Coen fires a magic missile at the creature, but the spell sputters harmlessly as it slams into it. It seems this thing is immune to the spell!
Viv tries to blast the agile creature but it nimbly dodges her attack.
Fireday blesses Kaska before stepping forward and slashing the strange creature. His blade cuts through its rotting flesh, though not nearly as deeply as the warpriest had hoped.
Gylwinth stabs the creature with his spear, but he too finds his weapon blunted by the thing's resilience.
Kaska slashes at it, but her attack goes wide.
The thing does not respond to Gylwinth, but it turns to face Fireday. It stabs with its twin swords while punching with its lower set of arms! Even with the shaman playing bodyguard, it manages to hit the android with one blade and one fist, and Fireday crumples under the assault!
Viv launches another assault, though she is obviously distressed by Fireday's sudden collapse.
When she sees Fireday fall Kaska shifts to her left to draw the thing's attention away from him. In the instant before it turns in response, she hacks, aiming her blade across it's back where she thinks she will find a spine.
Coen does his best to try to land a good crossbow bolt, but his attack goes wide.
Viv likewise fails to hit, the nimble creature dodging her blast once more.
Gylwinth scores a good hit, but again his spear barely scratches the thing.
Kaska hacks at the creature's spine, her blade hacking almost all the way through the bone. It shrieks in rage, its upper body slanted at an impossible angle, but still it fights on! Any living creature would have been felled by such a grievous wound.
The monster stabs at Kaska, once more easily batting Gylwinth's spear aside. It buries its swords in the ranger's gut, yanking them free as she falls! Then it steps forward and punches Gylwinth with one of its lower arms!
Viv focuses and holds her small lead bead for a moment, staring down the undead monstrosity. Then she tilts her hand and it rises into the air, hovering there for a few seconds before she blasts it off with all the precision she can muster.
(no crit)
Viv hurls her latest sling bullet at the undead creature, and this time her accuracy is on point. The lead ball tears through its skull and blasts a hole out the back of its head. The monster wavers on its feet for a moment before collapsing, its short swords clattering to the floor.
The healing energy makes Fireday's circuitry tattoos shimmer as it flows through them in waves. He suddenly awakens with a gasp. He looks up at Gylwinth.
"Thank you, Gylwinth. You and your ancestors have saved my life. Would it be appropriate for me to make an offering to them as thanks?"
"We haven't wasted our time necessarily. They have likely taken the keys and gone through the other door. We should take advantage of the victory here to see if we can find something that allows us to follow before we pass the point where the water breathing spell wears off."
Appearing fascinated, Coen then approaches the unknown language written on the wall and casts a new spell before running his eyes over the text.
The pool of blood under Kaska continues to spread. Some red froth leaks from her mouth as she struggles to breathe.
Viv says, "Oop!" and quickly moves to keep Kaska alive.
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Coen's spell translates the writing on the wall. It appears to be numerous prayers to someone the writer refers to as "The Shadow in the Sand" or "The Poison in the Plant" or "The Final Father" and the like. The prayers themselves are a strange mixture of awe, adoration, frustration, and anger toward the deity, and the sorcerer comes away with the impression that the writer has been cursed by the god and both hates and loves the god for it.
A few specific lines of text are of note: The bones of my brethren linger, trapped between life and death in this land of eternal night. No matter how many times I have tried to release them, they return the next cycle. O wondrous, horrible eternity! Would that red sun warm us once more!
And the most recent lines: Odd creatures have trespassed upon our domain. I spied them through the eyes of the tribe. Are they your servants, Final Father? I shall take glory in their deaths!
Searching around the room, you discover a single access card beneath one of the chairs. It has a black stripe instead of a brown one.
Viv keeps working on Kaska's terrible wounds. "Um, a little help? I think she's bleeding to death."
Viv manages to stabilize Kaska on her second attempt. The Kellid is no longer bleeding to death, though she remains unconscious.
Fireday struggles to his feet, leaning on his spade as he approaches Viv and Kaska. He holds up his holy symbol and prays to Iomedae, infusing his touch with a green-gold light before touching Kaska gently.
"Obviously, we need to either get outta here, or find some place safe to hunker down and rest and then figure out how we're swimming out later," says Viv.
The ministrations of Fireday and Gywinth knit the worst of Kaska's wounds, enough so she regains consciousness. She is remains weak and disoriented though. While the others discuss what to do, she remains sitting on the floor with her back propped up against the table saying nothing.
"The writings seem to be from our friend on the ground there. He had a difficult relationship with his deity, who is only mentioned by his titles. The important part for us right now is that he talks about how his friends were trapped between life and death, and more importantly, how they returned the next cycle no matter what he did."
Coen then writes out the majority of the message on a sheet of paper and shows it to anyone interested.
"It seems to me that means it isn't safe to wait here as the dead we left behind will animate again, and we don't even know how long it takes. I don't know what everyone else things, but if everyone is up to moving, it seems smart to return to town while we still can. I don't think we're up to another fight after we go through the door this new card opens, much less fighting those skeletons again if they come back."
"Good to know," says Viv. "What else can we find around here? Where do we go next?"
"Perhaps the tribe might be willing to grant us hospitality for the night?" Fireday asks.
"I hadn't thought of that! That's a good idea," says Viv. "Um, I wasn't exactly planning to be out this long, so I have some water with me but not any food...?"
"I do have water available that I can share. We should make a decision quickly, though. Do we attempt to return to the surface or seek shelter among the tribe until the gods and ancestors bless us with more healing power so we can press on?"
"I guess one more door, then back?" suggests Viv as a compromise.
"With all due respect, Gylwinth, around the corner may also be the enemy that lays one of us low with our means of healing exhausted. That monster nearly slew Kaska and myself. We are of no use to Khonnir Bane if we are dead."
The time the others spend discussing what to do gives Kaska time to regain her bearings. Using the table she pulls herself up to standing.
"I will be no use up front until I rest and heal some" she comments, feeling at her tender torso.
"But I have my bow."
After further debate, you decide the best course of action is to return to town for now. You retrace your steps, darting past the machines discharging lightning and back into the odd desert. Now, however, the domed ceiling overhead has taken on the appearance of a strangely red sky with gray clouds and a red sun. The heat is sweltering, and a mild breeze blows across the sand.
You don't linger to ponder this mystery, though, heading back to the other metal corridor and out through the skulks' caves. You catch glimpses of the humanoids warily watching as you pass through their territory. Recovering the body of the half-orc Parda Garr, you swim back out through the sunken passage and emerge back into the surface world. It is early afternoon.
As the group walks back across the now-lit desert under the dome, something connects for Kaska, at least she thinks so. She hadn't been completely lucid when Coen has read the wall writings he translated, but they seemed to make some sense.
"Did the wall writing say that thing and the skeletons always come back because it is always night? Well, it's not night now. Maybe we should move it out here and leave it. Maybe it won't come back."
Coen replies enthusiastically.
"Whoever wrote that on the wall didn't really know what was happening. The part about the sun doesn't appear to be related, I took it as a sign of homesickness. Like if they were from another plane hoping to return to live under the sun of his own skies. Besides, the sun they mentioned is red, and certainly not the one in our sky."
Once they return to the surface, Fireday turns to the others.
"I presume our first order of business should be bearing Parda Garr to the temple," he says flatly.
You bear Parda's body down the hill to the temple of Brigh. Joram Kyte is pleased to see you return, though he is saddened by the burden that you carry. "Poor Parda. I will make arrangements to ensure that she gets a proper burial," Joram says.
"Please, allow me to tend to your injuries." He calls upon the Whisper in Bronze, sending waves of healing energy over you. It feels like a thousand tiny constructs crawling across your skin, knitting shut wounds and sewing new flesh over them.
"When you are ready to return to the caves, I will allow you to breathe water again. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Fireday tilts his head back and closes his eyes as they are healed. It feels quite pleasant and natural to him, like his own nanites.
"You and the Whisper have our thanks, Joram," he says as it finishes, with a small bow.
He turns to the others, looking to see if they have questions for the humble priest or plans of their own before returning to the caves.
"Agreed, now that everyone is healed, I plan on bathing and then writing down what I remember of the text I saw on the wall before I get a good night's rest."
"Sounds like a plan. That water was greasy," says Viv.
You head to the Foundry to rest since you previously made arrangements with Val Baine. The young Kellid girl is excited to see you return, and quickly bombards you with questions. "What's it like down there? Did you fight monsters? Did you gain treasure? Did you find my dad?"
Kaska does her best to answer Val's questions while trying to thread the line between giving her false hope and breaking her heart.
"It's a strange place. At first it is all caves, with some of the creatures one might expect in such a place. But soon nature gives way to passages built by people with great knowledge of machines. It seems very old. Most things are broken, and there's little to make me believe the builders have been there in a very long time."
"There are strange things there though. The living skeletons of four armed creatures. There are strange plants that can move, and hunt. We found Parda, she was dead. We found some others as well, but they were not of your father's company."
"We think we must have gone farther inside than we have been able to yet. He has been very clever I think, more than us. We had to fight through things he seemed to have bypassed without trouble."
Kaska tousles Val's hair. "We may not be so smart as your father, but we're determined. We are going back tomorrow, and then we will find him, probably riding a machine around and collecting curious trinkets to bring back." She smiles at the girl as she says jokingly "I hope we can convince him not to stay too much longer."
Later on, Kaska says her goodbyes for the evening. "I cannot stay here and leave my uncle alone. He will be wondering about me. I will come again by sunrise tomorrow morning."
Fireday listens and nods along with Kaska's description of the caves.
"We have indeed made progress, Val Bane. There is even a tribe of humanlike people under the mountain. They had been paid to attack your father but he put the fear of the gods in them with his arcane might!"
Val listens to the story with wide eyes. "Wow! It sounds incredible down there. I wonder if I could see it some time...y'know, once all the monsters are dealt with." Her expression becomes a bit more somber. "I'm sorry to hear about Parda, though."
She brightens up again when Kaska mentions Khonnir riding around on a machine. "That does sound like him," she giggles. "I'm sure you'll catch up to him on your next trip down there."