Search Worlds Without End

Deep in the unexplored reaches of the dungeon, a corpse is discovered--one that shouldn't exist. After Iarumas is resurrected, his memories of life before death are gone, and he spends his days delving into the dungeon to retrieve the bodies of dead adventurers. Can they be revived as well? Or will God reduce them to piles of ash on the altar? Either way, Iarumas collects his finder's fee. And though his skills earn him some grudging respect, he's also scorned for this cold, utilitarian attitude. The living keep their distance--Iarumas consorts primarily with the dead. That is, until he meets Garbage, a feral young swordswoman who's the sole survivor of a massacred party. With Garbage by his side, Iarumas ventures deeper, scouring the dungeon for clues to his past, avoiding monsters, traps, and the inevitability of a permanent ashen demise.

Scorch marks blacken the wireframe dungeon, and the smell of burnt meat hangs in the air. Iarumas's party stumbles upon a corpse, more charcoal than flesh, and Raraja insists on dragging it out. Murmur--Chant--Pray--Invoke. A largeframed girl named Berkanan gulps the fresh air of her second chance at life. Her confidence is low and her skills as a fledgling mage are inadequate, but despite all that, she has a serious goal--kill the red dragon that burned her party alive. This dragon, an interloper from the lower levels of the dungeon, has become so notorious that even the most seasoned parties refuse to engage. Even so, Garbage and Raraja agree to aid Berkanan, and Iarumas lends his support. The chances of failure are high, but in the dungeon, immolation is not a permanent end... as long as someone is willing to pay. Can Iarumas's party douse the flames of the dragon, or will they all succumb to a menacing red death?

Within the dungeon, a famous weapon is nothing more than a basic blade. Even a broadsword that's gutted a dragon can be reduced to shattered steel. Devastated, Garbage seeks out a replacement for her beloved sword...but what weapon could possibly match her? An old blade, sharp as diamond--the return of a legend. As ever, the dungeon's maw yawns wide to swallow foolhardy adventurers, and Iarumas's party continues to delve for treasure, for corpses, and for answers. One day, a member of Raraja's former clan catches up to him and dangles a tantalizing proposition: in exchange for clues about the rhea girl's whereabouts, Raraja must go into the dungeon alone. What could await him but a dark, lonely death? What awaits Garbage but a jagged, broken sword? And what slumbering legends might awaken in the blackest depths of the dungeon?

Scale's dungeon exists in infamy as a vast maw of unknowable depth, containing monsters and legendary treasure. But the dungeon itself isn't the whole story; after all, what would a place like that be without adventurers willing to delve into it? Trace the dungeon's beginnings with the tale of the free knight Sezmar, who leaves his knightly order and gathers his party to adventure for the first time. Follow the son of a shoemaker, who barely survived an encounter with the red dragon, as he collects a motley band for a dodgy job. Experience Orlaya's first adventure with her new companions after escaping the yoke of her old clan. Stalk the black-clad adventurer Iarumas as he explores alone, silently seeking something. In Scale, there are just as many adventures as there are adventurers, and the dungeon swallows them all.

Who rules over the dungeon? The adventurers who plunder its riches...or the fathomless foes that lurk in the gloom? When Crown Prince Festin visits Scale, he seeks to bring the adventurers to heel and assert the kingdom's power over the dungeon. The prince soon meets Garbage, and though their statuses are polar opposites, the two bear a striking and uncanny physical resemblance. And then, the crown prince vanishes into the maw of the dungeon--signs point to him being kidnapped and dragged to the depths. Sezmar's, Schumacher's, and Iarumas's parties are sent in to rescue the prince from the darkness. However, when the adventurers descend, they are greeted with the mocking laughter of a bizarre and powerful enemy. Who rules over that unknowable abyss? Perhaps the truth can only be found within the dungeon.

As far as anyone in Scale knows, the dungeon is bottomless and unfathomable. Though Iarumas's party delved deep to kill the jester demon Flack, their injuries required them to flee before they descended any farther. But what happens when the monstrosities that lurk below begin to rise? Strange parasitic beasts invade the upper levels of the dungeon, infesting the bodies of adventurers and then erupting from living tissue to claim more victims. This crisis is so great that even veterans like the All-Stars are missing in action. As the highest-ranking adventurers remaining on the surface, Iarumas and his companions are tasked with exterminating these beasts. However, the source of this malaise lies deeper than anyone has ever explored. With no map to guide them and no idea what horrors could lurk in the next burial chamber, can Scale's adventurers navigate the abyss and purge the rot that threatens to consume everything?