(Gentu pov)
As I rode on my dwarven horse along with Yamma, Shadow-step, and Sabrina at my side we made our way towards the dwarven ruin of Mzinchalift as we rode down the hill facing a watchmen. he was a bandit nord with fur armor and a steel sword in his hand. The platform he was standing on was elevated with a single chair facing us with a single table with a unlit lantern sitting on the corner of the table. Before we could order him to relinquish the stolen item a swift dwarven arrow struck him between his eyes before my eyes could lock on what fired it all I got was a glimpse of a flash of bronze that jumped over the ceiling I could hear the bandits on the other side of the wall shouting before all going quiet. We checked the body for any signs of the stolen item coming up short as we made our way into the hallway before taking a sharp right. All the bandits that were over there were dead some had dwarven arrows embedded in their bodies others were slashed into pieces. Straight ahead was a single long table with a mead barrel, two wooden plates, a lantern, and one chair on either side of the table hugging the side of the wall were crates and a single chest I walked up as Shadow‐step opened the locked chest only to find it was empty. "Seriously who locks an empty chest?" Shadow-step grumbled as we made our way back through heading down there were a flight of stairs leading down along with two pathways the elevated to two towers on either side along with a single cooking station on the right. Sabrina took one path and Shadow-step took another, a few moments later they returned Sabrina carrying a single dwarven bow which was obviously the most valuable thing on her side that she could see meanwhile Shadow-step had a few bottles of potions of true shot. We reconvened and went down and entered the ruins of Mzinchaleft. Immediately as we entered we spotted two wagons filled to the brim with dwarven items such as cabinets, shelves, and even a single dwarven spider. The air and there was thick due to the steam coming out of the copper pipes and the escaping steam clouding the upper part of the room close to the ceiling as we went further down there was a single dwarven guardian sphere dead on the one side of the room as we took another left we saw a large bonfire cooking spit in the middle of the room with a single chair and a table in the corner closest to our left on the other end of the wall was a wood cutters axe and a log made to cut firewood and more bandits slaughtered. We continue to further down the path taking a sharp right evading the narrow debris coming across another dead dwarven sphere that was cut in two as we talk a sharp left heading down we had to watch our step because we can tell distinctly that there was Ice nearby in the room immediately to our right we saw a room with a archery target along with multiple barrels, a single table, some more fur armor, and a single unlocked chest along with a boiling pot. As we entered the next room we saw an open door to the immediate right we flooded in seeing four beds, a single dwarven chair, and a dead dwarven spider on the table. Nothing else of Interest so we exited out of there and made our way further down coming into a large room finding more bandit corpses coming down the hallway where there were two dwarven shelves next to some benches taking a right we found more dwarven shelves lining the walls as we continue to forward we found the body of a dead dwarven centurion who's dynamo core appear to have been ripped out as we continue to deeper down we came to a hallway that had piston like protrusions coming out of the walls we continue deeper down and we found the item we came to look for coincidentally enough it was a monogrammed steel war axe which I picked up and put it in my bag before we were about to make our way out before I decided on the spot to take a quick detour since we were already in one of the four dwarven ruins that went down to Blackreach. " hey guys while we are here you want to head down all the way and commendeer the lift?" I asked the group before they nodded clearly curious to I smiled as I moved directly forward once we were all on I pulled the lever to the dwarven lift taking it down to the lower depths. As we exited the lower depths we found the bodies of the dead falmer along the path the lower levels were flooded as we made our way through we took care to avoid stepping into any traps. We eventually came into what appeared to be a conference area littered with the bodies of dead falmer. We continue down a dimly lit corridor which must have been hollowed out taking care to avoid a sling trap shaped like claws as we continue down the glowing mushroom lit corridor we eventually returned to the dwarven civilization remenents and we were face to face with a lovely fountain in the middle accompanied by a bunch of falmer huts as we went up some stairs we came into a large corridor where we found the bodies of both falmer and dwarven spheres making our way up the stairs we eventually entered the gatehouse. Once inside the brightly lit corridor and we rounded the corner our eyes saw a single man taking on a dwarven centurion, the man in question wore a complete set of dwarven mail armor that was the light variant of the dwarven armor I wore.
He eventually finished off the dwarven centurion by slamming to circular war axes into its head and dropping it down the ground.
As he looked up at me he retrieved his war axes before walking towards me and the other three who were with me. "Gentu it's been a long time, old friend." He said as i recognized the voice of my old assistent. " Zed, is that really you?" I asked as i spotted the familiar bow Zepher on his back, Zed was with me when we met Katria and she gave him her bow after he broke his during the battle in the aetherium forge against The Forgemaster It made me smile seeing that bow in such pristine condition as we shook hands I could tell he had taken great care of It. " Zed these are three of my teammates. This is Yamma, Shadow-step, and Sabrina." I said the gesturing to the three behind me as Zed gave a nod at a gentle smile under his dwarven mail helmet. "It's a pleasure to meet you all, I'm happy to see that my old friend and fellow dwarven enthusiast is surrounded by good friends thank you for watching after him for so long and by the nine Gentu what the hell happened to your arm?" Zed asked pointing to my bandaged appendage I mentally scolded myself of course my old research partner would be the first to notice something was wrong. "Well we discovered a hidden dwarven ruin a little bit ago and as it so happens it seemed to be the research and design facility." I explained while Zed leaned up against the wall crossing his arms and listening. "Me and Yamma ended up fighting a dwarven colossus of all things along with its four dwarven centurion minions and that's where I got this big hammer on my back." I said as I reached over my back with my one good arm and pulled 'The Forge' off my back as it's aetherial blue internal circuitry started rotating as I wielded it in my one arm. " By the nine that is incredible, I've never even heard of an artifact like this what does it do? does it have any special properties?" Zed asked as I nodded and walked toward a scrap of dwarven metal from the dead dwarven centurian then placed it on the nearby table and started smashing it with the hammer before it inevitably molded into a fully fledged dwarven dagger with a couple dozen slams from the hammer. I noticed that this dwarven dagger was different from the standard dwarven daggers we've seen before. It was much slimmer to the more triangular profile of standard dwarven daggers it had a hollow spine for some strange reason but I couldn't deny that a dagger of this style had more practical use it would enter an exit a body avoiding the vacuum inside of a living creature allowing one to pull the dagger cleanly out much easier. Then I had an idea since we were right down in the depths of one of the four settlements that had access to Blackreach and not ten feet away from us was an elevator that went down to Blackreach and I just so happened to have my dwarven pickaxe at my side I wondered would this hammer allow me to craft aethereum weapons. I decided to put that theory to the test as I walked towards the elevator the other three who were with me along with Zed followed close behind as I put the Attunement Sphere into the resonator the stairway opened up as I start walking down the stairs with the other four following close behind as I opened the door directly in front of me at the bottom of the stairs. Once we opened the door we were met with the damp aroma from Blackreach accompanied by those tall mushrooms that lightly swayed in the wind and directly in front of us with a couple chunks of aethereum right in front of us. I started with the few chunks that were nearby the door. " Shadow-step, Zed can you two cover me from above with your bows? make sure I don't get interrupted by any falmer surprise attacks?" I asked as Shadow-step nodded before climbing up one of the mushrooms and quietly wrapping his tail around the stalk and suspending himself slightly with his nightingale bow out. Meanwhile said pulled Zephyr off of his back housing two dwarven arrows in his bow string and standing at my side while Sabrina pulled out her twins scimitars and Yamma pulled off volendrung as I pulled my Dwarven pickaxe off of my side and brought the tooth of the pickaxe down onto the shiny deposit of aetherium to my delight the dwarven pickaxe cleaved clean through it separating the pieces into manageable sizes, I was quite pleased to see how well it mined aetherium and I knew somewhere on the other side Katria was watching and she had a big grin on her face. I wasn't greedy and chopped an entire Mountain I only mined enough to get like five or six pieces since I didn't plan on making an entire armor set for the whole group at least not until I was comfortable with forging aethereum items. The only real experience I have with aetherium was when I was with Katria and Zed back in the aetherium forge. Once I had enough of the shiny blue rocks I put them in my bag before gesturing everybody to head back towards the door since we had gotten what we came for. Once we had ascended the steps back into the main room I led them to the left where the elevator was I subconsciously reached over and rubbed the skeletal remains of my arm remembering the last time I had to use one of these things. Once all five of us were on top of the lift we took the lift up to the surface. Once we made it to the service I flipped the lever immediately in front of me lowering the gate that closed off the lift from the outside we walked out onto the snowy path and we then proceeded to head east with Zed following us since apparently he left his horse in a similar place climbing up the side of the cliffside we slid down the snowy slope down into the formally occupied bandit camp as we made our way through the courtyard passing the corpses of the bandits with zed retrieving his dwarven arrows and putting them back in his quiver. As we finally made our way back to where we had our horses parked I climbed up onto my dwarven horse as Shadow-step, Yamma, and Sabrina climbed on to theirs. Just as Zed climbed onto his dark brown horse we exchanged a few more words before we parted ways. " So where are you heading next old friend?" I asked as Zed looked up from tightening his saddle. " I think I'm going to go to Markarth and visit Calcelmo it's been awhile since I talked to the old geezer." I nodded before giving him a satchel to deliver to him from me. " in that case would you mind delivering this to him? Tell him this is the research paper that I did on the dwarven ruin we visited recently." Zed nodded giving me a firm handshake before he rode off towards Markarth as we made our way back to Fort Dunstad.