BB turns and looks at the rubble and takes a deep sigh.

"Ya, but I don't think he was okay before we even got here. Let's see if we can find him to bury him somewhere else."

Investigation to find Storm: 13

Salkur, or grandpa as he is mostly know along the group, is a small gnome with grey skin and light grey hair; he has a tiny mechanical owl, and a steel panther at his side. He looks a bit weak and old, if you would think of him as a human, although with a surprisingly supple walk.

Impression of my sidekicks, where the owl has a red heart (Spinel) glowing through his body. 

As grandpa discusses what happened to Storm you see him thinking hard and you sometimes see his eyes lid up after certain revelations; after he thinks that he got what happened he calls out

"Alright, all come here. I don't think that looking for Storm is gonna be any good. At least, not here in the tower. Bryn just explained what happened went Storm went down, or at least what you guys saw. I think that what happened is that the chaotic energy that is fueling us all came out in a very extreme manner. As he was dying he was casting spells and spells and spells casting chaotic surge after chaotic surge. I believe that this was some kind of dead but not completely dead due to all chaotic energy still in his body. This might mean, that when one of us is on the verge of death that our chaotic energy will try to save us.

Other than that the enormous surge of chaotic energy will have resulted in destabilization of the sphere you guys saw, which I think was some kind of portal. This combination resulted in the complete tower being send to a different plane, which might, if I am correct in thinking it was a portal which was used to brings those alien creatures to our world, mean that we will encounter more of the creatures that the Foundry was facing. What exactly happened to Storm and the mage I cannot know, but I see to realistic options. One, the chaotic energy consumed them both up completely; or two they were ported to somewhere else, wherever that may be.

Keller you are highest rank now so your decision what to do next, but I think it is safe to say that this tower appearing out of nowhere will result in creatures that come to look what the heck is going on. A rest would be good, but we should be sure to have a watch and maybe barricade the doors?"

Bolt sighs and presses a hand to the side of her snout - or what would be her snout if her body weren't a vaguely humanoid fusion of flesh and scale, "Great, so we're down one, injured, tired, and potentially in a world full of murder monsters.  How does it get worse?"

Grandpa grins

"Well, we could all have died"

"Hm, can't deny that, can I?  Well, so long as we actually survive being wherever this is."

Keller brushes dust off his bare scalp, and out of his goatee. The lithe man's dark brown skin is caked with a pale grey coating from being buried under the rubble. He feels himself out as he slowly rises to his feet.

It's not the first time he's dug himself out of a hole but nothing else about that fight, and their current predicament was familiar. He rubs his eyes with he underside of his cloak, which was relatively clean. He grunts as he opens his eyes and stands, bending to un-crick his back.

He listens to two of his fellow grunts point out Storm being gone, and his first reaction is to growl, or shy away from the logical next step in the chain of command. He's always chafed under the rote following of chain of command in the Foundry. It's not his instinct. He nearly disbands the whole thing.

But then he sees the looks of his fellows. Disoriented but not scared, eager to solve things but considering all directions at once. In need of a rest, but also not safe. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Lets it out.

"Well. With Storm MIA for the moment, looks like it's up to us to sort things out. First things first. Grandpa, think Red can go take a look at the outside of the tower and anything that's become our new neighbors? And anyone else who might have a trick to do some light reconnaissance?. Nothing flashy, we don't know what's out there. There's a big obelisk, so there might be something."

"Everyone else, I know you need rest. I feel as broken as I did after I lost that viking drinking contest in the South Ward. Maybe not that bad. But we don't know if we're here alone. It'd be smart to turn over every stone in this tower, ensure we're not sharing it with anyone who still draws breath. Anything. Ugh. That creature unsettled even me. And that mage might be lurking around. And who knows, we might just find some resources here. We will need all we can get.

Larry... is it really Larry? Do you want another name? I'd want another name, but you're your own boss. I'm Keller. I handle... used to handle... scouting and reconnaissance here in the Foundry. Now it looks like I'll be doing more. Thanks for your help back there. I'd welcome you by my side going forward, and anything else you know about the tower. Any hidden caches, any secret doors, any false walls, any pantry. Who knows how long we'll be here. Once we have a sense of what's outside, and what's inside, then we'll know if it's safe enough to post some watches and get everyone some shuteye."

He stops talking, and it's probably the longest you've all heard him string words together. Unusual, but his cadence is strong, if very understated. That whole thing came out like a mission briefing, authoritative but comforting... and not a single word of it was a command. All suggestions and observations and quiet gestures that acknowledge the strengths of the people he's surrounded himself with for years. 

He does pull Grandpa aside and ask him if he's got any tools up his sleeve to help Keller out. The rogue is a bit unnerved at how close to death he got, and he realizes he needs more tools or tricks for whatever's coming next. 

At Keller's request Grandpa sends Red out, and asks what kind of tools he is thinking about?

"I can create any tool you can think of, although I can only have one of these available at once. I at least can start on a map as soon as we have had a look outside for easier navigation"

"Oh, I just know you have tricks, so if there were any you had to spare, I'd welcome it. A map wouldn't be a bad start," Keller replies.

(Was just curious if there were any spare infusions that had been used by ex-players, etc. No worries! I was trying to get Keller a bit more grounded in everyone's roles, OOC.)

Larry looks over, at his name, and addresses Keller. “Commander Keller…”. A short, cross between a prayer or a blessing, and a bow: metallic fist against wooden palm, and a quick respectful nod. “Some of the supplies here, are, regrettably… destroyed… But I have salvaged a number of rudimentary medical supplies. I am packing a small bag”. He lifts his small satchel.

”There will also be some research papers, arcane items, my Mistress’s…”. He trails off and gestures helplessly around at the utter rubble of the room… “But I am no mage… I wouldn’t know, if, whether…”. He trails off again.

His head snaps back toward Keller with determination. “I will gather what I can. You and your team… saved me… Until I can find My Mistress, I am in your debt…”.

@DM…

Gramps will at least start to get a quick sketch of large landmarks he can see from the window while he waits for Red to come back.

Bryn suggests to Keller that he takes a look downstairs, below the library, to make sure no one is there.

((There's other stuff as you went back and forth for me to respond to, but posting this to give some sense of what you see out of the tower. Picture the tower you're in being in the lower left, with the terrain stretching ahead of you, before falling off into a colorful starry void. The obelisks and central ruins are there, but there's more detail that this doesn't have. Scale is hard to judge, it's clear the obelisks are tall, but perception makes it hard to tell if they are tall in a 'hundred feet or maybe more' sense, or in an 'impossibly enormous' sense. Similarly, it's hard to tell if the obelisks are hundreds of feet distant, or miles and miles distant.))

BB, a shortish and wiry man in his mid-20s, kicks around in the rubble. His nose, which looks to have be rather sharp, has the distinctive crookedness of having been broken a few times rests above a mouth twisted in irration.

"Need to get a different job. Bar bouncer is good fun. Not as many giants, but no purple deserts either."

He'll then yell,

"Hey? You guys and Larry find anyone else?"

Keller takes a look around the room, and downstairs once it's clear.

Perception: 13 (if helped: 9)
Investigation: 22 (if helped: 20)

Bolt hefts her axe over one shoulder, rolling her shoulders slightly - There's just no getting used to being a horrific blend of scales, skin, and hair.  She's very much looking forward to when the magic wears off and she can just have her nice smooth scales back.  "I'll check downstairs, make sure it's clear.  Still in decent shape, despite having a table land on my head."

Grandpa stays upstairs until Red comes back and will than report back to Keller; possible downstairs; what if Red saw any enemies in the vicinity. (Also this will most likely be the time for Grandpa to sketch the map with a lot of question marks regarding distances.

(bump)

Larry searches around and finds a satchel that he can easily use to transport the vials he found,.

BB looks around for Storm, but isn't able to find any trace of his Commander that isn't the bloodstain in the doorway.

Red bobs their head at Salkur's request, and wings for the open window.

@Larry

Keller heads down to the library, and notes the books are strew about, some of those by the door a bit charred. Some look to have been getting studied by the mage or duergar, pages marked, some written in the margins in a script he doesn't recognize. For the books themselves, there are a few titles that he can understand the words that make them up, but the content seems to be a fair bit beyond his expertise, dealing with esoteric intricacies of magic.

Bryn and Bolt head downstairs, confirming that both the groundfloor and basement are free of duergar, spiny grubs or any mages or multi-armed beasties.

Red eventually returns to Grandpa, trembling and shaking their head. They nuzzle the deep gnome briefly, then seeming comforted enough, hops up onto a work bench, strutting around until he finds a mostly spherical paperweight that has come to rest against a stack of books. They clamber atop it, both sets of talons gripping the smooth surface and standing upright in 'tower' pose, before spasming one talon and releasing it, their weight causing them to slowly tip to one side, staying upright and rigid as long as possible before flaring out wings and pumping to glide around the room and settle on Grandpa's shoulder.

 ((If there was anything asked that I missed, let me know!))

With the tower cleared, Bolt moves to the doorway on the ground floor and peers outside, "Think we should barricade the door, or are we gonna check with Keller if we'll get outta here before the slant on this tower gets worse?"

Grandpa looks at Red, first not really understanding what he means, but suddenly he thinks he knows

"Wait you mean the tower is going to collapse soon?" he doesn't wait for the answer, but does look at Red to see if he is right. If Red doesn't make a move that suggests he understood Red wrongly he will run and shout

"Red says the tower is collapsing; let's get out of here quickly!"

if he understood Red wrongly he'll ask if he can show him in a different way what he means.

Red gives a pause before shrugging owl shoulders, slowly bobbing his head yes once, then shrugging again.