Dungeon Master (Karma System)

An unfinished room on the fifth level had four walls, one door, and no windows.

It would eventually become a store.

It was also where Max needed to decide how many shelves belonged along the northern wall. He created a fifth shelf, studied the result, and removed it again.

”You have done that three times.” Quin said.

The swordsman sat on an unopened wooden crate with a cup of coffee in one hand. A viewing screen floated in front of him.

”The room looks crowded with five.”

”It looked crowded the first two times too.”

”I was making sure.”

”A fifth shelf may look different if you summon it with confidence.” Quin teased.

Max ignored him and selected a warmer setting for the light crystals in the ceiling. The room changed from white to soft gold.

”Better.” Quin said.

”I did not ask.”

”You brought me here.”

”To review the recording.”

”Then stop arguing with the shelves and start it. I want to see how those jokers destroyed an airship.”

Max opened the file attached to the new Hall achievement.

The screen widened.

Rod, Dirk, Lana, Cindy, and Halbin appeared beneath the arch leading into Level Three. Iron bands circled their wrists. The Chrysus Warband Set allowed them to sense one another’s direction and general condition, even when the level separated them.

Rod adjusted his axe and stepped through the portal.

The view changed.

The five adventurers appeared on a wooden platform suspended high above a layer of clouds. A full-sized dwarven airship waited beside them. Its armored hull was longer than the Sanctuary’s village square, and a reinforced balloon stretched above it. Metal fins extended from both sides while two mana engines turned broad propellers near the stern.

The ship’s name had been painted across its bow.

Stonewing.

Dwarves hurried along the dock carrying crates, checking ropes, and shouting measurements to one another. A broad female dwarf in a dark flight coat marched toward the party.

”Captain Durna Ironwake is the name. If you are here to travel with us, you work while you are aboard. If you are here to sleep, I will tie you beneath the ballast so you can be useful anyway.”

Rod smiled. ”What are we fighting?”

Captain Durna did not return the smile.

”Whatever tries to stop my ship.”

A quest notice appeared before the party.

[Level Three: Dwarven Airship]

[Primary Objective: Assist the crew of the Stonewing and protect the vessel until it reaches its destination.]

[The condition of the ship and its crew will affect the level’s progression.]

The captain showed them the emergency bells, the engine access, the rigging stations, and the equipment lockers. Each explanation lasted only a few seconds. The dwarves were already preparing to depart. This massive airship was hardly comparable to the mini 5 person ships that had appeared in the sanctuary.

Rod listened, but his attention kept moving toward the empty sky.

”There.” Quin said.

Max paused the recording. ”There what?”

”The level told them what mattered twice. The captain told them a third time. Rod still wanted to know where the enemy was.”

”He was expecting a standard dungeon fight.” Max said while nodding along

”I am guessing that is where things went wrong.” Quin finished as Max un-paused the recording.

Max resumed the recording at a faster speed so they could get to the good stuff quicker.

The Stonewing left the dock and entered the clouds. For several minutes, nothing attacked. The party explored the upper deck while dwarves worked around them. Lana sent Midnight along the railings. Dirk inspected the higher platforms. Cindy and Halbin remained near the engine entrance, and Rod watched the horizon from the bow.

Midnight noticed the first creatures. The cat’s ears flattened. Lana followed his stare toward a group of distant shapes moving through the cloud cover.

”Something is coming from the right.” She warned her companions

The dwarven lookout rang a bell and started shouting. ”Razorwings! Starboard side!”

At a distance, the creatures looked like large birds. They lost that resemblance as they approached. Each was roughly the size of a person, with a long tail and two leathery wings. Narrow blue-gray scales ran along their spines and the outer edges of their wings. Their hooked claws curved forward, and yellow eyes contracted into thin slits when they saw the deck.

The first Razorwing struck the rigging instead of an adventurer. Its claws cut through a rope. One of the Stonewing’s side fins snapped backward. The rest descended around it.

Quin slowed the recording and enlarged one of the creatures.

”Those are not birds.”

”The dwarves did not call them birds.” Said while flashing a look at Quin that basically said ’I know something you don’t’.

The image showed overlapping scales along the creature’s tail and the hard leading edge of its wing. They were small enough to be mistaken for rough hide from a distance. Up close, each ended in a sharp ridge.

”The claws are shaped for cutting.” Quin said.

Max nodded. ”They know which parts of a ship are easier to break than its passengers.”

Quin returned the recording to normal size. ”That makes them more troublesome than birds.”

Max did not slow the recording. He and Quin had both watched enough battles to understand what happened without examining every attack.

Rod’s party fought well.

The Warband bands kept them aware of one another. Rod intercepted the largest Razorwings when they landed. Dirk moved through the higher rigging and fired whenever a creature exposed its wings. Lana used short bursts of ice to slow them without freezing the dwarven ropes. Cindy and Halbin protected the engine hatch and any wounded party member who retreated toward it.

They had learned from the Orc Highlands. Nobody chased an enemy away from the others. Nobody broke formation to claim an easy kill.

The Razorwings did not care about their formation.

Some attacked the dwarves. Others tore at the balloon supports, altitude lines, and steering fins. One landed beside a pressure valve while the engineer responsible for it struggled with a wounded arm.

”Someone close that valve!” The dwarf shouted.

Cindy stood less than three meters away. She heard him, but two Razorwings were circling above Rod. She moved to protect her brother instead.

The engineer was eventually able to close the valve himself, but it wasn’t a quick process.

A second creature struck him before he could secure it.

The recording continued.

”Port line cut!”

”We need hands on the rear sail!”

”Move the loose ballast away from the damaged side!”

”We are starting to list towards the port side!”

The dwarves shouted instructions while the adventurers called targets to one another. Each group spoke past the other.

Dirk killed the final Razorwing with an arrow through its throat. Rod raised his axe and searched the sky for another wave. None came. The party had defeated every enemy in the opening encounter. To survive the first encounter of a new dungeon level, the party was rather pleased with themselves.

Behind them, the Stonewing was dying.

One side fin hung beneath the hull. Air escaped through two tears in the balloon. The unsecured pressure valve released a stream of blue mana, and the deck tilted as loose ballast rolled toward the damaged rail.

Captain Durna ordered everyone to emergency stations.

Rod asked where the next attack would come from.

”The ship is the emergency!” She shouted.

The party tried to help then, but they did not know the stations. Rod pulled the wrong steering line. Halbin and Cindy moved ballast in opposite directions. Lana froze the torn edge of the balloon, only for the brittle material to crack farther when the airship shifted.

The Stonewing dropped beneath the clouds.

The viewing angle moved outside the ship. Its engines still turned, but the damaged fins could no longer hold it level. The dwarves fought the controls while the ground rose through the mist below.

The ship struck a rocky slope before reaching the first major route checkpoint.

The recording turned white.

[Primary Objective Failed]

[Stonewing rendered incapable of flight.]

[Level attempt concluded.]

Max stopped the image before the hospital revival records appeared.

”They managed to kill every Razorwing.” Max said.

Quin set his coffee aside. ”They learned how to fight as a warband, too bad it was more important to protect the ship rather than killing the enemies.”

Max looked at the frozen image of the damaged airship.

The Orc Highlands rewarded the party for understanding one another. Level Three required them to expand that awareness. They were no longer five adventurers standing in an arena. They were part of a larger moving objective filled with people, machinery, and problems that could not all be solved with an axe.

”The Skyyard should help.” Max said.

”True, even if the ships aren’t the same. The mini-airship’s can at least allow the adventures to understand the basics of sailing through the sky.”

Max considered changing Captain Durna’s introduction, so future parties received longer instructions. He decided against it. The objective had been clear. Turning the opening into a lecture would not teach adventurers to pay attention when people around them needed help.

Level Three did not require them to know every part of an airship before entering. It required them to recognize that they did not know and listen to the dwarves who did.

Quin reopened the Hall menu. ”They may be avoiding additional achievements.”

The new record had drawn more visitors than the fastest-clear displays. Max did not regret creating it. Failure became less discouraging when people could laugh about it and then try again.

”The Hall is already changing how people behave. Someone has spent the last hour trying to take the Weakest Successful Attack record with a feather.”

Max had to choke back a laugh when he heard that.

”It only counts during a successful clear.” He reminded.

”His party did not know that when he bought the feather.”

Max returned to the lighting menu. ”They know now.”

”And half the Sanctuary is wandering through Fey Nights in search of hidden dinners. How many secret areas did you make?”

”Enough.”

”That is not a number.”

”It is the number you are getting.”

Quin leaned back against the wall. ”One day, someone is going to discover something you forgot you placed.”

”Then I will pretend it was intentional.”

A notification appeared before Max could create the fifth shelf again.

[Rod’s party has registered for Skyyard crew training.]

[Race registration: Declined.]

Max opened a live view.

The five adventurers stood aboard one of the practice vessels. Rod had taken the pilot’s wheel. Lana occupied the navigation station with Midnight sitting on the map beside her. Cindy stood at the mana engine, Dirk controlled the rigging, and Halbin waited beside the ballast rails.

Before releasing the dock clamps, they repeated every role aloud.

Lana pointed toward the first checkpoint. Rod looked at her instead of the open course.

”You call the route, I will follow it.” Rod said.

The clamps released the airship with a faint hiss. Their ship drifted away from the dock, turned when Lana called the first correction, and entered the course without striking anything.