"Well, we came from the town outside of this place," Seoli explains to the odd machine, "I'm Seoli, and... I guess our purpose right now is findin' this man by the name of Khonnir Baine. He went in here a while ago and never returned. Don't suppose you've had anyone else pass through here?"
"Can't say I know your purpose, but from the looks of everythin' else in this room, maybe it's got somethin' to do with rocks?"
"Someone mopped up the blood trail, but just here and not in the hall? Why?" Raika's failed test does not seem to bother her, and Alpha seems to be making some progress with the voice, so she turns to other things.
She starts to muse aloud, though her words are softly spoken. "There's no body, and the mopping is just in this room. Could a body have been moved, and the mopping done to hide the fact that there was a body? The trail doesn't keep going, so whatever made the trail should be here. But, it's not. Or is it?"
She glances back to the console and calls out "What was the last thing that you remember?"
Alpha-47 tilted his head slightly as the entity responded, childlike in its confusion yet somehow vast and unknowable. The android ignored the talk of missing bodies and smeared blood for the moment; mysteries of flesh paled next to the miracle unfolding before him.
“No, ‘machine’ is not a name,” Alpha-47 said patiently. “It is a term for a construct, something made with purpose, built to act. But you are more. You think. You question. That means you are." He rested a hand gently on the cold metal casing, as though offering comfort.
"My designation is Alpha-47. My purpose” he paused, considering, "is to understand if beings like myself have souls. To repair what is broken. To learn."
He glanced back briefly at the others as Raika spoke, then looked again to the flickering sphere. “You ask what your purpose is. Purpose can be given or chosen. What is the last function you performed? What do you remember before now?"
The voice in your heads answers calmly, "There was a two-leg made of flesh, like you, carried through here before by metal things not like you. It left red food on the floor. Did you bring more red food. I am so very HUNGRY!" The last word resounds in your head much more like a growl or a shout than the calm voice you have engaged with so far.
The voice considers its last memory. "There were others here, I remember and that was oh so long ago. Others who looked at rocks but they have not been here for a long long time. I remember that, and then it has been just me, maybe my name is Machine, that's what you said. I remember the red food. It tasted so good..." The thoughts break off rather ominously.
The words they hear make Raika go on alert. She suspects now that she knows why the room has been 'mopped', and that the 'box' is the cause of the mopping.
She moves away from it, then turns and studies the box.
"Careful folks. Things aren't always as they seem".
Bahir takes shelter and prepares to draw his spear.
"Correction: You are not a machine. Machines do not hunger." His gaze tracked the unnaturally clean stripe on the floor, then returned to the container. "You consumed the blood. You desire more. That makes you dangerous."
He raised his holy symbol of Brigh, and held it like a ward between them.
"We did not bring ‘red food.’ We brought questions and we seek a living two-leg of flesh named Khonnir Baine. If you harmed him, if you intend to harm any of us, Brigh will judge you through me."
"That's... Not food," Seoli's eyes widen with concern at the machine's response. With her gaze locked on it, she takes a step back from the console, and adopts a fighting stance, ready to smash the thing should it try anything funny.
Raika believes this box is some kind of bio-organic device. And perhaps unplugging it or shutting down its power source will end the implied threat from its words.
Bahir studies the box and listens carefully to the words and tone coming from the "voice". It seems very childlike and sincerely inquisitive , but there is a menace behind the words that is unsettling. He can't tell any more than that from his brief interaction.
"I am NotAMachine. I do hunger. I only remember one other two-legged flesh man coming here, and he was held by metallic non-flesh things. I don't intend harm to anything. NotAMachine is just curious about you, and about many things. If you did not bring red food, what did you bring? NotAMachine wants to know what is outside that door. Do you know? Can you tell?".
Seoli seems horrified at the implication of what's in that box eating human blood.
"Oh for god's sake. Can I just make this disgusting thing shut up?" Efni raises her hammer and throws the others a questioning look.
"We might be able to shut down its power source, but should we?" Raika asks.
"It has given us information. Baine was brought through this room by two metal beings, and all the NotaMachine did was drink up the blood that was left behind. It has not done anything hostile to us, and I'm not sure we should harm it."
That said, Raika will not do anything to hinder any efforts by any of the group to deal with the box any way they see fit.
"It literally said 'not a machine,' you missed a word gap!" Karina coughs. "That means it's likely a biological life form, perhaps? Or trying to parade as one."
I ASKED A QUESTION!" shouts the voice in your ears, seemingly not happy about being ignored.
"Outside the door is just an empty hallway." Raika deliberately does not tell the NotaMachine that the hallway is covered in blood.
Then to the group, she says "Shall we keep going or...,". She lets her voice trail off and nods in the direction of the NotaMachine, and then glances to Efni, as if silently asking the group if Efni's solution to the NotaMachine situation should be the one that is chosen.
Bahir pulls rations from his pack and puts them near the machine.
"Here. This food is better and much more satisfying".
"Let's get going and deal with this later if necessary".
"No!" shouts the voice. "I want red food! You won't leave me here, bring me more of that! Now!" The pitch of the sound in your head has gone up, to the point where the sound is near painful, not pleasant, inquisitive, and maybe childlike as it was before.
If you are watching closely, you see movement inside the black humming cabinet for the first time.
"Efni, I believe that your solution here is the proper one." Raika's earlier thoughts had been predicated on a lack of threat, and that has changed, so her attitude towards the NotaMachine has as well.
Seoli winces as the machine's communications become more shrill, leaving her fighting stance to rub her temples. Clenching her jaw and fists she glares at the device, "HEY!" she snarls at it, "Don't you have any manners?! Yellin' at people and makin' demands ain't gonna help you!"
"Thank you, Raika." Efni answers softly and and friendly, before her eyes begin to glow and her bulk begins to grow. In one smooth movement she slams down her hammer with all the force.
Efni rages, growing in size and strength, and brings her heavy maul down on the humming black box. The blow crushes the box, with metal bending and wrinkling from the impact. Surprising all of you, an other-worldly creature clambers out of the ruined habitat. It has a large, wide mouth set with rows of gnarly long teeth, and a series of tendrils surrounding the body, which is a disturbing violet color. It's hard to tell at first glance if this is a plant or an animal or some awful hybrid.
"Notamachine will take its food then!" it bellows into your heads, as the fight commences.
Geology Lab - Round 1
21 Alpha-47
17 Not A Machine
17 Raika
14 Efni
14 Karina
13 Seoli
6 Bahir
As things descend into violence, Alpha may act first.
Eyes steady, "Whatever this is, intelligent though it may be, now poses a threat, let us dispose of it, quickly"
Holding his holy symbol, he draws some shards of metal from his belt and launches them as needles toward the creature.
Geology Lab - Round 1 - continued
21 Alpha-47
17 Not A Machine (5hp dmg)
17 Raika
14 Efni
14 Karina
13 Seoli
6 Bahir
Alpha's spell, which sends needles flying at the now-hostile thing, successfully batters it with shards of metal for minimal damage.
The creature opens wide its toothy maw and utters a shrill shriek of utter madness. All the heroes are affected by the noise which is both audible and inside their heads at the same time. Additionally, several of the needle holes from Alpha-47's spell seem to patch themselves over.
Karina, though slow to start due to being yelled at in the middle of her "performance," starts up her usual routine as ice clings to the metal ground around the lute and the viol walks its way over to the fungus, ready to strike.
"I'm sorry to say, these objects aren't animated via blood. No red food for you."
She pauses, then facepalms after casting her spell, still stinging a bit with borrowed electricity. "Luther! This thing doesn't have eyes!"
"Wh-what is that thing?!" Seoli stammers out, clearly unnerved by the odd creature.
Her distress over the beast's alien appearance is only compounded by the physical and mental screaming piercing her ears and overwhelming her mind.
In addition to her ears ringing and clouded thoughts, Seoli finds her body unresponsive for a moment, as if unconsciously torn between fleeing and attacking. But with a burst of willpower, she begins to move toward the beast to strike, though she hesitates after her first attack, not wanting to touch the creature any more than she has to.
◆ Stride
◆ Strike
"I knew it. Not just a box, but something, again weird, inside."
Efni is also distracted by that eery sound. She stumbles more than walks as she tries to find a good attack point. As she sees Seoli struggle especially, Efni ◆runs past the group and behind the monster, also ◆climbing over the table.
◆
Like many of the others, the loud sound seems to seep into Raika's head.
She steps away from the creature to give Efni and the others room to operate.
She then tries to figure out anything she can about the creature.
Then she raises her bow and shoots it.
Will Save
Bahir shakes his head at the sound pounding at him... realizing that it is affecting everyone.
◆ STRIDE
◆ STRIKE: Gauntlet
Fist
Bludgeoning
◆ DRAW SHIELD
"Shades! That's as bad as that goblin bard at the Angry Sailfish tavern".
Geology Lab - Round 1 - concluded
21 Alpha-47
17 Not A Machine (16hp dmg)
17 Raika (stupefied 2, unsettled)
14 Efni (stupefied 2, unsettled)
14 Karina (stupefied 2)
13 Seoli (stupefied 2)
6 Bahir (stupefied 2)
Seoli shakes off the momentary stun, and then moves to attack the strange creature, punching one to excellent effect.
Karina's usual combat plan takes shape though she struggles at first getting the words of the hex just right due to the scream resounding in her head. Eventually, she is able to move Luther towards the creature, and zap it with a bolt of electricity. The creatures avoids all of the blast but still takes a little damage.
Very large Efni bolts over the table and around behind the creature but when she swings her heavy maul, she sees in her head a sudden confusing tangle of images, and her swing misses completely.
Raika steps away, considering the creature. She seems to think its a plant or plant-like at least. Clearly it has mental powers, so it likely has a strong will, and based on its size and bulk, it may have a high constitution, so she intuits that its agility and reflexes might be the best way to attack it. As Raika lines up her bow shot, her head is also filled with a series of flashing images from some world she has never seen. Her shot misses.
Bahir is also flustered by the screech, but he doesn't really too much on concentration and just walks up to the extraterrestrial, and punches it, making a satisfying smacking sound.
End of Round 1
success, half damage
success
fail
success
fail
success
Geology Lab - Round 2
21 Alpha-47
17 Not A Machine (16hp dmg)
17 Raika (stupefied 2, unsettled)
14 Efni (stupefied 2, unsettled)
14 Karina (stupefied 2)
13 Seoli (stupefied 2)
6 Bahir (stupefied 2)
Alpha's unique body make up allows him to fight off the sonic effects of the scream easier. He steps forward touching Seoli, and giving her divine assistance with her next attack.
The over-sized jaws of the creature snap at Efni, trying to bite the large barbarian in half. Tendrils also snake out long distances on the floor, trying to grasp both Alpha-47 and Bahir. The bite really does nearly cut Efni and half, and she is quite badly hurt. The tendril attacking Alpha misses, and Bahir is just able to use his shield to keep from getting bashed and grabbed.
success
critical hit
miss
26hp total
"Ou! That thing's teeth are sharp!" Efni is rather disturbed and hesitates. Nevertheless, she swings her maul once more, her hands shivering slightly.
◆
Efni then ◆ steps away and ◆ draws a minor healing potion.
Seoli turns her head and nods in appreciation as Alpha's magic empowers her, but is caught off-guard when the creature lashes one of its tentacles. Not to strike her, but toward Alpha. To her relief, the beast missed. Nonetheless, the surprise was enough to knock her off-balance, preventing her from getting another good hit in.
◆ Strike
◆ Strike
◆ Flurry of Blows
+
Seeing Efni take that hit, Raiki moves over to her in order to try and help her out.
Then she takes a fast shot at the creature.
◆ Guarded Step
◆ STRIKE:
VS. Off Guard
Gauntlet Bludgeoning Damage
◆ Raise Shield
"Come on guys pull it together! We've got to take this thing out".
Karina has her viol swing stab the creature, testing its weaknesses while she zaps them from afar, all while the lute stops causing the air around it to go cold upon realizing dazzling this creature would do literally nothing.
Geology Lab - Round 2 - concluded
21 Alpha-47
17 Not A Machine (51hp dmg)
17 Raika (stupefied 1, unsettled)
14 Efni (9/32hp remain, stupefied 1, unsettled)
14 Karina (stupefied 1)
13 Seoli (stupefied 1)
6 Bahir (stupefied 1)
Raika cannot aid Efni with her field medic skills but does manage to successfully shoot an arrow into the large plant-like creature.
Efni, hurt quite badly, still manages to land a massive blow against the body of the fungal foe, doing significant damage against it. She then steps away and readies to drink a healing potion.
Karina's spell is not fully effective against the creature, but seems to do some damage. The melee strike from the viol is a hit, and does hurt it.
Seoli's attacks, even with divine assistance, turn out to be misses.
Bahir slugs the plant thing with his mailed glove, then raises his shield. The blow is serious and once delivered, the fuzziness in all your brains ceases, and the plant creature is apparently unmoving.
End of Combat
success for half.
Looking around at the others, "It appears to be dead, Efni, come here, let me treat your wounds, the creature badly hurt you,"
Alpha-47 approaches Efni, his healer kit drawn, looking at the others, "This may take a while, can someone verify that creature is indeed dead?"
Efni hesitates, but let's the Android begin treating her wounds where Raika couldn't. "Well, thank you. Already a little better. I'll take that potion, too, though."
Bahir punches the creature a couple more times to make sure it's really dead.
"You never know with things like this. Always best to make sure".
"Well, whatever it was doin' to my head stopped, so it's prob'ly dead," Seoli rubs her forehead. With her mind cleared, she makes her way over to the door in the back of the room and looks it over.
Efni benefits from some healing from Alpha, and downs a potion. The double doors at the far end of the room seem to be much like the others in the science wing, including a brown chip on the opening mechanism.
Karina goes and grabs her viol and starts looking at the rocks, entirely having dropped most of the act by this point, as you hear the lute itself start to idly play some tune, all while Karina looks over the rocks.
Raika keeps an eye on the door that we have not gone through while the others investigate the room.
Looking to Efni's wounds, "Depending on how things go, I will expand magic to heal you if another fight breaks out before I'm able to further treat you. I must wait before operating on you again or your body may reject the healing,"
Looking around, at the strange flashing monitors, "It is surprising any of this is still working,"
The workstations that Alpha-47 investigates reveal that the screens there flicker between darkness, static, and erratic displays of information in a language that the android can read. The screens seem to cycle though, and with enough time, Alpha can piece together some information to relate to the others.
This area was once a geology lab of sorts where rock and soil samples were collected. The bulk of the recent samples came from a location referred to as CX-355 or Kasath. This place is described as an arid climate with very little water, violent weather patterns, and savage inhabitants predominately of hexapodous nature. It seems the habitat dome you passed through was specifically modeled to mirror the environs of CX-355 or Kasath.
It appears that the fungal sample stored in the black box was not from Kasath, but from a more recent foray to a place called Nchak. The scientists knew the spores of the fungus were worth studying but they put them in the growing container with plans to study them later. There no further notes.
Karina sees the dirt and rocks on the other side of the room, but there are no notes or anything too noteworthy other than they seem to be mostly red rocks with flecks of perhaps iron ore, or similar material, showing through.
She does spy a small metal box under the table that is perhaps the size of a small briefcase.
Bahir rushes over at the mention of metal flakes to take a look and give his opinion.
LORE: Plane of Metal
There are only trace amounts of ore in these rocks, but Bahir seems to think that they are not an ore or metal he has seen ever before. Perhaps they are more like the metallic floors and walls of this structure, but he's not sure -- only that they are outside his experience.
Alpha-47 peruses the area, looking at the ore or metal with Bahir, "While we may be unable to identify this, I'm sure the skymetal smiths Torch is famous for could do something with it, let us collect it for study later,"