Into the Gray

Session Summary

Arachne tries to pick the lock of the beeping safe with some assistance, but is unsuccessful until one vain tug suddenly springs it open. Inside, we find a large, 15lb gun that works similarly to other tech we've discovered. Elzira investigates the gun and finds nothing more than what we already know. Wash goes into another room and taunts turrets until they stop firing, then finds a piece of research about autonomous units that can complete various tasks. Meanwhile, Arachne befriends the safe and discovers that it can respond to her through my casting Tongues on her. We communicate with the safe through Arachne, and learn that it has been poked at before and something has exploded. The safe needs to be hooked up to something to survive if it is to leave this area.

Log

Still in the New Dawn Warehouse

Arachne disappears and the beeping stops.

I put my hand on top of it and there is a soft beep followed by silence. 

Arachne reappears and it starts beeping urgently again. 

I look to see if there is any kind of weight-sensitive pad underneath the safe. It does not appear to have any padding. There is a small cord that goes into the floor. 

Arachne gets off the safe and it stops beeping. She tries to unhook it. It goes “beep beep beep beeeeeep.”

She sits back on top of it to see if it beeps. It does. She casts guidance on herself, is trying to persuade the safe, and leaning over the safe while on top of it trying to pick it. Twinkletoes gives her Bardic Inspiration. 

She just isn't able to cut it. 

Suddenly one vain tug, it suddenly springs open. She says “Thank you” and gives it a hug. Then she looks inside. Twinkletoes and I rush over to look inside.

There are some soft beeps when she flips off of it to hug it. 

Inside is some kind of gun. There is an object with a cylindrical barrel. It is large and weighs about 15lbs. It takes 2 hands to operate it. There is a convenient trigger that was pulled on. #items

Elzira investigates it but doesn’t know much more than we already know. It seems like it works similar to the other tech we’ve found, with a core inside of it. 

When Arachne starts leaving, the safe starts beeping frantically until she gets back close to the safe, when it chirps happily. 

“Are you okay?” she asks the safe. It beeps in response.

Meanwhile, in the other room, Wash is taunting turrets. Over the course of four minutes of continued fire, plus the time it takes to remove the arrows, eventually they stop firing. He uses his dagger to get a feel for what else is in the room before stepping in. He is pretty sure the turrets recessed back into some kind of docking position when out of ammo. He’s certain that there is nothing else in the room. He salvages half of the arrows. There are 150 arrows he can take. 

With that, he saunters into the room.  He finds research.

“26/6/5204

We’ve been able to develop autonomous units that while connected to magic power can be used to complete various tasks. Obviously we’re focused on the combat capabilities and considering what can be done if we’re able to make the unit mobile. This depends on having a power unit that it can carry or be carried with it. Uncertain how feasible this is but it is certainly worth further research.”

He comes back into the room and sees Arachne trying to befriend the safe. He leaves.

“If you can understand me, please beep once if you understand what I am saying.” 

It beeps twice. She says she’s gonna plug it back in. She tells it to beep twice if she shouldn’t do that. It beeps once. 

She plugs it in. It goes: “Beep beeeeep.” And then does all kinds of beeps. She figures out if she should close the door. There's more beeps.

“I hope you’re doing alright. Bye.” Arachne starts leaving. 

There are a couple of beeps again. She casts Sending to talk to it and asks if it’s okay. She gets a series of beeps in reply in her head. She says “Oh holy shit it responded to me!”

So, I cast Tongues on Arachne. She kneels down in front of the safe. “Okay I didn’t understand that but now we should be able to do that. Do you understand me?”

“Yeah.”

Are you okay? Yeah I’m just chilling, it’s boring here. Have you always been a safe? What else would I be? Good point. What were you saying when I was leaving? I just wanted to go somewhere. Or to at least not be unplugged, I’d die eventually that way. Do you remember when you were born, as it were? I guess it wouldn’t be born as you would understand it… I just started having thoughts one day. Would you mind sharing your earliest memory with me? Somebody was poking at my front to get inside of me. Do you remember if they were saying anything? It was a long time ago. Did they ever talk to you? No. That’s rude. So this place is super empty. You know that though. Do you remember a day when maybe a bunch of people were yelling and screaming and maybe things were exploding? Do you remember anything like that, and then no one else came in? Yeah, something like that happened a while back. Do you remember any details? I can’t imagine anything that’d be useful to you. Hm, you need to be hooked up to this thing right? Yeah, though I can survive a while without it. Well I will talk to my friends and see what we can do. But I promise unless I die I will come back here. I will remember you’re here. But it sounds like you’d have more fun where people would talk to you. Or where I could listen to conversations. 

I interrupt to say maybe April can take him. 

We have a friend who might be able to help. That sounds cool. Do you have a name? I don’t have a name. Yeah that’s fair. I’ll come back later. Sounds good. Please don’t sit on me by the way. 

She gets up. “So this safe doesn’t have a name. It hasn’t decided yet. We’ll talk to April to see about getting it a new home. It needs a power source. Maybe April could help. Don’t sit on the safe. It doesn’t like that. I guess we should get going. Okay, bye!” She waves at it as we leave.

I remind Arachne that Tongues lasts for an hour. “Maybe the robots understand you.”

She gasps and runs over to the robots. She sees all the arrows and is like, good god. 

We find Wash hanging out with the now-empty turrets. 

“I am gonna go see if these robots can be reasoned with.” She knocks on the door. “Hello. Can you hear me? Can you understand me? Can you respond to me?”

There is just banging on the door. 

“If you don’t respond to me I will assume you are non-sentient things we should blow up.”

Again, no response. 

“Lets carry this one into the hallway” Wash tells us, as he points to a turret. 

Arachne points to the weapon Elzara is holding from the safe. 

We work together to set up a turret. We’re able to use the extra cords Arachne took earlier to get it where we want in the hallway. We load it and aim it at the door where the robots would come out.  

Wash says he and Elzara should use their shields for the squishy people. 

The blue light doesn’t move and stays pointed at the door.