Spending three more hours on research reveals an interesting tidbit of information: a little crypto-chain that was left on the infosphere, containing key codes for Villyth's warehouse.
The key also contains floor-plans of the warehouse, as well as the existence of a second floor 100 feet underground. It's apparently not so well-known, as its layout was not uploaded to the infosphere. ([ooc]Floormap is on the map)
Sirion find some recent surveillance drone recordings. The footage shows there is usually just one guard stationed at the main entrance of the offices, and there might be three more drow inside.
The floorplan shows that the mainframe is located in the northwest part of the upper floor. The system is air-gapped, and cannot be hacked remotely. ()
Finally, Buzz manages to find a log file of a communications record, and shows that Villyth usually has an entourage of about half a dozen lower-ranking drow. A few weeks ago, her lieutenant, a drow named Malindeil, bought more than a dozen half-orc mercenaries. These mercenaries have received some basic training, but Villyth has already killed a few of them out of frustration.
<3 hours left>
Ceobarn's hireling is still waiitng next to the company car when the group returns, cleaning her sniper rifle with amazing speed. Boss is getting impatient. You have plan?
Villyth’s warehouse is located within a vast pressurized dome. The dome contains several other buildings, some of which can be used as sniper perches within roughly 120 feet of the entrance. Ceobarn's signals she is willing to assist the party while they clear the warehouse. You point, she says I shoot
"Sounds fine. I enjoy vehicles like this one. Much more thrilling than a spaceship."
"Always game for a new experience," Keskodai grins, though he fastens Chk Chk's canister securely to the inside of his cloak. "I'll tell you all about it later."
The ride to the warehouse takes only thirty minutes, as the general rule of traffic seems to be 'yield to a vehicle belonging to house Zeizerer'. It's a very efficient traffic rule.
Villyth’s warehouse has a spacious office complex on the ground floor. A 10-foot-high chain-link fence surrounds the building, with 20 feet of space between the fence and the building.
Before you even notice, the drow woman has disappeared from view.
The entrance is guarded by an armed drow. The party has not drawn his attention yet.
"I would rather not resort to violence but nor am I a skilled liar. I've heard a fight is sometimes inevitable." Keskodai mulls over the situation. "If we want to surprise him, I could try to make him drop his weapon. Then one of you strong types or the elemental could grab it."
"Happy to go talk to him, and maybe help him drop a weapon"
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"That sounds like a plan Iseph, that you talk to him and while you do so I summon the elemental behind him. When that appears Keskodai can force him to drop his weapon."
N Tiny outsider (elemental, extraplanar, earth)
Hailing from the Elemental Plane of Earth, earth elementals are ponderous and obstinate
+1; darkvision 60 ft.; blindsense (vibration) 60 ft.; Perception +3
6
11; 12
+3; +1; +0
immune to Bleed, critical hits, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning; elementals are unflankable.
20 ft.; burrow (earth glide) 20 ft.
slam +5 (1d6+3 B)
+3; +1; +0; −3; +0; +0
Acrobatics +3, Athletics +3
Terran.
An earth elemental gains a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls if both it and its foe are touching the solid surface of a planet or an asteroid. If an opponent is airborne or waterborne, the elemental takes a −2 penalty to attack and damage rolls. These modifiers apply to initiating or resisting bull rush combat maneuvers.
Isephs would be able to approach the guard, but there's a 10-foor-hight fence separating him and the guard.
A short commlink message appears from Ceobarn's sniper aide: In position
"You are right, so maybe an obvious android would have a reason to be lost, especially if here to perform some menial task"
Buzz moves along the perimeter, and finally finds an open gate in the fence opposite of a double door. On the door, a sign reads “Freight only! Customer entrance on the left.” ()
The gate is out of sight of the guard at the 'customer entrance' ()
The double door is locked, and would require a feat of engineering to open ()
"Happy with the side door, less noisy"
Buzz manages to open the door without making too much noise. The door opens into a corridor, and directly behind () there seems to be a freight elevator. It requires a key card to operate. (
A corridor leads further into the complex.
"Let me see if I can override that." Iseph gets to work on the card reader system.
Computers
Buzz unscrews the control panel, giving Iseph access to the digital interface controlling the elevator door. Iseph hacks the console with ease, leaving the elevator to do his bidding.
The elevator descends smoothly, in what seems to be several floor. Suddenly, heralded by a puff of yellow vapor and the smell of rotten eggs, a small, mostly humanoid creature appears in the elevator. Her little leathery wings flap furiously to keep her airborne. She has spiraling horns and an ominous tattoo on her chest. “Now who might you be? You are a bit—how should I put it—lacking in the pointy ears and blue pigment departments. Are you Villyth’s new slaves or something else?”
This creature is a quasit.
The tattoo is the symbol of Andirifkhu, a demon lord of illusions, knives, torture, and traps.
The way the creature talks about Villyth shows a lot of contempt for the wayward Zeizerer drow.
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Buzz eyes the creature cautiously.
"The fact that you haven't tried to raise the alarm speaks volumes. We are here to collect something which doesn't belong to her, which she purloined from people from whom she should have known better than to have tried to steal from. You wouldn't happen to know where we might find this recently 'acquired' cache of weapons, would you?"
"Further to what my friends have pointed out, you lack blue paint and pointy ears yourself. You one of Villyths slaves, or something else?"
The quasit looks at Buzz and Iseph with something of surprise I’m Ipqik, and I’m supposed to keep track of everything Villyth steals and sells, but it’s quite hard! How do I know you’re telling the truth? it says.
"Another demon-worshiper. This one a minor demon itself, a quasit. Be careful, they're tricky liars."
Aloud, Keskodai says to the quasit, "You don't seem too happy with Villyth yourself, Ipqik. How can you trust us? Well, we're your enemy's enemy, for one thing. By that vein, we could spirit you away along with our weapons. Unless you'd prefer continuing to work for this drow...?"
Okay then, the little demon says, then turns to the topic of guns shipments:
Oh, I’ve seen guns, lots of them! But the stupid drow and their half-orcs never put them where I tell them to! And Villyth blames me for it! I don’t know where your guns are.
He explains roughly how the warehouse works, There's a forklift robot, it moves inbound wares through this elevator and place them onto the nearest pallet rack or under the mezzanine. From there, the drow move the containers deeper into the warehouse. Fast-moving wares get placed onto the nearest racks, while items in long-term storage are farther away from the elevator. From there, outbound goods are moved to the packing area, which is west of the elevator. When the goods are ready to be delivered, the drow move them into the elevator.
"Thank you for your help, my friend. We will do our best to help remove the annoyance."
You mean apart from the daisy and teddy bear shipments? Villyth trades in guns. She’s fond of her guns—likes to steal ‘em and sell ‘em. And shoot ‘em. And she likes her knives and traps. Likes to cut and torture little old Ipqik. ‘You heal so fast I have to cut you twice as much,’ she says! I was sold to Villyth and can’t leave as long as she lives. The creature drops a silence, then adds with a smirk What a pity it would be if she were to die...
Well over a hundred feet long, this immense warehouse is covered with rows of thirty-foot-tall pallet racks. Each of the racks has a secondary floor fifteen feet from the ground level. The ceiling here rises to an impressive forty feet in height.
Iseph draws her weapon and follows Buzz around the warehouse...
Keskodai draws his sonic pistol as he tags along, hoping he needn't use it.
The mezzanne offers a raised metal platform that rises fifteen feet off the floor of the warehouse. Steel support columns rise to the roof from here, keeping the weight of the metal platform from collapsing.
Buzz walks past the mezzanine, and is about to turn into the long central corridor.
Iseph follows, scanning the heights warily...
Stealth
Iseph takes a vantage point, and get a good view of the warehouse. Pallet racks and the aisles between them make up the largest part of the warehouse. There are dozens of containers on the shelves of the pallet racks. The storage area is incredibly disordered, and many of the containers are sitting on the floor between the racks, blocking some of the aisles. Close to the elevator, container are marked in Drow script, which read '01' to '04'.