"Well now, more scavengers? Or did our mysterious friend bring backup with her?" "It's no use being stealthy up there. If you don't want to be gnomicide victims I suggest you come out and aid us with these beasts... or come out with your paws empty and outstretched bare minimum. If not, the gnome can have his way with you once he catches you."
Not waiting to see if the mystery nose complies, Zael drops his crossbow and draws his Zodiac blade.
Zael, the nose looks scared and retreats back inside after one final sniff.
"Keep up the fight Doric! We'll wheel back on the others after we're done with these!"
Krah pivots around the tiger-dog thing to setup for a potential flank and then thrusts his blade towards the animal's chest.
Doric follows suit and sidesteps around the dog closest to him. He then spins and lunges with the longsword.
Stabbed, the mutt-kitty limps awkwardly a few feet before getting wholly eviscerated by Doric's follow through.
Tess moves forward to slam the killing end of her spear on the creature, but the attack seems off.
The last thylacine routes, scurrying round the spiral stairs to the south.
"Where do you think you're going!?
------------------------------------------------------------------
"Where'd you see someone Zael?"
Krah's voices scratches and squeals as the otherwordly language leave his lips. His rage bubbling to his surface.
The flea-ridden animals subdued, you are now free to take a look around. It's darker here than on other levels, but for most of you that isn't an issue. The more you think about it, the more obvious it appears these beasts were sentries. A low humming nearby gives the entire deck a vibration detectable simply by standing in contact with the floor. The familiar panels on the doors indicate brown access cards required for all you can see.
Krah stomps around the room, fuming, looking from wall panel to wall panel.
"Zael! We need one of those cards of yours! A brown one."
"What, did you forget to bring yours?" Zael shakes his head and tosses the card to Krah as he retrieves his crossbow and proceeds to reload it. "I guess they must be hostile. Good to know." "When we were fighting I saw a rat-like nose pop out of the northern door. Apparently our friend has help, possibly from more ratfolk if Sanvil's notes are to be believed. Given it didn't come out when warned, I advise we treat them as hostiles." The hand crossbow reloaded, Zael nods that he is ready to proceed.
Androffan writing on the wall indicates this chamber is called a "Loading Dock". The walls are battered and dented, and flickering lights on the ceiling give the room a phantasmagoric cast. A mound of rubble sits heaped to the north, while numerous strange containers lie in haphazard piles throughout the chamber. A pair of desks with chairs are placed to the south.
More importantly however, is the 3 crossbows trained on you from ratfolk behind the crates, and a large half-orc wielding pieces of oddly sliced jagged machinery bloodied by battle. "Intruders! They stole the device!" he snarls.
Initiative::::
Krah doesn't have time to duck behind the corner as the volley of bolts is released...
...but they were expecting a larger and tumorless opponent, and the attacks go high.
"Useless rodents! RAaaaa!!!!" the half-orc charges with what looks to be a very heavy section of the ceiling paneling...
..and the heavy metal hits the wall hard with a loud *clang*.
You battle your way through ratfolk and half-orcs. All of them seem simply adorned in tech, as if they were giving it a second chance at the world. Defeated, none are at all cooperative, and elect suicide if pressed. Searching the northern few chambers reveals the rooms to have been a literal port for the strange vessel, with goods coming in and going out. The scrappers have picked clean most everything, save a solidly built safe.
From there, you would most certainly enter the most wonderful room yet experienced in this craft of another time. Once again is carries a convenient labelling: "Navigation Control Center".
A balcony runs around the edges of this domed chamber, the curved walls of which are covered in blinking lights and unidentifible machinery. A few steps lead down from this balcony in the middle of the room. Just north of these steps sits a large machine with a pink glass tabletop-like surface above which flat semitransparent images of some sort. The balcony is wider on the south side of the stairs, where a strange statue stands that seems to have been cobbled together from broken machines into the shape of an upraised claw or talon. A mound of junk lies in a heap before the claw, while two smoking braziers burn softly to each side. To the east looms a pair of immense black metal doors framed by a rotating arch of pulsing red lights.
Perhaps more of immediate note is the strange gargoyle, seemingly engaged in prayer.
Tess scan her mind, looking for answer to what she was looking at. If she what it was, she could figure out a weakness. Hopefully, it would be more cooperative.
Tess you recall how gargoyles are highly resistant to magical attacks but are not that agile.
This particular specimen has covered himself in scrap metal, almost resembling a drone. However, as you watch it silently pray, you note the metal bits aren't so much for armor as they are for decoration.
"If it tries to kill us, mundane attacks will do just as good. Magics won't be effective however on this bastard," she takes prepares her spear, "Gargoyle, what are doing here?"
It seems a bit irritated at the interruption and turns to you with glowing white eyes. It opens its jaw and points down its mouth hole, revealing that most of the organs used for talking have been systematically, if not surgically, removed.
"Are you hurt? What did that to you?"
The creature slowly points at itself, enigmatically. Surely it couldn't be saying it was self-inflicted? As you enter the navigation chamber, the gargoyle becomes more and more agitated. It seems reluctant to allow you to get too close to the doors leading east.
Tess seems to grimace, "We wont cause you any harm, we'll leave when we get what we came for. That is all, just gonna keep on moving and just leave you alone."
She whispers, "I got nothin'."
It edges toward you, as the lights flicker its body seems to turn statuesque with each pop of darkness...
Krah starts drooling and snarling, his breathing reminscent of a child with asthma "Ehh...urgh...kill it!"
Doric draws his blade in the moment of tension.
"Alright, you don't want to play nice. Well then, we can always play rough, she says gearing up for a fight. She quickly casts out a divine radiance over the party (Bless) and gets ready to fight.
Tess, after blessing the party rushes forward an tries to poke a few holes in the gargoyle.
With no other solution in mind you slay the last guardian, who lets out a silent death cry. The statue of the unknown god seems to look down on you neutrally as you pass the door into the 'Reactor Core'.
Panels of blinking lights and machinery line the walls of this chamber, but the true spectacle here is the massive machine of metal that looms against the far wall on a ten-foot-high platform. Two immense cylinders of pulsing violet light throb at the machine’s core, while above a thinner cylinder extends through the ceiling. Ladders to the north and south provide access to the machine’s platform, while at the center, a smaller machine with several metal spikes protruding from its heart
extends from the larger one. The entire room vibrates with a roaring thunder, and the air feels strangely alive, almost as if it were vibrating as well.
There, beneath another flying robot patrolling the area sits a purple-haired woman with odd tatoos. She seems to be engaged in some kind of technological work.
"So we finally get to meet you. The b~@$* in charge here. You wouldn't happen to like to tell us what you doin' here and what is going on," Tess says firmly. She spits out some blood from a bit lip from the fight with gargoyle.
The woman has no emotion on her face as she looks up to meet your gaze "God's work." she states simply.
"Which," Tess returns the glare, "You ain't wearin' the yellow and leathers, you aren't some glistening bastion of creativity and love, you ain't some grumpy old man, a greedy bastard, you ain't some law abiding devil, nor are you some one whom seems to worship some inheritor to some dead bastard."
"Who are you, and what is this place?"
She straightens and comes slightly nearer, it is difficult to hear over the reactor "Its odd to me, that you flesh-lings seek to simply imitate your gods...and you think that keeps you connected. Hellion has come to show us all a new order, a new way of being. Life will only ever feed on life...that is not sustainable." she gives an awkward bow "I am Meyanda, and I am taking back this ancient torch in the name of divinity."
"Venerate, however some do try. Well Meyanda, who the heck is Hellion and why does he want this torch? Are you saying this thing is the torch," it clicks in her head, somewhat everything coming into place, "Are you part of the Technic League?"
"No...the League is neither an ally nor welcome in our affairs. As to your first inquiry, perhaps an analogy can help you understand? I know all this must be difficult for you. An animal must eat to survive, correct? So too does Hellion need...sustenance. This room was designed for just that purpose."
"So this is why the Torch has been off, you are behind it to feed whatever Hellion is. What is this place, no one on this world can make such a thing from what I have seen?" she states with a bit of a growl, "Why were you working with the RopeFists?"
"They are keeping something safe for us. We will not need them much longer..." apparently she doesn't know about what you found in the warehouse.
At this point Tess smiles, then goes into a laugh, "You don't know do you, you don't know. You have to be serious," she grips her spear with a grin, "The Ropefist's are pretty much no more. We got your little device or whatever the Hell it."
Showing no emotion she looks thoughtfully between you and the display monitors around the room "Yes, but thankfully you did nothing to hinder my work here. I assume you locked the device up in some other location. That is just as well. I will simply remove you from the equation and at last be done here." she draws a gnarly looking firearm that seems to almost literally be on fire.
A battle ensues that taxes your abilities to their max, but between you and the party you seem to be getting the best of her. As her body begins to fall apart it becomes obvious she is an android, and in a desperate act she raises her firearm against the reactor core. Luckily Zael recognizes this threat and puts himself in the line of fire to keep the core from going critical; badly wounded he stays down the rest of the fight. Doric and Krah manage to corner her and at last from behind their front line you have a chance to either end it or spare her with the last blow. Which will it be?
From the fighting, Tessara receives a nasty head wound, blood staining the yellows of her shirt and leather coat. She keeps strong as Zael takes a hit, granting him a healing spell she channels with a touch from her hand. She was feeling woozy as she did, there was a bad wound in the side from a her strange firearm, but she bit her lip and ignored it.
She quickly joined the fight, pushing herself to the limit. Alas, an opening in her defense. With a mighty thrust, the half-orc woman lunges out and impales the android in the stomach, bringing her down to the ground.
"All this damn it. Could've, could have just surrendered. What is that device we took, why do you need it. tell us the truth?" she says as she hold the spear down into the android on the floor, strange fluids pooling by her feet.
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Dying, the purple haired android lets out "...to free god." and her eyes look over one last time to the monitors as her animatronics fail.
Zael, steadied by the healing spell, begins deciphering the information on the display and manages to piece together something. He explains how the energy from this reactor was being transmitted to Scrapwall (a known location northwest of Torch). The transmission was getting blocked by the fact that all this was underground, and so she needed a power relay (the device in the warehouse) set up in Torch to help broadcast. What that has to do with freeing a god he has no idea.
Zael also finds a failsafe switch to turn the reactor back to its previous state. Doing so powers down the entire vessel, the lights go out, the elevator stops working, the simulation of the alien world dies, and the panels dim. Yet, Torch gets back its brilliant purple flame responsible for its economy.
Meanwhile, Krah begins making an enjoyable and fashionable hat.
"To free god..." Tessara says quizzicaly. She pulls her spar out and kneels down to the fallen android, she closes the machines eyes before she stands back up, "Scrapwall. Was that where her god was? She did all this to do such."
She picks the body of the dead android up on her shoulder as they begin to leave and nodding for them to pick up her firearm, "Deserves as much I guess. At least proper burial this, machine. If you see anything around that is useful grab it. We're done here."
You receive your promised reward of 4000 gp for relighting the Torch, and for a few weeks you have the run of the town. But despite Meyanda's death, the orc and ratfolk thugs continue to plague the trade routes. Soon their gang's name is well known and cursed by all: the Lords of Rust.