The trunk entrance in Brocarres was a plain stone cellar, arched ceiling with dozens of powered torches lighting it clearly. The first thing that Jonas looked for was the trunk access Gate. As usual, the blocky version of the Gate stood undisturbed, and the surroundings were some form of an enclosed area, separate from any guardian area which, presumably, would be the final one of the lair.

The one thing that stood out in the room was some large stone column to the other side. Jonas raised his hand, bringing the rest of the team to a halt, at least until they assessed the surprises that the area might hold. No sense of getting caught by the locking access mechanics, like the Othary closing door, or the Krilziar wood fissure.

“Underground basement?” Alton asked.

“Looks like,” Ira answered.

Jonas passed his hand on the blocky stones, to get a feel for the basement. Like many such constructions in the Labyrinth, it felt ancient. Of course, the buildings were essentially changeless – ruins did not further age or decay even after two decades. Attempts at repairing some ruins had failed as the repairs decayed, even when using stones from the same ruins. You could build in a zone as Gatepost showed, and even make roads if you were willing to. But modifying a lair was an exercise in futility. Broken stone walls “grew” back like mould and trying to pry out stones was harder than it looked.

“Where’s the exit, then?” Laura asked.

Jonas headed toward the one part of the room that felt different, the column. As he approached, there was a gurgling, as if water was flowing. Then, the stone moved silently.

Surprisingly, the column descended, then separated into segments that stopped at various levels.

A spiral staircase. Jonas raised his hand, stopping everyone.

“Okay. That exit should close again once we’re midway through it if it’s like the tree stump. So, we probably need to be quick.”

He peered upward. The actual staircase did not look long. There were maybe three, four feet of stone ceiling, then it opened into another room.

“It does not look like it’s a long climb, and there’s no second turning. So we should not be crushed if – no, when – the stair closes.”

“I’m still going to run. I don’t want to be thrown out by a stone piston,” Ira said.

“I wonder if the stair will remain open if one of us stays down?” Guss wondered.

“Not risking it. Remember, the door stayed closed once Cowen and her team were around. If it was as simple as having someone stay behind the doors, the trunk would be too easy to open for everyone. And if it stays closed, well, can’t come out until you leave,” Jonas replied.

“Okay. Rushing the guardian… now.”

They started running upstairs. Jonas was barely in the stairs when the water gurgling came back, and the stone under his feet moved. Fast. He nearly shot up, jumping out of the circular stone opening as the last step slammed shut with a definitive clack.

Jonas immediately looked around, but nothing seemed to be off. The team was already slightly spread out, ready, but the new room was quiet without the water or stone noises.

“Empty?” he asked, somewhat redundantly.

“Guardian’s not up, but it’s the lair, alright,” Jonathan announced, pointing out a small chest halfway into the wall to the side.

Scurrying Vermin

Elder Treasure

“Empty?”

“And locked,” Laura confirmed, trying to open up the box – futilely.

Jonas looked around, but the guardian’s lair was another enclosed underground room. The only trace of the stairs was a circular pattern on the ground, but there were multiple copies of the wheel-style double circle with connecting rays. In fact, if he had already moved, he would probably have hesitated about which one was the hidden staircase.

He stamped on the ground, but it sounded solid. Of course, it was. The stone column extended far under the hidden gate chamber.

“Okay. We’re now in the French sector, and it shouldn’t be too surprising if the lair is regularly visited.”

“We might have come out right when the French were fighting,” Alton noted.

“I’m pretty sure the stairs wouldn’t have opened up then,” Jonas said.

“So, where are we?” Ira asked.

“No real idea. It’s a big tier one zone, and there are nearly twenty-five lairs around. Let’s head out and see.”

The side of the underground room had a normal flight of stairs leading up. The stairs turned at right angles, following the wall, and through the darkened climb, Jonas could see a slightly warmer light up.

Once they reached the room upstairs, he noticed immediately a pair of some large openings in the wall, with the sunlight coming in. He pushed out his head to see what was outside.

The openings led to a kind of small village, stuck on a steep slope. Hundreds of feet below at the bottom of the slopes, there were trees, with some kind of morning fog clinging to the canopy. Jonas looked to the sides, seeing fern and flower-covered slopes to both sides. He pulled back in.

“I think I know where we are.”

“Oh?” Ira said.

“The zone is split in two with a mountain range in the middle, and we’re on that range. There should be only four lairs on this side… oh, unless it’s like Outapis with its symmetrical lairs at the centre? Bollocks,” Jonas swore.

Baudouin hadn’t known any information about the other lairs of the zone. Could there be more; Jonas had no idea. The British War Office had no further information beyond a number – 23 lairs total.

“So? Good? Bad?” Jonathan asked.

“I’ll assume that it’s the right side and the right lair. Normally, it should be rats…”

“Treasure says ‘vermin’ for the lair name,” he indicated.

Jonas looked outside again, getting the sun’s position.

“The range is north-south oriented. If this is morning, like it looks like, we’re on the correct side. And as most of the lairs are on the other side, this one is only used to get teams enabled for tier two. So, not too often.”

“We’re safe.”

“We should be. If the lair is empty, it was certainly used not too long ago. Let’s not linger. The Gates should be straight at the furthest from the mountain range. If we avoid going there in a straight line, we’ll be well hidden in the forest, I think,” Jonas said.

They crossed into an antechamber and stepped out in the small street in the mountain hamlet that made the lair. That’s where the surprise waited for them.

Scavenger Rat

Level 22 veteran

Health: 441

Mind: 70

Endurance: 326

Aether: 0

“Hey, there’s still a critter,” Jonathan pointed.

The rat looked at them curiously. That was the first time Jonas had seen a creature so close that didn’t seem to attack.

“What’s it doing? The lair is empty.”

“They might have missed some wandering critters. If they just come for the lair completion, there are probably houses that nobody bothers with,” Jonathan realized.

“That… or the lair is starting to regenerate. We really should be going,” Alton replied.

The rat rose on its hind legs as they started down the path.

“Okay, it’s not going to play nice,” Ira said heading toward the rat.

“Stop playing around,” Jonas replied.

Elemental Spray does 118 damage (fire) to Scavenger Rat.

The rat charged toward the robed spellcaster that had dropped a quarter of its health in a single shot, only to get a claymore hit and a pair of skill-enhanced hammer blows to his sides. A couple more strikes and the rat splashed on the pavement.

Scavenger Rat: 440XP/6 contributors = 69XP.

You have completed Brocarres Scurrying Vermin lair.

“Uh?”

“What?”

The rest of the team looked at each other incredulously.

“It’s not a guardian. Only one veteran? I know it's tier one, but it can’t be.”

Jonas poked with his sandals on the corpse that was already decaying, apparently leaving nothing. Not that the team would pick rat meat. Labyrinth rat might be some strange exotic good, but outside of hardened slum dwellers from London like Alton, nobody wanted that.

“I guess… coming out of the trunk Gate counts as nearly completing the lair? Maybe?”

“Handy,” Jonathan noted.

“Yea. Means that even if the lair has been used, there might be some random critters left for Agni teams, if that’s all that is needed to finish this lair,” Jonas confirmed.

Jonathan smiled.

“And we only need one for Argenmart. Now we’ve got it.”

“Okay. That’s one thing settled. Now, we need to scout the exact path to the Gate. Based on intel, it’s easy on the other side, as you just have to follow the zone border, and it’s only a short trip.”

“Not that we intend to get there,” Jonas warned the team. “We find a safe path, we Recall, we’re done here.”

“Let’s go,” Jonathan replied, heading further in the hamlet.

The street changed into a mountain path, slightly carved into the slope. The hamlet in which the trunk access was hidden stood halfway in the mountain. Above it, the slope deepened and left the side bare. The mountains didn’t sport any white traces of snow though. Despite being hard to climb, they did not look that tall.

A level 16 Mountain Mole – a giant specimen of the genre – poked its head out of the grasses and quickly moved out. Apparently low-level creatures really didn’t like attacking such a high tier party unless they were threatened. That was a nice change. If most of the zone wasn’t actively attacking, they could make good speed.

The path disappeared as they reached the bottom of the slope and the forested area.

Location

Zone: Brocarres (tier 1)

Locale: Eastern Bro’s Wood

Recall: Grailburg, Gate to Earth

Recall: available

Gates: 3/3

Tier 1: Zolferras

Tier 2: Donerkal

Tier 3: Vuneras

Fast travel: 0 charges, 29 hours until next

“Okay, based on the rough general map I got, the usual path between Gate and Plaza is north of here, should be about forty miles. So we’re going south a bit, to avoid any travellers, because the forest this side is sparser, with lots of clearings and fields.”

“Avoid getting spotted. Although, if they’re forty miles away, they shouldn’t notice us.”

“I’m more worried if a team comes to get enabled using the Scurrying Vermin lair. If the lair was starting to regenerate, there might be French coming soon,” Jonas replied.

The team slid into the edge of the forest and veered, following the edge of the mountainous area while staying under the canopy.

The night was falling, and they’d skipped on making fire. No sense advertising their presence, even if in a forest. They’d lucked out in that African zone on spotting the other team before making their usual camp, and that had taught them a good lesson.

“We’re making good time, I suppose?” Jonathan asked.

“A lot of tier one zones are relatively large. It’s about five days walk to the Gate, according to Baudouin. Probably a bit closer to four for us, since the local critters aren’t causing delays.”

Ira was munching hardtack biscuits silently, while Laura ate some candied apple slices. All had picked a fair amount of rations, although, in the case of emergencies, they could probably go without food for most of the duration. Hungry status didn’t do much but bring to their notice that they hadn’t consumed food, and it took several days to get Famished instead.

Their initial fears when they landed on Ovildian without anything had been relatively baseless. After all, Professionals could eat anything edible, survive poisonous mushrooms, didn’t fear scurvy and the various illnesses of the poor and could fast for a week without significant effects. Jonas had heard about Kian “Red Wolf” McCormack who had earned his nickname since, for the last decade, he had eaten nothing but raw red meat. Apparently, because he could.

However, just because it was edible didn’t mean it tasted good. Jonas’ favourite food for this was walnuts packed with molasses. He found the taste contrasting enough. Not as good as a hot soup or grilled vegetables, but for cold rations, that was close to perfect.

“Are we sure we head in the right direction?” Ira asked.

“We are. The forest is not dense enough to miss the sun,” Jonas replied.

“I wonder if there’s a Professional skill for this,” Guss asked.

“There is. The Professional that was following me in the Colonies was tier seven, and he said there are several new skill spheres at that tier. “Utility” they’re called. And there’s one skill in Environment-Utility. Orientation.”

Jonas noted the interest of all the team at that mention. New skills were interesting.

“It’s even funny for a tier seven because you nearly immediately get the skill when you pick the appropriate Profession – the Americans know only one such so far, or so I’ve been told.”

Orientation

Environment/Utility

Rank 0: Sense the direction and approximate distance to a zone’s Plaza, up to 20% of Focus miles. Loses precision fast beyond that limit.

“Uh? We’re not going to the Plaza.”

“No, but at rank 1, it’s supposed to let you track the closest Gate you can use.”

“Use?”

“Yea. No tracking trunk Gates by accident, I guess.”

“So, useless. Who's going to raise it?”

“No, if you know how you are relative to a Plaza, you can guess where exactly in the zone you are.”

“Oh. But you need incredibly high Focus.”

“The known Profession already does. Calculating Manifest Watchman requires a base of 365 Focus.”

“Ouch.”

“That’s tier seven for you,” Jonas smiled in the relative darkness.

“Gate,” Jonathan warned as they passed the small swell of the western edge of the zone.

“It should be the right one if I’m correct. Can’t see the descriptor from here, though.”

“And if it is not?”

“Then we missed our mark, and it should be south along the zone border.”

“Then let’s hope not.”

They’d just started to go down when movement appeared at the Gate. Suddenly one, two, five people in total came out. Jonas realized that their luck had turned, and they just stumbled on an incoming team, probably on their way to the experience and lair area east. That also meant the Gate was very likely to be the correct one.

“What do we do?”

“Act natural. Keep moving toward the Gate. We’ll cross it as if it was our intent, and Recall immediately,” he instantly said.

“And if we can’t?”

“As soon as we see the descriptor, if it’s not Argenmart, use a Fast Travel. That will let us seem as if we were crossing normally. Travel to… Vuneras. Then we’ll Recall. Hate to waste our only charge, but at least we have one.”

After all, they were coming from a different direction, possibly the Wolf Pit. The inbound team noticed the figures on the slope, however, and a handful of the Professionals waved. Jonas waved back, followed immediately by Ira and then Guss.

“Stay steady.”

Their luck turned sour as the leading Professional veered off, heading toward Jonas’ team.

“Bollocks.”

“Keep moving and ignore them.”

The frontman of the team looked strangely at Jonas. His eyes flickered to Ira and the claymore, and he suddenly straightened. The Aetherist realized suddenly that their artefacts would immediately denote them as being potentially very high tier. So much for acting like a casual team heading back to Argenmart.

“Excusez-moi, monsieur l’officier. Je ne pensais pas qu’il y avait une tournée par ici.”

(“Excuse me, officer. Didn’t know about any inspection around.”)

Jonas smiled back. He hadn’t understood much. Something about officer and visiting, maybe? Better to stay silent. None of them knew any foreign language, let alone French. And even if they did, they would sound foreign – Baudouin still sounded French after ten years among the English.

The man moved up and raised his wrist.

Jonas froze. Exchanging descriptors was out of the question.

The rest of the team noticed and their gazes snapped toward Jonas, waiting to see what would be the correct response. But Jonas had no escape from that trap. None.

Elemental Spray does 118 damage (fire) to Maurice Renard.

The man fell back screaming as the red ball of the spell hit him.

“Take them out,” he said, feeling frozen cold.

The French team stood for a second, incredulous. Jonas’ target turned, screaming to them.

“Un putain d’anglais! Ce sont des putains d’anglais! Fuyez! Il faut…”

(“English bastard! They’re English bastards! Run! We need…”)

A second fire-based elemental ball hit the Frenchman, and he faltered, surviving the hit. The light and dull chainmail meant he was certainly the defender of the team, and probably the only one able to survive more than a couple of his spells.

The other four were running toward the Gate. Ira fell on the slowest, a robed man trying to dodge. The Claymore did not miss and the healer fell on the ground, a massive slash across his back.

Laura fell on one of the fleeing figures, her hammers smashing across the legs. Her target fell as Jonathan jumped over the fallen form, aiming straight to the fastest runner. 78 in Agility closed the gap fast. The last two survivors were spreading out in the futile hope to avoid being caught, but Alton was already running as well, as his target turned at the last moment, screaming words that sounded like some plea.

Two swords fell across the runner 50 feet from the Gate. The man stumbled, made his way for half a dozen more feet before Jonathan sliced him again, ending the run.

The team stopped. No one was moving now on the front of the Gate.

Jonas felt like throwing up. It was one thing killing some random Labyrinth creature. But those had been people. Even if, in the abstract, they needed to die. For the Empire.

He breathed heavily before looking back on the wreckage. The corpses were strewn, and he did not even want to touch them. Most of the team looked a bit mortified now that the high of combat was subsiding.

“What’s the problem? It’s only Frenchmen,” said Jonathan, coming back.

“I know. It’s still…”

“We will kill more when we attack next year, you know,” the defender replied coldly.

“What do we do now?” Ira asked.

“We can’t leave them there. If another group comes out and spot the corpses,” Jonas said.

“We didn’t get experience,” Laura noted suddenly.

“No. Only creatures from the Labyrinth give any, and Professionals come from Earth.”

Jonas bent and grabbed the defender’s arm.

Maurice Renard

Deceased, 20 minutes, 4 seconds

Health required: 352

Yes

No

Jonas shuddered. Theoretically, they could resurrect the French team. But what for? They had no way to take prisoners.

“Let’s pull them behind the copse there,” he pointed toward the tree clump further away.

He draped the corpse of Renard and started.

“We’re hidden there.”

“Do we bury them?”

“The rules of the Labyrinth apply… they will start to decompose once they’re fully dead. They look like they were level 21 or 22? About that. So… in five more minutes, there won’t be anything left.”

“Yuck.”

“Cleaner that way,” Jonathan noted.

“They died fast,” Laura suddenly said, her face drawn.

“Level 20ish. One single Milestone, barely 200-250 health except for their defender, probably very basic gear. They probably just finished their first training and were headed to the main experience and lair area. They just came… at the wrong time.”

Jonas checked the resurrection descriptor, still ignoring the implicit question. As time slowly ticked away, he kept looking back at the encounter. Despite the distaste, he didn’t see anything he could have done. They couldn’t have run away – that would be have been highly suspicious.

Black lines started to crawl across Renard’s face, and the colour drained. The face shrank visibly, as corruption spread, rotting the corpse in the unmistakable fast way of the Labyrinth. On Earth, it would be different, and they could get a decent burial. Here...

Final death.

Soon enough, there was only some brittle bone that was starting to sag and a slightly smelly residue that was seeping into the ground.

“Get… get the gear. We can’t leave it there. Even if nobody should come that way, no sense leaving clues.”

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked back at Alton.

“Time to Recall,” the Solid Gouger said.

Calculating Manifest Watchman

(tier 7)

Required: 365 FOC, 188 CON, 188 PRE, 188 INT

Provides:

+20 health/+15 endurance/+35 mind/+65 aether per level

+1 Milestone/10 levels

Calculating Manifest Watchman Milestone: +19 FOC, +14 DEX, +8 CON, +4 STR, 0.5% effectiveness to FOC

Skillset: Environment / Utility