Zelvin peers over the machine in an attempt to figure out what it does.
He is slightly distracted when Hekau speaks. "What was that, brother?"
Hekau waits to see if Zelvin either figures out anything about the device or hears the voice himself before he responds to either Zelvin or the voice.
Looking up from the newly found flare pistols with mild alarm, Xaerai leans closer to Shesik. "Um, can androids, you know...short circuit?"
Crouching low Shesik’s gaze darts about the room, searching for the source of the voice. ”We come from the surface in search of one who came before us.” Her voice quavering with unease. Which you should know if you’re in my head. Get out of my head! Get out! Out!”
Zelvin blinks. "Who is that?!" he almost yelps. He looks carefully at the machine he is deeply examining, to see if it connects to anything. "Reckon it's the red mudball that's talking?" he asks. Waving his arms he speaks loudly to the thing inside the device. "Howdy there! Can you see us? My name's Zelvin, what's yours?"
"What's the surface? You're Zelvin? Am I Zelvin? Why are you here? Have you been here long?"
The voice, alien as it is, comes across more like a child, full of questions, the answers to which only invite more questions.
"Just got here actually," Xaerai responds dryly. She eyes the red mudball indicated by Zelvin skeptically, but who knows--a telepathic floating red ball of mud wasn't that much weirder than what she'd already seen. "What about you? How did you get here, and when?"
"I don't know! I think I've been here for forever. Do you have any food?"
Still somewhat spooked Shesik calms slightly. "I don't know, what do you consider food? What do you eat? Maybe you can tell us if anyone else has been through here recently, or what's through that door?" She says hopeful that the disembodied voice might be able to help them in some way
Hekau listens while the others converse with the unseen intelligence.
Tyn perks up at the first sign of telepathic communication-but as the questions ensue, he realizes it is indeed not the voice of The Tempered Inventor himself. His eyes narrow in suspicion, and he waits for any breakthrough of information.
"Yes!" the voice responds excitedly. "There were things like you. They were pulled through the room by things not like you, made of metal. They left delicious red food all over the floor, and I licked it all up." There's another pause, and this time the question has somewhat of an edge to it.
"Do you have more food?"
With a start Shesik realizes that whatever is talking into their heads seems to drink blood. Don’t say it! Try not to even think it. She begins searching the room again with renewed panic. At least Hekau’s safe. That’s something robots are good for.
Hekau considers what sorts of things would lick up blood from the floor.
Many, I expect. Dogs, for example. But what intelligent creatures will do that, and yet not know that it is blood?
"I don't care for your tone, stranger, and we've got no food for you. How many metal things came through here? We would like to go find them."
Zelvin backs away slowly from the machine and the creature. "That machine kept the creature in stasis, but it's broken now." he mutters. "It seems really old, like it's been down here a very, very long time. I don't reckon it's going to stay friendly very long, but I'll try to keep it talking."
To the blob, he says "I'll call you Blob, that's your name now. Everyone should have a name. Do you know how old you are? Here, we often measure time by counting. When you count to 60, that is called a minute. 60 minutes is an hour. 24 hours is a day. 365 days is a year. I have lived for about twenty years. How about you? Can you count to 60? Would you like to try?" He begins to edge toward the opposite door while he speaks.
As the conversation disintegrates into the obvious, a slight sneer comes over Tyn's face-though "Blob" doesn't quite qualify as his most hated of foes, it is clear "Blob" is an abomination in his own right. He checks himself and forces a smile as he takes a step back and readies himself for what he sees as the inevitable outcome.
"Why...Heathen Blob...I do believe there is more food smeared all over the floor of the room we just came in from. Peanuts and Cracker Jacks-and all that! Would you like us to show you the way?"
The voice is quiet for several seconds, considering Zelvin's question.
"Eleven days!" comes the answer, almost shouted into your minds. The pressure in your skulls begins to build, and each of you sees a confusing medley of images superimposed onto the blob. Most of them are unfamiliar to you, but you all see at least occasional glimpses of events from your own memories. The mental strain you all feel shows no sign of abating, and only seems to be getting worse as the seconds tick by.
Shaking her head to clear the rush of images Shesik exclaims,”It’s not mud, it’s fungus!” Quickly bearing her claws she snarls, ”And it can’t handle loud noises.”
Zelvin's eyes widen as he realizes what the creature is and what it is doing to him.
Hekau's processing systems are momentarily overloaded by the psychic fungus.
Shesik
Zelvin
Fungus
Xaerai
Tyn
Hekau
Yelping at the ghostly images clouding his senses, Zelvin raises his pistol and aims it at the fungus, hoping the loud noise of its discharge will similarly disorient his target as Shesik suggested (and that the noise doesn't bring other enemies to them!). He wills some of his magical power into the pistol and summons a blast of cold ice to coat the bullet.
Stepping closer to the ruddy mound Shesik swipes at it with her claws.
With a start as the sound of Zelvin's gun echos through the room, she clarifies. "Not just loud, but focused sound."
The creature slithers out of the cage, evading Shesik's claws. Miraculously, both of Zelvin's shots strike home, though the spell carried by the first shot seems less effective than expected. It still hurts enough that the fungus seems to scream in agony, the force of it overwhelming your senses.
Xaerai
Tyn
Hekau
Shesik
Zelvin
Zelvin moves back from the creature towards the door as he fights to maintain control of his nausea. He appears shocked by its reaction.
Her claws finding nothing but air, Shesik’s frustration plain upon her face. Her anger piercing through the creature’s pained screech. Renewing her focus, her clawed fingers lash out once more.
"Stop that!" Xaerai shouts past gritted teeth and she strafes right to catch the fungus between Shesik and herself, before slamming an armored fist into its center mass.
This time, Hekau's systems are able to cope with the fungal creature's psychic powers.
Hekau draws and loads his crossbow.
Tyn doubles over,
"Ugh...Get outta my head fiend!"
Whatever else the creature might have had in store for you, you never find out. Shesik and Xaerai smash and tear it to pieces in seconds, leaving nothing but a pile of briefly quivering lumps of fungus. After a few seconds, all signs of life cease.
Nudging one of the quivering lumps of dismembered fungus with her toe Shesik looks over at the door ahead of them. "Well, now we know why the blood trail vanished. This thing lapped it up." Momentarily kneeling down, she runs a finger through one of the patches of reddish brown dust and rubs it between her fingers. "Hopefully this is just scat, not spores. Otherwise we might see more of these things."
Standing, Shesik gestures to the unopened door to the southeast. "I guess we go through there and see if these 'bots kept their quarry alive."
Hekau will search the room for anything of interest, any technological artifacts or remnants of creatures.
He will then prepare to remotely open the doors to the next room.
Xaerai joins Hekau in picking over the room before preparing herself for whatever death-bots might await them in the next chamber.
Zelvin recovers himself after a few seconds, and anxiously peers out both doors to check for signs of additional enemies. He is almost buzzing with hyper-awareness, listening for sounds of his adopted father, but also concerned for the safety of the others in his new family.
A more intensive search of the room yields no additional treasures, at least no material ones. Some patience with the glowing panels in the room (and Hekau's translation of Androffan text) yield a number of garbled documents. This room was, once upon a time, dedicated to the study of geology, but not Golarion's. You instead find references to another planet that is interchangeably called "Planet CX-335" and "Kasath." The planet itself is described as an arid world with little water, violent weather patterns, and "savage" inhabitants of a predominantly hexapodous nature. Perhaps the most interesting bit of information to be learned here is simple confirmation that the underground desert where you fought most of the skeletons was built specifically to mimic life on the surface of Kasath.
Hekau will open the door to the next room - using Open/Close from a distance, or if that doesn't work, using Mage Hand to bring the keycard to the door.
Tyn shakes the noise out of his head, just in time to see Hekau getting ready to manipulate the next door open. He abruptly skitters over and readies himself, just in case an unfriendly is waiting to assault the team.
"Someone...or some thing may just be in the on deck circle here..."
"An artificial desert, build inside a metal dome. To what purpose, I wonder? Just to study those four-armed folk?" Xaerai shakes her head at the strangeness of ancient aliens, then moves to join Tyn and Hekau at the doorway, pistol drawn and shield readied.
The door panel flashes green and the door itself slides open, revealing a T-shaped corridor. The trail of blood reappears here, leading to a set of double doors halfway down the corridor on the left.
Waiting impatiently for Hekau to safely open the doors Shesik barkes back at Xaerai, ”Who cares why? Someone out there did it and it all came to naught in the Fall of Stars. This has all been down here for ages and now it’s starting to affect the town above.” She waves vaguely at the ceiling.
Staring down the hallway as Hekau finally opens the door, she gives the diverging corridor a strange look. ”I feel like we’re opening ourselves to being jumped from behind, but we need to check that door first.” She gestures to the door with the bloody trail leading under it.
Zelvin agrees anxiously. "There's a good chance Mr. Khonnir is in there! We've got to get there as quickly as we can, he may be hurt or dehydrated or starving!"
Hekau will open the double doors that the blood trail leads to.
The double doors slide open to reveal another scene of carnage. Metal desks sit to the north and south of this long room, yet the most distinctive features are a pair of odd, bedlike tables flanked by curving panels of blinking, pulsing lights. Moving armatures of metal extend out over the beds, each outfitted with glowing panes of glass and strangely glowing tools. The chamber reeks of blood, with great crimson stains splashed across the device, beds, and floor.
Stationed in the southwest corner of the room is a machine, which quickly reacts to your presence and advances brandishing a claw filled with injector needles. A calm, soothing voice emits from its chassis, speaking in Androffan.
Hekau
Zelvin
Drone
Tyn
Shesik
Xaerai
Zelvin rushes inside and concentrates on his magic pistol to form ammunition made of pure force within it. Then he fires it with an exciting popping sound!
"A medical drone. We have fought their kind before."
Hekau will move in behind Zelvin and ready to cast Vanish on Zelvin if the drone attacks him.