It took some doing before I finally managed to calm Ferrisdae down enough that I felt like we could enter Mount Rust, which still felt like a trap to me. The Titantoise was still and had been since the door appeared, sure, and Himia assured us that it was perfectly safe, but it still looked like we were entering the belly of a massive beast.
So it was very surprising when we finally entered and were met with the inside of a yurt. There were four cots behind thin dividers, a table with four chairs in the center, and a wooden chest in the back with a word in a language I recognized from Carr’s other areas.
“Secret lair, huh?” I asked, crossing my arms as I walked to the table and looked around.
“In Rundathier, Keith Carr had magical single-use structures called Tents that could be used to create safe spaces from monsters for up to twelve hours,” Himia explained as she moved to the chest opposite of where we entered. “This unassuming room hides a larger arsenal behind it. Please, come over and change the numbers on this lock.”
“It really is exactly like the books describe,” Ferrisdae whispered in awe and I found her checking one of the cots. “And definitely not at all comfortable! These will absolutely mess up your back, just like the books!”
Rolling my eyes, I let her have her moment as I went to the chest in the back of the tent. Himia was pointing at a padlock with five dials on it. There were more of the characters from Carr’s language that I didn’t understand, and she gave me instructions on how far to move them and in which direction.
The last one clicked into place and the chest rumbled. I backed away on reflex as one of its sides bounced up, then the other. It flailed about before jumping upwards onto its side against the wall with the lid facing me. A whirring sound filled the yurt before the container opened and fell still.
Frowning, I noted the doorway inside. It had been hidden just like the one leading into Mount Rust, and I wondered how many traps and secrets this so-called lair would have. That was worrying on its own, but I trusted Himia to point out anything that might be potentially harmful to us.
Gesturing to Ferrisdae, I had her follow me in. The door was surprisingly plain considering where we were and how it presented itself, and I turned the handle with only slight hesitation. It opened towards me easily enough, revealing a room that likely took up the most of the Titantoise.
There were large vats of bubbling brown sludge in the center of the space with catwalks hanging precariously above them. Stairs led up to them and several other platforms that had been set up higher.
Strange vehicles like the ones I had seen in Camp Lexi were parked near the walls, and a multitude of weapons were set up on various tables. I frowned as I saw many copies of the weird, curved wands the Dungeon Master had sitting in display cases, and I walked up to one.
“What is this?” I asked, gesturing towards it. I figured there was an even chance that I’d get an answer from either Himia or Keith Carr himself.
In response to my voice, the man did materialize. Unlike his appearance in Camp Lexi, he looked relaxed. Peaceful, even. He wore a Gnomish style suit and tie that I considered archaic, but then again this was centuries ago. The man smiled at the weapon.
“Whoa!” Ferrisdae exclaimed, and I heard her stumble.
I turned to see another woman who had appeared next to the Elf. She was tall, about a head taller than Carr was, slender, and wore a conservative black dress. Her skin was a metallic silver with long hair that was a shade lighter. Given the thick, scaled tail that waved behind her and the two black horns jutting upwards out of her forehead, I made the educated guess that this was Iluxtranemal, the Silver Dragon in Human form.
She watched him with obvious affection, and it was clear that he was recording this while explaining things to her. He had already started talking by the time I turned around.
“So, back in my world we have guns,” he explained, tapping on the display case with a knuckle. “Tried making them in this world, succeeded using magical gunpowder, then decided… eh. You all already have magic and that’s destructive enough. We don’t need this one becoming like mine.”
“I thank you for that,” came Iluxtranemal’s thick, heavy voice. “Some parts of your world sound horrendous. I know ours has its own problem spots, but exacerbating such problems is not wise.”
“You are welcome,” Carr replied with a small bow. “Anyway, this was the weapon I started off with in Rundathier. My sponsors at Estrada Tech had a CEO who was a little…” he paused for a moment as if searching for the right word. “Extra? Yeah, let’s say extra. We got along famously. Anyway, he had his little system set up that gave backstories to things. Little tales. Mostly harmless. Something to entertain and keep their adventurers happy.”
The otherworlder turned to look at it. “This was Rockilita, my first gun in the world before this one. “It’s made of wood, sure, but the lore behind it was that it was made from the splinters of hundreds of wands.”
“Sounds difficult for your soft hands to hold without getting hurt,” the Dragon said.
“Nah, it was just something made up on the spot and added to an item description,” he responded with a shrug. “It was actually really smooth, if lighter than I was used to, but enough about that. This is one of many types of guns that we called a revolver. I’ve made more, as you can see, but Rockilita got me through the worst of things when I was starting out.”
Carr’s holographic hand reached through the display case and started pointing out the various parts. “This is the chamber, which held the cartridges, which are these,” he explained, pointing at a round section in the center of the weapon, and then to a few small cylinders. “In regular guns, they’d fire bullets at speeds faster than the eye can track, which was why they were so dangerous, but this worked with magic.”
He picked up one of the cartridges and held it up, though the physical item stayed where it was. The otherworlder gestured for Iluxtranemal to come closer, and she did.
“See how it has flames on this end here?” he asked.
“I do,” she confirmed. “It looks like five small fireballs.”
Carr nodded. “This contains the spell Burning Buckshot, which made a cone of fire for me,” he informed before pointing at the others. “Magic Missile, Shock Shot, Frigid Bullet, Make Hole—”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Make Hole?” the Dragon asked, interrupting. “As in, fixing something by making it whole? Or put a hole in something? Because the latter sounds like something a gun should already do.”
“You’re right about that,” Carr laughed, reaching out to put a hand on her arm. She seemed pleased by his reaction. “But, it is the latter. It’s more of a battlefield control spell because it makes a big pit in the ground. Doesn’t work against fliers at all, or enemies that were too nimble, but it pretty much removed big, heavy fighters from fights long enough to turn the tide.”
“Ah, the glorious pit that you always mention whenever one of the littlelings try to appeal to your sense of honor,” Iluxtranemal replied with amusement. “’Honor gets you stuck in pits,’ and all that. Did you do that to a lot of honorable people?”
“Oh, man,” he sighed. “There was this whole settlement of honorable warriors, though they were pretty much all delusional. The rest of this world called us Heroes, right? They went and made a whole damn Anti-Hero. That was their literal title. Bastards, most of them.”
A look crossed Carr’s face, and for the first time he seemed unsettled. Like the memory was an unpleasant one. It did not seem, however, that it was an altogether bad one.
“But that’s for some other time,” the otherworlder said suddenly, setting the cartridge back down. “Essentially, whatever cartridge was lined up with the barrel, that was the spell that came out. There was also one for shooting mana bullets, but my son has it and I didn’t have the heart to take it back. He likes to play Spellslinger and cosplay in my old outfit.”
“I assume cosplay means playing dress-up?” Iluxtranemal asked.
“It’s far more serious than that,” Carr scoffed as if she had just insulted him. Then, he looked her up and down, a mischievous look on his face. “That being said, how do you feel about—”
The recording ended, leaving us in silence other than the bubbling vats nearby.
“There was a whole settlement of honor-bound warriors that gave Mr. Frost a hard time,” Ferrisdae said quietly, as if speaking too loud would ruin the scene. “Sayyas was one of them, though she was part of a faction that was sympathetic to Heroes, which was a term in the book. He was initially, pardon my pun, very cold to her advances, but after a rather… traumatic blow-up with the other Heroes, he eventually succumbed to her seduction.”
I furrowed my brow. “Didn’t he have Abigail back in his original home?”
My junior shrugged. “How should I know?”
“Yes, he did,” Himia answered. “Keith Carr’s response to her courtship was to avoid her at all costs. It wasn’t until after he learned that he could not return home due to issues caused by Rundathier’s ruling class and a very traumatic experience that he finally came to rely on Sayyas as a potential partner.”
“That’s who CC’s body was based on, wasn’t it?” I asked, connecting the dots. “If I’m remembering correctly, he said he regretted making her personality as much like hers as possible, and her body in her image. Right?”
“The personality was based on the original CC, but the second statement was about Sayyas, yes.”
“Are there any recordings of her here?” Ferrisdae asked hopefully.
“We already saw a statue of her in Tuskrep, we don’t need to see any more recordings,” I interjected. “This one already went on longer than I had thought it would, as informative as it was.”
“Come on, Badger,” the Forest Elf whined. “Where’s your sense of curiosity?”
“Ah, yes. How can I ever resist the siren song of ‘come on, Badger?’ Truly, we can spend as long as we want on these recordings,” I replied in perfect deadpan. She stifled a laugh, and I shook my head. “I suppose I can’t really use you as a landing spot, so why don’t you assuage your curiosity while I take care of the Dungeon Nexus.”
Ferrisdae stood up a little straighter at that, losing some of her mirth. “Are you sure you can handle it?” she asked softly. “Tabitha was really worried about you, and that makes me worried, too.”
Looking up at the woman, I nodded. “I’m going to be fine. Frazzled afterwards, perhaps a little unconscious, and worn out, but fine. Trust in me, alright?”
She stared at me for a few moments before returning my nod. “Okay, I’ll trust you. But she’s going to kill me if you don’t come back, so be careful.”
“I’m always careful.”
“Says the man who jumped into a Dragon’s stomach on purpose,” Ferrisdae replied, crossing her arms as she gave me a look.
I didn’t have a good response to that so I turned to Himia, who was staring at the spot where Carr had disappeared from. “Can you please direct me to the Dungeon Nexus, and my sassy junior here to one of the recordings that will keep her occupied until I’m done with it?”
“Of course, Inspector,” Himia answered after a second. “Head to the top floor from that staircase, and I will join you shortly. Junior Dungeon Inspector Ferrisdae, please follow me.”
With the Elf occupied, I headed towards the stairs that the Information Elemental had indicated to me. I ascended quickly, as there were at least four stories to get to the top.
There were no connection points to be seen, however. I hadn’t seen them from the outside, but that was the same as things were back at the Logan Dome. It wasn’t a leap to assume they had the same kind of shielding, but at least I had seen them from the inside.
The stairs led me to a catwalk over the sludge vats, and I could see where I could go higher on the other side. Expecting something terrible, I prepared myself for the worst as I crossed over it.
However, the smell of chocolate washed over me. It was far more sweet than the kind I was used to buying for my daughters, but it was still pleasant. A part of me wanted to ask aloud why Carr needed a secret lair to hide weapons and make chocolates, but I think I figured it out pretty fast.
“What’s this?” Ferrisdae asked from another table.
“This is… The Hammer,” Carr explained in an ominous tone.
“That looks like a terribly ineffectual hammer,” Iluxtranemal stated.
“Well, yeah, that’s just its name,” the man grumbled.
“Why is it made out of stone when the last one was wood?”
“Because it is,” he answered. “But the material isn’t that important. This is what we call a shotgun. It’s main purpose—”
I got out of earshot as I ascended to the next level, which was a bare platform, and moved to the next staircase. Some other platforms were in sight, but they had other ways to get to them. When I took the time to look at everything from higher up, it seemed like Carr had set up some kind of multi-tiered maze. It appeared as though my path was the only one that led to the area Himia had instructed me to go to.
When I reached the top, I saw that the stairs had led me to a large cage. The door was inside, dented and broken as if someone had kicked it in. I looked through the bars before entering to see that the platform was just as bare as the last one with one exception.
Sitting in the back was an ornate treasure chest. It had been painted a pleasing blue color and then ruined with copious amounts of gold patterns. It looked rather garish, all things considered, but I wasn’t here to mock the man’s taste no matter how easy it would be.
I approached the chest and opened it. The connection points spilled out as I opened the lid, moving to pierce the room’s ceiling. I knew better than to think that I had changed anything by freeing them. They were magic strings; there was no way they weren’t working before now.
“You do not have enough power, Inspector,” Himia said from behind me. “I suspect that is something you already know.”
Taking a breath, I took a beat to process her words. “Yeah, you’re right,” I quietly agreed, staring at the treasure chest.
The third Dungeon Nexus. I grimaced as I thought about how powerful CC was going to be this time, but I had a responsibility to everyone, and I wasn’t one to shirk my duties.
