Sera watched as Tiriana carved a spell into the floor of the building’s lobby with laser precision, trying to piece together what little they had learned here. Unfortunately, this society had largely moved onto digital storage, so there wasn’t much they could bring back with them. Sera has examined one of the computers they’d found in the admin section, but much of the architecture it was built on was foreign to her.
She was fairly certain she had identified the hard drive, but it wasn’t like they had the means to access it back at base. Beyond that, all the computers were predictably password locked, so it was probably going to take specialists to access them. According to Tiriana, clerics of Secrets, Language, and Research could grant an entire group the ability to read unknown languages, and an archaeological expedition would almost certainly contain at least one of them, so they would just have to see if their discoveries here garnered any interest back in civilization.
Of course, Sera had asked why Vivi couldn’t help here, knowing about her translation miracle, but as Tiriana had explained it, clerics of Adventure were equipped to aid in exploring and clearing out ruins, not investigating them. Having one person able to translate text was enough for that job.
“I feel like you keep busting out magic that doesn’t fit under the combat mage umbrella,” Sera said as Tiriana finished up, a strange sensation passing through her as whatever spell Tiriana had set up activated.
“Barriers are combat magic. All I did was set up an extremely inefficient barrier to use up any mana that gets close to this building and keep it from becoming a dungeon,” Tiriana explained as she double checked her work.
“I know what I would call a dungeon, but what is your definition, for reference?”
“A dungeon is a closed off space with so much mana in it that monsters starts popping up. Outside, when that happens, the mana that caused it just gets scattered the moment something comes through the tear in reality, but inside, there’s nowhere for it to go, so it keeps happening.”
“They literally just spawn infinite monsters from thin air?” It sounded to Sera like video game mechanics, really. It struck her as one of the more contrived things she’d heard of thus far.
“Monsters, like mages, use mana for their abilities and to strengthen their cores, so it’s really only until their mana consumption exceeds the amount of mana entering the dungeon.” Tiriana gestured at the still-glowing runes she’d burned into the tile and concrete, producing a pungent smell that was still preferable to the things Sera had experienced deeper in the building. “This works on the same principle. With how sealed up this building is it should be able to eat up all the mana that leaks through gaps in the front door.”
“Do the monsters not eat each other or try to leave?” Sera asked, still stuck on the idea.
“Of course they do. What else do they have to eat?” Fair point. “Point is, dungeons generate monsters faster than anywhere else, so we try to level abandoned buildings or seal them like this. The base as a whole has too much archaeological value to level and is too big for me to seal it all without a few days to work, so I’m just going to make sure the most important building is safe for the time being.”
Sera decided she could accept that explanation for the moment, but she couldn’t help but think that Tiriana accepted these things as normal too easily. Although it was probably similar to questioning where atoms come from and why the laws of physics exist. There was always a limit to the number of questions science had answers to.
“I think this is as good as it’s going to get…we should start heading home. Ready for some more Sylvan lessons?”
“Is staying in the creepy lab an option?”
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“So, we found a fort-“
“You did!? Great! When are we leaving? I can leave right now if you want. I’m all packed and ready to go. Let me just make a sign telling people where I went!”
When they returned to camp, Tiriana had gone to put the flokkas back in their stable and store their camping equipment while Sera visited Vivi for an overdue treatment. While she was there, she thought it might be a good idea to gauge her interest, but she’d barely been able to get a few words out before Vivi transformed into an entirely different person and rocketed right into manic action.
Which just made Sera all the more worried how the poor cleric would react when her bubble was burst.
“Uh…Vivi? We’re not going anywhere yet. Tiriana wants to recruit a couple of the others first,” Sera told her hesitantly. Vivi froze for a few seconds and then collapsed into her chair, all traces of her previous energy gone. Sera could swear she saw the woman’s soul leaving her body.
“Oh…that makes sense…she probably wants to send a report back home too…” she drawled, head lolling to the side like the muscles in her neck had stopped working. She had never seen someone capable of shifting moods as quickly as Vivi did. It…probably wasn’t healthy, but if there was a miracle for this Vivi surely would have used it, and it wasn’t like there was a therapist on hand out here.
“Honestly, we weren’t even sure you would be able to join if it’s just the two of us,” she commented, trying to shift the topic a bit and get Vivi distracted with explaining something.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“The minimum number that can technically be recognized as a party is three…I didn’t think I could justify it for mapping…but if you actually need me to help it should be fine…”
“Tiriana said you can probably make handholds for a several hundred meter climb,” Sera informed her, finally getting to the meat of the issue they’d faced. Though…hopefully she had some kind of solution for if someone fell off.
“I could,” Vivi answered, her mind starting to function again. “But if it’s a fort there’s probably a better way. I should be able to divine any hidden paths.”
“We think it was a collapsed mobile fortress, so we’re not actually sure there’s a way in from below.”
“That’s unlikely. I’ll have to perform a miracle on-site to be certain, but no one would strand themselves hundreds of meters above the ground with no way down. Even if the entrance was covered by its collapse it would be easier for me to unearth it than it would be for you to free climb the whole way up.”
Well, it was hard to argue when a literal miracle worker tells you she has a better way. Sera certainly hadn’t been looking forward to such a climb. She had the arm and leg strength, but she had mostly just been hoping Tiriana had a way to prevent death by falling, and if she didn’t…well, hopefully Vivi was right, at any rate.
“Anyway, just so you know, we found something pretty weird out there. We found a base belonging to whoever the fort was fighting, but even though the fort was immobilized and seemed to be abandoned…the base was too. We only found a single mangled body and a few rooms coated in blood,” Sera told the cleric, figuring she should know about the potential danger. “It’s pretty unnerving that we didn’t encounter anyone out there. Is it possible for a frontier to appear but leave all the people behind?”
“Not as far as I know,” the cleric said, her eyes regaining focus as her curiosity was piqued. “You found no one at all? How strange. I assume you’re telling me because you think there’s a chance we run into one side or the other within the fortress?”
“Exactly. I’m not sure where else they could have gone, and that fortress is the size of a city. I don’t think words can do justice to how absolutely colossal it is.”
“Hmm…I should speak to Tiriana when she is available. Perhaps I can speed up her preparations somehow. This is sounding more and more interesting by the minute. The other adventurers won’t listen to me, but I can at least handle the reports to the fleet and the academic community, if you’d be willing to tell me what you learned,” Vivi said, finally looking somewhat energized again.
“You mentioned the fleet the first time we spoke, but I was a bit distracted at the time. What are the reports to the fleet for?” Sera asked, figuring now was as good a time as any. She shifted in her seat.
“Usually explorers have a line to the closest expeditionary fleet in case we discover something they need to know about, like a major threat to the nearest settlements,” Vivi explained.
“If they’re so worried about that, why not do the searching themselves to be sure?”
“The Alliance maintains too many expeditionary fleets to keep them all activated at all times. Usually they’re kept partially mothballed and only perform cursory recon, since a major threat will make itself known if scouts are spotted,” Vivi elaborated as she slipped into lecture mode again.
“What would be big enough for them to intervene?”
“I think they take a lot of things into account, but since there are no settlements on this continent…they probably won’t act unless there’s a threat with the ability to cross the sea. Not really much point in deploying ships and troops for an enemy that can be defeated by a travel advisory.”
Sera frowned at that. It wasn’t very comforting to know that their closest backup was content to sit back and watch what happened. The only thing she knew right now was that their potential foe had the capability to defeat a walking fortress that crushed tanks simply by walking, but that was more than enough to worry about.
“I feel like no one is taking what we’re up against seriously,” Sera admitted to the cleric, dissatisfied at the lack of caution she and Tiriana showed. “What happens if this outpost is attacked in force?”
“We would immediately abandon the base,” Vivi said with a shrug. “That’s part of the reason we set it up here and not in the frontier region. We know the terrain around here better, so we can fade into the woods and make for a rendezvous point determined in advance.”
“And what would we do if we’ve got researchers out here by the time it happens?” Sera pressed, unconvinced. Vivi’s answer was well and good if it were just adventurers following the plan, but having academics to protect would make the plan untenable.
“As cold as it sounds, it wouldn’t be our responsibility. Everyone knows how dangerous it can be out here, so they should be bringing their own security, if any do join us.” Vivi shook her head. “We should have a better idea of the threat level by then, anyway. Even if a group were to start preparations at this very moment, they likely wouldn’t arrive until we’ve returned from investigating the fortress. And if all goes well, we may even be able to move our home base to it.”
Admittedly, that sounded like a good prospect.
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Codex Entry: Expeditionary Fleets
The Armistice Alliance's Expeditionary Fleets are a direct response to the threat of incursions, formed centuries ago when it became clear that these world-ending threats were a pattern, not a discrepancy. The deployment of the first expeditionary fleet was a massive undertaking complicated by the fact that it was done in response to a threat in the middle ring, which was at the time the outer ring. To counter the threat of a self-proclaimed demon lord's monster horde, the Alliance hauled ships overland through the ice ring separating the inner and outer oceans.
After a grueling war, the demon lord's territory became the site of the first expeditionary fleet base and a large scale shipyard. In the centuries since, fleets have been stationed around the middle ring. In times of peace these fleets are largely left mothballed. The outposts they are stationed at are settlements in their own right, occupied by reservists that can be called to reactivate their local fleet in times of need. The fleets were composed of sailing ships at the time of their foundation, but those vessels have since been phased out in favor of airships.
Only the most severe of threats warrants the deployment of all fleets. Minor threats requiring the use of at least one occur every few years; frequently enough to warrant the fleets' continued existence. Usually these deployments are made against small-scale threats only large enough to be a danger to the less well established civilizations in the outer and middle rings, which have yet to develop the capability to defend themselves.
Expeditionary fleets are forbidden from interfering with local conflicts, as doing so would undermine their defense mandate. Local civilizations permit their presence because they do not get involved politically, and the Alliance is unwilling to force the issue if denied, so strict neutrality is important the the maintenance of the defensive net formed by the fleets.