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 [i]prove[/i] 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".