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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1617486" data-attributes="member: 9626">Confrontation in the Danger RoomAfter a night’s rest, the party woke up, ready to finish their quest.  However, it soon became obvious that Tsine wasn’t feeling in perfect health.  He was chuckling madly to himself, and Galeron immediately put his training as a healer to work.  “He must have caught some sort of disease from that muck we all fell in yesterday.  I can fix it easily enough.”  He channeled the healing power of his goddess into Tsine, and immediately removed the physical effects of the disease.  Unknown to all of them, however, a more powerful, magical strain of the illness had infected him, and it grew ever-stronger despite Tsine showing no further symptoms.The party continued exploring the sewer, but it only takes a few minutes before they reach the end of the last tunnel not blocked by rubble.  Fortunately, there was a ladder leading back to the surface of the base here, and they cautiously climbed it.  They found themselves in another hallway, which was blocked to the south by more rubble, but continued on to the north.  The party prepared to go north, but Fnipper stopped to examine the rubble first.  “Something isn’t right about this,” he said.  “I’ve seen natural cave-ins before, and this isn’t one.  It looks like it was deliberate.”The party looked worried, but Tal looked devastated, since he knew that this meant that either Zuriden was attacked, or he purposely caused this.  He desperately asked, “Maybe it was just a result of the rubble collapsing into this place?  Some of the walls and ceilings are really strong.”Fnipper looked at his friend and sighed.  “Maybe, Tal.  Maybe.”The northern path continued on for another 100 feet, and ended at another door.  However, this one looked different, like it wasn’t built for security.  Fnipper offered to investigate, but Tebryn pushed him aside.  “No, I’ll handle this one.  I’m still annoyed that I couldn’t help more in the last fight.”  Of course, Tebryn was far more interested in not letting Fnipper show him up again, but he obviously didn’t say that.  He neared the door, but before he could investigate it, it suddenly opened automatically!Behind the door, there was a massive room.  It was at least fifty feet wide and just as long, and it was quite tall as well.  The top half of the entire western wall was made of glass or some other transparent substance.  But the floor was even stranger.  Most of it was metal and tiled in five foot squares, but the entire outer perimeter of the room and a line going through and across the middle were made of strange metal strips.  As soon as the door opened, the room changed further, as parts of the floor randomly began to electrify, and the metal strip parts of the floor began to move!The room’s inhabitants looked just as dangerous.  Six little metal insects skittered about on the floor.  Three were made of a strange silvery metal, two were gold, and one looked like it was made of, or at least plated with, platinum.  But the worst of them all was a large vaguely bipedal insect that waited at the far end of the room.  It was brimming with sharp hook arms and metal rotary blades, and electricity crackled along its form.Robin and Tsine were the first to react.  They fired at the giant sheen with arrows and a rain of ice, but both merely helped freeze the creature.  Fnipper then ran into the room, and began to attack the nearest of the silver robot bugs.  However, while he did destroy the first of the tiny robots, he suddenly found the surprisingly quick giant sheen looming over him.  Even with his agility, Fnipper couldn’t avoid the creature’s giant mandible-saw blade, and it gave him a brutal gash to the chest.  Galeron moved up to help Fnipper with some healing magic, but as soon as he finished, the conveyor belt moved him back towards the door.  Tebryn and Tal also remained in the hallway behind the door, and used their magic to further wound the sheen and the gold bugs.  Eager for vengeance, one of the silver horrors skittered up to attack Fnipper, while the other went after Galeron.  However, the gold and platinum bugs stood at the head of the hall, and began to shoot bolts of lightning at the party, who was neatly arranged to get caught by every single bolt!  Suddenly, with a crash, Zuriden burst through the left window.  Tal was overjoyed to see his cousin, but before he could speak, Zuriden looked at the party, and shouted at the sheens in Draconic, “Destroy them all!  We can’t risk being discovered yet!”Shocked at hearing his cousin’s words, Tal stopped paying attention to the rest of the fight.  “Zuriden, wait!  I am your cousin from Methosilang!  Stop this fighting, we can resolve this peacefully.This gave Zuriden pause.  He looked troubled for a moment, but continued.  “No, I’m sorry, but this is too important to let family get in the way.  I won’t let these wonders get destroyed.”  However, he and Tal continued to talk, as Tal desperately tried to find a way to resolve the situation peacefully.As they talked, the fight raged on, though Tal’s conversation with Zuriden mercifully kept the dragon out of the battle.  The giant sheen was eventually brought down by a combination of Tebryn and Tsine’s magic, but not before it could breathe a plasma line into the hallway.  This was enough to convince the rest of the party to take the fight into the room, even if it meant being moved constantly by the conveyor belt, and one wrong move causing electrocution.  A well-placed fireball by Tebryn later was enough to finish off all but one gold, one silver-ish, and the platinum bugs, and Galeron and Fnipper were able to destroy the first two easily enough.  However, it was at this point that Zuriden noticed his allies were being destroyed.  “No, I won’t allow this!” he shouted, and exhaled a blast of concussive force right into the middle of the group.  This was enough to knock Tsine and Tebryn off their feet, and while they still breathed, they were steadily getting weaker.Tal also realized that negotiations had broken down, and yelled to the group, “Take him alive!  We have to learn what’s going on!”  He fired a magical blast that struck the platinum bug, and the rest of the group surrounded the dragon.Zuriden focused on his smallest, and he thought weakest threat.  However, even with all of his draconic might, he couldn’t land a single blow on the nimble gnome, especially since he had used his magical ring to blink in and out of reality constantly.  Robin and Galeron took their friend’s advice, and began to pummel the relatively young dragon with the flats of their blades.  Fnipper wasn’t so merciful, and let his dagger sink perfectly into the dragon’s back time and time again.  However, despite these massive wounds, Zuriden remained standing, but he bowed his head.  “I surrender.  I can’t fight you any longer like this.”Tal led the interrogation.  “Why?  Why did you fake the cave-in, and go into hiding.”Zuriden shook his head sadly.  “You must still be new here.  Since we first discovered these ancient treasures, Facetous and the others have been planning what to do with them.  We could use them to help defeat the dragons and regain our honor, but they would have none of that!  They think that these weapons would unbalance the power structure of the world!  In fact, if the empires were ever defeated, they planned on destroying the entire city to ensure it would never be discovered by anyone else!  You know that giant dragon statue in the middle of town?  Inside of the mouth, there is a MIDAS weapon, which we discovered in our explorations.  We don’t know how it works exactly, but apparently it can destroy everything within a few miles of it when used!  They plan on detonating it if the city is no longer needed or it if is sufficiently threatened.“When I discovered this place, I realized it was the largest find we’ve ever had.  From here, I could have discovered other ruins, and program an army of sheens.  But I knew it would never happen if the elders explored this place first, so I tried to hide as much of it as possible while making them think I was dead.”Tal sighed.  “Honestly, I think I agree with you, but this isn’t the way to do it.  And I’m afraid that we need to return you to your father if we ever want to leave.  Zuriden nodded.  “I understand.  It’s too late for my plan now anyway.  But could you at least do something for me?”“What?”“Don’t tell the others what I have been doing here.  I couldn’t bear to hear their reactions, and I would be forbidden from ever exploring again.”After some debate within the party, Tal replied.  “Agreed.  We hope you can find a way to convince your people to help us.  We need all the help we can get in our fight.”OOC Notes:  Another fight where Fnipper shined, at least when Zuriden began to attack.  Otherwise, this was a very rough one for the party.  Getting bunched together in a hallway is a very bad idea when nearly the entire enemy party has breath weapons!  I purposely had Zuriden wait a few rounds before fighting to avoid a potential TPK.</blockquote>

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