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Thorgan considered unstrapping his axe, uncertain if the woman was truly a woman or not. It would be unlike the Decemvirate to send him anywhere where the greatest threat to his life was simply a case of the shakes.
Nonetheless, he popped out his wayfinder and checked to see if it pointed anywhere in particular.
The woman is not evil and doesn't appear to be carrying any magic; Temerius is pretty certain her threats are quite real but also that she is not a very skilled warrior.
"Oh, silly me," she says as she lowers her crossbow and Davo's spell takes effect on her. "You're not in the market for either greasy hair or ugly. My name is Quaylan."
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"Ah a pleasure to meet you Quaylan. You may call me Professor Davoliznakamushka Polyphonus. Yes, as Master Shepard has asked, what brings you to such a remote location? We were looking for one Professor Kramolag, but that task can wait."
The gnome gently makes the next inquiry. "Do you mind if we have a look at your ailment?" Davoliznakamuska cocks a bushy eyebrow at the woman.
"Nice to meet you, sort of. Strange place to live. What brings you here?"
"Well, I was Riddleport’s most eligible leper who then took care of her drunkard fifth husband, swore off the world, and came here to get away from nosey, noisy, nobodies like you!"
Nikolai bows low."Pleased to meet you, Quaylan. As my colleague notes, we are here to see Professor Kramolag; could you please conduct us to her?"
"I don't know the Professor personally, but there's an underground facility past that electrified trap door there."
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"I see. Is there, ah, anything you might be able to tell us about the others who have passed this way? Especially anybody who might look like a Pathfinder." The gnome rubs his nose. "You seem to have done a fine job in combating your leprosy. By chance were you cured... or was that a simple ploy just to ward off, as you said, nosey nobodies like ourselves."
While Davoliznakamushka waits for an answer, the pulls out a tool kit and applies himself to bypassing the defenses of the trap door.
"Pathfinders? Oh no, they were most certainly with the Aspis Consortium. And what does it matter if I don't have the cracks now? I had them. And it keeps people away to say it. Some people." Despite her friendly attitude, she still feel comfortable to take some jabs at you, apparently.
Davo easily disables the electrical trap on the door leading down though and Quaylan no longer cares to stop you.
A metal mechanism connects the bed frame to the wall or something beyond. This mechanism connects to a well-hidden switch within a knot on the bedpost. Flipping the switch causes the shack’s east wall to slide open. Battered timbers slide away smoothly, revealing a wide door of polished steel set within a sheer metal wall, entirely out-of-place compared to the rest of the surroundings.
A recessed lever to the right of the door controls a series of inset deadbolts that keep the door firmly locked in place. This doesn’t keep anyone who is outside from getting in so much as it thoroughly bars escape from inside. Lifting the lever unlocks the door and allows the door to slide freely. Luckily Davo has removed the trap which would have electrocuted anyone who touched the lever.
Beyond the door....
Banks of glowing quartz beams line the ceiling, illuminating a broad hall with a cold, clean glow. A row of broad steps gradually descends from the metal door on the western wall to the hall’s floor. A squat door and narrow passage lie to the east.
Currently, though, the hall is crammed with dozens of lab workers, all of whom seek nothing more than to escape the facility. Klaxons echo throughout the area. One human corpse, dressed in the same red lab coat as those around him, lies on the ground with vicious scorch marks running up his right arm. Only a moment after the door opens, the mob rushes to escape.
"Whoa! Hold it!" one woman at the front shouts as she throws out her arms. Another man chimes in, "Slow down! They're right, we're only going to hurt someone else!"
Once the crowd has calmed a bit, the first woman asks, "So who are you then? And are you going to let us pass? We've got to get out of this place."
The woman steps up, speaking for the crowd. "I am Klaria Vlock. We are merely research assistants hired by Kramolag to help her investigate varied aspects of the anatomy and biochemistry of Darklands natives. But now the blaring alarms down there indicate one or more serious accidents have triggered drastic security protocols." She goes on about some specifics concerning a roper, delving into a highly technical description of such creatures’ strand-like appendages and the species’ physiological similarities to garden snails.
Other researchers then start chiming in with numerous complaints about the cramped labs, the pace of work, and the bad living conditions.
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Thorgan grumbles a bit amid the chaos of the freed workers, but nonetheless seems content to have freed "slave labor" employed by the Aspis.
He juts a thumb at the lead woman.
"Figure out what she knows, th' rest o' us need t' see what hells've been unleashed below..."
Without a further thought, Thorgan applies a couple more magical effects to himself and trudges ahead.
Thorgan Status:
HP: 147/147
AC Normally: 22 (T 12 | FF 20)
(can add: +3 when judgement of AC is up, +6 vs crits)
Spells Remaining Today
4th - 3/4
3rd - 3/5
2nd - 6/6
1st - 6/6
Spells/Effects Active:
Greater Magic Weapon +3
Heroism (ext), Keen Edge (ext), Freedom Of Movement
Abilities:
Bane Left: 12/12
Judgement Left: 4/4
Judgement Surge Left: 1/1
Dispelling Attack: 1/1
Swaying Word: 1/1
Winged Boots: 3/3
Luckily you have the Scroll Seekers waiting in reserve for just such an occasion, so when you find a large group of researchers with many stories to tell, you decide to call in the Seekers and put them to work. With Janira and her team expertly conducting interviews and corroborating notes and stories to determine what has been going on in the laboratories, you are free to pass by the crown and head down yourselves.
Down the stairs, you enter the first room of the laboratory. Stairs descend into this room of pristine white tiles with shining steel doors on the south and east walls. Like a gallery display, a glass column stands near the center of the room, rising from floor to ceiling. Within, a nine-foot-tall mass of agitated violet mold writhes through a bubbling fluid.
When you enter the facility, violently ringing alarms fill the installation with a shrill, incessant racket, just as you were warned by the researchers above.
Chun Hei easily finds and smashes the alarm in this room, which quiets things down for a few seconds, although you can hear similar alarms blaring throughout the complex.
Nikolai determines that the southern door is save but as you open the door to this lab, a thick, foulsmelling, yellow vapor spills forth. The gas doesn’t hurt you, but it prevents you from seeing more than 5 feet into the room.
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Thorgan chuckles at the thought of a "Vind" clearing the room, an unusual reaction from the dwarf's usual convictions that he's been assigned to a suicide mission by the Decemvirate.
He gives Chun Hei an appreciative nod.
"Aye, maybe we jess give 't a moment. These clouds don't usually last long. Ah wouldn't be surprised t' see some sort o' beastie lurkin' within, likely 'aving broken out o' t's cage..."
Thorgan strains to hear over the din of the alarms for something breathing or skulking about.
Thorgan Status:
HP: 147/147
AC Normally: 22 (T 12 | FF 20)
(can add: +3 when judgement of AC is up, +6 vs crits)
Spells Remaining Today
4th - 3/4
3rd - 3/5
2nd - 5/6
1st - 6/6
Spells/Effects Active:
Greater Magic Weapon +3
Heroism (ext), Keen Edge (ext), Freedom Of Movement, Perceive Cues
Abilities:
Bane Left: 12/12
Judgement Left: 4/4
Judgement Surge Left: 1/1
Dispelling Attack: 1/1
Swaying Word: 1/1
Winged Boots: 3/3
The party moves cautiously through the room; the gas does not go away on its own but piece-by-piece you work out a picture of this room: Cylindrical tanks and vertical restraints stand between worktables covered in glassware and gleaming metal devices. Shattered beakers and colorful stains smear the tiled, ivory-white floor. A bay of complex but apparently damaged machinery stands at the room’s rear. Sparks flicker and fumes whine as they escape the mechanisms.
In the back of the room you find some kind of device throwing off arcs of electricity and leaking gas. The alarms are still going off in this room, making it difficult to hear.
Two creatures are trapped here: a roper and a horror the researchers were still struggling to identify. The second creature looks nearly free of its magical bonds and wimpers pathetically like a kitten.
As soon as you come near the creature, it messily tears at its shackled leg in order to tear itself free, continuing its piteous mewling even over the sound of tearing flesh.
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The gnomish professor does his best to shout, his voice high and squeaky. "The roper is intelligent, or they are normally. I might be able to disable the device to stop the electricity, and gas, but those creatures might hinder any such efforts."
Davoliznakamushka shouts out to the roper in the tounges of the Darklands (Aklo, Dwarven, Orc and Undercommon).
"Greetings... can you hear me? Do you understand? We are not hear to hurt you."
"Greetings... can you hear me? Do you understand? We are not hear to hurt you."
The roper hides in the northwest corner and shyly answers in Aklo, "Please help me, I must get out of here." It then begins straining against its bonds and says more forcefully, "You must get me out of here! And quick, before that monstrosity over there gets itself loose!"
Davo and Tamerius know that the other creature is an augnagar, a type of qlippoth . Lawful weapons are required to be fully effective against them in combat. Cold, poison, and mind-affecting effects do nothing to them and they resist acid, electricity, and fire. The immense augnagar is relatively slow-witted. As an outsider, it does not need to eat to survive, yet it remains ravenous and feeds on anything it can overpower. The augnagar prefers the taste of well-rotted flesh— particularly rotted demon flesh—and the horrific curse its bite imparts flavors its meals perfectly. Yet the augnagar’s favorite feast is of a much more cannibalistic type. These creatures find the flesh of their own kind to be the greatest delicacy. When an augnagar feeds upon enough of its own kind, it grows enormously bloated such that it can no longer fly, at which point it uses its clawed tails to tear its body apart in a frenzy of self-destruction. From this storm of torn fat and shredded viscera emerges a fully grown thulgant qlippoth—a creature similar in shape to an augnagar, yet much more intelligent and even more dangerous.
Just as Davo finishes listening to the rope, the qlippoth manages to tear its own flesh free of the forces that had been binding it. The freed creature now seeks for yet another meal...
+2 mountains/hills/jungle, +6 urban
(always in surprise)