Pormont, often spoken of as the 'breadbasket of Falderen', was not a place one would think of as a place where much action and adventure would take place. Sure, there were ruins here and there of long-gone traces of civilisation, but those were only long-faded marks of violence, imprints of footsteps left behind from a less peaceful time. There indeed was a time once, before the blessed banner of light united the kingdom, that life was a tenuous flame threatened by shadows of beasts and monstrosities. But then, heroes rose to slay the beasts that crept and stamp out the monstrosities that stalked, and then came the age of humanity.
That was long ago. The blood spilled has long since dried to nothing and the bones since crumbled to dust. But though sundered flesh could rot and decompose,
Hup!
-zzzzttt-
metal could only rust,
Hah!
-krnch-
and magic often lingered for good.
...and there we go!
With outsize strength, even for her fairly large Faerin frame, Ludmilla's unnaturally formed muscle and bone contorted into impossible formations that mauled and bludgeoned, leaving lumps of crushed and warped metal where the unspeaking guardians of this place once stood post. For however long they had languished here, and for whatever long-lost purpose - be they products of inscrutable ancient engineers or a left behind by a recent Starcalled incursion - they had now been released from their duty of patrolling this sealed ruin. By force.
Should be the last of- oh, more of you?
The wordless clanking of more stiff-jointed automaton soldiers answered Ludmilla as they emerged from the dark, blocking the way. She had come here, following a tasty scent from the surface, but never imagined that blasting a smoking crater into the earth where she lost the scent - amidst a column of collapsed pillars that seemed another ubiquitous feature of the Falderen countryside - would send her tumbling down here.
COME, THEN!
...
Now, she wasn't so much interested in finding a way out as exploring this place, getting to the bottom of what had drawn her here with the unmistakeable reek of potent arcana, something her constantly demanding appetite simply must investigate. That tingling in the back of her throat propelled her into action again as she threw back her arms and prepared to let her flesh bubble with unnatural vigour once more.
kkkrrrkKKkrkrrkRKKNNNTTTHHHHNNNNKKKK
...!?
A collapse. Her form stabilised at a moment's notice; she threw herself back and skidded along the tunnel floor, some kind of maintenance shaft or perhaps sewer. The years and undergrowth had rendered its original identity unrecognisable - that and the fact the ceiling had just fallen in, an obliterating avalanche of dirt, rock and ancient brickwork that all but reduced the small contingent of enemies to sparking scrap among the jumbled stones. Then, movement in the rubble-dust!
Hi! Hello? Fell down? Still alive?
Dropping the offensive and closing in, swaying side to side curiously, Ludmilla approached the dust-dappled sunbeam left by the second hole someone had knocked into this ruin today, peering through the settling dust. Caution first - there was a non-zero chance that these would be meddlers, but she would not begrudge them a chance to prove the contrary. She was in a good mood today, on a full belly at least.
@Chako @MAI
