Beruga Going Down

Talking giant gerbil!?!?!? What ? who ? how ? THATS MY LEG? and it points at the dropped foot and boot. My hands is screams as it holds them up in front of its face What did you do? Are you a vampiric gerbil?

After several screaming exchanges you each calm down, somewhat, enough to talk

I don't know my name. I remember being a guard, and I think it was here he says as he shoves and twists his leg until it somehow 'clicks' back into place The last thing I recall are vague memories of the war then a wierd storm and ..... what happed? Who are you?

The dead, undead, reanimated, guard still seems to be in shock as he sits twidling his knee cap click , click . . . click, click . . . and listens you you. Afte a while he shakes he head and replies to what he can recall of your quesitons.

No idea about a "Dawn War" but I was a guarad here during the Great War.

I am not aware of any city near here. We were set to guard ans monitor the planar membrane in this region. Thats whats upstairs, the observation post looking around he mutters if it is still working.

Wait, fellow? There is another survivor, . . . .errrr person? . . .You met someone else?

That must ge GoiFetch. Its just a golem that helps about the place. Funny, the eyes don't usually glow bright enough to emit light. the skeleton says as it strugles to its feet. Let us see what we can learn then. Monitoring the membrane is no big deal he pauses for a moment to look over his skeletal arm once again usually. It just means that we watch for incursions from the outer plains and localize it then send in reports. Ocasionally we had to go shut down random natural fisures and had to fight things but the sensors catch them forming so only small things gets through

As he talks he heads for the stairs up in an oddly shuflfing and staggering walk. You notice that their movments are more natural when they are distracted or focusing on other things but become more uncoordinated when they try to move with care. Odd that. As you follow you pick up an old looking dagger and a small shiny ring from the floor where the skeletal figure had lain. The daggers blad is stained dark with mud or rust and the ring is tarnished but has a few small gemstones inset around a signet of some kind.

Up stairs the window slits give a full view of the surrounding with each being about a foot wide and three feet tall. The center of the room is taken up by a large stone platform with the corners capped with metal disks inset with small gemstones. There are tattered remains of papper on the platform that likely would have covered most of it in years past. The skeleton glances out the windows and pauses, looking aorund, the stumbles to the platform and tapps the disks a coupld of times Only one responds with a faint flicker of light that blinks ppink and green before forming a small strang symbole in the air that fades after a moment.

Gone? It is all gone? What did they do? How could we loose so bad? the skeleton mutters.

Somehow without lungs, lips, vocal cords, or a tongue the skeleton sighs. You have no idea why that seems odd when it is talking but it does. As I said the tower is a monitoring station. There is enough working enchantment to let me know how we lost. Badly. He looks at his hands again I guess this makes a bit more sense but not entirely.

Turning to look at you it says The Aid is still active? Maybe it can answer more questions. As for the tower being unsafe, that seems unlikely. Strange and possibly frighteng yes. But not dangerous. It has, or had, many enchantments to protect us and if we were in evacuation mode then they may have been activated.

The matrix node, if it is working, can take us, or you rather, almost anywhere in the mortal realms where there is another working Node. Lets go see. He looks back outside, tries tapping the table again but only gets a few faint flickers that might be symbols before it stops responding again.

With the skeleton in the lead once more you make your way down the stairs to the basement. The skeleton looks the room over without fear and issues a few commands and questions to the construct. Failing to get a reaction he kneels down to investigate it a few moments before sitting back at it slaps his hand away.

Well that seals it. It does not recognize me as an authorized commander. You will have to ask it questions and give it instructions. It seems to be quite banged up but not broken. I can look for and rune disks to attempt to repair and restore its power to move and speak. If you let me know anything you particularly need maybe I can help you with that. I can also help you phrase questions and commands for the Aid.
You have been rather nice, given my current state, and since I will be trapped here for eternity I should thank the person who woke me with a kiss and you somehow get the idea he is smiling in amusement, despite his perpetual skeletal grin.

As you consider its words the skeleton begins cleaning the basement, sorting through things and making piles of objects. One pile is obviously trash, the other smaller piles have a mix of items and you are unsure of the sorting plan.