Hysteresis Loops: The Gion Cover Up (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

It certainly resembles a sink. It is even equipped with a drain. But it is dry, and empty.

Mog attempts to push and play around with the spot, in the hopes that it's part of the pump mechanism. Failing that, he'll stick his hand down the drain.

Gruul watches Mog mess around with the sink, and considers Krevek's words.

"Have there been folks living down here? Looks that way but I just can't imagine it." he says, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

As Moq fiddles with the spout, at first nothing Happens, but then, when the spout itself moves, after several attempts to move it from side to side, there is a sudden loud rattling noise from somewhere beyond the walls. It resembles a rapid but faint hammering. Then a sudden burst of brackish and muddy water spurts out of the spout, all over Moq’s hands. This is followed by a very loud squeal, a groan, more hammering, and then silence.

Mog throws his arms in the air, "Success!"

Gruul can't help but smile at his friend's antics, as he begins to search the room in detail, looking for anything not immediately apparent.

Perceptions: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

Krevek, ponders for a moment. "I never got there myself, but I heard stories of someplace in the north. But I always laughed it away as crazy talk. My Lady, have have you heard of anything like this or the metal beast we fought?" As if too worried about what she might think or say he looks away.

The only things of value, seem to be the place settings and cutlery, which are made from materials you cannot identify.

Back.

Surana shakes her head slowly at Krevek, her head turning as she scans the room. "I have heard tales in abundance in my many years of travels, but none which could be believed. The details are difficult to recall... it has been many lifetimes since I last heard those rumors spoken."

Her eyebrows furrow delicately as she shakes her head once again.

"Let's move on." Gruul says, after his search turned up nothing interesting.

head to the work shop?

The blue-skinned woman inclines her head in a fluid motion to the half-orc to lead the way.

Works for me.

You approach the open doorway cautiously.

Beyond the doorway is a large room. The room is 20’ wide (East to West) and 40’ deep (South to North). The West wall is close to the doorway, and after a space of five feet, it is then set with a workbench, three feet high for its entire length (35 feet). The workbench has a thick wood top, and it is lined with drawers. On the opposite wall, to the East, is a strange sight, and at first you jump with fright.

There are four “cage like” structures each five feet wide spaced five feet apart along the east wall. The cages are made from metallic “tubes” each tube is two inches in diameter, and there are strange string-like cords connected to the tubes that dangle all around. The cages have a single “two-tube” gate that is open on three of the cages, but on the forth it is jammed and tangled with another one of the metallic monsters you encountered earlier. The legs of this monster are not moving, and it seems to be either dead or deactivated in some way. The double inverted bowl-like body is tilted, and touches the ground on one side while one of the legs is between the two tubes of the gate.

It is obvious that these “cages” where the keeping place for these monsters.

Where the last monster is tangled with the gate of the cage that once keep it, you can see that some of the string-like cords that dangle from the tubes of the cage, pass into the body of the monster through the gap between the upper and lower halves of the body.

In the five foot space between the cages there are short boxes. Three feet square, and these boxes have knobs and dials on the face pointing toward the center of the room, while a single thick black rope emerges from the side of each box and is connected to each cage next to it.

Gruul walks to the apparently dead monster and looks it over intently.

"These.. strings.. they seem almost like veins though I've not seen any creature quite like this. Those others we killed must have been kept down here."

Having finished with the sink, Mog follows the rest of the group into the room.

After having been startled by the caged monsters, Mog grumbles to himself and heads over to the workbench to rifle through it.

Krevek follows the group into the next room. He moves over to the creatures to take a look at them, hoping to see if he can determine weaknesses in case he encounters more of them.

While Krevek is looking at the creature, he goes over the details of what he sees with Gruul.

Gruul listens intently as the man explains what he has found.

assuming that's a cue to check the spoiler...

int check: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Dumping out the drawer with the tools and replacement parts, Mog tries randomly putting the pieces together. Leaving the other drawer mysteriously untouched. He quickly gets frustrated with this, however, and leaves the pile of parts on the floor.

Getting up, the Goblin instead goes to explore the boxes with knobs. After a brief perusal of their features, he decides that it's of the utmost importance to see if all of the dials and knobs can turn, and proceeds to test every single one of them.

As Moq moves from one box to the next, he discovers, to his delight, several variations of knobs, sliders, and switches that rotate, move up and down, click, and snap from side to side. Just when he is about satisfied that no matter what he does, there is no “reaction” from his tinkering, at the last box, near the fallen machine tangled in the gate, as he clicks a switch, a loud popping sound is hear, and a blue spark shoots out of the box at his hand.

Make a Reflex Save, DC 16, or suffer d3 damage from Electricity, and if you fail the save, and the damage is max, then there is a 50% chance the spark ignites residual powder beneath your fingernails and on your hand that causes you to catch fire!

((Well. It's a good thing I get +7 to my reflex save~))

Reflex Save: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

Mog literally throws himself away from the boxes, deftly avoiding the bolt of electricity. The goblin lets out a low whistle.

"Wew! Blimey! Dodged a bullet there!"

Surana contemplates the goblin in silence, then turns toward the others. "What have you discovered?" she asks, raising one eyebrow delicately.

After going over the weakness to the machines, Krevek turns to Surana, "what appears to be a weakness to striking damage, while on initially looking at these things, they appear well guarded and in truth are." He then points to the areas he has found weaknesses in, "But, when you get up close you can see gaps that a melee attack can take advantage of."

With that Krevek moves away, "But beyond that, I am still lost to where we are and what this place is."

"Well, let us hope that no more of those... things... engage us." says the woman briskly. "Have you quite finished here? There is, no doubt, more to survey."

Actually, you have explored everything in this area, other than trying to go deeper into the caverns to the underground lake below. Now normally I am not like this, but I want to encourage you to not try to go down there yet. I know, that's really meta and poor GMing, but I wanted the access to be there and not hidden from you with some gimick that you discover the next time you come down here (after all the Goblins came up that way so it isn't going to be hidden all that well in the first place. You have enough "strange things' that you could return to the city and see if anyone can shed some light on what you've found.

"I am quite done here and seen more than I could have imagined" Krevek states, "What about you two?"

"I fink we've seen enough," chimes Mog.

"I too am prepared to leave. However... it seems to me that we must take our leave separately, and meet again three days hence."

Surana looks over at Krevek meaningfully, seeming to consider saying something else.

Krevek nods to the woman, thinking he understands her intent

Gruul nods at Mog's words.

"Three days... why the wait? I'd like to see if we can find someone who can shed some light on all of this. Maybe the dwarf up top has some idea..." Gruul suggests.

Mog was already heading back to the gobs back in the chamber. He had towels for them, and he still needed to find a place for them to stay.

"Four days, then. We will meet you outside the cathedral an hour before noon."

Gruul nods as he turns to follow Mog. "Four days then."

The five of you make it back to the chamber in the Cathedral (where the access to the catacombs can be found) trailing a small mob of Goblins who are preoccupied with wrapping themselves in towels, Toga style. One of the Goblins begins telling the others that this is the will of the new tribe leader, Moq the Thunder-Maker, who has given them these fine clothes to wear and to show that they are not a savage tribe of flesh eaters, but a tribe that is moving into the world above and so must learn to be like him.

You settle on a plan to separate, and take care of personal business, and agree to meet back here in four days

Surana leads the way back to the control room and activates the crystals to return the trio back to their own time three days ahead.

Krevek accompanies the woman.

Retcon: Surana, with Krevek and Ryko, will part ways with Gruul and Mog at the entrance to the cathedral instead of in the catacombs. During their exit, she stresses the importance of no one seeing them, but refuses to explain the reason for it and cautions them to stay out of the catacombs until their meeting in four days.

Leaving the cathedral, Surana's face is taut with unspoken stress as she considers the group's options for the next three days. It is imperative that we avoid any chance at meeting our doubles... and I suppose I must keep these younger ones in my sight at all times, lest the universe be endangered by their folly.

Grimly she leads the way out of town, to a cabin she happens to know of but has not visited in some time. She chooses the least-frequented routes, and does not permit any stops to be made along the way. When the group arrives at the cabin, she finally speaks. "We will remain here for the next three days until the hour at which we entered the catacombs has passed. The chances of encountering ourselves, or even others, are too great to remain in the city during this time."

Her tone is final, allowing no argument.

Krevek begins examining the location, nodding agreement that he understands what the woman is saying, even if not the reasoning behind it.

It is late Sunday evening and Kyan seems distressed. He had been sure that Ryko had told him that they should meet at the Inn this evening and discuss the plan to investigate the catacombs. Ryko had even told him, earlier, that they had a contact, some man named Refan, who could get them into the catacombs sometime later in the week.

But where was Ryko now?

It's all falling apart, falling apart as I dreamed it would when she disappeared. Maybe I should find this Refan. Maybe he knows where Ryko is. Why would Ryko tell me he was going to be here tonight and not show up. Kyan thinks to himself as he paces back and forth in front of the inn.

At another part of the city, Gruul and Moq return to a small stone tower on a busy street corner. Just to the right of the tower a few street musicians have set up and are playing a lively tune and collecting a few coins from passersby. Within the tower are four men, two dwarves, a hafling, and a Half-orc, are sitting at a long low table enjoying a late afternoon meal.

”Gruul and Moq,” one of the human men says. His name is Fortan, and the two only know him by name, and the stories that he is a fellow who avoids hard work. “Captain Kellorian is looking for you two. Seems she had a visit from some stranger this morning who was concerned about the two of you checking on the catacombs below the cathedral. She ain’t happy. You better find her and make a report as soon as you can. Oh, and that city watchman, what’s his name, Refan, he was asking Hendricks here about those catacombs this morning as well. What’s up with that place? Did you two discover something down there you’re trying to keep a secret? You know how those clerics get if you try and take anything out of there, it’ll get you four days in the jail if you cross them.”

Removes Bag of Towels from Inventory, as I assume Mog gave them all to the Goblins. And I guess we can also assume that Mog has already set the Goblins up in the Precipice Quarter, and given them 3 gp.

"Heh! We discovered sumfink dahn there awright; a blue witch, a tark, a low-born, a she-dwarf, and goblins! And them were all the bloomin' least of us worries!" Mog takes a swig of his drink and sets it back down, before leaning in close.

"I'll tell yer, we seen some fings dahn there that the like of this world 'as never seen. Then he smiles and plomps back down in his chair. "It's quite the regalin' tale I assure yer, but...!" Mog picked up his drink and finished what was left in it. "I spose we'd ought ter clear us name for anyfink them uvver gobs might've nicked. I don't quite fancy a day in the bleedin' puddles, much less free."

you would not be worried, as you know that you did not take anything from any body that was interred in the crypts, and the items you took came from some place that probably the clerics themselves are unaware of.

”It’s just them old crypts down there,” one of the dwarves says to Moq, cocking his head to the side. ”There’s nothing unusual about that place, never has been. You imagine too many things Gobo.”

Gruul shoots a cold look towards the dwarf. "It's possible that less thorough Greycloaks haven't found anything strange down there... but we have." he says, bristling at the implied accusation that Mog and himself are either inept, or else liars.

His gaze lingers on the dwarf for a moment, just long enough to make his point stick but not so long as to be overtly hostile.

"Maybe we should go see what this woman wants. I wonder if it's the Dwarf we met that pulled the disappearing trick on us."

"Well, lets go then!" Says Mog, hopping down from his seat.

Just as Moq jumps from his chair, loud clomping boots can be heard coming down the wooden stairs in the corner of the room.

A large Half-orc woman appears on the stairs, and she stops four steps from the bottom. She is a heavy woman, but not fat. Her arms and legs are like tree limbs, if tree limbs could have enormous muscles. She wears a suit of armor popularly referred to as “brigand’s armor” (it is a combination of Studded leather, parts of suits of Chain mail and Ring Mail, and a couple of small metal plates). She also wears knee high, seriously large, heavy black boots, studded with small pieces of metal. Her hair is long and black, and pulled back from her face, smoothed against her head and braided down the back in a thick, neat braid.

She points at Gruul, and says in a loud voice, “Gruul, Moq, upstairs, my office, now!”

Gruul turns away from the table and snaps to attention. He nods in the affirmative and starts to follow her up to her office, ignoring the chuckles from the group at the table.