Dirissa, still delighting in Basil's response, chuckles. "I think I've got another fight or two left in me. Proceed."
The party leaves the caves and wanders over to the odd wall on the opposite side of the large desert room.
What do you do?
Harg would like to walk up to where the light is. Is there a light source?
Keldor is looking for anything out of the ordinary.
The wall seems to ripple slightly, from time to time, almost as if it werent'....real....
Harg would walk up to the wall and stick his sword into it.
Basil follows with a short distance and watches Harg as he approaches the Wall, ready to pull him back if this was some elaborate camouflage mechanism of a subterranean trapdoor spider variant.
Dirissa, being a gnome, has always been a fan of the "poke it with a stick and see what happens" method. She follows behind, wary for more opponents.
Kell will join the rest of the group in trying to walk through the wall.
Estimating it was some sort of illusionary wall, Keldor looks even closer to it.
"Fascinating! Illusory architecture!"
All manner of blades, hands and Kells pass through the illusory wall with ease and reveals the next area.
This metal room is brightly lit by glowing panels in the ceiling
above. To the left and right, complex machines consisting of
spiral tubes and nozzles twitch and hum. In front of you is something that you're almost certain is a door, but...you've never seen a door like this. It's sleek, metallic, and strange.
"Fascinating! I doubt that is an illusion."
"Let's find out!" says Kell as he attempts to walk through it.
"Is there some way to open it? A handle or something to activate it?"
Gauntlet's metal-looking hands touch the door.
"Maybe there is a technological keyhole..."
With Gauntlet's tech knowledge and Harg's perception, you both easily locate what you consider to be a panel to open the door. Remarkable.
Dirissa is pretty sure her idea to 'poke it with a stick' was what triggered the mechanism.
Activating the door mechanism, Keldor steps back a step.
"Thanks Harg! If it was a naga, it would have bit me! Keep your weapons ready. No telling what is beyond this portal."
"So far, no trace of the lost expedition. Do you think our path diverged?", Basil muses idly as she eyes the mechanism herself.
"If this door closes behind us, we may be trapped as well. Should we check the other path we discovered first?"
"Lets just find out.. let me go inside and see if I can open the door"
Harg gets a good look through this open door.
I walk through and see if I can close and open the door.
Keldor/Gauntlet shrugs.
"Anything is possible. Just scream if you can't open the door Harg..."
Basil, careful of the technology that surrounds them, makes sure that the door can be opened from the other side. At the current moment, it can.
You have two options in front of you.
"Are you mesmerized by it?", Basil asks towards Gauntlet and Harg, when they still seem fascinated by the door mechanism after they took care to make sure it would work from both sides.
There was no sarcasm, the worry in her voice was genuine. But then, fascinating as this area was, she did intend to urge the others on.
"Sorry! Onward"
Harg steps forward and looks down the hall. He will check out the door that is in front of him, then look down the corridor to the other door. Anything interesting?
You'd think they'd never seen a door Dirissa muses. All of this technology is neat and all, but I'm trying to focus more on horrible creatures that might jump out like that last one. She holds her hook hammer at the ready as they proceed.
Kell was also taking notes, his quill scratching quickly and efficiently onto the page of his book. Before entering each room, he put away his writing utensils then prepared for the next set of challenges, then every few rooms he would take out his writing supplies and repeat the process all over again.
Not being able to see his features completely to be sure, Keldor still sounds embarrassed as he move to point again.
"Yes of course my dear friends! Onward."
Keldor moves to keep up with Harg.
"Two new doors! Which one first? I say the closest."
Keldor reaches out to touch the first new door...
The door is locked. Once agin it can be forced open, but it seems to be powered so its odd that it isn't opening like the others...
"Perhaps there is something with it's internal mechanisms?"
"What about the other one, is it locked as well?", Basil asks, clearly not happy about the incomplete information scenario.
Of course, they would need to thoroughly check this door to make sure proceeding was save, but if they were lucky, both doors led to the same place...it was not like the Door they checked right now had many options with the corridor and the other door to one side and the cave wall to the other - and so far, there was no z-axis involved in this locations layout.
It seems that this door is just broken. Kell, with the assistance of Gauntlet, track the 'power' lines and find an obvious section where a large pane of dark metal has severed the connections completely, even if they were to glow, it seems it wouldn't pass this point.
Still, it looks like the door must be pried off if this is the way you wish to proceed.
Keldor/Gauntlet moves on down the corridor.
"I doubt this door has been opened in years. So I doubt the others would be beyond it. We should move on. We can always come back if we have no other choices, or if we have time to research it later.
"That is a reasonable and logical line of thinking Gauntlet. I had come to the same conclusion, but it's good to see that we have similar ideas."
Dirissa pokes the door with a stick as they pass by, just in case.
"Agreed, lets go where we can for now, and deal with places like this later. Lets check down the hall"
Harg moves down the hall to the next door. Is there any light, or way to open it.
Just to be certain, Basil pulls out a single hair from her head, then fixes it in place on the door with a bit of saliva.
That way, they could easily and stealthily check if it had been opened when they came back later- Basil did not question Keldor's analysis, but just because something has not happened in a long time...after all, the Torch had gone out, so something was most definitely not like it used to be here.
When she was done, she followed to the other door.
Kell moved with Gauntlet, talking about Engineering and Science.
A large metal table is surrounded by odd-looking chairs in this room. To the west, what appears to be a transparent wall looks out over a strange desert valley. Four pillars support the fifteen-foot-high ceiling, while dozens of crude images of a pickaxe made of a skull and bones have been painted onto the walls with some sort of ivory pigment along with several phrases in an unrecognizable language.
You hear laughter, or what can only be described as laughing and a being similar to those skeletons you fought earlier steps into the open, however this one still has muscles and you can see them tense in anticipation. It's movements are natural, and it lunges forward!
Roll initiative!
Dirissa is simply glad it isn't another of those horrible tentacle beasts from earlier. But her reactions are slowed (apparently) as she hesitated to enter the room.
"Wait! What?"
"Hostile contact!", Basil shouts for those further back, considering the best tactical position to be at as the enemy moved against them.
Harg brings his sword up and gets ready to potentially cast a spell if this creature looks dangerous.