The small group made its way down the ramp. Beothorn in the lead, the team had to make their way around the demon fire on the ground at the bottom. Tad watched as Zanna, now appearing as an elf with red hair, and Lamruil both walked very near or even through the fire at times that was still smoldering on the path.

"Lamruil, how are you doing that?" he whispered.

"It's the armor, Immunity from demon fire," said Lamruil with a smile.

Tad looked over at Zanna, who heard the conversation. She was staring intently at Lamruil as they walked.

Tad was hoping she wasn't still angry. The succubus now looked like a tall, pale-skinned elf with red hair in tight-fitting dark red leather armor. She was more muscular than any elf Tad had seen, but he thought this would work as most people have never seen many elves anyway.

As the group got to the bottom of the ramp, Tad got his first good look at these dwarves. Most cloth work clothes or little in the way of armor. All had a shield, and some wielded picks. Some had heavy war hammers. There were 14 in total standing, and there looked like three or four being cared for in the back of the group. Tad saw a few none moving, including the one he had spied fighting the orc nearer to them. Blood covered the fully armored dwarf, and his unmoving body was draped across an enormous orc corpse. Tad wondered if he died of blood loss or lightning.

"Hail and well met!" said Beothorn loudly in old dwarvish. Tad knew more than a few words of the language, so the translation charm on his wrist didn't activate when Beothorn spoke. Not everyone in the party had this charm. Tad knew Nico still had his, and he figured Zanna probably spoke dwarven since she had accumulated many languages over the years. Lamruil would not understand much, but Tad used soulmancy projection with the elf to keep him updated as the conversation progressed.

An older dwarf with grey in his beard and eyebrows stepped forward, "Greets, who be thee? I appreciated the help, but where did you spring out of? Are ye demons? "

"I'm Beothorn Rockgrip, and we had an unfortunate accident with a travel spell, and we ended up on top that cliff behind us there. We saw what was happening down here and decided to give you a hand," said Beothorn.

The older dwarf nodded, looking up at the edge of the plateau high above, "Ye don't happen to have still that spell do ya? I think the council would appreciate something like that. "

"No, sorry, it appears to be a oneway trip. Do any of your people need healing? Thaddius there could help if you do. " Beothorn turned and directed attention to Tad for a moment.

At this point, a couple of the minders dwarves had moved forward to stand with the old dwarf who was talking to Beothorn.

"We do indeed if you could, my name is Torekit Rubyflayer. I'm in charge here now that Rotgut is dead," he said, looking at the dwarven corpse splayed across the dead orc champion.

Beothorn nodded, "Tad could you assist with their wounded, please. I'll find out what's going on."

Tad nodded affirmation and started walking towards the dwarves still being tended. He trusted his father would sort out the specifics.

The four dwarves Tad found had a variety of wounds. Two were crossbow bolt wounds, one quite serious. The other two were scorched with burns from the lighting across their faces and scalps. They must have been hit on the helmet, Tad thought.

Tad applied a light heal to all of them, doing a second time for each of the ones still bleeding. They started breathing evenly, and he told the dwarf attendant they should be better in a few minutes if no nerves were hit. Tad's heal spell didn't heal everything, but it was good for most wounds and had been very useful to him while practicing staff combat with Magyur. There were more than a few times he had left with deep and painful bruises that he had been able to mend after practice.

The magician Filbert had taught him this spell and had also told him that the limitations, nerve damage, limb loss, crushed bones, and lost eyes were just some of them. It was suitable for most slashing, blunt, and lighter types of damage. It could also stop most bleeding if a limb is lost. Tad was hoping if he improved enough with it, he could either make the spell work better or learn a more powerful one. For now, he just thought of himself as the guy that will get you to a priest who will really heal you. He did know it didn't cure hangovers the hard way.

Tad saw Kettle standing by Nico dancing foot to foot, very excited. He walked over to the little creature.

"Tad, it's the giant metal orb there. It's the artifact!" projected Kettle.

"What kind of artifact?" asked Tad, now looking at the large silver shiny chunk of metal. He didn't know what it was made of. He didn't think it was silver, or the dwarves would have already chopped it up.

"I don't know. I need to touch it to see. " projected Kettle back, still shifting back and forth.

"Well, I'll go see if they will let us. I do not see any magic coming from it, Kettle, are you sure? " asked Tad.

"Yes, Tad. " said a more excited-sounding Kettle.

Tad waved Kettle over, grabbed his small three-fingered hand, then guided him to where Beothorn was still talking to Torekit.

The dwarves both paused talking when Tad came up with the small automatron almost dancing now foot to foot. "Do you mind if we take a look at the big chunk of metal there?" asked Tad of Torekit.

"Your little metal friend there isn't gonna take a wee all over it, is he?" ask Torekit with humor in his voice.

Tad looked down, "No, I don't think he does that."

"Fine, have a good look. That piece of metal is harder than a hag's tit on a mountain glacier. We haven't been able to even scratch it since we have been here. You will notice we have carved all around it. It is smooth. The metal around it has been rich steel and nickeled Iron. It's why we are here and why the orcs tried to take the pit here," said Torekit.

Tad looked over at the blob of metal. It was big, bigger than his wagon home. The only thing he had ever seen shaped even close to this was a loaf of bread, long rounded on both ends. The only flat surface is the bottom.

"Thank you, " said Tad as he led Kettle near the object. The entire thing sat exposed it looked like several passages were carved under it as the dwarves had removed some the metal supporting it. Tad let go of Kettles hand as the little creature almost leaped towards the metal side and pushed his hand against it.

"Well, what is it? " projected Tad to his friend.

"I don't know yet. It is very, very old as I said before. It might predate the Maelstrom." said Kettle, then he jumped down into one of the passages below the blob of metal. "This is interesting. "

Tad heard a thump, clang, then a hiss. Oh damn, Kettle, Tad jumped down, ducking low and turning his staff out of the way to get into the passage. Looking around, all he saw was a small metal door still swinging. Kettle was gone.

"Kettle, what are you doing? We do not know anything about this thing. Get out here now!" projected Tad loudly at his companion.

"Don't worry, Tad, there is nothing in here other than some old components of something---" Kettle stopped mid-sentence.

"Kettle, are you ok? What's going on." said a frantic Tad out loud as he scrambled to see if he could fit through the smaller opening.

"Tad, what going on down there," said Beothorn in a loud voice.

"I don't know. Kettle went inside it, " said Tad loudly.

"What, how? There is no way into that. It's solid metal. It doesn't even ring when you hit it. " said an angry dwarven voice Tad thought must be Torekit.

"I don't know. This door opened in the bottom. It's too small for me. Kettle stopped responding. I think I see a light now inside the opening. Kettle!" called Tad from below. He tried projecting it also. Just silence above.

Tad briefly thought about having Nico try to get inside it but then stopped that thought. One friend stuck in there is enough.

"Well, come out of the passage and let the team have a look at it, Lad. Perhaps we can pull him free of there, " said Torekit.

The hatch on the bottom closed.

"The opening on the bottom just closed. I can't sense Kettle any longer inside. " said a frantic Tad. He tried pounding on the hatch. It felt like hitting a giant piece of metal or stone—no sound or movement. The seam for the hatch disappeared. He couldn't even tell if he was hitting the correct location.

"Tad, there is something going on up here on this side. It looks like a door is about to open. Get up here, " said Torekit.

Tad extracted himself from the small passage. It had been a tight fit for him under where Kettled had entered. He stood next to Torekit, Beothorn, with the miners and the rest of the Carnival group standing behind watching.

There appeared to be the outline of a door or perhaps a large opening on the side. It was no longer smooth. Tad tried touching it, but it wasn't moving. Shortly though, there was a thump and a hiss as the door popped straight out a couple of inches, then the whole thing slid to the right like a hanging door.

Tad looked inside. It was dark, with a single small light pulsing behind what looked like glass.

"Kettel? " said Tad out loud, then he projected it.

"Tad, I found it. " projected Kettle back.

"Are you ok? You scared the crap out of me out here," asked Tad via their projected bond.

"I think so. It is all very strange in here. This place predates the Maelstrom. This is a monumental structure," projected Kettle in a quieter voice, sounding as if he was going to sleep.

Tad projected in concern, "Kettle come out of there for now. We need to be more careful with magic. You could get hurt. " He didn't know what was going on, but the only time Kettle sounded like this was when his energia reserves fell, which hasn't happened since the small automatron had absorbed the mana siphon.

A sleepy-sounding Kettle responded, "I can't, Tad. I might have made a mistake. I'm going to stop talking now as it is taking a lot of my energia sorting through the memory storage in here. "

"What, get out, stop it. " projected Tad as he pushed past Torekit to go into the compartment inside the hollow structure.

Tad saw four large Tubes on one side of the structure in front of the entrance, then to the right was a series of solid cubes and what might be a stool or chair. It didn't have a back and was flat on the surface. It was in front of a large sheet of clear material that might be glass. In front of the stool, Kettle was sitting with his back turned away, pressed against a large console with a couple of controls on top. From Kettles back and neck, thick cables of metal hair extended, and as they reached the console, they spread out and went into the machine around the edges of what might be a panel in the front. The panel door itself looked half-open towards the other direction. Tad could not see inside, but this was the source of the light he had seen from outside.

"Kettle, KETTLE?" shouted Tad reaching for his friend on the ground. When he touched Kettle, Tad received a heavy shock, and he released the small creature. "What in the hells is going on?" he said out loud, shaking his hand in pain.

Torekit had followed Tad into the structure, and he was busy tapping and touching the various shapes attached to the walls and ceiling. The inside itself was a few inches taller than Tad, but he had to duck under objects attached to the ceiling as he moved around, trying to get a clear view inside the panel and Kettle. When he finally managed to see inside, the sight caused him to pause. Thousands of small finger-sized crystals were inserted into sheets of glass, and hundreds of the sheets were standing straight up and down inside the panel. The glow was coming from the crystals that had Kettle's strands touching them.

"Damn it, Kettle, what have you done?" said Tad.

***