Foundry of The Luektorem

Vorland, 1439 ATC

The sky turned to a soft, pale orange as the sun began to dawn in the distance. A cascade of light shone over the lands, bathing the fields and trees in a cone of light as the sun sat half-set in the horizon. Below the group began to set up in the grasslands of north eastern Vorland.

"Walls built between us, miles separate us. Yet in our hearts, we share the same dream... Feelings so strong, we just must carry on, on to our magical world, magical world..." Venser sang leaning up against a wagon beside a familiar elven man with a white ponytail as they watched a tangerine haired girl work.

"Magical world... Ahh... So much mana in the air." Venser said setting the guitar back on the cart and. aside him an elven man with tied back white hair was bust fastening his armor.

"Its one of the reasons why I really like Laguna. Magic is much easier to cast here than anywhere else. Oh, and the delicious cat fish." Myron said tightening his gauntlets.

"I couldn't agree with you more. Exactly why I built a life here. And this world is just so... Simple. Unlike where I came from originally." The handsome bearded man said turning to the elf and looking down at his simple, segmented steel armor that he wore over his usual tunic and baggy pants.

"Don't you wear anything else, Venser?" The elf man asked turning to him as the handsome bearded man gave a shrug and then turned his gaze back to Nadine as she worked, she sat up and brushed he hair back, letting out a slow sigh.

"I was a few days ago when I had a merchant related lunch with my partner, Gloria."

"Partner. Right." Myron said rolling his eyes.

"Well, yes. Business partner and we have a fling every now and then. I am seduction incarnate..." Venser boasted placing his hands on his hips.

"Nadine has always been more interested in exploring and learning. And trying to figure out a way to avenge her home, and even if she wasn't she hates how you just sleep around with multiple women indiscriminately." Myron informed.

"Ever been up north to Pryldahn? Up there it's perfectly normal to love more than one woman at a time. And I have a lot of love." As Venser spoke, he didn't give Myron a single glance.

"Once or twice. But, really, you doing that doesn't make you look attractive in anyone's eyes. Especially not my friend. Nadine deserves someone who would be devoted to her, and love Nadine and only Nadine Is her beauty the only thing you see in her?" The elf man asked sternly.

Venser paused for a second and scratched at his chin, and then quickly spoke.

"She's beautiful, and interesting, and a challenge." He stated.

Myron's eyes narrowed and he let out a sigh.

"It would be best if you looked elsewhere for another artificer girl, Venser. I don't want you hurting her."

"I would never. I am risking my life for her, just like you are, my pointy eared friend. Oh and today," Venser paused and placed a helmet that had a green plume similar to a mohawk and prominent cheek guards on his head.

"I brought protection. Normally I never wear protection! It slows me down."

"Is everyone ready?" Nadine asked.

"We're ready Nadine!" Myron said standing tall.

"We've come this far. Let's see what happens. Destiny calls." Venser said rubbing his hands together.

The time had come to activate the Luektorem Portal Engine and help Nadine and her friends take the fight to their sworn enemies. The Interdimensional Engine whirred to life and made a humming noise, a film of bright blue starlight energy crawled up the sides and light began to crackle.

A giant whirlwind burst forth just as a hole in reality was ripped open. Even from where they waited the party could feel the wild gush of wind from the hole as it began to expand.

For as gigantic as it was, the mighty portal remained rooted in a fixed position to resemble something akin to a cave that had sprouted from the ground as it stopped expanding, and within the portal came the bright orange light of a forge and white, bone like structures.

"Yes! It worked!" The orange haired artificer girl jumped up, and the handsome bearded man frowned at the sight of a portal to elsewhere opened up. He felt heat and pressure, and then cold.

The sound of hooves rapidly approaching them.

"King Rian must have sent out soldiers to inspect what we're doing." Myron said, looking over the nearby plains as Nadine stood wide eyed at her work and Venser stood there, relaxed, one hand on his waist and a cannabis cigar in between his lips.

"Yeah I sent my friend Marvella to get help in case... Ya know. Ahem. Here we are. Into the belly of the beast..." The sun warmed his back as she stretched her limbs to their limits, cracks and pops shooting both up and down his body as everyone looked into the portal with uncertainty.

"Might as well be going to Coldwrought..."

"I'm sure, Venser. We've got this. We cannot let these creatures, who want nothing more than to make us into more of them continue to exist." The orange haired girl said as she readied her sword and looked to her bracelet, which she had switched to her left hand, and looked over a small army of mercenaries and several other members of the Artificer's Guild that were keenly interested in any and all Luektorem artifacts.

Priceless, ancient arcane machinery.

She let out a cool breath. Ready, focused, fearless.

And they were ready to fight for this.

"For Telzar!" Nadine cried.

"For Telzar!" Cried Myron.

"Let's kill some monsters and steal their stuff!" Yelled a random mercenary.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Venser said flicking his cigar through the portal into the Luektorem's lair, brandishing his sword and re-enforcing it with magical green lightning as they all entered the portal.

Elsewhere, the cube, having been awakened by the sudden foreign intrusion into the long idle Luektorem foundry burst out of the swamplands to the east, the ground breaking apart around it as it hovered, and the Luektorem awoke from their long slumber and immediately set their sights to the intruders on their ship.

The Luektorem were humanoid, covered in lightweight porcelain armor, smooth and polished. And they glowed from within, lurid, eerie blue light spilling out from their eyes and jaws as they shook dust from their bodies and began moving stiffly, and then all together in a wave.

"Lhikan and St. Holly protect us." Murmered one armored adventurer, readying his shield and his morning star. The mages of the Artificer Guild readied their catalysts, from wands to special bracelets like Nadine's and began firing magic missiles at the incoming horde.

From the front, the porcelain monsters descended upon the party, Vorlandian soldiers, adventurers and many members of the Artificer Guild. Many of them looking already worn down. They were essentially drones, lethally powerful drones who had been created to collect and assimilate species and who had no memories of their former lives.

Bone claws sharper than any dagger cut through armor, completely eviscerating their victims while several men were simply slammed into the ground and held there by the overwhelming forces.

Sharp taild impaled others straight through, letting the blood run down their bony extension; the biomechanical nightmares collected their blood as they collected their bodies.

Shouting, everybody was shouting. Men shouted in fear, in sadness, in pure agony; and the Luektorem coldly marched through, slaughtering those who fought back and taking who they could.

Nadine, the quiet artificer who prefered to be left alone with her work and wanted revenge on the creatures that destroyed her home, found herself unable to react at first.

Myron elicited a war cry of his own, challenging any demon near him. He stood like a man who had just accepted his fate.

"Oh fuck what were we thinking?!"

Both sides were focused but well organized, the Luektorem had the advantage on their home turf. The porcelain monsters quickly fell into rabid, uncoordinated action at the sudden invasion as they fought the combined forces. The combined forces were not coherent as a group, but were ruthlessly efficient fighting for their lives.

Myron's legs trembled, as he summoned a small tornado of salt and channeled it a jet. The Luektorem pushed back as the channeled sand began to cut through its armor and it set its sights on him.

"Ahhh!"

Large, curved claws raked against his back, cutting through the metal and underlining flesh. He fell to his knees.

There were the porcelain creatures on all sides, clawing them open to rip out their entrails. There was no escaping it. From the sides, from behind, he felt their eyes on him. They were coming.

A world made of bone, porcelain monsters made from a combination of different races; it was a nightmare, a fever dream.

They were scholars, adventurers, and mercenaries, against an ancient evil, had they even stood a chance?

A Luektorem held out its hand and fired bone shards at its attackers, a stray shard stabbed the elven mage through a chink in his armor. He staggered from the blow, as it closed the distance and clawed at him. It pierced straight through the elven man, shock evident on his face. Droplets of blood splashed Nadine's face beside him.

"MYRON! NO!"

The orange haired girl reached out for him as he fell, tightening her left hand into a fist the blue stone on her bracelet glowed, using he bracelet's power to create a dozen illusions of herself, all of which looked just as real as their summoner but the copes of Nadine were transparentand had a slight blue glow to them . All of them distracted the Luektorem and dodged around them.

He reached for his hand crossbow and twirled his body around to shoot his attacker right in the one of it's glowing blue eyes. While it was blinded, Nadine drew her short sword, reinforced with blue magical energy, and let out a yell, bisecting the Luektorem and sending broken bits of porcelain and blue wonder fluid everywhere.

Her elven companion's body went limp and fell to the blood covered floor. His last smile lay etched upon his face, undisturbed to the hell he was in.

"Myron…"

It was a lost cause, but she didn't want to believe it.

No more did she want to believe the sound of the various humanoids with porcelain armor grafted onto them that were surrounding her, closing in on her. How many? A dozen, maybe more; she couldn't be exactly sure. But she was sure of her anger.

In a blind rage, she swung her sword and reached out with her left hand, her bracelet glowing as she blasted a few Luektorem apart with a channeled blue energy beam. Blinded by both her tears and rage, she hacked and slashed, cutting any of the monsters that dared get too close and Nadine would kill as many as she could. They could kill her, they probably would.

But she would be damned if she didn't die fighting like she had for years.

The Luektorem had to be destroyed.

For her friends.

For her home.

For Telzar.

Her last swing was caught in the claws of a Luektorem that stood out from all the others.

She saw four, sunken, glowing blue eyes, a narrow face that resembled the skull of a cat, six spikes protruding from its chin, four spindly arms and all of which were covered in white porcelain armor.

Doulocel of Luektorem growled and used all it's strength and all four hands to who crunched the blade to pieces with its powerful strength.

Her eyes widened, and she stepped back. They were closing in on her, sallow flesh clad in metal and porcelain. Their ten foot tall leader, it's face long and like a cat skull, features sunken and hollow, looked at her toolbelt, and the illusion generating bracelet she wore, and then it recognized Nadine as the mastermind behind the intrusion into the lair of the Luektorem, sharp cat like teeth smashed in anticipation.

"Nadine of Telzar." It said approaching the orange haired girl.

"You know me?"

"This one... Take her alive!" Doulocel's voice deep and distorted.

They were so close to her now.

There was a mass of people, and they were terrified. Fear was present on each and every one of their faces. Sweat, blood, and tears covered nearly all of these men he was seeing.

The weak and the injured would be taken, studied, and be turned into more of the Luektorem. And the dead would be recycled.

The ones that fought back and were seemed dangerous would die, and their remains would be recycled and put to use by the Porcelain Proxy.

Some would be decapitated, others split right up down the middle or peppered by shards of porcelain, bits of bone and brain flying in every direction.

"Look out!"

Venser's sword sparked with magical green lightning as a hulking, porcelain covered Luektorem that had the features of an orc came looming up behind one of the random Archeologists Guild members. With a swing, a burst of power discharged itself from his blade and burned through the creatures lightweight armor. He followed it up with a slice through its lower stomach.

"Oh I'm saved! You!" He cried.

He fought like a maniac, fighting for his life.

For the lives of everyone who decosed to go along with Nadine and Myron's mad bid for vengeance against the creatures that destroyed their home, as well as the bid for the mercenaries and the scholars that came along to plunder the highly coveted and advanced Luektorem artifacts that was derived from the ancient Kundalandians.

When a Luektorem charged him with its spear-like tusks, Venser used the lightning blade to crack one of the tusks from it and plunged it into the creature's skull, channeling lightning through the Luektorem to kill it.

Vaulting off of the dead porcelain creature, Venser was met with six more to take its place. His chest armor was falling apart, and covered in the bright blue wonder fluid blood of the Luektorem, sweating heavily and struggling to maintain his balance.

"There are too many!" Yelled an adventurer smashing a drone's head with his morning star, sending bits of porcelein and bright blue blood everywhere.

The man teleported towards his enemies and rolled under the grotesque arm of another and stabbed it through the chest. A winged broken one that resembled a harpy swooped down and Venser ducked before its talons could claw his face off. With adrenaline-fueling him, Venser leapt and impaled the harpy through its back as it flew back up.

Pulling the tusk from he landed in something warm. Something that was warm and red, and left a lingering taste of iron in his mouth.

Blood.

He was in a pool of blood. Various body parts lay scattered, floating in the pool like ducks in a pond. Bones, hands, and feet, torsos, even heads. Along with the the corpses of Luektorem drones, creatures of exposed meat and cracked porcelain who once were humans, elves, and other races.

"Uaghhhhhhhhh!" He yelled a mix of horror and anger.

What had he gotten into? What had Nadine and everyone else gotten into?

"RRAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

Venser yelled conveyed all of his frustration, his desperation as he threw his hand out and cast a concentrated web of lightning out from his fingertips through an attacking Luektorem drone, leaving a gaping, burnt hole through it's chest as it fell dead.

FZZZZ!

KRAKOW!

He needed to find Nadine.

Venser took a breath and kept moving on around the cube, throwing out lightning bolts and slicing through any enemy in his way.

"Alright this was a bad idea! Retreat! Collect the wounded! Hurry!" The overwhelmed warriors who fought for promise of invaluable treasures, and a good fight, were cut down by the ruthlessness of the drones and those who hadn't fought to the death were taken alive and would soon face a fate worse than death.

To be assimilated and serve those whom against they had fought.

Two of Dolocel's arms reached out and grasped Nadine's arms while she was weakened and hauled the tangerine haired girl up to it's level so they were face to face, the arms covered in porcelain and the grip solid, sharpened points driving into her arms.

"ARGHH! Help! Venser!" Nadine cried out, unable to do anything but kick at her captor.

Their leader led several of the Luektorem drones in a retreat to the core of the lair as the intruding parties began to exit the portal. There was no need to go after them, for the Luektorem had awoken, and soon they would rise up from the surface and assimilate all of Laguna.

"Let her go, monster!" Venser yelled watching Doulocel capture the orange haired artificer and drag her down a long dark hallway, followed by dozens and dozens of porcelain played drones, and he disappeared in a puff of thick red smoke in pursuit, only to be attacked and slowed by the Luektorem soldiers.

This girl's drive and intelligence intrigued Doulocel, recognizing her as the one who created the Interdimensional Engine. As she was intrigued by the magical bracelet on her wrist, clearly an item of great power.

"I have seen you in my dreams. I have seen your machinations beyond this foundry. And you have the knowledge The Luek seeks within here..." Doulocel growled poking a sharp finger into Nadine's forehead, who squirmed and yelled out in pain.

"The knowledge to spread beyond this universe. Come, let us see what's inside your mind. Uncreate your conscience so we might absorb your knowledge..."

It was as if the world had come crashing down around the girl with the bright tangerine hair. It was all over. Her companions, her life, everything.

The portal soon closed behind everyone, and back on the surface an army of calvary along with Marvella could only stare at the massive floating cube in the sky hundred of miles away that only drifted towards the beacan that was part of the Interdimensional Engine.

"Wheres Venser?" Asked Marvella dismounting her brown stallion and looking over all of the men and women who were collapsed on the ground shellshocked and relieved that they had survived.

"Got left behind he did!"

"We have bigger problems." The Vorlandian commander said pointing to the faraway cube in the sky.

"We need to recover first. As for Venser, Marvella... He's on his own in there."