GM Evil's Trial by Machine (Inactive)

Game Master Steven_Evil

Guntir, meanwhile, tries the central door for the minor alcove.

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Hey everyone! My laptop crashed over the weekend, so everything kind of piled up on here. I am in the process of getting everything caught up so expect everything to be updated in no more than four hours.

Huzzah!

The western room looks like it may have been a storage room. Rows of metal shelving fill this room. The shelves bear the look of long disuse but are surprisingly dust-free, considering the age of this place. Most of the shelves hold assorted pieces of machinery: wires, gears, and cases of bolts and screws, though nothing seems organized in any logical fashion.

The minor alcove actually is just an empty room. After a very intense inspection, it is discovered to some kind of non-functioning lift. The interior wall of the lift has a keypad similar to the ones found on the doors you've seen throughout the entire dungeon, numbered 0 through 9, next to a panel with an imprint of a five fingered hand with fingers splayed.
Are you exploring them both simultaneously or one at a time?

I think simultaneously

Any response whatsoever from my attempt to talk with Shechera and Meleren?

The two bandits shrug at Lissa.
Aye, I don't see why not. Seems we need to work together to get out of here anyway. We'll help look in that storage room. I don't feel right about that lift room...

Who's exploring which area? Those in the storage room give me perception checks, those in the lift area have to figure out a couple of things...

perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

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Lissa follows the bandits into the storage room, and assists with the search though the shelving. You never know what you're going to find.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

Papy follows the small group and tries his best to aid Lissa searching.

Perception (aid Lissa): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

"Hmph." Grax keeps a wary eye on Shechera and Meleren as he, too, searches the storeroom.

With a roll like that, may as well just assist! :P

Perception (Aid Lissa): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

"Need any help?"

because everyone's rolling to help :D

Had you found anything valuable asks Irudiel interested.

If not: 1d20 + 13 + 1d6 ⇒ (7) + 13 + (5) = 25

Kaya is excited to find a box containing numbered buttons, identical
to those on the control panels and the lift keypad. A sequence of numbers (9, 2, 7, 4, 6) is painted on the underside of the box lid, along with a short message in Goblin: “The commander will kill the next guard he catches using a note to remember the lift code. Just use this when needed.”

As she passes it around the group, she notices two more small boxes amidst the clutter that look out of place. When she opens the first one and pulls a small card shaped piece of metal out, Shechera and Meleren point.
Hey! I've seen those before! Those are like lockpicks, but they work on all these old locks in this Redoubt! Those will come in handy if we hope to get out of here!

The other box contains a small sphere, but Shechera and Meleren shrug.
Never seen that before in my life. Any of you know what it is?

Knowledge Engineering to identify it...

Further searching turns up nothing else useful in the room.

Now for the team at the lift. If only they had the right access code...

Guntir makes his way out of the room. "Stubid goblins wouldn't know security if it bit them in the face..."

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Graxzos mutters a few swear words in Dwarven, but then heads toward the folks in the lift chamber. "Ahoy! I'm not sure, but I think we might've found somethin' useful..." He brings the box with the sequence of numbers on it, and hopes that someone else can read goblin.

Knowledge engineering: 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (3) + 8 + (3) = 14

Lingustics to dephifer an unfamiliar language: 1d20 + 6 + 1d6 ⇒ (8) + 6 + (1) = 15

I've never learned goblin, but let me see if it's similar to something I've ever read. After taking a few minutes trying to understand anything. No, there's nothing I can understand. But there are numbers in order

Have we searched all the rooms?

Not yet...

Lissa looks across the way toward the eastern door. "Has anyone checked that room out yet?", she says as she works her way over to that door to look in.

"I've never taken the time to learn their language either," Kaya said with a shrug. She passed the sphere around as well, noting, "These two don't seem to know what it is - anyone else having any luck?"

Guntir joins Lissa at the other door

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Papy helps searching the other rooms. "What should we do with those numbers?" he says, both hands on his hips.

Graxzos frowns. "Well, there be numbers on the wall o' tha' circle-room...worth a shot?" With a shrug, he takes the box back to the room at the northern end and attempts to tap in the sequence.

Hey guys! Sorry for the delay on my end. Had some real life stuff get in the way, but we should be good now. I aim for a once a day post rate, and should be running with that from here on out. (Finally finished training for my new job, it was fairly low-time consuming until the last few days) Update will be coming soon.

Opening the door to the east reveals a very shiny, clean room. Two shiny metal tables or beds stand across from one another in the center of this oval room, with metal restraints positioned at the head, foot, and middle of each table. Metal racks along the north and south walls hold assorted sharp-looking implements. A rounded hutch protrudes from the eastern wall.

The outside of the hutch has another hand shaped display beside the door, just like the lift room.

Entering the numbers into the keypad next to the lift room causes the hand shaped display next to the door to flash red three times, and then stop. Nothing else happens.

Graxzos looks at the others dubiously. "...'m I gonna haveta be the one t'touch tha'?" He shrugs. "Seems like we be gettin' closer, though!"

If no one else does, he will (once the others are present) place his hand on the display and enter the numbers again.

Papy scratches his head when he's confronted with the red lights.

"Whaddya think it means? Is okay? Or not?"

When Graxos re-enters the numbers with his hand on the display, the same red lights flash, and still nothing happens. It's out of the corner of his eye that Graxos spots one of the gloves worn by the exploding skeletons, and he notices that it's roughly the same size as the hand on the display...

"Hmmmmmmm...mebbe that be some kind o' magic glove?" Graxzos shrugs, heads over to the skeleton, and yanks off the glove. He examines it carefully to make sure it seems safe to wear.

Perception (Take 10): 10 + 2 = 12

Assuming it doesn't seem dangerous, he shrugs and pulls it onto his own hand, turning to the others. "C'n anyone see whe'er this be magic o' some kind? If not, I'm game t'try it on the panel thing..."

Lissa enters the room with a certain feeling of awe and trepidation. "What was this used for?" she asks aloud as she slowly enters the room to look around.

After a brief inspection, she returns to the center chamber, and looks at Graxzos's attempts with the glove. "There's another place in here that that could work on as well. Let's see how that reacts, and I'll try the one in here."

Irudiel follows Lissa into the second room. What's here, anything interesting?

Perception: 1d20 + 13 + 1d6 ⇒ (3) + 13 + (5) = 21 +1 for traps

Guntir sticks close to Graxzos, or to anyone opening a door

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Putting the glove on, touching the display, and entering the code works! Graxos, and anyone near him, can hear the hum of energy as the lift activates!

Are you opening the hutch first, or taking the lift?

Graxzos eyes the machines warily. "Don' know if tha' be a good thing or not..." Stripping the glove off, he tosses it to Lissa. "'Ere, try it on tha'...pretty sure this thing be supposed t'move, so we should prob'ly check out everything else 'ere first."

Catching the thrown gauntlet, Lissa slides it on. "Yeah, That's probably a good idea. I think I have something that need this too." And with that, she slips back into the 'clinic' and over to the hutch to activate it.

You're right Graxos. Let's check all first

Papy nods profusely at Graxzos.

"Indeed, I'd prefer to use stairs! Let's check all the rooms first, though. Maybe we'll find one." He follows the other dwarf and tries to open the door before remembering to take his time beforehand and looks for any traps on the door.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22

Distracted by all of their shiny new finds, Kaya just followed along, keeping an eye out for traps - that was, after all, the last thing she'd heard.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Guntir can be heard muttering indistinctly as he stacks up at the door with the others

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Papy doesn;t find anything that might be construed as a trap,

The hutch opens with a faint hiss, inside are some neatly stacked items. Inside the hutch are three vials of glowing blue liquid—and a strange wand-like technological device.

Graxzos eyes the vials and the wand. "Innerestin'. Anyone got any idea wha' those things might do?"

"No, but if they were this neatly, they have to be of some value," Lissa says slowly, as she holds one of the vials up to the light. "Maybe, it's some kind of weird ancient potion. If push comes to shove, we can take them back to the Grand Lodge, where someone has to have seen them before. However, can someone check these to see if they're magical? That's always a good first step in identifying weird sit in places like this." And with that, she holds one of the vials out for inspection.

Any Engineers?

Guntir shakes his head and looks at the antler-wearing elf. He leans on his longhammer and grumbles under his breath, clearly wanting to be on with the exploration.

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The only item of note then is the elevator... ready for that?

There is a brief but intense shuddering!

Behind you, the doorway you all arrived trough is replaced by a wall of solid metal.

Papy jumps in the air, startled because of the sudden appearance of the wall.

"What is this sorcery?"

Ready :)

Punching the code into the wall and using the glove sees the lift brought to life.

You all gather onto the platform within and press the button/

With a lurch, this circular chamber begins to rise, but it jolts to a halt after a dozen seconds or so. A flashing red light appears next to the door-opening panel, accompanied by a faint buzzing sound.

A fair toned but emotionally vacant female voice comes from nowhere and states - first in Goblin and then in Common - “Negligible atmosphere detected. Do you wish to proceed? Push open button twice for yes.”

Papy shrugs and looks at his companions before looking for a "yes" button.

Button? Like on shirts and coats?

Perception, take 10: 10 + 8 = 18

Papy notes that on the wall there certainly is a button, and as it is slowly flashing like a warmly lit ruby, it is probably that one...

Kaya squinted at the ceiling, unhappy that there was no discernible owner for the voice. The first language it spoke in was one unknown to her, but the second was common. If nothing else, that meant that whoever set this mess up had intended it for more than just... whatever that first language had been.

"Let's get going, shall we?" she suggests, waiting for Papy to mash the button.

There was plenty going on that she didn't really understand as it was - for one thing, the vials and the strange... stick. For another, the unexpected people.

They'd already decided that something about the test had gone sideways, but seeing the others' reactions, she understood that it wasn't exactly something that anyone was surprised by. The kitsune suppressed a sigh, thinking about the mischief she'd landed herself in.

We can't go back, so our only option is press it and deal with the problems as they came says Irudiel as he mentally check his belongings, trying to find something that can hel with the lack of atmosphere.