Iron Gods Gameplay

This is a continuation of the Iron Gods Gameplay thread, the original one can be found here.

The group quickly moves into combat against the fungus. Dazja lands a solid blow with her sword before the fungus begins to scream, at which Lyza begins gagging, nausea overcoming her. Narek takes a shot and Dazja swings again before the fungus reaches out and touches Koda, causing him to step back in a daze. A final blow from Dazja brings down the fungus before it can cause any further harm. She looks around at the group. "Is everyone okay?"

"I'm fine, just a bit dazed. We should keep moving...I don't like this place at all. Nothing makes sense here - talking mushrooms and four-armed skeletons and blinky light boxes. We need to find Khonnir and get out of here." Koda says, rubbing his forehead with the palm of his hand.

Koda opens the next door, its a t-shaped hallway with five other exits. "Shit, this place is like a damn maze, lets quickly search these." The first room is a break room, with comfy-ish chairs, metal desks and strange devices on a counter. One of the cabinets has several hundred tubes marked in a strange language. Kendra pulls one out and tells the group that its labeled as "Tasty", she rips it open and gives it a taste.

The next room is a damn bathroom and its useless. Then the party finds a circular room that is empty save for a panel of controls on the wall to the northwest. A coil of tubes dangling from the left side of the panel periodically flashes with sparks, while a single square window on the panel blinks with several lines of strange writing. Kendra says that it lists:
Deck 4: Engineering
Deck 3: Science (This panel is bright blue)
Deck 2: Crew
Deck 1: Docking
WARNING: Elevator off-line-- please contact maintenance! (This panel is blinking aggressively red)
Using her engineering skills Kendra gently pops the panel out of the wall to repair later, dodging an electrical surge in the process.

The group backtracks to the t-room and tries another door. This room is long, with a pair of odd, bedlike tables flanked by curving panels of blinking, pulsing lights. Moving armatures of metal extend out over the beds, each outfitted with glowing panes of glass and strangely glowing tools. The chamber reeks of blood, with great crimson stains splashed across the device, beds, and floor. A single white robot, four legged and with syringes for fingers, is moving erratically, with twitching betraying that of a broken machine. It rushes the group, needle-fingers glistening dangerously in the artificial light.

Luckily the party is full of badasses and they don't get hurt at all, dodging the most terrifying weapons that could be strapped to a malfunctioning robot while shooting, magicking, and smashing it into scrap.

[placeholder where we beat the shit out of a plant monster]

After the monster falls, Dazja turns to the group and wipes some sweat from her brow. "Brigh hasn't given me any more magic. I don't know if I can keep us healthy much longer." She glances over to Koda, who is nursing some injuries. "We're pretty beat up. Should we head back and try again tomorrow? I'd rather not be added to the pile of corpses in here."

After a moment's pause, Narek agrees, "Rather not be added to the pile of corpses. Wherever they are, another day shouldn't harm them too much more, and staying would likely mean us wasting our lives," he says in a flat tone of voice.

"Yeah I've had about enough for today. These freaky plants and goo-monsters are really messing with me, hopefully we can make it back out safely." Koda walks over and retrieves his bladed rings from the floor near the plant monster, then heads back out the door the group entered through.

The group reverses directions and heads back towards the surface, leaving the caverns behind them for the day. Though it seemed like a long journey, it only took about 2 hours and forty five minutes, and when they surface from the Weeping Pond back in Torch, they see Joram patiently waiting there, having laid out a paisley picnic blanket. He gives a broad grin when the group returns, and asks, "any progress? Oh, dear, most of you look to be in bad shape, let me help..." as he offers his hand to pull folks out of the pool.

Koda gratefully accepts the proffered hand, water dripping off his hastily bandaged arms as he struggles out of the pool. "Thanks Joram. It's a real mess of monsters in there." Koda too turns back to the water to help his comrades.

"You'll have to share your stories. Khonnir was almost indecipherable when he came back the first time, and his team was also about as helpful!" Joram enthuses, channeling curative magicks through his hands. "Whenever you're all ready."

"We haven't found Khonnir yet," Dazja says as she starts drying herself off. "It's almost a maze, and it's filled with machines that I barely recognize. We found the body of someone who wasn't from Khonnir's group - Parda, I think her name was? She was close to the entrance."

Kendra emerges from the pool with a flop, and shakes off the excess water before setting herself to the task of slowly drying herself off with a minor spell. Excess moisture eliminated, she exclaims, "Oh it's wonderful in there! All sorts of things that I have never seen before. Skeletons with four arms in the middle of a desert that appears to be there for no reason! A little village full of skulk! And the most marvelous machines with functions that I could only guess at! It was simply marvelous!" When what Dazja had said before finally registers, Kendra coughs and changes to a more reserved tone. "Oh, yes, we did also find some bodies, as Dazja mentioned. Parda Garr and Gerrol Sonder. We'll have to arrange for those two to be buried after we come out the next time."

Joram frowns. "I don't like the chances of Khonnir being alive if those two didn't make it out either. They were hearty and hale, and good friends to us. Torch will miss them," he says, taking a solemn countenance as he gathers up his picnic blanket. "May they find repose."

Narek stands at the edge of the group, only half listening to the conversation, as he glances towards the exit.

Joram takes note of this, and apologizes. "Ah, but I'm sure you all have places to be. If you want healing, or to catch up with me on what's down there, come visit me at the Temple of Brigh. Healing free of charge for the brave souls looking to find Khonnir, naturally."

"Naturally," Narek says with a quick, grateful nod. "Thank you. I very much appreciate the support," he says, then turns and leaves for home.

At a bit of a loss over who to contact for more information on the weird armor the group had found, Kendra heads over to the town hall. She soon sees Dolga, who looks immediately relieved to see her, and then worried. Kendra waves and states, "Hello! We had to turn back to tend some wounds, but everyone is still alive and well. No sign of Khonnir, but we did find a couple of unrelated corpses. Anyway! My main reason for coming here was to see if you knew of anyone who would be able to give me more information about this strange suit of armor we found."

Dolga breathes a sigh of relief that everyone had returned alright, and inspects the suit carefully, and ponders the question before answering, "Ah, I thin' I know who would know about that! There's a trader in town called Sanvil Trett. He's quite versed in the strange devices that folks bring in, an' he should be more than able to help ya figger out what it does." She gives directions to his stall in the merchant's square.

Smiling brightly, Kendra replies, "Thank you so much, Dolga!" The half-elf then quickly turns around to investigate the lead.

Following Dolga's instructions, Kendra wanders through the merchant's square until she think she's found what she's looking for. Walking up to the stall, she asks the man there, "Excuse me? I'm looking for a Sanvil Trett?"

"That'd be yours truly," the man says, giving a wan smile. He's a pleasant looking man, easy on the eyes, with a cut chin and long black hair, some of which is done up in a top knot. He's dressed in a chain shirt, with several pockets and pouches about him. He also wears sturdy adventuring boots with steel plates lining the outside. "Need something looked at? Perhaps interested in some of my wares?" he asks, gesturing broadly to the assortment on the stall in front of him. And indeed, there's a gamut of goods in front of him, including some charged batteries, some syringes full of strangely colored liquids, what we know to be a roll of tape, and a strange device with a port that looks like it reads something the size of an SD card, though the device also has a drill on it and an interface with spindly wires, seeming to attach somewhere on a person's skin.

Eyeing the pile with interest, Kendra stifles an "ooo" and replies, "It's nice to meet you Sanvil, I am Kendra. I'd love to hear more about your wares, but first, I have a piece that requires identification." She pulls the armored bodysuit out of her pack for him to look at. "I've guessed that it's some kind of armor, but the specifics elude me."

"I'll take a look and tell you exactly for a pittance. Say, five gold?" he asks, holding out a hand.

Tapping her chin, Kendra rummages around in her pack and pulls out several of the more unfortunate silverdisks. "Will a trade for these work? A bit beat up, but silverdisks all the same."

"Silverdisks are silverdisks!" he responds cheerily, and accepts them, taking the bodysuit in his hands and thumbing it over. After about half a minute, he responds, "This is a pretty damn good find. A suit of neraplast armor. You can use it for active camoflauge, and it's pretty sturdy to boot, about as strong as your normal suit of leather armor." He gives it back to Kendra, and adds, "It's worth a pretty penny, if you're looking for a buyer."

Smiling brightly, the half-elf jots down his explanation. "Wonderful! I'll have to discuss the particulars with a few other people, but I'll certainly keep you in mind if we decide to sell." She looks over at his wares and grins, "Especially since you have such an interesting array up for trade. What all do you have here?'