>>150767
Nothing in the chamber? Go on ahead through the opening.

Tell him to check the hole in the wall, is it dark?

"Alright, might as well"

Paul squeezes his way through the door with little trouble, and enters a hallway which he follows to a fork.
To his left is a rather large door which appears to be made out of some kind of metal.
To his right is a path that leads off into the darkness.
"I think I can see what looks like stars off to the right... but it's, what, 2pm?"

Tell him to ready the hammer and shine his lantern at the dark place, maybe it's not what it seems.

>>150773
He does so, and lights up a good section of the tunnel, revealing a lip that seems to be the entrance to another chamber.
"The stars aren't moving, just sorta twinkling like real stars."

How do the scouting drones work exactly?

>>150775
[He tosses them in the air and uses the paired laser pointer to paint the target. Then it flies around the target transmitting sound and video until it's recalled.]

Okay. Tell him to shine the laser pointer at the stars, see how far away they are.

>>150779
The drone starts buzzing around the laser pointer, which means the beam isn't being reflected.

...Weird. Okay, might as well explore the stars. But keep the hammer out, who knows what kinds of sinister beasties are around. Oh, and make sure there's a ground to step on before he actually goes through.

>>150783
He pokes his head out the opening and looks around. His helmet camera picks up a few of the brighter stars, but more importantly there's a big glowing circle. There's barely enough light to see the ground, but you can see for miles around.
"There's grass here? And... Is that the moon? It's a god damned moon! Guys, how long was I out?"

Hell if we know!

Can he recognize any constellations? Or are they weird?

>>150786
"I'm not an astrologer! How the heck should I know?"

[FYI: You haven't lost consciousness, and neither has he.]

Out? You weren't knocked out! It's still daylight out here!

>>150788
[The video quality is too poor to see any but the brightest stars. You can't tell constellations from the video feed.]

>>150789
"Oh, fuck me."

"Gladly, but you'll have to get back here first."

Not even the big dipper? Really?

>>150791
"What should I do? Go out there? Go back to the door? What?"

>>150795
"Even I know that's in the northern hemisphere!"

Damnit. Okay, keep going, there's less risk of cave in if you can see the frickin' SKY. Shine the laser pointer around the ground without activating the drones, check for pitfalls where you walk. Unless the lantern is enough for that, in which case keep the hammer out.

>>150798
"It's an IR laser, and I've got a flashlight for that. Here, lemme check the area..."
He moves the flashlight over the terrain, and seems to not notice as it passes over a 4' long 2' tall quadrupedal rodent.

There's a giant rat, pay more attention. Run back to the entrance, use it as a choke point. Ready your hammer in case it attacks.

>>150800
"My day's just getting better, 'eh?"
He runs back to the metal door, since he hadn't left the cave's entrance.

Ah. Is the rat trying to get through the entrance?

>>150803
"I don't see it. I guess it's just... waiting out there or something."

>>150805
Maybe it's not aggressive. Even so, perhaps you should explore the other path for now.

As in, the door. Try to find a way to open it.

Taking a look at the door, you see three symbols on it. All three are a gray circle with a smaller green circle inside them, except one has the circle in the lower left, another in the lower right, and the third at the top.
There's a bunch of what seem to be pressure pads lining the door with various combinations of these three symbols, plus a few that don't match at all.
The one thing all the pads have in common is that there are three for each combination, and no two similar combos are near each other.
Any ideas?

None. Go back to the open room.

>>150814
"There's nothing there, just bare walls."

No, the sky room. Shine your flashlight at the rodent again.

>>150818
"You're sure? Well, alright..."
He returns to the entrance, and shines his light around. The rodent has moved, but now there are some eyes glimmering in the darkness.
"Ok, there's, like, thirty of them out here, but none of them seem to be paying attention to me.
Can I go back inside? This is creeping me out."

Sissywimp. Alright, go back to the weird door. Can you see the symbols anywhere else?

>>150821
Paul walks back to the door
"Nope, just on and around the door... Huh, the symbols on the door aren't on any of the pads alone, only in combos."

>>150823
((can we get a picture here, please? We're supposed to have a video feed.))

>>150829
[Sorry, my art skills suck.
Don't worry about this puzzle, though. It's easy, not suspiciously easy.]

Pick up some dirt and blow it on the plates, CSI style. If that doesn't work... try pushing the combination with all three of the circles on the door?

>>150831
Nothing sticks to the plates.
Pushing the buttons that contain all three symbols results in a click, followed by the door sliding to the sides.
Beyond the door is a hallway. After a moment of darkness, a calm blue glow starts to fade in from the smooth walls inside. The glow spreads down the hall, getting dimmer further away from Paul.

Flashlight the hall and walk through if it looks safe.

>>150842
Paul advances slowly down the hallway. It lights up as he moves through it, but nothing else seems to happen.
Eventually he comes to a turn, and around it he spots a giant geodesic dome over what appears to be an underground metropolis.
A small metal buglike robot thing on wheels comes over to him, projects a hologram of some creature he's never seen before, and starts chittering away.

>>150849
Poke the robot gently.

>>150851
It tilts back a bit, then the hologram changes to look like Paul.
It's still chittering away incomprehensibly.

>>150853
Try talking to it.

>>150854
"Alright, um, hello?"

'Alright um hello.'

>>150855
Introduce yourself, ask what this place is.

Hopefully it's not just repeating what you say. Maybe it's got a sophisticated AI with language learning capability.

>>150855
Keep talking to it; it's probably trying to understand English.

>>150855
STOP USING ORAL FILLERS.

The following are not to be used while speaking to it:

Um
Ah
Uh
Eh
inappropriate use of the word 'like'

Don't make it harder to learn your language than necessary.

>>150866
"Geeze, no need to shout. I'm right here."
The robot starts to slowly move backwards, stopping once it's about ten feet away.

>>150989
Follow it.

>>151086
It leads me to some kind of wall station, and the hologram detaches itself from the robot and puts its hands on two wall plates. After a moment it snaps back to the robot and repeats the action.

>>151088
Mimic that action.

>>151089
"Ok, Can do-"
RRRRRRRRRZZZZAAAAAAAAA-AAA-AAA-AAA-AAA-*No Carrier*

*Reconnecting to host...*
"-ucking fuck?"
Chittering in the background
*Video Error: 0EFFC905. Retrying at 5 second intervals*
"Ok, yea, I guess that makes sense. What did you mean by [chittering sounds in Paul's tone]?"
More chittering from the robot, the sound of moving wheels
"Guys, I'm a bit woozy at the moment but I think I'm ok. It was... strange, but now I can understand the bot. It wants me to follow it to some kinda... Ok, I don't think I can translate it too well, but it has something to do with control access."

>>151091
Sounds like they need outside assistance, whoever they are. Let's assist.

>>151092
Footsteps and the whirr of a wheel suggest Paul is following the robot.
"I'll just ask the bot. Hey, uh, whatever your name is, how many people are here, and what do they need me to do?"
*Chittering from the robot*
"He says there aren't any other living creatures here, and that I'm supposed to do something. Hrm... I guess it would translate ok as 'control access (to be uplifted)', but that doesn't seem quite right.
Anything else I should ask the bot?"

Ask the bot for an appropriate designation to address it by.
After that, examine the wall closer and/or ask the robot about it.

>>151096
"So, what's your name?"
*chittering*
"Ah, ok. My name's Paul, nice to meet you. Is it alright if I call you 'Chumpy'?"
*chittering*
"You mean the thing with the pads back there? That thing takes brain scans and does some kinda memory transfer thing."

Hmm... Control Access Uplink perhaps?

Maybe they're going to poke a hole in your skull and put wires in you, so you can assume direct control.

>>151100
Sounds like a plan!

>>151100
"What, so you think I should leave?"

>>151104
Nope.

>>151105
"Uh... Right... You guys are doing wonderful things to my sense of security right now."
*chittering* *A soft PFFTSHHH is heard*
"Ok, Chumpy's telling me to walk in there and press those pads. Should I do it?"

>>151106
Yeah. Regardless of what's going to happen, you're humanity's representative. They need assistance. It would not reflect well on us to walk away from it just because we think they're going to do something weird to you.

On the other hand, you might want to ask exactly what it does.

Ask what it'll do first. Then do it.

>>151108
>>151109
"Chumpy says it's 'control access (uplifting)'. Not that helpful."

>>151107
"So far all I've seen are robots like Chumpy, and they seem to mostly be shut down. Ok, pressing the pads now..."
RRZZzzaaa-*No Carrier*

*Reconnecting to host...*
"-ier than the first time, at least..."
*Video Error: 0EFFC905. Retrying at 5 second intervals*
"Ok, that was another... infodump thing.
It's gonna take me awhile to sort through this, but so far I know that using skills helps me understand related skills, and I've got a few skills right now that I can work on.
Also, they've got this weird thing going on that's kinda like magic, but not really. It's broken into two types, kinda like positive and negative. They're part of the environment so it's not like something I have, but it's a bit like legs; how fast you use them is how fast you tire out.
I can practice channeling energy into things, but the two types of energy behave differently. They work out to basically be 'Bless' and 'Curse'.
I've also got some physical skills they built on, namely my ability to build things and take them apart, but I need stuff to practice on for those.
There are some weapons skills too, but all I've got is the hammer, chisel, pickaxe, and rod so I'm kinda restricted to melee.

The only instruction I got is something like 'Don't fuck up', which kinda bugs me.

So, what should I practice?
*Bless
*Curse
*Construction
*Deconstruction
*Melee Weapons."

>>151114
Practice on Bless first. Better to learn the way to heal before learning how to damage. I mean, in case you damage something you don't want to.

Does the robot have any further instructions?

>>151114

Maybe you should ask it what happened to all of the other robots and, more importantly, their creators... If they have any. You don't want to get caught unprepared.

>>151119
"Ok... I gave the wall a little bit of a bless. I feel a little bit calmer near it, and a little bit more relaxed. Hey, Chumpy!" *A soft PFFTSHHH is heard* "Do you have any other instructions for me?"
*chittering, and a slight clinking sound*
"Ok, I have no idea what this armband does, and Chumpy says I'm supposed to bring 'the others' here with a kinda tribal connotation."

>>151122
"Chumpy, why are so many of the robots off? What happened to your creators? Or aren't there any? Err, not physical ones, anyway?"
*A string of chitters*
"Chumpy says most of the robots are on standby since there isn't much work to do keeping an empty city going, and that the city was abandoned after... Yea, I can't translate that. Best guest is 'fleeing hubris apocalypse'.
Chumpy says their instructions were to wait for the development of intelligent life and properly equip them."

>>151123
Ask it where you should go from there. Before that, though, look around your immediate area for anything stranger than you've already seen. What does it look like?

>>151124
"Well, there's a desk here... and a chair... Those are the first I've seen here, at least. I guess that's strange."

>>151125

Tell it about the cave-in that happened before the door was opened.

>>151126
"Chumpy, there was a cave-in in the tunnel off to the right side of the entrance. Can you tell me anything about that?"
*chittering*
"It says they detected the cave-in, but it didn't do anything to the city. That's all."

>>151127
Ask if there is an armory or a supply station with exploration or construction materials.

>>151130
"Any place I can get some weapons, equipment, or supplies here?"
*chittering*
"It says they don't have any equipment that would fit me, but there's a basic armory I can use and they can get me food and water.
I can ask for some weapons, though I can't carry all that much more weight.

What they have basically equates to:
*Dagger
*Sword
*Warhammer/Axe thing
*Pistol
*Scoped Rifle
*Shotgun

... but keep in mind I need to carry ammo, too.
I could ask for specific weapons and equipment, but they would need to build it and that would take time and a clear explanation of what to make."

>>151131
Dagger, Rifle, and the Warhammer if you can manage it.

>>151132
"Alright, Chumpy, could I get-"*Paul chitters*
*Chumpy chitters in response*
"One of them is fetching 'em, I guess. I asked for a pistol too, since I dunno if I'll be able to carry the warhammer/axe combo along with everything else.
I think I could leave some stuff here if you want me to, though."

>>151134
Ditch your pickaxe and hammer.

Can you ask the robot where exactly you are, since it doesn't seem like you're on Earth anymore?

>>151139
"Are you sure you want me to ditch my hammer? It's not that heavy, and I'm pretty sure it's easier to wield than a warhammer.
Chumpy, what's the name of this planet?"
*chittering*
"It's a proper noun so it doesn't really have a meaning, and I don't think trying to pronounce it would be any more convenient than saying 'that planet' or something... I don't know what you were expecting, honestly."

>>151265

After the robot comes back with the equipment you requested, ask how to get out of the city, and what you should do from there.

>>151265

Also, before leaving, ditch the pick axe and lantern- the flashlight should be enough for scouting, and is less unwieldy to hold while trying to aim a pistol, and is also lighter.

>>151860
>>151861
"Hey, Chumpy? Can I leave some things with you guys? And can we meet the bot with the weapons at the entrance?"
*chittering*
"Ok, I'm gonna head for the entrance now, and practice this 'Bless' thing along the way."

Yes, go to the entrance.

>>174130
"Alright, I made the inventory switches and have started walking down this hallway to the fork in the cave. I think I'm getting the hang of blessing random walls and pillars and railings and stuff.
Where should I head to once I get to the fork?"