Snorri's eyes darted open with a jolt of pain. It took his eyes a second to adjust to the brightness of the chamber. As he tried to turn and move his body, he suddenly became aware of the fact that he was apparently fastened tightly to the chamber stone wall. He quickly began to run through the fighting in the moments before. It had been hard, but he had, against all odds, been winning. until something had happened. He remembered his muscles clenching and spasming in the moments before he had apparently been knocked unconscious. “What… was… that?” came Arcop’s voice inside his head. Somehow, the spider managed to sound exasperated. “The light, the pain, it was." The spider weezed. “Difficult to dull”
Snorri mined whirled at the spider’s words; he hadn't considered it before, but from the screams of the goblin warriors, they too must have experienced a significant amount of pain. Finalizing his idea, he sent one word back into his mind towards the spider: "electricity." No answer came. Snorri tried to struggle against what appeared to be a net that fastened him tightly to the stone wall. After finding no way to loosen the thing, Snorri did his best to look around. extending all of his senses and wildly flickering his eyes to take in as much of the chamber as possible. Huge glowing crystals cast light around the chamber, with vast networks of cable and pipes leading away from each. As Snorri searched the room with his eyes, He was suddenly aware of a pair of heavy footsteps running from where he was pinned and away from him. Goblish voices drifted back from somewhere off to his left.
The muttering was followed by a trio of footsteps approaching the pinned gnome. Snorri struggled against the net, trying to turn his head towards the sound, but it was useless; the net was too tight. “You demon.” came a low goblish voice of who Snorri guessed was the commander who had been shouting orders in the moments before. “I command them to reveal your name to me," the goblin commander yelled at him. Snorri did not answer. After a moment or two, he heard another of the goblins tentatively ask, “How do you know it can speak goblin boss?” The question was appropriately answered with a punch of some kind as the asker let out a muffled grunt of pain. “It’s a demon, Rik. They speak all the languages. It's how they make bargains.” Hissed a third goblish voice. followed by another grunt of pain and an evil snarl. “Shut it.” Growled the commander. before he bellowed a much louder voice, “DEMON WAHT IS YOUR NAME?”
This time, upon receiving no answer, the goblin, who had been shouting at Snorri from his blind spot, caught him in the stomach. Snorri let out a grunt in pain and frustration as the wind was knocked out of him. “SPEAK THY NAME DEMON,” the goblin voice once again screamed. “SPEAK THY NAME AND BE BOUND TO ME,” Snorri drew in a long, deep breath and let out a gnomish scream of fury. “I AM SNORRI!” he bellowed into the chamber at large, the roar causing the back of his throat to explode with the taste of blood.
“Release it,” ordered the goblin commander. Two pairs of goblin feet shuffled towards Snott, and a heavily armoured goblin came into his veil, reaching up out of his eyesight. The goblin pulled at something, and the net loosened. Snorri shifted his weight back to his feet, and as the other pair of goblins released the other side of the net, Snorri was finally able to look at his trio of captures clearly for the first time. seemingly the only goblin survivors, a pair of heavily armoured goblins flanked their unit leader as the veil-looking goblins large yellow eyes met Snorri’s for the first time. “You demons are bound to me.” The goblin quavered at Snorri, his voice too Shakey to command any actual authority. Snorri raised an eyebrow in response. "I have named you, and I have released you from your bindings; now you must return the favour to e." He continued to shake, pointing a sharp-tipped spear towards Snorri. “I command you to activate the magic of the creatures," he said, wildly gesturing towards a vast control panel filled with knobs, dials, and buttons. Snorri let out a chuckle. The stupid creatures wanted him to turn the power back on. They had chosen, for some reason, to ignore the chance they had to kill him. only to command him to complete the one goal he had brought with him into the chamber of crystals and pipes.
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Snorri let out a dull grunt and began to drag his dully aching limbs towards the control panel. As he moved past the pair of armoured goblins, one muttered to the other, "See, I told you the boss could bind it...” before he was cut off by a growl from the goblin leader that could only mean shut up. Snorri looked at the control panel’s many switches, carefully reading the gnomish labels and searching through each until he found the one labeled. “Emergency restart drive trigger" was a large red button. Snorri stared at the button as the full range of feeling finally returned to his hands. Only now did he realise he still clutched his blade gingerly in his right hand. He raised his left hand to the console and flicked the switch. tightening his grip on the sword. He turned to face the goblins.
Snorri dove at the closest goblin as the pipes and conduits of the power station rumbled back into life. The goblin caught totally off guard managed to let out a low yelp as Snorri sank his sword through the gap between the goblin's pauldron and neck. “YOU KILLED ROY!” screamed the last heavily armoured goblin warrior in the chamber. swing at Snorri with a heavy axe. Snorri lept over the axe blades low swing and threw his sword towards the screaming goblin. The blade tip sank deep into the visor’s narrow eyeslit, and Rik, the goblin warrior, let out one final scream in pain. Snorri tore his blade free of the goblin’s corpse just in time to see the finally goblin. the unit leader closing in on him, a sharp spear tightly gripped in his hands.
“SNORRI!” yelled the goblin as if he were trying to get the gnomes attention. “YOU BREAK OUR BARGAIN!” the goblin yelled, coming at Snorri in a series of wild strikes, causing the gnome to throw himself high into the air. The goblin spans his head, tracking the demons movement as it barrels down at him, and parrys his spear in a vicious blow as it descends upon him. Snorri smashed the goblins lightly armoured shoulder with the pommel of his sword as he landed, sending the full force of his momentum into the creatures bones with a sickening crunch sound. The goblin crumpled to the floor, grasping for its broken shoulder. “We had a bargain,” the creature wailed. “Powers on” Spat Snorri. “End of transaction.” The goblin blinked up at him, clearly unable to understand Gnomish. Its eyes widened. Snorri brought his sword down.
Arrablac the Ventor’s headless corpse crumpled to the floor to join his dead warriors. And Snorri sprinted at full speed from the chamber. leaving nothing but death and the thrumming machinery, he made his way back to the lift station to continue his upward journey.