As I descend into the dark and stuffy corridors of the Santaki delve in the Alik’r, I can hear a distant monotonous symphony of hissing steam, clicking gears, and the scuttling of metallic limbs echoing through the rock caverns.  Whilst the architects of these underground settlements are centuries gone, their creations live on.  A self-sustaining society of machines that never gets old; yet never learns, never builds, never grows, and never advances.  This is the stagnant society of the automatons.

The first mechanisms I encounter are the Dwarven Spheres.  Seemingly their sole purpose is to patrol and guard.  They roll up and down the tunnels, or through hidden pipes in the rock walls.  Only when they sense an intruder do they unfurl to their full height like a mechanical flower from a metal bud.  With a giant axe on one limb, and a crossbow on the other, they make for deadly adversaries.  Yet once unfolded, with an expert thrust of a bladed weapon, one might be able to expose their vulnerable cogs and gears, and like most machinery, their inner workings are particularly susceptible to fire.

Next, I meet the Dwarven Spiders whose function it is to perform maintenance on the other machines and keep the city itself breathing.  They travel the delve freely through steam pipes and can be heard in every wall and ceiling, or skittering across the cavern floors, always just out of sight.  Small, quick and agile, they fight with their sharp pointed legs and small lightning bolts from hidden instruments beneath their shell.  Alone they are but an irritant, but where there is one inevitably there are more nearby, and like skeevers defending a burrow, they can overwhelm much larger adversaries by sheer weight of their numbers.

Finally, I cross paths with a huge Dwarven Centurion, easily the height and width of three stout men.  There can be little doubt of the duty of these heavily-armoured giants, rarely do they wander far from their sentry posts.  With a hammer on one arm, and a mechanical axe on the other, pistons the size of tree trunks, and armour as thick a Nord’s skull, only the most fool-hardy would stand toe-to-toe with one.  Their strength however is also their weakness, for their bulk makes them slow and cumbrous and an agile warrior or an adept mage might dare to attempt to tear one apart from a distance.   But woe-betide if they should begin to run low on stamina or mental vigour, for once a Centurion has a foe cornered they will blow steam into the eyes to blind them, before battering them into pulp with their mighty crushing blows.

S.K

Just beyond the steep southern walls of Sentinel lays the Rain Catcher Fields.  An array of johads that capture moisture from upon the desert’s air, whether from the sparse rainfall or morning dew, which can be a vital source of precipitation in coastal deserts such as the Alik’r.  This water is then carried into the city by the workers in large earns.

But now the water stored in the johads has become tainted, giving off a peculiar taste and smell which has attracted giant Assassination Beetles.  These hostile insects are attacking the workers, both at the johads, and in their camps.  If we do not put an end to this contamination, then soon the city of Sentinel could run short of fresh water.

S.K

Deep beneath the Redguard capital Sentinel are buried the Impervious Vaults, where the necromancers of the Withered Hand are attempting to steal the Ansei Wards from the catacomb’s treasures.

With the wards in their corrupt hands, the necromancers could begin to raise the consecrated remains of the Ra Gada, and unleash an undead army upon Hammerfell, the might of which has not been seen in the Alik’r since the Yokudan Warrior waves of the first era.

S.K

I am to meet with the Breton mage, Gabrielle Benele, atop the mages tower in Sentinel.  I last saw the fair Gabrielle back in Glenumbra where she opened the sealed Catacombs of Cath Bedraud, which led to my confrontation with the loathsome Reachman, Angof the Gravesinger.  And now I need her once again to open another sealed door, this time to the Impervious Vaults under the palace in Sentinel, where the Withered Hand are attempting to steal the fabled Ansei Wards.

Gabrielle has seemingly grown in both confidence and repute since we last met and is a most welcome bright and friendly face in this harsh land; the Redguards can appear aloof and surly towards those not of their own kin.

And Gabrielle is not the only familiar face I’ve met in my short time in Sentinel.  Crafty Lerisa I found at the Frozen Palms Tavern celebrating the acquisition of a new ship, the Maiden’s sigh.  It is good to hear her tell how she still leads the libertine Jakarn a merry chase.

I also found Captain Kaleen, relaxing on the first floor of the palace.  Her good service to the Covenant cause has been rewarded by the King with the command of three more ships.  She has even seen fit to promote her former cabin girl Nicolene to first mate.  And the ever-resolute Elf Neramo I discovered researching for his next expedition into Dwemer ruins, both known and rumoured, buried beneath the Alik’r’s ever shifting sands.  He’s still employs the enigmatic Vimy to watch his back.

S.K

I am sent to the Royal Seraglio to meet with the Redguard Prince Azah, son to Fahara’jad, and brother to Maraya, and the late Lakana.   He grew up in court with both Uwafa and Alasan, and so seems the perfect choice to investigate the leaders of the Withered Hand necromancers who now threaten the desert Kingdom.

But I arrive to find the aftermath of a fierce struggle; dead guards litter the floor, and the Prince has been taken.  His abductors trail leads to the beach where the undead still predominate, feeding upon the carcasses of scorpion and sea birds.  I discover a hidden alcove guarded by Withered Hand thugs, and it is here I find the Prince, bound and caged.

The Prince tells that, much like the dock invasion, his kidnapping was just another misdirect in the cultist’s elaborate scheme.  The Withered Hand has apparently been tunnelling under Sentinel for months, attempting to break into the Impervious Vaults.  For centuries the vaults, home to the Redguard’s mythical Ansei Wards, have been sealed by powerful magics, but Azah believes the cult may successfully circumvent the barriers from below.

S.K