It's a trap! Jack thinks immediately. He isn't worried about his companions, they are more than capable of looking after themselves, but he does fade into the background - specifically so that if reinforcements try and come through the shop, he can intercept them.
Once the proprietor has gone through to the back he slips over to the front door and locks it. Just in case.
Devon meets Dora's gaze and inclines his head slightly. He keeps his hand near his sword's hilt as he moves to follow the dwarven shopkeeper.
As he leads you to the steel hatch at the side of the room, the dwarf explains that the building was once a brewery and the old brewing vats are still in place (he once hoped to fill them with ink, he says, but never had the funds). Once the hatch is open, he steps inside and begins opening the next hatch, beckoning for you to follow.
This room appears to be a giant cylindrical vat made of steel. Two steel hatch doors lead out of the room. Alert for treachery, Dani notices a spout jutting through a narrow aperture in the ceiling of the vat, about 20 feet up...
Ready for the predictable trap, Dani quickly passes along the information to her companions and decides to take no changes by calling it out "Interesting. I didn't know that breweries had spouts located in the ceiling."
"It would seem you have some ill intentions here, my friend. What's the meaning of this?!"
The dwarf's eyes widen. He falls to his knees and begins to weep. "I-I'm sorry! I don't want to hurt you, but she is making me! Ixusoth! She sees through my eyes! She is waiting in the back! Quick, knock me out, before she takes control again!"
Dani nods and says "We'll do just that. Close your eyes now."
Stepping around the trap and drawing her weapon, Dani obliges the man and smacks him over the had with the hilt of her rapier. After he collapses to the ground, she makes sure he's in no danger of serious injury before turning to the group. "Looks like we know what's behind door number two here. Anyone have a plan in mind or shall we stride in for a chat with Ixusoth?"
"This is just getting stranger and stranger by the moment." Dora says, her eyes wide as dinner plates as Dani knocks the dwarf out.
"Problem is that Ixusoth is going to know we're coming to and will be preparing, so we need to do the same. We all know how this is going to go."
Just before entering, if everyone agrees, Dora casts in preparation after Jack is retrieved from his even more paranoid position upstairs.
Jack agrees with Dora when he reappears.
"It is difficult to locate me with divinations these days." He opinions, "So I will probably be the one that she does not expect. Dani, could you do the lasting invisibility spell for me? I will be much more effective that way."
Dani nods, "Good idea. She won't be expecting you."
Turning to Jack, she cast disappearance on him, shrouding him for the next ten minutes.
Once he disappears, she nods "All set. Let's go."
As brave as she is, she turns and motions to Devon to lead the way. "After you, my dear."
"In Cayden's name," Devon says with a grin. Sword and shield raised, he pushes his way through the hatches of the vats and into the room beyond.
Four large steel vats line the west wall of this broad chamber. A metal walkway rises ten feet from the floor and runs in front of each vat and around the walls of the room. In the center of the room are two blood-spattered operating tables that stand next to a huge glass tank filled with green slime and massive floating eyeballs.
Four clockwork assassins stand on the walkway with you, blade hands raised and poised to strike. Below, next to the tank of eyeballs, stands a hulking aberration. Hundreds of bloodshot green eyes peek out from under the fleshy layers of her skin. She lets out an angry shriek. "I have no intention of letting pesky vigilantes ruin my schemes! Time to die!"
The doctor takes advantage of his invisibility and hops down to the lower level to deal with the eyeball creature.
Dora sticks to the rear as she enters and calls upon her arcane strength, conjuring a frosty ray towards the mass of eyeballs.
Seeing the immediate threat, she then hastily creates a powerful spark of electricity to the closest automaton.
Dani strides into the room and immediately starts up the groups theme song on her violin for inspiration.
Dani then picks up a nearby chair and throws it at an assassin.
Devon moves to engage the automatons, blocking the walkway with his shield to protect Dora and Dani. His fiery blade scores two critical hits!
The eyeball monster dodges Dora's icy ray. Her lightning strikes one of the clockworks, but the second one evades it and breaks the chain. Dani critically hits the damaged clockwork with her projectile, then Devon lands two critical hits, causing it to collapse and cease moving!
Meanwhile, the invisible Jack stabs the aberration, eliciting a pained grunt. Ixusoth responds with indignation, swinging her fists at the area where Jack attacked from. The rogue avoids her blows.
One clockwork moves in to attack Devon in melee. The others hang back and fire spinning blades at the champion! Only one blade gets past his defenses, and the champion absorbs most of the blow with his shield.
Jack stabs repeatedly and then dances around the creature to confuse it as to his location.
Dora sends out another crackle of electricity.
Dani tries to throw another chair around, but is much less effective this time.
Dora's lightning is more effective this time, striking all three clockworks and Ixusoth. Dani misses with her chair but Devon slices the clockwork in melee with him three times, leaving it badly damaged. Jack manages to score one hit on Ixusoth before moving away.
Ixusoth casts a spell, dispelling Jack's invisibility and revealing the rogue!
Despite his best efforts, Devon takes a few hits from the clockworks' spinning blades.
Attacking the most vulnerable looking clockwork, Dora fires a green streak towards it.
Visible is annoying, but Jack still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Quite literally in this case! A packet of highly irritating dried vegetable extract flies at the many eyed creature causing immediate eye watering and considerable discomfort!
The Doctor attacks in the confusion!
Dani closes her eyes and casts a spell, divining the next few seconds of battle and tries to find a way to help her allies land their attacks.
After casting, she moves up behind Devon to prepare and heal his wounds next round.
Dani tries to throw a chair again, but can't find the any despite her glimpse into the future.
Dani casts true target on the damaged clockwork, guiding her aim as she hurls a chair at it. Dora strikes it with an acid arrow, melting its gears and causing it to go down! Devon grins as he rushes to the next clockwork, sword slashing and scoring two critical hits!
Jack tries to stab Ixusoth again, but the eye-studded monster just manages to block his first hit. His second strike is true, though, further enraging the aberration!
Ixusoth attacks, pummeling Jack! Devon intervenes to reduce the damage to the rogue.
Devon then takes a few hits from the two remaining clockworks!
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature is stunned 1.
Failure The creature is stunned 2.
Critical Failure The creature is stunned 3, and Ixusoth can use Steal Memories on the target as part of this action.
Behind Devon, Dani does her best to patch up his wounds and stop his bleeding. After that, she uselessly tosses around more chairs.
Jack shakes off the effects of Ixusoth's strike and unleashes another fistful of unpleasant powders to blind her.
Dora calls down a bolt of lightning upon Ixusoth
Ixusoth avoids some of Dora's lightning, but is still shocked by it. Jack manages another hit on the hulking creature, while Devon barely lands two strikes, finishing off another clockwork assassin! He moves to engage the final one, keeping his shield up, as Dani's projectile sails harmlessly past.
The last clockwork and Ixusoth both attack. Both miss!
Dani tries to identify Ixusoth and then paralyze it. .
Dora, noticing Dani is trying a new trick, trying to keep the beast pinned to her position.
Jack keeps striking at vulnerable eyes with a cool and lethal precision.
Dani manages to temporarily stun Ixusoth. Dora impales her with a spike through the leg, then Jack delivers another strike to finish her off! Devon squares off with the last clockwork for a bit, eventually prevailing as well!
Ixusoth has a robe of eyes you can claim. Crates lie scattered around the room, secured with good locks. These boxes contain a treasure trove of secrets and blackmail materials, providing ample evidence for you to prove that Reginald Vancaskerkin had you framed. The materials contain thorough documentation on all the individuals kidnapped and brainwashed by Ixusoth, as well as receipts and paperwork that clearly tie Reginald to the nefarious doings at Bottles and Blots. Additionally, there are blackmail documents on many of the major noble families of Absalom. All these materials combined can be turned into Captain Asilia at Starwatch Keep for a bounty of 20,000 gp; it’s also sufficient evidence to clear your names and earn you your badges back!
"Lets get this back to Starwatch Keep." Jack proposes, "This should be enough to bring the full weight of the law behind Vancaskerkin and that will make finding him much easier. If we take him out then everything else will grind to a halt."
The robe is a little odd so he puts it on beneath his coat and is pleased to find that it still works.
"Yes, that sounds sensible." Dora agrees, grimacing as Jack dons the unusual robe.
"Hopefully, we will regain our own credit that way." She adds, her voice laced with hope.
Wynsal Starborn is ecstatic when you return to him with the mountain of evidence. "Excellent! This is exactly what we need to clear all of our names. I'm sure there's something in here linking Vancaskerin to Harlo Doleen's murder, as well. But we are still missing one vital piece of the puzzle--Graveraker's disappearance and reappearance. Seek out Wakeiwa Atikak and secure her testimony. Then I will be able to release all of this to my newspaper contacts, and we can work to capture Vancaskerkin."
Dani has no qualms with Jack taking the creep robe, she wants nothing to do with it.
"Vancaskerkin will not escape justice." she declares, crossing her arms as she remembers once upon a time considering the man an ally of theirs. "Let's go find Wakeiwa Atikak."
Before his death, Harlo Doleen informed Wynsal Starborn that Wakeiwa was laying low in the Wise Quarter at an inn called the Halcyon Hog. The building lies in the shadow of the walls of Azlanti Keep and has a signboard out front featuring a peaceful pig reading a book. After asking around, you easily learn that Wakeiwa orders food to her room several times per day, but otherwise doesn’t get out much.
When you knock on her door, Wakeiwa tries to persuade you to leave, but ultimately opens the door to let you in. The window to this room has been smashed open, and glass covers the floor. The dissected remains of a clockwork humanoid are spread across a table in the center of the room. Buried beneath the gears and springs are the remains of a cold and forgotten breakfast.
"Yes? How can I help you?" Wakeiwa asks warily, arms crossed over her chest.
"Good day, Wakeiwa." Dani starts, using the same opening she used at the previous witness and bribing her with delicious smelling savories. She hands the bag over and says "I bought too many of these on the way over and would love to share some with you while we have a quick chat."
Once inside, she eyes the clockwork humanoid with interest. Turning to Wakeiwa, she asks "I'll cut right to the chase, we're interested in finding out what you know about the Grraveraker's recent disappearance and reappearance. We're trying to right some wrongs and hoping you have some information that help us in that pursuit. What can you tell us?"
Wakeiwa takes the offered pastries and begins eating one. "Mmm, thanks. I didn't eat breakfast today." She gestures to the table with the dismantled clockwork. "I was trying to do so when this automaton burst through the window and attacked me. I dispatched the machine and have spent the entire day pulling it apart. It’s the work of Reginald Vancaskerkin, an old rival of mine—of that I’m sure. Why exactly he would want to kill me, I can’t guess. But now you're here asking questions about Graveraker, so I have to assume it's related somehow.
"Graveraker is my greatest creation and now, my greatest fear. I wanted so badly to show the world that I could create something amazing, but I fear that my ambitions will send me to prison. I should have never listened to Bandersworth—his idea for a power source has been a catastrophe. I worry that he had a hand in the machine’s disappearance."
"What exactly is this power source?" Jack asks. "The more you do to help us find it, the better it'll be for you."
He's definitely the bad cop in this routine.
Wakeiwa frowns at Jack. "Although my designs for Graveraker were flawless, they required great power to make the machine work. Blune Bandersworth, an eccentric and famous architect here in Absalom, offered to help me by using an artifact he called the Cane of the Maelstrom to bind proteans—extraplanar beings of chaos—into the engine of the machine. Unfortunately, using proteans had other side effects, but by then it was out of my hands.
"Bandersworth seems to have a strange connection with the machine. When it first disappeared, I thought the engine was malfunctioning. Now I suspect that it was Bandersworth using the Cane to cause the machine to enter an interplanar warp. This allows him to transport it wherever he wishes, which explains how it ended up in a circus tent with Starborn.
"I have no idea why he's doing this. I am afraid I’ve inadvertently become involved in a terrible plot. All I wanted was to make a name for myself. I’ve considered going to the authorities, but I’m worried if they find out I bound sentient creatures inside my machine, they’ll arrest me on charges of slavery."
"Well that was stupid." Jack says bluntly. "Of all the outsiders you might have been foolish enough to bind you chose beings of utter chaos? Where do we find Bandersworth? He's the root of the problem and we need to fix this before something worse happens."
Dani clears her through and moves in front of Jack, cutting him off and giving him a rather pointed look. "Excuse my colleagues rather brash response. We are unfortunately caught up in this as well and we are quite emotionally invested. We are hoping we can help prevent any further travesties from occurring."
"Do you have any idea where we can find Bandersworth or the machine now?"
”I’ve no idea where either of them might be,” Wakiewa admits. ”But if Bandersworth is working with Vancaskerkin, then I’m sure he would know. Get to Vancaskerkin and get him to talk.”
Dora stands back with Devon as she watches both other Agents take two completely different approaches to the delicate situation. She can see Dani's shoulders growing more tense by the second as Jack talks and almost steps in to calm the situation down but decides not to when they gather a little more information.
"Yes, I suppose I would like to talk to him again." Dora says still crestfallen about the man who took a shine to her, who she now knows was merely using her for her own naivety.
"Wakeiwa have you heard any rumours as to his whereabouts to aid our search? He has been on our list for some time now."
"Well there's one place we've found him before." Jack points out, disengaging from Wakeiwa.
Wakeiwa suggest seeking Reginald Vancaskerkin out at the headquarters of his newspaper, Eyes on Absalom, in the Wise Quarter.
With Wakeiwa's testimony secured, you return to Wynsal Starborn. Wynsal uses his contacts at various newspapers throughout the city to publish articles detailing all of the evidence you have collected, throwing many citizens into an uproar. Afraid of being connected to the criminal, all of the Rumormonger’s voluntary servants and employees (including his small army of mercenaries) abandon their posts after learning of his unsavory connections.
A very grateful Asilia of Gyr returns your badges to you and reinstates you as agents of Starwatch. Unfortunately, she tells you that the Starwatch is currently spread too thin to assist in the arrest of the Rumormonger. In no uncertain terms, she encourages you to pursue Reginald on you own, arrest the man, and ensure he’s brought to justice.
Dora, her head in a whirlwind, forgets about any professionalism and bear hugs each of her colleagues.
"We did it, I know we're not yet done, but at least we have cleared our names. I did have doubts along the way that we would ever be able to do it, but I should never have doubted us all."
"I think we all need a good night sleep somewhere safe, with clean beds, hot baths and a night to rejuvinate before heading straight back to the task. I don't think we can give the man any more time to cause any further havoc in his power-hungry goals."
Relieved, Dani is equally excited their hard work has paid off! She is tempted to suggest that they celebrate their victory as they have in the past with a mug of ale and some laughs, but the criminal who put them in this situation is still at large. "I'd like to say Tipsy Tengu tonight, but we have work to do. Let's go get that bastard."
"I would not be a proper Caydenite if I did not celebrate with a drink!" Devon declares, retrieving his magical flask. "Though just a small one for now. As you say, here is work to do!"
He takes a long swig, then passes it around to his companions.