The bugbear commander's ears are nearly rotted off due to necrotic damage.

Alice sheds a tear at the pitiful state of this formidable enemies' ears, mumbling to herself
That was a magnificent display of force, Yulya! But did you have to ruin his ears? Looks like I will have to go for that bugbear king Grok or whatever...

Alice shakes her head and moves on.

Alice notices that Bugbear 1,3,4,5 and one of the wolves are still alive and will regain consciousness eventually. All the ears are singed and smell of burnt hair. From what she could see without searching the bodies, their equipment mostly consists of rags and scrap armor, their weapons are of the lowest quality, modified from iron weapons or completely makeshift.

Oh, we almost forgot about you guys! How rude of me!

Alice kills off the survivors with her spear and collects the ears of the winter wofl and of the bugbear in the best state.
Terrible, but this will have to do for now! I'll replace them with better ones, hopefully!



Being called by Yulya, Alice catches up with the others at the elevator, wary of the shabby construction and deep abyss.
Yulya, look out for traps! We should have squeezed out the information of Ashley while she was still herself!

Alice kills the survivors and just as she's trying to cut an ear from the remaining winter wolf, it disintegrates into flakes of ash and dust between her fingers. The ears of the bugbears are all in horrible shape, not just because they're singed, but because they're covered in warts, moles, tumors, scabs, scars, wounds, crusty wax, dirt and dead parasites: fleas, ticks, mites and lice. These are filthy creatures, cured of their vermin with holy light. Not a single ear is fully intact. She forgoes searching the bodies and heeds Yulya's call.



The mine contains many closed boxes and barrels, there are other places to search, but it seems the serviceable area looks safe enough so far.

Despite Cat's efforts Ashley's undeterred and makes it to the open shaft first. She looks up at the chains and gears and looks like she knows exactly what to do, she pulls a couple levers and grabs one of the smaller chains and tugs on it... she tugs on it again... she looks around, pushes on the levers looks at the gears and grabs the chain and tugs on it again... she's hanging on the chain and it won't move.

Yulya catches up with Alice and is perplexed by the mechanism, it's intricate and robust construction unlike the makings of humans or elves, the scale seemingly unfitting for dwarves even.

[PERCEPTION 1d20+5+4=25] Before Yulya's enhanced sight fades, she's nearly certain there's no traps, she peers down the shaft and can see with perfect clarity the depths of this mine to the range of her enhanced sight, in the 120Ft, there's a pattern of blocked off and open cracks, holes, caverns and passages going every which way most of them blocked off, some filled with debris, held back by wood and metal. A series of heavy chains leads down and the ones {Ashley} is tugging on are smaller, but they all lead down into the dark depths of this mine. She can see the only safe way down is by this elevator.

[LORE 1d20+5=15] The ruddy and grey material sparks her memory, this is dwarven metal, a bronze alloy, tougher than iron, stronger then steel, made to stand the test of time but not beyond the forces of nature, the mechanisms are slightly rusting in the cool damp air.



{Ashley} looks at her and though she didn't need to catch {Ashley's} glowing eyes and frustrated gaze, Yulya's mind is nonetheless flooded with frustration, along with it, a download of diagrams, mechanical schematics, mathematical proofs of advanced mechatherial theory and calculations along with comparisons to impossible mechanisms well beyond her understanding, the overload of data leads her to one conclusion, this mechanism should be working if you tug this chain, {Ashley's} tugging it, hanging from it, but it's not moving.

[Interactions Required.]

Cat rotates an ear to Yulya and gives her a puzzled look to confirm that Ashley hasn't gone crazy.

Yulya quickly fills in Cat on the news that Ashleys body is now controlled by the mechatherial demigoddess M3gan

Cat takes her crowbar and inserts it into the links of the chain, creating a bar to hold on to. Theen she gently but steadily pulls the chain down

Yulya quickly stops the barbarian's crude attempt tp 'solve problems' by brute force
Wait a minute Cat! This is a delicate mechanism! I wonder who made this? Gnomes? If you break it we may be safe for the moment but we will never be able to get down there!



Alice!
Climb up the chain and apply lamp oil to the gears up there where the chain begins! It is probably just a bit rusted!

Yulya covers her eyes but is glad the damage appears to be marginal. She looks around at Ashley and Alice to see what her newfound truesight can reveal.

Looking at Alice, Yulya notices a dark hole of nothingness that stands out not just against her other living companions, but also the background. Even the surrounding rocks appear to be slightly but noticeably infused with mana that is utterly lacking from Alice's body. Truly a foreign object in this world.

Alice!
Climb up the chain and apply lamp oil to the gears up there where the chain begins! It is probably just a bit rusted!

Yulya is too late, Cat's attempt at getting the mechanism unstuck works perfectly, a small pebble is crushed between the chain and gear and it starts to move easily.

The problem is solved before Alice can even get to work.
Well, they say every problem that cannot be solved by violence can be solved by more violence...

A bit disappointed she cannot help, Alice turns her attention to the writings talking to herself.
Bah, I was hoping Ashley would give me her candy as reward for killing her. And now she's just slacking off, replaced by someone else who dislikes me for no reason...
Yulya, I can't read any of this!

Yulya's transcription is not really satisfactory.
And that means... what exactly?
Didn't they say we should bring some treasure from the depths of that mine? I wasn't really paying attention.



So now what?
If they can't get back up we should secure this level and then rest. Who has the whistle? We gotta watch it!

Alice goes to inspect the closed containers near the elevator.
Oh there's also the damn chest that poisoned me! Let's not forget that!

Alice goes to the barrels, surveying them she counts 7 barrels and 7 crates. In the biggest 3 barrels she finds a label for ale, the barrels have long since been tapped and are likely empty. In the others she finds markings for constituent A of the chemical used for making blasting liquid, constituent B and a binding compound. In the last she finds an empty barrel that smells of smoke weed. In one long crate she finds tools such as shovels, picks, saws, axes, and other equipment to make and secure scaffolding and shoring. In another she finds explosive wrapping and fuse cord. In another 3 she finds ore samples. In the last two are more clothing, gloves, overalls, helmets and boots, just her size.

Alice is disappointed by most of the rubbish and not in the mood for further dressups. However, the explosive compounds peak her interest
Hey, hey!
I think we have all ingredients to make explosives here! I think we should create a few!

When she opens the ore crate {Ashley looks over, her connection to Alice makes her privy to knowing what Alice is seeing.[/i]
[Alice feels compelled to search the ore and cannot even think to act otherwise, the connection between {Ashley} and Alice is one way and absolute, she acts without will, but not just that, pre-thought as if autonomically, there was never a prompt for will in her mind. Finding nothing of high enough quality to be presentable to Harbin, {Ashley} releases Alice.] 

Alice continues almost convinced that she acted on her own but what she did gives her pause, she can feel the connection but for those moments, she was as if an extension of {Ashley}, it felt natural, mundane and innocent.

All she can know is for a few moments, she was not under her own control, and the connection allowed it. No one else noticed anything unusual as it happened even as {Ashley} was still tugging the chain.

Alice shakes her head as if she had dozed off into daydreaming for a moment.



Out of nowhere she remembers a story her creators learned from elves. About the Men of Iron who once were a race of flesh and blood but traded their bodies for metal ones at the offer of a demigod of technology. Instead of gaining power, they lost their free will and became mere automatons and foot soldiers of the demigod, forced to serve him for all eternity.

Alice glances over to Ashley before turning her focus on the explosives. She tried to determine if she can create an usable bomb from the components without blowing herself up.