Steven
She quickly scans the area, noting that they were mysteriously down a cream-colored goat. She hops down from the shoulders of her defender.

"Phew, good fighting everyone." She congratulates, striding on over to the corpse of their eccentric guide. She turns him face up, checking for a pulse in order to find the correct choice of action to take, yet is not restricted in her abilities — after all, they are no longer *In combat.*

The cat leans down, whispering something very, very quietly into the ears of the corpse, perhaps some kind of quote to commemorate the passing on of such a leader.

She raises her two gauntlets upwards, to the sky; the gemstone adorned sending electricity crackling between both of them. She begins to rub both gauntlets together, as if they were magic defibrillators — enough to reset a stopped heart, or stop one that never ended its beating — preparing to **Revivify** The dead Alois. The defender stands on guard, watching for any potential sneak attacks that might occur should a knight miraculously wake up from their beatdown.
Marcus
Josh and Shade dusted themselves off.

"Alright, that goat guy went ahead and left off without us, which is a stupid thing to do considering our guide is dead and we have no idea what the hell is out there!"

Josh proceeded to open a medium-sized container, take out a tofu-like object, and plop it into his mouth like a pill. As he did this, his eyes briefly shined a light tint of purple.

"I think we should follow him, it's a smart idea to not get separated, especially in territory like this. Once everyone's done here we should move."
Erika
He looked over to the pin cushions that were formerly two knights, so much for that, standing up straight he sorted his clothing, and immediately noticed the absence of Kuouo.
```diff
- "What kinda moron" -
```
He sighed, his mind was filled with a thousand thoughts, their guide was dead which was good and bad, he had a job to do an his own ulterior motives, there was the issue of the device and inspecting the mega structure itself, and now they had lost a member.
```diff
- "I suggest we dont split up so for the moment i will be following our missing companion, we have no clue whats out there and only one way out, so its in your best intrests to follow" -
```
He began walking rather swiftly, almost a jog but not quite, following the sounds of further conflict
Debra
With the combat ended the drone swooped down and dropped the VARET into Cumhall's hands mid stride, it latched onto his back and took a moment to stitch up the slash in his clothes, then continued on ahead, making sure to scan and analyse every piece of the structure.
Erika
With time of the essence the most obvious solution was to multi task, and so whilst walking down the hallway and beginning his descent he would begin to inspect the VARET, trying to discern how to use it, and analysing its internal workings.
Steven
She watches as the trio — drone man, the drone, and the paper-white thingy — descend down the stairs, utterly confused as to what exactly the plan of action was. Overhead, the lightning fizzles out as Revivify is dispelled without action, saving the spell slot, but missing the opportunity to actually revive the guide himself through means of extreme defibrillation. "Right, well... I'll catch up once I'm done with this whole... Thing." She motions to the still body of Alois, "Just keep yourselves out of trouble — my inventions can only spread so thin before they need to be re-tuned."

She glances over to the quiet girl who wielded a gun, motioning towards the group headed down the stairs. ".. You've a steady aim; could you bail them out if things go wrong? I just need to get things all squared away — I'm sure this kind man would like nothing more than at least to be tidied up for if someone else finds him." Tabby banks upon the peculiarly formal personality of the man laid out under her for her assumption.

The defender walks over to the cat, standing above and performing a "Routine scan-mode". "'sides, I can handle myself; got the experience and craftiness to show for it."
John
. . .

All current threats were eliminated. Logic indicates to tread behind the group as previous utilizing the downward staircase. It seemed that the concern of collective communication remained minor, and completely null pertaining to her despite her complete lack of an offensive or defensive approach. Only, did her impulse to not be *Entirely* Useless allow her to finish off an opposition essentially gone already, and hadn't she done so, the same fate would've likely been sealed for them. Questionable marksmanship, but the advantage of swiftness negated that in the given scenario. Moreover, though, she left unscarred for a form of battle she'd consider herself ill-prepared for otherwise. Earlier, she already concluded twice-over that this was best case scenario, and that there was nothing further to do but proceed.

She stared.

ＹＯＵ　ＤＡＲＥ　ＮＯＴ　ＦＡＩＬ，　ＵＫＩ　ゥよぷぼ哀
ＹＯＵ　ＤＡＲＥ　ＮＯＴ　ＦＡＩＬ，　ＵＫＩ　ゥよぷぼ哀
ＹＯＵ　ＤＡＲＥ　ＮＯＴ　ＦＡＩＬ，　ＵＫＩ　ゥよぷぼ哀
ＹＯＵ　ＤＡＲＥ　ＮＯＴ　ＦＡＩＬ，　ＵＫＩ　ゥよぷぼ哀
ＹＯＵ　ＤＡＲＥ　ＮＯＴ　ＦＡＩＬ，　ＵＫＩ　ゥよぷぼ哀

Yₒᵤ cₐₘₑ ₕₑᵣₑ, dₒ ₛₒₘₑₜₕᵢₙg ₐbₒᵤₜ ᵢₜ. . .
ᵁⁿˡᵉˢˢ ʸᵒᵘ ᵗʰⁱⁿᵏ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ʰⁱᵍʰˡʸ. . .¿SƎ⅁ᗡIᴚᙠ Nᴚ∩ᙠ ∩O⅄ ᗡN∀ 'S⊥SƎᴚ ⅄⊥IN∩⊥ᴚOԀԀO
¿SƎ⅁ᗡIᴚᙠ Nᴚ∩ᙠ ∩O⅄ ᗡN∀ 'S⊥SƎᴚ ⅄⊥IN∩⊥ᴚOԀԀO—

Voices overlap, as she quietly shuffles her way to the *Upward* Staircase, with a gun in hand.
Steven
"Wrong staircase," The artificer calls over, really unsure as to what exactly is going on. *Well, guess they're screwed.* She thinks of the bigger bunch, withdrawing a cloth and a couple styling things from one of her satchels; trying to make the unmoving Alois look at least a bit more presentable than he might already be, preparing to move him up to a nearby wall or pillar and prop him up so that he isn't simply just *Laying* There.
Jessie
In her attempts to revive the guide, Tabby would notice something quite interesting about the collapsed form of the young man, Alois. Something very, very interesting — indeed, there was *No blood.* Not a spec, on his clothes, on the ground beneath him, or splattered across the room around where he was initially impaled. When he had been stabbed through, there had been no form of trickery or illusion, nay; the blade had pierced him straight through the chest, bright as day and clear as glass. And, too, there was a **Hole in his body,** Matching the shape and size of the blade, indicating that he indeed was struck straight through the chest... Yet, again, *Not a spot of blood.*

Certainly, such a development would lure one to peer more closely at Alois' form. Staring into the hole within his chest, she'd swiftly be able to take notice... 

*He is not made out of skin, flesh, and blood like the rest of them, but rather what appears to be wood.*


 Beneath his torn shirt, where his skin would typically be hidden from the eye, Alois' skin has a distinctly wooden texture. Pressing one's bare hands against his body would reveal that he had no internal body temperature of any sort, and neither did he have a heartbeat.



*Alois was not a human; no, in sharp contrast, he was a puppet.*



And, now, lain across the ground, he appeared entirely inanimate — perhaps dead, or perhaps just in a state of rest. He did not respond to either of Tabby's whispers, neither her attempts to revive him, instead remaining completely inanimate on the floor.
Steven
Well, dead or alive, those who were within earshot could certainly hear the sudden standing up of the feline, and the sudden dropping of Alois. The wielder yet hovers over the corpse, peering cautiously, letting out a very quiet "*Hhhhhhhuuuuh...*" Before she steps back, putting her left hand to the bottom of her chin and seemingly petting herself, stroking her fur — and then placing it on her chin on the same side of said hand. 

*What in the name of Gond is this?* She ponders, trying to recall various wood-like beings from adventures past. *No, this is much too big to be a simple twig blight — and too human, as well.. No vines as far as I can see, either.. How __interesting__. . .*

The sentinel-like machine next to her makes note of it, storing it wherever its "Thoughts" Go, to be sure, as Tabby calls out to the rest of the group. "I think... We've been duped." Her hands fall to her sides. "Lead by a false guide into a dungeon filled with things we know near nothing of.. The knights said something about their duty before running him through — perhaps the duty was to sell the illusion of comradery and to kill us all by surprise..." She hypothesizes aloud, before continuing. "Go on ahead, I'll... Try to make sense of this situation before we meet again." Well, this is quite a pickle for one to be sat in, isn't it?

What to do... What to do... *I could attempt to cast Identify, but.. If it's unmoving, that might not give me any information to go off of.. Maybe the spell has already dispersed.. Hmm...*