As we drop from above the Worldstorm, we draw closer to Vorzog's Keep, and its details become clearer. Scoping it out reveals an intricate stronghold with formidable defenses, soaring like a spire over the other buildings behind the Keep's walls.
Vorzog's Keep itself, the primary building, is an imposing structure, its walls rise high like sheer cliffs of obsidian. They're adorned with depictions of scenes of battles and conquests, in a manner that seems oddly artistic. They’re hardly befitting the usual doom and gloom, rage and ire, teeth and fire of the Ice of Rage's forces.
The dark stones of Vorzog's Keep are even polished to an eerie sheen, reflecting the glimmers of lightning from the ever-present Worldstorm, lending the fortress a flickering presence. It's eerily similar to the fritzing that Dehlia did when she was partially transformed under the sway of the tri-snake. Or, similarly similar to the fritzing that Lil can do with his not-quite-copy of my Space skill, in order to teleport a few feet one direction or another. The walls extend far and wide, enclosing a vast expanse of land, within which smaller buildings and guard towers are scattered like chess pieces upon a massive board.
Motioning for Lil to remain in cover of the Worldstorm until we have a better grasp on the defenses of the foes we face, we attempt to estimate their number. It appears that the Spellknight leaders have a massive army. From our vantage point, we can see dozens of platoons of Draconiacs patrolling the walls, their numbers appear to total in the hundreds, just those that are visible. The various guard towers suggest that they are well-prepared for any assault from air or ground, unfortunately.
The buildings within and around the fortress are arranged in a strategic manner that leaves little hope for striking straight to the heart of the domain. Besides the main keep, there are barracks, armories, and more. There are even stables for some sort of giant lizard mounts, perhaps land-based drakes of some sort. Annoyingly, these structures are well-spaced, allowing for maximum defensive capabilities while still maintaining easy access to each other. Grr. I can almost guarantee this place wasn't designed by the forces that reside here. If nothing else, the fact that nearly all the Draconiacs have to duck whenever they enter or leave a building clinches that assumption for me.
Some buildings are partially hidden by the shadow of the walls. Bluh, this makes it difficult to discern the full extent of their numbers from above. At some point, we're going to have to go in, whether or not we're anticipating the correct number of foes. A glance into my goggles shows Teuila sailing Rayileklia's skies atop the back of Iylynila. I can virtually sense the discomfort Illy is in at the moment, as she enjoys Teuila's company in much the way she enjoys mine, but she’s trying not to be clingy or needy. At least I know they're all safe so far. They'll be pulling up to their first side-objective any minute now. Their party has slower fliers than Lil, so they’re forced to take a bit longer than we took getting around.
Back to the task at hand Reggie. Right, right. Checking out these defenses is almost disheartening. They're varied and seem pretty deadly, even for the likes of Lil and myself. Along the walls, scorpion-like ballistae surrounded by enchantment auras stand ready to rain down deadly bolts. Most of the Draconiacs look like spell-slingers, and the ones that don't, appear to have enchanted crossbows, or similar powerful ranged weapons, including a few firearms. Ugh, yeah, I was right about the giant lizard mounts. I can spy large, lumbering drakes stationed at key points. They probably serve as living siege weapons for when Terrorzin finishes mustering his forces to march on the lands.
Peering toward the heart of the fortress, the massive central courtyard is flanked by the main keep and numerous smaller buildings. It’s like a box-canyon, essentially a death trap. I’m not seeing any other methods to traverse though. The entire fortress, and all its walls are heavily warded. There’s some sort of dragonforce field protecting the whole thing. Also, perhaps unsurprisingly, at the courtyard's center, there’s a colossal statue of an ivory dragon, that must be the Ice of Rage himself, Terrorzin. I’m surprised we haven’t seen more depictions of him yet, given his likely tremendous vanity. I suppose we’re starting to delve nearer to his more fervent supporters. Of course he’d surround himself with, and grant his nearer regions to, those that laud him more. The egotistical sack of crap.
Huff, focus Reggie. Right. Hm, enchanted barriers shimmer around the walls, and dark runes adorn the ground, imbued with hellish spells based on what I can read from here. We couldn’t even enter through the main gate without an invitation due to how strong the barriers are across the whole fortress. I honestly believe that every Draconiac here is probably capable of sorcery on at least some level. There’s something like the reverse of ley-lines going on. It’s as if these defenses siphon a minuscule amount of mana from each of the fortress’s defenders to remain powered. If I had a day or two to stu—. Heh.
I can’t help smirking as I try to drink in all the information I can for a future utilization of retrocognition. Observing the dimensions of the buildings, the main keep rises like a towering spire, natch, already noted that. It rivals the height of the nearby mountainous cliff walls. The buildings' placements appear to be meticulously planned, taking advantage of the defensive position offered by the surrounding mountains. The fortress is constructed in such a way that it harmonizes with the harsh landscape, making it a formidable and nearly impenetrable bastion that’s partially built into the nearest mountain. If needbe, we might be able to land, sneak around to the far side of the mountain, and spend most of a day having Lucky dig through it, to see if they remembered to ward in a full sphere. We won’t need to though.
Whomever Terrorzin and these Draconiacs stole this fortress from was a fairly talented structural engineer, or had one in their employ long in the past. It does seem like Terrorzin’s forces have updated the decor, the stables, and the enchantments to suit their own needs however. I can’t just pretend that they’re unskilled, barbaric dullards with no talents or powers. W—, what the? What the everliving hell is that? I’m glad we waited before rushing in.
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There’s some sort of, I mean, I’d have thought it was a golem, until two Draconiacs climbed out of it, to trade places with two fresh Draconiac pilots. That’s a mecha. That’s a giant robot mecha. I mean, it’s only about fifteen to thirty feet tall, it’s hard to judge from here, but that doesn’t change the fact that that’s essentially a magitek mecha. I was *literally* just joking about having to plan for worst case scenarios in which—. Huff. Relax Reggie, the universe doesn’t add new challenges just because your brain jokes about them. You can at least rest assured that you won’t have to fight off the moon. What about a space station? Not a moon, or a space station.
Luni giggles at my internal narrative, and I raise an eyebrow towards her. She quickly pretends to whistle and glance anywhere that doesn’t meet my gaze. Right Lu, real smooth. Sure My Anchor, sure. Anyway, that thing looks impressive. The magitek mecha stands close to twenty or so feet tall, and I can get a slightly better estimate of its height by comparing it to nearby creatures and objects. Its colossal form looms over everything except the giant guard-drakes, and the main keep itself.
The mecha’s metallic surface gleams with lustrous reflections of the lightning of the Worldstorm. Its outer shell bears intricate patterns and engravings, ancient runes etched into its surface, that even my linguistic enchantment is having a hard time deciphering. These arcane markings appear to pulse with a faint glow, indicating what might be considered a heartbeat of immense power that courses through the mecha's core. It seems virtually alive. What's more, it seems, hm, trapped. The runes and etchings seem to shift and rearrange, sliding about as panels shift into and out of place to keep it perfectly protected during all of its movements.
Its broad shoulders are adorned with armored plates that they resemble dragon scales. Yet it doesn't seem like it was crafted by draconic hands, or that of any dragonkin. Each plate seems to move and shift gracefully, and despite my intense scrutiny, I cannot find any weakpoints in its armor. The resemblence to draconic scales on the shoulder plates seems to be the only thing that one might rely on to tie its creation to dragonkind. Rather, the runework seems more fae in nature, and the metalwork seems dwarven. Oh, hm. Could it have been a cross-cultural project, at some point in the ancient past? Hell, it might have even been developed to fight the Felgre hordes.
The mecha's arms extend outward, each limb ends in some sort of aperture, like a cannon. Based on the runework structure, it likely fires pure mana blasts, with no ties to any element. That sort of force could really hurt, and its limbs move fluidly with agility, so it’s likely able to aim efficiently. Thinking about avoiding it doesn't seem like it's going to be an option either. Even if it couldn’t just pick us off out of the sky with its blasters, on its back is an array of thrusters and energy emitters that hum with a potential that I can perceive all the way from up here at our vantage within the Worldstorm. The thing can probably leap like some sort of incredible, hulking menace, if not outright fly.
Oh, oh good, they’re doing some sort of combat drills. This should tire some of them out, and clue us in a bit as to some potential threats and abilities. W-what. The training dummy is the mecha. Every single blast, smash, or element just seems to flow off the thing like water off a duck’s back. I unfold the portable hole just long enough to refresh air, and motion for secrecy and quiet from my prisoner. We’ve been preparing to strike longer than I thought we might take. I hope Teuila doesn’t face anything like this at the Nedkuxian Conclave. Checking in on her, her secondary objective seems to be going smoothly. She does have the full force of the Vivant, and the able-bodied Dormir. Plus, I mean, she *is* Teuila.
Struggling not to get distracted by being able to view Teuila kicking ass in first person perspective, I reorient on the matter at hand. I’ve seen enough of the runework, the auras, and guard patrols to be able to at least get us past the external dragonforce barrier. I mean, if my surmising is correct, and I’m capable of doing the calculations in paused time in retrocognition. So let’s do it, let’s reach for the non, the time between times, the space between spaces. Stretch ourselves into the lack of time, and contemplate our problems.
Breathe deeply, slowly Reggie. Take it easy, and take your time on this. Getting it wrong could result in a backlash that could fry your brain, knock you for a loop, or even kill you. That shield must have taken twenty to a hundred dragonforces to construct. Are they still alive somewhere in there? There are a lot of markings for something akin to heart. Could they have still-beating hearts preserved in jars feeding these enchantments? Focus, no time to try to turn this into a rescue mission anyway. This is going to be a hell of a challenging fight, and we haven’t even seen what the domain’s lords are capable of yet. There’s a ton of minor magical equipment here as well.
Y’know what that means, right? What? The bosses probably have epic loot that they’re going to use on you, Lil, Lu, and Lucky. Fricklefrack. Yeah, probably. Maybe tone it down with the videogame terminology though? Nah. Erm, okay, fine, I guess. You have a smartphone buddy, more stuff is unlocking on it on occasion, to the point where you could probably program yourself a little game on it. You somehow know a fair deal about coding structures and syntax in various programming languages, and various hardware models and operating systems and all this other nonsense from Fakeworld. Lean into it. Be the Connecticut Yankee. Oh. Oh!
Reorienting myself once more, I try to recall everything I’d seen about the mecha. Dang. Sadly, the heart theory doesn’t hold salt, at least not tying it to the mecha at all. The pulsation wasn’t in any sort of rhythm or timing that lined up with the barrier magics. I remain idly contemplating for quite some time. What can I do that won’t fry my brain to try to get us safely in the door? Hm—, what if I try to slip in intangibly? Disrupting the runework from inside the shield would be far easier than from outside. I’d just be extremely vulnerable if anyone realized that a shadow was forming up into a naked Shellcracker. There was a lot of redundancy and failsafe networking in the runework for the barrier shielding. Let’s see, if I mess with that one though—. Yeah. Okay.
Breathing deeply, I continue to explore the possible solutions for the barrier to entry problem. Rolling my eyes at myself, I try not to chuckle at the accidental wordplay. It keeps coming back around to being safest for Lil, Lu, Lucky, and myself, for me to infiltrate, and disrupt from within. I have to hope that there’s a dark corner in one of the buildings, that’s close enough to the exterior walls, to slowly return to RS2 form from shadow elemental form. Well pals, here goes nothing.