"Let's press on as we are. Of course an eye up above would be a welcome added precaution..."
Kassiani doesn't want to push, but she seems to welcome to idea of an extra set of sharp eyes that can see farther than the trees right around them all.
"Yes, we must get to the caves. If this creature is unlucky enough to see us, Aurelian Fache will persuade it to look another way!" Aurelian declares.
After another hour of slogging through the jungle, Zay catches sight of the apparent cause of the jungle tracks: a pair of large oozes that are simply plowing their way through the jungle as they roll over the undergrowth.
Whether by chance or mindless instinct, the oozes seem to be heading straight for the rest of the party. Quite slowly.
"Big... globby... land-jellyfish-looking-things," Zay says with a shifting of mist and clouds that might be a shrug, showing less understanding of creatures that aren't to be found in the ocean. "Really slow. We could probably move off to the side of the trail now that we know where they are, wait for them to pass? Or, if we feel they need to be dealt with, maybe do it in a 'ranged strike, withdraw' sort of way...
"I don't know much about creatures like this. If you two are more scholarly inclined than me, maybe we could sneak to where you could see them, and you could see if you know anything about them that would make a difference? Like if they could spit globby bits at us, or something."
Zay's words are directed at Tatienne and Kass; they apparently don't necessarily feel Aurelian's in the competition for 'scholar.'
"If they are not bothering Aurelian Fache, he does not need to bother them," Aurelian says.
Kassiani stops and takes some time to watch the oozes very closely.
"Well, they can be troublesome, which isn't so apparent here outside. If it isn't too much trouble it might be best to deal with them now since we're all here together with them."
As the party closes in with the oozes to observe them, they can easily see that the coloration of the large masses is shifting as they come across various materials. Although it is hard to tell without coming closer, it even seems that their texture is shifting. Kassiani remembers some materials she had run across discussing the sparse evidence available of Azlanti experiments on altering organisms, many of which focused on oozes. These creatures are likely adaptive oozes: slimes with the ability to quickly defend themselves against damage similar to that they have experienced in the past. Between the recorded rumors she learned about and your brief observations, it appears that these adaptive oozes lack any significant acidic properties. The slimes do seem “aware” of your presence in whatever sense they can be, and highly so when they come within sixty feet of one of the party members. Given their behavior, it seems like they are using whatever senses they have to track the party.
"If they are tracking us, then, yes, Aurelian Fache will teach them that some things do not wish to find him!"
"They're slow moving, and not intelligent, at least in the traditional sense of the word. Maybe we should just go around them?"
"If they are adaptive to damage, so there are no easy weaknesses to exploit, we can let ignore them for now. Too much trouble and we have other things to do. If they're seriously following us around we can deal with it when it becomes annoying."
"Hmmm... it might make it hard to pelt them to death if they can adapt to damage like you say. We should easily be able to outpace them; hopefully they won't be able to follow our scent or the like. I agree with Kass that we should just evade them unless we want to figure out a good plan for handling their unusual advantages."
Zay does a few flips in the air to amuse themselves while they speak. "Want me to try and lead them off a little so we could pass on the road? Or we can just cut widely enough around them. Either's good."
Leaving the oozes behind to their own devices, the party presses onward toward the faceless temple. You arrive to find that little has changed since your last expedition. If the prior attempt at entry caused the temple's denizens to reinforce their positions, it must be further inside.
Your journey brings you back to the large courtyard which once would have been overseen by a tall bronze statue, which now covers much of the remaining complex.
Two entrances descend into the gloom of the lower levels of the complex.
Aurelian draws his sword and takes his place in front of the group, hoping his eyes will adjust . He needs no further preparation than the training he had for much of his childhood. The creatures in this cave had better prepare for Aurelian Fache!
He looks around for any sign that they have done so.
The party proceeds down the tunnel that Aurelian & Zay used earlier and arrives back at the scene of the prior battle. No new guards are posted, but the corpses of the Faceless have been removed. The destrachan corpse still litters the hallway.
Sturdy, ornate columns line this wide corridor, but cracks mar their surface & a few of them have fallen into pieces on the once fine marble floor of the cathedral. At the south end of the corridor, water spurts out of a broken fountain.
Kassiani approaches Aurelian before they go further.
"This is as far as you came last time? I can take the lead. My eyes are better for it. It was my job back in the days when I used to do this sort of thing."
"I can take rear guard," Taty says, confident that her reach weapon will allow her to engage any foes quickly. She quickly loses interest in a marching order however, when they enter the columned room. "Fascinating," she murmurs, making a mental note to return and sketch everything. But first...
"I've got some magics that can help us. Aurelian and Zay, you'll be better able to take advantage of surrounded enemies. Kassiani, you'll be better equipped for whatever comes your way. And, we'll have light."
Her casting finished, Tatienne takes to examining the columns and their surroundings in detail while the rest decide on a course of action. From Taty's perspective, any direction they went was fine - she intended to explore the entire complex.
"If I can trouble you for a touch of that wand, Miss Talbot, before we go in? Thank you. And that tactical training sounds... interesting. I'll have to remember it."
Staying in the air after Taty's help, Zay hovered above the last person in line.
Aurelian nods in gratitude. "Yes, Aurelian Fache has known people who trained this way in his school. He always was fine fighting one-on-one -- it was more fair that way! -- but he is happy to work with Zay and the others."
He nods as Kassiani takes the lead, following behind her as he looks for trouble.
Kassiani takes the lead and continues on forward giving herself some lead out in front of the main group after casting Guidance on herself.
Tatienne's inquisitiveness bears fruit as she discovers a secret door in the hallway. It opens to reveal a small chamber filled with jars & alchemical equipment. The room smells of salt and slime.
You also locate fifteen bottles that are filled with a viscous fluid that is not readily identifiable.
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"Again your eyes are keen," the puff of cloud whispers above Tatienne. "Interesting items. I don't know enough about-- bottles and beakers and bubbling brews-- to know what they are. Do any of you?"
The cloud puffs a little over the heads of everyone present, and 'speaks' softly. "This is where we fought that-- really awful beast. It tried to bring down the ceiling on us. We have various doors to investigate, and corridors. It looks like they moved their dead, so we should still expect an active force present. How about-- this door, over here?"
Zay floats to the door closest to the entrance they came in at, and hovers expectantly.
"These, yes," Taty says, putting the antitoxin, glue, armor ointment, blood block, and, sunrods aside, explaining each as she goes. "This viscous liquid, however... I don't know. If no one does, we should take it back with us, to have someone in town look over."
Pulling her spear above her head so the magic light affixed to her weapon shines all around, Taty moves towards the door and waits for the others to pass. "Agreed. We should expect some trouble. And duplicity, given the abilites of our foes."
The door off the hallway opens to a spacious office with finely crafted but timeworn marble furniture. A large strongbox occupies most of the northeastern corner of the room. Nothing else stirs the room.
"Aurelian Fache does not know what those are, but he is sure we can find out later," Aurelian says. "Leave it here for now, and we can reclaim it when we leave."
Aurelian pokes the chest with his sword, to make sure it doesn't act like the table did so recently.
Kneeling at the strongbox, Taty light moves her hands over it, searching its edges, lid, and lock. Once she is satisfied there's no hidden needles or spring-loaded darts, the explorer pulls a set of long-handled picks from her pocket and gets to work unlocking it.
Tatienne struggles with the lock on the chest, but isn't able to release the latch.
"I'll see what I can do."
Kassiani gets down on her knees and tries picking the box's lock.
Kassinai's initial efforts to open the chest prove similarly unsuccessful, but she sets in to work at it harder.
After trying multiple approaches, including some that seemed unlikely to work, Kassiani is rewarded with an appealing click as the lock to the chest comes undone. The contents are rather more sparse than the group might have hoped for, but inside you find a slender metal pole and a pair of slippers. Both items are readily found to have magical auras.
The smell of oil and grease fills this room, where armor-plated statue heads, limbs and torsos as well as gears of all sizes have been placed on stone shelves. A nearly complete body consisting of similar gears and armor plates lies face down on a stone table with a large key embedded in a clockwork mechanism in its back.
"There are no thieves here," Aurelian says with a quick look around. "We should continue on, to find our friends!"
"May I take a look at those?" Tatienne asks, holding her hand out for the pole and slippers.
"Fascinating," Taty murmers, running a hand over the clockwork creature as she passes by. "We'll have to come back here and look into this in more detail. These are parts for the creation of clockwork creatures. Did our enemies have any such creatures at their beck and call?"
Zay displays little interest in the gears and interlocking mechanisms. They are far more fascinated by the interplay of light and leaves than steel and copper. The cloud ripples with the suggestion of a shrug, and twists to follow Aurelian back down the main hall.
"Let me listen at the door," Zay whispers.
"No, not here, not that Aurelian Fache saw," the swordsman says. "We did see some mechanical creatures on Ancorato, though."
Despite their efforts, Kassiani and Tatienne are unable to determine how the two magical items they found function.
From a simple search of the room, you can determine that the lineup of clockwork components in the room would be worth a great deal, most especially to someone interested in clockwork constructs.
As she follows the others, Tatienne continues musing about the clockwork. "The one on the table - we might be able to activate it by winding its internal mechanisms with the key on its back. At any rate, there's a lot of value in that room - if we can find someone to sell it to. Let's make sure to grab everything we can before we go."
Hefting her spear in front of her, Taty waits with the others, ready to enter the next doorway.
Gears, hammers, shears, springs, tongs and plentiful other tools and components lie scattered on shelves and on the floor of this room. The room's main features are a large hearth with a darkened metal hood and exhaust duct above it, and an anvil placed in front of it. A single steel gear is lying on the anvil and right next to the anvil is a stack of metal tablets with cogwheel-shaped indentations of different sizes on them.
Aurelian shrugs again at another room that contains nothing but mechanical junk, eager to find his friends and the other kidnapped colonists.
"They are not here," he says, again poking the things quickly with his sword to make sure they are not fake tables, before trying to urge the others on to the next set of doors.
"You may be right, Aurelian. Perhaps they left - in which case, we need to find them before they cause more havoc in Talamandor's Bounty."
"I'd like to come back here as well, before we leave the building. There may be things of value. This room contains high-precision equipment and metal-casting molds intended for the maintenance of clockwork devices. I don't see any facility to heat the forge with wood, charcoal or other familiar sources. Intriguing."
Gripping her spear and giving the room one last look - such interesting questions raised! - Taty follows Aurelian.
The walls of this gear-shaped room have seven alcoves, each five feet deep and fitted with a horizontal metal shaft. Each of the hollow, cylindrical shafts has six notches cut around the outer edge. In three of the alcoves stands a trio of intricately sculpted metal statues, one in each alcove.
The statues appear to be clockwork constructs. One statue carries a halberd. A second has a set of pincers or tools for hands. The third appears to be holding a wand.
The central pillar of the room has a metal panel filled with hundreds of metal pins extending out of it a short distance.
"All of these metal men, and none of our fake men or real men (and women)," Aurelian complains. "They are hiding here, and they should come out, or Aurelian Fache will become quite vexed."
He scowls at the empty (of anything important) room and gestures for the others to head to the next room.
Nodding, Tatienne hefts her spear and follows Aurelian to the next room. Perhaps their enemy had burrowed deeper into the complex, but Taty suspected they had fled. Regardless, they'd best check every room to be sure.
Three fifteen-foot-tall cylinders of polished bronze each stand on a dais in this long, curved room. The bronze shells look sturdy and heavy, and sizzling arcs of lightning can be seen and heard dancing along the surfaces of the containers. Silvery lines set into the floor connect these containers, and tiny embedded crystals pulsate with a dim light every few seconds.
Zay drifts into the room with the others, peering around, and floating curiously at ceiling height as they observe the crackling cylinders.
"I have absolutely no idea what I'm looking at, but it does seem like lightning charges those. If we think we need it, I can protect us from that element."
"What is this?" Aurelian asks, momentarily distracted from his main pursuit by the bizarre scene in front of him.
"Wait!" Taty says, holding her hand out to stay Zay before they drift into the room. "You're hunch is sound, but don't go too close. Let me look over the room first."
Zay duly hangs back at Taty's warning, rolling in mid-air like a small, turbulent cloud.
After studying the apparatus in the room for a time, Taty believes that the three cylinders form a sort of power source. The silvery lines on the floor appear to use ioun magic to transfer the power around the room. Levers installed on the wall near each power units can likely be used to resume the operation of the devices.
It appears that the system is shut down and that an excessive charge has built up over time. Releasing the energy all at once would be dangerous. It is likely possible to jury-rig the ioun circuitry to drain the excess power more slowly.