The Golem Army

[Zack Blaze]

"And you say that this factory is located here in Ettermire?" The slightly feminine voice of Zack Blaze asked his contact. The teen had come to the city in order to gain a better understanding of how Alerar as a whole worked. The techno city was marveled as the most advanced in all of Althanas, one that could be a deciding factor in wars, or economic relations.

Considering Zack's plans revolved around both a structured military and a stable economy, he had to make friends in high places here.

Who ever had developed the term 'loose lips sink ships' must have been talking about dwarves. Zack merely had to offer to buy a round for one of the loneliest little c=guys sitting at the bar to get him to talk. Apparently, the pint-sized warrior had just gotten back from retrieving a map featuring a series of tunnels underneath Ettermire.

The map allegedly lead to a factory housing an entire army of golems. It seemed as though some guy named Neosaim had foiled an evil plot and sent a floating factory plummeting into the grounds of Ettermire. Rather than try to move the factory for fear of waking the golems, the town simply built over it. The golems were not touched, and that was the last most people had heard about the tale.

The dwarf himself was interested due to the prospect of golem parts selling for quite a high price in Ettermire. Living dolls based on technology and not magic fetched a pretty coin in the town. If one could slay just one golem and sell the scrap in Ettermire, they'd come out a millionaire (or at least close to it).

Economic stability coming from a strong military. Zack grinned at the prospect as he continued to buy the dwarf ale. Zack himself drank water through the wee hours of the night, until the short stacked swordsman passed out from inebriation. It took Zack no time to pilfer the map from the dwarf, unfurling it as he walked out of the bar. As he read the directions, his jaw dropped.

"Made in Ettermire...." Zack read the words at the bottom right corner of the map. These things were being mass produced! Anybody could have access to the tunnels at this point! Zack growled as he clutched the map with his right hand, following the last directions he had seen. The first step to accessing the tunnels was going to a library a few blocks away from the bar.

He was either going to befriend anybody heading to the golem factory, or make sure they would not come out of it alive...

[Ganlon Martel]

Months of wandering had brought Ganlon to the tavern. The City of Ettermine was amazing to Ganlon. He realized that he was walking around with his mouth open in awe when a woman had asked him, “how many flies” he had caught today. His curiosity drove him from area to area looking at the different things that the city had to offer. He had been hungry and thirsty suddenly and found himself sitting in the tavern.

After a brief conversation with the barmaid he had settled on mutton and ale. When he reached into his pouch for money he realized how low he actually was on hard currency. He had been getting by on bartering for quite sometime. It was amazing how quickly a person would give you a meal when you freed them of the pain they had had for a year.

Yet his actual influx of cash was not good. Then he looked at his attire. His shirt was thread bare and his boots were wearing thin. One toe poked through on the edge of his right boot. His pants had too many patches to count. The wooden shield he carried was beaten and he had used it on multiple occasions for things like mixing herbs or even a dinner table. It was stained and pitted. He cared for his sword every day. He knew that it had the potential to keep him alive; however, the leather scabbard was worn and scratched.

He wasn’t one for pretense. He didn’t need to look like a peacock, but he was practical and he needed his cloths to keep him warm and dry. He knew that he needed money for all of these things. He couldn’t set up a shop in this town or any other. The time that it would take him to establish clientele to make money wouldn’t allow him to continue on his quest for the mountain. What really drove Ganlon’s desire for money was missing herbs that he needed for his pouch. He could not find certain things here that he could at home and he was fairly sure that a merchant might have some. He had nothing to buy them with.

He was sitting eating quietly and thinking hard on this when he saw the Young man and the Dwarf. The young man was quite an interesting looking person and this drew Ganlon’s attention and curiosity quickly. Ganlon noticed that he was buying the Dwarf a lot of drinks. Ganlon focused on the Dwarf and he could feel that his body was slowly going out of sync. Too many more of the drinks and he would be unconscious. Ganlon became interested and started to lean in to hear the conversation.

They were talking about a Map. This didn’t really interest Ganlon but what did was the conversation about the money that could be made if one could find the, “Golem factory.” He sat and watched them through the evening into the night, until the Dwarf had fallen off of his stool. The young man stood up and very casually took the Map that they had been talking about. Ganlon wasn’t shocked about the youth taking the map. If the Dwarf was so stupid to drink himself into a stupor then he needed a lesson about his possessions. He tried to get up to talk to the young man but he was gone in an instant. Ganlon was sure that the Goddess had given him this opportunity to make the money that he needed. Now how was he going to get himself into this young man’s graces? Ganlon walked out of the tavern and after the Young Man with the map.

[Hysteria]

Talen walked into the giant library of Ettermire. The huge building was full of books, shelves and shelves of knowledge crammed into the massive stone building. The thirteen year old boy felt dwarfed by the compendium of information as he walked wide-eyed through the shelves. Amazement quickly turned to angst as the boy realised finding the entrance would be much harder than he had thought.

Talen was an average looking boy, with short black hair and skin slightly paler than normal. He was dressed in simple black cloths and his body was mostly hidden under a thick cloak. At his belt he kept two swords, and hidden across his body a number of different items that he could use if situation arose. The boy was nothing if not resourceful.

The youth had come to the library in search of the Golem Army. The existence of this mechanical marvel had fallen into Talen's lap like so many other titbits of information. The boy as all about information. The things that were hidden, meant to be kept secret, were exactly what Talen wriggled his way into. When he had heard of a chance of actually finding the golems, Talen decided it was too good to pass up.

The boy however had no luck making it past the library and pulled his cloak around him and walked out into the street. The boy lent against the wall next to the door and looked out into the street as he mulled over the problem. He knew he could always teleport below the library, but he wasn't sure if he'd just end up in some forgotten hole in the ground, after all, he wasn't sure if the library had the entrance or just the clue to it. Talen sighed as the thoughts ran though his brain.

[MetalDrago]

Many things had been said in the past about a powerful secret hidden underneath the city of Ettermire, the pathway to a Golem Army. While Drago didn't particularly think of these rumors as having any basis in fact, he still couldn't stop himself from coming to see for himself. While his bodyguards had cautioned against it, he still came alone. His bodyguards might be there for him when he actually had need of them, but he didn't need them for some paltry archaeological expedition, certainly. He'd had to buy a map of the city to figure out where he was going, but he didn't care. The map could come in handy some other day. He could even fill it in with little things that the map makers didn't know or didn't want tourists to know about the back streets of the city as a whole.

Alerar, on the whole, was a beautiful country, just xenophobic enough not to trust outsiders while still not trampling them underfoot. A single wrong, or in Drago's case, right move to drum up the mistrust could do wonders. The Dragonian couldn't help but wonder, though, how he'd managed to get through the Raiaeran border with Alerar without so much as getting stopped. He figured it was because he wasn't an elf, and obviously wasn't originally from Raiaera. It might have had something to do with his ancestral ties to Dheathain, but he'd never know. As he continued to study the map and move forward, he came across a library. “This could have the clues I seek...” he mumbled under his breath.

It didn't take much more than a step forward to realize there was someone standing in front of the building. Someone that seemed a bit familiar, but not so much that he could place the face immediately. Had Lorenor at one time described a person like this to him? The boy's appearance was so commonplace that he would have fit in anywhere in Corone, but among the Alerarians, no. He was here for a reason.

Drago smiled slightly and leaned his back against the wall, on the opposite side of the door. “I can only wonder what it is about this place... the landscape, the books, the possibility of secrets hidden deep within, maybe? What draws you to this scenic location?” he asked, his low, growling voice full of mock sincerity.

[Zack Blaze]

Zack approached the library a plethora of energy to each step. During this tenure, the teen could have sword that he felt the persistent pursuit of somebody behind him. He had to shrug these feelings off, however, as paranoia had no place in this venture.

It did not take Zack long to find the library that the map had been referring to. It was a large building, comparable to that famous inn everybody in Alerar seemed to talk about. The youth looked up at the massive establishment in awe, not even focusing on the two people seemingly guarding the door to the library. He took the next steps into his journey, climbing the three steps and pushing open the red yew door that lead into the place of learning.

Bookshelves as far as the eye could see, as high as the high could see. Two stories worth of bookshelves. Looking down at his map, Zack mumbled to himself when he realized that the broad thing was not specific as to which way he should have gone in the massive building.

His eyes shifted downwards to the front desk, which from his experience should have hosted a librarian. This one did not. In fact, the whole place seemed to be abandoned. He bit down on his lower lip and thought hard about this. Why would a populated area like Ettermire not have people researching things in this place? It was obviously bigger than any other library in the city, after all.

Zack found his answer when he shifted through one of the narrow alleyways of bookshelves. He had not been close enough to catch it at first, but now that he was so near the tomes, he could read the titles on their spines.

"Fake Book. Definitely A Fake Book By A. Fake Author, This Book Is The Opposite Of Real By Not A. Person. Man....elves are really, really dumb." Zack scanned various sources as he walked past the shelves, laughing at their ridiculous titles. No wonder nobody came to this place, it was filled with nothing but false texts and badly dreamt up names!

After what seemed like half a mile of walking, Zack found the end of the library, which to the expectations of the youth, held yet another bookshelf. Zack approached this shelf as well, deciding that if he wasn’t going to find the golem army at the moment, he might as well have a good laugh.

His features drew a smile once he began to read the titles however.

"Clay Creation For Dummies, The Moral Implications of False Life, Dungeon Crawling For The Druid Warrior, Chicken Soup For A Golem's Non-Existent Soul. I'll say it again. Elves. Are. Dumb." Zack grabbed one of the books, the Clay Creation one, and began to flip through its pages, trying to find something of value in the contents.

He hadn't realized that when he had done so, he had activated one of the buildings traps, sending arrows flying down from the ceiling, slowly making their way to the aloof teen's form...

[Ganlon Martel]

Ganlon walked into the street and saw the young man turn a corner. It seemed to be the gist of the entire trip from the tavern to the library. Every time that Ganlon would start to catch up to his prey it would scamper away around a corner like a rabbit.

Ganlon’s frustration was quelled as he made the corner to the library and saw the young man enter the building. He was lost in its vastness. In a moment of mysticism Ganlon felt his smallness in the universe and felt lost.

The two figures standing outside the library jarred him back to reality. Was that a Dragonian standing at the door? This place was amazing. Bless the Goddess for giving him the ability to see these wonders.

He entered the library.

“Bless the Goddess.” Ganlon said the words out loud. The books that lined the walls were amazing.

Then he looked at the titles. Some the words ran on the paper like water. Some of the titles made his stomach roll. Finally the books that were in common read, “"Fake Book. Definitely A Fake Book By A. Fake Author, This Book Is The Opposite Of Real By Not A. Person.”

“This can’t be right.” Ganlon laughed out and the echo rang through the library. He froze with fear. The last thing he wanted was undue attention. He grabbed the first book that he could find, “Dungeon Crawling For The Druid Warrior.”

The next thing Ganlon knew he was sitting. The book lay fifteen feet from him. The smell of burn flesh was in his nose and a quick look showed him that his shirt was on fire. He patted out the fire on his shirt and laughed out loud.

“I knew that nobody would spend the time to write a book that was fake.”

[Hysteria]

“Secrets...” Talen echoed the words, “The night holds a bitter wind and libraries hold such warmth within. I seek only to find a place to shelter my weary mind.”

Talen could smell N'Jal on the other man. The youth had spent enough time around the servants of the banished god to recognise them. Who he was though remained a mystery, and the followers of N'Jal was not known for their hospitality.

The brief conversation ended as two men walked past and entered the might doors of the library. Talen casually turned and followed them in. It was clear the four of them did not belong in the library, or indeed the city. The youth surmised that they were all there for the same reason.

The trap was sprung, the shorter man was knocked off his feet when he opened a book and the other managed to set off a trap. The youth turned and watched the arrows cascade like a waterfall towards them. He readied himself to cast a spell but saw out of the corner of his eye a row of massive books. The youth grabbed one of the large tombs and flipped it open and held it above him. Without thinking he jumped over Garion and shielded the man from the falling arrows.

*thuk thuk thuk*

Talen lowered the book now embedded with three arrows and looked around to make sure everything was clear. The youth offered his hand to the man to help him up.

“This library seems to be for extreme readers. Be careful of where this adventure leads us.”

Talen turned and glanced at each of the other two men. The youth knew the more people in a search like this the less likely he would be the one to fall into a trap.

“My name is Talen, what are you called then?”

[MetalDrago]

The young man walked away from him, through the door, virtually ignoring the Dragonian entirely. “Why am I not surprised?” Drago asked himself. His eyes followed the three before him to the door. He heard several sounds before walking in. After all, if there were any traps, letting the curious go first was as good a way as any of disarming them. After he heard a few sounds, presumably said traps, the Paladin of the Dark Goddess opened the door to the library and stepped in. The library was abandoned, save for those who had come in before him. Well, this is odd... he thought to himself.

He walked toward those who had already triggered traps. “Well, isn't this interesting? Considering that this entire library seems to be a facade, I can't help but assume we're all here after the same thing... golems.” The word hung on the air for a moment as Drago surveyed the area around him. It was obvious that there were many false books here, but presumably one of the books would be the key to finding a way into the area in which the golems were stored. Looking through the volumes, however, it soon became apparent that none of them stood out much from the others.

“This is indeed very interesting. None of the books are tomes I've ever heard of. In fact, all of them appear to be false books. If I were to hazard a guess, the only real book in this place will be the key to moving forward. The problem will be finding it.” As was usual with the almost demonic figure, he'd forgotten his common courtesy when embroiled in the center of a problem. Suddenly remembering these people had no idea who he was, he turned and did a mocking half-bow. “My name is MetalDrago Scorpio. I'm a Paladin of the Dark Goddess N'Jal. Pleased, I'm sure.”

He didn't bother asking the others' names. If they wanted him to know, he'd find out. If they didn't, it was of little or no severe consequence. Drago already had an idea about what exactly these books did, but he still wanted to test it himself. He pulled a random book off of the shelf behind him, jokingly titled “Manipulating Cosmic Energies for the Criminally Ignorant” and opened the book. He flipped through the pages. They all had the same letter repeating itself from beginning to end. “How very inventive...” he chuckled under his breath, before a huge gust of wind blew out from the book, picking the Dragonian off of his feet and smashing him into the wall with the force of a hurricane.

He stood up with a groan. “Whoever doesn't want these things found went out of his or her way to make sure these things stay buried. No wonder those maps are being sold on the cheap. Getting through this library must be nearly impossible.”

A clock on the wall chimed the hour as the Dragonian cracked his back, being careful of the spikes that had grown there during his transformation into the Dark Lady's Paladin. “That was painful. Any of you have any ideas to make this search a little easier? I think there's only one “real” tome in the entire place, but I have no idea where to actually start looking.”

[Zack Blaze]

Hearing the constant sound of metal tips hitting against the linoleum floor caused Zack to turn around. It was only now that the youth had even realized that there others in the library with him. Of course, in the face of imminent danger, it did not seem like the right time to exchange pleasantries. One of the people, a kid from the looks of it, decided to play hero by saving the other man, who had caught himself on fire. It was now that Zack realized that elves were not as dumb as they seemed, loading the entire library with a plethora of booby traps in order to stop any would-be intruders. It actually took some very good foresight and planning to accomplish such a thing.

Taking a cue from the kid, Zack ran to a book shelf. Though he could have used the same method as Talen, the teen feared that his exposed fingers may become exposed to the dangers of the arrows. For this reason, Zack simply kicked the bookshelf with all of its might, causing it to topple over and catch itself on a more stable, heavier shelf. Zack simply slid underneath the makeshift cover and watched as the arrows stopped their assault, stepping out just in time to hear Drago extend his salutations and assessment.

"Jack Daze," Zack said, indicating no facial cues that he was lying, "I think you're right, but it's not like we're just going to open the next book we see and all of a sudden, viola, entrance opened." To demonstrate his point, Zack randomly grabbed a book, simply titled 'Not This One'. He held the book towards the party and opened the tome, a lightning bolt striking out of its pages. The group quickly dodged the shock, and the magic slammed into the bookcase against the wall, creating a giant hole that lead to a flight of stairs. Zack looked down at the book, and then back at the adventurers with a 'meh' expression on his facial features.

"Well, it wasn't the -right- way, but whatever works." Zack shrugged, stepping ahead of the group, and going down the flight of stairs. Each step they took caused another light to illuminate the next step, making sure that the group would always be aware that there was a solid foundation. Zack continued down these steps, pausing for a moment when he realized that the next step was not lit. He turned around with a smile to the group, hoping that they had not realized the same connection between the lights and the stairs. "I think it's someone else’s turn to lead. Any volunteers?"

[Ganlon Martel]

Ganlon smiled as he stood up.

“Hi, everybody, I’m Ganlon Martel. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I was going to actually meet you Jack. Thankfully this library had solved that problem for me. These elves are F’ing hilarious.” Ganlon tried to extend his hand to all of three of the others and finally pulled it back with not a little bit of fear from the Dragonian.

“Pleased to meet all of you, hoping to get to know all of you real well. “ Ganlon looked at Talen,
“Aren’t you a little young, no let me take that back. And you, you are just well amazing. What exactly are you?” Ganlon stood gazing at the Dragonian. Ganlon knew somewhere deep inside he had over stepped his bounds but he just stood there smiling.

Before he knew it the four of them were walking down a stairwell. Jack Daze was in the front and leading. Each step they took caused a light to illuminate the next step. Finally Jack Daze stopped as a stair didn’t light.

He said, “I think its someone else’s turn to lead. Any volunteers?” Ganlon was not one to lead. He stood for a second and then a thought crossed his mind. He didn’t need to lead he just needed to light the way.

Ganlon stopped and focused. He reached into the darkness in his head. He visualized walking across a dark room in his mind. He walked to the doorway, the hatch. It was the hatch between the dark and the light. He pulled open the door.

Ganlon let the light flood down his from his head and through his neck. It flooded down his chest and into his legs. His whole body was alight. Clothes and armor covered most of his body; however, his hands and face were bare and light shone from there.

Ganlon smiled as he could see the next step. He could see a lot in fact. At the bottom of the stairs was a large door made of something that Ganlon didn’t recognize.
“I’m not one for leading but I’ll light your way.”

[Hysteria]

N'Jal huh? Odd thing to announce... unless he suspects I am?

“I'm Talen.” the youth said walking towards the giant hole in the wall, “Servant to N'Jal”

Talen lowered his voice at the last bit so the other two wouldn't hear. The youth didn't look back to see if his comment registered. Instead he reached the hole and peered down into the staircase. The stairs twisted like some insane dream into the darkness. Ganlon offered some light on the situation and started to glow, in the young shadowmancer's mind something no one should know how to do. With both men offering someone else take the lead Talen threw his hands up in frustration and pushed his way to the front.

The youth walked down the steps and passed Zack. The youth stepped onto the next step and continued forwards. He made it three steps before there was a clear clicking sounds and the stairs folded inwards to created a slope. The youth promptly fell forwards and slid down the staircase turned slide and towards the door. He shut his eyes tightly and braced for impact, but nothing came. Talen opened his eye so find himself lying in soft green grass under the clear night sky. The youth pushed himself up and looked around.

The doorway was standing along, unconnected to anything by the grassy ground. Through it Talen could see the steps and the building, but on this side there was just a field. Following the entry direction of the doorway was a giant building some three hundred metres away. The stone building was dark, but the occasional flicker of light shone through the windows. In all other directions there was a barely visible black wall.

Talen walked back to the open door standing ominously alone in the small grass field and stuck his head through.

“Come down! Its fine! ”

Talen turned back to surrounds and tried to piece together the information. The door way had seemed to transport him into a small pocket of reality. The wall that surrounded the field joined the sky, which not only missed a moon, but all the constellations were incorrect.

Why the gender confused stairs then? Talen pondered the construction.

[Zack Blaze]

Zack watched Ganlon temporarily take the lead, only for the warrior to announce that he would rather follow. Someone that would rather stay in the background and let the other actors make fools of themselves; Zack and Ganlon could have been friends. That is, if Zack was not just looking out for one person and one person alone. Friends or foes did not matter to the youth, as they were all pawns in his game. Ganlon would be sacrificed if need be in order to further the teen's goals, just as the rest of the group would. The street fighter turned around, preparing to send the toughest looking one of the bunch (the dragon guy) in first.

Zack raised an eyebrow curiously as he realized that the larger man was no longer with them. He had not taken point down the stairs; his larger frame would have had to brush past both Zack and Ganlon. The youth figured that the scaly man must not have had the heart for such an adventure, and ran off scared with his tail between his legs. It made sense; anybody Zack had ever met that worshipped N'Jal turned out to be a coward or a megalomaniac. The teen counted his lucky stars that the last member in this party of strangers was the former rather than the later. However, this still left the group with the problem of who would be the first to be used as the Akashima hog.

Luckily, the child decided that he would prove himself and go on ahead. The footsteps of the stripling were barely audible even in a secret passage such as this. Zack would have easily mistaken the kid for one of the hired mercenaries Akashima was always so willing to employ. The one called Talen went down the stairs, which turned into a slope of sorts. The teen nodded his head and shrugged his shoulders, content to leave the child there for the rest of what little life he had. Before the fighter could leave, however, he saw Talen's small head pop up from the darkness below, and tell the other two that the water was fine, so to speak.

Zack grinned and looked to Ganlon, not wasting any time in jumping in. Surely Talen would have made his presence known quicker if this was some trap to claim the army of golems for himself. Zack hit the ground with a thud, one knee falling upon the grass, while his left foot managed to find a place on the same patch of land. Looking around, Zack was quick to notice that the stars overhead were not as they should be. He looked over to Talen, who also seemed to be studying the constellations himself. The youth shifted his gaze upwards and looked around for any signs. Lunar wise, the moon should have been at half-light by this time of the month, but the blasted thing did not seem to wish to waste its time siphoning off the sunlight to these travelers. That only left the brilliant mind of Zack to think of one other solution.

"It's a puzzle," Zack said aloud, unsure if Talen had figured it out or not, "I'm sure you know of those books they sell at the bazaar? The ones that have a series of seemingly sporadic dot placements only for them to make a picture of some sort if you connect them together? It's one of those." Zack looked up and pointed to the star closest to them with his index finger, tracing imaginary lines from one place to another. "Hey, Ganlon, was it? Are there any rocks or something on those stairs that you can toss down here?" Zack prayed to the Thaynes that the other warrior had not left, as baby sitting really did not seem like it would be the teen's cup of Corone tea.