Death from the Dwemer

Chapter 2

I wake up to see the frozen wasteland that was my base camp. One of the workers' tents were missing, and another one froze shut. I order the rest of the men to bring everything into the Tower. With everything safe and sound, I assemble my expedition team. In my team I have Wendill, who volunteered in an instant, my housecarl Deyvenn, an orc mercenary who goes by Dushgal the Worthy, two of my apprentices, a priest of Arkay who was here to tend to the dead, and three workers who signed up for an additional wage, and Walks-With-Mages who is an argonian wizard that came along to oversee my expedition for his "guild". He is more likely a thief who will stab us in the back when he gets the chance. With a strong team with me, I felt very sure of our chances down in the city.

As we ascended into the darkness we could barely see the pathway ahead of us, yet we could hear moving and pumping of pipes. After all these years of having no one to look after them, the engineering of the ruins were still working astounded me. Even though I prepared myself for this mentally and physically I still could not believe this. Other ruins were nothing compared to this. I was so distracted of the architecture that I did not notice the stairs below me. I stopped and so did everyone behind me. Someone behind me asked why we stopped and they looked ahead to see why. A dwarven sphere was at the bottom of the staircase, once it reached the first stair it opened into its battle form and started rolling itself up the stairs, the gap between us closing every second.