Today was to a unique day. An once in a lifetime event. Today ist the coronation of the first prince Abelion Gerat the Third. He succeds the King of Halendel, who died a few months ago after a long illness, after ruling the country for over 200 years. Halendel may be much smaller than its neighbors, but its unique location and good relations with its neighbours have made Halendel one of the most prosperous countries in Falagan over the past centuries. Halendel has played the role of a buffer between its immediate neighbors both politically and geographically, contributing to a stable peace in the region for decades and hosting numerous representatives and envoys on diplomatic missions at any given time. Halendel has thus continously grown into a continental center for trade and diplomacy.
Hara takes one last look at her reflection in her freshly cleaned window as she adjusts her hair ornaments and dress. Last but not least, she places a silver barrette with an image of a small bird in her long golden hair, a gift from her mother for her 133rd birthday. "Yes that should fit like that," she murmurs softly to herself. "Mother would kill me if I didn't wear the barrette for an occasion like this." Satisfied with her apperarance and with a smile on her face, she makes her way to the door of her small sparse room full of anticipation. The room has just enough space for a bed and a small closet, but her current salary as a seamstress unfortunately doesn't allow her any luxury. Thoughts she quickly dispels as she closes the door and makes her way down the narrow wooden staircase to the street. The street is even busier than usual with people of all races. She passes humans, dwarves, elves, and a variety of beastmen as she fights her way through the masses of people. The roadsides are populated by street vendors and merchants loudly advertising their verities. "Gupa! Only 5 copper coins a piece!" shouts a burly oxman in his deep voice, his powerful stature standing out from the crowd. "he must be at least 5 heads taller than me," Hara thinks to herself, impressed, as she squeezes between an interested wolfman and an awkwardly placed barrel. "Masterfully crafted jewelry and accessories!" a human merchant tries unsuccessfully to drown out the oxman. She would love to spend the entire afternoon wandering the various stores and browsing the wares on offer, but unfortunately doesn't have the time. She has an appointment with her friend and long-time work collleague Elina. They want to attend the procession togethern and, with a little luck, catch a glimpse of their new king. Distracted by the spectacle of the street, she has let herself drift too far along with the crowd. "Oh my, now I have to take a detour to the King's Street," she thinks to herself, annoyed at her own carelessness, and turns into the next side street. The street is not very busy and poorly lit due to the high walls of houses on both sides. At the end of the street, which leads back onto one of the much busier streets, she notics a small lizardman girl. She looks quite young, maybe around 10 years old, and is at least 4 heads shorter than Hara. She makes a rather sickly impression with her grayish white scales and red fleshy patches on her legs, arms and face where scales seem to be missing. She wears a dirty holey brown dress and holds a bundle of flowers from the region, which she seems to be selling. Hara is no saint, but she always makees sure that at the end of each month she donates a portion of her excess money to the Temple of Atom, which cares for the needy and orphans of the city. When the opportunity arises, however, she prefers to help people directly. The sight of the girl must have triggered some kind of maternal instinct in her, because she makes her way directly to her without hesitation. "Hello little girl, how much are the flowers?" asks Hara with a friendly face. "H-h-h... Hello ... . One copper piece for 4 flowers." the girl replies shyley while avoiding any eye contact and staring at the ground. "In that case, I'll take all the flowers for 5 coppers." Hara replies with a wink, offering more than initially asked. "Are you here all alone or are there parents or relatives of yours nearby?" asks Hara as she searches for her purse. "Huh, I had that tied to my beld, didn't I!?" she says uncertainly, scanning her dress and casting a searching glance down the street behind her. Suddenly, a squeaky voice behind her calls out "I've goit it!". Hara can just make out the little rat man before he disappears into the crowd with her purse. "Hey! Stop right there you thief!" she calls after him. There seems to be no trace of the little lizard girl. "Oh Atom, why am I being punished for a good deed?" she ask, glancing briefly at the sky, and takes up pursuit. The street seems even busier than before. People press shoulder to shoulder down the street in a continuous stream. Hara can just barely make out a rat tail as she squeezes into the crowd. Fortunately, the masses seem to be giving the ratman trouble and preventing a quick escape. "Just you wait when I get my hands on you!" she shouts at the top of her voice. Just as the ratman has made it to the other side of the flow of people and disappears into ta narrow alley. "I've got him now. There's no way he's getting out of there!" thinks Hara to herself victouriously as she also enters the alley. She has lived in Halendel for more than 50 years and therefore knwos the city center with all its winding alleys and streets very well. And the alley she is standing in allows no other way out, as any way out is blocked by 3 story high windowless house walls. And still she can't make out the figure of the ratman. "He can't have vanished into thin air!" she exclaims making her displeasure known. The only noticeable thing is the lid, which has been removed from the sewer manhole. "It can't be true!" she thinks to herself as she looks down into the sewer. Footsteps can be heard from the depths. The ratman seems to have descended into the sewer as a last resort. "What have I gotten myself into. This day couldn't have gotten any worse." Are the contents of the purse worth the pursuit into the sewer? It's a question that becomes all the more important as the awful stench hits her nostrils and the muffled sound of footsteps wanes. The purse contained at least 5 pieces of silver, an entire month's wages that she had saved up over the last 2 years for such a day as today. If she goes to the city guard now, she can be sure that she will never see her money again, since such thefts can hardly be traced. Thoughtfully, she grabs her hair and feels nothing. "He stole my barrette!" She remarks angrily. Her mother's last gift for her 133rd birthday. The last gift before she was lost at sea on the crossing to Karakan. Her last and only keepsake. Without further thought, Hara grudgingly makes her descent into the fetid depths of the sewers.
Contrary to popular belief, the sewers are well lit by magical mushrooms and moss that grow on the walls, in the sewage and on the ceiling. One of the reasons for this is that groups of adventurers have to eliminate the monster population in the sewers at regular intervals. The monster population consists mostly of slimes, smaller rat beasts, mutated spiders, and occassionally skeletons of poor souls left to die in the sewers. Traversing the sewers is generally considered safe, due to regular patrols by adventurers and city guards, but still unpleasent and messy.
The stench is almost unbearable as Hara stands ankle-deep in the sewage. The dim light from the mushrooms and moss bathes the sewer in a blue-greenish light. Form down here, she can now make out footsteps in the distance again. "He must have gone that way." she thinks to herself as the listens into the passage and continous her pursuit. The path through the sewers is characterized by constant forks and crossings. The sewer increasingly take on the features of a labyrinth in Hara's mind. How the thief finds his way down here is a mystery to her. He must have spent a lot of time down here, though. After at least the 10th, she is no longer sure that she can find her way back to the original starting point. But she has come so far now that giving up is no longer an option. Either she finds and confronts the thief and lets him lead her out, or she takes one of the many other entrances to the sewers she has passed so far. Although, now that she thinks about it, the last entrance seems like it was a while ago. The farther she gets, the dimmer the light seems to get through the mushrooms, and the passages are increasingly poor condition. In several places she has to squeeze thorugh holes in walls or take a detour due to a collapsed or blocked path. But the hurried clumsy footsteps of the fleeing thief seem to be getting closer. "If I catch you, you'll have something to listen to," she thinks to herself as she imagines scolding the ratman. She's going to give him a real telling off. Stealing is wrong and the poor flower girl seems to be working with him. She is obviously sick and should see a healer or priest. There is also the question of relatives or parents of the children. Should they be orphans, they would be better off in any orphanage than on the street. And ... . A short squeaky cry for help from the fleeing thief snaps Hara out of her thoughts and she starts running faster. "I hope he wasn't attacked by a monster." When she finally turns the last corner, any trace of the thief is missing. "Not again. This is sudden disappearances are getting annoying!" she thinks in frustration. "He can't have become invisible." Out of the corner of her eye, Hara can make out a glint. The thief seems to have lost the barrette in a hurry and it has fallen among the debris. "Finally, some luck today. I was afraid I'd never see you again." she says as she steps up to the rubble to tkae the hair clip. At the last step, however, her foot seeks a foothold in vain and Hara falls forward with her entire body. Desperately she tries to hold on to the rubble, but her hands simply slip on the slippery stone. Panic written on her face and screaming for help, she falls with her body into the dark depths. Shortly after, a thud on hard ground, silence and unconsciousness.
She does not know jow much time has passed since her fall into the depths and her unconsciousness. Groaning painfully, she tries to move her left arm. It feels bruised and to her horror she can't feel some of her finger. Every slightest movement causes incredible stabbing pain, eliciting pained cries from her. After a brief moment of pausing after the painful experience, she can feel something furry underneath her. Hara realizes shockingly that she must have landed on the thief. He doesn't seem to be moving, let alone breathing. Except for her own noises, she can't hear any other sounds in the darkness either except perhaps a distant splashing of water from the sewers. Hara beging to hyperventilate out of panic. "Where am I? What am I going to do now? No one will find mme down here!" are her thoughts as she slips into unconsciousness once again.
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She opens her eyes again after an indeterminate time, having regained consciousness. The hope that it was all a bad dream dies with the sight of darkness as a heightened sense of pain and cold comes over her. Once again she begins to hyperventilate, cry and scream her heart out, a moving concert of cries for help, curses and prayers. It's just not right. She should have informed the city guard instead of putting her own life on the line down here in the sewers. Why did she have to be so unlucky. All she wanted to do was help the girl. Time seems to fly by with the fruitless questions of why, wherefore and why until complete mental and physical exhaustion. Reaching rock bottom, she is able to formulate a clear thought and plan for the first time since her fall. "If I want to get out of here, I need to find an exit. Preferably an exit that leads back into the lighted sewers. Or somewhere else, the main thing is to get out of this cold inky black hole." she thinks as she reflects on her situation. At the moment, the best option seems to be to crawl in the direction of the faint lights blinking in the distance, which seem to be the only source of light here. Crawling is the only option of movement in her current condition, as she cannot feel her left leg and she is struggling with headaches and dizziness. "I hope my leg doesn't look too bad," she mutters softly to herself. She also can't forget the body of the ratman killed by the fall. He may have been a thief, but no one deserves such a sudden and painful death. "I should at least dedicate a prayer to him to honor his soul. After all, he braced my fall with his own body and indirectly saved my life." she thinks as she rolls off the thief's dead body in a painful effort. As soon as she is back in the sewers, she will start looking for the next exit and then alert the city guard. But for now, she just feels exhausted. Rolling down has used up the last of her reserves of strength. Hara can feel the exhaustion again paving the way for the approaching unconsciousness.
She sighs after finishing the prayer for the thief. It may not be a full substitute for a funeral, but it's still better than nothing. "May your soul return to Atom and be reborn in peace." she prays softly. Now she just has to put the rest of her plan into action. Full of hope and conviction, she begins to crawl slowly toward the blinking lights. One painful movement after the other and a felt eternity later she has finally made it. She now lies at the feet of a strange door. A door made of metal with no obvious way to open it. In her 198 years she has never seen anything like it. The door looks old and of strange design. The surface appears smooth, with no dents, dings or structural defects. The door gives the impression that it has never seen a hammer. Truly an extraordinary masterpiece that she could continue to admire if her life were not in danger. From her position, she can see neither a keyhole nor a doorknob in the faint blinking light. "Maybe i can open the door by force," she says to herself, somewhat hopelessly, since the metal door has an old but very solid appearance. With her good right hand, she grabs a fist-sized stone and begins to work the door with it with all the force she can muster. Numerous blows, presses and knocks, however, seem to leave no trace on the door. Suddenly, while she is pounding on the door, an unfamiliar sound is heard. A crackling and squeaking can be heard as metal scrapes over metal, and the door slowly lifts. The strange way the door opens is reminiscent of a city gate. From inside, a loud metallic voice is heard in a completely unknown language.
"Detected possible life sign in front of section ::::::::::.
Activating protocol Alpha 0.1
Activating Drone 895643 - Status unresponsive Retry
Activating Drone 895644 - Status unresponsive
Error: No suitable surveillance drone ready".
"What kind of language is that? Did I happen to stumble upon a new underground kingdom of dwarves?" she says, confused and frightened. The whole situation has her completely flustered, even more than she already is. How should she proceed? Should she crawl back into the darkness and look for another exit or go further inside, which seems to be inhabited. Perhaps the dwarves will be willing to help her. In the meantime, the metallic voice continues unperturbed to utter sentences in an unknown language.
"Audio and visual sensors captured humanoid life signs.
Foreign language detected
Alerting active crew
Error: No active crew members found.
Activating protocol Alpha 0.2
Activating security drones
No connection found.
Attempting again ... "
Suddenly, lights come on in the previously dark corridor behind the gate, blinding her only to change
from white to flashing red shortly after. What is going on here?
"...
Warning: Catastrophic power failure ..."
Suddenly, Hara feels a loud and very strong rumble that shakes the entire earth around her. The red lights go out, only to come back to life after a few seconds.
"...
Switching to back up power supply.
Estimated runtime 32 hours.
Activating back up protocol Beta 134.89
Broadcasting Code: W-A-K-E-U-P
Estimated runtime reduced to 16 hours
Activating fleet beacon
Estimated runtime reduced to 4 hours
Activating self destruct sequence for
Error: Database corruption
Error: Database corruption
Error: Database corruption ... "
The earthquake had frightened her so much that, without thinking, she had crawled into the metallic corridor seconds before the cave outside collapsed. The metallic, half-closed gate and walls saved her from certain death in the process. Meanwhile, the metallic voice continues, repeating the same lines over and over."
"...
Wounded personnel detected in section
Dispatching medical drone for evacuation
Activating Drone 000444 - Status responsive
Drone activated and on its way.
Please don't move and wait for the arrival of the drone. ... "
The metallic voice begins anew, repeating itself endlessly like a mantra or a prayer. She can't make sense of it. Everything is so strange. "Where is this earthquake coming from? What is this weird complex? And when will that stupid voice finally stop?" she thinks to herself, confused and annoyed. It's looking more and more like this town, or whatever it is, has been abandoned for a while. So much
for the help from the dwarves. Her thoughts are interrupted by a metallic clicking sound from the distance. And to her horror, she finds that it is not help in the form of dwarves striding around the corner, but a white metallic skeleton. It couldn't have come at a worse time. Hara is no adventurer or city guard. She didn't train as a warrior or a battle monk. She is a simple seamstress only a decade or two away from finally being able to open her own store. It was at that moment that she regretted many of her life choices, such as refusing basic military training or not pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a strong adventurer. Perhaps she could have avoided this situation altogether. The metallic skeleton readies its alien weapon, perhaps more of an instrument of torture in terms of shape, as it arrives next to her. There is no way out, and Hara says her final prayer to Atom at the moment the skeleton stabs her in the chest with its alien weapon, and the world goes dark again.
The medical drone carries the person it has identified as Commander Anka to the medical center. It has to hurry because there is only 3h 48min 166ms left due to the self-destruct sequence. After being placed in the scanner, the ancient machine comes to life as if it had never stood still. The drone is immediately informed of several defects that must have occurred during the big sleep cycle. First, its identity chip was missing and second, it appeared to be severely injured with numerous broken bones and nerve damage. In addition, there were abnormalities such as mutated longer ears, lower bone density and severely altered genetic material. The drone immediately begins the necessary procedures. It installs a brand new ID chip and attempts to repair as much detected biological damage as possible. Bones are straightened, glued and reinforced. Damaged flesh and affected organs are cut out and replaced with artificially grown ones. The body is pumped full of nanorobots and powerful drugs for accelerated recovery and improved performance. As the drone finishes the final procedure, the operating room looks like a slaughterhouse. All surfaces are covered in blood, there are pieces of flesh and bone on the floor, and the drone itself also looks like something out of a horror movie. The drone finishes its work and wastes no time dressing Commander Anka in a spare uniform and carries her, bloodied, to the evacuation chamber closest to her. Once at the destination, it places Hara's body in the evacuation container, gives her a dose of adrenaline and activates the launch sequence.
Hara opens her eyes, a few seconds before the end of the countdown for takeoff. She is strapped into an alien padded seat that seems to be in some kind of metallic prison. Her body feels alive, her heart beating like never before, but at the same time alien. Something seems different, apart from the unfamiliar gray and black clothing. "Am I still alive or have I been reborn?" is her last thought before the evacuation capsule is shot down with incredible force.
The escape pod is magnetically accelerated while powerful drilling lasers try to break through the thick stone barrier covering the opening. Only at the last second does it make it and is shot into the air at incredible speed without immediately crashing into solid rocks.
As the capsule flies high into the sky, Hara screams as if her life depends on it. The unknown strong acceleration forces tug at her entire body. The capsule finally flies in a high arc and lands in a nearby lake known to the locals as Ydra.
"Is it finally over?" she asks in despair as the shielding of the floating capsule partially opens a way to the blue sky and the world outside. With a trembling body, she manages to crawl to the edge of the capsule, where she is presented with a hellish picture. The surrounding forest burns and colors the horizon orange, a gigantic crater covers half of the once majestic city she called home, collapsed buildings and fire. She can hear screams carried over by the wind. And spread across the ruins of the city and the landscape, several metallic formations sprout from the ground, one of which sends a strong, visible beam of light into the sky.