I put on my good robes and headed to the Winged Guar for breakfast. One of the people in the area asked if I had been to the Robot Arena. I told her that I had been there yesterday, bring in the parts needed to get them working again. She said how odd it was, because she tried to go there this morning, and the door was locked. She also said she could hear what sounded like screaming, but wasn't sure. She couldn't make it all out over the screaming wind of the ashstorm still punishing Mournhold.

I decided I'd better investigate.

I arrived at the home of Ignatius Flaccus in short order. The lady I had spoken to was right - the door was locked, and over the din of the howling wind, I could hear what sounded like screams for help.

I hadn't brought any of my lockpicks with me, but a quick spell of Ondusi's Door Open rendered the lock useless.

I made my way to the lower level. Suddenly, through all the clanking noises of Dwemer machines walking around, I could hear Ignatius shouting "By the gods, someone help me!!!"

Well, if you're going to play with dangerous toys....    

Using the Amulet of Shadows, I made myself hard to see, then opened the door ever-so-gently.

There, right near the door, and wondering why the doro had opened by itself, was a huge steam centurion!

Just a few feet behind him, the other machines were also wandering around loose. The shield wasn't working.

In order to get in the room and get to Ignatius, I needed to get this centurion out of the way. Using one of my Leach rings, I used the spell on it to drain it's life force into myself. This was a powerful machine; it took three hits to kill the centurion.

I found Ignatius at the edge of his room, trying to stay very still, lest he attract the attention of the poison-bearing spider-bots.

"Ignatius, it's me, Eldorf!" I said, whispering in his ear. "I'm using a chameleon spell. What happened?"

His voice was as quiet as a mouse. "Help me, please!! I don't know what happened. My containment gate shattered, and all the bots suddenly started attacking! Disable them for me and I'll pay you well."

He turned in my direction, looking right through me. "Look out behind you!" he shouted.

I turned, and came face to face with a curious spider-bot. I hit it with one of the Rings of Leaches, and it died almost instantly.

The other bots, seeing the spell that killed off the spider-bot, came rushing to the attack. They couldn't see me, but they saw from where the attack originated - right next to Ignatius! They would kill him instantly, if I didn't stop them all in time. These things are dangerous to fight when wearing full armor. An unarmored person would die from just one blow of a steam centurion's fist.

Quickly, I hit one machine after another, going through each of the Leach rings as their magic charge was exhausted.

I took a few steps into the Arena itself drawing the machines to myself. I hadn't even noticed that the chameleon spell had worn off. Suddenly, the last of them fell. Just as well, too, since I had run out of Leach rings.

I returned to Ignatius who was still catching his breath after nearly losing his life to his odd hobby.

"Thank you so much for disabling my haywire bots." he said. "I most likely owe you my life. Here, please accept this gold as a reward. I've got some rebuilding to do."

I laughed. "Are you sure you don't want to go head-to-head with them again?" I joked.

"Oh, goodness no." he replied. "This is much too much excitement for me."

He said he would have to find out what caused the shield spell to shatter, probably something he caused when trying to access one of the damaged bots. That sort of thing can happen when you have too many things running at the same time.

Having completed my good deed for the day, I headed for the smith to see if my blade was ready yet.

I hoped I had counted the days correctly. I really wanted to see what this blade looked like, once completed.

Yagak gro-Gluk saw me approach. He crossed his arms and gave me a stern look.

"Yeah, you the one wanted me to forge the blade." he growled. "I suppose you figure me finish, huh?"

I tried to be polite, of course. "Well, I was hoping, but if it's not done yet, of course...."

He turned, and grabbed the object of my affection, handing it to me. Orks never smile, and I guess it's those two tusks sticking out of their lower jaw - you can never tell if they're happy or not.

"Here's your blade." he said, shoving it in my hands like a disgusted child. "And before you ask, I don't know why it doesn't burn. I'm a smith, not an enchanter. You want Dwemer enchantments on this thing, talk to a Dwemer."

"Um, that might be difficult." I said, starting to explain the situation to him.

"I know, I know. They're all dead." he replied, knowing that I was about to explain the obvious. "But look...I've heard rumors of a powerful Dwemer mystic, Radac Stungnthumz, that lived in Bamz-Amschend."

"That place under the Plaza statue, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's the place." he replied. "He's long gone, but maybe some of his writings still exist. If you can find any of them, I'll see what I can do for you."

"I appreciate that. Thank you." I replied.

Once outside the smith's offices, I took the blade out and looked at it in the ashstorm-filtered sunlight.

A fine looking weapon, powerful, sharp as a jealous woman's tongue.

Now, all I needed to do is find some kind of Dwemer writings that could help get this thing enchanted.

I didn't change robes, instead deciding to head right into the Dwemer chambers immediately. Most of the machines should still be broken from my last trip down there, so I didn't think there'd be any danger.