Survey Log: The Ruins Beneath the Capital

🎲 Dice

By 杏仁豆腐

Kingdom of Magido · Royal Capital Catalnia

This year, sixty-seven people never came back from underground.
A five-person survey team descends into a labyrinth that even the looters have abandoned.

💎 The dungeon is the capital's leading industry

This land was once split into four nations. To stand against a colossal monster, they united and became the Kingdom of Magido. The royal capital at its heart, Catalnia, was originally a place with no resources worth mentioning. That is, until magic stones were dug out from beneath it.

The underground shelters dug for the great war found a new purpose as peace went on. Raw magic ore, exposed and unrefined, filled the space, and an ecosystem of its own took root there. Today it is known as the "Dungeon Hunt", a headline industry that brings in a fifth of the capital's tax revenue.

Entry is permitted for only five months of the year. In the remaining seasons, surges of magic crawling up from the deep layers make even the shallow floors dangerous. That very cycle is what protects the resources and the ecosystem. Or so the Guild says.

🕯️ Something is wrong with the dungeon this year

Three months into the season. The missing-persons reports piling up at the Management Guild number sixty-seven. The season is only at its halfway point, and the count is already three times the usual year, far outside the norm.

Rumors are going around the taverns. The magic density on the second floor is thin, they say. Maybe people got greedy and pushed too far in. But that is not the strange part. Looting has been extremely scarce this year. Magic stones on the black market have been in short supply for months. The ones who break the law to go down have all, as one, stopped going.

Separate from the regular Hunt, the Guild has put together survey teams to track down the cause of the anomaly. You are one of them, assigned to a team that already has four members.

🗡️ Four part-time hunters

Full-time adventurers are rare in this country. All four of them keep a trade in town and go underground on the side.

Lina Forge

Blacksmith / Age 17 / Greatsword

From a family that forges "magic arms" by hammering magic stone into ore. Day to day, she makes kitchen knives and farm tools. She goes underground to test-cut the greatsword she forged herself and to gather materials. She cannot stay quiet when someone's gear is poorly maintained.

Viola Stitch

Tailor / Age 22 / Needle and Thread

Owner of a workshop in the capital. With needles set with silver magic stone and thread spun from magic, she finishes alterations without making a customer wait. She has a habit of measuring people's shoulders the moment she sees them. Thread can bind as easily as it can stitch together.

Hiiragi Ren

Cook / Age 15 / Support

The only son of Hiiragi-tei, a diner now in its third generation. Nobody handles magic-infused ingredients better than he does. The steam rising from his pot closes wounds. He calls older girls "big sis," and the one thing he cannot stand is being teased about his height.

Ayame Mikage

Guild Investigator / Age 19 / Quick-Draw Swordsmanship

The only daughter of a knight captain, and an investigator for the Management Guild. She returned to the capital having mastered the foreign quick-draw art of the Nagito style. The sharpness of her gaze earned her the name Yatagarasu. She also serves as this team's supervising officer.

🕳️ Three floors

Floor One: stone corridors that still carry the kingdom's old designs. Torch orange, pillar shadows, floors under a shallow sheet of water. A low-danger floor where you pass civilian explorers along the way.

Floor Two: veins of magic crystal run through the walls, and torches are no longer needed. Fine magic stones can be mined here, but the floor has never been fully explored. Only those confident in their skills go down this far.

Floor Three: almost nothing is known. Magic at high density is said to form a false light source, and there are trees, water, and grass despite it being underground. Extremely few who went down have come back.

🔦 Your mission: explore at least the second floor

The Guild's instructions were clear. The second floor at minimum. The third if possible. Find the cause of the anomaly.

You have up to thirty actions on each floor. You do not have to use them all. When to turn back is for your team to decide. But nobody knows where those sixty-seven people stopped walking.

📜 How to play

■ Descend chapter by chapter
You go down through three floors, with a camp after each one. No dice are rolled at camp; it is time for rest and conversation.

■ Let the dice decide
Actions with uncertain outcomes come with a skill check. Pick an option and the server locks in the roll; there are no rerolls. Beyond observation, exploration, combat, evasion, and lockpicking, you can call on each of the four's signature techniques and roll for them. Who you bet on decides how the fight goes.

■ Status sheet
Floor, remaining actions, health, equipment, inventory, and kill record are shown every turn. What you pick up and what you defeat keep stacking up.

■ You are the fifth
You join a team of four as the investigator the Guild has added to their number. Your name and your history are yours to decide.