[IC] Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

[EliteCommander]

At first, the centurion appeared to be suffering enough damage that it wouldn't even reach the front line. However, the pack's concern increased with every step it took. It wouldn't die. The huge weapons that protruded from each of its arms looked like they could cut swathes through their formation. By the time it closed in, no one exactly expected for the blast of steam.

Sabine covered her head in her hands and closed her eyes, trying to charge her own ward. When she opened her eyes and realised that Meesei was single-handedly deflecting blocking the scalding cloud, she leapt into action. Sabine layered her ward with Meesei's in an attempt to assist her.

The warband behind began to back off a pace. They were disciplined enough to keep their formation, but they didn't know how to handle this huge creation. Fendros took the opportunity to line up a shot. He had noticed that some armour plates had flipped open to reveal the steam valves that were blasting them. It was hard to see them, but he believed he could fire an arrow into them. He held his arrow drawn back, waiting for the blast to stop, and then released.

The much-needed assistance from Sabine helped Meesei to maintain her ward against the centurion’s attack, and once they realized they were safe, the warband responded in turn. Fendros’ arrow was followed by another volley, though it was his arrow that found the greatest effect. It was difficult to tell through the steam what exactly it hit, but the steam flow stopped immediately and it gave off another, high-pitched sound. Spellfire followed once more, bathing the machine in a mix of lightning and fire, which was finally enough to bring it to its end. A loud explosion sounded out through the chamber as one of the major pipes within the machine burst, blowing open its torso and sending scrap metal flying out in all directions. A few found their way into the warband, the most damage they caused was bruising.

As the now-destroyed centurion was collapsing to the ground in front of them, the remaining Falmer in the room tried to flee across the drawbridge. However, without any cover or room to maneuver, arrows and spells cut them down quickly and efficiently. Unless there were more farther in, it seemed as if they had killed the last of the creatures.

Despite the surprise of facing a Dwemer centurion, Meesei did not wish to delay. She did not want to assume that they had slain the last of the Falmer, and given that the warband was now going to have to cross a narrow drawbridge, she wanted to allow as little time as possible for a counterattack. Meesei’s pack, along with Hjergir and a few of his warriors, took the lead across the bridge. There was a Dwemer chest near where the centurion had been waiting, but there were more important matters than their curiosity for the moment.

In the next room, there were two, easily-dispatched Dwemer spiders, another lift to their left, and a door to their right. There were a set of shelves running most of the way around the room, on which were various chests, ruined books, old potions, broken Dwemer spiders and other pieces of Dwemer metal, a complete Dwemer helmet, and even a solid gold ingot. However, what caught Meesei’s interest the most was the strange device at the center of the room. It was on a square slab elevated from the floor, with a pedestal that contained a familiar-looking slot. Reaching into one of her pouches, Meesei produced the attunement sphere given to them by the Hermeus Mora cultists. By appearances, it looked to be the exact same size as the slot.

[Muttonhawk]

The pedestal room was quickly secured. The warband spread out, some of them eyeing off the unclaimed and no doubt priceless loot. Without orders for a direction to continue, they paused for the moment. Attention was drawn to Meesei and her attunement sphere.

Fendros stepped up to look at the pedestal with his bow nocked with an arrow and aimed low. The killing blow on the centurion had apparently not improved his spirits. He had the corners of his eyes in the crevices, waiting to draw and fire at any surprise. "Perhaps Mora was indeed telling the truth. That looks like the most likely spot for that device."

Janius was still ahead in beast form. He ignored the pedestal and kept his nose raised, looking between the lift and the next door.

"Should we try it now?" Sabine asked reluctantly from behind Meesei's left. "...Or keep going?"

[EliteCommander]

Meesei looked at the sphere, considering her options. "Mora said that this sphere would give us access to our new home. I may not trust him, but our lord Hircine has not led us astray thusfar."

Meanwhile, Lorag had partially opened the door to the right to peer inside. Fortunately, there were no traps or automatons on the other side to ambush him. "Hmm, looks like it's a dead end over here. I see some kind of weird glowing disk thing, but it doesn't look like there's anywhere to go in here."

Meesei nodded. If the right path led nowhere, then that left only the lift and the device. The shaft for the lift opened up above it, so it seemed like the lift might lead back up closer to the surface. Although, it was possible that it could head down as well. Regardless, she had made her decision. "Just stand back. We do not know what this device does."

The moment that Meesei slotted the sphere into the pedestal, the metal rings on the device began to spin around one another, and the floor beneath Meesei began to shift. She stepped back reflexively, but she quickly realized that it was not a danger. Rather, the floor descended to form stairs leading down deeper into the ruin. They were somewhat narrow, so the warband would have to move down in single-file.

"Hmm...it would probably be best for us to scout ahead, rather than to try to have everyone file down at once." Meesei commented.

[Muttonhawk]

No one questioned Meesei's command to step away from the pedestal. It was as much a mistrust of the machines in the ruin as her authority that guaranteed that.

The warband looked on with anticipation at the spinning rings. None of them knew what to expect. Relief outweighed anticlimax as the stairs revealed themselves. Janius stepped forward first to look down and sniff at the new passage. He looked to the rest of his pack expectantly.

Fendros stepped up next. He didn't give Ahnasha eye contact, but he spoke in am mutter. "I promise I won't skive off this time."

Sabine was more inquisitive. She ignored Fendros' insolence and asked Meesei. "Would the Falmer be down there as well?"

While the pack was lining up, Janius peered up at Kaleeth and then down the passage. It would be a tight fit for her at best, by the looks. She might have to transform back and retrieve her equipment. Indeed, Janius believed he could fit, but he would have a hard time manoeuvring.

[EliteCommander]

Meesei’s looked down the stairway contemplatively. “I cannot say. The Falmer we have encountered in this ruin would certainly not have been able to access whatever lies below without one of these spheres, but we do not know what we are stepping into. The Dwemer name refers to it as the ‘Blackest Kingdom Reaches’, but whatever that means, we will not know until we see it for ourselves. Needless to say, we should be cautious. Let us form up and get moving. Ri’vashi, you have the lead.”

Although there was some reluctance in Ri’vashi’s eyes, there was no hesitation in her actions. With her size, armor, and shield, she was the best candidate to protect those behind her, the first of which was Meesei to provide magical protection. Although they had to move in single-file, they still kept up a reasonable sort of formation for when they emerged from the stairway. Kaleeth showed just as much uncertainty towards the stairway as Janius, as they both had the same thoughts on the matter. However, it was quite a distance for her to double back for her equipment, and she did not want to move forward unprotected. So, she decided to attempt to follow in her current form. Her beast alone would not have been able to make it down, but in a rational mindset, she could maneuver herself to squeeze through, albeit just barely. She had to walk sideways to compress herself as much as possible, but while slow and uncomfortable, it allowed her to join the rest of her pack.

It took a while to maneuver down, deeper into the ruin, but when they finally reached their destination, it was clear they were no longer in Raldbthar. Instead, the tight, closed in ruin opened up into an absolutely massive chamber. As they stepped out of a door and onto a metal platform, even Meesei stopped to stare out into the expanse before them in awe. To call it a cavern would be a monumental understatement; it was more like another world hidden underneath Skyrim. Just from what they could see, it was filled with gigantic mushrooms similar to those in Morrowind, but glowing bright blue. The roof of the cavern far above them was dotted with the glowing fungus as well, though it was much too distant for them to see clearly. There were several Dwemer structures within view, including one nearby built in the middle of a surprisingly large, flowing underground river. Everything around them was lit mostly by the fungus, so the entirety of the cavern had a blue tinge to it, except for an area in the far distance. The cavern’s size was such that they could not even see a hint of the other side from where they were standing, but there did appear to be a faint, yellowish glow in the distance. Something closer to Dwemer lights.

“Where…do we even start?” Ahnasha commented.

[Muttonhawk]

The many places that Meesei's pack had travelled, the many sights seen and events witnessed, had made them previously believe that they would see nothing greater in their lives. This cavern, if it would even stoop to such a description, proved them all wrong.

It was like another world. The damp cave air confirmed them to be underground, though the blue that cast from the colossal stranded mushrooms and the yellow of light reflecting off the Dwemer metal made it seem like a dreamland cast into night.

Ahnasha's comment cut through the mutual amazement.

"...Any path we take, at least we'll have room for the warband," Fendros remarked.

Sabine's surveying of the expanse was more focussed on the details. Certain things caught her eye, as was the habit of an alchemist. There were strange bright flecks in certain veins of stone. There were also plants and fungi that were growing here as well.

Janius stepped ahead and sniffed at the air again. He growled quietly.

[EliteCommander]

With the sight they were witnessing, even the normally-stoic Saras was showing his amazement. "We could fit every lycan in Tamriel in here, and still have plenty of space. In all my centuries, I have not witnessed a place like this. Even the Deadlands do not compare."

It was Janius' growl that brought most of them back into reality. There were distinctive, foul scents in the air which were unmistakable. Just like Raldbthar above, this cavern was home to the Falmer. Their eyes had adjusted to the lighting of the place, so they could see clearly enough to know that there were none in the immediate area, but they were still not safe.

Lorag had been just as impressed as anyone else, but it did not take long for him to start to look frustrated. "Look, as amazin' as this place is, how in Oblivion is some giant cavern full of murderous Elves gonna help us? This place is gigantic, and if we try to set up down here, we're goin' to be sharing the place with the Falmer. There's no way we're going to be clearing out this whole place."

"We would not have been sent here if it did not have some redeeming quality." Meesei answered confidently. "It is certainly large enough that the soul-tearing gas could not possibly fill it like in other caverns. We may as well be outside, in that respect. And I would be willing to bet that there are other exits to this place. There must be somewhere we will be safe, or some way to make it safe. Perhaps...do you see that yellow glow in the distance? It is too far away to see the source clearly, but it is obviously a Dwemer source of light. And quite a large one, if we can see it from here. If you recall in Raldbthar, the Falmer and the automatons did not co-exist. There were no Falmer in the upper ruins, where the automatons were still active, and they had locked away the centurion. Perhaps if there are still automatons down here, we can find a place without Falmer? Regardless, I see a spot across that river, on the other side of those bridges, that is open enough for the warband to form up. Lorag, head back up and tell Hjergir to bring everyone down. The rest of us will head across the river and make sure there are no Falmer to ambush us."

[Muttonhawk]

With Lorag heading back up the stairs, the group strode on to the bridges. Their wary eyes were flicking between every nook and cranny they could make out. It was a short time before they realised that the broken path beneath them might have been taken for a road. Even that detail, seeing it flow with the contours of the cavern, made it seem even more like they were above-ground.

"Lorag's right," Fendros commented. "If we try to live down here, there will always be more Falmer. If we could have any hope, perhaps something in this place could teach us how to make our own automatons. Or control them, or something."

Unbeknownst to the rest of them, Sabine had found an angle to sneak off to the side for a moment. She returned before anyone noticed her diverging. "Meesei," she said quietly from behind them. She had a dirty stone in her hand with a cloudy crystal. "These things in the rock, are they soul gems?"

[EliteCommander]

As the group crossed the bridges, Saras was looking intently around the massive cavern, though this time, his eyes were searching for threats rather than scenery. Still, despite the scent of Falmer flowing through the air, there was still no indication that there were an in the immediate area. "I believe the secrets to constructing automatons were lost with the Dwener." Saras commented to Fendros. "But as for controlling them...that could be possible. I have heard of control rods that can command the machines, though I think they are bound to specific automatons. I do also recall this intelligent, but foolish Imperial who created a sort of fighting arena with captured automatons in Mournhold. He must have had a way to control them to compel them to fight, and he did know how to repair them as long as they were not completely destroyed. I say he was a fool because something went wrong and the machines eventually turned on him. He survived only because the Nerevarine himself happened to be in the city at the time, and he destroyed them."

Meesei, meanwhile, examined the crystal Sabine had discovered. It was still covered in bits of rock and minerals, as it had been pulled roughly from the stone, it only took a cursory magical examination to confirm Sabine's suspicions. "Yes, it...appears so. It would need some refinement, but this is a soul gem. And you say you simply found it in the rocks? That would mean this cavern contains naturally occurring deposits of soul gem geodes. Or perhaps the Dwemer found a way to place them here? In any case, this is an interesting find. A steady supply of free soul gems could be of great benefit to us."

Intrigued, Meesei looked around until she spotted another geode vein in a rock formation just off of the path, among a group of glowing mushrooms. She approached to get a closer look, and fortunately, she managed to spot the danger she was walking into before it was too late. She noticed that there were a number of strands of the fungus that seemed to be draped over something, and once she was close enough, she realized that they were obscuring an entire dormant Dwemer centurion inside some kind of arch. Immediately, she stopped and looked to her pack. "Wait, stay back! There is another centurion here. We should keep our distance; it is dormant, but it is possible that proximity could awaken it."

[Muttonhawk]

The attention of the group became split with Sabine's find. Few enough knew exactly where soul gems came from, let alone seen them in a raw crystal form. They tried to keep their eyes peeled, but they were still jolted to attention by Meesei's warning.

The centurion was, of course, imposing, though seeing one up this close allowed the group to take in its details. It was just as intricate as the spheres and the spiders. Its scale only made the thought of Dwemer technology more impressive. It had to weigh a ton and hit like a boulder. They were glad that the last one they found was disabled before it could strike at the warband properly.

"Are you sure it still works?" Fendros asked with caution. "This is the first one we've found that has stayed put when we're up this close."

Sabine answered with logic. "The other ones worked. They were just as old."

Either way, no one was willing or desirous to defy Meesei and get closer. They collectively gave the centurion a wide berth as they continued down the path.

[EliteCommander]

"It is possible that it has been disabled, but, well, I am not going to make that assumption." Meesei commented as she observed the centurion from a safe distance. "It looks like it is dormant within some kind of arch, though I do not know what kind of purpose it serves. There is a lever next to it, though I certainly am not going to pull it. Provided we are able to make a home down here, perhaps our scholars will be able to study these machines."

Meesei elected to keep the group within sight of the centurion so they would be able to warn their reinforcements not to wander too close. Besides which, there were no signs of Falmer in the immediate area, so it seemed to be an adequate location to regroup. Meesei was beginning to wonder if it was no coincidence that the Falmer were nowhere to be seen around the massive automaton.

Moving the warband down the stairway was an even longer process than moving them down the lift, but fortunately, there was no pressure for them to regroup quickly. Keen eyes could spot a few hints of movement in the distance as they waited, but if it was Falmer, they were keeping their distance. After about half an hour, the warband finally managed to regroup in the clearing, a fair distance away from the dormant centurion. Unlike in Raldbthar above, there was plenty of space along the paths in the cavern for the warband to spread out into wider formations. If they were attacked again, more of their formation would be able to bear down on their enemy at once.

Meesei decided that their destination would be the Dwemer lights in the far distance. Even if they did not face significant delays, it would still take hours for them to march to its source. For some, it was a discouragingly long walk through unknown territory, but Meesei showed no signs of hesitation as they set out.

[Muttonhawk]

The advance towards the lights allowed everyone time to calm and reflect. The strength of the warband offered at least a measure of security between them. The lack of any nearby Falmer only improved matters.

It took another hour of walking for Fendros to take his eyes of the surroundings for a moment. He walked up alongside Ahnasha and let out a quiet sigh. It was not the first time that he had looked regretful for losing his temper. "Ahna." He spoke with sincerity this time. "About before, I should not have shouted like an idiot." He gave her a sideways glance. "I didn't mean to leave you all down there, believe me."

Nearby, Janius was in a curious mental position. This was the first time since the last full moons that he stayed in beast form this long after feeding, but his beast spirit was receding on its own. He had the strange thought that perhaps it was as curious as he was about this place. He wondered how Kaleeth felt about this place.

Janius stepped across to nuzzle Kaleeth under the chin while they walked, perhaps not as intentionally as his human mind could have done. "Are you..." He struggled to form words in his wolfish mouth. "How are you...faring?"

All the while, Sabine was the one paying the least attention to her surroundings. She could afford to do so, to an extent, now being surrounded by warriors that were unanimously taller than her. The raw soul gem cluster in her hands had her enraptured. They were normally too expensive to waste, but if this cavern was so full of them, the possibilities would be endless.

[EliteCommander]

Ahnasha let out a sigh. She still kept an eye out on their surroundings, but the longer they went without being attacked, the more comfortable she felt lowering her guard at least slightly. She could still smell the Falmer, but in all likelihood, they were too intimidated by the size of their warband to attack. "Well...I was not lying when I mentioned giving you extra training. I know you have never been skilled in magic, and it's not something everyone can do, but you at least need to understand what mages are capable of. Even if you can't use it yourself, I think we need to teach you what your allies are capable of, and what your enemies can do to you. You need to learn to think like a mage so you can make better decisions around them."

Kaleeth, overall, felt uncomfortable for multiple reasons. For one, she could smell the prey in the air, but she could do nothing to hunt it down. The fact that she had fed not long ago was certainly helpful, but it was not normal for her to stay in her beast form for this long while doing nothing with it. At the very least, the fact that she could still smell prey kept her from reverting back to her Argonian form. She had an even more difficult time than Janius forming words, but she was still mostly intelligible. "I'm not...bleeding anymore. But I'm sore. The top of...my head hurts if I touch it."

Meanwhile, Saras tended to be more focused on his surroundings than the people around him, but Sabine, or rather the crystal she was holding, had caught his attention. He was motivated to learn of this cavern, and he knew her to be a mage, so she could have gained some insight. "Have you learned anything of that crystal?" he asked, looking to Sabine.

[Muttonhawk]

Fendros looked ahead and frowned at the mention of magic being taught. More likely out of habit than anything else. It was not as if Ahnasha's intentions were anything other than sensible.

"That makes sense," he conceded. "It had to catch up with me eventually if I put it off this long. Come to think of it, it's surprising that I've not done it before."

Fendros cast his eyes out to the cavern again. He paused for long enough for the topic to pass. "I never would have expected a place like this to even exist, let alone become available to us. We must be in the luckiest clan in the world to come from an Ayleid city to a Dwemer one and have them both be such great hiding places."

Janius took a moment before he responded. He had to concentrate to speak sensibly in his form. "Would you like Sabine to...heal you some more?" Right then, Janius recalled the words to the question that he had wanted to ask in the first place. "This place is...impressive, isn't...it?"

Despite Saras' question, Sabine only gave him a glance before bringing her eyes back to her hands. "It is a soul gem," Sabine said plainly. "They are in veins all through this cavern. It we can dig them out, there would be little need to buy them from cities. It is more than anyone could need."

[EliteCommander]

"I see." Saras answered to Sabine. "I have never known of such a thing before, even among Morrowind's Dwemer ruins. This place does not seem natural, and I am not referring just to the Dwemer ruins and machines. I suspect there is no other place like it in Tamriel. And if it can provide us any advantages...it may be worthwhile to bring more lycans here. There is enough space for far more than a single clan, provided there are enough escape routes."

Kaleeth simply shook her head when Janius asked about healing. Even with as much pain as she tended to endure in her beast form, it was curious that she rarely seemed motivated to deal with it. She simply continued to cast her gaze around the cavern. "It is...big. I feel like I could forget I...am underground."

Ahnasha was notably more skeptical than Fendros. She did give a nod, but still looked around cautiously. "Yes, well...let's not get ahead of ourselves. This place is impressive, but we don't know if it's a good home yet. If we can't deal with the Falmer, this will all be just a waste of time for some pretty scenery."

---

The trek through the cavern lasted several more hours, during which time they passed by several Dwemer structures, and ended up in minor skirmishes with a few smaller automatons. There was some discussion along the way of investigating some of the locations they were passing by, but once they could see the source of the light ahead, Meesei was sure that it was a place of importance. It seemed to be a sort of Dwemer citadel that towered over the area around it, extending up at least halfway to the top of the chamber. Above it hung the massive glowing orb, like an underground sun with a glow that could be seen far around the chamber. Meesei could not begin to guess how it was constructed, or if it served a purpose other than providing light, but she hoped they would have a chance to study it.

Curiously, once the warband drew close enough to the citadel, the scent of Falmer almost seemed to fade. It was still in the air, but there was no hint of fresh Falmer scents in the area around the citadel. What was more, when they reached the base of the structure, they found the traces of a past battle. There were Falmer skeletons, and pieces of chitin armor and weapons scattered around, half-buried in the dirt with fungus growing around them. The remains were obviously years old, and considering that they had not seen a single Falmer skeleton throughout Raldbthar or the rest of the cavern thusfar, they could assume that the Falmer tended to the remains of their fallen. If these bodies were still skeletons, then, Meesei reasoned, the Falmer had likely not been present at the citadel for quite some time.

The warband had to search the base of the citadel for stairs, or some other way to head up to the structure proper. Meesei and Ri'vashi's groups headed around in one direction, while Hjergir's searched the other. Meesei's pack led the way, and once they rounded a corner to the citadel's east-facing side, they did indeed find a set of stairs; however, the remains they discovered nearby were far, far more interesting.

Resting at the base of the staircase was what was unmistakably the skeleton of a dragon. Some of the bones were scattered around, but for the most part, they were in a single, recognizable form. Like the Falmer skeletons, there was moss and fungus growing on the bones. But, they were far less decayed than the other skeletons, perhaps due to the sheer durability of dragon bones. It would take time and focus to piece together what happened, but the large crack in the dragon's skull made its cause of death obvious. In fact, there were few other markings on the bones that could have originated from a battle.

Naturally, a good portion of the group were astonished at the find. Ahnasha walked up close to the skull and looked over the remains with her eyes wide. "Okay, this...does not count, Sabine."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine's response was surprisingly terse. "I-do-not-care." The raw soul gem in her hands fell to the ground and made a dull thud on the dirty pathway. She jogged up to the skull as if resisting the urge to run and almost fell onto it with her hands. Her eyes were nearly bulging from her face as she ran a palm over the old teeth.

"A dragon?" Fendros breathed. He looked to the dark ceiling. "How'd it get in? How did it even...?"

Janius stilled his breath and perked his ears. He slowly turned his head to Saras for an explanation, as did Fendros after a moment.

There were the sounds of struggle as Sabine tried to tug at one of the dead dragon's teeth. A frustrated huff later and she turned around to the others. "Can I borrow a hammer?" She asked quietly.

[EliteCommander]

As more of the warband rounded the corner behind the pack, the buzz of conversation quickly spread among them as they circled around the dragon's skeleton. Since Meesei's pack had happened upon the skeleton first, they gave them space to examine it.

Ahnasha shrugged her shoulders, and could not help but to let out a brief chuckle at the apparent ridiculousness of the situation. "Underground dragons...no crazier than anything else we've seen, I suppose."

Saras was initially confused as to why the others were turning to him for answers, as he had no particular expertise on dragons, but he supposed that he had lived in Skyrim longer than anyone else present. "Well...as far as I know from the tales from the bards and scholars, Alduin raised quite a few dragons from the dead back in 201, during the Civil War. I...suppose if the bones were buried deep enough, maybe he raised it down in this cavern instead of on the surface? I, um, honestly do not know; this really does not make any sense."

Ri'vashi seemed to be concerned when Sabine started to try to pry a tooth from the skeleton. "Are you...certain you should be doing that? Dragons are ancient and powerful creatures, correct? Do they have any magical properties that might be broken by damaging the skeleton? Or even dangerous?"

"I do not believe so." Saras answered. "There are fewer dragons now than there were at the height of the crisis, and I personally have only ever seen the flying in the distance. But, from my understanding, once they are dead, there is nothing special or sacred about their bodies, other than the impressive strength of their bones and scales. The Dragonborn is reputed to be able to take their souls, even after death, but again, I do not have experience with that."

With that reassurance, Ri'vashi grabbed her mace and attempted to use it to knock loose the tooth Sabine had been working on. She started out working delicately, but quickly realized that she needed much more force to do anything at all to the bones. She hit the tooth harder and harder until she delivered a full-force blow to a single tooth. She was finally able to knock loose one of the teeth, and without even cracking it.

"If that's what it takes to get a tooth out of this thing, what actually managed to crack this thing's skull?" Ahnasha commented. "You think this thing got into a fight with all these Falmer? That would explain the bodies."

Lorag looked over the scene skeptically. "Eh, I'm not so sure about that. None of the Falmer skeletons looked to be scorched, or frozen, if this was one of those frost dragons. And some of the bones look like they have been hit by somethin' more precise than giant jaws. Not to mention, there really aren't that many markings on the dragon's bones. I know they are tough, but if it was fightin' a small army of elves, I'd expect to see marks and scratches all over the skeleton. Places where arrows pierced through, and that sort of thing. But, it looks like most of the wounds are on its head. It looks a lot like the bones of prey taken down by one hunter, or a small team."

"Who takes on a dragon alone?' Ahnasha commented, shrugging incredulously.

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine had stepped back to allow Ri'vashi to break out the dragon tooth, but she ducked in quickly to retrieve it once it came loose. It was only after a few seconds of inspecting it in both her hands that she chirped a quick "Thank you" to Ri'vashi.

Looking at the crack in the creature's skull, Fendros was just as baffled as the rest of them were. He slowly responded to Ahnasha's disbelief. "This is just a guess, but...do you think perhaps the weapons on a centurion could crack a skull like this? I don't know what dragonfire is like, but it might be tough enough to get close, judging by what it took to kill the last one." He looked to the pack and shrugged. "It would be mindless enough, at least."

Janius' curiosity turned into concern as he sniffed at the skull. His ears went back and he looked to the others. He was terse in an effort to try and stay intelligible. "What killed this...killed the Falmer...same thing. Could still be here." Janius stretched his head up, standing higher on his hind legs to try and sniff at the air.

Sabine peered up from the dragon tooth partway through testing its hardness against a touchstone. Janius' revelation brought her back into reality enough to pocket the tooth and start paying more attention.

[EliteCommander]

"It is possible." Meesei mused, just around the same time that Hjergir's group had circled around to their side of the citadel, leading more people to circle around the dragon skeleton. Meesei looked up the stairway at the citadel above, searching for a hint of life. "A centurion would certainly have the strength to kill a dragon, though I would expect a dragon to be able to outsmart one. Regardless, if there are automatons here, we need to be on our guard. These skeletons are years old, so it is curious that the Falmer have not returned here in all that time. There must be a reason for it. Leave the bones for now and form up; we need to investigate this citadel."

Upon Meesei's order, the warband's ranks reformed at the base of the stairway, then they proceeded in formation up to the top. The stairs were wide, but they were still somewhat vulnerable while climbing them. Fortunately, they were not attacked as they ascended to the top. In fact, all that they found upon entering the courtyard of this citadel was more bones. Mostly, there were Falmer skeletons, along with the hollow, broken shells of chaurus. Though, curiously, they also passed a few Human or Elven skeletons with signs of similar injuries. However, there were no armor or weapons on the bones as one might expect had they been warriors.

The citadel was the size of a town, and was well-lit by the orb above them. There were plenty of Dwemer buildings they needed to explore to determine if it was safe, but just looking around, it was easy to see that it was a large and easily defensible position.

[Muttonhawk]

The larger skeletons of the men and mer beyond the staircase only made the place more ominous. Fendros' eyes lingered on them as they passed. It was hard to tell from their positions what killed them.

"It's almost as if there was a battle here," Fendros remarked. "But they've either been picked clean or it was something else." He looked ahead again. "I'm beginning to hope it's the former. There has to be something deterring the Falmer."

Sabine contributed to the conjecture. "Maybe they tried settling here like us."

Fendros hummed. "I don't know. There might be more evidence either way further in."