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The return to Raven Rock was flashy but I was getting ready for 'Phase 3', the final and the most important part of our plan thus after dinner, I sat alone sorting out the maps and the notes all over the place around me.
"If only I had a laptop, I am not insulting you Mr. System or anything but sometimes the Augur is too prideful to help me… Sigh! Well, I'll invite some Golem with mathematical abilities to help me."
I was really tired.
Too much work too little time, was this the type of life I sought after? I adventure and have fun all day but the work… I freaking hate it. I haven't studied Magic Properly the last few days and my Meditation is taking part of the problem too. I need to take a vacation after this.
Maybe the problem is not time… maybe the hiatus I am having. I can't think of something new at all and my head is bothering me with lazy ideas. I have indulged myself in luxury a bit too much. Never thought I would be this rich from the start. I really need some guidance from Nurina right away, maybe leave some work to the kids from the office and go stay in the Dorm to get myself back on track.
Not the time for these lazy thoughts anyway, back to the plan… Where was I? Yes, Phase 3.
We have four locations to visit this time, two Dwarven Ruins and one Nordic. Easy? Nope, not at all. First, the crew never went to a Dwarven Ruin before and I only went into a replica one under Tyl Fyr when I was teleported to Morrowind. The real Dwarven Ruins are… deadly, the traps are relentless and the Dwarven Machines are considered to be what kills explorers the most. This time we are going heavy but fast, we need blunt weapons and good armors but we also need to be light and fast, more to that, Dwarven Machines are immune to Frost Magic which will vex Alina but I am sure her Wind Magic can blow them away, they have 25% Magic Resistance and are seriously annoying.
At the end of the day, I sorted the stuff out and assigned the weapon and spells the six of us need.
Putting this aside, I had to focus on myself for a bit. My Meditation Training is going better than ever but I need resources… Truth be told, circulating the Energy in my Energy Channels is not enough. If we found a source of Padomic or Anuic energies, we could share them and make our training go smoother but I am not sure where to. The Heart Stones are still dangerous and their energies are hard to extract. Still, doing it with the girls is effective and they are enjoying it so I am not complaining more.
It wasn't long since I had to gather my notes back together and go out to have some fun.
***
A day passed and we were all lazing around in the town, I wasn't engaged in any activity so I met up with Ongeim to see how the cleaning of the Nordic Ruins we conquered was and how was the researcher, Servos, doing.
It seemed that after he cremated his sister's body, he decided to join the research group from my company and helped for a bit to distract himself. He was now in Raven Rock and exchanged a lot of information with Jull about the Magical Spiders for some rough explanation about the Thu'um.
In the end, he accepted my invitation to work in Winterhold and I now have one more talented Biology Researcher. I will ask him to discover other sources of Anuic and Padomic energies but that will be for later until I trust him enough.
This day ended with us going to the Retching Netch to have a bit of fun and share our newly remade creation, the Gwent.
Yes, I recreated a famed card game known as 'Gwent' based on the cards of 'The Elder Scrolls Legends'. It wasn't hard to make factions like the Morrowind Faction and the Skyrim Faction. The gambling business in this world may not know this yet but the day I recreated Gwent was the day I dug their graves. None will be able to recreate my cards that were made by a secret material from Master Nurelion's lab and trademark enchantment of mine.
The day also ended with me selling more than hundred 'Morrowind Deck', fifty 'Skyrim', fifty 'Beasts' and many Unique and Effect cards to the Retching Netch with all the book guides and the other stuff.
***
The other day came and…
"We are starting 'Phase 3'! Who's excited?"
"..." "..." "..." "..." "..."
None!
"Jon, you are a total M!"
"Thank you."
"That was not a compliment."
"I know but I still liked it. To the Haven Cube, we are going to Fahlbs… Falhbraz… Fahl…"
"What?"
"It a dwarven name... truly a mouthful. I wrote it here, it is called Fahl, bth, arz. Fahlbtharz!"
"I am very glad there are no Dwarves in this world anymore."
"Yep, so we can loot their abandoned cities. Now, all to the Cube, let's go."
I rallied the team to enter the Cube and starting casting the Teleport Spell to reach the Water Stone. From there, I rode a Flame Atronach Hawk then traveled to Fahlbtharz and fought some Rieklings from the Air to clear the entrance of the Ruin. The Dwarven structures of the exterior were reaching outside the ground which is a rare case for the Dwarven Structures in General and it was partially destroyed. There are also a few Riekling structures as well but I burned them to force the pesky creatures away.
"Come out!" I called the guys in the cube after I landed and the found themselves in front of the Dwemer Ruin.
"That was fast!"
"Alright, listen up. According to the books I read, this place was built by the dwarves to serve as a sporting ground. It is filled with traps and Dwarven War Machines and Heaven knows what else. Alina, you are comfortable with the Twin Mauls I gave you? Wulf and Jorna, nice hammers! Nefertiti, here, you can use my old hammer in your Werecat Form, please don't damage your nails on those machines. Jull…"
"I am using the Exploding Bolts."
"Me too." I said and took out a crossbow. "Let's get this thing done."
I walked forward aiming my crossbow ahead and pushed the door open.
"Clear, left." (Jull)
"Clear, right." (Me)
"Roger! Proceeding with caution." (Wulf)
"They enjoy doing it every time." (Alina)
We proceeded in the normal formation and started shooting down all the 'Tangos' in the way. The entrance was infested with Riekling but they were nothing serious, to begin with. We pumped into a slicer trap but thankfully we managed to break it and destroy its pressure plate. As soon as we passed that, we met the first guardians in the ruins.
"Dwarven Spheres!"
Three balls came from the wall ahead and rolled towards us. Wulf and Jorna took the front with their shields and hammers. Once the Dwarven Sphere got closer, their shape started to transform from rolling balls to a semi-humanoid automaton that rose from the ball itself.
"AWESOME!" Wulf lost its cool completely.
"Shield up, you dolt!"
"Sorry!"
This was clearly our first time in a Dwarven Dungeon so I expected that but something else I was waiting for now and that was the first strike from the Spheres that landed on Wulfur's shield. The look on his face changed completely. I told him to take it more seriously but now he realized what it means to face a machine… a whole new concept of fighting.
His right foot stomped to the back and the hummer in his hand reacted in a rotational wave coming from down to up and hammering the Dwarven Sphere from its base completely staggering it and making it retreat. As the center of the weight was in its wheel-like legs, it managed to come back but Wulf was already attacking the other one.
"Assist him!" I rallied up everyone and we started attacking the Dwarven Spheres in return. It was a violent but noisy fight.
At the end, we put them down splendidly.
"These bastards! They are tougher than I thought."
"Show me your training results and tell me you can do it."
"I can do it."
"Good! Because this is just the place saying hey."
I like how their faces changed from lazy to serious once they realized that the fight with the machines is not some plaything. These machines are tougher than the undead and do not tire. They will do everything they are designed to do to kill.
We proceeded again and faced more spheres so we kept destroying them and taking their parts until we arrived at a place with a large control panel.
"I have never seen anything like this in the books." Alina said.
"I told you before that this is not your run in the mill Dwarven Ruin, this is a sports ruin. A Death Sport."
That panel had ten buttons and one would open the gate ahead while the others would probably active the traps around the room. As much as I am okay with traps, I had to keep my friends safe and pointed out the safe button (the second from the right, bottom row) even though they pressed some wrong ones to see what they can do.
After passing the room we came across a Kinetic Resonator which is four small blue orbs set in paddle-like extensions on a metal pole. Those orbs spin around the pole when activated and opened us another gate we walked through and walked through some broken steam pipes and flammable substance until we reached a Mushroom Garden.
There were more Dwarven Sphere and Dwarven Spiders that shot us with Lightning Magic and was really cool as I had to pin one of them down with Wulfur to study the idea behind it for our Tesla Tower project.
After the girls shouted at us, we had to destroy Spidey but I told Wulfur not to be saddened as there is a better chance to study them soon in the future.
After that, we arrived at Fahlbtharz's Main Chamber.
It was a place that made us all go in awe, an expansive chamber full of tall pillars, bearing platforms and walkways at their higher levels, and many giant spinning gears on the lower levels, shortly above a large pool of water.
"The idea behind this place is to jump on the gears to reach the place it leads to."
"Can't we just teleport?"
"Good idea but impossible! I just tried to use it but the Space was locked, we can't even Levitate."
I used the 'Third Eye' spell to watch the flow of Magicka through the space and found some large Magic imprinted in the area to block all the aspects of Teleportation and Levitation. Kinda hardcore!
On the plus size is… I know this dungeon very will from the game so no biggies.
We traveled on the large gears by hopping on them like we are in some arcade game and fought some Dwarven Spiders here and there, we the arrived at a gate that would take us to a higher level and found a Dwarven Ballista that Wulf and I didn't let go of. We had stored it in the Cube after dismantling it to study it later.
As we reached the second floor, we were moving from pillar to pillar by spinning them to connect the bridges on them. It was a good puzzle and we passed it safely.
We felt like a day has passed so we stopped after we arrived at Fahlbtharz's Boilery and spent the night in the Cube. Later the next day, we went to solve the puzzle of the boilery and it was… let's say, it became a bit hairy.
There was a steam-powered Dwarven mechanism controlled by kinetic resonators, each would charge the mechanism with a certain number of charges and we had to charge it only twenty charges. Any more would trigger some annoying traps.
The first time we almost opened the doors of hell on ourselves so I solved it how I remember right away. No room for training if it is risky. (From left to right 1, 2, 5)
We finally passed the boilary and arrived at the Grand Hall of Fahlbtharz and fought some Dwarven Ballistas that were really tough. In the end we, we arrived at three Dynamo Actuators that must be filled by Centurion Dynamo Cores, these cores come from the Dwarven Centurion, the largest and strongest regular machines left by the Dwarves. [A/N: I said Regular because there are larger but not common.]
"Do we have to fight those giants?" Jull pointed at the two dormant Dwarven Centurions at the end of the room.
"Yes, lure one by a bolt and hit it from far away. It is slow and the room is too large for it to reach us.
As the plan went, we all switched to Magic and summoned our Flame Atronach Horses to keep our mobility high as well as Frost and Storm Atronachs to distract the Dwarven Centurions.
And the fight began.
***
And the fight ended… an hour later.
We destroyed the two large Dwarven Centurions and dismantled them to recover the cores.
"I can't believe this thing can let out a Steam Breath, it made the Frost Atronachs melt like ice."
"Did you see how it hit the Storm Atronachs? They were flying like toys."
In the end, we recovered to Dynamo Cores and placed them on the three Dynamo Actuators, fortunately, there was one the before so we managed to open the last gate splendidly.
Behind that gate was our sweet trophy.