Meesei’s pack located the Riften clan in much the same way they had originally found the Bruma clan. There were scouts in the city itself, so it was just a matter of sniffing them out, literally. Although, it look longer for them to make the trip to the clan itself, since it was hidden closer to the northwestern part of the hold. Like many lycan homes, it was underground, but the way it was accessed was rather unique. There was an inn and trading post on the way to Ivarstead at the base of one of the hold’s southern mountains, which was owned and operated by the Riften clan. Through the basement of the inn, there was a hidden tunnel leading to a system of caves that housed the clan. The inn was open to normal travelers, so there had always been concerns among other clan leaders that having the entrance in such a public place would be a security concern, but the clan’s Alpha was insistent that it actually made them safer. In several letters, he had assured Meesei that the basement was only ever “rented” to lycans, and it allowed them to hide in plain sight, as it were. Anyone entering or leaving posed as normal travelers, and since there were no normal guests staying for more than one night at a time, no one noticed any inconsistencies between who was entering and leaving. It did free them of the burden of making sure that no one was followed to the entrance, and if need be, there was a secondary exit to the caves which they used on occasion. The Riften clan was smaller than the Bruma clan, but their methods seemed to have served them well.

Interestingly, the Alpha of the Riften clan was actually a Dunmer named Saras Arnan. He was a middle-aged man and a former refugee from Mournhold, though he was not very open about his past. He was a serious, severe individual, but just as willing to help the Champion as any other clan leader. After explaining the situation, and their overall plans, he quickly began making preparations to receive the members of the Bruma clan. His clanhome would not be able to hold all members of both clans, but the clan did have access to farms and other properties around the hold that could accommodate the rest. The fact that they would be bringing people up in groups, instead of all at once, was also helpful. Regardless, Saras decided that, instead of waiting for the entirety of the Bruma clan to arrive before taking any other action, it would be best to get their new clanhome ready as soon as possible. Not all of the Bruma clan’s warriors had yet arrived, so Saras offered his own warriors to compensate.

It was someone difficult to move a sizable military force across Skyrim without being noticed, but Saras was surprisingly adept at maintaining secrecy. He knew how to avoid patrols when necessary, or to split up their forces into smaller groups while still maintaining communication and coordination between them. Raldbthar was located high in the mountains west of Windhelm, and was not an easy trek in any case. At the very least, the majority of the Riften clan’s warriors were Nords accustomed to the harsh conditions, and those from the Bruma clan were acclimated to the cold. Though, the climate in the Jeralls was not as severe as these mountains. All of Meesei’s pack was present, apart from the children and Leaps. Their wamasu was becoming old enough that he could help in combat short of major battles, but he still could not deal with the cold. Meesei intended to create an enchantment that would help him overcome his cold-blooded nature, but it had not been a priority. Anyone in Gallus’ pack who intended to help fight was also present, though that did not include Peiter. No matter how much encouragement might have been given to him, he made it clear that he never intended to fight again as long as he could avoid it. As well, both Ri’vashi and Saras had accompanied the warriors.

The warband had made camp at the base of a stairway leading up to the main entrance of Raldbthar. Their force was about half the size of the one they had used to attack Vile’s stronghold in Elsweyr, which was likely going to be far more than they needed to clear a Dwarven ruin. According to their scouts, there were traps and automatons within, but nothing that would realistically be able to overcome an organized military force. The defenses that remained in most Dwarven cities were not meant to hold off armies. They could be a deadly to small groups of adventurers, but their warriors would have the automatons outmaneuvered, and outnumbered. Regardless, the leader of Saras’ warriors was making sure they were ready for a tough fight, just in case. He was a grizzled Nord werewolf who reminded Meesei of Oswall. Though, to be fair, several Nord warriors in the clan reminded her of Oswall. He was formerly a Stormcloak commander in the Civil War, but had evidently abandoned politics long ago. He no longer even had any reverence for Talos.

Both Meesei and Kaleeth were huddled close to one of the fires in camp. They had already made their plans for how to approach clearing the ruin, so all there was to do was to wait for the rest of the warriors to finish arming themselves. Meesei and her pack intended to be on the frontline, just as she was going to be on many missions from this point on. Saras was also sitting around the fire, though he kept much more to himself. He wore dark leather armor underneath his travel cloak, and seemed to prefer shortblades, since they were the only weapons he was carrying.

The encouragement Peiter was given to go out with the warriors did not take long to relent. Uthri had already volunteered to stay behind to watch the children and the wamasu, with Tzirret kindly asked to do so as well. That would just leave Gallus to go with them. Instead, Gallus opted to also stay behind to teach Peiter how to throw knives for something to do. However, it was clear that Gallus wanted to watch over him while separated from Sabine and perhaps try to help him. The least he could do, he confided to Meesei, was make sure that Peiter wasn't sleeping all day.

That left Meesei's pack free to participate fully with the warriors. The northern weather was even worse off the plateau of the Rift, turning to snow and rocks more similar to how it was around their old clanhome in winter. Few enough had even an inkling of what to expect from this Dwemer ruin.

Janius stepped out in his full suit of steel armour with his shield over his shoulder and his axe on his belt. No doubt he had needed help to don his armour over the furs he needed underneath to keep the cold at bay. Although, with Kaleeth desperately trying to keep her body heat up and Lorag snorting and remarking on his being a 'personal' problem, he had to manage on his own. There was no longer the desperate tension that he had while travelling from Bruma, instead replaced with a sort of quiet determination. He gave Kaleeth and Meesei a nod and a smile. "So, remind me again," Janius asked as he took a seat next to Kaleeth and pulled her close. "Saras, Meesei, how do we deal with these...automatons, they're called? Things made from dwarf metal, how do we take them down?"

Fendros and Ahnasha had completed their preparations as well and were about to emerge as Janius received his answer.

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 only 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."

"Well, that doesn't sound so bad," Janius remarked. He pretended not to notice what Saras implied, but Fendros didn't as he approached.

"Should we expect other things?" Fendros asked from in front of Ahnasha. He wore his bow, sword, shield, and armour much like he usually did, with the addition of thick furs. Although, he had an addition in his hand given what he was told they were fighting. He adjusted the iron mace in his hand such that he could put a hand to his hip. "I suppose all manner of things could live in caves like these. Goblins, bears, undead, lycans."

Sabine stepped up to the gathering group as well in a large coat that made her look far bulkier than she was. She was warming her hands with a small magical flame as Meesei did. She was silent, though that showed more of her anxiety than it hid.

Janius turned his head to Fendros. "Now you're just trying to jinx us into finding them all, aren't you, Fendros?" he protested.

"Oh, what's the worst we could find?" Fendros responded.

"A dragon," Sabine piped up.

The remark was preposterous, but just likely enough that both Fendros and Janius' heads slowly turned to look at Saras.

While some of the others looked at least somewhat concerned by Sabine's suggestion, Ahnasha actually began to laugh. "I think a dragon might have a problem with the whole 'underground' part of a Dwarven ruin. If we find a dragon down there, I'll eat a shoe."

Ahnasha's remark was enough to get Lorag to laugh. "Well I've got a new plan: dragon-hunting."

Saras was silent on the jokes, but allowed the others to finish before giving his own answer. "The scouts have already confirmed that the upper parts of the ruins contain automatons. There is evidence that it might have once held a camp of adventurers or bandits, but the automatons have since reclaimed that area. They are generally effective at keeping out intruders from above ground, unless they are too organized. But, what concerns me is what might exist below. Across Skyrim, there are creatures known as the Falmer. The remnants of what used to be Skyrim's Snow Elven population. They were defeated in a war with the invading Nords of Atmora in ancient times, and driven underground, likely into the hands of the Dwemer. Scholars do not know what happened after that, but whatever it was, it corrupted them. Now, they are blind creatures, hardly any different from the goblins you may be familiar with. They tend to be found in the deep reaches of caves and Dwemer ruins like these. From all accounts, Dwemer automatons do attack them, but they have had millennia to carve out their homes underground. Just because there are machines in upper Raldbthar does not mean there may not be a more dangerous foe below. They have tamed giant, poisonous insects called chaurus, which will fight for them if threatened. As well, they use their tough, chitinous shells to make weapons, armor, and structures. It is crude craftsmanship, but still effective enough to kill you."

Once his warning was given, Saras' tone became at least a bit less severe. "The Falmer would be more threatening to us than any automaton but a centurion, but we still have more than enough forces here to deal with them. As I said, they are no better than goblins. I have never had to face the Falmer personally, but I did used to have to deal with the goblins that once infested Mournhold's sewers. The most organization they are capable of is forming crude, but deadly raiding parties. Against an organized military force, they would attack and be cut down in waves, as long as we are cautious to prevent ourselves from being outmaneuvered, they are not intelligent enough to outsmart us."

Janius raised an eyebrow. "Well, I suppose we should be prepared for anything."

"Quite," Fendros said in a more subdued tone. He had taken on an odd look while Saras had been explaining the Falmer. "To think they were elves. That is ominous indeed."

A silence was brought out that lasted only a few moments. Janius stood up and looked left and right. "Speaking of preparation, is there any more to be done or should we get started?"

Saras did not answer immediately, instead giving a quick look towards the commander of his warriors. He did not seem to be doing anything differently at first glance, but Saras evidently noticed that something had changed. "It looks like the warriors are ready to move. We should form up on the entrance and head inside. We will leave a small contingency here to guard our supplies, and send a runner to us if there is trouble. Otherwise, we may need all of our soldiers."

Without another word, Saras stepped away to confer with his military commander, and Meesei's pack was not far behind. There was never a question from Meesei that her pack would be leading from the front, particularly after what happened in Elsweyr. While their mission had not been a failure exactly, it had not been a resounding success by any means. The details of what had happened to Meesei specifically had not yet reached all of the clans, but regardless, she wanted to make sure every clan she encountered had a certain impression of her. It was part of the culture of the Nords to distrust magic, so there was little she could do to combat that, but she could at least demonstrate her strength. The warriors of the clan quickly began to head up the stairs to get into formation upon the order of their commander, so Meesei's pack made their way to the front. And of course, Ri'vashi was on the very front line as well, being a heavily armored shield-bearer. Meesei did not know if she felt the need to prove anything about herself, but she doubted that it would hurt to make the attempt. Outside Elsweyr, Khajiit had a tendency to be seen as thieves and rogues, so their warriors often went overlooked. No doubt, Ri'vashi had already surprised more than a few members of the Riften clan with her stature and strength alone. This far from Elsweyr, most people did not even know there was more than one kind of Khajiit, as the Suthay-raht was by far the most common type of Khajiit outside their homeland.

Meesei's pack was met by the commander as soon as they reached the front of their growing formation. His name was Hjergir Steel-Heart, and he was very much a traditional Nord warrior. He valued strength and skill in battle, and almost seemed happy to head into danger. While he was not a political man, he was proud of his time in the Stormcloaks for the sheer fact that it gave him an actual war in which to fight. All of these things Meesei knew about him, not because Saras had given her any sort of description of him, but because he made it abundantly clear to anyone who spoke to him.

Meesei took a position just behind the shield-bearers, alongside her pack. Lorag was to her left, fully armored and bearing his hammer. He would be moving between using the shields in front of him for cover, and stepping into the front to deal damage when appropriate. Sabine was to Meesei's right, while Ahnasha and Fendros were just behind them with a row of archers, which included Saras. Kaleeth was in the very front, just beside Ri'vashi. Once they got inside the ruin, Meesei expected that their forces to explore different pathways, so they had already divided their forces into teams that would stay together as units during their explorations.

As the formation was gathering, Hjergir approached Meesei and her pack directly. He was wearing thickly wrapped furs and leather, with a hood made from a saber cat's head and a cloak made from its hide, and wielded a standard nordic mace and shield, with a nordic sword at his side. "Champion, good to see you at the front. I've heard about what you and your pack can apparently do. Look forward to seeing it for myself. Hopefully, this ruin gives us a challenge worthy of all this effort." He commented. From his tone, he might have been skeptical of the stories he had heard about Meesei.

Lorag huffed. "After what we've done? A few machines are just goin' to be an annoyance."

Ahnasha did not say anything, but she did give a curious look to Hjergir. He had not yet spoken much to Meesei, or the rest of the pack, and she did not really know if they would end up getting along. He had not yet said anything directly against Meesei, but he just seemed skeptical overall. In particular, she was not sure how he would get long with Lorag. Granted, they actually did seem rather similar, but they had fought on opposing sides of the same war.

Sabine was warming up in more ways than one. To revise what she knew of fire magic, she practiced making the magical warming fire in her hand larger and smaller. She paused in this momentarily to give Hjergir her own curious glance. However, she did not want to speak over whatever Meesei had to answer.

Janius stuck by Kaleeth and Ri'vashi. He did not know how wide the passageways would be, but he would be an extra shield if it was needed. He responded after Lorag, "This isn't the first time we've been in an assault in close quarters. Let's try to make this as quick and clean as we can."

In contrast, Fendros avoided eye contact with Hjergir. It was not so much a Dunmer superiority complex that was causing him to avoid the Nord, but rather what his parents had said about their treatment when they lived in Windhelm for a time. He strung his bow while he waited, for all the good his arrows would do against creatures made from metal. He supposed he might find a gap in their machinery, but he didn't like the idea of being cocky with this attack.

Meesei's personal preference would have been for the ruin to already be mostly clear to start, but, in all likelihood, Raldbthar would probably contain something against which Meesei's pack could prove themselves. In all honesty, Meesei had a difficult time reading whether or not Hjergir's skepticism was serious, or sarcastic banter. However, Meesei could not help but to be annoyed at the fact that there would always be those who would doubt her capability to be in her position. If times were more peaceful, it would just help to keep her skills sharp. but in their current situation, she could not help but to feel that it created pointless distractions.

Regardless, there was no more reason for delay, so the formation headed up the stairs and pushed open the large double doors leading into the ruin. The first hallway it led into sloped downwards, and was reasonably wide, so Hjergir moved himself into the frontline as well, along with a few other warriors that took positions on the sides. The rest of the warriors would continue to follow behind them until given other orders. At about the same time, both Ahnasha and Saras conjured up bound bows. Just like Fendros, Ahnasha was not sure what kind of effect her bow could have on an automaton, but Saras seemed knowledgeable, and since he was bothering with a bow at all, she figured there must have been some point to it.

One of the first things that the warband was greeted with was the relief of warm air from the steam-powered ruin. It was quite comfortable, especially compared to the freezing cold of the mountain outside. Many of the warriors took the time to discard their cloaks on the edges of the hall, to be retrieved later. Meesei did the same, though under her cloak, she wore fur breaches and a shirt which were thicker, and covered more of her than usual. Aside from the air, the sounds of Dwarven machinery seemed to be a constant. For those near the stone walls, they could hear the steam flowing through pipes behind them. For the most part, the sounds of machinery were faint for now, but they were growing slowly louder the deeper they walked.

In the first few halls, there were no signs of any automatons. Instead, there were the remnants of people who had once occupied the ruin, perhaps adventurers or bandits. There were worn bedrolls, old fire pits, and the remains of fruits and other produce that had, for the most part rotted away. There were no corpses or skeletons, however, so whoever had made it had left behind the supplies had likely abandoned them all in a hurry, for one reason or another. That, or there were survivors who buried the bodies.

After another few minutes, the warband came across a split in the path. One led upwards to their left, while there was a large gate blocking another path leading downwards. Ri'vashi stepped up to open the gate, but it would not budge. "Hmm, it looks like there is a sturdy Dwemer lock on this one. And this gate is Dwemer metal, so this one does not think we have anything that could tear it down."

Saras did not wait for so much as another word before stepping out of formation and towards the gate. He dispelled his bow and reached into his pouch to produce a small piece of curved metal, along with drawing his dagger. When he started to pick the lock, Meesei expected that they could be waiting for a while. Internally, she debated whether or not she should join a group of warriors to investigate the left path, but in under a minute, Saras had the lock picked, and the gate opened. Evidently, he had some skill in the trade.

As soon as the gate opened, the group heard a sound coming from the path below, like metal rolling on stone. However, between the Dwemer lights lining the halls and their lycan eyes, it was easy to see the Dwemer sphere rolling towards them. A single Dwemer sphere. It had a crossbow mounted on one arm, and a blade which extended from the other. It was made from tough, Dwemer metal and could roll rather quickly on the parts of the sphere that served as its legs. However, it was still only a single automaton against an entire formation of soldiers. The Dwarven machines had no sense of self-preservation or strategy, so they would be willing to attack head-on regardless of how terrible their odds of "survival".

The ruin was foreign and ominous with its whirring and its warmth. It wasn't quite like the still and sparse Dwemer ruins of Morrowind. The leftover supplies only made the place seem even more foreboding. Thankfully, the ominous and the foreboding were not so foreign to Meesei's pack by this point. They strived onwards from the front without a flinch.

Both Fendros and Sabine removed their coats with the other warriors. While they did not care for the cold, the extra weight limited their movements and was too much for the warmth under the ground. Janius did not have a layer to remove without taking off his armour, so he had to simply deal with the heat.

Meesei's pack waited patiently while Saras dealt with the lock. For as long as it took, they began to let their guard down and settle into what they expected was a long wait. That, or stood in anticipation of going up the left path. However, the sounds of the lock lurching open and the gate creaking caused both Sabine and Janius to jolt in surprise. It seemed that they would have to do neither.

The sound of the Dwemer sphere was less startling, but warranted a greater reaction. Janius called out as soon as he spotted its silhouette. "I see one!" He raised his shield between Ri'vashi's shield and the shield of the warrior to his left, ready to take on whatever attack the sphere had in store.

Fendros nocked an arrow and tried to make out the details of the sphere. There were many moving parts, but with the entire thing being made from metal, he could not discern any obvious weaknesses.

Among the ranks of the warriors, there was some initial confusion upon seeing the automaton. Dwemer ruins had a reputation for being deadly places, so most had likely expected an ambush from a small army of Dwarven machines. Seeing a lone automaton rolling headlong into a formation of warriors seemed almost laughable. Saras was ahead of the formation when he opened the gate, so once he heard the sphere rolling towards them, he conjured his bow once more and started stepping back. He nocked his arrow as the automaton was raising its crossbow, but he was the first to fire. Saras' arrow hit the machine's shoulder, though being made of Dwarven metal, the arrow did not even come close to penetrating. The impact of the arrow did, however, exert enough force onto the sphere to cause it to stagger back and to its left as it rolled up the ramp. It caused its crossbow bolt to fire aimlessly off into the wall beside it, and slowed its approach. Once Saras stepped back into formation, other archers, Ahnasha included, loosed their arrows as well. Most of the volley hit stopping its progress entirely, and even knocking it down. Although, it was quick to right itself and resume its charge towards the group. Notably, it was now emitting a harsh grinding sound, suggesting that the impacts had caused some damage to its internal components.

Seeing as the volley did not destroy the machine, Meesei stepped into position and let loose a storm of lightning into the sphere, lasting a few seconds. It was visibly affected by the onslaught of energy, as it nearly seemed to lose its balance. Steam started to escape from the machine's joints and it gave off a constant, high-pitched hiss from the pressurized gas escaping its pipes. Even so, it continued to roll forward. Once it was upon the formation, it took a swing towards its nearest foe, which Kaleeth readily blocked with her shield. Even damaged, the automaton could hit with impressive force, though Kaleeth could handle blocking it without issue.

Following the machine's fruitless attack, Ri'vashi swung her mace directly into the sphere's "head." The Cathay werebear's strike, in addition to being startlingly loud, was enough to cause the automaton to entirely collapse to the side, in front of Janius. It even put a sizable dent into the plate she had struck. There was still hissing from the escaping steam, but it looked like the machine had finally been destroyed. It had multiple forms of visible damage, but it was still in-tact enough that they could get a good, up-close look at it.

Kaleeth looked down and prodded the automaton with her mace. "I know it's not alive or anything, but...I almost feel bad for it."

After confirming that nothing else was following the sphere up, Janius squat down to take a closer look at the disabled sphere. "It's so...intricate," he said. "Must have taken an age to build. Hmph, a shame that we had to smash it." He lifted his head, "Good hit, general."

Fendros sniffed. "If every other machine that we come across is alone like this one, we should have no trouble at all."

All the onlooking soldiers brought Janius back to attention. He stood up quickly. "Right, let's move on."

The shield wall formed up again, ready to advance. There was a slight increase in confidence throughout the assault force.

Meesei had no intention of lowering the warriors' morale, but there were aspects of the automaton that worried her. Namely, the fact that it had been so durable. They had destroyed it easily enough, but that did not diminish the fact that it had survived a volley of arrows and several seconds of sustained arrows before Ri'vashi's mace finally disabled it. Alone, they were little threat, but if they were surprised by a larger number of the machines, then they could prove difficult to destroy. Ri'vashi was, physically, one of the strongest people present, so a single blow might not be enough for others to deal with the atomatons.

"Just be careful. These machines are durable, and may be difficult in numbers." Meesei commented as they formed up to move on. Since Dwemer structures tended to place more important rooms deeper underground, Meesei decided to focus on the path that Saras had unlocked. Although, she did send one team to investigate the other path. For at least a few minutes, the pathway down was mostly empty. Some of the walls had partially collapsed, but the structure seemed sound overall. They did run into a few automatons, but only the smaller, less dangerous Dwemer spiders. They did not take near as much damage to destroy, and overall did not seem built for combat. Both of the spiders they encountered, they destroyed at range, so they were able to witness at a safe distance that the spiders exploded into a burst of electricity upon "death." It was helpful information, if they had to fight one up close. For Meesei, she was also looking around for anything that might make use of the attunement sphere. She knew it would be needed to access their new home, and had assumed that it would be needed to access the ruin itself. But, so far, that had not proven true.

Eventually, the warband came across a more open chamber. It was not large enough to accommodate the entire warband comfortably, but after checking for automatons, they spread out somewhat to check the room for exits. There was an obvious exit through a door on the other side of a gate to their left, but there was enough rubble in the chamber that other options might have been hidden. There were stairs leading up to a pathway above, but it quickly became obvious where it led when the team she sent to investigate the other path before emerged from that path. Personally, Meesei wondered what the point was of two paths that led to the exact same room.

In any case, the chamber contained the remnants of a larger camp than before. There were more worn bedrolls and bags of rotten supplies. In the room behind the gate on the left side of the chamber, there was a sort of counter with various Dwemer objects spread out on the top. Although, most were fairly mundane pots, pans, gears, and other objects. Anything worthwhile must have been taken when the previous inhabitants of the ruins departed. Although, there was another gate in the side room behind which one could plainly see a few valuable treasures. An unopened Dwemer chest, a few ingots of Dwarven metal, a dusty, but otherwise pristine Dwemer helmet, and even a few ingots of what appeared to be gold. However, the gate was locked, and since the contents of the room had not been taken, one could guess that it had a robust lock. They could likely open it, particularly if Saras was as skilled as Meesei thought, but she decided that it was not a priority. Once they cleared the ruin, then they could search it for valuables.

There only seemed to be one exit to the chamber that led anywhere new, so the warband once more started to gather into formation. As Meesei's pack and the other leaders regrouped at the front, Ahnasha grabbed their attention. "I tried listening in through the door. It sounds like there's a lot of machinery on the other side. I guess these ruins are filled with machines, but I think I might have heard rolling too. Could be more of those spheres. If so, there's definitely more than one."

Ri'vashi nodded. "Then we must be careful. Make sure we stay in formation through the door, and if they try to surround us, make sure we have shields on all sides. The door is a chokepoint, so make sure to push up just enough that our warriors can fan out into the room, if possible. If it's a hallway, then we just need to make sure our shield wall stretches from one side to the other."

As they were conferring together, there was a sound to their left among a pile of rubble from a partially collapsed wall. However, it did not leave them with much time to react. Suddenly, a Dwemer spider jumped out from the rubble and landed among the group, close to Meesei and Sabine. While not the most threatening of atomatons, their front legs were sharp, and this one let out a burst of electricity all around it. The shock was far from being lethal, but it was painful.

"Is that gold?" Janius commented upon glancing past the locked gate. "It's a wonder if it's been laying there for so long. Some parts of this place must be incredibly secure."

The vanguard advanced onwards until forming a plan by the next door. By what Ahnasha described, this would by the spot where the real challenge began.

"I should hope that we don't come across any traps by rushing in," Fendros remarked.

Sabine had been tense and alert the entire time, but even she didn't spot the brassy spider before it shocked both herself and Meesei. Sabine let out a short shriek and jumped away, lifting her legs as she did to get them away from the scuttling automaton. At this point, her trained response had her toss a pair of fire bolts in the spider's direction without putting in the time to aim carefully. By the time she found her senses, she had put up a ward and was charging another fire spell in anticipation of the spider continuing to move.

The others had already spun around to see what was going on. Janius started closing the distance to the spider to smash it if necessary.

Meesei practically growled at the Dwemer spider when it jumped into the middle of the group. Baring her teeth, she responded with a bolt of lightning that caused it to temporarily lose its balance, and left it an easy target for Sabine's flames. The small machine overheated fairly quickly, leading to a few pops from the pipes bursting within it. Both Meesei and Sabine quickly put up their wards, protecting them, and everyone behind them, from the shock burst the spider released upon its destruction. Although, Kaleeth was standing off to the side and ended up taking another shock.

Kaleeth shouted briefly from the pain, then kicked the remains of the automaton. "Stupid machine. I don't feel bad for them anymore."

Ri'vashi curled her lips as she looked down at the spider. "Danger seems to lurk everywhere in this place. Fendros is correct that this next room would be the perfect place for an ambush with traps. Granted, these automatons obviously do not seem capable of strategic thought. Regardless, we should approach cautiously. Ri'vashi, Meesei, and Hjergir can take the lead to divide us into three flanks once we are inside. This one will go left, Hjergir can go right, and the Champion can take the center. Each of us can watch for traps as we move forward, so as long as we are alert, and no one advances beyond us, we should be safe."

Meesei nodded. "Agreed. Let us form up, and get these doors open."

With no further hesitation or distractions, the warband got into position behind Ri'vashi, Meesei, and Hjergir. They stood spaced apart from one another on their appropriate flanks, one step ahead of the formation. Two warriors moved to the doors and pulled them open as quickly as they could for the warband to move through. With the size of the doors, however, it still took long enough that anything in the room was alerted to their presence before they could rush inside. Meesei moved straight forward with her ward raised, and her eyes to the ground ahead of her. There were no traps exactly, but she spotted what seemed to be pools of oil on the floor ahead of them. If her memory served her correctly, Dwarven oil could be quite flammable in the right conditions. Just like Meesei, Ri'vashi and Hjergir encountered no traps on their flanks, so the warband was free to form the frontline around them. However, the automatons within the room were already responding.

At first, all that was in the chamber were two Dwemer spheres and four spiders. They unpacked themselves and started rushing towards the frontline. However, the intrusion also caused a series of pipes along the walls to open up. They were pipes that allowed automatons to move quickly through the ruin, and evidently, several of the machines had simply been waiting within. Four more spheres, and three more spiders emerged from the pipes. Most of the spiders began with electric attacks, while five of the six spheres raised their crossbows towards the formation.

The small force that came almost out of nowhere kicked out everyone's preconceptions that this mission would continue being made up of one or two opponents at a time. Janius immediately called out from the shield wall. "Incoming!"

Janius ducked his head behind his shield as one of the solid metal crossbow bolts punched into his shield. It had more force than he could have expected; the head of the bold had barely poked through the other side of his shield. These bolts could go through his steel if they were at the right angle. The duck for cover gave the other enemies enough time to start closing their distance. Janius was winding up to step forward and get one of the spiders when Sabine screamed out.

"Stay back!" Sabine's first fire bolt did not head for one of the spheres, but instead for the iridescent slick of oil across the ground. Sabine had been taught since her very first lesson with fire magic that she must always keep a look out for things that might catch fire accidentally. She was unsure if everyone had spotted the oil, but she wanted to make sure that no one was caught in it before it went up in flames. The spells of those around her could have done so before she did. As well, the automatons would be caught in the fire instead of her allies. They would be disabled outright if they were lucky.

Fendros had fired an arrow back at one of the shooting spheres. Though, by the time it impacted, he couldn't tell if it had done damaged. The wall of fire blocked his vision of it.

---

Back with the Riften clan, fighting wasn't on the forefront of quite so many people's minds. Uthri was getting the children to eat their lunch rather than flick it at one another, Tzirret was practising magic, and Gallus had just got back from the smith's grindstone with a number of his sheathed daggers tinkling together in a small bag.

Gallus gave waves to his packmates, but did not even hint at not heading for Peiter. He stopped his brisk walk up near where Peiter was. "Hey Peit, let's go toss knives," Gallus said. He had a smile on his face that told Peiter that there would be no success in trying to negotiate out of this.

Once the oil caught fire, it spread through the room ahead of them quickly. Although the automatons did not have too much of a sense of self-preservation, whatever the Dwemer used to animate them gave them at least enough sense not to stroll directly through a wall of flames. Most had to move towards the edges of the room to go around, but a sphere and a spider had been caught in the middle of the oil before Sabine spell. The spider's components melted and exploded into a ball of lightning before it could even escape the fire, and the sphere did not fare too much better. The intense heat had caused it to quickly begin overheating, so while its metal exterior was only barely damaged, several of its pipes burst from the steam pressure, causing it to almost fall apart before them.

With flames engulfing the center of the room, the automatons were pushed to the left and right flanks, led by Ri'vashi and Hjergir. The warband was now facing more automatons than they had before, but the concepts were still the same. They still outnumbered the machines severely, so they maintained their formations behind their shield walls. Hjergir was targeted by one of the spheres, and while the machine's blade delivered more of an impact to his shield than he had been expecting, he was able to hold up his guard and allow a soldier beside him to deliver a blow on the machine's sword arm with the spike on his axe.

In the center of the formation, Meesei's pack could not do much to reposition and help their flanks. Their formation was too tight to move to the sides, and the space ahead of them was blocked by fire. However, they had to be calm, as this kind of fighting was all about patience and opportunity. The automatons would only be a threat to the warband if they made mistakes, so it was better to wait until they had openings instead of trying to make the openings themselves. The center group could not move effectively to help in melee, but those with range could still be perfectly helpful. Meesei stepped forward into the frontline and targeted one of the spheres off to the left. She let off a few, quick thunderbolts one after another, stalling the machine completely in its tracks.

---

Peiter, all things considered, was in an average mood. It has been over a week since Sabine and the others had left for the ruin, so he was starting to settle into mundane tasks around the clan. There were more ways than he had been expecting that he could help around the clan, and he did his best to avoid focusing on the things he could not do. For the last few weeks, he had stopped drinking as much as he had in the Bruma clan, not out of a lack of desire to do so, but for the mere fact that he had a hard time finding alcohol. Although, now that he was settled into the Riften clan, that could change.

When Gallus approached, Peiter did not bother arguing. He had little else he could be doing, so he actually appreciated the chance for a diversion. "Eh, sure. I'm not really doing anything else."

The shield wall did the best that it could against the fire and the automatons. The heat and the smoke made it unclear where they were after a few moments. As a result, one of the front line warriors screamed out in pain and fell to one knee. One of the metal bolts launched from the dwemer spheres had punched right through his calf and was held halfway through.

Fendros, who had been trying to find a gap to take aim through, spotted the culprit sphere over his comrade's head. An arrow shot out from their formation in retribution and struck the sphere in a gap between its shoulder and neck. Rhythmic metal clanking and a violent shudder from the sphere's left arm suggested that it would not be shooting another bolt any time soon.

Sabine was also restricted by the limited space in the formation. However, she was calmer and more collected than the previous battle she was in. She tried to help by making her way to the wounded soldier and helping him step back with some pain numbing magic. She could heal him from cover, though pulling out the bolt would probably be too painful to completely anaesthetise.

---

Gallus gave a nod and led Peiter outside of the inn that served as the clan's cover. There were no lack of trees outside that could be used as targets. They put some distance between themselves and any potential eavesdroppers coming in and out of the inn.

"Here," Gallus said as he handed Peiter four daggers to throw. They had thrown knives together before. Peiter was never especially good at it, even with his right arm, but it was always social rather than serious training.

"So, how have you been travelling, Peiter?" Gallus held a dagger by the blade in front of his face and lined it up with a nearby tree. "You sound like you're feeling better. You look better as well." Gallus tossed the knife in a spin and it embedded itself into the tree.

Although she could not move from her position, Ahnasha still had plenty of options. Spotting Fendros' target, she loosed an arrow immediately after him. Fendros' arrow damaged the sphere's crossbow arm, while her arrow staggered it back. Seconds later, Saras landed an arrow on one of the struts that served as part of its "legs." Still, the sphere remained functional, so the three continued their volley. They stopped any progress the machine could make towards their frontline, and eventually, one of their arrows struck the automaton's "head." Evidently, the impact knocked something important loose, because it collapsed backwards, completely disabled.

Following the destruction of the sphere, Ahnasha conjured a flame atronach in front of their shield wall. It was summoned into the oil fire, but that was obviously not an issue for that particular kind of atronach. Upon Ahnasha's instruction, it focused its fireballs on their left flank. Overall, despite the fact that they were facing quite a few automatons at once, the threat was still not that great. There were several dozen warriors holding that room alone, with many more behind them. The only major injury which had come so far was the bolt that found its way into a warrior's leg, and Sabine was already treating that. In all likelihood, this fight would end soon with only a few shocks from Dwemer spiders.

---

Peiter still felt nervous leaving the caverns through the inn. He knew that the clan had devised a clever system for hiding themselves, but he still could not help but to be tense being around non-lycans so close to the clan. Still, once they headed out into the forest, he became more comfortable. He took a dagger and made his first throw towards the tree, which, of course, missed terribly. He was far less accurate with his left hand than he had ever been with his right. Granted, he had been improving on many tasks with his non-dominant hand, but accuracy was not one of them. "I'm glad we have somewhere to stay now. Moving everyone over from Cyrodiil was tense. It's almost hard to believe that we had to give up our home. That Ayleid ruin housed us for years, and now it's probably almost completely empty. I know we were taking everything valuable."

Taking another throw, Peiter did actually manage to hit the tree, but the dagger spun too far and hit with the handle. "So what's this Dwarven place going to be like?"

Sabine was suddenly hesitant once she had lead the injured warrior behind the lines. Normal arrow shafts were made of wood. They were easy to snap such that it could be pulled out without tearing the flesh too much more. This bolt was solid dwarven metal and there was no chance that she would be able to snap off its head. Sabine looked about herself and fished out a leather glove that she handed to the warrior. Sabine's other hand was already poised to pull the bolt through his leg. "Hold it in your teeth."

He would need it.

The scream from the wounded warrior was, thankfully, the only sound of suffering from the warband in the time it took to disable the remaining automatons. The oil fire burned down after a while, in time for the formation to spread out and ensure that the rest of the room was safe.

---

"I wish I could tell you in detail..." Gallus tossed another knife, embedding it a fingernail away from his previous knife. "...but I don't know much about it. Supposedly, the dwarves used a lot of machines as well as magic, so there might be a lot more dwarven metal around. A tough metal, to be sure." Another knife throw, this time landing between the two previous. "Underground, old, strong. Similar to our old home, all things considered. Can't guarantee a bathhouse though." He chuckled.

Gallus faced Peiter and shrugged. "Who knows? We might yet return to the Ayleid ruin in our lifetimes."

Once Peiter had finished tossing his knives, Gallus stepped up to retrieve his own. "So," Gallus resumed as he pulled the last one out. "Have you thought any more on what I told you on the way home from Elsweyr? About what you'd like to do with yourself? I've noticed you've been helping around with the clan here. You've been a great help."

While Gallus hated to push potentially uncomfortable issues on Peiter, they had to be worked through eventually. Getting him in a pleasant mood was the best time to broach him after all.