"Feel up to the task Eitylen?"
Brother Cyrus wracks his brain for a peaceable solution and addresses the construct once more.
"Actually...excuse me! Could we retrieve the corpse over yonder? We would like to deliver it to it's next of kin. That shouldn't be a problem as it was not a part of the exhibit that your creators originally commanded you to guard...is it? If the rose that grows from Lord Boddam's corpse and is part of the body, that would make him the cultivator yes? As he has passed away, would that flower not belong to his next of kin?"
The creature remains silent for a few seconds, then a short screech rings in your ears...
Brother Cyrus produces a tag with the Pillowstone crest that he had taken from the bodies previously, originally intended to be returned to the man's family.
"If you look at the crest embedded on Lord Boddam's armor, you will find that they are one and the same. I have also been collecting the crests of those who served with him to return to their families." Brother Cyrus offers the tag to the creature while bowing slightly.
Please gods watch over me.
The guardian decapitates Brother Cyrus with a single slash of its green sickle
The guardian stares with its unblinking eyes at the tag held by Brother Cyrus... The light they emanate turns blue-ish for a couple and then go back to yellow. It clanks and screeches again.
"Analysis indicates --- matches --- pattern previously found --- subject's --- ---. Veracity of --- claim deemed acceptable."
After its "words" are said, the creature moves forward, harmlessly but firmly pushing away anyone who stands in its path.
"No need to push!" says Eitylen, but his words are ignored.
The guardian stops only a couple feet away from the dead man's corpse and "kneels". It then finally uncovers one of its arms, revealing a large, extremely sharp sickle that glows with green radiance.
Amazingly, the creature moves its sickle with precision and grace you wouldn't expect to see in most elves, much less in a creature this size. It carefully cuts and removes a shriveled heart with a rose firmly rooted in it, and delicately holds the organ in one hand while using its sickle to pierce the corpse through its chest and lift it as a butcher's hook would lift a dead animal.
It then walks back and carefully deposits the man's heart in Brother Cyrus' hands, then drops the corpse at his feet.
"You are issued responsibility over --- property and funerary rites."
The mysterious creature bellows one last long screech and walks away.
"You --- leave inner exhibit immediately. Access to the outer exhibit --- allowed --- until 1800 hour. Failure to leave either exhibit in the allotted time will --- in immediate execution. Harming or forcefully removing any specimen from the exhibit --- --- in immediate execution. Defiling --- exhibit will result --- immediate execution. Attacking --- gardener or --- will result in --- execution. You will --- --- watched for the remainder of --- visit."
Brother Cyrus breathes a sigh in relief.
"Someone please get me a vase for this." The priest looks very uncomfortable holding a heart in his hands.
Eitylen brings one of the vases and belljars given to you by the thriae.
"What did it say? What do we do now? Should we take him with us?" Eitylen says with a mix of excitement and nervosism, while pointing at the corpse at Brother Cyrus' feet.
"We leave and bring the body with us. It said if we touch or do anything here, it'll execute us. Well do anything but look basically. It's a viewing garden of some kind. In any case it's best if we left as soon as possible..."
"Lord Boddam, it appears your quest was not in vain after all." He says grimly.
Tightly held in the man's hands, Jaazkara finds a silver locket with the Pillowstone cresr carved on it. She notices a hidden pin that when pressed causes the locket to open, revealing two small paintings: one of the dead man when still living and another one of a brown haired lady in a white dress.
"Then let's leave. Hopefully Pillowstone didn't die while we were gone."
Jaazkara carefully picks up the fallen lord's body, lifting him with a reverence seemingly uncharacteristic of one who regularly consumes the corpses of her beaten foes. Realizing her enchanted container is full of weapons and armor, she hoists the man to her shoulders and begins moving.
"Yes, lets." Cyrus will start heading back where we came from.
You backtrack your way to the underground tunnel and then follow the path leading ever downward... As you go forward, the temperature rises very quickly and orange light takes over the place...
You quickly notice many, many cogs, gears and other pieces of metal all around you. There are chains and metal beams fused to the walls and ceiling as well.
Soon you reach a large iron gate glowing red with heat. Just getting close to it is enough to know touching it is certainly a bad idea. As you ponder what to do next you hear a cold, emotionless voice talking to you. In the shadows, partially fused to the ground and wall, you see a mechanical man staring at you with a single red eye. The construct lacks not only one eye, but also its left arm and both legs, but doesn't seem bothered by it. It speaks to you in an unknown language. Luckily, the effects of Brother Cyrus' potion aren't gone just yet.
They seem to get agitated whenever it seems you're about to pick a fruit, flower or herb... Your instinct tells you to avoid doing so.
"Oh. This ways barred guys. Artificers only apparently. I wonder if there is another exit somewhere. I'd rather not swim again."
Jaazkara takes this opportunity to mention the strange beetles that seemed to not want her to pick anything in the garden area, and asks them to look at them with her when the party is passing back through the area.
"Perhaps they are how the Guardian keeps tabs on the place when it is away..."
"What marks an authorized artificer?"
The mechanical man replies slowly...
"Need some kind of insignia or warrant by whatever ancient government held sway over this place. Perhaps we'll come by another time to explore."
Brother Cyrus heads back up the path and has Eitylen use the wand of Air Bubble on everyone plus the flower.
Eitylen only manages to get one charge out on the belljar before the wand fizzles.
"Well that's never happened before. Damn." The elf curses.
You backtrack your way to the chamber filled with poisonous sewer gas... Without the wand to shield you, the smell of rotten eggs is overwhelming. Knowing that breathing this gas at this concentration for more than a couple seconds could be fatal, Frederick suggests you hurry up, hold your breath and dive, which you do... All the while hoping the wand's effects won't wear off before you reach the other side, exposing the moon rose to the gas and/or water.
Luckily, the magic lasts long enough... You find yourselves back at the rust-red "lake". You follow your own tracks to find your way back, eventually reaching the clearing filled with corpses of humanoids and giant wasps.
The giant horned chameleons is still in the same place you last saw him. It's still slowly chewing giant wasps. Once it notices your presence, its eyes make a long, slow blink... But the creature shows no other emotion.
Eitylen uses the wand of Animalspeech on Jaazkara.
"We should stop by that giant village to resupply. Also I think the first giant said he'd give a nice reward for those fish you caught."
Jaazkara gathers up a few wasp corpses, trying to entice the giant lizard with food and appeal to its baser instincts.
The animal slowly follows Jaaskara... Occasionally using its retractable tongue to steal one of the dead wasps.
"Greetings once again, cousin. We have returned. May I join you?" The lizardwoman squats low to the ground and picks up a mangled wasp corpse, considering its poison and her intentions. Despite her brain's protests, she takes a crunchy bite of exoskeleton to try and foster trust between her and the giant lizard.
"We leave da swamp now. If you come, I can promise you abundant food, and a variety of it. Maybe dose bugs getting bland? I am Jaazkara, and I will see to it dat you are well-cared for if you come wid us. Surely you would like to eat different type of bug...?"
The creature looks intrigued, but not completely convinced.
"New food is good... But all food is food. Not enough to leave. I need a nest. And safety. And growth. And a mate, when mating season comes. Can you find those?"
Not willing to lie to the creature, Jaazkara answers honestly.
"I understand your concerns. I can provide for you steady food, and materials and location for a nest. While in my care I will let none harm you, or your mate when you have found one. As for growth, you will no doubt be able to eat as much as needed to get bigger. But a mate...I can only promise to do all in my power to help find a suitable...subject. Perhaps you know of my people's village? You would be safe dere, and a welcome addition I tink."