I'll take second watch with Kovax, I'll use the time to clean that breastplate
What does everyone need for healing?
Urgeon, Kovax & Oskar, Razorend, Meyanda, Ridic
The party settles in to the large metal room, destroyed monitors and piles of trashed junk all around us. Urgeon settles in to read the journals, taking notes where he can as Oskar polishes up his breastplate and the others try to get some rest. The tension in the air is thick as the party, while not being watched any more can hear the ticks and clacks of things moving outside and the whirs and grind of distant machinery. Urgeon continues to read and finds himself dragging through the night as he pulls useful information and the pieces of the puzzle click together.
The dense, crabbed writing makes this difficult to read and Urgeon has to hand transcribe it word for word. The journal is primarily filled with prayers to Hellion, but reading it reveals a recurring them in the prayers -- Hellion's primary goal, it seems, is to destroy something his worshippers know only as the "Source" or the "Prime." Its obviois that Hellion is some sort of offspring of some even greater menace, one that Hellion seeks to eradicate in part as vengeance for a period of time that Hellion served the Source as a slave, but primarily so that Hellion can take control of this more powerful entity's resources. There are many allusions and stories that seem to indicate the entity's location.
This loose sheaf of papers contains a host of useful information. The main concepts that Urgeon discovers are as follows.
- The ship that the Lords of Rust are in is called an "excavator" by Hellion. The god is trying to reactivate it and transform it into a mobile stronghold that may even be capable of burrowing into the heart of Silver Mount. Unfortunately, the structure still requires vast amounts of power, and Meyanda’s failure to gather that power has resulted in an unwelcome delay to this plan. Hellion hopes that this is but a temporary setback, but knows that every day that passes before it can execute its plan.
- With the excavation and repowering of the excavator delayed, Hellion recently revealed to Kulgara an interesting secret: Hellion was not the first of the Iron Gods spawned by the entity it calls “Unity.” Another came before him—a “prophet of Unity” named Casandalee. Hellion regards Casandalee as a sister, and notes that just as it escaped Unity, Casandalee betrayed Unity and escaped as well. According to the fragments of memories Hellion inherited from its "father" or more accurately, "creator", when Casandalee fled Unity, she took with her a device called a neurocam, onto which had been recorded many of Unity’s secrets and, Hellion hopes, Unity’s weaknesses. Fortunately, Unity’s robotic minions were never able to track down and capture Casandalee, so Hellion believes that this neurocam still exists, hidden away wherever Casandalee ended up. He notes that she was an android, not an "artificial intelligence like himself", and that she has certainly been dead for these many centuries, but that if the site of her death could be discovered, it might be possible to retrieve the stolen neurocam and extract key information about Unity and its defenses.
- Working with information supplied by memories stolen from Unity before Hellion fled home and independent research done first by Meyanda and more recently by Kulgara, Hellion has discovered that Unity’s robots finally caught up with Casandalee in southern Numeria, in an area now settled by worshipers of Erastil—the town of Iadenveigh. Kulgara has been working up a plan to mount an invasion of Iadenveigh to search the site for clues or, perhaps, the location of Casandalee’s last stand and the neurocam, but it’s obvious from Kulgara’s notes
that she was not sure exactly where in Iadenveigh to start the search.
Meyanda beckons Razorend over to the southern hallway and the green locked door to the west.
"This room was incredibly important to Hellion. The memories are still foggy, but I remember being in there and it made him ... nervous? Its likely defended, but oddly I remember something about looking for his sister. I'm not sure if that's why I was in this room."
She smacks her fist into her hand awkwardly and the stares at it, perplexed "Why do humans hit themselves or other things when they encounter something that frustrates their ability to ... to ... move forward. It doesn't help."
Razorend nods and smiles, but also shrugs. "The tics and habits of our creators, programmed into us, or are they things we develop on our own as sentients?"
"You mentioned Hellion has a sister. How can that be?"
Upon waking, Ridic will heal the party with the scrolls and the wand. Be sure to add your resting HPs back first
Scrolls - Urgeon
Scrolls - Razoe
Scrolls - Ridic
Scrolls - Urgeon
Wand - Razor
Wand - Ridic
Wand - Urgeon
Wand - Razor
Wand - Ridic
Wand (Left in case someone needs it and didn't respond)
You hear some slight scuffling and scrabbling from the western doors. You note a faint light, probably from the access lock on the other side. It happens 2 or 3 times during your watch, but nothing ever comes of it
Ridic heals you up in the morning and you are able to put together your spells and recharge after a grueling day in the metal box.
"I have no idea. Gods have parents or creators, too? Up to the top one I guess, the god of gods, as it may be? But I digress, if they have creators, then it implies that they could have siblings as well, right? I don't recall anything more than that, specifically."
For the first time, you notice Meyanda seem comfortable as if the discussion of theology is an enjoyable pasttime for her.
In the morning he gathers his gear and casts mage armor on himself. "Shall we proceed through the west door?"
He swipes his gray card.
Perception
"Be ready. Meyanda says this room is very important to Hellion." Razorend stands beside Urgeon, kukri in hand.
Urgeon follows Razorend into the western room.
The walls of this chamber are obscured by banks of mechanical devices, flashing lights, and panels displaying messages in an alien script, images, and mysterious markings that shift and change with astonishing speed. The air is warm and smells slightly metallic, while a high-pitched drone emanates from all corners of the room.
Above a smaller circular platform in the northeast corner of the room floats a rotating image of some sort of mechanical vehicle or contraption.
A single monitor in this room on the northern part of the western wall displays the raging visage of Hellion, "Kill them! Kill them now!"
You hear metallic skittering from around the room .
You spy several tiny beetle like creatures through out the room with a single glowing red eye that emits a small red beam. They have thin forward appendages that end in metal pincers. Their skin changes color as they move to match the background.
Current HP: 51/60
Init -
Perception -
initiative
Perception
Urgeon readies his wands. "Sounds like trouble."
"Beetle robots, there!" Razorend points. "Look closely. They blend in with the background."
; plus
I hate creepy crawlers!
Takes aim at one:
...Reload...
Ready for next round
When he can act, Urgeon will blast the nearest robot with his wand of magic missiles.
Ridic will attack the closest beetle with his Scythe
Attack
Damage
Nope, you can't see them unless you hit the perception roll or they attack.
Kovax will 5' in after Razorend charges, using lunge he will attack the same one Razorend attacks with his 15' reach
To Hit -
Damage -
Razorend rushes in slashing hard at a beetle, which suprisngly leaps off the console like a normal beetle, wings flashing in the air. The wings seem to contain the changing images of the area behind it and they continue to fluctuate colors as they flutter in the air.
Oskar fires over Razorend's shoulder and nicks the creature in the air, its hard robotic frame absorbing most of the damage. Kovax however carves it in two with his adamantine weapon sending the thing sparking to the floor in two pieces.
Hellion's image on the back wall sweeps a hand with a gesture sending a black cloying substance through the air.
The robots on the walls open a small port on their bellies and all fire at Razorend. He gets zapped once uncomfortably, creating a numbing sensation on his skin.
Before anyone can act, Hellion's image on the back wall sweeps a hand back the other way this time bringing down the chaos hammer.
Urgeon fires 2 missiles into the nearest creature down the line.
; miss
; HIT!;
; miss
Will Save
Will Save2
After taking the beating, Ridic will heal himself with a CMW, Ridic will then move into the room
Razorend reels from the evil blast but the worst of its effects roll off of him. Hellion's second spell has no effect whatsoever.
He pulls his adamantine kukri as he hops across the desk then drives it into Hellion's face.
;
Razorend leaps across the room and cuts a slash through the monitor but it continues to operate albeit strangely.
However, moments later a loud crack echoes through out the room and the monitor shatters.
Standing in the hallway, smoke billowing from the end of the blunderbuss, Meyanda stares at the broken monitor and states flatly, "I remember."
We cleaned up the rest of the crawling robots with little trouble. Meyanda's flash of insight into her past re-awakened powers within her, now as a warpriest of Brigh. She explained the significance of the control room to Hellion, as well as its nature and purpose in Scrapwall.
We continued exploring, heading through the two doors to the west of the main chamber. It led into a natural cavern with a stone-shaped ramp (Mey had formed that for Hellion's followers while they were initially infiltrating the ship). We encountered the last of the Lords of Rust, a four-armed extraplanar creature trapped in the material plane (cannot remember her name). We fought her and several more darkfolk and were victorious, but both Oskar and Razorend took a significant beating during the battle.
After the fight, Mey explained that the path to the north leads to Hellion, while the path south goes to the darkfolk lair.
Meyanda explained that Hellion is an AI. It was created by a greater AI, called Unity. Helluon became self aware and wanted to mobilize the ship you are in to get back at Unity and overthrow him. The computer room you found was his control over this facility. Using the inhibitor facet you found in the Haunted Canyon, youbshunted him out if the system. Meyanda believes he has a backup and can still sense him.
So, north to hellion or south to dark folk caves?
Razorend nods his agreement with Urgeon, and takes a stealthy, scouting lead in that direction.
Oskar says I second Urgeons idea. Lets head north and end this.
North it is! On to Hellion!
The party proceeded north through the Lair of the Blood Ghost passing both a shrine and a nest obviously for Zagmaander. Beyond that, Meyanda warned of glyphs she had placed while the party took out an observer robot that alerted Hellion to their presence.
A few quick buffs to include enlarging Kovax and turning Oskar's axe adamantine for a minute and the party moved past Meyanda's glyphs and entered the domain of Hellion situated at the front part or.cutting wheel of the excavator.
A vicious battle ensued with three scrapers robots, 2 more observers that approached from the rear and with Hellion, the AI now confined to a massive arachnid robot firing plasma beams 6 times a round and then engaging in vicious melee combat with its class. Kovax set up a vicious spinning aura of chain death with a 25 foot reach whike Razorend foolishly teleported to Heklion to engage in melee combat only to find himself dumped unceremoniously at the robot's feet. Meyanda laid suppressing fire with the grenade launcher as Urgeon tried to hold off the observers. Oskar and Kovax mopped up the smaller robots as ridic laid down continuous damage on hellion with lighting and flaming sphere.
Meyanda got Razorend up and the entire party eventually converged on Hellion who then cast confusion affecting Kovax and a.summoned elemental. With one round to act normally the party brought the robot to its knees and it surrendered.
Spurred on by Meyanda, Kovax destroyed the chassis and eliminated the last of the AI, only to have the robot explode in a plasma detonation.
The party survived, ending the threat to Scrapwall and Torch once and for all.
After the dust from Hellion's explosion settles, Razorend gets up and checks to see if everyone is okay. He takes off his mask, cracked and bent from the robot's constricting claws, and grunts as he tosses it aside.
"So it goes for all tyrants," he says, kicking over a blasted chunk of the robot 'god'. He turns to Meyanda and asks, "How are you feeling about this?"
Meyanda smiles at Razorend, "Free!" she exclaims heartily.
Razorend returns the smile, nodding. "The greatest gift the gods gave us."