OOM: Arkngthand, 8 First Seed, 3E 428

[moonandstar]

They emerge from the bar onto an ancient bridge, made of a metal that Ibani won't be able to identify - but clearly the work of an advanced and accomplished civilization. It bridges the foyada, high and deep on each side.

They won't have time to admire it, however. Because there's a bald Imperial in an iron cuirass standing at the other side of the bridge. He conjures a skeleton warrior, who charges toward them as its master launches bolts of lightning at them.

Comments

[last_kallig]

"You might want to reconsider your life choices. I think you've just used up all your luck for quite some time."

Who knows, maybe he'll turn over a new leaf and become a model citizen. Not likely, but still.

[moonandstar]

"Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, darling."

Garyn encourages the bandit leader to his feet. The cube is quite near to where Ibani is, and she should spot it easily now.

"Now, do go and inform the rest of your men of our presence. We'll also kindly accept an escort to the area where Dwarven automata can be found."

[last_kallig]

Ibani is quite pleased at him calling her darling in 'public', even if the public in question IS a bandit.

"Sometimes," she admits. "Better to be both, of course."

[moonandstar]

"Of course."

Garyn gathers the puzzle cube, examining it briefly. The symbols, and the Dwemer writing, are beyond him, of course. But it seems quite an intricate and valuable antique.

He gestures at Boss Crito with his sword.

"Lead on."

[last_kallig]

Ibani flexes her hands, just in case Boss Crito is going to try something EXCEPTIONALLY stupid.

"Should be interesting to take one of these, what did you call them, apart?"

[moonandstar]

"I don't think I know what they called these automata. I believe others call them centurions."

Boss Crito simply shrugs.

[last_kallig]

"Eh, it works. Names are all made up anyway."

Her senses are open for trouble, alert for tell tale warnings in the Force.

[moonandstar]

The boss leads them through the mazelike ancient settlement. It's a mysterious, alien place. Some chambers seem to have been lived in, others have a purpose that none alive may even guess. There are machines, still churning, turning, and burning four thousand years after they were first set in motion. Some doors are flanked by two piles of ash with orichalcum spears resting atop them, as though they had simply dissolved in place.

None of the other bandits bother Crito, save to greet him. They figure anyone who's with him must be here on business.

He points down a staircase toward a dark hall lit by red light.

"The worst of the metal beasts are down there. Best of luck to you."

He barely conceals a sneer as he walks back, but thankfully, does nothing foolish.

[last_kallig]

"Red light, interesting. A warning, or something else?"

She concentrates for a moment, then grunts in annoyance. "Nothing biological down there that I can sense," she offers.

[moonandstar]

"No, but we wouldn't expect them to make it that easy."

Metallic clanking sounds echo throughout the halls, as they have since they first entered.

"It's like a machine graveyard..."

[last_kallig]

"Figures, if they had a bunch of those things and machinery everywhere."

She sighs. "Time for another Force Cloak, I suppose. I'd rather take these things by surprise."

[moonandstar]

"Assuming they even use eyes to see."

A dark thought, but it couldn't hurt.

The heat of the room increases as they round a corner. The unmistakable sound of metal footfalls grows closer, along with a less identifiable sound...rolling?

[last_kallig]

"I've covered the spectra I know of," she admits. "Hopefully they don't perceive any spectra I DON'T know about, but there's always a more direct solution."

"Rolling, you see that with some droids, but not many."

[moonandstar]

Garyn holds his hand up, walking silently as they approach. And then, they come upon them - two of them.

One of them rolls along the hallway, an angular humanoid torso gyroscopically balanced on a sphere. In front of it is extended a sharp rod, looking as though it were intended to cast spells rather than thrust. The other is a hulking brute, at least eight feet tall, with a massive spiked mace on its right hand.

They don't seem to see them initially...but there is soot and ash on the floor, and the sphere centurion is quick to spot their footprints...

[last_kallig]

Ibani throws one of her lightsabers at the rolling specimen, more to test its resistance to the plasma than anything else as she's ALSO opening up with Force lighting.

[moonandstar]

The sphere centurion keeps rolling forward, even as the shield in its left hand is hacked off by the spinning saber. Interestingly, it takes multiple spins to do the job.

Meanwhile, Garyn rolls forward and charges toward the massive steam centurion.

[last_kallig]

Ibani grunts in annoyance at its resilience. Oh well. She calls the other saber back, dives in with both blades to hack the stupid thing to pieces. Garyn can handle the big brute for a little while, she's sure.

[moonandstar]

Garyn is aggressive in his approach - indeed, perhaps a little too much so. Rather than swinging downward as he expects, the great brutish contraption's mace instead extends forward like a spring-loaded boxing glove.

It barely misses Garyn's head. He snarls and parries its next blow.

[last_kallig]

The near miss of Garyn's head prompts a SNARL from Ibani as she hastens in her attempt to cut her current target into useless chunks. DIE already, damn it!

[moonandstar]

At last, as the last of its connective metal melts off, the sphere construct collapses, its top half nearly entirely severed from the sphere as it falls limp.

Garyn, meanwhile, manages a mighty crushing blow that severs the brute's weapon.

[last_kallig]

Ibani doesn't try lightning on the big brute, but Force Push. She can SEE some of the joint mechanisms, so she just exerts pressure trying to make them NOT move correctly, to give Garyn an opening.

[moonandstar]

It does enough. The precise leverage combined with the slash from a Daedric ebony blade snaps its arm clean off. The head comes next, with a plume of steam escaping through the hole in its neck before it falls over and goes silent.

"Rather resilient things, aren't they?"

[last_kallig]

"Irritatingly so, yes." She kicks the downed thing that tried to kill Garyn just out of spite.

"I had thought lightsaber resistant materials to be rarer in your universe than in mine."

[moonandstar]

"They surely didn't build with that in mind," Garyn says. "But they certainly built them to last."

[last_kallig]

"And yet they themselves have vanished. Ironic."

"We just need to haul some of these pieces back, yes? We've got the puzzle box already."