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Walta gets caught in high-energy physics experiment, meets some Darkspawn
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It's not that big... But yeah it's definitely not fitting anywhere she might have to squeeze or duck.

Hm. Let's sit back here and ping it with sonar for a while. Infrared lens, too. Anything moving? Anything warm?

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There are no warm or moving things detectable on the bridge or near the gate.

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So she sets across at a steady pace, pretty unnerved at how loudly her engine is echoing down here. Kind of unnerved by the steadily dropping fuel meter, too.

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There are more dead monsters in the area in front of the gate, including several different types - the small kind that seems most numerous, another more human-sized kind, and a kind that's twelve feet tall and has great big horns. There are two of those. All of the dead monsters seem to have been killed in battle.

If she looks for a gate-opening mechanism, there isn't any such thing obvious on an initial inspection, but there is a crudely-cut tunnel off to one side that bypasses the gate completely, and it's more than roomy enough for her to pass through in her armature.

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Lacking a better path, through that she goes.

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The tunnel ends in a huge stone room with a bunch of smaller stone rooms adjoining it. Directly ahead, part of another stone bridge juts out over an enormous chasm. It looks like there used to be two bridges crossing the chasm and meeting in the middle, and large sections of this one have fallen away or been demolished, but its counterpart is still standing. The architecture is frankly awe-inspiring.

There are dead monsters everywhere, and nothing seems to be moving or making noise.

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Whooo. She turns on the floodlights to get a better view of all this. It's some impressive building, that's for sure.

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It's stunning. Everything is built on a grand scale - although the elaborate stone coffins lining the walls are oddly small...

The place seems deserted, but there are dead monsters on the remaining bridge, so it's a good bet that there's some way to get there from here. Would she like to go exploring?

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She would like to have some good rope in case of falls. Spare tubing and electrical cables don't count. It'd take a lot of rope to hold an armature, but still.

She marks the entrance she came in with by stomping a few times, scuffing the stone in a particular way, then tries to find the way forward.

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Beautiful stone corridors with dead monsters scattered across the floor. Crude tunnels routing around collapsed sections. Elaborately carved stone pillars. Empty sarcophagi, some upturned or tipped out of their alcoves. More dead monsters.

And now she's on the bridge! The view from here is if anything even more amazing.

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She might as well look at some of the dead monsters' weapons, maybe take whatever one of the big ones was using. The armature's probably strong enough to swing it.

 

She pauses and shuts off the engine a little ways along the bridge, taking it all in for as long as the battery lasts before resuming her course. No camera - you can't attach everything to an armature.

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There's a very hefty battle-axe available.

On the other side of the bridge, there's a lovely spacious stone room full of dead monsters, then another crudely cut tunnel. One fork of the tunnel leads to a worm-lizard warren; the lizards turn their horrible worm faces in her direction and hiss threateningly, but they don't attack.

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Ugh, more hideous guard dogs... Guard lizards. She leaves them alone, too.

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The other fork of the tunnel leads to a room with dried blood all over the walls and floor. Red blood, not the noxious black goo bled by the monsters. The archway a few feet to her right opens onto a cavernous expanse - she's back in the place with the crossed bridges, on the opposite end from where she started. This end of the broken bridge definitely looks like it was deliberately smashed. There are a couple more dead monsters lying around.

A set of elaborate double doors stands ajar, facing the end of the broken bridge across the beautifully carved floor. From beyond those doors, a faint noise - it sounds like people talking.

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Okay.

 

They have definitely already heard her, so no point sneaking up, but...

She turns the engine off and listens to identify French, English, Russian, Italian...?

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Of those options, it sounds closest to English, but there are no individually recognizable words.

The doors swing open. A short man in badly stained armour walks through them. Behind him, an eight-foot-tall humanoid statue with glowing eyes lets go of the doors and steps quietly in his wake.

The man smiles at Walta and says something in his not-quite-English language. Going just by the tone, it seems like it's probably a friendly greeting.

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She starts the engine back up, low gear, quiet enough to talk over.

"-Hello. I cannot understand you." Repeat in German, English, Hungarian, why not all three.

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He seems to get that she's trying multiple languages, because he listens to each one and then shakes his head and shrugs to indicate noncomprehension.

Having established that they have no languages in common, he points to himself and says "Stalas", points to his large stone companion and says "Kador", points to her...?

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"Gerwalta. Walta. I am Walta, you are Stalas, he is Kador. I am not Stalas." Point point point.

She gestures over the suit that turns her into a bulky six and a bit foot height. "I am wearing armature. Kador is wearing armature?"

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"Kador is not wearing armature," says Stalas, shaking his head.

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"Is Kador... Um. Kador, are you..." How does she depict "Darwinist"?

She makes chittery spider noises, and then imitates the lizard screech as best she can. "Like that?"

(The big axe is not getting set down soon, even if it's drawing pressure off.)

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Stalas looks puzzled. Kador also looks puzzled. They shake their heads confusedly.

"Kador is golem," says Stalas, with a word from his own language. "Is..."

He points at the floor. "Is stone." At the head of Walta's axe. "Is metal." At a nearby pillar. "Is stone." At various parts of his armour. "Is metal." At Kador. "Is stone - is person." At himself. "Is person." At Walta. "Is person. Golem is stone person, is metal person."

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No she has got to be misunderstanding something here. 

Last she heard that kind of thing was decades away at best. Unless there's a meaty core in there.

...She gives the German words back and makes a groaning screaming sound and waves the axe and asks, "Monsters, are not person?"

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"Monsters are not person," Stalas agrees. He points at a monster corpse, to clarify - "is monsters?"

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"That is monster. That is one kind of monster." Spider noise, "Is two kind of monster."

She sags in relief. "I'm not a killer."

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