Chapter 037: The Dreadful Encounter

We were about to depart from the chapel when Leria spoke to me.

“Is it possible for me to close the door with magic again?”

I thought for a second. Hmph.

“Probably? You didn’t order the magic to undo itself, only to make the door open. Why you ask?”

“I know it’s going to take a while, but… could we move over the villagers from the quarters here?” Syna nodded fervently.

Right. We can’t be sure that no cultists would come here when we were out there adventuring. The villagers might have been unconscious and completely unknown to them, but they were still adherents of the same religion. Letting them suffer more… and we couldn’t be sure that the next group of cultists wouldn’t just murder them.

Also, since they were unconscious for a while now, making them drink some water could be a good idea.

Sigh. Trying to stop them from making us lose time is probably pointless. Besides, they are totally right there. Even if I went full pragmatic, this still meant making sure that the whole village of potential allies survives this little war in sewers.

“Alright, alright.” I sighed. “We make camp here. Aura users move the villagers, then we find an empty room and rest after closing the door properly. We should also eat and drink something.” I was seriously hungry and thirsty at this point.

Of course, if the plague ravaging the sewers was truly a magical disease, it was probably in our blood at this point. I was still going to keep the appearance of trying to avoid getting infected. Mostly for morale sake. We should try to finish the mission before we all fall unconscious, but trying to rush things was probably a terrible idea. We should replenish our manapools before we continue.

***

Surprisingly moving the villagers didn’t take long. Aura was useful. Leria decided to go slightly farther and together with Syna she quickly cleaned those used by the cult for ‘relief’ and clothed them back. Hopefully they won’t even know what happened to them when they were unconscious.

That would be clear nightmare fuel. Ugh.

The hardest part was trying to fill them all in the chapel. Sure, it wasn’t only a chapel there, but also some utility rooms. But there were many villagers to be moved, plus some more already there. We were almost forced to stack them in tiers.

After my manapool and the ring filled themselves completely (I was the last one to achieve it because of my class restriction) we departed. As I expected, the device led us towards the place marked in the priestess’ journal.

Of course, the difference between northwest and northeast was only partial. The farther north we were, the more visible signs of battle were. It was waged far away, but we were close enough for my magic senses to detect signs. The background magic wasn’t as strong as in anomalies and the sewers were a closed space, improving its range.

There was magic used there. I couldn’t guess the distance or its exact power. But the battle seemed fierce. In comparison the Sense Eldritch and Sense Evil were less active, suggesting that cultists were either outnumbered or outgunned… or both at once.

It didn’t matter. They were a diversion. A significant part of the city militia (at least from the nearby districts) and witch-hunters were busy attacking the wrong place. While they were pushing back much weaker cultists, they were slowly but surely infected by the plague. The cult just had to keep itself alive and slow down the enemy by traps, ambushes and guerilla warfare. Sooner or later a big part of the Ambryxis defences was going to fall into coma… all of this while the cult was still going to have some reserves safely hidden in a completely different place.

The enemy commander was a cunning tactician. And either a completely stupid/insane strategist or there was something I didn’t know. Obviously Ambryxis the deity had reserves as well. Army, adventurers, probably a hidden warhost of servile daemons and so on. Either the cult had some hidden trump cards, or this was going to end in its eventual annihilation.

It was probably the former.

***

After an hour of walk we began seeing dead bodies.

I had not a single clue about the way the water circulated in the sewers. I doubted anyone knew anything about it, maybe besides Ambryxis himself. Too much time passed since they were created. Too many unofficial additions were made.

One underwater stream must have connected our area with the battleground. Corpses drifted in the shit and piss filled water. Some were obviously cultists, but many of them seemed much tougher than the expendable pawns we encountered earlier. Warriors and sorcerers marked by the reverse chalice symbol.

The rest were members of city militia, but there were also one or two people Leria identified as witch-hunters. It looks like the battle truly was fierce.

I think we should be happy we passed through the very edge of this madness…

Wait a second, dafuq is this?

The sewers changed. Stone around us ended quite sharply into metal. I couldn’t guess what type, but it could be steel (probably one resistant to corrosion) in a truly insane amount. But that was merely a single curio. Everything looked… industrial. Plates on the wall, grate instead of floor.

Sewers changed as if we moved from the medieval fantasy straight into steampunk or something similar.

I took a look at the map and… obviously we were very close to the marked point. Almost near it.

“Oh my…” Leria suddenly exclaimed. “I can’t believe it. Decemvirate era ruins beneath Ambryxis?!”

Decemvirate. Of course. Fuck my life.

There was a quite recent period in imperial history, during which Demiurge (Imperial God of Progress, Technology and Science) and his sister/brother Shadow (Imperial God/dess of Revolution, Anarchy and Freedom) seemed to gain upper hand in the Great Game. The ongoing golden age of Imperium changed into something even greater, when Imperium entered period of industrial revolution that allowed it to enter realm of bonafide supercivilization (as local historians dubbed several prehistorical superpowers far above already powerful Imperium). On some fields it reached or transcended technological power of contemporary Earth.

Unfortunately the Imperium kinda broke when the Grand Emperor was murdered. To this day nobody was really sure who did this. But it led to the beginning of the so called Great Kynevian War. 70+ years long period during which various successor states waged neverending wars and conflicts for the mantle of the truest successor state ever.

Essentially it was a period of semi-perpetual trench warfare, emerging magocracies, dehumanization and genocides, legions of warmachines and genmaturgy being used to produce terrifying beings then used as shocktroopers or a living psychological weapons.

It was so bad that it almost ended up actually spawning the fifth member of Pentagram (which according to old myths would end in the worst possible version of End Times). In the end however the tides turned, one of the post-imperial warlords succeeded in resurrecting the Imperium.

First thing it did was banning about 90% of technological discoveries achieved during or right before the War. And with help of gods and their religious temples the ban was universally enforced.

In short - a source of deadly dungeons with high-tech flavours for the players to explore.

Of course the sudden spike in technology (and later withdrawal from this dangerous field) wasn’t limited to the Imperium. According to the history books I read the Decemvirate was a magocratic government of that era that briefly managed to gain control over the entire Dragonspine Mountains. It was literally a Doomplace that advanced its own evil into industrial level.

It ended mostly because locals decided that they went too far. Which said everything about this accursed era.

I seriously thought that all of its installations were either completely destroyed or survived as a pale remnants of their former selves in few of the local anomalies. And so did Leria, it seems.

“Well, our luck just keeps getting better.” I commented and shook my head. At least there shouldn’t be too much of deadly stuff inside. Decemvirate collapsed at the end of the Great Kynevian War. Like, three hundred years ago.

That again, enchantments can be made self-rechargable. And… could this plague be a gene-engineered bioweapon from the Decemvirate’s arsenal of mass destruction weapons? The post-Decemvirate states supposedly got rid of it under their gods’ insistence, but...

“So, what do we do?” Leria asked me.

“What we always do when we are facing our potential deaths.” I answered. “We go in and pretend that we know what we are doing.”

***

Curiously it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

It seemed to be a much bigger installation than we thought, but most of it was sealed off. We didn’t have enough magical knowledge to try to override the lockdown in the Decemvirate facility. Magic was more advanced back then.

To be honest I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to open the locked doors. That parts of the facility obviously weren’t picked clean by the Sewer Rats or the cult, and I dreaded to think what could be found there. Decemvirate used to casually do things that modern inhabitants of Ambryxis found disgusting and/or creepy.

On the other hand, there could be things that might be of advantage to us… tough choice. But one not for now.

We entered a large and open room. It must have been a storage room or something like that. at least judging from how perfectly geometrical it was… and how empty. Twenty meters long and ten meters wide cuboid, with a very tight metal grate as a floor. There were three sets of doors. We entered through one, and another was exactly opposite side of the room - judging from the colour of the small lamp atop of it, it wasn’t locked. The third ones, however, were.

Hmph. Makes me wonder what was this place re…

Suddenly a door at the front opened. Oh shit, I knew it was going too easy.

Pentagram Warrior

Category: Eldritch/Pentagram

Type: Mortal

Threat Grade: Iron VII

A warrior loyal to an unknown cult dedicated to serving Pentagram. Together with its compatriots it controls sizable part of the sewers beneath Ambryxis.

Pentagram Sorcerer

Category: Eldritch/Pentagram

Type: Mortal

Threat Grade: Iron VII

A sorcerer loyal to an unknown cult dedicated to serving Pentagram. Together with its compatriots it controls sizable part of the sewers beneath Ambryxis.

Five warriors and a sorcerer. Warriors wore a decent quality chainmails and were armed in various weapons. One had a halberd, one had a sword and shield, one had an axe and shield, one had a two handed sword and one had a short spear and a shield. The magician was behind them, in black robe with a large reverse chalice on his chest. He carried a large staff made from a simple wood and some red crystal-like formation as its core.

None of them had a gasmask.

Wonderful.

“So, a second band of adventurers finds this place.” A warrior at the front said, with confidence filling his voice. “Seriously, after all the trouble we went through to make those idiots from the city storm the wrong place... “ She shook his head in an almost theatral way.

Hmph. Might be a tough fight. They aren’t crazily strong, but they probably have good coordination. Ugh.

“Maybe you aren’t as good as you think, shithead.” I answered him. “Anything else to add before we murder you for worshipping Pentagram?”

He clicked his tongue. Once again in an exaggerated manner.

“What a bad manners.” Before any of us managed to do a thing, he pulled out a small object from his pocket.

Suddenly I fell on my knees, without any strength in my body. I could see the rest of us doing the same. What the…

“There is an ancient magical trap in this room.” Cultist said, with a wide mocking smile. “The first group managed to sneak by and surprise us, but we made sure to take necessary precautions. We still barely know how it works exactly, but anyone who doesn’t wear certain protective charms will feel his body strength drawn away, immediately rendered unable to fight. “ The whole group laughed. “Well, we already watched you for a while. We already planned what to do. The pretty girl…” He pointed at Vaera. “Goes to the boss, she loves breaking pretties like her, while the rest…

Shit. Now we’ve done it. I think that’s the bad end of this Adventure. To let them catch us like that… It’s probably going to be painful and degrading. We should totally get ourselves some easy suicide option, maybe a fake tooth with poison insid...

Suddenly I could hear a sound of a door opening. Coming from the direction of the sealed door?! The cultists’ head turns that way… I can see a sudden gush of terror on their faces. What the…

I manage to force my head to move that way.

Oh shit.

The Smiling Man

Unique

Category: N/A

Type: Warmachine/Decemvirate

Threat Grade: Platinum I

A prototype of heavy warmachine developed by the Decemvirate during its last days. It was developed as a psychological weapon. One supposed to cause the most painful, terrifying and degrading deaths to the enemies of the Ten.

Created in the Theta Research Station, it was abandoned together with it when the Decemvirate fell.

It was a machine. Maybe three meter hide, made from a shining silver metal. Two insanely flexible legs made from metal bands that looked similar to Roman lorica segmentata’s armour chestpiece. A metal corpus in the shape of a pyramid expanding upward. Then two flexible upper limbs that looked more like metal tentacles… and finally a head. Perfectly round on, on a flexible neck, with a giant and almost… insane looking smiling face. it looked like the a smile emoji.

Some part of me screamed internally.

There was a sound that I could compare to the sound of an old printer starting to print something. The nimble fingers on its left arm were… sucked inside the metal. After maybe a second they were replaced by a drill.

Then it leaped on a still-paralyzed cultist, targeting the nearest one to it. With almost uncanny speed for its giant size.

That particular warrior carried a two-handed sword. He tried to swing it at the machine. It used its flexibility to dodge it at ease. Then its ‘handy’ hand grabbed the warrior by the neck, raising him above our heads.

The machine shoved the drill into its abdomen. The warrior screamed in pain and fear as the Smiling Man crudely vivisected him in front of us.

Jesus Christ.

“KILL THAT THING!” The cultist commander shouted. Unfortunately for him they had no idea that the machine was Platinum I. They had a survival chance of a snowman in hell. Despite it, cultists managed to shake off their shock and charge it. Sorcerer began casting something.

Another printer-like sound. The machine’s hand and a drill were replaced by something resembling short blades. It gracefully avoided cultists weapons and suddenly leaped forward, targeting warrior with a halberd.

Despite his aura protection the blades easily went in. I couldn’t see details of it since he stood between me and the machine. But I could guess that one blade went into abdomen and the second at the upper side of chest.

The warrior squealed and dropped his weapon. This blade like things (obviously no simple blades) lodged firmly in the wound. Then, with one swift move, the machine simply ripped him into two pieces. He… broke around the stomach, as the upper part was pulled up with inhuman strength while the lower part was kept in place.

Jesus Christ.

The machine laughed. It was a clear and completely happy laughter. Something I could picture coming from a happy child. It was so unnatural, so abstract, that it made cultist take a step back. Even sorcerer’s hex broke before he managed to complete it.

Another printer sound. Once again the machine was armed in a hand and some sort of drill, but one different than earlier.

Ah. This sound… it is the sound that indicates that machine draws lots. It must have who knows how many ways of murdering its opponents stored in its programming. All of them no doubt an effect of long and extensive research by the Decemvirate. With many, many people dying so that they could find more and more terrifying and degrading ways of ending lives.

Each time it picks one of its opponents randomly… and then chooses a random way of killing him.

Cultists were paralyzed, so this time the Smiling Man came for them. An axeman was the target. He raised his shield in a desperate attempt to block it, but to no avail. The machine grabbed him by his head and raised him up. He tried to slash with the axe, but it simply bounced of its armor.

Then the Smiling Man shoved the working drill into his mouth. We all - cultists included - watched in shock as he performed a terrifying parody of dental operation, ruining his teeth, mashing tongue into red mist and messing up everything else. After this ended, the machine raised him up, like it was admiring its handiwork.

Then it threw him away, like a broken toy. He hit the wall and then slumped on the ground. Possibly dead from shock or simple unconscious.

The Smiling Man looked at another warrior. Then there was once again this terrifying sound of the machine choosing its murder weapon.

It was a massive saw this time.

I closed my eyes. The scream was terrifying. I think I’m going to need a change of underwear. I opened them again to see the sorcerer fleeing. Looks like at least a single one of the cultists made the right decision.

Cultist commander tried to stop him. Fool. They should all just run away, as fast as they could. But the fear made them stop thinking coherently.

Smiling Man targeted another warrior.

This time I really pissed myself. Not exactly the manliest thing possible, but it was a sensible reaction to seeing a person suffer death through impalement. With the machine’s hand going so deep into its mouth to reach the other end. Reading about people doing it to other people long time ago was one thing, seeing it...

This time the cultist commander was the target. After a short sound of a printer starting up the Smiling Man…

No way. This is too much. I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to imagine it. My God, that’s too much.

Commander made three or four steps back before tripping and falling on his butt. The trap controller fell from his hand. Suddenly I got my strength back.

“RUUUN!” I screamed the loudest I could, before jumping forward towards the door the cultist came through. The rest of the party followed me.

We ran without looking back. The bloodcurdling scream of the cultist commander was going to haunt me. Sure, he gave his soul to the most insane darkness around, but… killing him was one thing, doing THIS was something else.

Of course, quite soon our aura users were ahead of us. Me and Vaera kept running despite this, but… shit, I’m totally going to learn basics of aura, screw the rules of DFI games, I want to be able to run from things like that!

Suddenly we could hear a sound of a printer behind us. I looked behind my shoulder and…

It was there. The Smiling Man. The insane creation of the Decemvirate’s techmaturgists. The most dreadful and terrifying being I’ve seen in my life.

It looked at me. There two small drills at the end of his right arm. The spacing between them… it was exactly as the spacing between my eyes.

No way.

I moved my staff. I pointed its upper end towards my head.

“DESTROYER LANCE!” I shouted.

YOU DIED!

Cause of death was a cave-in of your skull.

Warning!

Due to being a part of Adventure, your standard respawn mechanics are disabled. You will have to choose a checkpoint where you will be resurrected.

There is a penalty for dying, however.

Penalty

The progress of the unknown plague has been increased.

Approximate number of respawns left before the disease robs you of ability to continue your Adventure: 4

Due to your party losing less than 50% of members and already being outside of fight, you can choose to respawn near it!

Available Checkpoints:

Village of Iktin - Chapel

Village of Erstval - Chapel

Your Party

Let me guess. Kovacs group ran out of respawns and the disease “robbed them of ability to continue their Adventure”, hmm? Adventure my ass.

It took me a second to figure out the controls. I mean, I was dead. Immaterial ball of consciousness floating in darkness with the window floating in front of me. When I ‘thought’ the name of the available checkpoint, the bold (one signifying which one was currently selected) moved over.

Iktin and Erstval were nice, but there is no fucking way I’m once again going to walk through that… how was it? Theta Research Station? Fuck Decemvirate, period.

I moved the marking to “Your Party” and thought “Accept”. Small window showed up, asking me to confirm. I did so.