The Infinite Labyrinth - Shanghaied

In the last days of 1800, strange circles of sculpted and ornamented metal appeared in different places on Earth. Called the Great Gilded Gates, they offer access to a strange dimension or a set of interconnected dimensions called the Infinite Labyrinth. People appear to be evaluated on their intrinsic “potentials” on a 10-20 scale, and only those rare ones with 18 or greater in one of these can cross the Gate to enter the Labyrinth – about one in every 360 people on average qualifies on at least one count.

The unrelenting efforts of Professionals, those whose potential is high enough, have brought a spate of changes to the nascent 19th century. Ambitions across the world from every state blessed with one of those Gates have spiked. What could have been a short war between European alliances and a failed French Republic have become two decades of locked struggle between the Dominion of France and the British Empire, with an arms race of technology altered by the Labyrinth, where armoured land cruisers combine infantry and artillery face off the new weapon of the Empire, their skyships, unassailable bombing and reconnaissance platforms.

But Masterful Watchman Napoleon Bonaparte is not one to play by the rules, and he sends his best agent, tier-seven Jacques Deschanel, on a dastardly plan to cut the logistics of the British military. While he distracts a team led by Imposing Knight Augusta Cowen, his saboteurs use brand new weapons to destabilize and ultimately shut down the Great Gate amidst chaos, destruction and death. Now, Napoleon merely has to wait out his enemy, as the spoils of the Labyrinth used in the British navy and nascent air fleet slowly wear out while he keeps expanding his own.

But unbeknown to all, six ordinary people, Jonas Sims, his childhood friend Ira Heard, and four random strangers whose potential would have fallen short of the requirements for the Labyrinth have ended up caught in a paradox. Unfit to enter, impossible to turn away as the Gate breaks down, the impersonal force that governs the Labyrinth started a process of Adjustment, providing not only the missing Potential required but additional helpful abilities, as well as alterations of their bodies.

Stranded in a remote zone, armed with only rumours and dribs of knowledge on the details specific to Professionals, they slowly pierce together basic rules that govern their new form of existence. Armed with gear provided by the Labyrinth and the strange skills that they get from their Professions, they slowly explore the desolate reaches of their domain, learning from their successes, and their mistakes. The risks are high, but they have no real choice but to progress.

Yet their Adjustment is not finished. After acquiring their second Profession, they realize there’s more pain to come. Still, they have little choice. If they want to find a way to civilization, they have to advance, with each additional tier slightly harder and longer to make.

Meanwhile, the isolated British Professionals next to the locked Gate try to get back in touch with Earth. The so-called “Great Line” that connects disparate sectors of the Labyrinth should allow some of them to use, at least temporarily, the Great Gilded Gate on the island of Manhattan, if the former British colonies honour the modest peace treaty negotiated after the final conquest of the northern provinces of Canada. And one of the teams headed there finds out something unexpected: a signpost indicating the presence of lost people far out in the depths – an apparent impossibility when one considers the travel abilities within the Labyrinth.

Cowen’s team, upon reaching Gatepost, the human-built city near the now-closed Great Gate of London, is dispatched to investigate this. And there, they find lost Professionals and experience the shock of their lives. For never, in 18 years, they’ve seen Adjustment and the strange anomalies that come with it. Profession-less Milestones that cover all Potentials, “starter” gear that no normal Professional ever got, accelerating ease of levelling, and even the ability to learn skills nearly at will. Those things are new, at least in their decades-long experience.

While members of Cowen’s team can freely travel, the six have to trek for weeks under their protection and help, across the extent of the Labyrinth, until they finally reach the last Gate. The one that remains closed. The Great Gilded Gate of London, where their arrival causes concerns. But those concerns are shadowed by the fact that the Gate remains locked, despite all attempts to kick open the “regenerating” circle.

Now stuck, the six slowly work to integrate their existence in the sub-culture of the British Professionals, helped by friendly Professionals, including a cousin of one of their team. Bit by bit, they discover what it means to be a Professional and how to use their normal abilities. Until they discover, by accident, that their abnormal state include unsuspected ones, and they force the reconnection of the closed Gate to Earth.

Napoleon has no choice, but to acknowledge his plan’s failure. But at least, he has restored the status quo and found an interesting hint of powers unsuspected that might be in his grasp. For he remembers that, eighteen years ago, two persons disappeared from Versailles when the Gate opened and were never found. And he now wonders if this can lead him to get his own Adjusted.

As for Jonas’s team, despite being feted as heroes of the British empire, they are only lowly tier-two, they are vulnerable and limited, yet potentially powerful assets, and they have to work out how to improve that and fast.

So say the heir of the British Crown, tier-four Calculating Tactician Princess Charlotte of Wales, and the Vice-Secretary of War, Duke of Wellington.

The Infinite Labyrinth - Shortcuts

Now free to roam the Labyrinth, the team led by Jonas Sims can focus on improving themselves more or less according to the rules that normally govern the Labyrinth. Thanks to their unique circumstances, they have an entire section of the Labyrinth for themselves to use. They can quickly move between London and their private hunting grounds, and that is as useful for their levelling as their special Milestones, with their own set of private lairs to use whenever they wish.

But while their newfound fame brings them opportunities, their special origins give them duties. The dedicated section of the Royal Society of Science, the Archivists, has questions. Their ability to seemingly unlock skills that are way in advance of their development can solve some mysteries, but what interests Labyrinth specialist Resilient Spellwrangler Charles Babbage is their new capacity to see the descriptors of the Gates, something that appeared only when the Gate was closed. And notably the mystery of the number next to Earth.

There are not many possibilities, and with the other two known Gates located on hostile territories in France and China who are seeking a potential alliance, Jonas finds himself sent to check the Gate in Manhattan. But the Americans are suspicious of the motives of their nominal allies, and they’re not quite willing to risk their own Gate with an unknown quantity in the form of a Professional with Adjustment.

So, surrounded by overt and covert agents, Jonas slowly tries to convince the Federal authorities of his bona fide. He finds a sympathetic – and quite daring – ally in the form of Precise Ancillary Sylvia Underwood, a Professional on her way to family in the southern states. With a sympathetic ear, he can unload his frustration at a mission that should have been done in hours and now lasts weeks while his team keeps levelling.

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So, when she suggests sneaking in under cover of night to see what he wants, he readily agrees. But what Jonas doesn’t know is that the whole plot is orchestrated by the American authorities, who want to test what he’ll truly do when “unsupervised”. Underwood has worked on and off for the Federal Labyrinth Authority for years, and a young and naïve British isn’t hard for her to wrap around her finger and pull around.

And when Jonas demonstrate the unsuspected ability to share some of his peculiar descriptors, she wants to make use of that before anyone else can cut her off. But alas, she’s stymied, as the other aspects of his abilities are not so easily shared. Now both parties have achieved something. Jonas has confirmed that Earth-113 isn’t specific to the Gate in London, but means something else, while the Americans see their paranoia unfounded – so far.

After the team resume their explorations, and Jonas tries to catch up to their levelling, they enjoy a moment of quiet, and push further their levels, as the team discovers the effects of build drift, notably after Jonathan Gilbert, their second defender, subjects himself to an experiment to verify effects of Adjustment, despite the attendant pain.

Having all achieved tier three – and another bout of Adjustment, with its attendant pain and alteration, they carefully plan for their future growth, taking into account their special Potential bonus. But for once, they stumble on an aspect of the Labyrinth that is not tied to their special abilities.

Being in uncontested and underpowered zones has let them complete every single lair in tier-two Othary, and what looked like a simple prop for scenery is revealed as a secret access to a different zone, one that doesn’t require a fixed number of lairs, but all of them. Unmapped, unsuspected, the six find it a new type of zone labelled as a “trunk”. It is more dangerous than is safe for them right now, but it is something of great potential. So, while they wait for the British Scout team led by their old acquaintance Augusta Cowen to join them, they explore what can be done in the trunk.

When that includes a Legendary guardian, two full tiers early than what’s normal, the team get to see what the hardest fights of the Labyrinth can be. Of course, the tier-six team that has joined them makes the combat lopsided and the victory relatively easy, but that gives them a glimpse of the biggest rewards the Labyrinth can offer, and the team’s first Artefacts, at a level where people are usually still barely hoping to get Heroic items.

And when a disagreement arises between the British Scouts who insist such a fight always yield only two pieces of equipment in a Legendary guardian’s treasure chest, and Adjustment VI-empowered Jonathan, who insists that there are three, they discover yet another secret. For years, the British have collected baubles that are powerful Artefacts on their own. The seemingly blank Orbs trophies are actually a new category of equipment, Cores that are not worn out but are internal to a Professional. And those in the secret now scramble to get back as many of the ignored curios before the truth comes out.

But for the British government, the true treasure of that expedition isn’t a mere new bauble for Professionals. One of the zones connected to the trunk is Brocarres, the zone just next door to the French starting area. And with no one knowing about trunks, they suddenly have a hidden backdoor for a sneak attack straight behind French lines. It will take time and require great preparation, but it may tip the balance, and for the Duke of Wellington, that is good enough.

The six of the Adapted team are still small fry in a pool of great powers, but they have the potential to become more, and fast. They are a lever that can change things greater than they.

But they are mistaken in thinking no one knows about trunks. For there is a fifth Great Gate, and another would-be world power being built around it. In the depths of South Africa, a hidden kingdom grows its strength. The Zulus, under the auspice of their God-King, Mhambi Meshindi, slowly prepare. They have confidence, they have powers, and they have the guidance of their God, whose insights into the nature of the Labyrinth become scraps stolen by the empires of the rest of the world. And they should, for Steadfast Astute Vanquisher Mhambi Meshindi has thousands of levels, millions of vitals, tier Professions beyond anything mortals can achieve.

And the only thing he fears for his plans is that someone might come from a tier beyond anything the Zulu have ever achieved, using a trunk.

The Infinite Labyrinth - Secrets

As the momentum builds, and England attempts to capitalize on its shortcut straight into France’s backyard, Jonas and his five teammates find themselves at a crossroads. Their discoveries are key to a potential end of the war between the United Kingdom and the Dominion of France, but they, themselves, are not. So the Adapted team has no choice but to grind, to progress, to prove their worth, again and again.

Jonas has made friends, both in Gatepost’s community, and abroad, and he’s not happy keeping secrets from them, but he can recognize the necessity. So, he and the rest do their best at unlocking more commonplace mysteries, while they wait to see what tier four will reveal.

The adage that three people can keep a secret forever if two of them are dead weights on the British War Office's plans. They know that their secret force isn’t going to be able to stay hidden for long, because spies are everywhere, and a newspaper’s simple article can reveal them at any time.

But there are secrets that no one on Earth can guess. Far in distant reaches of the Labyrinth, the former head gardener of Versailles and his wife are still seeking their home. And they have the help of other Professionals empowered by the same Adjustment they bear. Professionals drawn from the temples of ancient Babylon to the trenches of World War One. The Labyrinth stretches across hundreds of Earths, hundreds of Divergences from the course of True History.

And only one person on Earth knows this, Mhambi Meshindi, the God-King of the Zulu. He is not a simple adventurer seeking to transform fortune into personal power. He is the product of the same type of accident that made Jonas and his friends or propelled a modest gardener couple from Versailles to the depth of the Labyrinth. And it happened to him centuries before he forced open Earth-113 after murdering his old team.

Even his Zulus do not know this, but they suspect things. And some disagree with the absolute rule and drastic changes he’s introducing, and when one of their contact, Deschanel himself, reveal the existence of the six, they see it as a confirmation of his less than unique nature. The least advanced of the five Labyrinth powers, England, might be a key to toppling their God. How? They are not sure. But they need to be prepared, and they now draw England into a secret underground alliance… that already includes not only some of the French, and the Chinese, but also the Americans. And they are ready to share some secrets, including the suspected fact that Professionals are immortal – as long as they roam the Labyrinth.

This is an interesting offer, but the British cannot afford distraction. The French remain their enemies, no matter what cooperation agreement they have with the Zulus. So, while the Adapted team takes shortcuts into advancement, and uses new Adjustment-derived powers, the force intended to decapitate the French is assembled, and the day looms closer than ever. If the Zulu rebels disagree with taking out many of the top Professionals of France, so be it.

Alas, no plan survives contact with the battlefield, and the surprise attack turns out to be easier than intended. Against expectations, the French cadre, and Napoleon Bonaparte himself have just left for the depth of the Labyrinth, harvesting Artefacts for his forces to use, leaving only a few of his lieutenants in charge of France and its wars. So, while Jonas helps to liberate the royal families of Europe that the Tyrant kept next to the heart of his Dominion, Cowen and her team have to be satisfied with a belated second round against Deschanel.

Without a definitive strike, the British have a plan B. Turning the tables on the French, by closing the Great Gilded Gate of Versailles. Everyone knows by now that the Gate will eventually reopen on its own, but the long delay means that the Dominion itself can be dismantled, and Napoleon deprived of a realm when he manages to reach Earth again.

But the British make a mistake. An overzealous Jonathan Gilbert, eager to avenge the deaths of his family a year ago, amplifies the Gate closer by an unimaginable factor… and more than one Gate shuts down. And Professionals across all of the Earth-113’s zones suddenly discover some of their travel options disabled unexpectedly.

This, Mhambi Meshindi cannot allow happening again. He cannot know exactly how far this ripple has propagated, but he cannot risk it happening again, and drawing attention from the High Tiers to his burgeoning empire. It is too soon for his plans, but if he has to take on an entire world before his Zulus are ready… so be it.

The Infinite Labyrinth - Sanctions