Corvayne advanced down a ramp towards a glowing depression. On both sides were steel machines, some standing tall, others tilted. The latent lights painted them in shades of blue from gleaming white to the black of sea at night. Parts of the huge interconnected metal structures reminded him of a foundry, others seemed like reactors.

Brines broke the low hum that passed for silence on the floor for a third time. "Do you think it's radioactive?"

Corvayne and Lady Blood Claw and Nyxion all said "No." at the same time in the same tone. He wasn't sure if it was [[Unity]], or just that everyone was equally nervous about the area they had found.

"I mean, it's crackling with energy, it's got blue light, are we sure we don't have a geiger counter?" Brines was trying to walk as close to the middle as possible.

Spears took a glob of water and tossed it onto a pile of rocks, causing a small storm of hissing and cracking as electricity blew it apart. "I think Wick had one."

Bearer laughed a little bit. "There's an easy way to tell if this place is so blue because of radiation. If we all die in twenty minutes, then yes."

Bell growled. "If you don't have anything productive to say, then let us stay silent."

"There are barely any monsters here." Bearer gestured with her hand, and she was mostly right. The floor had a few spitters here and there, but the acid flinging monsters were sparse compared to the huge city they had just traversed. That left Corvayne nervous about the other shoe dropping rather than letting him relax. The ambient blue light glowing from black rocks, the huge machines, the low hum... to him there was something creepy about it.

They reached another fork in the road, this one formed by what looked like a huge wedge carved out of the floor. Corvayne could see over the lip of the crater that a lake of electric magma had melted into the floor. Corvayne guessed the mess was still sinking, as there was a metallic smell in the air and he could see what looked like bright blue streaks near the pit of stones.

Spears looked over the edge. "That stuff is melting through the metal and stone floors..."

Corvayne let his compass point him to the right on the path around the lake of electrified stones and started leading the group to a There was a small crackle and he heard Bell hiss. A moment later Brines was extending his recovery aura. Looking back, he saw she had strayed too close the walls.

"There's no way some kid got through here." Nyxion said as Spears hung back to help Bell walk.

Bearer stuck a finger out, watching as the rock she got near zapped it. "Nasty, if you fall you probably lock up on one of the rocks and just die. Fun place Corvayne! Different then a regular volcano."

"I didn't pick it." He had to pause. He sort of did, didn't he? The compass power was a part of him.

Nobody picked up on his hesitation, so he shrugged and kept walking. The walkway they were on weaved between machines, with even more rock oozing from them. The smell of ozone was stronger as they approached what looked like a pyramidal building with a small entrance. Inside Corvayne heard a buzzing noise.

Monster, Trap, or environmental hazard... whatever it was he made sure he was ready, activating [[Vitality]].

He stepped into the darkened passage, careful to stay away from a vein of the blue lava running through the side of the arch. Passing it he felt the hairs on his arms rise. Looking into the chamber, he saw that there were racks of the blue material, caged in what looked like ornate metal structures that made them look like lanterns. Around the room were tools of forging: Hammers, anvils, tongs, buckets with sand and what looked like metal filings. There was an obvious exit across the smithy floor, a series of bars caked with glowing blue stone and arcing lighting across itself. Stepping in, spear ready, he saw that the room fit the pyramid shape, stretching up to a catwalk and ceiling with vents at the top. It smelled like ozone and solder.

He strode in. There were half finished weapons in some of the buckets. He could see that the anvils had what looked like rubber bases holding them off the floor. Tapping it with his foot, he felt it spring a little. Likely rubber as well. Glancing up at the walkways, he could see that the stairs up and what looked like a platform overlooking the operation had been slagged by lightning rocks.

Spears was the next in, and took a deep breath. The watery woman saddled up next to him, looking sharp at the moment. He remembered that was one of the things he had always respected about her, even on patrol with him she was all business and didn't waste much time talking. Seeing her now, looking around the room like a hawk, he suddenly felt a little more calm about the situation. Sure, they were on a hopeless quest, but he had someone to watch his back. Someone who understood him. Someone who noticed him looking too long and turned her slimy cheeks bright red.

He averted his gaze to see Nyx help Princess Bell past the narrow electric vein. Her daughter was somewhere in this maze, but he doubted that all the damage to the room had happened months ago. There were hints of wood things that had disintegrated here. Was his Compass picking this path because it was the fastest? Or most direct? Or did it 'know' that it was the only one that worked?

Corvayne didn't think it would point him to a dead end, at least. "Any ideas?"

Bearer gestured at the bars. "I doubt they decided to make a jail out of that door. There's probably a way to lift the bars."

Lady Blood Claw looked around the room. She used her glowing red blade to gesture upwards. "And I bet the switch is on the extremely dangerous platform full of lightning-lava."

Corvayne started to lower his gravity while rubbing his hands. "Right, I'll go-"

Nyxion floated up, shield letting lightning lap harmlessly against it as he levitated to the platform and kicked something on a raised console. A moment later, the sounds of heavy chains could be heard moving in the stonework and the electrified bars slid up. It left a small pile of the stones by the door. Nyx floated back down and dusted his hands. “Why thank you, I AM amazing!”

Corvayne nodded as he did appreciate not being actually called on to handle a dangerous feat of agility for once. He turned his attention to the next problem, being a line of rocks he really did NOT want to jump over. On a whim, moved towards the loose blue rocks. His shadow hands snaked out and while there was a buzzing, they seemed able to pick the electric stones up. He started throwing them off into the corner of the forge, but commanded his shadow hand to take one and put it into his ring. At the very least, Mosh would get a kick out of it.

Corvayne stepped through the now clear portal, but he liked the looks of the next section even less. It looked to be some sort of housing area, something like a few blocks of a city built to house whoever was doing whatever this section of the dungeon was made for. There were three floors, and bridges and stone walkways linking everything together. There would be many ways to get to where they were going, but whatever accident that had claimed this dungeon was pumping an electric river of running blue rock magma through the streets and buildings. In some places it was falling like a waterfall and splattering with little lightning bolts arcing in pops of white. In others places it flowed thinly down the street, a faint blue stream cackling with energy like rippling waves on water.

Lady Blood Claw took a deep breath. Spears put a hand on Corvayne's shoulder. He looked to Bell.

Bell was looking at everyone. Corvanye felt her determination through the [[Unity]] link. If they left her, she'd keep going forward.

The Compass gave him a sense of where his goal was, but it seemed to have trouble with the maze he saw before him. He was moving for a stairway when he saw something moving in one of the buildings. His danger sense spiked as a distortion moved towards him.

Corvayne bolted backwards but got clipped by what felt like a sharp wall of air. It slammed him into a wall practically made of the electric rocks, and a moment later he felt a hundred hot knives blasting through him.

Bearer-of-Burdens pulled him off and Corvayne laid on the ground a moment, pain blasting through his whole body as every muscle seized up. A moment later someone forced healing potion into his mouth, and for a moment he was drowning in it until it seeped into his lungs and he could breath again.

There was commotion as he saw what looked like a ball of death fly through a house, blasting lightning everywhere. His eyes twitched for a while before he felt the shock lessening.

Lady Blood Claw waved her hand in front of his face. "You alive?"

He tried to move his hand to get hers away. "Yes."

She nodded, and helped him up. She hissed when he gave her a nasty shock but didn't drop him. He wobbled a little on his feet. It felt like he had sunburn inside his ribs. "That literally cooked me."

Spears came back down the steps, dragging something that looked like a deflated balloon made of skin with too many beady eyes. "Got em for you Corvayne."

He nodded. If the thing took a second shot and hit Bell...

"We need to change our tactics..." He took a hand and gingerly reached into his ring's storage, and pulled a sturdy coil of rope out. "We buddy up."

A little later they started moving through the maze, roped to one another like mountain climbers. He was thinking it was like a book he had read long ago, probably the same fantasy novel where he got the notion that people fall off cliffs in the dark. It took a few starts and stops to get used to tugging everyone behind them.

Lady Blood Claw was faint orange as she looked down at her spot in the middle. "I feel like you're implying I'm the heaviest person."

Bell had a death grip on her rope, and Corvayne could see her struggling how to tell Lady Blood Claw she was jealous of her, and Lady Blood Claw not happy with the implication that she was a heavy heavy. Corvayne stomped with enhanced weight, slamming dust into the air around his foot.

"I'm the heaviest, actually."

He channeled gravity to his whole form then started up the stairs, knocking bits of dust off. He had to apply [[Strength]] to not wind himself after three steps, and the extra weight still tired him out. As did exploring the buildings while weighted to avoid getting knocked into ever present piles of shocking sludge. The entire process was slowed by dozens of 'pushers' lurking in the buildings and in windows, all of them trying to knock them into electric lava. Even with the ropes, Spears got badly shocked twice and Bearer had to cram two potions down Brines throat after a hidden 'pusher' knocked him into the size of a fireplace that had a few glowing blue bricks in it.

"We need a break." Bell said, breaking up the tense monotony of trying to find a way around for the tenth time Corvayne opened a door and nearly was shorted out by sloshing magma.

Nyx snorted. "You should be the one pushing us forward."

Corvayne agreed. With Brine's auras, they didn't really need to stop. "There is, in theory, still an army that is looking for us from the previous floor."

Lady Blood Claw sat down, pulling Bell to knee with her. "Corvayne, it's been ten hours at least. They probably know better than to come into this place. Even if our bodies are keeping up, I need to shut my eyes before they get burned out by the color blue."

Spears motioned with her head, and Corvayne followed her into a side room. Less space, but only a single path out to an isolated balcony and no electric blue lava pouring in.

"We can camp in here." He called back to the rest of the party.

Lady Blood Claw helped Bell up so they could file in after Nyxion, who glided in right away and claimed one of the forged benches in the room.

Bearer went for the other bench and plopped down. Corvayne felt Spears tap his hand and he squeezed her hand, then went to the balcony to try to plot where they would go next.

Looking over the ruins, caught movement and held a hand up for quiet. [[Unity]] somehow slipped it's leash in that moment, and his desire was instantly transmitted to his team. The low murmuring behind him went dead.

He started getting tired as his entire team saw what he saw for a moment, multiplying the number of people looking. The shields came down and everyone's feelings and ideas and thoughts were pushed back into a warm glow. The moment they had linked, however, had defined what he had seen. Just a blink of a short figure made from the electric lava.

Everyone who had settled was already standing up preparing to move. Corvayne, Lady Blood Claw, and Spears had in the instant they were linked had looked at the way the monster was moving, and come to a single conclusion.

It was hunting them.