IC Lords of Ruin (Spheres PF1)

[CasualViking]

Calben Traser Perception +4|AC 23 (+4 vs giants), Touch 12, FF 22, CMD 15|Fort +6 Ref +4|HP: 77/77 Calben helps strap Salty to the Beast, then picks up the canary and sets off behind Volistad.

[Bansheexero]

The group wanders for a few hours, completely unsure about their direction. Salty starts twitching a bit, with a little spittle bubbling and dripping from his mouth, but it stops just as quickly as it starts. You can at least see him breathing, as it was extremely shallow before.

There are no markers or signs that the group recognizes, they could be anywhere. As they walk along, there is no sound from the canary, unfortunately it seems it died. The group starts to feel sluggish. While they can try to back out, there is no way to safely know where the gas is flowing from. Along one of the walls, the rock seems loose, fairly simply to try to dismantle, a light, cool breeze seems to flow from some of its cracks, though it is unknown if it is the source of the gas or even something worse.

[CasualViking]

Calben Traser Perception +4|AC 23 (+4 vs giants), Touch 12, FF 22, CMD 15|Fort +6 Ref +4|HP: 77/77 "Aha! Izoto, if you would kindly, make us a hole!". The red ooze flowsup to the crack and sets about widening it. Meanwhile, Calben extracts the motionless canary out of the cage. He gingerly feels it's chest for breath, pulse or warmth with his fingertips. Izoto can spend one of his 8 spell points to shape a Medium-sized mass of rock into a new, crude shape with Forge. Or he can take a standard action to do 1d4+3 damage, ignoring hardness, with the Destroy ability of the Creation sphere.

[Athaleon]

"Try it, if we're wrong we're dead either way." Volistad slurred as though drunk, as the gas began to take its toll.

[Bansheexero]

As the ooze reshapes the stone, a passageway is formed, and with it an influx of air, which seems to at least momentarily invigorate the group a bit, possibly thinning the gas from the air.

A narrow hallway is formed from the revealed cavern, but the stone is not as solid as it has been in previous passages. It seems to extend onward past visual range in a mostly straight line.

[Athaleon]

"I'm no dwarf but that doesn't seem natural. Might as well follow it, at least it's some kind of path."

[PotatoGolem]

Agreed. Better than sitting here awaiting death. And the path is clearly different, so we should be able to walk back if need be.

[Bansheexero]

As the group heads deeper, they begin to notice an odd orange-red radiance. It is not the same as the luminescence shed by the various fungi. Rather, it sheds light in an incandescent glow, similar to fire. As you proceed, you notice that it is sheet by odd crystalline deposited in the stones that line the tunnel. They also seem to give off a small, but noticeable amount of heat.

[Bansheexero]

As the hallway opens up into a larger room. However, the floor is loose rock. As you step out into the room, the floor begins to give way, sliding downward, revealing more of the strange glowing stones along the wall.

Spoiler: Reflex Saves

Show

So, saves to halve damage (as far as I know, none of you have evasion, and your acrobatics modifiers were fairly abysmal. Base damage from the rock slide is (4d6)[15]

Reflex saves
Calben and his Ooze, pre-rolled 18 for both
Volistad (1d20+8)[25]
Xerxes (1d20+4)[15]
Beast of Zagog (area is a bit too small for it to fly or to ride it, but if save is successful, it will take no damage as it can take to the air to avoid falling) (1d20+6)[10]

As the dust clears, the stones illuminate what is clearly a man-made room. Its clean angles and smooth floors make Dwarven engineering seem somewhat childish, and its ornate and flowing designs evoke a vibrant, but controlled and clean aesthetic. The floor is primarily a deep indigo, while there are various small, nearly arranged patterns across it etched in what appears to be gold, but something is off about it. As the light hits it directly, it has an odd red shine to it. There is a pristine, perfectly framed doorway further down. Along the sides of it appear to be vertical runes, possibly words, though it is in a language none of you have ever seen.

[PotatoGolem]

Well, that was unpleasant. This is very unusual. Have either of you seen anything like it?

[Athaleon]

Volistad looked sharply in all directions for enemies, even as he got up. When all was quiet, he sagged a little with the pain of the fall but kept his axe at the ready.

"No idea. Doesn't look like anything else I've seen. That there's got to be for some kind of spell," he gestured towards the red-gold runes, "but damned if I know what alphabet that is."

[CasualViking]

Calben Traser Perception +4|AC 23 (+4 vs giants), Touch 12, FF 22, CMD 15|Fort +6 Ref +4|HP: 77/77 Calben studies the runes. He even draws bigger versions in the air to look at, while rubbing his chin sagely. "Nope. No idea", he shrugs, and brushes away the floating copies of the text. "But it's not like we have anywhere better to go". And with that, he steps through.

[Bansheexero]

The next room you enter has a weird energy about it, making it feel like your teeth are humming. There are three doors as you enter, one directly in front of you, and one on either side, but teo are closed, with the doors made of the same off-gold substance that lines the rest of the rooms. The third is only mostly closed, with the door having a gap along the side, apparently they slide side-to-side. In the center of the room is a circular table with a odd crystalline platform in the middle. Along the sides of the table there appear to be numerous buttons, each bearing different runes of the style on the previous doorways.

[Athaleon]

Volistad looked over the buttons briefly, but decided to leave them alone for now. "Unless one of you has a better idea, I'm gonna try to pry that one door open." He gestured towards the slightly open-door and drew his greatsword as though to lever the door open with his weapon.

[CasualViking]

Calben Traser Perception +4|AC 23 (+4 vs giants), Touch 12, FF 22, CMD 15|Fort +6 Ref +4|HP: 77/77 Calben steps up beside the door opening, keeping an eye on it while Volistad does his thing. He gingerly licks the wall to ascertain whether it is in fact rock, or something else.

[PotatoGolem]

Xerxes joins Volistad, trying to pull the door open.

[Bansheexero]

The door slowly slides open, though thankfully, whatever the material the door jam is made of does not make much noise from the friction. As for the walls and such, Calben's "sampling" only seems to determine a thin layer of something akin to clear formica coating them, and not the materials beneath, though it does have a strange sour aftertaste.

The room beyond is dimly lit by a series of odd crystalline canisters, each with an additional crystal contained within that emits a sharp white light. The canisters have metallic ends, which cross through the center and make direct contact with the glowing crystals within. In the center of the room is a stand that has a setting holding a cracked canister, the crystal inside no longer glowing. The light provided shows that the base of the stand is integrated directly into the floor. Finally, one can see slight shadow-like burns on the ground, roughly humanoid in shape.

[Athaleon]

Volistad put two and two together, the best he knew how. "Place has been abandoned a long time, maybe. Long enough for someone else to try looting the place. Guess we shouldn't **** around with those crystals, but then who knows what they do? Gods forbid, we'll have to start ****ing around with something just to get out of here."

[PotatoGolem]

Yes, that looks rather dangerous. Are either of you immune to fire? Calben, can you summon creatures with magic? We could test what triggers them that way.

[CasualViking]

Calben Traser Perception +4|AC 23 (+4 vs giants), Touch 12, FF 22, CMD 15|Fort +6 Ref +4|HP: 77/77 "Summoning something to mess around with these tubes? Sure. Let me try the quick way first". Calben snaps his fingers, and a monochrome golden, mostly featureless copy of himself appears. As the party clears out of the room, Calben starts micromanaging the golden copy, with words and gestures. "Grasp that tube. Try twisting it clockwise, then counterclockwise".

[Athaleon]

"Can you control your copy from outside the room? Maybe we ought to shut the door first, just in case."

[Bansheexero]

As the creature begins to place his hands on the crystal, it crumbles into shards, falling mostly harmlessly, shave for the sharp shards akin to glass, to the floor. Still, it is no longer seated in the apparatus.

[CasualViking]

Calben Traser Perception +4|AC 23 (+4 vs giants), Touch 12, FF 22, CMD 15|Fort +6 Ref +4|HP: 77/77 "Pick up another tube. That one. Carry it to the socket. Put your other hand near the socket". Calben turns to his comrades and grins, gesturing them away from the doorway. He follows his own advice, and scoots into cover. "Now insert the tube into the socket".

Note. The companion is blind when i don't have line of sight to it. Hence the preparations to insert the crystal before I break for cover.

[Bansheexero]

Calben's gilded puppet gingerly places the crystal within the setting without issue. As he does so, the platinum white glow changes to a brilliant gold, which seems to spill into the various runic etchings on the floor, walls, and ceiling, extending into the other room. The runes on the table's buttons glow and in the center, there appears to be a projection of some kind, which appears to be a face. As it boots up, it begins speaking in a strange language that sounds almost like a mix between Elven, Celestial, Infernal, and Draconic, but not any of them. The other doors seem to light up as well, though the door that was pried open remains dislodged from its normal setting.

[Athaleon]

"What's that? Can't make out what you're saying," Volistad said jokingly to the glowing face. "Well, it's done something. But until we can figure out what he's saying, or what these runes mean, I think your golden friend will have to do some more blind tinkering."

[Bansheexero]

As Volistad speaks, the image seems to react. "Trskekl . . . Srxixs . . . Scanning. Linguistic protocol identified. Please state query."

[PotatoGolem]

Well, that is interesting. What are you? What is this place?

[Bansheexero]

"I am a structured consciousness used to operate this facility. The facility itself is a pattern structure fabricator. With proper protocols, it can reshape materials into finished products. With extremely precise protocols, it can reform material on a molecular level in order to replicate more exotic or even artificially designed substances."

[PotatoGolem]

So it's a forge, but one that can remake items as well. What do you mean by needing protocols? Do you have the protocols to make weapons and armor? And how swiftly can it work? This could be a great boon to the king's forces.

[Athaleon]

"Exotic substances? Meaning you can conjure gold, platinum, diamonds out of nothing? How about the parts and instructions to make more machines like yourself?" Volistad's head was spinning as he imagined all sorts of possibilities.