Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The Deep Forge awakened in stages.

First came the furnaces. Orange light spread through channels carved beneath the floor, illuminating a chamber large enough to contain several of Blackwater’s surface buildings. Then water began moving through elevated pipes. Steam escaped from joints that had remained cold for generations.

Helmar stood before the central controls with the ring locked into a circular mechanism.

Only the two guards who had escaped with Helmar reached the Deep Forge. They stood beside him with their weapons drawn, watching the ancient machinery awaken around them.

"Do not move." Helmar ordered.

The command was not directed at Rod.

Armored figures stood between the furnaces. They resembled dwarven soldiers forged entirely from dark metal, each carrying a shield and blunt-headed weapon. Smaller machines moved beneath them on eight articulated legs, clearing debris from tracks and replacing damaged components.

None obeyed Helmar.

One metal soldier turned its head toward him. Red light appeared behind the narrow opening in its faceplate.

Renn entered behind Rod. The ring mechanism brightened.

Every construct looked toward Renn.

Helmar saw the movement. "Stay back."

"You murdered our family for this?" Renn asked.

"I removed people who would have buried it again."

"You enslaved hundreds who never knew what they were digging toward."

"Labor created every stronghold our people possess. History remembers what was built, not who carried the stone."

The nearest construct struck Helmar’s guard without warning.

Its weapon crushed the dwarf’s shield against his chest. The second guard attacked the construct and accomplished nothing beyond turning it toward him.

More red lights appeared throughout the chamber.

A voice emerged from the forge itself.

[Unauthorized activation sequence. Custodial line incomplete. Secure the Deep Forge.]

The words appeared in brackets before Renn’s vision as the same voice repeated through the chamber.

Helmar twisted the control surrounding the ring. "I possess the key."

[Key accepted. Custodial authority disputed.]

Renn stepped forward.

Helmar pulled the ring free from the machine.

The constructs attacked everyone.

Two armored defenders advanced upon Helmar while three turned toward the entrance. Spider-shaped maintenance machines climbed the walls and ceiling, releasing jets of steam toward anyone crossing marked lines.

Valewick raised a barrier before the first steam burst reached Renn. The spell formed quickly and held, though vapor curled around both sides.

"Move behind the column." Lana ordered. "The barrier cannot cover the entire chamber."

Valewick shifted with them rather than trying to enlarge it.

Rod met the first metal soldier. His axe struck its shield and left a bright cut without passing through. The construct answered with its mace. Rod avoided the blow, which cracked the floor where he had stood.

Another construct brought its weapon down against Dain’s shield. He absorbed the blow, but the force drove him to one knee and sent a jolt through both arms.

"I cannot keep stopping these attacks head on. Another strike like that may break my shield." Dain warned.

"Then we will not give it another clean strike." Rod said. "Keep its attention while the rest of us attack its joints."

Dain rose behind his shield and shifted to the construct’s left, forcing the machine to turn with him. Lana covered the floor beneath its feet with ice. When it tried to follow Dain, its metal boots slipped and threw it off balance.

Rod charged from the opposite side and buried his axe against its hip, twisting the construct farther out of position. Dirk sent an arrow into the exposed joint behind its knee. The leg buckled, and Dain drove the edge of his shield into the damaged joint before the construct could recover.

Metal tore loose beneath the combined attacks. The construct collapsed onto one knee, giving Rod a clear opening to strike its upper body.

The leg folded.

The construct continued fighting from the ground.

Helmar used the confusion to move along the central controls. He pressed the artificial hand against one plate and entered a sequence learned from records no one else possessed. A section of the forge opened behind him, revealing a crucible surrounded by pale metal channels.

"Begin production." He ordered.

[Defensive state active. Production denied.]

Helmar struck the plate. "I opened you."

The construct approaching him swung.

Helmar avoided the weapon, but the edge caught his leg. Armor collapsed around the knee. He fell against the control station and dragged himself behind it.

His remaining guard attempted to protect him. Two spider machines dropped from the ceiling and wrapped metal limbs around the guard dwarf’s arms. A steam-powered guardian emerged from a recessed door and threw him across the chamber.

Rod’s party advanced from the opposite side.

Helmar found himself between the constructs and the people he had tried to kill.

Helmar reached a narrow platform suspended over the underground lake. Pipes descended from the forge chamber behind him into the black water below. At the opposite end of the platform, an open doorway led into a smaller room containing the secondary controls.

"Renn!" Helmar shouted.

Renn stopped behind Dain’s shield.

"Order your people to stop attacking me." Helmar said. "The secondary controls can shut down the forge’s defenses, but none of us will reach them if we continue fighting each other."

"You still have the key." Renn replied. "Give it back and surrender. Once you do, we will deal with the forge."

"I spent years uncovering this place. I will not surrender it to an ignorant child who did not know the Deep Forge existed until today."

"You murdered my father and enslaved hundreds of people to excavate it. Nothing you did gives you the right to keep it."

Another construct emerged from the forge chamber behind Rod’s group. Dain shifted his shield toward the approaching machine without taking his attention away from Helmar.

Helmar backed farther onto the platform. "The constructs will continue awakening until someone reaches that control room. Help me cross the platform, and I will stop them before they overwhelm everyone."

"If you know how to stop them, tell us what to do. You are not touching those controls while you still possess the key."

"You think I will hand over the ring and trust you to spare my life?"

"No." Renn said. "I think you have run out of places to escape."

The construct behind them struck Dain’s shield. Rod and Lana turned to help him, and Helmar used the distraction to run.

He crossed the narrow platform while Dirk fired after him. The arrow struck the metal railing beside Helmar as he threw himself through the doorway at the far end. Rod’s group followed, but Helmar reached the secondary control station first.

Rows of ancient levers surrounded a circular panel covered in dwarven warnings. Helmar ignored them and pulled the largest lever as far as it would move.

[Emergency shutdown attempted while defensive systems remain active.]

[Total containment initiated.]

Heavy doors began descending over every exit.

The maintenance machines abandoned their repairs and moved toward the control stations. One severed a pipe above the entrance, filling the area with steam.

"We need that ring back in place." Renn said.

Helmar limped across the platform, dragging the injured leg.

Rod pursued him.

An armored construct blocked the platform entrance. Rod struck its damaged knee while Dirk fired into the same joint. The construct fell sideways, crashing against the rail.

Its weight tore part of the platform loose.

Helmar nearly fell. His artificial hand caught the rail and held him above the water. He pulled himself back onto the metal grating before Rod reached him.

They fought on a surface already beginning to fail.

Helmar used a short hammer in his living hand and the strength of the artificial one to catch Rod’s axe. His injured leg limited his movement, but the narrow platform prevented Rod from circling him.

"You do not understand what this forge is capable of." Helmar said.

"Neither do you, if this is what happened when you turned it on."

Rod ripped the axe free and struck Helmar’s shoulder. Armor split. Helmar drove the metal fist into Rod’s chest and pushed him against the rail.

Behind them, Renn reached the main mechanism.

The circular lock remained empty. A spider machine attacked before he could touch it. Valewick’s barrier caught two metal limbs, and Lana’s lightning drove through the machine’s exposed joints.

"The ring." Renn called.

Helmar heard him.

He turned toward the center long enough for Rod to strike his damaged leg. The armor gave way. Helmar fell, and the lower portion of the limb bent beneath him at an impossible angle.

The forge’s largest guardian reached the platform.

It carried no ordinary weapon. One arm ended in a heavy tool designed to shape heated metal. The tool descended toward Rod and Helmar alike.

Rod jumped backward.

Helmar raised his artificial hand.

The tool crushed it against the platform.

Metal fingers fused into the grating. Helmar screamed and struck at the guardian with his hammer. The blow did nothing.

Rod attacked the guardian’s side to draw it away. His axe entered a joint beneath its arm. The machine turned, tearing the weapon from Rod’s hands.

Helmar released the damaged artificial hand from his arm and crawled toward the secondary controls.

The guardian stepped onto Helmar’s uninjured leg.

Bone and armor broke together. Helmar tried to pull himself free, but the construct’s weight held him against the platform.

Rod drove his axe into the joint beneath the guardian’s arm. The construct turned to face the new threat, lifting its foot from Helmar’s ruined leg as it moved.

Freed from beneath the guardian, Helmar dragged himself toward the secondary control station. Both legs were useless, and only his living hand remained, but the station was close enough for him to reach its base.

He pulled his upper body against the metal housing and raised the ring toward a smaller recess. Rod caught up with him and seized his wrist before he could insert it.

Helmar drove his forehead into Rod’s face. Rod’s grip loosened. Helmar struck with the hammer, but the blow glanced from Rod’s shoulder.

Dirk fired from the main floor.

The arrow struck Helmar’s hammer arm. He staggered against the control station.

A spider machine descended along the support above him and released a focused burst of steam. Helmar turned his face too late. The blast caught one eye and the side of his head.

He reeled blindly.

Rod reached for the ring.

Helmar closed his remaining hand around it and twisted away, throwing his weight backward to keep it beyond Rod’s reach. With neither leg able to support him, he slid across the platform and onto the section of grating damaged by the fallen construct.

The weakened metal collapsed beneath him.

For a moment, Helmar hung above the lake with one ruined arm hooked through the remaining rail. Both legs were useless beneath him. Blood covered one side of his face where the intense heat of the steam melted a portion of his face.

Renn crossed the platform behind Rod.

"Give me the ring." He said.

Helmar looked at him through his remaining eye.

"You will bury it again."

The rail tore free.

Helmar fell into the underground lake.

The ring struck the platform edge, slipped from his fingers, and landed near Rod’s boot. Helmar disappeared beneath the black water before anyone could reach the broken section.

Rod retrieved the ring.

The current pulled beneath the forge strongly enough to drag floating debris toward submerged channels. No body returned to the surface.

"Later." Lana said as Rod looked over the edge. "Stop the guardian constructs first."

The containment doors had nearly reached the floor. Constructs continued advancing. Dain’s shield arm hung numb, and Nessa had exhausted most of her healing power.

Rod carried the ring to Renn.

Renn pressed it into the central mechanism.

[Key accepted. Authorized successor present.]

The controls illuminated beneath his hands. Renn did not understand every symbol, but one command appeared with unmistakable meaning.

End defensive state.

He selected it.

The armored constructs stopped. Spider machines froze against walls and floor. Steam valves closed, and the containment doors halted inches above the ground.

Silence returned slowly as the enormous mechanisms settled.

Renn left the ring inside the control. He stood before the dormant controls while pale metal cooled inside the unfinished crucible.

He finally knew what the ring opened.

He also understood why the Deep Forge had been buried.

The unfinished production cycle left a thumb-sized bead of pale metal in the crucible. Even incomplete, it shone through the surrounding heat without softening. Helmar had seen it before he fell and had smiled despite his injuries. The amount was nearly worthless compared with the vast forge, yet it proved the legends were not exaggerations.

Renn ordered no one to touch it. The forge had already rejected one unauthorized command, and a valuable sample was not worth restarting the defenses. The metal remained where the ancient machinery placed it, waiting for engineers who understood how to remove it safely.