Herbane ' s Bestiary : Automatons Content . " Herbane ' s Bestiary : Dwarven Automatons " 9 The Dwarves have been extinct for many an age , and perhaps for the best . To see men and women the size of large children , all with beards , would be a most disturbing sight . Still , whatever wrath the Dwarves brought from the gods that consumed an entire civilization surely must have been an awe - inspiring thing to witness . The remnants of their civilization lie buried in the hearts of mountains , and scholars and thieves the world over descend on the skeletal remains of dwarven cities like vultures , to scrape clean the bones of the past , old knowledge waiting to be exhumed and treasures to be discovered . But many men lay murdered in those halls of the damned , because those dwarven ruins do not release their treasures without a fight . My kin would tell the stories long ago , when I was just a child , about how adept the Dwarves were at building machines . They would say that before our time , dwarves harnessed the power of the earth , and wielded fire and hammers to reshape steel and bronze with a mechanical brilliance that breathed life into these now ancient constructs of metal and magic . In the dark halls and chambers amid the ceasless droning of grinding gears and venting steam , they lie in wait to confound or destroy would - be plunderers of the dwarven sanctums , as the grim watchmen of the last vestiges of culture from a dead race . I descended into the humid darkness of Mzulft . The slow hiss of steam , creaking of metal and the rattle of old gears powering an empty city would unnerve most men . I could hear things in the darkness , skittering across the floor just out of sight and as I stepped over the bodies of plunderers or scholars who had not made it far , I knew it was not rats wandering these halls . Small mechanical spiders set upon me with rapid movements , and machines sprouted from the walls and uncurled from spheres into contraptions that rolled on top of gears for legs and crossbows for arms . I could not help but marvel at these single purpose machines built for the murder of men . My sword and my shield are my strength and I am undeterred by such things because I had heard of greater things that roam these depths , and indeed something else in these chambers stirred , and it echoed with massive weight . As it lumbered closer , its feet struck the ground as if walking on massive pistons and as it loomed out of darkness , I could see it clear for the first time , axe for one hand , hammer for the other , as tall as five men , made of dull bronze with a face molded in the image of its masters . A Steam Centurion . The stories were true , these were the guardians of the greatest dwarven treasures . We fought , and the dwarves must truly be extinct because our battle was surely booming enough to wake the dead . It came at me with hammer and axe , inhuman strength and great fortitude , and a purpose of nothing but murder . I dodged as it crushed the stone around me with futile strikes and I thrust and slashed at it with my blade and took every opening afforded as we shook the halls with violence . I refuse to be undone by a machine . Where the average man would be long dead , I stood over the husk of this dead automaton , its steam escaping like a final gasp . I could have taken the dwarven artifacts and metal but left them there for others , for I would not hex my journey with the possessions of dead men and maybe that is where countless others go wrong . I will continue to my journey across the lands , And perhaps one day will meet a worthy challenge , for I have yet to see what would make me tremble .