Location from Azarinth Healer by Rhaegar
Twenty-five levels of escalating insanity beneath Hallowfort — from crystal caverns to floating islands to a desert with a level-1483 sand elemental, each floor a fresh argument against going deeper.
The Descent is not a natural dungeon. Its core has been identified as 'Testing Facility Zeta' — a Taleen-era installation running projects with names like Animus, Fluctuation, and Eden. The Ascended warped it to draw in mana, creating the extreme mana density that makes each successive level more dangerous and more rewarding. The corruption plague — orange pus that can't be healed, drives creatures berserk, and resists even Ilea's regeneration — originates from Level 20. It was released accidentally by an expedition and has been partially contained, but it seeps through cracks in the rock. High Blood Manipulation resistance helps but doesn't guarantee survival. Nobody takes contracts below Level 10 unless they've accepted their mortality. Level 15 holds a Storm Griffin with a level too high to display. Level 17 has a starving vampire at 753. Level 20's desert houses a Sand Elemental at 1483. Levels 21-24 are empty caverns of increasing mana density and steel structures. Level 25 is a small cavern with a steel castle or temple that nobody has fully explored and returned from to describe.
The entrance in the Abyss tavern gives way to Level 0: pitch-black darkness inhabited by Blue Reapers. Below that, each level is its own ecosystem — crystal-lit rivers and lakes on Level 1, vegetation creatures on Level 5, floating islands suspended in mist on Level 9, a snow valley on Level 11, and increasingly alien environments as you descend. The lower levels feature steel structures and Taleen-era architecture that suggests the whole system was engineered.
Also known as: Testing Facility Zeta, The Dungeon