52: Uninhibited

“Very well, I’ll take you to Ghostgate. Have a seat, though. It will be a short while.” Dalen pulled at a knot of nerves in the control panel of the strider and I felt the creature rumble and set off. I sat down on the leathery bench and waited.

Soon I was bored, and began experimenting with a number of modifications to some of my spells. I was not changing anything big about them, I would need a spell making altar for that, but certain details such as gesture and concentration could be adjusted. Eventually I was satisfied with my improvements and I gazed out over the foyada. It was ashen and bare, but the occasional shalk or kagouti stirred across the empty floor of the ravine.

After a short amount of time, Dalen called out and said Ghostgate was visible. I stood and walked to his side. Darkasha and Kael did the same. Sure enough, the three buildings of Ghostgate were visible, and I could see through the middle one to the other side. As we approached, I noticed that there was absolutely no one outside. I thought this might be because an ash storm was coming, so the people had decided to take shelter. I asked Dalen about it, but he said he hadn’t been here since he was a boy. “That was back when the shimmering blue ghostfence was still containing the devil within. Gods praise the Nerevarine.” He said and bowed his head slightly in reverence. Still, something was unnerving. As we approached even closer, I could see that the iron portcullises that had acted as a gate had been ripped apart, as if some massive creature had forced entry into the contained area of Red Mountain. As I was about to point this out to my companions, something crashed through the wooden door that entered into the secondary building. I realized with horror that it was a person, and shortly afterwards a huge blue Daedra pushed through the splintered doorway after the crumpled person. It looked up at us watching from atop the silt strider and roared.

“Dalen! Do something!” Kael said forcefully. Dalen looked at him confusedly, but then realized what was going on down on the ground. He started pushing the strands of the strider’s “brain” to the side before reaching in and removing a small blue crystalline shard. Immediately, the strider screeched and began to shudder with what appeared to be, for lack of a better word, rage.

Dalen explained, “This is an anger inhibitor that stops the strider from crushing people.” He held up the crystal before placing it in a small leather pouch he had at his side. “Now, let’s take care of that demon.” He pulled a few levers and the strider threw a massive leg at the Daedra. It caught it right in the chest and sent the blue creature flying into the steep wall of the foyada. The Daedra twitched and slumped, clearly dead.

“Nice kick.” Kael said, patting the leathery walls of the strider. “Alright, let’s get down there. There’s probably more inside…” He trailed off at the sound of a stony grating sound coming from behind us. Dalen maneuvered the strider so we could see the source. “Oh gods no.” Kael sighed.

Erupting out of the floor of the ravine were two massive stone pillars in a disturbingly familiar shape. “An Oblivion gate!” Darkasha hissed and drew his sword. I gripped the Staff and thought desperately. The Gate was much wider than the other gates I had seen. Burning red energies coalesced between the two pillars and soon dozens of Daedra were pouring through from the other side. Dalen frantically began pulling at the controls of the strider, which lurched and shuddered as it kicked and stomped the life out of the Daedra crowding the valley floor below. They began hacking at the thick legs of the strider, which squealed and began stomping of its own accord. Dalen removed his hands from the control panel and instead pulled a bow from somewhere beneath the panel. He began firing arrows down into the horde of Daedra, and I could see that their numbers were thinning. I cast a flurry of spells down at them, being careful to avoid the strider’s legs. The Daedra were almost all gone when I heard a horrible screeching noise coming from the Oblivion Gate. We all turned and looked, though the strider was too busy stomping to see.

Emerging from the gate was a grotesque, metal contraption that reminded me vaguely of a giant spider, though where its head should have been there was only a burning sigil stone. The contraption screeched again and spewed a fireball directly at the strider. Dalen jumped and pulled on the control panel, and the strider ducked just as the massive fireball passed overhead. “Dalen! See if you can't swipe that sigil stone out of its face!” I yelled, hoping the thing worked similarly to a Gate. The strider swung a massive claw towards the face of the contraption, but the thing raised a leg and deflected the blow. Nevertheless, a huge dent was put in the side of the machines leg and it limped a bit. It continued to crawl its way out of the Oblivion Gate, though, and I yelled to Dalen over the screeching and grating of the battling behemoths, “Try to take out the gate itself! Maybe we can cut that thing in half!”

Dalen nodded and the strider maneuvered to the side of the gate, but not before ducking under another of the machine’s fireballs. The strider began swinging its massive talons into the stone pillar that supported the Gate. I held on tightly as each massive swing sent reverberations through the strider. Each swing whittled away at the impossibly strong stone pillar, but the machine was going to get out before the gate collapsed! Dalen realized this too, and set the strider to climbing on top of the machine! The strider lay down on top of the machine, bracing itself with its long legs. With the massive weight of the strider on top of it, the machine was pinned to the ground, though it flailed its huge legs and tried to roll the strider off of it. Dalen continued his attempts to break the pillar, and after what seemed like an eternity, the pillar shattered. Dalen was thrown off his feet with the force of the shattering blow, and I could only barely stay standing. Great bouts of flame spewed out of the gate at the site of the break, but the energies within weakened and grew dim. Several of the flames licked their way across the upper surface of the strider, and its squeals mixed with the wrenching of metal. Suddenly, the gate collapsed; its energies drained. The machine was severed in half where it lay, and it shuddered and fell still. The strider’s squeals subsided to a dull moan that echoed down the ravine. I helped Dalen to his feet and the four of us surveyed the scene. Dalen got the strider up and off of the contraption, but had it lay back down on the floor of the ravine a short ways away from the scene of the battle.

Dalen replaced the anger inhibitor in the strider’s “brain,” and my three companions and I carefully climbed out of the injured strider, and I could see the massive scars caused by the flames of the Gate’s destruction. I set my hands gently on the chitin of the strider and let healing magic flow into it. The creature was so huge that it had little effect, and Dalen removed my hands and said “There are better ways to heal a strider. Magic has very little effect on these wondrous creatures.” He gently rubbed the shell of the creature and I could see how much he truly loved this creature. “Go now,” he said, “I will take care of my friend here. She will be alright. A few nicks and scratches aren’t enough to hurt you are they my dear?” The strider moaned in reply. I smiled and thanked Dalen before turning to Kael.

“Where did Darkasha go?” I said, looking around for him. Kael shrugged, and then went to loot the bodies of the dead Daedra who littered the floor of the ravine. I looked at the horrible metal contraption and saw that the glowing sigil stone had gone. Curious, I began walking towards the massive thing, but then saw that Darkasha was coming back from the wreckage, holding the sigil stone in his arms. He walked past me and towards the strider. I followed him and he presented the stone to Dalen. “For your efforts,” was all Darkasha said, and Dalen nodded in acceptance. I knew he understood though, and nodded to Dalen in farewell. Kael returned from the battle scene empty-handed and said farewell to Dalen before all three of us walked the last few feet towards Ghostgate.

51: Strider

As I entered the “cockpit” of the silt strider, I carefully examined my surroundings. The back of the strider curved upwards and slightly over the interior of the cockpit, and it slowly extended and retracted as if breathing. The leathery surface of the interior was very rigid and tough, hardened by exposure to the sun and to the ash storms. Balen began manipulating a panel of wires and bulbs at the front of the cockpit, pulling and squeezing gently. It took me a moment to realize that these were a living part of the silt strider that allowed a skilled operator to maneuver the creature with great precision. Balen was indeed skilled, and the silt strider began lumbering along without so much as a lurch. Balen was focused intently on the task at hand, and Kael, Darkasha and I sat down on the living benches under the shelter of the flap of chitin at the back of the cockpit. They were much softer than the rest of the creature, and were in fact quite comfortable.

The silt strider moved quickly, each leg moving in sequence with the others, and we were soon moving up the ashen ravine towards Ald’ruhn. Balen was soon able to let the creature steer itself, and began talking about the recent improvements to the road network on Vvardenfell. He told us about the carving of trails through the walls of the ravine that made accessing Ghostgate and Ald’ruhn much easier from Balmora.

“Since Red Mountain quieted down, these ravines have become less dangerous, and it’s looking like no new eruptions will occur for many decades. Hopefully the trails we’ve cut will be kept clean and clear.” Balen said, “It was we silt striders that cut the trails. Sure we had some help from the mages guild and House Redoran, but we had all the muscle.” He pulled a wire in the panel and gestured towards the face of the silt strider. The strider lifted a huge claw and held it in the air briefly. “These hooks ain’t just for looks after all.” He looked up at the sun briefly and then turned to a greasy sack by the panel, which he opened and dug around in. He pulled out a huge glob of disgusting slime and dropped it in corner of the cockpit. The smell began to fill the air immediately, and Darkasha cover his sensitive nose and began to moan lightly. Balen returned to the panel and squeezed a small bulb. The floor beneath the glop opened and began sucking down the vile slime. Balen walked over to the orifice and stuck his hands into it. In a matter of seconds, the glop was gone and Balen’s hands had been cleaned by the strider’s “mouth.” Balen looked sheepishly at us and said, “Sorry, but feedin’ time is feedin’ time.” I frowned and shook my head to clear my senses.

We continued for some time. Darkasha stayed in the shade of the overhang and dozed, while Kael looked over a series of documents he received from Caius and other Blades. I wandered around the interior of the cockpit and watched Balen dexterously guide the creature through the narrow ravine. He explained to me more about the anatomy and workings of the strider, though I’ll admit to understanding little of it. Apparently all of the strider is open to a person who knows what switches to pull, and Balen was very eager to discuss the mating and husbandry of young silt striders. Naturally I was politely interested, though I was actually watching the surrounding skies for any sign of fires or the red lightning that I associate with Oblivion Gates. My scan revealed little, as winds had picked up and storm clouds had slowly filled the sky during our journey. I became so engrossed in my search that it took me a minute to realize Balen had trailed off and stopped the strider. I leaned on the leathery edge of the strider and looked down towards the ravine. There was a roughly hewn passage cut into the wall of the ravine, but it had become blocked with a huge pile of rubble that had been cut from the surrounding ravine wall.

I turned to Balen, who was prodding the control panel and making the strider poke at the rubble. “What’s going on?” I asked him.

He frowned. “Something must have closed off this passage. Without it, we’ll have to double back and go all the way around Balmora to make it to Ald’ruhn.”

Kael looked at the rubble and the deep gashes in the ravine side and raised an eyebrow. “What could have caused this? The cuts are so deep into the ravine side!”

Balen looked at the gashes and shrugged. “I guess a silt strider could probably cut it out in a few hours,” he said, “but no one in their right mind would do that! All the silt strider owners across Vvardenfell benefit from this passage!” He sighed and began to turn the silt strider around.

“No,” I said, grabbing Dalen’s shoulder. He jerked, but kept the strider under control. “We can't waste that much time. Keep going north. Take us to Ghostgate.”