The town was ringed by a wall, but it was neither wood nor stone. The entire structure was metal, a continuous band of dark plates fused together into something industrial and severe. In the dying light it looked almost black, looming over the land as the sun slid down beyond the horizon. As daylight faded, the air thickened with the acrid smog of industry. All around the settlement, furnaces burned in rough harmony. One by one the smokestacks went quiet, their fires banked for the night, until only a handful remained, still belching out plumes of black ash.
Tanisha noticed movement along the top of the wall. Small figures paced back and forth, some stopping to gather in clusters, though they were still too far away for her to make out any clear details. As her group continued forward, they circled the town's perimeter, searching for what she assumed would be a gatehouse. The wall looked to be about twenty feet tall. It was nothing they could not climb if they truly wanted to, but approaching openly felt like the wiser and friendlier option.
She squinted at the silhouettes on the wall. The permanence of the construction eased her nerves. Settlements that invested this much effort into walls tended to expect visitors. Trade required roads and travelers, after all. A temporary or semi-permanent encampment would have been far more suspicious of outsiders. A true town, however, usually meant rules, customs, and at least the possibility of negotiation.
"If they turn out to be hostile, we head west," Aurelius said quietly. "Do not attack anyone unless there is no other choice. I would rather be a trespasser in foreign land than be mistaken for a threat."
"You think they will attack us?" Tanisha asked.
"I do not know," Aurelius replied. "Walls like that suggest either frequent danger or military use. This may not be a town at all."
"Someone is coming," Bjorn warned.
A single figure lifted off from the wall. It hovered in the air, balanced effortlessly, yet Tanisha did not sense the familiar pull of mana. As the figure drew closer, she saw a golden-brown radiance instead. Prana flared beneath the individual, concentrated in the spear he stood upon, its haft acting as both weapon and platform.
Tanisha recognized it immediately. Prana was the primary material art used by the humans in the Jackrabbits monster hunter company. Practitioners bound a portion of their essence into a weapon, making it as much a part of them as an arm or a leg. The object became the anchor for their power, the conduit through which their will was expressed.
Her thoughts flicked briefly to her own bound weapon, the Angel Core Staff. It was a True Human creation. She wondered if ancient humans had once tried to recreate the principles of Angel Cores and settled on prana when they failed to gain access to aether. The thought lingered only a moment before she forced herself to focus again. The figure was close enough now for details to resolve, and Identify triggered almost automatically.
Identify
Name: Ironbrow Kegsplitter
Species: Dwarf
Level: 111
Vocation: Primana Glaive Master
Ironbrow halted in the air high above them, his sharp eyes sweeping over the group in a quick, assessing glance.
"Oi, what are ya doin', ya damn fools!" Ironbrow yelled and pointed to the town. "Get to the town before night fall."
"We are lost travellers, where is the gatehouse," Aurelius asked.
"Gatehouse?" Ironbrow said incredulously. "Ain't no gatehouse, boy. Now get running! We will talk inside."
Before anyone could press him for answers, Ironbrow twisted his glaive beneath his feet and shot back toward the town, his urgency unmistakable.
"What do you think," Tanisha asked. "That seemed odd to you guys too, right?"
"Yeah, something is going on. Just keep a look out for anything off." Aurelius said.
Tanisha shrugged and placed her hand on Bjorn's side. She wanted to test out her new teleportation ability. Then she remembered the small hatchling still latched onto her side and snoring softly. She wasn't sure she could teleport with Anasuya. Bjorn would teleport with her but that was because of their bond. She hadn't been able to teleport other people though.
Blink, the short range teleportation mages used, was more a movement spell and not true teleportation. They were actually moving between the two locations just really fast. That was why they could not use it to go through walls or escape being imprisoned. It was the mages' answer to Flashstep, a movement technique used by material users and arcanists. The only Discipline that had a true teleportation spell was Darkness magic.
Her Arcane Shift was a teleportation spell not a movement one. The new spell she gained, Rift Forged Teleportation, seemed to be a more potent version of the previous spell. So, she assumed it would have the same limitations. The second level of the skill would allow her to make portals but, at twenty seiðr per second it would take thirty five seconds to fully stabilize the anchor. Then, presumably, an additional thirty five to make the portal at the other end. Not even mentioning she would have to wait until she and Bjorn regenerated their magic first.
She sighed and gently pulled Anasuya from her waist and placed her on Bjorn's back. The hatchling held on to him and hissed in contentment. She didn't even wake up from the transfer.
The group ran towards the town. Their pace was cautious as they didn't want to run into a trap. The people on the walls were waving at them trying to get them to run faster which only made them more suspicious. Then they felt a tremor beneath their feet.
"Faster," Bjorn hissed dangerously.
Tanisha turned around only for a moment and saw the ground open as the sun set in the distance. She could hear the cries of something terrible ripping its way out of the blackened earth beneath them. The clay beneath her feet became fingers trying to grasp her.
"Tanisha, Bjorn move now!" Aurelius said.
From the wall a wave of arrows and weapons flew up then down. None of them aimed at the party but wherever they hit were screams of pain. Bjorn shot forward with his movement skill and Tanisha used her new teleportation skill.
Instead of a flash of movement a portal opened in front of her like a cut in a painting. She could see the destination she was traveling to. As soon as she stepped through she was at the location and the portal closed behind her. It took her a second to reorient herself and start running again. In that moment she saw the things that were rising from the ground.
Long gaunt silhouettes pulled themselves out of the up. Vaguely in the shape of a man though their bodies pallid as if dead flesh was stretched over a corpse. Each joint bent a little too far in the wrong direction. Their heads were narrow and nearly featureless aside from slits that opened along the sides of its face down their necks.
Tanisha turned and ran to the wall using her teleportation three more times before she finally reached the metal. By that point dwarves at the top were lowering down a ladder. Bjorn barreled next to her his momentum stopping only as he braced himself against the wall. Aurelius was right next to him though he could have arrived much sooner with his speed.
Bjorn's tail wrapped around Tanisha, without a second to think he launched himself up.They landed atop the wall in a single bound. Aurelius was already beside him by the time they came to rest.
"By the forge," a dwarf said in surprise.
"Raise the ladders fools! don't just stand their gauking!" Ironbrow commanded.
As the ladders lifted a tide of monsters crashed against the wall. One managed to grasp the end before it was out of reach. It pulled the ladder back down only to face a spear from Ironbrow. The glaive hit like artillery magic killing the monster in a single strike and others went flying. The ladder was quickly pulled up before more monstrosities could reach it. The hole left in the mob from the explosion was quickly filled with the press of even more monsters.
There was a moment of relief from the crowd. Then eyes turned to the newcomers on the wall. Many of those eyes quickly landed on Tanisha. Before a cloak was thrown over her by a short woman in light armor.
"You men need to show more courtesy to a lady!" The woman yelled.
"Is that a fuckin' hydra familiar?" Someone else called out.
There were voices coming from every direction before one rose over them all.
"Who are ya and what are ya doing walking naked through the deadlands in the evening? Do ya have a death wish?" Ironbrow said as the crowd parted for him. "Foreigners ain't supposed to be travelin' out here without escort and papers."
Aurelius stepped up and a cloak was thrown his way too. He quickly wrapped it around his waist. He introduced them to Ironbow who was definitely the one in charge. He explained they were forced through a Rift and somehow survived, being careful not to mention anything with the Trues. Going by his story they were just travelers lost with their familiars trying to get home.
"Tanisha, Aurelius and familiars Bjorn and Anasuya." Ironbrow chewed on the names for a moment. "You said you came from just outside of the Force Isles?"
"Yes, it may be hard to believe but we just need directions and we'll be on our way." Aurelius looked down at the monsters. "In the morning most likely."
"No, I believe ya." Ironbrow said his voice was contemplative. "That storm with the freaky lightning was here for several days. Before it suddenly stopped. It was interfering with the rune script on all my ale casks. Then it up and disappeared, we heard sightings of a juvenile hydra walking around. Damn… well we have to arrest ya for coming here without a permit. You're in Isopike, not the Force Isles. It might take a while to get back home."
"We are in Isopike?" Aurelius echoed much louder than necessary. "We are further from the Force Isle here than where we started at Yuhia."
"Yeah, welcome to the home of the dwarves." Ironbrow said.
"Did you say you have to arrest us?" Tanisha asked.
"Yeah," Ironbrow said. "Don't make it difficult, we just have to follow the law."
The team all looked at each other.
"Is there a way you could just let us go?" Tanisha said. "We'll kill the monsters and head somewhere else."
"No, now that you're here we have to process ya. Otherwise if ya get caught somewhere else they might do worse." Ironbrow said with a wave of his hand. "An elf, a demon, a hydra and a dragon and here I thought I've seen it all." He turned to the other dwarves, "what are ya all standin' around for? They brought so many of the nightreach out this time, be sure to work hard tonight ya lazy asses."
The dwarves on the wall quickly dispersed. They went over to large ballista emplacements on the wall that Tanisha hadn't noticed till then. They would target a nightreach and fire with a loud foom! The bolts, which were the size of a spear, had a chain tied to the end. When it struck a monster killing it on impact they would drag it back up, the body crystalized as the creature died. Dwarves at the top with pickaxes would break up the crystals and load them on carts.
This was happening all over the wall and Mine carts quickly filled with the crystalized remains of the monsters. Her eyes followed a track deeper into the dwarven town. They were quickly lost in the sprawl of metal and stone. Her eyes opened wide when she saw it wasn't as much a town as it was a layered hole in the ground. Each ring had buildings which hummed with magic runes and heat from steam lines which seemed to power all of the infrastructure. Large smoke stacks rose almost comically tall from workshops. In the center of everything was a massive building where all the steam lines and mining tracks and roads terminated. It was the hot beating heart of the settlement.
Dwarves moved, most retiring for the night but some leaving homes to join the night crew in killing the monsters and processing the strange crystals. Tanisha couldn't help but sigh at the sight. It wasn't that she wasn't impressed, it was because she just spent years in a metal city underground. Now she was going to spend an unknown amount of time in a different hole in the ground.
"This is the forge town Drakvik. Normally we don't see much travel," Ironbrow said as he waved for the group to follow them. "For the time being you all will be with me. Watch your steps and heads."
"We really could just be on the way," Aurelius said. "We are in a hurry. Just a map and一"
"Even if ya could get past all of dem monsters, that ain't the problem." Ironbrow said as he walked down the steps. "You all are on the far side of Isopike, you would have to head east through the deadlands going further into the kingdom. We are a forge town and honestly we don't want to have to deal with ya here. But out here you are paperwork and a Token of Entry away from going free."
Ironbrow scoffed as he gestured vaguely to the wall, "out there the stuck up bureaucrats are putting hands into everything, you'd be locked up for years before hearing a trial. Everything is permits and paperwork and money, no Entry Token and that means you haven't paid the right people."
"And here?" Aurelius asked.
"A week or two and we'll get ya those tokens as long as ya ain't a bunch of criminals," Ironbrow said. "Now come on, I got to get back to my brewery."
"Brewery?" Tanisha asked, looking at his floating glaive. "Aren't you a guard or something?"
Ironbrow chuckled, "Nah, I am Ironbrow Kegsplitter. I run the brewery. I just so happen to be good at pokin' things with a spear when the times call for it.