“Our world possesses a far greater number of races than Thedas (even if we exclude those of the Horde). There are three here that bear a remarkable similarity to our own, even going as far ahead as being referred to by the same name. Humans, as my previous recordings have demonstrated. Elves, although their stature (both physical and cultural) are severely diminished. And the Dwarves.

I haven’t spoken much on the dwarves, frankly because I haven’t met one in-person. At least not yet. However, their influence is everywhere. The common language spoken here was invented by dwarven traders. (as it so was in our world) Human castles and settlements are derived from dwarven architecture. The descriptions are the same as well. Everything point towards them as being short, stocky, and unhealthily desiring in liquor. All known permanent dwarven settlements (of which I have only heard one, Orzammar) are underground. However, they are few in number. The primary cause being some great catastrophe known as the Blight, of which, I had first-hand experience during my foray into the caverns known as the Deep Roads…”

From the Journal of Eratus Riverwood

I swore to myself I would be careful, right as the tunnel swerved to the right and I smacked my head into a rock with a clunk. Again.

There was a flash of pain as I recoiled and tripped back. I managed to keep one hand onto the torch while the other massaged my sore forehead. Pain gave way to irritation, both at myself, because this was the third time, and at the tunnel complex, which was uneven, winding, and clearly not built for someone of my size, or for regular traffic.

I was never a big fan of going underground. Everything was rough and craggy, with sudden drops and crevices that I could barely make out in the dim light of the torch.

It was disconcerting. If the stone seal earlier was any sign, whoever built this had no intention of it being used ever again. All of which begged the question on what exactly was down here in the first place.

Droplets of water glimmered along the sides of the tunnel. The air smelled like a mix of mildew and dirt. Even worse, I could feel the dust cling to my face and get under my clothes, as if the threading of the tunic wasn’t irritating enough already.

The tunnel’s slope wasn’t steep, but I still had to worry about balance. A few more steps, and I paused to pull out the map.

The figures on it were faded even in daylight, so the faint light from my torch only made it harder to see. I squinted, trying to trace the passageway that I was on. It was one long tunnel that careened down until it reached a chamber.

I had no idea how much further it would take. My sense of time had all but vanished in the ever-shifting landscape of the tunnel. All I knew was that it meant I didn’t have to worry about any direction except ahead. At least not yet. I folded the map into a pouch and trudged on.

Helpful signs of progress began to appear. The tunnel walls smoothened out, then began to open up, until I had ample space to stand up straight, without worry of slamming my head into another crevice. The texture shifted to, from unhewn rock to something resembling paved pebbles.

The tunnel swerved once more, and opened up into a dark chamber.

It was a room, probably as big as the common area of the inn I was staying at in Denerim. There was a flat ceiling above, and in the distance, the torch revealed the corners of a rectangle. There was little else in the room, save several stone pillars. The floor was smooth as well, but caked with layers of dust, and several footprints that were not my own, leading out towards a curved doorway on the opposite wall from where I entered.

I leaned down for a closer view. Bootprints, and human from the looks of it. Probably, from the initial expedition. At least I knew they had made it this far.

My sense of unease was rising. Aunt Tiana always told me that it is most dangerous when the forest goes still. During the Alterac Campaign, I learned that same lesson applied to more places than just forests.

In this room, I did not hear anything. Not even the squeal of a rat, nor the drips of water from the tunnel.

I stood back up, walking towards the pillars and the walls, shaking off the paranoia. They were furnished with slanted and ridged designs. Triangles and squares with sharp angles. Dwarven architecture. The same I had recalled during my last visit to Ironforge.

It reminded me of another place. Then the Lorekeeper, answered the question.

“This complex appears to be of Titan-make.”

“Well you’ve been rather quiet recently.”

“I have been observing your surroundings and there were no instances that required further feedback.”

The Lorekeeper’s gnomish project suddenly popped into existence next to me, and I jolted back.

“Could you warn me the next time you do that?”

The gears on his neck shifted, turning his head and his yellow eyes towards mine.

“Apologies. I will comply in future occurrences.”

“Thank you. So, is this place similar to your own?”

The mechanical gnome, stepped to the closest wall, peering at the walls and pillars.

“Signs indicate a high likelihood. They are of earthen-design. A lesser variant of the Titan-keepers, originally designed for manual labor and shaping the elements into usable functions.”

“By any chance, are these “earthen” stubby, bearded, short, and have grouchy personalities?”

“If by the last criteria you mean to have a high-temperament, then yes.”

That sounded like a dwarf to me. There was something that bugged me about how the Lorekeeper relegated their duties to essentially slave labor. Before I could entertain that line of thought further, he spoke again.

“There are anomalies.”

“Anomalies?”

“If this is an earthen complex, Titan-constructs should be nearby. However, I have scanned this entire super-structure based off navigational data and have detected no such entities, or interfaceable terminals. This is a significant deviation from conventional processes.”

I suppose that would be odd. It would be like seeing an entire city without a single living soul. Then something that the Lorekeeper mentioned hit me.

“Wait. You mentioned navigation. Does that mean you know where we are?”

“Correct. The data was processed from the artifact that you procured several cycles ago. It depicts a complete sketch of this complex.”

The gnome vanished, then was replaced by a series of blue shapes. They were squares and rectangles all interconnected like a massive structure. Near the top of the projection was a blinking white dot, right inside one of the squares. On top of it was a winding cylinder that spiraled up into nothingness.

It took but a moment for me to realize that this was a map of the entire area.

“You know this really would have been helpful earlier.”

“You never requested this data. It seemed that the information provided by the earlier entities was sufficient for you to navigate.”

I was about to say something then decided to keep my mouth shut. Regardless, this was far better than trying to squint down at the map. With this, I didn’t even have to worry about ever getting lost.

This map really did leave out just how big the entire complex was. Even the Lorekeeper’s projection couldn’t cover the sheer scale, judging by how the images faded out at the edges, indicating the presence of more rooms and hallways. It reminded me of the blueprints for the Deeprun Tram. A true underground road.

Now that I thought about it, “Deep Roads” was a pretty accurate description.

“This is a graphical recreation of the complex.”

“And the flashing white dot. Is that indicating our current location?”

“Correct.”

According to the map, the rooms were divided into descending levels, starting from the ground floor. We were currently at the 2nd level. The artifact, according to the parchment, was to be found on the 5th.

There wasn’t any time to waste. I traced the closest passageway I could on the map and began moving in that direction.

We passed through room after room in a slow descent down the earth, the projection guiding me along.

The light of my torch illuminated nothing noteworthy in the passages and rooms. For the most part they all looked the same, with minor changes in the states of disarray and decay. Crumbling stone foundations. Dust on the ground.

“Lorekeeper. You mentioned that this construct was of Titan-make. I’m guessing the Titans then had a presence on this world. Right?”

“Correct.”

“How many worlds have the Titans have a presence on?”

“Unknown but I have surmised at least 314 planetary bodies since the last known rotation.”

“And the Titans also had a presence on Azeroth as well correct?”

“Correct.”

If what the Lorekeeper was saying was true…

On my next step I felt the ground begin to slide down. I reacted fast enough to leap back before the stone floor fell apart and took the rest of me with it. The sound of rocks smashing through the ground echoed through the chambers. Dust billowed out, sending a smokescreen that blurred my vision.

“Knight-Lieutenant Riverwood. Are you alright?”

“I-I’m fine.”

The dust began to settle, revealing an uneven hole on the floor. I peered over the edge, holding my torch over it.

The drop itself wasn’t that deep. Not enough to have killed me if I fell, but I had no doubt it would have been painful. Wherever I was, I realized I should have been more careful given how everything looked in disarray.

I turned my attention back to the shimmering projection of the map. The room below was along the way. A shortcut.

I tracked a good spot to land, crouched, then leapt down. There was a soft punt and another burst of dust as I landed on the floor below. My right boot landed on a pebble that I didn’t notice, which sent a spasm of pain up my foot.

After shrugging it off, I noticed the room below was really a hallway. Long enough that the light of my torch failed to reach beyond a few feet from where I stood. Beyond which was a yawning darkness.

That same dreadful feeling returned. I would have thought my mind was playing tricks on me, but it seemed even more quiet than before.

I took a deep breath and continued on ahead, and the hallway gave way to another chamber.

I thought it would be like the rest of them. Square-shaped. Empty minus some debris and dust along the floor. Three door-shaped openings placed in the middle of each wall.

However, the walls of this room were far more decorated. Atop each of the exit ways, there were three enormous faces, chiseled into the stone.

Dwarven faces at that too. The structure of the face lacked any sign of smoothness, the edges accentuated. Honestly, I was relieved at the change.

I stepped toward the exit that would take me closer to my destination. However, as I was about to pass through, I noticed something glimmer from the side of one of the imposing structures.

I stepped toward it for a closer look. It was a dark streak that glistened in the torchlight. I swiped a finger against it. It came off like a sticky liquid, with a bit of crustiness in the texture. I had treated enough wounds to know what it was. Blood. Human blood.

The air in the room was moist, which kept it from drying out. However, this was new. It could have been anywhere from a few hours to a few days since the mark was left.

I followed the smear along the dwarven face to the wall and to several drops along the floor, that led, to the exit under the statue and into one of the other rooms. At the end of it were several scraps of bloodied leather.

I kneeled and picked it up from the floor. The leather looked like it had been torn off, by some sharp instrument. It was consistent with the vests that I had seen worn by the Blackstone Irregulars. There was another splatter of blood, sprayed against a nearby pillar, that told me someone had been struck here.

This was most likely the from initial expedition sent down. Something had attacked them at this spot. And just with my luck, they were following the route that I had to take to reach the artifact.

I drew my sword, and stepped forward.

“Knight-Lieutenant Riverwood, I must warn you that I have detected elevated levels of corruption along this path.”

“Lorekeeper,” I mouthed. “There isn’t anything nearby is there?”

“My sensors do not indicate any lifeforms, hostile or otherwise, within our vicinity.”

That was not what I wanted to hear. The Lorekeeper’s supernatural sense of nearby organisms was one of the key tools that I depended on. Without it, I very well may be walking into an ambush.

Still, I had no other choice now but to push forth. I shook off the feeling of dread as I followed the trail of blood to the other room.

With each step, each crick of my boot, I could see more and more signs of the expedition, none of which were good. Splatters and trails of blood. More pieces of leather. I even stopped to collect a torn coin-pouch. Which, only sent me further on edge. Whatever happened here, was enough to convince a mercenary that their own money wasn’t worth it. Judging by their direction, the attack had also come from behind, which meant they had no choice but to continue ahead.

More and more remnants built up, until I was led to an enormous gaping hole, where an entryway once stood.

Judging by the crumbled pieces of stone lying around, this hole was not caused by natural decay. Something big had come through here, and based on what I saw in the next room, was the ultimate demise of the initial expedition.

Upon entering I was greeted with the sight of dozens of corpses. Some of them wore the mercenary outfits of the Blackstone Irregulars. Others wore, little more than cloth and makeshift weapons. The same people who had attacked the convoy several nights ago.

I went up to the corpse in the middle. Although it lay face down, it was a human, that much I could gleam. The armor was a familiar shade of black.

After flipping over the body, seeing the face of one of the men who first accompanied me on that first night-job to the coast. The man had long since passed but the terror of his death was frozen upon his face.

I sighed in disappointment. It was a brutal end. A living testament to the dangers of mercenary work.

“Light be with you,” I said and shut the man’s eyes. I didn’t know if it did any good for their souls, but one could hope.

The wounds themselves told me more. There were dents along the armor, as if someone had repeatedly tried to puncture it to no avail, alongside open wounds around weak spots along the neck, armpit, and knees. The man had been outnumbered and faced more than just a single opponent.

I stood back up and took a look around. There were blood smears along the pillars, along with visible dents. At the bottom were dead bodies. One of the attackers was big, big enough to pick up a grown man and toss him mid-air. Probably the same thing that destroyed the wall.

Then I noticed several figures, too small to be a human in the outskirts. I walked over and flipped it over.

The smell of rotten eggs and sulfur rushed through my nose. I started to gag and resisted the urge to hurl. Not even the so-called troggs that I had encountered smelled this bad.

“What in the world…”

I laid my torch down to get a better look.

It was one of the ugliest things I had ever seen in my life. Its head was wrinkled and bald, with a few tufts of black hair sprouting from random crooks along the top. Its bones stretched through its skin and its eyes were sunken, giving it the impression of a skeleton. Its teeth were sharp like a carnivore.

“Lorekeeper. Any idea what this thing is?”

“Scanning… unknown. High levels of corruption detected, but not enough to be a fully corruptive entity.”

My guess was that this was among the foes that the expedition had fought.

Yet, there was something about the whole scene. Then I realized it was the array of some of the corpses. As if they had been dragged around, long after they had died. I trailed it back further, and the first clues didn’t make any sense. The streak of blood along the dwarf’s face. The piecemeal bits of cloth leading to this very room. It was like they were put there intentionally, designed to lure someone to this very spot.

“Knight-Lieutenant Riverwood, I have detected hostile intent from multiple lifeforms within our vicinity.”

I realized it at the same time a deep growl rumbled from behind me.

I turned, just to see a whirl of green and black charge towards me from one of dark corners of the room. My hands moved out of instinct, forged by years of dealing with ambushes just like this. They drew the symbols of the seal in the air, and the barrier flared to life just as I saw the glint of steel barreling towards my face.

There was a flash of light as the weapon impacted the shield.

My attacker yelped as his weapon recoiled back. The flare illuminated the entire room, revealing scores of crouching figures, hiding along crevices in the ceiling, their skeletal and hideous faces twisted in rage. All of them began to drop down to the ground, charging towards me with their weapons.

My heart pummeled from the gravity of the situation. The first ambusher snarled and leapt towards me, once again.

I thrust my sword forward. Right as the creature’s blow landed flat against the barrier, my own blade cut through its center.

It shrieked, spitting out black bile in a death rattle that coated the dome of light.

I snarled in disgust, mainly from the smell, and pulled my blade off the body. The creature fell shrieking in a growing pool of bile and blood. There was no time to celebrate this small victory, as the rest of them began to close in.

Another leapt towards me.

“Damn it!” I yelled swung my sword.

It caught the monster in its side. My attention turned as two more approached. Then another. And another.

There were too many. I dropped my sword and stretched my hands out, channeling the light to extend the barrier to a dome around me. Their weapons wailed against the barrier, causing cracks to reverberate throughout the dome.

There were dozens of them, some even began climbing atop the others to reach me. It was just like with the troggs at the bridge.

Except this time, I had a few more abilities up my sleeve. I freed one hand and began to draw the symbol in the air.

I had never used it in combat before, and had only practiced it the hand gestures in my room. One more focused on harnessing holy energy for offensive than defensive or protective measures.

Corruption, as the Lorekeeper called it, was weak to Light. Hopefully, these monsters were as vulnerable as that thing I faced in the forest.

The symbol Consecration was complete, and embedded itself into the palm of my hand, right as the creatures began to tear chips out of the dome, faster than I could channel light to repair it.

I slammed it to the ground.

Light energy rushed out of my core, faster than any other seal I had used, towards my hand and through the ground around me. It spurred towards the creatures, shooting up through their feet in lightning-fast tendrils.

They fell back, shrieking and screaming. They fell to the ground as the light coiled and crackled up their skin with the sound of escaping skin, before bursting aflame with holy energy. The energy demanded by the seal, surged like a tidal wave, draining my core at an alarming rate that I tried to stem.

I couldn’t control it and pulled my hand off the ground. The backlash from the connection sent me tumbling backwards. My barrier crumbled.

However, the seal had done what I needed it to do. All of my attackers were floundering on the ground, their death wails echoing through the rooms as holy fire burned them inside out. Within moments, most of them lay still, leaving nothing but blackened crisps and a noxious smell in the air.

I had to resist the urge to hurl. It was like getting a full whiff of the Stormwind sewers in the summer.

I got back up and pulled up my sleeve and looked at my mana band. Levels had already dropped to 60%.

“Knight-Lieutenant Riverwood, levels of corruption are rising. Corrupted entities are approaching our vicinity. I recommend we immediately evacuate the premises.”

As if to prove the Lorekeeper’s point I heard a howl, louder than anything I heard so far, from one of the rooms, followed by a clutter of smaller shrieks and bellows.

There was no time to waste. I picked up my sword and the torch, then backtracked through the rooms. I had no idea what I was dealing with, and I needed time to recollect myself. It was a simple tactical decision, drilled in through years of experience. When in doubt, retreat, rally, then roll up a better plan.

I had to thank the Light for the Lorekeeper’s map. Without it, I most certainly would have gotten lost. The doorways and rooms blurred, and their uniformity gave the sense that I was running about in circles. It didn’t help that the sounds of the creatures echoed from behind, getting louder with each passing moment.

I had reached the long hallway and passed by the hole that I had leapt down from. There was no way back up so that left me with no choice but to continue forward.

There was a doorway leading into another room. The moment I entered was the moment that I had made a mistake. All the doorways here had collapsed. It was a dead-end, and the sound of the approaching creatures was only getting louder and louder.

There was no way out, which left only one alternative. I readied my sword, still slick with the black blood of my last foe, and turned to face whatever was approaching.

Two of them appeared in the hallway, rapidly converging on my location. They were short, squat, and armed with small metal shivs, much like the ones I faced before.

I moved forward in front of the doorway and activated the barrier. Translucent light formed a dome around me, while keeping the entrance sealed. As the creatures approached, they were funneled through the narrow opening one by one, making them easy pickings for my follow-on strikes.

As each creature smacked into the barrier, I skewered them with my blade. As the one in front fell, the one behind clambered over, only to meet the same fate at the end of the sword. It was an old war tactic that Captain Falmore always used to harp. When against greater numbers, fight from a chokepoint.

The mob of monsters continued to pile up the narrow doorway, constraining the movements of the next wave. Mana levels remained steady, and it seemed like I would be able to whittle them down to a standstill.

Then there was a roar, far more visceral and dangerous than the shrieks and screams earlier. Something stepped out of the darkness of the hallway. It was as tall as me and a half, and about as bulky as a strong human. Its face had the same sunken features as the gremlins that I had just faced, and its mouth was twisted into a permanent smile.

If that wasn’t enough, the thing was brandishing a sword that was jagged into a crude curve.

It stepped up to the doorway, but out of range of my attacks. We stared each other down.

“Do you speak?” I asked.

The thing didn’t answer. Its eyes bored onto me, then to the white dome of light. I didn’t realize that it was measuring something, specifically the range that I would be able to strike back. Specifically, its greater reach meant that it could attack the dome without any fear of retaliation from me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until it let out another roar, lifted its blade up, and swung down. The blow sent ripples across my barrier, I held out a hand to channel more energy to repair the damage.

It attacked again, its blade whipping faster than my eyes could follow, and smashed against the barrier. I felt light woosh out of my core, draining energy at an alarming rate.

I was going to be run dry if I kept this up. The other creatures around it screeched in joy with each blow. I couldn’t fight back, not without pushing ahead and leaving my flanks open. If I drew the barrier down, the way would be opened which would leave me open to be swarmed. If I stayed in place, it would only be a matter of time before the monster in front of me whittled my energy reserves to null.

Another shockwave ran through the barrier as the blade clashed against the dome.

I fumbled through, drawing the Consecration seal with my free hand when I noticed a crack in the dome.

Apparently so did my foe, because his next strike was aimed right center on that weak spot. The metal crashed through the barrier and struck through.

Pain erupt out as the point of the blade shot through my right shoulder. The point caught a weak spot in the armor, between two metal plates, and had cut through the leather and into flesh. Within an instant, there was another flash of pain as the creature drew its blade back. My sword clattered to the ground as I lost my grip. The mob of creatures jeered and roared at the strike, while I clenched my teeth, trying to focus through the pain.

I got a better look at its face. It was like someone had taken a human skull and plastered the bare minimum amount of flesh on it to keep it functioning. The smell of rotten eggs returned.

The thing was winding up for another strike, right as I finished the seal and plunged my hand down.

Energy streamed through my fist and outward through the floor, sending any of the unsuspecting creatures aflame with holy fire. The bigger one was caught as well, and it panicked as the tendrils of light set his skin on fire.

I used that moment to cut off the flow of energy and pick up my sword with my uninjured arm. I wasn’t used to wielding weapons this way but it wasn’t hard to take a few steps forward and run the blade through my foe.

The sword caught the thing through its stomach. My barrier had crumbled away, so the black bile from the wound sprayed onto my face.

The creature screamed and dropped its sword. I lurched my blade free, causing my foe to fall forward, then swung, separating its head from its body.

With the immediate threat dead, I took a knee on the ground. Blood was dripping out of my shoulder wound, but it wasn’t gushing, which was good. If it was, I was as good as dead.

There was something else though. I could feel wisps of light out of my core shroud the wound. The light wasn’t healing the wound, more like fighting off something black that had been left behind by the blade. Whatever it was, it had only been there a moment before it shriveled away as the wisps of light attacked it.

The brigandine itself was in decent condition. It was pure luck that the monster’s blow had caught the edges of two of the metal plates. That being said, I reminded myself to get something a bit more reliable on my next go around at the market. I stood up, holding my sword with my free arm.

I lowered my travelsack and took out a bandage, wrapping the cloth over the wound.

Beyond the hallway were the burned remnants of the attackers. I was lucky that whatever these things were, they were weak to the Light. Without it, I very well would have suffered the same fate as the last expedition.

Whatever these things were, they attacked without care or abandon and were perhaps one of the deadlier foes I had met on this world. I pondered whether they were the very reason the dwarves had abandoned these tunnels.

I tied off the bandage once it covered the wound and stood back up.

“Lorekeeper can you bring up the map?”

“Knight-Lieutenant Riverwood, there is a larger presence still approaching your- “

The Lorekeeper’s voice was muddled out as I heard an explosion of crumbling rock down the hallway, followed by the ground shaking with the sound of approaching footsteps. They grew louder with each interval approaching through the hallway. I stepped away from the doorway out of instinct, as I saw the outline of something massive approach.

Good thing too because the narrow opening blew out as a fist punched through stone wall. I raised an arm to shield my face from the rain of pebbles and stone shards.

In front of the hole was something enormous whose size rivaled that of the ogres from Azeroth, except this thing was far more muscular. Not just the doorway but the top half of the stone wall as well. Its skin was the same color as the foes that I had just faced, complemented with massive horns atop its head and rows of razor-sharp teeth. Its hands had claws the size of daggers.

It turned its gaze down and bellowed a roar.