Jack declines a drink - now is not the time and he's been getting less and less pleasure from human beverages as time goes on.
"So, go to the Eyes - during business hours so he has witnesses and less ability to do anything unexpected. We'll ask him to help with our inquiries and see how badly he reacts from here."
"I suppose that works." Dora says, not particularly agreeing with the chaotic plan, but not able to come up with a better alternative.
The next day, you travel to the headquarters of Eyes of Absalom. When you arrive, though, you find the front door unlocked and the entire building eerily empty. The vast central hall contains nine relatively simple clockwork printing presses, each the size of a fruit cart. The printing presses all remain silent and unused now.
Searching around, you see that the central press conceals a secret button on its underside. When the button is pushed, the press slides aside, revealing a stairwell leading downward.
The open spiral staircase descends one hundred feet below ground. Built atop a massive, moving gear, the entire staircase spins in clockwise circles along with the giant cog. Several people can stand on the large gear, but beyond it, a mass of dangerous, whirring cogs make up the room’s floor. Three doors are set in the wall near the turning gear, and a small platform extends from this gear, so those standing on the platform can reach each door when the gear rotates into the proper position.
Dani looks around in wonderment at the area are before them."I had to admit, this is not what I expected to encounter today. I don't know why, given everything we've been through, but still."
Once Jack has declared the room safe to move forward, she'll follow the men towards the door they choose.
"Definitely a villain." Jack says with a sigh."Only villains go to such ridiculous lengths creating a lair like this."
Seeing nothing in particular to distinguish the doors Jack points to the furthest one. "Best to risk the greatest danger first." He suggests.
"I just don't understand anybody's motive to build a place like this. From my own personal experience, the only reason people do this is to show off their wealth to others, but its not like he has even been able to do that!"
Before anybody takes a step forward, Dora casts telepathic bond on everybody, in case they get split up.
"Yeah, it's a bit over-the-top, isn't it?" Devon says, readying his sword and shield. He leads the way through the east door.
The ceiling of this long room soars forty feet overhead. Huge steel doors, each twenty feet wide and twenty feet high, block off either end of the hall. Up near the ceiling, cauldrons dripping steaming pulp slowly circle from one end of the room to the other, passing over the steel doors and into a chamber beyond. Piles of wood chips fill much of this room, and occasionally, one of the cauldrons near the ceiling lowers down to pick up a massive scoop of chips.
Jack examines the room carefully, looking for more normally sized means of egress.
"Let's come back later if we don't find anything else." He suggests, "This seems automated rather than anything else."
You return to the central room and head northwest. Casks of ink are stacked throughout this large room. Four massive clockwork claws hang from the ceiling in the center of the room, surrounding an interlocking metal hatch.
As you draw near one of the ink barrels, the top bursts open! A mass of ink slithers out, quickly coalescing into the form of Reginald Vancaskerkin! The Rumormonger's body seems to be composed of a mixture of ink and clockwork gears, and he sneers at you. "I didn't give you agents enough credit, it seems. All of my carefully constructed plans are falling apart, thanks to you. But you will not leave this place alive!"
He raises his arm, gears shifting and rearranging into the form of a cannon! Several sharp quills fire forth, striking each of you!
"Carefully constructed plans? You mean to tell me you did that to yourself on purpose. Oh Reggie, how could have been so much more."
3 rounds of IC.
Dani starts off with a little inspirational tune before casting Haste on Devon.
Jack circles around behind Vancaskerkin and strikes at Reginald's head with the cane before stabbing at the stunned man with his blade.
Dora is momentarily dumbfounded at Reginald's new appearance before being bought back to reality as she is pierced by sharp quills.
Jack's attack goes wide, but a hasted Devon quickly flanks with the rogue and slashes Reginald twice. Dora strikes the man with a disintegration beam, causing a portion of his arm to crumble to ash. The sorceress can see that his partial clockwork body will likely be vulnerable to electricity, but she's not sure what other tricks Reginald might have up his metaphorical sleeves.
Reginald sneers at Dani. "I abandoned my humanity long ago. I am the Rumormonger! The more secrets I collect, the stronger I become. I am even stronger than death itself! You stand no chance against me!"
He swings on Devon with his bronze fist, landing a hit!
Jack takes advantage of Devon distracting the Rumormonger to land a blow and follows up with more attacks, pressing the advantage!
Dora uses her telepathic bond with Dani to share her new found information. "Got anything with a little spark?"
Then to Reginald, Dora questions; "But where is your humanity gone? Your insatiable curiosity?"
To Dora, Dani frowns and shakes her head no. "Unfortunately not."
Dani picks up a cask with her magic and flings it at what is left of Reginald.
"Surrender or be killed!"
"I traded all of that to Norgorber!" Reginald shouts back at Dora. "I made a pact with the Reaper for this secret knowledge, and now, with it, I shall become primarch and rule Absalom! And then, the Vancaskerkin family will finally get the recognition we deserve!"
Jack lands one hit on the man, but he avoids Devon's strikes. Reginald dodges Dora's bolts, but they still shock him enough to trigger his weakness, his clockwork body spasming with each strike. Dani smashes him in the head with a cask of ink, leaving him dazed.
"Argh! Clockwork arms, activate!" Reginald shouts. The claw-tipped arms suspended from the ceiling spring to life, moving to slash at you!
Reginald continues to punch Devon. He scores a critical hit!
Jack ignores the clockwork arm and continues to focus on putting Vancaskerskin down as fast as possible.
Jack and Devon each land solid hits on Reginald. "I'll be back!" he wails as his body dissipates into a puddle of ink and releases a black wave of psychic energy. Each of you are bathed in a torrent of forbidden secrets. The clockwork arms fall inert once again.
Once you are healed and ready to move on, the hall past this room has exits to the east and west.
Jack sets to work fixing up injuries in focused silence. Once the job is done he examines what remains of Vancaskerskins body with pursed lips. "I might be able to interfere with his clockwork toys, given time." He muses.
Dani growls in frustration as Reginald gets away. "I hope so, because it's going to get old if this is going to keep happening. Let's find him."
A multitude of tubes pulsing with black ink line the walls and ceiling of the long room past the west door. Rows of bottles, barrels, and casks fill the room’s center. Meanwhile, scurrying clockwork automatons use the tubes to fill the casks with ink.
The clockworks don't bother you as you make your way through a door at the far end of the hall. Ten glass vats line the walls of this room. The vats, each roughly five feet tall, contain bubbling chemicals. The liquid appears clear in several of these vats, while others contain a black and inky substance.
A gargantuan demon works in this room, overseeing the ink harvesting operation! Standing 35 feet tall, the vile fiend is well equipped with a wide range of talons, claws, and fangs. A massive chunk of the demon's skull has been replaced with what appears to be a clockwork brain, and it wields a greatsword made of spinning gears! With a bellowing roar, the demon moves to attack!
Dora tries to banish the demon to remove it from their path.
Dora recognizes the demon as a shemhazian, or mutilation demon. Shemhazians rise from the souls of torturers and those who reveled in mutilating the physical bodies of their victims. With a powerful word and a dismissive gesture, the sorceress sends the demon hurtling back into the Abyss where it belongs!
The far end of the room contains a set of circular stairs leading down. At the bottom of the stairs, a long hallway appears densely packed with rotating gears and springs that make it almost impossible to walk through normally.
Dora waits for everybody to start crossing before tracing a door in the air with her fingers and stepping through, appearing at the end of the corridor without having to fumble around on top of the gears.
She stands grinning at the end of the corridor at everybody as she waits for them to join her.
"And, what's taking you all so long?" She asks with a cheeky grin, much unlike the sorceress.
"Nothing." Jack replies, stepping down the corridor with deliberate and impeccable timing as he dodges gears and springs as though it were nothing more than a walk in the park.
"Woo! Let's go!" Devon shouts as he follows Jack, leaping, spinning, and dodging gears in his heavy armor. He grins at Dora when he reaches the end of the hall. "I can do this all day!"
Squinting, Dani can't fully identify the best path forward like everyone else. Shrugging her shoulders, she simply casts a spell and opens a door that teleports her to the other side instead.
Dora, a little saddened that she wasn't the only one to beat both Jack and Devon simultaneously shrugs her shoulders and smiles kindly at Dani.
"Let's keep moving."
Pillars of enormous gears fill the room at the end of the hall. All the cogs connect, in one way or another, to a single, gigantic gear at the center. The central gear, forty feet in diameter, rotates ponderously.
A large construct guards this grand gear. Standing roughly 12 feet tall, it has five clockwork appendages tipped with integrated weapons--a blade, a blowtorch, a claw, a hose, and a stamper. Its limbs whir and spin as it prepares to attack!
The clockwork shoots several spikes at Devon, waiting for you to come to it.
Dora can't seem to work out if this particular clockwork is any different to all of the others so instead just tries to destroy it.
Jack waits for Devon and follows the champion in.
Dani works her violin, harmonizing her two favorite compositions for her allies.
"In Cayden's name!" Devon shouts as he charges in with shield raised. He delivers a solid blow, and Jack moves around to sneak attack the clockwork. The construct dodges Dora's disintegrate beam.
The clockwork then becomes a blur of spinning weaponry, whirling about as it attacks with its blade and blowtorch!
Dora curses very quietly under her breath before unleashing her next spell.
Jack strikes repeatedly but has trouble piercing anything important.
3 rounds of IC.
Dani sees the team struggling a bit and switches gears. She drops the harmonized composition and instead sets up one that will linger a few rounds instead.
Next she casts heroism on Devon, hoping to give him an added boost.
Jack and Dora find it difficult to harm the tough construct, but Devon manages to land a hit. The clockwork continues to whirl about, attacking Devon and Jack.
This time Jack lands a blow under a large plate and something cracks.
Dani tries to throw some spare clockwork parts at the creature, but misses terribly.
Trying yet again, Dora tries to freeze its clockwork mechanisms.
Jack and Devon continue to land blows on the clockwork. Dora hits with her polar ray, though the unliving creature is unable to be drained. The clockwork recalibrates itself, discarding damaged components and incorporating the arm holding the hose into its body to repair itself. It continues to whirl about, slashing at Devon and scorching Jack.
Devon provides plenty of openings and Jack does his best to make use of them as the champion protects him once again from a bad case of tanning. With a swift nod of thanks he fights on.
Dora falls back on her trusty lightning
Dani picks up some of the discarded damaged components and flings them back at the creature!
Only Dani manages to land a good hit as the creature avoids Devon and Jack's attacks and completely evades Dora's lightning. It slashes Devon and scorches Jack!
"Ha!" Dani teases,"Take a taste of your own medicine! How's that!"
Confident, she tries again but is not nearly as effective this time.
Dora fires a blue-white ray of freezing air and sleet at the clockwork creature.
There's not much Jack can do to the massive construct so he keeps hammering away, looking for weak spots.
Dora blasts the construct with ice. Jack lands a hit, then Devon does, then Jack again! With the final strike, the powerful clockwork falls to pieces!
With a few minutes of work, Jack is able to disable the gigantic gear here. The constant grinding of the clockwork throughout the complex comes to a halt. All of the moving parts and hazards will no longer pose a threat!