They forewent the room full of plasticine-encased hearts. They went around the back entrance.

They found a sort of junk room, piles of broken coral, pieces of synth, unidentifiable coils of…stuff. The floor was some kind of compressed stone material. Shifting through the spectra, Roz and Shambo were able to see that radiation was running through the walls, but there was a seam in the ceiling, though which more severe hard light was shining, and a seam in the opposite wall that seemed innocuous.

Among the junk they found a pair of spheres covered in strange, swirling colors. Takir was able to interface with an informational system and identify them as some kind of dessicating grenades. Activated by holding the sphere, thinking of an explosion, and then a count of 8….

They also found a chest-sized hemisphere in bright yellow, marked with a warning sign and a frowny-face on the bottom. The cracked frowny-face, shattered as if by someone punching it right in its icon nose, there was some kind of intelligent artificial life form inside that tried to escape them… by scuttling, and then by dissolving its way incredibly quickly into the stone floor, and “hiding” under junk.

Up through the ceiling, they found a coral room stewarded by mechanical snails, processing the coral into energy that was being distributed into the maelstrom and also the next room (that turned out to be some kind of pump room manned by beautiful lavender suckerfish). Some analysis revealed this to be the end-point of some kind of energy-generation system in the structure. The snails seemed unconcerned by the group’s presence, and except for Hasver floating above one as it discharged to the center of the room, the room was harmless.

They decided to attempt to commune with the human hearts. Entering what turned out to likely be a guard room, it became clear that these hearts had only one intent: harm. Their long trailing fibers were weapons, and as soon as the group entered through the wall membrane (revealed as ever by Hasver’s power), the hearts swarmed at them. They stung Takir on his way out, jolting him with some kind of energy-transmission toxin that attacked his nerve cells.

Shaking, they regrouped below the snails, in the junk room. The sad face little fella seemed content, hidden as it wasn’t with its yellow body fairly glowing in the blue light of the structure.

In the next room, they found A Nem o’knee and Another Nem o’knee sensitive to movement in the water; they thrashed and vibrated, creating vicious turbidity in the room, driving the group back toward the wall, and the entrance. The tubes and cables and structures dangling from the ceiling slowly settled back down, and the 2 tentacled creatures went back to feeding on the stirred detritus in the water.

Takir had a tablet which could potentially transport them beyond the creatures in the room.

There were 2 seams in the room, one sparking with electrical energy. The other seemed quiescent.

Tired already from their journey, and the harm and the deep dark sea, they didn’t know how to interpret the massive shadow they had already seen twice moving… through the pale white walls of the building.

The Lair