Chapter 159: Delving Deep
Beneath the earth, two people carefully moved along an ancient stone passage. Things were deceptive here. A small room might hide a narrow crevice that led to a grand passage way with several staircases descending to dead ends. Everything had to be mapped out and carefully noted in their journals. Plumb bobs were used to check the slant of walls and floors, and heavy crowbars thumped repeatedly against walls searching for hollow areas.
Orik and Dorry were having the time of their lives.
Veterans of many dungeon crawls in Endless Questing Online, they brought those skills with them to GENESIS ENGINE. They also brought a love for old school role-playing games where graph paper and a good pencil were the key to surviving complicated dungeons. When Ben had asked for volunteers from the workers to change their classes to something that would let them explore, they had jumped at the chance. They were at home with the the sound of water dripping from damp ceilings and the smell of oil lanterns.
Granted, Contract Worker: Subterranean Maintenance and Contract Worker: Surveyor didn't seem like normal classes, but the two of them were happy with the increased skills for dealing with the underground areas.
Ben had been impressed with how fast they mapped the catacombs beneath Sedgewick. They hadn't mentioned that they had been sneaking into them for weeks and exploring when they could. They had enjoyed exploring on their off hours. Getting assigned to do it as their main job was even better, and having skills that went with the job was like icing on the cake. Within a week Ben had a map of the area under the village to a depth of three levels.
The area around the tavern had been strange, with all the corridors wrapping around the area in a circle. There was barely enough room left for the basement of the tavern, let alone the dungeons. But that wasn't their problem, they simply mapped and explored.
The stonework changed as they went lower, the air was full of strange scents, and a general feeling of oppression set in. The first three levels used large blocks of stone, similar to what the village was constructed from. That changed as you went lower. Level four and five resembled dungeon walls with larger blocks and bigger corridors. Past that they didn't go anymore. The stairs down from level five led to caverns of black stone and many were inhabited by spiders, large bats, and strange mushrooms. They marked each spot on their maps, but retreated quickly. Three times they had tried to explore into these levels, but each time had ended in a quick death and a respawn at dawn. Mapping those area did give them a huge amount of experience though.
They had needed to take a week off from exploring to help deal with the oak trees and the aftermath of the short war. Important skills were learned while they hewed at logs. Learning to use an Adze and leveling it gave them a weapon they could use in the lower levels and a big boost to their strength.
Then they had been given a new mission by Jorges. He wanted to know if there was a way to get from the village to the city while staying underground. So they had begun to explore in that direction, mapping out a narrow corridor that paralleled the road above them. Over the next few days they mapped out a path that by their reckoning put them near the front gates. They were two levels down, and hit a fork in the road.
A fairly long corridor went nearly due north for almost a hundred feet and came to a round room thirty-feet in diameter. Smallish tunnels went right and left, and directly ahead was stairwell leading steepling down. From it came a horrid, rotting stench. They flipped a coin and went to the right first, agreeing to check out the stairway last.
A long twisting corridor bore right, and then turned to the north. At some point they both received a notice that they had entered the Beastwoods. It wasn't long after that the way was blocked by a heavy metal mesh. On the other side, dozens of beady eyes glowed in the dark. Dozens of rats the size of dogs, many with horrible mutations began to hurl themselves against the mesh. The two explorers quickly retreated, marking their maps with notes to wall off that corridor.
To the left the left they went, following a similar path that bore north after a bit. An iron door that had been forced open marked the border to Hungrytown. One step beyond that door the screaming began, as something howled and raced towards them. They threw themselves against the old door, forcing it shut. Dorry managed to hammer in two iron spikes just before the first horde of ghouls slammed into the door. She added another half-dozen just to be sure. Again the map was marked as a corridor to wall off.
Only the stairs and their horrid stench remained. They chose to have a last meal before going down. After finishing their sandwiches and beer, they descended into the darkness to see if the third time really was lucky. Twenty minutes later they made a discovery, and then left yet another set of headstones in the catacombs.
Suzette had just finished serving lunch and was turning things over to Zephyr when Jorges came into the tavern. The man was uncharacteristically jovial. "Have some time? I need to show you something. And before you ask, it's a surprise."
Suzette liked surprising people, not being surprised. "How far are we going and should I change out of an apron and slippers?"
Jorges took a moment to survey her from top to bottom. "Well, it all looks fine to me from here, but you might be more comfortable in pants and sturdier shoes. We need to crawl around in the catacombs a little bit."
Johannes was just finishing lunch, including half a crock of snails. He perked up at the mention of catacombs. "Might I be permitted to follow along? I haven't been in the underground part of the village recently and would love to take a look. When I was just a lad we would sneak out of the city by an underground route to run down to the local pub."
Suzette looked at Jorges who indicated he didn't care. "More the merrier. We leave from the Barracks in five minutes."
Suzette and Johannes arrived at the set time and were met by Jorges and Ben's team of Spelunkers. Both of them were excited but wouldn't say by what. They led everyone downstairs, past the bar, and into the tunnels beyond.
Orrik took the lead, following the markings on the wall. He looked back as they entered the first hallway. "Here's the rules: Don't go off the path, follow the person in front of you. Remember to duck, especially you professor, or you'll knock your brains out. Look behind now and then to make sure others are following. If something seems wrong, yell. It's pretty calm up here, but we've seen critters down lower."
Everyone nodded and followed slowly behind him. Dorry took the rear, not trusting anyone else to be the end man. Slowly they followed the twisting passages forward until they came to the room with three passages.
Orrin pointed out the different routes. "We need both of those hallways walled off, Jorges. One has ghouls from Hungrytown clawing at a door, and the other has giant rats from the Beastwoods. We're nearly at the city walls here and once a passage crosses the border things get exciting real quick."
"We explored those first on account of not wanting to go down, and the horrible stench from down here. Turns out some ghouls got in and died down in the room I want to show you, they were rotting away, a big pile of them. Bad news for Dorry and I was that one was still alive. We got in some good shots, but he chewed out my girl's throat. I got in enough hits to kill it, but died to bleeding and poison on his claws. Wasn't our first set of headstones down here, won't be our last."
The passage down was fifteen feet across, and filled with a stone stair that went downwards in a spiral. The center was an open circle five foot in diameter. There were no hand rails, and nothing to stop someone who stumbled from heading into the pit. Everyone stayed at the far edge along the wall as they went down. It emptied out into a large, arched corridor at least twenty feet wide and thirty foot tall. Orrik pointed out the architecture style. "It's a bit like the dungeon with big, wide corridors. This deep in the smaller corridors you'd expect some critters, but the room we found was clear of them."
The end of the corridor was a stone balcony that looked out over a large room. Short ramps led down to each side. The room was huge, fully the size of a football field or a large factory. Cobwebs and a few bats hung from the large beams holding up the ceiling. The astounding thing about the room wasn't the size, but what was in it. Piping, vats, giant rotting barrels and gleaming copper kettles. Most of it was in ruins, but still impressive.
Suzette danced down the ramp excitedly. "Wow! You found a brewery for me! This is amazing." She ran around, poking into things. Johannes took a long look and smiled, "Oh, better than that! This is the old Poison Works. Gadobhra was known for it's poisons far and wide in the heyday. I was here several times and recognize the linked distilleries and condensers."
He pointed at a large pool that Suzette was near. "I would be wary of stepping in anything. You will surely lose your shoes and some toes. Even after all these years some of the concoctions will be potent."
Suzette came to a full stop, and backed slowly away from the pool, and rejoined the group. "So, not a brewery?"
Jorges looked around. "Could be one. Some of this stuff could be salvaged, and certainly there's a lot of room. What interests me though, is that big pipe in the wall heading towards the city. It's draining something from there into that big vat."
Suzette shrugged and walked over. "Only one way to find out."
Johannes moved up beside her. "Allow me my dear, that valve looks quite stuck but I think I can budge it. And in case this is a batch of something nasty, I might even survive. Better, I might increase my resistance!" He took hold of the valve with both hands, slowly trying to move it back and forth without breaking it. Finally it budged a bit. The large faucet began pouring a thick sludge into a stone basin.
Dorry was looking at it. "I don't see anything coming out."
Johannes daringly stuck his finger into his flow, and then into his mouth. "Nor will you unless you improve your vision to see magical aspects. This is quite thick extract of Dark Mana. That pipe leeches it from Hungrytown where it gathers. I suspected as much when I saw the direction it was heading. It's a useful ingredient in most poisons."
"And in Blud Dark. I really do want to turn this place into a brewery. Could we do that Jorges?"
The Engineer took a long look at everything, eyes going greedy at the thought of all the salvaged metal. He recognized copper, Deep Copper, and other metals making up the ruined boilers and fittings. "Yup. I could. Need to cut a nice straight corridor down here from the barracks and move the stone around a lot. Wall off stuff so you don't get critters in here. I'll leave that series of big copper boilers and condensers, they look in good shape and might become useful. I think you've got both water and drainage."
He looked around again. "Yep, this will make a fine brewery. I'll start in a year when I'm done with the castle."
Suzettes face fell. "A year?! You brought me down here to tell me you won't start for a year."
Jorges looked hurt. "Would I do that to you? Why, I consider you as close as my own daughter. I'd hate to disappoint you, but I have a lot of work that needs done up at the Keep, and a short, short time to get it done. So I'm willing to deal." He smiled at her, showing all his teeth.
"Oh god, what do you want? I already gave you Ozzy twice a week for night shifts so you would find me a way to get Dark Mana from the city for brewing."
The Engineer bowed slightly. "And I thank you, madam mayor. I will also point out the stellar job I did of solving your problem. One source of dark mana, with a bonus brewery. Just needs a bit of fixing up. Now, if you could find a bit of time do do some of your little magical consecrations on some rocks up at the keep, I might have this place all fixed up in a month."
"That's it? Just some cantrips? Yes! Deal." They shook on it. Jorges seemed to happy.
Suzette asked as they were heading back out of the catacombs. "Do you have an estimate of how many rocks you need consecrated."
Jorges nodded, and pulled out the plans. You can see the length of the walls? I need roughly one consecration spell cast every five feet. Should be a piece of cake for you, just a quick inscription for a blessing from Hermes."
Suzette suddenly realized what he was asking. "Shit, you want to Hermetically Seal the entire border of the keep. That's insane!"
Jorge rolled his plans back up. "Nope, just good, solid engineering. Prevents someone busting up the walls with Earth or Water magics, prevents sneaky ghosts or demons coming inside, and all sorts of other protections. I was looking for ways to magically protect the walls and the old inquisitor, Diego, had a book on how to do it. You can start coming up to the keep with Ozzy twice a week and do your mumbo-jumbo as we lay the foundations for each wall section."
"Lots of experience for you. Plus, that's one hell of a building that honors your god. Think how happy that will make him."
Suzette cheered up. She could just see Hermes bragging about having such a big 'temple'. "Yeah, that's true. And if we're already up at the Keep, I can make Ozzy take me on more dates for dinner and dessert.."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺