Author: Alessandro Bertolucci

Session #114:

26th of Jourelden – evening, somewhere deep under the bay.

The day started well, yet I find myself trapped in an air bubble, inside a glass-like dome under water. So much for my uncle’s prediction that I’d get bored and come back to the “business”… bored I am not.

We started the day realizing that there’s no feasible way for us all to explore the depths of the bay (and avoiding those dreadful sea trolls) without some of the helmets and air-tanks we found in the facility.

At the shore, Lord Thorfus instructed his mec-monkeys to gather the equipment as we discussed our options – or rather they did. My mind was wondering how to adapt the engine scheme used by the MidMark’s experimental ship to propel a vessel UNDER the waves. It’s possible! I just need to find how the dwarves created that clear strong crystal and how they filled those tanks. See sketches 75 through 84 for the concept.

I digress – equipped with helmets, suits and air-tanks we make our way back near where the Bitter Horse is anchored and prepare Thorfus for his descent. Lowered by rope and watched over by Chuck in manta-form, he and and a mec-monkey eventually make it to the bottom and thanks to the broachie-talkie we’re able to confirm with Thorfus that the way is clear.

To be honest – I didn’t think that the suit, helmet and tanks would still work after more than 1000 years, but ancient dwarven workmanship has a surprising ability to resist the ravages of time.

It wasn’t long before Thorfus finds the “hatch” and mentions that a button near it is faintly glowing green – confirming that there is a power source of some kind.

Without much prompting, myself, Canis and Giacomo “the great” (he makes me laugh that one – if only he knew) head down ourselves.

While we descended – Thorfus later explained to me – he pressed the faint green button near the door and noticed the room beyond it filling with water, allowing him to open the hatch and entering. Hitting the button on the inside allowed for the water to be drained out – likely by way of an automated push-pump of some kind (i’ll have to take a look if the opportunity presents itself).

The inner door also had a glowing button next to it – red when the the room was filled with water, green when emptied. The whole system works like the river locks near home, except they let you go from water to air. Ingenious!

After a little while we all eventually end up on the dry side of the room – a rather long corridor (~500 ft) which ended at a dome-topped building.

Chuck and myself scouted ahead, finding a room much like the at the bottom of the pit near the beach. In my haste I immediately moved forward to inspect a strange blue glow coming from one of the damaged the engines… and promptly paid a hefty price, shocking myself TWICE! Resulting in a rightly deserved scolding from Kalgunn. I must be more careful, I’ve learned much in the last few months, and apparently I have much more to learn – provided my mistakes don’t kill me. I at least discovered that they were purposely damaged – recently.

After the sting I probed further finding several shark-like bipeds and one decomposing human pined to the south walls with tridents. They were still moving, like the abominations from the research facilities. Seeing no other threats (they’re pinned!), but hearing combat in the distance I reported back to Thorfus and the others.

Seems that the Company have encountered similar “undead” in the past – something about the bodies being under the influence of some kind of DevilFish idol. The only way to destroy them is by dismembering them and then getting them away from the idol.

Moving into the larger space – Chuck “senses” that there are beings desperate to survive coming from where I heard the fighting. After a quick search of the room and those adjacent, Chuck and Thorfus determine that we should try to come to the aid of whomever might need it.

I think we may live to regret that decision. Entering the room from which the sounds of battle emanated from resulted with us facing a large group of undead shark-people and large crustaceans. The battle was harsh – but we prevailed thanks to Thorfus’ mec-monkeys, some excellent bow skills from Ronin and Thorfus and a flash from my recently acquired wand.

The rest is rather still fresh – the surviving live shark-people manage to rudimentary communicate with Chuck, giving us the impression that they’re grateful and that they also know Chuck’s shark-friend.

They had us follow them past their defensive line and eventually to underneath the main dome, where we find ourselves trapped, along with two, well, one of Grel’s crew. Ronin had a “talk” with the other one – the conversation ended rather bloodily I’m afraid.The survivors told us some very interesting things about the last hours of Grel’s fleet – we’re still not sure what happened, but we’re fairly certain Grel was double crossed by the Imperials.

Our prison is similar to a wasp’s nest – made of some organic material and filled with breathable air and fixed to the crystal dome out of which we can see and a hole in its bottom allowing us to swim out if we dare.

OH! Before I forget – the trip to this dome was long and completely under water. The shark-people had us swallow a strange stone which lodged in our throats (rather painfully at first) and allowed us to breathe water and only water, attempting to breath air while still having the stone in one’s thought is not a good idea. I wish I could study one further – unfortunately they dissolve after roughly 2 hours allowing use to breathe normally again.

So that’s we’re sit right now, and I see that one of the shark-people is coming… I’ll continue later.

Session #107

Journal entry for the 14th of Jourelden

My last entry yesterday had us waiting for Thorel’s men to confirm that the guild master was indeed still alive. Interestingly it looked that they thought our arrival was in fact a ruse in order to distract them or otherwise make an attempt on their employer. It wasn’t – there are easier ways to create a diversion than having someone ask for confirmation that their target is still alive – but I digress.

After receiving the confirmation that Thorel was still alive and after declining an invitation to stay the remainder of the night, Thorfus explained that we had other business to attend to, he promptly wrote a note to Thorel outlining the shadow abilities of the assassin that we missed, their affiliation with the pirate Grel and obvious imperial connections.

Personally – I’m glad, getting involved in city “politics” is the reason I left home to begin with and would rather not get involved. Besides, Aunt Fel would flay me alive if she knew I was getting involved without her – she’d love this situation.

After a few more attempts to get us to stay by Thorel’s man (Xander, I believe) we finally managed to get away and try to catch up to our prisoners and Cannis. T’Suna helped us along much to its delight – though we did not find them. Instead we find the 3d longboat from the Bitter Horse that followed us and head back to the Bitter Horse only to find that the Cannis and the others were not there.

Rather than try to scour the harbour for the ship, Chuck recommended that we ask the devilfish Gronsk to locate the missing long boat.

Reluctantly I agreed to have T’Suna summon the creatures. After some banter they give direction to our missing friend to T’Suna who whisks us all there.

We find the boat just outside the harbour. Cannis and many of the sailors were unconscious and still alive, but a few sailors are missing their heads and the prisoners too.

It’s at this point that Gronsk tells us that they kept the boat safe and tell us that the dervishes went back into town to finish their job. He also knows where Grell’s base is and will give it to us if we steal a manuscript describing a sonic weapon that was designed to be used against the devilfish.

NOTE: I must ask Kalgunn about this weapon.

We don’t dwaddle and shift some personel around so that the wounded and missing boat can be rowed back to the Bitter Horse while we rush back to Thorell’s hideout to deal with the assassins- against my better judgement I tag along.

Oddly, Chuck asked one of the men to think of those sailors who lost their heads. Could he be trying to record them to his memory? I’ll ask him discreetly later – that helm of his is intriguing.

Anyways – to make a long story short – we made it back in time to help thwart the assassination attempt and dispatching him. Oddly – there was only one. The other may have had another mission or decided to wait.

I received an arrow in shoulder for my trouble and although she had a terrible shot she did have manners enough to apologize. Too bad I didn’t have a chance to speak to her more intimately – she was rather attractive.

The body of the dervish self-combusted rather spectacularly shortly after death, for reasons unclear to me. Why self-immolate lake that – makes it rather easy to know who you’re up against

Ever grateful, the guild master met with us morbidly next to his wife’s grave only to explain a rather tedious story about local politics, the Harbour Traid assassinating his wife, their drug trafficking of “dogfroth” and affiliation with the Imperials. He finally gets to the point and asks us to assassinate the other guild masters in exchange for some magical items from a dragon hoard.

Like I said – Aunt Fel would be loving this.

Thankfully – Thorfus declines and we returned to the Bitter Horse and have our things loaded. I think this Grel character weighs on him and Chuck. It seems we’re heading to Midmark with the Bitter Horse.

This morning we headed out to visit the Temple of the Ark and that of the World Forge in order to get some information about what’s been happening since the company has been in Vargen.

From what I understand, the situation has been getting worse, there’s much unrest in Vargen and Midmark and there are stories of monsters attacking towns and villages all around.

Now we’re on our way to Midmark with a mission – to steal that manuscript for those devilfishand get the location of Grel’s hideout.

I hope to get a chance to read it before we do surrender it though – I’m sure I can use it.

Evening.

We’ve crossed without issue and have docked in Midmark. Unloading nearly done and we’ll be on our way. Hopefully I can find a decent library in this town.

Session 106

Journal entry for the 13th of Jourelden (dawn)

After our night-time encounter with the spider apes our morning is busy and uneventful as we load our equipment and carts onto the barge.

Gifforde would love our company on the rest of his journey, but Thorfus makes it clear that we have pressing business elsewhere.

The barge master, Whyschardus tells me that we’ll make Vargen just after nightfall – should give me plenty of time to work on my ship plans. Better feed Boris and myself.

A few hours have passed since my last entry. It seems that we had a shadow, a pair of dwarven riders were spotted by Thorfus questioning Gifforde and then pointing towards us as we made the first bend of the river, about two hours later we see them on one of the other barges – their intent was to follow us and keep us under watch.

How do we know this? Devilfish (see rough sketch). It seems they inhabit the river and extort a fee from passing barges, or rather they’re offered money for a promise of safe passage, a promise not always kept by the sounds of our barge master. They’re intelligent and have prodigious mental abilities – luckily one of their number, Gronsk, knows Thorfus and the Company- save for myself and Cannis our newest travelling companion.

He (it?) warned Thorfus and all of us using group telepathy (prodigious indeed!) that our barge’s offering wasn’t as large as that of the barge following and we’d be sunk unless Thorfus was able provide him information about Araquelle – a former member who left with Derrich’s group and Prix’ body through the permanently open gate inside the Bioforge facility.To my surpise, Araquelle was actually a Devilfish who’s essense was transfered to a human’s body.

Thorfus agreed only after Gronsk would delve the minds of the pursuing dwarves and let him know their intentions. Gronsk did so and then asked for an update before letting Thorfus know.

Now – Lord Thorfus is capable of many things, but he often times can be be over cautious. He danced around Araquelle’s fate – likely worried that should he reveal too much the devilfish may just sink us. This went on for a little while, clearly Gornsk wasn’t impressed with what he was being told about Araquelle’s current location – so I stepped in and explained that Araquelle stepped through a portal and is now on the other side of the island. That seemed to do the trick – though I’m not sure Thorfus was too happy to have me jump in like that.

That done – we found out that the riders were tasked with following us and reporting back to Marchmain about our whereabouts and doings.

With that Gronsk made to leave, but Thorfus asked it if he would help with find Grel. Gronsk laughed (or I think it laughed) and cryptically said that if we survive our welcome to meet him in the harbour where he’ll do what he can to help.

He then promptly left to destroy the other barge – leaving us to wonder about what awaits in Varden. Needless to say, that made concentrating on my work difficult, mind you watching Boris try to steal fish from Thorfus and Chuck’s fishing while chatting with the crew to glean information about Vargen was quite entertaining. No useful information came from the questioning.

Night has fallen I best get ready for what comes next. They say we’ll be mooring at the East Harbour and off load there. Shame that we arrived after nightfall – I wonder how large the city is.

EV.

Late evening – about an hour after our arrival.

I scrawl this quickly as we wait for news regarding Thorell – the local bargeman guild leader.

Gronsk was right – we did indeed have a welcome waiting for us – though not us specifically.

Grell, a pirate who has a grudge against the company and is likely working for the Empire, launched a flaming captured warship toward another docked warship – likely causing two large explosions. There was someone alive strapped to the bow of the ship on fire – someone Thorfus knows.

We intervened. Chuck, Thorfus, Cannis and I shadow walked to the docked warship (Bitter Horse – odd name) and while they spoke with the ship’s captain I rushed to the aft of the ship facing the flaming warship bearing down on us. There I used a scroll to summon a water elemental dowsing us with water. While Thorfus and Chuck “stepped” to the ship in an attempt to save the admiral. I commanded the elemental to push the flaming ship back into the bay and try to put out the fire.

Thorfus and chuck managed to save the Admiral, but the ship exploded.

They “stepped” to where they left me on the other ship and explained to us and the other admiral that they spotted the culprits heading up river – if we hurried we could catch them.

We took two longboats of men and caught them with the help of the water elemental.

Cannis easily destroyed one ship and it’s occupants with lightning, but was almost immediately felled by a salvo of arrows from the remaining ships.  

Battle ensued and we found that there were two leaders – both “dervishes” (cit. Chuck) – agents of the Empire apparently. They too were able to step into shadow and got away.

We captured three and found that they were working for Grell and missioned to kill Thorell by setting up diversions while the agents did the deed.

We send the wounded (incl. Cannis) and captives back to the Bitter horse, while we sped to Thorell’s base further up river with help from the water elemental T’Suna (can’t pronounce real name) to warn him about the attempt.

That’s where we are now, waiting to find out if we arrived in time.

IEV.

#103: Emergency Protocols: 6:34 PM 3D Jourelden

Journal Entry – 3d of Jourelden – late evening.

We’ve returned from the Special Research Area, normally we’d be in high spirits – but tonight is different.

Since my last brief entry about our failed attempts to wake Prix, The Dragon Consort, much has happened to our company – not all of it good.

It began after Derich attempted to remove Prix from the confines of her chair and prison. Almost immediately alarms sounded, and the platform on which she sat fell into the de synchronization field below – trapping both Derich and Prix.

Knowing that the facility’s defenses were deadly (see sketches 4 through 8, and my last few entries). Chuq and I quickly reasoned that our best option was to our combined talents to return to the administration office with Lord Thorfus’s administration key in order to de-activate the emergency protocols before the facility destroyed – or worse – itself.

As we began our mission, a flash of light quickly followed by an explosion rocked the facility reminded us of the severity of the situation. With a monkey-automaton in tow, we immediately “shadow-stepped” to a visible “canon” room in order to avoid the now activated silver-domed automaton (see sketch 4) – while the monkey scampered across the ceiling allowing Thorfus to “see” our progress. From there we were able to see into the Portal Room where we left Blaze and Pons to watch over it.

Sadly we saw Blaze sprawled on the floor and Pons cowering behind the portal trying to shield himself from the now active defense cannon on the other side of the portal room. I now can note that the canons seem to fire lightning at their targets with unnerving accuracy.

With little hesitation Chuq and I stepped once more, appearing in front of the automaton defending the room leading into the Administrator’s Office. Thankfully, we went unnoticed by the machine as we were cloaked by our magical garments.

Moments later, I successfully disabled the Emergency Protocols – saving Pons from electrocution.

With the facility no longer against us I decided to collect the remnants of the “micro-automat on” Kalgunn the Younger created and the discarded flying suit – even without a power source I may be able to learn more about it.

I returned to the portal room to find that Chuq had successfully reopened the portal to Engineering securing our escape route. As I approached I noticed that the Derich’s ancient compatriots had collected the ropes we used earlier upon our arrival to help pull up Prix and Derich from the trap below.

What happened next – changed everything.

Thorfus, Chuq and I huddled together against the howling winds in order to listen the Chuq’s plan to strand the Ancients and Prix here – seal the facility and destroy them and XenoTel – forever ridding Currabel of any further risks from a resurgent XenoTel.

I was stunned and instinctively placed my hand on the Portal Key. Prompting a look from Chuq I will not soon forget. Although I agreed with destroying the facility, I argued that Prix and Derich were heros, and that she was too valuable an asset, not just for my own research, but to all Currabel against the Emperor. Thorfus was of a similar mind set – yet Chuq was unrelenting in his argument.

He reminded Thorfus about a Dragon Control Orb – something I was not aware of- was still in the hands of unscrupulous forces and could be used on Prix – rendering her a threat. He then argued that Prix was the cure, that if we brought her out shed could be “made” to undo what she did – thus restoring XenoTel. I disagreed, stating that the cure was pieced together by the researchers here, that they probably only watched her memory of her orchestration of the fall in order to make a remedy – he countered – and I retorted for a while, but I felt myself wavering in my conviction.

While we argued, Prix and Derich were successfully pulled out of their trap – she was still unconscious and were making their way back to us in the portal room.

There’s no hiding the fact that Chuq disliked Derich and did not trust the other Ancients. I could see the Thorfus was not pleased with their independent actions and I assume even he was having second thoughts about them.

I was – am – tired… and I’m not proud of what happened next.

I contemplated murder. Planned it. I would wait till they began their crossing and cut the rope, having them fall to their doom. I was ready – sword already in hand.

But I hesitated – Prix lay before us and I walked away to the other side of the portal – my mind screaming.

Chuq, however, did not. He plunged his dagger in the base of the skull of the prone Prix – likely killing her instantly. Panic ensued.

I don’t remember much after that, Gorianus – one of the more convivial ancients, tried to tackle me after, as I was told later, smashing the stone portal disk.

In the confusion I managed to fling myself through the portal back to engineering before the portal closed – not everyone was so lucky. The ancients remained behind with their Dragon – except for Derich – he managed to get through. Enraged, he swung at Chuq who deftly dodged the blow and then proceeded to break Derich’s arm, then neck with a series of well placed blows. I doubt many would have survived such an attack.

After everything settled, we discussed destroying the facility – but found we could not due to a missing password.Though thankfully we’ll be able to destroy that fiendish Pathogen facility.

Our thoughts morbidly swung towards whether or not we should rescue the baby dwarf, and if so how to get him (or her) past Marchmain convincingly. I even consulted with Kalgunn regarding the rescue – though I’m too tired to listen to its attempts to convince me to return to that place.  

I plead for rest and Thorfus agreed – so as I sit and write this – Thorfus sits lost in thought, his silence deafening. Chuq seems unfazed and the rest are bunking down in silence.

I for one am conflicted – did we do the right thing? I feel that my time exploring these ruins are coming to an end – I have learned much and acquired items that will take me years to decipher and understand. Was it worth it? Were the Eders right? What’s next?

History, my kin and my ancestors will be my judge.

Session 100 :

Journal Entry – 2nd of Jourelden – 8PM

We’ve spent the better part of the last 30 or 40 hours slaughtering the infected and “exploring” the residential quarters of those unfortunate that worked in the dwarven “Pathogen” facility. It is days like this that I question if Kalgunn was right to call us grave-robbers.

Still, if I learned anything about this “Pathogen” area is that it must be eradicated from existence – erased. Worse than the horrors of the BioForge – the diseases that were cultured here would be devastating to all life on the surface. The fact that the dwarves of that age would have even considered unleashing this in order to save themselves makes me sick. Maybe not all lost dwarven knowledge is worth saving – but that’s a discussion for another entry – or book.

Moving on – I sit here with Kalgunn sheathed with Mind Circlet on my head waiting for Thorfus and Chuck to sit and discuss our next moves. With Axel gone I believe they’ve accepted me as an official member of their company. Why the circlet? As much as I want to, I cannot bring myself to fully trust Kalgunn, it is a product of its age and likely conspiring against me in some way – especially after Lupa confirmed my suspicions that it can “see & hear” more than he admits to. I think it more prudent to keep it sheathed and my mind clear of any possible suggestion for now.

Ah – here they come… I’ll report later.

A lively debate to say the least – what follows is a summary of the main points of each.

Chuck started by asking the obvious question – likely tainted by the recent loss of Axel which he did not take well : Do we continue exploring and clearing the labs, or do we stop return to the surface, inform Axel’s family of their loss and deal with Grel and the other surface issues. Suffice to say that Chuck was adamant that we destroy the key, preventing the Silver Throne and this so called Dark King from gaining anymore dwarven technology. To focus our attention to those we left suffering on the surface. He reminded them that the only the reason they were looking for the keys was to find the sphere and prevent anyone from getting it. Destroying a key or all keys would prevent that.

As you can imagine, I explained that I had no interest in leaving – the potential good from recovering and sharing this technology and the amount of lost history that could be restored cannot be ignored. Besides – this Grell person means nothing to me. I voted that we stay and continue exploring – even attempt to return to the BioForge with a greater force in order to retrieve the final key allowing us to unlock all the secrets of this place.

Chuck reminded me that I had Kalgunn, that with him I had everything I needed to recreate that lost technology. A valid point, but I reminded him that destroying the keys would not stop the Silver Throne or the Dark King from gaining access to these facilities. Kalgunn confirmed that heavily trapped tunnels linking the facilities to the Undercity and even the surface exist. Destroying the keys would only delay the inevitable.

Thorfus pondered – if anyone’s word had any real weight it would be his – and at first agreed with Chuck – that we need to tell Axel’s family. Then Derrich – the ancient human hero – interjected, warning us all about the perils of a potential return of XenoTel – the very being he and likely my ancestors fought to destroy. He has a mission to complete and he has every intention to make sure that XenoTel and the dwarven empire will never return. He even accused Chuck and Thorfus of having been affected by the technology on their heads. He questioned even myself – rightly so I might add. I do not trust it and I have begun to question weather I should continue carrying it at my side.

Chuck objected to Derrich’s interjection – that he had no say in the decisions of the group. To which Derrich obviously took exception to. Back and forth they went – point and counterpoint. Eventually even Thorfus began to sway towards continuing. Which is is the greater evil? Slavers on the surface, or the potential rising of a new dwarven empire or worse – the accidental release of the horrors of the Pathogen facility. We need that final key – even if only to destroy the Pathogen Facility once and for all.

But retrieving the final key was an issue – that is until we stumbled upon a plan during our arguments. With Kalgunn’s help in understanding how Engineering powered the other facilities – we figured we could circumvent any possibility of escape by the Dark King’s forces while preventing the use of the de-synchronization technology against us in the BioForge installation as they had done in the Botanical area trapping Axel.

Even Chuck couldn’t disagree with an attempt to save his friend – or at least retrieve his body.

So we’re off to try it. Wish us luck.

By my ancestors! Axel is ALIVE!

Our plan worked – we entered the BioForge facility without issue. As the portal opened we could see Axel’s message written on the walls – he was alive and did not reproach us for leaving him to his fate. That he was going to make his way to the surface and that the key we needed was “sacrificed.” We feared the key was lost.

It seems that our preparations were not necessary, Thorfus and Derrich faced no opposition or traps as they quickly explored the immediate surroundings. Derrich tells me that as they explored both he and Thorfus suddenly understood that Axel had not destroyed the key at all but had hidden it in the primitive shrine near the lair of giant lizards I first saw when I arrived to explore the ruins.

So we now have the key we need to give us full control over all the facilities and gain axes the mysterious Section X where Derrich believes his commander – the Dragon Consort is imprisoned or where XenoTel is imprisoned or both. We won’t know until we get there.

But we need supplies and some items we left with Lupa. So Chuck and I will attempt a quick trip to retrieve what we need and return. I’ll be leaving Kalgunn behind – I’d rather not upset a 2,000 year old legendary creature. I’ll continue when I return.

I now understand why the company distrusts Marchmain so much. In order to avoid being spotted by any dwarven patrols that may still be exploring the Undercity, Chuck and I used our combined talents to quickly move undetected towards Lupa’s hiding place. On our way – in the great hall of pillars we found two teams of dwarves building fortifications each blocking the main corridors leading to the Undercity – the left towards the temple and the portal from which we came, the other towards the city itself – and Lupa. Chuck and I knew immediately – that game board had changed and we had to make haste.

Thankfully they were busy and did notice our passing. We made as quickly as possible to Lupa’s hiding place at the base of the Colossi. After telling Lupa what had happened, Chuck unsuccessfully tried to convince Lupa to join us in going to Section X- but she refused – stating that she’d rather not,that she’d rather go somewhere to wait to witness the result. After a 2,500 year vigil we both understood that there would be no convincing her otherwise.

We had another problem, with the dwarves setting fortifications it would only be a matter of time before they would find our company’s trove of equipment and artifacts. Hastily Chuck and I took what we needed and any other items we would not dare let fall into the hands of the Silver Throne and packed them on our persons – including a rather nice piece of armour for myself, something I had noticed amoung the company’s belongings but never had considered requesting the use of- silly me I guess, I could have avoided much pain. Then we gathered whatever else we could manage and hid them in our hidden access tunnel Chuck called the Raptor tunnel – hopefully we’d be back to recover it all.

After a quick double check (and a good 2 hours of packing and moving – I’m so sore) we made our way back to the portal.

The dwarven fortification hadn’t progressed much since we last passed, but there were many more dwarves and this time Marchmain himself. Knowing that Marchmain and Chuck had a disagreeable encounter – I gave him my circlet to shield his mind while I guided his shadow step – hoping that Marchmain would not sense him or I for that matter.

He did not – and we made our way back to the portal and had Thorfus shut it immediately.

Chuck is recounting our experience while I rest my sore body – Boris is welcome company as we all contemplate our next move and I contemplate Kalgunn’s fate – should we go to this mysterious Section X – do I dare bring a sword that I may or may not fully control that according to Lupa will likely betray us or do I simply leave it here in it’s beloved engineering assuming I’ll be able to return to retrieve him? Maybe in a box …Safjiwer … Boris is insisting that I rest – he’s constantly trying to sit on this book as a write… I’ll resume another time.

SESSION 97 : 9AM 1st of Jourelden

We left off trying to come up with a plan to save Axel.

After some option discussion with Kalgunn, the remain Starchy Boys decide to write their counter-offer and show it to Axel’s captors:

“To the foolishly ignorant and arrogant blunderer in command of the forces currently holding hostage the Starchie Boy known as Axel Rhomkel ; we have within our power not only to keep you entombed in darkness forever but to irrevocably destroy the ancient dwarven power source for all the ancient dwarven weapon research facilities. This one act would not only seal your doom, it will also render the portal transport network useless forever. It is now your task to understand that if any further harm to Axel Rhomkhul be it further aging, physical assault, mental manipulation or death, will force our hand. We will destroy the ancient dwarven power source leaving you and yours entombed where you are. There is no version of the future where you leave your prison without our largesse. Here is your only option : surrender all Paskeys and Portal Stones to Axel Rhomkhul along with one magical item from each of your lieutenants and your most preferred personal magical items. You will also turn over all control circlets to Axel. Lastly, you will dismantle all desynch devices under your control and stage the entire mechanisms in the Botany portal chamber. Once Axel and all required items are collected in the Botany portal chamber, you and only you will stand in attendance in the room directly north of the portal room with the door propped open. You will be interviewed at this time, be it known that we have an ancient artifact that will alert us if you dissemble, and will have an opportunity to present your case for mercy. Of you at found lacking in sincerity, veracity or faithfulness the fate already outlined is yours. If however, you are better than our established opinion of you, your group will find freedom to return to the eastern jungle at a time of our choosing. Signed with all sincerity, the Starchie Boys.”

Upon opening the portal,an undying was waiting with a sign telling us that, “Negotiations will recommence in one hour at the BioForge. To indicate good faith, your comrade will be returned at that time.”

Which prompted us to shut down the portal and check the other engineering portal for fear of being flanked.

Luckily – we were not and that portal had not been used for years (according to the repair automaton.)

With heavy hearts we decide not to comply their demands, and retry the Botany Facility an hour where a message confirms that we’ve hit an impasse – powering the Bioforge would give them an avenue of escape which we could not risk.

After some drinks in memory of Axel – we move to clean out the rest of Pathogen lab.

Edan, Thorfus and Chuck head into the Pathogen lab leaving the rest of the hirelings behind in order to limit the chance of mass infections.

Upon entering they notice that the “grabber bots” aren’t responding to Thorfus’ commands – not just the 7 de-charged – but we assume the other remaining ones.

Although the mechanical monkey Thorfus brought along were able move the “grabber bots” but were unable to lower the elevator. So the team decides then to go to the pathologist’s office to see if they can get the elevator to work remotely.

They manage to get the elevator work, but discover that the remaining infected have destroyed the remaining bots, and when the unpowered ones were lowered they were summarily destroyed. So Thorfus decides to lock down the lower levels until further notice.

After some deliberation – it’s decided to try to clear the lower area by using a combination of spells and creative monkey use. But before that Edan has to rest for some time in order to cast the correct spells.

So Thorfus has the mechanical monkey to lure the more “intelligent” infected away so that Edan can cast his WEB to block them from swarming back.

With the webs in place, after Chuck and Edan “shadow step” into range and back. With Edan manning the elevator, Thorfus and the mechanical monkees manage to get the Grabber Bots back to their charging bays.

After the web dissipate – they use the “grabber bots” to help them eliminate the remaining infected – Boney first – then the necronic – again – and again – and again (for hours) until Edan mentions that they’ve been regenerating. After a collective face palm, the necronic and remaning spore infected are left below so that the can be dispatched later.

Bonus is that Thorfus has mastered box axe and sword thanks to the repetative slaughter of the necronic infected.