The Wayfinders - The Wreck of the Archon

"It would seem that prior visitors lacked the basics of finesse and stealth," Doral moves forward to examine what kind of weapon may have been used to force the doors.

"Bad for them...but maybe good for us," Whisper says quietly. "It'll save us some trouble following their footsteps."

She looks up and down the hallway and adds, "No signs of combat in here. Whatever happened must have happend through there..." She nods at the double doors hanging slightly open up ahead.

The door frames of the side rooms all show rough scratches and warping around the latches. The thin metal was bent by prybars you'd wager. The side rooms reveal small workshops and machining rooms with a bizarre array of parts lying around. Most of them look untouched except the last room before the double doors. This room looks more like an alchemist or magewrights shop. There are several copper wire cradles on a bench that have been recently disturbed judging by the marks in the dust. Shattered crystalline fragments lie on the floor where one of them were toppled. Someone grabbing supplies hastily could have knocked it over.
Suddenly you hear a distant shout and crash from the room beyond the double doors. Peering through the crack you get the sense of a large room filled with shelves and larger structures. Dimly you can see flashes of light and a strong smell of ozone fills the air. Several voices are calling out alarms just as a loud boom shakes the room.

Midian Rightson, human druie

"So much for quiet," the druid mutters. "Well, since it sounds like trouble in the dark, might as well be able to see in it..."

The surface of Midian's skin ripples, then his form itself becomes semi-transparent as he resumes the water elemental form from the day before. Small bits of ice fall off his shapeless hands, revealing the remaining trace of the water shard's influence.

[sblock=ooc]Wildshaping to water elemental for the darkvision and the cold boost on the slam attacks. I debated taking earth elemental form, but I wasn't sure Midian would be able to earth glide inside the structure, which would have been its main benefit.[/sblock]



[sblock=mini-stats]Full Sheet

Used: Scroll of Water Breathing[/sblock]

Doral states, "I can reconnoiter the chamber ahead, and make an observation upon the danger. I surmise we have competition and that they have run into a spot of trouble."

OOC: If the party is alright with Doral going ahead, he'll stealthily proceed into the next room and try to figure out who is fighting.

Kraken grips the hilt of his falchion and nods.

"Maybe if we leave 'em a bit longer there'll be fewer of them to fight, eh?" he says.

Doral creeps forward into the darkened chamber while Midian peers through the open door trying to monitor his progress. Kraken and Whisper stand ready to rush in to assist.

Doral moves silently forward, his feet gliding over the steel floor in the room while his hands carefully brush the shelves around him to keep from bumping into anything. He stops suddenly feeling something shaped like a body standing at attention. Another brief flash of light reveals the mechanical face of a warforged. The figure seems inert. A few steps farther he finds more and more figures like it. Some are quite large, others are not humanoid in shape. Given the size of the room there could be a hundred of the hulking war machines.As he gets closer to the source of the commotion the words come clearer. Several male and female voices are calling out in alarm. Doral reaches the end of a row and peeks carefully around.

"Look out! Another one!" calls out a man dressed in a heavy leathers and carrying a narrow two handed sword. His blade sweeps around to crash into a mechanical machine about the size of a dwarf with spinning blades for hands.
"I see it, get the damn cover back on would you!" cries a woman with a whip that ends in four strips covered in sharp barbs. She wears no armor, but her outfit is covered with buckles and pouches carrying an array of gear. She lashes it out and pulls one of the legs out from under the machine sending it toppling over.
Two more men struggle with what looks like a golden vase split in the middle. The center is filled with clusters of red, blue, and black crystals like a geode. Light pulses erratically from within. Around them on the shelves are more war machines. Each time the light pulses you can see lights in their eyes flicker.
Two other men and a woman are working on a massive behemoth machine that lies on its back in the middle of the room. It looks larger than the creatures activated by the trap outside on the street level. The woman is standing inside its chest cavity working on something within while two others have pried open the coverings on one of the projectile weapons mounted to its shoulder and are in the process of removing it.
Finally, an eighth man sits on the floor with a makeshift crutch holding a light repeating crossbow and keeping a lookout.
Several destroyed war machines already litter the floor from previous attacks. Each of the people are carrying magical lights attached to their armor. Their movements cast wild shadows across the interior of the structure. The final thing he notes is that each of them wears a Brelish crest upon the sleeves of their armor.

Doral returns to the group and describes the scene he had witnessed, "I am unsure of what they are attempting. Have we come to the location of the next shard or are we still falling short?"

"We're not there yet," Whisper says. "There should be no mistaking when we are, like the water shard. These people are probably scavenging old weapons and magic from the hulk... Unfortunately, even though we have no direct quarrel with them, they're unlikely to trust us to leave them unmolested. And if they see what we're carrying..."

She shakes her head. "We'd better avoid them, or destroy them, as much as it pains me to say it."

Doral suggests, "Then I believe we should attempt to avoid them and go around. First, I do not like the idea of engaging against someone who has not acted first against us. Second, we would exhaust some of our resources unnecessarily fighting against them. Third, the more sinister part of my mind is reminding me that we have some unknown abomination stalking us in this facility and so these new players would have divert its attention away from us. If we can, let us leave this section and try to find another way down to the location we are searching. If we have to go through their fight, however, I do have a spell that can render all of us invisible."