BotRE Sea1/Ep1 'Secrets in the Earth'

Asarasa · July 21, 2021

Fi sniffed at the tiny sorceress, a teasing smirk crossing her face. "Learn to duck faster, and there be less pain for you, Z."

A disgusted look replaced the smirk, the foul stench from the cave assaulted Firanis once more. She blocked on nostril and snorted, then did the same with the other, trying to clear the stink. It didn't do much. Fi eyed the cave mouth suspiciously, then gave a shrug and nodded to her companions.

"Have a care now, things still shifting, can't hear much."

With that and staying low, the young, elongated woman eeled her way into the cave, placing her feet deliberately, testing her footing, making sure the rubble was stable, her steps silent.

Nina · July 22, 2021

With some difficulty they managed to squeeze through remaining opening of the rubble blocked entrance. Even the sinister looking robot , Pattern Spider-626, called ‘Pat’ by its companions, made it through by folding its large legs up around its body and extruding a dozen small, short, yet incredibly strong and nimble tentacles from its belly with which it crawled like a caterpillar into the mine tunnel.

Once inside the air seemed less disgusting, it still smelled like piss, but either they were getting used to it or the air for some reason was better filtered. Half globes made of thick broken glass hung from the ceiling at roughly ten-foot intervals the globes willed with dirt and a local type of Lichen which when watered created a soft green phosphorescent glow. There were rails which had once served as tracks for the mine cars outside, but they had been pulled up and stacked along the walls, the places where they had sat for ages unused still visible in the middle of the shaft.

The mismatched group traveled deeper into the ancient mine until the came to a vertical shaft with a railed and roofed, platform suspended over the shaft. Cables ran from the roof of the platform connected to wheels above it. There was an ancient machine off to the side with a wheel on its side and cables running from it up to the wheels above the platform. The machine gave of a burnt stench that reminded them of tarpits. All of them except Korroth, recognized it as a motor.

Spoiler

Obviously they have come to the elevator which goes to the lower levels of the mine.. the tunnel they are in goes no further so the only way is back or down.

Asarasa · July 26, 2021

Fi nodded sagely at the suspended chamber. It looked a bit different than the ones she'd seen before, but she knew its like.

"I know this. A levitator!" Nose wrinkling at the acrid stench of the machine, Firanis approached cautiously with swaying, sidling, side-to-side gait towards the device. She glanced at the rail, raised a gate, and holding onto the rail, gave the platform a pair of solid thumps with her boots. There was a hollow clang and some rusty squeaks as the platform shook. Fi nodded in satisfaction and glanced back at the others with a grin. "And it still levitates!"

Fi sauntered onto the platform and headed towards the wheel, looking for a button or lever or switch, perhaps a gauge. She hadn't quite figured out reading yet, but green usually meant go and red usually meant stop... when it didn't mean BOOM.

SalmonMax · July 26, 2021

The green sorceress, delayed by having to look into every minecart on the way, caught up with Firanis when she started talking about levitation. With an excited look on her face she scurried over to the machine with the wheel and the rope and sniffed at it, then poked and prodded it, though not actually operating any controls it might have.

It couldn't be removed without breaking it, she decided, and sighed. After all the empty minecarts, or minecarts that just had rocks in them, it was a bit of a letdown. BUT! Even if it couldn't be TAKEN, it could take THEM somewhere!

"We take this," she reported loftily, perching on the platform and banging the end of her staff against the metal. Then, seemingly out of nowhere she shrieked, "SLUG!!!" at the top of her lungs.

Something entered the cave on a whisper of wings, fluttering from minecart to minecart with quick darting swoops. It finally arrived at Aazea and landed on her shoulder; a creature resembling a ferret or weasel with feathered wings. It ran over her arms and head, making her giggle and wriggle, before dropping onto the floor next to her and pace nervously around. Slug preferred when he could see the sky, but she didn't want to leave him too far behind.

Shameless · July 27, 2021

Korroth had followed the others in, bringing up the rear as it were, if they ended up trapped, it would at least be together, and he nodded. "If you know how to make it work, then we'll have to go down, since this tunnel ends." The Barbarian warrior didn't like being in a cave like this, but they had to investigate the lower tunnels to see if any of the captives were still here. There likely were, since it was guarded after all. "No point in turning back now." He watched "Slug" look around furtively, and chuckled. "At least I'm not alone in disliking our surroundings."

Nina · July 30, 2021

The barbarian spoke and Firanis looked at Aazea and then both looked at the buttons, it was then that a shiny metallic tentacle reached between the two and pushed the green button. Pat was pretty sure the two humanoids would have spent the better part of a minute insisting the other start the machine.

As soon as the robot’s appendage had depressed the button, the motor at the edge of the tunnel whined, and coughed then started chugging, white smoke puffing from a cylinder on its side. Then with a jerk the wheel started to turn and the platform they were on began to lower…

Down the platform went, down into deep darkness, their only light a dim bulb that had lit up when the motor had come to life, it gave them a flickering light that they could watch the rock walls pass by. The progress was slow and far from smooth, but surprisingly the air as it grew cooler also lost its heavy chemical smell and almost seemed fresh.

After nearly twenty minutes (Pat the Robot had an internal clock and could keep track of time accurately, even if none of the others even understood what he meant by minutes and hours), the platform came to the bottom and another tunnel. This tunnel was different. The walls were smooth and glossy, still of stone but the texture was unlike any thing the Humanoids had ever seen. This tunnel was well lit by a sort of blueish-white lite which came from a strip that ran down the center of the tunnels ceiling and another in the floor. The tunnel ran straight for about a hundred feet and ended at a huge circle set in the end of the tunnel. The circle was almost as big around as the tunnel was wide and had three small wheels attached to it with strange markings all around the wheels. Right above the wheels there were two thick handles.

Shameless · July 31, 2021

Korroth inspected the tunnel, and looked around. It was unlike anything he'd seen in his travels, and he shook his head. "What is this contraption?" He felt the walls of the tunnel, noting the smoothness. "Has anyone ever seen light like this before?" He was on guard, trying to be careful. Thankfully some who were with him were far more knowledgeable, and he hoped they'd have more answers than he did.

Asarasa · August 1, 2021

"Yes, yes, of course!" Fi boasted, though she hadn't. She skirted up to plug capping the tunnel, contorting herself, head cocked nearly parallel to the ground as she peered at the glyphs encircling the wheel, making humming sounds of interest. They were probably arcane sigils, she'd seem things like them before and they were wholly undecipherable to the lanky young woman. "It's... it's a, door of sorts, or a plug. Maybe alive." She pointed up, then down, at the strips of light. "Fed by these sun strips."

Idly wondering if she might be able to pry a part of those strips from the floor or ceiling - it would be useful to have a piece of solid light to carry around - she turned to attention back to the circular plug. Bracing her feet on the ground, she grasped the pair of thick, U-shaped handles and gave them a pull. Then a push. Nothing. No give, no movement. Obstinate. Fi grunted, then tapped a wheel with the butt of her knife, making ring dully.

"Maybe it's guts are all twisted up, making it stuck. Gonna untwist them, za?" Pressing an ear up against the circle, Fi tugged at the first wheel, listening for any internal organs or mechanisms coming loose.

Spoiler

Int Roll: [5, 1] Result: 1 = success

Agile: The Scavenger rolls with Advantage when testing DEX to avoid damage or effects from traps and magical devices. Also, rolls with Advantage when performing delicate tasks, climbing, hearing sounds, moving silently, understanding written languages and opening locks.

Edited August 1, 2021 by Asarasa

Nina · August 1, 2021

Wheel turned easily at Fi's touch, as if they were greases, not that Fi could see any grease. Then she noticed a very quiet clicking inside as the wheel turned, then a clack, then back to clicking. Fi kept turning and the wheel kept clicking but didn't clack, again. She stopped and noticed that the wheel would go both ways she turned it back wards and again the clicking and suddenly a clack she stopped immediately.

She stood straight and studied the wheel and saw that there was a slight indention on the part of the wheel that joined with the shaft and that where it had stopped the indentation, shaped like a small arrow head, was pointed at one of the squiggles.

Asarasa · August 9, 2021

Fi stared at the squiggle, as if through the sheer intensity of her gaze she could decipher its meaning... Epiphany did not strike her. Still, if true meaning eluded her, the arcane marking the arrow head on the axel of the wheel pointed at seemed to indicate that it relaxed the guts inside the door. The gangly yet graceful young Strange One went to the next wheel, looking for an identical squiggle and another arrow head to line up with it, and then the same on third, listening for the clarion clack.

"No problem, this!" she crowed. "Soon, I will have the metal guts eased and this mechanical sphincter will open, you'll see!"

Spoiler

Int Check for Locks (Advantage as a Scavenger)
!roll 2d20
Asarasa Roll: [10, 4] Result: 4 = Success

Edited August 9, 2021 by Asarasa

SalmonMax · August 10, 2021

Aazea watched Firanis quizzically for a moment as the explorer fiddled with the strange device before them. Though she herself was curious about the device, some experience had taught her that Fi had a certain...way with such things. It was, after all, what made her such a valuable minion! Let no mortal breathe that Aazea was an oppressive micromanaging tyrant! She was a kind and trusting tyrant!

And...maybe a little bit of a bored tyrant? She giggled as Slug whirred around her, wanting to play, but an idea came to her that needed testing. "Shh, stop it Slug," she whispered. "Just a second!"

Then the small green sorceress aimed her staff at the wheels before her and intoned, "By the Old Science and the New, reveal your secrets to me!" The air before her swam with a melange of shapes and images, outlined in translucent green light, as her magic pried into the bewilderingly complex mechanism... It would take some time to decipher, but she figured it would take time regardless for Fi to figure this out at random.

(Detecting Science! Rolled a 2 versus 16. If she maintains this effect for 10 minutes, she identifies what this is and how it works, which is her goal in doing this.)

Shameless · August 10, 2021

Even though Aazea was an ally, a small portion of Korroth's mind itched as she cast her spell. Magic just had that effect for him, and it spoke of how he trusted her that he didn't instinctively reach for the hilt of his sword. He was still ready should something else try to kill them, and on guard, watching back the way they'd come. "The Ancients make some strange contraptions."

Nina · August 11, 2021

Firinis grunted when Aazea did her magic and frowned as she could see the ghost like innards of the three discs the sorceress had conjured. From that moment on it was a race to see who could solve the problem first. Firanis spun the wheels and listened for the right clicks and Aazea twiddle her fingers and the ghost wheels moved letting her see them from all sorts of angles inside and out, gears within gears and sliding parts and all very complicated.

Firanis was on the last wheel listening for the click when Aazea spoke, “I believe that if you turn the wheels a certain number of times they will line up like a key, do it with all three,” there was a loud click from the door at that very moment,” and it will unlock.” Aazea looked at her ghost images and then at Firanis and the door and she frowned, “Like that.”

Korroth stepped up and grasped the two handles and twisted, they moved easily and locked into place. Wit surprisingly little effort Koroth pulled, and the huge door slid straight from the wall for about two paces then sung to the side revealing a short tunnel to a wide open brightly lit space.

The room was large the far walls distant it was filled with all sorts of contraptions none of them had ever seen before (except for Pat, maybe, but he wasn’t talking) the walls were lined with large rectangular columns covered with flashing lights and whirling discs that held some strange flat cord. Theses machines whined and clicked as the discs spun this way and that. Throughout the room there were tables and cages. The cages held the captured humans from the village, they appeared to be asleep. On one of the tables was a body of one of the captives strapped down with half his skull removed and with wire stuck into his exposed brains!

Asarasa · August 14, 2021

Firanis blew Aazea a victorious raspberry as she scooted pass the door, practically on Korroth's heels. "I wi...."

Fi's self-congratulatory voice trailed off as she saw what was on the other side of the massive door. She liked machines, mechanical things and those that operated with caged lightning. She understood far less how machines of meat and bone and blood worked, but this - this! - horrified her. With a disgusted look on her animated, vulpine face, the long-limbed young woman drew her blacksteel blade in a white-knuckled grip.

She slinked cautiously towards the captive on the table, its brain exposed, a wire-snake biting it!

"These mechanical obelisks, are they, are they eating the captives? Feasting on their brains to steal what they know?" Reaching the body on the table, she crouched low to get a closer look at the brain and the snake of wire, fangs sunk deep inside the lobed, grey flesh. Knife held up defensively in case the snake tried to bite her, she frowned. The body, the captive, where they even still alive? Did they yet breathe? "I can fix many things, but a skull of bone is not one!"

Was the snake poisonous? How deep were its fangs? "Shall I try to cut out the wire-snake?" She asked her companions, pale violet eyes more on Pat then the others. "Do you think we are too late to save this person? I don't want to slice up their mindmeat if they still might be able to use it."

Shameless · August 17, 2021

Korroth scowled as he beheld the prisoners, and shook his head. "See if they're alive first. If not, then Cover them, the others don't need to see that when we get them up and bring them out. It won't help any of them."

His hand clenched around the hilt of his sword, and he snorted with disgust. It was scenes like this that made him hate those who generally used magic.

Nina · August 30, 2021

“This one is dead,” spoke the metallic voice of the robot as it moved over to the table to cover the corpse and shield it from everyone else’s view.

The rest of the adventurers went through the vast room looking and the people in the cages. Most had signs of operations to their heads, shaved head, scars, metal plates, and most were drooling and seemed mindless. Only a few seemed to actually be aware of them and those misfortunate souls could only make mewling sounds like wounded animals.

In one corner they found a larger cage with only one occupant. This cage unlike the others which were elevated on legs thus off the floor, was built on the floor and could have house at least ten but there was only one, a girl, crouched in the corner hugging herself but very aware of them her eyes following their every move. She made no sound at all as the approached only seem the draw into a tighter ball in the furthest corner of the cage.

She was dirty and had a full head of bushy wild hair that was also filthy. Her clothing was even in worse shape and consisted of furs and skins. But her eyes were clear and remarkably blue, a color very rare among humans these days.

Shameless · September 8, 2021

Korroth had put away his sword, and approached the cage, moving slowly, and speaking quietly. "None of us are here to harm you. We will set you free." He smiled, and then looked at the lock, and then to Aazea, and Firanis. "Unlock her cage, and step away, we have to show here we mean no harm. She cannot really go anywhere with things as they are, and maybe she can relate some what isn't obvious to us here, tell us who exactly did this, maybe she overheard them say something about what they were trying to do."

He had beheld how most of the others were operated on, and admittedly simply beheading the sorceror behind this was too quick and simple for a death, he'd put thought into how it would go, and had a feeling his comrades were of the same mind on this.

SalmonMax · September 8, 2021

Aazea, who had been examining one of the prisoners' head implants with vaguely grossed-out fascination, glanced over at Korroth. She brightened. Was one still alive??

Hurrying over, she was a little disappointed to see that this prisoner...while still alive...had not had this strange old science put into her head. Not that it was a good thing to have it there! Clearly it was dangerous! But it meant that this one could not answer questions, and that was too bad.

The green-skinned sorcerer poked at the lock, then said, "I can destroy it with my magic! Buuuut...it might kill the girl too. Purple-hair! You can open this with your thief-fingers!"

Asarasa · September 9, 2021

"No thief, me!" Fi protested, scowling down at the diminutive sorcerer. She pointed proudly at herself with a thumb. "A Finder, am I, who, um, finds things. Such as a way out for this girl."

Firanis sheathed her knife and instead pulled out a cloth roll of fine tools. As she approached the cage, her nose wrinkled at the smell of the dirty girl. She plastered on a wide, teeth-baring grin on her face that was meant to be encouraging, but looked more manic or ferocious instead. Captivity, the mere idea of it, was anathema to Firanis, something she would kill to avoid on the instant, die to avoid in later moments.

"Stay still, girl, and me, I'll have you out in two tics and a tok."

Pale indigo eyes - much lighter than the very blue ones of the girl who watched her intently - roved over the cage, looking for the weak points, any locks or latches that would indicated someway of opening it. If they were lacking, or welded shut, more drastic measures - perhaps explosive measures - would be required.

Nina · September 10, 2021

The girl in the cage shook her head, "He is coming." and shrunk back even deeper into the corner if that was possible.

The band outside the cage all looked at one another and even 'Pat' swiveled to face the back wall of the chamber. "Somethings coming."

Then they could all hear it or rather feel it a rhythmic Clank-boom Clank-boom, resounding from behind the wall vibrations through the floor...

Sudden with a resounding mechanical groan the wall split down the middle and the two halves retracted revealing a giant mechanical monster with a bald green skinned humanoid sitting in a transparent bubble where the monsters head should have been

Shameless · September 11, 2021

Korroth turned to the approaching entity, and briefly scowled, before his frown turned into a grim smile. "Good. After seeing all of this, I was already in the mood to smash the hell out of something."

He drew his sword, and prepared for battle.

Exile_Jeane · September 11, 2021

Spoiler

Attempting to Understand the Medical Machines

!roll 1d20

Dice Maiden
BOT
— Today at 1:42 PM
Exile_Jeane Roll: [20] Result: 20

Exile_Jeane — Today at 1:43 PM
lol, the one time I don't want a crit 20.

Nope!