Shall we go down the trap door, then?
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Yukarii gave Marek a smile of encouragement as he spoke and was about to respond when the loud bang occurred. Her head whipped in the direction of the room distracting her train of thought. After realizing that it wasn't anything to be concerned about Yukarii looked back at Marek and said, "When there is only death and no life, that is when you should worry about death. In this place it is seemingly the natural death of all things in a made place. There does not seem to be unlife here so I do not think that we need to worry. Still..." Yukarii looked around nervously, "the fact that so many died so painfully should have left some spirits of some kind. We should be cautious of haunts, ghosts, or other spooks and undead."
When Zendara found the trapdoor and inquired if they should proceed Yukarii looked to the professors in charge and said, "It might be wise to prepare a base camp before we go much farther."
That's probably a good idea.
Edwin said, "Maybe set up base camp, and we explore further? I'm ready to go down the trap door."
Dr Munroe replied, "Setting up camp is likely a good idea. Let's have a look at this trap door though, would be good to know what we're camping near!"
It takes a bit of effort to remove the remains of the spider and the purple dust it disintegrated into when touched. The trapdoor had a circular wheel which when rotated retracted four thick retaining bolts. The door itself was made of more of the strange metal and it took three of you to lift it up to reveal a long square shaft headed straight down into the gloom (you can't see the bottom). There is a metal ladder attached to the side although the rings are clearly designed for Githyanki and are too widely spaced for your comfort. A smell of ozone wafts up, and you hear the distant sounds of powerful electrical discharges.
Nodding in agreement Yukarii waited while the room was cleaned and, when the door was opened, said, "I do not think sending a light down is a good idea Munroe-sensei. Let me look first," she paused and looked at the group, "unless anyone else can see in the dark." Yukarii focused a moment and called up Yukaari to help protect her by manifesting ectoplasmic shield that floated nearby.
Yukarii moved closer and peered down into the darkness of the hole. With her superb eyesight Yukarii saw the landing and the tunnel off of it. "Fifty feet below us there is a landing on the east side and a tunnel off of it." She continued to look to see if the hole went further than just the landing.
Edwin looked down the shaft and commented, "I can see it too. I'll go down first. Maybe I should rope up."
He tied a rope around his waist and gave it to someone strong, before descending. The climb down was very awkward for him and he had to proceed slowly; the rungs were far apart even for a human, let alone someone of his stature.
Zendara watches all of this happen and says to Doctor Munroe
Seems like if we were going to rest that all of those retaining bolts would have kept us safer than opening that thing up.
She looks disappointed and very tired, but trying to push away her fatigue, she activates her ioun torch and prepares to follow Edwin, should he indicate that it was safe.
It takes half an hour for the fatigue to wear off but all you feel considerably better now the air is circulating. None of you can see a deeper side tunnel, but whether that's because there isn't one or because it's out of darkvision range you can't tell.
Dr Munroe replies with a grin, "I don't see any reason why we can't close this again, we didn't break anything it's just rather heavy to move that's all."
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Edwin descended, with the aid of his rope.
Once he got down about 30 ft he said, "Hold on, looks like a trap here! Let me try to disarm it."
He took out his tools and set to work.
If Edwin says it is safe, Zendara follows him down.
Hard to tell with darkvision's limited range but from the acoustics you get the impression the shaft leading down is very deep. Certainly Edwin can't see the bottom after descending down a fair way.
Edwin's sharp eyes easily spot the trap and he sets about disarming it. After some time he determines that the trap has an optical trigger, breaking beams of light he can only just see. He manages to jury rig a series of mirrors to allow somebody to safe pass. This was a temporary measure at best, the mirror needed precise alignment and he didn't have a good way of attaching them to the wall and they kept on shifting under gravity.
Edwin called up, "I've jury-rigged a bypass, but it won't hold for long. You can come down past the trigger, but I'll probably have to redo the bypass when we come back up. Don't waste time coming down past the trap!"
He continued down the ladder, to give the others space to get past the danger.
Zendara goes down after him.
The stench of ozone and the sounds of electrical discharges get stronger as you head past the trap. You safely make it down to the landing and glance down the corridor, it goes about twenty feet before ending in a mirror door. There is a label in the Githyanki language and another combination lock.
"Hmm. I believe this could be roughly translated as 'Generator hall 3'."
"I've got to say, a quick look inside might be interesting.", at which she whips out the thieves' tools.
"Got it!"
Xindyra stashes the tools and the door opens.
"Wow, would you look at that, this place is massive. Sure it was massive outside, but still..."
Zendara just nods as though agreeing with Xindyra's conclusions even though she really has no idea and feels a little lost.
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Edwin confirmed Xindyra's translation. Once she had the door open, he looked inside the huge hall holding rows of caged lightning elementals.
As they went down into the Yukarii was careful to do as instructed to avoid the trap and when she reached the landing went with her companions down the passageway.
Edwin told his comrades, "I..I think can see humanoid skeleton in one of the cages! It seems to be holding something in its hands, and if I'm not mistaken, is wearing a ring. Getting whatever it is out of the cage will be a challenge, given that the bars are spaced 4 inches apart. And there's also the small matter of the lightning elemental to contend with."
He moved towards the cage for a closer look.
Zendara offers to use mage hand to get the ring out, but she is wary of disturbing the skeleton in case it has another of those clear boxes that might be an explosive, so she assists Edwin in taking a closer look before doing anything else.
Up close the electric fields from the elementals make your hair stand up on end, despite the metal cages. Whatever the skeleton was clutching has been melted and deformed by the elemental but the silvery-ring shines on a blackened finger bone as if it was as new as the day it was forged.
Zendara uses Mage Hand to try to pull the skeletal finger through the bars of the cage.
Edwin looked to see what the deceased person was holding. He waited to see if Zendara's attempt would be successful; he studied the elemental in the cage, trying to judge whether it would attack if he tried to reach in to the cage.
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Zendara tries manipulating the skeleton's hand with her conjured servitor but it has no effect. Edwin was pretty sure the elemental was itching to attack anyone who got close, not deterred by this Zendara tried using a small grappling hook to fish for the skeleton. It took a few attempts but eventually she snagged it and dragged it towards the edge of the cage. From there it was a small matter to get the skeleton's hand poking out of the cage and to claim the ring.
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With generator hall #3 at your backs you look down and the ladder descends further into the inky darkness further than you can see with darkvision. To the relief of the humans among you (who are effectively blind otherwise) an eerie electric blue glow washes out onto the ladder well now the mirror door is open, accompanied by the now distant sounds of electrical discharges. There are no other light sources unless you bring them.
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"This thing just goes on and on. I wonder how long we..." *sees hatch*
"Hello secret door! Now we're getting to the mystery stuff again. If only it were a little closer."
[Dice]1d20+10+1d6{/dice]
Edwin could almost make out what Xindrya was talking about. He asked for more details so he could try to understand where exactly this secret door was.
Zendara sees another landing 50 feet below, but nothing at all where Xindyra indicated. She nods wisely anyway, hoping Edwin could find whatever it was that she saw, and helps with the rope.
Edwin roped up and asked his team-mates to lower him down to the concealed door. As he got closer, he spotted the recessed key pad; when he reached it he tried to find the right key combination.
Decoding an alien keypad while dangling from a rope wasn't the easiest of tasks, still Edwin managed it. Once he had entered the right code there was loud click and a walkway a foot wide and half an inch thick made of metal smoothly came out of the wall and the concealed door swung open to reveal a narrow corridor which ran in the local "north" direction along the longest axis of the nautilus.
The corridor extended for twenty yards or so before ending in a plain door with a plaque covered in wired alien script. There is another keypad.
Once the walkway came out and they could let go of the rope, Zendara started down to help, but blundered and almost missed the walkway, and was too distracted by her near-death experience to concentrate on anything else.
"Hmm. I believe this would indicate 'bridge, authorized personel only'."
It took her a while longer than previous times, but Xindyra's curiosity driven mind kept going for the result.
Just before the team goes in, though, "Hey, do you guys hear that too? There's this sound..like our ship's maneuver fans. Odd, considering this vessel is dead in the water, sort to speak."
Edwin swung into the opening and untied the rope holding him. He moved in to examine the door that Xindyra was examining.
Edwin couldn't decipher the script, so he accepted her translation.
"I can hear it too! And look — very strange tracks on the floor. A series of regular scratch marks."
Are the scratch marks recent? ... They can't be, can they? How could something still be running in here after so long?
... although, well, I take that back. Obviously the air circulation is still working, so parts of this ship are still functional. I hope no creatures though.
She trails off lamely, a little nervous, and still smarting from not being able to see the things that her friends were seeing.
Professor Dexter kneels down to examine the marks and remarks, "Impossible to tell how fresh this is, still whatever made it feels mechanical somehow. We've not seen any signs of life yet, but lets not let let our guards down."
Xindra eventually managed to enter the right combination and the locking mechanism clicks as the bolts disengage.
Edwin raised his glowing scimitar to light the way, and opened the door.
She will wait with her bow drawn until hearing from Edwin that it is safe, at which point she will follow him in.