NOTE: Things will be mostly from Winry's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the artificer can't be everywhere at once.
***** Kythorn 10, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), the Lost City of Lantis
I spent some time inspecting the brass wall a little closer, and figured out it was perfectly attached to the other walls and ceiling, as if it was intended to be there. It was about 3-4 inches thick, and aside from some dents from the crabs, it was perfectly smooth. Jak and Bex were itching to knock it down, but I told them to wait. To distract them, we had them work on barricading the building to keep those crabs out.
Out in one of the little alcoves in the hall, Oskar flipped a switch, and activated a display on a flat chunk of crystal. There were buttons with the gnomish alphabet and a few symbols, and on the display was a peculiar series of dashes and colons. _ _ : _ _ : _ _ I pushed a few of the buttons, and each time I'd press one, it would appear in two slots, then the next would take up the next two slots, and a third key did the last two. After hitting a third key, it would shut off and would take ten minutes before I could turn it back on again, a red light near the on button would turn green, which seemed to inform me it was able to be switched on again.
While waiting for it to turn back on, I rifled through the drawers of the desk the crystal display was on. I found the weirdest little weapon-tool-thingy. It was a long, rectangular thing that had a slot in it. When I squeezed it, it would clack together, and part of it would go into itself. These odd strips of metal that were folded came out of it when I did that. I stuck my hand in the little slot and squeezed and was greeted to a sharp pain in my hand. I dug the thing out quickly, but damn that thing stung. I also discovered if I pulled on the top, it opened up to reveal more of those metal strips, along with a spring-loading system. The only other thing I found in this desk was a bunch of papers- which had those little metal strips in them- one saying not to write down or share the daily code, and another asking if someone would switch shifts with them. I also found, between that desk and two of the three others, these odd little squares of paper with something sticky on the back. They said "DMY;" "12:35 McDenton's;" and "Next Thirdday."
After I pushed the buttons to no avail again, I used my new spell that helps me figure out exactly what makes a mechanical object tick. The switches on it seemed to control the heavy, locked door in front of us, which all looked like they helped control the facility. I found a switch that activated the other interfaces too. One had a bunch of blue lines on it, with no buttons. The second simply displayed: "05:05:13" and the last one didn't have a screen, but instead had a bunch of pressure gauges and switches instead.
I had a feeling something on those papers, and maybe something in the number screen could help me crack this, but I was somewhat at a loss. I decided to rest and look at this again later with a clear head. During our rest, I rebuilt Dunderbittles, using those microscopic mechanical bug things from NATAS.
*****
After our rest, Oskar and I let Jak and Bex knock down the brass wall. I'd hoped that Edie would emerge or something during our rest, but no such luck. Knowing my cousin, I went around the corner before they did it, since I had a feeling she'd trapped it in some way. As expected, when the wall went down we heard something crash, and something mechanical was off kilter. Steam billowed out of the room, blocking our vision, and I called out to Edie. Jak did too, and then seemed to grapple someone. I tried to call out again, but I choked on that fucking steam and instead began hacking.
Bumbersnoot and I moved up to the others, while Oskar explained who we were, since I couldn't. The steam began to dissipate, revealing a figure in dwarven plate. Ali had somehow managed to make that fit her, and her voice sounded oddly hollow. She recognized me and scooped me up in a hug before I'd actually registered that it was her, since she shouldn't be filling dwarven plate like that- she was about the same height as me the last time I'd seen her. She asked Oskar to take a look at Edie, who was in bad shape. Her arm and leg were missing- again- and she was feverish and badly wounded. Oskar healed her, and got rid of the fever and infection. I had the schematics with me for her arm and leg, but it would take me at least a couple of tendays to make, time we likely didn't have.
Ali told me that they'd been down here for a month, though Edie's message to me was only two tendays old. She said the crabs showed up when they activated the plant, and had been trapped her ever since. The crabs were outside at first, but eventually they got inside, which is how my cousins found themselves barricaded in the room we found them in. They'd run out of food a tenday ago, and transmuting food wasn't easy when you didn't have the best materials to start with.
Ali said we needed to get through that locked door to activate the power in the rest of the city before we bothered going outside. Something Jak and Bex protested. Jak refused to sit the fuck still to let me work on this. He was seriously pissing me off today. Eventually we all figured out the password to get behind that door. It corresponded to the numbers on the other screen, and the note that said "DMY" was indeed a clue. The code was the fifth letter in the day, the fifth letter in the month, and the thirteenth letter in the year. It apparently changed every day, since Ali said when they'd seen it a few days ago, it had a different number sequence displayed.
The doors opened and lights began turning on in the room beyond. The foot was two feet thick, and looked like it was adamantine. Before going in, we put Edie on Bumbersnoot with me, and tied her to my back so she wouldn't be rag dolling around. We didn't want to leave her behind, even though she was asleep. She'd already be hella pissed she missed this, but it was best not to wake her.
The room was full of machines, some of which were whirring to life; there was a green flickering light inside. In the center of this huge room was an enormous quartz with metal wires on it and coming out of it, which attached to other machines. It was hella hot in here, which I bet had to do with the copper everywhere. We crossed a bridge to the main central column where the quartz was, and found the lever to turn it on was padlocked. Before I could pick it, Jak punched it... turns out it was adamantine. After laughing at the jerk, I picked the lock with ease, and pulled the lever.
Everything sprang to life as the machines rumbled, being turned on for the first time in centuries. A huge cloud of dust came up from below, as the layer of dust that coated everything was shaken off and sent into the air. Things shook a lot, but after a few moments, everything settled into a steady rumble. I looked around a bit more and found another locked lever labeled "power core." I picked the lock and pulled the lever. There was a flash of light, which blinded Jak and Dunderbittles, and then a small pinprick of light appeared in the center of the quartz, which grew until lightning shot out of the metal rods on the crystal, and into the attached wires.
We decided to go see if there was anything new on the displays in the other room now that the power was on. The bridge was looking a little rickety after turning the power on, so we decided to cross one at a time. Ali and I made it over just fine, but the bridge got a bit creaky when Bex started crossing. Jak and Oskar took a different bridge and walked around to get to us. No need to tempt fate by crossing that bridge when there were others.
The screen with blue lines was now monitoring the machines, and said power was at 00.01%. Now that the power was on, we could explore. Ali decided to stay in the plant with Edie, since she was still out and probably would be for a while, plus she wanted to monitor the machines. I regretted giving Amara my other talkie stone now, it would have been better to leave with Ali.
Outside was a sight to behold. There were lights on everywhere, and the faint sound of machinery at work was music to my ears. This was what I'd spent my life searching for. Looking around, we realized the entire city was in a huge dome, and was completely submerged in water... at which point Oskar started spazzing out. We tried to calm him down, but it took a bit for the dwarf to get a hold of himself.
In the distance we could hear marching footsteps. Jak snuck ahead to check it out, and found one human and one gnome in guards uniforms- they were walking away from us. I had to check it out, so Bumbersnoot and I attempted to sneak forward... we're not stealthy.
The guards were Mechanicals!!! I wanted to take them apart so badly! They told us- yes, they spoke!- to identify ourselves, and after I gave them my clan name, they told us to report to the visitor's center. There were two of them, one was back the way we'd initially come in, and the other was deeper into the city. We quickly discussed which one to go to- the one we hadn't seen yet, since it would let us explore more on the way- and as we came to that conclusion, they told us to move along. Oskar, jokingly, asked me if we should break them. I said no, and Jak took Oskar literally and swung. The big oaf stumbled and the guard tossed a net at him. That was all the invitation Bex needed to attack... Then Oskar asked if fighting them would summon others, and while I didn't know for sure, I assumed so, since that's what I would do. Oskar whacked one of them with his hammer, which went right through the guard's chest, and it collapsed. At least this one didn't blow up like the stupid crabs did.
The other guard shot up a flare with a white blinking light- calling the other guards, no doubt- and told us to surrender peacefully. Which, of course, Jak was unwilling to do. As he swung at it, it released a red blinking flare, its last act before Jak killed it. I insisted we take them back to the plant, and hope other guards and crabs wouldn't follow us. That was the safest place we really could go, and we weren't very far from the power plant yet.
Of course more guards followed us. Two Mechanical dogs stepped in our path. They were more like hounds than Bumbersnoot, and while they were completely adorable, they weren't anywhere near as cute as Bumbersnoot. Jak went to throw gears at one of the hounds and somehow managed to hit himself with them instead. It was hella funny. One of the hounds whipped Jak with its tongue, then climbed on him. I reluctantly killed the hound on top of him with NATAS, and then Jak got up, beat on the other one, dropped it, and scooped up both of them before hurrying on our way.
As we passed the next intersection, Jak and Oskar were hit with nets, and began being drug away. Jak busted out after only being drug a few feet, while Bex helped Oskar get out of his. I got on the other side of the Mechanical that had grabbed Jak and shot it with NATAS, reluctantly again, I really didn't want to kill these beautiful works of art. I shot it hella hard, then Bumbersnoot tripped it, and Dunderbittles bit it. Jak finished it off. We all then turned to the other Mechanical and dropped it.
We were running through the gates to the plant when everyone except Bumbersnoot slipped and fell. The area was covered in oil, which was then ignited. Dunderbittles was dead, again. Two massive Mechanicals stepped out of the little towers flanking the gates. Jak hit one before more fire hit us- Bumbersnoot went down, but I was able to revive him, then he stood up, took a single step, and fell over. Stupid fucking oil. Bex helped Jak work on one Mechanical, while we all attempted to move through the gates. Oskar healed up Bumbersnoot and the others quickly, just before Bex, Jak, and Bumbersnoot were hit hard. My poor puppy was in bad shape.
I tossed a handful of gears into the air, forming a shield around Bumbersnoot to keep him from going down again. He managed to keep his footing to get us out of the grease. Jak summoned a spectral Hand to grab one of the Mechanicals before he and Bex resumed pounding on it. I got hit hard by the other Mechanical, but needed to help finish off the one Bex and Jak were working on, so I shot it with NATAS, and it blew up- dropping poor Bex in the process, but Jak revived her quickly.
Jak sent his Hand to the one in front of Oskar and I, just before I took a nasty blow from it. Jak and Bex attempted to hit it from range, so they wouldn't have to cross the flaming oil between us and them, but they missed. Oskar finally managed to hit it with his hammer, and I followed up by hitting with with NATAS. Jak had the Hand lay flat over the oil for us, creating a little bridge for Oskar and I to cross. Oskar smashed at it just before it put itself right behind me, hitting me with fire. Bumbersnoot went down again, and it destroyed the Hand. I'm getting really tired of my poor puppy getting hit so fucking much. Bumbersnoot bit it after he got up, and Bex managed to finish the damn thing off!
There were a couple dozen Mechanicals coming toward us, so I hurried into the guard tower. After a minute of fighting with another adamantine padlock, I got it open and was able to pull the lever to close the gates. They closed just in time.
Inside the plant there were little spiderbots- Mechanimal Spiders- running around repairing everything. When we set down one of the big Mechanicals we'd just fought, one instantly went to work on fixing it. I figured this had to be my big chance to hack into its system to hijack it. Unfortunately the changes I was attempting to make were being instantly undone by the damn spiderbot. So I beat it up, knocked it out, and began hacking it. I told the others they could attack the spiderbots if they wanted, since once I finished hacking this one, it could make the changes I wanted on the other ones. They brought me four of them, and apparently Bex almost died fighting them.
I turned the spiderbot into the new Dunderbittles, since I needed to rebuild her anyways, and that was the easiest way for me to do that.
***** Kythorn 11, Power Plant in the Lost City of Lantis
During third watch, while I was working, Jak reported that at least six crabs showed up and slaughtered the guards that were standing vigil outside the plant, waiting for us to come out so they could arrest us for breaking laws in a society that no longer existed. The crabs carried the fallen guards away, and eventually new guards stopped joining in. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad.
When I finished up Dunderbittles 2.0, Jak decided to be an asshole and wake up Edie. But without her arm and leg, we couldn't take her out there. Then it hit me: we had a Mechanical gnome whose arm and leg we could attach to Edie. It would take at least another eight hours of work, which led to Jak having a hissy fit because he was bored. Bex pointed out that every single time I've told him to fucking wait and give me time, and he's ignored me, shit has gone wrong, so maybe he should chill the fuck out and listen to me for once. To my surprise that actually worked.
Since he was still complaining, he decided to go scout stealthily while I worked. Then he could get a better idea of what was going on out there.
Jak found an airlock of sorts that was occupied by a massive Mechanical spider, who was creating an army of her own with the fallen Mechanicals, along with other pieces of the city. They were literally stripping the metal from the city. By turning the power back on, we'd given the city the ability to fight back, but it seemed the guards weren't much of a match for the crabs on their own.
Oskar found a map of the city at one of the consoles in the plant, it was way bigger than we'd thought. It was a series of domes like this one, all linked together with tunnels. There were signs of blockage in some of the tunnels, so we couldn't get to some of them- like the center one. But we thought if we could get to the other domes and get their power up and running, we might be able to get an army of our very own.
We decided we would go to the airlock, because Jak thought there was an underwater craft that could get us around to the next dome. I would animate one of the Mechanical spiderbots Dunderbittles hadn't gotten to yet, and have it shut the gate behind us, so the crab couldn't mess with the power in the domes. I prayed this would work. It was our only shot at saving this wonderful, ancient city.
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| The Lost City of Lantis |
