Grezzag doesn't believe the wall either, and pokes his head through.
"Yeah, the light's shinin' through. Must be fake. Ya reckon it's to keep the skeletons out? Or in?"
"Ah. I see it now."
"I do not understand; I find no magic here...What a strangeness, an illusion that is not magic?!?"
As the rest of you walk through the technological illusion, you see both Penka and Alyn working to disable something in front of you. This metal room is brightly lit by glowing panels in the ceiling above. To the left and right, complex machines consisting of spiral tubes and nozzles twitch and hum. Penka seems to be working to disable the device, visibly a bit nervous as she says that electricity could shock everyone in the room at any moment. Alyn, however, recommends speeding through the area so as to not get accidentally zapped.
Zelvin, a bit wide-eyed, sticks near Penka. "I reckon we shouldn't split up, as it might be just as dangerous up ahead. Penka's got this!" He says this last encouragingly toward her as she works on the device.
Penka turns back to give the group a thumbs up, allowing the group to go through as she manages to completely temporarily sever power to the malfunctioning device, allowing everyone to go through the door. As you go through the door, you notice a hallway with three exiting doors. There's one heading north-west, which seems to be locked with a slit that looks suspiciouly like the card of an odd material that Sef has given you, one to the north-east which is unlocked, behind which you hear mad ravings in a language none of you understand, and a door locked to the east.
Which way will the party go?
Grezzag switches back to his axe as they leave the strange desert room. He heads along the corridor, through slows down as the shouts become audible.
"Sounds like trouble." he murmurs in a low voice to the others. "Reckon we ought check that out first?"
Zelvin grimaces. "Well, we don't want to leave enemies behind us," he agrees reluctantly. He reloads his revolver and readies himself to follow Grezzag.
Hekau has no strong preference. "I will follow. If desired, I could cast Comprehend Languages to understand those words and possibly inform one of you of the situation well enough that a diplomatic approach might avert conflict with the speaker."
Zelvin nods encouragingly at his adopted brother. "That's a mighty useful bit of magic, Hekau!"
Hekau will sacrifice Liberating Command and Feather Fall to cast Comprehend Languages.
Can he understand the ranting voice?
Yes, Hekau can understand the voice.
"Divine, horrid accidents, brought about by this accursed world on this accursed plane, and you AVOID them? I'll have to claw these fancy two-armed lugs myself then, death by mindless undead or no!"
As you open the door with your access card (I'm just going to say that's what it is), you see a large metal table surrounded by odd-looking chairs in this room. To the west, what appears to be a transparent wall looks out over a strange desert valley. Four pillars support the fifteen-foot-high ceiling, while dozens of crude images of a pickaxe made of a skull and bones have been painted onto the walls, with some sort of ivory pigment along with several phrases in an unrecognizable language. In addition, a zombie form of the skeletons that had assaulted you is standintg
Hekau immediately sees phrases that are all prayers to a Shadow in the Sand, and a Poison in the Plant. The creature points to them with one of his javelins, and then at you in specific, Hekau, as he smirks and readies for combat while screaming, intelligible only to hekau, "FOR THE POISON".
1 rank +3 trained-2 int+1 Sage Knowledge
Zelvin announces in his casual drawl what he knows about the creature in Common. He then casts a spell that allows him to prepare and shoot three platinum pieces through his arcane gun. He tosses the first in the air and fires his revolver to send the bright shiny-white coin sailing through the air at the unusual skeleton's head.
Then Zelvin fires a second time, again sending one of the platinum coins toward the zombie creature.
Hekau knows nothing about this creature.
He draws and reads a scroll of True Strike.
Both of Zelvin's shots land on the four-armed creature, but he seems unfazed as he continues shouting in a language only Hekau can understand.
"Infernal tattooed torturer with their infernal devices, may you meet your fate! Two-armed bags of FLESH!"
He then reachs out towards the magus, not being able to swipe too many times due to the effort required in moving. He misses, however, as the barrier of force around the half-drow deflects his shortsword blow as he swears untranslateably, as such words don't often really translate well across magical means.
Penka, finally seeing a croporeal undead that won't go down in one hit, tosses one of her Alakhest bombs at the four-armed menace, aiming to dissolve the very bones holding him together! Zelvin, however, is right in the way of the bomb! The casing of the bomb, however, blocks the acid from leaking on to Zelvin whatsoever.
Grezzag's footsteps ring out as he rushes forward, axe held high. With a roar he swings the axe down with a crunch into the torso of the alien creature.
The four-armed juju zombie, taking one last final, pointless, remembered breath, collapses into a pile of necromantic flesh and bones as the corpse is destroyed. On the destroyed, formerly undead corpse, you find
2 javelins, 2 Medium, Masterwork Short Swords, and a Cloak of Resistance +1 along with 40gp, with strange minting that none of you recognize.
You can make a perception check to look around this room if you like, or perhaps check the other doors and rooms.
Zelvin attempts to catch his breath. "Did you understand what it was saying, Hekau?" he asks, panting with the exertion and adrenaline from only a moment ago.
Khoran joins Zelvin in asking for a translation: "What in hell is hiding under this hill? Undead things and some sort of a strange temple worshipping death? Indeed Hekau, if your magic has allowed you to understand what this thing was ranting about, tell us. Also, will this spell of yours translate what is written on the walls here?"
As he asks, he looks carefully around the room, inspecting the writing on the walls as he does.
2 rank +3 trained +4 wis+1 trait
"Does anyone have a clue about what being 'Shadow in the Sand', and 'Poison in the Plant' would represent?"
1 rank +3 trained-2 int+1 Sage Knowledge
Hekau will translate both what was said and what is on the walls.
"By the creature's words, it seemed to believe it was not from this world. The worship of Zyphus must extend to other worlds, then, though perhaps in a different form as evidenced by these drawings."
Grezzag cleans off his axe, then rummages through the creature's stuff and gathers up its possessions. He takes a brief poke about the room while listening to the others speak.
"Another world? I ain't ever seen anything like this place, so maybe."
While the others inspect and discuss the inscriptions, Grezzag will go and listen at the other two doors for anything suspicious.
"Yeah," drawls Zelvin, "I reckon that undead creature must have come here from really far away, since the tales I've heard tell say that there are folks like him who travel between the stars, using sky-ships with invisible sails. They say that each star is its own world, like Golarion, if you can believe that! But these four-armed people aren't like anything I've ever heard of growing up in these parts, so I'm inclined to believe that much is true. Likewise that shell creature we spotted in the doorway, that was clearly an alien not of this world. I wonder how they ended up here in these caves."
Zelvin casts a spell to boost his investigative abilities, and joins Khoran in looking through the room's contents, still marveling at all the strange drawings and the large window on one side of the room.
"The repair robot we encountered stated that it's function was to repair damage to the ship.
It is a logical conclusion that this structure is one such sky-ship as Zelvin speaks of, somehow buried here in Numeria. Perhaps it arrived and was subsequently covered by a landslide.
Alternatively, a vessel might be designed to traverse the planes, such as arriving here from Axis or the Abyss. Such could also be considered 'other worlds'. While I believe this explanation is less likely, it is a remote possibility. In such a case, a mishap when plane-shifting might cause it to appear in the ground."
Zelvin finds a card among the rubble, similar to the one that Sef gave you. This one, however, has a black strip along its side, and thus likely serves a slightly different purpose.
Where would the party like to go next? You can head back through the door you missed prior to confronting the juju zombie, or you can try to head east. Both doors, however, are locked.
Grezzag goes back to the first door and pushes at it experimentally.
"This one first?" he asks. "It ain't opening normally, who's got that card thing that opened the other one?"
As you use one of the access cards to open the door, the air in this room seems to buzz and hum with energy. Strips of glowing rectangles light the room from above, while strange flickering windows line the east and west walls. A large glass-topped circular table sits in the middle of the room. To the north sits a large metal desk covered with blinking lights, while a humming pillar of purple-and-black metal stands nearby, its sides flashing with tendrils of violet energy. A single golden panel flashes with a soft but incessant light on the side of this pillar. A thick layer of dust coats everything, diffusing the lights shining from the various surfaces, and many of the machines seem to be damaged, cracked, or otherwise ruined.
Zelvin whistles. "Now that is a lot of smithin' that went into this room. What is that pillar contraption there? Seems awfully big for just providing a light source, but it seems too small to be some kind of forge. And look at all those lights! I'm guessin' none of this is magical, anyways. Leastwise that hummin' and buzzin' sounds to me more like a bunch of insects than any arcane manifestation." He smirks at the others. "Seems to want us to touch it, doesn't it? Any way to tell what will happen if we do?"
He looks around to see if he can tell that Khonnir Baine or any of the other groups might have come through here, but the layer of dust makes him suspect that there is no sign.
Aside from damaged machinery, and the ominous glowing incandescent button, you find nothing of note in this room that could be of use.
"We're down here to find Khonnir, not play with strangeness we don't understand. The dust in here tells us that nobody, including Khonnir, has been in here in years. So leave it alone, and let's go look around elsewhere."
Grezzag peers at the button and it's surroundings to see if there's any clue to its purpose.
Grezzag know that, things such as these, usually do something related to the area they're in. So, it'd have something to do with the lights, the cave, the trap Penka disabled, or the like.
Hekau tries to provide a bit more clarity on the button's purpose. Perhaps taken together the configuration of controls and displays in this room will provide a hint.
Hekau knows that this, almost certainly, goes to control something in the caves. What it controls is hidden by the ceiling and the cave itself, and pressing it is presumably the only way to find out without tearing the environment apart.,
"Maybe it'll turn the Torch back on? Let's push it an' go check." Grezzag offers helpfully.
"I do believe this is worth activating to reveal more information about this vessel and its history. However, I would prefer to have the advice of Khonnir Baine on this matter. I would suggest we now try to head east. We can try to use this access card with the black stripe."
Zelvin frowns, reluctant to wait for his adopted father. ”Well, Hekau says it’s probably okay, Khoran, and that’s good enough for me. I’m gonna press the button. Take cover!” He laughs, giving everyone a moment to hide or leave before he touches the flashing panel.
"Very well, Zelvin."
Hekau remains with Zelvin as he pushes the button, and watches for any changes.
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As Zelvin pushes the button, the room whirrs and hums as if alive with some form of insect. A series of muff led clicking and buzzing sounds echo through the walls, and a moment later, the circular table in this room flares to light, providing a holographic projection of the room you were just in on its surface. Numerous panels on the wall fill with static and the pillar of purple metal flashes and begins to pulsate. The projection of the room you were just in is now filled with light, as you see the dismembered bones in the room, some of which still formed full skeletons, crumble to dust as they blow away in the simulated wind.
As you see the non-magical projection appear on screen, you see an aasimar, somewhat less human looking than Khoran, enter into the now-lit cave. Decked in a chain-shirt, with a pack, blackpowder pistol, spiked gauntlets, and a rapier, he approaches the open door, presumably going for the same location you are.
Uwe moves to the door and takes a moment to examine it to see if there are any traps for the unwary.
The android introduces himself.
"Greetings. Were you send from Torch to join us in the search for Khonnir Baine? I am Hekau."
Zelvin is startled by the aasimar's appearance below. He looks at the others, and then joins the group as they proceed to meet him at the door. "Howdy, neighbor. You look a mite familiar to me, haven't I seen you working at the forge? Before the torch went out, I mean? I'm Zelvin B-- uh, just Zelvin is enough, I guess. Glad to have you along! Any news from town?"
Uwe nods and draws out a rolled letter, "Yes, I was sent down to find someone named Penka. She is needed back above and I was asked to take her place to assist in investigating these caves." Uwe looks around for Penka and will hold out the letter to her.