DS 597 (Patreon)

(597: Falmer Slaughter)

The Dwarven Ruins are either stones or metal. Rarely one would find anything that would break this theme which makes the whole thing impossible to even dwell in.

The fact that an entire nation existed in these sorts of places is baffling since throughout their buildings, the whole thing seemed very inconvenient. When the Dwemer disappeared from the world, little was left behind aside from their weapons, cities, and machines. Some of the clutter survived as well such as plates and tableware but that's just it.

Where are their books, their means of entertainment, their non-stone and nonmetal personal items?

The answer is either it was scavenged by someone before or it decayed through the ages.

It is 3700 years too late to ask that question anyway. Jon can't be the only explorer to reach these places all that time. Many ruins thieves must have come and gone.

It still is depressing to the point where he was going through many parts of the rubble looking for fossilized things. The place was so cleaned that what he found was only a rattle toy that seemed to have been badly damaged.

Aside from the pointless exploration, the only thing to scavenge here was loads upon loads of Dwarven Metal and the only notes to take were those about the Ancient Dwarven Machinery and their applications.

Meanwhile, the team ahead focused on fighting the Dwarven Animunculi which started to get tougher the more they advanced.

It started with hordes of Dwarven Spiders and now, it is the Dwarven Spheres, the main foot soldiers of the Dwarven Ruins.

The Dwarven Spheres were the same description of the word. They were moving balls with the height of two feet that would love by using segments of their parts as wheels. Once they arrive near an enemy, they would unpack into an Animunculi with the height of five to six feet whose upper part is humanoid in shape and its lower part is still in the sphere's shell. Those Animunculi would use one bladed arm and another arm equipped with a crossbow to attack.

Relentless as they were, the Exploration team had to change their tactics with the Spheres. One group to shield from their attacks and bolts, another group was to keep them at bay with their spears and the one or two big-bodied troopers would use their hammers to completely shatter the Animunculi to smithereens.

However, the situation completely shifted to all the grim shades of black when the team ran into the first Dwarven Centurion, a metallic construct that stood on the towering height of five to six meters (almost 19 ft).

What can mortal men do when facing such horror?

At first, the Dwarven Centurion was dormant in a station made of an arc of pipes that supplied it with power. From a distant observation, these Dwarven Centurions don't get considered in a normal Animunculi assembly line but they actually get constructed by a horde of Dwarven Spiders working together on the Centurion station where they stand.

Jon managed to witness all that marvel by using a set of magical spells in order to spy on the secrets of the machine works of the Animunculi.

But as to every happy occasion, there is always that guy who's called the Party Buster which strangely rhymes with Falmer.

Those horrible little wicked things were present as well to ruin the mood. From some busted pipes and compromised maintenance hatches, some of those pesky Falmer hid and waited for the prey they sensed from a mile away.

The party was fairly underground already and since this is Falmer territory where even the Dwarven machines struggle to keep their grounds, the situation turned from a tactical confrontation with metallic machines to a head-on battle with a swarm of Falmer that built their outposts in these parts of the ruins.

The history of the Falmer dates back to when they were once the Elves that inhabited Skyrim. The Atmoran Return and the Dwemer Slavery has completely altered those once beautiful and elegant elves into what can now be seen as hideous savages no different than Goblins. They were filled with so much malice and hatred that they survived by herding subterranean bugs which they ate and used as crafting materials and fighting hounds all while waiting for the chance to get their hands on some of those people on the surface.

This cruel and vicious race flooded in number towards Jon and his exploration company intending to lay waste to the abhorrent humans but their malice was met with something that is far more evil than whatever they have spent thousands of years cultivating. Jon Dare, who watched them from the forefront of his group, ordered his people to stand down and walked ahead by himself.

"Those ones are mine." He said and walked past an old dwarven gate before closing it behind him.

In there where the world descended in complete darkness, Jon could only hear the sounds of the Falmer screeching and screaming as they surrounded him with their weapons.

They couldn't see him but the only thing they could hear was the sound of the metal on his boot clinking against the hard stone floor.

"Gluttony, Greed, Lust." He spoke.

Three aethereal masses were summoned around him. This first was fleshy red, the second was shadowy black, and the last was glassy translucent.

"Lust" Jon called again and the transparent aether in front of him and with a knife, he opened a small wound on the tip of his finger.

*GUUUUU*

The one reacting was obviously Gluttony, the being which longs for Jon's blood the most. In reaction to that, Greed quickly jumped towards it and both sins started suppressing one another.

A single drop of blood started to form on Jon's index and slowly descended as he aimed his finger down on Lust.

"Blood… Lust."

All it needed was a single drop of blood and the Lust immediately formed into a crystal to receive that blood drop. A strong sound of a drop falling into a pool of water was heard and suddenly, the clear crystal form of Lust turned red.

Waves of red energy spread into the surrounding space as every Falmer walking towards Jon were immediately stunned by it. They started inhaling the blood scent and acting up as if something wasn't going well with them.

The Red Lust emitted a red light which instantly lit the place and the image of those ugly Falmer in the Dwarven corridor appeared like a scene from an alien horror movie. What added fuel to the fire was the screeching that followed.

*SCREEEEEEECH*

The ones affected by the Blood Lust effect first were the Falmer Warmongers, the big brutes which seemed most monstrous. Their violent personalities succumbed to the call to carnage and their weapons started swinging.

Everything afterward mayhem.

"Release it." Jon spoke as he retrieved Greed and unleashed Gluttony in the fray.

Outside the corridor where the exploration team waited, the sound of battle came from beyond the large Dwarven gate. Little was everyone worried about Jon but the sound behind that wall was nothing short of horrific.

It all lasted for five minutes with horrible shrieks and screams echoing through the walls and it finally quieted down.

And the gate opened letting out a horrible stench.

What did they see? One might ask.

Initially, nothing. No one could see anything. Not the Falmer, not the Red Lust, not even Jon. It was ominously dark.

They heard the sound of footsteps afterward, a being came towards their direction walking slowly and heavily.

A Falmer, a single creature. It had no weapons, no shields, one of its arms was cut off, and it was surely covered in blood.

It raced its remaining hand towards the humans feebly still having the audacity to show the will to fight but all of a sudden, a large red fleshy tentacle appeared from the ceiling and rushed towards the Falmer.

It was caught by its head and before it could even react and suddenly lifted from where it stood back to the darkness it came from.

A crunching sound followed.

As one of the troopers brought a Candlelight staff and cast one candlelight into the dark corridor, the ball of light flew ahead making a bit of visibility and displaying what was inside.

Limbs, heads, guts, pools of blood… there were things that would make anybody turn their heads and run away to barf their guts out. The troopers endured it but this was difficult.

Behind the group of troopers, a figure descended from the ceiling, making no noise, and let go of the tentacle that he held to as it separated from his hand as well.

"Alright, it is clear." He spoke directly causing the troopers to jump off and aim their weapons in the other direction.

The moment they saw him was when they almost wanted to complain for the rest of their lives. They held their breath but someone asked.

"Boss, there's a strange monster out there."

"It's just something I summoned." Jon replied without a care in the world.

The troopers know that Jon summons stuff from Oblivion all the time so their worries were dismissed for the time being and the group advanced.

Meanwhile, Jon looked at Gluttony which was leeching to the ceiling in a monstrous form.

"Return." Jon commanded.

A massive chunk of flesh and gore dropped from the ceiling, reformed itself into a smaller size, and stood in front of Jon trying to imitate the shape of a person only to fail miserably.

Jon laughed and dismissed it.

"So, what did you gain this time?* He asked.

Speaking of gaining, Gluttony has a very unique ability towards what it feasts on.

"You learned a Tremorsense ability by eating the Falmer? Impressive indeed."

Jon recalled Gluttony and transformed it even more into the shape of a small ball with the size of his fist. He then dug his fingernails in Gluttony and caused it to expand and take over Jon's arm.

"Let's see." Jon spoke and looked at his forearm which turned out into something horrifying.

Jon's entire forearm was engulfed by Gluttony making it look like the hand of a monster from that horror movie where every monster is a skinned terrifying beast with knives for fingers. Jon grinned as he looked at this monstrous thing then slowly put it on the nearby wall. In his mind, everything on the other side became visible.

This turned out to be very useful when he saw what he saw.

"Those cunning Dwemer. So that's their secret."