Dungeons
Keys to the sealed ruins, Sire.
Five ruins lie beneath Lastlight. Drowned Cathedral stands open to all. The other four the town keeps sealed, for reasons it would rather not discuss over dinner, and the steward keeps their keys. He will let you have one. Or, for a monarch of your appetite, all four.
Every ruin is twenty levels deep, and the Orb waits at the bottom of each, among the dragons.
Drowned Cathedral
The great temple to the nameless God; its altars are half in this world.
Valmorde built its cathedral to a god whose name nobody now remembers, and served it with an order of monks whom everybody does. On the night of the fall the river came in through the west door, and it has not left.
The monks' altars still stand, half in this world and half in theirs, and they still answer prayers. Unreliably.
Below
- Altars, for those who pray; a heard prayer can show you the way to the Orb.
- Fountains of every colour, for great favour or great harm.
- Teleports aplenty, and hardly a dragon's lair until the very bottom.
“Open to all, Sire, and no charge. Do come back up and tell me how it went.”
Free
King's Drains
Everything ran downhill, even before the fall.
The capital's drains were the finest in the kingdom, which impressed the kingdom more than you might think. They were built to carry Valmorde's waste away. Now they carry adventurers in.
Somewhere in the dark a knight kneels by torchlight, and has done for some time. Nobody in Lastlight knows what he is praying for, and nobody has gone down to ask.
Below
- A hidden maze: not one ordinary door, and a fifth of the passages are secret.
- The longest road to the Orb of any ruin.
“Bring a good nose, Sire, and a better map. I sell one of those.”
Sold separately or as All Four Keys
Sunken Keep
The castle itself, upside-down in places.
Osric's own castle went down with him, and not tidily. The lesser thrones of his court lie wherever the fall dropped them, still jewelled and covered in runes, and the mirrors still hang, though nobody would call what looks back a reflection.
The throne room is somewhere near the bottom. So, some say, is the king.
Below
- Thrones carved with runes; sit on one, and you may hear a gong.
- Mirrors, to look into or very sensibly avoid.
- The shortest road to the Orb of any ruin, for those in a hurry to meet His Majesty.
“I knew every room of it, Sire. Most of them were the other way up.”
Sold separately or as All Four Keys
The Royal Menagerie
The king's beasts went down with him, and got out.
Osric collected beasts the way other kings collect taxes, and he bred dragons for the royal hunt. When Valmorde sank, the cages broke. Most of the animals left. The dragons stayed, and settled in.
Each keeps a lair, and when a dragon dies its lair turns out to be a chest, which says something about what it was sleeping on.
Below
- Half as many dragon lairs again as anywhere else, and a hoard under every one.
- The king's favourite. The steward still uses it to advertise his maps.
“His Majesty's pride and joy, Sire. Your Majesty's, I should say. Do mind the hand.”
Sold separately or as All Four Keys
The Silver Mines
The source of the kingdom's wealth, still worked by something.
Valmorde was built on silver, and the silver came out of these mines, dug by dwarves who knew a great deal about doors that only show from the right spot. They also cut one true shaft from top to bottom, and the Excelsior still rides it.
The fall woke something underneath. The picks are still going. Nobody in Lastlight will say whose.
Below
- A ruin built for going up and down: pits, lift shafts, and more Excelsior stops than any other.
- Dwarf-cut secret doors, for the observant.
“The silver's all spent, Sire. I do the accounts. Something down there hasn't heard.”
Sold separately or as All Four Keys
All Four Keys
The keys to all four sealed ruins at once, for the adventurer who would rather not climb back up to shop. Buy them in the game, from KEYS in Settings.
“Lastlight thanks you, Sire. So do I.”