timewalk

  A domain then, in essence, is the extension of its inator’s personal mana through space. It is a deceptively simple cept, simir in principle to a mana signature, but in practice, it creates araordinarily plex weave of mana, allowing some trol to be leveraged over the area it influences. Domains are as unique and varied as the person or creature creating them and are thus more about structure, anization, or information than the mana underlying it. In the subsequent chapters, we will discuss how the structure of the domain is propagated through the ambient mana creating a self-sustaining weave of magical energy. We will also y out the current theories for how magical effects are propagated via the substrate of the domain itself.

  It's worth noting that, while dungeon magic is always domain based, it is a necessary but not suffit dition. There are at least two other known requirements for a duo arise. Furthermore, we find domains to be the fual underlying meism for many non-dungeon skills and spells – often maing as auras, passive or perception skills, and local area influence magi unon or rare csses.

  - Excerpt from Dungeons and Domains: A plete Referenevyn Eld, Uy of Dal’mohra.

  Aliandra

  Ali put the dangerous book down and rubbed her temples. The headache throbbed unpleasantly under her fiips, refusing to ease up, and she was not quite sure if it was from studying or if she was still rec from her fainting spell at the guild. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of Malika’s rather shog theory about Mieriel, but she would definitely be more cautious around her from now on – and wisdom was a smart iment for her css anyway.

  This is a very advanced book. She had been feeling a little better and had eventually plucked up the ce to start reading the book that she and Ryn had uncovered in the library. A book that filled her with both anxious excitement and chilling dread. The st remaining intact book from the Grand Library Ara, potentially full of insight into the domain aspect of her css, and a powerful link to her past. But she could never fet the Blind Lich who had killed her family aroyed the city – even though this book had been written way back when Nevyn Eld was still a human researcher at the uy.

  Ali had hoped to find some resolution to her flicted emotions within its pages, but all she had found were plex and deheories, dipping deeply into many taboo subjects, including the use of dungeon magic.

  The library had had a notorious se of heavily restricted tomes and manuals on the sed level, guarded by high-ranking clerks and librarians, and powerful wards. Being u the time, and not strong enough to survive among the more powerful tomes, Ali had never seen it. Given the prote ruhe illusion, the subject matter, and evehor, she was absolutely certain this book had been one of those forbidden works. While she didn’t uand even half of what she had read so far, the overwhelming arrogan the superiority of his intellect that she had seen dispyed by the Blind Lich came through clearly ione of the work sitting open on her p. Still, it was her only source of information on one of the most profound and fual aspects of her own css – her domain.

  She studied her mana filling the air and the ground all around her, slowly emanating from the are grass and mushrooms, and the verdant moss, and spread high into the air by the boughs of the huge oak and maple trees.

  I almost see it. The book had described an underlying structure – a mesh or ttice – that propagated the domain throughout the affected area. To her mana sight, it appeared as araordinarily plex fine weave as the are and nature mawined aangled in a never repeating, but ordered, three-dimensional web throughout the Grove. It was extraordinary that her skills and css could create such a thing without her having the slightest uanding how it worked, or even being able to clearly perceive all the intricate details h before her.

  Acc to the book, the structure was a maion of herself, in much the same way as a fingerprint or a mana signature was uo each person, and that, without a e to her, the ehing would unravel, fray, and die. Is that what Domain Withdrawal is? Were her domain and herself one and the same? ected on such a fual level that one would wither and die without the other?

  Off to the side, Mato’s Sanctuary aura pulsed slowly, visible as a soft and vibrant green that emanated from his body, filling the immediately surrounding area with the unique mana and structure of his domain. His skill was so remarkably different from hers that, without the book, and the domain trait attribution on his skill, she would never have guessed them to be simir. His skill was always tered on him, following him around wherever he went. The weave seemed more anic, chaotid coarse, flowing through the space like growing roots or vines.

  Are Insight has reached level 18.

  Hmm. Right. How do they occupy the same space? she thought, dismissing the notification as soon as it appeared. Mato’s domain filled the area around his tent, but it didn’t dispce her domain, somehow overpping through the same space. She referred back to the chapter she had just read which described the structure and propagation of the mana weave, trying to uand the dense and abstract theory.

  Subtle waves of glowing energy were carried outward by his domain, flowing through the tendrils of his weave to be absorbed by the pnts within its range, causing them to pulse with vitality. There had been a voluted passage in the book expining how the domain structure facilitated the extension of mana and magito the affected area. While she hadn’t uood much of it, Ali was absolutely certain she was at this very moment watg precisely that in a. She was literally watg Mato’s Sanctuary aura distributing the energy of his potent regeion skill to the pnts around him – and all this activity going oirely without scious effort while he was sleeping.

  Ali shut the book, st it in her ring, and took a deep breath, trying to use Malika’s breathing exercises to ease her still throbbing headache. The others would wake soon, and they had all decided to go expl today.

  I have some new minions to make before we go, she thought, retrieving several Kobold bows from her ring. She had no idea what they would be fag, and so she had decided to try some of her archer Kobolds this time – a way to increase the diversity of her forces.

  Imprint: Bow pleted.

  Her Grimoire was full, but it wasn’t a difficult decision – she repced the imprint for boh the new one she had just learned, and the about summoning a banced army.

  ***

  Ali stood on the sed floor of the library, fag the enormous stone doors that led out into what was ohe industrial and ercial level of her home – Dal’mohra. It was dark down here, and without ’s magic, all she would have been able to see was the thick mana. The doors were sealed in dense yers of encrusted bone, but there was no mistaking the creepy prig of the dark bone ah mana that seeped through, spilling out into the library and dripping off the floor down into the dark atrium behind her.

  “I’m pretty sure the dungeon is still alive in there,” Ali said.

  “Yes, my skill already identify it,” firmed.

  “Everyone have a recall potion?” Malika asked, getting nods all around. It was only the fifth time she had asked, but Ali didn’t pin – she was just as nervous.

  “Ok, I’m starting,” Ali said, hopping onto a barrier aating herself to the door, aiming her destruagic at the bone-encrusted a hihat were rger than her entire body.

  When she had freed the hinges and cleared as much of the bone as she could, Mato transformed into his Bear Form and threw all his siderable weight and strength against the heavy stone. For a while, all she could hear was his heavy breathing, and the scraping of his cws tearing at the bone-covered floor. Then a loud crack echoed through the library and ks of bone, dust, and debris began to rain down on the bear as he redoubled his efforts. With a loud grinding and g he door moved, spilling a torrent of dust and dense dungeon mana into the room as it creaked wider and wider.

  A chill wind whistled mournfully through the opening, carrying the heavy st of death along with the soft hints of dust and rot.

  Wide enough now for him to enter, Mato vahrough the doorway, followed closely by and Malika. Ali sent her minions through first – a ragtag bunch chosen mostly to cover all the bases for whatever they might find oher side. Ali stepped through and stood staring as her eyes began to adjust.

  The dungeon’s mana was immense, pressing in on her with an unmistakable prig sensation that caused her to shiver involuntarily even though it wasn’t particurly cold. All around her, dense formations of boted out from the misshapen remains of what had once been the administration buildings and the seat of gover for the city. Substantially rger and higher-level Bed Deathcap mushrooms sprouted everywhere, oozing an excessive amount of death affinity mana into the air.

  As her gaze ranged further, she was surprised to find she could actually see the giant tric suspended rings that prised the bae of the city – the spine upon which everything was built – outlined by a soft shifting yellow and green light that illumi from below. C the entire surface of the three trigs, the ominous dark mana of the dungeon welled up, spilling over the edges, aween the floating bridges that ected the rings, to drift endlessly downward into the abyss below.

  “This is amazing… to think we see this…” ’s voice trailed off, filled with awe and wonder.

  “I wish you could have seen it before,” Ali said.

  Bone ched underfoot as everyoook in the sight of the dungeon and the ruins.

  “Whatever took out that se of the city above got this level too,” said, gazing off to the north. The tral ring had a rge se that was simply missing in the dire he was fag, and of the outer ring, only half remaihe edges where the ring had shattered were left jagged and broken, jutting out over the emptiness.

  “There is something out there,” said, shading his eyes with his hands, whatever good that would do down here so far below ground. “Bats, I think. Big ones… and something else…”

  It was frankly quite astounding how good his eyes were. Ali couldn’t even see anything moving, let alone identify what it might be.

  “Are we just going to stand around and look? This is a dungeon, it probably has monsters we should be fighting,” Mato said.

  A loud grinding and the snapping of shattered bone reverberated from a darkened alley ahead, followed by an inhuman screech.

  “Spitter Drone!” shouted, pulling out his bow and firing.

  “This doorway!” Malika yelled, darting toward a bone-encrusted building as several tons of angry armored bone elemental shot out into the open pza, spraying vile-smelling liquid in all dires.

  Ali threw up a barrier just in time to deflect the brunt of the ossifying spray before it hit her, leaping backward reflexively as the heavy domed gray carapace smashed into the too-narrow open doorway, sending a spray of splintered bone and rock flying toward her.

  “Go,” Ali arying to catch her breath from her uhletieuver. There was definitely a bruise on her hip already. Her minions responded immediately, most of them charging into the house after the giant monster, Malika, and Mato.

  “Firebolts now,” she added, direg her mages to open fire and sending a stream of are bolts into the chaotiterior to mih the lightning fshes and bursts of soul magi within.

  She kept a close eye on the monster, alert for its devastating magic, but she found herself to be surprisingly calm. Surprise attaotwithstanding, she found it easy to slip into their well-practiced routine, and in record time she was calling for fireballs. It was remarkable how a few levels improved their damage output.

  As Ali called out the explosion, she studied the magiuch clearer to her than before. I almost see how it works. Her resolution and acuity had both improved with the increased skill level and additional attribute points in perception. She blocked the doorway with a barrier, watg curiously as the yers of bone encrusting the walls of the house were blown off when the monster’s corpse exploded.

  “Add! Piercer Scorpion!” called out, ‘pointing’ to it with a speeding indest arrow.

  Mato’s heavier form tore at the bone yers on the ground as he propelled himself at great speed to crash into the monster with a roar. It instantly wheeled to attack him.

  Ali anized her minions, getting them engaged in the fight as quickly as she could.

  “Another! Mato, behind you!” called the sed ining scorpion.

  I should be scared, Ali thought. The monsters kept ing, attracted by the noise of battle and the explosive release of mana. But with each additional monster, simply called it out, and Mato used his Challenging Roar to taunt it to attack him. Her shama up the assault with their lightning magid whehere were two or three, Ali would slip into their Skeletal Wyvern routine, dropping fireballs on the pad makiain Mato was getting a heal between each strike.

  Ali lost t of the number of mohey killed, but silence finally returned, and she found they had moved across the entire inner ring and were now quite close to the edge, overlooking the broad gap into the abyss separating them from the suspended sed ri slightly below.

  “ we rest a little?” she asked. Her oool was still almost full, recovered periodically during the long-running fight by the simple expedient of destrug whatever corpse she could reach, but her minions were running low, and that – particurly for her healers – was not something she wao ignore.

  “How many did we just kill?” Malika asked, a little out of breath, exactly eg Ali’s thoughts. Previously, these bone elementals had been incredibly challenging to take on, eve a time, with a lo iween. With just the adva of a few levels, they had torn through a host of them, sometimes fighting two or three simultaneously, and they had e out at the other end breathing a little heavier and needing to take a bit of a mana break.

  “Sixteen, if you don’t t the Spitter Drones,” answered.

  Mato

  Mato stood he edge, gazing down into the darkness below. The dim greenish-yellow light filtered upward but whatever y down there was well beyond his ability to make out. It smelled though, of rot and growth, a stark trast to the dry bone dust that covered everything up here. There was no railing or wall, just the treacherous-looking bouff yered on top of the underlying stone of the enormous supp ptform that held hundreds of encrusted buildings in various stages of ruin. Off to the side was what looked like a giant toppled statue, but it was hard to tell what y beh all the yers encrusting it, attag it to the floor.

  The ground shivered lightly underfoot.

  He looked dow happened again. What’s that? The vibrations grew progressively more powerful in a regur rhythmic pattern.

  “Whoa,” Malika excimed, notig the effect.

  As dust and small loose ks of bone began to bounce, Mato looked up catg a fsh of white down one of the adjat alleys. He didn’t wait, shapeshifting immediately to his Bear Form. When the moepped out of the shadows, he was ready.

  Piercer Scorpion. But it ure white and towered at least twice the size of every bone elemental they had faced so far, its spear-tipped limbs thicker than his leg, its stinger gleaming with unnatural sharpness as it quivered upright, ready to strike.

  Mato charged without hesitation on all four paws, tearing across the clear space at high speed. Survival Instinct fred as the spears blurred into a, stabbing down viciously. He triggered his Brutal bat block a hair before the spears even moved, reag to the premonition of danger rather than relying on his vision to track the immense speed. But as the spears ripped through the stone pavement, the grouh him erupted with a devastating pincushion of stout yard-long spears of bone, impaling him through the ribs from below.

  He roared in pain but still mao imbue his voice with his Challenging Roar skill, while he twisted, snapping the spears of bone, and spraying his blood across the ground.

  “Mato, it’s a boss! Be careful!” yelled.

  I kinda figured that o for myself, he thought, settling his focus on his Survival Instinct as it began screaming for his attention. He swiped at the monster, spending mana to empower his strike using Brutal Restoration, but his heavy paw bounced off the dense armor while the nature magic of his Brutal Restoration barely peed to do the minimum damage.

  Suddenly, the heals from the Kobolds nded, beginning to slowly force the shattered pieces of the spears out of his body, but he was already brag against more as the giant scorpion of bone shed out, making bone explode from the walls and the ground wherever it struck.

  Mato roared, l his ter at the st possible moment avoiding the powerful tail strike that punched through a stone wall sending shards of bone and rock ricocheting off his armor.

  He narrowed his eyes against the brilliant fsh of lightning, deying his attack slightly to better exploit the damage the magic would do.

  Again, the urgent awareness of Survival Instinct burst in his mind as the scorpion’s tail raised and he reized the potent bone magical attack.

  “It’s using magic!” Ali’s voice carried clear across the battlefield.

  He calmed himself a little – these attacks were well-telegraphed and easy to avoid. But instead of the expected spear of bohe ground exploded with a violeion of bone spears and shards in a nova that shot out in all dires, pig him up and flinging him ten yards to bounce off a wall.

  “! No!” Ali screamed, and for a brief moment, Mato saw his childhood friend impaled through the stomach by a rge spear of bone, suspended in the air out over the darkness with nothing but yawniiness below to catch his fall.

  timewalk