Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

"I'm ready to smite any ambush that comes our way." Asher says, grabbing the door and opening it a smidge so they can scan the other side more easily. They can cut it in a way that whatever's behind is pulverized, later.

[bc56]

Secret Silo

Wow.
That's a lot of robots on the other side of the door. They aren't hiding or anything, but they are filling the passage wall to wall, a barrier of humanoid mechanized ants. "We can take them. They're just drones." Eao readies herself on one side of the door.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

"Let's have some fun, then. Don't miss out!" Asher says, a bit playfully, and slices the door frame, pushing the metal rectangle so that it falls forward, hopefully crushing a few drones that happen to be standing in front of it. Then, he'll stretch out his sword and fire a beam of white-hot divine fire to thin out their numbers further.

[bc56]

Secret Silo

Eao doesn't bother to aim, but simply unloads her weapon into the crowd of robots. Exploding fungus bombs scatter corrosive tendrils of mycelium through the massed ranks of drones. But the machines don't stand idly by. As one, they raise compact, high-tech rifles, and begin firing, a hail of bullets buzzing into the elevator where the angels are standing. Eao ducks to the side into cover, out of sight of the door.

[Zefir]

Spider Cave

Pressing the square patch of tile-less wall causes part of the wall to swing open. It's slow and squeaky, dragging against the floor with rusty wheels set into the bottom.

Beyond the now-open secret door is another corridor. This one isn't as neglected looking as the one Karl has just travelled through, the tiles mostly intact and light strips set into the ceiling giving off orange light, occasionally one flickers. The corridor has four doors on each side, and ends in a staircase heading down. Each of the doors is a heavy steel door with a small barred window near the top, with occasional patches of rust eating through the corrosion-resistant coating each door has been given. The air is still, heavy and thick with the musty smell of sealed rooms unopened for decades. A small spider, obviously mechanical with a large camera making up most of its body, is on the ceiling staring at the entrance Karl and his skeletons are using. As they enter the corridor, it scuttles off towards the staircase at the back.

Spider Cave

Karl waves with his hand as he smells the unsealed rooms. unpleasant as allways. It is just those roomes in front are different. Is it the orange light? Properbly. Most ruins he walked into had torches of fireflies or glooming mushrooms, but neither got Orange lightbars. Well it is good to have some new experience once i a while and the Nexus is still a place with so many wonders. Att least those giant iron snakes they call train are amazing. Karl shakes his head. "Focus"With that he waves the skeletons to cget going. two in the front then him then again two and behind them the last two. When the first pass the first set of doors karl takes a look through the bared windows.

He either hasn't note the kameraspider or has no clue that it is a camera.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Totally Normal Forest]

Quin nods grimly, as they survey the damage and casualties.

"Yes, this is certainly serious.
We need to report on this; I don't think the commanders realized how serious this was, nor the extent of what was done to these poor people."

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

Asher creates a shield of light to block the doorway for Eao's sake, but makes no attempt to take cover. "Keep shooting, I made it so that things can pass through from our end!" He says to her, slashing at them with his angel sword brimming with celestial might. "Hurry, the longer we spend there, the more time they have to wipe the command center!"

[bc56]

Secret Silo

Eao jumps back out of cover and begins firing again. Her weapon is a bit destructive to the metal of the hallway as well as the drones. She doesn't look like she's going to stop anytime soon, and the drones keep coming.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

The drones keep coming. "They're wasting our time! Time to end this!" Asher hollers, and stretches his hand forth. Focusing, he creates a heavy gravitational field in the hallway, aiming to crush the drones under their own weight.

[Murkus]

The Joining House

Blanche isn't terribly used to the ways in which the Frescots seem to regard personal space, nor being such a center of attention. She starts to get a better idea of just why Votsona thought it would be better of them to join and leave early as Kolimi leans over, blinking in surprise and shifting to the side just a tad. "Er, not much of anything, just what I've got on me really," she answers nervously. "Maybe about ten bucks? I didn't think to bring money on a hunt." She glances over for Votsona, hoping for a little bit of support on handling this here, only to notice he's gone with a frown.

[The Joining House]

"A hunt! Oh my." Kolimi says interestedly, leaning away (and thankfully giving Blanche a break) so she can say something in another language to the woman beside her.

"What were you hunting?" Fidella asks, good naturedly, but still very cosy near to Blanche's side. "Are you a hunter? Or are you teaching yourself?"

[bc56]

Secret Silo

Waves of drones are crushed beneath gravity's hand. Not to be outdone, Eao unleashes a blast of light that melts away more of them. When all is said and done, the hallway is quiet and empty.

Ruins of Hevar

The ruined city squats on the plain, tumbledown stone buildings rising out of the mist of a cold morning. An overgrown road, not much more than a carriage track, leads the way inward.
Rumor has it that there's a sphinx here, a creature of riddles. She came here years ago, devouring those who could not answer her riddles, until the city was abandoned. To many, this place is dangerous, but to a scholar, this might provide a unique opportunity to study her in her natural environment.

[Deathkeeper]

[Ruins of Hevar]

Nimrod treks through the brush without issue. He knows how to dress for such excursions, and how to pack. He's being as quiet as possible, but not slowing down completely yet. He hasn't seen any evidence of creatures this far from the center of the city yet, so he's not worried about making too much noise.
He knows that will change soon enough.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

"Yay!" Asher can't help but be happy that the way before them is clear, as he dispels the shield of fire. His hoping his mood will be infectious and make Eao happy as well.

There's still work to be done, however, he hasn't forgotten that! "Let's go, Eao, it's this way!" He gestures, then starts leading the way. "We're closer now."

[bc56]

Ruins of Hevar

The main road splits into three just inside the remnants of the city walls. The largest branch heads straight inward towards a central square, where the remains of large, important buildings lie. To the left, the road passes along ruined artisans' shops. If Nim needs to look for any mundane items, he might find them there. To the right, another road passes along abandoned houses, more intact than the rest of the city. There could be safe places to hide and seek shelter there.

Secret Silo
"We did it!" Eao follows Asher, avoiding tripping over stray fungal tendrils and bits of melted and shattered robots. "Let's hurry!"

[Deathkeeper]

Ruins of Hevar

Nim makes note of the intact buildings, but he is here to study, not scavenge. He heads down the road to the center of town, having packed supplies beforehand.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

Hurry, he does! And he'll continue to hurry until they get to another roadblock.

[bc56]

Ruins of Hevar

The central square is cobbled and dusty. The wreckage of merchants' carts is scattered about. A once-grand marble temple presides over the decay, some of its columns toppled, but mostly still standing, streaked with the dung of birds. Maybe Nim notices the shattered skeletons littering the ground, their bones broken and the marrow sucked out. Maybe he smells the foul tang of rotting meat from nearby, the source hidden beneath some wreckage

Secret Silo

A left, then a right and a right again. They're there. A sealed blast door blocks the angels' way, an obstacle they can easily surmount. Eao simply warps through space to get to the other side, expecting Asher to do the same.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

Asher does do the same, then looks around. "Finally... do your thing, Eao!"

[Deathkeeper]

[Ruins of Hevar]

Nim makes sure that he has his escape plans ready as he moves forward. He does take a moment to check under the wreckage, assuming he can move it fairly quietly. He's starting to feel like he wouldn't mind if maybe one of these citizens left behind a gun or something.

[bc56]

Secret Silo

The command center is a circular room, walls covered in blinking computer monitors. Eao bends down and presses her hand against the tangle of wires leading from one monitor into the wall. "There's an emergency override three doors down that could shut off power to this room. I need you to go disable it before they can stop me. Find the red box, and pull out the third wire. If you pull any other wires, it'll shut me down," she instructs. She begins typing into one of the many keyboards. "Go! Now!"

Ruins of Hevar

The wreckage is a few toppled stones from one of the temple pillars. Crushed beneath them is the mangled corpse of a soldier, a hoplite. His shield is pinned beneath the heavy stones, but his long spear is reachable and in usable condition, if that's weapon enough for Nim's tastes.

[Deathkeeper]

Ruins of Hevar

Nim slides the spear out from under the corpse, holding his breath. He leans it against a piece of debris in full view. It's too long for him to carry easily, and could easily give the creature the wrong impression if he's spotted. But he might need it if he has to make a quick escape, so he leaves it where he can retrieve it easily.
Nim slowly advances on the temple, that being done.

[bc56]

Ruins of Hevar

Nim ascends the steps of the temple. A stench of death wafts from its open doors. A trail of blood crosses the threshold, dried, but unfaded by time. Someone else was here recently, and they were injured. The interior is dark, filled by the jagged shadows of the rubble around the entrance. It won't be easy to see in there.

[Earl of Purple]

Spider Cave

The doors on the left lead to cells, all bare concrete, with no furnishings bar a wide concrete shelf low to the ground. They all have a small drain in the middle, and are mostly empty. The first cell is empty and clean, besides the dust of long abandonment, a light set into the ceiling providing a murky glow. The second is not empty, containing a prisoner. They're lying on the concrete shelf, a humanoid skeleton clad in a loose hospital gown. Written above the crude bed, in long-dried blood, are the words there is no hope here only pain and the skeleton clutches a copper scalpel with an obsidian blade. The third cell is dark, the bulb providing light to the others broken. If Karl provides his own light, or can see in the dark, he'll see another skeleton, this one also originally humanoid, but it has feet where it should have hands and hands where it should have feet. The final cell has been used for storage, and has three brass boxes, an upright vacuum cleaner, and an aluminium folding chair is propped against the wall.

The rooms opposite are surgical theatres, with a bed in the centre fitted with several heavy-duty leather straps surrounded by tables covered in scalpels, probes, bone saws and IV drips. The first surgical room has been destroyed, the straps snapped, the bed toppled and the surgical tools are scattered across the room- along with chunks of bone, shredded plastic surgical gowns and a massive, distorted humanoid skeleton, with thick, gnarled bones, thick claws, a pronounced overbite and a mouth of sharp and pointed teeth slumped in the centre of the room. The second has a human skeleton strapped to the bed, abandoned part way through a procedure- though exactly what that was isn't clear. The next one lacks the bodies of the first two, and the final one has been turned into a small bedroom, the bed covered with new blankets and pillows and one of the tables has had a digital alarm clock placed upon it. There's also three rucksacks piled in the corner, and an umbrella propped up as well.

[Deathkeeper]

Ruins of Hevar

Nim's elven heritage did give him some things, and good vision is one of them. He fights the urge to gag again and manages to keep going.
He has the sinking feeling that he might have bitten off more than he can chew here.

[bc56]

Ruins of Hevar

In the gloom, Nim can perceive the shadowy bulk of a great beast, lying in front of the altar. The sphinx is like a lion with a woman's head, majestic eagle's wings spread out behind her. Or they would be majestic, if one of them didn't have a rusty sword stuck through it, marring the pristine feathers with streaks of dried blood. That looks like it hurts. She's eating something out of what appears to be a large, oddly shaped metal bowl at first glance, but is quickly revealed to be a knight's breastplate. The rest of the unfortunate soul's armor is scattered around where the sphinx lies.

[Deathkeeper]

[Ruins of Hevar]

Nim takes up a spot in the corner and begins taking notes.
Larger than normal lion. Wings, well he would need more light to see what the source animal on those would be.
Notably not the type that bears more humanoid torsos. Probably for the best, they always seemed uncomfortable to him. Maybe if she was he could have asked about that.
Certainly a carnivorous diet. But that's to be expected with the component parts. Hearing, well...he's being very quiet but he'll have to see if he can make it through this without being spotted.

[Purple Eagle]

[Secret Silo]

Asher nods once, then flies off in the direction she indicates in order to find the red box she spoke of.

[bc56]

Ruins of Hevar

The sphinx continues eating her grisly meal. She doesn't seem to have noticed Nim... Yet. It's probably clear from the way she sits that her injured wing pains her, and she might have other injuries as well.

Secret Silo

The override box isn't hard to find. It's bolted to the wall three doors down, right where Eao said it would be. Inside is a large lever labeled "Override" and a thick tangle of wires. Which one is the third? That might be a bit harder to tell. They're all mixed up in there.

[Deathkeeper]

[Ruins of Hevar]

Nim continues with his note-taking, starting to perform a sketch of the creature despite the low-light conditions. Maybe he can observe her behavior after her meal is finished? He has to shift his weight slightly or he'll wear out his legs squatting like this.
The injury is unfortunate but unsurprising. If she were the talkative sort he would offer to help, but considering the state of her previous guests, he can't imagine that would be a good idea.

[bc56]

Ruins of Hevar

It's a few minutes until the sphinx gets up, abandoning her meal, and begins painedly walking towards the door. Of course, she might smell his trail if she gets there, and that wouldn't be good.