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Burning, blinding light explodes from a large circular alcove in the eastern corner of the room. Within, an elaborate arrangement of mirrors, prisms, and similarly refractive materials stands carefully positioned by calipers, strings, and wires marking its precise settings. In the opposite corner dangles a three-dimensional mobile of various sized metal spheres. A complex frame surrounds the spheres. The length of the frame is etched with numbers. A broad work desk divides the two alcoves.
As the door opens, the raggedy humanoid lets out a shrill shriek, throwing his hands up to his face. He appeared to have moved to guard his eyes as the door was opening, but is still overwhelmed by the brilliance of the light that escapes into the library.
@VBH - critter looks very vulnerable at the moment, but not so very threatening.
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"Bloody Hell. . ." closing the door once more, and turning to the Dark Folk, I'll say "Sorry", knowing he doesn't understand.
I'll hand him my pair of smoked goggles, and motion for him to put them on. Then pointing at myself, "Garinol". Motioning to him, ". . ."
Once he has put them on, which hopefully will help a little, I'll warn him, and reopen the door.
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The critter scrambles for the goggle offered by Garinol, and pops them on its face. They sit somewhat comically on its small head, but seem to reduce the apparent pain the creature was experiencing. The creature bobs its head affirmatively, gabbling with a positive tone.
In response to Garinol's attempted introduction, it points at Garinol, saying "Gar-i-nol", and points at itself, "Tar-ik, Tarik". Introductions accomplished, it gestures at the closed door, makes exploding motions with its hands, covers its eyes and howls for effect. Then it makes a series of gestures that seem to mimic packing a box, or gathering something together, or perhaps kneading dough.
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It seems he is trying to indicate the portal (or object I saw) is powering up too much and might explode or get brighter.
Ill go ahead and open the door after warning him, step inside and mostly close it again so others can see it if needed.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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@Garinol - you going to shield your eyes, or stare into the sun?
Ka and Rhydderch both come to the conclusion that the creature is indicating that the device is extremely bright, it hurts people's eyes (unclear which people), and that he would greatly desire to have the device shut off (or turned way down, or something...). A brief debate discerns that kneading dough actually probably doesn't come into it.
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As Garinol approaches to inspect the machine more closely, VBH and Gerald charge forward and pierce it with the lance. The impact on the machine jars it, shaking several of the sunrods embedded in the midst of the mirrors and prisms.
The machine begins to thrum rhythmically, and the brilliant light begins to pulse slightly in time to the thrumming.
Garinol notes that the places in which sunrods are inserted have glyphs enscribed around them.
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Burning, blinding light explodes from a large circular alcove in the northeast corner of the room. Within, an elaborate arrangement of mirrors, prisms, and similarly refractive materials stands carefully positioned by calipers, strings, and wires marking its precise settings. In the opposite corner dangles a three-dimensional mobile of various sized metal spheres. A complex frame surrounds the spheres. The length of the frame is etched with numbers. A broad work desk divides the two alcoves.
The work desk is covered with a mixture of metal bits, crystals, and handwritten notes.
Attempting to disable the device feels right, but the complex arrangement of prisms, mirrors, and sunrods is very baffling. Your initial attempts don't produce a noticable difference - the device continues to pulse and thrum.
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The device has five locking entry points, each just wide enough to house a sunrod. To properly activate the device, the rods need to be adjusted by fitting them with specially crafted rings that precisely boost or dampen their effect. They need to be placed in the proper order for the device to function effectively. In the wrong order, they can cause the device to fizzle or worse, overload.
The notes at the desk list the following numbers and names with the material from which the rings are crafted. The numbers correlate to slot locations labeled on the device’s blueprint.
The rings contain writing explaining how to place them on the sunrod. Each ring must be placed in a specific position that correlates with a slot along its shaft.
The sunrods currently inserted in the machine have no limiter rings on them - the limiter rings are ordered neatly on the workbench. The current operation of the machine is... not according to design.
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Ka addresses the ones in the bright room. "We were told our contact deal with things from the underworld, and for that purpose most of them have problems with bright light. We should not disable that thing, unless we know what we're doing. There's another room to the west (or left), so maybe he is there..."
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Zedril...still looking for the dough the creature was kneading stays in the room without the sun beams of doom.
I agree Ka, this could be a good tactical retreat point if we need it. Let's leave the door open to illuminate the other room as well.
Not sure if any of us did this, but, Detect Magic in the room and then on the machine.
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Calling back to Rydderch, "Anything usefull back there?" as Ill start taking out the Sunrods.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Garinol begins removing sunrods, while Rhydderch tries to convey a sense of how everything is supposed to go together, based on the available notes. Tomnus contributes to the decision making. VBH backs off, having apparently set off a chain of actions he doesn't fully fathom. Ka and Zedril exchange tactical considerations for later confrontations.
Tomnus and Rhydderch reach the conclusion that the device should have limiter rings associated with the sunrods as they are placed in the machine - and that the current configuration of the machine does not include the limiter rings, which are on the table. The notes also identify a store of sunrods near the bottom of the stairs . Garinol confirms that there are no limiter rings, and that he's extracting sunrods as quickly as he can. But the machine continues to thrum and pulse.
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With a sudden flash of inspiration and insight, Tomnus realizes the machine is about to wind itself into an inglorious and unspectactular failure. The dysfuction runs through sunrod 27, a half turn clockwise will release it, and it can be extracted to shut the machine down gracefully, rather than turning into a nasty mess on the floor.
As Garinol follows Tomnus's suddenly cogent explanation, the machine ceases its thrumming, and its painfully bright light levels cut out quite suddenly. The chambers are otherwise dark, except for the party's light sources. All of which suddenly also cease to operate.
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The odd humanoid has moved next to Zedril, and has a dagger raised, with a viscous black substance dripping from the blade. The sudden brightness of Rhydderch's daylight spell causes it to flinch briefly.
initiative humanoid: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15
initiative Rhydderch: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14
initiative Ka: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
initiative Tomnus: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
initiative Zedril: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5