Titan of Steel (Dungeoncore)

We Just Write · Nov 14, 2018

Excerpts from the Fourth Edition Starting Adventurer's Guide To Not Dying Horribly

Common Adventuring Gear

Some new Adventurers think that all you need to go Dungeon-Diving or Monster-Hunting is some armor, a weapon, and maybe a few snacks. This is most emphatically not the case, and most Adventurers who go delving while so poorly equipped will wind up dead the first time they go somewhere the Dungeon doesn't want guests. Below is a list of some basic equipment that will greatly increase an Adventurer's life expectancy, and isn't too hard to find.

Basic Magic Primers
Put quite bluntly, most people can muster at least a bit of magic with some practice. It won't be anywhere near as impressive as what a veteran Adventurer can muster, but learning a few spells gives you much better odds of getting out of a tight situation. Chapter two of this book contains instructions for four extremely basic spells that can easily save your life several times over, listed as follows.
-Smokescreen: If you need to get out of a fight immediately, filling the room with opaque smoke can make it a lot easier.
-Healing Light: A basic healing spell, but still one that can save your life if you find yourself bleeding out. Also prevents infections.
-Repulse: A simple pulse of force that shoves away anything you aim it at, which can help with getting nasty monsters out of your face.
-Theme Ping: This spell tells you the theme for the Mana of whatever you point it at, which can give you a decent idea of what sort of abilities they might have. Also useful for spotting disguised Daemons.

Still, don't stop there; pick up a couple of additional primers of starting Magic to increase the range of spells you can cast, and practice each to the point you could cast them reliably while panicking and in extreme pain-because you just might need to.

Mana Beads
It's a simple fact of life that Adventurers often cannot hold enough Mana internally to see them through a full Dungeon Delve. Fortunately, external means of Mana storage are fairly easy to come by, with the most convenient being Mana Beads. Mana Beads are often sorted by color, with those closer to purple holding more Mana-and being MUCH more expensive. All known colors of Mana Bead are listed below, along with the amount of Mana they contain.
-Black: 5 Mana
-Red: 10 Mana
-Orange: 15 Mana
-Yellow: 20 Mana
-Green: 30 Mana
-Blue: 40 Mana
-Purple: 50 Mana
Note: Most spells used by Adventurers use tenths of a Mana Unit to operate, if that.

Other Useful Items
There are some other things aside from those things that can greatly increase an adventurer's life expectancy, but which don't fall into either of the above categories. These can generally be split between consumable and non-consumable items.

A brief list of some consumables Adventurers could find useful for not dying is listed below. This list solely focuses on items an Adventurer could plausibly acquire on a tight budget.
-Grenades: If you open a door and find yourself unexpectedly face-to-face with a large number of monsters who want you dead, an effective way to deal with the problem is to toss an explosive device into the room and then slam the door. That said, this is terribly rude if the Dungeon is currently playing fairly with you.
-Detoxification Potions: Venomous Dungeon monsters and other toxic hazards are fairly common threats, which can easily prove fatal if left untreated; a detox potion doesn't work on all poisons and doesn't totally prevent damage in some cases, but it does work well enough that it can save your life if you take it quickly.
-Warp Tags: By far the cheapest and most accessible of teleportation magic, Warp Tags are keyed to a single location on creation. When activated, they will instantly transport the user to the pre-set destination, being consumed in the process. Cheap Warp Tags are usually limited in range, restricting the Dungeons they're useful in, but if you need to be out of a dangerous situation immediately there are few better options.
WARNING: some Warp Tags require the user's Mana to activate; don't rely these ones, as they can't save you if you're beaten down and drained of Mana. ALWAYS get a Warp Tag with an integrated Mana Bead; even a Black bead can provide more than enough power for a 100-mile hop. Trying to save money here could cost you your life, and you only get one of those.

In addition to consumables, here are some other items that can greatly improve a new Adventurer's chances of getting out of a Dungeon alive. Since these pieces of equipment can be expected to have a fairly long service life, less emphasis on affordability was placed.
-Protective Eyewear: You do NOT want to be blinded, particularly by getting nasty stuff in your eyes. A good pair of goggles can stop that from happening. Try and get ones that won't fog up if possible, since obstructed vision is always something you want to avoid, no matter the source.
-Good Boots: Another part of your body you really don't want suddenly damaged is your feet; a spike through your sole is both agonizing and largely immobilizing. Again, in a Dungeon you will often need to run from danger, which damaged feet make much more difficult. A properly reinforced set of adventuring boots is designed to prevent such damage from occurring.
-A Light Source: Dungeons are sometimes dark, and non-Dwarf Adventurers can't usually see in complete darkness. As such, having some way to illuminate your surroundings is highly recommended.

Dungeoneering Survival Tips

First and foremost, the majority of Dungeons want Adventurers to challenge them, at least to a degree. They want you to delve in and claim treasures from their depths, but they also want you to prove yourself strong enough to carry those treasures. The reason for this is quite simple; Adventurers are part of a Dungeon's reproductive cycle, not only acting as pollinators when they travel between Dungeons, but also acting in a seed dispersal role. Dungeon seeds are the main vector for both of these roles; those small gems all over Dungeon treasures are there for a reason, after all.

When you're in a Dungeon's comfort zone, excessive paranoia about traps and such usually isn't necessary. At that point, it's not really a fight as far as the Dungeon is concerned, so they will usually 'play fair', marking traps in such a manner as to subtly indicate them to a perceptive Adventurer, or having monsters not go for the kill right away. As long as you show that you are a skilled, competent Adventurer, you'll probably be fine.

Not going in properly equipped and prepared usually means the Dungeon will take a rather dim view of your competence right off the bat. In that case, you'll need to work your butt off in order to prove them wrong. If you don't prove the Dungeon wrong, you will either be hauled back to the entrance by the Dungeon's minions if they're feeling merciful, or killed if they aren't.

That said, if you go too deep into a Dungeon, it stops being a matter of proving yourself worthy to act as a seed-bearer, and starts being a case of desperate self-defense on the Dungeon's part. Thus, the single most important survival skill for any Dungeon-Delver is to recognize when you are leaving a Dungeon's comfort zone. In some cases, this is blessedly simple, with a sign clearly indicating that going beyond a certain point forfeits one's life. In other cases, the Dungeon is capable of outright telling you to back off, either directly or by speaking through a minion. The ONLY times when you should attempt to 'clear the Dungeon' past this comfort zone is if either said Dungeon has given you explicit authorization, or if said Dungeon has been actively causing harm to the region around it.

In the extremely hazardous cases where the end of a Dungeon's comfort zone aren't clearly marked, there are some other indicators which you can use to identify the point at which you should REALLY TURN AROUND AND LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.
-If the frequency of found treasure abruptly drops off, TURN AROUND
-If monster types that previously retreated when non-lethally defeated start suddenly fighting to the death, TURN AROUND
-If puzzles are replaced with concealed deathtraps that go off without any form of warning, TURN AROUND
-If there is a sudden lack of explorable, rewarding side-paths, TURN AROUND

If you don't follow this advice, you will in all likelihood be attacked by dozens of monsters at once coming from both in front of you and behind. If this happens, it means that you have officially gotten to the point where the Dungeon does not feel safe allowing you to continue living. Turning around is no longer an option. Your only choices are as follows: teleport out if possible, win the stupidly lopsided fight you just found yourself in, or die a gruesome death. In almost all scenarios, it will be either Option 1, or Option 3.

If you absolutely must Adventure in a Dungeon beyond their comfort zone, you must do so with the understanding that the Dungeon will be doing EVERYTHING in its power to kill you. This is ONLY a good idea if, as mentioned earlier, the Dungeon is causing severe problems for those living nearby (examples: monster raids, releasing deadly plagues). Regardless, you should go in with at least fifty other Adventurers for backup, check every single surface or object for traps, and get ready for the fight of your life. If you happen to kill the Dungeon in question, don't forget that the Dungeon's inhabitants keep existing when the Dungeon dies; they might try to ambush you on your way out.

We Just Write · Nov 18, 2018

A/N: A reminder that the Storm Titan is still the being with the single highest Grand Dragon kill-count on the planet. They've been at this for quite some time.

On an island close to the equator, a Titan taking the form of a massive stone bear resided. Above, a massive conical storm slowly spun, sending upwards of a hundred lightning strikes per minute directly into a specially designed energy-harvesting system built into the Titan's backside. Battle scars from Dragonfire and the enormous talons of Grand Dragons were scattered all over the Titan's hull. In prior years these scars would have been seamlessly repaired, but now it was all the Storm Titan could do to keep themself from falling apart completely.

The aging Storm Titan could feel their mind going a bit more with every passing day. For more than a century they had safeguarded the Isle of Storms from the tyranny of the Grand Dragons with their mastery over the weather and massive granite chassis, but it was clear to them that their time in this world would not last for much beyond a few more years, if that. That was why they'd spent the last twenty years trying to find and train a successor who could take up the defense of the Isle after they passed on.

So far, the prospects for that turning out well looked a bit dubious at best. At first, the Storm Titan had thought that the youngster who kept trundling around the countryside playing music in exchange for mana might do well in such a role, seeing as they were one of the only other Dungeons on the island who had expressed any interest in even becoming mobile, let alone keeping the island free of the Grand Dragons. Alas, it had quickly become clear that the Concert Titan lacked both the understanding of what sort of threat the Grand Dragons presented, and the willingness to learn. The Storm Titan had simply given up on them after nearly a year of the Concert Titan insisting that there must be some sort of peaceful solution, even when dealing with Dragonfire-spewing monsters who would gladly kill any who showed even the slightest resistance to their rule.

After that, the Storm Titan had taken to recruiting among the sessile Dungeons living on the Isle, hoping that one of the hundreds of Dungeons on what some would consider to be a small continent would be willing to take up the mantle of the Storm Titan. This had yielded some results in the form of a Dungeon currently known as the Electric Fortress, who had both the thematics necessary to use the supercell method of mana acquisition, and the inclination to beat the shit out of some Grand Dragons. They'd even gotten almost done with building themselves a chassis, though they weren't quite ready to unearth themselves yet.

There were only a couple of problems with the Electric Fortress taking up the Storm Titan's mantle, and for the most part they had to do with the Storm Titan's power source, as did most problems Titans had. The simple fact of the matter is, there was only a limited amount of lightning to go around to power a Titan, meaning that both the old Storm Titan and the Electric Fortress could not be active at full power at the same time. Then there was the matter that the Electric Fortress was by their nature as a very young Dungeon a much less experienced fighter than the Storm Titan, meaning that they would probably need backup to reliably get through their first few fights with Grand Dragons.

The Aether Titan had offered to drop by to help, but they couldn't stay near the Isle for more than a week or so before causing problems. There was only so much mana you could pull out of the Realm of Souls in one go before nasty side-effects started cropping up for people nearby, and the Aether Titan's planar tap was an utterly massive draw on the Realm of Souls. Thus, their assistance could not be relied upon.

For a while, the Storm Titan had simply accepted this undesirable situation as the best they could do given the options available to them, but then some new developments in the outside world had caught their attention. Namely, news of another powerful Titan had emerged, one with a power source that was entirely self-contained. Thus, the Storm Titan had arranged for an Adventurer teleporting to the northern continent to bring a letter with them, hoping to make an arrangement with the new Titan of Steel to keep the Isle safe.

It had been about a week since then, the Storm Titan pummeling yet another Grand Dragon in the meantime, before an oddity made itself known to the Isle's defender. Their control over the weather granted the Storm Titan a powerful sense for the air currents out to a range of hundreds of miles, which is how they were usually warned of inbound Grand Dragons-and how they aimed the supersonic compressed water jets they used to scythe off said Dragons' wing membranes. Now, this storm-sense was informing the Storm Titan of something flying high and fast directly towards the Isle of Storms, something big.

Almost instinctively, the Storm Titan readied themselves for a hydrojet attack, but they stilled their hand for a moment, as within their decaying mind they realized that this unknown was traveling at a speed no Grand Dragon could ever get remotely close to; the shock wave from bludgeoning their way through the atmosphere at that speed would rip their wings off if they tried to extend them, and Grand Dragons needed their wings if they wanted to have any chance whatsoever of controlling their trajectory. Therefore, whatever this was, it could not be a Grand Dragon.

Thus, the Storm Titan anxiously waited as the contact came closer and closer, gradually slowing down and losing altitude as they did so. Almost twenty minutes after the incoming contact first appeared on the Storm Titan's senses, it came into visual range, revealing a gray metallic flying machine, thrusting itself forwards with a plume of Dragonfire emitting from four massive engines on the aft. Ah, a Titan in all likelihood, then.

Thus, the Storm Titan fired off a message in the airborne Titan's direction.

storm titan

Greetings. You wouldn't happen to be the Titan of Steel by any chance?

aav meteor

No, actually; the Titan of Steel is my boss. They sent me to talk to you after receiving that letter of yours.

storm titan

Interesting; in all my years I've never actually met a Titan who was actually subordinate to another, aside from maybe the Electric Fortress' apprenticeship to myself.

aav meteor

No, I'm just a clockwork mind running their previous chassis for them. Anyway, you said you wanted some help keeping the Isle of Storms free of Grand Dragons?

storm titan

Er, what? How many chassis has that youngster gone through anyway, and if you're in the previous chassis what are they using now?

Eh, back to the matter at hand. I've got an apprentice with an almost complete chassis who's looking to take up my burdens for me. Problem is, there's only so much lightning to go around, so we can't both be operating at full power simultaneously. Also, it's a bit iffy if they'd win their first few fights without help, which is something I really can't risk. Basically, I want someone to bail them out of trouble if they really mess up, so that they've got a chance to learn how to do this right.

aav meteor

I can do that in terms of raw firepower easily! Just let me send a quick message to my boss for authorization.

storm titan

Er-

aav meteor

Done! Request approved, I've been seconded to aid in the defense of the Isle of Storms for up to a year, no strings attached.

storm titan

Meteor, I won't even pretend I understand how in the world you got a reply so quickly over such a distance, but you and the Titan of Steel have my thanks. I'll show you to where my apprentice is getting ready to deploy from, before retiring.

aav meteor

Retiring?

storm titan

Not sure if you've noticed, but I've probably only got at most a few years before I die. I'd like a chance to relax and do something besides fight before that happens. I loved having adventurers over back before this whole Titan business, and I'd adore a chance to do it again. Here's hoping they'll be willing to put up with a decrepit old Dungeon like me.

It was with only moderate amounts of surprise that Urist found herself assigned to go back to the newly founded Socialist Republic of Amali, not as a prisoner or diplomat, but as some weird cross between counselor and spy. Basically, she had been assigned to keep an eye on the mental state of the Titan of Steel, try to keep them sane, and let the Deep Kings know if it looked like the Titan was about to go crazy. Literally no-one wanted an insane Titan with casual access to Dragonfire.

Of course, for best effect this had required arranging a time each week with the Titan for regular therapy sessions. Urist had been expecting this to take some time to set up, but much to her surprise the Titan had enthusiastically blocked off a chunk of time three hours long every other day just for talking to her, complete with official orders to the rest of the government they'd founded not to bother them while they were having such a session for anything less than a Grand Dragon breaching the perimeter defenses, or an active invasion of the Capital Dungeon.

Another surprise had been that the room she had been assigned for the face-to-face sessions actually contained the Titan of Steel's core, the only part of the whole Dungeon that was entirely them, when you got right down to it. Internally, Urist was more than a little surprised at this demonstration of trust, but she didn't question it out loud. She was also extremely surprised at the Titan's first words to her being "Finally I have an excuse to not have to run this country for a little while! Do you have any idea how much I've wanted a chance to just rest? Thank you so very very much!"

Urist, a bit stunned at this declaration of thanks, found herself simply stating "You're welcome. Anyway, is there anything you wanted to talk to me about in particular? Any particular issues troubling you, or anxieties you're having?"

To this, the Titan replied "Where do I even start? These last two months I've been frantically trying to build a country that could keep the Grand Dragons out even if I were to unexpectedly perish, and the strain of the job is really getting to me. Fortunately, I've got a plan to foist most of the day-to-day lawmaking off on everyone else so I can focus on building important infrastructure and getting the educational system running properly. If everything goes to plan, I should be able to massively cut my workload starting four months from now."

Figuring that this would be as good an opportunity as any to get a deeper look at the Titan of Steel's thoughts, Urist decided to ask for more details on this supposed governmental reform, saying "That sounds rather interesting. Any chance you'll be willing to share the details with me?"

Urist didn't quite understand how the Dungeon in front of her managed to give off an impression of a shrug, but they did. The Titan of Steel then replied "Eh, I was planning on telling the general public about this in a couple weeks anyway, so there shouldn't be any issue with telling you ahead of time. Basically, I'm planning to set up a democratic political system where the population at large can both elect and over-rule a parlaimentary legislature. Said legislature will have basic authority for most lawmaking, as well as the ability to appoint officers to head various agencies. I'm planning for elections to happen every two years, with a third of the seats up for election each time, save the first election where they're all up for grabs. Still trying to decide if representation should be on a per-party basis or a per-region basis, especially since I want to avoid any would-be authoritarians twisting the system to their advantage. Also trying to figure out what sort of election rules to put in, but I know for sure that it won't be First Past The Post."

The dwarven psychologist quietly updated her profile of the Titan of Steel's personality as she replied "You know, up until fairly recently there was a dwarf nation similar to what you described fairly close to here. I could probably get you a copy of their constitution if you wanted some study material. They were known as Serona, if I recall correctly."

"That would be much appreciated. Curiously, what happened to them?"

At this, Urist sighed, before saying "They were directly under what are now the Dead Wastes when they formed. The entire nation died nearly overnight."

We Just Write · Nov 19, 2018

First Draft of the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Amari

Article 1: Basic Governmental Structure

Section 1
By default, all lawmaking authority shall be vested in the massed citizenry of the Republic. As such, a law passed by the citizenry supersedes and overrules any law passed by any other body of government at the time of passage. A citizen-passed law is immune to repeal without popular approval for a period of one year after passing. The citizenry can pass a law ordering parts of the government to behave in a specific manner, or to eject specific members of the government from public service.

Section 2
Seeing as most people want to do things with their time other than make laws, the citizenry may elect a parliament to which they delegate the normal day-to-day lawmaking. This parliament shall possess the following legislative powers.

-The parliament can pass laws governing the day-to-day running of the Republic as needed, but cannot pass a law increasing their own powers.

-The parliament can create and dissolve public agencies to uphold the public good and defend the Republic from enemies foreign and domestic.

-The parliament cannot directly appoint the directors of public agencies. They are elected by the citizenry on the same schedule as members of Parliament.

Section 3
The Parliament shall be structured as follows.

-There shall be no fewer than one member of Parliament for every 50,000 citizens of the Socialist Republic of Amari, requiring no law to be passed in order to expand. At present, this means Parliament shall have a minimum size of 120.

Section 4
At the adoption of this constitution, the following public agencies shall be grandfathered in from the transitional government led by the Titan of Steel.

-The Public Defense Administration, responsible for upholding public safety from enemies both foreign and domestic.

-The Department of Public Infrastructure, responsible for construction of transportation, communication, housing, and manufacturing facilities to meet the public's needs.

-The Public Education Administration, responsible for ensuring the public is educated and informed on matters literary, mathematical, technical, medical, scientific, geographical, and political.

-The Census Bureau, responsible for keeping track of demographic information and the total population of the Republic.

-The Amari Health Service, responsible for ensuring easy access to quality medical care for the citizenry.

-The Amari Diplomatic Service, responsible for mediating official relations with other nations that are free of the Grand Dragons.

Section 5
There shall exist a Supervisory Court, directed by a number of Justices elected by and at the mercy of the public. The Supervisory Court is to ensure that the Parliament and public agencies do not violate the public's rights to determine their own fate, and to ensure this they have the authority to permanently remove members of Parliament and public agencies from public service, and to level appropriate penalties against non-government entities. The Supervisory Court also has limited abilities to repeal laws that violate the public's rights. That said, this removal requires a factual confirmation that the accused indeed did attempt to curtail the public's rights.

Article 2: Referenda, Elections, and Constitutional Updates

Section 1
A referendum can be called by any citizen on any matter at any time. These referenda do not require any sort of official approval, and attempts to stop them by Parliament or any public agency is grounds for the offending members of the government being removed by the Supervisory Court. In order for a referendum to have legal weight behind it, a minimum of 30% of the citizenry must have voted in the referendum in question, and to pass at least 55% of those who voted must be in favor. There is no hard cutoff for when a Referendum must be completed by, but if the public loses interest in a referendum for several months before starting it again, it should be considered a separate referendum.

Section 2
Elections are to be held on the winter solstice every other year. Citizens may vote on these elections at any point in the 14 days leading up to the solstice, and cannot be penalized in any way for voting by either governmental or non-governmental entities. Each vote is to be anonymous, so as to make coercing a certain vote more difficult. Any attempt to discourage, dissuade, or prevent citizens from voting on a significant scale is grounds for review by the Supervisory Court.

Section 2a
Candidates and Political Parties may not undertake any form of campaigning or advertising for the election prior to 90 days before the last day of voting. Doing so early can get a Candidate or Party disqualified from the next election, subject to review by the Supervisory Court.

Section 3
Voting for Parliament is performed on a mix of per-district and per-party basis. Half the seats in the Parliament shall be apportioned among the republic on a regional basis, with districts drawn in such a way that they have roughly equal population and in a manner that does not overly favor candidates of any particular party. By default, districts will be drawn by the Census Bureau, and redrawn for each election. The Supervisory Court has authority to review the fairness or lack thereof for Parliamentary districts.

When voting for a district candidate, voters should rank each option by order of preference. Once all ballots have been counted, the candidate with the least first-choice votes is eliminated from consideration, and all ballots for them should be counted for the voters' second picks. This process will repeat, eliminating whatever candidate has the lowest total votes at each stage, until only one remains. That said, if one candidate manages to get more than half of the first-choice vote fairly, their victory can be declared as soon as the first round of counting is done.

The rest shall be up for election nationally, with each political party composing a list of candidates that they will be running for national appointment, and describing what policies or objectives they will attempt to implement. The total proportion of votes for each party shall be matched to the total proportion of nationally-elected seats each party can fill as closely as possible, with the caveat that a party must secure at least 5% of the vote to be up for consideration.

Section 4
The Constitution may only be edited by a referendum of the citizenry, but a constitutional referendum has somewhat higher conditions for passing. These conditions vary based on what part of the constitution is being edited.

-Alterations to Article 1 regarding government structure require at least 50% participation and 55% approval among participants.

-Alterations to Article 2 regarding voting rules require at least 60% participation and 70% approval among participants

-Alterations to Article 3 that add rights for the public at large require at least 60% participation and 70% approval among participants.

-Alterations to Article 3 that remove rights from the general public, or that add rights for specific classes, require 90% participation and unanimous approval to pass.

Article 3: Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

Section 1
Any sapient being that meets the following criterion counts as a Citizen of the Republic, no exceptions. Anyone who tries to MAKE exceptions is to be put before the Supervisory Court.

-Citizens must be sapient, and have independent decision-making capacity.
-In the case of those magically subordinate to another being (Dungeon Minions for example), the ability to disobey a direct order from those they are magically subordinate to must be demonstrated. Once that is done, they are Citizens, NO EXCEPTIONS.

-Citizens must reside within the Socialist Republic of Amari on a permanent basis, and must have either resided here at the time of this constitution's adoption, or must have resided here for at least one year prior to voting.

-Citizens must not have entered the country to carry out the will of a foreign government (examples: diplomats, spies, saboteurs). If they remain in the country after being confirmed to leave the employ of those who sent them here, they become citizens after one year of residence, the same as anyone else.

Section 2
Citizens have the following rights guaranteed to them by this Constitution. These rights shall not be violated.

-Citizens are guaranteed access to the tools, education and means of production to make their own livelihood if they so choose.

-Citizens are guaranteed the right to defend themselves or others if they believe they are in grave danger. They cannot be criminally convicted for self-defense or defense of others.

-Citizens guaranteed the right not to be subject to government force unless there is probable cause to believe they have committed or are preparing to commit a crime. Warrants for arrest, search, or seizure are to be specific in their scope, and performing these acts without a warrant means the results are inadmissible in a court of law.

-Citizens cannot be coerced to say things that incriminate themselves, or to perform a crime. Further, if a citizen performs an act that is later made illegal, they cannot be convicted for their actions prior to the law's passage.

-Citizens are guaranteed the right to not be discriminated against for factors beyond their control; this includes discrimination based on species, gender, or illness.

-Citizens are guaranteed freedom to express their personal beliefs, with the caveat that speech or publications intended or highly likely to spread hateful sentiments is classified as verbal assault, not free expression.

-Citizens accused of a crime are guaranteed a fair and unbiased trial conducted in a timely manner, and are also guaranteed to be informed of the specific accusations being made of them. They are further guaranteed access to competent defensive counsel.

Section 3
Due to the potential harm certain professions could cause to the Republic and to public safety, there are some additional responsibilities that citizens are required to uphold.

-Publications that present themselves as a source of reliable news or could be easily mistaken for such must either; have prominent disclaimers regarding the truth of their content, or make a competent effort to verify that what they are saying is in fact true.

-Those selling weapons or dangerous substances must make a reasonable effort to ascertain whether their customers can be trusted with what they are selling.

We Just Write · Jan 11, 2019

The first elections in the country I founded were rather turbulent, but the fact that they worked at all was quite encouraging. After some major bug-fixes, I had announced the new constitution three months before the winter solstice, and I had published copies on both physical media and the internet analog my Gremlins were building for anyone to easily access.

Personally, I did in fact run for office, but not for parliament. Instead, I ran for head of the Department of Public Infrastructure; that way I could focus on building up the country like I had wanted to do in the first place, without having to handle every single little thing that came my way. To my surprise, I actually had a challenger appear in the form of a Dungeon from the country's periphery, who was thus spared from the Drake Guard's localized genocide.

I'll be honest, some of the Deep Machine's ideas for the country's infrastructure were really good, especially after they updated their power sources to include nuclear reactors in addition to geothermal. I still won, thanks to the ludicrous amount of goodwill I had among most people for my role in getting rid of the Grand Dragons, but I gladly took up official correspondence with them.

Parliament meanwhile got split between three major parties and a couple of minor ones. Starting with the most powerful party, the Amali Liberation Party, which was generally focused on improving domestic conditions and keeping the Grand Dragons out. The ALP held 38 seats in Parliament. Interestingly, three of the ALP's elected members of parliament were Dungeons, which prompted a bit of spirited debate over how they would attend Parliament; ultimately, it was decided that they would attend via telepresence, since that was just the easiest solution.

Next most powerful was the Interventionist party, who were advocating military build-up followed by deposing every single Grand Dragon they could find, in order to free the entire world from their tyranny once and for all. They held 35 seats, and were eager to caucus with the ALP; both parties had similar goals, simply differing in where they thought the focus of policy should first be placed.

The last major party were the Union of Adventurers and Mages, commonly referred to as the Adventurer's League. Their policy position was relatively traditionalist, but fairly compatible with the ALP and Interventionists. Mostly, they just wanted policies conducive to lots of powerful adventurers cropping up, including easy access to Dungeon-run obstacle courses, weaponry, and training for anyone who wished it, just like adventurers had access to in the more lax Draconic Realms prior to my removal of the Grand Dragons. The Adventurer's League held 31 seats after the first election.

And then there were the minor parties. The first officially went by the Church of the Steel Titan, largely being composed of those particularly impressionable sorts who mistook the incredible firepower of my battleship chassis as a sign of divine favor, worshiping me as a deity. Though I was rather annoyed by this fact, these people were fairly harmless, with most regarding them as a somewhat sillier wing of either the ALP or the Interventionists, given their policy propositions. Thus, the Church got their 13 seats in Parliament, mostly being elected on a per district basis.

The last party officially went by the Advocates For Traditional Rule, but basically everyone referred to them as the Dragonist Party. Though they easily made the Supervisory Court's first case rather contentious with their barely-not-unconstitutional rhetoric and policy propositions, it was eventually determined that they had no concrete proof of being connected to the now illegal Drake Guard. They weren't able to prove that the Dragonists weren't connected to said organization, however. Still, they won exactly zero district seats, and only barely broke the threshold for by-party voting, leaving them with a mere three seats in Parliament. Though I was quite unhappy the Dragonists got any seats at all, I wasn't about to rip up my own freaking constitution about these people.

Speaking of the Supervisory Court, it was voted to have eleven seats for Justices in a snap referendum since I forgot to specify that in the Constitution. Ultimately, the Court wound up with four ALP Justices, three Interventionists, three Justices from the Adventurer's League, and one from the Church of the Steel Titan.

Aside from the election, things were fairly peaceful over the last few months, as more of a functioning country got built, various Dwarf diplomats showed up to discuss matters, and a couple conquest-seeking Grand Dragons died to the Republic's perimeter defenses.

Still, after taking my oath of office, I got ready to move out of Regno Prima to a new structure a dozen miles or so north of my present location. With the gentle sliding of well-made machinery, I slotted my core into a civilian aircraft chassis, released the bonds of service for most of the Gremlins and Clockworks who had been keeping the transitional government running for the last six months, and set off for my brief flight to my new office location.

Seldom did Grand Dragon Samathin have occasion to use an avatar spell, as most of the official structures she visited within her Draconic Empire were built to the scale of a Grand Dragon such as herself. The royal laboratories on the other hand, did not fall in such a category. Thus, Samathin cast a spell derived from a Dungeon's minion production abilities, spawning a miniature version of herself to act through as she went to see the progress her loyal researchers had made on the project.

After several security checks, Samathin's avatar reached the lab where the artifact codenamed Frozen Bacon was being studied. In actual fact, said artifact was never frozen, nor did it have anything to do with Bacon. Instead, it was a clockwork retrieved from an orbital dungeon shortly before its destruction, one which had a very interesting functionality that Samathin wanted to copy.

The lead researcher greeted Samathin's avatar with an enthusiastic salute to her chest and a vocalization of "Greetings Empress Samathin! We've made a recent breakthrough with regards to this Clockwork, and we've copied the rune structures that allow it to produce synthetic Dragonfire."

Samathin grinned, before noting "It's very good that you've managed to replicate the results, but do you understand the underlying principles well enough to alter the design as needed?"

The red-headed lead researcher preened slightly as she reported "Absolutely! We've even figured out what Dragonfire actually is, something that's eluded our inquiries until now."

Samathin nodded, noting "That is something I wish to be informed of later, but not at the exact moment. Right now, I want you to bring your findings to the head of Clockwork Design and inform him that we will be having a Code Gold meeting in fifteen minutes. The Scaled Regents cannot be allowed to learn of this."

As the lead researcher scurried off, Samathin once again found themselves musing at just how much additional power over them someone would give a ruler who at least offered an appearance of caring for their wellbeing. Other thoughts included the fact that Samathin could very well soon have a valid replacement for the eight most treacherous but sadly necessary elements of her rule. After all, synthetic Dragonfire had already proven itself a wonderful power source for that Titan beyond the sky, so why couldn't it be used to power an army of Clockwork Dragons?

Still, this project had to progress in absolute secrecy; if the Scaled Regents learned they would soon be obsolete, the Empress would be forced to activate the kill switch for all of them. She knew she couldn't keep her current territory secure from upstarts without other assets able to fight on an even footing with a Grand Dragon, and losing territory would allow all the treasures her people had built to fall into the greedy talons of other Grand Dragons, which simply wouldn't be acceptable.

We Just Write · Jan 14, 2019

a letter

From: Deceiver Captain Red Talon
To: Coordinator Jartham Gorebringer IV
Subject: Hell-Titan Project Update

My Honored Superior,

I have taken the opportunity to fulfill your orders by inserting Deceivers into hundreds of adventuring parties during Dungeon-Delving expeditions. They have managed to secure roughly 3,400 fertile Dungeon Seeds. Per your orders, I am planting them in remote locations far from civilization and have assigned a staff of 150 Deceivers to keep watch as the seeds germinate over the next five years. After that, there will need to be roughly ten years for training, indoctrination and chassis construction. Most of that time will be spent ensuring that the Hell-Titans are mentally fit for the task and are unlikely to go rogue, as chassis construction will likely be very rapid once a mana supply is provided.

I do find myself compelled to ask, though; how will the Hell-Titans be powered? Our realm doesn't have the immense levels of background mana that are present in the Realm of Souls, and giving the Hell-Titans access to an independent power supply has the potential for them to go rogue, as proven by the Control Element known as Samathin.

Sincerely, Red Talon

another letter

From: Coordinator Jartham Gorebringer IV
To: Deceiver Captain Red Talon
Subject: Hell-Titan Project

My Necessary Subordinate,

The Hell-Titans will be powered by Hellfire Reactors, but not directly. They will be deceived that a simple dimensional tap to our realm is sufficient to power their chassis by building concealed reactor arrays on our side of the rift to channel mana to them. You need not concern yourself with the exact design of the reactor setup, only with deceiving the Hell-Titans.

Regarding your success at securing such a large number of fertile Dungeon Seeds, I acknowledge your competence at this endeavor, and that I do not have a valid replacement for your skillset as a spymaster. As such, the staff you have assigned to monitoring the germinating Hell-Titans will remain on their current task, but you yourself will be transferred to intelligence-gathering within Control Unit Samathin's Draconic Empire.

Distrustfully, Coordinator Jartham Gorebringer IV

Six months into my term as the Director of Public Infrastructure, there was a security incident in the massive manufacturing complex/office that my Structure had very quickly become. What I had at first thought was an official liaison from the Education Administration not only pinged with 'daemon', 'evil', and 'corruptor' on a Mana Thematograph, put when they were viewed by the security cameras in anti-illusion mode, they were very rapidly revealed as a jet black horned figure with several bandoleers of grenades.

I immediately sicced security on the Daemon, a squad of Clockwork Knights immediately dragging the infiltrator off to be interrogated, then tossed in a nuclear incinerator. I'd learned exactly what sort of threat Daemons presented during my stint as the Transitional Government thanks to Adventurer consultations, and I wanted to make damn sure that they didn't sink their claws into the country I was trying to build. The situation secure for the moment, I called the Public Defense Administration.

As soon as the call went through, I informed the clerk on the other end "This is the Titan of Steel, Director of Public Infrastructure. I need to talk with the Director of Public Defense. Something urgent just came up."

It took a few minutes for my call to be transferred up the Public Defense Administration's Chain of Command, until it eventually reached Ruby Sherridan, Director of Public Defense and a Paladin of the Silver Star. Immediately, I informed Ruby "Ma'am, this is the Titan of Steel speaking. Four minutes ago a Daemon tried to infiltrate my complex under the pretense of being from the Education Admin. A team of Clockwork Knights has them detained for a brief questioning session prior to incineration. I don't know if the Education Administration is compromised or if the Daemon was operating under entirely false pretenses."

Ruby replied almost immediately "Understood. I'll authorize a team of investigators to perform a sweep of the Education Administration. Letting Daemons have any control over the information being taught to the nation's youth could be disastrously bad. Given our combined border security efforts, it is far more likely that the Daemon in question was summoned within the Republic's borders, rather than coming in from outside. So I'll also have to search for Daemon Cults, in order to avoid letting any more in."

I acknowledged Ruby's response, before noting "I've actually got a few ideas brewing for ways to keep more Daemons out that could save your team some work. As I'm sure you're aware, I've been in contact with the Aether Titan for more than a year now, and we're both fairly certain that it's possible to create a field that blocks interdimensional rifts from being opened. We've only got proof-of-concept models so far, but the idea seems fairly easily scaled up. With your approval, we can block dimensional access from Hell for the entire country within the year."

Even though the connection was currently audio-only, I could almost see Ruby grinning as she replied "In my official capacity as Director of Public Defense and as a Paladin, you have my authorization to block all interdimensional access that doesn't go to or from the Realm of Souls. In addition, I would like the designs for the jammer fields forwarded to my R&D department as soon as you've got a design with at least a kilometer of range. I'd like to see the look on those Daemon's faces when they realize I've cut their access to the entire planet."

As I got ready to end the call, I noted "Sure thing, though from our observations so far it takes around 200 times as much power to close a portal that's already open as it does to keep it from opening in the first place. Anyway, it's always a pleasure talking with you Madam Sherridan. I look forwards to collaborating with you in future."

"You too, Steely." And with that, the call ended.

Anyway, now that a response for possible Daemonic activity is in the works, let's see what else my Mad Science department's been up to lately. After all, I am quite interested to see what possibilities they've come up with for Stable Muonic Matter and Deconjuration Fields.

In the northern deserts of the Draconic Empire, Samathin was waiting in front of a massive shed. What she was waiting for was the longest serving and least-trusted of her Scaled Regents to arrive. She wasn't expecting said subordinate to leave in one piece, no matter the outcome of what was about to happen.

Scanning the horizon, Empress Samathin found herself grinning as the grey-scaled Grand Dragon known largely as Scaled Regent Chalexane approached. Soon, Chelaxane landed, and bowed his head low to the ground as he answered "Empress Samathin. I live because I serve. What task do you have for me today?"

Samathin simply remarked "Open the shed, and you shall find out."

Chelaxane grunted, before proceeding over to the shed and ripping the door open with one of his taloned forelimbs. There was a split second during which Chelaxane's face went from confident, to confused, and finally settled on furious. And then seeing Chelaxane's face was impossible, on account of being obscured by Dragonfire as the grey-scaled Grand Dragon was blasted backwards in a painful somersault, the shed being obliterated by the shot's backblast.

A shining metallic blur shot out of the shed's ruins at the exact same instant, a mechanical monstrosity built in much the same profile as a Grand Dragon, with massive Dragonfire-powered jets mounted to its hull and armored wings neatly folded out of the way. A trio of missiles fired from the tubes on the machine's chest even as it dashed forwards, blowing Chelaxane's left wing clean off even as the grey dragon got back to his feet and opened up with his own blast of Dragonfire, slagging the machine's missile cells just before himself closing into melee.

What followed as Samathin looked on was sheer unmitigated violence, as ranged firepower quickly took a secondary role to ripping, goring combat with talons and fangs on the part of both Chelaxane and the prototype Clockwork Dragon. The Clockwork was the first to lose a limb in melee, as its rear-left leg was rendered nonfunctional by a blow to the actuator. However, at the exact same time, the Clockwork Dragon bit into Chelaxane's abdomen and unleashed the full force of its Dragonfire, quickly burning through their scales and frying Chelaxane's internal organs even as Chelaxane frantically clawed at the Clockwork Dragon's plating, damaging various systems but doing nothing to dislodge the nuclear blowtorch that was quickly spelling their doom.

A few moments later, Scaled Regent Chelaxane was dead and the Clockwork Dragon was still in a functional enough state that it could very well kill a second Grand Dragon, provided it was an ambush. Empress Samathin remarked over her communicator "Congratulations to the engineers, the prototype was successful. The first production run of Clockwork Dragons is authorized for deployment, effective immediately."

Samathin very rapidly got a reply from one of her generals, noting "Affirmative. Units 01 through 12 are now leaving the hangars."

And with that, Samathin nodded, and hit the detonator switch for all her remaining Scaled Regents. All across the Sama Empire, Grand Dragons suddenly dropped dead as their heads exploded, scattering fragments of bone, brain matter, and dragon scale all over the surrounding landscape. Thousands of imperial citizens looked on with a mix of horror and joy as they saw the Scaled Regents suddenly cease to live, and when the new Clockwork Dragons landed in front of them, the reaction was only even more divisive.

We Just Write · Jan 15, 2019

Project #4651: Stable Muonic Materials
Authorized By: Titan of Steel, Director of Public Infrastructure
Lead Researcher: Marcus Rohn
Report Date: 0.7.12 AF

Brief: After the brief experimentation with Muon-Catalyzed Fusion (see project #3002), it was determined that the magically-stabilized muons used for the project were better applied by the materials science department. As such, this project was an attempt to develop useful muonic materials for structural and protective purposes. As of this report, the project is largely successful, but there are still some minor issues that need addressing before large-scale implementation is feasible.

Overview: The newly developed materials are built using conventional Protons and Neutrons for the atomic nuclei, but for molecular bonding they are using negatively-charged Muons instead of Electrons. As Muons have roughly 207 times the mass of an electron, they have a much more localized quantum waveform, therefore leading to much tighter molecular bonds. This not only means that said bonds are much, much stronger, but also that a given volume of material can contain much more of them, having up to 8.8 million times the number of atomic nuclei.

As a direct result, Muonic CNT-Enhanced Steel is absurdly durable compared to CNT-Enhanced Manasteel, even without much in the way of Mana enhancement. With Mana enhancement, Muonic materials have the potential to be effectively indestructible. This is even more the case since the Mana Saturation Limit scales with the number of atomic nuclei, and Muonic materials have 8.8 million times the number of atomic nuclei per unit volume. Unfortunately, they are also 8.8 million times as dense without Mana Enhancement. While in certain applications such an extremely dense material has potential, such as penetrative projectiles, for most applications the sheer weight of unaltered Muonic materials is simply unacceptable.

As such, this project has done some studies on mass mitigation, determining how much of Muonic CNT-Enhanced Steel's practical saturation limit has to be used on mass mitigation to reach certain benchmark densities with regards to both inertial and gravitational masses. For certain applications, some savings can be achieved by skimping on the reductions in inertial mass. Below is a standard chart of benchmark densities, along with the percentage of the Muonic CNT Steel's mana saturation cap spent on mass mitigation.

30 g/cm^3, requires 23% of Mana Saturation Cap. Mostly good for stationary structural applications.
8 g/cm^3, requires 28% of Mana Saturation Cap. Same density as CNT-Enhanced Manasteel, Formulation 1.
1.5 g/cm^3, requires 31% of Mana Saturation Cap. Suitable for heavier than air flight.
0.001 g/cm^3, requires 55% of Mana Saturation Cap. Lighter than air at sea level.

Still, even when accounting for the amazing performance of Muonic materials, there are some concerns that get in the way of large-scale implementation at present. First and most obviously, Muonic materials require an immense amount of Mana to produce, roughly 8.8 million times that of their conventional equivalent.

On a more concerning note, there are concerns about possible Muon pollution as a result of Muonic materials entering large-scale use. In the event of this becoming the case, there is a sizable risk of poisoning for plant and animal life, which could precipitate a public health crisis. Carefully sealed samples of Muon-contaminated food have been forwarded to the Department of Public Health for studies on their health impact, and development of healing magic to counter Muon poisoning.

In the meantime, methods are being developed to make the Muons in the material break down upon leaving their original molecular structure, which require refinement to avoid the altered Muonic materials suddenly exploding like a Protonium warhead whenever they're damaged. Yes, that's what caused the explosion on Level 53 last week. I refuse to elaborate further on said incident.

Project #3992: Deconjuration Fields
Authorized By: Titan of Steel, Director of Public Infrastructure
Lead Researcher: Cory Freist
Report Date: 0.6.30 AF

Brief: Conjuration is a known magical discipline, commonly employed by Dungeons all over the country and practiced non-Dungeon magitechnicians to convert Mana directly into physical matter. As a theoretical exercise, it was determined that it should be possible to run conjuration backwards, converting physical matter and energy directly into Mana. This project was started to convert theoretical possibility into practical engineering, regarding deconjuration in general.

Overview: At present, the generation of Deconjuration Fields is a practical reality. Unenhanced matter and nonmagical energy that enter a Deconjuration field are instantly converted into Mana contained within the field, while Mana passing through the field (for example, to initiate a Conjuration phenomena on the opposite side of the field) is unaffected. Mana-saturated materials (such as CNT-enhanced manasteel or the bodily tissues of high-level adventurers) that inter-penetrate a Deconjuration Field destabilize the field, resulting in the entire field disintegrating into loose Null-Themed Mana within 0.3 milliseconds. The propagation of field collapse occurs at roughly 1/43rd c.

That said, there are some important complications regarding Deconjuration Fields that limit their use-cases. First and foremost, there is no such thing as a free-floating Deconjuration Field. All Deconjuration Fields are both generated by and in fixed orientation relative to a runic anchor. Second, there is at present no viable method for extracting the Mana contained within a Deconjuration field in a usable form.

While a Deconjuration field is active, all materials inserted into the field will either be immediately deconjured, or will almost immediately collapse the field as they absorb Mana to the point of destabilization. Meanwhile, when a Deconjuration Field collapses, the Null-Themed Mana produced has precisely zero use cases without Thematic Transmutation; in the specific case of Null-Themed Mana, this requires an expenditure of the desired theme of Mana equal to twice the amount of Null-Themed Mana to be transmuted, effectively removing any practical incentive for transmuting the Null-Themed Mana aside from simple disposal. Even then there are easier ways to get rid of Null-Themed Mana, since it suddenly stops existing whenever you try to cast anything with it, or move it around.

Project #4105: Dimensional Incursion Jammers
Authorized By: Titan of Steel, Director of Public Infrastructure and Ruby Sherridan, Director of Public Defense
Lead Researcher: Lurin Jade
Notable Consultants: Aether Titan (Dimensional Mechanics)
Report Date: 0.7.19 AF

Brief: Interdimensional incursions from the Daemon Layer currently represent a massive threat to the continued existence of the Socialist Amali Republic. As such, it has been considered imperative from the Republic's founding to minimize Daemonic ability to access and influence the nation. Recently, a discussion regarding dimensional mechanics revealed that it is likely possible to prevent interdimensional links forming between the Material Plane and the Daemon Layer. As such, developing a means to practically implement dimensional blocking has been made Priority One.

Overview: Per the Standard Mana Spectrum, all Mana Themes have antithetical counterparts. Clockwork directly opposes Nature, Light directly opposes Shadow, and Good or Holy both directly oppose Daemons. This also applies to planes of existence; each has a distinct thematic signature, which can be expressed as a ratio of mana themes. It is this factor that allows the new dimension-jamming methods to work; newly developed methods allow Mana in a carefully-selected thematic mix to be spent on formatting a spherical region of space affecting the nearby 4, 5, and 6 axes in adjacent interplanar exospace. This repulses those planes with antithetical typing to the mana used to format the planar boundaries, rendering interplanar travel to or from the antithetical planes extremely difficult.

In the specific case of the Daemon Layer, this is extremely straightforward, as practically its only thematic elements are Daemon, Evil, and Corruption. This means that dimensional travel to or from the Daemon Layer can be effectively blocked using only mono-themed Holy mana. Despite Protonium Reactors giving only Atomic and Clockwork themed Mana, these can be easily converted into Holy using a Thematic Transmutation Unit. As such, a basic self-contained jammer unit powered by a Clockwork Knight-grade reactor has been prototyped, with a total unit volume of 0.15 cubic meters and a total Mana expenditure for jamming of 8 Arbs/second.

The intensity of a Dimensional Jamming Field seems to propagate in accordance with the inverse-square law, completely unimpeded by any matter or energy in the field's way. For practical purposes, a new unit has been created to measure the intensity of a Dimensional Jamming Field called the Cade, defined as the field intensity produced by a theoretically perfect 1 Arb/second dimensional jammer at a range of one meter. Through experimental observation, it has been determined that to prevent new links to or from an interdicted plane forming, the dimensional jamming field requires an intensity of 0.8 milliCades. Forcing the closure of already existing links requires the jamming field to have a local intensity of 210 milliCades at minimum, with the required intensity increasing linearly with the radius of the portal.

As such, our current model self-contained jammer can force the closure of small rifts to the Daemon Layer at a range of 6.17 meters, and can prevent new rifts from being opened within 100 meters. Larger vehicle-mounted jammers with Mana supplies rated at roughly 20,000 Arbs/second have been designed but not tested; these larger units could theoretically force closed rifts within 308 meters, and prevent rifts from being opened within 5 kilometers. An extremely powerful jammer design close to 50 meters scale has also been calculated at drawing roughly 1.3 million Arbs/second, yielding sufficient field intensities to shut rifts at 2.5 kilometers, and to prevent rifts from being opened at ranges of 1,625 kilometers.

We Just Write · Feb 13, 2019

It had only been a week or so in the small town Ironfruit served since the new Dimensional Jammer System was installed, ensuring that there would be no daemons summoned in the town of Brassbell, Regno. The large combat Clockwork and community schoolteacher was currently going over lesson plans in their capacity with the Public Education Admin during the night; most people weren't active at these hours, so it was a perfect opportunity to take care of the paperwork.

Indeed, after the first few months, the Education Admin had asked Ironfruit if he wanted to be relieved from his role as an educator. To this, Ironfruit had answered no, stating that he would like to continue imparting knowledge to those he safeguarded, as he had come to enjoy serving the community in a non-combat capacity. On the other hand, Ironfruit had indicated that he would appreciate no longer being the only teacher available in Brassbell. As a direct result, Clockwork Knight Ironfruit now shared the role of educator with five other teachers and a few additional staff for the school building that had been erected with shocking rapidity for non-Dungeon construction.

It was exactly 11:29 PM when Clockwork Knight Ironfruit heard the screams of panic and fear, immediately jumping up from his seat and teleporting outside. As he arrived, the massive multi-ton machine immediately accelerated to top speed in the direction of the disruption, the dark purple lightning highlighting itself against the night sky.

Within moments, Ironfruit and the rest of Sapphire Springs' Clockwork Knight contingent gained line-of-sight on the disturbance, coming face-to-face with a withered specter displaying features from dozens of people and several species of magical beasts. The thematograph readout for the apparition almost immediately pinged Spirit, Undead, and Evil, but notably, no ping for Daemon. It seemed that this particular hostile entity lacked any connection to the lower plane.

It was only 20 milliseconds later that Ironfruit spotted Emerald's prone, unmoving form underneath the wraith. Not hesitating in the slightest, all Clockwork Knights present drew their swords and shields before charging into combat, but they notably did not light the deadly Protonium edges of their blades. To do that would be to consign Emerald to a sure death from radiation poisoning, and all four clockworks absolutely refused to be responsible for a civilian's death if they could possibly avoid it.

The wraith immediately opened up with its characteristic purple lightning once more, the arc grounding itself on Ironfruit's shield. The bolt dissipated harmlessly; if it were actual electricity, it might have caused some heating damage if nothing else, but trying to down a Clockwork with a necromantic bolt simply wasn't going to work.

Then half a dozen Clockwork Knights slammed into the wraith, the mana-saturated materials making up their bodies and weapons easily allowing them to make contact and shove the abomination around, but noticeably not actually harming it. In response to this, Ironfruit immediately took it upon himself to herd the wraith away from town, bodily grabbing the abomination and sending over the tac-net "The rest of you get Emerald to safety and make sure she's in good health. I'll dispose of this mangled spirit."

Thus, the next twenty seconds saw Ironfruit dashing through Brassbell's streets at high speed, carrying a flailing, desperate wraith in a chokehold the entire way. Soon, they were outside the village's municipal limits, where the radiation from a radsword activation would have a negligible impact on the town's residents. Now and only now did Ironfruit engage properly, their sword lighting up with radioactive fire as Ironfruit intoned "By the light of a steel sun I shall protect the innocent!" and plunged the plasma-wreathed nuclear sword directly into the wraith's neck.

Simultaneously, Ironfruit engaged the Thematic Conversion Unit that had been installed in the latest update, changing 20% of the mana going to the radsword from the default Atomic Clockwork associated with the Titan of Steel's work into Holy-attribute mana. The wraith immediately began evaporating from the inside out, as a holy nuclear flame eroded away at its very being. Within seconds, the vile spirit made from corrupted soul fragments disintegrated, and Ironfruit extinguished his blade. He would have to see about getting a sword that had an option to simply channel holy mana directly, instead of lighting up with nuclear fire every single time he wanted to use it.

After a cursory radiation check to ensure his presence wouldn't endanger any of Brassbell's residents, Ironfruit began making his way back to town at a leisurely pace. Now it was simply a matter of checking up on Emerald in either the hospital or the morgue, before getting back to making a lesson plan. Though perhaps, if Emerald was dead, Ironfruit would be skipping his duties as an educator for some time in order to mourn the passing of his first ever actual friend.

The machine really hoped that he'd gotten to Emerald in time to save her.

Jartham was furious while also furiously looking through all the documentation for the Mortal Control System. The recent developments from that abomination of a country that the Titan of Steel put together necessitated a much more rapid response than could be mustered by the Daemon Titan program. Jartham didn't quite know how they'd done it, but somehow that accursed Republic had managed to not only block dimensional access for Daemons to the entire country, but they'd also cut the flow of soul fragments from the material plane within their borders. Exacerbating the problem, whatever method it was had been almost immediately shared with the subterranean species, leading them to cut the flow as well.

Without those soul fragments, there would be no way to create new Daemons and their numbers would rapidly begin to decline due to the infighting Daemons were prone to. Thus, Jartham was looking for any possible way to crush this new development in its infancy, before it had a chance to spread to the entire surface world. Jartham had already written off the dwarves and other subterranean peoples; the Control Elements simply didn't fit down there, and they often lived inside a sufficiently paranoid and fortified society to nullify any chance of serious Daemonic incursions even without the new dimensional jammers.

It took several hours of intensive reading before the Inquisitor Daemon reached the part detailing the design of the Control Elements' brains. Though Grand Dragons were designed to deliberately lack the structures Dungeon Minions had to link them to their master, there might be something else that could do the trick. And then, Jartham found it. The brains of the Control Units had a long-forgotten feature; namely, exposure to a precisely calibrated pulse of mana would send the dragon in question into a permanent berserk state targeted against a specific set of co-ordinates. In addition, a berserk Grand Dragon would then proceed to broadcast the berserk signal themselves against the same set of co-ordinates, activating any additional Control Elements they happened to fly near.

Jartham immediately got up from his seat, and dashed though the torment-brick halls of the facility he resided in, bashing several lesser Daemons out of the way as he made his way to the workshops. Immediately, the Inquisitor forced the door open and shouted "Attention! I require a device made to these specific specifications, effective immediately. Hop to it!" while simultaneously flaring the aura of command inherent to an Inquisitor Daemon. Without questioning the order, all the Daemons present almost literally dropped what they were doing, and began assembling the device.

A mere hour later, the Berserk Activator was complete, and set with the co-ordinates of the Titan of Steel's realm. Now, Jartham Gorebringer IV simply needed to get to a Grand Dragon and fire the device. That necessitated a journey to the Summoning Room. After all, it simply wouldn't do if any random mortal could drag any Daemon to the material plane at any time; that could lead to uppity paladins getting the bright idea to summon as many Daemons as possible one at a time and kill them on their own terms, effectively gutting Hell's ability to get anything done whatsoever.

Musings aside, Jartham quickly reached the summoning room, and bashed his way to the head of the queue for summonings. Various Deceivers, Carillists, and other assorted fiends shouted in alarm and tossed the occasional fireball Jartham's way as he passed by. Those who merely complained were spared, while those who dared to attack an Inquisitor Daemon died messily as Jartham eviscerated them with a mere snap of his talons, not even bothering to slow down or look away.

The instant that Jartham stepped onto the hexagram-engraved platform, he instantly felt links to dozens of nascent summonings the world over. Carefully looking for a particularly stupid bunch of cultists, Jartham stepped through the gash in reality to a poorly-lit room full of dark robed figures. On a table hastily converted to an altar, a young man was bleeding out, doubtless the sacrifice used to anchor the summoning.

One of the cultists raised a hand, noting "Wait, you're not the succubus we wanted?"

Jartham simply replied "Indeed. I am not." before walking forwards, straight through the summoning circle that was supposed to contain him. As the Inquisitor Daemon strode out of the room, both the cultists and their sacrificial victim were nigh-instantly slashed to ribbons by invisible blades, almost as an afterthought.

I noticed what was happening almost immediately thanks to my satellite network, but piecing together what was going on took several minutes. All of a sudden, a Grand Dragon on the opposite side of the planet started flying, which wasn't too unusual. Then, instead of getting in a fight with their neighbors, said neighbors immediately turned to fly in similar directions as the first dragon, making the occasional diversion to grab more Dragons as they flew.

It wasn't hard to figure out where the massive on-rushing tide of Grand Dragons was aimed, and given the speed at which Grand Dragons flew, and the population density of Grand Dragons, it was clear that there would be an absolutely massive attacking force of Grand Dragons arriving in less than 24 hours. To be more precise, the dragon wave looked set to gather dragons from a tenth of the world's landmass, meaning that almost 13,000 dragons were inbound.

Immediately, I sent out a call to Ruby Sherridan, informing her "This is not a drill, there are 13,000 angry Grand Dragons inbound on our location due to arrive in less than 24 hours. Get everyone underground NOW, and I don't care how it happens as long as everyone's safe from the fallout! In the meantime, I'm sending out the message to as many nuclear-enabled Dungeons as I know of to churn out combat chassis like there's no tomorrow, because there very well might not be if I don't."

I didn't give Ruby any time to respond, instead sending out messages to the dungeons going by the names Deep Machine, Radio Core, Iron Bunker, Gearworks, Palace of Circuits, Machine Temple, and the other 29 Clockwork Dungeons who had taken advantage of the new Protonium Reactor technology I introduced, informing them of the impending storm. Almost universally, I got responses back from all of them stating that they'd be putting everything they had into manufacturing anti-dragon weapons platforms, along with estimates of how many could be constructed prior to the Dragon Swarm arriving.

The Deep Machine had the highest power output aside from myself, still considering themselves a rival of mine for the position of Infrastructure Director. They indicated that they could churn out the equivalent to one of my battleship chassis every 10 minutes to my eight, but would be splitting their firepower between smaller units about 50 meters long. Most of the other producers of combat chassis were operating at around a fifth of that capacity, meaning that in 24 hours the SRA would have a total of 1,302 battleship equivalent units, a mere tenth of the enemy's numbers. After that, we would have to seal our launch bays to prevent them from being blasted with Dragonfire and jeopardizing any civilians taking refuge inside.

Aside from that, there were also the much-upgraded perimeter defenses for the country, which were now effectively a continuous wall of Proton Beam turrets and Protonium missile silos. Still, those were definitely finite assets; I estimated that they might down the first 500 Grand Dragons before being blasted into oblivion, but they really weren't designed for what was about to happen.

It was only a couple of hours into our preparations when one of my Battleship Clockworks, AAV Spitefury sent me a message saying

messave from aav spitefury

Hey boss, can't we just kill a shitload of the Grand Dragons between the swarm and us before they get caught up in the Berserk Wave? It'll greatly reduce the levels of destructive force slamming into our defenses if we cull most of the Dragons that would be involved in that while they're still spread out and vulnerable.

message from titan of steel

Affirmative AAV Spitefury. You can take all currently constructed Battleship Clockworks with you for the purposes of clearing out the Dragons the Berserk Wave would otherwise acquire on its way here, but the instant your clearing zone gets close to the main swarm, return to base for the main defense. We're still going to need all the firepower we can possibly get.

And with that, I unleashed relentless mechanized death onto thousands of unsuspecting Grand Dragons. Though they were doomed anyway if they were swept up by the Berserk Wave, I still found it slightly uncomfortable to order the deaths of so many beings. On the other hand, if I did not, then the odds of survival for everyone I'd put so much work into helping dropped drastically.

Anxiously, I watched the satellite feeds as the Berserk Wave crept ever closer, and my mechanical agents of death brutally terminated every Grand Dragon they came across. The most time-consuming part in many cases proved to be luring the Grand Dragons out of their lairs to locations where they could be put down without needlessly endangering civilian lives. Yes, much quicker results could have been obtained by simply nuking every Dragon where they slept, but sacrificing tens of millions to save a few million was a line too far.

The end result of this was that my cleaners met the swarm about half-way along their trajectory, having ensured that the number of Grand Dragons reaching the Socialist Republic of Amali would not much exceed 6,000. The dragons came closer and closer, and as I sealed my launch bay for battleships, the turbolift was simultaneously hoisting my core into the superheavy combat chassis I'd constructed in secret since becoming Infrastructure Director.

Inspired by Schlock Mercenary's battleplates, the design was a largely triangular hull a kilometer on an edge and 150 meters thick, liberally dotted with weapons emplacements. I'd wanted to make the entire thing out of Muonic materials, but there simply wasn't enough time to build the entire chassis to that spec by the time this occurred. Instead, the only Muonic parts were the insides of the super-spec reactors powering the design, the weapons, and the outer 20 cm of the hull. The rest of the structure was 'mere' CNT-enhanced Aerosteel, meaning that the entire construction was lighter than air. Compared to the battleship chassis I'd been using previously, this machine would have utterly pitiful acceleration, but on the other hand I'd equipped it with massively overbuilt blink units. I estimated that I could probably punch over a light hour in one hop if I really wanted to. On a tactical level, it would be effectively unlimited teleport spam, especially since I was cranking more than enough mana to punch through any redirection.

As the first flares of nuclear fire lit up the horizon, my new chassis teleported into place in midair with me aboard. It's time to kill some Grand Dragons. Let's rock and roll.

We Just Write · Feb 22, 2019

So, I recently decided to actually design the specifications for that Battleplate chassis, based on the specifications of "If I were building a massively overengineered war machine to kill Grand Dragons en masse, what would it look like?" Since the Titan of Steel is to at least some extent an SI, this fits.

...Yeah, turns out that mounting 180 Homing Proton Cannons, each able to one shot a Grand Dragon, leads to very rapid mulching of said dragons. I ran the numbers, and the Titan's battleplate should be capable of mulching 6,000 Grand Dragons in a bit less than 40 seconds.

So yeah, brace for a very, VERY one-sided fight. Doesn't mean there won't be a shitload of collateral damage though; you simply can't throw around cumulative gigatons of explosive force without utterly wrecking the scenery.

We Just Write · Feb 23, 2019

In total, the battle took less than twenty seconds from the first shots fired to the last. At the end of the fight, every Grand Dragon that had been attacking was dead, 45% of the Socialist Republic's forces had been completely destroyed, the northern half of the country was a massive blazing inferno, and my chassis was more than a little singed, but was still fully functional and largely intact. Below is my best attempt at re-constructing the exact sequence of events according to recordings salvaged from various black-boxes, databanks, and other storage sites. Given the short duration of the fight, it will be taken second-by-second.

T = 0 seconds

The opening second featured a massive exchange of fire between the perimeter defenses and the massive swarm of Grand Dragons, as missiles streaked into the air and blasts of nuclear fire lanced across the sky. Though often protected by well over 30 meters of my massively durable armor materials, the anti-dragon batteries still quickly melted under concentrated Dragonfire equal to several cumulative megatons of TNT, resulting in the perimeters being rendered nonfunctional almost immediately. The sheer temperatures also led to 90% of the missiles fired being destroyed before they could clear the mushroom clouds.

The perimeter defenses did however manage to wreak a massive number of casualties on the approaching swarm of Grand Dragons; one simply doesn't outright ignore explosive yield equivalent to multiple kilotons of TNT focused directly on their forehead. Considering the efficient fire allocation I had tuned the perimeter defenses for, this led to around 210 Grand Dragons dropping dead effectively immediately, their braincases blasted open by precisely aimed nuclear fire.

During the first second, the SRA's mobile forces went comparatively unscathed, on account of both the Dragons focusing fire on the nation's stationary defenses, and the relatively long range the engagement was currently taking place at.

Said arguments most emphatically did not apply to the Grand Dragons when I blinked my current chassis and the 180 new battleships I had personally constructed directly into the middle of their swarm. I scored a melee kill on one dragon via tele-frag as I arrived, and the Dragon Eraser cannon arrays I had mounted fired 180 homing plasma pulses, each slamming directly into a Dragon's head and giving them at the very least a debilitating concussion; usually the resulting injuries were outright fatal. This was coupled with the withering barrage of firepower delivered by my battleship fleet, which accounted for another 90 or so Grand Dragon kills; this was largely on account of not all the guns being aligned immediately after jumping, necessitating additional time for each battleship to bring their massive plasma cannons to bear.

In summary, by the end of the first second, the perimeter defenses were completely trashed, 480 Grand Dragons were dead, around 5,900 were still alive, allied mobile forces had taken negligible losses, and the heavily forested northern frontier of the country had been lit entirely on fire.

T = 1 second

At this point, about half the dragon swarm switched to attacking the mobile units which were still moving to intercept, and the other half brought their heads around to try and destroy me and my advance attack force. In the case of the former subgroup, this was a very small traversal of their beams in angular terms, but superheated nuclear plasma still swept over around 30 miles of terrain, setting massive forest fires as they traversed. This is when the battleship forces really started to suffer, as nuclear fire was focused upon them and proved remarkably hard to dodge.

Still, Nanotube Aerosteel still was far more resistant to nuclear fire than Grand Dragon scales. This meant that the second second saw only 30 or so Battleship Equivalent casualties among the main force. Much to the Deep Machine's chagrin, most of this firepower loss was from their smaller, more fragile fighting units. Those built to my specs (which largely equated to building everything that didn't need to be something else out of solid armor) were holding up much better, continuing to pummel Grand Dragons even as they received a beating in turn.

For my advance forces, casualties were significantly lighter, losing only three battleships. This was despite the tighter focus of the dragonfire leading to greater destructive power; largely, this could be attributed to the much shorter dwell time from the dragons having to turn their beams more, but also the closer range making dodging much easier; the same amount of linear acceleration translated into more angular difference, meaning the Grand Dragons had a harder time staying on target.

This second, my 180 massive plasma cannons fired again, each mission-killing a Grand Dragon in one shot. Another 120 casualties could be accounted for by battleships with my advance force, as they brought more of their guns on target. Meanwhile, the main force had finally managed to open fire effectively, their more diffuse (but still lethal) fire accounting for 220 Grand Dragons killed.

As a side note, this demonstrated a major benefit pulsed proton cannons had over continuous beams. Namely, they concentrated more of their destructive energy into a shorter length of time. This not only reduced energy lost to the atmosphere, but it also eliminated the need for the beam to dwell on target, since it delivered all of its killing potential in one short, sharp shock.

Summing it up, a total of 5,380 Grand Dragons still lived at this point in time. Losses had dropped effective battleship numbers to 1,270. Forest fires had been lit deep into the country's interior, though they hadn't had much time to spread yet. Oh, and a swarm of 360 nuclear missiles had just been released from my launch tubes.

T = 2 seconds

The third second of the battle saw another 500 Grand Dragons die to various 'giant plasma cannon to the face'-related causes. In addition, the first few missile kills of the entire engagement took place, as those in closest proximity to my battleplate chassis took multiple megatons of kaboom directly to their vital organs. I didn't stick around to watch the kaboom, instead teleporting to the edge of the Grand Dragon swarm before opening fire again.

On the other, more unfortunate hand, battleship losses this second spiked to 120, mostly among the main force as the Grand Dragons focusing fire finally burned through the massively thick armor plating of my machines and slagged vital internal components. Also, more everything was set on fire.

In summary, around 4,800 Grand Dragons were still on the attack. The perimeter defenses hadn't gotten any less trashed, if anything they'd just gotten even more melted. The equivalent to 1,150 battleships were still operational. The forest fire situation had also gotten sufficiently worse that had I the time to think of such things during the battle, I would have already been completely resigned to contracting Nature Dungeons to simply install a new ecosystem, seeing as the current one was pretty much fried.

T= 3 seconds

This is the point where Grand Dragon losses started to taper off a bit thanks to casualties starting to pile up on my side. Only a bit, though; the vast majority of the forces on my side were still up and shooting. Coupled with the massive salvo of missiles that was starting to really slam home, a total of 470 Grand Dragons suddenly found themselves subjected to swift, efficient death this second.

Fortunately, the logic of 'taking more casualties reduces firepower' also firmly applied to the Grand Dragons assaulting the country I'd put so much work into, as the casualties they managed to dish out only equaled 100 battleships taken out of the fray in terms of raw firepower removed. The radiant heat from all the nuclear fire flying around was also dramatically increasing the ambient temperature of the battlespace, threating to ignite parts of the country that had so far been lucky enough to avoid a direct hit.

Summing up the damage; 4,330 Grand Dragons were still alive, 1,050 battleship equivalent units were still active in addition to my chassis, and yes, shit was still on fire.

After that, the battle contained few, if any surprises. Massive casualties continued to mount on both sides as both forces dwindled. However, the dragons dwindled much faster than my allied forces. By the fifteenth second of the battle the total number of dragons up and flying around was a definitive zero, and after that it was simply a matter of finishing off those which were immobilized but not killed.

Fifteen seconds. That is how long it had taken for this battle to wreak untold destruction on everyone who's wellbeing I held dear. That is less time than it takes most people to say a complex idea. Less time than it takes to walk across a large room. Less time than was necessary to reload the main guns on an Iowa Class Battleship.

Whoever was responsible for this was going to die, though not painfully. There was no point in prolonging the existence of someone who would bring about this level of ruin. No, they were simply going to die as quickly and as thoroughly as possible.

On the moon, a couple of bored Gremlins were watching the display for the concealed telescope arrays observing Terra's goings-on. Jared slurped a smoothy made out of various types of berries as he observed the world below, while his partner Shena ate an excessively spicy sandwich. Currently, Luna was over the planet's night side. Every once in a while (couldn't be more than 45 minutes between incidents), there was a brief flare of light as some Grand Dragon or other incinerated some poor sod, reminding every Gremlin on the moon quite firmly that the beautiful blue-green world below was most emphatically not a safe place to live.

Behind the Gremlin couple, their trio of children began making a series of varied noises, as the oldest girl giggled, hogging the miniature Clockwork Spider all to herself. Meanwhile, her two little brothers whined loudly, infuriated at not getting any time with the toy. On the spider's part, it clearly wanted nothing to do with any of these immature Gremlins, frantically scurrying in an attempt to get away and get back to what it was supposed to be doing. Which was probably cleaning; a very important task when your life support was dependent on keeping everything absolutely spotless.

Thus, Jared and Shena scurried over to their daughter and pried the automaton free of her grip before settling in for a long talk about why not respecting other sapient life was both wrong and suicidally stupid in the long run. They'd barely gotten halfway through their talk when they noticed their youngest, Hexnut, go very still and raise his hand.

After a few moments, Jared asked "Hexnut, did you want to ask me something?"

To this, the young Gremlin clumsily hovered a meter or so into the air and pointed at the screen, asking "Dada, why planet on fiah?"

Immediately, the pair of Gremlin parents turned back to the viewscreen, looking on in horror as they clearly saw an entire subcontinent lighting up with Dragonfire. Immediately, they got back to the console and began to work the viewing systems to zoom in and get a better look at what was going on, engaging Mana Thematograph mode at the same time.

Immediately, the Gremlin observers were confronted with an utterly ludicrous quantity of Atomic Clockwork mana, far beyond even the annual consumption of the entire Lunar Gremlin Republic. Even more worrying is that pretty much everything that ran on Clockwork Mana tended to be very good at not letting said Mana leak, unlike, say, Nature Mana. That stuff got everywhere no matter what you did, which was rather annoying for the life support engineers. Either way, you really shouldn't see such large amounts of Clockwork Mana just floating around barring extreme circumstances, especially not Atomic Clockwork.

Still, they didn't get an answer as to why exactly such a massive amount of that theme of mana was just floating around until they finished re-focusing the BIG optical telescope, the one with the 45-meter focusing mirror. That answered the mystery, as it clearly revealed hundreds of massive flying war machines in various states of damage, literally thousands of dead Grand Dragons, and a single floating triangular structure that massively outgunned everything else in the battlespace.

Jared and Shena nodded to each other, before the lady of the pair immediately grabbed the telephone hotline, and as soon as she heard someone on the other end, she cut straight to the point, saying "The Titan of Steel is alive. I repeat, the Titan of Steel is alive."

We Just Write · Feb 24, 2019

The following is most emphatically NOT an in-universe publication.

When you think about it, Dungeons have a very large number of traits that simply don't make sense for a species that arose as the result of natural evolution. They without exception have EXTREMELY powerful conjuration abilities, and are thus able to outright make fully mature biological lifeforms or powerful magical artifacts in mere fractions of a second if they have the mana. On the other hand, the Dungeon themselves is largely sessile and is forced to exist inside structures which they are magically linked to. Within said structure, the Dungeon is capable of instantly claiming control over any unbound mana regardless of source, which is another extremely powerful ability that is highly unlikely to arise as the result of random mutations.

In addition, the method by which Dungeons reproduce is also highly suspect; a crystalline seed that grows into a full-fledged Dungeon Core. This is a process that unquestionably requires Mana, but the only way for such a crystal to get the mana required is via cognitive function that isn't propped up by magic. This necessitates a ludicrously complex internal structure for neural function, but the question of how to power it all is still a major issue, given limitations on Mana circulation. The solution which is generally found in Dungeons is in fact miniscule amounts of Beta-Decaying radioisotopes in special structures within their 'cells', which can provide sufficient energy, but also slowly damage the Dungeon over the years, which is the primary reason for their limited lifespan.

Also, there's the menu system Dungeons have access to, which is an extremely peculiar form for instinct to take. Most species with strong instinctive behaviors don't get infoboxes popping up telling them why to do something, they just do the thing. Pretty much the only reason such a thing would possibly exist is if someone deliberately programmed it in.

So, all in all Dungeons grow from seeds that only mass a few grams, are able to very rapidly create a biosphere, atmosphere, and maybe even a magnetosphere even in totally barren environments, and can grow to maturity with negligible resource input once they reach a planet, or even a large asteroid.

As far as I'm concerned, all these traits together point towards Dungeons being deliberately created as part of an interstellar (or possibly interdimensional) seeding initiative. Getting a Dungeon Seed to a world would be efficient and cheap compared to a full-fledged starship, and once the Dungeon matured they would almost immediately begin converting whatever world they happened to land on into a lush, vibrant world. They would almost certainly establish additional sapient populations aside from Dungeons as well, who would go on to form a civilization on the planet existing in partnership with the descendants of the Dungeons who terraformed and seeded the world.

This even fits with Dungeons occasionally dragging in reincarnated souls to build their minds around when they wake up; it would be a benefit to the seeding initiatives if the seeders could send people from their world over to supervise the early stages of terraforming. Being able to send over souls as a form of upload to run the first-gen Dungeons would be a major advantage, and it makes sense that this trait would activate again every once in a while, grabbing a soul out of the interdimensional void.

So, given the fact that Dungeons were almost certainly deployed en masse all over the galaxy (or possibly multiverse), why is only the third planet in this system inhabited, and why does nobody remember how the world was colonized? The answer is that the original Dungeon Seed was one of the very last sent out by the seeding initiative, which was shut down shortly after for stupid political reasons and never re-started on account of a poorly-timed Gamma Ray Burst. Meanwhile, forgetting about the colonization can be accounted for by this world being settled for nearly 21,000 years now and the fossil record being an utter mess thanks to all the Dungeons churning out new lifeforms whenever they get bored.

So, yeah. That's what Dungeons are: a sapient magitech space probe intended to seed life wherever they land, and do a damn fine job of it.

Titan of Steel (Dungeoncore)

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