Protector Mark XIV

[*shadowblizmasta]

The golem has been busy. After spending some time in the Ethereal plane, it then dragged the remains of several spider sentinels, electrum horrors, and the malfunctioning iron golem, making several trips, to its' abandoned shack. The shack, although looking the same on the outside, has been much improved on the inside. Protector had redone the floors and walls, making it much more structurally sound, as well as creating a workbench by one of the four walls of the one room hovel. The remains of the old golem purchased by Protector lay in a heap in one corner, and the destroyed iron golem was lain against the wall of another, opposite corner. Protector laid several of the electrum horrors on the ground next to its' bench, and placed the least damaged of the ten or so collected horrors onto the bench, beginning to take it apart to see how it once worked. Afterwards, it would do the same for the spider sentinels, taking them apart to see how they worked. It would leave the iron golem for later, such a contraption was far more complex than Protector thought itself capable of comprehending at the moment, but soon enough perhaps it will be able to understand it. . .

[*shadowblizmasta]

A new addition has been added to the golems' shack, a wooden chest covers the back wall, crafted by the golems' own hand. Gone is the clutter of most of the clockwork parts, the parts being sorted neatly into the chest. On the bench lies a nearly completely repaired electrum clockwork horror, with a few tools and parts beside it. Protector gets to work, delicately shaping the parts necessary, and putting them into place. An alteration was made, a small electrum keyhole was placed at the top of it. Protector places the key in the hole, and turns it, causing the horror to click and whirr to 'life.' The small construct takes a step forward and collapses while making loud grinding sounds.

Another failure. More work is required. . .

Protector takes apart the clockwork construct and lets out a sort of sigh when it notes that most of the gears and other mechanisms were destroyed and warped. It would take a lot of work, and a lot of extra parts, to get it working again. . .

[*shadowblizmasta]

Tek moves aside the debris blocking the entrance to its' shack, and says aloud 'Disarm' in Terran. It takes a look around, and then opens the door, putting the debris back once through, and closing it. A foot away from the door stands a huge, menacing looking iron golem. Neither golem even acknowledges each other, Tek knowing that it is simply a decoy. The golem opens up the chest inside the room, and takes out a few assorted gears, levers, and springs, then brings those to the bench. Tek removes the broken pieces of the clockwork contraption and throws them into a bin, which is nearly full of broken, useless pieces of twisted metal. They will have to be melted down later. Over the next few hours Tek slowly, methodically puts the parts into place. Wordlessly, it closes up the clockwork constructs shell, and once more inserts the 'key' to wind it up. A whirring of gears resounds, and the construct, more a toy, springs to 'life.' The toy walks forwards and falls off the desk, where it lands on its' back and continues moving its' legs fruitlessly. After a brief moment, the toy winds down, and Tek picks it back up, placing it back on the bench. Tek, being satisfied with its' work, takes the bin and leaves the shack, hiding it in the debris again before saying 'Arm' in Terran. Now to smelt the broken pieces to make more. . .

[*shadowblizmasta]

Tek returns to his home, repeating the same process as usual carrying a large number of tomes. Some of them appear to be tomes of gnomish theory on engineering, mechanics, and alchemy, others appear to be books on gnomish culture. Two of the books are translation guides, one a Dwarven to Gnomish book, another a Terran to Gnomish one. Tek spends much of the night reading, first the dwarven, then the terran book. It will all take awhile to sink in, however. . .

[*shadowblizmasta]

After months of work, study, and materials gathering, the golem who calls itself Tek has perhaps finally gotten his goal within view. It all started with the discovery of mindsilver so many months ago. . .

Tek stands in its' workshop at a cluttered workbench, most directly noticeable are the books strewn about it, a gnomish book on clockwork and watchmaking, a heavily dogeared and worn translation manual from gnomish to common, and a treatise on psionic power. Also on the table are many ingots of mindsilver, glass jars filled with various kinds of brilliant energies, and a set of tools. Tek spends painstaking hours, days, and weeks carefully creating all the gears and cogs he could possibly need, some of them out of mindsilver, others out of simple iron or electrum scavenged from dozens of smashed clockwork monstrosities.

Behind Tek lies a roughly man-shaped heap of metal plating, not yet properly shaped and fitted, but soon enough it may take shape into the golems vision of creating something roughly analogous to what some may call progeny.