The Iron Archives I

Discovery, Exploration

After communicating with the Eläin messenger, Marrok uncovers knowledge of historical archives associated with the name of the Iron King whom he now inheritors, and with the daughter of the bloodline a part of the expedition, he attempts to explore one of these hidden archives.

Shortly after the fall of the dragon god, Marrok enters a discussion with the warmaiden and messenger of the Eläin, though by titling himself evokes a memory from the messenger who recalls his passage through the northern lands and suggests to Marrok that he has not fully explored the inherited wealth he should have received.   Inspired by such matters, and promises of an army made of iron, Marrok sets about utilizing his resources and quickly uncovers one such archive, which he enters by grace of Aressia's blood, only to find the original craftsman corrupted and turned into undead entities by the Khatikoi.   Quickly, and immediately freeing them from their unpleasant afterlife, the group of Suzy, Pennie, Marrok, and Gabriel slay the spirits, with Suzy capturing the latent spell left behind by one of the raging spirits. Still, a psionic self-restoring barrier remained to impede their progress, through it quickly faded in recognition of Marrok. Allowing him entrance.   From there, the party would start to explore the heart of the archive, though - standing in their way was a large metallic robot that hovered in place. Announcing that they were now to be tested, and could not pass the barrier that had been erected to keep the unworthy out.   The warden of the archive was determined to prevent passage into the heart of it's facility, and thus even when they insisted, it insisted that they attempt it's trial. Such matters however were promptly negated by an unfortunate lack of consideration.   One, a demolitions expect had no compunction against tunneling her way around the barrior.   Two, one anti-mage had no problem walking through the barrier as if it weren't even present.   Third, initially raising it's hopes as the iron king himself sought to complete the trial; as he triggered the trap, Marrok became aware of a hostile force, and psychoported himself away before the creature would succeed in dimensionally tethering him the site, and as Marrok also teleported Pennie away from her half, the one accosting her too - would suffer the same fate as the first with both creatures in confusion of their missing prey.   As a test of spirit and mettle, the split party had been meant to survive an assault of astral beings and other guardians both, but with the rapid thinking of Marrok, a slightly depressed warden pondered over the broken incoherencies of their test, and then sighed internally to themselves before cheering themselves up with the thought of; "Well at least the new Iron King thinks outside the box."   There would be one more test however, as the most important section of the archive was the storage of the iron warriors. Where the party would enter a room in which four sets of warriors were spaced around four astral looking pools.   Each set of warriors consisted of three melee warriors, and a fourth telekinetic. Making them an adaptable force capable of covering themselves and letting their last member lay down a ranged assault. Though before such things could be earned, one test lay before them.   A massive creature - a Golem that was the ultimate creation of the previous iron king was to determine the worthiness of the new one. His body a hulking steel frame surrounded by numerous plates which it could telekinetically control and alter, made it so that it was capable of unleashing devastating blows, as the internal forge of it's body belched smoke and fog to hide where it was.   The astral seeing-pools, originally made to deal with any fear of the Khatikoi, alsso unleashed hordes of Elementals who would endlessly regenerate, and with their powers imbuing the massive automata, it rendered anything that was not intelligent, unable to bypass the space that acted as a barrier between itself and other creatures.   Suzy - with destructive force, would easily slay the elementals however, and break the astral ponds. Whilst Pennie and Gabriel would endlessly bash it being the intelligent creature connected to their fists.   Marrok, would then freely alternate between the various elementals and the iron automata itself, showing great care and precision in his behavior, even as it attempted numerous ruses, in attempts to make Marrok harm his ally.   Yet, creative battle strategies could only stretch so far as the mind to use them; and whilst it was capable of great physical feats, no amount of psychic protection could prepare the automata for the incoming damage of Suzy directly approaching it, and placing a hand on it's shoulder.   Only one, sympathetically spoken sorrowful and empathic tale was all that she need, to inflict greater damage than bullet, fist, or lance had inflicted. as her words sharply dampened the creature's morale, and encouraged it's defeat, such that it fell backwards and surrendered. Unwilling to continue the combat.   Unrelenting, even in it's defeat, Suzy continued her sad empathy, and further dampened the creature's spirits. Such that the furnace used to fuel it's body nearly went out - not for a lack of fuel, for that supply was unending so long as there was magic, but for simple existential depression.   Marrok wouldst not allow it a premature rest however, as he proceeded to pour great cups of drink into the heart of the creature's chest, rekindling the frame, and saving it from being wiped out, if only that the creature became too drunk to further contemplate thoughts of aliven't.   The iron warriors were not the only creatures of note present, in addition within the archive was a forge for creating and repairing things of explicit Psionic magic and powers, as well as the method of which more iron warriors could be produced, though such an esoteric and complicated topic would require much resources and study to fully explore.   recognizing his right of succession however, touching the keystone of the archive awoke the collective mindset of the iron warriors, and attached it to Marrok's own, allowing him to freely command the Warriors, the Psi-Warden, and the - now depressed - Iron automata.   Giving directions to move the psionic forge, the Psi-warden would rapidly dissemble and reconstruct it elsewhere safely in treddleton, whereupon she and the rest of the constructs would follow Marrok over to the expedition site.