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"Are you sure that won't take us to subbasement 12249? Specifically the expansion pack one version?" Ruha murmurs. She can't help but think on the rather bloated appellations found in software back in her own era.
"Very well. One more loose end. And if there is some secret project concerning Silver Mount we'll likely benefit by knowing the details." Ruha nods and starts heading back with Yambul and Zzvkgrogk to see whether the card will work.
"I suppose another question is - how many ways in and out of this basement exist? Can we barricade them inside before we're ready to take care of them, for example?"
Ruha is more or less satisfied with Zernebeth's answers. "A secret basement level with projects recovered from Silver Mount seems promising. And we do have some unfinished business below as well. Should be go down there right away, before any of Ozmyn's loyalists recover whatever is there and slip out?" She looks to the others.
Ruha's content to let the others work out what to do with the null blade, but one thing that Khalia speculated on catches her attention "We know that Ozmyn was in contact with Unity and delved into Silver Mount. I wonder if his exploration of that place led him to note some specific codes that will make more sense once we go there ourselves. Being next to a destroy robot spell may be relevant, but it may also be coincidence if he initially had much reason to rely on and memorize that spell in exploring the crashed Divinity. They make me think of access codes or passwords more than anything else."
Ruha's glad to see the last of the robots fall and Ozmyn to have no more tricks up his sleeve, but she's a little concerned with how easily he was defeated. The leader of the whole Technic League. The one behind the terrible cruelties she'd been seeing over the past few months. Dead in moments. She shakes her head. Among Ozmyn's gear, there's not much she needs, but she does take a moment to inspect the strange key before Yambul pockets it. When Zernebeth appears she speaks calmly "You were quite quick about coming to check on us. I hope you keep in mind that our agreement was more than you just taking over from Ozmyn. All throughout the League there were cruel, greedy people, ones who will happily continue their work under your administration unless you clean things up... properly." She looks to Yambul and Zzvkgrogk as well.
With only one robot remaining next to her, Ruha keeps just a small amount of her attention on its as she refocuses on Ozmyn. She maintains her Advice for the team, commenting "He's unfocused, overextending. Favors his right side." She jabs at Ozmyn twice, hoping to at least pierce his mirror images if not strike true.
Ruha maintains her Advice. As she speaks she considers her options. The super-fast robots were not a huge threat, but combined they could get some lucky attacks in. She briefly offers a word of caution regarding their attack arcs to prepare the group. She then follows by delivering two delicate strikes at yellow and green.
"He's turned invisible most likely, we know what to do." Ruha begins to offer Advice to the group and then summons up a translucent copy of a glacial-class coolant sprayer. She blasts the whole of the room ahead of her.
She steps forward to give more maneuvering room to the group, but stays close to the doorway so the robots can't gang up on those there. Other than herself of course.
With everyone healed up and spells cast, Ruha looks over the door first for any prepared countermeasures. If she sees none she opens the door to lead the group in.
Ruha thinks over her own preparations. She has a good bit of energy still in her and her strange and tenuous connection to the future still hasn't failed her. Once she's in front of Ozmyn's door she takes a position and gets ready to open the way for the rest of the team.
Ruha nods to Zernebeth. Now that their interaction is over, she gets a strange sense of homesickness, likely brought about by seeing the unusually heavy augmentations she was sporting. That had been such a common sight back home, but here in Golarion everyone was so... rustic. She shakes her head and refocuses on the task at hand.
Ruha listens and reads the woman as best she can, and the impression she gets is acceptable, even if she's still not entirely thrilled. It helps that the information this captain has provided regarding Ozmyn matches exactly with what the team found in the League's own systems. She nods "Good enough I suppose. Thank you for the warnings as Yambul said." She turns to Khalia "I don't have a good solution to prevent him from escaping, except to waste no time in surrounding him and to leave him too senseless to be able to cast any magic. I'm sure he'd prefer we spend time fighting his robots while he throws out lightning from a distance." She frowns "Do we have another of those spells, like the one that made us resistant to fire? It might help to make us all resistant to electricity before we ascend."
Having heard the captain's suggestion, Ruha mentally acknowledges that there's some merit to having a sympathetic party take over the League's remnants. However she's far from convinced that this particular party would be sympathetic. She whispers "What assurance do we have that you'll be any better? We don't know you and you're part of an organization that has been oppressing Numeria for years. Will you disarm the League and turn it into a purely research based organization? Or do you expect it to still exert some authority over Starfall when all is said and done?" Ruha listens carefully and watches to gauge the response.
Ruha whispers "Barging in it is." She glances over the door for any traps. If not seeing any she swings the door open to confront the voices directly.
Ruha whispers back to the group "You hear that? I think it might be the person who was on the other side of the line. Everyone ready?" She sneaks forwards to see if she can get a visual on them.
"All the stories about golems make them sound like punching a wall. Not exactly productive. Especially if we can just go around it." Ruha agrees with the others "And we should have a way up through those other stairs." She joins Yambul in checking the last couple of rooms.
It almost seems like the female voice is testing "The Shade". Ruha tries to discern from the responses how much the party on the other side of the commset has realized regarding Zzvkgrogk's deception.
Not wanting to speak and reveal the presence of additional people over the commset, Ruha takes out a piece of chalk and writes on the wall for Zzvkgrogk to read instead. Ask why it matters to them. Feed false info?
Ruha ushers the party back out of the room guarded by the iron golem to give Zzvkgrogk a moment to talk without a giant guardian bearing down on him. She closes the door after.
"Whatever captains they've got left must be out on the town." Ruha speculates. "Top floor? If the captains were up here, I'd guess we're not too far away from Ozmyn." "I think we've got another room here first before we ascend though." "Might be another robot or two left behind."
"We crossed paths with her back at the Night Market. There was a... close call... there for me. Lets just say the encounter sticks in my memory." Ruha says dryly "Luckily she didn't have nearly the same preparations ready for us this time." "Quite the impression Zzvkgrogk. I wonder if the Shade would be acting so polite though. She seems the terse sort." She looks over the commset "I'm not sure I like betraying where we are by using the Shade's commset right now. But as soon as we've moved onward a little, we could. Though I like the idea of waiting to be contacted as well." She looks down the hall.
Ruha dips into the room to flank the Shade with Yambul, a moment after the glitterdust has showered the League captain. "No tricks this time." She strikes at the Shade's neck with a precise jab.
"Wow, what a deep sleeper." Ruha mutters, taken aback by the unexpectedly familiar face.
Ruha is similarly battered and needs healing. "I'm glad we're dealing with them one or two at a time in here. These advanced ones are surprisingly capable for being ancient, repurposed technology. I'd hate to think what they'd do against all the Mockery's crew or the local citizens."
Once she's healed she heads to the interconnecting hallway and checks the southernmost rooms, carefully listening and inspecting before opening.
Despite all her preparations against robots, Ruha still gets pummeled. Rather than try to escape, she tries for another disabling strike while the others do their robot-smashing work. Up close, she's sure there's a weak point on this thing somewhere that'll cause it to seize up!
Ruha does her best to cover in the face of the close-range explosion. Not for the first time, she thinks to whether it might pay off to look for some means for defusing or redirecting these missiles before they can go off. She strides in and jabs at the blue robot, looking for a servo or wiring that might neutralize it for a moment or two.
"How did they get in here? You're right. I can only imagine the trouble the League went through."
"Hmm. Did they already relocate? I expected more goons blocking our progress." Ruha ponders out loud before turning to the double-doors to the south end of the lab room. "Either that or more of them were lured out into the city than we were prepared for. I don't particularly like what that means for the Mockery." She checks the doors and then opens them if they seem safe.
"There seems to be plenty here worth salvaging, but we should keep going before more of the Leaguers get it in their heads to band together and corner us." Ruha advances to the first of the doors and listens in for any foes getting ready on the other side.
Ruha steps to the side, halting her Advice as it seems to have done the trick. She goes for another jab to try to keep the remaining robot disabled while the rest of the party takes it down.
Confident that Yambul can deal with green if Khalia can't, Ruha stays in position and spins around to lightly tap yellow with a disabling palm.
In the tight quarters, Ruha offers her Advice on defeating the gearsmen "Nothing we haven't wrecked before. Aim for the joints." before readying to advance in past the first of the battleguards.
"Hmm, it does seem that way. It being able to dispel magic is also concerning." Ruha's brow furrows. When the rest of the party is ready, she leads the way up the stairs from the circular data bank room. As she does, she keeps an eye peeled for any hazards in the way.
"A... null blade?"
"So he has a little bit of a lot of different things. From what's described here, if we can insulate ourselves against electricity and have a way to reveal him if he turns invisible, we will be well-prepared to take him on. I'm not too worried about his gearsmen. The rocket launchers will help."
"We've got a blue access card already. Yambul was holding onto it." Ruha looks over the databanks "Maybe we can find out more details on Ozmyn before we come face to face with him. Weaknesses, tricks, things like that. Assuming the rest of you think we can spare the time." She suggests "Otherwise, we should definitely come back here after we're done and secure all their data. Who knows what they might've hidden away here."
"Let's go up, once Khalia finishes her checks."
"I agree Zzvkgrogk. If it does not seem like we have imminent foes from these stairs, lets try the semi-circular room." Ruha nods to easternmost door, hefting the rocket launcher over her shoulder as she does.
"Excellent regrouping." Ruha offers quite calmly as she covers herself from the remaining grenade's shockwave burst. "It looked a little dangerous there before the lightning and everything else." Ruha's eyes are drawn to the rocket launchers. She picks one of them up for later.
She asks for some healing to counter the earlier battering she took, then she turns her attention to the adjacent room.
"Got it." Ruha picks up one of the two new grenades and tosses it back at the mercenary. The other is beyond her reach without moving, and given the way the robots pulverized Yambul earlier, she's not about to let that happen a second time by giving them room to advance!
Ruha picks up one of the two grenades and tosses it back into the adjoining room. "One moment, if you will, for us to get our bearings before we proceed with breaking these gearsmen."
She then steps up to block the doorway so the foes can't get through and attack the rest of her team.
Ruha peeks over into the robot repair bay before returning to the other door "I suppose that answers how they keep their various machines in functioning shape. Do you think it might work on androids as well?"
Ruha steps up to join Yambul at the first of the doors, EMP pistol at the ready. She scans it over for any hazards before he opens it up.
"I'd guess they were sent out into the city. But maybe there are some in reserve as well." Ruha suggests in response "Should we stay on this floor first to make sure nothing else is behind us before we try the lift?"
"Right. This probably connects down to a place we didn't see on the floor below. We found a blue access card before, but not a red one, which means we have to find ourselves the stairs instead if we want to go up." Ruha appraises the lifts "Right now, I'm more worried that there may be reinforcements above and below that could sneak up behind us if we go past here. Is there a way we could jam the lifts?"
"Nicely done." Ruha shields her eyes with a hand as the myrmidon falls "I suggest we make our way to the center building. That seems to have been where our remaining Leaguer went. We might still be able to cut him off before he can regroup with anyone else." She heads for the nearest door to the center building and spends a moment to inspect it, listening to hear if any foes are assembling on the other side.
Ruha rolls out of the cloud, thinking to find a way to draw more attention to herself while the more offensively-capable members of the group do their thing. When she sees a parade of arrows falling upon the robot with pinpoint accuracy she starts to think that may not be necessary. She lines up another shot with her EMP pistol.
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