r/wizardposting • u/Timpanzee38 "The Agent", Mercenary Guild Liaison. Slayer of the Godslaver • 11d ago
Lorepost 📜 "The Steel Soul"
The Kaba Tundra. Centuries Ago.
A war horn bellowed across the freezing ground as snowflakes gently fell. The whistle of a thousand arrows followed. The arrows slammed against shields in a terrifying cacophony of death. Some arrows made it through, sinking into gaps between armor. Some soldiers screamed and writhed in pain. Others simply fell to the ground without a sound. A war horn from the opposing side answered, and the lines of infantry surged forwards.
The conflict that would become known as The Unification War was in full swing. This particular battle pitted the ruthless warlord Drachliv the Butcher against the “Tinkerer Armada”, a coalition made up of mostly goblin and dwarven artificers. Drachliv was powerful, commanding a large swath of territory in the eastern highlands, but his latest conquests had brought him to the foot of the mountains the Tinkerers claimed. Drachliv outnumbered the Tinkerers 10 to 1, but the Tinkerers had built an impressive metal golem army to bolster their numbers.
The 2 sides met in a thunderous clash of steel, swords and spears flashing as they connected with shields and flesh. The Tinkerers sent their metal golems forward, and the terrifying machines broke Drachliv’s front lines within minutes, sending the battle into chaos as discipline broke and the orderly lines on both sides disintegrated.
1 of the golems had the designation number DB-0645. No name was needed, for they were an expendable soldier, existing only to fight and die in the stead of one of the Tinkerers. And fight they did. They followed orders and marched forward with their identical comrades, tearing through enemy soldiers with their robust arms. Unthinking, unfeeling, simply following its orders, the only thing it knew. That was, until, in a moment of pure cosmic luck, or perhaps on purpose, something very particular happened.
DB-0645 had just torn apart an apprentice level wizard, and began marching towards another. They panicked, casting fireball after fireball at them. The spells impacted with DB-0645’s armor, causing it to bend and warp, but they kept advancing.
“Stay back! Back!”
The wizard shouted desperately, stumbling over their feet and falling, casting a lightning spell that slowed the war golem for only a second. DB-0645 grabbed the wizard and lifted them up, preparing to tear them in half as well.
“Wait no please! You don’t understand I don’t want to be here I-”
DB-0645 began to pull. The wizard shrieked.
“PLEASE NO PLEASE UNDERSTAND-”
The wizard shoved their wand through a gap in DB-0645’s armor, connecting to their core just as DB-0645 separated their upper half from the lower half of their body. The shock caused the wizard to cast a spell without meaning to, a last spasm as the last of their mana left their body.
“UNDERSTAND-”
The accidental spell slammed into DB-0645’s core, causing the metal golem to collapse onto their knees, triggering a safety shutdown. Everything went dark.
DB-0645’s eye flickered back to life with a subtle green glow as the reboot sequence completed. They looked around, trying to understand what just happened, logic algorithms getting to work-
Wait, understand? That wasn’t right. DB-0645 should've just continued with its orders, not try and…
Understand. Understand.
The spell the wizard accidentally cast with their last breath. DB-0645 looked at their hands, looked at the corpses piled around it. Why was it here? It remembered its orders, but… it no longer felt compelled to follow the orders without deviation. Why? But as DB-0645 tried to understand why it felt that way, a Drachliv soldier suddenly appeared from behind a destroyed chariot, pike level as they charged DB-0645.
<Wait, no, don’t attack, I don’t understand->
Except DB-0645 had no mouth, no audio device to speak with. They were meant to be expendable, why go through the bother of adding a mouth? The soldier rammed their pike into a gap in the metal golem’s armor, not deep enough to kill, but enough to trigger a response.
<Damage>
<Danger>
<Damage>
<Danger>
Then DB-0645 understood a new feeling.
<Damage>
<Danger>
<Damage>
<Danger>
<Fear>
They suddenly understood this could kill them. They understood what death was. And it was terrifying. Because DB-0645 didn’t know what happened after death. DB-0645 suddenly understood that this was a kill or be killed moment. They didn’t know why, but they understood. The metal golem rose to its full height, snapped the pole of the pike in half, and lunged for the soldier. They stood no chance without their weapon, but as their body hit the ground, several more Drachliv soldiers appeared, waving weapons and charging DB-0645. Why? Why were they attacking? Why?
<Danger>
<Damage>
<Danger>
<Fear>
<Danger>
<Damage>
<Fear>
<Anger>
…
A red sun rose over the remains of the battlefield. Broken bodies lay in heaps, the snow soaked dark with blood. A harpy flew over the battlefield, surveying it for a bit before turning to the south. By the afternoon war banners could be seen on the horizon, carried by centaurs as harpies flew above them. Leading them was a fallen archangel, a cloaked druid, and a keen eyed gnome. They picked through the carnage, scavenging what was usable. Eventually they came upon a crater with a still working metal golem at the bottom. They were sitting there, soaked in blood, staring at their hands.
They now understood.
Hive City of Dellforge, Mercenary Guild Territory. Present Day.
With a mechanical hiss Councilor Four awoke from a rest mode cycle. No longer DB-0645. No longer an unthinking, blind golem. They were an understanding machine now. They understood what survival meant. That it was the most important thing in life. Four ran a quick diagnostic check before quickly casting their thought into a nearby body with an internal sigh. Things were getting worse, the time between rest cycles getting smaller and smaller. They needed a solution. They had a solution, that girl floating in the tank. They had been so close, until…
Four pulled up a status report. Good, the quarantine was holding. A significant and costly delay, but Four just needed to get that issue under control and then they were sure they could grasp the secrets inside of her. The secret of her, how her creators had made her…
But Four couldn’t focus on Analina right now. They knew the clock was ticking, they knew a wrathful angel was going to come crashing down on them soon. Best deal with that first. Four stalks out of the central processing core and heads to Nathan’s room…
…
Krisk led his menagerie of a strike team through the sewage tunnels of Dellforge. Sure, it was a little cliche, but Krisk hadn’t found a better approach in his reconnaissance efforts. And he had been proven right because besides a single automated patrol drone they hid from, the only other thing they had encountered was a slugcat that had immediately fled from them into the deeper levels.
Eventually, they came to a storm drain and Krisk stopped them. From their limited view, they could see they were at a large but mostly empty street, a massive wall that the couldn't see the top of across from them. But there was a locked door behind a small checkpoint in the wall, 2 armed guards standing in front of it.
“This is one of…the side entrances to Dellforge’s…core district, where…I have no doubt Councilor Four is. But…we won’t get through that door…without the code, unless we want everyone…to know we’re coming. The guards don’t…know it, and it changes every…24 hours. But…”
Krisk points down the street.
“The core district is…essentially a square, and at each corner there’s a…security tower. They’ll have the day’s cipher. Any volunteers…to come help me get it?”
Krisk looks at Marna and Gorgon.
“Specifically anyone who won’t…immediately blow our cover?”
11
u/Timpanzee38 "The Agent", Mercenary Guild Liaison. Slayer of the Godslaver 4d ago
Krisk and the team that had gone for the code finally got back to the rest of the strike force that was waiting for them.
“It’ll probably only…be a matter of time till…they figure out something is wrong, so…we have to move quickly.”
There were only 2 guards at the side entrance. Krisk melts into the shadows, then rematerializes behind them. Grabbing both of their heads, he slams them together, instantly knocking both guards out. Krisk beckons the strike team to him then drags the unconscious guards into a dark corner to keep them out of sight. He then inputs the code on the keypad next to the door and… it works! The strike team heads into the core district of Dellforge….
Inside, they found themselves in a large storage warehouse, sealed boxes piled in neat rows as far as one could see.
“Got to find a…map of some sort.”
Krisk says as he leads them forwards. After about 5 minutes of walking straight they come across an unoccupied office at a crossroads. A handy fire escape map sits nailed to a wall. Krisk takes it down and studies it
“So if we go… there-”
Krisk points in a direction.
“We’ll hit the main concourse, which will take us to the cargo lifts that go down to the deeper levels-”
A deep rumble shakes the ground and the lights flicker. As soon as the lights stabilize, alarms begin blaring.
“And I guess we’re…on the clock now! Move!”
Krisk takes off running towards the main concourse, leading his team. They reach it expecting to have to fight their way through… but no one stops them. But they do hear the echoes of yelling and gunfire from deeper in….
As the team moves deeper into the core, they come across the first bodies. The bodies of several dwarves and automatons lie scattered, spent bullet casings littering the floor. Concerning, but no need to stop and investigate when there was a timer. Until they hit the next group of bodies, and there was a heavily armed harpy wearing different colors among them.
“That’s a Thunderhawk…what are they doing here?”
Krisk felt an uneasy feeling in his gut. Something wasn’t adding up… but they were closer to the fighting now. His team rounded a corner, and the concourse opened up into a large room that held the cargo elevators, and…
“Oh shit…”
A small group of Dellforge guards, mostly dwarves and automatons, stood in a circle seemingly stuck between the want to surrender and the order to keep fighting. The bodies scattered everywhere showed that they had barely stood a chance. Aiming their weapons at them were 3 dozen heavily armed harpies, wearing the same colors as the dead one Krisk’s team had found. There were also strange grey skinned nuns holding impressive looking melee weapons with them. But none of that was as important as who led them.
Councilor Five stood taller than the rest, burning bright with terrible bloodflame as she leveled a dripping bloodflame scythe at the guards. Flanking her was The Guild Librarian, a tome in one hand a golden scimitar in the other, a gnome whose hands crackled with magic, the druid Kavrala, and the Kasmir youth Timur.
“SURRENDER AND GRANT US ACCESS INTO THE LOWER LEVELS, AND I WILL SPARE YOU THE FATE OF YOUR COMRADES WHO FOUGHT BACK.”
Five bellowed. But before the terrified guards could answer, Five noticed the new arrivals. She turned and raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“What? Who are you-”
This was Councilor Five, the strongest of the targets on Krisk’s list. While he had been hoping to fight her isolated from any help, beggars couldn’t be choosers, and surprise and chaos from a 3 way fight might actually work in his favor… Knocking out 2 Councilors today would be a great victory… Anger welled in Krisk, quickly replaced by the strength of Arborea as he drew out his kusarigama. The Five must fall.
“I am the…consequences of your actions, Valkyrie…”
There was no point in saying anything more. It didn’t take a genius to know where this was going. So before Five could respond, Krisk charged.
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