Session 97
7:19pm, 29th Faurilden
We return to a bloody and diseased party, currently discussing the idea of utilising the facility’s showers, and also escape. Thorfus posits the idea of subverting the disinfection rooms, jamming the doors and breaking into the tanks of cleaning solution to attempt to remove the disease. They also discuss bringing the suits of power armour along.
With time to look, Thorfus inspects the axe he had won, discovering a triangular etching at the base of the grip. There is a small blinking light, flashing in groups of two. We also now have a whole bunch of magical weapons lying around.
The priority seems to be to escape, have Derich patch up the wounds of those still walking as best as possible, then make for the nearest Cleric or Paladin who can cure diseases. Luckily, now the party has access to the administrator’s desk, they should be able to override the counter-measures and allow escape.
For now, they attempt to go and fetch Derich to get everybody walking. Thorfus remains behind to deactivate the scanning whilst Chuq heads through, the reasoning being that in a pinch, Chuq can use shadowstep to escape. He makes it through safely however, and pokes his head through the portal.
A quick telepathic exchange, and Derich joins Chuq, following him through to the Pathogen Labs, and then directly to the dwarves. Thorfus asks him to rescue Axel first, and with a quick spell, the younger dwarf’s breathing returns to normal, though Derich remarks that he has a fever. Derich then heals up Thorfus, restoring much vigor to his veins, and finishes off my tending to Chuq.
After a few moments of working out the logistics of moving Axel and any other equipment, Edan eventually whips out a Levitation spell. Casting it on one of the tables in the lounge area, the party uses it to carry Axel and the magical weapons. Chuq, being immune to the infectant, takes the time to clear everybody out and extricate the rotting bodies from the unopened suits of armour. One of the occupants seems to be succumbing to the plastinous infection, and the other two calcite. They pile the two calcite-owned suits onto the table also.
Whilst removing the helmets, the monk notices that there are some more differences internally to what he remembers of Axel’s suit. Namely, the internal viewpoint of the helmet, but also the presence of a number of lights in the collar. Each suit has two red lights and three clear.
As the party heads for the showers, Thorfus tries raise the Grappler Automatons, but they are non-responsive. Checking them visually shows the lights on their bodies are now dead. The party makes it way into the showers, taking the time to wash off one by one, then dragging in Axel, and also the armour and weapons. We also loot the room for gold and jewels.
Once they’re sure they won’t accidently infect anybody, Thorfus deactivates the scanners again and the party heads through the portal back to the Engineering facility. After reuniting with our hirelings, we reset the portal and return to the Temple in the Lower City with the destination of Lupaa, who Derich says can cure the diseases we may have picked up.
Axel awakens sometime in passing through the Hall of Pillars, very much thinking they are still in combat. He lies back down in the cart, which he had been placed in when Edan’s spell ended, feeling very ill. During the journey, he offers his own suggestions as to various issues as the party fills him in. One of interest is the potential that the Grapplers work off of a charge, going by the stations they were in, and their inactivity was caused by being out of them for two long.
Chuq wonders if Kalgunn could help us merge the recharging stations and the power armour in some fashion, though Edan has confined the sword to a chest for now, whilst we see Lupaa.
Lupaa realises something is off by the taste in the air when we arrive, and after filling her in on the situation, she asks us to rest whilst she prepares her magic. We set a watch and bed down exhausted. Chuq takes the time to look out over the valley between the peaks, inspecting the edges of the city.
It takes some time, but Derich and Lupaa are able to begin healing up the party. We inspect the new equipment in the mean-time. The axes we found for example, are made out of what appears to be a similar material to the cubes we found. On further investigation of the Administrator’s axe, the blinking section at the bottom of comes off completely, appearing to be a different type of power unit.
Axel checks out the power armour, revealing them to be an obviously more primitive design, lacking voice-activated features and the intelligence from his other suit. Inspecting the battery reveals the receptacle to be triangular instead of rectangular, and is similarly locked in. The monkeys are also unable to deactivate the suits. Sometime in the time since Chuq checked the collar, another of the ten lights has switched off, leaving two clear and two red. Axel sits down to watch and time the lights.
Edan decides to cast his Identify spell, testing it on the power armour. He has some difficulty, as it seems the majority of the armour is mundane. The battery however seems to have some magical component to it, in terms of raw power, and would be able to power the suit for 12 more days. Additionally, the battery would be removeable in just two days.
We also learn that the armour is constructed from a special alloy of several metals and the same stone-like material used to constuct a lot of the Ancient Dwarven technology, such as the portals and information reliquaries.
After almost a day of rest and healing, Lupaa announces Edan finally cleansed, and ponder our next move, which would logically be the Botany facility. Chuq asks Lupaa for a Divination of the facility, and she tells us that she senses a dark presence waiting for us. It wants something from us, and may give something in return.
Realising we’re low on Healing Potions, Chuq shadowsteps up to the Upper City with Thorfus to visit Ancelm Mordale. He only has the two unfortunately, apparently the leader of the guard had been buying a bunch up recently, and despite the best efforts of Pouchmaker and Belroar to procure ingredients, he’s having trouble keeping up. They cost 800 gold each.
They also look to buy some disease-curing potions, which he reckons he can mix up a purgative, but nothing proper. Ancelm also offers an infatuation potion for 400 gold, which is turned down. They do buy all his oil however.
Edan takes the time to speak to Kalgunn about the Administrator’s axe, and they realise that by the language of the command word, the axe is a modern creation of the Silver Throne. It was likely built from Marchmain’s knowledge, though he probably lacks the materials and factories of the past. The elf also continues discussing his idea of a flying ship, and puts forward several ideas that Kalgunn very much approves of. He also is impressed by Edan’s casting of magic, and praises Edan’s reply of ‘tapping into an otherworldly source’ when questioning his use of it.
Kalgunn also offers his opinion on the newer armour suits, which proves his hypothesis that they lack the manufactories. It makes us wonder where they are building such things however. He also calls the strange stone-like material ‘nano-carbon’.
The next day, which is now the beginning of Jourilden, Socrates alights on Chuq’s shoulder and warns him of Finkleworm’s impending arrival at the Pathogen Labs, so we have him halt his advance.
Unsure of whether to head back to Pathogen to loot, or move on to Botany, we head back to the portal, Thorfus bringing along a fresh batch of monkeys. We return to our base in Engineering, and use the portal there to begin scouting the Botany facility after some contention.
Chuq’s helm picks up a single, watchful presence somewhere on the other side. Afterwards, a monkey is sent through, entering the room with the softly glowing blue pillars. After a moment, it runs to the side and Thorfus loses contact as it is obviously hijacked by something. We decide to send the chicken Toni through, and Chuq is able to communicate with her, though the hen is fixated on the scent of food somewhere beyond one of the doors and has to be yanked back.
Starchy is asked to sniff the other side of the portal, and can only say it’s fairly clean, but people have passed through. After some questioning, we work out that there have been injured Undying in the room.
We decide to head through, though with perhaps a little more force this time, inviting Derich and Kottar to join us. Axel steps through first, noticing that there are shapes floating within the pillars. Thorfus follows, unceremoniously roped and held by Chuq, and when we pass through, it appears to the monk that we freeze.
They pull hard, and pull Thorfus back through, giving Axel a momentary movement. When they look again, the door Toni was drawn to is open, and a native islander is standing there holding a sign with a message that reads:
To Thorfus of the Ironhand Clan: Ilsske, War Leader of the Lord Marshal’s Western Forces, proposes a trade. In exchange for your comrade and the platinum key you seek, close the gate and return power to the BioForge facility for one day. At the end of the day, reopen the gate and collect your prizes. Refuse, and your comrade will age to dust in a moment’s time and the key will be destroyed. Answer by written message visible through the portal in one hour with a simple yes or no.
Thorfus himself noticed no passage of time at all. They try to lasso Axel, but naturally the rope also slows in time. Checking with Kalgunn reveals that shutting down the power would also shut down the portal, so once again the party is left trying to rescue Axel.
The party hatches a plan involving cycling the power to disrupt the power to the stasis field and portal, then quickly reopening the portal, lassoing Axel and hopefully dragging him back through. Unfortunately, when they enact the plan, all it seems to do is move time forward another instant. Axel moves slightly, and the door is now closed. Even trying to simply reach through is like trying to push through rock.
They decide the best chance I have is to deactivate the power for ten minutes and hope I can work out what to do.
Axel comes too in the now dark room. The portal and none of the doors work at all, and he can’t force them open. The tubes have nothing of use that he can see, being something to do with ‘scrubbing oxygen’. Axel then breaks out his pickaxe and starts trying to break through the door, pausing only to break a few power conduits in the wall.
When he finally breaks through, he is face to face with a whole group of Undying on a balcony. Within the group are two clerics, one eyeless and one earless. After a short conversation where they surprisingly do not kill him, he realises some of the situation he is in, and writes a message on his shield asking them to turn the power to the Bioforge.
After several stop-motion exchanges, Axel has been aged 27 years, and the clerics have proved the ownership of the final platinum key. Axel talks to the eyeless cleric a little more, trying to think of a way to bargain his way out, but comes up with nothing, so writes a final pleading message to his friends to free him.
The power is cycled for a final exchange to see the party’s response.
