"See anything?"
"Yes," Valai whispers as she slowly draws back around the corner. "A room with some tables -- and two figures moving. We may have found that crab-thing's masters. Or its peers..."
Booker hears this exchange, nods, and sneaks forward to get a better look.
Celia holds her breath and listens for potentially hostile movement from the back of the group.
Booker snuck up to the entryway. With a quick peer inside, he saw that there was a third table in the room. However, more importantly, he found three metal men moving about. They were no more taller than Celia, but their figures were less human-like than the images of the Kethans they had seen. Similar to the metal crab from earlier, they were an amalgam of scraps formed into a mound of metal, somewhat resembling a humanoid form. They had legs, arms, and a head, but they were twisted and imperfect. Their 'feet' were more of a tripod structure and they completely lacked hands. Instead, their left arms ended in a spearhead shape and their right arms were hollow. From what Booker gathered, they had yet to notice him.
Booker attempts to sneak back to the group.
"There's 3 of em, ramshackle like that crab so probly not face stealers. They got some nasty looking blades on their arm that I really don't like the look of. We might be able to get the drop on em if we're real quiet.
"Not to be a boob," Celia whispered, "But do we know that they'll attack us, like, for sure?"
"Not at all. But they sure didn't look like they were built for bakin' pies. You're more than welcome to go introduce yourself."
So shoot 'em. We'll ambush them when they come through."
Celia grinned wryly. There wasn't much else to do, but if she heard the things grovelling or saw them standing down, she'd defend them.
"Go for it, Booker, but be careful, for tankard's sake."
The gnome then looked to Quentin.
"Also, your plan is good."
"Or we could all stand by the sides of the doorway, and I will lure them out," Valai suggests. "All you need to do is make a sound. If those... things... turn out to have crossbows or something with them, they will not get the chance to take pot-shots at you."
Provided the team agrees to her plan, the Elfmaid makes a curious gesture and whispers a few words -- "Fantasma simpla" -- and an image of Booker appears in the doorway, in full sight of the machines, but about ten feet from the gathered company.
"Now, make a sound!" Valai hisses.
"Um... Oooga Booga! Come and get me you big metal bastards!"
The metal men perked up at the challenge. One moved towards the doorway and took note of the figure in the doorway. It raised its its right arm and aimed it at 'Booker.' After a second, a metal bolt shot from the the hollow cavity and flew straight through the image, landing at the far end of the hallway.
"Fantasma auditoria," Valai hisses, flicking her wrist at the image of Booker. The sound of a loud and extremely rude raspberry issues from the illusion.
Booker pulls out his gun, looks confusedly between the metal men, Valai, and himself, and prepares to roll for initiative.
Celia maneuvered to hide behind Boodka. This move was seldom a bad idea.
Booker
Entaro
Valai
Metal Men
Quentin
Boodka
Celia
Booker stays out of sight and readies an an attack against the first thing that crosses into the hallway.
Valai draws her sword - it looks like a scimitar, only longer, with a more flexible blade - and quickly chants another spell.
Celia hides. No, literally. She hasn't the strength to hurt metal men, and is better off staying alive at this point to heal the others or go in with the chaos domain if things aren't going well.
"I am not suited to this sort of thing!" Valai hisses, but she nevertheless slashes at the closest construct.
Closeby, the illusion of Booker continues to make rude noises at the constructs.
Well, if Valai was going into the fray, hiding behind Boodka seemed less like a good idea. The gnome pulls out her rapier and maneuvers over to be adjacent to the woman.
They had defeated the three metal man rather handily, mostly thanks to their ambush and sheer strength of numbers. They moved into the next room and found what appeared to be a mess hall. Along with the three tables, there was a small partition in the corner which contained what appeared to be a kitchen. There was a large oven-like structure, some counter space, and some cutlery, though it appeared a bit foreign.
"Well folks, you up for some dinner?" Booker starts poking around to try to find a pantry.
"How do you wish to eat without rupturing the seal on your suit?" Valai asks.
She looks around, a displeased expression on her face.
"Where in the name of Calistria's gaudy toe-rings is the way off this red dustball?" she asks.
Booker shoots Valai an equally displeased look at ruining his plans for gorging himself on good food and copious amounts of wine.
"Well maybe we should head back to that crossroads. Don't think we're gonna be findin' transport off this rock in the kitchen."
"Doubt whatever passes for food for a metal fella be good eatin' for us anyway. Let's keep lookin' for a way outta here."
Celia had taken to rummaging through the cutlery out of curiosity.
"Sure thing, but doncha' wonder what their forks look like?"
Whether she sated her curiosity or not, the gnome subsided quickly.
"I agree with you, though. Back we go."
The group moved on, walking over the piles of scraps that were their former attackers. They progressed through the next hallway. They soon found themselves before an fountain. The deep black stone was stained with what appears to be years worth of water flowing through, but is now dryer than the surface of the planet. Beyond the fountain, were a pair of large double doors.
"Oh... wouldja look at that." Celia breathed, wandering over to the fountain and examining it more closely (with her eyes, of course, and not her fingers).
"So these First Ones may still have needed water at some point," Valai says. She briefly licks her lips, then resolutely strides past the fountain and speaks a single Word at the doors.
"Woowee, that's an impressive sight there."
Booker checks out the fountain as best he can.
Marshall circles the room, patrolling for trouble.
Upon closer inspection, the reason the fountain was dry became obvious. It was battered at the bottom where the water would normally be released until it was no longer functioning. The material used to create this fountain was the same as the stone tables and the "beds" found earlier. An inspection of the room found nothing else, magical or otherwise."
Valai stalks forward, glaring at the floor and the door for traps, and pokes the door with her quarterstaff if she does not find anything out of place.
Just out of curiosity, Celia couldn't stop herself from conjuring water into the dry fountain. Perhaps it was a foolish idea, but, the dry vessel seemed so lonely, and judging by the rest of the technology she'd seen thus far, the gnome hoped for some kind of outcome.
With a wave of the hand and a few words to Cayden, Celia summoned a few gallons of water. They splashed and rocked as the conformed to the shape of the fountain, but were only enough to cover the bottom of the fountain. Much more water would be needed to fill the entire thing. After a brief inspection, Valai was confident in giving an all-clear of the door.
Valai pushes against the door with her quarterstaff. If there is a door handle or somesuch, she uses the same implement to press it down.
"Let us move. This room holds naught but sad memories and dust."
"Not if we make happy memories here, Valai." Celia chirped.
"It should be especially easy to do, especially with such a strikingly handsome kid nearby. Isn't that right, William?"
The gnome moved away from the fountain and gave a crooked smile to Valai.
"Okay, well... there might not be enough time to truly make a gleeful memory in here, but, I tried, kindof. That, and I haven't gotten your goat just yet. He's a proud thing."
Celia turned to Booker and Quentin.
"Any takers for goin' through that door first, then?"
"Heh heh. Yeah, sure, I can check it out. But Miss Celia, I don't think that lady'd know a happy memory if it jumped out and kissed her ass. Err, goat. Wait, maybe I got that confused."
Booker peeks through the door! Preferably quiet-like.
Booker cracked open the door and slid his head through to the other side. The next room was a bit larger and featured a variety of statues on either side. The statues were made of the same black material as the founatin and depicted a variety of creatures. Most of them appeared to be Kethans but about a third of them appeared to be normal humans.
Once Booker gives the all clear, Marshall moves into the room.
"I will be pleasantly surprised if none of these statues come to life and try to murder us."
He raps one of the human ones on the forehead.
"Anyone in there?"
"I shall be pleasantly surprised if nothing comes out and tries to add us to this art gallery," Valai mutters. She looks around and listens closely.
After the tap on the head, the arm of the statue on the opposite wall drops, now pointing straight ahead. Immediately all the other statues on the same wall folow suit. As this happens, the room itself begins to lurch and grind as it quickly turns on its side, tossing everyone down into the waiting arms of the statues.
"Oh, oh... What in the...? Everyone alright?"
The gnome asks, flat on her back but miraculously unscathed. Before waiting for an answer, she gets to her feet. She immediately looks up in response to the clattering sounds, her long ears pricking like those of a rabbit.
"Oh, please, Mister God, don' let that do something awful."
Valai curses, using words a pretty Elfmaid really should not even know, let alone repeat.
"I hate this place," she growls as she cautiously liberates herself from the statue's "embrace". "Let us please proceed to the next chamber before something else happens. And stop touching these things!"
"It wasn't me this time, Valai! By the froth, I swear it wasn't!" the gnome protests, hurriedly moving over to help Quentin and Booker if they need it.