Winning Vote: said:
━<><><>< 472 A.P. ><><><>━
You're not one to boast, but you reckon you're a dab hand at crafting a Gronti or construct of lesser size.
But when you press down on the button next to the statue of the mother you are given a sharp reminder about who exactly created this trial, and that your skill pales in comparison to Him.
For all that Gronti are stone given life, the vast majority are still subject to the physical realities of the material they are made from. Even you are not capable of fully overcoming those limits even with your newest work. While it can fudge around with the realities of stone and metal to give them a startling level of flexibility, the Master Rune of Waking could not work
miracles. You bypassed most of those concerns by using the altered the Master Rune of Waking you learned and by creating what was effectively a doll by building the anatomy of the Gronti and fashioning to-scale equipment for them. A solution that you recognize is something that needs access to a Master Rune to mask and smooth out the basic animation, and the wealth of a King and the labour of a Clan to build.
Even still there is always
something wrong. To the untrained eye and from a great enough distance it isn't noticeable, but for a Dwarf who has studied the mechanics of the form as intensely as you have they are clear as day. Mistakes and mechanical movements born from compromises made in the name of practicality that had to be done for the sake of movement, joints and flexibility that meat and bone could manage, but that stone and metal could never mimic even with the Master Rune. The Gronti's body is a compromise of anatomical accuracy and mechanical necessity.
But Thungni?
Thungni scoffs at the very idea of compromise it seems.
The Mother's statue comes to life, her head raising to meet the gaze of everyone in the room with a smile and nod before she turns away and begins walking sedately down the path marked on the floor. Would it that anyone bothered to look at you instead of the Gronti-duraz, they would have thought you an altogether indecent sort with how intensely you were staring, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.
It is a perfect rendition.
The dress moved, exactly as you'd imagine it would were it made from cloth and wool; the "fabric" folding and crinkling as if they weren't hewn from stone. The statue's braid swayed with every step it took, and though you saw it for only a moment the image of how its face moved, as if it were true flesh and its chest rose and fell as if it needed to breathe, shall stick with you forever.
For a moment you believed a living Dwarf had simply stepped off her pedestal before the reality of its stoney body sunk in.
It is craftsmanship and skill that others would call devilry, to you it is a show of talent that reminds you there is so much for you to achieve.
You begin to follow after the construct as it keeps walking, though keeping an understandable distance away given what you've just witnessed.
When the statue finally reaches the end of the path it turns to face the wall casually, as if it were waiting for something as mundane as bread to finish baking.
Then, just as before, seven bright spots light up along the wall. Then, just as before, seven torrents of heat struck out at the spot where the statue stood. But instead of melting stone you witness the construct raise her fire poker, hidden Runes along its length glittering to wakefulness and creating a semicircular field in front of it just as the beams were about to strike. Everyone in the group tenses and you activate
Barak Azamar plant yourself between the statue and Karstah to shield her from the backsplash of deflected energy, closing your eyes as you do so.
But the heat does not come.
Instead you open your eyes and step aside, letting Karstah see the absurdity playing out in front of you.
Seven beams of heat strong enough to overcome Mhorni's regeneration, strong enough to tax even
Barak Azamar's seemingly inexhaustible output slam into the fire poker's shield only to seemingly disappear without a trace. Taken in by the almost invisible barrier of energy without issue. Your eyes drift towards the poker, and you aren't surprised to see them unbothered by the energy they're intaking. You're almost too stunned by what you're seeing to use your Windsight Eye, but the vision it provides is
telling.
Seven bright beams of ruby red
Aqshy slam into an invisible wall, one you can only see by the way the
Winds spill over its surface before they seemingly fall into it, disappearing without fuss or issue. You aren't blind to the similarities between what you're seeing, Karstah's hypothetical gauntlet and your Smelter, energy being absorbed and used would make the most sense, but the scale and ease with which this simple stone fire poker could manage was far beyond you.
You glance at the Runes, but something draws your eye.
A thread of magic, of
Chamon, sprouting from the statue's back like a stray hair that hangs in the air and connects it to
something beneath where the construct originally stood. That in itself made no sense given the limits of your eye unless it considered the statue
part of some larger
thing, but as you kept staring you realized something even stranger.
It was not the
only thread.
You sprint away from the statue of the mother, leaving everyone else behind to stare at bewilderment while you hurried over to see if your eyes were truly playing tricks on you.
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Karstah wants to chase after Master Snorri but she is stopped by the sudden lack of heat and the sound of grinding stone.
Turning back to the statue, Karstah sees that it has stepped back from the plate it stood on, letting the stone smoothly rise up from the floor through some unknown mechanism to reveal another plinth, though with a hole on its surface. The stone ceases moving when it reaches chest-height, allowing for the construct to reach into the pocket of its apron and reveal a Gromril plate no bigger than the palm of Karstah's hand and engraved with some unknown Rune that glows softly in the darkness. Then at last it turns to Karstah and offers out the plate with a soft, motherly smile on its lips.
"What in the blazes is going on girl?" Dreng mutters, looking at her questioningly.
"I don't rightly know," Karstah admits, "but Im not going to question it."
Not waiting for Dreng to reply, she steps forward and takes the proffered plate nodding at the statue as she does so, a gesture that causes it to nod back before whatever animating force within it ends, returning it to lifeless stone once more.
She looks down at the plate in confusion before shaking her head and turning to face the knelt over form of Master Snorri several meters back over where the other two statues still stood.
"Master!" She shouts, waving the gromril piece in the air like a piece of parchment. "There's something here I think you'll want to see!"
She watches Master Snorri's form slowly rise and turn to face her, take several steps before pausing to look back for a couple moments before making his way over to them once more. Though he's too far for her to make out the expression on his face, it's not hard to notice the palpable sense of shock that radiates from him.
When he finally reaches them his face is contorted into a hard squint, still deep in thought by whatever it was that drew him back there.
"Master," she greets, grabbing his attention by moving the Gromril plate into his field of view, "the statue offered this to us."
He doesn't say anything at first, merely taking it from her hands before turning to look at the plinth and its conspicuously shaped hole.
Without a word he puts the plate into the slot and steps back, though not before glancing at the inert statue.
The question on her mind is on the tip of her tongue when the room starts to shake, the previously dark room beginning to light up as the Runes inscribed on quartz rods along the walls flare into activity, while the wall mural of the seven dragons parts like a door to reveal a hidden tunnel with the Rune of Might carved above it.
"Form up," Master Snorri orders quietly before looking at her knowingly. "We can talk and walk Karstah."
She nods.
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"What drew you away Master?" Karstah whispers as you walk down the tunnel, a few meters of space between the two of you and the others for the sake of privacy.
"Three Gronti-Duraz Karstah. All linked to one source, to
one Rune," you tell her frankly.
"Like the Rune of Waking Elements?" she asks, taking your non sequitur in stride.
"It's like my Rune the same way a wooden mallet is like
Drongrundum," you clarify to her, snorting at the thought.
"It was that much better? I believe you Master, but I can't see how much more the Rune can do beyond the obvious and that doesn't seem like thats enough to use those sorts of words," she replies.
"Neither did I, until Thungni showed me how. The Rune wasn't laid bare before me, but I didn't need it to be when this eye–" You tap your prosthetic. "—Let me see what was happening in real time.
I can't truly confirm it, not without cracking open the statues themselves, but my running theory is that the statues were slaved to a single controlling Rune; either directly or by something akin to the Rune of Direction. No other way I can imagine my eye deciding all three and whatever was below the floor were all connected. Can you imagine it? Three bodies, all remotely controlled. Aye, I'll grant you that perhaps the Rune may not be able to control all three at once, but that does not take away from what I've seen. This entire complex is Thungni showing us beardlings just how far Runecraft can go."
Karstah nods along with your ramblings, before she poses a question of her own.
"How do you suppose Thungni is powering all of these Runes?" she mutters, looking around at the tunnels walls, as if they would give up some hidden truth to her.
"Not a damn clue." you tell her happily.
She blinks in surprise at your admission.
"Really?"
"Aye," you confirm, "those Dragons released enough energy that even
Barak Azamar worked up a sweat to keep up. It's been centuries since I've ever had to worry about concerns of power lass, and I can't even be certain if its because Thungni found a way to do it Himself or if He simply made Runes so efficient that they can release an equal, or near enough to it to not matter, amount of energy in under two minutes. I'm inclined to believe its the former, but if it is then it outpaces anything I've seen, and the maps don't mention
any Ley Lines or Monoliths nearby. I can't discount the possibility of course, but my eye can't pick it up, and our gear is operating as if there wasn't one either."
You let out a long breath.
"It's good to be challenged Karstah, to be reminded that I can still improve," you tell her, "Hammer or not this entire place is a Gromril mine of knowledge. I'm tempted to rip up the most interesting bits to bring home and examine for myself. Even if Izril's Runesmiths find out and blow more hot air out their arses than five herds of Eight Peaks Longhorn, I'd still reckon it'd be a good trade."
"Khazagar would certainly be more popular if that was the case," Karstah muses drily, "But it would mean having to host more wazzoks from Izril."
You bark out a laugh.
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The next chamber all of you enter is similarly bereft of ornamentation, plain if well cut stone for the walls, ceiling and floor with a plinth in the center with a dark grey Granite tablet atop it.
You and Karsstah walk forward and examine it, finding only three lines of Aldrhun etched into the rock and overlaid with a pleasantly contrasting Gold.
Hail the Mighty.
By Craft, by Skill, overcome.
What Remains, must be Undone.
"What do you reckon this means then?" you mutter, looking around the room.
"Two choices? Craft or Skill, though the terminology its using is rather odd. The Aldrhun for 'Skill' is deliberately very martial in context, but how would we even pick?" Karstah answers frustratedly, bending down to see if there was something on the plinth she was missing before turning her head up to look at you.
You nod in approval at your heir for having the good sense
not to immediately lift the tablet off the plinth at least.
Even if you both realize that's what will probably need to be done.
Passing a look between the two of you, Karstah sighs and steps behind you, pulling out her hammers as she does so.
"Step back and form up! You know the drill!" you order, activating
Barak Azamar at the same time.
You eye the slowly reforming form of
Mhorni with a smidge of apprehension and grudging respect for the weapons that did that to it.
Still, your shadow does reform itself, and heeding your order, moves to lift the tablet off of the plinth.
And thats when things go immediately wrong.
The Runes on
Barak Azamar whine angrily as something activates them, then you watch in mute surprise and horror as one by one, each Rune on your armour starts to fizzle and flicker before going out completely as Mhorni crumbles into a pile of rock in front of you. You attempt to ignite
Zharrgal and rouse
Skarrenbakraz out of instinct, but can cause only a spark of flame and trickle of ash to spill before their Runes too, sputter and die.
(
Modifiers, Snorri: Base: 20 + 15 Karugromthi + 15 with BA Zharrgal + 20 Barak Azamar + 15 The Earth Shadow + 25 with BA Skarrenbakraz + 15 Set bonus +10 Eye of the Ancestors +15 with BA Zharr-a-Drakhazi =
+150)
(DC: 50/100/150/???,????...)
Before you can react to what's happened you see the plinth
pulse, and watch as thick bands of light travel on the floor away from the it and up the walls, filling up three glowing, vertical rectangles you hadn't been able to see with either your natural or Windsight eye on the wall opposite from where you had entered.
With your equipment inactive you can only stare, wide eyed, as four Gronti Duraz emerge from hidden doors on either side of the room. They bore none of the lifelike finesse of the trio from before, forgoing beauty and detail in favour of sheer, brutal deadliness with Rune-inscribed Gromril equipment overtop their only vaguely bipedal bodies. They stand still for only a moment before they begin walking towards your position slowly.
"Hearth Guard!" Ylva roars, "To your Lord and the heir! Hold to your oaths, in Valaya's name!"
"Khazuk! Khazuk!" they shout back, fluidly forming a circle around you with their weapons drawn.
"Dreng!" Karstah shouts, "looks like you'll get to use your axe after all!"
The old warrior grunts in agreement.
Ylva jogs up to you, face grim.
"What are your orders, Lord?"
There are 4 Gronti of indeterminate strength heading towards your position. They are Ogre-sized, and are wielding Runed Gromril.
For this combat Encounter Snorri's equipment is nonfunctional, modifiers are as follows.
Modifiers, Snorri
Base: 20+ 15 [Karugromthi] =35
Modifiers, 60 Hearth Guard
Base 25 +35 [Equipment] +10[Present Numbers] =70
Modifiers, Karstah
Base: 15 +10 {Langkgrindal] +60[Equipment] =85
Modifiers, Dreng
Base: 30 +25[Karugromthi 2] +50[Equipment] +50[Skills] =155, Must Defend Karstah.
[ ] [
Write-in] Plan.
100 word limit
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There will be a twelve-hour long moratorium for discussion.
AN: Yeeeeeee, and I do say hawwwww. Don't forget to C&C, and feel free to ask me questions. I hope you enjoy. :^)
