Yargnod is visibly relieved that he's with Sefel, though he quickly covers it up by bring Justifier out from it's extradimensional space.
"Dunno. They were just sitting around when I left. Probably too scared to take the chance," he says, though he makes no obvious motion to move away from the spot where they entered this demi-plane, suggesting he would also like to regroup with the others before continuing their trip.
"I would be a lot more comfortable with some Noqual around me," he agrees about the mechs.
Telirix can't make contact telepathically with his teammates, but decides after the others are gone that he won't accomplish more in the 'real world' and joins them.
An impossible scene unfolds: a lush forest blooms with a variety of plants, jungle banyans, and arctic pines placed together with no regard for their differing climates. A golden path gleams incongruously in the midst of the natural landscape.
The forest path twists without rhyme or reason.
Yargnod doesn't know much about nature, having come from a planet that is almost entirely a blasted wasteland. So, he's not much help in finding a trail here.
In fact, all these plants make him nervous. There are far too many places for things trying to kill him to hide and not enough open lanes of fire to discourage them from the attempt.
The landscape forms into a flurry of scenes. First, an adamantine dragon battles alongside four mechs, holding back hordes of monsters from a small town. The scene fades, and a parade winds through the city, everyone showering the dragon with flowers. Next to the dragon stand a blue dragonkin, a kayal, a korasha lashunta, and a human. The dragon gestures to them, and the crowd cheers. The scene shifts to a different city, this one a ruined husk. The camaraderie suffusing the previous landscapes vanishes. The dragon is alone.
The heroes are overwhelmed by feelings of protectiveness, as well as bitterness that their efforts are misunderstood by those for whom they care. As they walk through the ruined city, the maze of burned-out buildings and shattered streets begins folding in on them, threatening to box them in.
Yargnod watches the unfolding tableau with some confusion, at first. But as he realizes they're watching some sort of magical recording of the past on a loop he fights down the sympathy he starts to feel. It's obvious that the people with the dragon are the former mech pilots and that they and the dragon were united in purpose at one time.
Losing allies, for whatever reason, can be sad. But that doesn't mean that she's justified in becoming a tyrant. And certainly doesn't mean she's justified in sending people to destroy the mech he's salvaged fair and square.
"Hey! A Perusala XV-9! I always wanted to drive one of these!" he says, spotting a sleek looking multi-person vehicle nearby. "Jump in"!
He gets behind the driver's controls and starts it up.
The city’s buildings and streets sink into place. No inhabitants remain, not even the smallest songbird, before it warps again to bring forth the four mech-knights. They distend and stretch far larger than their original forms as they begin shouting, their words blending into an indistinguishable cacophony.
The heroes can talk the angry mech-knights down with a Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate check. Alternatively, striking each mech-knight with an attack bypasses the obstacle.
"No! Bad Palisade! Very bad Mech!" Yargnod says, with a tone that sounds more like he's talking to a misbehaving pet than to a metal killing machine many times his size.
And, like swatting a pet with a rolled up piece of paper, he unleashes a burst from Justifier to remind his mech who is in charge.
Yargnod really doesn't want to shoot at Palisade Knight, and the blast from Justifier is well wide.
Sefel strikes Flame Knight with magic.
Telirix talks Shadow Knight into calming down.
Mordack swings his sword cane at Time Knight.
But is too hesitant to attack such a large target.
The active mechs roar at the heroes, causing them all to be shaken for the next hour.
The heroes' vision wavers, making it hard to tell friend from foe.
Everyone is up.
For a moment, Yargnod is afraid. It has been some time since he's been on this side of this sort of conflict. Some time since he was just an ordinary kanabo facing down a giant death machine. It's daunting. But it also just makes him want to get back inside Palisade Knight more. After all, he wants to be the daunter, not the daunted.
With a combination of magic and really loud words, the team gets the mech-visions to stand down.
The ruined buildings vanish, replaced by the walls of an enormous, luxuriously appointed vault. A large couch, shaped and sized for a dragon, leans against one wall, and a thick purple carpet covers the floor. Gold bars, gems, and trinkets in impeccable condition fill the shelves lining the walls. Paintings and statues decorate the room, each one carefully labeled.
The four dragon mechs stand before you, and you can tell that these are the real things.
Ayleth’s vault contains an impressive amount of wealth, including 50,000 credits’ worth of gold bars and gems. The art in the chamber is worth a total of 70,000 credits. The vault also contains an advanced imaginarium projector, a pair of entropy gloves (sized for a mech, so they can be installed onto a mech’s upper limbs by a character trained in Engineering with 10 minutes of work), a euphonic flute, a mantle of willpower, a set of mk 3 prescient lenses, a pair of time-pit boots (programmed to transport both a creature and their mech), and a violet phrenic scrambler.
The vault also contains a large metal frame sized for a mech to stand within. A character trained in Computers or Engineering who examines this frame identifies it as a machine designed to reconfigure mech weapon loadouts. Anyone trained in Computers or Engineering can program the machine to swap the weaponry of a mech positioned inside; this requires 10 minutes of work per weapon. The replacement weapon must be of a Mech Point cost equal to or lower than the weapon being replaced.
By securing the magical vault, the heroes have acquired a safe place to rest. Now that they’ve navigated the obstacles and familiarized themselves with the building, the characters can reach the vault again easily, making the spot an excellent place to rest and regain Stamina Points.
Sefel looks around for signs of habitation. He can tell that it is not used daily, but nothing more detailed than that.
Anything people want to do while hanging out in the demiplane? Repair? Swap weapons or install upgrades?
Shadow Knight seems to be the most fragile of the mechs. IF you want them, take the gloves.
Anything people want to do while hanging out in the demiplane? Repair? Swap weapons or install upgrades?
Speaking of fragile, Shadowknight could use some repairs.
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Shadow Knight (-32 HP)
Time Knight (-5 HP)
Flame Knight (-24 HP)
Palisade Knight (-1 HP)
Yargnod and Sefel work in parallel.
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Spending +5 UPBs (15UPBs / hp) to ensure progress.
1 hour, 15 UPBs: Palisade Knight fully repaired
5+ over DC, so reducing the cost by half.
1 hour, 110 UPBs: Shadow Knight (-32 ⇒ -10 HP)
10+ over DC, so reducing time and cost by half.
30m, 50 UPBs: Shadow Knight fully repaired
Yargnod total time & cost: 2.5 hours, 175 UPBs
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Spending +5 UPBs (15UPBs / hp) to ensure progress.
1 hour, 75 UPBs: Time Knight fully repaired
10+ over DC, so reducing time and cost by half.
30m, 110 UPBs: Flame Knight (-24 ⇒ -2 HP)
1 hour, 20 UPBs: Flame Knight fully repaired
Self total time & cost: 2.5 hours, 205 UPBs
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Total time 2 hours, 30 minutes (because they worked in parallel)
Total cost 380 UPBs
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When a mech combat encounter is over, a mech’s operators can repair damage dealt to their mech, provided it hasn’t been destroyed or lost.
Performing repairs requires stopping the mech, exiting, and working on the mech’s exterior. Any number of allies can use the aid another action to assist with the Engineering checks involved in repairing a mech.
You can remove system failure conditions from a mech component by spending 10 minutes working on the mech and succeeding at an Engineering check. The DC depends on the severity of the condition: DC 20 for malfunctioning and DC 25 for inoperable. If you succeed, you remove that component’s system failure condition, and the component can function as normal.Restoring a mech’s lost Hit Points is fairly difficult and resource-intensive. You can restore a number of Hit Points equal to twice the mech’s tier by spending 1 hour performing repairs, succeeding at an Engineering check (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 times the mech’s tier), and expending 10 UPBs per point of damage to be repaired. If you exceed the check’s DC by 5 or more, you can reduce the repair time by half or the UPB cost by half. If you exceed the check’s DC by 10 or more, you instead reduce the time and cost by half. If you fail the check by 4 or less, you choose either to make no progress or to increase the UPB cost per Hit Point by 5 for that hour’s repairs. If you fail by 5 or more, you make no progress.
Shield Points regenerate out of combat automatically at a rate of 2 per hour.
While Yargnod and Sefel do repairs, Telirix and Mordack can install the gloves on whatever mech you choose and swap weapons if desired.
The team returns to reality, realizing that they will now be able to go ack into the demiplane with their mechs as needed. The mech are in good working order, and Palisade Knight has a new set of gloves.
With nothing else obvious to do from here, the group returns to the entrance level.
The only other path is through a door to the east. It opens to an alcove with double doors to the north and a standard door to the east.
Peering around the corner to the south, you see that it opens into an opulent chamber whose design dazzles the senses. Two statues of adamantine dragons with diamond eyes flank a luxurious rug, stretching from the exterior door to the door opposite and a third, arched door to the west, open to the room beyond. The carved moldings along the walls are gold-paneled, and a glittering chandelier floats overhead.
"Thanks, guys!" Yargnod says as he finishes up his repair work and sees that Telirix and Mordack have installed the magic gloves on his mech.
When he mounts up, he flexes the fingers a few times and even lets some of the energy in them hum through his spear a couple times, cutting the feed just before the moment of no return each time.
Back downstairs, they come to a central hub for this level and he cautiously checks out their options.
He recognizes the construct in the room, but doesn't know much more about it.
While he likes fighting, he likes being clever more so, for the moment, he doesn't attack.
"Looks like we have a nanotech golem up here. Anyone know anything about them, like how to deactivate them the non-punching them until they stop moving way?" he radios the other mech jockeys.
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Sefel remembers that nanotech golems are immune to most spells that allow spell resistance, except for those that deal cold (slow it) and electricity (heal it) damage. Discharge and greater discharge confuse it instead.
It is surrounded by a cloud of nanites that automatically damage anyone ending their turn within 5 feet of it.
Its best save is Reflex and its worst is Will.
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Telirix chaffs at the back of the group. With Yargnod standing in the doorway, he can't see much.
He does perk up at the mention of the golem. A friend of his was chased by one of these once. He tries to recall details of the story.
"Why are the doors so small? A big ass dragon has to move around this place. If we're worried about the golem, can Sefel cast an illusion between it and the other doors? "
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Handicaps vs melee combat. Example, does it have a speed of 20. Does it only see out to 60 feet with tremor senses. Does it only have thermal vision, (like trick the creature like they did in tremors 2, using fire extinguishers to cover body heat) etc. Some way to outrun it, or trick it into not knowing we are there.
and I couldn't make that perception check if I rolled a 20
In addition to the usual protections constructs have, it is swarmlike, unflanakble and regenerates.
The nearest thing Mordack knows to a weakness is that acid and fire deactivate its regeneration temporarily.
The golem waits motionless.