"Huh." Azri stepped in behind Ayreth, looking around the area for things of interest - and more importantly, threats.
"Well, I guess we know what made things stop working." the lich girl mused as she looked at the damage. "If it's just the metal, though, we should be able to fix it somehow..." Unfortunately, she didn't know a spell that could do that sort of thing - and even if she had, she suspected her greater powers wouldn't have actually let her rapidly cast it. Which meant maybe one of the others could...?
Nothing immediately jumps out at Azri, literally or figuratively, as she looks around the damaged room. At a glance it looks like the metal has simply been mangled until it jammed the pumping station. Nothing is missing or damaged beyond repair. Replacing or reshaping should be enough to fix the machine, although there's no obvious way to re-start it here.
Nigrum nods.
"You have my thanks. Not that this removes the debt of my drink mind you."
With that he whistles for Alerdene, mounting the hippogriff and taking off towards the others from above.
"Please," Mihara bows humbly when Ayreth refers to her in sisterly terms. "I have no claim to such a title. Zhen was a father to many of you, but it would be improper of me to call him anything except a teacher."
As the party enters the pump room, Mihara scans the room for any threats as well.
"Please let me know if you need assistance, Ayreth. I have some experience working with mechanisms."
"Uh. If you say that the tubes here were hit by something sharp, shouldn't they've been cu in some places? I see no leaking water here, or something like that." the half-succubus muses, before peeking down the stairs that lead underground.
"Think we'll find our culprit down there?" she says, trying to see if there was anything down the stairs.
Selana is right - although the system up her is mangled, it should still be leaking water from the pressure of the well. Apparently the damage to the pumping station is only part of the issue.
Mihara also notes that the lock she just picked was old and corroded, having not seen much use for some time.
Nigrum re-joins you as you finish studying the room.
"Hm. Well, clearly, no one has been here in a while. If I hadn't been able to open this lock, we could have waited for a few minutes, and it would have fallen apart on its own." Mihara exaggerates.
Negative energy crackled around Azri's fingers. "Sadly, I'm better at breaking things than fixing them. For now." she said, dismissing the power. "Let me know if there's anything you need, though."
With the various mechanisms fixed, the machinery appears to once more be intact. However, without any obvious way to turn it on, it sits silent.
"Downstairs it is." Mihara nods, scouting ahead and readying her blades to pounce at unwary targets.
Azri followed Mihara, looking... well, with her hood, it was hard to see the exact expression, but there was a definite smile on her face as she snuck down behind Mihara.
Nodding as Mihara and Azri descend the stairs, Selena pulls out a small clay jar and walks behind some of the tubes and contraptions, out of sight but close to the stairs in case something jumped out.
"I'll be done in a minute. If another ghost pops out, give a shout." the half-succubus says from behind the piping to the lich and the kitsune, while she applies the slickly substance on herself.
Not knowing much about mechanics or water pumps, Aibek hung back, looking over the room quietly. The witchwolf watched Ayreth mend the mechanics, eyes darting around the room with swirling anxious energy.
As the others began down the stairs, Aibek looked back out the door for a moment before following them down...
The stairs lead down to a the northern end of a moderately sized room. Pipes cover the ceiling and large patches of the walls, bronze occasionally showing through the heavy paint that apparently has been used to code the system for mechanics.
Two doors lead out the East and Western walls. The bulk of the red painted pipes lead out the East, the majority of the blue out of the West. The room is not lit, the only light coming from the upper level. Other than that, the room is bare.
Selena furrows his brow at the colored tubes "Oh no, not going to try to figure out what those means. Remember what happened last time?" she comments. "Blue or red?".
Azri looked around, not particularly bothered by the lack of lighting down here. She could see perfectly well in the dark, after all. It was actually rather home-y when you thought about it.
"Do you see anyone?" Mihara whispers to Azri. If no threats are obvious, Mihara lights a torch to get a better look at the room.
"That's quite the pipe network. I wonder what the colors mean..."
Aibek looked at the pipes, after blinking for a few moments to adjust to the dark. "Which way would the water be needing to go or..." Aibek said quietly, hands up slightly while trying to orient where they were from where they came from.
With a small shrug and hands up in the dark, Aibek uneasily said "I don't know much about mechanics, I'm just guessing we should start looking in the direction the water should be going and then work our way back...or head back where it coming from and move forward..."
Aibek's perception notices that the path to the East - the one that should be heading towards the other island, and the bridge connecting them - is dry and smell mostly of dust. The way to the west is damper, and the drip of water can be heard somewhere in the distance.
"This way then!" Selena points to the door at the west.
When the party is ready, she opens the door, letting Foxy work her magic first if its locked.
Aibek's nose wrinkled slightly while glancing back and forth both ways for a few moments, before moving towards the damper smelling west. "Or head towards the wetter side and work out way back through the oddly dry... " Aibek said, with a slight nod towards the west, following the red pipes.
The witchwolf pauses near the door, tilting head, closing eyes, and taking in a slow deep breath, to listen and smell for a moment while it is opened...
Lightning crackled around Azri's fingers as she prepared to hurl it at any threats that dared pop through the door. That seemed like the most expedient way of dealing with things - and electricity probably wouldn't hurt the metal.
No noises are coming from the room, and the door swings open. It moves surprisingly easily. The next room is dominated by a huge mound of a machine in the centre of the room, many of the pipes flowing into it. More flow out through doors further west, north and south.
Once again, the machinery here has been torn into. Large gashes rend the pipes, metal panels have been dented and torn and nearest to you cogs cover the ground, the delicate machinery having being pulled out by something completely lacking delicacy. Water flows from several places in drips and drabs, coating the floor in a puddle.
"Clearly, our saboteur is not one for finesse," Mihara quips as she investigates.
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"I know." Azri sighed out. "That's probably for the best, though." she didn't elaborate, and instead moved to the door on the west side of the room and carefully, sneakily opened it.
"Let's hope he's not as dangerous to people as he is to inanimate objects!" Selena comments cheerfully, examining the machine at the center of the room and the various damage caused to it: she may not have the faintest idea what the machine was for, but maybe she could figure out what was used to cut it up.
The room further to the west opens to reveal yet more machinery, this time with half a dozen valves, levers and hand-pumps and more dials than can be easily counted. This is obviously the control system for this section of the water works. It is, so far as you can tell, completely intact.
"Oh, good. We found a working thing." she called back to the others. "I was starting to worry that we'd have to rebuild all of this from scratch."
"Guys, there's something weird..." Selena carefully picks up carefully one of the glass shards "There are glass shards in all of the rends, and some on the floor. I'd say it could be a very peculiar fashion statement, but some of them looks like...scales?" the half-fiend concludes, looking back at the party, hoping that someone smarter could figure it out.
Azri wandered back over. "How big are they?" she asked. "That's usually pretty indicative of the size of any creatures involved. Dragons have huge scales, fish tiny little ones..."
On average the glass scales seem to be about an inch across. Certainly bigger than any normal reptile would likely be. Especially one made of glass.
Aibek moved up to Selena as she spoke, the witchwolf looked over the glass pieces and the claw marks quietly for a few moments, trying to recall anything that could be helpful...
"Interesting." Azri mused, before wandering towards the north door and cracking it open as well, trying to get a better feel for the place before they all huddled together and considered their options.
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Ayreth stands on her tiptoes behind Selena as if she is going to peek over her shoulder, but quickly realizes how ridiculous that is and ducks under Selena's arm instead. She reaches out mentally to grab one of the scales and look it over. "Anybody ever hear of werecrocs in the sewers?," she mostly jokes.
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Nothing instantly springs to mind, even with your combined knowledge rolls.
The room to the north is similar to many of the others, but this time is dominated by a huge pool of water. Many of the pipes run into it, one way or another, reaching into it's centre and extended downwards into the dark waters below. However far it descends isn't clear, but it's certainly deeper than Darkvision allows anyone to see.
As before, three more doors spread off of this room.
"Before anyone gets any ideas... I'm a very poor swimmer." Mihara immediately says, clearly wary of diving down into the depths. "What about the rest of you?"
Azri shrugged. "I don't need to breathe. I could probably get in and out eventually." she said - half sounding like she wanted to try it. "Looks like some kind of central water supply...?" She moved over to the pool chamber's western door and nudged it open, trying to see how big this place really was - and whether or not there was anything of value here.