The Fall of Archeron

13th day of the fourth month of the divine machinery

Tensions are building to the east. It has been so ever since the accursed dragon's death.
For months did the bearded Khazad try to besiege his city. But time and time again were they repulsed by the savages who worshiped the infernal beast. For months did they fight at the city gates and not once did they catch so much as a glimpse at his legendary treasure. And not once did the monster grace them with his appearance.

Not once that is, until that faithful day. The day as luck would have it that our galleons finally arrived from across the sea. It was at dawns first light that the observers at the mast caught sight of the massive walls. And just as they did a mighty shadow blocked out the sun. The bells rang out for alert, the whistles screamed and the steam engines cooked off creating an unholy cacophony of sounds as if the ships them self screamed and wailing in terror. But they went unheard as we all watch breathless at the sight that unfolded before us.

At first we thought it a shadow, perhaps a dark cloud that had come between us and the rising sun on the horizon. But as our minds caught up with what our hearths already knew we became filled with fascination and an ever growing feeling of dread.

Was it the work of the savage shamans, or did the dragon get weary of the racket before its lair we will newer know. Be it as it might, it was on that day that Archeron the mighty decided it was time to come out and justify his name.
His flight into the heavens was short, faster than any bird or machine. Flying high above the city, he stretched his wings decisively casting a shadow down at the fortress bellow him. The shadow spread like wildfire covering land and sea as it stretched outward from its walls like a plague of darkness and death. And then there were the flames.

I who have watched the birth of steal, who have seen the factories of Vaul and who have stared down the fire shafts of our mightiest steam engines have newer seen flames like that before, or since. The fire was like a new sun. It illuminated the sky turning it red like a hellish nightmare strait from the teachings of the Vail. Had it been meant for us, I am certain that I would not be here to tell the tail.

Luckily for us, destiny and the accursed dragon had other plans.
But at the time it seemed like we were going to die. The dragon, soaring in the sky above us buffeted his wings and examined what lay before him. Slowly, his gaze turned at the army of dwarves who by this time must have been frozen with fear just as we were. And just as we, they must have muttered every proverb, every prayer, every single incantation they heard from their mothers as a child, all for the frail hope of shifting that gaze away for just one moment. But it was all to no avail.

It seemed like eternity had passed since we first saw the shape rise from his city. Every second felt like our last as the mighty beast took a huge breath. And than it began.
Like a mighty ball of fire the dragon descended upon the dwarven army. Even to us the Machinos who were brought up to loath and not fear the gods did the scene invoke images of divine anger and primeval fear. It was truly as if the wrath of some angry deity had manifested it self and chosen Archeron as its instrument of execution.

Yet among the carnage there was the strangest feeling of tranquility. It was as if there was nothing we could do. All sound had vanished all hopes and fears where whisked away as the world seemed to descend into this magical state of apathy where nothing mattered as we just stood by and watched the dragon do its bidding knowing full well that we would be next.

The tranquility was broken by a shout. One of the deck hands grabbed my by the hand and pointed me with a mixture of jubilation and fear at a small dot on the morning sky. I took up my spy glass and looked at it. But the more I looked the less I could believe my eyes.
Somehow, someone had managed to retain his composure and now a single gleaming thoper was roaring through the burning sky heading strait for the raging Archeron.

I don't know what we thought at the time, what insanity had filled our hearths. But seeing that thoper there in the sky heading to take on the massive beast alone gave us hope.
All our eyes were trained on it. Breathless we watched as it preformed acrobatics. Our hearths stood still as it skillfully dodged the beast's breath of flames. What ever the dragon tried the ship countered. Like a graceful dove it turned time and time again, each time only narrowly escaping from what was nothing short of certain death.

I can not tell you what happened next. We were all so consumed with fear and hope that we did not grasp the reality of what unfolded before us until it had come to an end. Did its wings catch on the dragon's fire? Did they collide in the air like fighting birds of pray? Honestly I can not tell. What I can tell and what I saw with my eyes was that the two plummeted at the ground intertwined like a pair of flaming serpents each trying desperately to choke the other to death before they both met their doom at the fall's end.

The rest of the day is a haze. I recall images but nothing specific. I can recall storming the walls and making my way through the winding streets of the city. I can recall the blur of the fighting with the remaining savages crazed and scattered by their god's demise. I can recall fire, perhaps the city burning or perhaps it was the flames of my musket I truly can not tell.

I was told we won that day. I was told we had taken the city. And I was told that the thoper crew was not dead. But I was told many things. And for the sake of all of us I hope at least some of those things are true. For tensions are building to the east.
Few can resist the lure of the dragon's gold.