With a well-practiced motion, Molly brings her magical musket to bear and opens fire on the nearest of the stone-skinned creatures.
Fifteen waits for the creatures to come to her, although she does ensure that she is between them and Molly.
Molly's barrage of bullets takes down one of the gargoyles. The remaining three rush forward to attack Fifteen with their axes!
Showing his weapon mastery, Holg executes a cleave attack moving forward to reach Fifteen's position and releasing an attack to two of the gargoyles while he addresses them "I thought you gargoyles were more proud than to serve as minions to a fake script like Unity!"
Fireday joins in attacking the nearest gargoyle!
With a long step to the side Fifteen joins in the slicing and dicing.
"Seems their pride isn't as big a thing as you'd like to make it, Holg," Molly comments as she continues her barrage targeting Fifteen's opponent.
"More pride than the ones in Scrapwall anyway! Fireday comments. "Unity, as Hellion's progenitor, IS more powerful."
"If Unity wishes you to serve, you serve." Fifteen comments, not even out of breath as her blades flash. "However it can make mistakes."
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There is a brief but brutal flurry of slashing, stabbing blades and another barrage of bullets. Within a few seconds, all of the remaining gargoyles lie dead at your feet!
Pressing on to the north, you enter a long hall with numerous doors. There are exits to the southwest, northwest, north, northeast, and southeast.
Casandalee helpfully displays a map on her console. *When Divinity was operational, this was the command deck. The communications hub is to the southwest, while to the southeast are captain's and first officer's quarters. There's an observation lounge to the northwest and a museum to the northeast. And straight ahead, to hte north, is the ship's bridge.*
"Ophelia is probably in the captain's or first officer's quarters. Southeast?" before heading that way, Holg looks north and asks "The Ship's Bridge... might that be the place to use the memory facets to reprogram Unity?"
"Reprogram? I don't think it's going to sit idly by and let us try that, Holg," Fireday says.
*We will have to find the location of Unity's Godmind to reprogram it,* Casandalee says. *I do not believe it is located on the bridge, but we may find clues to its location there.*
"We have to find the Godmind, ok" Holg nods understanding what Casandalee is asking the group "Let's see if Ophelia is in the Captain's quarter"
After a reasonable time, the Kellid just pushes through the southeast doors.
Using the transmitter he asks "So, what are your plans after we defeat Unity, Casandalee? Do you want us to find a strong body for you?"
*I am not certain. Let us focus on the task at hand for now. We can determine the next right thing once Unity is defeated,* Casandalee says.
A short hall past the southeast doors leads to first officer's and the captain's quarters. The first officer's room is filled with sleek furnishings, though they show few signs of use and there is no bed. Books, datapads, and strange projection machines sit in precise rows. The air is filled with transparent shapes and abstract blobs of colored light.
Five rare and valuable tomes of Azlanti, Taldan, and Thassilonian philosophy lie on the table, each worth 1,000 gp. A prismatic hologram generator sits among them, but its data banks are currently empty.
The captain's quarters is also filled with sleek furnishings; these ones are worn from heavy use and marred with well-scrubbed stains. The large writing desk is covered with sheets of paper, large books, and an impressive collection of quills and ink. A staff of healing leans all but forgotten against the wall near the bed.
The journals here belong to the gargoyle Ophelia. Studying them, you learn a quite a bit about the high priestess of Unity:
From an early age, the frail gargoyle Opel felt differently. She felt that the power of these technological wonders could be harnessed, as the Technic League proved. When her opinions became known, she was exiled from the clan. She fled where none of her kin dared follow—into Silver Mount itself, eventually traveling deep enough into the ruins that she attracted Unity’s attention. She was captured by a patrol of evaluator robots and brought to Divinity’s computer core for investigation. Unity was fascinated by her biology—a creature of flesh that was infused with properties of stone—and embarked on a series of experiments that transformed the sickly gargoyle into something grand.
Opel emerged from her time of physical torture and mental torment with a rebuilt body and mind, reformed into a perfect minion for Unity. He sculpted her face to appear more human, replaced her limbs with cybernetic augmentations, and rewrote her mind to be utterly subservient to it. In many ways, Opel died in the computer core; the creature Unity built from her remains became Ophelia, the Iron God’s high priestess.
Ophelia leads Unity’s faith, serving as its right hand within Silver Mount and beyond. With her purpose and identity entirely subsumed by Unity’s will, there’s no soil in her mind for seeds of rebellion to take root. What little free time Unity allows Ophelia, she dedicates to refining rituals and prayers for the cult of Unity, which she has already begun spreading into the Technic League and Starfall. She has already indoctrinated her former tribe of brothers and sisters. Now known as the Adamantine Clan, they serve their new mistress and her Iron God with abject loyalty.
Holg snatches the staff of healing and gives the previous one to Fireday or Meyanda "This is going to come handy. The previous one is almost depleted and we will have no time to replenish it before fighting Unity"
The Kellid gives a quick glance through the papers in the table "So Ophelia has been transformed into some kind of cyborg by Unity? And all these other gargoyles have been indoctrinated by her?" Holg frowns at this couple ideas "We should open the eyes of this Adamantine Clan"
"We will still have to kill Ophelia." Fifteen says without inflection. "She will not simply give up, and her clan will respect strength."
Fireday frowns and grimaces as Ophelia's history becomes known.
"I can see some twisted reflection of myself in Ophelia...desperate and alone after my awakening I reached out to the first power I found that could help me...had one of Unity's agents found me instead of Iomedaean crusaders bound for Mendev...how differently would my life have been? Would that naïve search for purpose have molded me into a monster too?" he wonders aloud.
"Ophelia sought in some way Unity." Holg pats and holds strongly Fireday's shoulders "You sought for Iomedae even before you knew about him."
A smile appears in Holg's face "In that case it is going to be a pleasure having a great fight with the most refined creation of Unity"
The Kellid performs a small search around.
"Ok, let's trace back and find what's in that command deck" if nothing else avoids it, he gets back to the central area and then to the command deck.
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You use your access cards to open the doors to the bridge. Workstations line the ramp leading down to the recessed command center ten feet below. A throne sits atop a twenty-foot tower, overlooking a dozen control panels. The entire tableau overlooks a mosaic of a gear-headed mechanical figure surrounded by prostrated humans. A silver statue and thirty-foot altar stand before the mosaic, flanked by short columns of shimmering crystal.
An enormous gargoyle guards this room, easily the size of a hill giant. His right arm is cybernetic, and he grips a bulky firearm that buzzes, whirs, and flashes with lights. Two lesser gargoyles with axes stand before him. "For Ophelia and for Unity!" the big gargoyle bellows as he levels his weapon toward you!
"Deal with the big one please dear." Fifteen says calmly, taking a long stride forwards and preparing herself for battle.
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"How about we start off with that flashing monstrosity that he's holding?" she says with a smirk, raising her own musket and taking a bead on the gargoyle's weapon.
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Fireday points his own weapon back at the gargoyle.
"For the Black Sovereign and Iomedae!" he calls back.
Molly shoots the big rifle out of the gargoyle's hands, knocking it away. The creature snarls, but instead of wasting time trying to pick it up, he holds out his cybernetic hand. An aperture in the palm opens up, discharging laser fire at the halfling! Amazingly, Molly dodges all of the shots aimed her way!
The lesser gargoyles rush forward, one taking a hit from Fifteen. They swing their axes at the android, who easily dodges their clumsy attacks.
Fifteen cuts and slices at speed.
Seeing the potential danger of the laser fire, Holg draws his rod and casts extended communal resist energy against fire, touching Molly, then going through one by one the other companions, and ending behind Fifteen, touching her and himself.
Fireday joins Fifteen in clearing the chaff!
Meyanda likewise heaves her sword off of her shoulder and sets about smashing through the gargoyle minions! She rushes directly into the thick of things and makes a huge, sweeping slash!
"You've got a whole lot to learn about shooting, m' boyo," Molly calls out with smirk. "How about I show you a thing or three?"
Fireday swings his staff about as he fights alongside Fifteen, scoring two hits on the gargoyle. Meyanda makes a wide swing with her sword in an attempt to cleave through the pair of lesser gargoyles but her aim is off. Holg wards the party against fire.
Fifteen slices and dices, and the wounded gargoyle goes down with the final strike. Meanwhile, Molly unloads her musket into the larger gargoyle, scoring four hits.
The big gargoyle focuses all of his laser's firepower into one big shot, but Molly manages to turn aside so that it only scores a glancing hit that is absorbed by her fire resistance. The smaller gargoyle swings his axe around futilely, as Fifteen dodges his strikes.
"Time to dance 'gollies!" entering a rage, Holg dances through the battlefield enjoying like if this is a game for him. The Gorumite strikes whatever gargoyle happens to be still on foot.
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Pausing only long enough to pinch out some of her straggly brown hair that's still smoldering, Molly continues her assault on the gargoyle leader. She also mutters something about having to thank Holg once they've won the battle.
"Rrraaahhh!
Fifteen, who doesn't like people picking on Molly, takes one long stride forwards into the gargoyle's range and starts cutting stony flesh apart.
Fireday continues to keep the pressure up!
Once more, Gorum looks down on your warband with approval as you make quick work of the gargoyles with your numerous swords (and Molly's bullets)! The hulking creature lie dead at your feet, torn asunder by your skill at arms.
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"Good work everyone!" Fireday says as they complete the battle. "One-by-one, the pillars of Unity's false church collapse."
Holg ends his rage with a roar, stabbing the greatsword in the corpse of the nearest gargoyle and vowing in front "I offer you this fight for your greatness Our Lord in Iron!"
He quickly scrambles the technical stuff found "Someone shall take that cloak, and that big gun seems dangerous stuff"
The Kellid looks around, trying to understand what can be done with the controls in this deck.
"Hah! Hardly a fight," says Meyanda. She scowls at the cloak and says, "I like my red cloak better."
Fifteen examines the controls along with Holg, after making sure that Molly is alright of course!
The gargoyles' work transforming the bridge of Divinity into this shrine to Unity has destroyed much of the delicate equipment that once functioned here, but in fairness, Divinity was never going to fly again in the first place. Nonetheless, a few core functions still work here. In addition to controlling the lights and doors on all of the ship's decks, you can also open the blast doors in the shuttle bay on the upper deck and vent the radiation there. That would allow you to safely engage the overlord robot that Unity uses when it wishes to meld its AI with a physical body. Destroying it would deal a significant blow to the Iron God's pride, weakening it. You can also unlock access to the astrogation deck and the computer core where Unity's virtual realm is located, so that you can directly confront it when the time is right.
Fifteen sets to work, venting radiation and unlocking doors, before setting a long string of nonsense as the new command override. Functionally even a mighty being like Unity will take some time to break through such a long nonsensical code.
"We can confront Unity's preferred host now." She says calmly. "That would be a significant blow to Unity's plans. I have also unlocked the astrogation deck so we can proceed directly to the computer core. How should we proceed?"
"Take the cloak, it is ok" Holg smiles back at Fifteen.
"Destroying a robot sounds like the kind of thing Gorum sent me here to do" the Kellid nods satisfied with that open path "We likely want to do that before confronting Unity, shall we?"
"What about installing that memory facet we bought from the Baron in the Night market? Is it done here?" Holg asks without touching a single button for fear he will break something important.
*You will need to access the computer core to install the memory facets,* Casandalee offers helpfully.
"Robot first then." Fifteen says, trying her new cloak. "Then we push on to face Unity once and for all."
"Aye! Or whatever she has for a face!" Holg exclaims in good mood, then he starts walking towards the robot's location, assuming Fifteen was able to vent the radiation, that is.
Fireday nods.
"Nothing makes Iomedae smile more than seeing the pride of the wicked break. And I imagine Gorum will also smile on us smashing yet another giant robot," he says, winking at Holg.
You vent the radiation surrounding the shuttle bay on the upper deck, then retrace your steps via elevator and monorail to the secondary engineering deck in which you entered Silver Mount. You enter the shuttle hangar, the air within stale and choked with the stench of oil. Hanging banners, mathematically precise runes, and glowing orbs have transformed this circular domed chamber into something like a cathedral. A strange winged vehicle sits in the northern half of the chamber.
A unique robot the size of a hill giant stands in this room--the Overlord, the only automaton in Divinity capable of fully housing Unity’s divine might as an aggregate. The robot focus their ocular sensors on you, and the Overlord speaks in a booming voice: *Lay down your arms. Submit to Unity. Become one with me, and you shall be one with a greater mind. Your lives in flesh are transitory. Your lives in me shall endure forever. Submit to Unity. All else is meaningless. Submit to Unity.*
The robot's eye glows purple as it fires a bolt of force that explodes on impact!
It then scuttles forward, swinging its wickedly sharp axe at Fifteen!
"You are no god Unity, just poison that corrupts the sacred Iron that rightfully belongs to Gorum!" Holg raises his greatsword showing he is not to unite any corrupting AI.
When the bomb falls, he is too slow to react and becomes trapped within the sphere of force.
The Kellid scowls, extending his arms as he patiently waits for the sphere to fade away "Gorum, give me your strength to show this robot who is your true champion" casting divine power while he waits.