Laser Attack
I was expecting to see the Osun cowering from the Exo-lab’s defense systems, but surprisingly they’d managed to turn many of the Eldan weapons and machine constructs to assist them. But it looks as though science had given way to mysticism, as the knowledge of how it all worked had clearly been lost to the giants. Even so, it didn’t stop them from having a powerful ally in the form of Slavemaster Drokk, a colossal robot that stood guard over the lab entrance. We weren’t planning on entering, but he was also standing between us and the powerful forges at the heart of the city, and needed to be shut down.
The Slavemaster had many powerful weapons at his command. Despite having several devastating attacks that could be difficult to avoid, he would also summon a rush of small drones that could coat a large area before being primed to explode. We huddled together as a small group before taking out a single drone before it could detonate, giving us just enough clear space to survive. Like an intelligent computer he then varied his tactics, tethering us in place or singling out an individual to be chased down with more exploding drones. It was a tight and often frantic fight as we battled to avoid his attacks as much as wound him ourselves. Eventually though, he was taken offline.
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Moving further into the city, the sky changed to a vicious crimson as we approached the great Osun forges. A single Osun – Forgemaster Trogun – had learned the secrets of forging Exanite. With this incredible metal he could build blades that would not shatter, armor that would be unpenetrable, and hammers that could shake the very core of Nexus. The Eldan themselves were worried that the Osun might learn about this secret, speculating about how dangerous the giants could become if they learned the secret themselves. It meant only one thing: the Forgemaster had to die.
This was an older part of the city of Kel Voreth, where much still remained intact. But even here there were signs that the Osun had become more shamanistic than primal, with sigils of burning fire etched into the ground. Hammer wielding warriors threatened to pummel us into oblivion, while blind Darkwitches weaved magic to send us to the Great Dark. These were formidable foes that we could only handle one at a time, as we found to our cost on one occasion. As we moved through, we also put any war supplies to the torch and destroyed any forges we discovered, in order to slow down their war effort.
Forging Ahead
In the heart of the city, hammering at a great anvil, we found Forgemaster Trogun. It was clear that he had already started making Exanite, and we needed to bring an end to him quickly. There was one question: just how powerful had he become?
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We didn’t have long to find out. With a single blow from his hammer the ground erupted, sending lumps of molten metal flying like rockets around the forge. His attacks were brutal, devastating and relentless; at one point he harnessed the power of Exanite to send out pulsating spheres of energy that were almost impossible to dodge. Despite losing both of my Engineer robots early on, our persistent attacks eventually managed to bring him down, and with it the bloodthirsty ambition of the Kel Voreth tribe.
Although we were victorious, there were a couple of questions that remained from our strike into the Ruins of Kel Voreth. Why did the Eldan need a race of bloodthirsty warmongers, and what pushed them into equipping the OS-1 with powerful weapons and impervious armor? Who was the Archon, and what role did this all play in the Eldan’s mysterious Project? And if this is just a single tribe of Osun, what can we expect to find elsewhere on Nexus?
As I considered the possibilities, the rest of my group went through the hard-earned loot. One item stood out – a FABKit to use on housing plots that would grant access to the Kel Voreth Underforge. The entrance above-ground provided access to a challenge beneath, which we rapidly cleaved through. Even so, it was an interesting memento of our success, and a reminder that the Osun may relight those forges again.
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Gareth Harmer / Gareth has been blasting and fireballing his way through MMOs for over ten years. When he's not exploring an online world, he can usually be found enthusiastically dissecting and debating them. Follow him on Twitter at @Gazimoff.
