Armin nods, looking at Terana with awe. "Okay. Please, be careful. That monster is terribly dangerous!"
Cathyriel keeps an eye on the other prisoners as they continue to bang on the force field of their cell. Suddenly, they begin convulsing, vomiting copious amounts of black bile, and making loud, gurgling sounds. A few moments later, they arch backward as masses of barbed, black tentacles explode from their exposed abdomens. They stare with dead eyes as they scuttle about on their hands and feet, tentacles waving menacingly. Fortunately, they remained trapped in the cell...
For a moment, Gideon looks as if he might retch at the horrific and disturbing transformation of the colonists...former colonists...before their very eyes, though he is recovered a few moments later. Thankful that they didn't that cell, Gideon still shakes his head.
"It's a pity we can't put them out of their misery, but I think we have bigger fish to fry." he remarks, then chokes down a laugh as he realizes the humor in his turn of phrase.
"Before we go further, I would suggest we all have Protection from Evil cast on us. We know that aboleths enjoy mind-controlling magic and that spell would prevent it from working on us."
"I can't cast that." Terana warns, "But with Shelyn's gifts I can replicate some of the protection."
"If we have limited access to it, I would suggest you receive the first Protection spell we have, then. That way you'd be immune to potential mind control and would be free to use that gift to free is from it."
"Yeah. Sounds good. Don't wanna turn into a host for one o' them," is all that Tobar has to say on that count.
Cathyriel mutters a prayer and quickly puts a hand on everyone. "There. That should help some against the dark powers of this world."
She looks around, and tests the edge of her sword. Yep, still good. "Right, let's do this."
"We should find out how to open the vault first." Terana offers. "If it's that way and there's no way to open it we should head in the other direction, see it there's a lock or a key there."
Terana leads the way through the northwest doors. Strange machinery and tubes in the walls make up the interior of this room. Embedded in the wall nearest the entrance is a large metal pin panel whose surface ripples at regular intervals; with each wave that sweeps across the panel, new symbols appear on its surface. The display alternates between two different messages in Azlanti, one after another. The first one reads “Status: Unstable,” and the second one displays the text “Composition” and shows a bar graph.
Terana stays away from the panel, looking instead for switches or levers that might open a door into the vault. Gideon can play with the ancient technology - it's much more his kind of hobby. Before she lets anyone into the room however she scans it carefully for aberrations, they are know for illusionary tricks after-all!
Terana detects no aberrations nearby.
Given the fact that he's not being told not to touch anything or mess with any of the machines and tubes in the room, Gideon moves swiftly over to them, looking over the panels and trying to discern any purpose or intention.
He focuses particularly on the display and the text displayed on it, wondering what's status is 'Unstable' and what the 'Composition' could be referring to. He looks for anything that might give some indication of the purpose of the instruments.
Suddenly, the text on the pin panel goes flat, and a humanlike face emerges from it. A harsh, metallic voice and a soft, friendly voice speak in unison, spreading through the water. The lips on the face move, but the voice isn’t completely synchronized with the movement. "Welcome. I was expecting you. There is much to talk about. Please, tell me about your homeland and your mission here."
"Wait!" Terana commands swiftly. "What are you? What is your purpose?"
Though he initially looks curious and intrigued, Terana's quick response tempers Gideon's own, and he tamps down his inquisitive nature, waiting until whatever the thing is answers Terana's question.
"I am an analytical engine," the voices say eerily. "My purpose is to process information. Now, please provide the information I previously requested."
Terana shakes her head at Gideon, mouthing 'No' in case she wasn't being clear enough already.
She swims closer to Gideon and leans over to burble in his ear. "It might be a trap. Aboleths can appear in many forms." She says quietly before kicking away again to approach the panel from the side.
Cathyriel has come to the same conclusion as Terana; she looks around, uneasily. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Gideon gives a barely-perceptible nod to his companion, licking his lips. "We are disinclined to acquiesce to your request."
Terana relaxes fractionally as Cathyriel closes her wounds with Iomedae's grace. It doesn't break her focus on the 'analytical engine' however.
"Thanks," says Tobar in his usual taciturn way. "But uh... now what do we do about this... thing?"
At Gideon's refusal to comply, the face quickly changes into what looks like a giant, primordial, three-eyed fish. The friendly voice vanishes and only the harsh voice remains, saying, "Very well. Now you must die."
The gears to the side of the display panel assemble themselves into a pair of small constructs! They lash out at Terana, slamming into her.
"I've got these!" Terana calls, "Stop the machine!"
She thrusts herself away from the constructs using her glaive, before whirling it into a sweeping cut.
A faint flash of rose lights the water as she heals her own wounds.
Cathyriel nods at the orders, which make tactical sense. She prays and a spirit of pure force appears by the control panel, smashing at it with righteous fury.
She stays back from the fight, ready to cast again.
Giving Terana the leeway she has requested, Gideon swims forward to the machine itself so that he can try to disable or deactivate it.
Tobar takes a shot to help Terana fight off the constructs.
Terana comes up short of a critical strike, but she lands two solid blows on a construct. Cathyriel's spiritual ally and Tobar's crossbow bolt finishes it off.
Gideon moves in and begins tinkering with its exposed components, dismantling one of the ioun memory nodes implanted within the face's eye sockets.
The remaining construct attacks Terana, failing to penetrate her armor while the pin panel display forms a sharp, spear-like protrusion and stabs at Gideon! The bard twists away just in time to avoid being pierced! A moment later, the tubes in the walls spray a green cloud of mutagenic fluids into the water!
Terana coughs a few times, but isn't distracted for long and swirls her glaive around at the remaining construct.
Only just managing to dodge away from the spear that attempts to skewer him, Gideon redoubles his efforts, continuing to dismantle the machine even as the green fluid assaults his very DNA!
The foul muck swirling in the water does little to discomfort Cathyriel, who has been hardened by exposure to fiends and worse during her time in Cheliax.
Cathyriel gestures at the spiritual ally she has summoned, and it speeds over to attack the remaining construct.
She moves to engage it herself in melee, with less success.
Tobar, likewise, shifts targets to the remaining construct.
Gideon fails to mske headway disabling the analytical engine. Everybody else attacks the construct's cogs and gears, damaging but not destroying it.
The construct continues to slam Terana while the pins stab at Gideon again. This time the bard takes a hit.
Cathyriel and the ally that she summoned continue to attack the construct. There are more spells at her disposal but she would prefer to retain those for greater need.
Cathyriel and the spirit shatter the construct into its component parts! Only the analytical engine remains...
Terana closes on the machine and sweeps her glaive through the spikes the machine keeps manifesting, hoping to draw its attention.
Gideon grits his teeth against the pain of the spear-wound, glad that the rest of his friends have finished off the constructs and are able to help him with the engine itself.
Despite the stream of blood mixing with the water around him, Gideon continues to work on the engine to try and disable it.
Tobar shoulders his crossbow and steps forward, pulling out his tools to assist Gideon.
Terana's attack on the pin panel doesn't seem to harm it much. Both Gideon and Tobar fail to disable the analytical engine, which stabs at both of them with its spearlike projections! Gideon is wounded again but Tobar escapes injury.
Wounded again, Gideon still presses onward, not letting the injuries stop him from his attempts to bring the machine to bear.
Redoubling his efforts, Gideon finally succeeds at slicing through the circuits connecting the ioun memory node to the engine. The pin panel ripples once before going still as the massive machine shuts down.
In the distance, you can hear a grinding noise. It appears that disabling the analytical engine has also unlocked the gateway leading into Onthooth's laboratory...
Gideon takes a deep breath as the group hovers in the water in front of the disabled and destroyed machine, looking at the door. "I could use some healing before we move forward. Once we're ready to go, I think this would be a most excellent time for your Communal Protection spell, Cathyriel. Then move in. I don't know if this thing is gonna try to negotiate its way out of gettin' turned into sushi, but I don't think we should give it the chance to try."
Gideon then proceeds to use a fair portion of his spellcasting energies to bolster each member of the group, himself included.
Terana has nothing in the way of preparatory spells but she does bow her head over her glaive and pray silently for a short while. The glaive glows with a clear light.
Cathyriel calls upon the healing power of her goddess, before brushing her hand briefly against each of her companions to empower them against the forces of Evil: "May Iomedae bless and keep you; may she make her face to shine unto you; may you be a light in the dark places of this world."
Once you are ready, you head down the corridor past the cells where Armin still waits for you to rescue her. At the end of the corridor is a round 20-foot-diameter metal door. A large lever sticks out from the side of the door’s octagonal frame. The door is composed of triangular metal sheets, the tips of which meet at the center.
The lever in the frame is intended for opening and closing the massive gate. A whirring system of gears of many sizes transmits power from the lever to rails on which the metal sheets are mounted, enabling a person of average strength to open the massive door weighing approximately a ton. When opened, the metal sheets slide outward, creating an almost-circular hole in the center. When fully opened, the metal sheets form a serrated ring around the opening, evoking the shape of an eye with eyelashes like saw teeth.
In the large, flooded chamber beyond the gate, the water is mixed with a viscous, transparent slime, the source of which is a bizarre, 25-foot-long, primeval, fishlike creature—the aboleth Onthooth. Three slit-shaped eyes on the creature’s bulbous head glow red and twitch as it vigilantly scans the area. A crescent-shaped fin at the end of its long tail whips back and forth to maintain the creature’s position, while four tentacles on its flanks undulate with the flow of the slowly moving water.
As the creature speaks, powerful vibrations in the water carry its carefully articulated words, echoing like a resonant whisper. "Retribution—is that why you are here? Or do you seek to understand designs infinitely larger than yourselves? You have no idea what is about to transpire. You puny creatures have released a veiled master, and when it gets the weapon it is looking for, your cities and your civilization as you know it will be gone. And yet, here you are, looking for petty revenge." With a disgusted shake of its head, the creature lets out a long, condescending sigh that echoes in the water for a moment, after which it continues. "Be that as it may, I cannot suffer you to leave after what you have done to my home and servants." The creature’s eyes give off a flash of bright red light, and its four slimy tentacles shoot forward to crush the life out of anyone they can reach!
Two huge creatures lurk in chambers adjacent to the entrance--enormous mollusks with conical shells, unblinking eyes peering from above masses of tentacles.
Before you can react, Onthooth swims forward and lashes out at Terana with a tentacle, jolting her with electricity that threatens to overwhelm the synapses in her brain! It follows up with a swift barrage of magic missiles.
The monstrous mollusks make menacing vocalizations and ready to lash out at anybody that draws near.