Shattered City Shattered City[Main Event]

[Belduhr Brighthand]

The door they passed through would have put the architecture of his people to shame. He gawked for a time as they passed through it, the marvels inside the structure catching his attention also before the sight of a golem had not only himself but Fife jumping in surprise.

"By the gods! Bah! The blighted things. Their lot need to go chew stone and fall down a shaft." Belduhr cursed the thing as he put a hand out in a familiar move to keep anything from passing by him to get at Fife. Rune had been beside herself whenever he did such a motion, citing the absolute frivolity of such a move given it took a hand away from the job of protecting her.

In his own experience however, a hand jutting into the path of a creature moving forward tended to draw it's attention. And slowing it down meant the hammer that came down atop its head connected rather wonderfully.

 

[Alani Delkera]

She needed to return home. She had been away to long. The spine was calling to her. But the Portal stone had other ideas. This was not where she was supposed to be. It was still the spine. A dwarvish town. But not where she had intended. The stone on the edge of the wilds, the deep forests filled with mysterious things and familiar smells.

Alani bearly had time to get her bearings before the town was under attack by a massive mettle man. She was not stupid. She was not about to try and fight a thing like that. Instead, she took cover. But through the chaos she overheard things. From the chaos she was able to gather that a massive mettle city had risen up from the spine, sending stones toppling down crushing everything in it's path. She also learned that mettle men had been stealing people.

The giant mettle man fell and she watched as a group of people who had been involved in felling it left the city hearing something about going to look at the metal city.

Alani's nose wrinkled. She disliked this. She could just leave, go home, find her mother and father. But there was this new city. She could not let it interfere. She needed to know. So she followed the group of people headed for the golden city. She stayed undercover, stalking along off the path, out of sight, with her nose to the wind. The Human traveler smelled heavily of fear, though he seemed to be their leader. There was a young boy, and a dwarf. They all seemed to be the rougher traveler type. They were soon joined by a pair of nobles that smelled of fine silks soiled by sweat and dirt. She did not like them.

When the city came into view she halted, gaping at the immensity of it, she had never seen this much gold and metal, even in the cities of Elbion or Alliria. The travelers approached the front gate and she watched as they disappeared inside. She waited for the nobles to also disappear inside before she drew a hatchet from her belt and followed. She kept under the cover of stone and trees for as long as possible. When she reached the gate she crouched just behind it, not going in and staying hidden as she sniffed and listened to what was going on. The air smelled stale and metallic. She disliked it.

 

[TTamark]

Steve had never really moved that far from Harrier, better to stand near one who you have met briefly and didn't try and kill you than strangers, or more accurately: these particular folk. This proved to be a good choice as things really had heated up fast... In more ways than one. As the the spiders came pouring in, and the fire began flying Steve was quick to realize this would be a good time to find a better place for himself to be then in danger. Still just in case he would not be able to stick around and gain more from his experiences here, he should grab what he could while he could.

With a potato in hand pulling the dead head of the dragonoid through the air was an easy feat for a necromancer such as him. Still what finally reached him did not look a lot like it did moments before thanks to Szesh's fire, also Steve had not been prepared for the heat it had picked up forcing him into an impromptu game of hot potato.

While Steve's golems did their best to deal with the spiders, they were large and clunky, and poorly designed to deal with such small and nimble opposition. So with ever decreasing little time he had he looked for any other prizes he might claim. After his quick scan of the scene before him he accepted that the most valuable thing to stea... to requisition was the books around him,

"Quick eat all the books you can and run!"

Steve shoved a book into his mouth, but he soon found that the size difference was too great and settled for basically all of the book hanging from his mouth as he made a run for it. Realizing he had no where to run by himself he instead scrambled up one of his golems. Steve's golems followed Steve's lead shoving some books inside themselves, fitting about three books in their bodies, before returning to protect Steve.

It was now or never, Steve gave the order to charge, and the golems in a line began charging out as best they could. Steve noticed an odd phenomenon among his golems however as they went on the ones in front seemed to quickly get smaller. Next he noticed that the walls and floor were covered in potato chips. It was then he realized that his golems were dying a death by a thousand cuts.

By the time he had made it out it was just him, the golem who's shoulders he rode, and two more golem. As he looked back he realized that some of the larger mechanical golems had followed them as well, they would soon catch up. Before Steve could decide what to do one of the golems went charging in, using its body to block the horde. The machines did not take long though to bore through it however and as the golem was quickly covered all over by the machines it raised its hand in a thumbs up as it sank into the horde.

 

[Kyros]

THE GOLDEN LIBRARY
Szesh Selene Avar TTamark Ava Gilleth Harrier Arbeiter Aivrid​

Kaahl waited for an answer from Szesh. When he was given a roar, Kaahl replied with, “Oh?”

As fire burst from Szesh’s throat, Kaahl crossed his arms with specific gestures – mudra – with grace. The fire before Kaahl appeared to slam into an invisible wall. The draconian head had flown away into Steve’s possession. The Librarian himself flew back as Szesh slashed at the air – narrowly escaping the draconian’s claws.

Then, Kaahl’s lifted itself into the air – levitating almost just as Harrier would. The air around his feet hummed.

The mechanical spiders attacked the adventurers. The Librarian heard Selene’s demand.

With restraint, Kaahl replied to Selene with an order.

“Submit, and the workers wi-“

But as soon as Steve and Harrier began to make their exit with books at hand, Kaahl noticed and bellowed

N̛͢͠O͜​

Another gesture immediately followed as Kaahl opened his arms and extended all fingers except the middle and thumb.

THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD​

The Golden Library screamed, howled, and hissed. Something seemed to roar within the walls and ceilings.
THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD

TO͡ ST̕EAL͟ F͡RO̸M̸ ҉TH͟E͞ LIBRARY​

THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD​

For the mammals of the adventurers within the Library, the hairs on the arms might stand up. A soft buzz could be heard. The spiders would be left unimpeded to continue their attack – those that travelled with Selene prevented further negotiations for the moment.

THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD​

Outside the library, the building visibly shuddered. Mechanical golems poured into the streets to pursue Steve and Harrier with glowing, blue "eyes".

THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD​

M̨EAN̸Ş DEÀT̀H ​

THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD​

So long as they possessed any texts from the library, the golems would chase them until physically unable to do so.

 

[Ukrir]

The Clocktower
Aifrin | Fynaurie

The golems of course held little regard for the Sky Elf and her ally. They had been given a task to retrieve, and with a direct swiftness they would do just that.

It was the massive golem that carried Fynaurie, it's steps shaking the ground even as it made it's way back towards the Clocktower. The other Elf was not left alone, though the pursuit seemed to edge off as her friend was carried away.

Within only minutes Fynaurie would be brought to the Clocktower.

From her position upon the roof tops Aifrin would see the golem carrying her friend disappearing into the open gates of the ever Shifting Clocktower.

Once inside Fynaurie would find herself traipsed to the top, a mechanical shifting and whirring echoing around her as the ground shook and shifted beneath her. If she were to awake, she would find herself held by the golem as a platform seemed to magically move up the building itself.

 

[Harrier]

Kaahl's voice was unmistakably loud and inescapably alien. It thrummed in Harrier's bones in a way that inspired even more adrenaline than being chased by the spider golems. She clung to the sky-carriage as it rattled along its ancient, gleaming rail. Her armful of books had dwindled as she ran, levitated, and latched onto her salvation with both hands. Two remained wedged between her shoulder and cheek. As she glanced back at the glowing-eye horde, the last books slid free and fluttered down to smack against the empty street. "No! NO!"

Despite the hundreds of books she'd assimilated only minutes ago, losing those few hard-copy versions was a wrenching pain. But the golems would tear her apart if she stopped, and she couldn't spare a hand, not at the speed the sky-carriage was going.

The golems came to a halt and picked up the books she'd dropped, and that's when she knew she really had lost them all. There wasn't some slim volume tucked in her bag or belt or robe. Everything she'd taken was held solely within her fallible mortal memory. Tears stung her eyes, and it wasn't just the wind.

The sky-carriage took a sharp turn not far from the tunnel that the Dreadlord had burned under the wall. Harrier stood alone, looking at the tunnel for a long few minutes, shoulders slumped. Objectively she'd succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. In the moment she felt like an absolute failure.

 

[Aivrid]

Tag: Szesh Selene Avar TTamark Ava Gilleth Harrier Arbeiter Kaahl

Well, that escalated quickly.

---

​

Clearly, Aivrid had missed a few things.

Spiders crawling out of the walls, the half-dragon leaping at the Librarian, the golems pursuing a few creatures foolish enough to run away. This library likely had greater knowledge than any other in the world -- the Golden City had been founded far before human, elf, or dwarven scholars had decided to chronicle their histories. Any of the books here would be worth a dozen of theirs.

The dragon would not be deterred in claiming this prize.

As the mechanical army swarmed out of the walls, the humanoid surrounded himself in a raging fire, pushing back the little contraptions as he advanced further inside. While the others panicked or threw fits of rage, Aivrid strode calmly over towards Kaahl, stopping and looking up at the floating metal man.

"You are the librarian here, yes?" He called up to the creature. Funny how loudly he needed to speak. Normally he could whisper, and the little ones far below could hear him. "I have a proposition for you. I do not share the foolish intentions of these others. Stop these little creatures such that we might speak as civilized beings."

If things didn't work out, he always had a bit more fire.

 

[Szesh]

Szesh's fire hit an invisible wall and his claws his naught but air. His ears were still ringing, his blood still boiled. Kaahl effortlessly lifted himself into the air and Szesh was about to follow, but he was kept down by dozens of tiny mechanical spiders jabbing at his legs. Their attacks were stronger now, and they broke through his skin when their sharp legs hit between scales.

He set more flames down in a ring around himself, but a second wave immediately scurried overtop of the melted bodies of the first. He kicked and swept his tail, but still they came. In an effort to escape the arachnoids Szesh leapt onto one of the tall bookshelves, feeling it shake beneath his weight. His claws shredded through tomes until they made purchase on the golden shelves. Even here was not safe, though, as the workers merely scaled the books.

The library rumbled, Kaahl yelled something about death. Still overtaken by grief and anger, Szesh pushed off from the bookshelf hard, launching himself at the floating being. He wanted to slam Kaahl to the ground and tear out whatever heart he had.

 

[Selene Avar]

The Golden Library
Szesh | Kaahl | TTamark | Ava Gilleth | Harrier | Arbeiter | Aivrid

Selene saw no more way around things at this point.

Her foolish companions had elected to try and steal, and one of them was still more than intent on killing their host. Whether she wanted it or not, Selene had been dragged down into the mud.

She would have to play there.

"Fine." The word was said more in resignation of herself than anything else. Her fingers twitched, and suddenly the ground beneath the Librarian would quake. The metal shifted, turned red hot, and then with a twist of her hand sprang upward.

A hand of magma reached out to grasp Kaahl and hold him in place long enough for Szesh to rip him into pieces.