You wait for the latest blast of electricity to clear before quickly crossing the room. You hit the panel to open the next door and hustle through it, making it through with plenty of time to spare. The door slides closed behind you once everybody is through.
Beyond the door, a ten-foot-wide metal corridor stretches ahead. Panels in the ceiling provide bright light throughout. A door is set into the wall 40 feet ahead; the corridor turns right and then left to go around the aperture. It travels north another 50 feet before ending at a second door--a third door is set into the east wall halfway down its length.
Access panels near each door hum softly. However, if you try to push the one by the first door, it will beep angrily. It seems this door is locked.
"I have some scratches, but I can carry on. They are nothing to worry about."
+++++++++++++++
As they move through the strange electrical rooms Kaska looks around to see if she can make any sense of them.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Most of the strange devices and metallic objects remain mysterious to Kaska, but she remembers Khonnir teaching her a bit about the doors found in some Numerian ruins. The locks can be bypassed by taking off the panels and rearranging some wires, though it is very difficult without the proper tools. Pressing a special card to the panel can unlock a door as well, if the card is of sufficient potency.
Perhaps one of the cards you got from the skulks might work.
Kaska fishes out the cards and tries each one, putting them on the panel to see if anything happens. She frowns in concentration while conducting the delicate experiment.
The panel beeps happily when Kaska puts the first card to it, and the door slides up into the ceiling.
The air in this room seems to buzz and hum with energy. Strips of glowing rectangles light the room from above, while strange flickering windows line the east and west walls. A large glass-topped circular table sits in the middle of the room. To the north sits a large metal desk covered with blinking lights, while a humming pillar of purple-and-black metal stands nearby, its sides flashing with tendrils of violet energy. A single golden panel flashes with a soft but incessant light on the side of this pillar. A thick layer of dust coats everything, diffusing the lights shining from the various surfaces, and many of the machines seem to be damaged, cracked, or otherwise ruined.
"Maybe the cards have auras that cannot be seen, like some magical items that do not reveal their true nature to the naked eye."
Kaska gingerly takes a couple of steps into the room, looking it over carefully, trying to make sense of what is there.
Kaska's not entirely sure what all of these strange machines are, but the purple pillar seems to be some sort of working power source. The golden panel is the control for it--pressing it will probably restart the energy flowing, and might activate other devices here and throughout these caves.
"Wait outside for the moment" Kaska tells the others. "I think I might know what to do with this. But, if I'm wrong there's no use in everyone getting fried."
She presses the golden panel.
The room suddenly whirs and hums. A series of muffled clicking and buzzing sounds echo through the walls, and a moment later, the circular table in this room flares to life. An illusory projection of the desert you just passed through glows in the air above the table, depicting rock pillars, canyons, and caves down to the minutest detail. Numerous panels on the wall fill with crackling black and white spots and lines, and the pillar of purple metal flashes and begins to pulsate.
Viv waits patiently for Kaska to do her work. "This whole complex is just... it's like some wizard's lair," she finally says. "I must admit to being a bit overwhelmed."
Fireday keeps silent as the group advances through the wreckage, regarding Kaska with concerned eyes, but not speaking to avoid offending her. He does give Coen an "I told you so" look when the cards they received from the tribe turn out to be immediately useful. While they wait for Kaska to work with the machines, Fireday nods at Viv's words.
"Have you encountered wizard lairs before, Viv?"
"Ehhh... not really, except Khonnir Baine's workshop. There are some fabulous Kellid stories about them, though. Places always full of dripping ichor and odd glass cylinders holding unformed monsters, books of spells that turn their own pages and lightning trapped in bottles, arcane glyphs scrawled on the walls and retorts and alembics that float through the air conducting their own alchemical experiments."
She waves around the room. "You know, like this, but... messier."
It takes everything she can muster for Kaska to not flee the room when it reacts to her pressing the panel. She holds her own though, after all everyone is watching.
She does step back when the table when the picture of the desert appears. She looks at it carefully, moving a little to the sides to inspect it as well as she can. Finally she concludes "this is the place we just walked through. I think this is like a crystal ball. It shows a place that is somewhere else so it can be spied on."
Kaska knows no magic, but an idea comes to her. Maybe it obeys a voice.
She stands straighter and says in what she imagines to be a serious and authoritative tone of voice "show me Khonnir Baine!"
After Kaska says 'crystal ball,' Viv raises her eyebrows and says to Fireday, "See? Wizard."
The image doesn't change in response to Kaska's voice.
Coen calmly scans the room with Detect Magic, inwardly doubting that this has anything to do with wizards.
There are no magical auras in the room.
Coen looks to Viv after scanning the room.
"Zero wizards here. Everything here is either mechanical or maybe alive. Though it's probably just as dangerous to touch things here as in a Wizard's workshop, if not more."
Coen continues to look around for any writing or instructions.
Kaska isn't quite ready to give up yet. If her first question didn't work, maybe it was the wrong kind of question.
"Show me Torch!" she commands.
"Maybe try Androffan?" suggests Viv.
"The whatsit?" replies Kaska.
"Androffan - the language all this stuff is written in. Like this."
"Oh" Kaska says, downcast. "I thought those were decorations."
The table responds to neither Kaska nor Viv's commands.
The table responds to neither Kaska nor Viv's commands.
Fireday walks into the room after Kaska and Viv's experiments with the machinery fail.
"So...what do we do now?"
"Now we probably try rashly poking at the glowing panel on the ominously humming black pillar over there. I'm out of my element though, as Viv says there's usually some Androffan markings somewhere."
Kaska seems doubtful, and a little nervous about Gylwinth's suggestion.
"Uh, well, if we can't use it to find Khonnir, I'm not sure what we might want it to do. Maybe it's best to just leave the stuff in here alone right now and be on our way looking for him." Before messing with it makes something go wrong.
Kaska walks over to take a look through the windows, and looks about for another door.
Kaska can only see black and white spots and lines through the windows. They don't actually seem to look out on whatever might be on the other side of the walls.
If you return to the hallway, there are two doors at its end, one leading north and the other east.
"Maybe if we find Khonnir, we can return here with him and he can explain how it works," Fireday says calmly.
"Lead the way, Kaska. I stand by your side."
Viv shrugs. "Little ruins like this are all over Numeria. According to some of the Kellid I spoke with before I arrived in Torch, some of them have Androffan writing all over it. Not many Kellid know the language but occasionally you run into a scholar like Khonnir or a traveler from Scrapwall who does. I figured this place was more of the same."
"Anyway, Fireday is right, we still need to find Khonnir!"
Kaska leaves the room and goes to the closer of the two doors. She listens for sound on the other side and looks it over carefully for traps, then opens it if it seems clear.
Fireday follows, sword in hand.
The door does not appear to be trapped. Opening it reveals a short hallway with another door at the end. This one, however, is locked. None of the access cards you have are able to unlock the door. You will need one that is more potent.
"Looks like we're backtracking!"
"Do you think the skeletons we fought may have had similar cards? Perhaps while they were still alive they were trapped here and lacked the cards needed to get out, and starved to death?" Fireday asks.
Kaska moves back down the hallway and across the previous room to the other door. She tries opening it after giving it a check.
A large metal table is surrounded by odd-looking chairs in this room. To the west, what appears to be a transparent wall looks out over a strange desert valley. The valley is illuminated with a bright, red light. Four pillars support the fifteen-foot-high ceiling, while dozens of crude images of a pickaxe made of a skull and bones have been painted onto the walls with some sort of ivory pigment along with several phrases in an unrecognizable language.
Before you have time to look around further, a creature steps forward. This four-armed humanoid has rotting, gray skin and wears a red cloak that covers its mouth. It grips a pair of short swords, and several javelins are slung over its back. It says nothing, but its eyes gleam with murderous intent!
The creature quickly closes the distance to Kaska and attacks, but misses the ranger!
Kaska evades the oncoming zombie thing and tries to strike back with her falx as she does so.
Viv likewise tries to fall back to a position where she can launch another telekinetic blast against the animated creature.
Fireday says a brief prayer and touches Kaska on her shoulder to bless her with Iomedae's zeal for battle.
Then he takes a swing at their mysterious assailant.
;