Author: Antony Nicklin

Session 104

3rd Jourilden

After the dramatic series of events that took place in the party resettles in the Engineering Facility, looking to finally sit down and rest. Derich’s body is stripped of useful materials, and the group returns to one of the lounges, now well settled after the long expeditions.

Whilst they rest, they discover that they still have access to the Special Area, as it was a standard key that was broken, not the Special Area key. He proposes taking care of the cure and the sphere, and negotiating with Kottar and the remaining Ancients. He also comes to the epiphany of simply moving the items to the Pathogen Facility and detonating the area, thus taking care of two birds with one stone, and circumventing the need for a password.

Edan is concerned about the self-destruct not doing the trick, and the idea of utilising the power cores within Engineering is brought up again.

Watches are set and the night passes without incident. Realising that as they’d turned off the power, this would mean that the de-synched Manticores would have been released onto the beleagured men in the Special Area. A monkey is almost sent through, but realising that the key they possess is the only means of entrance and exit, Thorfus belays the idea of risking it.

Edan is quite set on ensuring the contents of Pathogen never see the light of day, and would also like to at least destroy the administrator’s cube.

They eventually decide to have Thorfus stand at the portal pedestal in order to protect the key whilst he sends a monkey through to reconnoitre for Chuq, who stands on guard with the dwarf.

When the gate opens, the image of Kottar appears. He sits up and waves, indicating his backpack and weapons are to the side, and then mimes a request to come through. Chuq wants to make sure the man-turned-Devilfish is gagged. Thorfus tries to communicate via monkey sign language, with some difficulty.

Eventually, the monkey is sent through with a gag. It sees the Ancients stood to the side, with Prix’s body wrapped in cloaks. Kottar tells the monkey it would be hard to negotiate if he his gagged, and starts relaying his intentions through the monkey at Thorfus’ gesture.

Kottar and the Ancients agree with the destruction of the Special Area, but believe there is a traitor in the midst. The Ancients were told by Derich that he thought Chuq to be under the influence of XenoTel, and would rather Chuq stay well away from them for a time, very much convinced that the monk has been coerced. Kottar himself believes Chuq is mostly just suffering from stress, and Guarinus apologises for attacking Edan.

Either way, they merely want to leave the group, possibly through the Bioforge’s portal to the jungle. Kottar himself will either remain with the party if asked or chaperone the Ancients. They decide to allow Kottar to come through to talk more easily.

As soon as Kottar appears, the portal is closed. Thorfus and the hireling talk, unsure what to make about Chuq’s actions, but willing to believe that he is ok, despite his actions being a litle odd against the members of the Rebellion.

The rest of the negotiation goes smoothly, and Thorfus agrees to facilitate thier exit to the jungle. Chuq agrees as well, as long as it’s made sure they are escorted out without hidden surprises. They agree to leave them with the items they carry, except for the Lie Detection Box and all but one length of rope, and then portal is reopened in order to relay everything to the others.

All that is asked is if they can bring Prix’s body through for burial. Chuq voices an objection, though Thorfus seems willing. Kottar hands over the Box, and returns, Thorfus confirming the burial intentions and the identity of the body. The portal is switched to Bioforge, and under supervision, Kottar and the Ancients leave.

Once done, the Edan, Chuq and a monkey head through the portal. They retrieve the reliquary and head to the office for the other. After a bit of confusion as to the plan, in which Edan is leery as to opening the chamber holding the sphere due to the gas, though Chuq was sure they’d agreed to retrieve and destroy it via Pathogen. Another issue would be if the defences activate as they did when the dragon was removed from the north area.

They head south to see what option the Platinum-X key grants them. The area appears undisturbed, and Edan approaches a pedestal and swipes, revealing three commands:  ‘Load Antivirus Simulation’, ‘Vent Chlorine Gas’ and ‘Emergency Protocol’. They quickly vent the gas, revealing the Sphere more clearly.

Utilising an environmental suit, Chuq enters the room, as Edan doesn’t trust Kalgunn near the sphere. His ESP helm reads as much as it did previously, a large unfathomable presence. The supporting arms seem easy enough to move, so Chuq pulls one aside with his multi-tool. Once all are released, the sphere actually rises to hover several feet above the ground. The sphere itself is completely smooth and unblemished. Switching to his spears, Chuq begins guiding the object out of the room, which floats along without issue.

Under Edan’s watchful eye, Chuq guides it all the way out, heading north with it. Once it appears safe, Edan hits the simulation command. A hologram shows the sphere, which opens up to reveal internal components with accompanying coding, then closes again.

Edan is able to tap at components, which enlarges them for view, although he doesn’t understand much of it. All he can really tell is that there appears to be an empty space in the centre for something, surrounded by venting, and tapping this reveals a huge amount of coding. Unable to learn anything more, he follows Chuq after gathering the four cubes from the room and they return to Engineering.

As they leave, a message hologram appears above the portal; Ancient Dwarven reading ‘Good Luck’.

The portal is switched to Pathogen, and the Sphere is pushed through, alongside pretty much all the cubes from Area X, especially the ones the cure and Prix’s dreams. The Platinum-X is also tossed in. Once done, they close the portal and move over to the overload controls, and enter the command.

After a 5 second countdown, the party feels a small rumble. The power now reads zero, and the portal doesn’t open, so they assume that the facility is gone.

There is some discussion about what to do about the baby, but the party decides against it to avoid complications and the fact that the baby is as safe as it has been for the past millenia. Whilst Edan quickly sketches out the locations of other Ancient Dwarven settlements, Thorfus scrys the Upper City. It is quiet, and much as it is always is, with guards at the entrance. Dwarves still work on the fortification down the mountain. They prepare to leave, handing Chuq the ESP-blocking circlet. The monkeys are told to stay quiet and are bundled up in sacks and placed into the cart.

In the temple, there is a message written in Ancient Dwarven on parchment sitting on the throne. It reads:

(Insert message here)

The PS’s are written in modern Dwarven.

The Starchy Boyz walk out openly, only Chuq keeping to the shadows to avoid Marchmain’s attention. The fortification is almost finished, and several Silver Throne employees look up as they approach and greet them. They are ushered through to Hall of Pillars, told where Marchmain is and generally given the run of the place.

Chuq departs via the shadows, and Marchmain appears, rushing over to the party. He seems happy to see the group, though notes some instability in the area. Thorfus feeds him the story of a cave-in and the loss of Axel and tell him that the party plans to take a break. He leads the party to his new office, which appears to be laid out much as the one on the surface. The situation is fully explained to Marchmain. Letters are exchanged, and Marchmain expresses disappointment in the party taking a break, doing a lot to convince a return trip or even temporarily use the key we have to continue the expedition and retrieve the bodies of the fallen.

Thorfus changes the subject towards trading the gemstones, and once complete, the party leaves to the surface, making it non-commital of a time for our return. At the top, the guard leader, previously of the Xenilum’Khel militia is now bearing the Silver Throne insignia. He explains that he was nearing retirement and needed quieter work, intending to later move off to the new Khel on the Lonely Isle. Thorfus is of course asked about attending the Inn in the meantime.

Upon entering the Adventurer’s encampment, the area is instantly and noticeably busier than it had been previously, with the Xenilum’Khel militia all present and in temporary housing, but they reach the estate unfettered where Rienold is on guard and enjoying a meal. He reveals that the militia is due to leave the mountain within the week. Chuq had already arrived in the mean time, and grabbed a pair of longswords from the tunnel-stash enroute.

Deciding to wait until night to empty the stash, the party takes Axel’s old battleaxe and heads off to find his brother. Drexam is sat around with several other dwarves and a human drinking. When Thorfus approaches with Face-Cleaver, Drexam drops his drink in shock. The dwarf is pretty shaken with grief, and reveals that they family was going to ask Axel to return, thanks to the new fortune the family had come into with the Silver Throne’s business. He takes the axe to return it home.

The man with them introduces themself after noticing Thorfus’ Starchy Boyz badge as Canis Mallory. His contract to guide Drexam Rhom’khul to Xen’Khel was up, and he was free to travel elsewhere, desiring to expand his horizon’s in looking for his brother and missing wife. He joins them for a drink at the Sleeping Collossus where they toast to Axel’s memory and decide on the next course of action.

Session 102

3rd Jourilden

The party continues the fight against the mysterious flying shard after Blaise was viciously wounded to feed it’s multiplication. The two shards reverse direction and stab at Blaise again, one hitting and subsequently splitting again, making a total of three shards now flying around.

The party lashes out as best they can to try and bring all the shards down simultaneously, whilst Derich prepares a Chant to assist the group. However, several Magic Missiles from Edan shattered all the shards without issue.

With the combat dealt with, Thorfus returns to the Administrator’s desk to continue cycling through the options, beginning with the coding at the Analyst’s stations. We seem to get more strange mixings of Ancient Dwarven letters and numbers that we can’t really make much of. Testing the ‘X’ Platinum key on one of the pedestals doesn’t garner much of a reaction either.

Edan manages to bring the odd sequences to thier end, which literally just says, ‘End’, and presents a flashing block. Reaching for it, Edan prompts the line ‘Insert information reliquary to download code’ to appear.

We discuss which of our cubes to use and sacrifice, and believing we have a duplicate of the geographical survey, Edan utilises that one, causing the display to show “Anti-Virus Code*”.

Poking at the asterisk, tells us that the cube cannot be removed from Area X whilst it contains the code.

The party plays with the various stations for a while, without much success other than discovering that an anti-virus of some kind is complete. We then check the desk drawer, discovering a drive that potentially covers all of the stations.

Figuring we have all the information we can get, we decide to head towards the prison area with the hopes of finding the Dragon Consort. The northern section seems much as the other have done, and the monkey sent manages to get over and extend the bridge. Unfortunately, the bridge sticks half way.

We mess around with ropes for a while, trying to work out a way to pass over the gap safely, whilst Thorfus sends an Automonkey to open final door and confirm it to b the same as all the others. He then has it open the northern door, which opens into a room with a bridge over a pit, guarded by arrow slits.

Mental probes are unable to pick up anything in range, so Derich heads over the rope to the north side, joining the monkey. After an all-clear call, the rest of the party heads over, leaving Pons and Blaise to guard the rope.

Further Automonkey scouting across the bridge in the far north room reveals another room with four doors that holds a corpse. It is wearing robes with vines and leaves in gold as a pattern, and is holding several items in it’s hands. There is a pedestal, and a window on the north wall reveals a room with a blue tint to it. The monkey approaches the corpse, seeing that it holds a reliquary and an odd disc with words on it, made from the gate material.

Thorfus has the automonkey reach for the disc and pick it up, without garnering a reaction. The party then starts heading across the bridge, Chuq taking the lead. When we reach the monkey, we can read the disc, which reads ‘Never Forget’ in Ancient Dwarven along the edge. It also activates and starts playing a hologram.

The hologram displays a sphere, zooming in on the sphere until appears we are flying swiftly across an ocean, passing islands until we reach a large island with a large crystal tower. The view swoops up the tower, which appears as interconnected vines eventually disappearing into a large cylinder high up above it. The cylinder spins slowly, and a number of spikes jut out from it. The whole thing is surrounded by a gigantic ring, as big as the original sphere.

A pulse of red light emanates, followed by a view of the tower falling in pieces down to the surface of the sphere that cause tidal waves and shockwaves as they impact.

As we looked at the cylinder, we realise that words are emblazoned across it’s side in Ancient Dwarven, reading Xeno Telerobotics/Telergy. With that revelation, and the limitless possibilities it could reveal, Derich nevertheless moves on, looking through the window.

It opens out into a hexagonal room on a lower level. There is a pedestal and a floating platform. On the platform there is a seat holds a naked human female, strapped down, with red hair and a dragon tattoo. Floating around her head is a circlet attached to the ceiling. Banging on the glass garners no reaction, expected as there is a blue haze to the room.

Thorfus checks the pedestal, which already holds a number of options, most notably for Derich being the ‘Adjust Prisoner Synchronistion’ option, amongst door controls. Slapping his hands away, Thorfus decides to check the other cube as well.

The other cube presents a different option, seemingly just a single a memo. Activating it reveals a holographic, older female dwarf who introduces herself as the Chief Botanist.

” I, Chief Botanist Nola Davodorn, sit here looking at conclusive evidence that we have succeeded – the rebellion is finished and XenoTel restored … or it would be, if there were any way to leave this prison and deliver our cure. There has been no contact from the other administrators of Xen’Khel in days and I must assume that facility has been breached by the enemy. The fail-safes that keep us protected sealed our fate.”

ii. “My only choice is to retire the researchers here, including myself, and enable the first level defenses in case the rebels find some way into this facility. I will be storing my key in the administrative safe under the protection of a particularly nasty toy manufactured by Kalgunn. Assuming anyone capable of accessing this record is here to recover our work, please be aware that the pass phrase to deactivate the guardian is Nazron’Ethol (Last Hope).”

iii. “I will now retire to the prisoner observation chamber to spend my last moments in the presence of our vanquished enemy – gloating before that creature, who is both symbol and means of our delayed victory, will bring me some peace before I sleep. May XenoTel preserve me to see the day of his vengeance. “

In anger, Derich kicks the corpse across the room, and Edan pockets the cube for later. Thorfus also pockets the disc. Derich begs to have Prix released, and waits by the door to let be through once they synchronisation has been dropped. Chuq wants to make sure Thorfus is ready to resynch the moment it happens.

The Starchy Boyz are put off by the Cleric’s eagerness, and push to finish exploring the area to ensure everything is safe and we have full knowledge of the situation. Thorfus decides to send monkeys to scout east and west, via the doors marked green.

The east opens into a long corridor that goes along behind the arrow slits we previously saw, and houses a number of floating orbs crackling with electricity. West appears to be it’s mirror image. Both corridors have shutters over the arrow slits, and we send the monkeys to close them all.

Whilst they do so, the party quizzes Derich on his involvement with Prix and history as a rebel, to garner better knowledge on how to deal with the dragon. They also turn on Araquiel, who reveals that the Dragon Emperor wasn’t as convinced of the need to overthrow XenoTel, but also had some skill with the transpatial energy. The Devilfish also notes that he sided with the consort, despite the rest of his people being against the final destruction of XenoTel, as that would mean the loss of magic across all of Meidia.

We next try the Analyst’s doors at Edan’s behest. We get access to a small room with doors leading off without obvious means of opening them. A segmented shape all rolled up lies in the centre. The doors seemingly function in an airlock pattern as we’ve previously seen, so a monkey and Edan head through to scout it out. The southwest door opens into a large room that twists around to the north and holds a pair of pedestals. A large window looks over the prison chamber.

Chuq joins them with a key when the pedestals fail to activate, and it gives them a number of options regarding the prisoner’s dreams, such as inducing and capturing. They get a fractured series of numbers and words as we previously saw. The other pedestal shows the same options, so they remove the cubes. Heading over other to the east, it seems to be much the same, including cubes with the same functionality. Edan also collects those.

Eventually, Thorfus begins slowly reducing the desynchronisation to 0%, and though Prix begins to breath, she gives no reaction, and Chuq picks up nothing via ESP but the fact a powerful, calm conciousness exists there. Derich, Edan and a monkey enter the room, heading for the pedestal.

After retrieving the silver key, Edan tests that with the pedestal in the prison cell, but garners no reaction. Eventually, Thorfus enters the room as well with the X-Platinum Key and passes that over, which gives options to extend a bridge or release the restraints.

Derich instantly pushes to access the bridge and runs over, and once Thorfus releases the restraints, picks her up and carries her across. A Detect Charm and a Heal do nothing to awaken her, so it’s theorised she’s still in a dream state, so we return her to the chair and attempt to deactivate it.

Edan manages to access some information on the dream, which was reportedly built from interrogation of the Dragon, and a holograph shows her dreaming of building a ritual spell as  a dragon.

After trying several ways to find new options, the party gives up and simply carries Prix out of the room, which activates an alarm. As the automatons activate, the pedestal reveals the alarm can be shut off from within the administrator’s office.

The human-form dragon in arm, Derich tries to make a run for it, only for the bridge to begin tilting. Unable to keep his footing, he falls, dropping himself and Prix into the desynch field some 200 hundred feet below…