Meesei raised her head up from the small flame she was maintaining in her hand long enough to grin at Janius. "You know, I am fairly certain the warriors were briefed on this before we left. I am not the [i]only[/i] source of wisdom in the world." She joked, though it did not take long for her to become serious once more. "Anyways, you are correct that automatons are not common foes. Usual strategies may not work on them, and there is a lot of misinformation on how to deal with them. For instance, one popular book claims that frost magic can shut down the steam powering them. At an extreme temperature that might be true, but practically speaking, a frost spell will not cool them enough. Essentially, they are immune to frost, though fire and lightning can both be effective. It would require a very intense spell to directly melt the metal, but as automatons are powered by steam, they are already rather hot. Fire spells can cause them to overheat and fail. Not to mention, explosive fireballs can knock loose their components. Lightning can also destroy them, though I am not entirely sure of the manner in which it harms them. Otherwise, simple blunt force is the best way to deal with them. A hard enough impact can destroy their internal workings and either destroy them entirely, or render them inert. On a Dwemer sphere, for instance, targeting their joints or head is the best option. Swords, on the other hand, are not very useful, for obvious reasons."

"That is mostly true, though not entirely." Saras added. He tended to keep his distance from others, literally and metaphorically, but since they were discussing the mission at hand, he was more than willing to step into the conversation. "A blade is certainly not recommended, but in an emergency, it can be used. There are parts of the joints on Dwemer machines that have to have gaps by necessity. One can jab a dagger, or other blade, into these joints to destroy them. In particular, there is a gap on the back of a sphere's...'neck' that can destroy the sphere entirely. Unlike Dwemer machines from Morrowind, those in Skyrim have soul gems that give them 'life.' I believe such an attack severs the gem from the rest of the machine. But mostly, our numbers will give us a decided advantage. These automatons can be likened to town guards. They are effective at 'policing' the ruin from troublemakers like lone adventurers, but they were never meant to hold up against an army. In an organized formation, we should be able to simply smash them from the relative safety of our lines. Not my preferred approach, but effective."

Kaleeth reached down beside her and picked up her mace that was resting against her bag. She had a sword with her, though by the sound of things, she would not need it. "So...I can just hit them really hard?" She asked. Aside from her weapons, she was wearing a chain shirt and leggings underneath her thick travel cloak. It was effective light armor, especially against blades, but she still did not feel as safe as she had in her old, wamasu scale armor. 

"Indeed." Saras answered simply. "Let us just hope that automatons are all that this ruin contains."