"Jeji, come towards my voice!" The oracle casts another spell to bolster the party while Jeji retreats.
The moonflower turns its attention to the nearest kobold in reach and two fibrous vines beat at Kricker. One hits, grabbing up the kobold and lifting it toward the burning maw-like flower!
Jeji blindly staggers towards the sound of Perrik's voice.
Drahlneep continues to try and pour fire into the big plant, hoping it will finally give up before it tears into Kricker.
Drahlneep fires another direct shot into the burning 'head' of the plant and it ignites into flames just as his ancient pistol buzzes and grows too hot to hold. Kricker is lowered back to the ground by the dying root and after a minute or so, Jeji and Issuma regain their vision.
The Kasathan watches the plant burn a moment and then notes that maybe the Machine Cave is still safe if the Moonflower has been lurking on the path for a while. She moves forward taking the lead.
Gather around and let me heal a bit...
Perrik pokes around where it was hiding, looking for signs of other creatures it may have killed.
Issuma waits for the kobolds while Kricker prays to mend wounds and Perrik inspects the base of the former alien plant. Although he finds no remains, he recalls that the flowers seed actually forms around a victim and sometimes gear remains within the plant. Kricker help cut the plant open revealing bones and metal. There is an assortment of broken technical odds and ends arranged in what might have been a backpack on the bony shoulders and a strange dagger encased in ice.
The mechobold oracle casts a spell and examines the detritus for magical auras.
The bones are probably humanoid, but that's all Perrik can tell. Any flesh or clothing that might assist with identification dissolved away long ago. The dagger is magical.
"Oh thank the dragon. I can see again" Jeji said as she continued to wipe her eyes.
"Give me a moment and I will scout the machine cave."
Perrik tries to figure out the magic on the dagger after calling on his source for guidance.
"This dagger is magical, but I can't tell what it does apart from the obvious. Jeji, can you use it?"
Jeji looks closely at the strange dagger. She once had the opportunity to read a rare little book on minerals that came from the sky instead of the earth. There was one called siccatite that mysteriously either attuned to release or absorb energy and thereafter burned or froze whatever touched it. This is obviously a magical dagger, but the wielder would suffer a touch of frostbite unless properly protected from its powers.
"Be very careful with this, Jeji. Let's keep moving to the Machine Cave, and figure out how you can wield it when we get there."
I agree lets get us some cover, I feel exposed out here on the valley floor.
Issuma leads the rest of the way through the side canyon and up to a cleft near the far end. The mouth of this dark cave is fifteen feet wide and twelve feet tall, with a number of closely spaced natural pillars on the right-hand side. Gray-green lichen hugs the entry’s arch and the unmistakable odor of burned oil drifts from within. Various odd scuff marks in the rocky soil and grass suggest others have passed this way before.
So you call this the machine cave. Why? What sort of machines are in here?
Perrik eyes the various tracks warily. "Do any of you know how old the marks are?"
The tall alien inspects the marks and replies in Androffan. "These are drag marks from the scrap and equipment scavenged by the androids of the Machine Caves. My hideout is beyond a narrow crack in the east wall of the entry cave. The main cave system to the west has been the domain of rogue robots since before I escaped and found this place. They seem to ignore me so long as I do not intrude on their caves."
"Rogue? Not aligned with the League?" Drahlneep asks aloud, wondering how much opposition the kobold's could face inside.
Issuma shakes her head. "The robots were built to serve the Androffans. As far as I know though, none of that race survive. Many robots still seek to follow the last commands given them though. Some of the Technic League have learned how to command robots they have discovered, it is true, but their control seems incomplete."
"Other robots, much like the androids, seem to have taken control of their own destiny. Perhaps rogue is the wrong word. This one seems to wish to create its own realm by slowly assembling it from the scavenged parts that its android followers bring it. It is a slow process, but time means little to the machines."
Perrik looks down at the tracery of circuit lines across his hand, pondering. I will have to be careful of this BOT.
"I'm so tired I don't care if it's safe. If there is ground overhead, I'm going."
Issuma slips through a narrow fissure between the cave columns on the right side. The kobolds easily follow the alien through a narrow passage that emerges into at low round cave with some sort of technological weapon on the floor in the center of the room. "Do not touch it," Issuma warns. "It is a trap."
She continues down the passage after walking a respectful distance around the device. The passage ends in a larger chamber with a ten-foot high ceiling and a pile of furs. There is a sealed container that Issuma opens to reveal jerky and dried mushrooms. A small pool collects water in a corner before draining away through a crack. Issuma offers her companions some food water and blanket to rest in the cool cave.
Very nice cave you have here! I am starting to like you more and more for a tall one. Let us rest until Sundown and then maybe go exploring a bit. See if we can't find some sign where those League mages ended up.
Perrik nods, keeping his thoughts to himself. I like her. She dies last, and without torture.
The kobolds sleep well in the warren-like cave. After a light breakfast of jerky, mushrooms, and water, They ponder next steps.
Drahlneep spends much of their time at rest in external silence. His thoughts are not as quiet. It feels at times as if he is standing in a massive cave surrounded by hundreds of kobolds who are all having loud conversations. Each keeps shouting louder and louder to be heard over the din.
"I will check the area while the rest of you plan our next moves." He stands and walks to the edge of the cave, checking to ensure the trap is still in place then looks for any sign of ambush or stalkers.
"I would like to spy on the rogues from a distance, without challenging them. Can that be done safely?"
"I would like to spy on the rogues from a distance, without challenging them. Can that be done safely?"
"I think that you may safely go as far as the first cave. It holds the scrap material brought back by the scavengers. There are guards further within though."
"Well, let's get going then. You're not going alone."
Issuma says that she needs to go forage for more food to replenish her cache and reminds the kobolds to be careful. The passage from the entrance cave opens into a much bigger chamber. A large pool of murky water occupies the center of this cavern. The muddy shores are surrounded by a hopeless tangle of metal, tubes, gears, and mechanical junk and debris. A broad passage exits the chamber to the west, its surfaces worked smooth and plated with gray metal. A long-dead body of a woman lies near the southern wall, partially buried by the rubble.
Lets be very careful about pissing off the machines. But maybe there is something of value information wise at least on the corpse. Kricker sneaks slowly toward the corpse, his eyes looking in every direction for either guards or traps.
"If we see anything moving, we run. Right? First, let's see if there's anything useful in the pile, and if there's anything on the thinskin's body. Can any of you tell if there's anything living in the pool?" Perrik follows his own advice, starting by cautiously approaching the pool and checking out the junk pile.
"After we search the room, we can try to make a place to hide here, so we can watch the BOTs come and go."
A harsh light comes from beyond the metal plated corridor that makes the kobolds a little uncomfortable. A quick inspection of the scrap finds that it barely deserves that classification. This is the detritus left after everything that is possibly useful has been removed. The corpse is probably a couple weeks old. It appears to be a human female. The only things not rotted away are a pouch of human coins, a short sword and a strange golden compass.
Drahlneep keeps his eyes on the corridor as they others examine the pool and body. He tries to find some cover to sit behind as he watches.
Perrik starts by seeing if the compass is magical with his usual cantrip.
There is plenty of trash piled around so that Drahlneep can easily make a blind. The compass is indeed magical.
The oracle calls on his patron powers for guidance, then casts a stronger divinatory spell and examines the compass.
The compass lid has an engraved X-shaped glyph with a cat-eye gemstone in a star setting above it. The inside of the lid has a painted portrait of a male human with hair on his chin and a pair of pistols. The device has a faint auras of evocation and divination. It can summon light with a thought. It will also point to locate ancient magic, but that power seems to have been altered by the remnants of the dead woman's soul that point the compass to something else within the Scar of the Spider.
Perrik explains the object's powers to his companions and they all take cover behind the blind Drahlneep crafts from the junk. They wait a few hours. Despite the clanking, distant whirs and booms, and intermittent hiss of steam, they see no one enter or leave the mysterious caves.
The noise is faint as if far off. Maybe a couple hundred yards, but it is sometimes difficult to tell distances through echoing cavers.
The compass points out of the cave and back toward the main canyon. There is no way to tell how distant the object that draws the needle may be from just one point.
Hmm we could estimate how close it is by going outside and moving across the point and see how much it moves. Or we could venture farther into this machine cave, but that may stir a hornets nest that we are living right next to, and that doesn't sound wise.
"What else is in here? We should explore the area, avoiding the TEK tunnel."
The kobolds weigh the several options before them: investigating the compass' mystery, risking the wrath of the robot lord in the Machine Caves, hunting down the escaped Technic League members, or even helping Issuma avenge herself on the Dark Ones of the Spider Scar.
"Let's hunt down the escaped thinskins. Our revenge first, then we can help Issuma with hers."