Victrix tightly holds onto the offered rope.
As kip administered healing magic to Simon the grippli said, "I think you need an ioun stone for the defenses to register you as welcome. Possibly even a special ioun stone designed for that purpose?"
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"Ouch! Oh, Desna Weeps, that hurts!
Yes, Kip I think you are right that we don't have the correct identification. Yet, the Skum are presumably allowed to pass through.
I wonder if I had carried one through if it would have thought we were being escorted through?"
Simon sighs audibly as Kip administers healing.
"Thank you, Kip, though I wish I had one of your healing circles", he says with a wink.
He goes back to collect his pack and rolls up his rope again.
"They just automatically fix the constructs? That sounds exciting. Do you think if you figured out how it works you could make one that would work for people?"
Ema considered the question and then shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, I couldn't make it heal people but I suppose it might be possible with help." She looked down at the circles in interest, "I'd have to learn how to make these ones first."
As they made their way further into the chambers and found the mural Ema stopped and looked at it. She recognized the Ioun Stones just as Simon did and the things tugged at...[i[something[/i] deep inside of her but whatever it was wouldn't come. The discovery of the trap was a bit disturbing when it was brought to light and Ema couldn't help but feel betrayed somehow. It seemed something about a trap in a place that seemed designed for comfort was wrong and she let out a gasp of shock when the weapons fired on Simon. She thought he would die when they fired again and he just managed to disable them in time.
The concept that Kip put forward, that the Ioun stones would have identified them seemed inherently right somehow. "it wouldn't surprise me Kip, they were obsessive about those stones and used them for everything they could." Her eyes drifted up slightly and looked sad for a second as they lost focus but then returned to the room as Kip healed Simon's wounds. When it was done she looked at them and gestured towards the next room, "After you."
This chamber appears to be a workshop, as evidenced by a table along the western wall laden with tools and mechanical parts. Two humanoid clockwork constructs are in here, tinkering with some tools. Engrossed in their work, they don't notice Simon peering in through the cracked door.
"If we could convince them to talk, that would be the best. Then we could find out more about what this tower did. Do you think they'll use the same targeting methods as the trap though?"
The clockworks turn to Simon. They do not appear to be convinced by his attempt to bluff them. "You are trespassing on private property. You must leave this facility immediately. Please surrender and do not resist," one says. Both constructs begin to approach menacingly.
The first one fires a net from an opening in its shoulder, but it falls short of Simon. The other moves in and tries to slam him, but the half-orc dodges.
Ema looked in at the two constructs in interest as Simon spoke about them. He sounded like he knew exactly what he was talking about so she wasn't overly concerned with identifying them. That he thought he could bluff them was amusing but she was willing to let him try. Turned out her couldn't as they were too good at reading the signs of his lie.
With the fighting begun Ema spoke to her elemental and directed it to attack the machine it moved to the wall just north of the doorway and then walked right through it as it slammed it's head against the machine fighting Simon.
With the elemental doing what it could to help and people in close combat and the doors Ema decided it was best if she waited to do anything else for now.
"Well, we tried." Victrix shrugs and lunges at the nearest clockwork beast...
As the others crowd into the room, Kip waited for an opening.
Simon tries to trip the clockwork, but it proves surprisingly strong and remains on its feet. Victrix moves in to stab it, but it dodges the strike. Ema's elemental moves in, and the nearest clockwork takes an opportunistic attack on it. The elemental dodges before slamming the construct with its stony head.
The damaged construct retaliates as its body quickly starts to repair itself. The other one slams Simon, cracking some ribs with the powerful strike.
A somewhat embarrassed Victrix rears back and lunges with her spear again...
Attacking one of the constructs again the elemental slammed it's body against one of the machines. This time the blow was one of astounding power. It almost seemed as if it slammed it's head in and caused the metal to deform and tear apart as it busted a hole into the thing's side.
Ema cheered as she saw her elemental tear into the machine and conjured up an orb of acid to fling at one of the machines. The glob sailed out and looked like it would be splattering against the machine.
Simon moves to flank the construct, slashing with his sword, but the clockwork dodges his strike. Victrix stabs again, her spearpoint shearing off some armored plating but not hitting deep enough to deal damage.
Ema's elemental picks up the slack, though, delvering a powerful slam that sends gears flying! The clockwork crumples in on itself and clatters to the floor, unmoving. The arcanist then splatters the next clockwork with some acid.
Seeing his opening, Kip hops up to attack the remaining construct, stabbing it in the leg!
The hole Kip's blade leaves behind starts to repair itself as the construct steps up to the dangerous elemental and smashes it to bits!
The berserker steps up to the flank Simon so thoughtfully provided and stabs again!
Kip dashed forward while the remaining clockwork was distracted.
Ema was upset over the loss of her elemental but she didn't let that stop her. Instead she cast a spell yet again and another glob of acid shot towards the remaining construct.
Simon climbs moves behind the construct, but it dodges his attack. The rest of you fare better: Victrix drives he spear deep into its chest, while Kip stabs its leg and Ema splashes it with acid. The clockwork tries to soak Victrix, but her armor holds strong,
Victrix tries to stab the clockwork beast again. Her arms are starting to get tired.
And it shows.
The clockwork servant avoids Victrix's thrust, but Simon's sword catches it on the neck. Sparks fly as the enchanted blade shear through metal, and the construct's head rolls off onto the floor moments before its body collapses!
The table in this room has various tools and mechanical parts. Beneath the table is a metallic chest of drawers that contains countless gears, cogs, springs, and other parts and pieces to any number of clockwork contraptions. The equipment here is nonmagical, with one exception: nestled among the parts on the table is a single gemstone with a faint transmutation aura.
The gem starts to glow softly, and after a moment, you can hear two voices speaking in Azlanti.
"I want it on record," begins the first voice, "that I, Albrust of Havenvine, stand opposed to this decision to send this facility's golems—"
"We don't have time for this, Albrust!" a second voice interrupts. "I know you're committed to protocol, but they can't even estimate the potential damage!" The speaker suddenly lowers his voice. "They don't know if the bunkers are going to do a damn bit of good, my friend. We may be lucky to survive at all. That survival could depend on the golems being able to dig us back out. They need to be redeployed where they might do some good. Our scouts report the elves are... evacuating."
After a moment, the first voice says quietly. "What about the spy? We still don't know for sure."
"And we're never going to know, Albrust. He's likely going to die like millions of others. They only difference is that he probably deserves it."
The recording ends.
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"Fascinating! A recording from the time right before Starfall. This will end up being a centerpiece of the museum display. I can see it now..."
Simon will carefully wrap the gem and stow it in his pack. If the playback device is portable, he will also retrieve that.
That done, he will quickly check the other door in the room for traps and open it.
The faint coppery tang of blood wafts out of this room when the door is opened. A gleaming metal table covered in blood stands in the northeastern corner of the room. Just south of the table is a smaller table covered in surgical tools—some of them obviously used. A metal sheet attached to the eastern wall of this room is etched with anatomical diagrams and brief instructions of incision length and depth for various parts of the human body.
A human corpse lies in a butchered pile in the center of the room. The body has been stripped of most of its meat, but the carcass is otherwise intact. A set of bloody and torn men's clothes sits in a pile near the smaller table.
The only thing Simon discovers in the pile of clothes are two bars of coarse gray soap with tiny pieces of coal embedded in them. When studied with detect magic, they glow faintly.
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"Magical soap? Very odd. I need to learn to do some of this Detect Magic stuff myself, so I can see what it is you are talking about, Ema.
Any idea why anyone would make magical soap?
I wonder if this was found here or if one of the settlers made it."
Grabbing a random tool from the other room, Simon will poke through the remains on the table to see if there is something hidden there.
"Do you think they ate him? Or was he taken apart for experiments? I wouldn't expect him to be so... complete if he was just meat," Kip asked sullenly.
There doesn't seem to be anything else worthwhile in this room. After checking the east door for traps, Simon opens it.
A long marble workbench runs the entire length of the southern wall, and a rusting metal shelf stands on the opposite wall. Squat stools line up along the bench, which is littered with a variety of small, precise hammers and chisels as well as fragments of crystalline stone that looks like quartz. Another door exits to the north.
A pair of skum poke about this room, inspecting the tools and bits of cut quartz. When they see you, though, they snarl and raise their tridents!
With the defeat of the machines and the discovery of the recording Ema was intrigued. Unlike the last recording they'd found this one didn't seem to set anything off in her but she didn't really look around much either. Her gaze was slightly vacant, as if an elderly person looking back into the past, but she blinked and shrugged as whatever she'd tried to recall wasn't there.
As they progressed to the next room and found the lab where the human had been dissected. It was a revolting sight but, unlike Simon, she didn't seem to be bothered much by it. She did examine the way the work was done trying to decide if it had been the skum or some other construct like the ones they'd just finished fighting.
Ultimately her efforts were worthless, she just didn't know enough about healing to determine anything and turned her gaze to the soap Simon had found. Magically augmenting her vision she examined it and tried to determine what it might be used for.
When they found the skum in the next room and got the drop on them Ema quickly chanted and cast a spell, shadowy chains trying to entangle the skum's shadow and trap him in place by it.
The door bursts open again as the lead skum rushes out, only to get Simon's sword and Victrix's spear in its face! The creature falls in a heap at their feet. The other skum struggles to free itself from Ema's shadow trap, eventually managing to do so after a few moments!
Victrix levels her spear at the other skum.
The skum ignores Simon and keeps coming with trident poised to strike!
Calling forth her magic once again Ema sent a globule of acid sailing across the room at the last of the skum there but the thing was far to adept and dodge the poorly aimed spell with ease.