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Ladim stares at Khonnir, nodding in agreement. Oh, great. Next thing he'll say is she's also twice as strong as me in arcane powers as well. "Hm. Khonnir. Do you reckon we can we can, you know, erase Meyanda's memory? It'd be banging if we can do it, a bit of a bloody waste otherwise. Then again, we got a giant explosion to worry about first and foremost, enemy casualties be damned." Ladim puts his hand on his chin, staring back at the wizard for an answer. It's never easy, is it. And here I thought adventuring was, go in a crypt, kill some skeletons, take money, rinse and repeat. Now we got Torch to worry about, and moral dilemmas. Aw, hell. I need a rollie. Sitting down on the ground, Ladim takes a pinch of tobacco, rolls it in a tube, producing a small flame from the end of his finger. Looking around in the room, realizing the fact that it's a medical substation, he sighs at everyone's glares, and after a second, rolls his eyes and grumbles, "Alright, alright. I'll wait until we leave. Happy?", putting the cigarette behind his ear.
"Android, huh?" Gwyndle remarks as he rubs his chin. He looks at BoB as the machine works on him, cringes, and then looks away again. "That's a lot to take in, Khonnir. Not to say I don't believe you - I have no reason not to. But still."
"Do these androids have any weaknesses? Our last run in with this 'Meyanda' didn't go so well - we'll need every advantage we can get this time."
"Pretty much," Relas chuckles up at Ladim. "You seem like you know a thing or two about magic, so you've probably heard something about other planes of existence...and how different each of them are from the rest. And to be honest, this plane is a lot more entertaining!" As Ladim then turns and addresses Felicia, Relas listens on curiously but doesn't interrupt.
Grumbling in agreement to Palomia's last question, Ladim says, "Well, I guess it's all part of some crazy plan. Things always are."
Chuckling at Relas' response, Ladim grins, "Ha! You think that's fun! Just wait until you got gold to spare and I'll take you to see Daggermark's night life. Hm." he says, looking conspiratively at the eidolon and mutters loud enough for Palomia to hear, "Wait, does she give you any spending money? If not, you should probably negotiate some. If it'd help, I can tell you the average weekly rate of most mercenary bands around here. If you want, I can represent you, for a small commission.", he finishes, winking.
Askra merely nods to Khonnir's Hallit, ignores his admonition regarding suitable language and then watches in grim fascination as the muh-sheen "fixes" the man's gruesome wounds.
The Kellid listens stoically as Khonnir explains….things, but understands little that is of interest to her skills.
"A roh-bot chick huh? Just tell me where perpendicular isn't and I'll split her metal skull and take her scalp as a trophy."
Then Askra falters, and looks at Khonnir through a wayward lock of white hair.
"Uhm. Khonnir. Ya better put me in the muh-sheen. I don't still feel quite right…"
Relas bares his teeth in what must pass for a grin for the panther-like eidolon. "I might have to take you up on that!" he responds in a fake, conspiratorial whisper. "I keep telling her that she...er we need to live a little more. And after everything here in Torch, getting her to go to this Daggermark should be a snap!"
Khonnir taps BoB on the forehead as the medical procedure's finish.
BoB's body is invigorated and healed, looking more powerful than before. He seems to remain unaffected mentally.
"Interesting. You don't seem to have experienced any mental distress from the Autodoc. You're skin and armor are also infused with a type of nanite I haven't seen before. Your surprises are impressive, BoB. You may be entirely unique, even among androids."
Khonnir turns to Ladim, Gwyndle, and Palomia.
"That's an interesting suggestion. I've heard rumors of devices that can do such things to androids, but I think the real answer lies with him." Khonnir gestures to BoB.
"He was programmed by someone sometime around his activation. That's not something I've heard of before. If we could find the one who programmed him, or how they did it, we could certainly use that to manipulate Meyanda. Of course, we don't have the luxury of scouring Numeria and coming back. Besides, we'd need to somehow take Meyanda alive.
Khonnir addresses Ladim and Palomia.
"A crazy plan indeed. I thought I had already mentioned it when you first found me. This starship seems to have a somewhat intact power source. At first I thought that it was simply malfunctioning, but when we encountered Meyanda it became clear that she was trying to tap into it somehow. Power sources that can power something this large are hard to come by. I had considered that Torches flame was part of a power source before. I thought it was something of an weapon, slowly firing. However, the ship terminals in a other room showed that Torch's flame was actually more like an exhaust release. It let heat out so as not to overload. The terminal stated that overheating due to lack of exhaust release would cause the power core to meltdown and explode.
Khonnir nods at Askra. "Alright, just lay down on the mat, and try to focus on your breathing."
The mechanical mass hums and chips loudly and it cuts into Askra and stabs her with needles.
"I think that about does it. We need to get moving. Our first priority is to clear this level. When Gwyndle and I were last exploring we were ambushed by several creatures as we worked on the power lift. We need to make sure this floor is clear of enemies that can flank us. As I've said before, time is not our ally. We should split up. Two or three teams.
Gwndle, Palomia, and Relas, why don't you take the the room to the right and down the hall.
BoB, Ladim, Askra, Felicia, how about going straight down the hall, and to the left?"
Askra swears in Hallit as the invasive needles port and poke before inserting themselves into her physicality.
"GICKSHIT!" she yells finally. [/b]"Uhmm. Sorry Khonnir!?![/b]" Procedure finished, the wily warrior rolls off the mat and eyes the muh-sheen darkly. It is evident that the Kellid would as soon mash the autodoc as undergo further treatment.
Hefting Kaad's earthbreaker onto her back, and clipping chakrams to her belt, Askra dispenses with her spear and javelins, letting them clatter to the strange floor like so much chaff. She pauses by Kaad's corpse briefly before heading in the direction indicated.
"Time to make a return for Kaad's spirit. I'm plenty upset right now, and I'd hate for any more roh-bots to come looking for destruction, because I have it here." The Kellid points to her chest.
As BoB is tapped on the head he rises from the tabel.
"All systems back online. All systems at 100%. BoB is repaired. BoB is an android prototype called Beast of Battle. BoB will take left room with others when ready."
"I'm on it!"
Relas turns and pads out the door into the hallway and cautiously proceeds right until he reaches the doors at the end. He places his ear to them and listens for sounds of movement from beyond.
"Split up? Isn't that always what they do in those stories right before the monster starts gobbling everyone up?" Gwyndle replies with a smirk, dutifully following Palomia and Relas out of the room. He clearly has no real objections about doing so.
"Nothing I can do about the doors. That's why I was trapped to begin with. I tried giving it a shock, but that did... something? Now that I think about it, I still have no idea what that doohickey I saw was."
Ladim walks out in the corridor, and looks at the wall. In the corner, a sign in Androffan, saying 'No Smoking' is present. Well, look at me, I suddently forgot that language, thinks Ladim as a small flame raises from his extended thumb onto the cigarette.
Letting out a huff, he looks at Gwyndle, nodding. "Ye. The way to unlock these doors is just doing random stuff, but doing it with extreme confidence. They can smell fear." As people roll their eyes, he continues, raising his hands in the air. "Alright, alright. Basically, there is a piece of plastic, called the mainboard. It has three wires, connected to the central unit, and all you do is bypass the IFF software. Also, if you didn't understand what any of that gobble was, just stand back and let your uncle Ladim deal with this." Ladim exhales the smoke from his nose.
"Relas, when you know if someone's there, lemme open the door. According to this", he points at an evacuation map on the wall, "It's just one room, so you shouldn't have to open another door. Just be careful, that's a lot of blood.", he finishes, finger pointing at the bloodtrails, leading towards the room in question.
"Thanks BoB. Gwyndle, if you run into too much trouble just head back and call the others. The rest of you, feel free to move out as soon as you're ready." Khonnir says.
Without words or sounds, he hears a voice in his mind.
"Helloooo. Hello? hehe. Hello! Cat. Pretty cat. Kitty kitty. I wanna see! Hello cat. Big big cat cat cat. hehehehe. I like the big big cat. Cat.. sat... vat... mat... it's a big cat.
Knock knock comes the cat. I feel you kitty! In his head knock knock knock. hehehe"
Relas nods at Ladim. "Okay, I think Palo would prefer that anyway over any of us trying to force it open," he replies over his shoulder as he pads out of the medical room and carefully begins to make his way down the hallway towards the door.
Sounds...sticky? What could that b-!
Relas jumps in alarm as the strange voice speaks and looks around wildly for a moment trying to find the speaker. As his eyes reveal nothing, he suddenly realizes that whoever or whatever is speaking with him is somehow communicating directly in his mind rather than speaking aloud.
Hello? Who are you? How are you in my head?
How are we in the cat. It's always in heads. How else? In a heart? hehe. Where are you? Not in the world. It's a small world.
The visitors spoke. 'Destroy completely'. Dee.. Dis... Dismember. Remember? hahahaha Dismember dismember. Oh the food! I'm STARVING. Can I have some more food? 'SECURITY UNIT' give me some food. But where did the big metal go? 'SECURITY UNIT DEPLOYED'. boom boom bang bang squish squish hahahah loud laughing ayeeeee 'stoooowpp plleasseee' HYUCK plop plop. I was sleeping. One day, two days, a thousand days, a million days!
Wait, who is the cat cat? It's a cat. One cat? Just a little hand me the food hehe. Where are you cat cat?
BoB heads to the door and presses against the access pannel like its a button.
"How does BoB open door? BoB needs to talk to door to open it."
Unsure how to open the door BoB stands there waiting on the others.
"Oh! Well...how to explain it..." Relas ponders. "Palo lives here, in this realm they call the Material Plane. And my home is somewhere else, a different realm that can be accessed by magic. But somehow, we have a...well, a bond between the two of us, that connects me to her and vice versa. I'm not entirely sure of how it works or how it came to be and neither is she, but that bond allows her to use magic to call me from my home to this realm." Here, he pauses, waiting to see if Felicia is following him or if she has any questions before continuing. "From what Palo has been able to research and pick up by word of mouth, there are others out there who are the same, bonded to their own being from a different realm. But we've never actually met anyone else like that, so who knows?" he shifts his shoulders in what might pass for a shrug. "Everything else has been and is trial and error...like for some reason, Palo has to be awake for me to stay here. When she goes to sleep or if someone puts her lights out, I'm suddenly back home. It's all very strange, really!"
Felicia listens intently, her eyes growing wider. "M-magic? What is that? And you live in a different realm? Is it another planet, like my home?"
The lithe girl draws her Falcata as instructions are given. " 's Good for me. I'm bored and ready to do something."
As she walks near the autodoc, it activates and grabs her arm, injecting her with a small syringe. She felt her strength come back from the day before.
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Alarmed, Relas begins backing away from the door and up the hallway towards the medical room. "Paloooooo? There's something on the other side of that door!" he hisses. "It's rambling in my head, something about food and sleeping for a million days...it sounds crazy, whatever it is!" He looks towards Palomia and Gwyndle, and the others if they haven't gone too far in the other direction yet. "We should be ready for trouble if we decide to open the door. What do you want to do?"
"Good crazy or bad crazy?" Gwyndle replies rhetorically, poising to cast one of his evocations. "Er, never mind. Open the door. And get ready to blow whatever it is into pieces if we have to."
BoB walks up to the door and taps the panel, then turns to ask the others how the doors open. As he's turned around the door swiftly slides open. The white lights appear from the ceiling and the room is illuminated.
Four narrow stalls take up the south portion of this room, their doors and partitions not quite reaching the tiled floor or ceiling above. A fifth door stands to the west, while a strange metal basin protrudes from the wall immediately to the east of the entrance.
A quick search of the room reveals nothing of interest, except for drinkable water in the basin
"Er, right," Gwyndle replies, lowering his hands ever so slightly, "Let the tall, muscular people handle the front line. Gotcha."
Noticing and recognizing the spell that Palomia casts, the sorcerer nods to himself and performs the very same gestures, covering himself in a barrier of force.
"Huh. Noone here seems to like armor much, do they.", says Ladim, looking at everyone around him, mostly Gwyndle and the bare-chested BoB. "Fair enough, I'm peer-pressured now.", he says, winking at Palomia. He takes off his shirt, folds it and puts it in his bag. "My eyes are up here, you know." Mumbling something, his chest seems to begin to cover with an intricate web of tattoos, that stop shimmering after a while, and begin glowing dimly. "Off we go, troops."
Moving to the door next to Relas, Well. There could be something drilling in my head now, so better get ready. Readying himself for the possible mental assault, he pulls out a white object the length of a knife from his pocket, and pries open a panel next to the door.
Looking at the mess of wires, Ladim shrugs and jams the tool in the box, trying to unlock the door.
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Ladim unlocks the door with unorthodox methods.
Ladim puts back his e-pick in his pocket, and turns to everyone. "Alright, troops, it's time to get cracking. The door's open, all you got to do is press the big green button. DON'T press the big red button! Don't. Ladies, BoB, if you'd follow me."
Taking another draw of his diminishing cigarette, he goes down the corridor and turns left. This place is kind of creepy, isn't it.
Walking next to the door panel, Ladim surprises everyone by introducing it in the proper slot and speaks in Androffan, "Identification Code White. Unlock Door."
Upon hearing an unfriendly Bleep from the console, seeing his 'proper way' of unlocks doesn't work, he sighs, and says, "See! It's not me, it's the doors." and kicks the console.
After a friendly Bloop comes out of it, he mumbles to the others, "Told you. Now, lassies and... lad, if you are to kindly open the door and not let the seventy-pound bloke go first, that'd be grand.", flicking his cigarette butt in the corner.
"Well...it already knows at least one person-thing is here, so there's not much use in trying to be sneaky now," Relas sighs as he turns back to the door. "Everyone ready? Here we go..."
Ready for anything, Relas slowly pads down the hallway and opens the door...
Ladim uses of one of the most advanced tools on Golorian to open the alien door, which fails. He then kicks the door, and it unlocks with a angry chirp.
Everyone was in the medical room.
Ladim unlocked the door to the right of the medical room. Relas, Palomia, and Gwyndle plan on entering that door. Some creature is there, however they have not yet opened the door.
BoB opened a door to a bathroom, and had a look. There is nothing of interest there. This is where Felicia, Askra, and BoB are currently standing.
Ladim went far down the hall from the medical room, and to the left. He unlocked a door there, but has not opened it.
After looking around the room and not seeing anything of interest BoB heads overs to the others.
"Room clear. What should BoB do now? Do you need assistance?"
Ladim turns to call back to BoB just as the door before him slides open Before him stands a short, plant-like humanoid carrying a glowing hammer. The craeture shudders, and at once the other door next to Ladim opens. Several plant-like creatures stand in the doorway, no taller than Ladim's knees. The plants all shudder and hiss, then lunge at Ladim!
The two small Vegepygmys attack Ladim with wooden spears.
Then the large Vegepygmy attacks with a glowing mace.
Relas feels a tickle in his brain as his thoughts leak out. After Relas' thoughts are detected, the voice in his head is strangely silent.
Gwyndle rocks back and forth on his feet, picking at something in his right ear.
"Hey Relas, can you open that thing without, well you know... thumbs?"
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Ladim turns around to see BoB coming and is smashed on the leg with the hammer, as the spear lashes across his arm. Oh. That's it. Damn short people. Taking a small step back, Ladim brushes off the blood off of his arm, letting it drip on the ground. Turning to look at the little green pests that attacked him, he raises his right arm, pointing with the left at the two assailants.
"That's it, you little gimps! The pub's shut!", he shouts, as he slams his fist into the ground. Three fissures of arcane energy flow towards the horde of vegepygmies, one heading towards the one with the spear and two towards the one with the hammer.
The unfortunate spear-wielding vegepygmy sees the fissure heading towards him, and attempts jumping to the side, failing miserably as the arcane blast turns effortlessly to follow it, exploding with a blue flash beneath its legs. Making a rather dextrous flip in the air, it flips three times, before landing squarely on its face.
The other two head towards the bigger vegepygmy, twirling around one another. Seeing what happened to the previous one, it attempts to jump, only to see the arcane trails fly out of the ground and wrap around its legs. Losing momentum, it stops and manages to get a hold of himself.
Hearing BoB trotting behind him, Ladim shouts at the pygmies, "Yeah! Try messing up with someone your own size!" as he sees the android towering across the corridor.
Relas' mind goes silent for a moment, then an ear piercing screech rings throughout the halls of the cave! The shriek causes excruciating pain to all those nearby, and then begins to vibrate their skulls.
****ELSEWHERE*****
Ladim hits the two enemies squarely, the smaller one looks to have taken the damage hard as if trips to the floor.
Not seeing the need to wash in these strange bowls at knee height, Askra turns her attention to BoB's receding figure.
"Hey! Wait!!!! Stoopid roh-bot!" The Kellid girl rushes to keep up…unaware of the dread feeling assailing her companions behind her...