if the gas is gone, Oskar will attempt to decipher the power management controls:
Oskar, also tired, knows that these controls should be able to do what he wants, but needs more time.
Urgeon makes himself comfortable and begins to methodically go through the console controls.
Razorend guards the entrance while the others work on the console.
After several hours and a tremendous amount of note taking interrupted by the occasional input from Sashimo, Urgeon and Oskar (... and Kovax?) make a small list of what the various keys and key combinations do and uncover the following.
There is a latent power from the last charge upsome sort, but it is either damaged or weakening so it cannot power the entire ship. It has about 20 charges left and the following commands are available.
With a power cable and various power sources (batteries or some other generator source), you can provide charges directly into the exposed wiring.
-- Emergency Containment (10 - one time)
-- Lights/door per room (1 monthly)
-- Nanite containment (5 - one time)
-- Nanite laboratory (20 monthly)
-- Production laboratory (20 monthly)
-- Android Production (25/android)
-- Emergency Transponder (10 - one time, never used)
Urgeon tells the others what the controls do. "There's only a little charge left, but it should be enough to clear those nanites. If we can find enough batteries we can use this laboratory to make our own technology."
He activates the nanite containment and follows the others out.
"Then let's get those nanites under control so we can leave. Will they stay locked up, or will they attack us again when we come back?"
"This 'emergency transponder'... what does it do?" Razorend asks, his usual reticence around technology giving way to curiosity.
Urgeon shrugs, "It brings help I guess. Not the kind of help we're looking for."
Ridic steps ahead and confirms that the nanite cloud is gone and the way is clear.
Ridic starts to leave.
Urgeon will follow the others back to the town's inn. "Let's take a day to recover and regroup before we seek out this smoking tower."
The party climbs back out of the well, blinking as they stare into the setting sun.
Nearby, you see Redfang splayed out on the ground prone and apparently unconcious, a slight moan escaping his lips as you approach.
Ridic will run over to him and check his vitals. If he is dying, he will stabilize him, with a CLW spell.
"Are you ok, what happened to you? Who did this?!"
The spell brings the ranger around, "The young girl climbed out of the well. Figured she had snuck past you but she caught me by surprise with some bright lights and then hit me with something."
Oskar rubs his head. "We really should shoot people in the back of the head more often" He shakes his head and then tries to help Redfang to his feet. "Sorry old chap, what do you say to helping us smack her back for you? we just need to find her."
Ridic just shakes his head "We should have seen that coming. Let's head back to town" Ridic will help walk Redfang back to town.
The party gets Redfang back up to High Home and he groggily instructs you where medicinal supplies are. During those hours, a couple locals come and deliver messages that he doesn't share with you immediately. Once he's back to sorts, he brings the conversation back to why you came.
"With the help you've provided with the farm and rooting out that crazy Varisian lady, I've got enough to call the Deadeye Council together to see if we can aid you any further then whatever you found down there. But more importantly, your actions have apparently begun to cleanse the Badwater. Whatever it was you found down there and messed with, it apparently ended the contamination of the water and its beginning to filter itself."
He rubs the bridge of his nose and grimaces in pain for a moment and then asks, "So, what say you? You want me to call the Deadeye Council or are you moving on?"
Urgeon nods at Redfang, ”Yes, please call the council. We will share with them what we have learned.”
Kovax will look to see if he could see what direction the girl went and just make a note of it.
Survival -
Once he is up an about, Redfang calls the Deadeye Council together at the High Home the next morning to to introduce you to Iadenveigh’s leaders as folks who have been making good names for themselves.
There are 18 members in all on the Council, all of them nononsense men and women, including a couple of people you've met already. They begin by openly praising your success at the farm and in forcing the suspected Technic League agent on the run. They commend you additionally for doing this with out "succumbing to the allure of the technology so brazenly laying around here."
The then ask to hear what occurred from your perspective and while one might expect the Council to scoffat the idea of a hidden technological complex somewhere below the town, the council members nod in agreement as you describe what they learned.
It appears through their discussions, that they've long known about the complex and had chosen to ignore it. However, the Technic League's possible interest in their city ahas given them pause.
At this point, one of the council members, a ruddy man named Hoskit,
speaks up. “I wonder if what you’re seeking doesn’t have something to do with whatever happened to Old Skelton back in 4707?”
There are some nods and murmurs of agreement, and Hoskit goes on, Old Skelton, while trying to dig out an old well, released something from a cave under his farm that killed him. It were a cloud of shimmering gas or something. The council at the time capped the well with a slab of stone and did its best to keep it away from the general citizenry. Sounds like you found all that!"
"Since she was so interested in that part of town, it stands to reason that's why the Technic League came out this way. We are thankful that you have ended this threat to our town and as such, we would like to bestow upon you the honor of "Wardens of Iadenveight" and present to you a token gift."
A couple of the councilmen get up and bring a large mohogany box, several feet long requiring the two of them to carry it. They lay it on a table and open it up and inside you find a massive longbow, inlaid with horn and polished wood.
After congratulations and the breaking of the formal meeting, a couple of the council members ask, "What else can we do for you, Wardens?"
Urgeon nods his thanks to the council and accepts the longbow gift. "We need the services of a cleric whom can help reverse the radiation effects that we suffered in the ruins. We also need the assistance of a powerful wizard who has the ability to reverse the binding of outsiders. Finally, we seek a tower of a reclusive wizard whom was obsessed with smoke and gaseous magics - could you help us find his lair?"
Ridic nods in agreement with Urgeon "Any help that you can provide us, would be greatly appreciated."
"You mean the Choking Tower? In the Smokewood?"
"Certainly the high priest of Erastil, Brother Gahuar Derviec, should be able to assist you. After clearing the Badwater, he should certainly aid you."
Urgeon thanks the council again and bids them farewell, "We will return once we discover what is going on at this choking tower."
He will ask around town for information on the tower's location.
He then leaves to seek out Brother Derviec.
Razorend leaves the speaking and information gathering to the others, knowing his android nature and lack of social grace will only make things difficult.
Urgeon gets some folks to vaguely point off somewhere between north, east, and south. The only thing he is sure of, is it isn't in Iadenveigh.
Brother Derviec is easy to find after asking around. The tall, weedy man is in the process of working with some acolytes on the community garden and is liberally casting plant growth spells to expedite the process towards harvest. He wears a simple cloth garment that is stained with mud and his sandals have seen better days.
He spies Urgeon and asks simply, "What can this servant of Estig the Hunter do for you, Warden?"
Razorend introduces himself and the others. "The Council indicated that you might be able to help us. We seek the Choking Tower, said to lie in the Smokewood. Do you know of it?"
Urgeon nods his greeting to Brother Derviec."I need healing. I was badly wounded by the radiation in the ruins. Can you restore my strength? Also, we encountered a powerful outsider trapped in the ruins. Would you be able to break the enchantment that binds him?"
"Certainly, Wardens. Come and let's restore your vitality and you can tell me more about this outsider, and perhaps I can explain what I know of the Smokewood as well from my travelling brethren." Brother Derviec replies with a welcoming smile and a gentle gesture to join him on a walk through the trees.
As he does so, he stops and tends to small things along the way. A broken twig, a cobweb on a forest path sign or to pick a flower. As he does so, he begins to glow with a soft aura. He stops finally in front of a recently tilled smallish plot
"Here, Warden, help me tend to the completion of this garden and we will take care of your physicality. While you plant, tell me, why would you want to release a powerful outsider. Was it not bound for a reason?"
He holds out a hand containing several dozen seeds.
After addressing Urgeon, he turns slightly to Razorend and points off to the east.
"The Smokewood was known as Dreamwood before Xoud built his Choking Tower. Soon after the tower’s construction, local tribes began telling stories of strange dreams experienced by those who slept within the woods or near its borders. No one’s heard from Xoud in 7 years, and common belief is that he passed away in his tower, but an increase in the number of hill giants dwelling in the wood has prevented further investigations of the tangled interior. On clear days, you can see the smoke rising from his tower above Smokewood’s boughs to the east of here, some 50 miles."
Urgeon will walk with Derviec and will do as he instructs. "The outsider is an air elemental summoned by the master of the choking tower. The elemental assisted us in the ruins and we are indebted to it. I seek to repay our debt and to release it, as we promised. I do not believe the outsider to be a threat to the town. If it betrays us, we will take responsibility for stopping it. Will you help us in freeing the outsider from Xoud's control?"
"Thank you for the information. It is a small lead, but a lead nonetheless."
When Urgeon is finished with Brother Derveic, Razorend speaks to the group privately. "We should regroup with Meyanda and head to this Smokewood. Maybe Redfang knows something of the path between here and there."
If the others are in agreement, he will find Redfang to ask. Otherwise, he will leave Iadenveigh to find Meyanda.
Ridic nods in agreement to Razorend.
Estig can cast restoration on Urgeon and will do so for free out of reward for helping the town cleanse the Badwater, however he is concerned about the outsider, "This is a risky endeavor. I'm certain a donation to the church to handle any issues that might arise from a possible side effect of releasing such a creature under the town?"
Razorend finds Redfang and asks the question. The Warden of High Home responds, "Aye, I know where that is, but it is untamed wilderness. There are no roads that lead to or through the Smokewood. I can get you to an animal trail and then you're on your own from there. Keep an eye on the trailing smoke and you should eventually get to the center of the wood and hopefully the tower you are looking for?"
"I think we should take you up on that offer to dismiss that creature out of our plane all together. We don't need to mess with something like that."
Ridic will ask Estig to help him with ailments as well (Ability damage-strength) "Estig, I too have been feeling less than myself after the fight, could possibly help me out as well? How much would such a service cost me?"
To Redfang he nods. "We would be glad for any assistance. Do you know what sort of hazards or wildlife we might come across in the wood?"
Urgeon will rest and recover his current spell list. Before leaving he will stock up on provisions.
Oscar is going to look around town for any items that might be useful for attacking swarms. He's hoping to find something like Alchemist Fire, or something like that. If nothing alchemical is available, he'll buy a few torches.
Redfang replies to Razorend, 'The Smokewood is unnatural. We don't hunt there because normal animals are sparse. Rumors of monstrous vermin, irradiated undead, fiends, giants and worse come from travelers there. The only positive note has been ... and I only tell you this because we've heard it from no less than 4 separate travelers ... a stunning leopard has paced them through the woods, staying close, watching them, but never engaging. Interestingly enough, all of them never saw another creature during their visit."
You find Meyanda tinkering with the laser rifle that she has connected successfully to a turret on top of the vehicle.
Oskar grabs 3 of each: 90gp
Urgeon nods his greeting to Meyanda, "Nice work mounting the laser rifle. Has anyone seen you here?"
He turns to the others. "Let's move out for the Smoking Tower at first light."
Ridic will also buy 3 of each
Razorend thanks Redfang, somewhat perplexed by the tale of the strange leopard. "We will be cautious." He shakes the man's hand and then departs.
Razorend greets Meyanda warmly and asks about her last couple days. "Any trouble?"
"We had middling success... a strange technological ruin was sacked by a wizard who also kidnapped our quarry. The place... may have been where I was created." He flinches, still unsure how to process what they found.