Forbidden Magic: Zar Valarblood's Quest for Arcane Lore

Roy and Zar had recently received word of a very dark magic that resided in this island. They had managed to convince a boat to take them close to the island, but their magic would have to carry them the rest of the way. Roy bid the crew a fond farewell and slipped them a decent pouch of jewels for a few a bag of essentials which Roy took with a large smile on his face. He slipped the bag on his back and summoned up a cloud of smoke beneath their feet. It slowly lifted them in to the air and carried them with swiftness and sureness to their destination. He was sure that Zar would be curious as to what was in the bag so he decided to address that directly.

"Why don't you look in the bag Zar, I've picked up a few essentials for our trip." Roy grinned sheepishly as he handed the bag to Zar. As he dug through the contents he started to think about what it was they were here to get. It was surely something evil, and perhaps even demonic. He wasn't at all sure about what they would be facing but he was sure he would be glad to take down whatever was here. He was sure that Zar would want to keep whatever dark relic was lying here. Normally if he had been alone he would have tried to destroy it. Better it lie in ashes than find its way in to the hands of someone who will abuse it. But he had gotten to know Zar pretty well and he rather liked the cut of his jib. It wasn't what he preferred but if Zar took the item, then he felt it would be safe enough in his hands.

Roy was all to familiar with utilizing the darker aspects of magic in order to achieve something good. In fact at times he almost felt like it was a pretty good slap in the face, of the demonic. To use their own methods and powers against them. Either way, Zar would be taking the item. And he had come to peace with that.

WC: 364

The company presented by the pirates was a merry and joyous occasion coupled with fine booze and even greater food to match it. The drunk themselves into a grand stupor throughout the night, shouting obscene and unintelligible remarks toward the Magic Council and their laziness with helping the world of magic rather than hindering it. He let himself go, running his mouth in a manner that would surely get him thrown in the slammer. He called out the leader of the Magic Council as a spineless old fool with the integrity of a sea wench's sagging bosoms, and the forethought of a starving wolf. The crew laughed heartily with him before they all succumbed to the booze and passed out.

The rest of the crew was awake much earlier than either Zar or Roy were as this was unlike any of the drink that they had available at the guild hall. It was as strong as a liquid cleanser, which it sure felt like one to Zar's colon, and would probably leave a mark on his intestines that he would have to remedy in private. Divide Island was fast approaching them in the distance. He'd been here before not long ago hunting down pirates, and not even a week after they had cleaned up the island, archaeologists had discovered a vast network of ruins all connecting one another that they dated to have been well over 10,000 years old; That was of course just before they vanished presumably within these ruins they had been searching.

They bid the crew farewell after they had reached a certain distance. They would be taking Roy's flying cloud the rest of the way to land right in front of the ruins to not waste precious time, or rather to end the entrapment of Zar's scholarly excitement toward this endeavour. Roy was given a bag by the crew as a parting gift and seemed very pleased with its contents.  He was kind enough to showcase his reward to Zar, who graciously took a peek, and found an assortment of booze and tobacco within it. "They gave all of this away for us? This is a rather expensive reward for just a general ferry ride to an island. Is there anything else I didn't see inside it?" questioned Zar, and as he spoke, he began to bring his attention back to the closely approaching Island. It was sheer insanity how fast a simple magic cloud was compared to a ship as they arrived at the foot of the massive ruins in no time at all. Zar stepped off the cloud onto the crumbling rocks that were overgrown with vegetation and looked up at the beautifully carved stone archway that connected the marble entrance into this ancient structure. "Look at the size of this door Roy. It looks as if it were built for giants!" exclaimed Zar, his excitement shining brightly through his words as they stood before the 50 ft doorway.

WC: 496

Roy walked towards the door that Zar was pointing at and nodded his head. He began to scan it from different angles trying to figure out why the door was here and why it was so big. He was sure that the answer to either of these questions would probably displease him. Whoever made it certainly did a fine job however, as it was carved beautifully. He ran his hand across the engraves stone and summoned his smoke hands as well.

All ten of these smoke creations would travel across the great construct before him attempting to pierce into it's structure and find the mechanism that would cause it to open. He closed his eyes and focused on exploring the door for a moment. Until finally one of his smoke hands seemed to find a crack in it's armor so to speak. It wormed it's way in to this opening and Roy raised his hands like a conductor as he orchestrated their movements.

At first nothing happened, and he couldn't get the door to move. So he had a few more hands slip in to the crack the other one had gone in to. He thought perhaps the gears were to heavy to move manually with just one hand. As the hands collected and with one effort attempted to turn the gears to this massive door, Roy began to hear the sounds of metal against metal, clanking and popping and finally a loud screeching and scrapping as slowly but surely the door began to open. The rest of his hands went to either side of the doors and began to push and pull it open further still. By the time he was done he had opened it plenty far for them to pas through, but not nearly as much as the doors could open. That didn't matter though. This room would be enough.

"A door for giants aye. Yet I don't seem to see the foot prints of giants here. If they ever lived here at all they must surely be dead by now."

WC: 344

For a while, Roy's efforts seemed in vain, barely budging an inch against his spells. Zar was about to add his own strength into the effort until he heard the screeching sound of the marble door scraping against the ground, opening wide enough for them to step through. The sight they were greeted with was one of pure historical beauty. Massive stone pillars inlaid with machinery and wiring kept the structure stabilized, tiny mechanical robots patrolled around the grounds making repairs to some of the machines as they went, and then continued their duties. The machinery looked diligently maintained, not a speck of rust coating the whirring electronic material. As he walked further in he started to notice mounted eyes following his every movement. Most likely some form of surveillance equipment meant to safeguard the ancient factory from intruders, which they would soon be classified as.

The repair droids, as Zar took note of, seemed to be appearing out of sliding door panels located in various sections of the wall. The droids always exited and entered the doors in pairs, never less than one, as if they were assigned partners for a reason Zar couldn't quite figure out with such little information on the place. As Roy finally entered the factory, He turned to face Roy and brought his attention to all that lay before them.  "This is amazing! I've never heard of anything like it in any of the history books that I've flipped through. With how well this place has been kept there's no way to tell how long this place has been here. WE'll have to find out where they store all their documents so we can get a layout of the area. Do you have any sort of scouting abilities with your smoke, Roy? It'd be less noticeable than myself teleporting around. "

Roy nodded when Zar asked him if he had any magic which could help them search this place. But he frowned since he knew that it probably wouldn't be exactly what Zar was thinking. He would have to cast a few spells in order for this to work out the way he was thinking. If he did it then he would burn up a lot of his magic, not to mention the same spells he would use for reconnaissance were also the same spells that he used to unleash his full magical power. If they got in to some trouble, then they might be screwed.

"I'm certain that I could very well scan this area, and no one would be the wiser either. But I'm afraid that such a spell comes with a heavy magical price. Should we find ourselves in trouble then I am afraid that we may quickly be overwhelmed by our enemies. We'll just have to to hoof it I'm afraid."

Roy pulled out his knife and once again felt a bit of disappointment as he held on to his tiny blade. It didn't offer him the same comfort that I sword once did but he supposed that it was his own fault that he would no longer wield a blade in combat. He spun it around in a reverse grip and stepped forward bearing witness to everything that was before him.

These mechanical creatures were unlike anything that he had ever seen before. The one thing he didn't expect to see on this island was advanced technology. He had imagined that at best it would be entirely deserted, maybe a few natives still resided here. At worst he imagined it was a cesspool of demons and filth from the nether worlds. But instead it was some kind of technological wonderland. He turned his head to Zar for another moment.

"Do you think these machines operate with magic? Or is just some kind of high technology unlike anything we've ever seen before?"

Spoiler:

He couldn't believe the marvelous wonderland of technology that had been residing so close to home and it had only just been discovered. It brought a tear to Zar's eyes that this discovery was all their's to explore and uncover the secrets that have laid dormant for a millennium. The question that remained in his head since they were made aware of this discovery was why nobody had found this place until just a few weeks prior to them accepting the mission? Was it some well-kept secret that the magical society had under wraps for generation upon generation, only to have to acknowledge it's existence when it's finally discovered by those outside the tightly kept circle of secrecy? It could just be that the compound came with its own masking system to keep outsiders away from its never ending machine-mind work, and the machine they were using had run its course. It would explain why there were so many repair droids running place to place with tools in hand banging away at everything electrical.

Thankfully, the two of them had all the time in the world to log their discovery, after a bit of detective work and looting of this treasure trove of wealth. Zar thumbed his greatsword that rested comfortably attached to his side, wondering when or if he'd have to use it on these mechanical constructs due to their intrusion. He began to move closer to get any sort of reaction of the diligently working droids but found they were consumed by their gigantic task of fixing machines much larger than themselves. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Roy had drawn his weapon and taken up a readied stance of awareness, already predicting the coming of conflict that could ensue at any moment as they stood. Roy's sudden inquiry on what ran these machines reminded him of their unknown origin and had his mind working overtime to come up with a hypothesis for their existence. He approached the nearest pillar slowly, keeping his presence of hostility to a minimum to carry out his inspection. When Zar was close enough to the pillar, he made contact with the pillar, sending a pulse of energized blue liquid running all throughout it's inner workings, causing Zar to reel back in case he had set off some sort of alarm. When nothing happened he placed his hand back onto the pillar and was given the same pulse throughout the structure. On the second touch, he felt the magical energy pouring from it like no other he'd felt before; it was the essence of magic itself, energized with the properties of some form of lightning magic and he could feel his magical energy spiking from merely being within its presence.

He hurriedly rushed Roy over to experience the phenomenon for himself and explained his theory on the matter in the same detail as he'd thought to himself. "This must be one of the greatest discoveries of two lowly guild mages in recent history! An entire droid factory that harnesses pure magic working in tangent with the properties of electricity. I'm still not so sure about the liquid form of it, but this is like no other energy substance we have to date. It's been keeping this complex running and alive for who knows how long. There has to be dozens of these machines pumping this stuff all throughout its networking of power supplies. We have to find the records of this and learn everything we can about it!"

Roy listened to Zar's impassioned speech about their new discoveries but frankly, he didn't see the big deal. They were just metal parts powered by magic to him, he hardly thought of that as something to get worked up over. But nonetheless it was important to Zar, and so Roy would pay attention as best he could. Nodding and following along with what he was saying. However when he brought up discovering everything that they could about the inner workings of these things he couldn't help but feel they had more important matters to take care of.

"I'll admit Zar, these machines don't excite me nearly as much as they do you. But I'm all for studying them if that's what you want to do. However, I can't help but feel we may have more important matters to take care of first. Aren't you forgetting about that ancient and very dangerous relic? Perhaps we should get that first and if we have time we can study these things."


Roy looked around for a bit and thought of their next move. Nothing came to mind as of yet but a sudden thought did occur to him. If the workers of this fantastical place were machines powered by magic...then who's to say that the guards wouldn't be the same thing? An image of a hulking monster made from iron and blasting them with magical energy came to mind. He turned to Zar again for a moment to ask. "Zar I was just thinking, if the guards here are machine's powered by magic then what are the guards going to be like?"

The member 'Roy the Chanter' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

"That my friend is a good question. One that will probably answer itself knowing our luck recently on missions," laughed Zar, referring to their previous escapade in a demon infested cave under Hargeon Port. Zar continued his investigation of the machinery, touching everything with the care one would give an infant child who had recently been produced from its mother's womb. He found his investigative skills to come in handy as one button seemed to leap out at him to press it. The curious mind that he had urged him to activate whatever function the button was tied to and gave him enough of a reason to do so. The reward for pushing the button was the projected image of a robotic face floating in front of him that began scanning him immediately. "A.I. personalized assistant unit activated. The scan of present life-form complete. Male aged 27, high presence of magical energy detected, presumed magic wielder in prime health. Brain waves suggest the life form is in a state of shock and bewilderment in my presence. I am designated at Toaa, How may I alleviate your troubled mind, sir?"

The A.I. personality, as it designated itself as was something he hadn't come across in his travels anywhere else in the world. It spoke with the eloquence of a human being and the etiquette of a gentleman or servant as it was an assistant unit according to its own description of its functions. It was able to scan his age, biological health, magic levels, and deduce Zar's thought patterns through brain impulses and an increased sense of awareness. This would be the one to ask about the complex's history and records of its activities for its entire existence, or so he hoped. Breaking out of his own amazement, Zar collected himself and prepared his questions fo the A.I. "You're an extremely advanced machine for this era of mankind, Toaa. I have many inquiries into your origins, but I'll start out simple as to not take up so much of your time. We've just recently discovered this place and were wondering if you could tell us how long this place has been running and where we might find an artifact that's said to be located in this massive structure."

Toaa whirred into action, quickly going through the databanks it stored all information on the complex's history and presenting it to Zar and Roy. "The complex was built by a man named Dr. Gearvald and his wife Dr. Engelheart in the year X400. Two brilliant scientists who had discovered a way to harness magic within machinery to create 'living magic beings' with human hands. Eventually, they made the complex run completely autonomously so that they would continue to evolve and produce new life even after their deaths 40 years later. Their main goal for this was the development of new technology to help those in need with everyday tasks, advances in medical procedures, and to provide defense contracts to countries around the globe in an effort to protect those without magic on a grander scale than the mages themselves could. However, recently one of the R & D A.I's has had a virus leaked into its system by accidentally corrupting its own files through an unknown program and is now churning out an army of mechanized automatons to make the world a peaceful place for all through brute force. The machines he builds attack anyone who enters the complex uninvited, namely yourselves, and is most likely guarding the artifact you seek near the Machine Forge. If you wish to retrieve your item and the belongings of those who came before you, you will have to fight through his army as I tried to help the others." It took Zar a moment to process the information fed to him by the machine, but he soon had most of it committed to memory and was ready to ask a question he already knew the answer to, "What became of those who arrived before us, Toaa?" "They were eliminated," it responded, a sad tone expressing its change in emotional speech pattern.

When Toaa had finished his speech to them, a clanking noise of metal parts bashing together sounded from the corridor on their left, greeting them with the sight of a massive hulking robot heavily plated in some form of metal armor. The magical substance from the pillars violently racing throughout its body, energizing its entire body, including the massive hammer it wielded with two hands. The monstrous machine stood 10 ft above each of the two mages as it exited the corridor out in the open. It pointed a hand toward us, suggesting it was here for us. "You are trespassing on sacred land, charlatans! Prepare to meet your makers!" the construct shouted as it charged into them at insane speeds. The energy was pulsating rapidly through its legs and feet, allowing it to stake toward them at breathtaking speeds. Zar barely had any time to dodge before the mechanized warrior barreled on past them into the wall beside them, creating an enormous hole within it. Before it could reposition itself, Zar launched his magic attacks at the ground under it, causing it to spark and shake at the presence of a magical attack targeting it. It continued to do its job of damaging and controlling the constructs movements, but its own magical reserves were helping it to break free quicker than any wizard could. He turned is gaze to Roy and pointed toward the machine. "What do ya think Roy? Think our magic will slow this fellow? He doesn't seem to mind magical attacks very much since he's already breaking free of it."

Roy nodded his head as Zar asked him if there magic would be enough to slow it down. "We'll do more than slow this hunk of junk Zar, we're going to turn it in to scrap metal." Roy summoned his smoke trap underneath the monstrous machine before them, it did some decent damage, and seemed to leave it prone for a minute but Zar was right this beast wouldn't be stopped for long. As the tendrils and smoke worked together to hold the thing it did give Roy an opportunity to attack the thing with his smoke hands. They all converged on the beast at once and began to pummel it in to the dirt. Well, at least they tried. A few flakes of metal flew off and some of the metal plating dented, but other than that it didn't seem to do a whole lot.

Roy put his knife in between his teeth and jumped on the creatures back while it was still held, summoning his chain and wrapping it around his fist he spit his knife in to his hand and held on to the creature with just one hand and his legs, stabbing the thing with his knife, and the letting the chain lash out at it at the same time. As he stabbed it he unloaded his fire spell into it blowing off another metal plate, exposing a few of it's many gears. He wasn't a mechanic or anything but it seemed that if he broke those things it might stop this hulking machine. His chain went in there stroking the gears and breaking a few of them, he charged his chain with his smoke ring spell and it immediately began to constrict it and mess up a few more of those gears.

He panted heavily, he had just expended a lot of magical energy all at once in to, and it still seemed to be going strong. Their magic finally failed and the beast immediately began to whirl around and try to buck him off. Roy was forced to drop his knife as it flew off in to the distance and grip the thing with both hands. His chain could still strike it but other than he was pretty much unable to do anything else. He was thrown this way and that barely managing to hold on, he just knew that he would either be thrown so far and so hard that he would be out of the fight, or get thrown right underneath his opponents feet and get ground into a puddle and some bone dust. Neither of those things sounded desirable, so he shouted out.

"Zar! I'm pretty sure this was a bad idea! Try and take the thing down!"

"What'd you expect to happen when you rode on a giant death machine? Next time you need to think things through before you just go charging in," shouted Zar, rushing at the mechanized warrior as Roy struggled to take it down through dismantlement. He noticed that some of the inner workings had been adversely affected by Roy's tampering as they began to pulsate faster and become spaz tic when pumping the liquid throughout the machine. It would seem to suggest that if those channels were damaged or severed then the machine would bleed out like any normal being made of flesh. It was the only idea he was able to come up with at this moment and Roy's struggle to hold him down gave Zar the perfect opportunity to test his theory.

Pulling out Grimvaldir from his side, Zar leaped up onto the machine, grasping onto one of the plates and jamming his sword into its chest cavity, swishing it around the inside of the robot. Sadly, the veins were reinforced and wouldn't cut apart as easily as Zar had hoped from his initial strategy. There were, however, noticeable grooves being made by each cutting motion he took on the veins. It was an intense struggle to cut through even an inch, let alone hold onto the armor of the behemoth droid, but Zar managed to use every ounce of his strength to hold on and will himself to keep cutting into it.

After a few more painstaking moments of thrashing around, and the occasional blow to the side from the erratic movements of the robot, he finally made a large enough incision for the liquid substance to pour out from the vein and spill into the robot's chest. This kicked its defensive measures into over drive as it began shaking faster than the two of them could manage and flung Roy off and Zar as well. It didn't stop at that however; the robot, still leaking from the inside, charged at them with breathtaking speed and was ontop of Zar in moments, crashing into him and launching him into the wall. His armor cushioned most of the blow, but he was still shaken up and could hear the constant ringing within his head. The good thing was that now they had a shot with its weakness exposed.

Zar sluggishly got out from the wall and teleported behind the warrior, leaping out of its shadow and firing a barrage of shadows deep into its chest, causing a torrent of the liquid to gush out of its chest. The machine convulsed violently as it tried to reach for Zar in a last ditch effort to kill him, but as it continued to move, the puddle of electrified liquid grew larger around it, zapping it repeatedly until it finally ceased to function. When Zar was sure the droid had fallen, he made his way over to where Roy had been flung and helped him up to his feet, still wobbly from the collision. "I felt as if every bone in my body was being crunched together when that thing hit me head on. Toaa wasn't kidding about these being some of the strongest machines anyone's ever built. If you hadn't have exposed its insides to me, we'd be paste smeared on the ground."