Another group of these things hearing this way. We need to move out fast and follow the trail.
"I don't know that I like the idea of leaving more of these things at our back." Celest says indicating a nearby pile of bones. "How is everyone? Can we even outrun them?"
"And, outrun them to where? This looks like an endless desert. No one even has a proper club, s*&$! Well either we plunge in headfirst, or we admit this place spanked our ass two rooms into it again."
"Lily? Com'on now. you need to speak up."
The skeletons move at a stumbling walk (speed 10'-15'), so you are sure you can outdistance them. In the short term that is. Over long periods of time, you don't think they tire as regular people do.
Quickly Rhaym heals you of the damage you took, handing out another potion or three of healing. Looking down at the scuffled sand, you panic for a minute before regaining the trail and running east into the utter darkness of the cold desert.
You run for a while, passing a large sand dune on your left. Getting fatigued, you press on at a walk and eventually encounter another cliff much like the one you left when exiting the tunnel.
Pausing to look back, you don't see the skeletons. But you know they're back there following.
The path bends south, following the line of the cliffs.
And then, the endless black is interrupted by white light spilling from a tunnel the trail led to up ahead!
Entering the 20' wide tunnel, you travel a winding path up to a blank end. There are no doors, and no obvious source of light.
"Thanks doc I was worried I was gonna lose a finger. We need another light I guess."
Variel thanks Doctor Rhayme immensely, I do not know how much further we could have gone on without your restoratives Doctor. Thank you.
Variel continually casts his light spell over and over again as needed to light the way. He knew they could be tracked in the darkness by the light but they needed it to see what was coming. Upon reaching the hallway Variel passed his light spell to Flynn. There must be an entrance or door around here somewhere. Give me your sap while you search in case the skeletal things come back. I will need everything I can to hold them off if they show up in the meantime.
Variel hands back the explosive Rhaym gave him earlier. Take this back and target as many as you can leaving me out of the blast. Hopefully I an hold out for a minute to let you target as many as you can with as many as you can. They might be our only chance out of this mess.
I will need everything I can to hold them off if they show up in the meantime.
"Hey, I'm here if you need a hand to hold." *smirk*
Variel gives Celest a bow before her as he takes her hands a plants a kiss upon it. I would not risk such beauty if it were not necessary. However I would also be remiss if I would not admit to being grateful for your company by my side.
Feeling around, you hand goes through the illusion of the wall! There is a space you can walk through here.
Doctor Rhaym looked around the tunnel, searching for a trap door or retracting ladder or some such.
"Ladies. Gentlemen. I think I have found something." He said faintly.
Looking towards Doctor Rhaym's voice, you see his legs sticking out of the northern end of the tunnel.
Feeling around, you are able to pass through the imaginary wall of the tunnel into a short section where another Glaucite door stands open about a foot. Bright white light streams through the gap.
Testing the door, you find it is broken. I won't lock open or closed, but just lower or raise to an equilibrium at about a foot wide gap. It takes a ST check 15 to open a gap wide enough for you to pass beyond.
"Right. Woman's work is never done."
*Shove*
"This is flippin crazy. Okay, okay um. . . "
"Yes traps! Traps, traps, traps, gotta check for traps."
"We need to find someplace safe from those things. Keep an eye out for, well? Whatever."
"Will you just get in there and scout around. I can't hold this thing all day you know!"
Cheshire is amused by the illusionary wall for a moment. "Maybe the illusion will fool the monsters?" He continues keeping his eye out for trouble.
Hearing that there is a door found Variel looks out into the darkness one last time before hurrying over and sliding under the door. Thank for holding the door but isn't that suppose to be a gentleman's duty for the ladies. Not the other way around? Is there another exit from here? If not then at least with the door lowered this gives us a chance to eliminate them piecemeal as they try to come at us.
While Celest held the doors open, the others are able to crawl/dive through.
Your dark adapted eyes are dazzled for a few seconds. When your eyes adjust...
You find yourselves in a fifteen feet wide by ten feet long room. Another Glaucite door on the far side of the room stands closed. The grey glass panel to it's left is whole and uncracked.
This metal room is brightly lit by strange glowing panels in the ceiling above. To the left and right, complex machines consisting of
spiral tubes and nozzles twitch and hum.
Hearing that there is a door found Variel looks out into the darkness one last time before hurrying over and sliding under the door. Thank for holding the door but isn't that suppose to be a gentleman's duty for the ladies. Not the other way around? Is there another exit from here? If not then at least with the door lowered this gives us a chance to eliminate them piecemeal as they try to come at us.
*Strain* "That's okay. I ain't no lady." *Groan*
"Another of these doors."
"The last one was not locked down. I wonder about his one."
Celest looks over the 'lock'.
*Shrug*
"Well, nothing ventured...." Celest tries to pick the 'lock'.
Despite Cheshire and Celest poking and prodding the door, it does not open. Celest cannot even find an opening to stick her lockpicks into.
You all hear a sparking/buzzing coming from some of the equipment along the walls, when suddenly a series of blue white webbing of lightning blazed through the whole room. Everyone here takes lightning damage (Ref save DC16 for half dam).
Next zap in rounds.
"OW!" Shouted Rhaym as he dropped his bag and wrung his hands as they smoked.
"Celest! Stop touching things!" He yelled, blowing out the embers on his jacket.
"Yee-Ouch!" Celest falls backward and follows that up with a stream of curses bad enough to make River Kingdom brigand blush.
"Yep its trapped."
Cheshire looks at the glass plate at his hand and at a human hand judging by his manner it looks like his is measuring. "Where is one of those cards with the stripe."
Cheshire takes the card and compares its size to the glass panel.
"Cheshire looks at the glass plate at his hand..."
Eyeballing the card, you see that the card is about two thirds the size of the glass plate.
reflex 3 damage taken
Variel looks around at something to open the door with as he gets hit by the lightning zap. Blast it all. Someone find a way to open that door. As they are busy trying to do just that Variel slips back under the wedged door to keep an eye on any skeletal things that may be approaching.
"I am gonna try something stand back . . . I don't want to shock us all again." Cheshire shoos everyone back.
Cheshire holds the card up against the glass plate.
"Dammit, that zapped me right in the---hey! Careful what you touch! Here let me look first."
"Hummmmm, uh huh uh huh."
"Okay let me back out first."
When Cheshire holds up the plastic card with the thick brown stripe along one edge to the grey glass plate, the door next to it gives a deep and authoritative metallic 'Clunk'. The grey glass plate now shows a black circle with a red diagonal stripe through it.
No pushing or pulling on the door seems to affect it now.
While the nozzles and electrical surges in the broken side mechanisms harass you, you discover by trial and error that touching the brown card to the grey glass plate locks and unlocks the door.
Touching the plate with your hand (or even just a finger) while it was in the locked mode did nothing, but when it was just a grey glass plate, touching it caused the door to slide up into the ceiling, and touching it again closed the door again.
Revealed beyond is a long curving metallic corridor, brightly lit by ceiling panels.
Via the torchlight Celest looks into and listens for any noise in the corridor beyond.
"Well, here we go."
Passing through the door, you see behind you there is another glass plate next to the door on the opposite side as well.
Proceeding down the corridor, you come to another metal door with a glass plate next to it. It shows the 'locked' symbol. The corridor doglegs to the right and continues on. Peering around the dogleg, you see another metal door thirty feet away.
"'Kay. Lil, Doc, Flynn, Ben and Jerry... Snuffles. Which way we want to go?"
"Should I lock the door behind us."
Variel looks at Celest quizzically, Which one am I in that arrangement. as for locking the door I would think that is a yes at this point with all of those things behind us. Let us take these doors as they come to make sure nothing else is behind us. Slow and steady and let Flynn and Cheshire examine the doors while the rest of us stand back in case there is another electrical burst.
You think that the lightning zaps in the last room were probably due to the malfunctioning mechanisms to either side of the doorway and not in this odd complex in general. You saw the little nozzles turn wildly around, and the smell of ozone and burned metal were present there, but not here.
"Uh, hell yes lock the door! You don't want all those undead guys following us in here right?! But I guess that leaves going back through the desert a real problem doesn't it? Anyone know how long an undead is willing to wait at a door the living went through?"
"Jeez, we'd better check the hallways out."
Variel looks at Celest quizzically, Which one am I in that arrangement?
"Ben. Jerry's more of a short sidekick's name."
Bazzle looks at the door behind them as he locks it down with the card. "I think the shocking door was malfunctioning. Which is good and bad. It means that maybe some things aren't trapped but we might have to deal with things not working as intended."
Looking around the corner, the hallway beyond is empty. You see it extend well beyond your sight as it bends around to the left a hundred yards away.
When you touch your brown stripe card to the plate, the 'Locked' sign blanks and the door give a loud clunk. When you touch your hand (or even a finger) to it, the door sucks open 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 glasstopped 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.
Celest steps in and looks about in wonderment.
"So does any of this stuff make sense to any of you Aram Zey types?"
Staying where he is at and not going into the room yet Variel answes, I have no idea what any of this stuff is. It is beyond my many years of experience. Clearly I am going to have to study more to understand this stuff if we are to continue on in this vein for a significant length of time.
Cheshire is dumbfounded in awe and steps into the space and look about.
Stepping forward gingerly, you test the floors and walls; you decide there are no pit traps to threaten you and move about with more confidence.
Cheshire looks over the equipment especially the strange metals.
"Man, why do I feel like an enormous clockwork contraption is going to come out of a secret panel an kick our asses as soon as you start touching stuff?"