You follow the blood into a larger room that appears to be some kind of workshop. 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 reddish-brown mud or dirt. Dust covers much of this room, save for a strangely clean swath between the doors, which leads to the strange humming device. The trail of blood seems to have vanished from sight.
”I do not know where ‘down here’ is,” the alien states simply as he moves more towards the front of the group. Many were injured, it would make far more sense to have someone in top condition moving toward the potential danger. ”I was forced into the box, by creatures calling themselves humans.”
"Well, um... 'down here' is the catacombs beneath the town we call 'Torch.' Does that ring a bell?"
"It is a mostly human town... but there are humans, and then there are humans, if you know what I mean. Can you tell me anything about the humans who did that?"
As the group enters the new chamber, Skivven looks around.
"Hm, no more blood," he says. "Maybe that's a good thing? Perhaps whoever it was had a chance to bind their wounds here."
"And what could this thing be?" Skivven looks over the humming device.
"Bell? No bells. What do bells have to do with this?" Enrathe paced around the room, looking at the various stones and dirt that were scattered about. Curious though he was, he knew very little about geology, and was relegated to mere looking a them as points of interest. "Torch is not a name for a town, it is a name for a burning stick." He then turns his attention towards the clean swathe of floor, and tries to determine what this means, and how recently it had been 'cleaned'.
"And humans look like humans. Ugly, not enough arms, pale. You know. I know little more."
Skivven is able to determine that the humming is coming from the sphere of reddish brown sphere of orgainic matter. The sound itself seems to be naturally occuring, not from the devices of the room.
After a little bit of observation, Enrathe finds that the floor is covered in some kind of thin, clear, hardened mucus like substamce. It is more prevalent around the sphere than at the edges of the room.
As the party searches the room, they hear a high pitched, androgynous voice. "Who are you?" it says. The source of voice is unclear. It seems to be coming from the very air around you.
Harrash spins around. "Who are you?" he interrogates the voice.
"I'm the one who lives here," the voice responds. It repeats it's question. "Who are you?"
"The one who was kept here," Enrathe speaks up, stepping towards the sphere of 'mud'. It seemed important, even if he had no clue what it was."What are you?"
"You say you were kept here, but I have never seen you before. Yet, you ask what I am. I should be asking what are you?"
"Fascinating!" Skivven says, looking up into the air, and around the room, trying to identify the source of the sound.
"I cannot see any object here that I would have thought was a living being. Unless you are this sphere over here..." Skivven goes over to peer closely at the sphere.
"...which does seem to be organic. Is this sphere... 'you'?"
"Yes. I have seen creatures like you before, but they did not stop to talk. What are you?"
"We are only here trying to find another like us that may have passed through here. He may be in trouble. We have no other intentions beyond finding this person, except perhaps also to find out why the Torch has been extinguished."
"Torch. I like this word. What is it?"
"It was an eternal flame that burned extremely hot and came out of these caves and shot into the sky."
"What is a sky?"
The Kasatha clenches his teeth and shuts his eyes, trying to contain the frustration before he exploded into a shower of blood and fire.
"UP." He groaned out.
"You said you saw creatures like us? Did this happen by any chance in the past week or so? We were looking for someone who went missing," Harrash asks.
Am I really talking to a ball? he wonders silently.
"Sky is up. I understand. What is a week?"
"Um... Seven days, and, ah, a day is a full rotation of the planet on itself." Trem finally break out of his shell. The last few moments were getting weirder and weirder. "My name is Trem. What is yours?"
"Name. I know this word, name. I...don't know...my name. Maybe I have no name.
"Well, do you know your parents? Your family? Your species?" Harrash asks.
"I am alone. I have always been alone. I'm hungry. The last people who came through here left me food. Do you have any food?"
"What kind of food do you eat? And who were the last people who came here?"
I don't know what it was, but it was red and good.
"Blood." The alien says bluntly. "It was blood." That would explain why the blood stopped at this room: whatever this thing was, it 'ate' it.
"Name. I know this word, name. I...don't know...my name. Maybe I have no name.
"Maybe we should give you a name? Hmmm..." Skivven rubs his chin as he looks the ball. "Well, how about Little Akiton? Because Akiton is a big red ball, and you're a small red ball..."
"Blood." The alien says bluntly. "It was blood." That would explain why the blood stopped at this room: whatever this thing was, it 'ate' it.
"What?" Skivven looks around with alarm. "Was it a liquid?"
"Uh... what happened to the people that gave it to you?"
They were taken by metallic creatures not like you thtough the doors ob the other side of the room.
They were taken by metallic creatures not like you thtough the doors ob the other side of the room.
Skivven looks at the door. "That way? They went that way?"
Skivven turns back to the others.
"It could be talking about Khonnir. That means that the machines took him through there. He could be hurt... we should hurry!"
Skivven begins heading towards the door.
"Wait! You're not going to just leave me alone are you? You're the first people I've ever had to talk to! And I'm still hungry!"
"Of course it was robots. I knew from the beginning that those vile creatures were responsible for all of Torch's problems. We'll be back with robot guts for you, Akiton," Harrash says confidently, and heads towards the next room. He didn't know what Akiton was, but he somehow managed to empathize with its loneliness, even if he was kind of similar to the robots that got on his nerves.
Enrathe purses his lips beneath his scarf, before finally breaking his protracted silence. "We can and shall return. A friend is in danger." This 'Khonnir' was not his friend. Yet. But friends were good to have, and the earnest desire of these new people to help this... ball of mud and to even humanize it gave him a hope that perhaps these interactions between them need not be purely practical.
"Wait! You're not going to just leave me alone are you? You're the first people I've ever had to talk to! And I'm still hungry!"
"Don't worry, Little Aki. We'll be back soon. You are interesting to talk to as well."
"But our friends may be in trouble and need out help."
You leave the room with Little Akiton and through the opposite doors. The trail of old blood begins again immediately past the sliding entrance. The red path leads to the left doorway.
Harrash follows the blood trail all the way through.
Enrathe stays by Harrash's side at the head of the group, all four axes ready.
When you enter the room, you all see a distinct robot made of bluish grey metal. It stands upon three legs, like the drone you fought a day or two ago at Khonnir's place, but this one seems to be in much better shape. Its three arms tend to a bloody mess of sheets atop a buzzing and sparking medical table. When you enter, it looks up with its single, large eye, and it turns toward you, and it raises a hand coming from the center of its chest, with fingers ending in needle like appendages filled with a green liquid.
Everybody go! I so don't expect this to last long.
"Ha! What did I tell you? It's a robot," Harrash notes with satisfaction, and runs towards it with his sword.
Harrash cuts through the creature's metallic body.
Skivven runs into the room and north along the wall.
"I remember these things! You can deactivate them by hitting them right... here..."
Skivven shoots, but the bolt misses the creature entirely.
"Okay, not there. But you can see the spot I was aiming at, just next to the silver thingy..."
Arrenopos moves up and attacks the robot, hoping to end it before it can harm anyone.
However, like Skivven, his plans and reality don't coincide.
Trem tries to see the spot that Skivven mentioned. "Next to the silver what?" He raises his crossbow and sends a bolt flying hoping he figured out the right spot. "I don't think I got the right spot."
Enrathe takes a short hop towards the machine uses the momentum to bring all four of his weapons down upon the strange, metallic thing.
"Less talking, more fighting!" He chides as he settles back into a limber posture, ready to move if their foe (whatever it was) tried to strike him.
Enrathe's axes slices through the body of tripedal machine. Metal and wires are flung about as the alien shreds the robot. In retaliation, it lunges toward him with the needle fingered hand.
Enrathe feels the sharp fingers plunge into his chest. For a second, he feels like he is transported back to the experimentation table as liquid from the hollow fingers is pushed into his heart.
[ooc]In addition to the 8 points of damage, Enrathe also takes 2 Str damage.[/dice]
Arrenopos steps to the side to flank with Harrash and attacks again.
This time he lands a solid blow.
Skivven shuffles over a bit, reloads the crossbow, and takes another shot.
"There! That spot! Well... almost."
Before Skivven can get his shot off, Arrenopos decapitates the robot. It wobbles on its three legs before collapsed into a pile sparking wires and hot metal.