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"You're, uh- you're welcome," Astraea nervously replies to Zoreck, keeping her eyes on the gnoll-like creatures. They still seem to be on edge. Unsure how best to help her friends with the weird devices, she instead turns her attention to these creatures that seem to share their circumstance.
She knows they will not understand words, but perhaps a few nonthreatening gestures might keep them calm.
Rikkan was a bit freaked out by the whole situation. He didn't know where he was, didn't know why the gnolls wanted to fight him in particular, and didn't know how he was stripped of all his gear. He didn't claim his usual post at the head of the group, still nursing the bite wounds those nasty gnolls gave him.
Illonna follows along, placing a reassuring hand on Rikkan's shoulder.
"Here, let me have a try," Astraea says, stepping next to Illonna. "You still need to explain the dog in the bottle to me. Once we get out of here, I mean."
"Thank you two, feel much better, click. Rikkan learned new tricks," he says with a smile toward the oracle. "Can make all kinds of things in bottles. Will show you someday. Kinda neat, whrrr," he whispers proudly.
Drancis glances uneasily at the central chamber a look of confusion on his face. "We were captured, obviously. So where are the guards?" He glances at the gnoll creatures who seem content to allow him and his friends to take the lead here.
I hope we can trust them. If we get into a fight with the guards here, then I don't want to get stabbed in the back...
He moves to the doorway and peers out further. "Let's get moving here. Our gear should be inside one of those doors."
Locke looks around at the others. Five doors huh... Well I guess we should just get started. He chooses the first door on the left and heads toward it. "Let's go for a systematic approach. One door at a time?"
The gnoll-creatures (the more that the friends observe them, the more convinced they become that they are not truly gnolls) continue to watch the friends. They do become more inquisitive as the door creaks open but, with the friends standing there, make no attempt to move towards it…. Indeed, it seems clear from their submissive stances, that they no longer pose a threat to Rikkan nor to anyone else…
Moving towards the first door on the left, the friends see a green disk erratically blinking… speculatively waving his hand over it, Locke opens the door – creaking, it slowly slides to about a halfway open position before, with a cracking sound, it comes to a juddering halt. Peering in, the friends can just about see, from the light seeping through the door a rectangular room holding several shelves and racks. A range of weapons, pieces of armour and other items are scattered across the shelves.
Illonna rushes into the room and searches for her own belongings.
Stepping into the next chamber, Zoreck muses, "This reminds me of the Numerian ruins... and yet doesn't." He examines the organic-seeming walls of the chamber. "Numberian ruins are usually smooth, straight, and made of some kind of nigh-indestructable metal. These walls almost look like...flesh."
Checking out the first room, he follows Illonna. In addition to looking for useful items (especially his own), he also looks on the wall for another pressure-switch that would activate the lights.
Drancis follows along behind the others into the armory chamber, on the lookout for his equipment.
I do miss that brace of knives...it was a gift from my father....
Rikkan looks for any small sized armor or weapons, adraid he would never find history own again. If he locates any, he will help himself to some light small armor and light small weapons.
"...um... any clothes in there...?" Astraea asks sheepishly. Armor would be great, weapons even better, but frankly, Astraea just wants something more than a few strips of cloth covering her.
At least the gnoll-like creatures seem to have calmed down. That's one monkey off her back, at least.
Locke starts searching for his own or similar equipment as well as clothing for everyone. He also is on the lookout for anything magical.
Arranged in regimented piles, each one topped by a pice of paper enscribed with an inexplicably curved script, the friends find their belongings... and, in other piles on the shelves, two potions of cure light wounds, a masterwork short spear, four sets of leather armor, four scimitars, and four longbows with 20 arrows each.
Taking their time to make sure they have everything that they had lost, the friends are caught off-balance when the door suddenly slides closed... plunging the room into absolute darkness.
Rikkan was still able to use his Darkvision. "Hold on, Rikkan can see fine. Find a light in a second, whrrr.". If he was able to get his armor on, he will grab his dagger just in case, as he starts walking around looking for a light source.
Perception
Drancis smiles as he re-equips himself...as does Astraea. Her near-nakedness had been quite distracting and he is relieved to see her covered up again...mostly.
He turns to face the others, "Perhaps the other items belong to the gnoll...errr...our fellow prisoners?" As the room is plunged into darkness he raises his spear reflexively before realizing the door had closed, apparently on its own.
"Does anyone have a light?"
At request Illonna causes light to pour from her hand
Zoreck smiles widely when he finds his gun. "Missed you, Bessie," he whispers when examining it. He then dresses, wiping as much of the goo from his skin as he can.
He tries his best not to look in Astrea's direction as she dresses.
But then the door hisses shut and the room becomes pitch dark. Thankfully, Illonna provides magical illumination.
"There's probably another panel to open the door," he mutters as he looks for the door opener.
Astraea gets dressed hurriedly, still red in the face. Seeing that the rest of her gear is safe, she hugs her magic shield to her chest and grins. "Oh, this is more like it," she says. "Do we want to give the rest of these to our furry friends in there, or...?"
Then the lights go out and the door slams. "I knew this was too easy," she groans.
Illonna checks and dons her own belongings. "We should return their belongings; a sign of trust."
With Illonna creating light in the suddenly claustrophobic room, the friends are able to see the disk to the side of the door... tinged green, it remains stubbornly unlit and unresponsive to the increasingly frantic waving of hands across it. An examination of the door fails to find any way of obviously forcing it...
...and then, after a minute or two, the green disk spontaneously starts blinking once more and a simple swipe of a hand across the light opens the door to its half-open position again. The large chamber is totally shrouded in darkness now; there is no light coming from the room where the friends originally came from though - the door has closed at some point although, possibly reassuringly, the green light next to it is gently pulsing on and off.
"Where are we," Rikkan asks, totally mystified and bewildered by the new environment they are recently been dropped into.
Drancis peers around at the surroundings of the chamber and points at the closed door. "Is that where our friends disappeared to?" He shrugs helplessly. "Rikkan I have no clue where we are at but I do know we need to get out of here. Whatever is happening here is...well it is not good."
He looks around the chamber for any other indications of glowing panels in front of the other doors. If there is no activity then he will focus his attention at the panel in center of the room.
Moving out into the central chamber, with Rikkan for company, Drancis looks towards each of the doors from the chamber... other than the door to the storage area where the friends found their equipment and the room where they 'emerged' from, all of the doors have green disks that are illuminated with a 'solid' green light (rather than the pulsating light on the disks of the doors that they have passed through)...
...and then, as the rest of the friends are getting dressed and gathering their items, the door to the storage area suddenly closes again... followed by an audible and very definite 'click',the light coming from the green disk becomes solid.
- the main chamber is, once more, plunged into darkness. The only light sources are the green disks of the doors... not enough to see anything within the room but just enough to be able to move to each of the doors...
Locke sighs deeply as they are trapped inside without Drancis and Rikkan, "It was so easy to open the doors and find our equipment, but of course nothing could stay so simple." He calls out to the two beyond the door, testing if they can hear him.
"Wrrr, Drancis, how do we get them out of there?! These green disks don't make any sense!". Rikkan is ages his hand in front of the disk yet again.
Just after the door separates the friends into two groups, there is a sudden and sharp vibration of the floor… almost like an earthquake, it persists for a few seconds, toppling shelves within the storage area, before gradually subsiding. Silence returns for a second before, from somewhere above the friends, comes the muffled and insistent warbling of a siren.
The door that separates Drancis and Rikkan from the rest of the friends remains obstinately closed; each time Rikkan swipes a hand across the green disk, a peculiar croaking noise issues from somewhere in the wall behind it… yet, in the darkness, the ratfolk can see that the disk sits lightly proud of the wall and, with the right tools, could be entirely removed. From the other side of the door, will Illonna’s light to help them, Locke and Zoreck come to the same conclusion…
Zoreck cocks the hammer of his pistol and points it at the green disk.
"I'll shoot it, if you think that would help..."
Drancis shakes his head. "If you destroy the disk Zoreck you may freeze it into position. Let me try something here." He concentrates for a moment trying to shift the inside of the disk using the bubbles which thankfully seem to be as prevalent as ever.
Drancis, standing well back, pulls the green disk from the wall... in the dark, Rikkan can see a series of tumblers and bars within the wall. A slightly blue-ish tinged light bathes the revealed mechanism - the tell-tale sign of electricity within the locking mechanism.
Rikkan pulls out his lock picks and tries to pop open the strange little disk.
Disable device
He screamed as the electricity jolted through him!
Rikkan is briefly outlined in a corona of blue light as electricity runs up his limbs... there is a vague smell of singed fur as Rikkan staggers backwards. Undeterred, he has a second attempt and, avoiding the section that burnt him previously, forces the door open.
With a 'click', it unlocks and Zoreck is able to slide it open... not fully open but still enough for the friends to squeeze through. Illonna's light illuminates the chamber as the friends regroup...
"If we give those creatures their weapons back perhaps it will further win their favour?" Locke rubs the bridge of his nose, "Though it would be unfortunate if they decided to attack us, we are all armed now too and I have no fear that we would lose an ensuing bout."
"They are in the same situation as us, and would no doubt take great comfort in a sturdy weapon in hand." says Illonna as she finally makes her way out. "Apologies, it takes some time to fit my armor."
Drancis nods thoughtfully. "I see nothing wrong with that. I think we will need all the help we can get, or at least not have to watch our backs!"
Locke gathers up the gear and hurries to where they had left the creatures. He will offer a scimitar to one of them, pommel first as a sign of good faith and then distribute the equipment.
The 'gnoll-creatures' huddled next to the cylinders that they emerged from, look at Locke as he offers the scimitar towards them. The one that had previously appeared to be the leader stands and, with its head angled quizically, takes the weapon... it snatches it by the pommel before, seemingly fearing reprisal, jumping backwards from Locke and his companions.
...the mood becomes tangibly more relaxed as the rest of the weapons are distributed - once the scimitars, the longbows and the armour have been handed back to the creatures, the largest of them makes what appears to be a bowing motion, pats its chest and, with its growling voice, repeats the word, "Bahgra", three times before looking at Locke expectantly.
Rikkan lets the others do introductions and exchange weapons with the gnoll monsters. He'd had enough of them for one day at least, he thinks, rubbing his sore shoulder from where he was bitten.
Zoreck waits a moment. He whispers, "Locke, I think he's trying to say that his name is 'Bahgra.' You gave him the weapon... I think he thinks you're our leader."
Locke smiles bemusedly at Zoreck's whisper and offers a sweeping bow to Bahgra, "Pleased to properly make your acquaintance Bahgra, I am Locke." He emphasizes his name in the same manner Bahgra had, patting his chest. He then points at each of his companions in turn, naming them as well.
Astraea feels a huge wave of relief that the creatures seem to have been turned friendly. A few allies should make this unfamiliar place feel a smidge less oppressive...
"Okay, I think they're friendly now. Let's keep exploring this...whatever it is we're in."
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The gnoll-creature watches as Locke names each of the friends before turning to each of its companions and ‘naming’ them, ”Bahgra… Bahgra… Bahgra…”. Putting the proffered weapons and armour in a series of four organised piles (a set of armour, a scimitar and a longbow in each pile) next to the northernmost of the cylinders, the creatures continue to watch the friends with some interest but make no attempt to further communicate with Locke or anyone else…
Rikkan leads the group to the northernmost door to the west. "Let Rikkan look for trouble, whrrr.
Perception
Drancis shakes his head as the gnoll-creatures do not react to the peaceful overtures. "Let's leave them be. I am sure they know how to take care of themselves, but without being able to communicate..." His voice trails off uncertainly. Shrugging his shoulders, he points to the lobby area. "One of those doors should lead out of here."
There are four other doors leading from the unlit chamber... green disks sit to the left of each of them and each of them is solidly lit - indicating that each of the doors is locked.
Locke sighs a bit in disappointment as the creatures turn away from them. So much for more allies... At least they don't seem inclined to attack us anymore. "It would be nice to find someone we can communicate with so we can find out what the hell is going on."
As the group returns to the central room Locke turns to his ratfolk companion, "Rikkan, do you think you can break into one of these doors again?"