Genesis Locorum

A young dwarf is in a dungeon. Her platinum blond locks shimmer in the twilight as she seeks something from the forests. She hides in the bushes as Arachne passes her. The spiders walk past the bush, not seeing the young dwarf hiding in them. When the coast is clear, she exits the hiding spot. “Okay Sarah,” the dwarf says to herself, “let’s see what we have so far.” She opens her bag, having several spools of undyed silk inside. “Okay, just a little bit more.”

She ventures deeper into the dungeon, finding the various trees coated in webs, as well as discarded tents. Near the tents were signs of struggle, the signs of previous adventurers being carried away by the Arachne.

She ventures further, hiding behind the trees at the first sign of monsters. She grips her hammer as she looks back at the road. She found a lost small Arachne looking for his parents. She considers if she should help the child or not. She risks exposure if she does. She hears another group of patrollers coming and has an idea. She takes a nearby rock and throws it in their direction, then runs, hoping that they will see the child and now her.

From a nearby cliff, she sees the patrol investigating the source of the rock. She notices the investigating group had three Arachne. Two of them noticed the child looking for their parents. She is too far to hear what they are saying.

“Okay,” Sarah thinks. “Better book it, too risky to assume that they wouldn't realize that tot’s not strong enough to throw a rock that far.” She tries to run.

One of the Arachne examines the Arachne lad, who denies throwing a rock at them while asking for his parents.

“Something’s off,” one of the patrollers says. “I’m gonna go check this area further, can you take the kid back to his family?”

“Will do!” the other two Arachne say. The first one examines the area and finds small footprints in the mud. He follows the trail to a river, where the tracks end.

Downstream, Sarah breathes a relieved sigh after examining her feet. The brown color of the skin is cleansed of any mud, and she found ground that would not leave obvious tracks. She continues her search for more silk.

She soon finds a surprising sight, she sees a large amount of silk. Silk spheroids line the trees and webs. She draws closer to them, unaware that she is being watched from on high.

Sarah gathers the last of the silk from these cocoons, spools them up, and places the spool in her bag. “Okay, here’s hoping Richard can complete that dress now.”

As she begins to leave, she hears rustling in the woods. The speed of her pace gradually increases as she becomes more certain that she is being pursued. She ran so fast that she collided with a tree and knocked on her bottom.

“Ow!” she yelled as she accessed the pain in her head. Only too late did she realize that she had gotten the attention of several Arachne. She takes out a hammer and prays that she can fight her way out.

✦✦✦

Emily and her party of four return to the guildhall and hand over the tomes to Pauline, as well as a report on the adventure.

“Well done,” Pauline says. “You aced your first quest with flying colors.”

“Thank you,” Emily says.

“What can I say,” Heathcliff says boastfully. “She has two experienced adventurers with her, of course it would be easy!”

“Every the braggart,” Tim says, shaking his head.

“Heathcliff, darling,” Pauline says. “If you can come with me to verify a few things.” She grabs Heathcliff to a room in the back.

“You guys take a breather,” Heathcliff says as he’s being dragged away.

Emily, Tim and Elizabeth are left in the lobby to rest. They grab some lunch from a local restaurant that was added to the guildhall a while back. A burger joint that specializes in sliders and fries. While they were busy eating lunch they noticed a dwarf rushing past the lobby at a frantic pace.

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, Pauline takes Heathcliff to her office.

“So, cher,” Heathcliff says “what exactly do you need me to verify?”

“Darling,” Pauline says. “I just received this here parcel from my boss, meant for little Emily here.” She hands him a small box. Heathcliff notices that the contents are as familiar as they are valuable.

“A D.E.M?” Heathcliff says. “Fascinating.”

Pauline closes the box. “I understand that she was found in dire straits, that the poor thing was sick when you and Tim founded her.”

“That is true,” Heathcliff said. “Where are you getting for?”

“I understand you would not try to exploit people like that, darling,” Pauline says. Her tone is more stern than usual. “But you were so gung-ho about being a dungeon master, that I can’t help but wonder.”

“You think I done took advantage of her?” Heathcliff said. “I get you.”

“So did you?”

Heathcliff hesitates for a moment. “For what it’s worth, we gave her the avatara parts first. Much as I would’ve referred to save them.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Hey a dead dungeon a poor business partner, we both knew that.”

“She seemed to still be mentally young,” Pauline said. “Are you certain she didn’t feel pressured into it, darling?”

“I’m certain,” Heathcliff says.

“I’ll have to take your word for it,” Pauline says. “But I’ll make it clear to her that it is her choice to keep you onboard or not. Treat her well, you hear?”

“I heard Pauline,” Heathcliff said. “It is in my best interest that she is hale and hearty as well.”

“Glad to hear it, my Crimson Hound,” Pauline says.

“So,” Heathcliff says, “About the D.E.M., Quoi Faire?”

“It’s the first new Divine Dungeon in Nova Virginaia for years, Heathcliff,” Pauline says. “Boss thinks she should protected as much as possible.”

“That’s news to me,” Heathcliff says. “Thought several of them were still aroun’.”

“Those were around for several decades now,” Pauline says. “They might be sturdy, but they ain’t all immortal.”

Heathcliff stands up. Pauline gives him a look, “Be careful dear, you both are new to things here.”

“Got it,” Heathcliff says as he leaves. “Tell Benny I said hi.”

“I’ll give Benoit your regards.”

✦✦✦

A dwarf approaches the receptionist of the guild. His tanned skin and blond hair, a seldom-seen contrast, made him strikingly noticeable to all within the guildhall, including Emily and her friends. He takes a chair from one of the empty tables, as he is only as high as the desk itself and cannot keep eye contact with the receptionist otherwise.“Excuse me,” the dwarf said. “I’d like to file a missing persons case.”

The receptionist this time is a man named Benoit, as the deck nameplate tells. He is an old friend of Heathcliff and currently working the lobby while Pauline attends to other duties. “Sure,” the man says. “Can you tell me what happened?”

The dwarf explains the situation. “My sister, Sarah. About yea high, silver hair, similar complexion to me, blacksmith. She was helping me with a client before she suddenly vanished!”

Benoit jots down these notes with a quill. “Where did this take place, kind sir?”

“Eastshire,” the dwarf said.

Emily looks curiously at the dwarf talking with Benoit. “Huh,” she says. “Don’t dwarves usually have beards?”

“No,” Tim says. “That’s as unfounded a stereotype as the idea that merfolk are seabound without legs”

“A missing sister, huh?” Elizabeth says.

“Did you talk with the local authorities?” Benoit says.

“Yes,” the dwarf says. “The police could not find her. I think she is trapped in a dungeon!” Panic grows on his face as Benoit calmly writes that down.

“And that is why you’re here, gotcha,” Benoit says. “I’ll check if we have any people available.”

“Thank you,” the dwarf says.

Heathcliff returns to the party with a strange box in his arm. He hands it to Elizabeth, “A gift from the guild.” He then walks to the counter of the burger place to get lunch for himself.

At the same time, Pauline approaches Benoit and gives him Heathcliff’s greetings. Benoit realizes that his party has returned from la Prairie Inconnue. He compared it with his list of currently traveling adventurers and found that they were the only ones. The names read Emily, Elizabeth, Heathcliff Ford, and Timothy Howard in that order. “We seem to have a single party available at the moment, but they’ve just returned from a quest if you can wait—“

“I don’t have time to wait!” the dwarf says. “My sister is in peril.”

Heathcliff overhears the conversation from his table and realizes that they are talking about Emily’s party. Emily also realizes this and comes to approach the dwarf.

“Just tell me where this party is,” the concerned dwarf says. “And I’ll—”

“Right behind you,” a voice interrupts. The dwarf turns and sees Emily behind him. “I’m Emily and you are?”

The dwarf realizes that he has failed to introduce himself in his rush to get help and nervously chuckles. “Richard Aurum Smith, at your service. Thank you for helping me in my hour of need.”

Heathcliff turns and sees Emily talking with Richard. “Guess home would have to wait,” He says with some resignation. He turns back to the counter and orders dinner for five to go.

Richard explains the case of the missing Sarah Ebony Smith to Emily, reiterating her appearance that he thinks she might be trapped in a dungeon. “Oh and she is never seen without her hammer, she loved getting into scraped with it,” he adds.

“We’ll help,” Emily says.

“Thank you!” Richard says.

Heathcliff grabs the take-out. “So where we’re going, cher?”

“Eastshire,” Emily says.

“Least it ain’t a dust bowl,” Heathcliff says. “I’m gonna get a ride set up, I’m am not hoofing it!”

The party begins to leave the guildhall when Pauline approaches Emily. “’Scuse me, sweetie, can I borrow you for a sec?”

“Um, sure?” Emily says.

The two ladies sit down at a table and talk about Heathcliff. “Heathcliff not giving you any trouble, is he?”

“Not really,” Emily says. “He was pretty helpful so far.”

“You certain,” Pauline says. “You know you don’t have to keep him around if you don’t want to.”

“I’m certain,” Emily says. “But thanks.”

“I understand he provided the avatara pieces before offering to be your dungeon master, did he do anything…coercive?”

Emily remembers their first meeting. “I don’t think so?” she says.

“I see,” Pauline says. “Well give us a call if he does something she shouldn't be doing with you, alright?”

“Will do,” Emily says. She then leaves the table to catch up with her party. “Goodbye.”

✦✦✦

The party, with Richard in tow, rents a car and drives to Eastshire. A quaint town similar to the village where the Rosenkreuz guild is located. They park the rental at a parking out on the village’s outskirts and Richard guides him to his atelier.

The workshop was ornate compared to the planer building nearby. It is filled with several mannequins and displays of dresses, robes, arms, armor, and accessories. All glimmered with exquisite materials and fine craftsmanship. Several of the displays instead feature several mechanisms inspired by Albionic steam technology.

Over the takeout Heathcliff had bought, the group discusses how to find Sarah. “Alright,” Emily says, “Can you tell us where you last saw her?”

“Gladly,” Richard says. “First, you should know that I am a weaver, my sister was helping me with a dress for a wealthy client. We were gathering materials to that end, including hiring adventurers to raid nearby dungeons for some of them, but we could not gather a key material for the dress. Eventually, she went out, claiming to get some groceries, but she never returned.”

“Making groceries don't take that long,” Heathcliff says. “You sure she didn’t just ditch you?”

“I am absolutely certain!” Richard says. “Sarah would never abandon a project, least of all in such a flippant manner. She is a dedicated smithy and a loyal sibling.”

“Hmm,” Emily says. “Can you take us to the dungeons you went to? Maybe she was trying to get the rest of them back there.”

“I’ll try,” Richard says. “We first went to the Blackbolt Mines, just west of here.”

“Perfect,” Heathcliff says. The group finishes their dinner and prepares for a nocturnal excursion.

✦✦✦

The group arrives at the Blackbolt Mines. It was named because of an unusually large amount of meteorites frequently pelt the area.

“I hear the iron from the meteors that pelt this place gets refined here,” Tim says.

“That is correct,” Richard says. “The iron refined there is exceptionally high qualify, but more so the trace amount of other metals that were sifted out. Including Astralite.”

“Astralite?” Emily says.

“A mineral named after the Head Administrator. Astra,” Elizabeth says. “The metal is described as sacred for its cosmic properties. Some even claim it is naturally attuned to the stars themselves.”

“My client wanted it for patterns on the dress,” Richard said as the group entered the mines. “But the ritual applications and its being only found alloyed with meteoric metals made it a difficult and expensive mineral. We managed to scrape enough from the rock monsters that inhabit the place, but…”

Richard’s train of thought was interrupted by one of the rock creatures noticing the party and confronting them. Richard was knocked off his feet by the shockwaves generated by the monster’s heavy steps. Emily and Heathcliff engage the monster in battle.

The rock monster slams the ground with its stone arms. Elizabeth uses light magic to enchant the two and Tim, allowing them to hold their own despite the tremors caused by this monster’s movements.

“Thing seems bigger than usual,” Tim says.

“Being greeted by a Sentinel as our first fight,” Heathcliff says. “I’m almost honored.”

The monster winds up for another attack but misses. His fist ends up embedded into the floor. As the monster tries to pull it out, Tim uses his spear to launch wind attacks to buffet it. The attacks managed to erode the giant enough that its attempt to dislodge its arm created a rearward force that pushed it back and forced it to land on its rear. As it struggles to get back on its stubbly legs, the group uses the opportunity to attack the monster, creating cracks in its rocky hide.

“Allons!” Heathcliff says as a battle cry. The group manages to land several attacks on it before it gets back on its feet. Another wind-up, another whiffed attack from the monster, another arm embedded in the walls of the dungeon. Elizabeth enchants the party with lightning magic to help stun the monster. The rock monster dislodges its arm and ends up stunned by both the levin-infused attacks jolting its nerves and the force of the recoil. It is now down for the count, for the party uses the opportunity to dispatch the monster for good.

The monster crumbles into a pile of rocks, among them a treasure chest containing coins as well as an arm cannon, a pair of greaves, and jade stones.

Richard observed the battle from behind a stalagmite, witching the savage yet elegant display of power and technique the party, especially Emily displayed. Awe-struck, as the boss falls he approaches the group and thanks them.

They delve deeper into the mind, and as Heathcliff suggested, the monsters there were easier to deal with than the larger ones. Comprising of mere crystal scorpions and rockfish.

“So,” Emily asks Richard. “Was there anything that Sarah might’ve been looking for here?”

“Well,” Richard says. “As I said, we managed to get enough Astralite for the dress, but she said it needed a little bit more. I think she also wanted to get some for personal projects on top of that as well.”

“Any reason why the chest had Jade?” Tim asks.

“It was originally a mine for Jade,” Richard said. “Plenty of the green rock abound here. The client had also wanted them incorporated with the Astralite.”

Elizabeth looked at the stones, the opaque greens reminded her of the existence of Mana-infused gemstones. “I think these gems might have some wind mana in them.”

“Huh?” Emily says.

“Certain stones carry trace amounts of mana,” Richard says. “In sufficient quantity, they could be used instead of the spheres for casting spells of their nature.”

“Right,” Elizabeth says. “They seem too faint for those purposes, so we will still need to get proper spheres later.”

“For what?” Emily asks.

“The Elementalist’s Spheres are what enables magic here, there are spheres for each of the elements, and possession of them enhances or imbues control over the respective elements.”

“I think you might already have Light and Lightning spheres,” Heathcliff said. “Did Emily come with those, cher?”

“I think so,” Elizabeth said. “I might have contributed the Photonsphere when I found Emily’s core. She was likely created with a native Electrosphere”

“Um, this talk of spheres is riveting and all,” Richard says, ”But…”

“Right,” Elizabeth says. “Forgot where here to find your sister.

The group explores deeper into the mines. Eventually, they find a dormant machine. It is armed with a drill on one arm and a hydraulic press on the other arm. It seemed to be the same size as the other monster.

“Think it shut down?” Tim says, thinking it might be a Sentinel.

“Who knows,” Heathcliff says. He turns to Richard, “Better find a place to hide, just in case.”

The dwarven weaver agrees and retreats into the tunnel. Emily approaches the mech. The machine seemed nonfunctional. As if it hadn’t been operating for years. Emily touches it and suddenly, the gears begin to whirl.

“INTRUDERS DETECTED! INTRUDERS DETECTED!”

The machine reanimates and stands on its feet. The party readies its weapons as Heathcliff’s suspicions are confirmed. This boss is tougher than the last one owing to its metal hide, but its movements are slower and clunkier due to the rusted gears. Its drill jams at inopportune moments and its hydraulic press arm is too slow to be of any threat.

Tim scours the mech for any weakness he can exploit. He noticed that one of its legs was slower to lift than the other. He makes a charging step towards it and uses his elbow on the limp leg. Causing the machine to be imbalanced and reveal some gears. Emily uses a sword to jam them, paralyzing the leg.

“ALERT! ALERT! RIGHT LEG MALFUNCTIONING! ENGAGING RANGED DETERRENCE!”

The mech reveals magical blasters on its arms, knees, and shoulders as it stands. The blasters fire earthen magics at the party. One of the shots hits Elizabeth, the fairy is unable to move her arm as it turns to stone. She cries out at the pain of her cells being slowly petrified.

Emily cries out for Elizabeth, unaware of one of the blasters being aimed at her. Tim moves swiftly and carries Emily away from the line of fire. Heathcliff finds more bared gears on the mech’s other leg and dislodges them with his sword. Also cutting the cables connecting them.

“ERROR! ERROR! LEGS NONOPERATIONAL!”

The mech, unable to move fires the blasters at a more erratic yet easily avoidable pattern. Elizabeth struggles to cast basic spells as her petrified arm refuses to bend at the proper angle, causing it to hit the arms of the mech instead of its chest.

The chestplate covering the mech’s inner works falls off as it fires more spells from its blasters. Emily waltzes forward and slices the exposed power source of the machine several times.

“POWER LOST! SYSTEM SHUTDOWN IM—“

The machine shuts down and collapses. A chest suddenly appears in its wake, and an elevator arrives to greet the party and Richard. They find more jade, and a shield made entirely of it, as well as gauntlets with Jade embedded in them. A far cry from the first chest’s loot. Elizabeth’s arm returns to normal.

“I’m gonna take a gander and say that the third guy will have Astralite,” Heathcliff says. “That’s how things usually work around dungeons. The deeper you go, the rarer loot you nab.” He takes the gauntlets and puts them on.

“That armor design is atrocious!” Richard says. “The greaves’ copper clashes with the jade entirely!”

“Everyone’s a critic,” Heathcliff says. Uncaring for how he looks.

“It comes with the job!” Richard says.

“Look,” Heathcliff says. “If I gave a split about fashion, I’d’ve stayed at ol’ Charlie!”

Elizabeth and Tim quelled the tension before it became a full-blown argument. The group heads to the elevator and rides it down to the depths of the Blackbolt mines. They find the monsters there predictably tougher, but still manageable. They snuck around the larger rock monsters as they fought the crystalline insects that barred their way as they searched for Sarah.

Soon they find themselves at a large vein of Astralite, covered in webs. They hear cries of “precious” echo through the veins.

“That’s a large vein,” Elizabeth says.

“My guess,” Heathcliff says. “Very big rock fell there long ago.”

“How long were these mines operating, again?” Emily says.

“About eleven and a half centuries,” Richard said. “But still, an asteroid that large shouldn't be buried that deep without people noticing.”

“Maybe it’s the core?” Elizabeth says. “Natural Dugneosn do mutate their surroundings to suit their purposes.”

Richard already knew it meant he should hide and scurried off as the party approached the center of the vein. A large crystalline Arachne surprises the party, revealing itself as the third Sentinel.

“You won’t get my precious!” The boss yells.

“Typical,” Tim says. The party engages the crystalline arachnid woman. The boss uses an array of webs and poisons to assault the party, but the crystal silk is unable to bind them and the venom is unable to penetrate Heathcliff’s leather armor.

Emily throws her swords at one of Arachne’s legs, breaking the crystal and severing it. Tim uses his spear to break a second leg. The party realizes that the crystalline structure has made the legs of the boss fragile and begins to immobilize her by breaking the other legs.

The Archane is rendered unable to move. But is far from defenseless, as she imbues her silk in poisons and shoots the toxic webs at the party. Tim is struck by one of the webs, laced by a paralytic, and is unable to move his legs.

“Dammit,” Tim shouts as he tips on his legs. He flashes back to his recent loss. Frustration wells within him until he begins recalling his previous teacher’s words. He calms down and focuses. He grips his spear and uses it to stand up.

Emily and Heathcliff meanwhile engage the beast, with some enchantments from Elizabeth’s songs. The lighting-powered weapons strike the abdomen and cut the Arachne off from the webs, but it left them vulnerable to the Arachne’s final trick. She stares at Heathcliff’s eyes and places him in a mesmeric daze. Her legs begin to regenerate as she draws power from the Astralite ore.

Emily sees the oss about o launch an attack with her new scythe-like legs and blocks it, but the Arachne gazes into Emily and puts her into a trace. Emily collapses in a sleep-like daze.

Tim focuses more on his legs. “Breath in, breath out, focus.” He regains some feeling in his left leg. He looks forward and sees Emily in danger. The thread of control he has is severed and he is about to collapse. “Focus!” He concentrates once more, a gust of wind circles around him as he quells his frustration and rage. He soon gains back control of his legs and uses the tornado to propel him high into the air. High enough to reach the cave’s ceiling.

Elizabeth tries to prevent the Arachne from attacking the dazed and hypnotized Emily and Heathcliff with some spells, to little avail. While avoiding her dangerous gaze.

Tim navigates the stalactites until he is right over the boss. He channels another windburst and uses it to plunge toward the boss. Skewering her with his spear in a short but powerful thrust.

The Sentinel is slain for now. She turns into crystal dust as she curses the party. Emily and Heathcliff wake up from their trance. And a chest appears. The group convenes on the chest and finds some robes, a katar, and chunks of Astralite.

Richard took the opportunity to look around while the party was fighting the arachnid, but he couldn't find any trace of Sarah. “She isn’t here,” the dwarf says with a dejected tone.

“Who?” Emily said, still a little dazed from the boss’s eyes.

“My sister!” Richard said.

Emily begins to remember. “Right, sorry.”

“Don’t mind them, that crystrider dazed them,” Tim says.

“Stupid eyes,” Heathcliff says as he wakes up. He sighs. “Let’s head back to Eastshire.”

The group takes their loot and exits the mines. Returning to Eastshire to find out where else Sarah might’ve gone.

✦✦✦

The group returns to Eastshire, and to Richard’s workshop. There the dwarf tries to retrace his steps.

“Let’s see,” he says. “We’ve just checked the Blackbolt Mines.” He paces around the living room of the atelier. Emily notices a picture of Richard and his family on a table. “We went to the Cloudstone Ruins next for some laurels. As well as the Jade Necropolis after our trip to the mines fell short with Jade…”

Emily looks at the photo, besides the blond dwarven brother in the picture, there is an image of a similarity-sized dwarfed, her hair tied in pigtails and her outfit resembling a blacksmith’s attire.

Richard noticed Emily staring at the family portrait. “That’s Sarah on the right. We took this after our first commission since inheriting the workshop.”

“Was it a family business?” Emily says.

“Of course,” Richard says. “Father was famous through Eastshire for his craftsmanship and taught us both everything he knew. Was even visited by Noir’s craftsmen guild.”

“Visited by the Big Apple huh?” Heathcliff says, interjecting into the conversation. “Must’ve been really good at the crafts.”

“He was,” Richard says, taking a moment to reminiscence of bygone days. “I learned the trades of textiles and jewelry from him, my sister instead took to metalworking and also educated herself on engineering.” He gestured towards the steam constructs on display.

Emily looks at the intricate display of gears and mechanisms of the steam-powered constructs. The artistry of these machines is apparent from their use of pieces sourced from Albion, yet their functions varied. One was a model of the solar system, using a collection of gears and rings to represent the planets and Stella at the center. Another was instead made for sorting rings and necklaces with tiny robotic arms. A third was a more aesthetic pieces, a replica of a head with gears inside the skull. All of which indicated a curious mind as well as finesse that would match Richard’s.

“We’ll find her,” Emily says. “Don’t worry.”

After a while, the group makes preparation to the Cloudstone Ruins. Richard says it is beyond the meadows to the southeast.

✦✦✦

While at the ruins, the party finds several archaeologists and adventurers there. They ask them about Sarah, but none of them have an answer about her whereabouts.

Away from the other parties, Emily’s group finds a shadow moving in the distance, they try to follow it but find it was just a house cat belonging to an Arachne adventurer. They find another shadow, but it instead turns out to be some gremlins that Tim easily dispatches. A third shadow leads Richard and Emily away from the others and closer to a Sentinel, A Galatean, a living statue.

Richard hides once again as Emily engages the boss alone and separates from the others. The Galatean is, like the rock monsters from last night, a sturdy individual thanks to their marble hide, but the marble is also softer compared to the mine’s denizens, so Emily was able to destroy the arms with her blades. The Galatean is eventually felled and unable to move, and Emily is now victorious. She claimed the contest of the resulting chest, including Marble slabs and a Marble decorated suit of mail.

She returns to the group with her loot, to Elizabeth’s concern.

“You fought a Sentinel alone?” Elizabeth says.

“Yeah,” Emily nervously says, “Sorry.”

“Good job, cher!” Heathcliff says. “This’ place’s Sentinels seem like tough cookies.”

“Don’t encourage her!” Elizabeth says. “Fighting one alone is a dangerous task.”

Tim scoffs. “Dungeon’s probably weakened from having to deal with so many people at once,” he says.

“You jealous?” Emily says.

“Hardly,” Tim says. He then displays some loot he obtained earlier, including shoes and greaves to go with the Armor Emily has gotten.

Richard looks at the items and marvels at the marble beauties. He then turns to Heathcliff.

“Hard, pass,” Heathcliff says, aware that Richard wants him to wear the marble armor over his mismatched but effective outfit.

Elizabeth takes Emily aside while the men argue over Heathcliff’s lack of style. “So,” Elizabeth says,

“You forgot something important again?” Emily says.

Elizabeth nervously smiles, both because she did, indeed forget something, but also because of the nature of the topic itself. “You understand that Dungeosn can absorb mana right?”

“I do,” Emily says.

“And that this sometimes means absorbing the corpses of the deceased there right?”

“You think that Sarah might have been absorbed by a dungeon?” Emily says.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Elizabeth said. “The possibility exists sure, but it would be better to wait until it is confirmed rather than worry Richard.”

The two turn to Richard arguing with Heathcliff about fashion, and Tim holds the sword he just confiscated from Heathcliff.

“Good thing he didn’t get drunk on the way here,” Elizabeth thinks. She turns back to Emily. “I’m bringing it up for a different reason, dear. There is a high possibility that we might encounter other Dungeon cores like yourself.”

“Huh?” Emily says. “That seems obvious?”

“I’m not talking about the cores of the dungeons we explore, but cores that had also become adventurers like us. For you see, the cores can consume and absorb each other.”

“Absorb and consume?” She recalls the enigmatic words of the core of the Wizard’s Tower.

“That is to say dungeons can take all the mana of other dungeons by absorbing the core and making it a part of themselves,” Elizabeth says. “When that happens, the absorbing dungeon slowly loses influence over the area it once resides and the consuming dungeon gains the ability to create whether the consumed can. While the victorious dungeon would get a large amount of mana, it would cause problems for people that relied on it.”

Emily tries to parse Elizabeth’s explanation and realizes that this means there is a risk she could be absorbed by a rival. “Is that why I seem to wake up in different parts of the dungeon lately?”

“Correct,” Elizabeth says. “That is a security measure, the core room changes its location within the dungeon periodically to deter returning adventurers from trying to find it. I’m sorry for not telling you sooner, Emily.”

Emily takes these words in and takes a deep breath. “It’s fine, no really. It’s okay,” she says.

Elizabeth senses the look of concern on Emily’s face. “We’re lucky to not have encountered any rival dungeons that are intent on absorbing you, but we must be prepared to prevent that from happening, and to absorb other cores if it has to come to that.”

“What happens to the consumed?” Emily says. “Are they still, alive?”

“That I don’t know, Emily. I’m sorry,” Elizabeth says.

They hear a scream coming from the south. The shriek interrupts the heated augment and grabs Heathcliff’s attention as he rushes to the source. He sees several adventurers are petrified and the footsteps of a colossal entity. One of the newly made marble statues is a female dwarf that catches Richard’s attention.

“Sarah?” Richard says as he approaches the stature. He observed the dwarven stature. The colorless marble obscures many of her features, such as skin, hair, and eye color, and the clothing is different, more befitting a mage than a blacksmith. He finds that the facial features are slightly off. He feels both a sense of dejection at the fact that she wasn’t among the fallen adventurers and also a relief for the same reasons.

The group hears another scream and heads to the source, finding a party of archaeologists having also been turned to marble, as well as the cause behind it. A lamia known as Pygmalia, the core of the dungeons.

Emily and co clash with the serpentine core. Learning from the Arachne of the mines, they made sure to avoid eye contact with the monster and prevent her petrifying gaze from immobilizing them. Pygmalia lets out a wail, causing the marble statues to be animated and attack the party. The store of the Arachne and cat from before lunches at Tim, but he dodges and uses his shoulders to stun the Arachne adventurer’s statue. The stature of the Dwarf from before, as well as one of another lamia and a minotaur, try to attack Heathcliff, but his shield blocks the attempts. Elizabeth uses basic light spells to blind the statues and Pygmalia as Tim and Emily close the gap and lock blades with her.

“Hehehe,” Pygmalia says. “Feisty aren’t you, you’ll make wonderful additions to my collection.”

Heathcliff considers the D.E.M. Pauline gave him, thinking it could help them escape, but he knows it is too precious to waste a few days after just getting it and decides not to use it.

Tim uses his Qiang techniques and knee strikes to attack the core, creating cracks in her marbled tail. Emily follows suit with her two swords carving eroding cuts on Pygmalia. Over time, they, in tandem with Heathcliff’s swordplay and Elisabeth’s Bardsong and spells, manage to defeat the lamia.

At that moment, Pygmalia realized that Emily is also a Dungeon core, fearing that she would consume her, she slithers away with a frightened look in her eyes. A chest spawns, as if to distract from her escape. Heathcliff examines it and finds marble fists, more slabs and an ornate robe of silk. The people that were lucky enough to avoid the core’s petrifaction abilities take stock of those that were less lucky.

Richard sights a brawler mourning the lost of the female dwarf “Francisca!” the brawler cries out, with signs that indicate that the two were quite close. He turns towards severla other sights of people mourning their recnely petrified friends until he finds a friend of the Arachne, an elven priest looks at the stature of their fallen friend. “Oh Jeroit, this was his first dungeon outside Websdale.” The cleric says. Richard catches sight of that.

“Websdale?” Richard says. He knew there was a dungeon nearby that provided silken threads to the Arachne town. A though begins to take root in his mind, but he suppresses it, thinking that it was way too far for Sarah to travel to.

The party and the survivors take note of the petrified adventurers and their identities, as they leave the Cloudstone Ruins.

✦✦✦

The party makes a stop at the last dungeon Richard recalls visiting. The Jade Necropolis. So named for the green pallor of the unread that roams it as well as the abundance of Jade processed from the Blackbolt Mines.

“Another glorified graveyard,” Tim says sardonically. “Let me guess, you needed enchanted rings from there.”

“How did you know?” Richard says. “The Ensemble needed it in addition to the jade for the other pieces.”

“Lucky guess,” Tim says in a deadpan tone.

Heathcliff laughs, recalling the trip to the tomb a while back.

Elizabeth notices the abundance of wind mana in the area caused by the vast qualities of jade. “We should be careful, these zombies would be imbued with wind magic.”

“Got it,” Emily says.

The group encounters green zombies and skeletons. These emerald corpses try to buffet Heathcliff with wind spells. But Tim counters with his gusts and blows them back before lunging forward with his weapon. Emily follows the tailwind and twirls with her blades, cutting some of the ghouls down. Elizabeth then stuns the rest with lightning spells.

So it goes for the next few encounters before facing the first boss. An unread three-headed hound.

“A Cerberus,” Heathcliff says. “Of course.”

With three heads and three brains, the hound ends up engaging Emily, Tim, and Heathcliff simultaneously. The three hold their own against the hellhound as it tries to gnash at them and fire whirlwinds from afar.

Richard hides from the battle, for his safety. As he cowers behind the corner, he begins to think about the possibility of Sarah beginning in another dungeon, one near Websdale.

“We tried the mines,” he says. “Then the ruins. If she’s not here then…”

The party eventually defeats the hound with Tim’s palm strikes and Elizabeth’s light and lightning spells. From the resulting chest, there are several piles of jade accessories, a green-bladed ax, and bronze coinage.

The party continues, and Richard begins to ponder what reason Sarah might have for leaving them. They find several cobwebs and malfunctioning automata, similar to the one from the miens, but green with tarnish. The web reminds Richard of a pivotal detail. He recalls what happened the night before, they were at their atelier.

Sarah was tallying up the materials from the dungeon. “Let’s see, we’re short eight grams of jade. Only got one small chunk of Astralite. Got three marble slabs…”

Richard meanwhile was working on the dress for the client, a socialite from Noir, he carefully sews the threads together to ensure the details are exact. As he runs out of dark blue silk, he looks at his supply of fabric. He sees a strange gap inside and learns from it that they are out of silk.

“Lovely,” he says to himself, “We’re out of silk!” He decided to look around the store for more supplies. As he leaves the workshop, the other dwarf looks at the fabrics and notices the gap.

“Short on silk, huh?” Sarah says. She remembers hearing that there was a price hike in fabrics and realizes that after paying the adventurers for the dungeon crawls, they do not have enough money for a single spool. A fact Richard has come to learn when he arrives at the fabric store and checks the prices.

“Ten gold coins for a spool?” Richard says to himself. “That’s highway robbery!” He returned to his workshop dejected.

With his flashback over, Richard realizes something. “That was the night before she left.”

The party arrives at another room. Richard tries to get Emily’s attention but she and the other are interrupted by the dead rising from the ground. The second boss fight has begun and it is against a horde of undead.

Richard tries to find a safe place while the others engage the horde, but the windy arts of these gale-driven zombies prevent him from finding safety. A gust of wind forms in the room and easily blows Richard high into the air, alongside several zombies and specters.

Emily notices Richard helplessly floating, being carried by the wind, and leaps to rescue him. The hoard of restless spirits amalgamates into a tornado, encircling the arena in gales that even Heathcliff struggles to keep his footing in.

“Emily,” Richard says from Emily’s back. “I don’t think Sarah is—“ He is interrupted by a zombie grabbing Emily’s leg and dragging them into the cyclone’s funnel cloud.

Tim uses his Qiang as an anchor, keeping him grounded but unable to change his wind spells as a counter to the tornado. Elizabeth’s light frame and winds cause her to end up carried away by the twister.

Richard and Emily try to sever the arm binding the latter to the storm wall, with Richard trying to kick it back as more undead approaches them. Emily manages to reach for her sword and cut the hand off, but the blade ends up removed from her grip and is sent flying towards Elizabeth.

The frightened fairy desperately tries to escape the winds, and the zombies try to cling to her when Emily’s blade arcs towards her and narrowly misses her, being lodged in the wall. Elizabeth takes the sword and enchants it with both elements, allowing her to slash at the undead spawn with some success.

The winds soon carry Emily and Richard towards an empty hallway high up from the room. They cling to the walls and managed to enter it and close the doors. With the boss unable to reach them for now. Richard sulks for a moment. “It’s all my fault,” he says. “Should've made sure I had enough of the bloody silk first.”

“What do you mean?” Emily says.

“Emily,” the dejected dwarf says. “I fear that Sarah might be in a different dungeon, far away from the three we visited.”

An arm breaks through the wooden door, but Emily kicks it out. The distraught dwarf does not notice that nor does he notice a javelin landing at his feet. “If I had made sure we had enough fabric first…”

Emily tries to keep back the hoard. “Richard,” she struggles to hold back the boss and to find the right words to say to him. Another hole in the door is made and another zombie tries to use it to grab Emily. The young girl is barely able to hold them back for more than a few minutes.

At the same time, Elizabeth tries to use her enchanted sword to cut past the hoard, riding the wind until she dins the same hall Emily is in. She manages to cut down the zombies and open the door. Emily is surprised to see her friend bleeding and covered in cuts.

“Those were some sharp winds,” Elizabeth says with a smile, and the errant bloody blade of Emily telling a different tail. A despondent Richard still sulking, with not even the wind from outside budging him.

With the door open, the hoard tries to attack the three. A particularly large one arrives. Elizabeth hands Emily back her sword and Emily tries to attack the large zombie.

“Richard,” Emily says. “Help!” She locks blades with the zombie holding her ground.

Something stirs within Richard, memories of Sarah chastising him for cowardice, and memories of her feats of bravity as she attacks monsters with her modified sledgehammer. He notices the javelin a thought emerges in his head. “What am I doing? This isn’t the time for moping.”

Emily is knocked back by the large zombie. As it inches forward to try to drag her into the cyclone, a bright light illuminates the hallways. As quickly as it arrived, it vanished and a large javelin was impaired into one of the zombie’s eyes. Emily looks back and finds it was thrown by Richard and Elizabeth. The former panted heavily after throwing the heavy projectile.

With the zombie staggered, Emily stands up and grabs the javelin, using it to damage the corpse further. The winds slow down and gravity takes its hold, forcing the zombie and Emily to fall to the ground.

As the winds of undeath wane, Heathcliff and Tim find themselves able to fight again and combine their skills to attack the corpse. The undead soon vanishes into dust, leaving only a stiff breeze, the javelin, and a chest. Elizabeth flies Richard down to the ground.

“What in the… the frick is that?” Heathcliff says.

“My guess, an amalgamation of lost souls,” Elizabeth says as she tends to her cuts. “Its rare but the mana of the consumed people can coalesce into its entity, powered by rancor and grief and becoming a Sentinel to the dungeon that absorbed them.”

The chest is opened and is revealed to contain not only Jade but also a green orb and a pair of jade-colored swords. Emily feels a comforting force from within the orb.

“This is an Aerosphere,” Elizabeth says. “With this, we can use wind attacks.”

“Wait, we?” Emily says.

“Why yes,” Elizabeth says. “You can use magic too. Did I forget to mention?”

“Yes,” Emily says.

“Oopise,” Emily says, placing her hand to the back of her head. “Ow.” The pain from her wounds reminds her of their presence.

“We’re done here,” Richard says. The blond and tan dwarf looks towards the exit. “I have one last idea where Sarah might be.”

“And that is?” Tim says.

“There is an Arachne town a little ways off from here, Websdale. The news tells of them getting silks from both the residents as well as their cousins in a dungeon near there. If there is anywhere Sarah might, be it would be there.”

“And do you know what that place is, cher?” Heathcliff says with a smirk.

“I do,” Richard Aurum Smith says. “Tarantulapolis.”

The group is shocked by this sudden revelation…before realizing they don’t know a thing about the dungeon in question beyond that its likely inhabited by Arachnids.

“We should prolly wait a bit before heading to either,” Heathcliff says as he looks at Elizabeth try tending to her cuts. “Gotta get Lizzie here all patched up first.”

“Noted,” Richard says.

The party leaves the Jade Necropolis, preparing for their next encounter.