The Records of the Lost Halls are a five-part mini series of lore entries that describe the Lost Halls. They were released daily from July 20 to 24 of 2017 in order to give backstory into the dungeon and hint at dungeon mechanics.
Archaeologists recently unearthed the ruins of an entryway to a large network of ancient subterranean chambers, spanning across the underground of the realm. Upon realizing just how expansive these halls are, the citizens of the Nexus rallied for the mightiest adventurers and most prominent guilds to explore this uncharted territory in hopes of converting it into a secret base within the realm itself. I am the leader of one of these crusades and with my companions I hope to bring glory to our names.
Before departing, some researchers sugggested that these may be the fabled halls from ages ago in which inhumane experiments took place. Allegedly, an ultimate weapon against Oryx was being developed within them, a nearly omnipotent golem that would have been capable of defeating Oryx once and for all. I’m not sure if I believe those rumors myself, but if we can discover a grand titan while we’re at it, we’ll be even more famous!
As I write this, we are setting up our supplies to sleep for the night after our first day of exploring. I’ve become a bit disoriented after so many turns, but our navigator is confident that he can find the way back to the entrance if anything goes wrong. Surely it can’t be THAT large.
To my surprise, we’ve encountered some life within these catacombs. Not any human life, but it seems that many other small creatures found their way in here over time. I must say, I’ve never seen bats and rodents quite so aggressive anywhere on the surface. These animals appear to be extremely agitated by something. After further inspection, their eyes are all eerily glassy and much of their skin is rotten. But I guess that’s just what happens when wild animals live in such a dark environment for so long.
Additionally, we have witnessed actual golems wandering the halls. We suffered a tragic and severe injury to one of our squad members after our first sighting due to an underestimation of their power. He’s still bleeding and we lack the proper equipment to close the wound, so we’re hoping to scavenge something that can substitute as a bandage. After several more brawls, we learned how to best approach them.
An interesting observation of mine is that they seem to have specific preferences for who they will primarily assault. For example, the red golems always go after the knights and warriors of my group, even when we deliberately placed them in the back of our formation. It is possible that the other monsters exhibit this type of preferential behavior as well, though I have not been able to pin down exact choices yet.
As for the structure itself, I will admit that it is indeed larger than I anticipated. Though my navigator continues to assure me that he can lead us back out, the shakiness of his voice indicates otherwise. Each turn we make feels like a complete guess, and every room we enter is somehow familiar and different at the same time. It’s hard to tell if we’re even making progress at this point or if we have just been going in circles. This can’t be right, we must be missing something.
We awoke today to find that our injured member had passed in the night. Surrounded by solid marble and with no way to give him a proper burial, we were forced to unceremoniously leave his body behind. Additionally, our supplies and food rations are running low. To conserve what little resources remain, some of my fellow crusaders have resorted to eating the plagued meat of the creatures we continue to encounter.
What’s worse, my navigator has now admitted that he has become hopelessly lost. Considering our dwindling supplies, I would suggest we all fall back and exit this place, but that is hardly an option when we have no way of directing ourselves back in the first place. Our only choice is to blindly guess and hope we find some way to escape before the situation gets any more dire.
Our supplies have now been fully depleted. If we don’t find the entrance very soon, I fear the worst for my crew. As our growing hunger forces us to be quiet, we began noticing very slight sounds coming from… beneath us? Sometimes it just sounds like some dirt settling, but on several occasions I could swear it was faint voices and the creaking of wood. I find it hard to believe there is an even lower level than the one we are currently in, but given the circumstances, I’m not sure what to believe anymore.
We found the body of our fallen teammate, or at least what’s left of it. We’re going in circles…
My entire brigade has gone four full days without eating anything other than the worthless, decomposing flesh, and yet we continue to have just enough energy to push ourselves forward into one room after another. This is beyond all reason, we should have all starved days ago. Our combat against the creatures and occasional golems has become mindless, nothing more than a natural instinct. I may not be dead, but I’ve never been more ready to. Somehow we continue to live in this loathsome state, pressing onward with the slim hope of salvation appearing before us. What kind of detestable curse has come upon us?!
Something is happening. Whenever we are faced with another threat, something clicks in our minds that turns us into uncontrolled savages. I can still think and act on my own volition as we wander, but a part of us has converted into some primal form. I suppose this could be seen as a benefit, but I worry that we would even attack a potential rescue party if the members of the Nexus have sent someone to save us.
I don’t know why I’m bothering to write this. I already told myself that I would leave this journal behind after tonight. I can’t imagine anybody will ever read this, but to anyone that does, I hope for your sake that you tracked where you came from. May your fate be kinder than mine.
I am a rogue bandit, guilty of several robberies before being caught and imprisoned. When I was busted, I expected to be thrown in jail for a while like most other criminals and eventually released, but what I got is far worse than I ever could have expected. I don’t quite understand where I am, but I have been able to listen in on the conversations of my captors.
These lunatics are apparently trying to construct a perfect golem as a weapon against Oryx, but since golems all require a soul to give them life, they’re using prisoners like myself as test subjects to create countless experimental golems. I’ve noticed recently that some church leaders have been coming around to make sure no abuse of power is taking place, but clearly they haven’t seen the full picture here. These cultish madmen are out of their minds.
I won’t go out this way, not like this. I refuse to let them slaughter me just for another test. I don’t know how, but I’ll find some way out of here. Even if they do get me first, I know my consciousness will remain. I will get out of here, even if it’s in a new, stony body.
Nobody can keep the great Red Outlaw contained forever!
Under top level orders from Oryx himself, my infantry has been commanded to enter the recently rediscovered chambers beneath the realm and destroy an ancient weapon against our lord. Though we were given minimal details, something seemed off with Oryx as he issued this dispatch. It appears he had gotten himself sober for this event, and the way he spoke leads me to believe he knows something that he isn’t letting on.
I can’t say I’ve ever seen him like this. He was clearly deeply disturbed by something. Oryx is far too strong of a leader to be intimidated by whatever weapon is in the depths of these halls. It must be something else, but his orders were too vague to piece anything together.
However, this is none of my business. I serve Our Lordship unconditionally, and my elite militia have never failed to meet Oryx’s high standards. We head out first thing tomorrow. I estimate we will return within three days. Some ragtag group of Nexus scum entered it two days ago, and haven’t come out yet. If we can track them down and end their crusade while we’re at it, we’ll have a nice promotion to look forward to when we report back to Oryx. We will make our leader proud!
The creation of our weapon against Oryx, codenamed White Titan, is nearing completion. As a religious hierophant and renowned paladin, I have helped oversee this project and guide our necromantic researchers in the way of the light. After years of experimentation, they believe they have finally perfected their weapon and it is ready to be used.
All that remains is for the soul of a righteous mortal to be transferred into the golem and bring it to life. After much deliberation, the church has chosen me to be that sacrifice. I am greatly humbled by this esteemed honor, and will gladly lay down my life in the name of progress and returning the realm to freedom from Oryx’s tyranny. Once my life essence has been sealed into the golem, it will be presented to the heroes of the realm and they will begin to plan one last siege on Oryx’s castle.
The fusion will be taking place tomorrow. I can hear the necromancers making final preparation as I write this. As for my fellow church leaders, they continue to run background checks to ensure all attendees are holy enough to execute this process. We cannot risk any source of corruption or evil being in the room as the transference takes place, lest this sin interfere with the event. With that said, I have utmost confidence in those with whom I have worked so closely with all this time. This will be the last time I write. I pray that this diary may be used in the future for generations as a record of the moments before a great triumph!
I, Malus, am pleased to write that our golem experiments have made great strides over the past several days. Along with the rest of my team of necromantic practitioners, we have become much closer to emulating true humanity through stone vessels. Previously, transferring a human soul to a golem would cause it to lose all mortal attributes in the process, rendering them worthless and untrainable. But with more advanced techniques, we can maintain basic emotional expressions such as anger, fear and sorrow.
Regrettably, our supply of souls from willing donors has diminished. We have had to resort to involuntary sources with the dreck from prisons and madhouses. If anybody is to die for the sake of progress, it ought to be those who are already beyond redemption. The religious supervisors would accuse this of being inhumane and shut down the whole process if discovered. Those fools! They would destroy years of painstaking research and waste spilled blood over their own meaningless sentiments. Thankfully, I have managed to keep our source of souls a secret for now. No victory is without sacrifice, and I refuse to let the salvation of the realm be brought to a halt by trivial moral dilemmas.
The day has almost arrived. Within a few weeks, we should have enough data to construct an ultimate creation. The only remaining loose end is who will be chosen to sacrifice their soul for the golem’s power source. Though I would have liked to make the decision myself, I begrudgingly decided to leave that decision in the hands of the clergy. One of my six other associates warned that it may have drawn suspicion to where we have gotten our experimental souls from. To keep the church appeased, I allowed them to govern the situation and make the choice themselves.
This can’t be happening. All this work, all this preparation, just for everything to collapse at the very last moment. Just as the soul transfer had begun, a purple vortex ripped open and rushed into the colossus. Only a small fraction of the paladin’s essence had made it into the golem at that point. Since the golem was now occupied, the rest of his soul was left without a host to enter and escaped into the halls. Two of my colleagues were standing too close and were instantly vaporized. Myself and the remaining four were forced to retreat as the corruption quickly spread through the halls.
Though the church leaders were able to escape the halls and alert others to seal it off, I was not so fortunate. With no escape and nowhere left to turn, I gathered the others and withdrew to a makeshift hideout we had constructed for discreetly containing the prisoners. We are now even lower beneath the surface with no way to escape.
The halls are beyond redemption. An unprecedented evil lurks in that vile place. There is no foreseeable way for me, my team or our followers to ever reach the surface again. The only thing I am certain of is that if this entity can reach the realm, all of humanity is doomed. It will massacre our citizens, slaughter the heroes and would even overthrow Oryx with the powers of the colossus. As for us, I know not how long we will last, but we can at least try to restrain that beast to these chambers. We will never be enshrined in history. In fact, we may even be regarded as villains for what we have done to cause this. But if we can keep this evil suppressed through our own magic, it will be the greatest atonement we can offer.
