Author: Antony Nicklin

Session 89’s Recording for you guys: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8WR3haKt47GNWdzOE1YMkdhWm8

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8WR3haKt47GNWdzOE1YMkdhWm8

Session 87 – Of Worm Robots and Monkey Business

18th Farilden at Dawn

During the two weeks, we discuss the viability of having Lupaa cast Glyphs of Warning to deal with any hangers-on. Possibilities include holding them, putting them to sleep and blinding them, but it will be difficult to get them if there are multiple hangers-on. We bring up to Lupaa, and she opts to place a Glyph to Cause Fear to protect the entrance to the gear area irregardless of our plans.

Axel continues to ensure the supply cache at the end of Raptor Tunnel. Thorfus’ commands to the automonkeys seem to be bearing fruit as the contraptions attempt to steal the armour of any adventurer wandering to close the tunnel entrance.

Early in the two weeks, Finklemur requests we head down to the worm chamber. Chuq shadowsteps the wizard, Axel and Thorfus over and we head to the tunnels. We hear a single source of banging when we arrive, similar to the gorilla automaton’s hammering. We check it out, and see two automonkeys working on plates to modify the suit of power armour we found in the labs. Leaving them to it, we head over to the gear chamber and meet Lupaa.

The naga instantly knows what Finklemur plans, the thoughts so obvious in his mind. She doesn’t attempt to stop him, and even approves, as do the monkeys. Finklemur casts Protection From Evil on himself and approaches, Thorfus, Chuq and Lupaa all listening intently in a mental capacity. We say goodbye, and he steps forward, giving permission for the worm to take hold.

The old man instantly feels pain, and but for a stroke of luck comes close to dying. He does pass out from the pain though, as the worm bodily removes his legs and attaches cables all over his body. The monkeys begin singing in thier strange whistling fashion. Eventually he awakens again, weak, but able to begin to move his new body. His old body itself is still vulnerable, but ensconced within the worm safe enough. Derich and Lupaa heal him up again, the former a little appalled, but congratulates him on being brave enough to turn the enemies weapons upon them.

Before we leave, Thorfus sets the automonkeys several new tasks, repair a bag full of monkeys and build an exo-suit to bolster Chuq’s abilities.

We leave him to get used to his body, Finklemur entrusting Socrates to Chuq for now, allowing us to communicate from above using the familiar connection. It takes him a couple of days, but is finally ready by the 13th. In order to enact our plan of Finklemur digging his way into the bioforge, we decide to attempt to bring Socrates down into the still-safe engineering section so he can find it easily with the familiar bond.

The dwarves and monk sneak down again, being sure to avoid the Silver Throne group below, and head to the temple. We open the portal, Axel stepping through first to deactivate the defence mechanism. Once through, Socrates is able to communicate his location to his master, and Finkleworm begins digging. Unfortunately, as fast as he is, Finklemur believes it may take a couple of weeks, even with the five day headstart on our return to the lower city.

The night before we are officially due to leave, there is a knock at the door from one of Marchmain Sivis’ personal guard, the dwarf himself has come to see us. Chuq is quick to scarper, looking for some place to eavesdrop out of sight. Marchmain shows up with Reinhold and a pair of Silver Throne militia.

He makes note that our work below needs to remain unimpeded, though he surprised that one of us has been noted to have been throwing rocks at a hawk. He hints that any sudden disappearance of our party would undoubtedly be us heading back to Vargen to look at hiring more hirelings. It seems obvious that he knows about our newly uncovered tunnel.

We posture the value of having control of the bridge automatons to him, and although he maintains finding the sphere remains priority, he does not think it would be a bad idea. He would pay for any information.

Marchmain also offers to look into ancient records regarding the standing of the Ironhands when Thorfus brings up stories of Xen’Khel from his family.

We ask after the number of patrol groups being sent down into the lower city. Reportedly, Dorea has only been sending a single party of around fifteen down at a time.

He leaves after this, and the next morning the Starchy Boys head to the lower city via the Raptor Tunnel, and make for Lupaa’s holdout. When we arrive, the newer, upsized power armour is complete. The Midmark armour looks to have most of its locomotion parts removed, but the monkeys are keen to get Thorfus to wear it regardless. He passes for now, but gets the monkeys to pack it into a sack. Oddly, despite repeated commands to sort gears, at least five monkeys keep getting into the sack and insist on whoever is wearing the circlet wear the armour.

Further checks show pegs on the inside, but nothing that could cause any harm to the user. As time goes on, a pair of monkeys begin hugging his legs. Eventually, he relents and lets the monkeys place it on him. We all watch apprehensively has they adorn him, standing to attention around him. Once worn, they leap, crawling into the armour and wrapping around him.

Once done, they go silent, but when Thorfus begins moving, they allow him to lift his arms. The monkeys are functionally acting as the suits locomotive mechanisms. One of his arms involuntary raises, the gauntlet flying off like a missile. When it lands, a monkey runs out to retrieve it and reattach it. He is able to replicate it with the other arm. He calls a sixth monkey, and it wraps around his shield arm, holding the shield for him and leaving his hand free. Eventually, he decides he will retain his magical armour, much to the automonkeys disappointment.

We decide to go and see what we can do about the crystal within the collossus. We head up, and with the monkey’s assistance make it up to the crystal platform. As before, the complaints of pain in the left leg remain. Thorfus touches the platinum key to it, and actually gets a response asking; ‘Who is there? There’s someone else.’

Thorfus begins conversing with the voices, who reveal themselves to be the Western Bridge. Only they are in pain, and need repairs. Chuq is able to see images of gears with his skullcap. The other bridges are all in working order it says, seemingly it is able to communicate with the other collosi, and this one is last, as the ‘little ones’ have been repairing them. Their function is to protect Xen’Khel.

They ask again who we are, and how many, noting that we carry keys, though they seem to glean some answer from surface thoughts perhaps. We learn that was once many other similar bridges around the the Empire. They ask if we have brought the ‘little ones’ too finish repairs, and will respond to our command, and have spoken to nobody else recently but Axel on our last visit. We can speak to this crystal and activate all the bridges at in Xen’Khel, though this would kill all upon them, but they are willing to do so at any time.

Thorfus asks some further questions about the crystal’s abilities and the Rebellion, they are aware of the Crystal Tower’s destruction. When he asks if the bridges would listen to anyone else in the Upper City, they reveal that they would respond to the Architect (almost undoubtedly Marchmain Sivis), who has been present for months perhaps, and was last here before the Rebellion.

We ask after Bryce, remembering hearing her name last time, but the bridges do not know who that is, and reckon it’s unlikely we would’ve heard the name.

Chuq announces he can smell flowers again, but at this we have nothing else to accomplish here, unless we can think of any more questions, and begin thinking of our next moves.

Session 80 – The ‘I Bet You Thought I’d Forgotten Again’ Edition

Having spoken to Lupaa, and gotten her support should we choose to return the overrun bioforge facility, the party considers what to do next. The task of retaking the area is a tall order, especially with our suspicions of what dwarven technology they possess, in addition to the literal horde of Undying at their disposal. Our best method of attack would be to replicate the crown-stealing-shadow-step-assault trick, but the surprise of that method may have been spent if the crowns were truly connected in a hierarchy.

We also learn what the event of ‘Heaven’s Fall’ actually constituted. The name seems to be bit of a misnomer, as it wasn’t just the Crystal Tower that fell, but the very land, forming the archipelago we know today. This admission puts the entire party in shock, as the forces required to such a thing seem unimaginable. The power the Dragon Emperor’s Consort must’ve had, as it was her plan are frightening.

Lupaa reveals that her and her sisters were installed as guardians here by a large number of people, including the leaders of the rebellion, the Dragon Emperor, and if her glance at Kottar meant what I think it did, the Devilfish. That final one might go a way to explaining the effects of Heaven’s Fall at least.

Turning back to more immediate concerns, we address the problem of the monkey-automatons running around the place. Lupaa has been able to hunt down and kill several, but confesses that there a more in place she simply can’t access, and apparently often hears machinery working in the distance. We encourage her to continue her hunts for now, but Chuq suggests she should be careful not to give away her lair, especially since we’re also leaving the Derich’s people with her.

We pile-up most of our pilfered magical weapons in Lupaa’s chamber, as we don’t feel like selling them to the Silver Throne for obvious reasons, only taking a few to appease them and prove we’re still working towards the goal. We also leave all of our rations for Derich’s group, as they’re likely going to be in the Lower City a while. As usual, I also leave my Power Armour in the chamber, as well as the new suit we’ve found.

As we head back to the surface, we see an Automonkey dragging a gear as big as himself cross our path. Before Thorfus can suggest following it, I throw an axe at it, which is swiftly followed by Chuq’s daggers. It’s damaged, and drops the gear and turns to run. Chuq runs after it. Thorfus attempts to follow, partially for mapping concerns, but loses them quickly as they leave the civic area on a general south-western heading. Realising he is getting far beyond the party, Chuq makes one final attack with his spear, mananging to kill the thing.

Retrieving its body, he returns to the rest of party, spotting another shape at the edge of his light at one point. He meets Thorfus and Belroar part way, and they chalk-mark the tunnels so we can follow them later.

The rest of the trip to the surface is uneventful outside of some distant hammering. At the top, we’re once again greeted by the dwarven guards. They ask after the naga, but we wave them off by saying we’ve come to blows with automatons, which is a distraction. The guards send a runner, a decide to lead us right to Marchmain to report in.

Chuq slinks off in the meantime to avoid Marchmain. Edan seems to be trying to hide amongst the party for now. We are shown in with respect as normal, ushered into the meeting room and offered drinks.

When Marchmain enters, he takes a moment to scan our party, remarking on Chuq’s absence and noticing Edan. Thorfus smoothly feeds the dwarf our cover story, which details a rescue from automatons that also caused the deaths of several of our number. This handily covers why we still hadn’t slain the naga. He does little to hide his disappointment though. They do act in shock when they realise Talon was amongst those slain, reportedly being fans of the books.

We turn to selling our artifacts, and begin with the magical and elven items to start big. They note the oddity of the manufacture of the elven gear, being similar to adamantine, but wish to confer with a smith, so one is bought in. From this it’s just a case of showcasing our various items and haggling, but all in all the party comes out with yet another huge number of gold and gems.

With our transactions complete, we decide to take our time on the surface to get in some more training, especially as it will be a few days before Marchmain can gather all the funds. Before we leave however, he asks if he can talk to the group alone.

He admits to having not been totally forthcoming, and explains that he didn’t know if he could trust us, as there are many forces arrayed against the dwarves and Curabel as a whole. Apparently he was even aware of our dealings with Talessin and Desric Threehorn. There are ongoing skirmishes between the Empire and the Silver Throne Company, where the former are subverting, sabotaging and stealing from the latter, and he brings up our own dealings with an Imperial Dervish and Inquisitor Jardin, although he thought there could be a chance we were working for the Empire, which is why he didn’t initially trust us.

He confirms our suspicions that the leader of the Empire is the same shapeshifting dragon that led the rebellion against the Ancient Dwarves, and explains that the Emperor’s war on Curabel is no longer just. It is believed that the Emperor is suffering from some homicidal madness from the war. Marchmain explains that this is why he wants our help, to find the sphere, free Xen’Tellar and put an end to the Dragon Emperor. To continue Bryce’s task.

I’m sure that the rest of the party mirrors my wariness in what Marchmain is telling us. Whilst everything the dwarf is saying is true, in at least interpretation, there is no telling how much he is omitting in talking to us, even with this odd amount of transparency. It’s clear that he in unaware of at least some of knowledge, namely that we have been talking to Lupaa, and the true identity of the entity trapped within the sphere he seeks.

Thorfus questions Marchmain about the Silver Throne’s other operations, who passes off the slavery ring as ‘unsanctioned’ and working with Imperial Agents. The company’s relationships with the two dwarven churches is uncovered as being only minor, due to poor information sharing, and again is blamed on Imperial influence, this time because of potential mind control to explain their amazing persuasiveness.

Marchmain is being quite persuasive here, saying that the end goal is to ensure Curabel remains free forever. Quite the politician, as obviously we cannot disagree that repelling the Imperial invasion is a good thing. Marchmain’s plan as a whole is to cut the Dragon Emperor off from ‘whatever he put in place of our God’ and reduce his power so they can then cut off the head, hopefully ending thier obsession with the islands.

We learn that Marchmain’s group, specifically focused on Ancient Dwarven technology was initially just a small faction of the Silver Throne, took over the company when they began to learn more about the old empires. They believe they’re currently excavating the base of the Crystal Tower on the Lonely Isle. Marchmain also confirms the existence of an ancestor with the same name as his, who was noted as not being very nice.

We bring up Alain Grell’s current piracy in the bay, and urge him to do something about it. Marchmain explains that he already has a bounty on his head, and the Midmark Navy is gunning for him.

When we make note of the growing Automonkey activity around Vargen, he wonders if they’re connected to the growing activity of the Dark King to the north, but says he doesn’t know much more, although agents are working on it.

During this whole thing, he inquires repeatedly after Chuq, our ‘monk friend’. We tell him he had things to take care of, but he seems dismayed by that, planning to mention something to the guards.

The meeting leaves us with much to think about, with how long we can keep putting off the tasks he put to us, the Silver Throne’s intentions and the ever looming Imperial threat. We all leave to find our seperate trainers.

Session 85 – The Actually On Time Edition

2:40AM, 2nd of Faurilden

The party is stood around the now motionless worm-automaton, in a huge cavern filled with countless gears. Edan and Boris are waiting at the northern exit to the cavern, and reporting back that they can see the rear of one of the huge collosi holding up the bridges of the Upper City.

For the first time in a while, we can feel wind, and even for us dwarves, its nice to be close to the outside after fighting in the tunnels for so long. Belroar is pretty beat up, so we look to Derich to patch him up

Six automonkeys appear in the eastern corridor to the east, almost imediately after we posted guard, so I run over to meet them whilst Thorfus tries the circlet again. This time, he manages to not pass out, and at his command, five of the stop. A second command stops the now group of eight, As a test, Chuq suggests to have them hop. A ninth is still three, and Edan report a further two appear from a door in the collosus.

Three of them to the east start moving again, and yet another halt stops them once more. I feeling quite antsy to start smashing, but Chuq suggests we can distract their partial autonomy by commanding the group to sort the gears in the cavern.

(Thorfus feels some happiness in this moment, and also learns that he can only command eight at a time. He also feels some presence within the worm.)

(Chuq’s own empathy picks up a desire to been in this room, along with curiosity and some sadness.)

We begin looking at the worm, wondering about the presence within it, especially as a lot of the worm could still be buried deep within the piiles of gears. Thorfus attempts to command the worm, wondering about the presence within it, small commands that won’t disturb the room too much, without success.

One of the automonkeys starts moving again, and steps around me as I try to block it. I call a warning, and Thorfus tries the sort command. The monkey pauses, looking at the worm, but heading towards the gears. After a moment, he commands the rest of them to the east to help, and they all pause for a moment to look at the worm.

Thorfus tries to question the monkey, but it just looks at him. When I wonder out loud if it wants to fix or dismantle the worm, the monkey seems to repsond to the word ‘fix’. Thorfus commands it to repair the worm, and it instantky scurries over and starts working, After a while of working on the external parts of the worm, it begins scavenging for parts around the room.

Chuq scans the east for further company, but notices nothing, so we merely watch the automonkeys.

Myself Chuq and Edan decide to scout out the collosi, and I decide to lead the way. The interior is full of machinery, including a lot of spare parts, and even the floor itself was metal, and I could see far below and above myself. Everything is pristine within, some of it apparently quite new, at least within a few months for some of it by my reckoning.

Stepping forwards reveals railings to either side, open to cavernous spaces either side, and the only means of exiting to others parts of the collosus seems to be automonkey-sized tunnels. Looking over the edge of one side just shows more machinery, pistons and motors. I can tell this isn’t the entire breadth of the collosus, and wonder if there are rooms we aren’t seeing, and ask Edan to look around. The half-elf is pretty certain that there aren’t any hidden compartments.

Chuq begins to consider climbing, so I help him out by letting him read my mind whilst I look around to the edges of my vision, but it seems as if the machinery closes in around 30 feet away both up and down, with only maybe spaces enough for automonkeys to pass through.

Chuq begins climbing up the northern wall, heading upwards, and scales the first 30 feet fairly easily, securing the rope there. He reports potential energy in the machinery, much like what we felt in the bioforge. Above, the top is a tangle of cables and pipes, and though there is space he could possibly crawl through, it doesn’t seem to be an intended access point.

Unfortunately, he falls at this point, though he manages to slow himself and stop just short of the platform the rest of us are standing on. He climbs back up, and squeezes through into another 30 by 30 chamber, centered by a 15 foot hexagonal platform. Two windows are in the northern wall, so it’s easy to presume this room is within the head. The holes reveal the canyon beyond. A large crystal is mounted on a pedestal in the centre, with plenty of tubes running off of it. The crystalt itself is almost as big as Chuq himself, and actually appears to have been broken off of something else. As he looks at it, bursts of light appears within it.

Seeing it’s relatively safe, he invites us too join him. I decline as I don’t fancy the climb, but Edan takes the rope up to join him. This room seems to be as functionless and unmarked  as below. Chuq tries his helm, and picks up a presence within the crystal, multiple in fact. speaking in many languages. The voices seem to be timed with the flashes,

Recognising some Ancient Dwarven phrases, Chuq shouts down to me to see if we can discern anything from them, but all I can make out is mentions of pain and injury of all things.

Chuq keeps Edan from touching the crystal, and instead tries the silver key he possesses. A light grows in response, but to Edans point of view, he freezes, only to snap out of it when Edan taps his shoulder. The glow fades away, though Chuq apparently didn’t see it. Oddly, Chuq can smell flowers and fresh grass, which nobody else does.

Back in the worm room, Thorfus notes that the monkey repairing the worm is incredibly happy. He tries asking one the monkey’s a location to recharge batteries, but it just stares blankly back at him.

In the mean time, I decide to climb up and help out. The copper key garners no reaction but a glowing grows again, and Chuq picks up a burst of thought, hearing more voices. Questions of ‘who are you’ and what sounds like Brice’s voice. More complaints of pain and injury, this time centered on the ‘left side’. Passing the key again only repeats the message of pain and damage once more.

Edan decides to check out the left side of the statue, and I lower him down to see, but nothing of obvious note jumps out at him. He returns to the lower platform, and ties his own rope off to lower himelf down to check out the lower left interior.

Misfortune befalls him however, and he falls, snapping the rope in the process. In desperation, he casts web below himself, narrowly managing to catch himself within what we believed to be in the left leg, seventy feet down, and close to what would’ve been certain death. Down here at least, he sees the first signs of wear and tear, the machinery not as clean and repaired as the rest of the collossus.

We look down at the sounds of the scream, and Boris reports what happened to his master to Chuq, so we climb down so we can help him back up, where he reports his findings to us. Once he has gotten over his near-death experience, we lower him down the right side to ascertain if this side was in a similar state of disrepair, but it appears to have been worked on, lending credence to the idea that the ‘injury’ is that of the collosus’ rather than anything else.

Meanwhile, the worm-repairing monkey wanders over to Thorfus and looks at him pointedly. Ordering it to repair the worm is met blankly, so Thorfus assumes it is done, amd instead sends it to sort gears with its companions. He instead looks to the worm, ordering it to straighten up, which elicits a shudder from the worm. Stepping closer to inspect the worm causes the harness to begin sluggishly reaching for him, so he steps back quickly.

At a loss, we regroup with him in the cavern, trying to decide what to do. There is a big chance that the crystal is connected to Xena’Tel in some way, given Chuq’s reaction and the mention of Brice.

We also need to decide what to do with the automonleys, even if they’re currently distracted. Thorfus also considers repairing the broken automonkeys we had collected earlier. Chuq suggests setting them long-term tasks, such as searching for treasure, though the gear sorting will definitely distract them a while.

During our talk, a monkey takes my hand and tries to lead me towards the worm. When I don’t move, it reaches up behind the backplace of my armour and causes the whole suit to open up. Thorfus sends it back to work, but a little while later, another monkey tries to get Thorfus to the same.

We realise the worm’s residual intelligence may be affecting the monkeys, but even attempting to get it to stop only causes the harness to reach for Thorfus more. Instead, he reinforces the sorting command on all the monkeys but one, which he gets to follow us, and we decide to finsh exploring this level.

Whilst we pass, the two dwarves steering well clear of the worm, Edan steps closer to the worm. The appendages momentarily pause, seemingly parting to let him pass. Unknown to the half-elf. the presence within the worm starts asking him if he wants to join, though only Thorfus can hear it through the circlet. Edan continues curiously deeper into the worm, stopping where it’s body goes vertical below the ground, but only sees the internal crushing mechanisms.

We decide to head north first, as its the closest unexplored passage, and learn here that the monkeys can sing in groups by modulating hisses and rumblings between them. After that, Thorfus sends the one ahead to scout for us, but the passage is just cut across by the chasm. Instead, we head back down across the rope bridge to check the unexplored door to the west.

An open room holds an inactive forge and a gorilla machince, as well as the ends to two of the confirmed monkey tunnels we had previously blocked. Chuq hears nothing on the other side of the door, so Thorfus has the automonkey open it. The room seems to be another forge room, similarly inactive with another gorilla.

We leave it, and decide to head east now, making for the junction with the pillar. Past that, we see the ledges Edan had previously seen, still in shadow, but there is sunlight here, as it is morning. The final junction here runs north and south, with the southern route sloping down and north merely linking to the caved in tunnels previously explored.

We head south to an area where the tunnel widens, checking the doors there. There is noise behind the eastern one, an odd type of breathing, which Thorfus reveals to be a pair of monkeys working some belows. The room is merely another forge room however, so Thorfus merely commands the monkeys to follow. The western room is much the same but for an extra monkey tunnel.

Passed the rooms, it slopes back up, and we find another intersection. The south and east tunnels are collapsed, so we go west, passed another blocked south tunnel. The tunnel west ends in another forge room down some stairs, with another tunnel going north. Thorfus collects the three monkeys from this room as well. North merely returns us to the pillared intersection, and its clear we’ve explored everything we can in this area.

We take some time to decide what to do next. We think about stopping off at the surface, dropping off a sack of monkeys to Marchmain to keep him happy. Leaving a bunch sorting gears, Thorfus decides to keep a small troop of automonkeys with us to do various tasks. We consider testing whether they can do anything for our deactivated power armour and batteries back in Lupaa’s lair.

In the end, we decide to head back to Lupaa to hopefully get answers about the crystal in the collosus. We reset our trap as we pass, and follow the long tunnel back.

At Lupaa’s lair, we fill her in on our exploits. She hisses her displeasure at the mention of Brice, but tells us the purpose of the crystals was as the collossuses brains, as part of the mechanism to move the bridges, sabotaged during the rebeillion. She purports that Brice’s name would have either come from Chuq himself or a higher power. Neither seems exactly good.

She tells us what she knows of the worm, explaining that typically the controllers would be a goblin rather than a dwarf, as building was thier role in Ancient Dwarven society.

After that, we leave the ancients with Lupaa again, and make to head back to the surface. Before we leave, Thorfus sends off a monkey with a dead battery to charge it, instructed the rest to fix the three suits of power armour and also the fountain. Edan makes sure to stow his boots and cloak as well.

Session 76 Summary

*This would’ve been a lot quicker, but I wasted a whole bunch of time typing out Session 74 again cos I’m a fool*

We were in the thick of things yet again. After entering the Calculation and Processing room,  the shadow creatures had ambushed us, ringing myself, Thorfus, Chuq and Edan and putting our backs to the wall. After a brief exchange of blows, they dematerialise however, wailing the entire time in what apparently is Ancient Dwarven, though only Chuq can hear them. It seems they don’t like the sheer amount of magical light we’re carrying.

The lights seem to flicker in thier passing, and the gasps of shock alert us to their reappearance amongst the hirelings. Chuq quickly grabs Edan and shadow-steps into the melee, right on top of one of them. Myself and Thorfus have to hoof it the old-fashioned way. We clash briefly, and whilst we land a few blows, four of them gang up on Apolline, wounding him and dragging him down through the floor.

It’s a difficult fight, shadows aren’t exactly easy to hit, but in the middle of a crowd, mixed in amongst our own shadows and with a significant number of glowing weapons swinging around we were lucky we even knew where they were. I was lucky I had my suit, the odd visor helped immensely in identifying them. Oddly enough, they are still vulnerable to electricity as well, as Zelena uses up her stun stick’s charge in bringing one down.

The shadows are cowardly creatures it seems, as they swiftly disappear away from us again, going after the fleeing Fulbert. Four of them descend on the old man, whose only defence is Pons, who is looking to the south, and Sumnah, who is oddly brave but lacking the means to hurt them. The ancient elf launches a pair of arrows into the shadows, but succeeds only in hitting Fulbert in the eye. A mercy kill I’m sure, as he was seconds from becoming one of the foul creatures.

Two more appear behind Owyn and Guarinus, so myself and Thorfus run into save them whilst everyone else head to the octagonal portal room. Thankfully we pinned the doors open. I gulp down a healing potion as we charge in, only to be greeted by two more suddenly appearing in front of us.

We clear the room as quick as we can. The shadows seem to explode after a fashion when they die, but even with that we can’t be sure none escaped. I bring down the last visible, and we rush back out into the corridor. The shadows continue to assault anyone vulnerable or alone, leading us on a merry chase and seemingly avoiding Chuq especially. Slowly, we gather the entire party together in the portal room however, making things easier on us.

While we assess what to do, they strike again enmasse, several jumping on the weakened Owyn. We counter-attack as best we can, trying to bring the magically armed to the front and protect the others, who retreat through the northern airlock. In the scuffle, Zelena is dragged through the floor and Owyn narrowly avoids a similar fate. We banish three only to have another two appear from nowhere, but eventually we are able to bring them all down.

I’m quite proud to say I got the final blow.

The party as a whole heads north. The cell area is relatively safe from the shadows thanks to the airlock and Desric’s protections, and with a couple of rooms being open, we have a decent number of beds and space for people to rest a night.

Chuq however, has other ideas. There is no saving thier lives, much to Belroar’s dismay, but the monk believes he can at least retrieve some of thier equipment and perhaps thier bodies. Whilst me and Thorfus keeping an eye out from the observation room, Chuq returns to the portal room and shifts into the shadows.

After several long, tense moments he returns, carrying Zelena’s body and a bundle of ancient dwarven robes. He looks exhausted, no doubt people aren’t supposed to live in the shadows, and tells tales of the shadows being dead dwarven acolytes.  Disturbingly, Zelena has suffered additional injuries, and it seems as if we had fought and killed her shadow as well.

We’re happy for his success, and take the time to lay Zelena and Fulbert to rest. After, we set a customary watch from within the observation room, but go for a longer twelve hours due to the number of injuries. I take a bit of time to talk to Sturloc during our watch. The hireling has been finding it tough, especially now with Talon gone too.

By morning, we set Edan up with some of the Elven gear we’d recovered, recovered our strength, and healed a few of the injuries. We eat breakfast, finishing off most of out water,  and Thorfus starts fiddling with the pedestals, hoping the platinum key gives us access to something more. He gets three options, which seems to be no different to before, except for acknowledging the key’s presence. He activates the sonic deterrent, which merely sets of an ear-splitting noise below, evidently the signal the dwarven captors used to send thier prisoners back to cells.

We decide to test the key with the portal to the north, and discover a broken key scattered around the pedestal there. Our key doesn’t seem to work. Checking the shards, we discover the key was similar to ours, but with an extra option of an ‘x’.

We spend some more time going through the bio-forge cubes, reading through the cryptic notes, learning what the dwarves thought of humans, elves, orcs, kobolds, ogres and lizardmen from thier studies. Several addendums note the potential uses of the various species for the dwarven empire, such as the orcs possibly making good ‘undying berserkers’.

The reptilian cubes are next, and we learn about how they tried to subvert the dragon species for war, including the creation of wingless drakes. The larger reptiles were deemed deadly, but unintelligent, and nowhere near strong enough to combat a dragon. The raptors were considered useful as ‘attack dogs’, being deployed through the portal system, though the council overruled this decision. Apparently, experiments were underway to compine the raptor’s intelligence with the larger lizard’s strength.

(John, have you been watching Jurassic World? xD )

Attempting to close the southern portal from here ends with failure, causing a flicker of power throughout the facility. It seems the power system in the southern room has been damaged, locking the portal open.

The party then plans to head back west, and collect the cubes from the calculation room. We leave behind most of the rescued prisoners and some of the injured, mostly taking anybody with a magical weapon. Chuq picks up mental activity to the east, but the west seems clear, so we gather up the cubes from both rooms in the east wing.

Unfortunately, we get jumped by a pair of shadows in the right-hand room. Naturally it was quite the ambush, as they managed to land two hits on me. TWO! I feel my strength get sapped yet again, the lucky gits. If they’d come at me honourably it’d have been a different story!

This time, with there only being two and us not needing to protect anybody, they quickly fall to our superior numbers.

The next task is to set up an area in order to combat the zombie horde to the east. We decide to fall back on our old ‘net across the door’ trick, adding the carts in as additional fall-back points and shooting platforms. Letting them come to us is the easiest method, especially since they’ll bottle neck in the airlock. Setting this up also give me time to get over the effects of the shadow’s touch.

Chuq goes ahead and pins the doors open, which prompts a reaction from the north, like the sound of a bunch of chairs scraping back and footsteps approaching. Chuq retreats and we prepare to fight. As the undead dwarves round the corner, they are met with a hail of arrows and bolts. A couple fall, but no less than sixteen charge down the corridor towards us. The net comes in handy, as me and Thorfus hack at the front ranks supported by Chuq and Beloar, more ranged fire flies over our heads to drop the rear ranks.

It’s a fairly easy fight, though I need a heal from Derich to keep going due to my earlier injuries. Even Sturloc and Kottar get in on the killing, scoring a few good hits with thier crossbows, it seems fish in the barrel style fights help them out quite nicely. Jaegar punctuates the end of the fight, pretty much exploding the skeleton’s skull.

After this fight, our spoils are becoming rather too many with the addition of the undead’s weapons, a small pile of platinum cutlery. We start piling loot in the corner of the room, since there is far too much even for the carts at this point. After Derich expends a few more heals on the party, we prepare to head east, though we’ll need to find water soon.

Session 60 – The Better Late Than Never Edition

We took some downtime, cramped as the octagonal portal room was, and during this Belroar was able to finish several of his animal-body-part-recycling projects. Finklemur and Fitz also spent some time poring over their respective spellbooks, giving the both wizards chance to expand their repertoires.

(Sometime during our rest, Thorfus dreams about talking to his deceased uncle and Xen’Tellar, who warns him of danger in current task of locating the sphere, and offers him some guidance in how to proceed. Of course, none of the others know about this, except perhaps Araquiel.)

Chuq suggests a plan to get rid of the still-noisy zombies, utilising webs and the bottleneck the door provides. Thorfus also posits that we can use the airlock’s odd defence mechanism to simply fry them. The difficult part would be opening the far door and not getting captured by the undead or trapped in the airlock itself, which could be solved by Chuq’s shadow-stepping ability.

Eventually after a bit of thought and testing, we realise that we cannot really open the doors safely at all, and decide to leave the zombies to their own devices for now.

Finklemur shrinks Chuq down to just over a foot tall, and accompanied by Socrates, he starts scouting out the other side of the arrow slits, starting with the north-eastern one. The room beyond is a trapezoidal shape and doorless, with the only entrance being an elevator in the floor. The far wall is taken up by four metal lockers. 

He tests the elevator works first, using a panel beside it, which unfortunately makes an incredible racket. Luckily, nothing seems to react from below. Socrates is sent to explore the lower level, as the owl is still invisible, and notices that the tunnels connect all the elevators, as well as an additional one to the west. Several skeletal dwarves inhabit the tunnels as well, armed and armoured. There seems to be some valuables down there, and Finklemur gets Socrates to grab a scroll case and bring it back up to him. One of the dwarves also has a wand tucked into it’s belt, but he figures it would be too risky.

Belroar takes the time to inspect the dropping amongst the rubble, which he says comes from a lizard of some kind, which is definitely bigger than the dogs, and some sort of carnivore. Chuq takes the time to get the opinions of the three dogs on the matter, during which I’m pretty sure they discussed eating the droppings.

I worry for this party sometimes…

Chuq in the meantime is trying to open the lockers, but due to his current stature, it requires us to thread a rope through the handles and have the party in the other room pull it open for him. We get them all open in this fashion, and gather a collection of dwarven weapons and armour, some of it magical. Most notably are several multi-tools, part handaxe, part pick. There are also a few pieces of jewellery. 

 

It takes some work to get the items through the slit, and some are simply to big or too high on the shelves for Chuq to reach. Socrates is available to grab several of the smaller items also, mostly jewellery from the top shelves. Eventually, Chuq has to retreat as the spell wears off, and Finklemur goes off to rest and recover his spells. He does first open the scroll case, revealing a magical scroll that turns out to be ‘Protection from Elementals’.

Chuq questions the odd of the complex. Four rooms, which appear to be armouries, accessible only from below and a distant lift. Each is capable of covering the central room through the arrow slits, and any intruder will have to fight through both crossbow bolts from all sides, then get through password-protected airlocks that fry weapons and armour. It was obviously intended to be a gatehouse, easily defendable. It had fallen however, though perhaps from inside forces or a plague of undead.

After this, we decide to take the time to have Socrates carry rope and hook the lockers in the remaining rooms so we can get at all the gear within, and also have our wizards scan the items for magic. The only issue will be the north-western room, which has a cover of it’s arrow slit.

One of the rooms contains a rune-carved set of platemail, which lights up Thorfus’ eyes certainly, alongside more of the same axes, crossbows and bolts, but also a carved chest. Chuq uses his shadow-stepping to get through into south-east room, and grabs the runic armour, a regular set and the chest. He takes a second step into the north-east room, and passes the magical items from there back through the arrow slot, before stepping back into the central room. 

Thorfus of course dons the runic armour, feeling rather more secure in it.

(Riese, if you’re reading this, I heard you say I suck after I went to bed. Boo, unfair!)

The party finishes resting, giving time for Brice to heal everyone back to health, and Belroar time to flirt with Xelina. Once done, we gather everything up and decide to leave the chamber and head back up to the surface. Thorfus takes the time to lay out his uncle respectfully atop the wagon.

On the way out, we spot a single monkey automaton cross their path, heading south, prompting them to be on guard. We ignore it for now except for Socrates briefly following it to get a rough idea where it was going, which appears to be the workshops.

Next, we happen across a group of ten dwarves waiting at the bottom of the spiral tunnel. They seem nervous, and are identifiable as Xenilum’Khel Militia thanks to their uniform cloaks. Wary for ambush, we continue to approach them. They seem to be complaining about having to wait for a group down here, as most have already left and the Naga is still running around.

They hear us approach and recognise us, specifically Thorfus as being Dolmon’s nephew. They’d apparently broken through the rubble earlier that day, and they’re quite insistent to get moving and leave, so we let them escort us out. Finklemur disappears at some point, and I realise he must of cast his favourite spell.

At the top, a small opening as been cleared, and we exit into the sun. Another team of twenty dwarves guard the entrance, led by an older dwarf, who identifies himself as Haakun Colm, an ambassador from Xurnost’Khel. Several Brothers of the Worldforge are summoned to take care of Dolmon, and they reverently carry him away. 

We talk a little about the intentions of the Naga whilst the dwarves block up the entrance again, to be on the safe side should the Naga come looking for revenge. We then head off into the city, which seems to be quite deserted. We’re led out of the dwarven quarter, and told we have leave to return the day after. The lower levels are a bit of a contrast to our previous experience, and instead of being mobbed, we’re now being avoided. We head over to Desric’s cousin’s home before going to the Sleeping Collossus.

We fill Ghermin in on our side of the story, explaining on how Carrow’s group got a hold of the phoenix egg in the first place. He notes our successes though, particularly obvious due to Thorfus’ armour, so we offer him a pick of our spoils. He takes all the gems, jewellery and robes, as well as most of the multi-tools and hand-crossbows. Finklemur also offers up the scroll, but Ghermin says he’d need a trusted opinion of another wizard.

The trip all in all leaves us a hell of a lot richer.

(The recording cuts out here, but I don’t believe I missed anything)

 

 

 

 

And in keeping with my trend of last minute summaries… (NB: I actually had 75% of this done by Sunday, I just didn’t have chance to finish it through work and sleep)

Session 74 Summary

We were back in that octagonal room, all crammed in, hirelings, cart and all. It seemed brighter now, no doubt in part to the massive haul of magical weapons we had… procured. It looked pretty much as we left it, the southern doors still held open by Finklemur’s magic. Chuq hadn’t heard anything but the incessant background humming, and I had took the lead in my armour, letting the magic in the helmet scan the area for threats.

What was different however was the smell, as I was told. Apparently the chlorine smell from the west had now spread into this area. Grip and Fang had instantly followed the source to the west door, so I headed over to investigate whilst Thorfus ensured our rear was clear and closed the portal behind us. Something had in fact changed, the door-control panel had turned red, but looking through I could see no other change or any threats.

We discuss our bearings, deciding to prioritise the northern passage first and wake up some more potential allies. As we do so, the sound of heavy breathing becomes apparent, and we realise it’s the voice laughing at us.

“I thought you might return, you swaggering fools. Proud of your stolen copper key no doubt, and anticipating an easy victory over one of your betters. Pride, especially unearned, leads to the fall though. And even for slaves have forgotten that to live is to serve, and all other traitors. Rot among the restless dead you have called for, there is a fitting end for those rotting with disobedience on the inside.”

I come all over with the desire to swagger across the room, despite the difficulty to do so in my suit, and announce to the room, “Damn right, I’m swaggering.”

Either way, the voice says nothing more, and the breathing sounds disappear. Desric remarks that the voice may not be all there. Entirely possible, since the voice may not have properly slept in it’s time residing over the installation, unlike Desric. There is also the potential for it to be an Overseer, but I feel that the breathing would rule it out. 

Chuq takes a moment to reach out with the ESP senses of the golden skullcap, circling the room. West, he senses something, possibly ancient dwarven, broken and fuzzy. North is empty. East he finds the sense of anger, unintelligent and wild. Finally to the south, he picks up the something recognisable, a modern mind in mild pain, heading in our direction. We draw weapons and approach the southern corridor. Infravision picks out a humanoid shape by the other door, with a roughly elven build.

It hides when I point it out to the others, so I head down the corridor. Trying to be non-threatening, I poke my head out and wave. Chuq calls out that it’s safe, and we see a half elf appear from the darkness. He’s clad in green-tanned leather clothing, good travelling gear, topped off with a red hat, worn jauntily over a long, braided platinum hair. He’s got a sword and backpack, and decently equipped. For all appearances, an adventurer, especially since it’s likely he’s come from the direction of the Skarnwode.

Questioning him, we discover he had indeed come that way, travelling through the Aramark Village. He has come all the way from Curanost, and a University there. Sensing that we aren’t looking to kill him, he gets very excitable, getting quite close to examine my armour until Thorfus’ sword interposes itself.

The half-elf is Edan, and he came here based on tales of displaced dwarven artifacts he read about in a book. He obviously isn’t sure exactly where he is, especially since the portal isn’t mentioned in any book, even asking if it’s our home. Apparently he discovered the portal on the advice of a half-orc, undoubtedly Uthruk.

We take the time to introduce ourselves, as he hasn’t heard of the Starchy Boyz, which is probably for the best. As we’re both exploring the ruins, he decides to join us as we carry on through. Since Chuq is probably using the skullcap to search the half-elf’s thoughts, I feel we can trust him to join us for now. Chuq lays down the realities of the location pretty quickly, pointing out the undead dwarves skulking around in the tunnels below, and their level of threat. I’m sure Edan thinks that there are three thousand, year-old dwarves below, rather than three, thousand year old dwarves.

As if this place wasn’t horrifying enough…

We decide to pair Edan up with Zelena for now, for mutual protection and to keep any eye on him. Harnath definitely taught us a lesson there.

Heading north, we cycle through the northern corridor and enter the cells area. It has remained undisturbed since we were last there. Thorfus and Chuq head over to one of the pedestals and begin checking on the entombed prisoners, predominately humans and elves, but also including a couple of lizardmen, all currently desynchronised. There is also the ogre we left synchronised since our last visit. They begin discussing our options with Derich, the humans are the priority, and following that the elves, though communication might prove tricky as they were brought here from abroad. The lizardmen will have to be unfortunately left, they suffered at the hands of the dwarves, but communication would be all but impossible. The ogre, who is hurt, angry and hungry according to Chuq, gets desynchronised to save him a slow death.

Whilst Derich heads down to the doorways, myself and Thorfus remain hidden up in the observation room, so as not to spook the freed prisoners. Cell by cell, the five humans are released. The first pair are obviously friend’s of his, Shuqayr and Guarinus greeting him with a hug. The other three are Hardi, Blaise and Apoline.

They are obviously wary in greeting us, but the Starchy Boyz are obviously mostly human, and I make sure to take off my helmet, keeping my arms well away from my weapons as they are brought up. Derich apparently tells them we are ‘traitors’ to the our ancestor’s regime, branded for sympathising with the other races the dwarves captured and enslaved. I am completely fine with that explanation. Naturally there is still a language barrier, and they lack Derich’s grasp of ancient dwarven and more modern languages. We make sure to clothe them as best we can, providing the old rebel’s armour and several large sacks to help their dignity. We also provide food and water, and some basic weapons, which we have surprisingly little of. 

Incredibly, for the second group, it has only been a matter of hours since they had been captured in an ill-fated infiltration attempt, sometime a year after the Crystal Tower fell, after Heaven’s Fall. Comparatively, Derich’s men had been there at least a week after Heaven’s Fall, long enough to have spent recreation time with the other prisoner’s outside of their cells.

Derich is also shocked to learn that the Dragon Emperor’s First Consort, whom he believed to have perished in Heaven’s Fall, had in fact survived and been captured by the dwarves. The First Consort was the one responsible for overthrowing and imprisoning Xena’Tel, allowing the current Xen’Tellar to come to power. The First Consort was also a Great Red Dragon.

After this, we free the elves, Derich going down this time with Edan as the humans said they could not speak to each other. Edan manages to speak to them, with some differing in dialects and a certain archaic lilt to the other elves’ speech. The elves are completely unaware of the war against the dwarves, having being abducted by chance from the continent by ‘metal men from the sky’. They initially even mistake Edan for their captor, but reveal they have been their for ‘many months’ from their perspective, let out occasionally to mingle with the other prisoners and play with ‘simple child’s toys’.

Most surprisingly they believe magic is not real, thinking it trickery. It seems ancient elves lack the magical prowess of their more modern kin, being more warrior tribesmen. It is only when Edan launches a magic missile at the wall do they understand, and are shocked and fearful, but see the benefits as Edan tries to explain it. They remark our group is a very odd tribe.

The main elf’s name is Sumnah. He asks to borrow a bow, and Thorfus gifts his to the elf as it often goes unused.

We consider trying the copper key on the portal to the north, and from what we can assume, it opens into another temple, likely on the mainland where the elves are from, but decide to wait until this area is clear. We do notice however, that with several cells now synced and not drawing power, the power in the area has stabilised. 

The prisoner’s rescued and somewhat clothed, the party heads back through the portal room to the western wing, being as paranoid and cautious as we ever are. The western door’s switch is broken, seemingly damaged by Haranth’s wrath. At first, Chuq is going to shadow-step passed and open it from the other side, but we realise we can pry the panel from the wall and ‘pick the lock’, by messing with the wires behind it. Chuq, Edan and Pons all struggle to get it to work however, and Chuq has to shadow-step anyway, using my massive shadow to do so. He is able to unlock the door on the other side, and it is spiked open. The code works as usual to open the second door, and it is similarly spiked.

The area beyond looks undisturbed from how we left it, but Belroar reveals that something big, with booted feet, has passed through into the security office and back again. The dogs communicate with Chuq an odd scent to whatever it was, only able to classify it as ‘bad’ and that it ‘burns’, and we equate that to the chlorine smell. Whatever it was is obviously the source, so we follow the scent up to a door. Our scouts are unable to hear anything beyond over the background humming.

Chuq hacks this door as well, and it opens into a large marble room. Three metallic shutters cover the western wall, and a desk and throne face us from in front of them. Two automatons flank the desk, and upon the from is the shocked visage of an enormous mound of flesh and metal, vaguely humanoid. It looks like a homonculus of metal and at least three different kinds of flesh, and it’s breathing is laboured, drawn through a mask and series of vents placed around it’s neck that is also expelling green fumes.

The gasping breaths mark the creature as undoubtedly the speaker we have heard throughout the facility. I want to pin it and demand answers, but Chuq opens up with some thrown daggers, and other members of the party follow this up with arrows and Jaeger, so I simply move into the room and prepare to charge. Thorfus has the room to get in close however, and throws himself at the monstrosity, leaping onto the desk to fight.

What follows is a brief and messy combat. I rush in to the fight, and the creature breathes noxious green gas all over us. Only myself and Thorfus are able to resist succumbing to it’s overpowering effects, but it still leaves us with hazy vision and short of breath.

It speaks here, calling us ‘race traitors’ and promising us death. This thing is a dwarf? It’s as big as an ogre!

It breathes out yet another cloud, and once more us dwarves resist. Chuq, Talon and Barmyr however, who came to back us up, fall prey to it and collapse. It is at this point the automatons, which were previously inactive, wake up and simply crush the two hireling’s skulls.

There’s a noticeable pause in the violence at the point, and then I think we all saw red. I briefly remember screaming for someone to save Chuq before he can suffer the same fate, and Belroar rescues the beleaguered monk. The rest of the party, rescued prisoners included, charge in to combat the automatons.

Thorfus takes an arrow in the mess that follows, and after we have rained blows upon the creature for some time with seemingly little effect, he flips the switch on his sword and executes it with extreme prejudice, inflicting what must be a dozen wounds in a second. After that, the party makes short work of the automatons.

As the dust settles so does a feeling of grief. It’s never nice to lose a member of our group. Barmyr was the last of the Mercers that joined us after the adventure into the Kobold’s warren. Talon was as brave and strong as he was boastful, and it seemed such an ignominious end for a man who survived so much.

Chuq is thankfully safe, and Derich is clearing out his lungs with the air bladder, but it seems the Starchy Boyz may have won a bittersweet victory here.