An adventure,
That is what he had asked for and here he stood straight in the middle of one, a quest to reunite his people and prepare for the coming battles. Kyle stared up at the wall as the third day came to it's noon, the suns shining brightly up high. By the information they gained from Klein the Dwarves held their best bet for defences other than sheer numbers and level, a whole race of war machine builders.
"Well I'll leave you at it then" Death's voice knocked him out of his daze, glancing down he nodded and cut the connection.
"Your arrival has been cleared, please wait here. The gates will open momentarily." Kess declared as she suddenly appeared back inside the steamicle.
"We shall be heading off then, watch yourselves adventurers. The Dwarves have been distant as of late and the Fae never socialized much with other races." Klein said before saluting them once more as Vulk drove the steamicle back and away from them.
Everyone waved at them as they drove away, the sudden noise of creaking metal catching everyone's attention and in unison they turned back around to see the wall change. It began from the forming of indentions in the wall as a large chunk was pushed outwards then a second time as more indentions appeared, a large gate forming out of the once smooth metal wall.
As everyone gazed in amazement at the gate a surge of red electricity spread throughout the wall when suddenly the gate began opening outwards, in the form of two gigantic doors. Kyle found himself staring off into darkness as the gate opened before the flicker of light blinded him as the tunnel's lights were turned on, now staring down a long tunnel of metal Kyle couldn't find the words to form a proper sentence anymore.
"That's bad ass" Sly commented as he gawked at the gate.
"Welcome to Fort Northwind adventurers" A small group of four Dwarves greeted them as they stopped in front of them, their sudden appearance from the shadows to blinding light surprising the whole party.
The speaker a Dwarf tall for his kind with a clean shaved chin, short brown Mohawk hair, green eyes and wearing full light blue plate armour. A long gun strapped to his back and two side arms on each leg the Dwarf was ready for combat, his attentive and maybe paranoid glancing proving his knack for picking quick targets. "I am known as Thurk Falcon, City guard colonel and your escort today" he explained after quickly introducing himself.
Sly stepped forward "I am Sly, third lord of the Serenity guild and leader of this scouting party. I'm guessing you have heard of our…predicament." He forwarded his hand.
Thurk took the handshake "Yes I have been informed, please come on in this way" he gestured for them to follow and so they did "The king has been waiting for your arrival, steps have been taken to accommodate any number of your people here. Please feel free to make use of any services our humble city can offer."
As the gates began to close behind them Kyle couldn't help himself from asking "So you know that war is inevitable, our people are ready to defend themselves but this continent isn't ours. While it may not be entirely yours will you also lend us your aid?"
Instead of immediately answering Thurk broke into laughter "Please take no offence in this adventurer, the moment came and I wasn't expecting such a blunt questioning!" he exclaimed as they approached what appeared to be a dead end to the tunnel "We are ready to lend you aid, we are ready to fight and defend what we still have." Raising his right hand to his lips he whistled twice and the apparent dead end morphed into a second gate.
"Even though you are aware of the enemy's numbers and strength?" Sly asked sternly "Even though it could spell massacre for the whole continent you will still resist?"
Chuckling broke out through the group of Dwarves as the gate opened enough for them to see the other side. Walking a couple steps further they took in the Dwarven city of New Ruk, Thurk glanced back at them "We've been ready for years".
The sound of hammers hitting metal, metal being smelted and shaped while other machines of steam roared to life filled everyone's ears. The city being an enormous crater under the mountain, like a monstrously large stadium the city of New Ruk was broken into several dozen districts of elevation.
The lower you went the smaller the district's circumference, in the very middle at the most bottom of the city grew a large tower like structure that reached up to the roof of what was too large to be called a cavern. The city was close to being dimly lit as the main colours for buildings were dark brown, grey and red, each district having two roads going around them and a line of buildings on each side of the roads.
Out of the tower large pipes grew out and reached down to each district five times around the tower's circumference. Each pipe was many dozen times thicker than a train, as if a skyscraper had been built bent at a 45 degrees angle and with a tube like shape. Out of each pipe on both the left and right large circular platforms were built out, each one thick enough to be it's own building.
As the party stared out in complete surprise and amazement several flickering lights they guess to be Fae whisked around them curiously, each Fairy having it's own coloured and designed wings as sparks of similar colour splattered out at each wingbeat.
The elevation they stood on had no buildings giving them the perfect view of the city, just a large staircase taking down to the first district stood connected to the gate's path.
"Break it off now! Give them some space!" Thurk shouted loudly at the Fairies as they giggled while pulling at his Mohawk, a sudden flash of light sending them all scattering.
Blinking the spots out of his view Kyle could finally make out the figure that appeared after the light, what would have been a normal but beautiful looking woman sported a rather large pair of silver Fae wings and pointed ears. "Greetings heroes and adventurers, Fae Ambassador Meril Forestwalker pleasured to make your acquaintance" with long silky golden hair and bright silver eyes she smiled at them while introducing herself with her soft voice, wearing a skin tight white dress that showed a fair bit of her pure white skin she caught most of their attention.
As Sly remained gawking at the city and the others gawked at the Fae Ambassador Karnage spoke out first "Our pleasure Meril, I am Karnage of the Apocalypse guild. This is Reyna of the Eternium guild and the others of the Serenity guild" she introduced everyone, elbowing Kyle she brought him back from his thoughts.
"Ky-Kyllix, happy to make your acquaintance" he stated loudly trying to shake the others out of their gawking, succeeding with everyone but Sly who's eyes had completely constricted into slits and tail entered a furry frenzy.
"King Mountsmith and Elder Helen are awaiting your arrival at hub spire" she gestured at the tower "If you may follow me this way" she asked them with a smile before turning around and beginning to descend the stairs.
As some caught their breathes and others rolled their eyes they began to follow, Reyna and Kyle having to shake Sly multiple times before he snapped out of his daze. "Dude, are you crying?" Kyle asked as he glanced at Sly while descending the stairs.
Sly wiped his face "It's just…so damn bright in here you know?"
"Sure…" in his mind Kyle counted Sly out of the coming conversation, his attention being overcrowded by the architecture of the city.
As they descended the stairs that took through each district Kyle glanced around, not at the buildings or the machinery but the citizens. Diplomacy wasn't just resource management, needs, wants and public opinion. A faction's problems were a giant playing card in this game called diplomacy, Kyle paid close attention to the citizens' expressions and actions as they also watched them back.
Noticing that the smaller Fae seemed too giddy to show any other expression he ignored the small balls of light while paying close attention to the full sized ones and their Dwarf neighbours. Many waved at them as they passed but most even those that waved seemed distant, some straight up cold as they gazed at the outsiders deep in thought.
("Something is definitely off") Kyle decided, not only had they sent an escort made up of both factions to take them directly to their leaders but he noticed no guards outside the gates and no means for them to see who ever would be waiting outside. Even that it took Kess's announcing their arrival was suspicious, now with all these cold and distant gazes Kyle made up his mind that something was up.
("They openly declared they were ready to help us and I don't see any clue of unrest between the two factions…the locked unguarded gates…the security with visitors…they are hiding something.") Thinking over the possibilities Kyle decided he didn't have enough information about this world to come to a conclusion, even then he kept paying close attention to his surroundings.
As they went down Meril explained the different districts and other parts of the city "Each circular section of the city is called a step, in total there are twenty-seven steps. The first twenty steps are divided into two Dwarven housing and one commercial after each other, the next five are production and the last two before the spire are storage. Below the city are the mines where we collect most of our resources, be it metals, gems, cavewood, coal or other. Above the city is where most Fae find home, built within the mountain itself while above ground is where us Fae produce more organic resources like food." She explained proudly.
The descent had taken a good half hour and Kyle could feel his legs aching, having spent the last hours sitting down in the steamicle hadn't helped. Finally walking down the last step he looked up and found himself feeling slightly sick, not even back home had he ever seen something so massive that didn't float in space. "How long did it take to build all this?..." Kyle asked as he looked down to stare at the path's end, an open oval doorway taking into the spire.
"Hundreds of years of mining made the space, another hundred to put the city together as it is today" Meril answered while glancing back and smiling.
Almost tripping at the sight Kyle's paranoia smashed through the glitter "Wait didn't your people establish yourselves here less than half a century ago?"
Tilting her head in thought Meril then suddenly clapped her hands together "Oh! You must be confused, even before the loss of our home continent we had established ourselves in Barik, this whole city used to solely be a mining facility" she explained as her smile slightly faltered at the forced mention of their old home.
Sly seemed to have snapped out of his daze as he slapped Kyle's shoulder "Of course such delicate design couldn't be built so quickly! The mix of rustic fantasy, steampunk and modern is perfect!" …or not.
"Indeed our finest builders put their heart and soul into this city!" Meril exclaimed happily while flashing them another bright smile.
"I do see where modifications can be made though, as much as a staircase design can look good as it does it's not as space efficient as a layered storey design." Sly rambled on as he walked past the still smiling Meril and into the spire, said Fae stood frozen as her eyebrow twitched nervously.
Thurk leaned in to whisper to Kyle "I think he broke her, not anyone can ignore her charm."
Clenching his fists Kyle's expression darkened ("Fae…folklore of sly and mysterious illusionists…I let my guard down!") glancing around at the others, only Karnage seemed to be unaffected. Inwardly thanking Thurk he spread his aura making it wash over Skill, Reyna, Soren and Silv. All four trembled slightly at the chilling effect of [Frost Aura], taking them out of their daze for the moment. ("That seems to work, at least I won't have to elbow or slap them out of it openly.") he thought to himself as he cautiously gazed at Meril.
Clearing her throat Meril suddenly turned around "If you would please follow me." unbeknownst to Kyle she had picked up on his aura.
New Ruk, Hub Spire, Royal throne room.
Jekyll sighed deeply as news of the adventurer's arrival reached his ears, the guard soon saluting and leaving the room. The Dwarf King sat upon his dark grey throne made entirely out of dragon bone, as it was customary for his race the same dragon he alone slew for his crowning day. Curved like a dragon's open jaw the throne looked nothing less than menacing with it's dragon fangs poking out, crimson red dragon scales for cushioning and dragon monster cores that glowed with fierce power at the end of each hand rest.
The room itself spanned the whole floor, two storey high roof and a diameter of around 30 meters it could hold a feast as such it was normally used for. Now the tables were completely cleared out giving it an empty feel, with it's golden dark brown walls, grey pavement and red pillars lining a smaller circumference than the walls it was meant for grandeur. The king was the average Dwarven height, short golden blonde hair and a curled long beard. Wearing his royal garb of red dragon scale leather and demon black leather he sat with dignity but wore a weary expression.
Jekyll glanced to his left as a little Fairy whisked by, stopping next to his old friend's ear it whispered something before flying away and out of sight. Elder Helen the current de facto leader of the Fae, an aging Fae with long greying hair and a whittled old body. Wearing a simple green robe the couple thousand year old being would look skeletal if it wasn't for her fierce crimson red eyes, one look from her would put anyone in their place as simply the knowledge of any one her titles would make the greatest of his slayers kneel in respect.
From her standing positing Helen turned to Jekyll "As we have planned your highness, the adventurers are on their way. Three heroes are within their ranks, the dagger and rain heroes along with the frost dark hero." Her voice unaffected by age, powerful and stern as ever.
Jekyll responded with nothing more than a nod, the very thought of their plans sickened him. He'd hoped his ancestors would forgive him for the heresy he was about to commit but alas he knew better than to even hope, less so from his father. They were by almost all means ready to fight the devils and their legions, by armoury and will but one recent problem had put a large dent in their wishes to do so.
Everything had begun months ago when their miners in the deepest tunnels struck mithril, not being a rare occurrence at all they hadn't thought much of it other than moving more miners to said tunnel. The vein spanned so far and zigzagged so much they had thought it to be divine intervention, that Vulcan hadn't abandoned them after all. The vein so deep they would never need to mine mithril for centuries to come, that was what they thought until they found it's end.
One last hit of a pickaxe started the apocalypse, the crumbling of stone and revealing of the path began the doom that still lurks beneath them today. The miners had discovered a dungeon, not just any dungeon that normally makes it's way upwards immediately but one that hid and build downwards instead. The reasons it did so could only be two, one that the dungeon core wanted to become a labyrinth as soon as possible and risked it's own life to overload it's mana supply by digging deeper or the second and actual reason…
The first monster encountered as the dungeon's entrance was discovered spelled the picture for everyone clearly, as the dead crawled out screaming and growling at the miners their doom was announced. An Undead dungeon, something the Elven courts would have a fit over. If it became public and reached the courts then a purge would be inevitable, something none of the kingdoms would get in between and the sole thing the three courts would work together for.
Jekyll immediately locked down the city and sent his best slayers to destroy the dungeon core but the cursed thing was tricky and loved it's traps and puzzles, losing him his best warriors and forcing him into locking down the mines completely. After consulting with Helen it was decided that the mines had to be collapsed to at least slow down the dungeon until a better plan was formed, before that could be done though the appearance of a Grand Quest was announced. Lilliana having announced it to the whole of Barik as an announcement of open war.
Helen immediately spread her spies to find out more about the heroes that would arrive, about the strange stones that appeared at each city or town and about the momentarily disappearance of one of their suns. When thousands of these adventurers arrived though, they had sighed with relief. Coming to know that even death was not a possibility for them Jekyll wished to ask them for their aid with their Undead predicament but Helen opened his eyes to see it differently. These were people from another realm, intelligent beings who were just thrown into the middle of a war they had no part in. They wouldn't just help them out of the kindness of their hearts, there would be a price and Helen wanted to set that price herself.
Helen had put her best illusionist to the job of easing the adventurers up before they spoke with them, their plan to trick the adventurers into a spiritual oath and forcing them to clear the dungeon then destroy it's core. Jekyll had no place for these deceptions in his heart so he left it all to Helen, the Fae being quite adept at illusion.
Suddenly a young wolf-man walked through the hall's entrance, glancing around curiously he stopped in his tracks as he gazed off at Jekyll's direction. The king noticing that the adventurer wasn't staring at him but his throne, frowning at his strange expression Jekyll waited for his escort and comrades to enter.
Meril walked in behind the wolf-man "May I present King Jekyll Mountsmith, slayer of the late dragon king Kroak, savior of the Dwarven people, uniter of racers, king beneath the earth." She introduced them fully with titles and all as she escorted the adventurers towards them "Then Elder Helen Tail, The horde slayer, The blood-soaked Fae, mistress of the holy fire." Giving them both a curt bow she stepped aside as the adventurers vaguely lined up.
Meril began to introduce them as she had already memorized their names, standing, classes and titles "To you I present our visitors. SlyOkami war lord of the Serenity guild, lord of Aurei, the aurclad, hero of the dagger. Reyna brigadier of the Eternium guild, priestess, hero of rain. Karnage empress of the Apocalypse guild, blade-dancer, m" she coughed to clear her throat "mad woman. DemSkillShots scrub of the serenity guild, crack-shot?..." she stated more unsure of what she had just said "and lastly Kyllix shadow lord of the Serenity guild, lord of s-slimes, void, dark hero of frost." The last name she allowed some bitterness escape with her tone.
Not needing to introduce the other two she gestured at them "And the return of their companions Sir Soren and Sir Silvaragon." All those that were called showed some embarrassment except for the smirking wolf-man and the glaring fox-man. Bowing once more she walked up the two steps raising the throne higher and walked over to where Helen stood. Not even leaning in she quickly whispered something into Helen's ear before turning to stand by her. Helen's expression grew into a frown as she quickly studied three of them, following her eyes Jekyll noted that something went wrong and these Karnage, SlyOkami and Kyllix were to be paid close attention to.
Standing up Jekyll greeted them all "Welcome to our c-" or he would have if it wasn't for the fox.
"So why exactly have you tried to fuck us over?"