It was clear that we could benefit from the mechanical and archaeological talents of our absent crewmembers. We sent them a message to come and join us. With a trail already blazed through the forest, Lila and Hamsa effortlessly dodged the cliffs and macro-wasps to join us in the underground complex. We spent the time waiting for them making a thorough search of the rooms we'd unlocked so far, and found a very old skeleton in the corner of the temple, plus the remote control for the entry hatch. With some power cells and duct tape we got it working again.
Tahir explained his theories and ideas about the towers. Lila was insistent that under no circumstances were we going to destroy this ancient site by ripping off the sandstone rings.
Gurgeh made further use of power cells to get the door leading out of the workshop unlocked, and found some kind of office. Whiteboards hung on the walls, the writing on them obscured by dirt. Lila tried to remove the dirt, but couldn't do so without damaging the writing as well. But using the archeodrone's cameras, she was able to get some pictures. Shelves held some books. Hamsa tried picking one up, but found it to be on the point of crumbling into dust. A control panel was on the wall. Something to look at later.
We got another door open - the one leading from the storeroom where we came in. This lead to a long corridor with a number of doors. The first lead to a decent size bedroom with en suite facilities. The second was a canteen, with a dining table and chairs. On the wall was some writing. While he couldn't read it, Alqadi did recognise amongst it the iconography of his own icon, the Judge. Lila took a look at it, and identified a word - Kahan - that sounded familiar in a religious sense.
We split up to investigate the remaining doors. Behind the third was a bedroom. Sayah looked around and spotted something in the wardrobe. An oud, similar to her own, but ancient and richly decorated. The strings were on the point of crumbling into dust. She decided to leave it where it was for now, in case the wood was similarly fragile, and come back later when she could take proper care with it.
The fourth door also revealed a bedroom. Lila searched the room and found a chest, and despite shouts of 'mimic' from the other rooms, opened the lid. Inside was a pair of glasses that she recognised as spirit glasses, that would allow you to see things beyond normal vision. She took them with her.
Door five was another bedroom. Hamsa searched, but initially found nothing. Something about the wardrobe raised suspicion, however. He kicked it, and noticed a hollow sound. After a prayer to the icons for guidance, he pushed on the clothes rail, and found the back of the wardrobe swung open to reveal another room.
Inside he found a pair of scimitars, and a pair of rifles, both clearly very old, and a leather pouch. Inside was a stone, a good size for holding in one hand, decorated with engravings. Being very careful not to touch it he called for Lila to take a look. Her professional opinion was that it was a memory stone, and that the stored memories might be recoverable through meditation.
Behind the sixth door, Alqadi had found another bedroom with a desk and a shisha pipe, and most interestingly, some writing. It was in an unfamiliar dialect, but close enough to our own language that he could read it. He took a picture so as not to damage the fragile paper, and shared it with the others.
But before we could take a proper look at anything we'd found (or open the final door), the proximity sensors went off. Something was in the storeroom.
Gurgeh dispatched one of his drones to have a look, while Alqadi released the monkey that he'd been carrying around in a bag. It scampered back down the corridor. Moments later we heard a horrible shriek. Gurgeh looked at the camera feed from his drone. Nothing clear, but some kind of shadow was visible.
Lila donned her spirit glasses and followed Alqadi and Tahir down the corridor. They saw only a strange wisp of smoke, but she saw a curious long limbed creature that she recognised as a sentinel.
"Friend or foe?" Alqadi asked Lila.
"Foe." Alqadi immediately opened fire.
In the spray of automatic fire, a hint of the shape of the beast began to appear for everyone else. It was reminicent of the shadow creature we'd seen on the video from the cave. Tusks. Claws. Dripping with mucus. And throwing itself at Alqadi.
Lila fired her stun gun, but the shot fizzled out on the creature's carapace, leaving a stench of rot. Sayah ran down the corridor to grab Lila and drag her out of the creature's reach. Gurgeh turned on the lights of his drone to cause a distraction while Alqadi attempted to fight back.
Alqadi missed. The door to the storeroom went flying off its hinges. And a sudden wave of fear and dread swept across us.
Hamsa and Sayah fired, but both shots bounced off the creature's carapace. Lila took cover behind Sayah, and fired her stun gun again, this time managing to aim into a soft spot. Not enough to stun it, but enough to slow its movements. Gurgeh rammed his drone into the beast. It stumbled - and then stepped on the drone as it went for Alqadi again.
But while other shots went wide, Tahir got one solid shot into a weak point, breaking the creature's arm and driving it into horrific shrieks. A claw flew past Alqadi's face, barely missing him, but Alqadi had got his rifle reloaded and unloaded straight into the creature's eye. And with that, it dissipated into smoke.
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