Purpose Creche emits a grinding, hissing sound.
He slams the door and barges back towards the group, skidding to a stop in front of them. "Construct obstacles to be removed come." He draws an arrow from his quiver and points towards the room.
Joli hops up to Purpose, giving him a quizzical, concerned look. "Methinks we ought pause a moment. Purpose, as Cedar asked, what's happening. Your speech is not as it normally is. I'd know you're alright before we borrow more trouble!"
His hand fidgets with the magnifying glass, twirling the glass circle around at its base.
"No reason to preserve when installations can rebuild. Dismantle and investigate at leisure. Restore if necessary. Otherwise remove access other devices possibilities conjuration transmutation come."
He stands near the center of the chamber and points the nocked arrow at the door.
Toby looks at the door, looks at purpose, looks at the door again, and shrugs. "If you say so, though I'm not entirely sure what you said." He moves into position to blast one of the constructs when the door is opened.
Silt gives Purpose an odd look before nodding that he's ready.
Joli shakes his head. "Do you mean you don't think you have to be careful, because the tower can repair you? I... Well maybe, but I'm made of flesh and bone."
He casts a spell and a ball of fire appears in his hand.
One of the mechanical creatures opens the door.
Yellow Clockwork
Blue Clockwork
Purpose
Cedar
Joli
Silt
Toby
Blue waits for yellow to go. Yellow aims a shoulder at Toby, sending a net flyig just over the rougarou's head, then steps out of the way. Blue then does the same, down to the same error in trajectory.
"Grrrrrrr! Stupid thing! Get this offa me!" Toby channels his rage into a torrent of water, as more drips from his body.
The net disrupts his aim, and the blast impacts against the doorframe.
Joli moves up to the door and throws a ball of fire at the automaton. "Have you heard the sound of fire roaring? The Rillsong murmured it to me last night."
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Cedar calls out to the Celestial plane of poodles! ”Mitzi and friends, aid us!”
Words cannot describe the cacophonous yapping as Mitzi appears with Scout and Gloria, who is having an exceptionally good hair day and she is feeling it.
They surround the blue construct and attack!
Purpose Creche drops his bow, then draws his sword and moves to free Toby. He growls continuously, the creaking of icy trees coupled with a canine's warning snarl.
The emerald blade easily slices through the rougarou's bonds.
All of the poodles hit! Purpose successfully frees Toby from his net.
Silt moves into the doorway and power attacks Yellow.
Rass-berries!
Silt 5' steps North and strikes out at Blue.
With the attack bonus added, Joli also hits!
The blue clockwork takes a beating from the ball of fire and the angry pack of poodles, but you see the machinery start to repair itself slightly. He slams Mitzi, who seems to be the leader of this outfit.
The yellow one rushes at Silt.
Yellow Clockwork
Blue Clockwork
Purpose
Cedar
Joli
Silt
Toby
Silt gets hit, but continues thinking tactically, striking at the damaged clockwork instead of the one who hit him. His powerful attack drops the mechanical creature.
Joli tosses another ball of fire at the remaining construction, but his efforts not to burn Mitzi’s pretty coat ruin his aim.
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"Yes obstacle delay fulfill function simple painless amoral reparation reconstruct remove any matters little."
Purpose Creche moves to the doorframe, splinter in hand. White light crackles across the relic, which discharges a blast of electricity and ozone stink.
Freed from the netting, Toby moves up for a better shot, firing another blast of water as droplets continue to fall from his pores.
Gloria makes a chew toy of a shin, while Purpose fries a few circuits, just in time for Toby to short out more with a powerful blast of water. The clockwork seems almost incapacitated, but a few mechanical parts start to knit back together, and the creature goes after Silt.
Purpose Creche feels the splinter in his hand go inert as he exhausts whatever power fuels the relic. A creaking snarl rises from his frame, and he dashes into the room and towards the construct. The emerald sword slashes across the machine's exposed gears.
It does not confirm, but it certainly hits, and drops the clockwork.
Assuming you search the workshop...
Beneath the table is a metallic chest of drawers that contains countless gears, cogs, springs, and other parts and pieces to any number of clockwork contraptions.
Nestled among the parts on the table is a single gemstone with a faint transmutation aura.
Silt is bruised and bleeding at less than half hitpoints; he would appreciate any healing!
Silt frowns in disappointment and pushes the gem to the side. Another spider rock.
Joli throws his last ball of fire at the least damaged droid. He then attends to his friends' wounds with his whistle stick. "Dangerous but fragile, it seems!"
Purpose Creche hastily sheathes his sword, steps over the abused constructs, and immediately begins searching the room's various containers; gears and parts. His impatient creaking cuts short when Silt's hand sends the gem skittering towards him. He curls thin fingers around the stone. He lifts it to his eyeband, softly exclaims "Recording. Spy's record," then deposits the gem in a pocket.
His creaking immediately resumes, punctuated by whispered drumbeats: "Where where where where where where where where where where."
He moves to and opens the northern door.
The faint coppery tang of blood wafts out of this room when the door is opened. A gleaming metal table covered in blood stands in the northeastern corner of the room. Just south of the table is a smaller table covered in surgical tools—some of them obviously used. A body lies in a butchered pile in the center of the room.
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Joli follow Purpose, worry on his face. "Friend, I know this place has great meaning for you, but you’re not yourself. Speak to me. Tell me my name." He puts a many-hued hand on the wyrwood’s hard shoulder, gently pulling to turn him around.
And then he sees the body and gasps.
"Oh, gross!" says Toby, moving forward to get a better look.
The body in the room has been stripped of most of its flesh, but the carcass is otherwise intact. A set of bloody and torn men’s clothes sits in a pile near the smaller table. A metal sheet attached to the eastern wall of this room is etched with anatomical diagrams and brief instructions of incision length and depth for various parts of the human body, though the delicate and precise cuts shown there do not match the large-scale butchery of the body you see in front of you.
"Where where where where your name is Joli no n—"
Purpose Creche notices the others' wide eyes and disgusted expressions, and it seems to pull him out of whatever state he was in. He briefly puts a hand on Joli's, then joins Cedar by the gruesome scene.
"Ioun Imperative. Mandatory surgical insertion of ioun stones? I believe implants were a practice."
He considers the drawings, then moves to the pile of clothes. With precise, delicate motions, he carefully lifts each article and lays it flat on the floor, hoping to learn anything about their former owner.
"Where where where where your name is Joli no n—"
Purpose Creche notices the others' wide eyes and disgusted expressions, and it seems to pull him out of whatever state he was in. He briefly puts a hand on Joli's, then joins Cedar by the gruesome scene."Ioun Imperative. Mandatory surgical insertion of ioun stones? I believe implants were a practice."
He considers the drawings, then moves to the pile of clothes. With precise, delicate motions, he carefully lifts each article and lays it flat on the floor, hoping to learn anything about their former owner.
[dice=Perception]1d20+11
Purpose discovers two bars of soul soap among the dead man's personal effects, but no clue to his identity.
Purpose Creche quietly and intentionally lays hands on the ruined clothes, anatomical drawings, and surgical instruments. He pushes through the psychic fog that surely fills the room, seeking clear points of sensation and perception.
Silt sighs sadly. We are too late.
He inspects the body.
After several minutes of individually contemplating the room's contents, Purpose Creche kneels by the body. He cradles the head in the crook of his right arm and splays the fingers of his left hand across the bloodied skull.
The smell of old fire inundates his senses. He shuts out the room around him, mind's eye questing through a snowfall of soft ash. Applying gentle pressure with each digit, he probes the physiological and arcane flow beneath the cadaver's skin.
Results:
Determine race and age - DC 10
Determine gender - DC 15
Determine alignment - DC 15 + creature’s HD*
Determine class - DC 20 + creature’s HD*
Determine level or HD - DC 25 + creature’s HD*
Rules:
You examine the skulls of intelligent creatures to analyze the subjects’ psychological attributes, since the shape of the brain influences the shape of the skull.
Check: Once per day, you can use your fingertips to examine the shape of a creature’s skull. Reading a creature’s skull requires 1 minute of concentration and scrutiny while
You physically manipulate the skull. This technique can be used on a willing, helpless, or paralyzed creature, or on decomposed remains (as long as the skull is intact or can be pieced together). This skill can’t be used on creatures without discernible skulls, such as constructs, elementals, oozes, or plants. After the minute is up, the GM attempts a secret Knowledge (arcana) check. The DC is typically modified by the subject’s Hit Dice. With a single check, You determine all the information whose DC you meet.
For instance, if you had a result of 22 when examining a creature with 2 HD, you would learn that creature’s race and age, gender, alignment, and class, but not its level or HD.
Purpose probes the late man's skull.
Purpose Creche cocks his head to this and that side as he parses occult information.
"Man. Human. 32 years old. Some knowledge and training. Possibly motivated by self-interest. Possibly prone to holding his desires over others'."
He gently places the man's head back on the floor; his hands and coat sleeve gleam. "Merely a precaution? Possibly something inside this man made him do this to himself," he exclaims, pointing to the soul soap.
He stands to examine the anatomical etchings again. He speaks to the wall. "I'm sorry I was rash. I thought this tower might be wear my kind were made. I thought those interests likely enough that other factors were unimportant." He pauses. "If that happens again. Please restrain me."
You get an emotional state of the last wielder of the surgical tools. It isn't upset or full of rage, but rather cold and calculating, even dutiful.
Purpose Creche continues studying the drawings. "The user lingers in the tools. The surgeon was calm. Efficient. Dutiful. Probably not the same person that made a wreck of that man."
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"Restrain you?" Cedar says with a laugh. "We so rarely see you fired up. I just might encourage you next time. I didn't know you had it in you." He gives Purpose a friendly clap on the shoulder. "Imagine what real emotions feel like."
"Male, thirty-two years of age, some training..." Cedar considers the details for a moment.
"Let's come back to bury him later."