Sven keeps the coast clear while a freshly healed Zelkin makes an interesting...."AHHHH!!!!"
A magical trap goes off in the room, enveloping Zelkin!
FORT Save DC 19 to negate.
You are turned into a fluffly little bunny rabbit! Make a Will Save DC 19. Failure means your mind and personality melt away, and into a bunny you become.
Aiuda shrugs as everyone else elects to go upstairs first. She checks for anything interesting along the way.
"Zelkin, are you ok?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Zelkin takes another deep breath, wondering what that sensation could have been from. Yes, fine... I just had a brief hankering for carrots and I wanted to call myself 'Harvey'. Strange.
Zelkin continues with his task.
Do you need a doctor ?
asks Sven
Zelkin shakes off the spell to find something quite interesting. In a hallowed out copy of Braving the Wastes is a sealed letter. (The hollow is clearly designed for a thick pistol.) It is sealed with a stylized emblem:
It's sealed with the official seal of the Grand Duchy of Alkenstar.
Inside is a LETTER OF NOTE.
Megator Facient is an abandoned factory nearby.
Hmph, ok. So what's all that mean?
"Seems the seal is official enough from Alkenstar and Megator is a nearby abandoned factory. Shall we investigate?" Bill asks in response to Zelkin's question.
Nearby, is it? That the building Aiuda wanted to investigate? Zelkin seems agreeable to the idea.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Aiuda shakes her head. "No, this is all just part of the outpost. I think Bill is right, there's another place somewhere nearby that this employer has been working hard to establish or re-establish. Either way it sounds like they are behind the reprogramming and that means they're up to no good whatever they're doing. We should find it quickly and investigate."
Rest of this floor, the other building here or hurry to the Facient?
-Posted with Wayfinder
We should quickly search the rest of this place before moving on. There might yet be more evidence to find.
Agreed.
Grouh !
Confirms Whitestripe.
"Rest of this floor, then the other building, before we leave for Megatron." says Bill, purposely messing up the name as visions of semi-trucks (whatever those are) and fighter jets (who knows?) flash through his brain.
The party decides to clear out this building before moving on. Thankfully, no other foes present themselves. The last room here looks like someone's quarters, a leader most likely. The ceiling droops considerably in this weathered living chamber. The floor is covered in a layer of unnatural mossthat creeps up the cobblestone walls to the west and south. A batter bed occupies the northwestern corner of the chamber. The patterns of dust on the floor show that much of the furniture here was recently removed. A single wooden door stands in the south wall. Nothing of note turns up in the search.
The tower seems to be similarly equipped on this floor and the third. Two potions of cure serious wounds and a potion of invisibility on each floor. (two floors remaining.)
Satisfied, the party moves to the other building in the fort.
Zelkin starts to look around, hoping his doesn't trigger yet another trap.
Zelkin finds no traps, but notes that there's a body unceremoniously impaled upon the lightning rod atop this building. As the storm rages, the rod is struck with some regularity, each time causing the corpse to twitch.
The scene is macabre, but doesn't seem to present any danger. Zelkin then opens the door. Scattered tools, machine parts, and scrap metal fill every corner of this messy workroom. In the center of the chamber, a bipedal clockwork automaton is secured to an arcane platform of wires, pipes, and twisting metal. A large bundle of wires winds upward from the platform toward and through the ceiling. Wide wooden double doors to the northwest and a humble wooden door to the east exit the workshop.
Anyone know much about these automation things? Any of this useful? Zelkin will check out the humble wooden door.
LLV (+4 v. Evil Outsiders/Aberrations, +2 Elves/Plants)
(LLV, DV, Scent)
As Zelkin steps inside Everyone but Bill feels the hair on their body stand up. Strange mystical energy begins to churn and waken. This room is haunted!
A stroke of lightning hits the rod above, but continues down and sarcs to the inert guardian. The power of the strike starts its gears! The lightning builds and then arcs again to everyone (not Bill.) The bolt is huge: each take , REF DC 19 for half.
Despite being attached via charged cables, the guardian comes after Zelkin!
Good guys up!
Zelkin will have this creature be his Bane and tries to strike it down!
for
for
for
for
He then takes a 5' step back out of the doorway, hoping to lead it out of the room while also testing its reach.
A clockwork soldier! Just like the issue that sent you here. This guardian is of the type that all of a sudden went out of control! +1 question for every 5 over.
This one is super charged, the energy of the lightning is making it more powerful, faster, and harder to kill.
Zelkin jumps into action. The creature is EXTREMELY hard and the energy crackles as he hits it twice.
Round 1:
Sven: Go
Bill: Go
Zelkin: ATK
Aiuda: Go
Baddie: TBD
Guardian: 92 (62)
Aiuda ducks but the electricity still grazes her. She doesn't know much about automatons but she knows that they are generally hard. Damn! I ran out of those adamantine-tipped arrows. Let's hope I can be of some help...
She tears her bow off her back and fires at the construct, watching disappointingly as they bounce off.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Zelkin's arrows drive into the creature, creating ever more arcs of electricity. Aiuda follows up with more, but they are all turned aside by the creature's metal body.
Round 1:
Sven: Go
Bill: Go
Zelkin: ATK
Aiuda: Miss
Baddie: TBD
Guardian: 92
"Clockwork soldiers, huh?" Bill says as the electricity pulses around him. "I wonder..." he chuckles as he draws a scroll and moves towards the open door, staying well behind the group.
Sven avoid on good bard of the powerful lightningh who struk him and his friends.
When he sees the automaton rising he commands Whitestripe to attack.
Attack and Flank !
Whitestripe jumps away from the ligthning without harm and at his master's orders moves toward the creature his master designate.
GRRRRRRRRRRRr !
Then he bites it.
One of Zelkin's arrows punctures the thing right through something important, as it smokes and whines
The connection and electricity are making the creature stronger and faster, giving it electricity damage on attacks. Only its attachment to the cables is keeping this feature going.
As Bill works his way to the action, Sven and Whitestripe rush in without fear.
Whitestripe's bite tears off the creature's leg! Rather than fall down, it begins sparking and smoking. Before anyone knows what's going on it in a small but intense fireball:
Sven and Whitestripe, REF DC 23 to take half of .
Both of them are covered in eidite, a poisonous metal that harms living creatures like lead poisoning. Hearty creatures like Sven and Whitestripe might be able to shake it off.
There's little left in this room of consequence. On the wall there is a sign reminding people to keep the quake cannon covered "AT ALL TIMES" with the oil tarp.
Sven barelly manage to avoid most of the damage of the unexpected explosion !
While looking for his wounds, Sven realize they are covered in eidite.
Even surprised by the explosion, Whitestripe is able to completely avoid the damages.
Damn, our resources may grow thin if we keep this up. Zelkin will try to heal himself up after the fight.
"Yes, we should probably wait out the storm here anyways. Now that it is clear of inhabitants, this place should prove a useful shelter. Tomorrow we can go in search of this building project. I hope that the storm will not have erased any tracks I might follow."
What would you guys like to do here for now? There are a couple of loose ends.
-Posted with Wayfinder
- One remaining room here.
- Something referenced as under the oiled-tarp.
- The factory "nearby"
- Waiting out the storm.
- Finding a Brass Guardian here matching the descriptions of the ones going crazy in Alkenstar.
- The sealed and official letter.
What now heroes?
While we wait out the storm lets make sure we've checked out everything in this place, I think there is at least one other room we have not investigated. Zelkin points toward the tarp. Anyone know what this "quake cannon" is?
Aiuda shakes her head. "Whatever it is, let's wait for the storm to pass before investigating. We're certainly on the right track, that guardian matches all the reports from Alkenstar. I'm still convinced this factory place nearby is where we'll uncover the full scheme though. Let's make sure this place is secure and wait out the storm."
The final room has seen better days. It's a simple living quarter that's been recently ransacked. There's a bed, chest, desk, and papers, but someone tossed this place good...
Sven agrees with Zelkin and Aiuda.
Once in the room he looks for clues of why and who tossed this place good.
Zelkin turns his expert eye towards the mess in the room.
In the nightstand he finds a journal. It's written by a slightly crazed author, named Krauss. It recounts progress on work for Gurstweld and someone named Syckar. Within she frequently mentions meeting with Gurstweld in the Magator Facient. She mentions "growing distrust with that freakish hill giant and his mutated minions." She goes on to talk about paranoia surrounding the reactivation of Magator Facient. In the last entry she writes, "The hills have begun to stink of sulfur and dread. I fear for my own life, as well as the lives of countless others in the shadow of this reborn forge."
Her journals make several mentions of a "minister" though never by name.
Scattered throughout are drawings of mechanical figures and diagrams. It looks like the work of a mad genius.
Hidden in a false bottom of the chest Zelkin finds a heart-shaped pendant cut from a brilliant ruby. It looks to be extremely valuable.
No tracks of any discernible value are found.
Zelkin will also try to detect any magic that might still be about. Can any of you make something out of these drawings? Its above my head.
"Well, we don't have a lot to go on. The evidence is mounting up that Magator Facient is the place we need to go and where most of the action has been or will be happening. But how to get there I haven't the faintest idea. The hills have begun to stink of sulfur and dread. That doesn't give us much to go on. Bill, do you have any magic that could help us find the place? Perhaps use one of this fellow's possessions to track him or something of the like?"
Indeed! The necklace itself appears to be magical.
periapt of wound closure.
Given the lay of the land, an eagle flying high could likely spot a likely location given the information you have. There's also a road to the east.
"A periapt of wound closure..." remarks the wizard as he leads the party after the evening passes.