Kaius perked up, shuffling back in his seat as he sat upright. Finally, they were going to hear about their part of the job — and it was a good one at that. Anyone with Delver aspirations dreamt of exploring some abandoned Imperial settlement at some point in their life, though most never got the opportunity. An active ruin with automata was almost suicide for anything less than a team of veteran Silvers, usually multiple. People still tried. Unsurprising, considering the potential value such places held.

  As Bronwyn took his seat again, Ro returned to centre stage. Waving her hand over the lectern, a coloured light projected over the map of Deadacre and its surrounding lines vanished. Below it, the parchment shimmered as the ink on its surface swam and rearranged into a new form. Kaius blinked in surprise — he hadn’t realised that even the map was controlled by artifice.

  Soon, a cross-section of Deadacre dominated the wall. Directly beneath the streets of the city, Kaius could see a criss-crossing network of sewers and tunnels, with larger, even older constructions just beneath that. Oddly, despite the density and complexity of the cross section, it only covered the upper third of the parchment. The rest was blank.

  “Are those lower tunnels and vaults the Imperial ruins?” Kenva asked.

  “No, we would have found them long ago if that were the case. They’re the oldest foundations of the city. A catacomb. This is what we knew of Deadacre until we had our run-in with Old Yon. Unfortunately, now we have discovered this.”

  Ro waved her hand again, and deep beneath the old catacombs, several thin access ways appeared, drilling deep into the earth. They breached massive, gargantuan rooms and tunnels that bored through the ground beneath Deadacre, stretching far beyond even the city walls. Much of it was hazy and clouded, filled with holes and partially obscured, and Kaius could tell that only the very top layer had been even partially explored. With a twist of Ro’s hand, the perspective shifted to a top-down view. A clean circle showed the outline of Deadacre’s walls, while the rest showed the mismatched sprawl of the Imperial ruin, stretching out beyond them almost to the very edge of the circle of dead ground that surrounded the city.

  “An Imperial bunker.”

  Kaius looked at the map with interest. Imperial ruins were spread all over Vaastavir, and with the ubiquity and strength the Eternal Empire had once had, they were semi-common. Yet most had either been repurposed into modern settlements, utterly flattened by time, or long since explored. Every few years, though, some forgotten installation would crop up. They weren’t too dangerous if it was some civilian settlement lost in a jungle, or a simple mine forgotten on the side of a mountain. Yet, sometimes they were not so simple. Sometimes they were old industrial factories buried deep in the earth — or worse, noble or military bunkers full of ancient traps, misfiring weapons, and war automata.

  “What do we know about it?”

  Ro winced. “Precious little,” She swept her hand over the half-filled-in segments of the map. “As you can see, we’ve barely even explored the upper layers. From what we can tell, old Yon and his men had been using the very top levels somewhat, but they didn’t do much exploration beyond finding the odd bolt hole to retreat to. Neither have we. So far, what we’ve seen looks civilian, but history has proven that bunkers like this can often hide more important installations toward their core, deeper beneath the earth.”

  Ianmus leaned forward, resting his head on his hands as he stared at the map, a focused furrow on his brow. “What’s our goal? Simple scouting or an attempt at a shutdown?”

  Kaius paused, pondering his friend’s words. A shutdown? How would a single team disable an entire facility larger than a city?

  Rieker responded to Ianmus. “Scouting. Though obviously, much will be left to your discretion. If you find that it’s active and dangerous, and you can safely shut down the facility, that is, of course, preferable. That said, if it’s a military or noble installation and you find defences of a more active variety rather than just decaying runework do not feel like you must press on. If the protections are dangerous enough to give all of you pause, then it is a significant enough installation that it will draw tomb raiders and treasure seekers. Delvers and noble families all over Vastavar will be clambering for a slice of the reward for its shutdown, as well as claim a portion of whatever is found.”

  That was all well and good, but he was still rather lost by how something like this could even be shut down. If it was resilient enough to last for millenia, what could they possibly do?

  “How would we even deactivate something like this?”

  Ianmus turned to him. “If it’s similar to the others I’ve seen detailed in Mystral records, the centre of this installation will have some form of mana-gathering station, usually on the lowest levels. If we can destroy or render it inoperable, the whole thing quickly runs out of energy.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  A mana-gathering formation large enough to power something bigger than most cities? How in the gods name was that even possible? That was mind boggling! Only the gods knew how much power something of that scale would need.

  He’d known that the Eternal Empire was advanced in their runework and magic, but to this extent? That set a fire in his belly — one that left him eager and curious. He needed to see this for himself. Who knew what sort of insights he could glean from what must have been amongst the peak of imperial artifice?

  Next to him, Porkchop tilted his head. “So we just break it? Not deactivate it? I would have thought something like that would be valuable. Your kind always seem interested in picking things apart.”

  At the head of the room, Rieker let out a booming laugh. “Oh, people would love that. The advancements we could make — hell, I’d love one just for every guild hall. Unfortunately, they’re ruinously complex, and we have no idea how they work. Plus, those constructions tend to be the deepest and most heavily defended places in any active Imperial ruin, even in civilian use cases. Rendering them inoperable also has a nasty habit of violently overloading the runes used in their creation, too.”

  That only piqued Kaius’s curiosity further. An utter unknown? That was practically irresistible! . Plus, if they were simply destroyed, how many people knowledgeable in runes had ever actually seen them in person? Other than glyphbinding, runework was overwhelmingly relegated to artificers. He doubted that many Silver or higher delving teams had a trained Runerite among their number.

  For all he knew, he might be one of the first rune-trained people to ever get a first hand look at one of these formations. Rieker was right — such a thing was ripe for making discoveries. Besides, he’d always wanted to study Imperial work, though he knew very little about its foundations.

  Even just documenting the scripts they used would be delightful. As far as he was aware, little more than fragments had made it into public documentation. Understanding, if the empire was paranoid enough for their artefacts to slag themselves when tampered with.

  Through his bond, he could tell that Porkchop felt a similar curiosity — though in his brothers case it seemed more to do with getting to explore the ancient origins of a foreign people rather than the intricacies of rune magic.

  At the head of the room, Ro narrowed her eyes at them. “I know that look, you two. Be cautious. Imperial installations have killed Platinums before. The only reason we’re even sending you in is your strength, your knowledge of runes, and that we haven’t seen direct signs of active military use yet.”

  Kaius only grinned. Of course he would be cautious — he could respect the danger of the task involved. But the danger only whet his curiosity.

  Ro sighed in defeat, drawing a low chuckle from Bronwyn and his team.

  Waving her hand, the map shifted, highlighting an entrance only a few blocks away from the guild. A glowing line threaded through the city’s underbelly and catacombs towards a shaft that punched into the Imperial ruin.

  “You’ll enter here and push towards the centre of Deadacre. As the ruin is centred on the city itself, that will be the most likely spot you will find access to deepest parts of the ruin. You can start your descent once you’re out of the mapped sections. If you enter through the middle, you should be able to punch straight down towards the mana engine. From what i’ve heard, the ruins themselves are surprisingly navigable. The lower levels of the ruin are where you’ll most likely find evidence of a military installation. Please try to use your better judgement if you do. The main thing is not to send a swarm of automatons stampeding through Deadacre. We might have three Golds in the city guard, but it would still lead to bloodshed.”

  Kaius paled slightly as an image of a steel facsimile of a man nine feet tall cutting its way through a swathe of dispossessed refugees, and spilling blood in waves across cobbled streets filled his mind.

  Ro seemed satisfied that the warning had landed, and she nodded, stepping back from the map.

  “What do you need before you set off?” Rieker asked, taking centre stage once more. “With all you’ve done for the guild, we have practically cut a blank leeway to help you as you need.”

  Kaius paused, thinking things through for a moment. He knew that Deadacre did not possess the kind of wealth of second-tier artefacts they would need to improve their gear, and basic sundries were something they could easily manage gathering for themselves. Still, there were a few things that could come in handy.

  “Alchemicals would help. Restoratives, and perhaps if there are common hazards, details on what those might be and how to avoid them. Otherwise, standard exploration supplies will help.”

  Rieker nodded. “That goes without saying.”

  He turned to Ianmus. “Will you need light?”

  The mage shook his head. “No. My mana sight skill gave me mild darkvision when it evolved. It’s not as sharp as the rest of yours, but it should be enough. And if I do need light, it’s a trifle to make it myself.”

  Kaius nodded, turning back to Rieker. “In that case, other than what we’ve already mentioned, we should have everything we need.”

  “Fantastic,” Rieker said, clapping his hands. “In that case, our meeting is adjourned. Spend the rest of the day getting ready, and you can all depart on the morrow.”

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