They say it's always happy hour somewhere. For twelve million of the twenty million Deep Delve preorders, happy hour landed at nine in the evening on a Friday night. A bit earlier in California, but as the studio was headquartered in Florida, they lived on east coast time. All across the country, men and women eagerly selected the Deep Delve icon as it appeared in their virtual environment. And so it began.
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Melody gasped, as her perspective was suddenly shifted from her VR lounge. She was hovering, maybe twenty feet up in an evergreen forest. She quickly glanced down and raised her arms, then realized that while she could feel the breeze that rustled through the pines, she didn't appear to have a visible body. She heard the sound of laughing children behind her and turned. Melody wasn't terribly familiar with Norse history and Mythology. Still, like every other human on the planet, she'd played her share of Skyrim, and she recognized what appeared to be a Norse village. She could see a forge, a sawmill, and she could smell a tannery. The village appeared to be built around a sunken longhouse, which was surrounded by a raw timber wall.
The children that had caught her attention appeared to be playing a game, possibly hide and go seek. A boy, dressed in rough linen and barefoot was speaking in an unfamiliar language with his eyes covered. Melody watched as the rest of the children scattered. She watched, bemused as one of the children hid just beneath her and to the left. On closer inspection, she was surprised to see that the kid had a freaking tail! And, she noticed, what appeared to be slightly high set furry ears.
As the seeker reached the end of his countdown, uncovered his eyes, and dashed out into the pines, she took the time to examine the other children that were still visible. It appeared that a few of them had some sort of animal characteristic. Her attention was diverted as the kid beneath her shrieked. Looking down, she was at first alarmed as a large man, wearing leather garments, and with a bow slung over his back and a long knife at his hip, had picked up the kid and was grabbing at them. The shrieks turned to laughter as the man adjusted his grip and held the kid upside down by their feet, and started tickling their sides with his free hand.
A few seconds later, the game had clearly been ended by unspoken consensus as the rest of the kids swarmed the man, clearly interested in the deer he'd dropped a few yards away before pouncing on his unsuspecting victim. He gestured to a fallen branch, and the kids picked it up, threading it through the leather thongs he'd used to tie the deer's legs together. It took three of them on each end, but they hoisted the deer, and with one kid on his shoulders and one on each hip, he walked, or rather, staggered into the village.
Melody felt a gust of wind on her face and blinked as a whirlwind of pine needles spun up from the ground, obscuring her vision, before disappearing, revealing an entirely new scene. It was late evening, the sunsetting to her right. She was standing on the wall of what looked to be a prototypical medieval city. The wall was a dark grey weathered stone, perhaps thirty feet tall. She was looking down a broad thoroughfare that appeared to be decorated for some sort of festival. Brightly colored banners hung from poles that jutted from second-story windows and were linked together with rope or string, from which hung fantastically colored balls of light.
The buildings were made of the same stone, with steeply pitched roofs that were covered with brightly colored tiles. The street below was crowded with people, and laughter and loud voices drifted up. Melody gasped as a Dragon made entirely of flame rose up above the crowd. It was ten feet from wing tip to wing tip, and twenty feet from snout to tail. It burned like the sun, bright yellow at the center, with glorious reds and oranges on the edges. The crowd below fell silent, then cheered as the dragon roared and dove back straight down into the crowd, completely enveloping a young woman in flame.
The crowd pressed and gathered up towards the woman as the flames died, revealing a black haired beauty with cinnamon skin. Wearing a modest cotton dress in a light yellow, trimmed with orange, she bowed to the crowd and then blew out a swarm of flaming butterflies, each of which landed on one of the children, who delightedly stroked them before they burst into brilliant sparkles. Melody saw more than a few of the people in the crowd toss what looked like slightly glowing grains of rice onto a cloak the woman had on the ground next to her.
The woman in yellow gestured, and this time a brilliant phoenix rose and swept over the crowd. Melody let out a yelp as the flames engulfed her as it passed over and through her, and then she realized her perspective had shifted once again.
Melody blinked. She was staring at a wall of brown. No, strike that. She was staring at a wall of bark. Turning around slowly, she realized that she had been facing what had to be the largest tree she had ever seen. Assuming the scale was correct, it had to be fifty feet across. Her scale came from the people below her on the bridges that ran from tree to tree. She laughed in delight as she realized that the trees supported massive platforms, upon which had been built a town.
Melody blinked as she felt the air move around her, and jerked back slightly as a winged form flew past her. She wasn't a bird watcher, but that had to have been an eagle or a hawk she mused. She watched the bird dive down suddenly, and then land on the shoulder of a man who was standing on one of the wood and rope bridges, conversing with a cat-tailed woman. On closer examination, she saw the slightly elongated and pointed ears that just had to mean he was an elf. The pair seemed to have reached the end of their conversation, as the elf reached up tickled the bird, who took flight off his shoulder. A quick hug was exchanged between the elf and the woman, and Melody gasped as they threw themselves off the bridge, before shifting into hawks themselves and flying off. She heard a shockingly loud screech from just above her and instinctively covered her face with an arm as another eagle flew through the space she occupied.
When she opened her eyes, she wasn't surprised to see that her view had shifted again. A warm breeze cut through the air. She was looking over what had to be a desert oasis, as she could see the rolling sands stretching endlessly to her left, while in front of her were lush palm trees lining a boulevard that led towards a dark lake that reflected the moons and stars above with fantastic clarity. 'Wait,' she thought, 'moons?'.
Melody turned her gaze towards the heavens and grinned ecstatically. She could see two moons, one about the same size as the moon on earth and slightly tinted blue, the other much smaller, and slightly tinted amber. Looking back down, she took in the oasis. It was surrounded by a low wall, only ten or so feet tall. The buildings behind the wall were at least thirty feet tall, some taller, and like the wall appeared to be constructed of adobe. She spotted a figure in flowing robes peek out from around a house towards the boulevard, then accelerate across the street, a spear in hand. Just as the figure reached the house on the other side, it planted the butt of the spear and vaulted up, grasping the edge of a second-story window.
A pair of hands reached out and grabbed the figure's arms and hauled it inside. Scant seconds later, two figures appeared on the roof of the house and walked over to the edge before settling down, leaning against each other. She could now see that the robed figure was a teenaged human girl. The other figure was a teenage boy, although his furred ears and tail hinted that he wasn't human. They sat on the edge of the roof, hands entwined as they looked out over the desert, talking quietly. Melody heard an odd noise from down the boulevard and saw a caravan slowly heading towards the wall, heavily laden camels and horses being led by robed men and women. The breeze stiffened, and she saw the couple on the roof look towards her, then hurriedly standup, and stealthily descend back into the house.
She sighed. She would have liked to have seen a bit more here. Turning, she wasn't terribly surprised to see a dust devil approaching her rapidly. Closing her eyes, she waited for the shift.
Melody yelped as she felt the cold raindrops sprinkle down onto her. She was looking over a graveyard. It wasn't huge, and while there were enough headstones to make its identification reasonably simple, it was mostly dominated by ornately carved mausoleums. Surrounding the graveyard was a low wall, only a few feet high, and fields of wheat. It was probably midday, although the clouds and sprinkles made it hard to tell.
She peered out over the fields, wondering what she was meant to see here. As she turned, she spotted a sided wagon in the field, an elven woman standing on the seat, watching as others slowly scythed down the wheat. Melody paused and focused on the harvesters. 'No fucking way..' she muttered. They were skeletons. They wore clothing, but their eyes burned a pale yellow, and they moved with the distinctive gait of animated bones bound by magic, rather than flesh and blood. She watched, awestruck, as the elf directed her skeletal work crew. The wagon was nearly full, and as it was topped off, the elven woman gestured, and four of the skeletons grabbed the traces and began hauling the wagon off the field, while she directed the other eight towards the graveyard.
The group approached the mausoleum just below Melody and stopped before entering. With a closer, clearer view, Melody could see as the elf carefully inspected each skeleton, giving an occasional "tsk" and casting some sort of spell that repaired damaged bones and, in one case, a torn shirt. The elf then addressed each skeleton in turn, kissing two of her fingers, making a sign in the air, then placing them on the foreheads of the skeletons. Once she had finished, the skeletons bowed as one and shuffled into the mausoleum. The elf then strode back towards the wagon, as a sudden deluge of rain encompassed Melody, blocking her sight, and making her shiver.
She opened her eyes and squinted as the bright sunlight reflected off the ocean in front of her. Melody smiled. She loved the ocean. Below her was what appeared to be the stern of a galleon. She heard the call of seagulls and the below of voices below. As she turned, she realized she was just above the crow's nest of the ship, and that it was pulling into port. Short, broad-chested men swarmed about the rigging, hauling in the sails. As she took in the sights, Melody realized that not all the figures were men. It seemed that rough spun shorts were the clothing of choice for the ship's crew, but a number of them sported chest bands that served to cover and restrain ample breasts. The crew seemed to be compromised entirely of dwarves, although she noted a few tails and tufted ears that served to confirm that humans weren't the only ones represented in the animal aspect races.
She turned her attention to the port and smiled. Turquoise waters lapped at the sandy shore, deepening as they left land to a light cerulean and then to the deep azure of the sea. Solid basalt buildings grew from the earth, a spot of darkness against the brilliant green of the jungles that grew around it. Tall peaks behind the town suggested a rather volcanic history.
Melody was pulled away from her inspection by the joyous shouts of the crew as the ship was lashed to the massive basalt moorings of the dock that jutted into the ocean. Kegs were hoisted from the hold, and the crew immediately set to celebrating their arrival. She noticed that each crew member had a lidded mug that they carried clipped to their belts. After three mugs each, and a great deal of toasting, the crew started pulling crates from the hold of the ship and piling them on the docks.
She caught a flash out of the corner of her eye and looked to see a lighthouse. Melody closed her eyes, anticipating the flash of light that heralded another change in locale.
Melody let out a gasp as she was assaulted by a bone-chilling cold. Opening her eyes, she saw her breath escape in a puff of vapor. 'Fuck me, that is cold,' she muttered. For once, she didn't need to turn to see what the game had to show her. A group of children dressed in furs were tobogganing down a steep slope. This was clearly a favored pastime as the snow was packed into a half-pipe, and the track itself was iced. A larger person, likely an adult, was standing at the top of the run, gesturing with a carved wooden staff, which launched a spray of snow over the children as they speed down, shrieking in excitement.
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As the kids reached the bottom of the run, Melody could see a small group of buildings, each with smoke rising from a chimney. Beyond, she could see nothing but thick forest and snow-covered mountain peaks. The children had drug the sled back up the slope, and instead of bringing it to the run, instead chose to launch a surprise snowball assault on their snow wielding supervisor. Their musical laughter changed to squeals as they were engulfed in a burst of snow as the staff-wielding adult returned the favor. Melody grinned as she watched, then let out a squeal of her own as the kids tackled their snow machine, causing the staff to point straight up and engulfing her.
Melody blinked. 'Ok,' she thought, 'as awesome as this is, I'm getting tired of getting shit in my eyes,' she grumped. She'd gotten Lasik for a reason, that being that she hated putting in contacts even more than she'd hated wearing glasses that always turned opaque by the end of the day in the shop.
Looking around, she realized she was now far above the ground, able to see what seemed to be an entire continent. It was shaped a bit like a kidney bean, with a string of islands tailing off the southern end. She could see forests, hills, mountains, grasslands, rivers, and here and there a few cities that must have been massive.
She started as a disembodied voice spoke. "Behold, the world of Althardel," it stated grandly, "home to our people for generations beyond remembrance." The voice went on, "since the beginning of recorded history, our lands have been nurtured by the ley lines that run through and across the globe." An intricate tapestry of glowing lines, burning every hue imaginable suddenly lay over the continent and ocean before her. "As the lines converge, the unimaginable power is brought forth and spilled out into areas that are saturated with magic, guiding and turning all things contained therein towards the nature of the converging lines."
Melody let out a gasp as she felt herself being pulled down rapidly, flying at incredible speed, the wind whipping through her hair as she descended towards land, and a pair of glowing lines, one red, one yellow. She screamed in glee as she rocketed down through a cloud. "Fuck yeah, bitches! Super Mel!" she screamed as she rocketed towards the ground. She was hurtling down towards a smoldering volcano. A large stone wall formed a ring around a gash in the earth on the side of the volcano, and Melody yelled in triumph as she stuck the superhero landing.
Looking around, Melody saw a number of creatures scurrying in and out of the cave entrance. Some of them appeared to be nothing more than flame given human form. Others seemed to be scaled humanoids with tails and talons. "And so," the voice startled her out of her investigation, "we have our Dungeons. Found wherever the ley lines overlap, these places are the focus of incredible magical power. Creatures are born from this power, and carry a shard of it within themselves, which allows for incredibly rapid growth and development."
She watched as time accelerated, and the planet spun through two day and night cycles. The ground in front of her blossomed, and a sunflower grew in front of her. Well, a sunflower that launched flaming seeds that exploded on impact when a lizard man tried to harvest it. The narrator continued, "Every Dungeon found is walled off. The energy that spills out from it leaches its associated essence as it spreads, and the walls mark where the energy ceases to alter the life within the boundary, and instead only encourages rapid growth and development."
"History has forgotten who first consumed an essence shard from a creature and discovered that it allowed us to grow as well. That knowledge spread so rapidly that all societies seem to have made that discovery at once." The voice continued, and Melody watched as a human with a sling killed a fiery squirrel that was on the wall, and after dressing it, found a small oblong shard, white with a slight red tinge. He squeezed it, gave it a sniff, then a tentative lick, then with a shrug, he swallowed it. Seconds later, he stiffened and looked at his hands in shock. He waved his hands in front of him for a second, then grinned broadly as an aura of flame surrounded them.
"We know that before we discovered the miraculous properties of essence shards, we were weak. We walled off the Dungeons to keep those unfamiliar with the area from coming too close. We didn't settle near them as the wildlife grew too large and powerful." The voice sounded sorrowful as it described their past. The tone changed towards that of triumph as it went on, "Then we learned how to make use of the gifts the Dungeons provided us."
The world blinked, and Melody found herself in the middle of a village. Possibly the first one she'd been shown, judging by the Norse architecture. Melody was standing outside a building, the exposed pillars and roof peak and beams carved with fanciful creatures. A woman rapidly approached the building, laboring under the weight of a young girl, who was clutching her arm and crying. The door to the building and a man exited, alerted by the cries of the child. He nodded to the woman and smiled at the child, who was lowered before him and exposed the injury, an ugly greenstick fracture of the upper arm. Kneeling, the man traced figures in the air with a wooden wand. A glow of green light surrounded the little girl, and when it faded seconds later, her arm was whole and unblemished. The girl's mother smiled gratefully at him and produced a handful of essence shards from a pouch at her belt, pressing them into his hand thankfully. The little girl smiled at him, gave him a careful hug, and scampered off, her mother chasing her shouting with exasperation.
"We grew in our skills and became more than we were. Our children learned to hunt creatures that grew outside the Dungeons, even the youngest of adults became more skilled than those who hadn't been blessed with the knowledge of the essence shards." The narrator went on, "Everywhere a Dungeon was found, we utilized. We discovered just how quickly creatures appeared in the Dungeons, and while the Dungeons could be dangerous, especially the deeper you delve, the rewards were undeniable."
Scenes flashed by Melody rapidly. She saw a woman forging a knife so sharp it cut through stone. She saw a man weave magic over a field and have it sprout a crop of corn in minutes. A dwarf channeled magic through a staff and conjured a stiff wind to move his becalmed ship. An elf mediated in front of a boulder larger than her for a second, then struck it with her bare fist, reducing it naught but pebbles and gravel. A girl with mouse ears and whiskers in a tavern spun a dagger across her fingers, increasing the speed till it was a blur, then threw it at a painted target on a foot thick slab of wood so quickly that her hands were a blur. Melody thought she'd missed the mark until she realized there was a small dagger-shaped hole that went all the way through it, and the dagger was buried deeply in the pillar behind it. On and on it went incredible feats of speed, muscle, skill, and magic.
Then the scene paused, and Melody found herself back at the Dungeon she'd initially been shown. Now instead of a forest, there was a town around it. "We don't know what went wrong," the narration continued slowly, with a hint of despair. "Our brightest scholars, our wisest priests, our most potent sorcerers, indeed everyone was baffled." Melody watched as humanoid fire elementals poured out of the Dungeon, and flowed over the walls before attacking the shocked townspeople and setting the buildings on fire. "Everywhere, the Dungeons boiled over. Powerful creatures that resided only in the deepest depths, some of them completely unknown and terribly powerful emerged, slaughtering our people and destroying our cities."
Melody was once again subjected to a kaleidoscope of scenes. She watched as cities burned, were frozen, were swallowed up by the earth entirely. She saw thousands of people die. Then the image paused. A horde of tents were set up on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of ships bobbed up and down on the waves. A group of men and women of all the races she'd seen and a few animal aspects she hadn't were gathered around a huge table that supported an aged map. "Our remaining leaders gathered those who were either away or survived the madness of the Dungeons. They engaged powerful rituals, scrying to seek out groups of survivors and desperately looking for a place where the Dungeons hadn't gone mad." The narrator's grief was tangible. "They failed. There was no place of safety, no refuge. Even this barren mountain at the sea wasn't proof against the tides of madness."
Melody was pulled up and over the encampment, and she could see the distant hills seething with movement. She was able to discern creatures, terrible in visage and power, moving inexorably towards her. The voice went on, "So, facing destruction, they decided. They would take their ships, which had by virtue of being at sea mostly escaped destruction, and they would send their people across the ocean." Melody blinked as time accelerated, and she watched the camp disperse, men and women ushering teens and children onto the ships. It was clear that the monsters would arrive before the camp was emptied.
Melody sniffled. Her headset must have gotten dusty. She watched as men and women kissed their children and boarded them onto the ships. Then they turned and ran back to the far edge of the camp, where the tide of monsters approached. "They knew they hadn't the time. They hadn't the ships. Facing the horde of madness, they knew they couldn't win," the narrator said, and then his tone changed. "But they didn't know despair. They came together to halt the tide and allow the sons of daughters of Althardel to escape."
Melody could only watch in awestruck horror as the survivors met the monsters. She saw the cinnamon skinned flame mage tossing enormous fireballs and lancing beams of plasma so hot they vaporized rock. She watched as a gigantic spiked wolf-like creature made it through to her and skewered her on its tail. Melody gasped as the mage, clearly in agony, spewed blood from her mouth as she wrenched out the final words of an incantation, igniting her own blood and raising a pillar of flame a hundred feet wide and two hundred feet fall, that left nothing but ash behind.
The shapeshifters from the elven tree city kissed their daughter goodbye, then shifted. The flew up above the horde, adroitly dodging the few flying creatures. Then they dove as one. Shifting just before they landed, a pair of oversized grizzly bears roared their defiance as they charged into a mass of twisted wolves, laying waste to hundreds before they were buried under sheer numbers.
The toboggan tender stood resolute before an avalanche of monsters. He conjured walls of ice that funneled the monsters into a pair of warriors wielding gleaming swords. He engulfed some of them entirely in ice. Spikes of ice brought down dozens of beasts, and he called a field of absolute zero air to slow the creatures down, carefully sculpting it around the warriors. One warrior fell. Then the other. Tears ran down his face, but still, he stood resolute against the horde. Finally, a twisted creature the size of a Buick was able to strike against him, severing him at the waist. With a final shout, his breath expanded, and every creature within fifty yards slowed, and those within the area a second later froze. Momentum caused a few to keep moving, and they fell to the ground, shattering.
Sailors fled their vessels, leaving only a few crewmen on board as they surged up the causeway to reinforce the frontlines. The leaders rolled up the map and stuffed it into a case. It was handed to a teenage boy who rushed down to the ships, which were slowly departing, one by one as they filled. With one more brief inspection of the evacuation, the leaders strode towards the collapsing battlefront. They hit the line like a sledgehammer. One turned into a hundred-foot long dragon. Another became a lightning elemental. Another stripped off his robes, and clad only in a loincloth launched himself at an ogre the size of an office building, moving so quickly that he ran up the front of the creature, and then struck it so swiftly and strongly between the eyes that its head simply exploded in gore. The line stiffened as these titans laid waste to the horde before them. Not for nothing were the kings, emperors, presidents, and potentates considered to be the strongest and most powerful of their people.
"They stood together, as never before, to halt the onslaught and give our children time to escape. Every monster slain was another child saved, and another moment gained for the ships to escape." Melody's perspective changed, and she found herself pressed against the railing at the stern of a ship, watching the cliff above slowly inch away, as the titanic battle above raged on. Time accelerated, and the ship moved away rapidly as the flashes of light from the cliff grew further away and less frequent. Finally, there was a massive burst of light, so bright that her eyes hurt. She raised her hands to shield her eyes, closing them wasn't enough. When the light dimmed, she saw the tide of monsters flow down the cliff to the water's edge, and she heard the howls of rage and victory from the horde.
"And so dies the light," the narrator said sadly, "Those that gathered on the cliffs of grief represented a fraction of a percent of our population. Those that escaped on these ships represent a further fraction of that percent. The greatest amongst us fought to their last to save us. We are all that remains. We've nothing but an ancient map, a copy of a copy of a copy, the original regarded as an eccentric curiosity, the work of a half-mad seaman. He was said to have arrived on our shores centuries ago. May you find safe harbor, a place where the Dungeons haven't gone mad."
The narrator continued, "Look ahead." Melody turned and looked aft. The horizon was dark, and storm clouds loomed. "The journey is perilous and uncertain. Those who reach the new land must become strong. There will be Dungeons there. Explore them, conquer them. No longer can any of our people remain weak. All must strive to reach their ultimate potential. Be they a farmer, scribe, or smith, no longer can we afford to have civilians. Everyone must become a combatant. Delve deeply that we might never taste such disaster again."
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