Astra already opened the brown and red doors using a brown keycard. She also found a white/blank keycard, that matches the white door.
You look around the door and don't see any place to put thieves' tools, except for the strange machine (what you believe is a card reader) to the side of the door), so you start jamming your tools in that until you hear a loud beep.
In Androffan you hear, "Door access has been reset to brown colored civilian access."
It’s fixed, white door also works with brown card now. Technology isn’t hard. Sneek is smiling as if he had just won the jackpot at Silverdisk Hall.
Liz treks through with everyone as they return to the strange structure under the hill. Yes, let us check out the door Chakos talked about in the gremlin lair. Liz looks at the door when/if they arrive.
When we arrive at the gremlins lair Sneek takes a look around for any leftovers.
Sneaky little bastards those gremlins. Ran like cowards.
"I'm glad to see you guys listen to me at least a little bit!"
Astra will try one of the brown keycards in the gremlin lair doors.
Sneek searches around but only finds scrap metal and gremlin-destroyed machinery bits. Nothing seems useful. You also see newly made humanoid footprints, no boots just bare feet.
Elizabeth notices a red flashing light behind the door through a small slit. She believes that this door is locked from the other side.
Astra sees the normal resembles the other metal circular door in the skulks' cave. There is no machine to slide the brown key card.
Liz flexes and tries to open the door.
RAGHHHHHHH!!!!
You remember that the skulks have bare feet.
You hear a clicking sound from the door and a jolt of electricity runs along the red light, changing it blue. The circular door slides open as Liz pulls it, and you see a very long curving corridor made of metal.
"Whoah! Nice work, Elizabeth!"
I need a little help here, I think I dislocated my shoulders.
Argug gives Liz a slow clap of appreciation for her work. "Well done...I could've done that, you know..." he says sheepishly.
"Indeed, quite impressive!"
Liz nods and stiffly waits for everyone to march to Horrible death fame and fortune.
"Hang on and let me take a look at you", Astra says, moving over to Elizabeth and putting her hands all over Elizabeth's neck and shoulders area, feeling around for anything out of place. If she finds an actual dislocated joint, she'll try to pop it into place. Either way, afterwards she'll work on Elizabeth's muscles a little, giving the briefest of massages to try and get the blood flowing. "Next time, warm up a little bit before trying something like that. The tissues are much more prone to damage when they aren't flush with fresh blood."
The slightly curving hallway continues about 100 ft, until it curves around again and down a ramp to a large room. As you walk you see broken sections of wall and exposed wires, circuits and glaucite support beams. A feeling of dread and suspense surrounds you. You feel like you aren't supposed to be here...
Peering around the corner, you see...
A cloying, animalistic stink fills the air of this hemispherical room. To the south another curved ramp lead up to a hallway leading out of the room, while several doors sit in the east wall. Flickering lights flash and strobe on the ceiling, and the gray metal walls are scorched, dented, and partially broken in places, exposing colorful wires or metallic struts within. Four mounds of rubble, cloth, and bones lie scattered about the room.
Filth is scattered everywhere in the room, likely caused by its current inhabitants. The striped catlike creatures, the size of small wolves, have not noticed you yet.
Liz looks very relieved. Ah yes, that feels so much better, thank you Astra. Liz works her arms some. Pre adventuring calisthenics..what a concept, there might be potential is publishing a book on that.
Astra stays silent when she notices the creatures up ahead, and stops in place, trying to observe them as long as she can before she is noticed. She raises a hand to the others as a signal to stop as well, but she doesn't speak out loud, as animal hearing is often quite keen, and she could alarm them simply by warning the others even in a whisper.
** spoiler omitted **
The slightly curving hallway continues about 100 ft, until it curves around again and down a ramp to a large room. As you walk you see broken sections of wall and exposed wires, circuits and glaucite support beams. A feeling of dread and suspense surrounds you. You feel like you aren't supposed to be here...
One of the thylacines pokes its nose up and perks its ears. It looks up at the ramp you are standing on.
Liz looks at the others questioningly.
Argug shrugs, inaudibly mouths the phrase "eff it", grips his axe, and just charges at the nearest creature before they have a chance to attack.
Liz gets her brand-new crossbow ready for battle.
"Poor doggies", Astra mouths to herself as Argug charges, though she won't object or stand in his way.
Chakos will charge on in with Argug attacking a different creature.
Chakos and Argug burst down the ramp and carve into two of the thylacines. The cat-like creatures whimper as they are put down.
The other two thylacines howl and growl in high pitches.
1. Thylacines
2. Everyone
The two thylacines charge at Chakos and Argug and try to sink their teeth into their flesh.
Their wide mouths find meat and blood.
HP 16/16
AC 11/11/10
Effects: Mage Armor
Hand of Apprentice:7/7
Liz shoots at a thylacine
Argug, still gripping his axe with one hand, flurries at the thylacine that attacked him with his newly spiked armor, giving two swift chops with the spiked wrist on the other hand of the armor.
As you look around the large room, you can see two sets of double doors to the East, two sets of single doors also to the East, another ramp to the South heading back in the direction you came from, and a set of double doors in the center of the West.
Elizabeth's bolt misses the thylacine, bounces off the floor and embeds itself in the wall next to one of the eastern doors.
The thylacine next to Argug growls, then whimpers after the orc chops it in the neck. You hears its bones break, then it collapses to the ground.
Astra will approach, draw her shiny new longsword and try to strike the remaining thylacine. "Maybe I will call it Puppy in honor of these poor puppies...", she says.
I'll take a swing at the final creature.
Astra misses with her longsword. Perhaps empathy for the catlike creatures she thinks are dogs shifted her weapon off course.
Chakos chops the last beast in half. It hisses as the greataxe bites into it, then its tongue hangs out on the floor.
Liz quickly casts Mage Armor again from her scroll. More strange creatures like the tentacled one and skeletons, what a strange place this is.
"Strange?" Astra quirks her eyebrow at Elizabeth's words. "Thylacinus cynocephalus -- the common thylacine -- isn't any more strange than a cat or a dog, though admittedly quite a bit rarer", she muses, crouching beside one of the fallen marsupials and sighing a little bit at the needlessly shed blood. "I wish we could have spared them, for I've never seen a live one before." But then, she'd never seen one of those tentacle creatures either and she didn't express this level of sympathy towards it. Perhaps it's the close resemblance to a common household pet that makes the thylacine easier to connect with. "Look here -- though it may initially look feline or canine, it is actually neither. The thylacine is marsupial in nature, as evinced by its pouch for carrying young. As an interesting point, I've read that the pouch should be found in both male and female thylacines -- yes! Look!" she points out how one of the fallen animals is clearly anatomically male, and then demonstrates the pouch as well. "Male...and pouch. What a fascinating species! I wish we hadn't had to kill them..."
I am afraid that animals of the world are a closed book to me, I have spent most of my life city-bound and focused on golems and the smithy.
Several seconds pass as you wait for something. Finally, the Northeast double doors (only a few feet from the ramp) burst open and a half orc and three ratfolk enter the room. They are wearing leather armor. The half orc is holding jagged pieces of broken machinery formed into sharpened weapons. One of the ratfolk is holding a short sword, the other two are holding hand crossbows.
On the half orc's chest leather is a black clawed hand, a symbol that none of you have seen before.
They watch you, but don't do anything, but stand in front of the doorway.
"Leave now!" The half-orc growls.
Did I have time to heal Argug and myself?
Liz prepares to cast a Grease spell to make them fall down and looks at the others to see what they want to do.
"Oh, I don't believe we intend to leave right away, despite your say so. Nor do we intend you any harm, but you know the last group I told that decided they had a problem with us, and they are now pushing up daisies. So, it's your choice really, we can be friend or foe, and no offense, but I'm not going to use my whole "word of life and death" speech in you, so just take things at face value."
"Stop them from getting to the Priestess!" the half orc growls. It doesn't look like he cares about what you say, only that you didn't move. He hefts his improvised weapon expertly, like he has used it for a long time.
1. Argug and Chakos (haha, that's great)
2. Half Orc and Ratfolk
3. Liz, Astra, Sneek