The halfling approaches the panel carefully, checking it for traps.
I wonder what is hidden here?
If he finds none, he carefully opens it.
Fenna waits on guard while Vexas does his work. She stays near the entrance they used in case more skum are coming from the direction of the first two they encountered.
While she waits she ponders the clues they have so far about the original purpose of the place, trying to fit them to together into a picture of the what he work there was like.
”Spindlelock Research Facility: A Division of the Spindle Solution - Making Tomorrow’s Humanity Today. Authorized Personnel Only”
"Ours is the Great Work to see humanity achieve its greatest potential"
People with jeweled halos... Magical enhancements for everyone?
When Vexas takes his first step into the room, his internal trap alarm goes off. He notices a compartment above each door on the east and west walls. Each compartment houses a hidden crossbow. He also notices to the right of the entrance doors, inside the room, a small hole. Could this be a key hole? The Halfling quickly steps back outside the room before any crossbows shoot.
Fenna tries to recollect anything she has read regarding Azlanti culture and magic, but nothing comes to mind regarding the Spindle Solution or jeweled halos. She knows that before Earthfall, the Azlanti Empire was quite advanced, but many of their accomplishments were lost to time and catastrophe. She does realize that they were so focused on the door, that they did not investigate what is behind the illusionary walls.
Whoa. This place is trapped.
He points to each of the holes in turn, looking to see if his companions note what he's indicating.
Hidden crossbows.
He looks around at the group for someone who can bear his weight and lands on... Fenna!
Fenna, would you mind if I could ride on your shoulders for a moment? Perhaps I could disarm these traps and open safe passage.
Fenna's eyes widen. "You mean into the room, where there are crossbows that will shoot us? Um... Hang on, before we do that we should take a better look behind those illusory panels in here. We never really did that you know."
Fenna goes to do just this, praying she'll find a ladder tucked away somewhere.
I mean yeah... but carefully though. I do want to disarm them after all. I can see how they're triggered. Oh, oookaaay. Illusory panels first. the halfling concedes.
Malakar is growing a bit annoyed at all the stopping and waiting when it is clear foes are present and could be preparing for our appearance.
"Go ahead and look. I will hold Vexas. No sense waiting around doing one thing at a time."
Malakar will kneel in front of the panel and offer his shoulders to Vexas. He will also do his best to hold his shield toward the pointed out traps.
Brannart will go with Fenna to look behind the illusionary walls. He will go slow (making active Perception checks on every 10' square) but regards it as unlikely that there would be a trap behind a phantom wall.
Unlike Malakar, Brannart gives no sense of annoyance. He sees the value in the cautious approach, and at the same time is fascinated by the ancient Azlanti magic and engineering.
"Vexas, do you really think that the trap is still functional after all this time? That's amazing."
Made you look :)
Fenna and Brannart will themselves through the illusory walls, starting with their hands and attempting to pat the stone as their hands disappear through it.
They each take their time, staying cautious as they plant each step. They inspect both rooms and find them to be perfectly symmetrical. These rooms are fifteen square feet and have simple stone floors and undecorated gray stone walls. The stark nature of the room is interrupted only by a ten-foot diameter circle of silvery metal set into the floor in the corner of each room, offering the only light from these otherwise darkened rooms. A soft, blue halo-like light emanates from the silvery disks producing a soft glow. No light, like with the other rooms, is offered from the ceiling, triggered by your entry. From inside the room, the illusory wall is mostly transparent, and the hallway can be viewed.
Unfortunately, no keys were found in either room.
Malakar, while waiting for his friends, feels his impatience building.
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Vexas squints at the holes again before responding to Brannart.
It sure looks like it. If we pass through here we either need to trigger them with a thrown object, disarm them, or hope that they aren't triggered by presence instead of sight.
The halfling sends forth a mage hand into the area to see how the traps respond.
"The trap must reset somehow, and have caretakers that remove the spent bolts and bodies. More constructs, perhaps. Because I can't imagine that nothing at all has been here in ten thousand years - like those chokers for example."
Vexas sends a magical force into the room. Nothing seems to happen.
Vexas directs the hand to dance along the floor as if two of the fingers were legs. It walks with style until/unless impaled with a crossbow bolt.
Fenna returns from the search disappointed but still very impressed with the building's features. She wishes she had more time to play around with things, but the place is still probably a hostile site.
She comes back to watch Vexas playing around with his spell out in the room.
"Can you press on the floor, put some weight on it somewhere? We should test for the possibility the crossbows are pressure sensitive."
"Yeah" Fenna remarks agreeing with Brannart. "I think we should assume the crossbows reset themselves and can target rather than shooting straight and blind. That's not much of a trap to go to all this trouble to build. If we can't figure out how it works, she could also ignore trying to disable it and just make a run for it as a group. I don't love the idea, but there are five of us and two crossbows. If we run across full tilt as a group we might get lucky and be up the ramp and out before they reset for a second round of shots"
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I do have an idea, but it is more practical than virtuous. We could use the bodies of the recently slained skums as shields and barriers, putting them on the holes. Then the rest of the group could pass. I agree this might be seen disrespectful to the bodies of our foes. I said we could, not that we should.
The Mage Hand dances around to the will of Vexas's whimsey. Pushing down on various parts of the floor does not trigger the crossbow trap.
With a snap of his fingers the mage hand dissipates as he frowns at the result.
Hmm, I suspect not enough force from a hand that can only bear five pounds.
He takes of his backpack and slides it across the floor in the same direction.
The backpack slides across the hallway several feet. The trap is not triggered.
"I'm no trap expert, but these Azlanti seemed to be pretty good with magic and machines I don't think they would make a trap that would be easily fooled.
Vexas sighs.
Sho, what was that about bodies? Otherwise it looks like we're doing this the old-fashioned way with me up on shoulders with the picks and tools.
"But if it's reloading and shooting, how are you going to manage to work on shutting it down? You'd probably be standing there for more than a couple of shots."
I could be wrong, but I presume standing right up against the wall, under the slot, wouldn't trigger it. If a bolt triggers from the other side we'll retreat. Vexas shrugs. We have to try something.
"I'm with Fenna. Let's make a dash for it. We can't get Vexas in position to disarm it while also remaining invisible for long enough to succeed.
If we stagger into the room carrying Skum corpses, we'll be moving more slowly, and can't defend multiple directions at once.
Let's run for it. I'll go in front to hopefully draw some fire, but we'll all move together."
Fenna looks doubtful.
"But if it does more than track movement it may well be able to pick you out. You and the person bolstering you could be taking several shots during the time it takes, and that's assuming you get it shut down. If you don't it's all for nothing."
"At a run we should all be able to get through with only a single shot from them, maybe two at the most."
You rush across the hallway toward the ramp. Moments after stepping into the room, the crossbows emerge from the wall. They are mounted on gyroscopic platforms which allow them to swivel in any direction.
The crossbows move far faster than anticipated. Sho barely ducks in time as a bolt whizzes past her head, but Fenna gets clipped in the side, causing a gaping wound. Her leathers quickly soak up the blood exiting her body.
As you make your way up the ramp and out of range, you hear a thud and a clang near where the crossbows would be.
Vexas shrugs and waddle-sprints behind the big folk as best he can.
Hey, shields... I mean, guys, wait up for me!
As he jogs up the ramp like an Absalom suburbanite in need of regular exercise he glances back at the crossbows just in time to notice something.
Whoa, auto-reload! At some point we're going to have to shut these down...
Malakar notices the device ready for a second volley and some doors opening. Beginning to realize he is the toughest in the group he halts running up the ramp and allows the others to pass so he can take up the rear to guard the others.
"Get behind me I will block the next shots!"
"Malakar, don't stop!"
Fenna yelps in pain and surprise when she's hit. It causes her to stumble for a couple of steps, but afterward she runs even faster while holding her wound closed with one hand.
Once she's far enough up the ramp to be above the ceiling of the trapped room, she stops to take a look at her injury.
"Dammit, what a mess." She winces as she gingerly peels the wet clothing away and applies a healing spell.
"I swear I can't step out the front door in the morning without gettng maimed."
Brannart hears Fenna's yelp, but rather than trip everyone up by running against the flow he keeps moving. When the party stops, he sees her healing the wound.
"Fenna, are you good to continue?"
Brannart will take the lead, with his polearm in both hands.
As you make your way to the second floor of the tower, you notice that it is already illuminated. This floor appears to be a library with tall bookshelves lining the western wall. Most of the room is blocked from view due to a central, enclosed room. Double-doors on the northern face of this room seem to provide entry, and an intricately designed key stands inserted in a keyhole. On the eastern wall of this room, next to the doors, is a shiny, golden-brown metallic plaque with text written in Azlanti.
You find yourselves on the eastern side of the library, where a large table surrounded by a few stools occupies this area. Several different colored, oval-shaped gems lie on its surface.
Snarls catch your attention at the bottom of the ramp. Looking back, there are two trident-carrying Skum approaching. With Malakar taking the end position, they are about fifteen feet from him. You also catch the sound of two metallic-sounding voices speaking Azlanti in unison coming from the first floor. The owners of these voices are out of view, and too soft to make out what was said over the snarls from the Skum.
Brannart notices Vexas looking past him toward the bookshelves. He catches the Halfling's eyes bulge as he attempts to scream a warning. The veteran's instincts kick in, and he quickly turns. Brannart views the largest Skum he has ever seen and barely deflects a strike. The beast is wielding its own ranseur. It is a beautiful weapon, with runes running up its shaft. The outer blades are shaped like waves with sculpted dolphins riding them.
His reach advantage nullified by his foe, Brannart switches tactics.
He drops the ranseur, steps up, draws his longsword, and attacks.
It's a bad swing, but he is now providing cover to his allies against the skum.
Vexas hustles up the ramp, and as he approaches the second floor notices the already-present light.
He calls back to the group Already lighted... was someone just here?
Then he sees it between the bookshelves. As he processes what he's seeing he can barely afford the attention to yell it out to his companions. Finally it escapes him in the least eloquent form.
The hafling's tiny fingers fumble into a pouch at his belt, drawing a pad of butter. He tosses it over Brannart's head and it stretches to becoming impossibly thin as it flies through the air. Finally it lands on the ground and becomes a slippery sheen underneath the "big'un."
Right after it lands, Vexas jogs away from the crowd where he presumes violence will escalate, drawing his rapier as he goes.
A grease spell covers a solid surface with a layer of slippery grease. Any creature in the area when the spell is cast must make a successful Reflex save or fall. A creature can walk within or through the area of grease at half normal speed with a DC 10 Acrobatics check. Failure means it can't move that round (and must then make a Reflex save or fall), while failure by 5 or more means it falls (see the Acrobatics skill for details). Creatures that do not move on their turn do not need to make this check and are not considered flat-footed.
Fenna rechecks her injury and answers Brannart.
"Yeah, reduced to not much more than a scratch now. But more ruined clothes to try to repair later. I'm going to have to make sure resupply ships stock clothing when they come or I'll end up having to take the scraps left from everything that's been torn up and sew them together into a single set of clothes."
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Fenna's eyes glint with excitement when she sees the collection of books. But she doesn't have more than a moment to drool over them. She wasn't too worried about the skum following them up the ramp, she has plans for them. But when the big one jumps out of nowhere, Fenna has to act sooner than she'd planned.
With a quick "liukua ja liukua alas lattialta" she spreads grease on the ramp just behind Malakar.
The large Skum's footing falters for a moment, but it regains its stability. The beast looks past Brannart, directly into Vexas's eyes, it mouth slightly agape as if it were smiling. Razor-sharp teeth fill that smile as a deep red tongue slithers out to lick its lips. In broken Common, it bellows, "Urlgryber eat you first!"
The monstrosity turns his hungry eyes to Brannart. One clawed hand springs from the polearm and digs deep into Brannart's shoulder. The veteran feels the strength of the Skum crush into him. With only a moment to spare, Brannart uses his training to spin just as the beast's mouth and seemingly hundreds of razor-like teeth bites down where the warrior's face was moments ago.
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The two Skum below Malakar stop for a moment as the sheen of Grease coats the ramp in front of them. The first Skum makes it about five feet, but then looses its footing and slides down the ramp. The other uses it trident for extra support and makes it slowly to Malakar. The Druid is ready for it and easily blocks the clumsy jab from the Skum.
The halflings eyes go wide when the large skum glares at him.
Oh... that's not what I wanted.
He quickly flicks his rapier and it leaps from his hand, speeding towards the large brute.
The sleek blade flies over Brannart's head, and then swifly returns to the halfling's hand.