Having found a brief respite of safety in the shadow of the foreboding walls of Ezorod, the expedition team repairs damage to the Sun Diver's siccatite matrix.
With the ship repaired and ready to leave again, Zharis once again decides to brave the dark world.
Okay, Hop. We're heading out again, but let us know if anything bothers you again.
To the others she says
You guys ready?
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"If the slain humanoid is indeed a guard, things within the city may be in an anarchic state." Xylian states.
Zharis grabbed some extra batteries to add to the stash she already had, knowing how bad it would be if their lights went out. It might be paranoid, but it made her feel better.
Once everyone is ready, she exits the ship again, and checks out the body, using her Pocket Linguist to translate the Vercite.
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Having fended off an initial attack and secured the landing zone, the expedition team resume their exploration. Zharis checks over the body, using a small pocket computer to see if she can make sense of the writing incorporated into the body's tattoos.
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Zharis admires the warfan. What an artistic weapon. It was something she had pretended to use for a movie once, elegant jungle fight scenes made it perfect for an adventure on her home planet, where her first few movies were shot. She was never able to get the hang of using it in real life without the choreography though. Such a shame.
The more gory thing to consider was whether to extract the expensive dermal plating. She decides to pass, though she knows Tulgram might have other ideas. Maybe they could bury her or bring the body back for further study, but that was something to consider on the way out perhaps.
After examining the body and regretting that she wasn't trained in warfan combat, she moved to the archway, which seemed like the only way forward.
Zharis moves to the archway and sees a chamber containing a jumbled pile of scorched equipment. A short corridor leads away from the chamber, disappearing around a corner.
Zharis moves further in so that she can see around the corner. If she doesn't see anything threatening, she gathers the salvageable equipment from the pile.
"This does not bode well for the denizens of the city."
The group continues on.
A stone cube, perhaps twenty feet on each side, stands in the middle of the next room, nearly touching the ceiling; the southwestern corner of the cube has been cut diagonally, allowing space for a door that looks to be made of the same stone as the walls. The door bears three indentations, each about three inches across: one in the shape of a long flame, one in the shape of a shining sun, and the last in the shape of an explosion. The door has a blackened-metal push plate instead of a handle, and its frame is carved with jagged runes.
Four heaps of ash are piled around the front of the door, badly burned humanoid skulls evident in each. Among them is a stack of gear and burned modern armor resembling robes, along with an inactive and charred drone.
Four halls lead away from this room, one in each direction.
Zharis approaches cautiously.
Looks like these piles of ash are from a trap, so let's not touch that door. We might need to get through it later, but we can leave it for now.
Zharis is being very careful and examines the area before she steps anywhere.
She thinks that the trap was the door, but it could be the floor or something else, so she wants to be sure.
If she gets to the ash piles without triggering anything, she sifts through them to see what gear survived, and calls the others forward.
Zharis cautiously steps into the room and looks around carefully.
The walls and door of the central cubic structure seem to have inlaid threads of coppery metal in the carvings on the stone.
Amongst the ashes, the drone is broken but clearly of an advanced, rugged design intended to support exploration. Whoever brought it here were clearly professionals, as demonstrated by it and the other gear found nearby.
At the beginning of each hallway leading away from the chamber, the floor is carved with a different design.
Zharis shows the sashimono to the others, in case someone else knows what the runes mean.
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"This is a strange place for a trap, but many species seem enamored by monolithic structures." Xylian, obviously, has no vulnerability to such superstitions.
Dispensing with superstition, Xylian applies his scientific training to analyse the make-up of the cube.
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Hani attends to the drone, attempting to ascertain how it might be fixed, or perhaps how he might download anything useful from the memory banks of the drone.
While Hani examines the drone, Zharis sifts through the ashes and examines the holographic sashmino more closely.
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Hani is horrified by what he sees on the datapad. He shares it with his fellow team members.
"Looks like we aren't the only ones to come across those burning skeletons. We may want to keep an eye out for more of 'em."
For the camera, Zharis looks at the holographic sashimo and stage whispers "Eloritu" ... she really has no idea what any of this stuff does, because she is not very good with mysticism, but maybe it was a cleric of that deity that died here. She packs the holograph away, gets a sample of the dust for the DCI, and then, once Hani is done and everyone is ready, she heads off towards the western exit.
When Hani mentions the burning skeletons, she nods. Good to know. Maybe we should seal our suits and turn on environmental protections to protect us from fire if there are burning things running around.
Zharis seals her suit and turns on her thermal regulator, just in case.
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After giving her teammates some advice regarding environmental protections, Zharis heads through one of the exits.
At the beginning of the hallway, a carving on the ground looks like an explosion--an exact duplicate of one of the three indented symbols on the door of the stone cube.
Runes and decorative trimmings cover the floor between the passage’s walls, and three doors line its sides. The furthest door radiates warmth.
Zharis feels powerful. She holsters her weapon and bares her claws, moving torward the warm door, but stopping to examine the first door on the way to that one first, almost hoping something was behind it.
She examines the non-warm door to make sure it isn't trapped or anything, then mugging for the camera, and trying to slow herself down since she doesn't know where this unexpected powerful feeling is taking her, she knocks first.
Hello, anyone there?
If she gets no response, she opens the door, first looking inside, and then if it seems safe, going in.
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Getting no response from her knock, Zharis opens the door.
The room contains a few stone plinths at varying heights. Several badly corroded devices--little more than piles of powder--litter these pedestals. Similar grainy powder covers a large, square section of the floor in the far end of this room. A bizarre six-armed figure constructed from metal and flesh stands in the powder. The eyes on its alien visage start to glow.
Greetings says Zharis to the six-armed cyborg thing.
My name is Zharis. Uh, sorry for waking you up. Mind if I look around a bit?
She waits for a reply.
--If the thing responds favorably or doesn't respond, she cautiously enters the room to examine one of the badly corroded devices, and to see if there is anything recoverable there.
--If the thing responds negatively, Zharis decides that a room full of powdered machines isn't worth fighting for (at least for now--maybe they will come back if they find out the dust is actually siccatite), and says Sorry for disturbing you. as she shuts the door.
The creature's head turns slowly to follow Zharis' movements as she enters the room. When touched, the badly corroded devices crumble into the same grainy powder found at the far end of the room.
"A long forgotten storeroom of some kind." Xylian says of the dusty pedestals. "And some kind of cyborg. Perhaps its flesh allowed it to escape the rigors of time that took its possessions. Immortality, of some sort." But that sort of thing is more Tulgram's purview.
How long have you been here? Zharis asks the cyborg. The dust makes it seem like millennia, and she feels a little bit sorry for it.
Would you like to come with us?
She isn't sure if it can understand anything she is saying, or if it is dangerous to them or not, but she is heartened by the fact that it hasn't attacked them, and wonders if there is a way to bring it back with them. The DCI could maybe help it or reprogram it so it didn't have to stand still for millennia in the dust, and in return they would certainly learn a lot.
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Xylian peers into the room as Zharis continues trying to communicate with the cyborg.
Hani follows Zharis toward the room with the cyborg. He does not enter the room, at least not yet. In fact, he'll attempt to stay out of sight of the cyborg for the time being.
Zharis makes sure there is a tense look on her face to heighten the drama for her drone camera, and says in very soothing tones, acting like she is talking to the Cyborg,
Get whatever you need and then get out Xylian. I think this thing is guarding the room, and only temporarily calm, so we need to leave it alone. Maybe when we are leaving we can try to bring it back with us, but it seems like it will require regular attention to keep it calm, and we would have to battle and incapacitate it in order to get it to leave the room I think. Let's see what else is here before we decide whether that is worth it.
Zharis waits until everyone is out before leaving and shutting the door behind her, but keeps soothing it every so often if the leaving isn't quick.
"Sample collecting can wait until the area has been secured. It is not as if the dust will leave soon."
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Zharis manages to keep the cyborg calm until Xylian withdraws from the room. With the door firmly shut behind them, danger has been averted--at least for now.
Zharis proceeds to the next door... the one that the heat was coming from.
Make sure you have environmental controls on... looks like the room is going to be hot.
Hani continues to follow Zharis and Xylian, knowing they clearly know where the action is. Hani knows it's his job to both take a beating in the event of an encounter with a surly denizen of this place AND to know stuff about any of the inner workings of this facility.
Xylian, you expressed the idea that those vertani are the guards of this prison. But it seems to me more and more that these are the next cultists who were ahead of us this time. Hmmm...
"Yes, Tulgram. I was beginning to suspect as much. I may have been premature in assigning their identities as guards. It seems our opponents are one step ahead of us again. How were the cultist able to arrive here without the tablet?"
Apparently they have another one? Perhaps they were ahead of us even earlier. We weren't the first in the previous city either...
I am not convinced they are the same group, but perhaps they were able to overcome the magic a different way... or perhaps there is more than one tablet. I don't know, but it doesn't look like they got far.
As the discussion continues about the identity of the verthani corpses, Zharis double-checks her armor's environmental seals and approaches the door that radiates warmth. The door is hot to the touch, and a burst of hot air blows into the corridor as it opens to reveal a small chamber.
Several stone chests here are heaped with precious metals and jewels.
The wall to the east is cracked, and a narrow gap in the stone extends back to where a pulsing light is dimly visible.
Zharis quickly gathers the silver and gems, placing them into the additional null space chamber they recently found, thankfully, or there might not have been room to take everything with them.
She looks around, but not being able to see through the crack, she doesn't see anything else they can do from here.
She returns to the hallway outside, letting everyone else know what she found, and closing the door on the chamber to ward off the heat.
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In short, Tulgram, with unprecedented enthusiasm for him, helps to collect gold and silver from chests. Probably this is some kind of folk trait transmitted with mother's milk...
If no one wants to climb into this crack, then I suggest you inspect the southern doors.
It takes too long for Xylian climb in and out of his power armor, so he does not volunteer to to go spelunking. "This is probably a door on the other side, anyways."
Zharis returns to the door leading to the south, inspecting it for any trace of heat or other irregularity.
If nothing seems weird, she opens it and looks inside, without entering yet.
Zharis inspects the door, and then opens it carefully to reveal a large chamber.
Stone tables line the walls of this room, although they contain only scattered shards and powder.
Reclining on the tables farthest from the entrance are two skeletal figures of ash, embers, and fire that smell of charred meat. They look similar in appearance to the creatures you fought outside the Sun Diver.
Jagged runes pulsing with a sickly green light cover a door near the far corner of the room. Pacing back and forth in front of it is an apparition of ash and embers, like swirling cinders rippling around a heart of brighter flame!