Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The hand disappeared from the edge of the tower before Aderic reached Siv.

It left four deep gouges in the stone.

The quickling stood near the cracked street with her short blade drawn. She had not moved closer to the square after the bell shifted. The impressions around her made the restraint look wise.

"Something is beneath the district." She said. "It’s big. It moved when the bell moved."

Dagna crouched beside the bronze fragment Siv found. The runesmith turned it over with a tool rather than her fingers. Lines covered its inner surface, too fine to see until she held it beneath the ward mage’s light.

"Part of a control plate." Dagna said. "Broken from a larger construct."

The pale column marking the final seal rose from the exposed upper chamber of the bell tower. Three floors and half the outer wall had collapsed, leaving the bronze disk visible through a gap in the stone. Reaching it looked simple from the edge of the district.

Nothing about the street suggested it would remain simple once they crossed.

Aderic positioned the team inside the municipal hall while Siv and the elf ranger surveyed the approaches. They found two harpies watching from beyond bow range. The insectoid team had not revealed itself, but chitinous marks on a southern wall showed that at least one scout passed through recently.

"Both teams know we are here." The ranger said.

"Neither wants to fight the guardian first." Aderic replied.

The orc bulwark rolled one shoulder beneath his armor. "We can wait."

"So can they."

Waiting helped the force with the fewest injuries and the greatest supply of food. Aderic did not know which rival held that advantage. He did know Varkesh had already attempted to spend Max’s strength against a staged danger. The minotaur would happily watch all three teams remain still until someone else grew desperate.

The field healer examined the cut beneath the shieldthane’s repaired leg armor. "He can fight. It will reopen if he has to run."

"I rarely run." The dwarf said.

No one mistook the comment for a promise that his injury did not matter.

Dagna finished studying the bronze fragment. "The district is connected. The bell, the statues, perhaps the street. Removing the seal likely activates whatever remains dormant."

"Can you stop it?"

"Not from here."

Aderic looked at the tower again. They possessed three seals. The other teams collectively held three. Taking the final unclaimed disk would not qualify them but leaving it for a rival would make every later battle worse.

"We go." He said.

They did not enter through the broad avenue. Siv led them through a roofless counting house and onto the western edge of the square. The six bronze statues remained inside their alcoves. Each depicted a faceless soldier holding a wide shield and a hooked polearm.

The stone hand did not reappear.

Dagna reached the first threshold and stopped. Narrow strips of bronze ran through the paving stones. Most disappeared beneath rubble, but the surviving lines formed a pattern linking the alcoves to the tower.

The runesmith placed a marker beside the nearest strip. "Do not step directly on the metal."

The team crossed in two groups. The bulwark and shieldthane moved first, followed by Aderic, the spellblade, and the shaman. The ward mage led the others along the same path once the front group reached the tower.

Siv stepped over the final bronze strip.

The bell rang.

Sound struck the square like a physical blow.

The ward mage’s barrier flashed around the rear group. Windows shattered in every surrounding building. Loose stone lifted from the ground and scattered outward. Aderic was thrown from his feet and hit the tower wall hard enough to drive the breath from his lungs.

The six statues opened their eyes.

Bronze wardens stepped out of the alcoves in pairs. Their hooked polearms scraped across the stone. Two moved to block the western route. Two approached the tower. The remaining pair turned toward the side streets as though expecting the rival teams to join the fight.

The enormous hand rose again behind the bell tower.

This time an arm followed it.

The Bell-Tower Colossus pulled itself from a buried chamber beneath the district. Stone buildings broke against its shoulder. Bronze bands held together a body assembled from blocks too large for ordinary construction. The tower itself had been built across its back. Its head emerged beneath the lowest bell chamber, blank except for a narrow line of orange light.

The seal remained above it.

Shapes tore free from the surrounding roofs. The Bell-Tower Gargoyles had resembled carved gutters and damaged ornaments until their wings unfolded. Bronze edges reinforced their stone bodies. They wheeled over the square before diving toward the rear of the team.

The ranger fired first. His arrow struck the nearest gargoyle beneath one wing and changed its descent. It crashed into the paving stones rather than the field healer.

"Secure the rear." Aderic ordered. "Front line, keep the wardens away from Dagna."

The fight divided according to the positions the unit practiced rather than the enemies they expected.

The orc bulwark met the first bronze warden shield to shield. The impact drove both of them across the square. The dwarf shieldthane caught the hook aimed at the orc’s exposed side and twisted it against the edge of his own shield. The construct released the weapon rather than allow itself to be pulled off balance.

The elf spellblade moved through the gap and cut into the joint beneath its arm.

Behind them, the ranger and Siv dealt with the Bell-Tower Gargoyles before they could reach the support line. Siv could not match their flight, but she did not need to. She watched their shadows, moved before each dive, and struck when stone claws passed within reach, none could contend with her speed. The ranger forced the higher creatures to change direction until the ward mage could catch them with barriers placed in their path.

Dagna reached the bronze lines at the tower’s base.

"The ringing of the bell carries through the district." She said. "Every connected plate amplifies it."

The Colossus raised one hand toward the bell chamber above its shoulders.

The shaman drove his staff into the paving stones. Soil and dust surged over the closest bronze strips, but the magic did not sever their connection. The lines began to shine beneath the covering.

"Down!" Dagna shouted.

The Colossus struck the bell.

The second toll broke the ward mage’s outer barrier. One gargoyle simply came apart in the air. The pieces struck the square around the healer. The bronze wardens remained upright, protected by the same network carrying the force through the district.

The team did not share that protection.

Dagna tore open a junction plate with a hooked tool. The ward mage dropped beside her and fed a narrow line of magic into the exposed runes. They could not disable the whole district before the next toll. They could interrupt parts of it, thus weakening the amplified vibrations unleashed by the bell.

Aderic moved the team toward the western side when Dagna marked three safe sections of stone. The front line gave ground in order rather than allowing the wardens to surround them. The healer closed a bleeding cut on the spellblade’s shoulder while the elf continued fighting.

The Colossus stepped forward.

Its foot crushed the first alcove and one of the wardens still emerging from it. The construct did not distinguish between guardians. It cared only about the intruders near the tower.

Aderic saw the advantage.

"Draw the wardens beneath it. Let the Colossus help us."

The orc bulwark struck his shield and retreated across the square. Two wardens followed. The shieldthane dragged a third by its hooked weapon while the spellblade prevented it from disengaging.

The Colossus reached for the adventures.

The bulwark waited until the last moment, then hurled himself behind a fallen wall. Stone fingers closed around two bronze wardens. The Colossus crushed them together before throwing the remains aside.

The maneuver removed enemies. It did nothing to slow the larger guardian.

"Leg joint." Dagna called. "Inner left. The control lines gather there."

The shaman turned his magic beneath the Colossus. The square had been built over buried chambers and fractured streets. Stone softened under the construct’s left foot. Its weight drove one side lower.

The spellblade crossed the open ground beneath the reaching arm. His sword struck the exposed joint Dagna identified. Orange light flashed through the damaged bronze.

The Colossus did not fall.

It turned away from the front line and reached toward Dagna.

The orc bulwark intercepted the hand with his shield. No person could stop that much weight. He changed its direction instead, bracing beneath the side of one finger while the shieldthane drove his shoulder against the other. The hand scraped past the runesmith and struck the tower wall.

The impact opened another crack through the bell chamber.

Above them, the seal shifted in its housing.

Three gargoyles remained. The ranger killed one as it climbed from a failed dive. Siv lured another toward the ward mage’s barrier, then changed direction so quickly that the creature struck the invisible surface headfirst. The last gained height and turned toward the tower rather than the support line.

It was not attacking.

A harpy descended behind it.

Varkesh’s scout had used the guardian fight to approach the seal. They were hoping to grab the prize without dealing with its guard.

The ranger changed targets. His arrow forced the harpy away from the exposed chamber. The Bell-Tower Gargoyle struck her during the retreat. Both creatures tumbled behind the tower and vanished from view.

Aderic did not send anyone to confirm the result.

"Finish the joint."

The shaman forced more rubble beneath the Colossus’s right foot, raising it as the weakened left side sank. The construct leaned across the square. The spellblade struck the damaged joint again. Dagna sent a disruption through the bronze line at the same instant.

The Colossus’s left leg failed.

Its body fell against the tower.

The ward mage spread every remaining barrier between the collapsing stone and the team. The barriers shattered one after another, slowing debris that would otherwise have buried the square. The Colossus reached for the bell as it fell.

The elf ranger cut the striking chain.

The heavy bronze length dropped through the open chamber and wrapped around the guardian’s arm. The bell swung away from its hand. Instead of a third toll, a dull impact rolled through the district.

The Colossus struck the ground.

The remaining bronze wardens stopped for less than a breath. The front line used it. The bulwark and shieldthane broke one construct between them while the spellblade destroyed the joint of another, making it unable to move. The last attempted to reach Dagna and met Siv’s blade in the gap behind its knee. The ranger’s next arrow entered the opening she created.

Silence returned gradually.

The bell continued to sway above the fallen Colossus, but the broken chain could no longer strike it.

The field healer moved through the team, judging injuries by urgency. The shieldthane’s leg had reopened. The bulwark’s left arm hung badly beneath his armor. The ward mage remained conscious but had exhausted most of her strength maintaining the barriers.

Aderic looked toward the rooftops.

The rival teams had watched the fight. They had not joined it.

"Seal first." He said.

The collapsed Colossus created a path halfway up the damaged tower. Dagna, Siv, and the spellblade climbed while the others guarded the square. The runesmith examined the housing before touching the disk.

"No weight mechanism." She called. "Removing it ends the district activation."

"Do it."

Dagna lifted the seal.

The final column of pale light vanished.

A low bell sounded somewhere beyond the ruined city, different from the tower’s weapon. The bronze case beneath the bulwark’s armor displayed a fourth mark.

Four seals belonged to Max’s team.

The three remaining seals belonged to their rivals.

Siv found the harpy’s body behind the tower but no sign of the insectoid scout that had observed from the south. The second harpy remained somewhere beyond bow range.

Aderic gave the team only enough time for the healer to stabilize the worst injuries and for Dagna to secure the new seal.

"The others wanted us to pay for the guardian." The shieldthane said.

"We did." Aderic replied. "Now they expect us to remain here while they decide how to collect."

The orc bulwark tested his injured arm and adjusted his shield to the other. "Let them come."

"Not where they choose."

They left the square through the passage created when the Colossus rose. The buried chamber connected to a maintenance tunnel beneath the surrounding streets. It was narrow, dark, and less convenient than the open roads.

It also concealed their departure.

By the time Varkesh’s gnolls entered the district, the square held only broken guardians and an empty seal housing.

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