MISSION TO THE CLOCKWORK CITY
Part 3

There were two doors on the upper level. One looked as though it had been broken by some powerful force, and there were still flames licking at the damaged hinges. Since the other door looked better, I decided to explore what was behind it.

Upon entering the room, I noticed an odd sound coming from just up ahead of me. It sounded like a Fabricant, but different. It was the usual "clicking" noise of metal feet on metal floors, but with a nasty hissing sound. With Trueflame ready, I looked around the corner, and found the source of this sound.

 

It was a Fabricant, to be sure, but this looked as though it was a mixture of mechanical parts as well as flesh.

I had seen one of these attacking the guards in the Plaza, and recalled that it was very hard to kill.

 

Along with those nasty-looking fangs in it's mouth, I also had to worry about that pointy stinger on it's tail.

I found it hard to believe that a member of the Tribunal had built this thing. Could it be true that Sotha Sil had gone mad? This was not the work of a normal mind.

 

The creature saw me and gave off a hissing sound, raising it's tail up for attack. Poison dripped from it's huge fangs.

It shifted off to the side, then with a roar, it charged to attack. I raised my shield and blocked it's fangs, spun around, and Trueflame hit the creature where the neck met the body. The creature bellowed in pain, and turned to attack once again.

It raised it's tail, attempting to strike me with it, but my shield fended off the attack easily.

Once again, Trueflame met it's mark, and this time, the creature fell silent, crumbling in pieces on the floor before me.

 

Finding only a few pieces of scrap in the chamber, I decided to then check the passage behind the broken door.

I had to wonder - Sotha Sil had everything running tightly, and in good working order (except, possibly, for his lack of drainage in the first couple of sections). What force could have possibly broken down the door like this? It wasn't defective - it had been blasted right off of the hinges by some powerful explosive device.

Something (or someone) wanted to get in where they were not supposed to be.

Cautiously, I made my way past the flaming debris, and through the door that the broken door had been guarding: The Chamber of Sohleh.

 

This new chamber was filled with those modules in the ceiling that dropped sparks all over the place, making it difficult to see ahead.

Suddenly, the clanking of metal feet could be heard, many, many feet, all coming in my direction.

I created a Wall of Fire spell, but two of the Fabricants got through before the spell took hold. I found myself doing battle with two of these creatures; the one with the long neck, and the one with the nasty fangs. The Wall of Fire spell kept the other monsters at bay while I killed off the two that got past the wall. It took all I had, and a health potion, to put those two creatures down. The Wall of Fire killed the rest of them.

 

Down at the far end of the hallway, another Fabricant was seen patrolling the area. It hadn't seen me yet, so I greeted it with a spell from the Ring of Leaches. It took several hits, but the creature finally died.

 

At the other end of this hallway was another huge door, this one leading to the Dome of Kasia.

 

The room was a huge dome with a large rotating arm at the top. On the floor, and facing me directly, were three long-neck Fabricants, and the charged immediately in my direction. I quickly activated the Amulet of Shadows, and dodged their attack. As I ran off to the side, the machines engaged in pursuit, trying to find me.

As I ran, I created one Wall of Fire after another, and hoped that the monsters would run into them before I did.

 

I used a lot of magicka in the process, but the tactic worked - each of the machines ran into at least one of the walls I had created, bashing away at it until the fire spell contained in the wall did its work.

Now, I had to examine the odd machine above me, spinning madly, but not seeming as though it did any other function.

 

There was a ramp leading up to a second level so I decided to see what I could see up there. I was glad I ducked as the spinning arm came around. Attached to the arm were several, very sharp, spinning blades. Three quarters of the way around the ledge there was another doorway leading out of this chamber.

The problem was: how to get there without getting sliced and diced along the way.

My first though was a levitation spell. It didn't work - some force or spell was blocking the spell from working!

I changed into a mist form, but just floated along the floor. As hard as I tried, I could not lift off the floor. The cliffracer form suffered the same problem.

Standing in the middle of the chamber, and wearing the enchanted soft brown leather boots, I jumped up. The boots let me leap great heights, then slow-fall back to the ground. I nearly hit my head on the spinning arm on the way up, and on the way down, but I felt as though this might work.

Timing things just right, I aimed right at the exit door, and waited until the arm was almost in line with it. I ran, then jumped up, leaping way over the arm, then slow-fall took over and I came right at the exit door. The blades came around again, just before I hit the ledge.

 

I ran into the alcove and turned just in time to see the huge arm swing by, the spinning blades of death just missing me by inches.

I couldn't remember where I had found these enchanted boots, but I was certainly glad I had found them.

Smiling at my good fortune so far, I turned and headed into the Dome of Serlyn.

 

I was greeted by a long-neck Fabricant, but Trueflame came through for me once again.

Once it was dead, I looked at the room around me. It was dome-shaped, but there was a large machine in the middle of it, with one end attached to the far end of the wall, and the other end with a door on it. As I examined the device, the door opened up, and another long-neck came out, looking for trouble. Again, Trueflame did it's job, and the door on the device closed. Moments later, the door opened again, and yet another monster came out. After killing that one as well, I used the enchanted boots to leap up to an outcropping in the walls for safety.

 

Once every minute, the door of this device would open, and a new long-neck monster would come out. I killed each one with a spell from the Ring of Leaches, but soon realized that this thing would never stop creating monsters, and I'd eventually run out of magicka, as well as the potions to restore both magicka and health.

I would have to deal with the machine if I wanted to proceed further.

 

Between new monsters, the boots let me glide gently to the ground, I used the Amulet of Shadows to get to the south side of the machine. There were two controls on the side of it, each with a red light on it.

 

The spell from the amulet wore off while I was figuring out the controls, so I set up a Wall of Fire spell to keep the monsters at bay until I could make sense of these two levels.

Once I had my privacy, I saw that as the doors closed, the controls would do something, and then the door would open again, allowing another machine to come in.

Using the control on the right, I switched it so the light turned green. The Wall of Fire spell gave out, so once again, Trueflame was made ready. I stood in front of the door, waiting for it to open, hoping this would be my way out.

 

 

 

Continued..........

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