Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Sun 13th Mar 2022 09:18

Metal Ruins

by Never Nestknitter

There was a place on the map Fari gave Arc marked something about broken metal people, so naturally Arc wanted to go there. It looked to be only 'bout a day's walk so we said, "why not?" Before we set out, I tol' them a little 'bout my dream and said I think I might be able to summon up a drake in real life. They all said that was real weird, but I tried anyway, and wouldn't ya know? It worked! I named her Aubrey. Oh an over the night, Arc apparently made himself a little buddy, 'cuz when we woke up, there was our Arc and a little tiny Arc Jr.
 
On the way, we were attacked by a gigantic zappy moth thing. Shock-wave would be a good name for a creature like that. It'll probably never catch on though. Anyway, we fought that thing. It weren't too hard. Barg got the final strike on it.
 
We kept walking 'til nightfall. 'Bout that time we saw the ruins not too far off. It 's in the middle of a swamp. The whole place gave me the heebie-jeebies. We camped for the night.
 
In the morning we went to the ruins. Guess what we saw? A buncha ruins, that's . Including the remains of what was once a massive roadbed. There were four creatures guarding the place Someone called 'em Children of Aviv. Anyway they were powerful ugly creatures. Looked like their skin was melting off, and they had tiny horns. Several people tried to talk to 'em but couldn't. Well low and behold it turns out Silent Bob CAN talk long as it's in someone's head. Must only be a thing he can do with strangers though, cuz he still writes down everything to us. Anyway, he tells us, rather writes us, that the Aviv things tell us to leave. We said, "no," so we had to fight 'em. The bunch of us make a real good team and we knocked 'em all out. We all did the work, but Barg got the last hit on two of 'em! Aubrey and I got one together, and Arc got the other one. Abby says the things remind him of devils. Creepy, right?
 
I figured out the marsh was made by a spring. Don' know if that'll ever be useful information, but I figure I may as well write it down.
 
The buildings look like they were attacked with acid. That reminded me what Fari said about the black dragon being seen in the area, so I tol' the others so's they's know too. That made 'em all a little uneasy. Not as uneasy as I am when it comes to black dragons, but I wasn't about to tell them that. They don't need to know that story now. Or ever, really. Wish I could forget it my own self.
 
One of the buildings has a couple'a pictures in it. One of a devil who looks mighty proper an' has a unsettlin' smile. The other is of Automaton that look jus' like Arc, 'cept wearin' battle gear. Both pictures seem to be magically preserved. Arc takes both the pictures.
 
We find a pair a doors that look like the slidey kind, but we caint open 'em. Maybe we'll figure them out later.
 
Anouther room has a pictures that moves. We woulda inspected that, but there were six more of Aviv's kids. Barg and Rankle finish off two each, and Bob and I got one each. After that fight, I stood guard while the others took a break, I used that time to re-summon Aubrey.
 
Arc found a little rectangle made out of a thing he called Plast-ak. Somehow he made it work like a key. That guy continues to astonish me. He also found a journal and realized it belonged to his master. Apparently, this is where Arc was created. Kinda cool we stumbled on his birthplace. Th journal mentioned mated dragons. Aw hell. It's prolly safe to assume their gone seeing how we've made a buncha noise and haven't been attacked. Arc's a good finder cuz he also found some weapons. He said I could hold onto the fancy dagger for now.
 
We finished that floor, so we went back to the metal slidey doors. Arcs Plast-ak key opened to doors! When we were all in, the doors closed on us. That was nerve wracking but not as much as when the little metal room started to move downward! Then the doors opened on a whole 'nother floor! There's a buncha water and it almost covers Abby and I.
 
There's a whole buncha spare metal person parts, an' I point out to Arc he might be able to use them his own self, so he took some.
 
There's a box on the wall and it had two healing potions in it. We gave those to Abby.
 
When we finish that floor we get back in the metal box and go up and up. Rankle and I bumped into something and made rocks fall. I dodged 'em but Rankle got hit.
 
We looked through a window and saw the skeleton of a dragon. We decide to go outside and check it out. When we are close to it, we determined it was a female, and it was killed by something equally as powerful as it. Maybe it was the things mate? Talk about a bad break-up.