M25

Morgan looked over the area that Olivia had led him to - the grass was unblemished, no tents having been in the area, and it had a very gentle downward slope leading to the northern wall of the settlement about two hundred yards away. Because of the grade and the distance, the wall seemed less imposing than it was, and Morgan could see sprawling plains out past the sparse trees. Beyond the plains, tall, purple mountains rose into the sky. The sky was tinged orange in the fading light, and the jagged, bruised peaks had highlights of amber and ochre. “You weren’t kidding about having a view.”

“Yeah, when we have enough System Credits, we’re going to start building nicer homes around here to offer as an incentive for top contributors to the colony.” Olivia looked around, taking in a deep breath of the fresh air.

“The Contribution Store seems like a great tool to get people motivated. It practically runs the colony for you,” Morgan commented while fumbling with the heavy sack tied to his wide belt. He finally untied the leather cord and lifted it free. “This dwelling seed is heavy as hell. Was the forge seed heavy, too?”

“I don’t think so, Bronwyn described it as a scroll, and she activated it by the Colony Stone, not where she wanted the forge to be.”

“Different things, I guess,” Morgan said, pulling the dense polyhedron from the sack. “So, again, I don’t know how big this thing will be. You’re sure people are okay with me putting a tower here?”

“Yes, the civil engineers from among the colonists have created a layout for the initial colony, and, as I said, this area was designated for higher-tier homes. Right now, we’re still building high occupancy dwellings to get people out of tents.”

“Alright, well, you reckon this thing will account for the slope? I don’t want the tower to be leaning.” Morgan scratched his head, contemplating the heavy lump of rune-infused metal. Olivia just shrugged in response. “Well, let’s give it a go,” he said, channeling some Energy into the polyhedron.

***Dwelling Seed: Vormendion’s Iron Tower. One use, permanent dwelling construct.***

Morgan pushed a little more Energy into the seed, and a new prompt appeared:

***Dwelling Seed: Vormendion’s Iron Tower. One use, permanent dwelling construct. Activate? YES/NO***

Morgan selected ‘YES,’ and the prompt disappeared. The seed grew warm and emitted a clanging sound, like a large, metal bell ringing just one time. He kept hold of the seed, and it continued to grow warmer and warmer. After a few seconds, it clanged again. The seed continued to heat up, becoming uncomfortable, and it clanged again, this time jumping in his hand a bit. A few more seconds passed, the seed was growing painfully hot, and the dark bronze-colored runes in the depths of the gray metal started to glow brighter. Morgan set it down on the grass, and it steamed, turning the grass beneath it brown and then black. It clanged every few seconds, and the sound seemed to be getting louder and more frequent. Olivia looked at Morgan and then the seed, and she began to back up. Morgan understood the wisdom of her action and also began to back away from the smoking, jumping, clanging seed.

After about five minutes, the seed was glowing orange and smoking. The clangs were coming every two or three seconds, and with each clang, the seed jumped several feet in the air, always landing exactly in the blackened grass where Morgan had first set it. Morgan was starting to wonder if he was supposed to do something else when something different happened: the seed jumped, clanged, and then expanded, falling back to the grass, nearly twice as large as it had been. Things calmed down for a few minutes after that, the seed having lost much of its heat. It sat in the grass, smoking still but visibly less agitated. Then it clanged, and the sound was much deeper and louder than before. The process began again, with the clangs slowly coming faster and the seed slowly growing hotter. By the time the seed jumped and expanded again, a crowd had started to form on the grassy meadow.

The sun had nearly set, and the sky was growing dark. The seed looked especially bright as the shadows elongated, though many people were carrying lanterns and a few had little glowing balls of light. Morgan wondered if they knew how to create those with some skill or spell or if they’d bought them from the Contribution Store. As they watched the seed heat up, clang, and expand, Morgan fielded questions about what was happening. After thirty minutes or so, the seed was the size of a beach ball, and the sonorous clangs sounded like a church bell. Morgan was beginning to wonder if this would continue until the seed was the size of a tower, but then something changed: the seed started to spin in place, glowing and smoldering like a fallen meteorite.

As the seed spun faster and faster, a glowing disc expanded from its center. People were making sounds like they were watching a fireworks show, “Oooh, aaah!” Morgan smiled, happy to be among a community again. The disc had expanded to about ten feet out from the ball in just a few seconds. People saw the expansion of the spinning, glowing disc and began to back away. The disc continued to expand until it was a good forty or fifty feet across, and then it flashed, and, with a flare like a bomb going off, it expanded up into the sky and down into the ground, forming a glowing orange cylinder. The structure was forty feet at the base and stretched a good eight stories into the air, where it tapered to about half the diameter. Morgan could see crenelations formed at the top of the tower, though they became indistinct in the darkness as the orange glow faded from the metal tower.

Morgan couldn’t stop the grin on his face as he watched the immense metal construct slowly cool, ticking as the metal contracted in the night air. A short set of dark metal stairs led to a heavy pair of solid-looking double doors made from the same metal as the rest of the tower. A peaked metal gable extended from the tower’s surface to protect the doors from the elements. Morgan was eager to explore the building, but, like the rest of the crowd that had gathered, he was wary of the heat. He looked to Olivia and said, “Hey, thanks for the company, but I think it’s gonna be a little while before I can open the door. You don’t have to hang around.”

“Oh? Don’t want to invite me in, I see,” Olivia said, a teasing note in her voice. “Don’t worry; I’m just joking. I do have a few things to do before I turn in. I’ll check on you in the morning, or someone will. It was nice to get to know you a bit today, Morgan.” She stood up from where she’d been sitting in the grass and waved, starting back up the slope to the main colony encampment.

“Thanks for everything!” Morgan called after her. She waved, again, over her shoulder. As the tower cooled and the shadows lengthened, most of the crowd dispersed. When Morgan finally decided to go up and give the door a try, a few people stood around expectantly, but he turned to them and said, “I’m going in alone for now. Happy to give tours another time. Nice to meet you all.” There were a few disappointed grumbles, but he tuned them out and climbed the steps, gingerly placing a hand on the ornate door handle.

***Quest: Defeat the guardians of Vormendion’s Iron Tower 0/8. Reward: Access to each guardian’s level and Vormendion’s Reliquary. Accept? YES/NO***

“Of course, there’s a quest to access my quest reward,” Morgan sighed and selected the “YES” prompt. An audible click vibrated through the door, and he found himself able to pull it open. It swung smoothly and easily, with almost no friction. Looking through the doorway, Morgan could see a foyer open up before him. The lighting was warm, provided by a wrought-metal chandelier with some sort of flame spouts filling orange and yellow glass globes. The flames gave off no smoke and seemed entirely contained within the globes. Metal benches lined the short entry hall, and beyond the entry, an elaborate metal staircase rose in a graceful spiral into the shadows. Three sets of double doors lead out of the central room, one behind the stairs and one to either side. The doors seemed to be made from dark wood, like mahogany. The floor and walls of the interior were, likewise, paneled in a dark, hardwood. It was warm and rather pleasant in the glow of the bright chandelier.

Morgan gripped his spear and advanced out of the entryway toward the spiral stairs. He could see that the metal of the railings was carved into myriad shapes of animals, leaves, and flowers. He marveled at the craftsmanship, all the while wondering when the first guardian would jump out of the shadows. As he walked around the central spiral, he concentrated on being stealthy, hoping his skill would serve him well. He noticed that the tower seemed to be larger on the inside than the outside. The central room alone was easily as wide as the building appeared from the outside. After completing a circuit of the chamber, he looked up the staircase and could just make out a dim landing about twenty feet above. He decided he should deal with one floor at a time and approached the doors to the right of the entryway first.

Morgan found himself wishing Issa were there. He could use the companionship for one, and for two, she could open the door while he burst through with the spear ready. As it was, he’d have to let go of the spear to open the door with one hand. He did so, adrenaline pumping, senses hyper-alert as the door creaked open. He winced at the sound and backed up, leveling the spear in front of him. Nothing happened. He pushed the door further open with the tip of his spear and slowly advanced into the room. He just about lost control of his bodily functions when another chandelier flamed into life, shedding light on a new scene. A long dark table filled the center of this room, directly beneath the chandelier, and it was lined with ten chairs of similar make. Faded tapestries hung on the paneled walls.

Morgan wanted to study the scenes on those tapestries but didn’t allow himself to be distracted. The dining hall was rectangular and large, with an outer wall that curved like the tower wall. He could see no exit to his left, so he turned to his right and steadily advanced through the room. He was walking to the right side of the table and could see that a few feet from the end of the table, a set of swinging double doors led out of the room. He guessed they led to a kitchen and was proven right when he poked his spear into one of the dark doors and pushed.

The kitchen was shaped similarly to the dining room but was appointed much differently. Once again, it was lit with flaming glass orbs, but these were in six sconces attached to the walls. The walls were bare metal, like the outside of the tower. Lining both long walls were butcher-block counters with cabinets beneath. The far wall was dominated by a large cast iron-appearing oven and stovetop. To the left of the oven was a metal door secured with a rune-inscribed padlock. After making sure nothing was hiding in the corners, Morgan tried to pull open the padlock, but it wouldn’t budge. A mystery for later, he supposed.

Back in the central chamber, Morgan repeated the process of opening the next set of doors. This time, he was prepared when the room flared with light. Another chandelier hung from wood-paneled ceilings, illuminating a room lined with built-in bookcases. They were, tragically, entirely bare. Comfortable-looking chairs were placed in conversational groupings. Some of the chairs were upholstered in soft brown leather, and some in a faded, age-worn printed fabric. Morgan counted the chairs and sofas and realized thirty people could comfortably sit in this room. The tower’s layout didn’t make sense; a room this large would be here, but he had long since stopped trying to make sense of things that employed dimensional magic. There were no other exits from the room, so he went back to the central chamber to open the last doors.

The lack of confrontation thus far had Morgan feeling a little careless, and he shoved the last set of doors open, then grasped his spear in both hands. Nothing came for him, so he stepped into the room. Sconces along the walls flared to life, and he was rewarded with a view of a poshly appointed study. A colossal desk filled one wall with a deep leather chair behind it. Behind the chair were more empty bookcases. This was the first room to be carpeted, and the carpet was a thick, unworn, deep burgundy with a plush pile. There were a couple of polished wooden chairs with leather seats in front of the desk, and off to the left was a large square table covered with an ornately carved, wooden, topographical map. Morgan was instantly transfixed by the site of the map table and walked over to look at it.

The map was incredibly detailed with ornate carvings and vibrant paints, but Morgan couldn’t make head or tail of what it was depicting. There were mountain ranges and bodies of water and forests, but he had no idea of knowing where they were or if they were even on this world. Who knew where Vormendion had initially built this tower? He supposed the System knew. Those were his thoughts when Morgan saw the shadow move on the table, just to the right of his own.

Morgan didn’t think; he just dropped and rolled to his left, dragging his spear with him. He almost got it tangled with a table leg but managed to shift and roll further away from the table, springing to his feet. He’d been vaguely aware of something moving behind him, and he looked around now, furiously scanning the room, but couldn’t see what it had been.

He slowly turned in a circle, looking for any sign of an aggressor, but found nothing. He was starting to doubt himself, wondering if he’d been, literally, jumping at shadows. Just as he began to relax, though, he felt an icy stab of pain on his left shoulder, and, out of reflex, he spun and swung his spear in a wide arc. He was just barely fast enough to see a shadowy entity break apart as his spear tore through it. He wondered if he’d killed or hurt it, but the shadows came together again in the corner of his eye and he felt another icy cut rip into his right bicep. Once again he whirled and stabbed with his spear only to be met with air as the shadowy being dispersed around the tip.

Morgan growled in frustration and pain and began to channel Energy Drain through his spear, bracing himself for another attack, trying to move in erratic directions to throw his tormentor off. He made a lucky feint to his right, but spun to his left, and caught the shadow mid-swing. It looked like a tall, skeletally-thin person completely made of dark smoke, the only color coming from cobalt eyes. Morgan thrust his spear into the being and pulled. This time, when the shadowy creature started to disperse, it was pulled back into form. Morgan saw the panic in its eyes as they widened, and he grinned angrily, continuing to channel his Energy Drain. He felt the foreign Energy enter his body like a splash of cold water, but he kept pulling as the blue light faded in the shadow visage’s eyes. When they finally winked out, Morgan felt stronger, and knew that his wounds had healed. The shadows fell away into nothing and he looked around, making sure it had been a lone attacker.

“Congratulations, lord, on vanquishing the first guardian,” a voice like tinkling glass said from right behind him.