Snorri quickly passed through what he hoped would be the last tunnel he would have to cross on this level of the mountain and slipped inside the lift station. It was with some regret that he relished onto one of the shaft-chained platforms, which was actually lowered to the right station. Snorri quickly scanned the room for the goblins that had fled into the lift station in the moments before his arrival. Of the seven he had seen disappear, five of them were spread around the vast space, slowly turning their helmet heads and scanning for any sign of movement through the limited vision granted by their narrow eye slits. Snorri cannaed the room for the final pair of goblins, but they had long since disappeared down another of the lift station entranceway tunnels that lead off the various parts of the industrial sector.
Snorri brought his blade up into a spin. Sending it into a visual orbit around his left hand, it let out a dull whine as it began to build up speed and momentum. “What that noise?” a muffled goblish voice asked from under one of the helmets, wildly spinning to locate the sound. “What noise?” Hissed one of the others before slowly turning to where Snorri now stood in the darkness. “Its like a whistle," the goblins voice was suddenly cut off as Snorri sent the sword flying through the air, impaleing the sword deep into the goblins armoured belly. He pulled the sword back towards himself, catching it as he charged the next closest goblin. The creature managed to raise a large, two-handed sword in a vague attempt at a parry, but Snorri quickly dodged the badly-timed lunge and sank his sword into the goblin's fleshy neck.
The creature let out a gurgling sound as it fell to the floor. The remaining trio of goblins advanced on him in the chamber's darkness. Snorri was charged to meet them. The goblin swung at him with three axes, his blades bigger than his head, forcing him to leap into the air. He had just enough time to spin his sword towards the goblin on the right of the trio, and he plunged down onto the creature. He rammed his sword down with the force of his jump and rolled away from the corpse as it fell to the ground, using the moment to free his sword. Two more axes came sailing through the air towards him. Snorri dodged the first witch, burying himself deep into the armour of the fresh goblin corpse. It let out a roar of frustration as Snorri brought his sword up the guard against its heavy blow.
Snorri managed to block the goblin’s axe, but the strength of the creature's swing was enough to send him skidding backwards across the lift platform floor. Snorri snarled as he could to a halt. Throwing himself and his sword high into the air. Letting out a roar, he plunged towards the warrior, whose axe was still stuck in his still-dead compatriot's armor. a savage slash, and the goblin's helmeted head rolled away from its body. The last of the lift stations, goblins, let out a battle cry of pure rage. Charging wildly towards Snorri. the gnome dove towards the space between the goblins legs as the creature brought its axe down in a heavy vertical strike. As Snorri slipped under the creature, he slashed wildly at the goblins unarmored legs.
By the time he had come back to his feet, Snorri was vaguely aware of the goblin falling in three distinct pieces to the floor as it let out a long, painful death. Snorri gave the chamber a last check for any remaining living goblins. After declaring to himself that the chamber was goblin-free, he quickly crossed to the platform, hanging from its chains. As he climbed on board, Snorri saw the body of one of the transportation guild's bellhops still dutifully sitting in his chair at the platform control panel. Even in death, his hand still clutched one of the operational levers. Snorri gently moved the bell-hope body down from the control platform and hastily took the dead man’s seat. He looked upwards into the seemingly unending vertical shaft above him. He drew in a deep breath as he gripped tightly on the platform control lever and pressed that large button marked with the gnomish glyph for ignition.
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Nothing happened. no sudden lurch of movement, no grin of gears somewhere high above him. Snorri let out a deep, frustrated breath. “What?” came Arcop’s amused voice in his head. “Will you do it now?” Snorri sat back in the comfortable seat and thought for awhile.
"Power," Snorri thought back eventually. as he climbed down from the lift platform and slowly dragged his heavy, aching limbs towards the lift station exit, which was marked with the insignia of the Power Maintenance Corps. “We need to turn the lights back on.”
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Arrablac the Ventor fiddled with the vast array of buttons a nobs before him. Over the course of the first few hours, he had made little progress in understanding more than how to switch the lights in the chamber on and off. After three hours, he remained stumped. His warriors had grown restless, so he sent a fifth of them off to search for more rooms with the glowing crystals. The eighty heavy-armoured goblins had remained with him in the room, which he was sure must be the mountains source of energy. He had kept them arranged in defensive circles around where he had been working. as much to shield him from any explosions, his prodding of the controls might cause them to actually be useful in their role as warriors. Well, his armour was many, but highly skilled they were not. He had found over the years that it was better to have as many goblins in between him and anything that had a chance of exploding as possible.
There was a sudden commotion, followed by shuffling in his ranks of goblins. Two fully-enamoured goblins pushed through the ranks towards him. He quickly took in the goblish runes he himself had forged into each of his unit helmets, identifying the approaching pair. “Rik and Roy," he said, looking from one to the other. “The duo of dimwittery themselves” servedl goblin snickers came from the warriors still arranged in their neat ranks. “You bring us new information to help with turning the lights back on or tales of fierce battle from beyond these strange chamber walls?” Arrablac asked the duo menacingly. The pair shuffled awkwardly inside their armor. "Well, boss, see, the thing is, we were doing what you said, looking for more crystals and that." Roy began trailing off as he began to see annoyance creep over the ventor’s face. Rik punched Roy in his armoured dhoulder, causing the goblin to suddenly fall silent. “Unit’s dead, boss. Well, we think so; five of them stayed back to make sure we could bring you the information," Rik offered Arrablac. The goblin Ventor looked from one to the other. Expectantly, after neither of them said anything, he finally asked them, “Well, what killed them?" The pair of goblins shared a look. Before Roy Finnally answered, “It was a demon boss,"