Snorri woke with a jolt. he drew in a long deep breath of the large chamber’s damp stench filled air and blinked his eyes, trying to focus his vision and bring himself back to full concioussness. “How long was i out?” he thought to the spider as he pushed himself gingerly to his feet. “maybe three hours or so, it is hard to tell without the sun” Came the spider’s voice in his head. Snorri streched out his limbs as he tried to wake each of them up in turn. “What happened?” he thought to the spider but the spider didnt reply other then the clicking of its fangs. Snorri shook his head, he had been sure there was no way out of the sealed tank the tunnel had dragged him into. He had a vague memory of the floor of the tank somehow giving way and judging from where he had awoken he had somehow managed to pull himself up onto a raised platform.
As Snorri looked down at the room he relized in the two foot or so of remainig sewage water floated dozens of goblin corpses, Apparently goblins lacked the ability to swim and judging by the water marks of the walls six feet of water had been enough to end them. Snorri did his best to ignore the stench as he climbed down from the platform. The two feet or so of sewage came up to Snorri’s waist as he sloshed through wat remained of the waste processing plant and made his way to the large cirular metal door in the chamber wall. Using all his strength Snorri was able to heave at the door’s circular lockign mechnism. with a loud whine and a rushing of water the door burst open. sending the remainder of the water splashing out into tunnel, reducing after a few moments nothing more then a sludgy puddle that covered the tunnels smooth stone floor. Snorri trudged down the long damp tunnel, he knew he had only a few hundred metres to go before it reached the workshops.
As the door to the first of the workshops came into veiw Snorri almost instintivley brought his magical blade up into its spinning guard. as the blade ripped through the air on it’s chain orbiting the Gnomes hand in a menacing circle, Drops of brwon liquid and flecks of water snorri hoped to be mud spattered the tunnells walls, floor and ceiling. Snorri neared the entrance to the workshop. He could see inside the large chamber beyond the archway. in the darkness his Gnomish eyesight was keen enough to make out what had once been a busy alchemical workshop. The place had clearly been ransacked by the rampaging goblins. Snorri couldnt hear any goblin’s still inside the chamber so he decided to take his chance and he quickly slipped into the workshop, his sword still spinning it its defensive guard. He quickly span his head searching for anysign of movement.
The room was free of goblins. After Snorri had pushed the chambers heavy metallic doors closed he serveyed what remained of the workshop. The bodys of several Gnome Alchemists where among the wreckage of several large work benches. Snorri crossed the chamber, He had noticed serveral of the chamber’s store cubboard was still intact standing dutifully closed amongst the mayhem. After clearing some rubble from infront of the cubboards door Snorri pulled it open. Snorri quickly took inventory of what was inside. Amongst the shelves of carefully labeled jars and boxes he was releaved to find a spare alchemist guild uniform. Grateful for not having to pull a uniform from one of the fallen gnomes in the room. After shakeing the robes out snorri used his blade to cut the uniform right sleeve free allowing him to slip the uniform on past the metallic cuff, chain and sword.
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after dressing in his newly aquuired clothes Snorri turned his attention to the jars and boxes taking the time to read each carefully. the Gnomish colonies alchemist’s had produced many of the population’s goods, Snorri was sure he may be able to find something to help him fight the goblins if only he looked hard enough. After taking the time to memorize each ingredient he turned from the storage cubboard and heaved a mostly intact workbench to its feet, as he worked Snorri activated the Gnomish Engineering skill. It allowed him to run calculations in his head. in turn he conbined each of the ingredients from the supply cubboard in his mind. After a minute of so he turned to the cubboard again, this time taking a bundle of jars and boxes from each of the shelves arranging each carefully on the workbench.
“What are you doing?” Arracop’s annoyed voice whispered into his mind. “This is a waste of time” Snorri carried on arranging the ingredients into three groups on the table. concentrating on his work and ignoring the spider until finally he said “Well, this is work shop, its time to work” and with that Once again Workshop alpha began to flicker with Gnomish engenuity once more.
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The clicking and hissing of Jarblack the Spider-king’s Horde echoed up and down the main lift shaft of the Colony. It had taken longer then he would of liked to round up his forces after the War council, but they where finnally decending on mass. The battle they had been promised had failed to appear, but at least being able to let his boys loose on the armies deserters would be enough to bring them a little glory. As the horde broke through into the colonies lowest level a head of him he heard a roar go through the brotherhood of spider riders he had assembled for battle and he couldnt help but join in. as He too rode fourth into the Academy district. “Search for any thing left alive. Kill it if it moves!” He yelled to his troops.
With his order the horde split into small groups and charged off into the tunnels of the academy. Jarblack Pushed his Great cave spider fowards. it wasnt long before the war cries of his riders began to slowly die out. Jarblack rode harder pushing to reach the front wave of his troops. Eventually the long tunnel emptied into a vast chamber. As jarblack burst from the tunnel entrance he found a large group of his troops there fury turning to confusion as they took in the chamber at large. Jarblack pushed through them. “What the fuck is going on lads?” he yelled as the joustled to make way for him. “Boss.. Somethings wrong” Came a worried goblish voice from the front Rank. Garblack snarled as he broke through the unit. His eyes taking a moment to ajust to the darkness of the room beyond one of the many lit torches his Riders had among them.
Garblac blinked. The corpses of several goblins lay among the chambers dead. “Boss what do we do?” asked on of the unit somewhere in the rear rank. Garblac looked at the goblins. surely it was in fighting. He poked at the largest of the goblin Corpses. turning it over so he could see the face. “these are Knappas, Snarblac and his forces. best we search the lowest levels see if we cant find us a proper fight after all!” with his would once again war cries rang out among his riders. soon they would have there pray after all.