Maxim raluctantly leans in on the door pushing and the door finally gives in.
On closer inspection you can see that somthing has grown throughout the walls and also into the door that held it shut. Thousands of thin fibres that are now ripped off.
Except for the carpet of pale white mold covering everything, this room appears to have been untouched for millennia. Five heavily padded chairs sit against the western and southern walls. A bed of mushrooms grows on a large, four-foot-high, L-shaped desk across from the main entrance, next to a small cabinet. Double doors lead outside to the south, and another door leads north.
Humanoids: Is that fungal growth safe?
You recognize the growings as the filaments of a writher swarm. A predatorous mold that feeds on all kinds of organic material. And that, if left alone long enough grows through whole buildings with it's root like filaments allowing it to sense what happens in the building.
Humanoids: The fungus is indeed dangerous. Burn it.
"Can't we just avoid it altogether? It's not going to attack us, right? I vote we leave it for the Kish if they want to come deal with it later." Maxim approaches the north door, the only other obvious exit from the room, and attempts to open it.
The door to the north suffers the same problem as the entrance door to the building. It doesn't open like it should, but is held close by the white filaments.
Maxim waits for Gorm to put his shoulder into the door when he finishes punishing the furniture.
This spacious room is a wide swath of small, gray hillocks covering what might have once been a collection of desks and chairs. Two doors exit the room to the south. There is a doorway to a smaller room to the northwest, and a short hallway leads east past two other doors.
Though the room to the northwest room is as covered in mold as the rest of the building, the smell here is somehow even worse. A foul, rotting odor wafts from what appears to be an open unpowered refrigeration unit. Rotting cabinets, some whose doors have long ago fallen off, hang on the walls, and parts of a small, round table peek out from under a mound of mold.
"No server room here," Maxim observes through the sleeve of his coat. "Every other location we've ever checked, the goods are at the end. I'm gonna skip the rest of these side rooms and go to the end of the hallway."
Unless blocked, Maxim goes to the door to C7 and attempts to open it.
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"Ugh, by the great Jagpanzer, I've not smelled anything this bad since the night I ate the Frangozian demon chili I meant to throw out. Hoo-rah!"
Gorn seals up his Commander armor and makes sure his force field is at maximum, in case the smell tries to punch him back.
Angered and anxious that he found nothing shiny in the desks before, and not wanting to take more time than needed, he takes his chair leg and starts smashing through the collection of desks.
"With all these mushrooms there's gotta be some pasta here somewhere, amirite?"
Once they have been thoroughly "searched" he'll move to the Northwest room and search that, confident that his ability to survive in vacuum will protect even from the Evil Uncleaned Fridge.
The door has the same issue as all, but the door gives up faster than Gorn needs to "search" the other room.
This room contains three tables, and while mold has crept up onto most of the them, one of the tables has a large untouched patch about two feet in diameter. A roughly square hunk of metal, plastic, and crystal sits in the center of the open space, its sides covered with alien symbols and bits of circuitry. The filaments of mold covering the walls seem to be moving ever so slightly, as if a faint draft were blowing, though the air is still. Another door leads out to the south.
Careful not to come into contact with any of the mold, Maxim attempts to determine the purpose of the device in the center of the space.
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"Sup?"Gorn asks as he saunters into the room.
"Whazat? Some kinda mold-killing thing? I wanna see!" He exclaims as he lays eyes on the only non-mold covered area in the place.
He sort-of gently pushes a quantity of the adjacent mold onto.the crystal patch with his big stick.
He chuckles in anticipation.
Eric watches trepidatiously.
Humanoids: It may be better to burn the fungal infestation out. I have incendiaries.
"Can you wait to burn the building down until after we leave it? Look, I can't tell by looking at it what this device does, but before we touch anything and trigger some security protocol that will try to kill us, let's have a look into the next room there."
Maxim attempts to open the door to C8.
Maxim looks at the crystal thing from a - as he estimates - safe distance. It's fascinating that the thing is functioning, and it seems to be energized. What for is hard to tell. But Gorn comes to aid. As he pushes the thing with a stick the energy discharges in an electric arc through gorm and into the ground. The mold shortly cramps as the electricity flows through the building too.
From the effect and the now dead device Maxim can deduct, that it was a prototype for powering an electrical device from magic.
After the usual fight with the door, Maxim enters the next room. The walls, ceiling, and floor of this room are coated with a thick layer of mold, with thousands of pale white filaments poking out like tiny fingers. However, the two rectangular objects in the center of the room are free of mold. The crystalline devices are marked with sharp-edged designs,and each has a dark computer console built into one side. But the computers are not running.
Maxim just shakes his head when Gorm gets blown up by the device.
"Eric, do you have any way to power these babies up? This has to be what we're looking for."
Human Maxim Petrovich: I have batteries. Perhaps we can juryrig them into the device as a power source...
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Gorn dives as fast as he can for the floor, and manages to avoid the worst of the electro-SHOCK.
"Ouch," he grunts, getting up and evaluating the worst of the damage.
"That shock traveled through -wood-. Do you guys realize how much charge that thing had to have to do that? That...that's not what normal electricity does."
He shakes his head to clear his vision and wanders over to the next room.
"You don't think we can just get their crystaline bases flowing again, eh? They obviously still have juice in'em."
EH-RK mcguyvers a power supply for the servers and connects them to it. Which leads to the typical noise of cooling fans starting and lights blinking. After half a minute the consoles seem ready. With some welcome/login screen.
Maxim gives the android a gentle pat on the pack for good work so far. "Eric, you're the best with these, and it seems like we don't have much time. Can you crack this nut? I will assist."
Eric looks directly at Maxim, something he normally does not do when speaking Human Maxim Petrovich: Of course.
EH-RK gets past the login. But to access the maintenance documentation is further complicated. There is a long list of lock types given, and further authentification is requested to view the matching document.
"We're looking for the Series XLT-88 digital lock," Maxim recalls as he scans the list over EH-RK's shoulder.
Human Maxim Petrovich: Indeed. Eric says, his eyes never leaving the screen
"Just gimme a fair warning to stay away from you when you try." Imagine states giving Gorn an annoyed look.
Computer: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (20) + 16 = 36
EH-RK easily tricks the computer into reveling its secrets. The first secret is, that a failed attempt would have triggered a shock grid to stun all in the room as a warning. A second failed attempt would have sent serious shocks through all still trying. Which would have been fatal. Maybe not to the people, but for sure for the batteries.
And of course he locates the manual of the XLT-88 Digital Lock which lists a combination of 12 keys that have to be pressed at once to get into a mode where you enter a 42 letter passcode to reset the lock and set a new keycode. This also unlocks the lock.
After taking notes, or photographic copies of the information, you notice that the density of fungus is reduced all over the room but the exit. There the high concentration of writhering, at least foot long filaments lie in wait for you.
Maxim snaps his fingers. "Easy money - great work, Eric! Now, you mentioned incendiaries..."
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Maxim begins charging Supernova.
Photon attuned x1.
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"Ugh." Imagine rolls her eyes.
"You got that, boys?"
Human Gorn Steelbreaker: Incendiary devices are a great solution to fungal infestation.
Eric says as he pulls a grenade from his belt and tosses it at the fungal infestation