Dreams Into Journey

"What are we trying to do anyway?" Lia asks. "What do we expect this thing to do?" She frowns at the device. "Seems that we are waisting time here on a device that might only be used to grow those crystals..."

Kysdiane responds, "I am starting to see what Lia was saying. Maybe we should finish exploring further down and then return. It might be better than just continuing to guess. Although, based on my calculations, we should be able to tell the approximate flux of each crystal. That could come in handy." He says the last part to Lia who was originally skeptical of trying all the crystals. "The white one is 8, the green one was 15 when paired with two crystals and 16 when paired with just one, the orange was 17, the yellow was 18, the red was 20, and finally, the blue appeared to be 23." As he speaks, he ticks of on his fingers the different crystals and approximate fluxes. "I suppose now that we know all that, it may be prudent to continue further down to see if there are any other dangers we should be aware of before we spend all out time here experimenting."

Gulgus

Gulgus says, "It makes nae difference tae me.  We ken go further and if light be shed on this lead-lined lump, maybe we ken circle back."

Deciding to put the matter of the panel on the back burner for the moment, the party decides to some further exploring of the facility. Perhaps seeing what else this place contains may pull back the curtain on this conundrum?

Nonetheless, Lia reclaims the crystals and they return to the elevator.

What is the next destination?

(Could you refresh us on where we can go?)

Avia walks out of the room.

(Of course!)

From top to bottom:

Main Hangar

Crystalarium (Current Floor)

Alloy Forge

Aerodynamics

Renata seems disappointed to see nothing happen with the crystals, as she was quite curious about what it would lead to. She stands in front of the panel for an extra minute and ponders the mechanics behind it that she has yet to understand. Finally with a sigh she joins the group to wherever they decide to go, carefully noting the flux volume of each crystals discovered by Kysdiane, intending to come back here and figure it out eventually.

Kysdiane will follow the rest of the group. If nobody else has an opinion, he suggests that they head down another floor to the Alloy Forge.

Avia also follows the rest of the group. Her Dire Wolf walks in front of her, ready to protect her.

Gulgus

"Alloy Forge be just below.  It be as fine a destination as any."

Disheartened, but not entirely dissuaded regarding the crystals, the return to the elevator and agree to go down to the next floor, the Alloy Forge. After pressing the appropriate button, the chamber lurches to life and continues going down for a longer time than from the hangar to the previous floor.

When it finally settles, the door opens to a very large chamber (80 feet long, 80 feet wide and 40 feet high), dwarfed by only the hangar at the top. The walls are made with darkened stone bricks, the floor material seems to be large slabs of stone. 20-foot pillars seem to be supporting collapsed, neglected rails. Scattered, in few places, are the remains of wrecked mine carts. Even fewer of those have what could have been their contents near them, spilled on the ground.

The remains of the rails bring their eyes to a large forge to the north. Its bellows tattered and broken. Its belly is black and cold.

Following the ruined elevated tracks away from the forge leads to two different exits. One to the east and one to a chute in the floor to the south.

Lia wrinkles her nose up at the place, already dusting her clothes for any dirt she is likely to get on herself in here. "Guess we should have a look around, huh?" She remarks, though with clear distaste of having to do so in there.

"Stata, go scout around the room. Make sure their is no creatures like your namesake here." Avia finally decided on a name for her wolf. She commands her wolf to make sure the room is safe before they start exploring it.

Gulgus

Gulgus whistles as he looks around slack-jawed at the dilapidated forge.  "Reminds me of tha time me grandpappy took me into Citadel Adbar and witnessin' tha great forges there for tha first time."  A melancholy expression comes across his face as he walks over, the giant hyena following close behind, to inspect the contents of the nearest spilled minecart.  As he arrives at the minecart, he glances around the chamber for any potential threats, before examining it closely.

Perception: 25

Kysdiane also follows everyone in glancing around nervously. He approaches one of the minecarts' contents and attempts to gently sift through the contents if he doesn't notice any danger.

Perception: 14

Spreading out slightly, the group starts to search the ruins of the underground forge.

Lia and Avia are a little more hesitant to explore, with Avia sending her dire wolf to scout the area.

Wolf perception: 21

Stata starts growling in aggression.

As this is happening, Kysdiane and Gulgus take a quick glance around before inspecting a couple of fallen mine carts. As they approach the mine carts, they see that some broken ore is in one and ingots are in the other. But, before they could get close enough to see what kind of ores and metals they are, they see a very faint, red glow coming from the forge. But more unsettling, they see four creatures low to the ground and serpentine three small and one large. But instead of a head of a snake, they have a beak with four clawed tentacles, clearly recognizable as gricks, attempting to hide in an effort to ambush. Two of them are by the upended mine carts while two more are on, ruined pillars. Fortunately, choice of hiding place did not serve them well. Recognizing that their prey is not coming any closer they eschew any ambush strategy and hiss.

Roll for initiative!

Gricks: 7

Grick Alpha: 4

Renata follows her companions to the Alloy Forge with her eyes down, still pondering viable crystal combinations in her head. Until she is alerted by the growling of Avia’s pet, and she raises her eyes wide open to see the giant snake creature in front of her.

Initiative: 19

Kysdiane begins to spin his flail as he mutters to the rest of the group, "We've got company."

Initiative: 5

Avia takes out her lemons, ready to imbue them with energy.

Initiative 17

Lia initiative: 13