"I can hear some whirring, sparking, and humming from the other side of the eastern door. Be careful. Ready?"
Iantha opens the door.
"Be careful."
Be careful be careful be careful be careful
Dromer charges blindly into the room.
Miranda rolls her eyes at the emo kid's excitement and peers into the room after him.
Forlen looks at the pile of dead robots and grins. "Look, that's how I like to see them: defunct, like nature intended them to be."
Forlen kicks the scrapheap one last time, then takes position at the door.
|
A long table with various unusual stones and dirt samples
heaped on it sits along the southern wall of this room, while to
the north a line of metal desks with glowing panels and buttons
are placed next to a large humming device. The heart of this
device seems to be some sort of flickering sphere of reddishbrown mud or dirt. Dust covers much of this room, save for a
strangely clean swath between the doors - that looks to be intentionally cleaned - which leads to the
strange humming device.
Each of you hears an voice in your head in Common
"Where am I? Who... who are you?"
"Huh-wha?!"
Dromer is caught completely off guard by the strange sight, lack of enemies, and the confused voice. Together with his momentum, he trips and falls flat on his face.
Iantha rushes over and in a reflex licks Dromer's face. "You all right?"
Miranda, relatively used to telepathic voices, thinks back at the thing. "We are friends, here to determine what the purpose of this place is and find a lost wizard. I am Miranda. Who are you, my friend?"
Crazy. Great. We walked into a room with telepathic dirt. Just great... Oh, crap. What if it can hear my thoughts? Uhhh...
Dromer sits up, sighs, and flips his hair away from his face. He smiles at Iantha, but judging by the look on his face he has something else on his mind.
Speaking to nobody in particular, he says "Hey, uhhh, ME. My name's Dromer. We're not Wizards... Err, I guess a couple of us are... We're just passing through. Has me... Err... Have you... Ugh. Can we call you something else? How about... 'Terra'?"
Dromer begins to stand up, slowly.
"Dromer, my friend, I believe the telepathic voice is coming from that device... not the dirt." Miranda smiles at him.
"I could be considered a wizard, yes. We mean you no harm. If you'll allow us to pass through, we can be on our way. Unless you require help of some kind?"
Oh. I guess that could be... Wait... Miranda can hear my thoughts, too?
Smith nods in agreement with Miranda.
I wonder if my thoughts have the same lisp as when I talk?
Dromer visualizes himself flipping his hair away from his face.
Iantha is confused by the whole thing.
Talking in your head to someone... how will you pick up all the cues? Its already hard with this bunch, not having whiskers...
Seeing that her allies have all gone silent, Miranda shakes her head and giggles a bit. "My friends, I cannot hear you, if you are trying to think at me. I do not have the capacity for telepathic thought... I will need to work hard to learn it, eventually."
"Oh.... Wait... I am still confused..."
Iantha looks from Dromer, to Miranda, to the weird tube.
"Its hard enough with you all not having whiskers. Now we're doing mind talk."
"Red food we walk on? I'm not sure what the creature means, friends."
...The blood on the floor?
Smith responds outloud "We do not have any extra of the red liquid food. Where did the other creatures go after this."
Don't think about blood... Don't think about blood... Don't think about blood...
"That's great, Terra. We're probably looking for those people. Same reason, too. That red food is DELICIOUS. We'll come back and talk more after we find it. Don't you worry about that."
Don't think about blood... Don't think about blood... Don't think about blood...
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While the conversation is going on, Forlen is looking around wildly, trying to pinpoint the origin of the mind-sound. When the topic turns to the blood, he turns pale and stands completely still.
Forlen's thoughts are too incoherent to properly distinguish, but you'll catch pieces of it like "...Watching us... Sitting ducks in the open.... Feel like prey.... Toying with us...."
Smith looks to his companions "Shall we continue?"
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"Yes."
"This mind thing freaks me out"
Dromer flips his hair away from his face.
Iantha walks up to the next door, putting her ear against it to listen.
Miranda follows along, letting her keener friends scout things, but keeping her eyes open.
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You don't hear anything beyond the door. However, due to your natural ability to pick up odors (even those of your allies' bodies...), you recognize the scent of active wounds and chemicals somewhere beyond the door. Not immediately beyond, but nearby.
Forlen whispers to the rest of the group, "Do we trust that voice in our head? I'm not sure if we should."
"I smell more blood and chemicals. But I think its safe to proceed."
Carefully, Iantha opens the door. She sniffs deeply again, whiskers twitching.
"The blood smell is coming from the eastern door..."
Dromer leans over Iantha to get a look inside, but he obviously is trying just leave the room they're currently in.
Smith patiently waits, not bothered by the blood and smells.
Nothing having jumped her when she opened the door, Iantha proceeds down the hallway, following the renewed blood trail, to the eastern door.
"Ready guys?"
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Metal desks sit to the north and south of this long room, yet
the most distinctive features are a pair of odd, bedlike tables
flanked by curving panels of blinking, pulsing lights. Moving
armatures of metal extend out over the beds, each outfitted
with glowing panes of glass and strangely glowing tools. The
chamber reeks of blood, with great crimson stains splashed
across the device, beds, and floor. On one of the beds is a human you don't recognize, badly injured, but alive. Hovering over his body is a drone, similar to what you've seen before. This one, however, has syringes as fingers and small tanks of some kind of liquid on it's back. As it injects the human, you can tell he is in immense pain from whatever procedure he is undergoing. Neither seems to notice you at the moment.
*whispering* Dromer, help. There is a robot doing things to that poor man.
Iantha is clearly scared to go into the room alone.
Dromer pauses at the sight. He goes instantly pale as he glimpses the human convulse. After mere moments, he jumps into action.
"Oh HELL no!"
His scrawny form pumps up with adrenaline as he moves up to the robot, drawing his greatsword.
"I've had about enough of this."