The dusty tunnel continued onwards until it reached a intersection with the tunnels marked by engraved metal slabs, which reads as such;

North- Metalsmith assembly.

East- Spare Manuel workshop & surface exit. (Where we came from)

South- Clockwork Gnome station & Emergency exit.

West- Durahurst mining town

All of these tunnels look clear from cave ins, but the one leading west to the mining town had a massive black door with a oversized locking mechanism. Though All of the rooms and tunnels were twice our height, the surface entrance stairway was so small that we had to duck whilst going down it.

This lock just seems like massive over-compensation, since the key would be the size of a small person and need at least two people to carry it.

The door itself was around 15ft in height and 10ft wide.

This door, unlike the one on the surface, was locked and there is no way we’re breaking that thing down. Not that it matters, since we’ve run out of rations and need to get to the surface anyway.

I inform the others on what the directions read and we began to discuss what we should be doing.

In the end we decide to look for the exit rather than travel to the metalsmith assembly for an unknown amount of time.

Hopefully when on the surface it should take around three hours to get back to civilisation, a couple of hours longer if we are more cautious.

The walk through these tunnels take us a couple of minutes before we are met with a metal door, not anywhere as difficult to open as some of the others.

I’ve noticed that all of the door handles are slightly lower down than in our civilisation, just another strange difference between us. Perhaps they were a race of midgets or something.

Walking in to the room labelled ‘Clockwork workshop’, we are met with an array of new fascinations that would put our race to shame.

Not that I know what any of it does. But at least it looks cool.

Now for stuff I can actually begin to describe.

Firstly; the rooms floor, walls and ceiling are all a blinding white that is almost painful to look at after being in a dimly lit tunnel for a while

Unlike the rest of these ruins, this room is not lit by the magic torches but by a more impressive magic in the form of glowing spheres handing from the ceiling, emitting a white light.

Though it would be difficult to describe the strange technology in this room, it is all made of yet another strange metal and are connected to metal workbench's covered an a littering of metal parts, too peculiar to even attempt guess their use. This place was named Clockwork Gnome station, but I’ve never heard the words clockwork and gnome ever be used and can’t guess their meaning, but since it translated it must’ve been used in the human language the past only to be forgotten hundreds of years ago.

In this room are other strange objects in various shapes, but more importantly there are four doors other than the one we came in, three of which are store rooms and the last is another tunnel.

Before we continue down it, we look around for a few minutes and here the door behind us open.

Through it come the metal children, two of them holding a separate box.

These boxes are put in one of the storerooms and each of them stand on a large metal plate, located on the opposite end of the room.

In unison, all five of them reach out and each grab a wire hanging from the wall behind them, with each wire ending in the small metal spike which they then stab into a small hole above where their heart should be.

Afterwards all five stood completely still, and the sound they emit begins to die down until they’re completely silent.

Before attempting to leave, I quickly check the different storerooms for anything interesting but nothing obvious shows up and it could take hours to sort through the alien parts that fill the rooms. I would bring one of the boxes I copied the runes from, but they are too big to conceal and would surely have me lynched. 

Now, the last remaining door by the process of elimination should lead to the emergency exit. I wonder how it might differ from the way we entered, which was labelled ‘Surface Entrance’.

This tunnel was short, though it snaked around making it impossible to tell how long it is until you reach its end. Which I’m glad didn’t lead us endlessly through the mountainous underbelly of the Forgotten Lands.

At the end of the tunnel was a lever, but unlike the one at our entrance, this one is a much more conventional design and far cruder than the other.

I pull it with a little difficulty due to rust, but I begin the hear the familiar, unfamiliar sounds of metallic clanks and grinding.

With this the slab door begins to open slowly and after half a minute we are all breathing fresh air in what looks to somewhere between midday and the evening.

The outside of the door, unlike the side we first saw, was made of rock. Or at least looked to be made of rock, and a pretty convincing one too. Perhaps I have walked past hundreds of these doors without ever realising it. Ignorance is bliss after all.

As we are all standing around breathing deeply, the door begins to slide shut behind us, though I don’t see a way of reopening it from this side.

Ah… Maybe that’s its difference from the surface entrance.

“Well, we’re not getting back in there easily.” Pack Mule says, stating the obvious.

I speak up after gathering everyone's attention.

“Now, since we are out and both known entrances are sealed, what should we report when getting back. Personally, I’d like to leave this place as a secret and come back sometime in the future to further explore and investigate it.”

Overall, the responses were around the same and in the end we agreed that we’d report the hellhounds, that the surface entrance was destroyed and that the people we were searching for are dead. As for why we’ve been missing, we agree to all say we retreated from the hellhounds into to a set of empty catacombs and it took a while to find a different exit.

Though we are telling the full story to the rest of our squadron, as well as the fact about my magical talent, but I’ll have to further explain that I don’t know any spells.

In the future when I return to these ruins, I’ll either have to go through the broken surface entrance or the one-way emergency exit and since one has some hungry fire-breathing dogs near it the decision is easy.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Therefore, to find my way back here in the future I should do a couple of things.

Firstly, I walk up to the rock-like door hiding amongst rock and I’m redirected by Torben to the identical rock beside it. Now at the right rock, I mark it with my dagger.

Then I borrow Argus’s magic quill and write down the areas details, with the only thing noteworthy being a small murky pond nearby.

Finally, on the way back to the fort, I intend to mark eye-catching things, to indicate I’m on the right path on my return here. Thought most of those ‘eye-catching things’ will just be slightly odd rocks.

We all begin travelling east, hoping that we find our original route to travel back on.

However, there is also the risk of stumbling on the hellhounds lair or at least a chance of them smelling us. But I don’t want to take the risk of travelling around that area, lest we bump into something bigger or end up lost in a maze of stone.

Taking it slowly through the grey landscape, we sometimes here a roar or howl far in the distance making us subconsciously slow down further, making our pace just above a crawl. Since, I was just as nervous as them, if not more, I didn’t encourage everyone to speed up. Though I am very worried about not getting back before nightfall, cursing myself for my previous confidence in the remaining hours of light we have remaining. It being just a flickering candle, wary of the monsters in the ever growing shadows.

However I’m glad that our paranoia existed, as we almost ran into a giant spider nest, though we detected it before getting spotted and made a large detour. As you could imagine, this only fuel our endless worrying. Though no one expressed this aloud, both due to pride and in case the noise brings a monster horde upon our heads.

Going around a bend, we saw something that we most likely couldn’t avoid.

Kneeling over the bodies of a large hyena are fourteen human-like creatures, tearing at the last pieces of flesh clinging to its bones.

However, these thing are far from human.

An example of this is the sharp, elongated fangs dyed red with blood, from which a serpentine tongue snakes out of whilst letting out a quiet hiss.

Their skin is far too pale, with a slight green hue, not rotting yet emitting the smell of necrosis that would make a inexperienced adventurer empty his stomach.

Also, its eyes are white, glazed over and unseeing. Relying on its other senses, primarily its tongue which works like a snake, making stealth ineffective so long as you give out heat.

A mistake I once made, believing my shadow magic would conceal me, only to have one pounce at my throat.

Additionally, the fingers on its hands are much longer than that of a human, ending in claws that are coated in a natural venom which causes paralysis if you are some much as scratched. Although, the paralysis only lasts a couple of minutes, by the time it will wear off you’ll have someone picking apart your organs and wearing your entrails as a necklace.

I have encountered multiple of these in the barrens, but only the odd stray that exited the Forgotten Lands, perhaps looking for more tender meat that didn’t bite back.

They are fast, difficult to kill and will be able to detect anyone within a certain radius.

Unfortunately, we are within that radius… A fact emphasised by all fourteen of the ghouls simultaneously stopping feeding and turning towards us, tongue flickering as their throat begins to let out a low primal growl.

Eleven of the ghouls stand and start cautiously shuffling towards us, in a stance indicating they could pounce at any moment. The remaining three saw this as an opportunity to greedily devour the last scraps of meat left on the ravished carcass now that their share had just increased.

In my hand I’m holding a shortsword in my main hand and a dagger in my off-hand, since I will be needing speed and versatility.

Three of the ghouls run at me, maybe seeing me as an easier target than the huge Torben stood next to me. I’m confident in my abilities, but I won’t be able to handle three and even two is pushing it.

Luckily Torben has my back and charges down the closest one while I run past him to the other two, as I’m doing this he decapitates it with a single swing. Giving him a second to ready his stance before two different monsters were at his throat.

Meanwhile, I dance around my foes, not allowing them to flank me. Seeing that is not working, one of them hops forwards and swings at my face. Though it is fast, it’s also very sloppy and so I easily duck under it, flashing out my dagger and cutting into its ribs. Possibly a deep enough wound to disable a living fighter, but the only reaction I got was a pained growl. However, there is little difference between their expression for pain and their expression wrath.

Before that ghoul had recovered from its swing, the other attempted to cut open my leg and paralyse me. Thankfully, I decided on speed rather than reach and power, allowing me to cut at its hand, disappointingly not being deep enough to chop it off and was answered with a furious hiss.

I see the other creature attempt to tackle me, recklessly diving towards me. In response I sidestep, narrowly avoiding it, as its momentum continues to carry it forwards.

I lunge at the one still in front of me, driving my sword through its heart all the way up to the hilt, bringing my face right in front of his.

The smell of its breath was awful and if I had the luxury to throw up, I would’ve.

It glared at me, clearly in pain, but before it could attempt to rip into my throat, my hand shot out. Burying my dagger into its temple, feeling relived as it fell limp.

I withdrew my dagger and began to do the same with the sword as I felt a sharp pain in my back.

Letting go of the sword, I spin around and swing wildly with my dagger, missing its neck by an inch.

Rather than attacking further, it takes a step back to wait for me to collapse.

Before that can happen, I charge forward and notice how heavy my body feels, deciding to throw all of my weight to a single lunge.

The dagger enters it through its eye and into the brain, and both of us fall to the ground.

Neither of us moving whilst lying side by side, looking up at the sky.

An macabre image of two lovers lazily gazing at the fluffy clouds overhead.