Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter LXXXVI - Wealth Beyond Measure

The large metal doors closed shut behind them with a loud booming noise.

This was it. Irkngthand. Another large Dwemer city, teeming with dangers and untold treasures.

They knew the drill by now and they had Mercer's plans with them. They left Karnwyr to hunt outside – it was always too dangerous to take him into Dwemer ruins and he wouldn't be of much help until they reached the depths – the areas marked with a big 'F' in Karliah's notes. Falmer-infested chambers.

They were not looking forward to those. But Dwemer automatons were not much better.

Bishop left his bow on his back for now and brandished his sword. They made sure to charge their weapons properly for this adventure. They needed all the help they could get and Bishop's lightning enchantment would surely come in handy, even if Aeyrin's fiery one did little to the machines.

They moved into the first chamber, carefully scanning their surroundings, but when they entered the room, it was eerily quiet.

There were corpses on the ground. Bandits. And several deactivated mechanical spheres and spiders as well. It was a scene of a battle, but it did not look like a very recent one. The bodies were already in various stages of decomposition and even in the vast hall, the pungent smell carried through the air.

"Bandits. Predictable," Bishop's scoff was a bit muffled as he held his arm over his face to stave off the stench. "You wanna make a bet on how far they got?"

"There's a lot of automatons here," Aeyrin let out a sigh, equally muffled. At least a dozen in the first chamber alone. That did not bode well. "I'm guessing not very far."

"Guess we'll see," Bishop shrugged. He didn't have high hopes for the bandits either. So many clans were eager to venture into Dwemer ruins with barely enough training in battle and no plan or tactics whatsoever. Of course they were slaughtered instantly. Only he and his fellow bandits, all honed after Thorn's brutal training, made it far into Mzulft, but even that was a suicide mission. These poor fuckers probably didn't manage to clear the way for them too far in.

"Let's get going. Nothing to see or loot here anymore I guess. And the smell is fucking disgusting," he growled. One could see so much death in their lives and he still wondered if anyone would ever get used to that smell. Those priests of Arkay must have gone insane from it a long time ago. At least embalmed bodies in Nordic tombs didn't smell like that, although it was far from a pleasant smell too.

Aeyrin nodded hurriedly and they moved forth through the chamber.

They reached the next room in no time, but they both stopped in the door arch abruptly.

It was hard to miss. Right in the center of the room was a small tall platform and upon it an automaton.

Not one they've seen before though. It wasn't the familiar sphere, nor the small spiderlings. It wasn't even that large monster of a machine they had seen on their venture through Raldbthar.

It was something that reminded them of a large kettle helmet with legs underneath. Or maybe some odd type of mudcrab machine? It looked strange. And they had no idea what it could do.

"It looks... inactive," Aeyrin whispered uncertainly.

"You never know," Bishop growled in response. His eyes scanned the rest of the room promptly until he noticed another issue. Three very familiar circular 'portholes' decorated one of the side walls. It was very likely that there were spheres hidden in those. "Look there," he pointed towards the holes.

Aeyrin inspected the room as well. It was always hard when they couldn't actually tell the number of these things they would be facing, or even if they would all be active.