The Ebony Renegades (Skyrim)

chapter seven

As the group followed the yellowish brick path crossing the bridge starting their twenty-minute hike towards the Tower of Mzark with Gentu leading the way due to being here before. As they were about to continue further Severin fired his crossbow twice as two Falmer skulkers fell off of the tower. as they followed the path down to a dwarven centurion deployment station. Following the path under the overhang of the two towers which set on either side of the path. They continued further down the path coming to a fork in the road with a large stone wall to their left, and the ground in front of the wall was littered with chorus eggs. Taking great care to be on their guard they drew their weapons and crept to avoid drawing unwanted attention to themselves from the buggy creatures. Coming to the bridge and to the very right of it was yet another dwarven centurion deployment station. Moving in a back-to-back formation to make sure nothing sneaks up behind them they proceeded across to the bridge as a single Tower came into View on the left-hand side through the foggy atmosphere. " there it is, the tower of Mzark." Gentu stated as they walked up to the elevator waiting for the rest of the group to get on the platform before he flipped the lever taking the elevator up. Once they were up into the tower and opened the two large dwarven doors that were in front of them they came into a large room with a bedroll, a makeshift cooking area, and another knapsack resting next to the bedroll. The group spread out to investigate while a group of three consisting of Severin, Tully, and Gila went into the next room scouting out ahead. Asadelf and Sabrina check out the far left corner finding only more ruined books and multiple rolls of paper. Suvvan looked in the far right corner finding nothing more than ruined books. Yamma and Gentu the near right corner by the entrance found a few locked chests a single dwarven helmet and a couple of dwemer gyros. " Hey Shadow-step we got a couple of locked chests over here." Yamma said as the kahjiit walked over and pulled out his lockpicks to try and open them. After a few minutes, he had both dwemer chests open and found a couple of valuable necklaces inside. Meanwhile, Ebon-shi searched through the apparent sleeping area and searched the knapsack finding more alchemical ingredients that he passed to Sabrina. As Tully, Severin, and Gila returned. " Guys you may want to see what's in this room." Gila said as she gestured for them to follow. Upon approaching the next room they saw a large copper sphere with Jade-like orbs embedded in it along with a ramp that went along the left-hand side. Following Gila up the ramp that was guarded mostly by a gate but the gate faded midway leaving a deadly drop if someone was unfortunate enough to fall before leading up to a platform at the top where a couple of desks with chairs were adorned all along the one side with chairs behind them along with ruined books on top clearly a sort of scholar area. Finding a skeleton on the ground nearby with a journal next to it Asadelf walked over and picked up the journal before quietly reading it. " apparently this poor Soul's name was Drokt and he was trying to figure this contraption out. Apparently Falmer had him trapped from the outside of the Tower. And wolves had him trapped from the surface, poor dear." Asadelf explained as she looks at the group. Gentu made his way up to the upper level and placed the ruined schematic upon the base where the lens was he went up to the top placing the blank lexicon into the slot the rest of the group moved back away from the mechanism as Gentu got to work pushing the buttons in accordance with what he wanted to do before the lexicon sparked to life within a few moments of pressing buttons and the lenses moving around he retrieved the Lexicon and gave the group a nod. " We now have the complete schematic for the Dwarven pickaxe." Gentu said as he leaned up against the wall taking the Dwarven helmet off of his head to wipe the sweat from his brow but the second he placed it in the center a hidden passageway opened up in the cubby hole on the ground level where the platform was leading down. The group's interest greatly peaked as they followed the stairway down all drawing their weapons to prepare for whatever might be waiting for them down there. The corridors were filled with spider webs indicating not even the dwemer used this corridor a lot compared to the clean crisp outside of the room they were just in this room was sealed, apparently, they didn't want something getting in or getting out. Upon entering the room it appeared to be a dungeon of sorts with two dwarven-like sarcophaguses on either side of the room with dwarven chests at the foot of both sarcophaguses further accompanied with a switch at the base along with what appeared to be, notes along with a bowl of a strange unknown fungus that Sabrina examined like she did with the crimson nirnroot. Gentu walked over to the desk and began reading the dwarven text he wasn't very good at reading it but he could just barely make it out. "... Guys apparently these are the two earliest experiments before the complete blinding of the snow elves which eventually transformed them into the blind savages they are today that we call the Falmer." He continue reading quietly before getting up and walking over to the sarcophagus on the left of the room. He flipped the switch as the sarcophagus lid moved upwards before sliding into the wall revealing what could only be discribes as a mutant of chorus and Falmer wearing nothing but a cloth on his lower groin. The beast upon being released wasted no time lunging out of the box that contained him before leaping onto the ceiling then dropping to the ground and circling the group on all fours jittering in the ancient falmer tongue before lunging over to the other sarcophagus and ripping the lid clean off its rails and throwing the lid across the room with such brute strength to rival a werebear. When the box opened it revealed not another mutant but rather, a gorgeous female snow elf whose beauty could rival Dibella herself. Her long straight white hair her pale skin and her rosy red lips shamed the red rose and her eyes were as deep blue as a sapphire she wore nothing but dirty rags over her gifted chest and her nethers. Upon seeing the woman released the mutant immediately rushed to her and what appeared to be ready to attack her but instead the mutant embraced her letting out what could only be described as heartbroken and despaired whispering. The woman spoke back in a soft yet comforting tone lightly rubbing the mutant's head before turning her attention to the group and speaking in an ancient falmer tongue sadly no one in the group understood. Before she sat up and slowly climbed out of her sarcophagus and lost her balance as Gentu rushed over to catch her so she didn't fall. " Whoa whoa easy there, just take it easy you're not in any danger we are not going to hurt you. The only reason we are here is because the door opened up and we wanted to see what was down here." Gentu spoke sincerely although knowing she probably couldn't understand what he was saying until she surprised him by speaking. " Thank you, We owe you a debt of gratitude." The snow elf said that she lightly bowed her head only to feel a gentle hand on her shoulder. " Don't be ridiculous my dear, we had no idea you or your Companion were here you owe us nothing. But I imagine you must be hungry the nearest town from here once we get out of Blackreach and we take the lift up in Windhelm we can get a meal at the Candlehearth Hall and then we can talk some more. But I imagine neither you nor your friend wants to stay cooped up in this dwarven ruin anymore than you have to." The snow elf woman nodded as she pulled herself up using Gentu to support herself. She walks over to the dwarven chest at the base of her sarcophagus and nods " would you and your group kindly await outside so we may disrobe out of these foul rags?" The group collectively nodded and waits out in the main room after a half hour the snow elf woman emerged from the sealed room wearing a set of white light armor the group never seen before. it was primarily white with scarlet trim