After being presented the card recovered by Morin, the door quickly slides up into the ceiling and reveals a small, lit room ten feet wide and fifteen feet long which ends in another door with another panel--although this plain grey panel does not glow like the others. With a simple touch, this door pulls back into the ceiling like the ones before it and reveals a large room beyond.

A large metal desk with blinking lights and strange glowing panels sits atop a raised area on the east side of this room near a circular table. Two couches covered with black material sit to the south a pair of black metal pillars. Splatters of dried blood stain the floor and walls near a pair of doors to the north, while here and there patches of rust-red mold and fungus[Private to Morin Matzylford: You're fairly sure these patches of mold are the burnt remains of a large patch of Russet Mold cleared away recently] cling to the southern wall. The room itself is brightly lit by glowing panels on the ceiling. The doors to the north and east each have panels adjacent to them glowing brown while the smaller door to the northeast has a panel which glows black.
Group 0 Map Updated
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:09, Fri 08 July 2022.

Morin pointed out the patch of red mold on the southern wall.  "Russet mold." He declared confidently.  "I don't think there's enough left to be a threat, but where there's russet mold, there's vegepygmies.  They're like little plant people that grow out of corpses infested with the stuff."

"I'd say this patch of mold was destroyed pretty recently.  I'd guess our man Baine came through here, torched to mold on his way through, then...well, it looks like he got turned into a big red stain!"  Morin didn't seem the least bit concerned about the blood splattered all over the north door.  If anything, the sight made him more irritatingly cheery.  "With any luck, this means our rescue mission is almost done!  We just need to find a chunk of meat that we can actually confirm belongs to our man, then bring him back for resurrection!"

"First things first, though." Moving around the room, Morin searched the thoroughly before the party moved on.  He continued to use his unseen servant to clear the path in front of him for traps, and paid special attention to the desk with it's glowing console.

"Oh, good. For a moment I was worried nothing new would try to kill us after all, but luckily there are now murderous plant people that grow out of corpses around." Cain comments dryly as he looks around the room, staying well away from any mold he can see.

"As for blood, it could be Khonnir's, or not. Maybe it belonged to some other unfortunate bastard from his group, or from someone or something that attacked them. We won't know for sure until we find him. Or what's left of him, anyway."

Any idea on which way we should try next? Smaller door maybe? Could be a storage of some kind. Or just a bathroom, of course.

Zorden kept a watchful eye for any surprises, but also fanned out to take a look at the room.

He gravitated towards the desk with the lights, curious if there were any buttons, as they seemed to have been worth investigating thus far.

While there he looked towards the nearby door.  "Morin, try that black card.  Sanvil said black works on black and brown.  So whatever is behind this is maybe more important than what's behind those?"  He reasoned.

Morin nodded along with Zorden's suggestion they try the higher-security door first.  "Can't argue with the logic!"  He responded, still poking around the desk.  He held the black card up towards Cael.  "Want to do the honours, Muscles?  If you're taking point, you should probably take the best key.  Besides, the three of us already have brown cards."

 Cael looks to the black card presented to him like it was one of the most foreign things he has ever seen. Eventually the big man takes the card and speaks up again, resisting the urge to smell it.

 "What for this?"

As the party inspects the room, letting the unseen servant thump about with its torch, they take a closer look at the raised desk. The desk contains several panels full of lights and buttons which blink in seemingly random patterns and other panels which contain screens, some of which are cracked, which seem to cycle through static, images of strange creatures, and Androffan text too quickly to be parsed. Other panels still seem to be filled with other random technological instruments, dials, and meters. What buttons, meters, and instruments there are that still display any kind of writing is in Androffan and is either abbreviations, acronyms, or gobbledygook which defy any attempts to translate or interpret.

Zorden was stood in front of the desk watching the monitors, specifically the ones that were cycling through pictures.  He was trying to catch a glimpse of the animals or other creatures to see if he could tell if they were any of the things they had encountered so far in the brief time they were on display.

When Cael asked his question he looked up, then towards the door, then back at the man.
"It's like a key.  Only instead of inserting it into a lock, you just hold it in the correct spot."  Zorden explained.  "Like this."

He took a step towards the door and produced his brown colored card and pressed it against the black colored panel in demonstration.

"This isn't the right key,"  He elaborated with a wave of his card.  "because the color doesn't match.  The black colored one you have should open it though."

Zorden then stepped back out of the way so Cael could try it.

As Zorden touches the brown-striped card to the black panel, the wall emits a disapproving pair of beeps and blinks the black glow off and on twice.

Watching the screens closely for a time, Zorden manages to make out an image of the four-armed humanoids and a tentacled monster which could be similar to the one they faced earlier among several of what may be molds, flowers, and quadrupeds of some kind. The images flash too quickly and are too distorted to make out more than approximate shape before they flicker away again.

"Like this?"

 Cael is not sure about all this unnatural mechanical stuff or the idea of hiding things behind locks like a coward, but he was intelligent enough to be able to follow instructions. The big man stepped up to the panel Zorden had just used and held the black card in hi hand up to that panel.

With a more approving beep the black glow ceases and leaves the plain, gray panel. With a simple touch of the gray panel the metal door slides aside, into the wall beside it, and reveals a small room behind it. The room contains a few metal cabinets standing against the walls and segmented into vertical lockers. After ensuring the safety of the room with Morin's servant, a search of the lockers uncovers a flashlight, three batteries, 103 silverdisks, and a small, sturdy chest made of Numerian Steel and seemingly sealed with a technological lock of some kind with a white label.

"Excuse me, but what is this place? I'm afraid that when I was sent to assist you, I was told very little of where i was going and what the objectives were."

Synn examined the box. "I expect there is something interesting inside. Why else have such an elaborate lock?"

"What is this place?"  Morin repeated Synn's question thoughtfully.  "Now that is a complicated question masquerading as a simple one.  Okay:  Since I don't know what you know, I suppose I'll take it from the top."

The diminutive bard threw his arms out wide, theatrically attempting to encompass all of reality with one gesture.  "Golarion!  The third planet from our sun, celestial cage of the mad god Rovagug, and home to just about everyone you've ever met...so far!  But then you probably already knew that, so I'll move on."

Morin lowered his arms a little, narrowing the scope of his wide gesture.  "Numeria!  A harsh land of plains and steppe, inhabited by a hardy and tribal population.  Ten thousand years ago, great metal ruins rained down from the sky, filled with wondrous and terrible technologies!  Though the Black Sovereign officially rules from his court in Starfall, the real power lies with the Technic league, a cabal of tech-hoarding slavers that are widely agreed to be complete pieces of shit."

Morin's hands moved closer together, until they were about shoulder-width apart.  "Torch!  A small town imaginatively named after the pillar of super-hot flame emitting from the top of it's central hill.  The town's eponymous torch allows them to smith adamantium alloys with relative ease, at least it did until it went dead a couple weeks ago.  No flame means they can't smith, no smithing means they can't pay the Technic League's taxes, no taxes means it's just a matter of time until an army of gearsman show up and give the town a different kind of torching."

The distance between his hands narrowed once again. "Which brings us here, to a deep hole underneath Torch's torch, where there's a whole lot more technology waiting than they thought.  Robots and electricity, and some kind of underground desert fulla skeletons.  If the Technic League ever found out what was down here they'd invade the place, taxes or no taxes!  So, uh, try to keep it quiet.  We're expedition number...five?  Six?  Maybe seven if you count the mysterious pink-haired woman that apparently snuck into the cave right before the torch died.  The last expedition before us was lead by Cain's friend Khonnir Baine, the only one of the town's leaders with any guts or brains.  First priority is getting him out of here:  There's a 4000 gold bounty for bringing back his body, and on the off-chance it's still breathing when we find it, we get to keep their scroll of resurrection, too."

Finally finishing his expansive arm gesture, Morin's hands came together in a dramatic clap.  "Or, if you were being more specific...I think this is like a broom closet?"

"As far as objectives go, I imagine that's up to you!  I mean, personally I'm here looking for inspiration as I write the next great Taldan stage-play.  My last work, Rovagug the Musical...kind of a flop, if I'm being honest.  The public's more into heroic adventure these days, so I figured a good first step in the writing process would be becoming a heroic adventurer!"

He gestured to the pessimistic half-elf of the party.  "Like I said, Cain's a local.  So his objective is trying to save the his town.  As for Zorden...Well, Zed's not the talking type.  I think it's just about the money for him?  Or maybe he's here on the hunt for some kind of fancy space gun.  At least, that's how I'm gonna write him when I turn this whole adventure into a play."  Morin finished, giving the taciturn Tiefling a cheeky wink as he talked about what personality to assign the gunslinger after the fact.

"How about you two?  If you don't know what's going on, and you don't know anything about these ruins, did you guys just show up and grab the first job that paid, no matter how dangerous?  Or..." Morin raised an eyebrow at the hulking blond warrior.  "Is the danger the point?  You got something to prove?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:55, Mon 11 July 2022.

As amusing as Morin's monologue was, Cain didn't really need a refresher course on why he was stuck in this place. So as he rambled on, Cain's attention drifted towards a locked chest. He looks it over speculatively while twirling a lockpick between his fingers.

Looking over the chest for traps, then disarming / attempting to open the chest using the black e-pick.
08:37, Today: Cain rolled 10 using 1d20+7 with rolls of 3.  Perception.
08:37, Today: Cain rolled 21 using 1d20+12 with rolls of 9.  Disable Device.

In reply to Morin Matzylford (msg # 13):
Nice post, btw.

[Private to GM: edit: DM, you can make more Disable Device rolls for Cain until he gets this thing open, or it blows up in his face or something. It's what I would do next anyway, if this roll doesn't get the job done.]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:38, Mon 11 July 2022.

With no traps apparent and no imminent arcs of lightning threatening to fry him, Cain takes his time in gaining access to the inner-workings of the chest and tracing the circuits. With careful, measured application of the black e-pick's articulated manipulators and currents the chest's panel soon beeps and releases its seal. Inside the chest is a small trove of strange technological items: an assortment of colored, hand-sized cylindrical devices each with a dial at one end, a tightly folded, form-hugging jumpsuit made of a strange, reflective, scale-like material, and an oddly-shaped pistol-like device with slightly glowing circuits along its tarnished, clearly timeworn surface.

Morin takes a look at the collection of items and judging by the pictographs and rumors he's heard can identify two yellow-and-black striped cylinders as 'Bang Grenades' which can deafen and disorient people caught near them when they detonate and a purple-colored cylinder as a 'Gravity Grenade' which can briefly create a localized, crushing force towards the ground. The other two cylinders--white and cream-colored--and the jumpsuit and strange gun are more difficult for the bard to figure out, although the gun has clearly seen better days.

Cain is able to take 20 on the white lock(DC 30), using 1 charge from the black e-pick.

With Cain having taken his time, and to good results based on the sound of the mechanism that he heard coming from the room, Zorden moved from the desk over to the doorway to see what was found.

[Private to GM: OOC: Don't know if you did a Technology roll for Zorden already, but if you did not, and it's appropriate to potentially identify the items Morin could not, please do.]

As the newcomer, Synn stayed back out of the way of the others as they went about searching the room. She was interested in the items Morin retrieved from the box, especially that pretty one-piece jumpsuit. But as she had just arrived, she waited for Morin to declare their disposition. However, as the room seemed safe, she used the opportunity to ask more questions.

"On the way in, I saw plenty of remains from those who had come before. What kinds of threats have you encountered thus far?"

Cain tries to recall all things that tried to kill him during the last day. "Let's see, first there were bugs, then a monster that blinded us, then gremlins, some mold, a robot, a tentacled beast, four-armed skeletons, slimes, skeletons again, traps and finally a four-armed zombie. I think that's everything. The only thing in here that hasn't tried to kill us yet were the skulks, and now you."

"Anyway, does anyone know what all this junk is for? It looks valuable, at least."

Who wants to take what?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:14, Thu 14 July 2022.

"Oh baby."  Morin muttered as her rooted through the formerly locked chest.  "Oh BABY!  This wasn't a broom closet.  It was an armory!  Look at this stuff!"

Scooping up the collection of egg-shaped devices, Morin started to hand them out.  "Five grenades and five of us!  That math seems simple enough.  Okay, everybody take one and listen up:  To activate one of these things, you turn this dial here all the way to the end, then press the button in the middle.  About three to six seconds later it'll blow up, bringing a world of hurt to anything within about 20' or so.  Like I said, they take a little while to go off, so you should be careful about throwing them at anything smart enough to get away from it.  These two stun-bangers here aren't going to do much collateral damage, but I wouldn't throw any of the other ones into any room that looks like it has anything valuable in it.  I'll take one of the bangers.  I am a pacifist, after all."  As usual with Morin, it was difficult to tell if that last comment was a joke or not.

"As for the rest...I dunno.  Someone could try putting the jumpsuit on if they want to try it out.  The gun...I don't know exactly what it does, but I know the right man to use it!  Here you go, Zorden.  It looks a bit sketchy, but it's probably more dangerous to whoever you point it at than it is to you.  Unless it's like, a healing gun or something.  Those...might exist?  But generally something that shape is gonna be designed to hurt people."

OOC: I vote we each take a grenade and use them as needed.  I'll take a banger.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:54, Fri 15 July 2022.

Synn accepted the device, examined it briefly, noting the button before sliding it into a pouch on her belt. "Do you know what the suit does? I like it. If you don't mind, I'll try it out and hope it doesn't eat me."

"Hell if I know. This all looks like junk me. Expensive junk, but junk nevertheless." Cain shrugs and takes the white cylinder, wondering what it is that it actually does.

I'm fine with taking one grenade and have no particular interest in the rest of this stuff.

"Useless Metal Things..."

 Cael mostly just stays out of the way and lets the group do what they will with this stuff. Cael is not stupid per-say, but is simple and would need someone to explain how something works and how it would help his normal methodology before he would care.

Zorden accepted the items gingerly.  He tucked away the grenade and then spent a few moments turning over the other weapon like device in his hands and giving it a good long look.  His inspection didn't yield much beyond he felt a bit more confident about knowing how to potentially trigger whatever it did, and likely which bit he needed to make sure was pointing away from himself when he did it.

"One man's junk is another man's death warrant when those bastards from the League come down on his head."  Zorden remarked in reply to Cain's sentiments.



OOC: Taking the cream colored grenade, and the pistol

Morin rolled his eyes slightly at the response from his compatriots.  Not for the first time, he suppressed his bafflement at the way the larger races saw the world.  How could they even get through the day living like they did, viewing the world around them with such...disinterest?  The gnome decided to let it go.  He was well aware that the bigguns had just as much difficulty understanding the gnomish way of looking at the world.

Handing off the jumpsuit to Synn, Morin left the closet to give her some privacy while she changed.  Out in the larger entrance room, he scratched his chin.  "What do you think, east next?  It looks like someone opened the north door and immediately got splattered, so maybe we're better off not doing the exact same thing they did."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:47, Wed 20 July 2022.

"Yeah."  Zorden said in agreement with Morin's suggestion.

"You wanna go first?"  He asked Cael.  "That card we gave you will work on doors with the brown color too."

Following the careful guidance of the others, Cael uses his black access card to unlock the brown-glowing panel to the east, turning it to a simple, unlit panel, and with another touch sends the adjacent doorway quickly receding into the ceiling above to reveal a plain 20' hallway with a door and unlocked panel on the east end and another unlocked panel and adjacent door immediately to the south. The brave, torch-wielding servant leads the way and continues to not find any traps.
Group 0 Map Updated.

After a few minutes, Synn came out to join the rest of the group. The full body suit was grey and dark with a thick collar, extra pockets and lots of padding. Her belt with her weapons and pouches hung on her hips and her pack was slung over her shoulders.

"Okay. I like this." She came out turning her arms over as she examined the sleeves. "It will probably offer more protection than the skirt anyway. So where are we going next?"

"Not sure."  Zorden replied to Synn.

"Since this is more hallways, I'm morbidly curious if the other door is a corpse in a closet, or even more hallways, complete with a bloody trail to follow and maybe what we're looking for at the end of it."  He elaborated, glancing towards the other door.

Cael practically grunts before stepping into the hallway and investigates the two sets of doors ahead.

00:16, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 17 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 12.  Perception.

In reply to Zorden (msg # 28):

"It could be, or not. But let's check these doors first at least."

OOC: The blood could also be a stay-away sign. Anyway, I'm thinking the closest door could lead to another room. Should we start there? If we get more corridors from here we can then reconsider our path.

Morin shrugged. "Eh, sure.  Let's try the closest door first, then go back to the bloodstain if there's nothing interesting."

With another tap of another door's grey panel, the door to the south hisses open and reveals ... another unremarkable hallway. This one curves slightly to match the walls of the previous room and has two shut doors, each with unlocked grey panels, flanking the southern corner. With this hall, same as the last, the brave unseen servant finds no traps as it thumps about with its torch.[Private to Cael, The Whirlwind; Cain: You hear a series of faint thumps, clicks, and taps coming from beyond the hall's other doors. They don't seem random, but rather like someone or something has been alerted to your approach by the servant's search.]
Group 0 Map Updated.

 Cael starts at the doors in the hall, hearing something. The big man looks like he is ready to fight as he drew his greatsword from his back and spoke in a growling grumble of an almost sentence.

 "Something... Coming."

"Yeah, something is definitely here. Maybe those murderous plant people?" Cain readies his bow in turn.

[Private to GM: Just to be clear, this sound, it's coming from the hall to to south that we just opened?]

upon hearing the warning,  Synn draws her pistol. Plant people? Of course there's plant people. And no doubt they're murderous plant people. After making sure her gun is loaded, she stands ready.

Zorden took a step back as well and looked towards the small hallway.

"Well, the doors should still be locked.  Unless whatever it is can open them."

"To be fair,  we've just been finding those keycards laying around.  I'm sure a vegepygmy could figure one out if it found one."  Morin replied easily.  He didn't have any real weapon of his own to ready like the others were, but he took up a position in the back and prepared himself for a fight as best he could.

[Private to Cain: The sound was through the doors to the south.] After some tense moments nothing seems to happen and the sounds heard by Cain and Cael die down.

After the long tense moment had passed, Morin raised a finger and pointed it at the door where the sound had been coming from, then raised the finger to his lips.  The meaning was clear: Maybe they could get the drop on whatever was in there, assuming the party hadn't already tipped them off by talking.

Zorden looked towards the blood marked door and wondered if that might be the better option now.

Still, he waited to see if anyone decided to follow whatever plan Morin seemed to have come up with based on the pantomime he was doing.

Cain shrugs and creeps up to the doors he judges the sounds were coming from. When the rest of the party indicates they are ready, he will try to open the doors.

Let's go with Morin's plan for now, what's the worst thing that could happen? Not sure which of the two doors the sounds were coming from though. The big double doors, or the smaller side doors?

08:02, Today: Cain rolled 29 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 20.  Stealth.

Morin quietly joined Cain in the hallway.  He stood behind the sneaky half-elf, leaving the other spot by the door itself empty for someone else to take a position.

15:37, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 18 using 1d20+10 with rolls of 8.  Stealth .
This message was last edited by the player at 22:42, Fri 29 July 2022.

Cain and Morin creep into the hallway, leaving Zorden and the newcomers in the rear, and after quietly taking position Cain presses the grey panel beside the smaller door. The metal door quickly raises into the ceiling with a now-familiar hiss and reveals behind it a narrow hallway filled with a line of small humanoids with green-and-brown fibrous skin, vines and leaves in place of hair, and scraps of cloth and leather tied on like clothing. The nearest vegepygmy stands ready with claws bare while the one behind him holds a rudimentary longspear at the ready. The final vegepygmy is clearly larger than the others with impressive thews and wields a glowing hammer. They seem prepared for the door's opening--but not as prepared as the half-elf scoundrel and gnome.
Cael, Cain, and Morin win initiative and act first. The enemies do not see you, but were prepared for your approach so no surprise round.
Group 0 Map Updated.

18:57, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 21,15,21,10,9 using d20+5,d20+7,d20+9,d20+2,d20+7.  Initiative Cael, Cain, Morin, Synn, Zorden.

This message was last edited by the GM at 03:06, Wed 03 Aug 2022.

"Ah." Morin  called back to the party members back in the hallway. "There's the pygmies I was talking about.  They're looking pretty grim, but I'm sure once you get to know them, they're a bunch of real fungi's."  Morin's pun, like all puns, put everyone who heard it in the mood to commit murder.

STANDARD: Activate inspire courage: +1 attack, damage, and saves vs fear to all allies.

OOC: Morin should be at full heath, he used his healing wand to top up after the last fight.

Cain would have rolled his eyes at that, if he had the time. Instead he takes a step away from the pygmies and blast them with his spell.

Step to the left, Color Spray. I can probably catch the first two that way? I'd like to try for all of them, but I'm not sure if casting from my current position would provoke AoO or not?

edit: Oh, and if Cael goes before Cain, it would probably be best for him to wait for Cain to cast his spell first. Don't wont to catch him as well, Color Spray is nasty at low level.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:22, Wed 03 Aug 2022.

 Cael stands between himself and the rest of the group like a human shield as he lets the others do what they wish before making his move. He stands with great sword ready to strike. He could trigger his... condition, but these little ones do not seem like the effort.

 "Step Closer, be Salad." Cael warned the Vegepygmies.

 Readied Action to take a swing with the Greatsword at the first Pygmy to step into range.

Morin's ferny puns inspire borage in his companions. Cain quickly backs away from the open doorway and flings a pinch of multi-colored dust which quickly shifts into a dizzying array of lights at the vegepygmies, but their dumb, expressionless faces do not react to the display(Immune to Mind-Affecting effects/patterns.) With Cain's spell spent, Cael quickly rushes in to strike at the lead plant--the edge in catching the creature flat-footed and with Morin's pun fresh in his mind helping his great blade land solidly and make a moldy salad of the pygmy(-13 HP.) The small plant-creature behind the first stabs at the big man with its longspear, but the tip is deflected by Cael's sturdy armor. Then the larger Vegepygmy behind that one lifts its hammer high and begins to bang it hard against the Numerian steel wall beside it ... and all hell breaks loose.

Suddenly the large door beside Cain and Cael slides up into the ceiling, revealing a large, unlit room with tables, chairs, and multiple other doors--all covered by a thick layer of fungal matter. Beside the now open door is another vegepygmy who quickly steps away from the opening but deeper within is a large, flower-like plant nearly as tall as a man with a bulb near its base and multiple barbed vines growing from that bulb. Both Synn and Morin recognize the plant as a Weedwhip, but everyone else is soon to learn what kind of threat it poses. The plant's vile stench wafts into the hallway, quickly enveloping Cain, Cael, and Morin(DC 12 Fort Save or sickened for 1 minute.) It reacts immediately to the new animal presence and lashes out with the whip-like vines at Cain and Cael. One of the vines lands hard against Cain, giving him a good gash(-4 HP) and a dose of poison(DC 12 Fort Save or Nauseated 1 round.)

Simultaneously the large door down the first hallway opens, revealing a small circular room beyond and a squad of four more vegepygmies who charge at the exposed Zorden with claws and spears. Fortunately the vegepygmies seem to stumble over themselves as they attack and the tiefling's leather armor saves him from all but a single claw(-1 HP.)

The small door opened by Cain, southeast of Cael, closes once again.
Party's turn.


15:56, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Cael, The Whirlwind, rolled 1314,1213 using d20+67,2d6+67 with rolls of 7,5,1.  Attack/Damage v Vegepygmy 1.
16:14, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 15,6 using d20+1,1d6 with rolls of 14,6.  Vege 2 Attack/Damage v Cael.
16:25, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 11,18,23 using d20+4,d20+6,d20+6.  Know Nature(ID plant) Cael, Morin, Synn.
16:34, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 23,13,10 using d20+5,d20+5,d20+5.  Weedwhip attacks v Cain, Cael, Cael.
16:39, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 4 using 1d4.  Weedwhip Damage v Cain.
16:49, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 10,14,8,11 using d20+3,d20+3,d20+3,d20+3.  Vege attacks v Zorden 4 claw, 5 claw, 6 spear, 7 spear.
16:52, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 1 using 1d4.  Vege 5 Claw Damage v Zorden.

This message was last edited by the GM at 21:35, Thu 04 Aug 2022.

"Oh, huh.  Yeah, looks like they know how to use the keycards too!"  Morin chuckled. "I gotta admit, that was pretty sneaky.  I can't be-leaf they got the drop on us like that!"

Slightly more seriously, Morin continued to talk as he backed up.  "Okay, back to the big room.  Cael can chop 'em up one by one, Cain or I can help block the door, Zed can do his thing, and Synn can do, uh, whatever it is she does!"

OOC: I'm assuming the pygmies have keycards, since at least a few of those doors were locked.  Can we see what color the cards are?

MOVE: Move 2 squares left and 2 squares north to block entrance.
STANDARD: Total defense action, bringing AC to 22.

Zorden backpedaled as the creatures piled out into the tunnel in front of him and started stabbing at him with their spears.

He kept his eyes on them as he sought to retreat back through the doors into the larger room to take a stand.  As he went his tail flicked up to his belt and pulled free a small flask.

Full Round action to withdraw 20'ish feet backwards.
Swift action for his tail to pull out an acid flask in case there's an opportunity to use it in the next few rounds.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Cain shrugs off the poison and pulls back, readying one of the strange cylinders they found earlier.

Moving back to two squares left from where Morin moved to, to a square northwest of that round table. Gotta give him room to 5' step back next round if Cain is to take his place. We have a wand of CLW, right?

Also, readying a grenade. No idea what a white grenade actually does, but it's probably nothing good for the target. Unless it's a healing grenade, though why would anyone make one if beyond me.

15:01, Today: Cain rolled 18,20 using 1d20,1d20 with rolls of 18,20.  Save (Sickened, Nauseated).

Morin, Zorden, and Cain each pull back out of the hallways and into the larger room.
Still need actions from Cael and Synn.

Return to the main room with the others and prepare to take them on if they pursue.

Synn was glad when everyone returned to where she was standing. She was ready to fight but didn't like her chances standing out alone. "Where do these creatures come from? I have never seen their like"

"...You serious?" Morin asked, incredulous.  "I literally just explained that like a minute ago.  They're Vegepygmies."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:06, Sat 06 Aug 2022.

"Yes, you gave them a name and said they can use key cards and you made a joke, but if you said where they came from, I must have missed it."

Synn stands her ground as the others filter by her and back into the larger room. The cluster of vegepygmies charge after the retreating party, one getting a claw by Morin's defenses(-3 HP) while another scratches Synn's fancy new armor with a spear. The other vegepygmies and their apparent leader begin to follow from the south, but soon the door between the party and the enemies rudely closes in everyone's faces
I've been forgetting about this, but the doors automatically shut at the start of the next turn of the one who opened them unless they are locked open.
Party is up.

21:59, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Cael, The Whirlwind, rolled 25 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 20.  Fort Save v Stench.
22:03, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 7,18 using d20+3,d20+3 with rolls of 4,15.  Vege attacks v Synn 4 Claw, 6 Spear.
22:05, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 22,8 using d20+3,d20+3 with rolls of 19,5.  Vege attacks v Morin 5 Claw, 7 Spear.
22:08, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 3 using 1d4 with rolls of 3.  Claw damage Morin.

"Well..." Morin scratched his head in response to Synn's question.  "These particular Vegepygmies come from that door down the hall.  If you're asking more generally, well I guess after the fighting's done I can take the time to explain the birds and the bees to you.  You're old enough to know."

Palming open the door, Morin stepped to one side to let the Cain and Cael through.

"I guess in this case it's less "birds and bees" and more "parasitic fungus and anything that touches the parasitic fungus"." He continued, reaching around the doorway to lasso the nearest pygmy.

MOVE: open door
FREE: 5' step south, maintain inspire courage.
STANDARD: Lasso nearest vegepygmy, 16 on touch attack.

NOTE: the lasso throw includes the penalty for throwing into melee, but no cover penalty.  I THINK Morins position means that he has cover from the pygmies (so no AoO) but they don't have cover from his ranged attacks.

Also, I didn't mention I was continuing to inspire courage last turn, but I meant to.  If forgetting to mention it means I stopped, replace my attack with restarting the performance.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:34, Sun 07 Aug 2022.

"Have I mentioned lately how much I hate this place?" Following Morin's instructions, Cain turns the dial and presses the button on the grenade he picked up earlier, then lobs it over the heads of the plant menace in the next room. "EAT... WHATEVER THIS IS!"

Not waiting to see what happens, he then draws his sword and moves forward to plug the gap in their lines.

Throwing the grenade at a grid intersection right behind the two rows of pygmies.
21:42, Today: Cain rolled 19 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 14.  Fire in the hole.

Then drawing sword while moving to the square Morin just left. Cael can take Synn's place, I hope.

 Still holding his greatsword, Cael will step up and prepare. If these things get through, he will be ready for them.

Move to replace Synn, if possible, if not, just get me as close to the door as I can get.

With Cael wanting to be on the front lines, Synn was more than happy to let him take her place. She wanted to fire her pistol at the big one, but given that close call with the vegepygmy's spear, she cleared the way.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:14, Mon 08 Aug 2022.

Zorden held his place and his fire.  The green things were small, most of his compatriots were not.  That made it too risky to try shooting around one to hit the other.

With a clear shot Syn fires her pistol at the bog one with the Hammer

12:13, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 22 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 19.  Ranged attack
This message was last edited by the player at 16:15, Mon 08 Aug 2022.

As the door whips open after Morin presses the nearby panel, both he and Synn step aside and attack the waiting plants--Morin's lasso snaring the southern one and Synn's pistol letting out a deafening explosion of flame and smoke as it sends a bullet plowing through the creature's shoulder and dropping it to the ground(-8 HP). After fiddling with his found grenade and tossing it into the crowd of Vegepygmies, Cain advances alongside Cael who chops haphazardly at the nearest enemy but with the plant off-balance from its charge and snared by Morin's lasso still manages to make another salad(-13 HP).

The enemies continue their advance, one of the spearmen abandoning his weapon to step over his fallen friend to claw at Cael (-4 HP) and another stepping over the fallen to claw at Cain(-4 HP). The remaining spearman stabs at the barbarian to no avail as the last of the vegepygmies, including their leader, crowd in to the bottleneck. Then, as quickly as before, the door closes once again--although it fails to close completely as Morin's lasso jams it open slightly at the floor. Shortly after a loud bang is heard from behind the doorway and a blinding white light briefly flashes through the small crack in the doorway.
Party is up.

---

Spoiler for When/If the door is opened...: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

It is apparent that two of the vegepymies have been blinded.

---

15:38, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 4,22,22,8,16 using d20+3,d20+3,d20+3,d20+3,d20+10 with rolls of 1,19,19,5,6.  Saves 2,3,6,7,Leader v Grenade.
15:15, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 12 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 11.  Spear v Cael.
15:14, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 4 using 1d4 with rolls of 4.  Damage v Cain.
15:13, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 15,20 using d20+1,d20+1 with rolls of 14,19.  Claws v Cain.
15:12, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 4 using 1d4 with rolls of 4.  Damage v Cael.
15:12, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 4,18 using d20+1,d20+1 with rolls of 3,17.  Claws v Cael.
14:58, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Cael, The Whirlwind, rolled 12,13 using d20+7,2d5+7 with rolls of 5,2,4.  Attack/Damage v Vege 5.
14:52, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Synn Mescara, rolled 8 using 1d6+2 with rolls of 6.  Synn Damage v Vege4.


This message was last edited by the GM at 19:58, Mon 08 Aug 2022.

Cain opens the door and is not impressed with the effects of his grenade. "Ugh. Some healing, please! I think I mildly inconvenienced a couple of them. Does anyone have a grenade that actually does something useful?"

He strikes at the pygmie in front of him with his sword.

07:06, Today: Cain rolled 13,7 using 1d20+5,1d8 with rolls of 8,7.  Attack, Damage.

Not sure if we have to manually open the door each time or not. Oh, and I don't suppose someone has a grenade that actually does some damage? We could really use one here.

edit: Forgot about Inspire Courage, that's another +1 to attack and damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:15, Thu 11 Aug 2022.

Dropping the end of his lariat, Morin pulled out his healing wand from his belt.  Tapping the wand over Cain's claw wounds, he spoke the command word and neatly erased most of the elf's injuries.

"I dunno if we need another grenade for these mopes.  I mean, throwing the banger at a bunch of plants would be a little...fruitless, and I don't know if there's enough gravity to the situation to try the crusher.  Besides, you guys are doing great!  As long as there's no big surprise from the hammer guy, we should be just about out of the woods."

OOC: Don't forget the bonus from inspire courage.
MOVE: Draw Wand of Cure light wounds
STANDARD: Use wand on Cain, healing 7 hp (35 charges left)
FREE: Maintain inspire courage (4 rounds remaining)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:57, Tue 09 Aug 2022.

Zorden stepped forward so he could pass Cain an acid flask.

"Not a grenade, but you know what to expect, and it's easier to come by."

Zorden was wary of any spears that might be thrust past the others to where he was, but he didn't yet take action as he could barely see the small green monsters in the shuffle of combat.  So taking a shot seemed as likely to injure the wrong person than the creature intended.

Keeping cover, Synn reloaded her pistol.

"Tossing and hoping isn't good strategy my friends. I think we should take better advantage of this door somehow."

After pressing the panel to open the door once more, revealing the vegepygmies in disarray after the blinding flash of light from the technological grenade, Cain lashes out with his sword and spills sap on the dusty steel floors as he brings down another of the plant-people(-8 HP). Cael strikes out as well but fails to make contact with the enemy. Morin continues joking while he casts a spell from the party's wand to heal Cain(+7 HP), Synn works on reloading her pistol, and Zorden moves to hand off an acid flask to the rogue.

Smart enough to see they are loosing this fight badly, the leader of the plant-creatures bangs his hammer on the wall again and makes loud, clicking noises as he presses the panel to open the door beside him. Soon he and the other vegepygmies are in full retreat down the hall to the south, the leader guiding the blind one behind him, and they are all but out of sight as the door in front of the party closes once again.
Party is up. Whether combat continues is up to you.


This message was last edited by the GM at 02:10, Sun 21 Aug 2022.

Watching as the plant creatures flee, Synn finishes loading her gun and then holsters it.  They were murderous little savages, she found it curious that the leader would take the time to help the blind one. She did not expect to find compassion in such a place. Perhaps there was a reason they were so aggressive besides simply being evil. If so, the reason was probably still there. They'd be back.

"I doubt we've seen the last of them. I expect they're protecting something."

"I agree, they'll be back."  Zorden concurred.

"Do we push into this area looking for them, or lock this door for now, and maybe get lucky that they're stuck on the other side and there's no other ways around, and find out what's going on with that old pool of blood?"  He asked.

Cain is willing to let the plant people flee, but since he has an acid flask in his hand, he decides to make a parting shot to speed up their retreat. He opens the doors again, steps through it and throws the flask at the retreating leader. "And stay away!"

Opening the door, step NE, throwing acid flask. Cain also wants to see exactly where they will retreat too, in case we can just lock them in their lair.

20:41, Today: Cain rolled 22 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 17.  Ranged touch attack.
20:41, Today: Cain rolled 2 using 1d6 with rolls of 2.  Damage.

If they don't attack again, Cain is fine with letting them go, for now at least. If we don't find our missing wizard elsewhere, we might have to look in their lair later.

"Salad has no heart..."

 Cael grumbles as he observed the Vegepygmies cowardice. The Big man was looking forward to the fight after his partners did all of their strategic actions.

Seeing that the pygmies communicated mostly through motion and body language, Morin followed Cain into the next room and made a variety of rude hand gestures at their retreating back.

Since it looked like nobody was particularly enthusiastic about chasing their attackers down, The bard casually closed and locked both doors the vegetable villians had used to attack them, before theatrically dusting off his hands as if to signify a job well done.  "Okay, on to the blood door!"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:12, Sun 14 Aug 2022.

Opening the nearest door once again, Cain steps into the hallway to throw the acid flask at the fleeing leader--managing to hit it and the blind one it leads with the flask's contents. The vegepygmies seem to be fleeing into the overgrown room with the violent flower, but the door between him and the foes closes before he can be certain.
200 XP each for defeated Vegepygmies.
Which doors, exactly, is Morin locking? The Unseen Servant is still in the hallway to the south.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:41, Mon 15 Aug 2022.

OOC: Assuming we're out of combat rounds, and nobody wants to pursue the pygmies.

Remembering his unseen servant at the last moment, Morin quickly swiped open the door to the south and called the torch-bearing spell back, then quickly swiped it closed again.

With that detail settled, the bard tapped his brown card to the panels by the both doors, south and east, exiting the hallway he was currently standing in.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:59, Tue 16 Aug 2022.

Cain sheaths his sword and picks up his bow from where he dropped it earlier. "With all these doors around, I wouldn't be surprised if we ran into them again."

Back to the totally not ominous blood-splattered doors?

Zorden checked his weapons, making sure he had another acid flask gripped with his tail and his guns within easy reach of his hands.

He then moved over towards the bloody door in preparation for the big reveal of whatever might be on the other side of it.

Opening the southern door once again to retrieve his servant, Morin sees the plant-creatures all gathering in the room to the south to either hole up or regroup before the door between them closes once again. He then locks the doors in this hallway with his brown access card, stepping over the bodies of the three downed enemies, before gathering with the group at the bloody door. After suspenseful moments of preparation before unlocking and opening this door, the party finds no immediate danger within. Bloodstains mar the floor and walls of this hallway, while scorch marks and smears of ash on the walls evidence some sort of powerful altercation having taken place in this area relatively recently. Four tangled mounds of metal and other materials lie further up the hall, surrounded by strangely colored stains.

"Well, whoever fought what looks like more of those machines survived."  Zorden commented after leaning over to take a peek through the door.

"At least long enough to make it around the corner."

"That's a lot of blood," Synn said almost to herself. "Is it possible that those plant creatures we just sent into retreat is responsible for this? I feel like we should be prepared for something far scarier."

Morin nodded in agreement.  "Yeah, somehow I don't see the pygmies managing this level of carnage, but they might have jumped the survivors right after.  Those scorch marks make me think fire magic, or maybe some kind of tech weapon.  And those piles of twisted metal up ahead...are those dead robots?  If they are, I doubt we'll have any luck selling them off to Sanvil Trett like the last one."

Morin had his invisible servant do a thorough check of the hallway before he moved in, slightly paranoid that a lazer gun might pop out of the wall and light him up.  He focused his attention on the mounds of scrap at the end of the hallway, though he also made a point of looking for any bloody footprints leading away from the carnage.  Morin was no tracker, but one didn't have to be a ranger to pick out tracks left in fresh blood on an otherwise clean floor.

As the unseen servant leads the way, banging with the torch in an attempt to activate any undetected traps, Morin follows behind and takes a moment to appraise the piles of metal. They do, in fact, seem to be the mangled remains of robots very similar to what they had faced before, although their external platings seem to have been white and glossy as opposed to matte grey before their scorching. Although there do not appear to be any bloody footprints to track, the lack of bodies and the notable streaking rather than pooling of blood at the far end of the hallway leaves a clear, guiding path...

As Morin's floating torch proved nothing obvious was lurking to add more blood to the floor, Zorden filtered into the hallway as well.

"Probably worth opening up those doors on the right just to see what's there, then making sure they're locked before we try to figure out how far the dead man got."  Zorden commented with a look towards where Cael stood.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:17, Mon 22 Aug 2022.

Cain joins the party in the corridor and examines the blood streaks. No footprints though. Was someone dragged through here? "Might as well. And good idea on locking those doors, we should do that from now on. Harder for someone or something to creep up on us that way."

Moving to the left of Morin's servant.

Staying close to the right wall, avoiding the blood, Synn follows behind Cain

Morin was eager to find the end of the blood trail, but he couldn't exactly complain about the others insisting on looking at the side passage first.  After all, he'd been the one to insist they spent the start of the day messing with slimes and mold.

He took up a position by the door with the others, taking a moment to quickly lock the exit at the end of the hallway before the party opened the side door to the right.

After sealing the door to the east and opening the door to the south, the party finds ... another hallway. Whoever built these strange ruins certainly liked their foot traffic. This one leads south about as far as to meet with the hallway they had battled in, ends in another closed door, and contains two flanking doorways--all three seemingly unlocked.

 Cael follows to catch up with the group, all the while watching out in case those creatures get the doors open somehow and try to sneak up from behind.

Cain looks in the new corridor as he tries to form a map of this place in his head. "I think that's another room to the left? Should we check it out first, or just continue following the blood trail?"

I'm fine with either

Zorden stepped into the hallway cautiously and locked the doors to the south and east.

"Those both lead in directions we've either been, or are going, this one,"  He continued, motioning towards the west door.  "is probably worth a look, as it doesn't seem to lead anywhere else."

"I..."  Morin was still in the bloody hallway, staring at the blood trail leading to the east while the others investigated the empty hallway.

"Look," He continued, glancing away from the locked door for a moment.  "I like wandering around abandoned ruins as much as the next adventurer.  More even, if the next adventurer is Cain!  I totally want to go room-by-room through this place, sifting through junk, prying rubies out of statues, all that good stuff.  But right now..."

He gestured to the fresh trail of bloody drag marks on the ground, that the party seemed to be ignoring.  "How is this not more interesting?  I wanna know what happened!"  The bard's voice took on a wheedling, pleading tone.  "C'mon, don'cha you wanna know what happened?"

"I have a feeling the corpse we find at the end of that trail will wait a moment more and still happily tell us its tale when we get there."  Zorden offered, given the copious amounts of dried blood.

"Why don't you open that door, and I'll open this one, and unless there's a map showing us where the councilor is on the other side, I'll take a quick glance from here then lock it and follow after you."  He stated by way of a compromise.

The existence of this place alone was enough to doom Torch even if its namesake was re-lit.  It was no Silver Mount but it would be enough to bring the League.  It might even be inevitable now with all the interest the exhibition could bring.  Better to at least have the chance of keeping more artifacts out of their hands even if it was only what they might happen upon and could carry out.

Zorden kept his card in his left hand, and the newly found pistol in his right, and tapped the button to open the door in front of him, ready to close it and lock it if it wasn't empty.


Zorden locked the single size door to the east, and the double doors leading into the circular corridor to the south.  He is now opening the double doors on the west side of the hallway, just to be clear.

Morin's curiosity was contagious. The blood trail had a story attached to it, and the the conclusion was just ahead. His taunt was meant to get everyone else eager, and it worked. At least it worked on Synn. She was ready to forge ahead to find the bloody carcass that left then a crimson road to walk. But then Zorden was also correct. The body wasn't going anywhere. Assuming, of course, that the body was no longer alive If the owner of all the spilled blood still drew breath, then the extra treasure hunting could cost him or her their life.

"Actually, I'm with Morin. There's a chance, however small, that there is someone still alive ahead of us. If so, they are praying that someone would come to their aid. Zorin, as you argued, whatever is behind those locked doors will still be trapped inside a few minutes from now. I say we do ti Morin's way."

As the door between him and the rest of the party slides shut, Zorden takes it upon himself to open the side door and finds a sprawling chamber containing many desks, tables, and chairs arrayed before a number of broken pieces of equipment and machinery. The dried residue of strange liquids spilled from smashed containers creates a heavy stench in the air, and pieces of glass litter the floor. Beneath one of the tables two red, bulbous piles of slime quiver and throb in response to the opening of the door.
Everyone wins initiative and acts first; Only Zorden is aware of the slimes.

Morin raised an inquisitive eyebrow as Zorden suggested they opened both doors at once, but after a moment, his confusion gave way to an approving smile.  Splitting up and opening two doors at once was a pointlessly reckless thing to do, but Morin had to admit that doing so would add a touch of excitement to the party's exploration.  As the door between them slid shut and Zorden touched the control pad in front of him, the gnome gave Z a nod of agreement.

"Screw it, let's split this party!"  He declared, unlocking his own door and pressing a finger to the touchpad.

OOC:
SWIFT: Unlock door
MOVE:  Open door
STANDARD: TBD, depending on what's behind the door.

Fully willing to add to the party's sudden predicament, Morin unlocks and opens the door near him to reveal the room to the party's east. A long table with various unusual stones and dirt samples heaped on it sits along the southern wall of this room, while to the north a line of metal desks with glowing panels and buttons are placed next to a large humming device. The glowing panels on these desks, those which are not completely smashed, cycle through various displays with Androffan text much like the screens in the first room of this section, but slower and possibly more legibly.

At the center of the nearby, humming device seems to be some sort of floating sphere of reddish-brown mud or dirt.[Private to Synn Mescara: You notice, as the door to the room slides open, this sphere of mud or dirt ... quiver ever so subtly.] Dust covers much of this room, save for a strangely clean swath with only faint red stains remaining between the doors and strange humming device.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:04, Thu 25 Aug 2022.

The world was full of wonders. Some beautiful and some terrible, but all wondrous just the same. A floating sphere of mud was something that easily fit into the wondrous category but it wasn't beautiful. Add that, it seemed to 'notice' when the door opened.

"Gentlemen, that thing knows we're here." She readied her pistol and shifted to get a clear line of sight as she said it.

Zorden surveyed the room with just his eyes moving about in a quick bit of effort to take everything in.

With his curiosity satisfied after that briefest of moments he flicked out his left hand to close the door once again and lock it shut.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:45, Thu 25 Aug 2022.

"The mud knows we're here?" Morin asked, more intrigued than worried. "Probably some kind of ooze.  Look how it cleaned up the bloodstains on the floor."

Waiting at the door, the bard peered into the room at the mystery ooze, trying to figure out exactly what the party was dealing with.


STANDARD: Attempt to identify ooze.  Nat 1 on the knowledge check for a total of 7.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:34, Thu 25 Aug 2022.

Cain looks in the room over Morin's head. "You think? What's it doing in that thing?"

He then turns to Zorden. "Anything interesting down there? And by interesting I mean valuable?"

"Who ... are you?" The idea, rather than words, echoes within the minds of the gathered party, excluding Zorden, as the ball of mud seems to roll within the device before revealing several tentacles which flop out onto the floor and pull the bulk of its 'body' out atop them--a single, round mass taken up almost entirely by a large, gaping mouth which brims with rows of sharp teeth. It faces the party, as much as it has a face, and seems to wait for an answer. Despite, or because of, it's wholly strange nature, looking upon the creature summons up an array of confusing images and memories which seem to distract the party from seeing it clearly. Cael, Morin, and Synn all identify this as some kind of fungal creature, clearly intelligent, with impressive mental powers and probably a nasty bite.

Zorden closes the door as the slimey masses seem to turn their attention towards him and locks it without issue.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:45, Fri 26 Aug 2022.

"No.  Just things better left behind a locked door."  Zorden replied to Cain as he moved back up the hall to rejoin everyone oblivious to the much more interesting find at the end of the bloody trail.

Morin gawped as the ooze unfolded itself into some kind of psychic, fungal, squid...thing.  True to form, even this wasn't enough to keep him quiet for long.  "Oh!" He exclaimed.  "Where are my manners?"

Doffing his cap, the bard gave the monstrosity a polite bow. "Morin Matzylford, at your service!  Adventurer, archaeologist, and writer plus actor!  And these fine folks are my adventuring party, the Canaries."  He left a brief pause, in case any of the others wished to introduce themselves further, then continued.

"And who might you be?  More to the point, and I beg you to excuse the rudeness of my question...but what might you be?"

Cain can't help but stare at that mouth. "Er, Morin? Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Synn wrinkled her nose as the mud ball turned into a slimy octopus thing with a hole full of teeth. It was weird and when it spoke, it became creepy. Morin tried to speak to it. Synn was interested in whether the thing would speak back and engage in a conversation, but she was ready to shoot the damn thing if it decided to do more with that mouth than exchange pleasantries.

Zorden joins the others to see the fungal creature mimicking Morin as best it can, waving a smaller front tentacle in front of it and creasing its round form below its gaping maw in a display vaguely similar doffing a hat and bowing. "Ohh, adventurers! Are you on an adventure now? What have you seen?" the ideas form clearly and invasively in the minds of everyone now, conveying both their plain meaning and the excitement of the creature before it tilts its body in slight confusion at the gnome's question and explains uncertainly, "I'm just ... me."

Zorden stared at the creature for a good long moment, then waved back in greeting, though his brain was still processing what it was seeing so the intention behind the gesture was more of automatic courtesy than a genuine reflection of emotion.

When the strange voice echoed in his ears without having been spoken it seemed to jar him from his reverie.

"Well, at least this one seems more polite than the others living here."  He muttered to himself.

Morin couldn't help but break into an amused grin as the squirming mass of tentacles contorted itself into a rough approximation of a bow.  The display was almost cute, in a bizarre and unsettling way.

As a muttered aside, he responded to Cain's concern with a shrug. "What was it you said when we were dealing with the skulks?  Anything that bothers to talk to us is a bonus, down here.  Even if this is all some ploy to suck out our brains, it's a nice change of pace."

Raising his voice again, Morin turned back to the fungus monster.  "As a matter of fact, we are on an adventure right now.  And yeah, we've seen some interesting things:  An underground desert, a pack of angry skeletons, and a whole lot of dead people.  Speaking of which, have you seen any other adventurers lately?  Especially an older wizard with long dark hair. Oh, or a pink-haired woman."

"I don't know," the telepathic 'voice' communicates before explaining, "there were some creatures not like you who dragged creatures like you through here some time ago. They left delicious red food on the ground. The only food I've found since I woke. What is this place with no food?"

"Morin can give you the history, but there is, well there might be, food, around."  Zorden speculated trying to move away from the idea of delicious red food as quickly as possible.

"From what we've seen here so far, you might just have to find it, if it's here.  Have you explored a lot of this place?"

"True, though I'd just like to point out that the entire skulk tribe had less teeth than our... friend here." Cain mutters back to Morin, not really reassured with the talk of delicious red food. But as long as the creature was not actively trying to suck out their brains, Cain was willing to give the live and let live a try.

"There's some more red food here in the hallway."  Morin told the creature.  "It's a bit dried out, but I think we're done with it so it's all yours.  Other than that..." Morin was about to mention the dead pygmies they had left in the other room, but stopped himself before actually saying the words.  Despite it's grisly appearance, this thing seemed to have an almost childlike innocence.  Should he really encourage it to eat people?  No, probably not.  If possible, Morin figured he should do his best to find some non-sentient food for their new friend.

"Uh, like my friend said, there's got to be some other food around.  What kind of stuff do you eat?  Your mouth says "carnivore", but the fungal body...Well I dunno what it says.  I've never really been big on mycology.  You said you woke up here, right?  What was your life like before that?  What kind of food did you usually eat?"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:56, Tue 30 Aug 2022.

"There was no before, just this," the creature gestures around with its tentacles as it continues to project ideas into the party's minds, "rocks, dirt, lifeless walls, light from above, pictures from the tables. I don't think I'm meant to be here. No food, no others ... why? What is this place? What is out there?"

Synn had nothing to add. Morin was dong a fine job of conversing with the creature. With any luck, he could talk it down, but it sounded like this thing was summoned with a deadly directive. Until such a time as it decided to fall back into a pile of lifeless mud, or even join the party, she would stand ready to destroy it.

For the fourth time during this conversation, the door between the party and the strange creature slides shut.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:02, Thu 01 Sept 2022.

Annoyed by the doors constantly closing in their face, Cain looks into locking it open.

Locking the door open, probably should have done that the first time it closed on us in the middle of a conversation. Not sure who's holding the keycards?

"So, you were born here?"  Morin asked, sympathetically. "Or...created or something?  That's rough.  You're right, these ruins are no place to live.  But there's a whole big world up above us!  And, come to think of it, there's another one below if the Underdark is more your speed."

"If you're thinking of leaving this place, you've pretty much got two options.  First, you can head up into the surface.  There's light, sun, people.  It's great!  But I'm not gonna lie, your appearance is going to be a problem up there.  The whole fangs and tentacles thing is pretty scary to most people.  If you make it west to the River Kingdoms, I hear they're a lot more open-minded about what counts as a person, but a lot of people are still just going to treat you as a scary monster to kill."

As he talked, the gnome casually began to root through the party's packs.  Naturally, they had brought some food of their own down into the caves, in case they found themselves trapped or otherwise delayed.

"Option B is that you go down, into the Underdark.  I don't know much about life down there, but I hear it's nasty.  No light, little food, lots of blood, lotsa violence.  But a psychic fungus squid isn't going to be that out of place.  In fact, we know some murdering cave-freaks that are about to head back down there, pretty soon.  They're creeps, but they're also desperate and short on manpower, so they might have a place for you in their group."

As Morin finished his offer, he found what he was looking for in their backpack and held up some of the party's food.  "Here, found something for you to eat.  We've got an apple, and something that looks like salt beef."  Morin drew back his arm to toss the food into the room, then stopped.  Figuring there was no point in being rude, the bard simply walked into the room and placed the food on the table in front of their new acquaintance.  "I guess there's a third option for you, too.  You could always join our adventuring party!  We'd have to take a vote on giving you membership, of course, but I think we might just have a use for someone of your talents."

Zorden proffered up what he had in his pack to Morin.  He didn't know if the being would find any of it palatable, but it was worth a try.  If it was succesful it might forestall the accidental discovery that they were all full of more of the delicious red food.

With the door locked open it is much easier for Morin to speak at great length about what he imagines the sentient fungus's options to be, but the creature seems hesitant--peering skeptically with its eyeless maw through the doorway the party stands in. As Morin leaves the food on the table he notes the screens flash by more slowly than the ones at the area's entrance and he can make out Androffan writing among the images which he just might be able to read if he could focus.

The creature approaches carefully, still cautious of the newcomers, and reaches its forward tentacles up to wrap around the food items. It holds them for a moment, either considering them or tasting them with those slimy tentacles, before dropping them into its gaping, lipless mouth and grinding them up with its rows of teeth--spraying bits of apple and juice as it does so. Immediately the ideas form again in the party's minds as it communicates excitedly, "Thank you! Very good! Do you have more? Where does it come from? What is the sun like? What are your 'creeps' like?" It is becoming apparent that the creature's appetites for both food and conversation are voracious and there may be no end to its questions.

Cain hands over his own rations to Morin, if he wants to continue feeding it to the creature. "Morin, as excited I am for you finding a new friend, perhaps we should be going? We do have a lot more of this place to search through, and we are running out of food to give to our hungry friend."

Giving two rations for the cause. I guess we could feed it bodies? We did manage to kill some pygmies, right? Though feeding it could also make it bigger and stronger, and feeding it bodies could give it dangerous ideas on where to find its next meal.

Morin sighed heavily as Cain reminded him that the party was still on the clock, and that he couldn't just stand around chatting with Mr Tentacles all day.

Handing over Cain's share of the rations, Morin asked the creature. "Is this enough food for you to get by for another day or so?  We've still got our adventure to deal with: important people to rescue, towns to save, plunder to... Well, to plunder!"

"When we come back tomorrow, we'll bring a big sack of food and I can tell you all about the surface world.  Maybe I can take you to meet the creeps for yourself! Alright?"

"Unless you want to tag along?"  Zorden offered, thinking it might be a risk, but might be a boon too.  So long as the friendly fangy creature didn't eat what was left of the Councilor when they finally found him.

"We need to look around this place more, maybe we'll find something that will help you figure out why you're here."

Synn stood aghast. Morin had succeeded in engaging the monster in conversation, but something about it just felt so wrong. The thing was an abomination and a creature made of fangs and tentacles wasn't designed to go look at sunsets. When Zorden suggested it join them, she had to stifle a shudder. Though it wasn't hostile at the moment, it's attitude could change at any time, and if it did, she didn't want to be the one walking in front of it. Of course, she wasn't going to voice her concerns for fear of offending the beast.

"Well, whatever we're going to do, let's get on with it. Like Cain said, this place isn't going to just hand over its secrets."

"No, I can't leave. You can't leave!" the many-toothed fungus insists through thoughts in the perty's minds as its body quivers insistently, "Tell me more! Why are you smaller than the others? Why am I here? Where do you get food?" The creature takes Cain's rations in its tentacles and stuffs them in its mouth as it communicates, fortunately able to do both at once.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:26, Sat 17 Sept 2022.

"We have to leave."  Morin responded, his tone of voice coming down from it's usual bright friendliness to something more gently serious. "And sooner or later, so do you.  But I have time to answer a few more questions."

Morin pulled out one of the chairs sitting against the nearby desk, and took a seat.  Making his best imitation of eye contact to the fungal blob in front of him, he explained.  "I'm smaller than my companions, because I'm a different type of creature than them.  I'm a gnome, and they're bigguns.  There are lots of different creatures outside of these ruins.  Some of them are like us, and there might be others like you somewhere.  Some types of creatures can be turned into food!  Others have the skill to grow food and make supplies, and might give them to you if you can find a way to trade.  There's plenty of ways to live up there, and I'm sure there's plenty more in the underdark if that's where you'd be more comfortable."

Morin started to put out a hand to comfort the strange monster, but thought better of it at the last second.  As sympathetic as he was, he wasn't quite comfortable enough to put his hand anywhere near those needle-teeth.

"And that brings me to your last question: Why are you here?  I don't have an answer for you, but the good news is that that's normal.  Nobody really has a good reason to be born how they are.  Nobody exists on purpose.  The only answer I have to give you is that you're here because you haven't chosen to be anywhere else.  And like us, you can leave this place they moment you choose.  But sooner or later, you will have to leave, just like us.  There's no future down here."

Morin stood back up from the chair slowly, watching the creature's reaction as he did.  "You don't have to leave right now.  Take some time to gather your courage.  We'll be back, I promise."

21:06, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 20 using 1d20+10 with rolls of 10.  diplomacy.

 Cael continued to stand guard on the outside of the room, in case anything showed up during this conversation. The big man had no idea of what to say to a large purple worm thing.

Seeing his rations disappear in moments, Cain takes a step back. The insatiable hunger of this creature is making him more than a little worried.

This wasn't going at all the way Morin was clearly hoping it would. The creature, while content to communicate for the moment, ate everything offered in little or than a gulp. And this was after it had eaten at least one body and licked all the blood off the floor. Even if its appetite wasn't growing, it seemed there no limit to how much it could eat and it had twice proclaimed it's hunger. As the conversation went on she moved to make sure she had a clear line of sight on the creature. Taking out her grenade, she decided that there was no way she wanted that thing wandering around in her world.

"What do you think, Cain?" She stepped behind him and whispered in his ear as she reached around and put her grenades in his hand. "Should we offer it some more food?"

Cain shakes his head. "I have none left. Let's give Morin one more chance to talk our way out before trying to leave."

Cain thinks it's best to just back away, regardless of whether Morin can talk it down or not. This place is dangerous enough without a hungry monster with a taste for our flesh joining us. But let's see what the result of Morin's roll is before trying to leave.

"No. That's not what I meant." She shook the grenades. "THIS, is the 'food'... boom"

"Oh." Cain only now notices the grenades. "Well, that is an option. But let's see how it responds first."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:50, Mon 19 Sept 2022.

The creature hesitates for a moment, wiping a tentacle across its lower row of teeth either in thought or unconscious hygiene, before the curious thoughts rise in the groups' minds, "Are you the kind that grows food ... or the kind that can be turned into food?" As Morin begins to rise it reaches out with its tentacles in a hurried gesture for him to stop and the more urgent mental words form, "No! You have to stay! Tell me more!" A muffled, almost ominous scream, possibly of a woman or child, pushes through the large door to the south and pierces faintly through the air and the already tense situation. The fungal mass seems to startle at the sound, turning to face the door and press its back against the table he had been eating from. The words insist, "It isn't safe outside this room. Stay!"

Morin probably shouldn't have brought up the idea of turning creatures into food until they had gotten to know each other a bit better.  That whole concept was a can of worms, and he didn't have time to get into it just yet.

In fact, between the creatures growing agitation and the secretive muttering coming from the party behind him, the gnomish bard was increasingly aware of the danger of a fight breaking out.  He had no doubt his allies could defeat Mr. Tentacles if it came down to it, but it would be a shame to kill such an interesting new acquaintance unless absolutely necessary.

Hoping to both reassure the creature about the dangers outside and put to bed any ideas about using the party as a food source, Morin smiled toothily.  "You know, plenty of other things down here thought we would make good food.  They weren't exactly WRONG, but they found it pretty hard to eat us after being chopped to bits."

He moved to go, trying to appear confident and at ease   "Don't worry, we'll have time to talk more later.  These ruins are dangerous, but nowhere near as dangerous as us."

OOC: I'm not trying to intimidate Mr T exactly, just trying to get the idea across that the party is more dangerous than anything else in these ruins, including him.

19:56, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 18 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 9.  Versatile performance: comedy as Intimidate .
This message was last edited by the player at 23:30, Tue 20 Sept 2022.

Zorden waited and watched the creature.

Its behavior was becoming more erratic.  He felt sympathy for it, it wasn't the first person he'd had to deal with who suddenly found themselves in a place where they were completely ignorant of what had befallen them and unable to deal with it. Though he was never much good at dealing with them and fights amongst the slaves were generally frowned upon enough that he wasn't very worried about the violence if it should occur.

Mr. Friendly Fungus was a whole other thing, and if he tried to force them to stay, and wouldn't go with them to get itself out, Zorden wasn't looking forward to what that would likely mean.

So he waited to see if Morin's speaking at it would have any effect.

Another scream filters through the closed southern door as Morin begins to make his way there, subtly threatening the intelligent fungus as he does. The fungus, for its part and for the time being, asks no more questions and makes no more demands--either taken aback by the suggestion or weighing its options as it turns to 'watch' the gnome head away. Reaching the southern door, Morin presses the nearby panel to send it up into its frame and reveal the lit room beyond ... little more than an unremarkable--if anything in these metal caves can be called unremarkable--hallway will a large door at the southern end, a branch headed west, and the bloody trail picking up again and leading to a large doorway on the east wall. Before Morin can spend too much time taking it in, the annoying door closes once again in his face.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:20, Fri 23 Sept 2022.

Giving the tentacle creature a wide berth, Cain joins Morin at the southern doors. "What do we have here?"

Gesturing furiously at the control panel, Morin opened the door a second time before locking it in place with his key card.  With the way open, he responded casually to Cain's question:

"More red food on the ground, leading us forwards.  No idea which door the screaming came from."

While waiting for the rest of the party to catch up, Morin turned back to the tentacled fungus.  "Hang tight, buddy.  Do you want the door open behind us, or closed?""

Synn groaned. As Morin and Cain moved past, she found herself with no one between her and the tentacled horror. Smiling at the ting to hide her discomfort, she finger waved at it. "Hi. I'm Synn. Do you have a name?" She waited briefly for an answer, maintaining her smile but using her cheek muscles to tug the corners of her lips. After a few seconds, whether or not it answered, she stepped way off to the side and hurried past to join Cain and Morin.

"Well... bye. See you soon."

Zorden took a step into the room.  "You're right that it isn't safe outside this room."  He commented to the fungal being, deciding to offer it some reassurance.

"But, you were also right the first time.  We are adventurers on an adventure, which means we need to go out where it isn't safe."  Which felt like a completely ridiculous statement to make, something someone performing theatrics like Morin might make, but perhaps that wasn't a bad thing in this situation.

"We will be back."  Zorden offered, reinforcing Morin's promise.  "And we'll tell you all about what we found."

He didn't yet move directly to join Morin at the door in a hurry, instead moving slowly casually to offer the chance for a last bit of conversation without the other person needing to shout.  Though that was hardly an actual concern when you could speak without making noise.

 Cael Wary of the creature, but not attempting to antagonize it as he moved along to join Morin. He was preparing for a fight on the other side of the door, but not ruling out the creature behind them to try something.

The party filters past the newly quiet fungal horror and gathers at the southern doorway, now locked open by Morin's brown access card, but as they seem to consider passing through into the next hallway their new friend seems to finally make up its mind and and the words scream into the party's minds, "NO! You can't leave!" The mass of fungus rises up from its briefly cowed state and begins to move towards the bunch with its tentacles raised menacingly.
Battle beings, Cain alone wins initiative.

12:26, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 7,19,12,16,15 using d20+5,d20+7,d20+9,d20+2,d20+7.  Initiative Cael, Cain, Morin, Synn, Zorden.
12:27, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 17 using 1d20+2.  Fungus Init.

"Well, we gave peace a chance." Cain jumps on the table near him and sends one of his special arrows flying at the creature.

Move 5' NE, fire a Tangleshot arrow.
09:27, Today: Cain rolled 16 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 11.  Ranged touch attack.

I guess we could also just leave and lock the doors behind us?

Cain's arrow strikes the toothy fungal mass solidly and covers it in a spray of sticky resin. The creature twists and flexes its tentacles against the restrictive goo, moaning and gibbering for a moment before a flood of horrible and confusing images and ideas flood the minds of the party; flashes of other strange, tentacled beasts closing in, grey walls falling away to reveal landscapes with cities and forests unlike any the party has seen, dark chants in gibberish languages thundering in your ears, a moving shadow always in the corner of your eye, and dark gods lurking and watching from the vast, black sky.
DC 17 Will Save from everyone or be nauseated.
Everyone is up.

22:19, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 13 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 11.  Will.

Synn cringes at the flood of bizarre images in her head. She tries to shake them out but can only groan at the twisting in her stomach. Knowing that this is some kind of attack, she tries to level her pistol and fire but all she can do is fall back and collapse to her knees on the other side of the door.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:40, Fri 30 Sept 2022.

Cain nearly doubles over from the mental assault. Any thought of attacking the creature is out of the question. It's all he can do to stagger out, hoping they can close the doors behind them.

Almost made it. Almost. Cain's will save sucks big time.
07:51, Today: Cain rolled 16 using 1d20 with rolls of 16.  Will save (DC 17).

Just leaving and closing the doors behind us looks more and more attractive. But that only works if we are all doing this. Are we all doing this? If yes, we can all just leave this round and whoever passes the save can lock the doors behind us.

Of course, that would mean we have nowhere to fall back, at least for the moment. And I think we left the other doors open, so the creature could leave through there, assuming it can leave the room at all.

edit: Since we seem to be in favor of leaving and closing the doors, I'm going with that as well. That only leaves Cael, right?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:25, Mon 03 Oct 2022.

Zorden groaned as the wave of imagery flooded into the space behind his eyes.

He squeezed them shut, then cracked the left one open in the barest squint as he staggered towards the door still intent on leaving the room.

Zorden rolled 16.  Will save

Like the others, Morin staggered as the alien visions assaulted his mind.  Unlike the others, he seemed much less distressed by the whole experience.

"Oh wow!" He gasped, stumbling backwards towards the door.  "I thought you didn't remember anything before you woke up here!  This is great! What's that city, is it Carcosa?"

The chatter paused briefly as Morin bent over to vomit on the floor.  Reaching up shakily, he waved his key card in front of the reader to unlock the door and allow it to close.

OOC: 13 on the will save

FREE: 5' step south
MOVE: unlock door from it's open position.

Cael did not do well with these visions, but tried to keep up despite the disturbing and nauseating imagery.

15:02, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 3 using 1d20 with rolls of 3.  Will save.

Through the haze of confusing and distracting thoughts and images—and a bit of vomit—the party piles haphazardly through the doorway as Morin waves his card to unlock it from its raised position. The tentacled, fungal mass rushes after them, reaching for them with a long, cord-like limb and projecting emotions of desperation and panic before pulling the limb back just as the door slides down to shut behind me them. The creatures thoughts quickly subside with the closing of the door, but the alien ideas, images, and paranoia sticks with the party for a time as they recover in the sterile-except-for-a-path-of-blood hallway. As they rest, Cain soon senses his magical ward fade and leave him feeling naked.

1d4 - 1 more rounds of nausea for each.
Cain’s Mage Armor expires. Morin’s Unseen Servant was left behind and out of range.

As soon as he recovers, Cain digs in his scrolls case for another scroll. Going forward in this place without some form of protection would be a very bad idea indeed. "Now I wish I haven't left the other door open. Unless it's somehow bound to that room, we could end up running into that bastard yet again."

Casting Mage Armor from my last scroll. Once we find another route back, it could be a good idea to lock the other corridors leading to our tentacled friend as well.

"Poor bastard."  Zorden commented as he began coming to his senses.

"Can't remember if we locked the other doors, but if we did that should help."

As the visions faded from his mind, Morin slumped slightly.  "I'm sorry everyone."  He said glumly, locking the doors behind him, then moving to lock the other doors out of the small hallways while the Canaries plotted out their next move.

"That whole thing was my fault.  I got so caught up in how I wanted that encounter to go I stopped paying attention to the way things were going.  I guess sometimes being able to talk doesn't necessarily mean something is equipped to get along like a civilized creature.  I'm just glad nobody had to get really hurt for me to learn my lesson, this time."

"Ah, don't sweat it. I am not sure how we would fare in battle with it, and talking bought us enough time to get away. That's good enough for me. I guess the lesson here is, sometimes you can judge someone by how they look."

I know Cain locked the other door in the open position, not sure if anyone changed that since. So it could just walk (well, slither) out in the bloody corridor.

Morin nodded, relieved Cain wasn't holding his mistake against him.  "So what now?"  He asked.  "We could keep pushing forwards, we could go west and try to secure a route back to the entrance or..."  Gesturing for everyone to move away from the door, he lowered his voice and continued.  "What if we waited a minute for Squiddy to let his guard down, then opened the door and shot some manners into him?"

Zorden shook his head 'no' at Morin's last suggestion.

"Let's keep moving and see if we get lucky and find the councilor before we run into anything else unpleasant.  Then we can worry about finding a way out that may or may not lead through this room."

"As much as I don't like the idea of that thing roaming around freely, I think Zorden's right. It could still be waiting for us on the other side of this door. We were lucky to all get away once, and we may not be so lucky the next time."

That will save is nasty, and if it grabs one of us closing the doors again could mean abandoning someone. Let's see what's in this corridor and then decide where to next. Maybe we can try killing it later.

As the party recovers and strategizes, Morin makes a round of the hallway locking all of the doors he finds--three in this stretch and another three in the western branch, none of which were already locked. The faint sounds of struggle can be heard through the eastern door where the path of blood leads.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:29, Fri 14 Oct 2022.

Zorden waited for Morin to finish locking the doors around them.

He then took up station near the door from behind which the sounds were emanating.  Perhaps whomever had done all that bleeding was more robust than he'd given them credit for.

Or perhaps some creatures were fighting over the corpse.  Either way there was only one way to find out.

"Oh, right, the noises." Morin whispered.  "I forgot about that whole thing."  Quietly taking up a position near the door, he raised three fingers, then slowly lowered them one at a time in a silent countdown.  Once the countdown hit zero, he unlocked the panel and palmed the door open, hoping to surprise whatever was making such a commotion.

"Which way now? Toward the blood or away?"

 Cael spoke up a little more than normal, looking forward to having a good chance to cleave something in two.

Pressing on meant finding the next conflict. As they approached the next door, Synn heard the sounds of a struggle, Obviously her companions heard it as well. Morin had the keys, making her wonder how everything else in the place was getting about. It was a question for later. For the moment, Morin was signaling a countdown. Readying her pistol, She waited for his final finger to drop.

Cain draws his bow and points it at the doors, ready to loose a tangleshot arrow should anything lunge at them.

Backing away from the doors, 5' to west.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:33, Fri 14 Oct 2022.

With a wave of Morin's card the brown-glowing panel next to the Numerian Steel door dims out once again and with a coordinated press of that same panel the door whisks up into the frame above. Metal desks sit 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. Strapped and buckled down on the southern bed is a slender woman with white hair and flesh and tattered clothing showing signs of multitudes of cuts and tears. She currently helplessly struggles against her bonds as the arms of the device above her wield dangerous tools against her and a transparent tube drains blood from her immobilized arm to gather in a clear bag below. To the north a hunch-backed, four-legged metal man much like the ones faced before but of a pale white coloring with a glowing blue eye and long, sharp claws seems to work at glowing window.

Due to coordinating your entry, everyone acts in the surprise round. I will roll initiative next round. A surprise round allows 1 standard or move action.


[Private to Ionaya: Going to add a clock to this encounter and maybe divide everyone's focus. Each of your limbs are strapped and locked to the table. Full-Round DC 20 Escape Artist to free 1 limb. Freeing an arm will free it for spellcasting and lower Escape DC to 15. Disable Device DC 20 by Cain or someone else will free a limb. Destroying the torture arms is possible, too. Each round you are in the bed will require a DC 12 Reflex Save to avoid being injured by a random effect.

You're free to speak in the surprise round, but the torture won't begin until next round.]

Cain enters the room, bow in hand. He makes his way to the woman on the bed before spotting the metal creature.

Move to the square left of the bed with the woman.

If we get initiative on this thing I'm planing on shooting it next round to debuff it. But to do so it would help if we didn't engage it in melee just yet. If Cael can't attack it this round, could he stay 5' away from it instead? If he can charge it or something, then by all means, hack away.

Zorden followed into the room.

The person on the bed wasn't the councilor, but they did look to still be alive, so at least that was something in the group's favor.

Moving 10' right

Keeping his lasso ready in his other hand, Morin tapped his keycard against the control panel at the entrance to the room to keep it locked open.  It had taken him a while, but he felt like he was finally getting the hang of the whole "door situation" down here.

MOVE: Lock door open.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:36, Sat 15 Oct 2022.

The thin, pale, bloodied woman writhes in the grip of the bonds that secure her to the bed, her mouth gaped open as if she was constantly screaming. Her eyes were focussed on the ceiling wide open with electric arcs running back and forth between them. Just as Cain notices the mechanical monster, she calls to him in a voice barely clinging to hope, "By all that's blessed by the winds, I'm not sure if you're real or a creature of my mind but if you are real, please free me and I'll try to help you stop that white mechanical demon before it kills you!"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:59, Sun 16 Oct 2022.

 Seeing Cain brace near the bed, Cael will move in front of him and prepare to block, Cael never really put his weapon away and had been holding it, at least idly ever since the Vegepygmies.

Synn, sighs. Yet another thing with murderous intent. At her best speed and looking for a clear shot, she pulls her pistol and fires at the metal monster's head.

16:08, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 21 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 18.  Pistol shot.

As most of the party filters into the room, Cain gets a better look at the restrains holding the woman down--bands made of a strong fiber mesh wrapped tightly around each of the woman's wrists and ankles and secured in place by some technological locking mechanism. The armatures above the woman move in buzz ominously. A thundering crack of fire and smoke billows from Synn's pistol as she fires off a quick shot at the metal man before it can react, striking it solidly on the shoulder, causing it to shift slightly from the force, and sending the ball of lead ricocheting off into a wall behind it. Unfortunately, the plating of the metal man seems little more than slightly dented by the blow and, right before your eyes, the dent then seems to push out and correct itself. [Private to Synn Mescara: Because you attacked before the enemy acted in combat, it had no Dex to AC. Because it was within the first range increment of your pistol, it had no Armor to AC. It had a good deal of cover because, at best, one corner of your square could only see one corner of its square. But your high roll and its disadvantages beat the cover bonus. Unfortunately he's a tough bastard.] The metal man turns his attention from the screen to the people rushing in and screeches in a high-pitched, modulating voice as it steps forward to swipe at Cael, missing with the scary, thin claws, [Language unknown: "Ughiouent o an eenpreave itbe, und u ecus redlarstr?"]


09:28, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 13,7 using d20+6,d4+6.  Enemy Attack/Damage v Cael.
09:20, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 19 using 1d20+4.  Enemy Initiative.
09:18, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 15,14,6,15,13,12 using d20+5,d20+7,d20+2,d20+9,d20+2,d20+7.  Initiative Cael, Cain, Ionaya, Morin, Synn, Zorden.
09:11, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Synn Mescara, rolled 6 using 1d6+1 with rolls of 5.  Pistol Damage(w/ PBS).
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:47, Fri 21 Oct 2022.

[Language unknown: "Ca, eeeeli Nceantsom ingereast wane, ecthoubut!  Se wi trapa!"] Morin called out, pointing to his partially healed injuries as he waved to get the robot's attention.  [Language unknown: "Ofain are tio, ncndit!  Wiatpe fiecwa laevpo thus utssol, setintlat stfo."]

To the others he added:  "Y'know, for once I'm not going to try to talk the screeching monstrosity down.  I don't think these things are people-smart, and it seems like it's got a screw loose, already.

Let's scrap it, wrap it, and sell it to Sanny."

STANDARD: Inspire courage (+1 to attack, damage, and saves vs fear to all Allies)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:16, Fri 21 Oct 2022.

Zorden brandished the strange pistol like device they'd found earlier, and attempted to use it on the machine.

Zorden rolled 6.  Attack (point blank, into melee)

Spending 1 point of grit for covet charge

The white-haired delicate woman still strapped to the table continued to writhe in agony as her blood dripped steadily
through the transparent tube into the bag below.

"I guess you are all real. There is too much pain for you to be dream folk. I'm sorry that I can do little if anything to help." she softly screamed.

Cain breaks into a run and jumps up on the empty bed, looking to get a clear shot at the metal monstrosity.

Jumping up. Not sure what the DC here is, but it shouldn't be too hard to jump up on a bed, right?
13:33, Today: Cain rolled 16 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 7.  Acrobatics.

[Private to GM: Not sure how high the bed is. Plus the DC is doubled for no running start, but I can just move down-left 5' first, and then I'll have enough space for it.]

And firing a tangleshot. In melee. Still, could be enough for a touch attack. Maybe.
13:41, Today: Cain rolled 15 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 14.  Ranged touch attack.


Sorry about leaving Ionaya tied up, but that sounds like it could take a while to unlock or cut through. So it may be better to deal with the robot first?

 Staring at the mechanical looking creature, Cael strikes at it with his sword, looking particularly full of anger at the creature's mere existence.


08:40, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 15 using 2d6+6 with rolls of 6,3.  Sword damage.
08:39, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 23 using 1d20+7 with rolls of 16.  Sword attack.
I'm assuming this is a Robot and I apply my +1 attack and +1 Dodge AC vs robots trait, if not then I actually rolled a 22 instead.

Since the last bullet did so little, Synn sacrificed once of her spells, feather fall, to enhance her next shot with a mage bullet. Also in an abundance caution she summoned her cloak of darkness.


17:31, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 14 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 11.  Mage Bullet. I think +1 for Mage Bullet? so 15
17:32, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 1 using 1d6 with rolls of 1.  Damage. ... Lovely. :(

As Morin makes quips at the machine's expense, Cain hops atop the bed--and the poor, tortured woman--to loose a trick arrow at the metal man. The arrow flies true and breaks against the man's metal skin, spilling sticky resin over and through its finely constructed joints though it is present enough to avoid allowing the resin to stick it to the ground. Zorden quickly draws the strange weapon and fires it at the enemy, the dimly glowing circuits along the length of its 6-inch barrel briefly flaring brightly before it emits a loud, deep *THUM* as if a massive drum has been pounded as it sends an almost imperceptible, narrow wave across the room to strike the table against the nearby wall and scatter its contents across the floor as it shakes in response. The metal man, ignoring the stray shot and instead focusing on the opening left in the tiefling's defenses, quickly lashes out with it's frightening claws and rakes them across the gunslinger's chest(-8 HP). The attack doesn't go unanswered as Cael's greatsword soon comes crashing down on the drone's extended shoulder and cleaving a white pauldron in two--though any normal beast might have lost its whole arm to the blow(-11 HP). The enemy quickly turns and attempts to strike the barbarian in return, but between the resin gumming up its joints and the recent blow, cuts only air--although before your very eyes the split pauldron begins to knit itself back together. The many arms hanging above the restrained woman, and now Cain, lash out haphazardly at the pair--slashing with blades, trails of flame, and arcs of electricity--but each manages to avoid the hazards for now.
Only Cain moved, a little to the right, on the bed, so skipping a new map this round.
[Private to Cain: It'd be a DC 20, with an e-pick and without taking 10, as a Full-Round Action, to unlock a restraint.]
[Private to Ionaya: I assumed you'd want to at least attempt to Escape this round, so rolled for you.]
[Private to GM: Enemy HP: 31 - 11 + 2 = 22]


12:06, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 18 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 16.  Enemy Reflex v Tangleshot(10).
12:09, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 21,8 using d20+4,1d4+6 with rolls of 17,2.  Enemy AoO v Zorden.
12:15, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 12,8 using d20+4,1d4+6 with rolls of 8,2.  Enemy Attack v Cael.
12:19, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Ionaya, rolled 10 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 8.  Escape Artist.
12:20, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 21,20 using d20+9,d20+2 with rolls of 12,18.  Reflex Cain, Ionaya.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:50, Wed 02 Nov 2022.

"Ha!" Cain drops his bow and jumps down from the bed. He draws his sword as he circles around the metal creature to ineffectually stab at its back.

Drop bow, draw sword while moving around the robot (up two squares, then left up and then left down) to avoid AoO and get to flank it with Cael.

20:04, Today: Cain rolled 15,3 using 1d20+7,1d8 with rolls of 8,3.  Flanking (Attack, Damage).

Yeah, that's not going to do much, but maybe Cain can at least help Cael actually do some damage.

[Private to GM: I didn't notice the private message before posting. So it would just take one skill check to release her? Or is there more than one restraint holding her?]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:38, Wed 02 Nov 2022.

While reloading her pistol, Synn looks around the room for something else to use as a weapon against this metal monster. "Anyone? Maybe we can tap it under the door, or do something less direct?"

Pausing between cries of pain, the woman still strapped to the table softly screams, "Lightning! Electricity! The monster doesn't like being shocked."

Zorden winced at the rather severe way he was bleeding from the machine's attack.  In response he took a step backwards between the two beds and passed his pistol from hand to tail.

He then brought his long barrel up and tried to land a shot on the machine.


Zorden rolled 13,11.  Attack (point blank, into melee), (potential) Damage

Edit: Forgot the bonus from Morin
This message was last edited by the player at 19:09, Thu 03 Nov 2022.

Cael kept up his assault on the metal abomination, driving his blade upon his target once again.

14:03, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 13 using 2d6+6 with rolls of 4,3.  Sword damage.
14:02, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 20 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 11.  Sword attack with flanking.

"Good to know." Morin replied cheerfully to the tied-up woman on the table.  "I left my lightning gun at home, though, so we might have to do this the old-fashioned way.  Don't worry, we'll have you out in a jiffy!" 

Walking into the room, the bard once again found himself on medic duty while the rest of the party did the actual fighting.  Touching his healing wand to Zorden's claw wound, Morin sealed up the worst of the gash.

FREE: Maintain bardic performance (3 rounds left.  +1 to attack and damage)
MOVE: Move into room, between Zorden and the bed.  Draw wand of CLW while moving
STANDARD: Use wand of CLW on Zorden.  Heals 7HP.

11:46, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 7 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 6.  wand of CLW, zorden.

Shooting this thing was just a waste of bullets. To be useful, Synn moved to the restrained woman and pulled out her dagger, looking for a way to release her. The woman had blurted out a way to stop the machine, So Synn reasoned, she would be more useful in fighting it.

22:16, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 7 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 5.  Help Escape Artist

But her attempt to hep wasn't working so she resorted to cutting.

Previously...
Synn takes a moment to reload her pistol and summon up a protective mass of physical, tendriled shadow.

---

Currently...
Morin continues to crack jokes as he moves into to tap the wounded Zorden on the shoulder with his wand and stifle most of the bleeding with a soft wave of light. Leaping from bed to bed and circling around the enemy, Cain thrusts with his blade at the metal man's exposed flank only to have the blade turned away by its metal spine. Meanwhile Zorden steps away to draw and level his long musket at the enemy before filling the room with a deafening black powder bang, flash of flame, and billowing black smoke as he sends a lead round smashing through the enemy's plating to wreak havok in its innards(-8 HP). Likewise, the powerful barbarian Cael lashes out with another great swing of his mighty blade and hacks through the other of the metal man's white pauldrons(-9 HP).

The enemy wastes no time in returning the attack, another swipe with its razor-sharp claws, this time raking four long gashes along the exposed inside of the barbarian's arm(-7 HP) as it moves away from the flanking Cael and towards the tiefling with the dangerous weapon. Cael can feel as something ... invasive ... works its way through his body from the new wound(DC 11 Fort Save or take -2 Str.) [Language unknown: "Hisreahis caiona ouck, trsa oul ai ekof ur e utul essantoun u etom eenvorect."] the metal man's voice rings out from it's chest, accompanied by the sound of sparks, hisses, and smoke as it seems to struggle under the building damage.

Synn moves into the room and attempts to help the restrained woman slip her restraints, but to no avail. Fortunately the woman is able to continue avoiding the attacks of the violent torture devices hovering above her.
[Private to Cain: Each of Ionaya's limbs need to be freed in some way for her to escape the bed.]
[Private to GM: Enemy HP: 22 - 8 - 9 + 2 = 7]

Cain follows after the metal man and tries another slash at it, more to distract it than in hope of doing some actual damage.

Move right, right-down and then Aid another to give +2 to attack to Cael:
15:03, Today: Cain rolled 20 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 15.  Aid another (AC 10).

Cael, if you step one square down you can again flank with Cain.

 With a frustrated grunt, Cael fights off whatever was placed inside him, steps back and gives another mighty swing on this horrid metal... thing.


09:53, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 19 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 14.  Fort save.
Move down one space to flank with Cain.
09:57, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 28 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 19.  Sword attack with flanking.
09:58, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 20 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 11.  Possible Critical hit.
09:59, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 12 using 2d6+6 with rolls of 5,1.  Sword damage. (x2 if Critical is possible and hits.)

Moot
This message was last edited by the player at 20:23, Sat 12 Nov 2022.

Swinging mightily while stepping deftly to a more advantageous position, Cael's great blade sends a loud, awful, ringing, shrieking sound reverberating from the close metal walls as metal tears through metal, solid metal joints are wrenched asunder, and many-colored liquids spew out from the strange metal beast--some seeming to disperse and evaporate too quickly. Whatever makes the metal man tick, somewhere deep within it's mostly-severed torso, begins to spark and burn as its blue-glowing, singular eye blinks irregularly before dying out and while it attempts to speak a few more, unintelligible syllables before finally collapsing into a heap on the floor.

The threatening arms above the bound woman remain unfazed in their attacks.
Ionaya, Morin, Synn, and Zorden still have actions this round.[Private to Zorden: Go ahead and change actions, if you like.]

With his rifle empty and Cael's blow looking effective enough to dissuade the metal man from continuing its assault, Zorden turned towards the other bed next to him.

He kept himself low to the floor in an effort to avoid the moving metal arms, and pulled out a small hand axe which he used to try and aid Synn's efforts to cut the woman free.

As the robot went down, Morin turned his attention to the woman strapped to the table, and the dangerous mechanical arms that seemed to be menacing her.  While the others tried to cut through the restraints, the bard sized up the machine itself.  From what he'd seen of Androffan engineering, it would be too much to hope for an off switch, but maybe there was some sort of power line that could be disconnected?

15:39, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 17 using 1d20+7 with rolls of 10.  knowledge engineering.

Still in great pain, the woman responded to the allies around her and with a wide eyed stare she started to writhe and wiggle her limbs with deliberate focus and concentration.

OOC:Ionaya rolled 16 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 14.  Escape Artist.

Morin can't make out any switches on the arms to disable them or exposed bits which seem important, but there are a number of buttons both beside the beds and on the tables near the western wall--any of these could do something or nothing, in his experience. Synn and Zorden begin cutting at the bindings holding the woman's arms but make only a little progress. A bright, hot beam of light fires from one of the looming arms, scorching the bed and some of the woman's hair as she barely manages to wiggle out of the way.

12:37, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 1,-1 using d4,d6-2 with rolls of 1,1.  Damages, Synn, Zorden.
12:38, Today: Dungeon Master, on behalf of Ionaya, rolled 13 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 11.  Reflex Ionaya.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:00, Mon 14 Nov 2022.

With the machine defeated, Cain drops his sword and rushes over to the tied woman. Out of his pocket he fishes out an e-pick to unlock the restraints.

I'm assuming that the rest of us can have our actions now? If yes, moving next to Ionaya to try to free one of her arms next round and readying a black e-pick.

DM, how do you wish to handle this scene? Should we continue to play round by round? Or just make several rolls for whatever actions we are taking during the next couple of rounds while we are trying to free Ionaya, to speed things up?

"Cael, can you grab a chunk of the machine man and hold it over this one to maybe protect her from these metal arms?  Zorden suggested as he continued trying to hack away at the restraint holding the woman's arm closest to him.

With one thread eliminated and being able to clearly see she is surrounded by allies, arcs of blue lightening flash across her eyes and a near ethereal wind blows around her as she glares at the machine above her. “Finally! My thanks for stopping that awful machine! Thank you for continuing to save me from this alien cursed bed! I'd put a firm shock through it but most everything reacts badly to the power of the storm.” she said in a near otherworldly voice.

"Reacts badly?"  Morin asked, examining the buttons on the bed.  He ducked as one of the laser-tipped arms swung wildly over his head, then continued.  "You mean as opposed to now, when it's reacting good?  I say fry the thing, it's already trying to carve you up."

On that note, Morin pressed a random button on the console attached to the bed, reasoning that the thing was already trying to kill it's prisoner, so there was no harm in trying.

As unsure of what to do as anyone else, Synn had continued cutting on the restraint to no noteworthy effect. There had to be something else. In a fit of desperation, she grabs the arm from which the beam of burning light emitted and tried to bend it up towards the rest of the contraption while also not hitting any of her companions.

OOC: I have no idea what I should roll for this.

19:33, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 5 using 1d20 with rolls of 5.  No idea what I''m doing.

19:32, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 1 using 1d20 with rolls of 1.

Whatever it is, I did really poorly

 Uncertain that the metal beast was in fact dead, Cael would give it a kick and perhaps a few prods with his sword to be sure. He can let the the others do the more delicate work.

 “Fair warning, I'm back enough to myself that I'm going to send a shock through this table.” she warned. Suddenly more arcs of blue lightening flashed across her eyes, the near ethereal wind blew stronger around her. With a firm grip on the table underneath her, she closed her eyes and screamed as arc of lightening flashed from her hands into the table.

OOC
Today: Ionaya rolled 2 using 1d6 with rolls of 2.  Electric shock to the table.

As Cael pokes at the fallen metal man, eliciting no response, while Synn futilely struggles to pull one of the several arms away. Cain rushes to the bedside, preparing to use an e-pick to release the bonds while the bound woman struggles helplessly against the bindings. Morin presses at a random button on the bedside and immediately a shrill, almost deafening alarm begins to blare and repeat from the walls themselves. Whether empowered by the startle the alarm gives him or fortunate enough to find a weak point in the fiber bindings, Zorden manages to tear through with his axe and free the woman's right hand--but not soon enough to help her dodge a bundle of needles which one of the arms above plunges downward--directly into her gut(-1 HP).

Cain gets to work trying to unlock one of the restraints holding the woman on the bed.

Unlocking right leg restraint:
07:20, Today: Cain rolled 30 using 1d20+12 with rolls of 18.  Disable device (DC 20).

"Oh shit, I didn't expect an alarm."  Morin muttered, pressing two more buttons at random.  He looked up from the panel to where Cael stood prodding the fallen robot.

"Hey Muscles, keep an eye out in case anything responds to that noise."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:20, Wed 23 Nov 2022.

Zorden recoiled as the lightning from the woman sparked about, but got immediately back to sawing at the binding.

When the alarm started he jumped in surprise which yanked just enough at the strap to finally snap it and set free the arm he'd been working on.

Staying low he moved over and began working on the restraint that was holding the woman's ankle.

"Someone with muscles, take this cutting arm and force it to cut her restraints"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:21, Thu 01 Dec 2022.

The bound woman reaches out with her free and now sparking hand to touch the array of violent arms attacking her and sends a visible, if not audible through the blaring alarms, arc of electricity coursing across its grey surface. Pops, almost like the crackling of a campfire but loud enough to be heard through the alarms, sound out from within the machine from which the arms extend and a thick, burnt smell wafts out along with tendrils of black smoke, but the arms continue their haphazard dance(-12 HP.)

While the others seem to panic, grappling with uncertainty and indecision in how to help, Cain acts almost on impulse--jabbing a small electrified extremity of his e-pick into just the right recess of the locking mechanism and causing the bindings on the woman's right ankle to release and withdraw, almost as if they are recoiling from pain.

Zorden moves around Cain and across the table to begin carefully hacking at the woman's other ankle restraint--making good progress but failing to fully cut through the fiber. (-4 HP)

Morin, at least, pairs his uncertainty with confident, decisive action and begins pressing even more buttons! It is unclear which button does what, but soon another strange, pungent odor begins to fill the air along with the smells of burning machines, leaking oil, and spent black powder and another, separate alarm seems to join in the first's cacophony: a grating, mechanical voice shouts from the walls in warning, [Language unknown: "Ardardeve! Stratiwas! Ivhawhon thiortticshe! Ouramente fo tindaywit!"]

The arms, hardly deterred by the smoke wafting from their housing, continue their assault on the restrained woman, one arm with a sustained arc of electricity between two prongs jabs at her and makes contact, sending a retaliatory surge through her body ... to no effect. (5 Electricity Damage, -0 HP)

[Private to Cain: Even through the arcs of electricity and two blaring alarms, you sense a subtle change in air pressure and the slightest vibration through the metal floor ... sensations you recognize ... a door opening in the hallway.]


This message was last edited by the GM at 22:31, Wed 30 Nov 2022.

Cain moves on to next restraint, but this time he is distracted by a familiar sensation, a change in air pressure, a faint vibration of the metal floor. A door being opened. "Dammit. Someone keep an eye on the hallway, something is coming our way."

Moving to unlock left arm, if I can get there, otherwise left leg. Not that it matters with this roll.
22:54, Today: Cain rolled 14 using 1d20+12 with rolls of 2.  Disable device (DC 20).

Morin looked up from the control panel as Cain warned the party that more company was coming. He furrowed his brow, looking towards the door, then back to the bound woman that the party was haphazardly working to free from her bonds.

An idea came over him, accompanied by embarrassment that it hadn't occured earlier.  "Okay." He told Ionaya, folding his hands into the proper arcane shapes.  "This is going to be a little gross, but it should help you slip out of there no problem."

With a song-song invokation, Morin summoned up a thin layer of translucent grease to cover the sorceress' body.  The grease immediately found its way under the restraints, making it easier for Ionaya to pull her limbs free.

OOC: casting grease on Ionaya directly, giving her a +10 to escape artist checks for the next two rounds.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:06, Wed 30 Nov 2022.

Zorden heard Cain's warning but trusted the big man to guard the door.

He kept his own concentration on attempting to slice the remainder of the way through the woman's restraint.

“Thank you for your help. I'll try again to slip out of here.”  Ionaya exclaimed after being coated in the greasy substance. Focusing on freeing one of her hands, she agian writhed in her bonds and the slippery magical grease.

OOC
Ionaya rolled 24 using 1d20+12 with rolls of 12.  Escape Artist w/grease.

Zorden quickly finishes the job of cutting through the bindings on the woman's ankle, and although Cain is unable to shock open the lock on her wrist as easily as he had managed before, the woman finally manages to slip her hand from the bindings with the help of a bit of slippery magic from Morin and rolls free from the bed and the aggressive arms. The voice from the walls warns again, [Language unknown: "Stanceant! Comaveous! Eieihamo urpoutlo! Pallol prain"]but is cut short as a loud hiss and a bright flash of light flares from the bed's console.[Private to Cain; Morin Matzylford; Synn Mescara; Zorden: Fortitude DC 10 or Dazzled for 1 Minute]

At the shouted warning from Cain, Cael braces himself for the arrival of more threats(Total Defense, +4 AC) and is not disappointed. An orange-plated robot with three glowing eyes, two clawed arms, and hovering deftly on wings which move like a maple tree's seeds but sound like angry bees rushes in from the south and fires a familiar, drum-like *THUM* from a barrel on its belly at the barbarian. A huge, invisible fist seems to plow into the large man's chest and head and nearly knock him from his footing(8 Nonlethal Damage.) His thick armor seems useless against this form of attack.

The new enemy is not alone; following shortly behind it, less deftly than the first for its four legs, is another of the white-plated metal men much like the one the party had easily dispatched just before. With its arrival is another swipe from another set of frighteningly sharp claws dripping blue liquid, but the barbarian manages to side-step the attack.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamem.../conditions/#Dazzled

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:42, Sat 03 Dec 2022.

"Two of them now. Well, that's just great." Cain blinks to clear his eyesight and hurries over to pick up his shortbow from where he dropped it earlier.

17:24, Today: Cain rolled 19 using 1d20 with rolls of 19.  Fort save (DC 10).

Going to pick up the bow again and send some more tangleshots their way. I think I left it somewhere around the upper bed. Also, we better get some healing to Cael.

"Could be worse."  Morin replied cheerfully, walking over to Cael and tapping him with the healing wand.  "At least there's not three of them!"

MOVE    : Walk 10' north, behind Cael
STANDARD: Use wand of cure light wounds on Cael, healing 6 HP.

09:44, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 6 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 5.  wand of CLW.
09:41, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 5 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 2.  Fort save.

Zorden recoiled from the bright flash that momentarily filled the room.

He blinked rapidly in the aftermath finding that the bright white outlines of everything seemed to be stuck in his eyes as he looked.

Therefore he decided it would be best to stay where he was, and began reloading his weapon.

Zorden rolled 5.  Fort save.

Reloading with standard Powder/Bullet

 Cael reached for a strange bottle on he person and downed he contents. He noticeably changed in physical stature and doesn't seem as rational as normal. This mutated state seems a bit less human one could argue, but now he seems even more capable to wreck these machines.

 Cael used his "Mutate" Ability

With his elven eyes quickly recovering from the flash of light, Cain hops over the nearby bed and ducks under the still-flailing mechanical arms to recover his discarded bow--forcing the freed woman to make way by rolling over the next bed. While both Zorden and Synn take a moment to reload their firearms, Morin, half-blinded by the flash, moves to Cael to tap him with the healing wand to ease some of the punishment he has taken(+6 HP, 6 Nonlethal removed.) In the midst of combat, the already heavily-thewed man reaches to his belt to pull out a small potion--letting another swipe of the deadly claws glance from his breastplate armor as he does--and quickly downs the contents. In an instant the man's great muscles bulge even more, pushing snaking veins the thickness of fingers against his skin, and something wild seems to manifest in his eyes. The robots continue their assault, the flying enemy launching another *THUM* at the barbarian which he manages to duck beneath and the metal man pushing its way through the doorway with a warning, [Language unknown: "Ss setthiort t omfi entdinticwhe! Undwheoer stutnt ca plchekivanpl,"] but only managing to scratch the man's armor again as it swipes with its claw.

Dazzled: -1 Attack Rolls, -1 Perception
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamem.../conditions/#Dazzled
[Private to Synn Mescara: Went back to count rounds since you used Mage Bullets; you still have 2 rounds with the +1 to attack and damage with your pistol.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:51, Wed 07 Dec 2022.

This seemed like as good a time as any for Morin to use up the last of his spells.  Stepping back from the melee, he raised his hand to the sky, then raised his voice to sing out another incantation.  With a sweep of his hand, he summoned up another patch of oily grease, this time coating the floor beneath the four-legged robot.

With a casual air wholly inappropriate to the danger they found themselves in, Morin turned towards the mysterious sorceress they had just rescued.  "Welp, that's about the extent of my magic for the day.  How about you?  I hope you're packing more than just the little spark you called up earlier."

FREE: 5' step north.
STANDARD: Cast grease on the ground, creating a 10'x10' square centered on the quadruped's lower left corner.  It must make a DC 15 Reflex save or fall prone, and a DC 10 acrobatics check to move for the next 2 rounds.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:09, Wed 07 Dec 2022.

Cain jumps over the bed again to get a clear shot at one of the robots attacking them.

Moving 3 squares down, 1 left, and tangleshot at the melee robot. Ranged touch attack into melee:
22:13, Today: Cain rolled 5 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 4.  Tangleshot.

Yeah, that's not going to do anything.

Synn groaned at the sight of yet another metal monstrosity. Having reloaded her gun, she took aim. The last time she shot such a construct, the effect was comically pitiful. This time, she took more careful aim, and at something that might actually matter and was also less armored. It's knee.

16:31, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 18 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 15.  Pistol shot.
16:32, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 2 using 1d6+1 with rolls of 1.  Pistol Damage.

Everyone please forgive my uselessness. The dice hate me.

Zorden took a step backwards into the nook that Cain had just vacated, then attempted to aim through the strobing flashes in his eyes to put a bullet into the white robot.

5 ft step diagonally into the space that's 1 up and 1 right

Zorden rolled 21,12.  Attack (point blank, into melee, dazed), (potential) Damage
This message was last edited by the player at 18:34, Thu 08 Dec 2022.

Still somewhat off balance while being coated in the magical grease, the white-haired, electric blue-eyed woman stepped clear of the table and replied to the less than cheerful looking gnome, “I will happily bring more of my power to bear soon.”

OOC
After taking a 5' step to the west, she will then attempt to cast Mage Armor on herself.

This should bring her AC to 16

 Cael moved to crowd the group less in the cramped room and also to block one of the machines from entering. The big mutated man then swung his sword powerfully against the metal man that just entered the room.

Took a '5 step one to the left inside of the doorway and on the blood/grease trail.

09:23, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 19 using 2d6+9 with rolls of 5,5.  Greatsword Damage w/ Mutagen.
09:22, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 27 using 1d20+8 with rolls of 19.  Greatsword Attack w/ Mutagen.

With another melodic incantation, Morin conjures a patch of slippery slime to coat the floor beneath the metal man's four feat. Its legs twist like a fawn on a frozen lake but it manages to stay upright.

Cain moves and fires of another of his tangleshot arrows, trying to make the enemy sticky if slippery didn't work, but only manages to entangle an innocent wall in the hallway beyond.

Synn raises her flintlock pistol to take aim at the metal drider and after a loud flash of fire, light, and smoke shoots true ... but the bullet merely ricochets of the white plates encasing the enemy.

Ionaya casts a protective spell upon herself as she moves in--shoving the smaller Morin aside as she does.

With a step and a mighty, spinning slash The Whirlwind lives up to his name. Once again his great blade tears loudly through the outer plating and steel innards of a metal man(-30 HP.) Simultaneously another flash of fire and light bursts through the room, this time from Zorden's musket. The tiefling's bullet plows into the robot's upper torso, adding enough twisting force to break it in half over Cael's blade(-8 HP)(+1 Grit).

The new robot, hovering nimbly with its buzzing wings, dances around Cael and into the gap left by its fallen ally, snapping at the feral barbarian with sharp, grasping claws, but only manages to further scrape the man's armor as it insists, [Language unknown: "Isiodist m elch ngngwech. La theundectome! Niing ichlarthuati!"] Thankfully, the blaring alarm triggered by Morin soon falls quiet with a pop and a sizzle.

[Private to Morin Matzylford; Synn Mescara; Zorden: You can tell from the make of this orange, flying robot that it is geared for combat where the metal men have seemed to be designed for more supportive functions.]
[Private to Morin Matzylford; Synn Mescara: The shots fired from the barrel on its belly seem to be meant to subdue, and the claws look to be capable of locking a tight grip on targets.]
[Private to Synn Mescara: Its armor plating and metal bones seem especially strong--it is very unlikely that your pistol will be able to do any damage.]

Grease(1)
Dazzled: -1 Attack Rolls, -1 Perception
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamem.../conditions/#Dazzled
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:25, Thu 08 Dec 2022.

"WOO!"  Morin let out a cheer as Zorden finally landed that bulleye and Cael tore the wounded robot to bits.  "Get 'em, boys!"

Having only half-heard the sorceress' reply, the bard turned his attention back to her while he fished the lasso out of his belt loop.  "Huh?  No no, that's a human.  He just looks like a bear.  Also, he's on our side, you should aim your power at the other one."

STANDARD: Inspire courage.  All allies get +1 to attack and damage.
MOVE    : Draw Lasso.

Frustrated that her combat efforts were failing, Synn decided that being smarter was probably the way to go. Judging from the was her bullet bounced off, and the generally robust construction, she guessed that these constructs were going to be tougher and more resistant to damage.

"Guys, theses robots are much tougher but they also don't look as lethal. Bullets and lighter blades are going to be useless. We should help Cael." With that she jumped forward to slide through the grease to flank the robot and distract it. Using an acrobatic roll she attempts to come up to her feet dagger drawn

OOC: This last robot has Hardness 10

Move: 10' NW, draw dagger. Set for possible flank. Acrobatics successful to not slip.
Standard: Successful Aid Another to boost Cael's next attack +2.

22:12, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 911 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 9.  Distraction kick... Well I didn't kick it hard but hopefully it got the thing's attention

23:06, Today: Synn Mescara rolled 16 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 13.  Acrobatics.

This message was last edited by the GM at 08:16, Fri 09 Dec 2022.

"Piece of junk..." Cursing his bow, Cain throws another arrow at the robot.

If Synn is providing flanking and aid to Cael, I'll give tangleshot another try. And this should be a hit, I think.
13:13, Today: Cain rolled 20 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 19.  Tangleshot.

Zorden, thankful for having gotten quite a lucky shot in, reloaded his weapon.

With the light blue markings swirling around on her pale skin, her hair seeming to dance and flow in an otherworldly breeze, and lightening crackling between her electric blue eyes, she says to Mordin, “My apologies I didn't mean to step in your way friend gnome.”

Taking another step back towards Zorden she says to the tiefing, “When you're ready to use your weapon, let me know, so I can touch it and add the power of the storm to your strike.”

OOC
Ionaya will 5' step closer to Zorden, but stay out of his line of fire. When he's just about to fire, she will add her Thunderstaff ability to his attack.

Cael attempts to swing at the other floating machine, it being a bit less straight forward than the other targets have been.



13:13, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 16 using 2d6+9 with rolls of 5,2.  Greatsword Damage w/ Mutagen.
13:11, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 15 using 1d20+10 with rolls of 5.  Greatsword Attack w/ Mutagen.
(I forgot the +1 to attack I get thanks to me hating Robots, but I think a 16might still miss.)

Cain looses another of his special arrows at the second enemy, this one breaking against its hard, metal skin and spraying its sticky contents over the flying, metal creature. The quickly hardening slime works its way into the creature's metal joints and the creature struggles to keep its spinning, blade-like wings moving, but still it manages to stay aloft(Enemy Entangled.)

Ionaya moves to Zorden's side as the tiefling pours black powder down his musket's barrel followed by a lead bullet.

As Morin begins joking in support once again, Synn pulls out a dagger and rushes into the fray--trying to be useful despite the great risk. She manages to keep her footing as she slides into the greased area of the floor and lashes out at the flying beast, helping to distract it and aid Cael. The barbarian, in a fluid motion after pulling his great blade from the remains of the last metal foe, brings it to bear once again against the next. The blade lands hard against the enemy in a blow which would fell most men, but twists and glances against the flying beast's hard plating(-7 HP).

The creature, undeterred by Cael's attack, moves into the room with its blue-glowing eyes set on the small Morin as it commands, [Language unknown: "Kortinous entwa tinndetiored pl esshi cait'cencer we m maatnc ou on fonodi. Theithrom!"] It drops rapidly from its head-high flight to lunge at the halfling and snap with its two claws, but only manages to tear into the outer layers of the bard's thick cloth armor.

[Private to GM: Entangled(3)]Dazzled: -1 Attack Rolls, -1 Perception
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamem.../conditions/#Dazzled

[Language unknown: "Se." ] Morin replied to the talkative machine as he avoided it's blows.  [Language unknown: "The notichure el ent resmi iouillain.  An day, Olng enul onsevenceion seitwa lin reetof, mo, ntiortwhetho di!  Whi osouio venoneles-astles voroureau no wildereraant pa wit haoul prssil whard."]

Hiding behind his shield from the robot's grasping claws, Morin loudly hocked up a loogie before spitting it on the floor.  [Language unknown: "Ticha?  Waai ticwhever stomheho alaick as!"]

OOC:
STANDARD: Full Defense action.  +4 to AC
MOVE    : Taunt machine, spit on floor.
FREE    : Maintain Inspire Courage.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:54, Mon 12 Dec 2022.

"Ready now."  Zorden warned the formerly captive woman as he raised his gun to take aim at the flying robot.

He waited for her to do whatever she was going to do before pulling the trigger.


Zorden rolled 16,14.  Attack (point blank, into melee, dazed, inspire courage), (potential) Damage.

Ionaya, please go ahead and roll or calculate the adder for whatever the ability you were planning on using does.

Edit: Zorden rolled 1 >.<  Thunderstaff
This message was last edited by the player at 03:44, Tue 13 Dec 2022.

Ionaya frowns at their target and crackles of electricity flow down her arm to her fingertips, which seemingly caress the barrel of Zorden's gun with power. “May your shot carry with it true thunder!” she chants.

OOC
Thunderstaff adding +1d6 electrical damage to Zoden's attack

Cain waits to get a clear shot at the robot before he fires another tangleshot arrow at it, hoping to bring it down.

I'm guessing that Synn will want to move to again flank with Cael, so I'll wait for that before attacking.
08:55, Today: Cain rolled 20 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 19.  Tangleshot.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:02, Wed 14 Dec 2022.

With a touch from the former damsel in distress, lightning begins to course over the length of the tiefling's musket and soon leaps from the end of the musket, following another lead bullet in another flash of thunder, fire, and smoke as Zorden fires once again. The force of the shot knocks the flying robot back(-4 HP) slightly before it is able to adjust its strange wings to compensate, and the enemy soon turns its cold, blue gaze at the gunslinger.

Before it can act, however, Synn puts herself between the robot and Zorden as she continues to try to aid Cael in taking it down. She is unable to time her attacks to help the barbarian, but her movement distracts the enemy just the same.

With a clear shot, Cain fires another specialty arrow and covers the robot with another dose of sticky, quick-drying resin, but again the machine's strange wings muscle through the impediment and keep it hovering head-high.

Cael strikes out again at the machine, Synn lending just enough distraction for the barbarian to find an opening despite a sloppy swing and clobber the strange enemy once again(-5 HP).

With Morin putting up his defenses and Cael pounding on it with the constant aid of others, the at least somewhat intelligent robot continues to search for an accomplice it can keep from aiding the mutated barbarian. It turns its attention to Synn, the distraction, and spins around her as it snaps out with its claws as it demands, [Language unknown: "Llprwe a are ntitinsetoerwas k ome inpotessat!"] ... attacks which the strange, quiet pistoleer is easily able to dodge.

[Private to GM: Entangled(4)]Dazzled: -1 Attack Rolls, -1 Perception
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamem.../conditions/#Dazzled

Zorden ducked and shuffled out of the machine's reach as he began reloading again.

Taking a 5' step into the space between Morin and Ionaya.

Reloading.

"That is one tough bastard." Cain fires yet another arrow at the flying machine.

Again tangleshot.
21:46, Today: Cain rolled 8 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 7.  Tangleshot.

Bah. I thought about setting up flanking for Cael, but per rules I don't think I would be able to Aid him in his attack as he is not at this moment engaged. Should have done it all the same.

"Eh." Morin shrugged.  "It's tough the way a rock is tough.  Lotta work to break it in half, but not really dangerous unless you let it roll into you."

Moving forwards, Morin slapped weakly at the metal beast, in the hopes of irritating and distracting it while Cael knocked it apart.  Seemingly dismissing the flying metal robot as a threat, he took a moment to casually address the strange woman with the white hair.  "So what's your story?  You with one of the other expeditions?"

FREE: 5' step south, maintain inspire courage
STANDARD: Aid another for Cael's next attack.  Fail with nat 1.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:17, Sat 17 Dec 2022.

“I am Ionaya.” she said while quickly looking around the room for something, “When these metal monsters are felled, I will tell all my story.” she finished.

After quickly determining she wasn't seeing what she was looking for, she focuses again on aiding the next shot from the tiefling's weapon with her lightening magic.

She again calls to Zorden, “Again, I will add the storm's power to your weapon when you are ready.”

OOC
Ionaya rolled 9 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 4.  Perception roll.

She again prepares to use Thunderstaff with Zorden's firearm

Morin seems to have spoken the truth of it, as even though both he and Cain fail in their attempts to further hinder the metal monster, so to does it continue to fail in its attempts, now turned on Cain, to injure any of the party. It's voice begins to echo once again from deep within it, likely to issue another command to the group of invaders and criminals, but is interrupted by yet another powerful strike from the warped barbarian. Despite the incredibly strong make of its body it is visibly straining to continue its assault in the face of Cael's relentless blows.

[Private to GM: Entangled(3)]Dazzled: -1 Attack Rolls, -1 Perception
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamem.../conditions/#Dazzled
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:31, Thu 22 Dec 2022.

Cain dodges the machine's attack and then backs away to fire his arrow in return. "Just die already!"

5' step down and fire tangleshot again.
13:32, Today: Cain rolled 18 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 17.  Tangleshot.

Down to my last tangleshot arrow now.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:05, Thu 22 Dec 2022.

Cael moved to the flying device, and swung,  but did not enjoy the same accuracy he had with the other metal monster.

Move Forward 1 and down one, or 1 diagonal down and to the right if you'd prefer, same space.

08:28, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 16 using 2d6+9 with rolls of 2,5.  Greatsword Damage w/ Mutagen.
08:28, Today: Cael, The Whirlwind rolled 14 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 5.  Greatsword Attack w/ Mutagen.

"Ready."  Zorden informed Ionaya.

He waited for her to do her thing again, then fired at the machine.

Zorden rolled 8,8,4.  Attack (point blank, into melee, dazed, inspire courage), (potential) Damage, (potential) TS Damage

Having finally run down his reserves of both magical spells and magical entertainment, Morin was reduced to slapping feebly at the glitching machine while the others did the work of dismantling it.  [Language unknown: "Llthi saest, ss onslinoun papo!  Ckhone ardbleugh ol utyin trli usllpe."]

FREE: 5' step south.
STANDARD:Aid another for cael's next attack.  Fails with a 2.
Inspire courage ends because I'm out of rounds.

OOC:I'm doing my part by attracting the low rolls!
11:01, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 2 using 1d20 with rolls of 2.  aid another cael.

In reply to Zorden (msg # 244):

Ionaya again sends crackles of electricity flow down her arm to her fingertips, which seemingly caress the barrel of Zorden's gun with power.

OOC
Thunderstaff adding +1d6 electrical damage to Zoden's attack
Ionaya rolled 5 using 1d6 with rolls of 5.  Thunderstaff.

Zorden's empowered musket shot goes wide and Morin's bare hand can't quite reach the flying robot, but Cain's alchemical arrow finally manages to hit its mark despite the enemy's attempt to maneuver out of the way. The arrow flies directly into one of the metal beast's strange, spinning wings and its gummy contents seep into its inner workings--dragging the wing to a stop, unbalancing the robot, and causing it to tumble to the ground. Taking advantage of the sudden high ground, Cael brings his heavy blade down on the flightless bot(-6 HP). The enemy concentrates and with some grinding and clanking forces its wing to power through the sticky resin, but as it begins to rise and take flight once again, another opportune blow from Cael knocks the construct to the ground once more ... this time lifeless.
500 XP for defeating drones.
...
With the immediate threats ended and the blaring alarms subsided, the party can finally catch their breaths and take stock of the room. The arms suspended above the bed which held Ionaya still move and twitch, but they seem limited in their ability to reach beyond the bed. Spread across the various desktops are vials of unknown liquids--some which seem move unnaturally when disturbed--and samples of fresh blood. A search through various lockers and cases reveals clear sacks containing more unknown, unlabeled, and variously colored liquids, more blood likely collected from Ionaya, and a backpack containing an assortment of alchemical items, potions, and scrolls--Ionaya's gear. A search of the downed enemies reveals nothing quite as readily usable as the nets found in the metal man on the other side of the desert, but the blue contents of the white ones' claws could be harvested--at some risk. The screens mounted on the various desks display complex and detailed depictions of what must be the vascular and neural inner-workings of a woman ... and a man.

"Finally. I was starting to think this thing would never die." Cain kicks at the fallen machine, then winces in pain as he hurts his toes on its metal shell. "Dammit all."

He then remembers the woman they found here. "Ionaya, right? I am guessing you were part of an earlier expedition. Do you have any idea on what happened to Khonnir?"

While Cain tried to get some answers out of their new acquaintance, Morin busied himself trying to identify the strange substances lining the shelves and inside the dead robot...nurses?  Known or unknown, it would probably be worth scooping them up and bringing them back to Sanvil Trett.


OOC: Using detect magic to tell if any of the substances are magical, and doing his best to make sense of, well, any of the weird liquids.
15:14, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 13 using 1d20+7 with rolls of 6.  knowledge engineering.

Most of the collected blood seems to have a very faint magical aura, although a few samples do not. Many of the colorful stored liquids are unknown to Morin, but fairly mundane--Synn(the only group member with any knowledge of Healing) and Zorden(the only group member with any Wisdom) identify them as likely antiseptic or medicinal in nature. The liquids which seem to move unnaturally, after some consideration of rumors he's heard of such ruins, Morin surmises must be Nanites ... a kind of liquid swarm hivemind. The blue liquid within the robots' claws seem to be made of nanites as well, and anesthetic in nature--actively sapping the victim's strength. (Injury, DC 11 Fort Save, -2 Strength Penalty for 1 hour.) By Morin's estimate it would be risky but manageable to harvest this anesthetic. (DC 17 Disable Device to harvest, failure by 5 or more means exposure, another DC 17 Knowledge(Engineering) to preserve the anesthetic beyond 24 hours.)
Group 0 Map Updated(*Sigh* ... ignore the robot.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:43, Sat 24 Dec 2022.

Zorden took a few minutes once it was clear the danger had passed to check and reload his temperamental weapon.

He then helped search and gather the various elixers and potions that were stored in the room.  They were all valuable, probably, to the right person.  Though each such treasure brought out was more danger that word might get back to the League and bring them looking to take over Torch and gather the contents of this place for themselves, and damn the people of the town.

As he waits for an answer, Cain helps Morin extract the poison from the destroyed machines.

Two robots, two rolls, right?
12:15, Today: Cain rolled 29 using 1d20+12 with rolls of 17.  Disable Device.
12:16, Today: Cain rolled 21 using 1d20+12 with rolls of 9.  Disable Device.

Cain gets to work, making use of his e-picks to carefully remove the metal shells of their fallen attackers, bypass the many mechanisms which seem to allow a surgical level of articulation of their fingers and claws, and open up access through the metal housings of the blue liquids to expose a thick, skin-like membrane on the ends of the clear containers. Making use of stoppered vials and syringes scrounged from the containers within the room, the scoundrel manages to collect and store, for the moment, a good four samples of the blue liquid in a process which takes twenty minutes.

Twenty minutes is a lot, enough for Mutagen to wear off, so if there's anything anyone wants to do in the meantime, that is an option.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:48, Mon 26 Dec 2022.

Examining the clear vials full of nanite anesthetic, Morin rubbed his chin.  "From what I've heard, this nanite stuff breaks down pretty fast once it's exposed to the air.  I think it's supposed to be, like, a safety measure?  If the nanobots didn't die off, then there's a risk of them reproducing out of control, breaking down everything they encounter to build more nanites until the whole world disintegrates into grey goo!  Or blue goo in this case, I guess." He didn't seem particularly concerned about the potentially apocalyptic consequences of messing with nanites, but the other members of the Canaries were probably used to the tiny bard's lack of concern with his own safety.

Lighting a torch, he held the flame carefully under the vials to heat them up.  "Supposedly, the trick to keeping them alive is to sterilize their container with heat.  Not TOO much heat, though, or THAT will kill the nanites.  So it takes a steady hand..."

OOC: Improvising a bit in my explanation about how to preserve the nanites.
22:04, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 15,18 using d20+8,d20+8 with rolls of 7,10.  knowledge engineering (if I can't take 10).

With her almost ethereal voice and manner, Ionaya replied to the half-elf's question. “You guessed correctly. Upon his request, I joined a group including Khonnir Baine, a rogue named Gerrol Sonder, a cleric of Brigh, and a mercenary fighter. I eventually came to understand that this was not the first expedition that Baine had brought here. Anyway, we defeated a number of foes including some huge 4 armed skeletons, an incredibly powerful zombie, and an entire room filled with Russet Mold. It was only after successful battles with other such mechanical monsters that we found ourselves surrounded by several at the same time. Gerrol showed his cowardice and fled before our last battle, and after we were defeated I saw the mechanicals cut the mercenary apart slowly before I fell into the darkness. I never saw what happened to Khonnir Baine or our cleric.”
This message was last edited by the player at 00:58, Mon 30 Jan 2023.

"Did the zombie have four arms?"  Zorden asked looking up from what he was doing.

"And how defeated was it?  We ran into a four armed undead zombie type thing as well.  Which makes me wonder if there was multiple of them, and potentially more, or if it has a way of not staying permanently dead."

Cain listens to Ionaya's story intently. "Hmm. I believe we went through the room where you fought, and we found no bodies at all there, just a trail of blood leading us here. Maybe Khonnir and the cleric were forced to retreat deeper in this maze? Maybe. But at least we know we are on the right track now. We should look around this place some more."

OCC: Are we all good with doing some more exploring then? I'd suggest we start with the room to the NE, but first let's lock the other doors in this corridor if we have not done so already.

Morin nodded.  "I'm fine with poking around a bit more, but I should mention I'm COMPLETELY out of magic right now.  I mean, not quite completely: I can still cast resistance!  Plus, I've still got my lasso, and I really think I might be getting the hang of it."

He tapped Cael with the wand of healing, closing up some of the berserker's recent wounds.

"I, uh, also should mention that we left the door to Mr Tentacle's room wide open.  He has a completely clear path from where we met him to the entrance, so we might run into him on the way back if he gets up the nerve to go exploring."

19:06, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 2 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 1.  clw cael.

"Ugh, don't remind me about that thing. Maybe we'll get lucky and it will stay there."

"We're going to have to explore a bit anyway since we can't go back the way we came.  Probably should also make sure any doors outside this room are locked, just in case."  Zorden commented.

He got to his feet and looked at the others.  "Ready then?"

"Right, plenty of time to rest in the grave." Once everyone is ready and other doors are locked, Cain approaches the door to the northwest. After checking it for surprises, he draws his sword and opens the door.

13:21, Today: Cain rolled 27 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 18.  Perception.

After quietly moving to lock the southern door shut, Cain, Morin, and Zorden head to the door on the north side of the hallway to their west. Cain finds no signs of traps of hazards, not that he knows what one might look like on these strange doors, and hears no activity on the other side. Cautious and ready to face down another robotic assault, the party unlocks and opens the door ... only to be thankfully disappointed by what looks to be a boring room--if you put aside all the strange, metal artifacts, glowing buttons, and unnatural lights.

Two circular metal tables and several chairs fill the bulk of this room. Metal cabinets sit against the walls, while to the north stands a large machine with red-glowing panels on its surface. As the door opens dry oppressively hot air seems to come crashing through, but aside from a feeling of stuffiness and the need to sweat under any clothing the room seems harmless. Searching about it is quickly evident that the heat of the room seems to be radiating from the red-glowing discs set with the machine on the north wall. A search of the wall cabinets uncovers a large assortment(120) of strong but malleable cylinders containing some kind of paste with twist-caps on one end and in a fantastic array of colors. Morin recognizes them as 'goo tubes'--a kind of preserved ration often found in Numerian ruins. He has heard they often taste pretty good, but the Androffan words on each container seem to be nouns which he has no knowledge of.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equip...gical-gear/#Goo_Tube

Zorden kept his distance from the somewhat oppressive heat being generated by the red circles.

He worked with the others to go through the cabinets and other storage in the room and stacked the portion of the strange tubes that he found on one of the tables.

They seemed to be worth taking but he had no idea what they were.

Cain sniffs at the strange paste suspiciously. "Could be worth something, I guess?"

OOC: Sure, let's loot the place. Should we try the door to the south? Could be a similar room with more loot. Or something trying to kill us.

In reply to Dungeon Master (msg # 262):

After two complete examinations of the contents of her rather complex backpack, the tall and slender woman with pale skin and white hair, looked up and around. Noting her immediate company she turned to the other woman who almost seemed to be a negative reflection of herself. “I am Ionaya, child of the Winds and Storm.” she said with a slight curtsy which caused her hair to flow as if in an ethereal breeze, “What would you tell me about you and your companions?” she asked Synn Mescara.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:08, Mon 09 Jan 2023.

"Aw yeah, it's worth something!"  Morin exclaimed, grabbing one of the brightly coloured containers and looking it over.  "One of these little tubes will feed a full-grown human for a day, and they never ever go bad.  Supposedly pretty tasty, too, as long as you can get over the texture."  He held the strange foodstuff up to the light and examined the label.  "Does that say..."zeeble root?" Worth a shot, I guess."

As he unscrewed the cap, the gnome chuckled.  "It's ironic.  That scaredy-cat fungus was so hungry, and all he had to do was walk next door to find four months worth of food.  Maybe if we gave him these goo-tubes, he'd...nah, fuck 'em."  Putting the end of the tube up to his mouth, Morin squirted a glob of brightly colored slime onto his tongue.

"So...onto the next door?  The one to the south?"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:00, Tue 10 Jan 2023.

Morin's 'zeeble root' extrudes a soft paste of ribboned pale orange and eggshell white with soft, dark green flecks mixed through. The taste reminds him of something like roasted snozzberry with an almost boggard-leg-like twinge of spice. The strange taste profile is so shocking and unfamiliar as to be almost immediately repulsive, but as the shock passes and the flavor sits on his tongue he finds it grows quite tasty. Unfortunately it is also very filling and the bard knows he'd soon grow robust if he were to eat as much as he'd like.

"We can't go back the way we came, so we can either go one way or the other.  It might be good to see where that metal guard came from in case there's significantly more of them waiting for another alarm."  Zorden suggested.

Cain wrinkles his nose. "Call me crazy, but I prefer my food to be made of... well, food. But at least we can sell this stuff."

"As to where to next, maybe the door opposite to this room? Or the one leading west? We need to find a new way out of here, the quicker the better. And if that tentacled bastard is already roaming around, I'd rather run into him now, than later when we are exhausted or wounded."

Cain is good for continuing exploration for now, preferably starting with the other door in this corridor. But I do think we should make securing a way out of here a priority before going much further.

"Zeeble root is good, probably!" Morin replied, putting the cap back on the tube.  "As for finding a way out..."

He gestured everyone to come closer, and lowered his voice. "I think that other door right there goes back to the corridor we came in. I say we sneak out and take a peek into Tentacles' room.  If he's still there, we lock him in.  If not...well, at least we can search the room."

"After that, I gotta agree with Zed.  Those robots came from somewhere, and I want to see where."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:38, Tue 10 Jan 2023.

"Secure the exit first, then look around? Hmm, I can agree with that. But we seem to be a bit short on manpower here." Cain exits the room and shouts down the corridor. "Hey! Are the rest of you coming or what?"

Just to clarify, Morin proposes we go north-east, sneak in through the doors to the blood-trail corridor and lock the creature in its room?

The problem I see is that the creature could have followed the blood trail outside to feed on the blood. In that case we might be better off locking the entire bloody corridor instead. Assuming we have not done so already. I am not sure when, but at some point we did start locking all doors behind us, didn't we?

"I don't know ... I just got here." Synn answers Ionaya as she leans against a desk, still gathering her nerves after being attacked by the near-invulnerable robot. She realizes she's been rude and introduces herself, "I'm Synn, and this"--she gestures to the barbarian still with them in the room--"is Cael. We just joined up and met the others a bit ago, and each other just before that." The dark-haired woman reaches out a hand to shake, but in the process seems to realize they're too far apart and she doesn't really want to touch anyone right now and transitions into an awkward half-wave. She shakes her head and adds, "This ... is a bit more than I signed up for." Realization of her audience visibly dawns on her and she quickly adds, "I can't imagine what you must have gone through." A moment of silence hangs in the air as she tries to regain her composure and eventually she finishes the introductions, "The halfling is called Morin, the tiefling is Zorden, and Cain is the half-elf. I think he knows Khonnir." When Cain calls back for them, Synn grimaces and looks to Cael ... she's not running into any more robots without him in front of her.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:00, Wed 11 Jan 2023.

In reply to Synn Mescara (msg # 272):

Ionaya waves back as she speaks, “So you are Synn, he is Cael. The others are Morin, Zorden, and Cain. Thank you,
I will remember you all. Would you like another weapon you could use against the machines? I brought some things I'm
willing to share with you and the rest.” she offered.

After the call from Cain she added, "Well let's talk about it as we go." she smiled at Cael as they moved to join the others.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:55, Mon 30 Jan 2023.

As Cael and the others joined the rest of the party, Morin raised a finger to his lips before opening the door and locking it open.  Sneaking up towards the bloody hallway as quietly as he can, the tiny bard kept his eyes and ears open for the mysterious fungus monster.

15:43, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 9 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 5.  perception.
15:42, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 17 using 1d20+11 with rolls of 6.  Stealth

Cain is not crazy about this plan, but he can't think of anything better himself. "Be careful." He stays by the door with his weapon ready, hoping that Morin can stay unnoticed.

Staying in the room we just ransacked. Could Cain use Aid Another to give Morin a bonus to his skill roll? He has +10 to his skill, so I don't even need to roll for that. Not sure how I would justify this in game though.

As the others join with Cain, Morin, and Zorden they find Cain standing in a smaller doorway on the other end of the room and Morin carefully sneaking off to the north. Unfortunately these doors are quite good and muffling sound and the halfling must risk opening it blindly while standing as far back as he can manage with his short arms. When the door opens with the usual hydraulic hiss, Morin finds the hallway much as it was before ... except missing the tell-tale streaks of blood left as Khonnir's party had be dragged away. A careful peak closer to the opening of the doorway reveals the door to the east, left locked open by Cain still standing agape, and to the west the familiar mound of fungus is busy flopping from side to side as it laps up blood from the floor with a long, slimy, green tongue. Whether it is the opening door that gives the halfling away or something else, the creature pauses and perks up slightly before turning towards the opened door. [Private to Morin Matzylford: "Look friend, more red food!"]
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:07, Tue 17 Jan 2023.

 Cael joins the other two in the Hallway, trying to stay relatively quiet, but being prepared to fight again, should anything go wrong. Unfortunately, his mutagen had worn off and he was back to normal, but it did it's job and he was over the fatigue that comes with the transformation as well.

"...Yeah."  Morin responded, a little hesitantly.  Staying in the doorway, he put a hand out to stop the automatic door from closing while he talked to Mr Tentacles again. "Told you there was plenty of food if you just left your little hidey hole."  The gnome's tone wasn't unfriendly, exactly, but it was a bit more distant than his earlier excitement at meeting the fungus monster.

"Have you calmed down since we left you?  Or are you gonna mind-blast me again?"

Morin continues to speak with the creature down the hallway. [Private to Morin Matzylford: The mound of toothy fungus pauses for a moment at Morin's question, a slight feeling of guilt seeming to permeate their mind's connection, before it moves on and communicates an excited pride as it cleans some blood from a tentacle with its tongue, "You left the door open, and I watched and nothing looked dangerous, so I left and now have more food!"]

Zorden kept his eyes on Cain, who he presumed was keeping his eyes on Morin.  He moved closer to the doorway behind Cael, just in case.

"Morin..." Cain says in exasperation at another attempt at diplomacy with a man-eating monster. He follows after the gnome, ready to pull him back and close the doors himself if Morin is somehow disabled by the tentacle creature. Who knows what kind of abilities it has that they have not seen yet.

Move one square left, two up, behind Morin.

As Cain moved up behind him, Morin gave the half-elf an embarrassed shrug.  I know, I know, his expression said.  But the fungus beast had never actually hurt anyone.  All it had done was lick up some spilled blood and scream at the party a little.  Morin understood that the others didn't want it lurking around and blocking their escape route.  He didn't want that either, to be honest.  But if there was a way to deal with the situation that didn't involve getting into yet another life-and-death battle, wasn't that best for everyone?

"I'm proud of you, buddy."  He replied, turning back to the fungus creature  "You've made your first steps out into the world.  Think you're ready for the next step?  Like I said before, there's some skulks not too far from here that are about to make a trip back home to the Underdark.  They're short on manpower right now, and you could use someone to help show you how the world works.  We're going to head back there in a bit.  When we do, would you be willing to come with us and meet them?"

Morin gave it maybe a 50/50 chance that an alliance between a bunch of murderous cave-freaks and a flesh eating monster would end up with one or both groups dead, but that wasn't really his problem.  As long as he could convince them to get along long enough to send them all back down the hole into the Underdark, he could walk away with a clear conscience.  Plus, as he would try to sell it to the rest of the party, it meant one less fight they would have to risk in their quest to rescue Khonnir Baine.

"Morin!" Now a tone of aggravation entered Cain's voice. This was not part of the plan at all. The skulks have not turned on them yet, and Cain started to doubt they would at all. Throwing them as food to this monster - which is what Cain thinks Morin is planning - was wrong. But more importantly, even if the skulks were planning to attack them, they were hardly a threat compared to this thing. And now Morin proposed to lead it to the caves, where they would have to pass at least a couple more time through, and from where it may even find its way to the town.

Yeah, sorry Morin, but Cain would have serious reservations about this idea. This thing eats people, that's what it does. Bringing it to the skulks would likely lead to an immediate fight between the skulks on one side and the monster and us on the other, because it eats people. And that would certainly end up with the skulks getting killed and eaten. Ethical issues of betraying our deal with the skulks aside, Mr. DC 17 Will Save here is a far greater threat to us than the skulks could ever be. Cain does not want this thing roaming around, eating and getting even stronger. Let's lock it inside this corridor, put up a "DO NOT OPEN" signs on the doors and be done with it. Maybe we can come back later when we have a level or two more under our belts and finish it off for good.

"Excuse me a sec." Morin said to the creature, closing and locking the door before turning back to Cain.

"What's up?" He asked the half-elf innocently.

Cain looks at him suspiciously. "Never mind. What do you say we go lock the other doors before it gets out of that corridor?

As Cain and Morin speak, the brown-glowing panel of the locked door beeps disapprovingly and briefly blinks out before reigniting. Their fungal friend is learning to open doors--at least ones Morin hasn't locked.

Synn, always a quiet one, holds back for a time as the others discuss how to deal with the strange creature but eventually speaks up, "It's like a child with a loaded pistol ... it doesn't know anything about the world or understand how dangerous it is, starved for interaction and lashing out when we left it alone." She pauses for a moment and shrugs as she admits, "And it eats people." She purses her lips and shakes her head as she considers all the bad options for another moment before she suggests, "We can't just kill it for being a child. And locking it up to starve, alone, isn't any better."

Morin nodded, glad to hear a little agreement.  "It likes human flesh, yeah, and that's not great. But it's never actually hurt anyone yet.  And if I was locked up without any other food, I might consider licking up some blood, myself."  His tone was apologetic and slightly defensive, clearly aware he was imposing on the rest of the Canaries with what he was doing.

"If it does something silly and we have to kill it, that's one thing.  But locking it up to die of slow starvation...seems a little ruthless, don't you think?"  Taking a deep breath, Morin turned back to the door.  "Just...stay frosty, everyone.  Maybe it'll all work out."

Swiping his keycard to unlock the door, he palmed it open again.  With his best friendly smile, he continued talking to the fungus monster as if nothing had happened.  "Sorry about that.  What do you think of my idea?"

Cain just shakes his head as he backs away before Morin opens the doors.

Backing away a bit.

As the door once again slides up and into the ceiling it reveals the mound of mold, teeth, and tentacles sitting in the opening, reaching one tentacle up to fiddle with the door's panel on the other side. "Oh, hello," it thinks to the group gathered on the other side, "You go away ... but you're not gone." It's thoughts stay quiet for a time, its outer membranes seeming to flex as its reasoning turns inward. As intelligent as it seems to be, it seems to still be grappling the with idea that there are existences beyond its perception and without its presence. The shared thoughts return as it repeats Morin's claims, "There are places not here, with others, and with food? Is it safe? When you left, outside sounded loud and angry"--memories of the muffled sounds of combat, explosions, gunshots, and alarms carry though your connected minds.

Before Morin can answer, Cain interrupts the conversation. "Morin, a word please. If you are dead set on introducing our new... friend to other people, might I suggest we start with those charming plant folk just down the hall from here? I am sure they are far more worthy of that horror. Honor, I mean honor."

Yeah, if we are doing this, Cain would consider unleashing this thing on the pygmies far less ethically dubious than backstabbing the skulks, with whom we already have a working relationship.

From tactical perspective he'd still think it about as wise as trying to fight fire with alchemist's fire, but at least the pygmies' lair might prove an actual challenge compared to the skulks.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:26, Thu 26 Jan 2023.

Zorden continued to hang back, not entering the hall, but keeping eyes on whomever he could see in the hall, who presumably would signal if whatever Morin was up to went south.

"No, man."  Morin replied, his voice taking on an edge that felt out of place on him.  He gave the fungus monster an apologetic look, and raised a finger in a "wait one second" gesture.  (Hopefully whatever psychic mojo let Mr Tentacles understand his words applied to body language too.)  Leaning in towards the half-elf a little, the gnome lowered his voice to respond.

"Look Cain, I get where you're coming from.  But I don't think you get what I'm trying to do.  I'm not trying to trick Mr T into dying, or use him as a weapon or anything like that.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all about pulling that shit when it comes to bad guys.  But far as I can tell, T's an innocent.  He's literally never hurt anyone in his life, which is more than the rest of us can say.  I'm trying to help him."

"And I'm trying to help the skulks too, murdering creeps that they are.  The Underdark is a dangerous, fucked up place, and it holds much worse things than our friend here.  They came to the surface for a reason, and now they're slinking back in disgrace with half their crew dead.  As far as I figure, a team-up raises everyone's chances for a happy ending.  Even if you don't think it'll work...can you let me try?"

Cain gives up. "Alright Morin, let's he how this turns out. However, if you haven't by now, I'd suggest you start thinking on what to do if the skulks take a good look at your fried here and just say no. Because I have no idea what happens then, except that it is likely to end badly for a lot of people."

Do we stop exploring further then and leave for the skulks right away? Or do we keep going like we discussed previously?

Morin nodded in agreement with Cain's warning, relieved at Cain's begrudging go-ahead.  Turning back to the fungus beast, he considered how to respond to it's question.  Somewhat carefully he replied.  "Safety is...safety is a relative term.  Like, if you stayed in your room forever, nothing would hurt you, but you'd eventually starve to death.  So in a way, that room is the least safe place of all, right?  We're talking zero percent survival chance."

"Outside, no matter where you go, you'll have to deal with danger.  Things might try to hurt you, either because they want to eat you, or they're afraid, or...of for whatever reason.  But there's food out there.  There's people.  And no matter how loud or angry things get, you're always going to have a chance to get through it.  That's all I can offer you, I'm afraid.  That's all any of us get.  But it's more than you'll have here."

"May I ask if we are going to look for Khonnir?", Ionaya asked after listening to the conversations.
"I think he might be still alive, much as I was, and we could still save him. I'd like to do that but I'd need your help."

She deftly turns her head and her body follows afterward as she turns to face Cael. "Cael, do you have any words
to add here? Should we move forward and leave this creature behind or should we deal with it one way or another?"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:57, Mon 30 Jan 2023.

The disturbing ball of teeth wipes a tentacles below its mouth as if rubbing a chin in thought--as if it is subliminally siphoning body language from the bipeds--and pushes thoughts into their minds, "You make sense, Morin Matzylford. Being hungry was also scary, the red food may run out, and being alone ... hurts. I will follow you."

Morin nodded.  He would probably have preferred to do a bit more exploring before dealing with the skulks, but trying to leave Mr Tentacles alone for a second time would probably be more trouble than it was worth.  Still, it wasn't like it was a particularly long hike back to the skulks.  They could head there and back, then finish poking around for the rest of Ionaya's party.

"Don't worry," Morin called back to Ionaya reassuringly.  "We'll find Khonnir, one way or another.  We just have to make a quick side-trip, first.  Half an hour there and back, and then we're back on the hunt!"  With that in mind, he began to lead the fungus back along the path through the underground desert and back to the skulks' makeshift camp.

With the rest of the party still unsure about this creature and conflicted about how to proceed, the begrudging consensus seems to be to follow along with Morin and the disturbing monster. Morin takes the lead, fairly confident that they've largely dealt with the threats between them and the skulks, followed closely by the fungus which scoots along the ground rather quickly with the combined effort of several small tentacles on its underside, and then the rest of the party.

They pass west through the curved hallway filled with scorch marks, the wreckage of robots, and pools of blood--the fallout from Khonnir and party's last stand. Ionaya can't help but try to remember who fell in which pool of blood and try to track where they might have been dragged off to and the fungal creature can't help but try to lap up as much of the coagulated red food as he can before they pass. They pass down the small steps and through the closed door which leads into what they now assume must be a kind of lobby for this group of rooms and then through two more closed doors to the west. Then through another hallway and a brief stop to confirm the four-armed zombie they fought is still dead, still lifeless, and still hacked in two.

They pass through another twisting hallway and two more doors, but as they approach the illusory wall something is off. The cave on the other side is much, much warmer than it was when they left it hardly more than an hour before and a red light comes in through the other side. The party proceeds cautiously, wary that something may have compromised their only route out of the Black Hill. After passing through the twisting tunnel the party finds that the large, cool, empty desert shrouded in blackness now rests under open sky. A strange, red sky with grey clouds and a red sun beating down on them, but a sky nonetheless where there should be rock. And it's a hot sun, too. The party can feel the rays on their skin and the sweltering heat immediately begins to summon up sweat. Thankfully, however, the breeze feels nice. The breeze feels nice.