E
Eventually we made it to a large, downward ramp. The ramp lead to an opening with a number of tables and chairs scattered across the floor. Around the room there were large, cleaning machines. To my surprise, we seemingly found the last of the Gnomish resistance. Brave Gnomish Soldiers gathered in small numbers. They noticed us walking down the ramp. The group leader addressed me. She warned that this was no place for adventurers like us. She urged us to turn back, but we refused.
Continuing through a maze of hallways and Troggs, we made it to a large clearing. Enormous gears creaked and turned all around us. As we walked to the center of the room, we noticed a large puddle of strange green liquid. Ignoring the bubbling ooze we kept walking. The Hunter in the group the turned around with a should. The liquid had come alive and was rushing towards us. We all fought the ooze, our weapons slicing straight through the mass until it was battered down to the floor. Before it had time to regenerate, we ran toward the hallway and closed the entrance.
We found ourselves staring down an endless, dimly light lit hallway. We heard a low, beeping sound as red lights pulsed in the distance. As we gathered our thoughts, nobody noticed the small alarm-0-bot that was creeping towards us. Then a loud, electronic voice belted out “WARNING!”. We destroyed it right away, but those beeping sounds swarmed around us. Suddenly we were attacked by a number of security drones riding automated Mechanostriders. These robots were bent on serving their purpose, thought there was no longer anything to protect. Forcing our way down the hallway, we finally made it to the end.
These robots were bent on serving their purpose, thought there was no longer anything to protect.
Now, we were in the middle of a large arena crawling with Leper Gnomes. This place looked very familiar to me, as I looked around at all the flying machines and intricate machinery. Without a doubt I knew this was the Engineering Bay I used to work at, and these mindless green engineers used to be my friends. With a heavy heart my comrades and I fought these once brilliant workers, now mindless, ravenous zombies.
In the center of this arena, we saw a spider-like robot slowly patrolling in front of an unfinished flying machine. We ran up to see what it was. A Leper Gnome was piloting a security robot. I recognized this Gnome right away. He was once a good friend of mine. I remember he and I would work day and night on that flying machine. It would be an iconic representation of what us Gnomes could accomplish, and it would be presented to Bronzebeard and the Dwarves as a token of brotherhood.
But my friend was no longer himself. Looking into the cockpit at the shriveled green ghost of someone I used to know, I muttered, “Uluz?”. Once he saw us he shot out electric energy, trying to knock us off the platform. We blocked his attacks, and struck the control mechanism at the back of the robot. In a flash, the machine exploded, ejecting it’s pilot high in the air. If only we had gotten here sooner, maybe we could have gotten to him before the Lepers. He was mindlessly protecting that Flying Machine, and could no longer distinguish friends from enemies.
