Author: Antony Nicklin

Session 112

10:20am, 25th Jourilden

Experimental Ship Wreck, Deck

Having noticed the circling sand shark in the waters, Chuq has a moment of realisation as he and the shark recognise each other. Calling Chuq ‘Swimming Walker That’s Not Completely Dumb’, Carchus, the shark he previously spoke to at Kalligan had arrived, explaining that he had answered the call for the bravest champion of shark-kind, which he claimed to be after braving the ‘bad waters’.

The call had gone out a long while ago, at least two moon cycles, though he had arrived a lot more recently. He was also wounded, having been attacked by ‘Dagon’s people’, green-black underwater humanoids with sharp teeth. Chuq gets a better picture of this with his ESP helm, pausing only to prevent our hireling longbowmen from firing on the shark.

Carchus explains that Dagon had put out the call so another patch of bad-water could be fixed, and the shark believed that Chuq could help with that, since we had done so previously. The location is underwater to the north-east, and Carchus says he will head south-east to bring help to resolve the issue.

He also explains that the Weeping Ladies are still in the cove, beneath the water and feasting. Chuq tasks Jory Tregoning to take a longboat and several hirelings to report this to the Bitter Horse.

In the meantime, Edan leads a small group below decks to inspect the engine room. Below deck is a bit of a mess, though devoid of much of the detritus normally present aboard a ship, there is some water. The aft of the ship is taken up by large hulk of machinery and a number of barrels, some of which are broken and likely the source of the water inside. Inspecting the barrels, Canis finds labels denoting as ‘Property of the Temple of Merendur, Consc. Water’, and he can tell that is extremely pure, and not naturally so.

Edan inspects the machine in the meantime, noticing a funnel that would allow something to be poured into the machine. The rest of the contraption has a number of pipes and various other unknown parts, but it seems apparent the water is some kind of fuel source. There doesn’t seem to be any obvious controls, just a number of gauges and a wood stove.

Above, Ronan inspects the sword used to destroy the power source within the control box, but finds nothing special about it. There is a number of copper-like shards lying in an around the box. He takes the time to gather up some of the components of what remains of the sphere.

Chuq has managed to retrieve the corpse of the man responsible, the act not only taking off his arm, but burning much of that side of his body. He seemed to be well-dressed, and upon being inspected by Thorfus, it looks quite close to one of Grell’s lackeys from the time where we prevented him making off with the baker’s daughter. We decide to retain the body and his sword.

Leaving the ship for now, we remove the barrels of water for safe-keeping until it can be unbeached and repaired, and return to the Bitter Horse. We decide to leave a pair of Hirelings along with Peter the Repairman at the Experimental Ship begin repairs. As we return, we can see bonfires along the beach and sailors working to move the bodies still strewn about.

Reporting to Dyconson and Evenwode on everything we’ve learned so far, they are able to confirm the sword is an heirloom from Evenkeel’s time, belonging to the Hynderwells. Thier son was a known college associate of Grell who had gone missing. They admit to being aware of how the engine works, and explain that the Consecrated Water as fuel was an idea of Desric Treehorn’s. Reportedly, burning off the water left behind a kind of energy. They also impress on us that what we’ve seen should remain a Midmark naval secret.

During the conversation, we hear a horn blast. Looking out with spyglasses, we see the sailors running around and waving, perhaps having seen something in the water, though we can’t make anything out.

They decide to send over several shipwrights to help with the salvage whilst we investigate the beach, Thorfus grabbing his sacks of monkeys in the process. We notice nothing on the way over except a floating body missed during the cleanup and a lot of seaweed. Asking the sailors on shore what had happened, one claims he may have seen a head amongst the seaweed, but since it’s been a short while since the sighting, he assumes it was nothing but another corpse. He does admit to feeling a little queasy at the sight, which is uncharacteristic of the man.

On shore there are roughly seventy sailors, thirty from the Javelin, the rest from the Footpad, present to work on clearing the beach. We send a pair of longbowmen to the tower to keep watch, and suggest that the sailors set a watch along the shore every twenty feet.

We then head back to the octagonal tower, and the hole within. Gathering around the hole, Thorfus brings out his monkeys, allowing Ronan to see them for the first time. As they’re activated, they line up precisely as Thorfus praises the little creatures, then he directs them to head down the hole in front of him. One stops and holds out his hand to Thorfus beforehand, displaying five bugs arranged in size order.

Preparing some rope, we then lower Thorfus down after them. He is lowered into a domed room with a single passageway leading east. The centre of the room has a pile of broken, rotten bodies, and south of it is a pedestal with an information reliquary slotted into it, and beyond that several lockers. Seven posts ring the centre, made of the same material as the pedestal, with rounded tops, and the east holds to large metal boxes.

Pulling out his sword for light, he can also see that there seems to be some tracks leading east. Spreading out the monkeys to keep watch, the rope is returned up to allow Ronan to come down, and Thorfus inspects the bodies. About twenty in all, and mostly men aside from several women marked and shaved in the usual fashion of Grell, he recognises none of them.

Thorfus inspects the pedestals for runes or other writings as the rest of the party begins descending. All of them have a rune for the letter ‘L’. They appear much like the ones from Xen’Khel, lacking a holograhic interface. He tests out one of the platinum keys, but they do nothing, and his circlet picks up no other automatons.

Ronan looks at the cart, which looks to be a specialised minecart with five pairs of seats within, and what looks to be a small cargo area. The door he can see does not seem to have any way of being opened and closed. Whilst there, he can see that the boxes seem to be engines of some kind, filled with gears and the like. He explores partway into the tunnel, noticing that it mostly is a straight line as far as he can see, though there more doors in interval that could come down to block the tunnel.

The other party members arrive, fanning out to properly explore the room. Edan tries to more thoroughly inspect the pedestals based on what he learned from Kalgun, believing that they are currently lacking power. He also retrieves the reliquary.

Chuq checks the lockers for traps, noticing them to be similar to the ones we found in Bioforge. The first one holds two metallic cylinders, 2.5 feet long with valves on one end, with flexible tubing attached, and a staff with two tines on one end. Via Kalgunn, Edan is able to confirm that the cylinders are underwater breathing apparatus. The second locker holds a three more cylinders and another spear. The third has two more cylinders and a third bident.

Thorfus and Edan bring Kalgunn over to the boxes, and are able to work out that they are for powering the cart, which he calls a tram. They seem to be powerless, though he warns them to be careful as there may be residual power. Thorfus questions the use of the pedestals and it is explained that the central disc is an electrical hoist, and they pedestals would be part of a security system.

We call down our Henchman, deciding to leave everyone else above to stand guard. We decide to bring the water-breathing equipment and clamber into the cart, having the monkeys push us along. As we are gathering, we can distantly hear a horn blowing, and our spearman report something on the beach, old ladies riding green-scaled creatures.

Realising that the quickest way up is magically, Edan decides to cast levitate, though Thorfus takes the lead being carried by his monkeys. Edan, Ronan and Chuq all go up via levitation, leaving Canis behind to begin climbing the rope with the Henchman.

Reaching the surface, the party can hear shouts and the sounds of combat, and even sobbing. Our hirelings seem to be assisting from the upper floor of the tower, but the creatures on the beach are cutting a swathe through the sailors. The creatures are huge, ten foot tall humanoids, swatting at the sailors. Feminine creatures, hags, are riding on thier backs, using saddles and reins made of seaweed. They appear to be fighting in a group, the hags staying hidden behind the backs of thier mounts.

The party prepares for ranged combat, the monkeys gathered defensively. Chuq begins shouting for the sailors to retreat, a few of them beginning to head our direction. We set up a spear line between the buildings as the creatures begin to chase the fleeing sailors. In the chaos, several sailors fall to friendly fire. They reach us however, passing through our ranks to relative safety, even as the creatures get to our line.

Whilst the party keeps firing, Canis attempts to use thier reins against them, casting Entangle, holding one in place and impeding the rest. As he does, we notice that the wounds the creatures have suffered are being healed by water being secreted by thier hag riders. Ronan steps forward and slays the monstrous creature trapped by the spell, brushing off the effects of the Hag’s gaze even as a Monkey finishes it off.

The Automonkeys begin attacking the ankles of the nearest creatures, allowing the spearmen to begin poking at them in an attempt to keep them at bay. In response, the creatures lash out, smashing into the ranks of monkeys and spearmen.

Edan returns to surface, preparing a powerful bolt of lightning. Canis casts Faerie Fire to attempt to make the mounts easier to bring down, and the party lays in, managing to land a number of wounding blows. Struggling against thier bonds, the creatures are unable to retaliate as quickly, and Edan unleashes a massive bolt of lightning across thier line, Chuq narrowly jumping aside before it hit.

The bolt courses through the creatures, heavily wounding all the mounts and dropping one of the hags. The other two hags seem to brush it off entirely, seemingly possessing some magical resistance. Not wanting to be outdone, and without time to cast his own lightning magics, Canis charges in and brings his hammer down on the skull of one of the creatures.

Thorfus shoots out the eyes of another, dropping its rider down to the ground, where it is swarmed by monkeys and brought down. The final Hag, it’s attention caught by Ronan, gazes in his direction, only to get caught up in its own vision as he held up a shard of the copper automaton. At that, the final creature attempts to flee, only to be brought down by the spears and monkeys of our battle line.

As we survey the end of the battle, the party takes a moment to put out the fire caused by Edan’s magic. None of the wounded seem to have lived past the battle, except our hireling Weswynelle, who suffered a heavy wound to his leg, so the party rummages through the creatures, finding a small sum of gold. The saddles we find to have been made of coral, whilst Canis settles down to begin harvesting the scaly skin of the Hag’s mounts, which on thought resemble tales of Sea Trolls.

Session 110

Towards the end of the week of Edan’s training with Aldus Runnelbrook, the party continued to take advantage of the downtime.

Canis

Canis was able to pick up his new, bone-studded armour from Orsabet, dropping off the Spider-Gorilla leather he had gathered to potentially make the repair of the magical leather easier.

He spends the rest of the week training his new pets with magical assistance. Swoop and Wing for scouting and message-delivery purposes, and Zak the dog for guard duty and close-combat support. The Jaguar cub he named shadow, and other than talking to it, tried to train the feline to simply trust him.

Ronan

Ronan, in the mean time, headed off to the gambling hall we once saw Sthorm enter, a supposed front for the Mad Dogs. Heading straight to the bartender, he asked directly for the dwarf, and left a message that he wanted to speak to him. As he is speaking, a figure comes from a balcony and whispers to the bartender, asking Ronan to come upstairs to speak to someone.

Following them, Ronan is brought to a large, yet well-kept Half-Orc. The Half-Orc, Gartrim, asks what Ronan wants with Sthorm. Gartrim is aware of the job Ronan was sent on, and tells him not to worry, as it’s all been settled up. They seem fairly aware of Ronan’s comings-and-goings within the city.

Gartrim asks Ronan to take a look at the gamblers below, and spins a tale. He thought that when he met Ronan, that he was a smart guy, but all the people below, risking it to make a big prize. He likens them to adventurers. Whether they win or lose however, they go to Rolf the bartender, to drown thier sorrows or celebrate. Rolf, he says, is like the Mad Dogs, the tax collectors, and the Greycloaks. He thought Ronan had chosen better.

The Mad Dog also reveals that the issue with the knock-off Dog’s Froth won’t be one much longer, especially now that the benefactor in Vargen had met with a sticky end. Finally, he gives Ronan a tip, aware that we might be going on a sea-voyage sometime soon, and suggests that we should visit the old man living on a houseboat in the middle of Midland Bay, anchored near the wreck of the Silver Toed Strumpet.

With a final promise that he can return if he wants ‘more-fulfilling’ work, Ronan leaves and returns to the Cock and Bull. He asks Canis to send one of his pigeons to scout the Houseboat, which it does and replies that it is where it said was.

Edan

During his evenings, Edan spent his time working on the circlet and cube we retrieved from the cloaked figure with Kalgunn’s help. He needs to speak to someone so he can gain access to a forge if he wants to go through with it. Edan can also can do it himself, at Kalgunn’s preference, but with a chance for catastrophic failure that could be avoided if he can trust a skilled smith to perform the work for him.

He also spends some time working on his plans for a flight-capable boat. He spends some time brainstorming with Kalgunn about creating a manual control mechanism for automaton’s, to save the reliance on a control circlet. Kalgunn himself had mused over the idea, but believes Edan would need a large amount of the metal. He would also need a dragon to be even able to shape the metal.

On this subject, Edan learns that the dwarves once had a number of chained dragons for this specific purpose. The Dragon Consort, Prixithalmus was one of these before the Rebellion. He also learns that a Crystal circlet is the highest in the hierarchy, making it several steps above Thorfus’ Silver one. Gold was also a rare substance in Ancient Dwarven crafting, enough that Kalgunn was unsure of it’s place in the hierarchy.

One issue that remains for Edan is that without more cubes and at least one more circlet, he cannot be sure that they can lock a cube to a single circlet without interference from others.

Several nights later, he brings Kalgunn to Aldus. They discuss the sword, and how to potentially make him talk. Aldus expresses disbelief that Kalgunn can only hear through touch-enabled telepathy, and can frankly hear everything.

This only seems to compound the doubts Edan already had, but also instills a reluctance to push the sword to talk, since doing so could prevent Edan’s partnership in building new technology. He believes that if Kalgunn knew and could do more, he had ample oppurtunity back in our time in the facilities and Area X.

They decide to forego the interrogation, and Edan merely allows Aldus to talk to Kalgunn normally. He does ask Kalgunn if he can speak out loud at all, to which Kalgunn replies that as before, he cannot.

On seeing the sword, Aldus confirms Kalgunn’s claims that his blade-form is effective against users of transpatial energy. The Dwarven Runes on the sword actually conform to alchemical symbols, fire, earth, water, air and magic, which he believes gives the sword its power, in that it severs the links between user and magic. Knowing Aldus knows this, Kalgunn agrees that he is ‘worthy’.

Thorfus

Thorfus breaks out the scrying mask to check back on Xen’Khel. The first thing he notices is that the mask is showing Midmark as default, an option we hadn’t had before. An notice appears:

‘Administrative Override activated from Control Centre. Remote access to high-altitude scrying orb being shut down in 3… 2… 1…’

Once the countdown is complete, it searches for a signal and finds Xen’Khel’s, returning to an image of the mountain. The Upper City seems much as we left it, so he switches to the view of Lonely Isle. The Island remains busy as before, particularly around the docks, and the encampment seems to have grown. He spends some time looking for the Flaming Princess and Dusty Gnome, but there is no sign of Grell at this time.

Upon hearing about the orb in high-altitude, Canis sends one of his pigeons as high as it can fly. Swoop returns without seeing anything however, though apparently basically touched the sun.

Asking Kalgunn about the Control Centre, Edan relays that the Conclave in Exile would have had it. The location of the Conclave was secret however, defended by the Lord Marshall. Such sites would not appear on Edan’s map, and whilst the fact that the scrying of Midmark was blocked is a clue, it could be that was just because of the Lord Marshall’s last location.

Thorfus also tracks down Mortimer at the docks, asking the dwarf about Agmar’s Folly. After claiming he knew Thorfus would go onto great things way back, he says that the place his merely a hideout of for pirates and Imperials, apparently. He’d never sent an expedition there however, despite plenty of of old Imperial forts to explore, he believes that it’d probably been picked clean. He may do so soon though. On passing his condolences for Desric, Mortimer also reveals that Gierman is in town, though he is unsure where.

Heading to the Community House of the Brotherhood of the World Forge, Thorfus speaks to Father Alair and asks about Gierman’s location, though they are similarly unsure.

Chuq

Chuq finished up his interviews for new henchman, granting the wizard Giacomo the Mea’Khel Bracers. He also spends time in the week conversing with Canis’ menagerie.

Accompanying Edan to Aldus in order to get his skullcap identified properly, Chuq asks the sage about Agmar’s Folly. It was named for a follower of Baldric, who had been overthrown by one group or another depending on the story. Aldus was actually responsible for assisting Agmar find a good location for the settlement.

Aldus inspects his skullcap, and is able to tell Chuq that it is a ‘Helm of Telepathy’ with a 60′ range. He is able to hear the thoughts of anything with, providing he can understand them. It can be blocked by solid lead or a quarter foot of iron. He also says there seems to be some odd force within the helm. Chuq relays his experience with Marchmain and the odd dreamscape to the sage, and admits to having smelled flowers and heard voices since the event, though Aldus cannot claim to know what that means.

Chuq wonders if he has some intelligence present within the helm, and asks Aldus to try and communicate with it. When he does, suddenly Aldus is on the other side of the room with his hands up and Chuq can smell flowers. Reportedly, Chuq had yelled at him to get his hands of him, scaring the old sage, but Chuq has no memory of this.

Aldus points out that he does not trust the helm. It seems enough to prompt Chuq to see if he cannot get the helm removed. He speaks to the other party members about this, and we agree to accompany him to the Ark Temple to get it removed.

On arrival, the clerics there apologise to him for not being able to speak to the masters of his order. He believes it is fishy, and relays as such to the party. In the mean time, he asks the cleric if they can remove the skullcap and heal his head. Canis offers to assist with the procedure.

The cleric takes us to the residence of the partriarch, and on the way Chuq reads her thoughts that she believes him to be as good as dead. She leads the party past Sturgard’s statue, to a nice house where a well-dressed cleric is waiting. The patriarch agrees to the do the procedure, for the cost of 6000GP enlisting Thorfus and Ronan to help hold Chuq down whilst the monk enters a trance.

For insurance, we also tie Chuq down, and worryingly enough the partriarch grabs a crowbar. Chuq offers him a magical dagger instead, which seems safer. The process is long, bloody and terrifying, obviously causing Chuq a lot of pain. The partriarch cuts the skin from around the edges, Canis and the clerics healing as he does so. Finally, he uses the crowbar to pry it off his head with a sickening sound, cracking the top of Chuq’s skull. The partriarch himself then casts Heal, completely healing all the damage done and repairing the bone.

Eventually, Chuq wakes up feeling lighter and feeling better. The partiarch seems shocked that Chuq still has his faculties, and excuses himself to go rest.

After cleaning the skullcap out, Chuq returns to Aldus with it. The sage doesn’t believe that the presence is anything to do with the item’s power. Merely holding the item doesn’t seem to garner a reaction, so Chuq pays for an identify, to which Aldus can confirm the item will still function as a Helm of Telepathy. As a test, Ronan offers to don the skullcap, but it merely causes him to pass out, so Chuq finally puts it back on, confirming its functionality.

After blindfolding and binding Chuq again, Aldus feels safe enough to probe the skullcap again. They can communicate just fine, but is unable to detect another presence.

Party

We head up to see Lord Thornton, asking at the doors of the courthouse, Thorfus announces himself as Thorfus of the Baldric’s Boys. This seems enough to gain audience with Lord Thornton, which we do within what seems to be Judge Grell’s old office. We offer him purchase of a number of magical items, and he agrees to meet us late at night to go over them at his home.

We also ask him to keep hold of several items we wish to be kept safe whilst we go sailing, which he agrees to lock up. He decides not to burden us with his woes over current events, like the upcoming meeting of the Marks.

Later that night, we sell a suit of Power Armour to Thornton, and leave a number of Information Cubes and other dwarven technology in his care.

On the morning after Edan’s training completed, the 22nd of Jourilden, the party gathers with thier hirelings at the docks. After spending some coin and breaking out some of the magical gear to better equip them all, we met the Captain of the Bitter Horse.

He tells us that several of our men would need to be shipped on other boats, and also that Admiral Dyconson would be accompanying us, but would not be in command of the mission. He also asks us to confirm that mission would be to capture Grell alive, as that would be better for public justice.

Perette arrives and tells us that a number of bodies have been discovered with cubes in thier skulls, fifteen found in total, spread out across the city. Roughly in time with when Thorfus used the scrying mask, they were discovered because they suddenly collapsed, all of them in the vicinity of some guardhouse or watchtower.  They cannot be sure they found them all however. As he leaves, Perette is seen inspecting his men’s heads beneath thier cloaks.

The fleet we are gathered on is five ships strong, led by the Bitter Horse. The captain seems perturbed by the number of animal’s present, but welcomes us aboard and promises us easy sailing. He tells us we will be passing the Merfolk city, home of Narusth, and also the Hammer of Merendur, a rocky outcropping that makes booming sounds.

We sail south, heading past the easternmost penisula, which is apparently the safest, as the Merfolk here are the ones not allied with the Devilfish. We will arrive at Agmar’s Folly on the 25th. It seems smooth sailing for the first day, passing out onto open water.

On the morning of the second day, we witness a giant turtle surfacing near the ships that follows us for a while. Canis communicates with it, asking about the waters and explaining boat names, before asking about Grell and his ‘flying’ ship. The turtle, Penn, tells him that it’d seen Grell’s ship pass into the bay and back out, accompanied by two regular ships.

On the trip Edan identifies the Merendur artifacts. The bowl is cursed so that any who attempt to use it get shrunk and pulled in, drowning them. The cloak is powerful, and should the wearer be submerged in water, they would be transformed into a mantaray, but keeping thier arms.

By the 24th, the captain comes to us and says that will arrive by the afternoon the following day. He plans to have some of his ships go in, spearheaded by the Bitter Horse, whilst the rest head around to the otherside of the outcropping guarding the bay’s entrance to blockade them in.

We begin planning our attack, discussing the best way to scout, and also the benefits of shadow-stepping onto the outcropping. We think about sailing in on a morning, using the sun as cover. This could potentially develop into us stepping onto and subverting one of Grell’s ships. Canis’ spells of Obscurement and Warp Wood, as well as simply being Lightning artillery, to block and damage Grell’s ships are put forwards as options also.

Chuq heads out on the final evening before arrival with the cloak to scout the location from underwater.

Session 101

9:39am, 3rd Jourilden

After over two days of exploration of the hidden Ancient Dwarven facilities, the party has gathered in Power and Engineering, preparing to finally enter Area X. Thorfus takes a moment to view the surface with his mask, noticing several key differences. The dwarven encampment looks to be almost deserted, but for the usual guards at the entrance.

In the adventurer’s encampment however, a large number of dwarves are camped out in front of the Sleeping Colossus, looking to be mostly militiamen from Xenilum’Khel and Xurnost’Khel. A number of militiamen are gathered on the path down the mountain, constructing a new gatehouse that would block free-entry to the adventurer’s encampment. Of note, is that amongst a number of wagons gathered near the militia is a single wagon emblazoned with the Rhom’khul family name, and a dwarf Axel would’ve recognised as his older brother, Drexam.

We gather the group and prepare to march through the portal, deciding to leave Laurent and Owyn, along with Socrates, within Engineering to guard our escape and cart. We decide to give them a codeword for when we return, so that they can utilise the defence mechanism should we return subverted in some way. The phrase ‘Monkey Business’ is decided upon as an ‘all clear’ signal.

Instructions are passed to Finkleworm via Owl-Telepathy to dig east for a while then surface, giving us a potential means of escape. The old wizard is becoming very strange, enough that Socrates wasn’t even sure that Finklemur knew who he was, confused by other voices he can hear. We decide to have Socrates keep talking to his master every so often in an effort to save his sanity.

Chuq is given all the keys in order to open the gate, ready to shadowstep at a moment’s notice. The portal opens without issue to an empty room, and with no danger obvious, Thorfus commands a monkey to step through.

The monkey exits the portal in the centre of a large square platform within a huge chamber. The walls are beyond its vision, and the ceiling is 40ft up. A blue shimmer glows from beneath the platform, accompanied by loud winds. Walking over to the edge, the monkey inspects the chasm, now being able to see the walls. The room is octagonal, with doors on the cardinal points and a pair of arrow slits in each of the remaining walls. There are no panels on the doors, and what windows are open reveal the barrels of what would be large cannon. There is no sign of any bridges either. Looking down, the blue haze emanates from way below, with several shapes built into the pillar beneath the platform of a statue-esque design, some 60-70ft below. More shapes seem to be floating further down, within the light. Above the doors are placards with Ancient Dwarven, East – Residences, South – Research, West – Administration, and North – Prison.

Back in Engineering, Edan asks Kalgunn who the Administrator would be. The sword-Dwarf said there wasn’t a sole Administrator, rather that the four administrators of the other facilities would rotate the responsibility. Through process of elimination, we surmise that it would be the Chief Botanist who was the last. Additionally, the smallest group of researchers were present here, maybe only twenty, some permanent, some rotated.

Seeing no clear way to get across the chasm to the doors, we begin planning, figuring we can use the monkeys or shadowstep and rope to create our own bridge, if we can get the doors open. Although with the shutters closed, we would likely only have access to Research and Residential. We also realise there may be another platinum key specifically for Area X, since the four were needed on the other side to open it in the first place.

We begin to step through the portal to inspect thing with our own eyes, instantly noticing the wind and coldness of the area. Thorfus’ mask gives the message ‘No Signal’, but directing it south returns a view of Xen’Khel, meaning we have travelled a fair distance from the city. His circlet also reveals that the statues below are not automatons.

Deciding to get a better view of what’s beneath, we tie the Starchy badge to some rope and lower it down. The statues appear to ornamental, fashioned like devils with wings and horns, and they look very similar to the Gargoyle we fought previously. The floating figures appear to be dwarves in research robes, obviously caught mid-flight by a desynchronisation field. It seems our actions are enough to awaken the Gargoyles, and all sixteen take flight.

Retrieving the badge, the party prepares for combat, retreating to the centre. Thorfus even lashes himself to the pedestal, whilst Chuq simply retreats through the portal. After a moment, the rest of the party follows, Derich waiting only to complete his spell. As the first two to the west appear, he casts Hold Person, freezing them both and causing them to fall towards the Desynchronisation Field. Before any of the others can appear, he retreats, and the party calls out Monkey Business and closing the portal behind them.

Giving some time for the Gargoyles to return to their perches, we reopen the portal and Chuq steps through, and we close the portal behind them. The monk meditates in the dark, listening and thinking for activity, but doesn’t learn anything new, even with the Silver Key.

His given time up, the portal reopens and we all return through to Area X. Noticing that the windows are too small for a person to pass through, we enlist Socrates to fly through and explore for us. He heads for the south-western window, entering a small room with cannon and a single door. He is able to open the door with his beak, which opens with a screech and pass through to the next room.

A slightly larger room, with four doors is beyond. An automaton stands in the centre of the room, similar to the Warriors, but with a domed head. It doesn’t react to Socrates, allowing the owl to hit a panel near the northern door, which opens and a bridge is extended over to the platform where the party is.

The Owl repeats the process with the north-eastern window, getting a mirror-image, the dwarven propensity for symmetrical design continuing. Again, the door is opened and a bridge extended. For completion’s sake, he flies through the south-eastern window, which merely also opens into Residential.

Chuq and Edan decide to venture down to Research, checking the final cannon room before heading to the south door. The room beyond is an elongated octagon, with narrow ledges to the north and south. A thin bridge crosses the chasm between, complete with a blue glow below, and aside from the door to the south, large double doors adorn the east and west walls.

Socrates is used to scout again, heading across the room without issue, so Edan follows, communicating back to the party with the broochy-talky. He opens the door, showing a largish chamber. The southern portion has walls made of meshed glass, the room beyond filled with greenish gas. In the centre of this room is a dais with four pedestals. Doors to the east and west presumably allow entrance to the room beyond, within which appears to be a spherical object.

The party heads down to join him, and try the pedestals, but get no reaction from thier keys. Chuq probes mentally, getting a strong presence to the south, but no coherent thoughts. He points it out, and a closer look reveals a sphere being held in place by four arms. We mess around with keys and pedestals for a little while, trying out a few theories to no avail, confirming that we need Area X’s administrative key.

Returning to the centre platform, Thorfus has the monkeys pry open one set of double doors, revealing a room frozen by a Desynchronisation Field. Within the field is a pair of creatures with lion’s bodies, dwarven heads and a tail of spikes. Seeing the ‘dwarficores’, we quickly decide to close the doors and spike them shut. The opposite door has the same and so is similarly spiked. Derich recognises the creatures of course, abominations created by the dwarves for use in battle. They were used as attack dogs of a sort, pointed at the rebels and released.

Unsure how to proceed, we decide to explore the Residential area, hoping there may be a way around. The residential area begins with a hallway filled with doors, dark and dusty with no signs of life. A monkey is sent to open the first door to the left, revealing a very familiar dormitory layout. At the end of the corridor is an electrical hoist, with two more floors accessible by it. More rooms fill both corridors. The only thing of note is that the usual uniform robes bear a different design to the ones we’ve seen previously. Several rooms also hold skeletons, one in particular having what appears to be a couple hugging.

On the way back to the platform, we inspect the cannon more closely. They appear to shoot energy, as there is no ammunition present, and they are also potentially portable, though currently fixed to a stand.

Without another option, Thorfus sends monkeys to begin simply yanking open the shutters on the closed arrow slits. They succeed in gaining access to the cannon room joining onto the Administration area. The outer rooms hold to the pattern of cannon rooms and sleeping automaton, so the bridge is extended and we head over to the far door.

The room beyond is a large office. A desk sits upon a raised area at the far end, with a large green dragon painting behind it. Several terminals with screens flank the desk. Activating the desk gives us several options:

– Review analysis of prisoner code.

– Display code at analyst’s station.

– Authorise transfer of prisoner code to anti-virus lab.

– Review progress in anti-virus lab.

– Administrative Safe

The code itself is the same unintelligble jumble of characters we’ve seen before that scrolls past.

The safe options give and inventory and the option to open:

– Administrative Key

– Experimental Flight Suit

– Guardian Device

Thorfus thumbs it open, and the picture moves aside, revealing a small chamber. The key lies on a shelf with a backpack. In the centre of the room is a floating shard. As Derich crosses the threshold of the safe, the shard points towards him, so he steps back hurriedly. Nobody detects any thought from what we presume is the Guardian, so Thorfus simply runs in and grabs the key, then hits the desk to close the safe. Following his lead, Derich runs in and grabs the flight suit.

The door closes, and the shard simply burst through the painting, growing larger before splitting in two. Not knowing what else to do, Derich simply yells to the other Ancients to attack whilst inspecting the suit. Finding a PEP with two points of power, he pulls it out and tosses it to Thorfus.

Sturloc, in a moment of extreme luck, simply shoots one of the shards out of the air. Kottar is unable to replicate the feat, so the Ancients rush in, swinging wildly but unable to hit the shard. In response, the surviving shard simply shoots through Blaise, growing and splitting again.