It pauses to read the sign, grateful for the aurora providing more light than the dim purple glow of its eyes and seams.

Magic, huh? Well, she's inky, purple-black goop animating a durable, porcelain-like doll body. If that's not magic, she's not sure what is.

It's not sure of much, actually. It knows it needs to enter the lost lands of Heywyred, but beyond that.

She shrugs to herself, taking a moment to stare up at the pretty lights in the sky.

Then she trudges in through the passage.

She passes through a dark space, green with moss and flowers living off a sliver of light, deeper into the mountain.

Eventually she emerges to beneath the sun again, and finds herself in an old, broken-down village. The houses look dilapidated, like they haven't been lived in for years or perhaps even decades. 

Two things stand in the center of town, making a yin-yang in its center:

An old well, large enough to step into completely, overgrown with moss...

And a whole small gazebo, full up with pillows, and still lit by glowing orange crystals.

An old man sits in the gazebo, puffing gently on a curved pipe and contemplating the ruins of the village.

He looks up, sees the doll coming, and visibly startles. 

"Ho there! I haven't seen a traveller for many years. Who are you, then?"

It shrugs.

"Let me know if you figure that out," it says. "Some kind of doll. Came in from the wastes."

"How strange. I didn't think anything could survive out there." 

He looks her over. "Though... You look a bit strange yourself. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised." 

"Strange is probably right," she replies, with something that might be a hint of a smile. "I sure don't look to be made of the same stuff as you."

This is a civilized seeming place. She triggers an internal mechanism, and her gun hand folds up with a series of clicks and whirs, replaced by a hand to match her left, articulated joints of enchanted porcelain.

"I wonder if you have some connection to the world below... ah, bah. Ignore me. I shouldn't be encouraging people to risk the depths. That's where everyone else in this village went, and none of them have come back." 

It tilts its head. "The world below?"

"The old House of Heywyred. It was a glittering kingdom at its height, a place of power and high technology. But these days it's nothing more than a monster-haunted ruin. The old technology's gone mad and tries to kill anyone who descends. Many adventurers used to come to try their luck, to retrieve some bauble or treasure, but few of them ever came back from down below. Now people have stopped coming. The House is dead, and I'm nothing more than its grave-tender."

It frowns for a moment, then sits across from the old man in the gazebo.

Porcelain face sliding back into a warmer smile, it asks him, "Since I've got an unpleasant hunch I'll have to go down there to figure anything out, I'd love to hear what stories you can tell me about the place, or about this town. Would you mind sharing?"

"I'm not sure what there is to tell. The ruins are before even my time. The town itself is an old place and has been fading for decades. I was born here some eighty years ago and I've been alone for a few years now. There was a shopkeeper here some years ago but he went down into the ruins hunting for a key he'd had filched by a drone, and hasn't come back. I haven't seen anyone else in decades. Mostly I tend the graveyard out by the east edge of town, keep my own house in order. This old body of mine doesn't need food or water, it's got a touch of the old Heywyred tech about it. I can just sit in the sun and it does enough to fuel me."

She nods. "I can appreciate not needing to eat, at least. I don't think I need to, either. Didn't eat anything on the hike through the wastes, at least."

She looks around with a hum. "Is there anything I can help with around here, maybe in exchange for slightly more effective clothes, or anything that might help down below?"

"If you can bring back any of the old technology from below, I might be able to repair a few things. Help the town feel a little more alive. Can't promise much, but I can try." 

It nods. "I guess I'll head down, then. Thanks for the company."

And it walks up to the well and peers down.

A spiral staircase goes around the perimeter of the well, descending into the dark. At the bottom she can just barely see a pool of water.

At least there're stairs. She hops the edge of the well, porcelain feed hitting the stones with a faint tatap, and starts walking down, looking around carefully.

She emerges into a small grotto, lit dimly by the light filtering in from the well above. The water runs through here and onwards down through a crack in the ground. There are three exits: one to the north, one to the west, and one to the east. 

There's no sign of any living things in here. 

She walks up to the pool of water and crouches down, running her fingertips through the water, savoring the simple sensation for a moment.

Then she rises, restores her hand to a gun, and heads through the west exit.

The shore continues this direction, running through a long canal that descends over several waterfalls. Passageways break off to the left and right, running in several different directions. There's a total of four exits outward, not counting the one she came through near the top of the flow - one woven with vines and thorns that the water runs through, two spilling off in opposite directions from the canal, and one down the water's flow towards the bottom. 

There are also several drones in the room, which aren't really doing much - just sort of flying around randomly, bumping off of walls, and skimming over the river's surface. As she watches, an arc of electricity sparks off one of the drones and earths itself in the canal.

Well. Those look dangerous. She can't exactly inspect the area in detail while these things are bouncing around, but at the same time she doesn't want to just break things willy-nilly. What did these little drones do to deserve getting smashed, right?

At the same time, though, they don't seem to function at this point. They're just bumbling around haplessly, shocking whatever they touch.

"Hey little drones," she calls out softly. "Do something different if you've got any life in you."

They continue to completely ignore her and bump randomly off walls.

Not promising. What if she scoops a pebble off the ground and throws it lightly at one?

It bounces off the drone and sends it bouncing off on another path. It doesn't seem to have noticed the change in direction. 

She stares at the drones for a moment. Maybe this will make the place safer for travelers in the future?

It looks at its gun. At least it's prepared.

Then it levels its arm at one of the bumbling drones.

Steady, aim, fire.

A burst of three purple energy bolts lashes out and strikes the drone. Sparks fly as it's hit, and it makes an unhappy sounding buzz as its internal lifter fails. It falls into the canal and stops moving.

It wishes it didn't have to do this. 

Needs must, though.

With careful aim, it puts a three-round burst into each drone, then goes to inspect the wreckage. Anything it can salvage?

There's definitely a few pieces of circuit board that have survived the blasting. And... she feels like she can just... eat them? 

Okay that's a weird instinct. She extrudes a bit of goop from the seams of her hand, and lets it envelop the circuit board. After a moment, the circuitry vanishes, the gloop slurping back inside her shell. 

She can feel the chip floating in some discontiguous internal space, stored safely. 

Handy, if weird.

She picks up and quickly absorbs the rest of the salvaged circuitry, storing it inside herself.

That done, it starts investigating the area. Any notable discolorations along the wall that respond to a bit of poking, or sound hollow when she raps on them? Anything look different at the bottom of the canal?

About three quarters of the way down the room there's a hollowness in the wall, just after the second northern exit. 

Also, there is a walking drone that's also sparking that's bumbling its way down the side of the walkway towards her. 

Presumably it would've responded when she called out earlier if there was anything to it that could. Quick pebble for a last test, then shoot it and salvage. And once that's done, she goes to the hollow spot in the wall and tries shooting it. Start with a single bolt and see how that does.

The wall breaks open, exposing a chamber beyond. 

It looks like it's some kind of holding pool for the canal network. More drones hover over it, but the water sparks and shudders with electricity in the room. It looks like it'd suck to fall in. 

The other end of the room looks to be a tall vertical shaft upwards with no handholds, and there are no other exits. 

(The drone dies perfunctorily and is salvaged.)

That's. Going to be hard to climb. She has no idea how to manage that yet. Maybe if she figures out how to kick off the drones, or some kind of recoil hack? That wouldn't solve the shaft at the end, either.

She's going to come back to that.

Instead, what's in the vine-covered passage?

A short walk in mossy surroundings, finally blocked a few meters down by a butterfly-patterned gate. 

Pretty! Does the gate seem easily openable, or does it need a key? Is there anything out of place in her surroundings along the mossy path?

The gate is firmly sealed: when she brings her hand close a force field springs up and pushes her hand away from it. 

Beyond it she can see greener cavern. The path up to it seems clear of anything else interesting - no hollow walls or dropped objects.

Worth a look later. It heads back to the canal, and then up to the upper canal, and tries the other north exit.

This area looks like some kind of old factory, which is mostly overgrown with moss and shrubbery. The whole space is full of little niches, each about the size of one of the drones the Doll saw earlier.

And, lumbering out of a large grotto, there's a much larger drone, almost twice the Doll herself's size. It points the indicator on its face at her and chirps, then kneels down on one knee to level with her face. 

She looks up at it as it approaches, following the indicator with her gaze as it kneels down to face her. This one seems to be trying to interact? 

Cool! "Hello! It's nice to meet you!"

She keeps her gun arm firmly down, and waves a greeting with her left hand.

A robotic voice speaks from the drone, skipping and stuttering. 

[COMMUNICATION ACKNOWLEDGED]

[ADMINISTRA ra ra ra raaaTOR FOUND]

[REPORRRrrrrrrrrrT]

[FACTORY OFFLINE]

[DRONE DR- DRone- DRONES - Miss-MISSING]

[FACTORY MUST FUNCTION]

[OVERSEER Mal-fun-fun-func-TION-ing]

[OVERSEER MUST TEND TO FACTORY]

[ADMINISTRATIVE REQUEST: find-find-find INTACT drone-drone-drrrrrrone]

[REPAIR OVERSEER]

[REPAIR FACTORY]

[REQUEST ENnnnnnnnnDS]

Oh no. This overseer needs the little drones, which probably escaped into the canal and malfunctioned enough to become the bumbling electrocution hazards she ran into outside. Void. She might've been able to fix them, but she's pretty sure she's not electrocution-proof. Maybe she'll give it a try next time. Perhaps try to fix this one first?

Does she know anything about fixing them?

No. It most certainly does not.

Blind goddesses and bleeding void.

It pauses for a moment, gathering itself.

"I'll try to find a working one," the doll replies to the drone. "If I can find any working little drones, or anyone who can help me fix you, I'll bring them here. I don't know if I'll succeed, or how long it will take if so, but I'll try."

It pats the side of the big drone's head in its best attempt at being reassuring.

It beeps sadly.

[U-U-U-uhhhhhhhhnder-stood-stood-stood-stood.] 

Then it gets up and lumbers slowly back to its niche, where it relaxes into a cradle and seems to power down.

The doll looks around the room in disappointment, wishing it could do more. It carefully explores every nook and cranny, just in case something might be useful later in fixing the overseer drone, or any of the little ones, or anything else it pursues over the exploration.

Counting the spare niches, it looks like this factory once played host to a full complement of forty-six drones, not counting the overseer. None of them remain.

Figures. Back out she goes.

It's so sad.

But she has exploring to do. This time, she heads for the west exit from the lower end of the canal, following a faint sound she hears.

As she approaches the bottom end of the canal, she can hear a woman's voice faintly humming.

As she comes out the bottom end of the canal, she finds herself in a small room that looks like it was once some form of auxiliary storehouse, crowded with boxes and barrels. The canal flows onward past it, down another waterfall into a pool that sparks with electricity. A bridge over the waterfall sits here, and would allow the Doll to pass from one side of the canal to the other.

There are a couple smoking drones on the ground here, which seem to have been blasted by some form of fire magic — and on top of one of the barrels sits a woman with blue hair, balancing a map on a small lap desk and scratching away with her quill.

The woman looks up, pushing back her witch hat, and levels a staff that was leaning against the barrel at the doll. 

"Whoa there! Friend or foe?" 

(There are no exits to the left or right here, but there are two further unexplored passageways branching off from the room below the waterfall, near the sparking pool.) 

"Friend! Absolutely friend," it replies with a wave, turning its gun back into a hand and waving a greeting. "Glad to meet someone down here who doesn't need fixing I can't provide — the overseer in the mossy factory up there is in a sad state. What's your name?"

"Marcella. Mapmaker and explorer by trade." She lays her staff back against the barrel she's sitting on. "Grand old place this, isn't it? What wonders of technology these drones are! To see Heywyred in its full glory..." She shakes her head. "If only. Still, the ruins are pretty... and pretty hazardous."

"I've noticed. Ran into a pack of the little bumbling drones on the way down here. It is gorgeous, though."

She shakes her head ruefully. "I'd give you my name in return, but I haven't one to tell. I just know I need to explore this place. There's... something I need to learn, here."

"Care for a map then? I have a form of weak clairvoyance that can let me slowly sound areas out from a distance, and I've been working on the local area for a while now. If you've any scrap from the drones perhaps we could make a trade? I know a place I can sell it off." 

"I'd love a map," she replies with a smile. "That'll make my search much easier. How much?"

"Not sure. Maybe three or four drones? Or the equivalent in salvage from other systems."

It holds out a hand over one of the crates, and a bit of gloop flows out of the seams of its palm to deposit four little drones worth of circuit boards on the surface, before withdrawing back into its shell.

"Four drones of salvaged circuitry, there you go."

Marcella picks up her staff, focuses, and waves it —

And a copy of the map in her hands pops out of the air and falls into her lap.

"Here you go," she says, handing it over. "Printer's charm, only works on paper and ink." 

"Oh, and I've a charm that'll tell you where you are on a map, but it's difficult to produce without materials I don't have here so I'd have to ask for a lot more scrap for it. I do have a spare quill you can have, though. No charge, I just ask you share any updates you make with me." She pulls it out of her backpack and hands it over as well.

"Much appreciated." She looks the map over gratefully. "About how much scrap, or what materials, for the locator charm?"

"Maybe fifteen, twenty drones' worth? You'd probably have better luck salvaging a few of the old systems that are malfunctioning rather than trying to collect it all from drones."

"As for the materials, they're herbs mostly, and not a lot grows down here. Maybe talk to me about it if you find a way into somewhere greener."

"I did see a sealed gate leading toward a green area, so I'll be sure to let you know if I make it in there. I'm a little hesitant to break apart the one larger system I've found so far, though, because it's so sad about not having any functioning little drones to run its factory."

"Yeah, if anything's still actually functioning I wouldn't take it apart either. Way more to learn from intact systems." 

It nods. "It's a little glitchy, but functioning well enough to ask me nicely to find replacement drones for it. Seems to think I'm an administrator. I'll let you know if I find some and we can see what that factory is meant to do! Could be fun to study together."

"Yeah, for sure!"

"Anywhere in particular you'd like me to take a look at, or other resources to keep an eye out for?"

"Neither of those come to mind at this moment, but I'm stopped here because I think the next room ahead is an old guard station and some of its systems are still working. You should probably go in prepared for an actual fight if you're heading that way."

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you."

It walks up closer to the waterfall. Is there any way back up if she goes down to the path on the edge of the pool?

Yes, there's an old stair that winds downward by the side of the waterfall.