"That's not creepy at all. No, not at all..." Anders mutters under his breath.
Funny, he said the exact same thing last time...
"Well hello again," Axel says once again to the canned air. "Don't suppose he gets visitors often?"
"I guess we can go in then. Anders, Axel, after you."
Tarros waits for somebody else to go first. He makes sure he can easily reach his bow in case of trouble, but is currently unarmed.
As the party enters the room on the other side of the door, assuming you do, you see that this room is indeed not empty. There are numerous corpses littering the floor, most have deteriorated away into skeletons, they seem to have been here for years. Another door is set into the far wall, again without a handle, or any other visible means of opening it.
"Oh, well then, that is nice. Tell me that someone has some medical training. I want to know what killed these guys. Stay away form that door for now till we have an idea to what happened. Axel, try to keep that entrance door open behind us too. I don't want it closing the second we are all in here."
Vyr takes a look around to see if he can spot anything. Maybe what ever killed these guys left a mark somewhere.
Tarros's eyes grow wide. "Whoa. Okay. Dead guys in a hole in the ground, in the middle of a hunting preserve. Is there any explanation anyone can think of that sounds halfway reasonable? Or legal?"
"Stay away from that door for now till we have an idea to what happened. Axel, try to keep that entrance door open behind us too. I don't want it closing the second we are all in here."
"Here." Tarros looks for a likely body, and grabs a solid-looking bone. "Prop it open."
Somehow I doubt that'll work...
Anders flashes his light at the remains, looking for gear of identification. You never know just what you can find.
"Is there any gear you guys can see? We might be able to use it to identify these remains."
As soon as the last party member enters the room, the door slams shut, destroying any and all bones/obstructions used to prop it open, the hydraulics used to open and close the door seem too powerful.
The voice begins emanating from hidden ports again, this time speaking new words. 'Welcome.......... To your death! The first test begins in........... Sixty seconds.'
As you look through the corpses, they all appear to be humanoid, with no clear identifying characteristics showing specific species, rather, they appear to all be from different sub-species of humans. A search through them recovers a number of blaster pistols and blaster rifles, enough for the entire party to have one of each. There are enough charged blaster magazines to supply three for each weapon. A screen appears on the opposite wall, beside the other door, with a countdown, counting down from sixty.
Anders tucks a pistol into his jacket pocket, and hefts his blaster rifle. "Well, this is going to be...interesting."
Vyr watches as the door closes and then looks at Axel, then Tarros, back to the door and finally just stares at the ground. "I am not sure if I should blame Axel for not doing his job or Tarros for coming up with that stupid plan. Well, complaining is not going to do much so arm up and prepare for what ever the fly f&*# this is. Gauntlet challenge to prove our worth maybe?"
Vyr pockets a pistols and takes a blaster rifle. He quickly checks the gun to make sure that everything is working.
'Welcome.......... To your death! The first test begins in........... Sixty seconds.'
Tarros's eyes widen, and he opens and then closes his mouth without speaking. He glances frantically around the room before settling down and snatching up a blaster rifle.
"I am not sure if I should blame Axel for not doing his job or Tarros for coming up with that stupid plan. Well, complaining is not going to do much so arm up and prepare for what ever the fly f&%+ this is. Gauntlet challenge to prove our worth maybe?"
Tarros gives Vyr a hurt look, then checks the charge on his new rifle. Empty. Stoopa chizk. It was a better idea than doing nothing... Gotta be a power pack around here somewhere.
Noticing some power packs in the corpse's belt, Tarros gathers up six. Loading one, he tosses the rest in his pack. As an afterthought, he also tosses a blaster pistol and holster in afterwards.
The timer hits zero, and a hidden door in the wall to the left of where you entered whisks open. A misshapen, battered and damaged droid stumbles out. It looks as if it has taken a lot of abuse over many years. It is a model of droid not easily recognizable. It speaks, it's tinny electronic voice sounding distorted and off.
'Query: Are you the meatsacks my master sent me to terminate?'
It stumbles a step closer to your group, raising a ancient, but wicked looking blaster cannon grafted into its arm, with an accompanying rusted metal blade on the other arm.
Oh crap, homicidal toaster.
"No, we're here for maintenance. The 'meatsacks' are upstairs." Anders lies desperately, hoping not to get vapourized.
Vyr quickly follows Anders's game plan.
"I have my tool kit here and I am a good mechanic. It looks like it has been a while since your last maintenance. We want you fully repaired for when the 'meatsacks' come. Mind if we start the repair?"
'Incorrect: You have not the look, nor the proper tools for maintenance. Fact: Maintenance has not been performed on this chassis for seven thousand six hundred forty-eight days, seventeen hours, twenty-four minutes and nine seconds. Hypothesis: You are a new group of organics here to challenge the tests set forth by Murdoc, Harbinger of Chaos and Slayer of twenty-three Demons. Fact: You are the first to attempt the challenge in twelve hundred sixty-five days, three hours, ten minutes and fifty-eight seconds. Prepare for your death.'
The cannon arm raises and the trigger is pulled. The unmistakable click of the firing mechanism falling on an empty blaster cartridge is heard.
'Error: Primary weapon unusable, resorting to secondary measures.'
The blade arm rises, but is not able to rise more than several centimeters, before a broken servo in the shoulder causes it to drop back to it's original position.
'Error: secondary weaponry disabled. Fact: Unit is not able to obliterate flesh-beings, this group will move on to the next stage of the challenge.'
With the end of its speech, it tries to turn and shuffle back into its storage area, but is unable to move more than a few steps before the servos in a leg fail completely and cause the droid to fall to the floor, the arm with the blade falling to pieces with the impact. Its photoreceptors flash brightly and die.
The door opposite the one you came in whisks open, revealing a cavernous room beyond.
"Well, that was anticlimactic." Anders rubs the back of his neck awkwardly with his left hand.
"I guess we move on then."
"Huh, well then... Axel want to go first? Let's just move on then."
Vyr take a look at the remains to see if there was anything salvageable. If not he will still just take the head because he thinks it looks cool.
With the end of its speech, it tries to turn and shuffle back into its storage area, but is unable to move more than a few steps before the servos in a leg fail completely and cause the droid to fall to the floor, the arm with the blade falling to pieces with the impact. Its photoreceptors flash brightly and die.
"Wait!" Axel speaks up, "We could still fix it?" Seeing that no one moves at this idea, Axel finally realizes the mechanic ploy was just a ruse. He stops looking for his wrench in his belt pack and hefts his blaster instead.
"Huh, well then... Axel want to go first? Let's just move on then."
"Alright then," Axel shrugs and steps through the open doorway into the room beyond.
Tarros follows, cautiously gripping his blaster rifle.
The large room beyond the door is very large indeed, and also very dimly lit. Just like in the previous room, the moment the entire party has entered the room, the door whisks closed. There is a single feature to the room, a pillar dead center in the room, with what looks like a screen and control console. Unlike the previous room, there are no corpses in this room, and besides a heavy layer of dust, the room seems undisturbed.
Vyr takes a look around the room to see if there is anything else of note. He sees only darkness, it takes his eyes a while to adjust to the lower level of light.
He walks towards the screen and console. Not touching anything but he takes a look to see what this thing possible is.
"You guys have any idea what to do here? You know, other then touch it and see what happens."
Tarros shrugs, remaining silent. He looks around to see if Vyr missed anything, panning his glowrod around.
"We could break it," Axel supplies unhelpfully.
Anders shrugs helplessly.
"Well, are we just going to stand around looking at it, or are we going to turn it on?"
As you approach the console, when you close to within 2 meters, it suddenly lights up, the screen flickers, with numerous dead spots, most of the screen remains blank. Visible in the dim light from the screen, you can see a booted foot poking out from behind the pillar, presumably connected to a body behind the pillar.
There are several words visible in the lit areas of the screen, at least it can be assumed they are words.
"Well, that did something. Anders, check out that body. I want to know what killed him. Axel, start push buttons till somethings happens. Failing something happening, punch it and if that doesn't work shoot it or bash your head against or something. Make shiny do something. Tarros, duck and cover in case this things explodes."
Vyr will start backing away from it. Gun ready to shoot anything or something.
Dutifully, Axel starts pushing some buttons with one hand, holding his blaster in the other. Without knowing what the words on the screen say, he tries to get the computer to change its redout to Basic.
"Anybody know what any of this says? Where's the language settings..."
"Oh hey, a body," Anders mutters sarcastically. "Whoopie."
Anders cautiously approaches the corpse, blaster tentatively leading the way.
Tarros is always ready to duck and cover. For now, he's more interested in the body than hiding, though.
He follows Anders around the pillar while Axel mashes buttons. "It's gotta be an old body. Probably just a skeleton now. This place seems ancient."
As Anders and Tarros round the pillar, a leg is visible protruding out the top of the boot, however, the leg is severed above the knee, and the withered and dry flesh looks like it was violently ripped from the body, which is nowhere to be found.
On the other side of the pillar, still at the screen, Axel is madly pressing buttons. When a greenish one is pressed, the screen starts to flash quickly, as if it were a strobe light, and you begin to hear sounds, sounds like the groaning of massive gears, spinning to move something into place.
A door whisks open, on the opposite side of the room, 40-odd feet away. The voice returns, 'Fifteen seconds, Murdoc awaits.' The wall opposite the open door begins to creak and groan, and then move quickly towards the opposite wall, at a pace of around 6 feet per second.
"Yep, old body. Or foot, at least."
Tarros spins around as the wall starts moving. "Um. Guys?" He runs back to the safe side of the pillar, then dashes to the door. "Someone wants us to go through here, I think."
On the other side of the pillar, still at the screen, Axel is madly pressing buttons. When a greenish one is pressed, the screen starts to flash quickly, as if it were a strobe light, and you begin to hear sounds, sounds like the groaning of massive gears, spinning to move something into place.
A door whisks open, on the opposite side of the room, 40-odd feet away. The voice returns, 'Fifteen seconds, Murdoc awaits.' The wall opposite the open door begins to creak and groan, and then move quickly towards the opposite wall, at a pace of around 6 feet per second.
Axel recoils from the machine as the screen goes berzerk, grabbing his gun with both hands and pointing it at the console. "Oh, cr*p guys looks like this thing was booby-trapped!"
Seeing the walls closing in, Axel charges towards the doors and shouts "Everybody! Head for the door!" He does not pause to look at what might be on the other side.
"Everybody! Head for the door!"
"Axel, that is the smartest thing I have ever heard you say. Through that door team!"
Vyr runs with the rest of the party.
"Ah, kriff." Anders starts running for the open door, legs pumping madly.
"Well, it's not like it's actually gonna crush us. The pillar's in the way," Tarros points out pragmatically. "I just think that the - wait, don't go in yet...."
Tarros's voice trails off as Axel barrels past him. "Aww poodoo."
As the wall approaches the pillar, the pillar begins to descend, but halts only a third into the ground, and a loud grinding noise fills the air. The wall collides with the pillar, shattering it and continuing past to slam into the far wall with a mighty collision.
The room beyond is brightly lit, or at least used to be. What remains of the lighting is a single glowstrip, faintly illuminating the room, which contains a single ancient pod. A low hum fills the air, as if there is a low amount of power being generated somewhere in the room. The pod contains a humanoid figure.
Vyr looks at the pod from a great distance.
"So before I ask Axel to go get a closer look at the sleeping thing, Taaaaaaaarroooooos... the pillar would stop the wall? The pillar build into the middle of the room would stop the death wall. So who ever designed this crushing wall trap clearly wasn't thinking because they put a pillar in the middle of the room. Generally, it is better to assume that the one making the death traps are smart enough to ensure that a pillar wouldn't stop the death wall! I like that you think but you over think causing you to make stupid mistakes. Never though I see the day that Axel becomes the smart one. Wait, sorry Anders, I forgot about you. You, Anders, are now the smart one. So as the new smart one want to take a look the the pod and try to find a console. Taros, prepare to shoot if that thing awakens and attacks. Axel, do what you do best and poke the sleeping... what did the voice call it? Ummm... Modock, Mordick, Murdoc... sure Murdoc. The best trap is the one you trigger yourself."
Anders stares blankly at Vyr. 'I'm the smart one? Sithspit and Nerf balls.'
"Dushne tuur vurel," He mutters as he moves towards the pod, blaster in hand. Anders examines the figure, trying to determine if it is injured or damaged in any way.
"Dushne tuur vurel" = "Worst day ever."
Anders disapproves (-2)
As the wall approaches the pillar, the pillar begins to descend, but halts only a third into the ground, and a loud grinding noise fills the air. The wall collides with the pillar, shattering it and continuing past to slam into the far wall with a mighty collision.
Tarros frowns, shrugs, and steps through the doorway before the wall arrives.
"So before I ask Axel to go get a closer look at the sleeping thing, Taaaaaaaarroooooos... the pillar would stop the wall? The pillar build into the middle of the room would stop the death wall. So who ever designed this crushing wall trap clearly wasn't thinking because they put a pillar in the middle of the room. Generally, it is better to assume that the one making the death traps are smart enough to ensure that a pillar wouldn't stop the death wall! I like that you think but you over think causing you to make stupid mistakes."
Tarros opens his mouth, about to explain that the pillar should have started moving sooner if it was going to fully hide and the wall wasn't designed to break the pillar or it probably would have done so in the thousand of years that it existed and that there was plenty of time to get to safety and it's not his fault the pillar moves slower now because of lack of maintenance but silently turns away and readies his blaster rifle instead, a disappointed look on his face.
He looks into the darkened areas of the room, trying to figure out whether the pod is the only feature, or if it is just bait.
Vyr looks at the pod from a great distance.
"So before I ask Axel to go get a closer look at the sleeping thing, Taaaaaaaarroooooos... the pillar would stop the wall? The pillar build into the middle of the room would stop the death wall. So who ever designed this crushing wall trap clearly wasn't thinking because they put a pillar in the middle of the room. Generally, it is better to assume that the one making the death traps are smart enough to ensure that a pillar wouldn't stop the death wall! I like that you think but you over think causing you to make stupid mistakes. Never though I see the day that Axel becomes the smart one. Wait, sorry Anders, I forgot about you. You, Anders, are now the smart one. So as the new smart one want to take a look the the pod and try to find a console. Taros, prepare to shoot if that thing awakens and attacks. Axel, do what you do best and poke the sleeping... what did the voice call it? Ummm... Modock, Mordick, Murdoc... sure Murdoc. The best trap is the one you trigger yourself."
Axel walks towards the center of the room a pace behind Anders, gun against one shoulder, hand on the trigger. As he passes Vyr he claps him on the shoulder. "Easy there, vod." he grins in a manner that just vaguely resembles a crocodile, "Little-guy 'just bein' a thinker, yeah? Thing was probably broken anyways." He drops the grin. "Should probably see what we've got waiting, yeah?" He turns away to examine the room, eyes straining a little in the poor light.
The entire room is covered in a thick layer of dust, it is clear that you are the first beings, possibly in millenia, based on the dust layer, to be present in this chamber. The pod seems to be the central feature of the room, with it being the center and all, and there is a table or sorts, with stuff piled upon it, placed against the back wall. What the items on the table are is hard to distinguish beneath the thick layer of dust.
As Anders and Axel approach the pod, a square, greenish glow begins to emanate from beneath the dust on the front of the pod. It looks like it is probably a display, though in much better shape than the one in the room before. If Anders and Axel approach to within arms reach of the pod, nothing bad happens. There is no visible exit to this room, except for the door you came in.
As Anders and Axel approach the pod, a square, greenish glow begins to emanate from beneath the dust on the front of the pod. It looks like it is probably a display, though in much better shape than the one in the room before. If Anders and Axel approach to within arms reach of the pod, nothing bad happens.
"What's this say then? Axel muses as he swipes some of the dust off the glowing tiles with his boot.
"Try to figure that out Axel. I am going to try and find out what is on that table." Vyr walks over to the stuff on the table, carefully. Blowing off the dust off.
Anders wipes away any dust that might impede his vision, and examines the occupant of the tube. As a precaution, he switches his blaster to autofire.
Tarros waits, blaster ready.
Upon the table is a pile of hardcopy books and manuscripts, most of which disintegrate upon Vyr's removal of the dust. A single volume survives, an ancient, leather-bound book, emblazoned with a strange crest. A cursory glance through the pages reveals the secret behind the book's survival: the sheets are not made of normal flimsiplast, as were the rest of the table's contents. The pages are instead made of some sort of dried animal skin, which, being quite thick, make this volume seem large, despite only having a couple dozen pages. Many of the pages contain drawings, with words and descriptions written in basic upon them. This book seems to detail the construction and hiding of this complex. The last page has been removed, and the page before is different from the whole of the book. Upon it is written several sentences.
It reads: "I will seal myself inside this chamber, for as long as it takes, until someone who is able to defeat the droid and grenade wall trap finds this place and revives me."
The next several lines are illegible, then continue: "If that empire were to rise again, under his rule, the galaxy is doomed. For those who find me here, the code to open the pod and revive me is MURDOC. I can only hope those who come are able to finish the work of the Outlander."
In the center of the room, Anders is furiously wiping dust from the pod. He reveals the glowing console, a keypad, and a small portal at the top, allowing for a view inside. The transparisteel is thick and grimy, not allowing for much of a view inside. What can be seen is an old man. Extremely old. The man has thin white hair covering the top of his head, and a thin white goatee on his chin. He has no apparent injuries, though the portal does not allow a view of anything but his head and shoulders. Anders is able to estimate the age of the man at what would be around 110 standard years, though his actual age is impossible to determine, without knowing how long the pod has been keeping him in stasis. A close inspection of the pod itself reveals that it is in good shape, and would still be able to revive the man, and a readout on the screen reveals that the man is in healthy condition, and would survive for a while after being revived. The pod clearly is not able to be moved, as it has been cast as a part of the floor of the room. If you decide to revive the man, it must be here.
"Mandokarla ruug'la shabuir," Anders mutters to himself, smirking at the old man.
"Meg narir'vi narir be'ruug'la yaimi?" Anders asks his comrades, forgetting his Basic in his excitement.
"Mandokarla ruug'la shabuir," = "Gutsy old b**tard,"
"Meg narir'vi narir be'ruug'la yaimi?" = "What do we do with the old neighbour?"
"The code word is Murdoc to awaken the old man. I vote we punch it in and say hello. Anders, would you do the honours? Also any idea what Outlander is? Ah, f**k it, we can ask him." Vyr will take the book with him. "Actually, I kinda want to enter it. Sorry Anders I am going to take this one. That way if it is a terrible choice you can blame me." Vyr enters the code word into the pod.
Tarros doesn't say anything, tired of being yelled at for his ideas. He grips his blaster tighter as Vyr moves up to input the code, glancing back at the door.