Neverdarking

Anja Sedlak, Unity and Atticus, together on a dashing daring ride through the magical city of adventure!

The lost city of Neverdark was built ages ago inside an almost spherical fragment. The only external features are a large platform designed to let flying craft dock, and colossal double doors leading from the landing area to the city proper. The doors are covered in bas-relief depicting grand potentates on thrones, wondrous constructions and all sorts of marvels. They were clearly designed to impress visitors, and they do their job as soon as you disembark.

The doors stand open and the landing platform appears to be covered in bits and pieces presumably once belonging to the undead army that chased the previous visitors out. You decide that the best course of action would probably be to stealth it in, rather than set up a base outside.

The inside of the city is an impressive sight. The fragment is completely hollowed out, with buildings as would be built on the surface, all pointing towards the centre. Constructions cover all of the inside: towers at the bottom pointing up, dangling temples from the ceiling, massive stairways running up and down the walls, bridges and platforms providing footing in the heights.

The entire city appears to be covered in a thick vine that bears glowing orbs, illuminating everything in a pale, washed out green light. These orbs dissipate into a glowing dust as soon as they are touched, leaving behind a faint smell of open fields and forest undergrowth.

In the centre of the city, suspended from the ceiling and walls by a huge number of chains is a dark reddish palace that looks like the most important structure in the city. This is probably the lair of the Undead army, so you steer well clear of it. You make your way around the city, poking about in hollowed out buildings and ruined structures. More than once you hide out while undead patrols pass you by.

There doesn't seem to be anything left, anything of value appears to have either been looted or destroyed. Eventually, though, you come across a large compound that appears to be mostly intact. The central building is surrounded by greenhouses full of strange plants. These are seemingly able to grow without any sort of natural light, so you gather as many of their seeds as you can carry. They're bound to be worth something.

You make a note of the botanical garden's location and move on, investigating the ruins. You eventually come across a ruined armoury, now filled with nothing more than rust marks on the walls and shelves.

Eventually, you decide it might be wise to start heading back. Undead patrols are getting more frequent. On your way back, you are forced to hide out in a house while six rotting corpses search it. As they turn to leave, a small movement on Anja's part causes a broken wooden pole to clatter to the floor.

The Undead turn as one. Rather than wait for them to come closer, Unity leaps into the fray. The Undead seem unfazed by her tactics, but fall swiftly beneath her blades. When the dust clears, you notice that the broken corpses are trying to pull themselves back together, apparently not overly fazed by dismemberment.

You run away before they can do much more than twitch about on the floor. As you run out, Anja grabs one of their hands.

Outside, you can see undead boiling out of the dangling palace, and you feel as if you've overstayed your welcome. You rush for the gates, getting there before the undead can reach it and cut you off, and dash into the ship, taking off swiftly and trying to avoid looking back at the masses swarming on the landing platform.