"Is any of this new stuff magical?"
Perrik, let Jeji and I take a look at that gun and see if we can't figure out what it does.
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Inside, the room inside reeks with carrion and cat. The creature has made a nest of the rotting corpses of small rubbery things- Whiskifiss calls them Chokers. Kricker's magic sight orison reveals two magical items in the mess: an axe and a ring.
The kobolds identify the weapon as an EMP pistol that fires invisible energy. The energy doesn't hurt organic creatures, but deals terrible damage to BOTS and can even wound androids and cybernetic creatures.
Whiskifiss swallows, but then looks at the corpse of the horrible mutant cat and perhaps reassures himself that he is with a group of dragon-blooded killers. He guides the warband down the twisted wreckage of metal panels, leaking barrels, cable and wire that forms the Scrapwall and to the mist-shrouded floor below. No sooner has the group entered the obscuring fog than the buzz of one of Hellion's spybots is heard passing overhead. The beetle-like BOT senses nothing through the mist and isn't heard again as Whiskifiss leads on through a narrowing chasm of junk.
He stops at a huge pale object embedded in the wall. It has the same strange metal sliding doors above a platform that may have once been the wing of some flying ship. The doors are cracked open enough to allow the small members of the group easy access. Though all feel the unnerving sensation of being watched, no apparent observer is seen through the mists.
Kricker will take a look at the ring and the axe.
Kricker discovers that the steel ring bearing a blockish ram's head design is a Ring of the Ram with 17 charges remaining. The battle axe is harder to figure.
Drahlneep huddles with the others at the sound of the spy bot, wondering if he will get a chance to test the new EMP gun. When the minion passes them by, he is not sure whether he should be relieved or disappointed.
"How bad would you guess the opposition is, friend fur-skin?"
Whiskifiss shakes his head and nervously glances around. You notice his fur sticking up more than usual and he shivers a bit though it isn't really cold. "Tk-TK. I don't know. Tk. No one has ever returned from here. Tk-Tk."
"That's because we hadn't come here before," Drahlneep replies. His tone of voice suggests he is staying a simple fact rather than attempting to comfort their guide.
Lets go in, but before we enter let me cast a couple of spells. Perrik can you throw some healing at Jeji? She is looking a bit worn down.
Perrik sends healing energy into the alchemist.
"Make sure you save something for the arena," Drahlneep mutters as he verifies the Smiler guns are loaded and the EMP is ready in case of robots. Once confident he is prepared, he hefts the shield and keeps one of the loaded pistols ready to fire, just over the top lip of the defensive device. "Let's get it over with." He says as though they were begrudgingly attending his mate's cousin's friend's obscure religious ceremony and walks forward.
"Do not worry Drahlneep. I always have a trick between my claws. And thank you Perrik. That helps a lot."
Jeji slipped a small vial out of her bandolier and hefted it up and down a few times, making sure the weight was right. She quickly inspected her shortsword, wiping the blood off of it. It had been some time since she had to resort to using the blade.
"Let's go, before my scales lose their shine."
The kobolds pass through the narrow opening into a small chamber. The air is unnaturally cold in this empty atrium. Metal doorways yawn ahead, and the slanted floor is strewn with strange bits of rubble and twisted lengths of metal. The ceiling is badly damaged here, its gray metal shell shattered in numerous places, exposing coils of rusty, mold-covered cables and wires.
Looking at the others, Jeji gulped before speaking. "Let me go first. Cover me with your bangers. Let me see if it's safe. It doesn't look too sturdy."
With that she began to slowly creep forward, taking her time and picking her steps carefully.
Jeji creeps forward through the doors into the next chamber which looks like a half-crushed hallway extending to the rear of the ship. There are three doors: one at the far end and one to each side of the chamber. All the doors are partly open. From the door on the left comes a soft ginding noise like metal scraping on metal. From the rear, a faint light, similar to that of a lantern held aloft, casts strange, flickering shadows through a tangle of rubble. And from the right side door, issues the cloying stink of rotted flesh.
Continuing on to the door on the right side, Jeji crept along, nearly on all fours. She moved forward as slow as she could, avoiding the light coming from the rear and sticking to the shadows as much as possible.
Jeji stay low as she peeks through the jammed sliding door. The air in this compartment is choking and stale. The dust here is inches thick—nothing has disturbed this area in years. To the front of the room, the wall is partially crushed and melted, leaving a five-foot-wide, two-foot-tall gap that opens into another chamber beyond. Four large coffin-shaped objects made of glass and metal sit against the walls. The near pod and the central far pod are partially broken. Each contains a tall human skeleton clad in fragments of strange, bulky armor. The other two pods appear to be only slightly damaged. The air is thick with a rancid scent, like old meat gone bad.
If Jeji gives the rest of the party any sign, Perrik will follow her in, crossbow loaded and ready to fire.
Slowly backing away from the room that reeked of rotten meat, Jeji crept along to the door on the opposite side of the room. Continuing along nearly on all fours, she quietly moved towards the room that sounded like metal scraping on metal.
Jeji creeps and peeks into the next room. The northeastern wall of this blasted chamber was obviously super-heated at some point, for here and there, the walls ran waxlike, forming slag that cooled into puddles of steel all along the floor. Debris litters the floor—it might once have been tech of great value but now is mere scraps of unsalvageable, half-melted junk.
A piece of metal the size of a human fist scrapes along the floor and then flies at Jeji as she crouches at the half-open sliding door! It clangs off the doorway as she ducks back.
Startled by the attack, Jeji recoiled from the entryway. She wasted no more time in retreating back to the others to warm them of the impending danger.
"The next room leads to three rooms it seems. One room smells of the dead, or undead. Another room looks like the whole place was melted, metal walls and all, and something tried to attack me there. I didn't make it to the last room. We should be careful, and prepared" she said as she pulled out her shield vial and prepared to quaff the extract.
"Say more about the attack, Jeji!" Perrik tries to recall anything useful about creatures or phenomena that might be similar.
Perrik:
Kricker: ;
Drahlneep:
foe:
Jeji scurries back to the others and drinks a protection potion. Perrik has a vision and senses that the attacking spirit is a poltergeist. Unseen and incorporeal spirits that hurl objects and only appear briefly as horrifying apparitions!
"It is a spirit of rage! Can't see, can't touch--we'll need magic and positive energy."
Hearing Perrik's words and knowing he can do little about such an ephemeral foe, Drahlneep moves to defend Kricker.
Shield me while I get to the T!
Kricker moves up to the intersection and lets loose a burst of positive energy intending to hurt any undead in the area.
Jeji moves up after Kricker, pulling out a bomb as she goes. Unsure of what would end up coming out of any of the rooms, she stood ready with a bomb in one hand and her shortsword in the other.
Kricker leads the way into the crumpled corridor with Drahlneep at his side and Jeji close behind. Whiskifiss makes nervous ticking sounds and stays behind. Kricker holds his holy symbol high and sends out a blast of undead destroying power. Wailing moans come from the molten room. Suddenly, a horrible spirit appears right in front of Kricker. It is a human form in a bulky suit that is burned to tatters. Its charred skull screams within the shattered glass globe that encases it.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Jeji screamed as she turned tail and ran.
Kricker is unafraid of the overly skinny human.
Kricker tries to expunge the Undead monstrosity from this plane again.
Perrik rounds the corner, screeches in horror, and flees.
Jeji flees in fright nearly knocking over Perrik as he steps through the door. Whiskifiss grabs the near panicked kobold before she can run out the door, holding on and trying to calm her. Kricker stands firm and channels another blast. It results in a pair of screams from the melted room that fade into silence as the haunting spirits are dispelled... for now.
Drahlneep tries to resist the malevolent spirit, but, once again, he succumbs to magical fright.
"Good work, Kricker! Let's search this place quickly." The oracle casts detect magic and scans the area for auras, then takes a more mundane look around.
Drahlneep is stopped from fleeing too far by his companions and they soon regroup in the center of the ship while Whiskifiss nervously volunteers to watch the entrance. Once the frightened kobolds regain their composure, Perrik leads an exploration of the melted room. No magic is found, but as the kobolds dig through the rubble they find a mother lode of Tek! The floor is littered with 43 silverdisks, a big rifle, three concussion grenades, and two unknown objects along with 3 lumps of the explosive clay.
Hmm, let me take a look at the various tek. I am especially interested in that rifle.
"Here, let me. The voices tell me much about TEK, remember." Perrik starts examining the unknown items, relaxing and allowing his strange sources of information to speak to him.
The big gun is a mystery to Perrik. It doesn't look like a laser or anything else the kobolds have seen so far. The other two objects are a two-foot long egg and a pod half the size of the egg. The pod seems weighted to stand upright and has a red translucent end and slits along one side. By fiddling with it and interpreting the symbols, Perrik eventually figures out that it is a signal beacon that when activated blinks red light and sends out a noise that anyone nearby can detect and come help. With Jeji's help, Perrik also eventually figures out the at the egg will expand into a hut with the press of a button providing space for a dozen kobolds along with clean air and warmth.
"The room to the south smelled of death. I wouldn't be surprised if there was undead in there. I don't know what's in the last room. I...left before I got that far" Jeji said, slightly embarrassed.
"You go and see what's in the last room, then."
Jeji once more creeps ahead of the others to another ruined chamber at the rear of the ship. The eastern half of this room is a tangle of gray metal, strange engine parts, and rubble, all of which was subjected to great heat long ago, judging by the metal’s melted and scorched surfaces. Here and there, softly glowing residues are caked onto bits and pieces of the metal.