"This is some kind of phantasm, Don't let it fool you."
She spins around as the sound of a scream. looking in all directions.
"Sometimes just knowing it's an illusion can break it...Quick! DISBELIEVE!"
She keeps looking around, trying to study the nature of the illusion, If she can't pierce it with her mind, she would at least try to figure out the nature of the spell
Despite Shea's skepticism, the smoke remains...
Tai inspects and then shoves open the weird door.
Brother Cyrus watches Tai Leng's back, in a purely tactical sense.
"Huh. You been exercising more lately Tai?"
Tai Leng's muscles ripple and shift under his skin, barely contained by his loose-fitting shirt. They lightly bulge as he pushes on the door, expanding and then contracting in a most pleasing manner.
Tai feels Cyrus' eyes on his back and smiles inwardly, proud that his finely honed physique is bringing such appreciation from his companion.
On the side of the door, you see a room with number of different armor sets methodically arrayed side by side, protected by individual glass display cases.
There are carefully positioned oil lamps on the walls, but they are all out. Even so, there's light in the room, as a perfectly circular hole on the ceiling allows moonlight to enter the room.
Half a dozen shattered constructs litter the floor. Sitting on the, leaning on the north wall of the room, lies the bleeding bodies of an elf and two humans. Al three are male. The elf wears light armor and fine clothing. A silver curved bladed next to his hand. The two human men wear medium armor and have longswords next to their hands... They all have a variety of wounds... As well as some long, fine darts stuck on their bodies. Tai Leng easily recognizes them as identical to the one that was shot at him soon after you entered the hallway.
Shea looks around in all directions.
"That's a lot of blood, I don't think that's just from a Dart."
she said, looking at all the unlit lamps, contemplating if she should light them or not, She's always looking for an excuse to use magic.
Cyrus moves over to check the bodies to see if they are still breathing.
Tai also looks them over and gives them a sniff.
The three men have numerous long, deep, clean cut all over their bodies.
You realize the elf is still breathing, although so weakly you have to check twice to be sure. Even without medical training, you can easily tell he won't last long without aid.
Not only that, you notice something odd about the hole on the letting the moonlight in... It's not any kind of skylight, but a literal circular hole cut in ceiling. As far as you can tell, the opening is a perfect circle. The edges are so smooth and symmetrical that it couldn't have been made by any blade you have ever seen.
"Brother Cyrus! This elf is alive, but needs swift medical aid. Can you heal him?"
"Also, the ceiling is odd. Whatever cut that hole is unnatural. Be wary."
"Of course!" Brother Cyrus rushes over and drops to a knee by the elf before passing a glowing hand that softly radiates a warm light over the elf's wounds.
Shea looks over the glass cases holding them armor. Then comes up beside her companions.
"Thank goodness she's alive, What attacked her like this, those clockwork wonders from before perhaps?"
The elf stabilizes, although he still appears to be barely holding to his consciousness...
His voice is little more than a whisper.
"Wh.. Who ar... you...?"
"Name's Cyrus. Are you alright? Can you walk? What the hells is all this?" Cyrus just gestures vaguely to the rest of the room.
Shea may or may not just noticed how hurt Tai was. Under a certain perspective, some might blame her for the injuries he sustained, or at least lay some blame on her, Despite this being 100% not the case, she can't have people saying such wicked things about her. So she uses what little energy she has left and touches the muscle man. Hopefully Cyrus isn't the jealous type.
The elf tries to stand, but his arms are unable to sustain his weight and he falls back on the floor.
"I don't think I can move much more than this..."
"We were... checking the... the exhibit when those... th-things..." he points with his chin at the destroyed constructs on the floor "...They fell down on us... We didn't even see where they came... from..." the elf takes another deep breath before continuing. "We had no... no time... The smoke... And they kept coming in. So.. So... Many..."
"Come on, I gotcha." Brother Cyrus pulls a Wand of Cure Light Wounds and uses it on the man.
"We cleared out some of those damn things coming up here, if you go back down the stairs you should be alright. Although some people were looking rather angry at us coming up here." He helps the elf to his feet and claps him a few times on the back.
"Well anyways, we're getting out of here. We have business further ahead it seems. Be safe stranger."
"Yes, you should go back downstairs...Oh be careful of the stairs, they are a little slippery right now."
Now well enough to move without bleeding to death, the elf slowly stands up... Gripping the sword in his hand.
"No... Lord Dorian is in danger! He needs my help!"
"Woah there! Your loyalty is commendable, but you still have one foot in the grave. You won't be of much use to your lord like that. What does this Lord Dorian look like? We can keep an eye out for him if you keep an eye on the exit for us. What's your name and we can let him know you sent us."
He looks down with a conflicted expression in his face... He's obviously struggling hard with his thoughts.
"Ugh... I hate to admit it... But you're right..." he then turns to the wall behind him and presses a certain spot while whispering something.In response to this, a section of the wall partially turns, revealing a tunnel where there's no smoke other than whatever small quantity floats in when the passage was opened.
"Come with me... Those shouldn't be able to find this passage..."
The wall turns back once you enter the secret passage. The elf touches a nearby torch, which lights up with a smokeless blueish flame. "Follow this path and you'll end up in the antechamber of Lord Dorian's office... Hopefully you'll arrive in time to aid him... Tell him Edaron sent you. Show him this."
Edaron hands you a raggedy-looking handkerchief.
"I'll wait here for now... I don't think I could survive another fight against one of those things... But I can still help you..."
He gives you two glass vials and three small copper spheres.
"Careful with those... They'll electrocute anyone... Or anything... You throw it at."
"Thank you Edaron, we'll be sure to come back with him quickly." Cyrus hands one of the potions and two of the stun grenades to Tai Leng and keeps the other potion and the last grenade for himself.
"Let's hurry!" Cyrus then breaks into a light jog down the path.
"Thank you. Though I still have no idea what's going on in here."
"Honestly... Neither have I. Those things came out of nowhere and immediately attacked us." Edaron says before pointing the direction you must go and wishing you good luck.
You follow a corridor barely 15 ft-wide, but more than 150 ft-long. All the way you hear muffled sounds of whirring gears and clanking metal coming from the other side side of the wall to your right.
Eventually, you reach a dead end. Nothing here but the walls around you, the muffled sounds of battles... And two levers on the wall.
"Hm, he didn't warn us of any levers so..." Cyrus pulls both of them.
As soon as Brother Cyrus pulls the lever, a trapdoor opens bellow your feet, dropping you in a pool of acid and negative energy. the few torches that were illuminating the corridor go out, and the door in front of you turns in the same way the one that the revealed by Edaron did.
When it finishes turning, you see a large room with a dozen different types of armor on display, a few of which lie on the ground. There are also two big glass windows, one intact and the other completely shattered. Four stone pillars hold the ceiling above. White smoke is pouring in from the corridor, but hasn't completely filled the room... Yet.
But most importantly, you see a number of armed men fighting the same constructs you encountered earlier. However, despite the warriors' best efforts, the gear-men are easily capable of dispatching them... With a single exception: A masked man dressed like a giant crow (or raven, hard to tell) does a much better job of defending himself, and already has three broken constructs around his position... However, even him seems to be struggling with fatigue.
To make matters worse, an massive construct stands close to the center of the northern wall, repeatedly smashing a wooden door that glows with magical power at every impact... But the light becomes fainter after each strike.
Shea
Gear-men 1 & 2
Tai Leng
Gear-Men 3 & 4
Gear-Titan
Brother Cyrus
Gear-Men 5 & 6
"The Big one seems a little busy, best not to disturb him right now."
Spins around to look at one of the gear men, contemplating her course of action.
Shea considers them for a second... Could still use them clumped together... What would a gear man really hate, they are made of metal, metal rusts... Water! Shea Reaches out her hands and envisions a towering water elemental appearing right in the middle of the gear men. And then pushes her power beyond it's limit. Wordlessly casting an Illusion
What appears to be a living tower of water Sprouts the center of the room, accompanied by loud splashing, the sounds of the tide crashing against a shore, And a loud gurgling roar. The illusory water elemental even appears to take a swing at the adjacent titanic gear man, though it conveniently misses.
Hopefully that pulls them around it.
One of the gear-man approaches the illusion and attacks it.
It misses the attack, so a second construct follows suit.
When its mechanical claws go through the image unimpeded, both of the constructs completely stop for a second, then turn around and look directly at your party with their red-glowing eyes.
Meanwhile... White smoke continues pouring into the room...
- - -
"Who IS that Masked Man?" Tai Leng wonders aloud.
Then he chucks a lightning grenade into the cluster of constructs surrounding Shea's illusory elemental.
Tai Leng is disappointed by the sphere's effective area of effect, but still manages to hit two constructs. They try in vain to avoid the burst of electricity, but the short-lived electrical current still does a job on them.
One of the other constructs knocks down the last guard in the room. The man even flies a few feet away from his mechanical attacker before passing out. After that, the creature takes a step sideway and starts emitting a loud, acute noise that is almost painful to hear.
The massive construct slams the door once again. Their magical protections explode with the sound of shattering glass and the doors themselves buckle quite a bit. It's unlikely that they'll hold against another blow.
Not only that, but a powerful jet of thick white smoke comes out from the enormous construct's vents, just as more of the substance continually creeps into the room from the corridor.
- - -
"More importantly, what are we going to do about that giant...thing?"
Cyrus dashes into the room with his blade out and tries to hack into one of the constructs around the illusory water elemental.
"Well, I was hesitant to get close initially, but I suppose I could use its large body to bludgeon the rest into submission." Tai offers as a plan.
Brother Cyrus hits one of the gear-men, dealing significant damage to it.
The Paladin is in turn targeted by another construct... But with a quick flick of his blade, the Paladin deflects the two darts shot at him.
Another gear-man strikes at the masked man... He blocks the first attack but is hit by the follow-up. He grunts with pain, but remains on his feet.
- - -
Steps beside Cyrus and creates a burst of fire in front of her of her. Engulfing four of the Small constructs as well as the large one
She can feel the heat from the fiery explosion only a few feet away from her... But when the flames disappear, most of constructs show no sign of damage... Only two of them seem damaged, but even that seems to be pretty minor.
The gear-men respond to Shea's arcane assault by attacking her and Brother Cyrus.
Brother Cyrus once again has to contend with mechanical claws slashing at him. He defends himself skillfully, but still can't avoid every attack.
The creature's companion instead target the young mage, and fire at her a chained collar all too familiar to your group.
Shea feels cold metal grasping her neck and the burning electricity running through her muscles. She finds herself linked to her attacker by a long steel chain.
- - -
- - -
Two mighty blows and a loud crashing sound later, the door finally caves to the mechanical titan's fists, then squeezes through the door's frames, where he's bombarded by bullets and arrows... But doesn't seem to care much about them.
You hear the sound of a woman shouting orders coming from the room on the other side of the door.
Brother Cyrus narrowly avoids a dart that flies towards him. Meanwhile the masked man blocks two strikes from a nearby automaton.
Brother Cyrus tries to quickly dispatch the construct he's fighting so he can go help others. His blade arcs for the construct's joints.
Lacking any dissent, Tai moves to enact his plan.
He grabs the large machine by its arm and tries to haul it over his shoulder!
Presumably, the monster's thick metal carapace deflects his attempt.
Unforunately, both Brother Cyrus and Tai Leng are unable to hit their opponents this time, and the mechanical monsters remain unimpended.
One of the constructs has its claw attacks deflected by the masked man , while another turns his attention to Tai Leng.
Tai Leng's instincts tell him to watch out, so he quickly turns around to see the metal clasp flying towards him. The evolutionist avoids the attack with ease, but the enemy still has him on its sights.
Not only that, but the amount of white smoke coming out from the giant construct and coming in from the room is getting considerably thicker. If this goes on for too long, you'll soon have to deal with a serious drop in visibility.
- - -