Some of the questions catch Grezzag's attention.
"Uhh.. hello." says Grezzag cautiously. "I'm Grezzag. We ain't red, but maybe we can find you some red food. Where did you get the red food before?"
"Didya say you saw some metallic creatures? What'd they look like?"
"Materials like what you have! Except they were part-of-the-creature, unless that metal is part-of-you! The red food is," the creature sends into your brain, before it points to what appears to be specks of blood, still on the ground. "There's still some left, if you want any. What do you eat? How do you breathe? Do you bud? Why are you green? I remember seeing creatures like the glowing one, but I don't remember much more. Why is he glowing? Metallic creatures! Yes! Had cylinders! Cylinders with liquids! Not sure what they were for. They were carrying someone like-you with them."
"Beware, this creature can pull you towards it. And it will eat you if it can." Uwe whispers to the others. He then asks the creature, "Was the someone like us the red meat that you keep asking about?"
"Yes! But also no," the creature sends to your mind, "it seems to be what's inside of you, but it doesn't need to come directly from you! There was some on the walls earlier! I didn't have to even fight for it! The one-like-you was dragged and left it behind! Does the glowing one have any? He seems different! Wha's on your head?"
"This is called a hat. We wish to move past you to find the being who was dragged through here. Can we pass freely?" Uwe asked as he looked warily at the carnivorous plant.
"If you can manage to open these weird doors, go ahead! Maybe there's more of that food past the door," it says as it points to the door where the speckles of blood lead. "Are hats for protection? From light? Artificial? Natural? Hide lack of hair? Hold things?"
Khoran considers the flood of questions for a second, sorting through for a reply.
He speaks to the fungus: "There is more red food in the hallway outside. We will leave the door open. Tell us about the ones who brought the red food in the first place How many were there, including the one who was dragged? Can you describe them? How about the one who was dragged, what color was his hair, for example?"
3 rank +3 trained +3 cha
Assuming the fungus does not turn hostile (his familiar keeps an eye on it to watch his back), he searches the room, quietly calling on the spirits as he goes...
3 rank +3 trained +4 wis+1 trait+1 Competence (guidance cantrip)
Hekau waits to see what Zelvin has to say.
"Hats can be used for all those things." Grezzag says warily watching the plant, while thinking over what 'cylinders with liquid' could mean. "Although different hats are better for different purposes.
Grezzag will open the door they came in, then keep it open until the plant goes through, then close it once the conversation is finished.
Uwe will try and move past the plant to go search the other door.
Zelvin is wary of the talkative plant, but tries not to show it. He decides to tell it the truth, but in such a way that it conveys a different message. "You must have been here a long time," he says. "For we are very different from the other two-legs you have seen. I don't reckon the red food, as you call it, that is inside us would be good for you to try and eat. But there is plenty non-poisonous red food back there in the corridor, and in the rooms before that. In fact, way back outside of the doors there's a big creature that's leaking lots of red food all over. If you're hungry, that's the best source in this area."
After opening the door to the area, still filled with blood, with the access card, the cerebric fungus greedily goes to consume the bloodtrails left in the other room, leaving you to your own devices. On the other end of the door, you can hear mechanical creatures whirring about, very likely robots.
"The mechanical creations through this door likely have some programmed function - some task to complete. It may be that they will attack us, but that is not certain. I would suggest taking a defensive posture. We will be more likely to accomplish our goals if we can proceed without suffering injury."
Hekau is prepared to open the doors with Open/Close, again from a safe distance and at an oblique angle after using the keycard, though he waits for confirmation of this plan.
"I would suggest opening the doors from a distance, using magic, and at an oblique angle. That way, if something is on the other side waiting to ambush us, we are not immediately exposed to it."
Zelvin frowns with slight worry. "If those weird machines are doing something awful to Mr. Khonnir, I don't think even he would blame us for blowing them all to kingdom come. I think that's a good plan, Hekau, and Uwe too."
Grezzag stands near the door, axe at the ready.
"Robots are trouble, no ifs about it" he remarks grimly.
Khoran spits on his hands and grasps his spear tightly. With a prayer to the spirits he sets up beside and a step back from Grezzag, ready to meet a charge...
As you use your access card to get through the door, you appear at some form of indoor crossroad, with closed and locked doors to the east, north, south, and west. The blood continues along the easterly door, where the whirring can be heard at an even louder volume than it was in the other room.
Khoran makes a quiet suggestion, gesturing with his chin: "Before we go further, Hekau, close the door behind us , in case our fungus pal decides he can get more and better red food from us...
"I do not see any need to close doors remotely at a safe distance. Closing them does not present the same risk as opening them."
Zelvin chuckles wryly and closes the door. "That's a good idea, Mister Khoran. Sounds like more whirring ahead. You folks reckon that's another robot contraption?" To prepare, he casts coin shot on three platinum pieces and nods to Hekau to signal he's ready to proceed.
Grezzag flexes his fingers around his axe as he stands poised in a battle stance.
Uwe nods and will head along the blood trail to see what is there. He searches the next set of doors when he gets there. If there is nothing to be found he moves 10 ft north and motions to open the door.
As you enter the room, you see metal desks sitting 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. You also see a robot in the room, which appears not to have noticed you specifically, but notices the door open as it swivels its "eye" to the now-open technological door.
Alyn gawks for just a moment at the blood, beds, and attached machinery before noticing the robot. She hesitates, uncertain if this robot was hostile from the get-go or just retaliatory.
Grezzag takes one glance at the robot standing in the middle of the bloodstained room and lets out a warcry, springing forwards and bringing his axe round into the robot with a satisfying crunch.
+2 dex
"Grezzag, it might not have been hostile. I suspect it is now."
There is neither reproach nor sadness in Hekau's voice - just some flat statements of fact.
Hekau tries to see if he can identify the robot's purpose by its design.
He will use Total Defense.
Grezzag knows that, by the purpose and the syringes for fingers, that this is a Medical Drone (variant clockwork servant, but you need Engineering obviously). It is not a surgeon robot proper, as those are far, far more horrifying and would presumably wipe your entire party right now, but these drones act as more akin to nurses with similar responsibilities. Injections, blood-draws, and the like.
As you look at it, it screeches in a glitchy, distorted Androffan indicating malfunciton,
"If this wasn't a fight, it is now, and the best fight is one that's over quick..."
Khoran joins Grezzag, rushing in with his longspear leading the way.
+2 bab +2 Charge +1 guidanced+1 str +1 flagbearer
+1 str +1 flagbearer
Uwe just moves into the room and looks for a clear shot.
Recognizing their opponent as another robot, Zelvin tosses one of his enchanted coins into the air and fires it at the metal construct.
Not even reacting slightly to the bullets, unlike the last robot which seemed more-or-less functional (if only bugging due to unexpected parameters, i.e. you don't program for a crashed ship in your robot's programming), this one is sparking a little as it continues in a monotone cheery Androffan: "The doctor will be with you shortly, there is no reason to struggle." The syringed hand successfully swipes at Grezzag, pauses to inject some nonmagical liquid, numbing the robot-slayer slightly as it injects its anaesthetic.
The rest of you are up, initiative order doesn't matter since I'm 90% sure you just kill this thing.
Grezzag knocks away the mechanical hand with a shout, then swings the ends of the axe around in a flurry of swipes, sending the metal contraption crashing to the floor.
"It definitely ain't hostile now," he says.
He examines the spot on his arm where the drone hit him, poking gingerly at the wound. "Dunno what it hit me with, but I feel ok." he remarks.
As you magically open the technological door, you see a row of beds sitting along the southern wall of this well-lit room. Glowing screens and metal desks sit on the opposite walls, and splatters of blood adorn the floor and several of the beds. To the east, a large metal device that is the size of a large bed hums softly, with someone you recognize inside, as well as another Medical drone, and a robot you don't yet know what it is. The person inside the device that looks like a Bed is none other than the missing councillor Khonnir Baine himself!
As you enter the room, the robots hum to life, and you can hear what sounds to be Khonnirs muffled, agonized screams of pain from inside the device. Extremely feeble thumping can be heard from inside the pod as well, so clearly Khonnir is vainly attempting to get out! These robots, however, seem to be far more active than the one Grezzag so handily destroyed, and are not "caught off guard" (to whatever extent an analogue a robot can be, that is)
Khoran eyes the liquid still dripping from the tip of the weapon that the robot used to stab Grezzag, and says "Let me have a look Grezzag."
He pulls out his healer's kit and mutters a prayer as he examines the wound the robot left behind. Then he lays his hands on the site and calls upon the ancient healing techniques...
3 rank +3 trained +4 wis +2 circumstance (healer's kit)+1 guidance
Uwe stands at the door and sends a shot before loading and firing his gun a second time at the closest robot!