Seeing that she is no longer attacking, Artirian calls Jaxel back in.
"Sem rænt hvað? Ég hef freakin verið rænt og varpað hér."
Who kidnapped what? I've freakin been kidnapped and dumped here.
"Segir að þeir rænt börnum sínum. Ég held að þetta skepna var tekin eins vel og er í sömu stöðu og okkur."
The Tauslek barksout in Bahgra.
"Two-feet like you. Takes and takes children. Works there." she nods her jaw towards the desk. "Makes marks. Causes pain, makes more marks. Takes children."
She looks towards the next room "Cage me, takes my children, hurt me. Two feet bad."
She keeps out of reach on the ceiling, and her wounds begin to close some more as she speaks.
Aurexil narrows her eyes slightly. "AefPakka, spør henne hva hun skal gjøre nå. Hun kan bare snakke mens hun helbreder, og planlegger å angripe igjen."
"Ég myndi gefa henni að njóta vafans. Hvað ef hún er fastur í sömu stöðu og við erum?" Artirian replies.
I'd give her the benefit of the doubt. What if she's stuck in the same situation as we are?
On a whim, AefPakka slowly leans over onto his hands and feet.
Aurexil doesn't relax, her glaive still at the ready, though she still makes no move to attack.
"Það er einmitt þess vegna sem ég treysti ekki hana. Hún er nú þegar drepið einn með tveimur fótum bara fyrir að hafa tvo fætur," she says, not taking her eyes off of the Tauslek.
"En hugsa um þetta. Lets ráð fantur Bahgra stal börnum sínum, hún vildi ekki hugsa allir Bahgra eru þau sömu?" Artirian asks Aurexil.
But think about this. Lets assume a rogue Bahgra stole her babies, wouldn't she think all Bahgra are the same?
"Yeah, that's Artirian for you, always trying to think the best of people," Jaxel looks around sourly. "You know what? I think I'm the reason why he hasn't gone down a gullet of a monster yet."
The Tauslek watches your conversation, appearing not to understand draconic, but intently watching for any hostilities while maintaining a reserved, if defensive, posture on the ceiling.
The Bahgra in the shaft yell down "What going on? It dead yet?"
AefPakka yells up the shaft, "It taken like us taken. It not bad.... maybe not bad. It scared and mad."
A large door-panel, ten feet wide, covers the southern wall at the east end with red, spiky runes painted on the door's exterior.
The runes are actually Galactic Common, recognizable by a few among you.
There also appears to be a book of some kind,, perhaps a journal, on the desk written in the same.
Neve points at the book and motions towards herself. She doesn't want to get close to the crazy alien but she thinks she can read the book.
Aurexil is still nervously watching the Tauslek. "Það sem skiptir máli er hvort það er að fara að berjast með okkur eða á móti okkur. Spyrja það eitthvað um það," she half-orders AefPakka, tension fraying her manners.
AefPakka thinks for a moment and looks at the bahgra at his feet. He points to the bahgra.
Then he adds in, "Getur þú skilur þetta tungumál?"
"ඔබ මෙම භාෂාව තේරුම් ගන්නේ කෙසේද?"
Then, kind of struggling because he isn't as practiced but trying to be thorough...
The creature responds "Must find children. Two feet not get in way, not be hurt."
Then "I take this talk from that one." indicating the dead Bahgra.
There is a hissing sound, and gas floods the chamber and elevator shaft. Everyone feels a terrible, overwhelming pain inside their heads. As they are driven to their knees by the pain, the Tauslek desperately scrambles away, up the shaft,screeching in pain as it goes. Two of the Bahgra on the cables loose their grip, falling down the shaft and landing with a crunching sound. One had hit head first, his neck snapping on impact. The other managed to land feet first, breaking a legbone through his skin and falling unconscious.
After what seems to be several minutes of pain, you are able to move again.
One of the Bahgra from above shouts down "Everyone OK?"... it takes a second of clearing your heads to realize everyone can understand him.
The end of the fighting, and the discussion she couldn't understand, left Fraejia confused. She let those who could communicate do so and otherwise kept watch for trouble. How she missed the sudden gas attack she'd never know but before she knew it the whole thing was done. Two baghra fell, one dad and the other dying. She quickly realized what these things were, nanites. Normally her kind and technology didn't fare well together but she was young enough still that such effects were not an issue for her. She resisted the cloud long enough to know the others were alright and then let go so the machines could do what they were meant to do.
When the smoke cleared and she could move again the esper woman moved towards the bahgra who had fallen and broken his leg to try and help as best she could. She knelt and pressed and ear close to the canine man's mouth while she watched his chest for movement. One was obviously dad, she just hoped that this one could be saved.
"Hey wait! I can understand you guys!" Artirian exclaims delightedly, his headache forgotten.
He uses his wand on whoever he can save. "What do you think gassed us?"
"Do you want to pursue the Spider thing? I mean I don't know how many people she will kill in her attempt to find her litle ones? Otherwise lets head up to the controls."
The Bahgra's breathing, while shallow and ragged, is there. He is bleeding pretty badly from that wound, though.
Aurexil shakes her head slightly, trying to clear it.
"Seems like... whatever that was, it somehow made us able to understand each other?" She glances over at the dead Bahgra and growls softly. "If only it hadn't killed anyone doing it."
She looks around carefully. "I think we should look around down here real quick. I still don't trust that thing, and we'll want to know more about it if it turns out to be hostile."
Neve coughs at the weird gas and the splitting headache. As it clears she responds Who knows what kind of bizarro experiments they've been doing here. Let's just leave that thing alone and get ourselves out of here!
"All-righty-o, up it is!"Artirian whistles Jaxel up and up they go climbing the cable again. He does reclaim his rope, in case they need it later, after Neve has gone up.
Aurexil growls and shakes her head. "I still think we should at least take a quick look down here first. What if it takes us days to get out and there's something we could use here?"
Either way is fine by me but let's just get outta here.
"Ok, lets start searching the place. Go Jaxel!" Artirian orders Jaxel to go look around.
Jaxel sticks his paws around looking for stuff.
Aurexil warily follows Jaxel, keeping an eye out for trouble or treasure in equal measure.
AefPakka's usual upbeat demeanor is shaken by being knocked unconscious again, but is quite pleased for everyone to understand each other. He will provide first aid to the bleeding bahgra and sit with him/her while the fast healing works its magic.
The workbench contains a variety of alchemical/medical equipment for extracting and analyzing bodily fluids and/or organs.
Among them is a bound book, a quick examination of it noting dates, times, and chemical notations, as well as remarks regarding a "female test subject" -the final entry noting "We have removed several of her hatchlings and placed them in the level 2 test bay. I have a new serum I believe will suspend the compound formed in the Tauslek's cranial gland for an indefinite period of time. This could significantly advance our efforts to indefinitely preserve a converted subject's personality matrix. Degradation of these vital fluids and their memories will become a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the subject is less than happy with me for pursuing these bodily violations. I will need to convert a few new Klaven to assist in controlling her and guarding against any outbreak. She's quite intelligent and I don't doubt her ability to grasp such concepts as revenge. --Lomrick"
By the time you've read through this all, the Bahgra is awake and limping along, also ready to climb as best he can.
I don't know what's going on here, but it's sick. I guess if we free that thing's kids in Level 2 then it won't want to kill us anymore?
"Yep lets go to level 2 and free that things kids."
AefPakka agrees and starts climbing back up.
Aurexil frowns. "Let's just hope that works," she growls uncertainly as she follows.
You climb up to the next opening, cautiously spilling out into the area around the elevator opening.
The Bahgra remain behind to cover the ascent and wait for the all clear before going back into the shaft to climb.
These corridors are dark, and you can hear the shuffling of feet somewhere around the blind corners to the east and west.
Artirian makes sure the party gets light, then makes sure to collect his rope after Neve has gotten up.
Jaxel will go up first.
Aurexil follows close behind. Her draconic vision pierces the darkness without difficulty. "I'd say let's go where there's movement first," she whispers to those who follow her.
I can make a light, but, that'll give us away, so you dark seeing types can take the lead here Neve mutters, spooked by the sound of shuffling feet.
Shuffling out of the darkness around the corners, a pack of Klaven move... their steps are out of synch, and there movements disjointed, their mouths slack and strange, elongated tube-like tongues lolling from them.
There are four from the east and two each from the southwest and northwest areas.
Your team has initiative over them.
"I think there's something wrong with them! Let's try to take them out non lethally so we can see if we can help them!" Artirian announces.
Neve casts Light on her pistol when it's obvious that the stealthy approach hasn't worked.
Jaxel engages the southern Klaven.
Artirian takes a defensive stance.
"Well, they wanted to kill us before, so I'm not inclined to save their lives," Aurexil growls. She moves up to glaive reach of the nearest one and slashes at it, channeling dragon magic through it as she does.
A blue energy flows from AefPakka into his weapon as he invests some of his essence into his weapon.
The kasatha then charges up and strikes at one of the creatures.