EliteCommander

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

I'll post it up as a memory at the start of my next post. Or you can. Whichever one of us posts first, I imagine.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"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.

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Yeah, I think it's going to be done pretty soon. I'm just waiting on your next response.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

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.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"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."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

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.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I think the sheer size of the warband would probably discourage most Falmer attacks, though they might have light skirmishes with automatons that don't know the meaning of the word "outnumbered." In any case, do you think a few hours would be reasonable for them to reach that large structure with the glowing orb in Blackreach?

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"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.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

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."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I think it's pretty deep underground. Maybe an ancient magma chamber? Or maybe the Dwemer just carved the whole thing out themselves. They did build their own Tower/machine god. It does have quite a few unique resources, though. I have some ideas of what they can do in the place, and if you think of anything, feel free to add it.