With the dust cleaned away from the workbench, you can see that the set of tools here count as a masterwork tool for creating ioun stones, worth 200 gold altogether. Until Braxton starts throwing pieces of it at walls, that is; unless stopped he might reduce the value of the set.
The next door opens onto a dark chamber, featureless except for a large ring of an unusual-looking metal embedded in the floor. A single door exits to the south (the one you came through). A detect magic spell uncovers a weak aura of divination magic.
Becky identifies it as an identification ring: when something (living or not) is put into the ring it is subject to a continuous detect magic spell, but the results of this effect are visible to any sighted creature in the form of colored auras of differing intensities. If a creature focuses its attention on a subject for multiple rounds, the information received becomes clearer, as if the observer had studied the creature or object with detect magic for multiple rounds. No concentration is required to maintain this effect, and the observer is able to cast other spells while continuing to observe.
Those unable to cast detect magic need three ranks in Spellcraft to determine any usefulness out of the colorful auras, however.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
“Ooh, nice job!” Ankha praises Ku’Hania’s skillful clean-up. “You definitely have a way with water. Now, let’s …” The alchemist is about to go through the newly opened door when a particularly valuable piece of machinery slams forcefully into the wall, making a sizable dent. “Braxton! Stop acting like a petulant child. We could use this workshop to craft valuable ioun stones for the colony, if it weren’t destroyed. Does Ku’Hania need to take you back to the colony? As you yourself said, adventuring is not for small children.”
With a mild humph the alchemist follows Becky into the next chamber. When the bard explains the purpose of the identification ring Ankha grows visibly excited. “Ooh! Let’s see if it works.” Not shy to engage in self-experimentation, she quickly steps inside the metal ring to see what happens.
"I am merely seeking false walls, dear Ankha. We'll beat those frogs at their own game!"
"Technically, not froggies," Becky points out absent-mindedly to Braxton as she gawks at the wondrous machine. Then she allows her thoughts to spill between her lips: "Do we take this to the village, or do we bring the village here? This thing is too valuable and, well, cool to leave here unprotected."
Just to be clear: does the ring effectively cast Permanency (Detect Magic) on Ankha?
Do we take this to the village
Misunderstanding Becky’s explanation, and unable to see any magical auras while within the ring itself, Ankha’s excitement fades into disappointment. “No need,” she responds sadly to Becky, “this thing’s broken—I don’t see anything at all. Maybe we can fix it later, but let’s check out the other door—maybe they’ll have a working one over there.”
Becky realizes that she's only half listening to everyone; her mind is running wild at all the possibilities this new/ancient technology offers. She returns to the here-and-now in time to scurry over to Ankha and check the next door for any sort of traps.
Nothing on the door is magical, and the spell can't penetrate the wall before Ankha opens it. The chamber beyond the door once it is open appears to be a workshop, as evidenced by a table along the western wall laden with tools and mechanical parts.
Standing amongst the table and a multitude of other mechanical pieces and parts that mostly appear to be worthless are two strange robotic figures. They appear to be working on some mechanism or another and don't immediately notice you. It takes a few seconds for them to look up from their work and turn towards the group.
The closest one speaks out in the language that you now can recognize as Azlanti, albeit in a mechanical voice obviously caused by its robotic parts.
"Well hello there, ladies!" Braxton greets the robos, doffing his hat and sauntering closer (but not too close) to the robots. His tone is friendly, but he has no idea how they would be expected to fight metal women. His rapier certainly would not be of much use against their metallic skin. "Excuse our intrusion! We are merely visiting your lovely tower looking for our lost friends and then we'll be out of your hair. You haven't happened to see them, by the by? They look, well, similar to us. Possibly stopped by within a few weeks?"
Not understanding anything the robots said, and without any extracts to help her in that regard, Ankha hangs back by the door, trusting in those who do speak the strange language. All she can do is observe these advanced constructs, in the hopes of remembering something useful about them.
"They asked who the short old lady with the walking stick is, I assume they're talking about you." Braxton whispers, nudging Ankha. "Just smile and wave."
The two "ladies" are clockwork servants, constructs made to fulfill particular purposes. These don't appear to be hostile ones, although that could change in an instant if you go against their purpose (presumably to protect the tower).
The first one that spoke speaks again in response to Braxton's words.
The other one joins in, its clanky voice joining the others'.
“Uh, okay,” Ankha responds uncertainly to Braxton. She gives the robots a large, cheesy smile and a merry wave.
“Oh! Uh, okay.” Ankha looks quite confused, but gamely accepts the proffered hat and places it on her head. “Like this?” she asks uncertainly, having never modeled headwear before. She tries rotating from one side to another to offer views from all angles.
The constructs don't seem to have any actual interest in Ankha wearing the hat, exposing Braxton's joking deception.
Ku'Hania looks at the constructs, watching for some type of reaction before looking mistrustfully at Braxton, vowing to herself that they needed to make sure one of the others learned to speak Azlanti. She had an irritating feeling that he was lying about what was being said, triggering a concern that what had happened to the other colonists might be starting even sooner.
A gnawing doubt slowly creeps into Ankha’s mind. Turning to Becky, she whispers “Do you have any idea what the robots are saying?”
He takes his hat back. "They say it does not suit you. They also say the frog leader is on the floor above, possibly holding captives. Shall we?"
Ankha nods at Braxton in relief, glad that the robots didn’t ask her to model more clothing. “It’s a little big,” she confesses shyly, before adding in a more determined voice, “Let’s go find the missing colonists.” She exits the room, ready to follow Braxton’s lead up the ramp to the second floor.
Ku'Hania nods, readying her spear and waiting for Braxton to lead them on.
Before you leave, you catch a glance at one of the items on the table. A small purple gem exactly identical to the one you found in the clockwork spy: a recording gem. Neither of the two servants seem to be particularly interested in it specifically, as they turn back to their work on whatever device they'd been working on.
There is also the second door on the north wall that looks like it'll be a small room around the same size as the corresponding one, that you found the magic detecting circle in.
Braxton is surprised Ankha does not want to interrogate the metal ladies. He is himself curious about what the ladies may tell them of the tower, but such things can wait; the frogs presumably know they are there, and the search for enlightenment must take a back seat to the search for the missing colonists. Whence the tower is cleared of the amphibious menace, they can search for answers. Braxton makes it half way up the ramp, then turns back to the flesh ladies. "Prepare yourselves! I do not intend on a repeat of the last encounter!" The sailor had been quite humiliated by the wall frogs. Such an embarassing performance will not happen again.
Ankha nods at Braxton, holding her fauchard in preparation for combat, then waits for the brewer to finish ascending the ramp before following.
There are no stairs separating the levels of the tower. These ramps are
approximately 30 degrees and not considered difficult terrain. Running or charging down a ramp, however, requires a creature to succeed at an Acrobatics check or it falls prone.
Much of this level is a room that wraps around the tower. At this
room’s northernmost end, a ramp descends to the lower level, and you van see another ramp on the south wall ascends to the floor above. A large table surrounded by a few stools occupies the eastern side of this room.
As the servants return to their work, Ku' Hania notices the small purple gem, recognizing it as one identical to what they found in the clockwork spy. As the others head up the ramp, she picks the gem up, waiting a moment to see if the servants react, before following her companions up.
The servants do not react to Ku'Hania taking the gem, seemingly focused on keeping their lab intact and project underway rather than stopping you from taking anything.
Ankha looks about warily. “I don’t see the leader anywhere,” she says to Braxton. “Perhaps the robots meant the floor above?” While waiting for the swashbuckler to lead the way up the next ramp, she glances curiously at the large table and quaffs her mutagen in preparation for the battle to come.
Ku'Hania carefully scans the room, looking for any sign of danger or an enemy.
"Onward and upward." Following the curve of the towers outer wall, Braxton continues to the base of the next ramp, keen sailor eyes peeled for more illusory walls.
Ankha doesn't find too much of interest on the table, a handful of ancient-looking dishes sitting alone.
Finding nothing of interest, Ankha follows Braxton up to the next level.
Becky tags along, wide-eyed and unusually silent.
You continue on past the second floor, deciding to return later to investigate the rest of it. The ramps goes on ever higher, reaching the third floor in short order.
Almost the entirety of this floor is open. A ramp rises from the second floor along the southwestern wall of the chamber. In the center of the room is a vast tank of water with transparent walls and no floor that extends down to the story below. A single transparent door with an opaque handle is built into the eastern face of the tank.
Just east of the tank is a much smaller transparent chamber with a similar door. This one contains no water, however, and a blanket is hung casually over the open door. On the floor nearby are some damp blankets, and pots and bowls that contain picked-over rations and the remains of partially eaten fish.
Sitting on the floor amongst the blankets are a man and woman that have clearly seen better days. Presumably the captives held by the skum, they are disheveled and slightly emancipated (but not obviously starving). The two stand, their movements slightly awkward as if they've been somewhat neglected.
The woman speaks first, greeting you in Common (finally!). "Ah, was wondering when rescue would come. We've been hearing the fighting, I trust you slayed the skum leader on the level below?" she says, getting straight to the point, presumably wanting to ensure their captors are dealt with before anything else.
Ankha’s relief at finding the captives turns to mild puzzlement and concern. “No,” she shakes her head, “we were told about the skum leader but didn’t see anyone below.” She glances about, wondering if they had missed something.
“What happened? How were you captured? How long have you been here?”
"Ah! More Deep One illusions!" Braxton throws a tiny screwdriver at the woman.
Ku'Hania gives Braxton a puzzled look, shaking her head before turning back to the captives, studying their behavior and reactions carefully as Ankha speaks to them.
Braxton throws a tiny screwdriver at the woman.
The screwdriver hits the woman, clattering to the floor as she stares at him with both confusion and a little bit of anger. "What in the Hells is wrong with you?" the woman asks, clearly upset at being attacked even with that little force.
Ku'Hania detects that both the woman and the man with her (who hasn't spoken whatsoever so far) are under the influence of a domination effect. Before she can act on this information, however, Ankha spots the skum leader coming up the stairs after the group, attempting to be sneaky but failing quite spectacularly. Seems that not fully exploring the level below may have been a mistake after all. Once he sees that you've noticed him, he raises a weapon that Ankha quickly recognizes as a fauchard over his head and prepares to engage.
Having gained the advantage of surprise, the skum moves up onto the top floor and takes a swing at Ku'Hania
Init
26- skum
22- Braxton
15- Ankha
10- Becky
9- Ku'Hania
7- Prisoners
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"What in the Hells is wrong with you?"
Ankha is about to ask Braxton the same thing, but the intruder alters her priorities. As soon as she notices the skum, she pivots and raises her weapon defensively, but too late—the creature inflicts a nasty blow upon the half-elf. After a sorry look and a quick glance to ensure that the wound isn’t mortal, the alchemist retaliates with a powerfully accurate strike of her own.
Letting out a cry of agony as the skum cuts her deeply, Ku'Hania moves to be better covered by Ankha as she utters a spell, driving her butt of her spear into the ground as a wave of her own simmering anger washes over the enemy. "The prisoners are under mind control. Dominated"
While moving to put herself between the allegedly dominated colonists and her friends, Becky draws her healing wand and taps Ku'Hania with it as she passes by. To the strange man and woman, the plucky teen gives a big (if forced) smile and starts chatting to (hopefully) keep them occupied for a bit.
"I'm Becky--pleased to meet you! What are your names? It's so good to find you alive!"
The man of the pair is visibly affected by Ku'Hania's magic, his hands trembling a bit as he makes his way over to the glass door on the tank and removes the blanket from over the top of it and revealing a strange magical symbol emblazoned on it. The skum, the man, and the woman all suddenly have a second illusory copy of them spring into existence as soon as the symbol is revealed.
The lady, in the meantime, seems to have some sort of violent transformation take over her features. She grins cruelly and laughs maniacally before waving her hands towards Braxton, obviously casting a spell.
Will save DC 15 for half.
The skum grunts under the powerful swing but doens't go down, and reaches its arms back to swing its fauchard at Ankha.
Init
Round 2
26- skum
22- Braxton
15- Ankha
10- Becky
9- Ku'Hania
7- Prisoners
[ooc]Party is up!
"Whoa! That was weird psychic magic she just used!" Becky yelps, Belatedly, she asks Braxton, "You all right?"
Luckily Braxton is willful. Unluckily it doesn't do much for him. "Ahhh! Get out of my head, lady!" He takes up a defensive posture, though he is on his last legs.
Clueless as to the effects of whatever magic was in effect, Ku' Hania moves to take up a defensive position in front of Becky, preparing to attack either of the controlled prisoners if they approach.
“Ooh, mind control!” Ankha exclaims in horror and awe. “I was wondering why prisoners would have weapons and armor. And I guess that explains their rather rude behavior.” She looks apologetically at Becky, saddened that the prisoners didn’t even bother to acknowledge her cheerful greeting.
The talk of psychic magic goes over her head though, and she attributes Braxton’s odd reaction to … well, his usual odd behavior. With her companions holding off the dominated prisoners, Ankha takes another swing at her suddenly blurry opponent.
The man that revealed the symbol on the glass wall moves as if to strike at Ku'Hania, but even as the sword swings towards her his arm stops and he seems to regain some part of himself back. It appears as if he has shrugged off the mind control effect (for now at least) and he redirects his attack towards the woman. "Your plan won't work, Eliza!" he shouts as his sword connects.
The woman does indeed cast another spell on her turn, but Braxton's dagger stabs deep into her shoulder, and her spell dissipates into nothingness. "How dare you!" she calls out angrily at the man even as he strikes at her as well.
The skum lashes out again with his weapon at Ankha.
Init:
Round 3
26- skum
22- Braxton
15- Ankha
10- Becky
9- Ku'Hania
7- Prisoners
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ankha breathes a sigh of relief as the skum’s blade glances off her armor—that would have been a heavy blow to take. Maintaining her defensive position in front of her friends, she waits for an opening and then lashes out hard with her fauchard, trying to eliminate the dangerous threat. “Die you rebel skum!”
Suddenly she blinks, as if she had just processed what was happening with the prisoners on the other side of the room. “Wait … Eliza? Eliza Haniver? We’re here to help! You don’t want to kill us the way Silas Weatherbee was killed, do you?”