thanks for thinking I know more than I do!”
Taylor laughed at the cheeky comment, leaning back into her fondly. The lively and open Taylor was back in full force, to Madison’s pure delight. She’d gotten comfortable enough to simply be herself, and it was a wonderful thing. This was how she always wanted to see Taylor.
And if close contact on spider-back was strangely romantic and intimate, well, that was just a bonus in Madison’s mind.
“Honestly, you are kinda the most knowledgeable about the magic stuff, Madison,” Uber said. “You’ve got that teacher of yours to show you the way. The rest of us have our spirits, sure, but even then, we’re figuring things out on the fly.”
“I think we’re doing a good job of that so far,” Taylor shrugged. “Just gotta keep pushing forward, keep experiencing things, ya know? That’s how we’ll grow, as Ancalagon said.”
“How much do you think we’ve ‘experienced’ so far?” Uber asked.
“Enough for a level up or two, I’ll bet,” Madison said. “But they don’t seem to happen in the Dungeon. Maybe we have to get back to ‘solid ground’ for them to update?”
“I hope so,” Leet smiled to himself. “I get an Artificer Specialist choice next level. Armorer or Artillerist; I haven’t fully decided yet. On one hand, magical power armor. On the other, though… magical artillery.”
“Same; I get a Martial Archetype,” Taylor nodded. “I was thinking Champion to keep things simple and focused while I explore the Spider and my power, but now that I have Charlotte here, maybe Cavalier?”
“Spider-mounted knight, mhm,” Madison hummed in approval. “Very cool, very creepy-chic. I’ve already got my Divination specialty. What about you, Uber?”
“Swashbuckler, all the way,” Uber immediately answered.
Taylor nodded, “Sounds like we’ve all got our growth planned out then. That’s for the future, though. Right now, we need to focus on this First Dive. I doubt Ancalagon will let us keep our levels if we fail to make it back out in one piece.”
“To adventure, then!” Madison exclaimed over Taylor’s shoulder. “It awaits!”
Taylor rolled her eyes at Madison’s call-back quip, but couldn’t contain her giggles, “Oh, don’t you start. I was just excited!”
“So excited that it’s the party’s official battle cry, now,” Uber smirked.
Leet laughed, “Hear, hear! Adventure awaits!”
A touch of red spread to Taylor’s ears. Madison hugged her from behind, reassuring her that they were just teasing. Taylor dropped a hand to the arms Madison had wrapped around her and squeezed back.
Madison could’ve died happy then and there.
Unfortunately, before she could fall swooning against Taylor’s tall, strong back, the labyrinth shifted a corner in front of them, with an eerie scene waiting around it.
Another gang of golems, the animated remnant automatons that seemed to populate the labyrinth’s outer halls. They were active, but listlessly so when the party came upon them. Going through the mundane motions of lives lost.
One seemed to be cooking in the memory of a kitchen. Another raised a bladed hand as if drinking from a cup that wasn’t there. Another two were embracing, the memory of a marriage that was now entombed in bronze. The last, most eerily, sat with its domed head between hammer-ended hands, shoulders shaking as if it was weeping.
“Oh, freak…” Madison whispered at the scene.
Around the automatons, the labyrinth’s walls were painted with scenes of revelry, featuring a squat but proud people. The painted people were flesh and blood and maybe a bronze prosthetic here and there. Just as alive as the remnants no longer were…
Even as the horror set in, however, the automatons sprang into jarring motion. Remnants conscripted for automated defense against intruders. The hammer-handed golem’s shoulders still shook with weeping shudders as it rushed the party.
“We can’t do anything for them,” Taylor told her. “But we can defend ourselves.”
Madison nodded, calling upon her 1st level spells as Taylor set the spider-mount in motion beneath them. A trio of Magic Missiles shot toward the charging automatons, striking the one in the lead.
Charlotte the Spider leaped, carrying Taylor and Madison right into the fray. Taylor already had her sword out and gripped by the blade. She swung it at glass domes with shattering force. Madison cast Blade Ward to stave off any opportunistic strikes that slipped through Charlotte’s skittering dodges.
With a mighty *CRACK!*, the pommel of Taylor’s sword smashed through the domed head of one automaton. Another’s counter bounced off Madison’s Blade Ward with the ringing of a bell. Madison cast off cantrips indiscriminately.
“Firebolt, Firebolt, Firebolt!”
The fiery bolts blasted clear into the internals of one more automaton, fusing the turning gears. It locked up. Uber was there a moment later, appearing from stealth to smash the locked-up automaton on its dome.
Leet, behind them, charged with his tower shield. No real skill, just 6-feet and 150 pounds of scrawny Artificer bowling over a four-foot-tall automaton. He laid into it with his crafted hammer once it was down.
His latest Dungeon-tinker project followed, an arm-mounted slingshot that he’d put together. The rock it shot cracked another glass dome and sent the second-to-last automaton stumbling. Sneaky, sneaky-style, Uber was once again right where he was needed, stabbing his blade into the crack Leet had caused.
The last automaton fell to Charlotte, crushed beneath the spider’s kung-fu striking forelimbs. Madison couldn’t help but giggle. It seemed the spider took after its rider’s Fighter class.
With the gang of golems down for the count, adrenaline began to fade. Madison had found she didn’t mind fighting if she was casting from the backlines with Taylor to protect her. But she’d also found that she liked picking up after their victories even more!
“Loooooooot~!” Leet cheered, straight up dropping his shield to get his tinkering, artificing fix. “Oh! This is a new mechanism! Uber, come look at this! I think I can make a proper grapple gun for that hook of yours!”
… She still wasn’t the party’s most eager enjoyer of victory, though. With a small huff of laughter, she cast Unseen Servant to pick up the victory crystals as they waited for Leet to finish his tinkering.
Once done, the party, plus a shiny bronze grapple gun on Uber’s belt, continued to delve ever deeper into the labyrinth.
IIIII
— Ancalagon —
Encounter after encounter, corner after corner, deeper and deeper, the party delved, and the stream watched their adventure.
‘C’mon, you won’t tell us anything, Big Dragon? No lore dumps?’ Mouse Protector asked insistently in chat.
“No,” I replied, firm but chuckling. “The lore of this past adventure of mine is for our brave adventurers to discover themselves, and yours to discover through them. I will give nothing away, for you have eyes and curious minds to piece together the ‘lore dumps’ on your own.”
That refusal, of course, set the chat into rampant speculation. Much more entertaining than me simply giving them all the answers.
‘They look like dwarves. In the carvings and paintings and stuff, I mean,’ One chatter sent.
‘Dwarves?! I haven’t seen a single beard in any of those paintings!’ Another disagreed.
‘Unbearded dwarves… That just ain’t right.’
‘Gnomes, maybe? A lot of fantasy gnome depictions do the whole steampunk/clockwork thing.’
‘Yeah, but there’s no rule saying they have to fit with our biases and assumptions.’
‘The labyrinth is a past adventure from a whole world and Age Ancalagon lived through. They could be something we’ve never even heard of. Or they could be gnomes, or dwarves, or even especially short humans. Who knows where the crossover lines lie,’ Tattletale advised in chat.
‘I think that line of thought is somewhat self-defeating. If they look like gnomes, we’ll call them gnomes. Same with dwarves, and so on. In the end, we’ll always look at things through lenses of our own making. There’s nothing wrong with that,’ Dragon sent.
‘I still think there’s an Ancient Greece similarity somewhere in there.’
‘I mean, the labyrinth part can’t just be a coincidence, can it? And I’m pretty sure some of those little guys were wearing chiton. They did look pretty ‘Greek-influenced’, even I doubt they’re actually Ancient Greek.’
‘Ancient Greek little guys, then? But what happened to them? Did they get wiped out? Abandon the labyrinth? Dig too deep and release some evil all up on themselves?’ Victoria asked.
‘I’m pretty sure the automatons ARE the little guys. Or what’s left of them. Like ghosts in the labyrinth.’
‘Oh, definitely. But what made them do that to themselves?’
‘Some misunderstanding of hubris, evolution, and advancement? They didn’t literally dig too deep like other stories of dwarves; they pushed too far on the steampunk tech tree.’
‘The steampunk look is a vibe.’
‘How advanced can steampunk tech even be, though? Wouldn’t they run into technological limitations with only gears and steam and bronze, or whatever?’ Kid Win asked.
‘With magic in the equation? We can’t say that for certain. They obviously figured out full-body prosthetics with the automatons, at the very least.’
‘Yes, it’s not just steampunk; it’s magitech steampunk,’ Myrddin reminded. ‘Does the labyrinth run on the same principles? Did this dead civilization even make it, or did they find it and assume ownership after the fact? This is all a terribly fascinating thought exercise.’
‘Whether they found or created it themselves, we can clearly see that they made it their own. The marks they left on the labyrinth must’ve taken centuries to complete. Every corner the party turns leads to more evidence of habitation. I’ll bet archeologists could study those carvings and paintings for decades and still have more to discover,’ Dragon said in chat.
‘Fuck Indiana Jones, that hack! I want to be a fantasy archeologist!’ Mouse Protector chimed.
‘Indeed. Much of this ‘loot’ could find good homes in museums and archives. Ancalagon, will the Adventurer Corps have one to show off the various lores of your past adventures?’ Myrddin asked.
I grinned at the idea, “Now, that has potential, my friend. I think I like it. These adventures are long past, but they are not lost, especially not with the Dungeon recreating them. It would be a noble cause to immortalize them further.”
‘Can we get any hints if our speculation is on the right track?’ Crystal asked.
Jenevelle fielded that question, “You have more things right than wrong. What initially sparked this past adventure, I remember, were the rumors of a buried civilization that Ancalagon and I heard in our travels.
“They spoke of a people finding a promised land deep underground, past even the Underdark, only for the way they came to close itself off, trapping them in the deep black. Countless lives must’ve played out like that, never seeing true sunlight. By the time we uncovered the labyrinth, it was as you now see it: populated by ghosts and the remnants of great advancement.”
“Many doubted the rumors,” Dharla added. “We only found the truth in them when the very ground shifted after Calamitas’s final fight against Ancalagon.”
“Hmph,” Calamitas huffed and blushed and looked away. “… Don’t mention that part. ’Twas an embarrassing time for me.”
‘Double lore!’ Mouse Protector messaged.
“That lore I shall willingly share,” I chuckled. “Before she was part of my Hoard, Calamitas was a calamity upon the land. Such was her power that her even defeat altered the horizon. Our clash was one of legend, and it also revealed more legends that would never have seen the light of day without the aftershocks she and I birthed together.”
‘… Her?’ Amy questioned. ‘I mean, I know she’s a demon, but I didn’t know she was, like, the second most powerful member of the Hoard.’
“I am a True Demon,” Calamitas imperiously retorted. A moment later, however, she sighed regretfully. “There is much more to the story, for I was not always a True Demon, not before Yharim, the Golden Heretic, the Tyrant King, the Godseeker…”
“Thankfully,” She stuck up her nose, coming back to her usually haughty bearing. “My tale is not the focus of the day. All you need to know is that the Dragon defeated me, and in that defeat, the world shifted enough to reveal this labyrinth deep, deep underground.”
‘… Yeah, I didn’t like ANY of the titles for that Yharim fella.’
‘The speedrunning stream queen is the second most powerful member of the Hoard??’
‘That has ‘tragic and epic backstory’ written all over it.’
‘Let’s not press too much. It’s her story to share,’ Crystal sent.
‘Right, back on the labyrinth lore track,’ Dragon said. ‘Jenevelle said this civilization was trapped down there. It’s amazing to see how far they went on their own, but I suppose without hope of outside help, they eventually fell. Maybe the automatons were their attempts at staving off that fall?’
‘That’s pretty metal, then. Literally lol.’
Within the labyrinth, the party came across more automatons, more evidence for the speculation in chat. Undisturbed, they mirrored the movements of life. Once activated, though, they rushed to the labyrinth’s defense, jerking into automated motion.
The encounters grew denser as the party delved deeper. From small gangs of the golems — five at most — to the remnants of communities — enough to populate a small town. When they reached the latter level, the party was forced to take a new approach.
Leet would prepare the field with tinkered creations of looted material. Uber would then sneak into the midsts of the growing groups of golems, eliminating those he could until he was discovered and kited the rest into Leet’s prepared defense.
Then, the automatons came in waves, and the party held them off until the last remnant was given peace.
They took some attrition and exhaustion in the process — a wicked cut on Taylor’s arm, taken when she leaped in front of Madison, a few broken ribs for Leet, and a strained hamstring for Uber.
The Corps had prepared minor healing potions for the party, though, and those wounds were quickly dealt with. The healing sent chat into another excited frenzy, especially when I said they were mass-produceable and would be assigned to every adventurer in the Corps as part of the starting equipment.
As the encounters increased, the labyrinth also thickened with signs of civilization. A cultivated farm, with mushroom fields spreading across the labyrinth’s corridor. Cultural monuments of long-lost significance, surrounded by explosions of civilized history.
Deeper still, the party came across small towns carved into the walls, kept impeccably clean by mass-produced magitech. These were the outskirts of the labyrinth’s people, and still, they benefited from such magically mundane examples of industry.
With every shift of the walls and every encounter discovered, it quickly became clear that the labyrinth was leading them somewhere.
The party’s surroundings transitioned from something strangely rural to something urban. Single-family homes were carved side-by-side into the walls. As were whole apartments, with windows overlooking the corridor they occupied that stretched up to ten stories high. Civilized necessities — shops, utilities, entertainments, and so on — spilled into the wide passageways of the labyrinth as buildings constructed from the same stone as the walls, forming streets and squares and the foundations of city living.
The urban areas the party walked through were emptier than the rural outskirts of the labyrinth. It was easy to see that they’d once been fully populated, but now, not even the ghosts and remnants could stand to remain, choosing instead to roam the outer halls.
The party’s main form of company in the abandoned urban halls came in the form of clicking gears, whistling steam, humming magic, and the persistent sense of technology that chugged along without its masters.
Bronze street lamps carried gas flames that burned eternally blue. Steampunk vehicles lay dormant at the sides of roads. Pipes carried power in the form of steam so dense it almost returned to liquid form. And deeper still, all the technology came to a head.
That head was marked by extensive, seemingly impractical paths of motion-providing gears that led off into the labyrinth’s urban sprawl, humming power lines of electrified mana that did the same, and a great bell that rhythmically tolled along with a perfectly timed clock above. The labyrinth left one last intersection before it. Then, it opened up to a massive space that glowed red in contrast to the rest of the labyrinth’s soft blue light.
A bridge entered the massive space, pure bronze and bordered by ever-turning gears.
Below, red rivers ran. They cast the space in their light and heat, magma flowing as readily as water. The power of those rivers was harnessed for a grand show of fantastical industry, the likes of which Earth Bet could hardly imagine.
‘Factory’ was too small a word. This was a Manufactory of the Gods, whichever ones this civilization held dear.
It was a complex that would’ve been sprawling on the surface. Within the labyrinth’s deepest point, it beggared belief.
The complex was built into itself, onto itself, and through itself, a manufactured labyrinth at the center of the larger labyrinth. It was a sort of palace, strangely — a monument to industrial domination rather than regal rule — and a city unto itself, one that never slept.
Power was pulled up from below, keeping the manufactory in constant motion, for that constant motion was the name of the game: industry.
Gears turned belts the size of city streets. Ingots of metal were cast using the heat of the magma below and automatically stacked into stockpiles that stretched stories high. Automated arms and levers and pulleys worked with robotic precision.
A gravity lift here, a glowing crucible there, an industrial press, a fantastical automated enchanting station, a rune-etching quill sized for a giant of bronze; every machine was intelligently designed for the technological heights of an advanced and isolated civilization.
And that was all just what was immediately visible. More still was obscured by dedicated sub-factories, magitech cleanrooms, protected assembly lines, and the constant motion of the visible industry.
The party was brought up short at the manufactory’s entrance, stunned. They marveled at the peak of a tech tree foreign to them, yet so familiar, too. Leet even looked like he was drooling.
On the other end of the stream, the chat did the same. Its constant rush of comments had almost completely paused. Until one chatter unexpectedly broke the silence.
‘Hnnn-aklsad;f…~! Oh, good Gods of Industry… Pardon my crassness,’ Dragon sent in chat. ‘But I think I just came.’
IIIII
— Madison —
Traversing the… factory… they’d found at the center of the labyrinth wasn’t an especially simple task.
At times, they had to hop onto moving conveyor belts and scramble back off before they became part of the assembly line. Others, they walked thin catwalks over rivers of magma, dodging material-moving machines that swept a bit too low for comfort overhead. All the while, the cacophony never ceased.
But there was definitely something thrilling about the danger and the constant motion of industry around them and the realization that this was it, the climax of their First Dive.
If they were going to find good loot, it’d be here. If they were going to find an end to the labyrinth, it’d be here. And if they were going to find any potential ‘floor boss’ to put the capstone on their first adventure in the Dungeon… well, it’d probably be here, too, unfortunately.
Of course, they focused on the first, first. Who could resist good loot?
Certainly not Leet. He was a tinker in a factory, and he could hardly stop himself from looking, reaching, looting.
Forged gears on a belt that dumped the finished products into some insatiable gaping maw of further industrial improvement? Coils of thin wire being wound at who-knows-how-many RPM? Bronze doohickeys, whatcha-ma-call-ems, and macguffins?
Leet snatched up quite a few examples of everything.
“Not like anyone’s going to miss them,” He said.
Madison… couldn’t argue with that, but she felt like she should’ve. Especially when his looting right off the factory lines only escalated from there.
“He’s right,” Taylor agreed with Leet. “And half the reward of the Dungeon is looting anyway. Let’s take what we can and what we think will help us.”
It was a subtle thing, but Madison had noticed Taylor taking the party’s lead more and more now that she was comfortable. The unofficial leadership role seemed to come naturally to her. Not least of all because when she set her mind to something, she did it. That kind of surety of purpose was appealing in a leader.
Madison, of course, would follow Taylor to the ends of the world. Or the ends of the Dungeon, more accurately.
And so, through the manufactory complex, they began to loot finished products straight off the assembly lines. That the manufactory was still churning out said finished products so long after the civilization’s fall was a bit odd. But not all that different from the lingering motions of life that the automatons went through.
The labyrinth’s industry never slept, it seemed, even after unknown centuries since the fall of the people who created it. It mass-manufactured the technological heights of an advanced and isolated civilization, a tech tree they’d never seen or heard of or even dreamed in such detail.
The party followed one assembly line from start to finish, raw material to true technology.
Ingots of that bronzish metal that was so favored in the labyrinth were pulled onto a belt. The belt brought them to a great crucible forge. The metal then yielded to magma-fueled heating, melting into a burbling vat of liquid bronze to be used however the manufactory needed.
From there, multiple lines branched off from the crucible. One cast gears. Another cast rods. Yet another cast springs, coils, L-shaped pieces, and full sheets — all the most basic and essential components an assembly line could ask for.
The lines merged in places and branched off further in others. A coil wound around a rod, sheets shaped with automatic precision, and L-shaped pieces fused for some greater purpose. Specialized machines saw to each component in different ways, slowly building the puzzle of a finished product.
Robotic arms whipped about to and fro, on and off the assembly lines. Some carried already-made components and introduced new materials where they were needed. Others were mounted with tools in constant motion — screwing, smashing, welding, and winding.
It was a constant, incomprehensible blur of industry in motion, the kind that — Madison imagined — wouldn’t be out of place in the best tinker factories Dragon had.
Even without knowing what was going on at each step, Madison found herself appreciating the complexity.
“Damn… How advanced were these people?” She asked.
“Impossibly advanced,” Leet answered, so excited by everything around him that the tone of his voice had wrapped right back around to being almost flat.
“This is all just the mass-producing lines, too. This is the stuff that can be exposed without issue. The products that don’t need stricter tolerances or even more specialized machines and tools. All of this we’re seeing out here? I think it’s essentially commercial industry.”
“Look,” Taylor pointed toward the end of the line they were following.
Over the course of what must’ve been miles of winding belts, frames had taken shape. Internal workings were slotted into the frames, leaving little to no empty space. On the final belts of the line, the automatons they’d gotten so used to seeing in motion sat empty.
One of the automaton frames was finished every hour or so, and they’d been lucky enough to catch it going out. It looked almost lonely on the final belt of the line — rigid, lifeless, and… purposeless, too.
The people who’d designed and automated its creation were long, long dead. Still, the manufactory churned out finished products. At the very end, a mechanical arm picked up the frame and whisked it across the complex to be carefully stocked.
Even from afar, that stockyard of empty automaton frames seemed endless.
“Once an hour, for who knows how long,” Leet assessed. “God, there must be millions there, just… collecting dust, never to be used again.”
Uber nodded, “There’s no one left to use them.”
“The whole factory is so automated that it outlasted its creators,” Madison realized. “And with magma to power it, the lines just… keep going.”
Taylor shuddered slightly, “Is it just me, or is that really eerie?”
The whole party shook their heads in agreement. For all their technological advancement, evident and still in motion, the people of the labyrinth were no more. Only remnants remained, those they’d encountered; ghosts entombed in animated bronze shells.
But that did mean, Madison thought, they wouldn’t miss any of the manufactory’s finished products, at least. Leet and Taylor were right about that.
Something still felt… off… But she couldn’t stop herself from getting in on the mass-manufactured loot, either.
Leet took a pair of steampunk goggles from one line. There were hundreds more on that line, all precisely produced, only to slip into the magma below as their designated stockpile overflowed.
He snatched up a set of tools from another stockpile, pilfered a few of the more complex unfinished pieces from a still-moving line, and looted a more scarcely produced bronze gauntlet that even his Tinker and Artificer knowledge couldn’t immediately identify.
Deeper into the manufactory, on a more isolated, almost personal line, Uber picked out a mechanical animal — a head-sized monkey that seemed to tickle him and his totem spirit. After winding the clockwork key on the back, the mechanical monkey came alive — just as alive as Charlotte. Bronze and intricate clockwork mechanisms, and what Leet identified as an advanced enchantment with Detect Magic, mimicked life almost perfectly to create a loyal familiar for Uber.
Their packs quickly began to fill, mostly thanks to Leet’s looting efforts. Madison and Taylor made the boys carry their toys, but Madison did find a classy pocket watch she liked.
… She, uh, may have immediately gifted it to Taylor.
“I think it suits you,” She said.
The blush on Taylor’s face from receiving the gift made Madison’s heart flutter. Taylor immediately doubled her searching efforts to find something for Madison in return.
Minutes later, Madison found a high-steampunk-tech blunderbuss dropped carefully into her arms. Taylor blushed up a storm in front of her, waiting for her reaction to the return gift.
“I just thought you might need something more to defend yourself if you get caught without essence,” Taylor shyly said.
“I don’t at all know how to use this, but thank you,” Madison giggled. “It’s perfect. Bitches love cannons, don’tcha know?”
Taylor shined when she saw Madison liked the return gift, “Great! C’mon, I think I saw the ammo line this way! Let’s get you all stocked up!”
Eventually, past countless assembly lines, over magma rivers, and through various finished stockpiles, they came to the inner sections of the manufactory.
The industry there was more complex, as were the finished products. There were steampunk guns to arm an army, sturdy vehicles, the empty frames of more advanced automatons, and semi-mass-produced magical artifacts galore.
Within magical cleanrooms, they saw the enchantment processes for the last.
“Crystals. It’s always crystals,” Uber chuckled. “Fantasy, modern, or even steampunk, looks like everyone loves a useful crystal.”
The enchanting machine was massive, filling the cleanroom from wall to wall. A thin stream of the liquid bronze these people favored was fired above a glowing crystal. From the crystal, a stream of light met the stream of bronze at just the right angle.
Once energized, the liquid bronze was collected on the far side of the machine. Another crystal was aimed down at the collection point, beaming another stream of magical light. That crystal was mounted on a track that shifted it back and forth with quick, minute movements, etching something into the bronze.
From there, the collected bronze was transitioned to an airlock of sorts, closest to their view of the machine. Even without Detect Magic, Madison could feel the strictly structured power that had been infused within.
Now surrounded by the most magical portions of the manufactory, Leet’s looting stepped up to another level. He wasn’t quite indiscriminate about what he took, but only because there was so much worth taking.
He found another bronze gauntlet and discarded the first one he’d picked up for the finished, enchanted version. He plundered a pair of rune-etched crystal gears, a magical spyglass, a few more specialized tools, a small bronze harp of all things, and many more bits and bobs.
They didn’t stop him from looting, but the more he did, the more Madison began to feel that something wasn’t quite right.
The ever-churning cacophony of the larger factory outside had quieted. It didn’t fall completely silent, but the feeling in the air changed, charged with… something searching.
Then, a thunderous voice rang through the manufactory, stopping all four of them in their tracks.
“WHY ARE MY LINES UNDER QUOTA?!” The voice demanded.
A voice… In the long-dead labyrinth… And it was furious.
The magic in the air, already so heavy, thickened further. Something was looking for them. At them. Crystals mounted on the walls of the inner sub-factory began to glow with active enchantments.
“OUTSIDERS…? IMPOSSIBLE…” The voice seemed just as stunned as they were.
“AFTER SO LONG… HAS THE WORLD ABOVE NOT FORGOTTEN US?” Solemn and forlorn, the voice mused.
Then, it noticed what they were doing in its manufactory, “AND YOU COME TO STEAL STRAIGHT FROM THE FACTORY FLOOR?! WRETCHED, WRETCHED SURFACE BARBARIANS! HAVE YOU NO SHAME?! NO CIVILITY?! THERE IS AN ORDER TO THIS INDUSTRY! I STILL HAVE CENTURIES OF BACKLOGS TO FULFILL!”
“Uh… Sorry…?” Madison tried, speaking to… well, it felt like she was speaking to the manufactory itself. “We didn’t know anyone was working here…?”
“IGNORANT! THE FACTORY STILL CHURNS, DOES IT NOT? OF COURSE, THERE IS WORK BEING DONE HERE! WORK UNDER MY PURVIEW, WORK THAT YOU ARE RUINING!”
“Fuuuuuucckk…” Uber could only whisper an expletive in reply.
“I SEE! YOU ARE THIEVES!” The voice declared. “OUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE BARBARIANS ABOVE, AND THEY ARE THIEVES! JUST AS THE PROPHECIES PREDICTED! VERY WELL, THEN! YOU WILL NOT LEAVE THESE HALLOWED HALLS! THE FORGE-MASTER CAN GIVE NO QUARTER OR MERCY TO THIEVES! YOU WILL FIND THAT THE ATHANATOS-O-DAKTYLOI ARE NO EASY MARKS!”
“Huh… Well, we have a name for them now, at least,” Madison muttered.
The voice heard her, “YOU… YOU DID NOT EVEN KNOW THE NAMES OF OUR ASCENDANT PEOPLE?!”
“Not… really…? Or not at all,” Madison awkwardly chuckled. “I mean, we didn’t even know you guys existed until we entered the Dungeon.”
“DUNGEON?! WHAT FANTASIES DO YOU SPEW, BARBARIAN GIRL?!” The voice snapped. “NO, NO MATTER. ALL THIEVES MUST MEET A THIEF’S END, ESPECIALLY DELUSIONAL, UNENLIGHTENED ONES!”
“Boss fight?” Taylor asked, speaking to the party.
Uber sighed, “Yeah, this sounds like a boss fight to me. Bad luck, man.”
“How was I supposed to know?!” Leet snapped, frantically defending himself even if the rest of the party wasn’t really accusing him of anything. “Nothing else we’ve encountered in the labyrinth was intelligent enough to speak and threaten us!”
“… I’ll bet Charlotte could speak if she put her mind to it,” Taylor grumbled, patting her mount to reassure the friendly spider.
“Sorry!” Leet snapped again, just as frantic, but the apology was genuine. “I meant the automatons! The remnants! They’ve all been practically ghosts! How were we supposed to know one was still-! Still-! Basically alive!”
“Easy, bro,” Uber calmed him with a hand on his shoulder. “It’s a boss fight, not your fault. No one to blame but the way things are. Did you really expect our First Dive to go off without one?”
“R-Right…” Leet took a deep breath to at least somewhat center himself. “Right. Protect me for a bit? I’ll see what I can whip together in a hurry.”
“Go big,” Taylor ordered. “Big as you can. Use whatever you can find in here, too. Not like we can get more on this Forge-Master’s shitlist.”
Leet nodded. Uber smirked and flourished his blades. Taylor drew her sword with a fortifying, centering breath. Madison clutched her staff tightly.
Stomping rang out from the way they came, heavy bronze on bronze. Moments later, a towering automaton frame appeared.
If the ones they’d encountered before were mere golems, this one was a full-on mecha. Steampunk Gundam. It stood four times taller than the normal automatons, easily some 20-feet-tall; not quite Endbringer or Ancalagon-sized, but closer to that side of the scale than not.
Its towering frame was all densely packed bronze, a few shining crystals here and there, and the automatons’ trademark glass dome protectively set in the chest. The skull within the glass looked to be in better condition than the others they’d seen.
Unlike the other automatons, the mechautomaton had hands with deft fingers, was more fully armored, and boasted steampunk guns across its frame.
“OF COURSE, YOU BARBARIANS HAVE CHOSEN THE MOST FRAGILE SUB-FACTORY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE…” The voice came from the mechautomaton with an almost petulant grumble.
“AND YOU! YOU’RE STILL STEALING MY PRODUCTION?! CEASE AT ONCE!” He continued, pointing and shouting at Leet.
Leet jumped, mid-tinker. Taylor kept him moving with just a glance and a few reassuring words, “I’ll keep him off you. Don’t stop.”
“WORTHLESS, UNCIVILIZED, PILFERING BARBARIANS…!” The Forge-Master raged. “NO MATTER! I’LL SET EVERYTHING BACK IN PROPER PRODUCTION ORDER ONCE YOU ARE ALL DEAD!”
In a whirring steampunk blur, the mechautomaton raised its arm and pointed straight at Madison, chosen seemingly at random. From across the sub-factory floor, she found herself staring down a pair of underarm-mounted gun barrels.
She cast frantically, “Blade Ward!”
The guns fired with twin bangs and a great burst of smoke. Madison felt her Blade Ward, a mere cantrip and certainly not rated for gunfire, shatter. She was sent flying back, landing flat with a whimper punched from her lungs. The world seemed to pause on pain.
“Madison!”
… Taylor was screaming for her.
Even through the pain, Madison liked that thought. She only wished it was happening in better circumstances, say, her between Taylor’s legs and looking up with bedroom eyes?
“I-I’m okay…!” She raised a shaky hand and gave a thumbs-up. “Mostly…! No penetration, at least!”
“Thankfully,” she giggled deliriously to herself. “This overcompensating fucker doesn’t deserve to get all up in these guts after we so thoroughly cucked him of his factory’s production~…”
“AFTER YOU FUCKING WHAT-?!” The Forge-Master screamed. It was much more shrill than his other booming shouts. Even dazed, Madison took pleasure in getting to him like that.
Giggling to herself some more, Madison fumbled for one of the potions on her belt, hoping they hadn’t shattered with the impact. They hadn’t. Of course, they hadn’t. Ancalagon built things to last, duh. He ‘lasted’ himself, too, Madison remembered from Sensei’s practical demonstration.
Drinking down the potion, Madison heard Taylor’s voice. It was cold, commanding, and thrilling. She wouldn’t mind it directed at her like that~…
“Charlotte, Spider? Web him.”
“WHAT?! D-DISGUSTING! WHY DID YOU BRING THAT MANGY BEAST INTO MY FORGE?!”
“I’m positive spiders can’t get mange,” Taylor deadpanned in reply.
“GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!”
“All the bronze and you’re still arachnophobic?” Uber asked, his voice distant but casual.
“WHERE?! NO MATTER! BURST!”
When Madison was finally able to sit up again, the potion having done good work on her… everything, she saw a very different battlefield already.
She caught sight of Uber just as he was thrown off the mechautomaton by a burst of magical force. He came down in a rough roll and limped back into stealth.
Leet frantically tinkered off to the side of the fight. Crystal gears locked together, enchanted coils were stacked in a line, and the barrel of a musket was discarded to fit both. He hammered the whole thing together with the energy of a mad inventor.
Meanwhile, Taylor stood protectively in front of Madison, and Madison found herself committing the scene to memory for future ‘research’ reference.
The sword in her hands was leveled at the towering mechautomaton. Ghostly webs spread from her back like the wings of an angel, only to rush forth like a woven tsunami.
Charlotte the Spider danced around the Forge-Master, spinning webs everywhere she landed. The silk-steel strands bound bronze from every angle. More web soon joined Charlotte’s effort, spun forth from spiritual planes.
Taylor might’ve been only a level 2 Fighter, but it was readily apparent that her spirit cared little for Levels of Nature when the resonance was strong enough.
Madison’s own totem spirit, her Muse, rose to the challenge Taylor’s Spider had set. It recorded the present and set the immediate future in a woven tapestry, a story that would come to be.
Madison found herself weaving that spiritually magical, storytelling tapestry right alongside her Muse, wanting to bear witness to every moment of Taylor’s Escalation™.
The Forge-Master was caught in Taylor’s web. There was no escape. Now, a ghostly Spider crept along the strands, a predator whose fangs would pierce bronze to consume whatever animating soul remained within.
“WAIT! WAIT! WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS! I-I CAN BUMP YOU UP THE BACKLOG! OR-! OR A COMMISSION! JUST FOR YOU!”
The Forge-Master was scared, Madison and her Muse recorded. He was terrified of Taylor, her power, her Spider totem, and the web they all wove around him.
All of his technology couldn’t save him from the primal fear of a creeping predator.
A twist of the weave, and the tapestry changed. Leet had introduced something new, born of his power, his totem spirit Daedalus, and his class of Nature. On a knee, he raised his created weapon to his shoulder and waited for Taylor’s word.
Staring down the entangled Forge-Master as he begged, Taylor gave it, “Leet? He hurt Madison and Uber. Blast him dead.”
The mad inventor’s grin on Leet’s face grew with the order, “With pleasure.”
“AH-AHA-AH…! YOU THINK ANYTHING BUILT IN MY FORGE CAN KILL ME? I KNOW ALL MY PRODUCTIONS!” The Forge-Master tried to project arrogance, even as it was undercut by his frantic struggles against Taylor’s web. “THAT MESS YOU HOLD WON’T EVEN-!”
A whine. A hum. A great suction of magic and the very fundamental force of potential energy in the air. Then, a crack.
The Forge-Master’s claim was cut off by a projectile of pure, invisible force that carved a visible streak to its target.
The tapestry Madison and her Muse were weaving captured the shot in an impossibly hanging moment right before it struck. It was over in an instant; it was forever immortalized in a spiritually spun yarn.
Leet’s shot found its mark on the mechautomaton’s protected glass dome. It pierced the protection and struck with such mad-inventing force that the Forge-Master’s body shattered into its constituent components, quite literally unmade.
Then, silence reigned, and spirits began to fade.
With the final touches on her spiritual tapestry, Madison let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. Taylor seemed to do the same, spiritual webs retreating back into her. Charlotte came back over to her rider, happily chittering and looking for praise. That successfully broke the victorious tension, and Taylor smiled.
Madison thought the simple smile she shared with her spider was just as brilliant as Taylor in full Escalation Mode™.
Uber reappeared from his stealth, no longer limping with a half-full potion in his hand, “… Damn. Just… damn.”
Madison nodded, “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”
Adorably, Taylor blushed when she realized they were both staring at her, “Ah… It, uh, it was nothing…”
Madison and Uber glanced at each other, fondly rolling their eyes in almost perfect sync. Nothing. Sure.
Taylor seemed to realize they didn’t quite believe her ‘nothing’ claim. She frantically looked around for something to change the subject and pull attention from her.
“Oh! Hey, Ancalagon?” She called out, vaguely to the ceiling. “Any chance we can get a quick extract instead of having to trek all the way back through the labyrinth?”
Ancalagon answered, his voice ringing through the whole of the Dungeon with a chuckle, “Yes, I do believe you have earned yourselves that much.”
“Oh, thank Dragon,” Madison sagged in relief. “I think I’m kinda adventured out for the day.”
“Can’t believe I’m saying this, but same,” Uber nodded.
“Wait! What about the boss loot?!” Leet asked.
“Will that extract offer still be on the table after we loot?” Taylor asked Ancalagon.
“You’ve earned that, too, so yes, I do believe it will.”
“… Fair,” Taylor sighed. “Go do your looting, Leet. No tinkering, though. Madison and Uber are right. We’re well and truly adventured out for the day.”
Madison playfully sighed, “No more adventure awaits today, it seems~…”
Taylor, even after her badass moment of Escalation™, still blushed brightly at Madison’s teasing, “Oh, stop!”
Madison just grinned, glad that her new friend and freaky crush had such layers. She really was the diamond in the rough Madison saw her as — coolly cut one moment and shyly shining a moment later.
Madison, as Taylor’s self-proclaimed master jeweler, vowed to do her best to bring out all of Taylor’s good sides. One ‘awaiting adventure’ was a good start for that process. More would be better.
“Are we going to keep the party together after this dive?” She asked.
Uber shrugged and grinned, “I’m down.”
“Same!” Leet shouted from across the room, already digging through the perfectly separated components of the Forge-Master.
Madison and Uber turned to Taylor, grinning expectantly at their fearless, escalating leader.
Taylor glanced away, a slight smile coming onto her own face, “Oh, alright. I suppose even more adventure awaits our little ragtag party.”
With her answer, Madison laughed and leaped for joy, throwing triumphant hands in the air.
“To our bright futures together, then! Adventure awaits!”
A clap punctuated her unifying declaration, brought on by her jumping for joy and a whole lot of freakishly bouncing body.
Taylor stared at her with a furrowed and confused brow, “… How’d you just clap with both of your hands up?”
“Taaaay~loooor…!” Madison whined in reply, blushing. “Not in front of the boys…!”
Taylor, bless her denseness, cocked her head, “Huh? I don’t get it.”
Pushing through her embarrassment with a grin and a freakish purr, Madison promised something to both Taylor and herself.
“You will, don’t worry; Give me time to prepare my dear, innocent, freakish heart, and I’ll show you exactly how I can clap without hands~…”
“Oh. Okay, I’ll… hold you to that, I guess?”
“Damn straight, you will!”
IIIII
[AN: I think the second Dungeon Dive beta test is going to be rather different from this first one. I mentioned it in the last chapter: the idea of testing the Dungeon’s PvP aspects. That means getting a whole bunch of parties into the same Dungeon instance and just seeing what happens.
New Wave (both the younger and older generation, maybe?), the Protectorate/Wards, Piggot and some PRT Troopers, Hookwolf’s Strength faction of the E88, The Dojo/MOX, The Undersiders, and so on. I wonder who will come out on top… (my money’s on prime Piggot and her squad of troopers lol).
I also think I’ll change up the setting of the second dive to something from Shadowrun instead of DnD. Ancalagon’s past adventures in both worlds deserve representation, after all. The Shadowrun Dungeon floors will probably be rarer in the grand scheme of the Dungeon, but the variety will be good to have. Quintessential fantasy adventures on one hand, and near-future cyberpunk adventures in familiar but different settings on the other.
And after that, to round off the arc, I think we’ll have an Ancalagon ‘Dragon-level’ dive with him assaulting a pantheon through a divine gauntlet or something (essentially storming Olympus lol). It’ll be very good to finally see him in action.
In all, stay tuned. There should be a whole lot of fun Dungeon stuff still to come :]