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"Lady Brightsong. As a servant of Serenrae are you able to grant her divine Guidance? Many of the priests where I grew up possessed this gift and I was wondering, if you can, would you offer me some of our mothers wisdom? I feel I shall soon need the clarity of mind that gift bestows." he says to the celestial seer.
"Oh I would be interested in anything you would be able to teach me Yvell." Val says with wink, brushing Yvell's shoulder.
She looks at Derlin, "Well, Ser Froak, while I may not be a priest, Serenrae does speak to me and her Guidance I can grant." Shes replies, her amusement at Derlin's formal request plays in her voice.
" P-Perhaps another time then, right now we should try and focus, yes focus. As Bran already noted, this place will most likely be dangerous if a man such as Khonnir Baine has not returned... Unless.. something OTHER than the residents here are causing an issue? Lets go Derlin, Bran, Valtyra, Burnt One, and Ibuki. Whatever is in there isnt going to wait forever. " Stepping forward
You move on to the next room.
The northern wall of this otherwise empty metal room is a tangle of what look to have once been strange cages of some sort. Tangled amid the metal ribs of these cages are ribs of a more organic nature-the ancient bones of some sort of alien creature. Smaller mounds of rubble lie against the opposite wall.
The repair drone has not moved from its spot but its head has spun around and you can feel the red eye scrutinizing your movements.
Burnt One scrutinizes the cages and bones, then sifts through the rubble. "Help me search for bugs and stuff!"
The skeletons look like strange armadillos with six legs and six eye holes. The back looks like it could have had strange plating extending out of its body.
As soon as Auehda touches one of the skeletons, it disintegrates into dust.
Searching through the pile of rubble, Burnt One finds a tool used for gripping things, two batteries, and a rectangular pen shaped object with a black stripe on the side.
Also, as soon as Auehda touches the rubble, an alarm sounds from the repair drone.
It whirls its arms dangerously and shambles towards Auehda.
1. Derlin, Auehda, Bran
2. Repair Drone
3. Yvell, Valtyra, Ibuki
"Oh no!"
Burnt One folds their hands in front of them and flutters up with four fingers, then repeats the motion. They begin to chant an atonal, almost wordless song.
"Each rebirths the other from the flame
"But all is gone in time."
"Yes focus. We can teach each other many things later." Val says with a light musical laugh.
"I hate these robots!" Val moves to the robot swinging her mace.
Derlin's falca strikes the repair drone cutting wires and breaking circuits. The robot shakes violently for a moment before it speaks with its inorganic voice.
"Always with the robots..." Bran mutters under his breath as he charges the machine, trying to bash it with his shield.
Ibuki mumbles arcane phrases you heard before, pointing at the robot.
Bran strikes the creature with his shield. One of the robot's arms breaks apart and crashes into the alien skeletons.
The robot stops its arm movements and seems to look at nothing in particular.
While in a daze, Valtyra smacks the creature with her mace. A large dent forms in the robot's face.
A different voice comes out of the robot's core. It sounds like a child's voice, no longer an artificial one.
After the voice, you hear a sobbing issue from the repair drone's torso.
Yvell seems poised to strike but stops when he hears a voice. He moves up to examine he robot confused slightly. " I hear a child's voice. There might be a child inside, but that can't be.. This clearly has been here too long. DERLIN, Keep hitting it but be careful!. " Yvell readies his blade to chop off an arm moving around it to flank.
He readies if it seems the voice was a trick or the construct is overly hostile.
After Derlin hits the creature with his falca, the crimson eye fades to black. Its limbs descend and you hear a "Peeeewwwwwww" sound. It falls to its side and yellow, mesh nets spill onto the ground from an opening in its arm.
Yvell seems perplexed and conflicted as he swore he heard a voice, it however shaking him to the core. Checking the construct out externally and internally just in case. However when he finds nothing he looks to the rest and shakes his head once more " Maybe I was simply.. hearing things after all.. Auehda, did you find anything? At least the construct was able to inform us of a direction before ceasing function. "
Burnt One completes the spell, conjuring a giant centipede which coils around their legs briefly before disappearing. They watch the construct carefully.
"Burnt One is ready to go back. Those sounds were scary."
They gesture towards the items on the rubble. "Yes."
You move through the East door and see...
Two strange machines sit to the north and south against the walls here, their faces appear similar to coils of metal tubes with several nozzle-like protrusions pointing into the room itself.
Yvell steps towards the items and examines them as well for any Androffan before looking to Burnt One and sighing " There is nothing to be afraid of Auehda, that was the sound of another .. Maybe another voice it could speak in? Regardless, if we leave, we will still need to return.Did you NOT want to find Khonnir Baine? Or was his help so little to you? This item however, was a good find. I only regret we needed to fight the construct. "
"Khonnir Baine has not helped Burnt One yet. I want him to fix torch but the child monster is wrong and Burnt One will not harm." Burnt One shakes their head from side to side, trying to clear their apprehension, and refocuses on Yvell. "We can go."
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"A shame, these apparatus' no longer seem to work. Perhaps at one time they opened the door. Here, allow me to try something my old masters at the temple liked to call 'Hard Work'!" the broad chested man laughs - as if sharing a joke with old friends.
Derlin moves forward and braces his arms against the door, trying to push through or slide the door open.
Yvell himself was interested in most of the artifacts here, however their mission was the focus and he had to remind them of such. He would have time to peruse the ruins more thoroughly in his spare time. When it came to rescue missions every moment counted in possible retrieval, he himself felt they might have perhaps a day or two before something may go wrong. " Alright then.. Let us go.. Ibuki if you could find out what these items are as we traveled I could assist our mission. " After Derlin and Auehda searched the place he proceeded forward. Elven Blade ready once again.
Burnt One follows Yvell, Metal's head resting against their shoulder.
Derlin pulls the door open.
A gray metal door (the one you came from) sits in one wall of this short stone tunnel that curves north before opening into a vast sand-filled cavern.
Before the opening, is a large white stone perforated with multiple holes. Broken half circular white coral surrounds the stone. Wind tones seem to blow from the different holes, like an ocarina or flute, though you feel no wind in this cavern.
Above you, the sky is dark. There are no stars or clouds.
Yvell looks around, up down and in the sand. Sand, that seemed odd beyond belief, as they were no where near a desert. I was more than odd, it was different than anything he would expect, considering there seemed to be no water nearby to make a shoal. perhaps this entire area used to be underwater? However if that was he case the doors we opened would also be subjected to such. His mind hurt simply going over the possibilities.
Once it seemed clear to him, Yvell motioned for the rest to be careful and begin to move along with him.
Val looks around this odd new area.
Bran takes a look at the vast cavern.
In low voice, hoping that echos don't resound too much, Bran says, "Interesting place to habitate. Doesn't seem like a much...though given the age and decay around here, maybe this isn't what it's always looked like..."
Burnt One approaches the opening and looks around.
If nothing leaps out to attack them or trip them on the way, they pick up one of the pieces of coral and try to plug it back into the holes. "Is this right?"
As you all near the coral, Auehda, Yvell and Derlin feel the sand slide away and their feet get caught in something. Looking down, you see a quagmire of black tar being secreted by the large coral.
Yvell frees himself from the muck, but Auehda and Derlin are entrapped (and entangled).
Massive purple tentacles burst from all the orifices of the large white shell and reach out towards you.
1. Bran, Yvell, Auehda
2. Purple Tentacles
3. Derlin, Ibuki, Valtyra
Burnt One struggles, trying to step back out of the tar.
They grunt in discomfort and try to eject another fire bolt from their palm, aiming for one of the larger shell orifices.
What in the nine hells is that?
Ibuki looks quite surprised.
Edit:
Burnt One frees themselves from the secreted tar. Auehda's fire strikes one of the larger tentacles but doesn't seem to cause any damage.
Yvell sees that Derlin is trapped by the tar-like substance and moves to free him with the swipe of his mighty blade, " Derlin DON'T MOVE TOO MUCH! Get ready to take down whatever this creature is. "
Muck sticks to Yvell's blade. There is still a considerable amount of black ooze around Derlin's feet, preventing him from moving.
Two of the largest tentacles lash out at Derlin, slapping at him like curved blades.
The first one misses, swiping over his head, but Derlin cannot dodge the second as it is aimed at his midsection.
Derlin struggles but can't escape from the muck. He swings his falca at the muck and throws some of the offending mud off his feet.