Summary:
Of self, blessed-future-hive-queen (FHQ) am watching as the warms attempt to figure out colored globes, keeping selfs Krull by selfs side and away from danger. Warms are wary of onerace and it is best to make distance and let mine actions prove onerace intentions true. Scro picks up green globe and attempts to throw it down the West corridor to figure out what it does, but Nalin the Dwar cleric makes face saying his deity has warned him of disaster if the action is taken. Scro heeds the warning and puts the globe away.
The warms move north from door with GemDwar taking lead; unexpectedly GemDwar hears a strange sound like a moorgar being squeezed. Springing into action, he follows the sound. Arriving at a + junction GemDwar discovers a black blood smear to the east. Looking to the west, he sees a horrible sight, a bright red shapeless mass with glowing eyes about 15’ long. An urge to stand very still and let the creature adjust him attempts to overpower GemDwar’s will. The rest of the warms move up beside GemDwar and fights off the malign mental influence of the lava being.
Suddenly hot material spewed from the creature, warms and oneselves takes 9 damage ! The warms return the favor. GemDwar throws hot oil and hurts it. Scro and Drakmab throw globes. The green globe flashes but does nothing as the creature rolls over it. The black globe creates a violent explosion. Banger rushes to attack with his metalsharp and it sizzles and melts against the lava-beast. The mighty MiTar, Cerberus, tries with its metalblock and suffers the same fate. Brave Krull gestures and torns the creature, which is badly hurt. The Gnue, Ecki, also throws flaming oil and the creature experiences cessation.
A weird blue bar, with pale silvery glow, rests under the remains and Banger picks it up and hopes it will do as a replacement weapon. Self desires to study it further, as its material properties are strange.
The warms retreat back and go through a door they passed to the east as they follow GemDwar. It has a strange symbol (calculator like). Drakmabden opens it with his orange shard. The warms find a small room with furniture and two shard slots with blue/gold color, one in the wall and the other by a door. Trying the wall slot which has a symbol (spider/bug like), Drakmab’s orange shard appears to trigger an alarm but the door suffers glick, with sparks shooting out, and opens anyway, shutting the alarm off. A small closet is revealed with 3 bright white star suits with blue and black piping and a small open box on the floor with jewelry, rings, necklaces, bracelets, some wrist cuffs, and gems. MadDwar starts to look at the gems and is attacked by a strange slug which he kills, (self should have examined closer) uncovering a strange folded mabden skin at the bottom of the box. GemDwar rushes in and slices the skin to pieces. MadDwar tries one of the white outfits over his metal shell, it stretches and fits, barely.
The warms try the shard slot by the door, oneself’s red shard is ejected but Drakmab’s orange shard sparks and then opens the door once again triggering and disabling an alarm. The door opens to a fire fight!
By the light flickering in the room, the warms and onerace sees blech thus fought before in the hallway in combat with cornered and long lost SkySid across the room. Oneself hopes we can communicate with these Sky-warms and understand what hath they learned. We must save them and parley.
Our warms attacks and overwhelms the blech, but not before some of the artifacts they found are used against self. The large vegetable creature wields a weapon that fires holy beams of red light cutting through selfs with ease. Oneself must study it. Drakmab invokes parn and 3 Blech fall as do our warms. The fight is furious as warms attack, and blechs return the favor. Fearing injury, manyselves hivemind to harmon the large blech before it attacks with holy light. It cessaites before our might and the sky-warms eye us warily and shake their heads from the pain of hive harmon.
Looking to the corner where the SkySid were defending themselves, warms approach but the SkySid mistake the nature of Drak, Mi, Dwar, and attack. GemDwar attacks back and the fight is enjoined. Attempting to separate the fighting warms, oneself abrupts but it is too late to stop the bloodshed. The SkySid strangers were already grievously hurt and quickly ceased at our warms attacks. The onerace does not waste resources like this; warms are strange and dangerous.
Oneself goes to the large blech and locates its strange horned wand attached to its karm and another shard, this time a violet one with orange trim and markings (red square and star). What do these shard keys and their colors mean ? Manyselves hath two to examine now.
Two of the fallen SkySid start to return to life, twitching, seemingly animated by strange mushrooms. The warms burn them and the Skysid fall back dead. Arguments break out between the aliens about the division of the items gained from the fallen SkySid party. Krull examines the scroll tube found and sees arcane magic and some strange writing that self hath not before seen.
The warms experiment with the wall chamber that has an outline of a humanoid, alarms and warnings ring out as first GemDwar and then Krull fiddle with it. It appears to malfunction and we retreat from it.
Looking above to where the SkySid hath blech fought, warms little Gnue spies a hole in the ceiling where the hissing in the air had come from. Perhaps SkySid came from there and into danger ? We go up to investigate and find a darkened open floor and a lower ceiling. Large metal boxes stand alone and blink with light. Manyselves relax, this is more to selves liking. Feelings of hive nesting chambers, true home. Praise the hive. We trill and relax in the comforting darkness. Manyselves can sense it’s a large open space here unlike the level below with taller ceilings and doorways. Perhaps most such lived in this strange metalux, some not unlike onerace ?
MadDwar finds a strange black box on the ground. Fiddling with it, first the Gnue, and then the Dwar make it glow, the screen displays the rest of the party outlining them. Two buttons on the side are glowing and you see a bunch of characters. Locked on target. MadDwar folds it over and turns it off. Another strange item! This place is a dangerous palace of wonders. Oneself needs to find out what is the source of this magic for the hive.
Manyselves sense vibrations and turn quickly outward. Surrounding the warms are warms? Each warm faces self; including manyselves. Manyselves reach out to sense their intent, and know danger has found us again.
Blessings for the Horde – Xicanzu for GARP 2020