Moving through to the next room ...
The northern wall of this otherwise empty metal room is a tangle of what look to have once been strange cages of some sort. Snarled amid the metal ribs of these cages are ribs of a more organic nature—the ancient bones of some sort of alien creature.
Smaller mounds of rubble lie against the opposite, southern wall.
There are doors on the eastern and southern sides of the room. The southern doors are blocked by the small piles of rubble.
Kayla is in her element now - ancient rooms full of interesting things! She scans the room for traps and then checks each door, finally searching the cages.
Disappointed at the lack of spoils for the robot, but scooping up the nets for further investigation ( ), Preli follows Kayla.
He is fascinated by the bones in the new room and gives the whole area the once over
"Ozymandias, give me a hand," Adrien says, ducking into the alcoves behind Kayla and Preli. "We might find something useful down here, you know. Even if there's nothing relating to Khonnir's disappearance... more of those constructs might be worth studying, if nothing else." Adrien picks around at the ground behind Kayla and Preli, but it's clear he usually relies on his automaton for such things. "Just... think of what we might learn! We might be able to figure out what these things are, and what makes these ruins... or even what you are, where you came from."
"I am unsure we will find anything of value, Adrien," the hulking robot says, gently squeezing its frame in behind him. "Too many unknowns are present, accurate data canno-t-t-t-t be collected; any findings will be inconclusive." Still, the faint blue light of Ozymandias's optical scanners colors the room as he looks over the area himself.
Darian moves smoothly into the room alongside OZ and Preli.
Rooting around in the area to the south of the room, before the door, Thum finds a number of strange looking items, apparently tools of some kind. They include: a long-handled tool, apparently made of glaucite, that resembles a blacksmith’s tongs; a strange mechanism that looks like a complex combination of a knife, a fork and a key, with needles and loops of wire attached to a black handle; and a couple of silverdisks. Unlike "normal" silverdisks, however, these seem to shimmer slightly, emitting their own internal light as their position changes in the holder's hand.
The bones on the northern side are difficult to discern, but as far as you can tell without a closer look, the creatures seem to have had six legs, but weren't insectoid in nature, rather they were more similar to very large rodents.
Neither set of doors is trapped, but the southern doors are prised stubbornly shut.
Arkady moves into the room, eyeing off the set of bones warily. "Never have I seen a creature as looked like that when it were alive. What manner of beast inhabited here?"
"Alrighty, then - to the east it is!" Kayla says, and she opens the doors once the group is ready. Once through, she peers at the next space, doing her usual search for anything NKR (not kwite right...) before allowing the group in.
Beyond the eastern door is another small chamber, with a further door on its eastern side.
Two strange machines sit to the north and south against the walls here, their faces appear similar to coils of metal tubes with several nozzle-like protrusions pointing into the room itself.
While waiting for Kayla to check out the room ahead, Thüm kicks rubble aside from the first southern door, then shouts excitedly. "More treasures from under hollow hill!" He hunkers down and clears stones away from the tools and disks. "What do you scavengers think of these?" he asks, lifting one of the glowing disks so Darien and Adrien and Prelli can see it.
"Reminiscent of a glowing magical item. Perhaps it has some sort of power," says Darian.
Kayla doesn't like the look of these machines. She calls everyone into the larger room and has them prepare for a possible fight, then she will quickly step into and then out of the next room...
Arkady moves closer to the little room and unsheathes the longsword from its scabbard, preparing himself for whatever Kayla fears may spring out at them.
Kayla doesn't like the look of these machines. She calls everyone into the larger room and has them prepare for a possible fight, then she will quickly step into and then out of the next room...
Nothing happens when Kayla moves back and forth. The constructs seem to be dormant.
With that stunt failing to activate the constructs, Kayla then moves into the room and checks the mechanical creatures to see if they are disabled, and if not to see if she can disable them herself...
They're not active. She can't disable them as such, nor can she break into them, but even a fair amount of prodding doesn't bring them to life.
Preli scuffles about reloading his pistol for a momment then follows Kayla, holding the torch high.
Satisfied the constructs are properly lifeless (at least for now,) Kayla proceeds to the next set of doors, examines them for traps or other surprises, and then opens them for a peek at what lies beyond...
There are no traps. Beyond the grey metal door is a tunnel, apparently made of sandstone.
"All clear." she tells the group. "Let's keep going - same as before!" Kayla continues up the tunnel, keeping to shadows and stepping silently as she advances.
Darian nods and falls into step.
Arkady falls into line as well, his longsword still drawn and buckler in place on his other arm, ready to defend himself and his companions.
The tunnel seems to open onto a vast, sand filled cavern.
As she nears the other mouth of the tunnel, Kayla notices what seems to be a large animal skull, embedded into the wall of the cavern. Within the skull, something is moving, very very slowly. Something covered in a kind of slime, that subtly reflects the light of the Ioun stone that slowly spins around Thum.
Preli follows Kayla still, gun ready and twitching at everything that catches Preli's eye.
"Anything to see up there Kayla? Something tangible I can off!"
Kayla stops suddenly and backs up slowly, motioning silently for the others to stop where they are. She keeps her eyes on the slowly moving thing inside the skull, ready for a sudden attack...
When she reaches the rest of the group, she will describe to them what she saw.
"Well, that's certainly odd," Adrien says, breaking his silence. He'd been paying more attention to the ruins than the others, letting Ozymandias pull guard duty. "We don't really have much of a choice in pressing on, though." Adrien wracks his brain, trying to think if he knows anything about a creature by that description even though he's fairly certain his area of expertise probably won't cut it.
"The creature seems adapted to surviving in the remains of those it has killed and eaten, using the skeletal structure as its own defense," says Darian in response so Adrien's comment about it being 'odd.' As usual he does not realize that Adrien's comment was not one designed to elicit a reply.
"Kayla, is there a way to avoid its attention entirely? Or are we destined for a fight with the oozey creature?"
"I don't know what it is, but let me see if I can get past it and open the doors at least. Wait here a minute..." Kayla says. She then drops into a half-crouch, walking lightly on the balls of her feet and moving in a steady gliding motion against the wall farthest from the skull and worm-thing.
Preli covers the skull with his gun as Kayla squeezes past, ready to shoot if the thing becomes aggressive.
Kayla somehow manages to avoid the attentions of whatever is hiding in the skull.
There's no door at the other side of the tunnel; the cave opens out into a vast area, deep in sand. At first glance, this cold cavern presents a strange and disconcerting vista—that of a desert valley under a starless, night sky. A stretch of sand covers the ground, a vista broken here and there by bits of strange, spiky shells or contorted, dead fronds that look like branches.
Kayla takes a step into the vast sandy area, then stops and gasps! How could such a large area be under the ground!! She looks back and motions for the others to follow, watching the skull-creature and standing ready to go back and help if necessary.
Darian attempts to move quietly through the hallway.
Darian also makes it through to join Kayla, once more without incident.
Despite feeling it was going to be a bad idea, Adrien motioned for Ozymandias to take the lead as they attempted to sneak past the strange creature inside the skull. "I have a bad feeling about this..." he mutters, just loud enough for the others to hear.
Preli stays where he is, gun pointed at the creature, as the other adventurers squeeze past. Not even hoping that they won't be attacked.
Arkady begins to sidle slowly past the creature hiding in the skull, his sword still drawn and ready should he not be as silent as he would like to be.
As the remainder of the party attempt to creep past the still unidentified threat, it suddenly responds to their movements. Purple tentacles emerge from the holes in the bone structure, tracing whirled patterns in the surrounding sand - and revealing the "skull" to be in fact the carapace of some strange and alien aberration.
Kayla moves back past Darian to attack the animated creature with her short sword, using her colleagues as a distraction to move closer...