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You head back to camp and where hailed by Dr Munroe who asked, "How'd it go? We've had a bit of an interesting time while you were away. First Miriam found a diamond the size of my thumbnail, it just looks like a bit of glass but apparently according to Mike it'll be quite valuable when cut. Oh and we had Wyvern buzz the camp, fortunately our archery was enough to make it turn tail."
Dr Monroe was taken by this idea and he murmured "Mmm yes, I think that's worth a shot Zendara." The idea was discussed further, everyone seeming to agree it should be checked out.
"Woah! Would you look at that!" whispered Dr Munroe. To Miriam he muttered, "How about doing some archeology up there! It's clearly some kind of holy place, I'm sure we could get a paper or two published!" He spoke softly with her for a fee minutes before suggesting, "Maybe we'll take the second watch. Miriam is hoping to see some more shooting stars and perhaps get another glimpse of the sky castle... Who is taking the third watch?"
"Cracking shot!" cried Dr Munroe as he moved to take a better look at the mangled corpse. The impact had dug a hole two foot deep into the earth which was filled with gore and flecks of bone. Perception DC 24: You can see three distant specks flying towards you, looks like more drakes!
Dr Munroe looked dubiously at the path and said "Mike that looks technical..."
Zendara's spell helped stabilise Mike and Dr Munroe and Prof Dexter emerged from their room at this stage, Miriam ran to the door and said something which was swallowed up by the zone of silence. Dr Munroe handed Mike a potion which he downed which made has wound sizzle as it shrunk dramatically before disappearing. "Great..." he grumbled, "We're dealing with an assassin smart enough to use hit and run tatics. The only way this could get worse is if that blasted ghost shows up!" Perception DC 15: It was subtle, but did the temperature just drop a little?
You turned off the trail towards the mountain hut, taking another smaller one that went far into the foot hills. Still you gradually ascended and witnessed a progression in the vegetation. Low down the ground was covered with grasses, verdant bushes and dense copses of trees. These gave way to hardy scrubs plants and mosses although there were still occasional trees clinging to boulders here and there. Above a certain level the trees stopped and of course it got colder, it was perhaps a few degrees above freezing when the rain started and the wind picked up. You spent a few miserable hours tramping through this and Dr Munroe tried to keep everyone's spirits up by sharing amusing anecdotes about his previous adventures. You'd heard most of these before of course, but every so often he'd add something new. After a while he pointed to something in the distance through the raid and asked Mile, "Is that Tinscragg?" Mike nodded. "How'd it get it's name anyway?" he asked.
As you walked through the streets Dr Munroe asked, "What was that you said about finding shock quartz up there Mike? Something about the witness marks of a big impact?"
"Sounds like you've been busy!" said Dr Munroe. He finished the last morsel on his plate, left a generous pile of coins on the table and stood up saying, "Well I think it's about time we left. A spot of hiking sound like a plan." Prof Dexter and Mike agreed and several minutes later your group was headed north towards the outskirts of town. Kn: Geography DC 16 or Local DC 16:
If you take the next left you'll be on the main road leading out of town. The terrain outside is mostly treeless with a gentle slope to the north heading towards the mountain. "So what's all this about scrying?" he asked as you walked, "Are they after one of you, or something else?" Perception DC 28: You saw a flicker of movement for the second time a block back. Somebody reasonably skilled is following you.
Dr Munroe replied to Yukarii, "He's an administrator attached to the history department, quite senior but not really a researcher if you know what I mean." Dr Munroe then nodded to Xindrya, "Oh! That's a good lead, let's try and find her." Since there where no explicit objections to mooring near Illford it was decided to go there. The crew at once excited at the prospect of shore leave and disappointed it wouldn't be in a party town. That evening the Dawntreader soared over the eastern rim of the Waiaki moonscape, giving you gorgeous views of the volcanic summit and the lava lake within. From ten thousand feet above the island you watched the shadow of the volcano creep over the island as the sun set. With supplies that had been hoarded for months, an impromptu party was held for Miriam whose birthday it was. When somebody imprudently asked how old Miriam was, Dr Munroe laughed "Twenty one again wasn't it Miriam?" She seemed to like this intervention and when some music came on later they were spotted dancing. The party went on long into the night and almost everyone had a sore head in the morning. Despite this, the airship landed early on the outskirts of Illford. Much to Yukarii's relief Illford didn't smell particularly. It had a proper underground sewer system and the actual sulphur was mined by workers who braved harsh conditions at the many fumaroles along the volcano's flank. Each morning they'd set off before dawn with wicker baskets which they'd fill with great hunks of the yellow rock before trudging down the steep flank, balancing the baskets with near their body weight of sulphur on their heads. It was a dangerous but lucrative profession. Illford itself was mostly housing on the southern side with an industrial area on the northern side. The two halves where separated by a small river crossed by three bridges. There was a good smattering of stores and chandlery businesses that catered to airships which made Braenar happy, he'd been muttering about getting the fans nacelle serviced and this was the perfect opportunity. Dr Munroe found a local cafe and planned with you the next steps, saying "I need to run some errands here, got a stack of letters to send the old fashioned way. Miriam has also got some excursion planned which will take a few days. Would the four of you mind going on ahead to track down Andrea? It's a bit of a trek but the University post near Durance should be easy enough to find and they'll have an idea of where to look for her. If we're lucky Mike Tomlins a geologist is still there, an old friend, although it's been a while and he could have retired."
Dr Munroe replied, "Hmm I think the crew would be happier with a proper town rather than being stuck in the middle of nowhere. I suppose we should head for this Illford, even though sulphur mining sounds kinda smelly. Any objections?" He glanced around before adding, "We probably should figure out who on the research team we'd like to talk to. Niels Da Vorre the local department head can be a bit of an ass, would be good if we didn't have to involve him." Lounging against the wall Miriam snorted. Dr Munroe sighed, "All right I did kind of hit him, but he deserved it!" Again Miriam snorted. Dr Munroe rolled his eyes, "I seem to recall you started it Miriam, you insulted his wife, he slapped you so I knocked him out. True Ellie had just insinuated that you had loose morals, but you could have ignored her. " She gave him a look. Defeated he said, "Guess that's a no. Anyway avoiding that man seems like it would be for the best." Kn: Local DC 15: Andrea Meedes is a graduate researcher from the religious studies department, she is researching the standing stones for her PhD. Some of you know her in passing.
That evening in Dr Munroe's cabin there was a small gathering. Naturally you were invited. Looking pensive he told you, "So we're due to land in Port William tomorrow and after months away from civilization the crew are itching for shore leave but I'm starting to get cold feed about landing there. Braenar's seen a couple of corvettes heading for Port William Docks through the telescope, they didn't look anything special to me but he swears they're pirates. I told him surely the authorities wouldn't allow that and he laughed 'What Authorities?'" His eyes scanned the room as he asked, "Any suggestions?" Kn: History, Kn: Local DC 20:
Port William is the biggest settlement on Waiaki Island. It's a party town with a deservedly seedy reputation. If you want to gamble, if you want hookers, if you want to drink, smoke or partake various other vices this is your kind of town. If however you're a mild mannered archeologist, Port William is probably not the safest place you could be.
Notionally part of the Merchant's League, Waiaki Island's loyalty has long been ambiguous. In times gone by that wasn't really a problem, the island was remote and fairly inhospitable. When gold was found ten years ago all of that changed. Port William grew like a weed, far outstripping the capabilities of the overstretched and underfunded sheriff's office. Kn: Geography DC 20: There's a couple of alternative locations you could consider. While the university maintains an office in Port William, their main base of operations is near a little mining village called Durance (short for endurance).
There's also a Sulphur mining town called Illford on the other side of the Island. That's a fairly normal industrial town, and is a good deal safer than either Port William or Durance but it's not the most convenient location for linking up with the university researchers. You'd need two days travel on foot to reach them. NB Waiaki Island is big enough that you can only fly a few miles inland.
Dr Munroe scratched his ear as he listened to the opinions and when Waiaki Island was suggested he asked Braenar, "What do you think Braenar, how long will it take to get to Waiaki Island?"
Dr Munroe nodded, "That's true we have a quill of automatic writing attuned to the university. What message would you like to send? We should probably be careful of how much we say, on the one hand we don't want to dismissed as crackpots and on the other hand I'm uncomfortable with the military or The Kez getting wind of what we've found..."
Dr Munroe chuckled softly, "That my friend is the question. Plan A seems to be to head to The Core and somehow find our way to the Mitterland Imperial Museum in the middle of the Kez homeland. As I'm sure you're aware lift crystals don't work in the interior of big islands so we'd have quite the trek to get there, at least two hundred miles or so through hostile territory. Once we're there we need to break into the museum find this portal, attach a micro fusion generator and power it up and hope to Elodin and all the saints that it's still working and keyed to Indar. Assuming it is, from there we need to somehow figure out how to use the solar wells to destroy the darkness back on Oberon and er hope that's enough to send this outer god Nylarthotep packing. Ha sounds simple! What could possibly go wrong?!" Shaking his head he added, "Vesta mentioned there might be some alternatives. I guess we should consider them now."
Dr Munroe sighed deeply when the story came out and gently told Ellis, "That tracking chip will have to come out, I'll ask Mariam to do it. She has an undergraduate medical degree with full honours and quite some field experience so you'll be good hands." Ellis looked scared but nodded.
"Now that's the question..." replied Dr Munroe, "In the short term we should get away before the Kez get here, go anywhere they are unlikely to go which is probably strange up until the air gets really cold and due west. After that I think we need to have a conference on board to digest the things we've learned and decide if we want to risk a raid on The Kez's museum to open a gateway or if we want to search for a plan B."
With a sardonic laugh Dr Munroe replied, "What makes you think she hasn't got a pair already? We've been long enough!" With this disturbing thought (the things were large) you set off walking upwards towards the top of the hill and you picked your way along scree covered highlands before descending down a different valley that Vesta judged as being safe. Several hours later you arrived at the airship which was laden with many boxes of all sizes lashed to the decks.
Dr Munroe shaded his eyes with one hand as he looked in the direction Zendara pointed, excitedly he replied, "Oh yes! Well we'd better get over there, I'm sure Mariam and the other ls will be worried sick."
"Well that went well, I'm sure Mr Lyrinz will be pleased." said Dr Munroe who was clearly impressed by the repairs. "So what's next? Shall we try to contact the city? Perhaps this repair will lend us some credibility when it comes to repairing the interlinks as Dr Taproot suggested."
Dr Munroe laughed, "You'd be surprised, ain't nobody got time to the dishes son! Anyway come on, shall we get this refrigerator room sorted before we uh seek an audience, whatever that entails..."
"Hey, good point!" said Dr Munroe, who bent down to examine the floor, "It's like it's been polished..." He stood back up and paced for a moment before stopping, "Say... You remember those dog like repair bots we've seen from time to time? What if there's some sort of uh janitorial robot we've not seen?"
After Taproot's words where translated Dr Munroe sighed, "Okay so we've gotta jump through some hoops. If I understood correctly this communication device we're talking to Dr Taproot with could be used to talk to Vesta as well as the terminals the ladies used to request the repair materials. It sounds like we're going back there so maybe we can talk to Vesta from there. Anyway enough talking, lets head over to the dispensary..." The party then heads over to the dispensary. This turns out to be in a low dark glass building a block away, covered with iconography of a staff and a snake along with red crosses. The building isn't particularly large and it seems to have suffered significant damage in the past with many of the glass panes mazed from cracks. The automatic doors still worked on the entrance and you entered a small waiting room. Lights blinked on as you entered and a strangely dressed semi-transparent figure in a sort of dark green gown winked into existence in the middle of the room and addressed you. Marin:
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." Kn: Engineering DC 20: This is a hologram.
Dr Munroe nodded saying, "Sounds good let's try that. One question though how exactly do we request an audience with Vesta?"
Blowing out his cheeks, Dr Munroe remarked "Quite a list that. The fate of villagers or ghosts or whatever they are farming weeds worry me, they should have passed on but have not..."
Dr Munroe seemed uncomfortable with the idea but grudgingly admitted, "
Dr Munroe suggested, "Zendara can you tell him that uh, we had a shared dream about the city mind. Vesta's its name I think, anyway in the dream we learned the enemy had unleashed the rot deep in the foundations of the world. Can you ask him what he thinks that could be."
"It sounds rather ominous to me." said Dr Munroe, "Anyway there's nothing we can do about it right now, I suggest we head back and try to repair that device and contact Dr Taproot. Also I suppose we should fix the refrigerator too although quite what those poor folks on the surface are going to do with it I don't know..." You head back to the apartment building through the garishly lit neon streets. On the way in the distance you notice dozens of spider kill bots moving towards a distant tunnel, something about that sent your hackles rising. Certainly you wouldn't fancy being on the recieving end if that lot were to charge. A couple of blocks and several twists and turns later you arrive back at the apartment block. You head back upstairs, taking what the girls described as an 'elevator' and you find the room just as you left it.
"Oh! Can we get there?" asked Dr Munroe? Service map + Kn: Geography / Kn: Local DC 20:
The mountain is full of access shafts of all kinds, but there's not many which go near the control suite. It looks like there is a circuitous route that branches off from the railway which might get close although the map labels the area as 'restricted access' and 'gold clearance required'. Kn: Engineering DC 25 & Technologist Feat: Surely the mind is very well guarded in the real, but the virtual world is another matter entirely. According to what you've read it well Vesta to use it's name often spoke to citizens. Perhaps we should try to find a VR suite and say hello?
Dr Munroe was troubled by the long sleep but he did feel rather better for it. He listened to the others speak before saying, "As good a suggestion as any Marek. I think we try and find out what's going on, what exactly is this uh 'mind', whatever that is, fighting?" His tone of voice left little doubt that he had a bad feeling about this. Kn: Engineering DC 24:
Using the terminals you were able to access the city's database which revealed some interesting background.
In general terms a 'mind' is an artificial intelligence. Sick of constant wars over resources, of religious oppression, of politicians and of general corruption of those in power the ancients to drag their society out of the gutter. There came to feel that people simply could not be trusted with power, it was too corrosive. Something with unimpeachable moral fortune was needed to lead, and so the first minds were conducted by the ancients as the better angles of themselves. This combined with near unlimited energy by directly siphoning plasma from the sun brought a new post scarcity society. A culture where individuals were free to live their lives as they pleased, nobody had to work anymore, nobody would ever starve again. This wasn't to say society was idle, far from it, freed from the shackles of daily drudgery the arts and sciences flourished and sports became an obsession. Physically a mind is a large oval shape with a coppery or gold hue, about the size of a large cow. Made of exotic materials it is extremely heavy although they are able to levitate slowly. Minds are not entirely without defences but they are not themselves built for combat, of course the ships that some are plugged into most definitely are.
Kn: Local DC 20: The map suggests there is a central control suite down a dozen of so levels from here and a little way East. Perhaps that's where the mind is!
Stifling a yawn, Dr Munroe admitted, "Honestly I'm running on fumes, we've been on the go for a long time. I guess this place seems as good as any? Do you think we could barricade the door?" Kn: Engineering DC18: There are various heavy bits of furniture you could shift. Also the mechanism opening the door could be temporarily disabled although it would take several minutes to undo this if you had to.
Dr Munroe frowned for a moment before saying emphatically "I think we should all go." said Dr Munroe, "If we got separated and something happened, that wouldn't do... So uh lead on!" Perhaps reluctantly the girls lead the group outside and along a twisty network of narrow garishly illuminated streets. This looked like a shopping area but with animated signs and strange manikins in the windows that waved and tracked your motion. "That's more than a little creepy..." muttered Dr Munroe as you passed a large display window behind which were several dozen of these manikins in outlandish dress, all eerily waving as one as you passed. A couple more turns and you were outside a small warehouse which was labelled Tech Repair and Vapes in Marin. There was a small office/shop attached to the front, and as you approached an automated glass door started revolving. Inside you can see a number of devices the ladies recognise as terminals along the walls and at the far end is something they call a conveyor belt which disappears through a hatch in the wall and runs into the warehouse. There were a number of signs in Marin, most of which were uninteresting but one seemed relevant... Marin: Order at a terminal and await fulfilment by the carousel. Do not stand on the carousel. Do not leave children unattended.
Breathing hard, Dr Munroe took a moment to compose himself before muttering, "Ye gods! How horrible was that?!"
Dr Munroe smiled, "I would very much like to search the crates, who knows what cultural artefacts we might find..." At that moment Edwin found the conjoined twins, Dr Munroe swore and in a very different tone of voice added "Aie! That's as creepy as... Er Zendara I think if you don’t mind we should stick together. Lets all go to the repair shop?"
A second or so after pressing the fob button, the foldable doors roll up accompanied by the whine of stressed motors and general clanking and scratching noises. A large space is revealed containing a maze of piled boxes. Hanging above the entrance is a thicket of meat hooks, gleaming in the thin light that shone in shafts from the skylights above. Of course there was no real sky, but the omnipresent illumination of the city lights studding the vaulted cavern roof far above. A musty odour wafts out, vaguely reminiscent of a butcher shop mingled with something earthy. Stepping inside the temperature is markedly lower, but not enough to be useful for refrigeration. Presumably the refrigeration machinery is in here somewhere, but now you've got to find it. Dr Munroe gave a low whistle, "This is a big place! A proper exploration will take some time!"
Perception DC 15:
Inside you noticed a few faint cart marks on the floor which look like a match for Mr Lyrin's cart. You're reasonably certain you found the right place. If you open a crate:
The first crate contains carefully packed low tech junk, broken things all wrapped in unprocessed wool as if they where prized glassware or other breakables. The second crate contained bottle after bottle of pickled root vegetables - or rather of pickled weeds. Very peculiar, apparently this is the village's winter stores. The second and third crates contain more of the same. Perception DC 30:
You're not really sure what made you try this crate out of the thousands in the warehouse, perhaps the faint stench of formaldehyde? Like the others it contained a large jar packed tightly in unprocessed wool, unlike the others this jar was as taller than Xindrya in which floated the pickled remains of a pair of adolescent conjoined twin girls. The cause of death was unknown, their skin seemed unmarked and remarkably unaffected by the ravages of time. Once you've found the control panel:
The refrigeration control panel is damaged, it bears scratch marks and some of the components look like they've been replaced.
"Sounds like a good idea Edwin." replied Dr Munroe. He looked around, "Any other ideas or shall we do it?"
Dr Munroe listed the options on his fingers and whistled, "A repair shop, a meat processing facility and a railway... Wow hard to know we're to begin." He glanced at Marek who was carrying the comatose form of Yukarii and frowned, "Marek before we go anywhere we need you to wake her up, can you give it a try?"
"A railway? What's that? Some secret of the ancients?" asked a somewhat excited Dr Munroe.
Dr Munroe sighed deeply when Zendara stormed off, this place was starting to get underneath everyone's skin, literally . Considering Edwin's suggestion Dr Munroe agreed saying, "Yes we should try and find the refrigeration room, perhaps now the girls will be able to fix it. Also if we can find the stuff needed to restore contact with Dr Taproot that would be great, but to be honest I don't really know what we're looking for. Words were said, but uh I don't have a clue what they mean."
Some of the lustre of their environs had been wiped away from Dr Munroe by repeated soul wearing screames. Rather emphatically he implored, "Please nobody else try that today! We need to be sure there's no unexpected effects like um psychosis or death."
Kn: Engineering (with technologist) DC 20: You think it might be possible to contact Dr Taoroot again, you're just going to need more power and a indrium amplifier. The town must have a generator somewhere, that'd likely have ample power if you can either find it or a major power conduit. Also there's bound to be a hardware store somewhere in town or perhaps a nano-tech printer module, if you can find the schematic in the datascape you could print one given time.
Showing bravery bordering on madness, Zendara claimed onto the peculiar "couch" it was more comfortable than she expected although the restraints were rather tight. She wasn't able to apply the head restraints herself and Edwin and a rather reluctant Dr Munroe set those and then Zendara was well and truly helpless. "I hope you know what your doing..." Dr Munroe said to her, "It's not too late to back out." But she wouldn't and Marek stormed off saying he wasn't going to watch this. Edwin managed to partially figure out the controls, but there were lots of settings that he didn't understand, so wisely he stuck to starting the sequence and trusting the defaults. The machine whirred into life, the robotic limb moved with alarming speed as it twitched this way and that near Zendara's head. As it did so a strange picture was built up on the display which after a while you realized was an image of her brain. Suddenly and without warning the adamantine spike plunged savagely into her skull and she screamed and thrashed around before loosing consciousness. Zendara:
You felt the most blinding headache utterly stunning you with its intensity and then there was a period of darkness. This state lasted for an indeterminate length of time. Suddenly in the very centre of your vision there was a tiny dot of brilliance surrounding the darkness. This dot grew and elongated into the city script, it was strange to look at, impossibly thin yet bright. The weirdest thing was you understood it. It said:
Host interface v1.27 r-13 Booting...
Another smaller arm rose out of the machinery and this zapped the wound as the needle withdrew, cauterising it with a red beam. This arm then seemed to rotate something on its head, revealing a new tool which it sprayed the wound with a sort of foam which started healing her skin as it bubbled. Within a minute the terrible looking hole had closed and leaving a faint scar. "That was pretty harrowing... I hope she's going to be OK!" muttered a concerned Dr Munroe.
Dr Munroe found all of this utterly fascinating, and he had his notebook out and was jotting down everything Dr Taproot had said in shorthand. Folding the notepad up after taking a quick sketch of the equipment he answered Yukarii, "There's only one way to find out, stand back everyone. Just in case!"
"Eh, where to Marek? I don't think we'll be able to get to that lift gizmo in time. Well maybe you'll make it..." replied Dr Munroe.
"Chased by an overgrown mechanical arachnoid, how undignified!" grumbles Dr Munroe as he watches it approach, with both feet planted firmly on the ground.
"Relax, I'm sure if it was going to attack it would have done so by now..." laughed Dr Munroe is he hadn't a care in the world. He was still looking at everything with childlike delight.
There is pregnant pause and then Dr Munroe says in a loud whisper, "That's uh quite something. I'm glad it doesn't appear to be after us!"
Sounding more confident than he should have done, Dr Munroe said "I'm sure we're fine Zendara, whatever happened here was long ago". As the group discussed what the strange room could be, the doors suddenly closed. There was a collective intake of breath and then there was a disembodied chime and suddenly you all felt very heavy accompanied by a sense of motion. "What in the world?" cried Dr Munroe but before he could say anymore there was another chime and the doors opened to reveal a different room, more of a long gloomy corridor with a great many doors on one side. Perception DC 15:
Outside there is an identical indicator to the one outside but the arrow has shifted to the fifth position. You step out and with a buzzing sound a light pops on the far end of the corridor, revealing a single door that's ajar... "Hmm. Seem we're invited." remarked Dr Munroe. Perception DC 20: There's a flickering blue light leaking through the door and every so often a shadow moves, suggestive of something inside.
"Here let me have a go, there's a knack for doing this sort of thing..." said Dr Munroe. One of you passed him the any tool and he took it, inspected it for a second before inserting the tip in as far as it would go. He then heaved with all his might, the corded muscles on his neck straining. With an ominous creaking, the door opened a crack before suddenly the mechanism inside activated and door cycled open with the hiss of compressed air.
Catching his breath Dr Munroe muttered, "Crikey that was heavy, wouldn't want to try that in a hurry..." Nobody really this much attention for you where inside a genuine pre-sundering dwelling! The building interior shared more with the nautilus space ship than with the sturdy brick buildings you were familiar with. Kn: Engineering DC 18:
It really is remarkable how little support the multi story building has, the ancients must have known so much about construction and material science that was lost. What was squat and solid in modern architecture had been light and incredibly spacious with the barest minimum of materiel. Ahead of you was a foyer with a reception desk and a dark service room behind it. To the left is a strange looking metal double door that seems to retract rather than opening inwards or outwards. There's a strange display above the metal doors with six glyphs and a glowing arrow pointing to the middle one. To the right is an ordinary door with what looks like a stairwell behind. "Looks like we have a choice." said the Dr, "Up the stairs, through the service room door or investigate those funny metal doors. There's a bunch of buttons next to them, I wonder what they do?" Perception DC 20: The reception desk turns out to have a set of drawers. The top drawer is open and in it you find a handful (5) of small circular metal disks. These remind you greatly of the silver disks you found aboard the nautilus. They're not quite the same size and have different markings but could the be a power source too?
You wander aimlessly for a bit around the strange and eerily quiet town, mesmerised by the bright lights. The area that you can get to isn't big, perhaps the size of a city block but there's tons of high-rise buildings. Most of the doors are shut, without visible locks or handles but there are a few that have button blocks that bare some resemblance to the ones Xindrya was good at decoding on The Nautilous. The city is full of strange writing, this frustrated Dr Munroe no end who was keen to read it. Still he started methodically sketching the glyphs in the hopes that one day scholars would be able to decipher it. He was studying a sign attached to a pole in the street, like the one Marek pointed out when it seemed to have some sort of malfunction. "Woha look at that!" he cried pointing at the sparks and the thick black smoke that followed as the display fizzled, wavered and vanished. As you discuss this unexpected happening a strange thing occured, a small flap opened up out of the side of a near by building (or perhaps shop) out of which came a quadrupedal mechanical device the size of a large house cat. It ignored you as it moved towards the malfunctioning pole, which it climbed up with remarkable agility. "Fascinating!"[b] exclaimed Dr Munroe, [b]"Lets see what it does..." Half way up the pole, it manipulated a hatch you'd not seen before and suck for want of a better word a mechanical paw in. There was a bright series of sparks and a sound of fizzling, and after a bit it closed the hatch and did the same to one furtherer up and to everyone's surprise the sign suddenly re-appeared. "What do you know, it fixed it!" mused the entranced Professor. Kn: Engineering DC 20:
You don't really have a proper taxonomy for something like this but it reminded you of a worker ant and you've decided to call it a repair drone. You suspect it to be an autonomous function of the city somehow. The mechanical quadruped then circled you twice before heading in a direction that lead further into the city.
Dr Munroe gaped as he turned around on the spot looking at everything. Sounding elated and slightly daunted, Dr Munroe asked "Where to start first? Shall we try to find the ice room that Mr Lyrnz mentioned?"
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