After what seemed to be either the longest or the shortest time, depending on the perspective, the dwemer centurion finally put together its slaughter queue. First up was an Ashlander close to Hlaalu, who was immediately flattened under a large brass hammer. Hlaalu himself escaped being a target, probably due to Roze crippling his chance of standing up (or adventuring) with an arrow to the knee. Next up was Roze herself. The centurion had set a course towards her, but to her luck then, the automaton tangled its legs on a series of pipes halfway across. In its attempted rampage, Do’Karth was all but forgotten.

Blanketed by steam, Do’Karth could see Narivar and another Ashlander prying open the door they worked on earlier. The Khajiit was further in than out, so he could not know what happened to the rest of the mercenaries.

At the side where everyone came in from, a tense standoff occurred besides the door. Niernen managed to pacify an opposing Dunmer with nothing but her native tongue and an ingenious speech. That Ashlander proceeded to trust Niernen by offering his observations. He pointed out to several tall cylinders that apparently served as boilers and hot water tanks, from which steam were generated and stored. One flanked each side of the centurion, where it struggled to smash through the pipes connecting in between. The Ashlander told Niernen that cranking up valves below the tanks will cause it to overload, possibly exploding or collapsing straight into the centurion. In addition, a large pipe on the ceiling showed cracks directly overhead the giant machine; an arrow or offensive spell could easily burst it open, blasting steam right into the centurion’s “eyes”.

Exploiting dangerous mechanisms near a killer robot seemed insane, but there were little alternatives. Apparently, what Narivar and his Dunmers sought after was across the room, behind the opposite door. In Hlaalu’s panic and foolish aggression, his subordinates had been sent away from their destination, and quite frankly, into danger. Of course, running was a safer bet, but who knew if the centurion would give chase or not. Here was a rare moment of opportunity, when the two groups can take down their common enemy with ease, provided they work together. When Niernen brought it up to her, Edith was not ready to be convinced. Madura, on the other hand, went along without hesitation. 

Madura switched between Tamrielic and his rusty Dunmeris in order to break it to the three Ashlanders not yet out. At his urging, they temporarily stopped running and stood with weapons on guard. None of the three said anything at first, but when Edith decided to play along to get Madura out of the way, one of them actually responded. The strongly accented words were something along the lines of “we’ll do it if you do it”. 

In the end, Edith settled on give it a shot. As long as the injured are cared for, and judging from a quick glance, both the injuries of Tsleeixth and Raelyn seemed to be stabilizing. The Ashlanders themselves reluctantly allowed the Tsleeixth out, once they have done so, Edith rallied whoever not hurt to execute the plan of sabotaging the centurion. Three opposing Dunmers waited for the mercenaries to make the first move, claiming they have already demonstrated good will by making way for Tsleeixth.