"Hey, we got this by literally ripping it off her, it told the bartender back there we were tough enough to tangle with her, and I imagine it will communicate that to the inner crowd too."
The SRO stop's Krizen with a gentle ouch of his shoulder, and raises a hand enveloped in feint yellow light. With a swipe of his hand the minor wound is sealed, and the blood wiped away magically. With a nod of satisfaction Soundbyte let's go of his shoulder and makes to follow.
The doors swing open and the party is presented with a disturbing sight. The room is open to the sky, and birds fly to and fro above. Drow lounge about on the floor on ornate chairs and cushions, while others writhe within barbed cages, looks of bliss on their faces. Every so often, a drow will hold up a chunk of flesh for a bird to eat, and the party walks in just as a crow makes off with a suspiciously humanoid eyeball. A bar stocked with vast quantities of liquor sprawls at the far end of the spacious room.
Krizen looks around at the various creatures - and their activities. "I don't think I'm drinking anything from this place... The last place was odd and a bit unclean, but this is bar... but this bar is very unique." At the last moment of his muttered comment Krizen remembers elves, including drow, have good hearing and adjusts his final words. "All the same, the bartender usually knows what's happening in any bar. Shall we go ask them about our legless thief?"
Bravo regards the somewhat gory scene with stony-faced silence.
"Yeah. The sooner we're out of here, the better."
Soundbyte beeps something that Nalun can recognize as Akitonian, crisp and clear unlike his stilted words in common. It seems he finds the scene before them to be rather unsanitary and unsightly, which is no real surprise. "Let us begin." He follows up, again with his audio clips.
Bravo looks around to see who might be the most knowledgeable of who they're looking for.
Bravo is just able to spot the bartender. Drow tend to be stealthy, and this ones powers of deception (manifested by standing behind the bar) nearly thwarted Bravo’s perceptiveness.
Bravo approaches the bar and motions to get the bartender's attention before they slink away.
"Looking for one of your regulars. Your doorwoman said you might have info on her whereabouts."
"Perhaps, it depends on who you are inquiring about?"
Bravo displays the cyber-leg again, plunking it down on the bar and giving the bartender a deadpan stare.
"The woman who was attached to this last night. We're looking to return it to her."
"Ah. You're speaking of Ilyania Zeizerer, I presume. You must've been formidable to get that from her. In any case, I may know something. There's an old tech mining route to the east of here, designation starts with a B or something. There's an abandoned drone maintenance station along it, and I've heard she's there."
Again not one to simply trust a drow's word to be given so freely, the SRO analysed her vocal patterns and micro-expressions for signs she may be lying, withholding information, or maybe something else entirely.
She seems to be telling the truth, just not especially knowledgeable about the situation.
"Thank you for your assistance." Soundbyte relays, in a voice tinged with the static of a particularly aged recording. He looks to his fleshy companions, curious as to if they planned to go there straight away or had something else in mind here.
"Ah. You're speaking of Ilyania Zeizerer, I presume. You must've been formidable to get that from her. In any case, I may know something. There's an old tech mining route to the east of here, designation starts with a B or something. There's an abandoned drone maintenance station along it, and I've heard she's there."
"Nah, just lucky. We'd heard about the drone station, just weren't sure where to start looking. Thanks," Bravo replies. "Anyone else here who might know more?"
”I don’t believe so. She never talked to many people who are here at the moment. Most of her associates would take far less kindly to inquiries about her.”
"Or at least until tomorrow?" That would work just as well." Krizen throws in. He is more than ready to be out of this place, and anything that speeds the process along is all the better.
"Rare as the possibility is that they will ask, I will to my best to keep it quiet."
Muffled screams, or possibly moans, can be heard from somewhere within the area.
"Point taken."
Bravo picks the leg back up and slings it over his shoulder.
"Let's get out of here."
"Sounds good to me. Let's go track down our missing drow before she hops away." Krizen's attempt at humor falls a little flat; his ears low to his head and his eyes trying to keep track of every being at once.
Leaving the bar, the party finds themselves with a lead. A bit of searching on the local infosphere reveals that all tech mining routes are designated with a code. Of the B routes, three are inactive, and only one has a drone maintenance station within any reasonable distance of the city.
The party is able to find a way to the route without too much trouble, and once they reach it they find about a dozen drow hawking low-grav buggy rentals. Though not tremendously cheap, it would doubtlessly make transport to, and any potential escapes from, the maintenence station much easier.
In particular, a muscly drow man in an old miners rig is renting a buggy for the surprisingly reasonable price of 50 credits.
Krizen looks around the group, flicking a single ear back. "I can put 20 credits forward... I'm a bit light though. It's probably worth having a quick way out if things go sour... "
"Convenient." Soundbyte beeped. Tilting his head the SRO got a different look at the buggy. "Suspicious?" For a machine, he himself wasn't particularly versed in assessing the condition of others.
He held out a hand and allowed a credstick to pop out fromt he center of his palm. "You have - ZERO - Credits on balance." He tilted his head the other way and withdrew the stick back into his hand. "Seems I'm tapped out boys."
"I've only got one loose cred at the moment, but I'll happily pay you boys back once we're off this rock," Bravo replies.
"All debts must be paid in full." Soundbyte replayed, with a sinister voice suggesting this one came from a thriller film.
"Oh, they will be, Soundbyte. They will be. Let's get that buggy and collect on the debt Ilyania Zeizerer owes us."
While he was referring to paying back Nalun for the buggy once he had more credits, he supposed that Bonar's interpretation was fine too.
The party hands over the credits and piles into the buggy. It is a small, open-air contraption, but seems fairly sturdy and well-built. As they leave the city, the vast expanse of Apostae stretches before them. There’s really not much on the horizon, just the flat, hard, and slightly metalic ground. The road, however, still manages to be bumpy. It’s about an hour’s drive to the road, and another half hour to the station. The building is old, built in an obviously outdated style. The road lears to a large metal garage door, and a path around the building leads to a smaller one on the side.
Bravo is the first out of the buggy, and he immediately draws his rifle.
"They'll know we're coming, so be ready for an ambush. That's how they got us last time."
"Good call. I'm ready; they'll have to do better this go-round." Krizen slips his pistol from its sheath and makes sure it is fully loaded, then exits the buggy himself.
Soundbyte gently closes his book after leaving leaving an attached ribbon between the pages. Though he already had the scripture of his Lady ingrained within his memory banks, there was something soothing about taking the time to read something within your own two hands. He deposited the book within the pack he shouldered and clamored out of the buggy.
Gripping his staff with one hand, he channeled just enough holy power to cause a circuitry pattern to light up. With the butt of his staff firmly planted inTo the ground he surveyed the structure with a critical gaze. "Showtime."
The party cautiously opens the smaller door. It slides open slowly, as if it hadn't been maintained in a while. A dimly lit hallway is revealed beyond it, papers and other detritus scattered about on the floor. The hallway continues before turning sharply to the right, along with doors on the right and the left.
Soundbyte takes the initiative to enter inside first, though he does this with care to pay attention to his surroundings.
Bravo follows, gun at the ready.
Krizen follows Bravo, keeping his pistol to the side. His ears twitch each way, keeping track of any sounds coming towards them through the small door.
The SRO takes some cautious steps down the hallway, approaching the door on the left. With his free hand Soundbyte places it against the frame and performs a rudimentary scan, checking for abnormalities or signs of danger on the other side.