Log:The Secret of Skull Island, Scene 2

The warehouse for Palladium Robotic Entertainment looks like many of the other building here in the Industrial Park, save for the 'Available or Lease' signs in front of the building.

Sword Dancer has turned up in not only her armour, but her boots (it's winter) and a dark hooded cloak (the better for sneaking). She lies in wait for the others.

An old asian man is walking the "Industrial Park" excercising his old legs. They say a good walk is good for the health and Zhi has argued with his doctor about it, but the doctor seems to have won out. With his blind man's cane he diligently taps at bugs and other insects that are on the sidewalk and fleeing the mighty cane of death. A large rectangular package seems to be strapped to the old man's back. He also has same papers with him, going the old fashioned route to perhaps hand out resumes for his good for nothing son that can't seem to find an internship while making straight A's and going to several societies and clubs at the University. Is it night? Heck Zhi can't tell, he's blind.

Ellbeth holds a quick briefing for anyone who makes the location ahead of time. "There's a portal inside the office of the warehouse. There may or may not be any guards in the warehouse. I'm too close for my scrying spell to work. The magical backwash just blurs the reception for the closest mile or so. Now the known opposition seen so far are a couple of heavies, probably local muscle, the robotic orcs, and a man in a robe. Abilities unknown for the last. My objective is the safe return of Harry. Everything else, such as the apprehension of the people resonsible is secondary to Harry's safe recovery. Any questions?"

Sword Dancer says, "Who is Harry?"

Ellbeth says, "Harry is Harry Fernchurch, my chauffeur and friend."

Sword Dancer says, "Can use edge of sword, or not?"

Ellbeth says, "On the robots certainly. On anyone else I suggest you refrain. Awkward questions get asked otherwise."

Sword Dancer says, "Is man sorcerer?"

Ellbeth sighs. "I have no proof he is. I would not be surprised to find he does have that ability."

Sword Dancer says, "What Harry rooks rike?"

Ellbeth opens up her laptop and shows everyone a picture of Harry.

Sword Dancer nods. "Is good."

Ellbeth holds a quick briefing for anyone who makes the location ahead of time. "There's a portal inside the office of the warehouse. There may or may not be any guards in the warehouse. I'm too close for my scrying spell to work. The magical backwash just blurs the reception for the closest mile or so. Now the known opposition seen so far are a couple of heavies, probably local muscle, the robotic orcs, and a man in a robe. Abilities unknown for the last. My objective is the safe return of Harry. Everything else, such as the apprehension of the people resonsible is secondary to Harry's safe recovery. Any questions?"

With the sun beaming down on the old asian man, he can tell its not night and its day. He wipes the sweat off the brow of his head with his sleeve. Granted its winter time, but he's warm from all the walking around. Deciding to take a rest, Zhi stops in the shade of the warehouse building in question.

Hype arrives a little late, but makes it to the place the request for assistance told him to go. It isn't too hard for him to arrive and he stealthily approaches from the air over the buildings looking for where others might be so he can go assist them.

Ellbeth tells everyone present, "There's nobody inside according to the warehouse security system. That isn't conclusive proff since I have arranged that the system won't detect us. What I can do others can also."

Ellbeth says, "I'm not a heroine in the conventional fashion. I have magic that can help and assist. I'm not a fighter. You know what I need doing. I'll follow someone's lead on how to do it."

Sword Dancer says, "Cha, am warrior, not reader. What you can do?"

Hype comes down from above hovering, "Sorry I was running late, was some distance away." he smiles a bit, "I caught the end of that, I move very fast." he says and smiles a bit. He glances around at the others.

Ellbeth says, "I can and have made sure the security in the warehouse won't give us away. I can get us past the door without making noise or setting off alarms. What else I might be able to do depends on the situation"

[To Hype] Sword Dancer says, "Tjasivju. Cha, you move fast, yes?"

Zhi moves over to the warehouse looking for an entrance. Perhaps there is an internship waiting for his son there. He raises his hand to knock on a door...

Ellbeth points to the old chinese man about to knock on the warehouse door. "Complications."

Sword Dancer noticing Zha says, point and says, "No! Will ruin surprise!"

Hype nods, "yes, Hype is the name, and I can, fly I guess, at very good speeds." he focuses for a moment on upping his reflexes.

[To Hype] Sword Dancer says, "Move fast. Stop brind man, if can. Rescue Harry. I do fighting."

Sword Dancer moves in toward the warhouse quickly, throwing off her cloak. If, as she suspects, the blind man can't be stopped, speed will be need.

Zhi's ears flicker with the sound of steps approaching. Is he in trouble? The man brings his fist about and instead of knocking on the door turns around. "Who there?" mutters the blind man, sounding frustrated.

[To Zhi] Sword Dancer says, "Must not knock! Is danger!"

Hype follows along, just in case, and stays off the ground, hovering in the air, darting about, as if trying to stay mostly hidden and out of sight.

Zhi has is frown turned upside down. His senses tell him this lovely lass is no danger to him at all. As a matter of fact, he forgets why he was trying to knock on the door in the first place. "Oh I see.", replies Zhi. He taps his cane around sometimes perhaps attempting to tap Kihzra to get a "better" look.

Sword Dancer dances back from the cane. "Must go. We need to creep into prace, for surprise. Is important: save man. Go!"

Sword Dancer waves Ellbeth onward, suspecting, in reality, any advantage of stealth has probably already been lost and speed is better.

Zhi nods to the lady. Wait there is more than one lady here. What an opportunity. He decides to follow behind once they forget about him!

Zhi wanders a slight distance away but tries to keep within earshot of the heroes. Tap tap tap.

Ellbeth follows the other heroes to the warehouse. Standing to one side of the doorway she places a hand on the wall and casts a minor spell. The wall shimmers and fades leaving an opening big enough for one person at a time.

Sword Dancer scrambles up the wall off the warehouse faster than most people can run and makes her way to the nearest skylight. She doesn't really trust sorcery enough to use the passwall.

Sword Dancer looks in the skylight, as well as seeing how to open it.

Zhi sighs as the young lady seems to have scrambled up the building. Well just one lady left that he's able to follow. The blind man tries to sneak through the passwall after the heroes have done so.

Hype floats through the passwall opening and glances around trying to stay on guard.

Skysabre soars overhead, rapidly approaching the warehouse from the heart of the city. The Air Commander notes the presence of the others, as it was expecting them. Rather than join them its optics turn white, scanning the building with x-ray vision to see if anything has changed inside from its last visit.

Inside the warehouse, everything remains quiet.

Sword Dancer tries to open the skylight stealthily.

Hype glances around inside, "anythhing?" he asks the others and starts to lift up a bit, trying to get a high view.

Ellbeth lets everyone who wishes to enter via the Passwall spell.

Zhi thinks. o O (She let me in... She likes me!)

Zhi follows the strangers.. He's intrigued and does not seem frightened at all! He must be senile.

Skysabre descends to the roof next to the Sword Dancer, switching back to normal optics. It doesn't land so as not to produce any noise. "I can detect no other organic or inorganic life forms within this structure." It tells her matter-of-factly.

Sword Dancer says, "Organic? Rike vegetabres?"

"Like you." Skysabre replies.

Ellbeth begins making her way towards the location of the portal.

Sword Dancer slices the locking mechanism so smoothly it hardly makes a sound.

Zhi is not quiet at all tapping here and there and everywhere with his cane as he follows Hype and Ellbeth.

Sword Dancer opens the skylight and peers in.

Skysabre hovers over Sword Dancer's shoulder. "The others have already gone inside. I can lower you to the ground if that is acceptable."

Hype cocks his head to the side, "Was there a portal thing you mentioned? Maybe that is where they all are, seems quiet."

Zhi asks, "You like noise? I play music, yes?". Since hype mentioned it was quiet.

Ellbeth turns to Zhi. "This isn't a safe place to be. You should left immediately."

Sword Dancer just jumps straight in through the skylight, trying to land quietly.

Zhi tells Ellbeth, "But.. You so pretty. I cannot help follow. I play song for heart. Come let us go together. I know nice place." He smiles a crooked smile and motions at his Zither on his back.

Hype frowns a little, "Um, we are trying to rescue someone." he says to Zhi and then looks around at the others.

Zhi adds. "No danger here. Empty place yes? Oh? Maybe you in wrong place?"

Zhi "accidently" jabs his cane at Hypes foot.

Skysabre descends through the skylight after Sword Dancer, proceeding to the back office without touching down.

Ellbeth continues on the way to the portal. If the blind person is a disguised meta all will be good. If he is an enemy she'll be watching him as far as she can. If he is just as old man she'll prtect him as far as she can without compromising the primary mission.

Sword Dancer sneaks about the place, looking for people to rescue and/or attack. :) (repost)

Hype nods and floats towards where they said the portal was, his rapid visual perception, taking in everything around them easily.

The heroes reach the office at the rear of the warehouse. It's fairly spacious for an office, larger than some Downtown apartments. There's a desk in the middle of the room and against the far wall is some sort of high-tech door that's currently closed. On the desk there's a golden datacard, the sort that can fit into any PDA.

Sword Dancer mutters, "Is noffing here."

Hype cocks his head to the side, "The datacard." he gestures, "Might be something." he floats over and looks at the door a bit.

Ellbeth shakes her head. "There's a lot. All potentially dangerous."

Skysabre nods to Ellbeth. "This certainly seems to have been left here for some purpose. Hoowever, we cannot avoid examining the card."

Ellbeth says, "Hype, the word you're looking for to describe the datacard is 'trap'. Just laying on the top of the desk?"

Hype looks for this trap that she seems to think there is.

Ellbeth says, "Skysabre, can you see inside the desk?"

Skysabre's optics turn white as it scans the desk with x-rays.

Sword Dancer crouches down and looks over the desk too.

Skysabre's optics switch back to the normal green. "I can detect nothing out of the ordinary for the desk, except that it appears empty."

Sword Dancer frowns. "Cannot *see* anyffing dangerous."

Ellbeth nods and sees if the drawers of the desk will open.

"Perhaps it is time to examine the keycard." Skysabre comments, unclipping its brand new PDA.

The desk drawers do open. They are empty, though.

Ellbeth says, "Maybe. Wait a moment please."

Zhi looks for a chair to sit down in. All this walking is hurting his knees.

Hype looks at the others and hovers back a bit, checking out the door again.

Zhi grumbles, "I could use a drink. Anyone have some Tsing Tao?"

Ellbeth casts a spell using her laptop to set the spell parameters.

Ellbeth nod Skysabre, "ok, go ahead."

Skysabre picks up the datacard and slips it into the PDA, waiting for it to boot up.

"Good day, Dr. Wyrd..." the voice says as the datacard video starts. It's the robed man, again, speaking towards the camera.

Skysabre turns the PDA towards Ellbeth so that she and the others can see.

Zhi pokes at his knees, "Dr? Maybe you look at knees. Sore."

Hype cocks his head to the side, "Wyrd?"

Ellbeth listens and watches.

Ellbeth says, "That's my name."

Zhi nods at Ellbeth.. "Weird.."

"You are probably wondering who I am and what I've done with your Harry. I... am the Dungeon Master... Harry is now a guest of mine. He is alright, and he will remain that way provided that you follow my instructions. There is one and only way to ensure is safe return, and that is to rescue him from Skull Island..."

Ellbeth is leaning forward paying close attention.

Sword Dancer frowns. "Is game?"

Zhi seems to be not paying attention. He gets up and wanders around the room tapping with cane at different objects.

Zhi seems to be not paying attention. He gets up and wanders around the room tapping with cane at different objects. (re)

"The datacard contains the access code to activate the transmat portal in the office. It will take you to Skull Island, where your quest will continue."

Ellbeth is leaning forward paying close attention.

Sword Dancer says, "Quest?"

Ellbeth says, "A game. The quest is Harry safe return. The man you just saw is setting up challenges that have to be overcome if Harry is to be rescued."

Hype frowns a bit, "This is confusing."

"I do not understand the purpose to this game." Skysabre replies. "What benefit does this Dungeon Master derive from this exercise?"

Sword Dancer says, "Is trap ven." She shrugs. "Am not afraid."

Ellbeth shrugs, "Unknown. It could just be for twisted enjoyment. It might be a continuation of the attempt at killing me. Whether those who go on the quest succeed or fail the man will gain information on our methods and abilities."

Hype shrugs, "Sounds interesting." he says softly.

Sword Dancer says, "I go too. Is good practice."

Ellbeth steps over to the portal. "Can you read the access code from your PDA, Skysabre?"

Skysabre nods to Ellbeth. "Yes." Its fingers dance over the PDA to reveal the code, and then it reads it off to Ellbeth.

Ellbeth keys the code into the protal console.

The portal device thrums to life. The hatch parts along a vertical seam and jsut beyond it is a portal of white light.

Sword Dancer looks at the portal dubiously.

Zhi sticks his cane in the portal as he walks around tapping at things.

Skysabre sets its PDA down. "We should go as soon as possible." It starts towards the portal.

Ellbeth also looks at the portal with suspicion. "It could lead anywhere." She sighs and steps through.

Sword Dancer goes through next - if just to make the point she's not afraid.

Hype cocks his head to the side, "Shall we go I guess?"

First of all, it's quite warm on the other side of the portal. You've stepped through to what looks like a tropical environment. In all directions, the terrain is green, covered in healthy with vegetation. About a mile in the distance, a hill rises out of the land, and it vague resembles a human skull, with a cave entrance at what would be the nose area

Zhi stays on the the other side of the portal.

Sword Dancer looks about, trying to guess where she might be.

Hype follows and smiles a bit and looks at the others, "Well, shall we?" he has no clue where he is.

Skysabre looks around the area, focusing on the skull and trying to determine distance to it.

"It is a distance of 1.7832 kilometers to the cave." Skysabre replies. "It would not take long to fly the distance."

Ellbeth says, "Yes. Keep an eye open for random encounters. Anyone close to going up a level. You can take point if so and get the majority of XPs that way."

Hype shrugs, "Seconds really, but then I would be waiting for everyone else." He looks at Ellbeth, "Huh?"

Sword Dancer says, "Don't understand."

Ellbeth smiles "In joke. You have to be a gamer to understand."

Skysabre glances at Ellbeth. "Dr. Wyrd, are you experiencing any disorientation or symptoms of dizziness? I suspect you may have had an adverse reaction to the teleportation which is affecting your cognitive abilities."

Ellbeth says, "Hype, this is not a horror movie and we are not going to say 'let's split up.' ok. Stick together and cover each others back."

Sword Dancer says, "We go to hirr?"

Skysabre hovers a few inches off the ground. "We should proceed."

The portal flashes and out pops... Akeno. Yep. The detective smiles a bit, "Took you long enough to go off that information, doc." The cop has a leather jacket on if nothing else then it's probably harder to tear. "Huh. Sword Dancer. Air Commander Skysabre." He looks at Hype and frowns, "And I don't know that one."

Sword Dancer says, "Tjasivju. You come too?"

Ellbeth says, "Hello detective Akeno. We are on a Quest. I'm here to rescue Harry. That is my primary concern. Someone with a twisted mind and an obession as bad as my own is playing a game with us."

Hype smiles and nods a bit, hovering a little and nods, "Of course, staying together is always good."

"A game which we should hasten to end." Skysabre notes, drifting forward.

Sword Dancer nods. "Ret's go!"

Ellbeth starts walking towards the cave entrance. "If you get tired of my slow pace I will not object to being carried." she says.

Sword Dancer walks lightly but quickly toward the cave, using her sword as a machete at need to clear vegetation.

Skysabre is simply flying. No effort expended here. It switches to a thermal view so better to see approaching enemies.

Hype smiles a little, "I could try that." he looks at Akeno and dips his head a bit.

Eventually, the heroes reach the hill. Guarding the entrance are a pair of orc robots armed with bows and swords.

Ellbeth says, "Thank you. Everyone, lets be wary of traps, deadfalls, etc. The first encounter or two should give an idea what threat rating this Dungeon Master person is intending to use."

Hype blinks a bit, "Think we can get them to charge us, or they will stay at the enterance till we get there?" he asks as he gets a bit closer, he shakes his head a bit, not moving too close, after all, well he flies about half way there.

Akeno shrugs as he follows the others, "Dungeon Master, huh? Hrm..." He looks up, then glances at Ellbeth, "I guess I'll go first. I'm obviously the warrior type next to Sword Dancer." He disappears in one of his speed-teleports. And seriously hopes there's no traps up there.

Sword Dancer charges in as fast as she can, trying to catch the an archer by surprise before he can even fire!

Ellbeth thinks. o O (I hope we don't find ourselves missing the inclusion of a cleric in the party.)

As Kihzra runs one can almost imagine a barbarian horde running next to her, yelling in terrifying fury - she reaches the orc in unimaginably short order and soon it's flying away from her.....

Skysabre holds by Ellbeth, sticking by her side as the others charge forward. Is the Air Commander acting as a sort of guard? Who knows.

The smashed orc twitches slightly as it tries to reboot it's programming. The other one draws its sword and slashes at Kihzra.

Sword Dancer is luckily saved by her armour!

Ellbeth has fortunately setup a mental telepathic link with Max, so she doesn't have to use the laptop keyboard while being carried by Skysabre. With Max and her working together they try to reprogram the undamaged orc to see Kihzra as another orc and a patch of rock as Kihzra.

Hype sees the situation and has his reflexes up. He flies forward and electricity seems to dance along his hands as he throws a punch at the standing ork. "Interesting."

Hype manages to strike the orc, but it doesn't seem to go down.

Akeno shakes his head at the new guy's attempt to electrify the remaining orc and sighs, "That's not how you do it." The detective teleports again, a small cloud of dust left in his wake this time and probably bits of grass as well before the detective reappears to the other side of the orc robot and spins into a hard leg swing on it.

Akeno appears again beside the orc and nails the thing's head hard enough that it goes flying upwards to drop a few seconds later, "That's how you kill an orc robot."

Hype shrugs and glances around, "Any others?" he scans the surroundings, taking everyhing in quickly.

Hype blinks and sees just the staggering one and zips over there and throws a shocking fist at him.

Sword Dancer moves smoothly into the shadows of the cave without missing a beat, hiding and keeping an eye out for more trouble.

Hype is a blur of motion, first he smacked the one orc robot, then Akeno was there and finished it off, he zips over to the other and slams it back into a wall. "I was doing well enough, but thank you." he says with a smile.

Skysabre flies Ellbeth up to the ther in short order, gently depositing her in front of the cave entrance.

Ellbeth thinks. o O (One of these may last long enough to see if my spells have any effect. But I'm not complaining.)

Sword Dancer says, critically, as she goes, "Are harder to kirr van rearr orc."

"They are mechanical. More durable than their organic counterparts." Skysabre counters to Sword Dancer.

Ellbeth thanks Skysabre and peers into the cave. Anyone need a torch or are we all set with Elven or Dwaven vision?

Sword Dancer certainly has some trouble with the dark.

The interior of the cave is dark, but the entrance is lit by four torches, set it bracket in the cave wall. They can be easily removed.

Skysabre's green optics seem to disappear completely, leaving only a field of black as it activates its nightvision.

Hype blinks a bit, "Um, I don't see in the dark." he shrugs a bit, "Can see things usually really good though."

Sword Dancer takes a torch in her left hand. One gets the sense she's done this sort of thing before.

"I can see in the dark." Skysabre replies to Hype, moving to take point.

Sword Dancer nods. "Is good - you can scout ven."

Ellbeth says, "As can I."

Sword Dancer is necessarily obvious with the torch, but is happy to be the backbone of the overt force, as it were.

The cave doesn't seem to go very far. It runs for about 40 feet before ending at a dead end.

Skysabre immediately enhances the image its receiving with an x-ray perception to see if the wall is false or not.

Hype follows along and tries to keep his eyes open, visually at least normal vision he is good at, probably too dark to get much.

"This is a false wall." Skysabre comments, kneeling down to pull up a stone on the floor.

A secret door opens and the corridor continues.

Sword Dancer crouches ready as the door opens.

Sword Dancer proceeds cautiously though through the door.

Skysabre stays at the head of the pack as it heads through the cave.

Hype shakes his head a bit and moves to follow after.

The hall is empty and in runs for another 50 feet or so. It opens into a chamber that's been cut from the mountain. Rough and natural edges are replaced by straight lines and corners. It's 30 feet wide by 50 feet long and the end opposite the entrance is dominated by a giant sculpture of a lion, with the head of a man.

Sword Dancer frowns, assessing the sculpture from a distance.

Skysabre repeats the same process as before, scanning the statue with x-rays.

Ellbeth scans the area of the loin statue with eyes sensitive to magical energies.

As Ellbeth enters the hall the head of the lion begins to speak. "Welcome adventurers. I am the Sphinx of Skull Island. If you wish to continue though these caves, you must solve my riddle.

"The sphinx is another mechanical construct." Skysabre explains. "However, given its size and the durability of the other constructs encountered so far I suggest we try the riddle, as it is blocking the exit."

Sword Dancer says, "What is riddre?"

A man is dying, so he calls his two sons to his side and tells them that in order to decide which will become his heir, they will have a race to a distant town. Whichever one of the sons' horses crosses the finish line last would be the heir. The two men start the race and they both use every tactic they can to stay behind the other brother. At the end of the first day they have barely gone 100 yards. They stop at an inn for the night and they tell the bartender their dilemma. He gives them each two words of advice and the next day when they start their race anew, they both race towards the other town. What were the two words of advice that the bartender gave the brothers?"

Hype nods and stands back, hovering a bit, wondering.

Ellbeth laughs, "Swap horses."

Sword Dancer laughs. "Is good joke!"

The sphinx stands up on its feet, revealing the stairs that it was sitting on. The stairs are now accessible, but one needs to pass beneath the sphinx to reach them.

Sword Dancer passes that way, but makes sure her sword is above her while passing under the sphinx!