22 January, 571 [Fireseek 28] - Oytmeet (lowlands)
Ossian and his crew are up before dawn, reading Na Fèidh for departure. At first light they cast off, poling the barge until it swings into the current of the Oyt Avon. Despite Ossian’s words from the night before, he makes no effort to continue his conversation with Willa, and he and the hands are in good spirits.
The first hour out of Oytmeet they pass through a narrow valley of agricultural land. Trails run on either side of the river, and they glide by numerous villages and farmsteads. After that, the valley opens up for the rest of the morning, the trails recede from the river, and it is all sheep pasturage. Here the river is slow, and while the peilot is always alert and steering, many of the hands doze on the deck.
By the early afternoon they have reached the end of the valley. The cliffs converge, and the ground grows rough and rocky. They leave even the pastures behind. All afternoon is spent maneuvering through canyons. Foamy white spray from the river coats the sides of the barge and even lands on deck. All hands are manning poles to keep them from colliding with the walls and rocks in the river and keep them from lodging on sand bars. The first hour is the most intense, but Ossian calls for all hands innumerable times after. Finally, as the sun is reaching the western horizon, the river straightens, slows, and pasture lands again appear on the bank. Ossian grounds the barge along a curve in the river and announces that they are done with traveling for the day.
[ Used 8 pounds meat and forage; 10 pounds meat and forage remaining
38 human rations remaining
2 mule rations used; 14 mule rations remaining
6 pounds charcoal used; 82 pounds charcoal remaining]
23 January, 571 [Readying 1] - The Oyt Avon [lowlands]
The pleasant rolling pastureland they glimpsed last evening continues all morning long. To the west, some five or ten miles away from the river, are high bluffs. To the east is open pastureland as far as they can see, with occasional copses or larger stands of forest on the rougher or higher ground.
At midmorning comes their first navigational challenge of the day - negotiating a gravely-bottomed ford where the Oyt Avon is wide but shallow. The twin trails from Oytmeet, the one following the east bank and the other the west, cross here, and there are thorps on both sides of the river.
After the ford, they continue on through the sheep country, but the copses grow larger and thicker, the forest stands running together, and the pasturage retreating to smaller and smaller fields closer and closer to the river. They are, announces Ossian, at the outskirts of the Oytwood.
The sun is low in the west, but they have an hour or more of light left, when the rise that had been blocking their view of the left bank gives way to valley bottom, revealing another river, the Lea, about to join with the Oyt. Here Ossian guides the barge to the slow shallows, and calls the party together. He has, he says, faithfully delivered them to the mouth of the Lea, as promised, and another 50 gold lions are due him. What’s more, the party will need to decide what to do next. If they disembark here, they can make a day’s march up the valley of the Lea to the city of that name. From there, good trails lead north through Pregmere and eventually to their goal of Dersyth. Or, they can stay on the Oyt Avon. The river will take them more than half the distance north to the city they seek - but at a cost of carrying them far further east than they want. Do they wish to disembark tonight, or hire Na Fèidh for the journey through the Oytwood to Preston-on-the-Javan?
After a short discussion, Willa, Tyrius, and Aurora all agree that they will continue on the Oyt downriver. Ossian nods, brings the Na Fèidh back out into the current, and spends the rest of the daylight running the rapids that are formed by the confluence of the two rivers. When the river finally returns to calm waters again, he steers the barge to the shore for the night.
[ Used 8 pounds meat and forage; 2 pounds meat and forage remaining
38 human rations remaining
2 mule rations used; 12 mule rations remaining
6 pounds charcoal used; 76 pounds charcoal remaining
50gp paid for barge]
24 January, 571 [Readying 2] - The Oyt Avon [lowlands]
Once the party starts out in the morning, the forest rapidly approaches both banks of the river and grows more dense. The last pastureland becomes a memory, and the barge spends the entire day going downriver through the thick wood. Ossian tries to keep Na Fèidh in the center of the river, and encourages the party to be alert for movement along the banks, or anything that might betray the presence of brigands or humanoid bands. Perhaps it is the power of suggestion, but several of them come to feel that they are being watched. The forest boasts all sorts of trees including a wide range of fruit trees. The mixture does not provide a consistent canopy. Sunlight penetrates the forest, undergrowth is prevalent, and they cannot see far from the river except in cases where distant forested hills rise up above the treeline.
In the evening, Ossian continues to navigate far later than he has before, using the light of Luna’s growing crescent. When asked about it, he says that they need to make sure they are well beyond the elven village of Edhellond. If the village comes to the banks of the river, there is no sign of it to those on the barge, but Ossian insists that without an invitation from the fey, they will not be overnighting in the area. Even when they are well beyond, and Ossian relents and allows the barge to moor, he requests that the party set a double watch for the night.
[ Used 2 pounds meat and forage and 6 pounds human rations; 32 human rations remaining
2 mule rations used; 10 mule rations remaining
2 pounds charcoal used; 74 pounds charcoal remaining]
25 January, 571 [Readying 3] - The Oytwood, on the Oyt Avon [lowlands]
With nothing untoward passing in the night, Ossian and his hands are up even before first light, eager to cast off. Once it is light, the party can see that the forests are thinning and becoming interspersed with meadow. At midmorning, Ossian steers the barge to the banks and says the party has another decision. Up ahead, they can see a few wooden buildings on both sides of the river, and a ferry running between the banks. Ossian tells them that if they are bound for Dersyth, he can have them disembark on the north bank of the Oyt Avon, where the trail will take them to the city after several days’ march. He and his crew will be going another five miles down the Oyt, to where it enters the Javan, and then another six miles down the mighty Javan, to Preston, there to resupply before they make their way home. If the party wants a chance to buy goods before they set out up the trail, they should stay with the barge. If they feel that they are well-supplied, and can make New Midwood on their own, then being dropped off here, sooner, will save them a half-day’s journey back north from Preston.
Aurora has been keeping track of supplies - although they exhausted their fresh food on the previous day and will be using trail rations on their march, they still have half a week’s worth - and Thokk and Larry have a new hunting trap. The party decides to disembark now, and Ossian steers Na Fèidh to the north bank. The dock there is just large enough for the river ferry, not the barge, but the peilot makes it work for long enough for the party to disembark. The mules take the longest time, not trusting the gangplank, and Ossian has to hustle to get Na Fèidh away before the ferry arrives. Already the peilot of that craft is shaking his fist at them as he approaches, so the party decides to continue up the trail before he makes port. They get two miles of walking in, back along the river bed, before they stop for a mid-day meal.
The land they are traveling through is the now-familiar Geoffan sheep country, so Willa is not ready to loose Thokk just yet, instead waiting until they get farther from the river and perhaps settled lands. As the afternoon wears on, they do climb some hills, up and out of the Oyt river valley, but when they come back down the other side, they find themselves in the Javan valley, with just as much pasturage about as before. As the afternoon wears on into evening, however, they climb still higher, into rugged lands of light forest, and leave the sheep fields behind. If it stays like this on the morrow, Willa will give them leave to hunt.
[ Used 8 human rations; 24 human rations remaining
1 mule ration use, supplemented by forage; 9 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 74 pounds charcoal remaining
55gp paid to Ossian and crew] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
26 January, 571 [Readying 4] - The Oytwood, on the Javan (lowlands)
As the party breaks camp in the morning, Willa selects Babshapka as their forward scout, and tells Thokk to remain behind the party to hunt, but to catch up by mid-day. Larry she would send to hunt as well - but on this level ground with a trail, he is going to be hard-pressed to keep up with the main party as it is, without falling behind further to hunt. Thus he is kept with the main host.
For most of the morning, the track remains in the rocky highlands overlooking the broad Javan river. As the morning wears on, however, they descend back into pastureland, and soon after come upon the outskirts of a village at the edge of a wood. It is so close to mid-day that the village is the obvious location for their meal, but Willa wants to make sure that Thokk has rejoined them before they enter. She sends Babshapka ahead to scout the village while the rest of the party waits on the trail.
It is not long before they spot Thokk coming up the track toward them, empty-handed. By the time he reaches them, Babshapka has returned as well, the village being small and easily scouted. Prenffrwyth is a small community of a few hundred humans. What is remarkable, notes Babshapka, is that nearly all of the villagers work as skilled craftsmen in wood. The remainder are either shepherds or work servicing the trail, including the village’s single inn - which has common rooms, but no private rooms. “Good eno’ fer lunch,” decides Willa, and they eat their mid-day meal hot off the grill. While they dine, Babshapka engages in conversation with the proprietor. She explains that the village was founded generations ago by a forward-thinking Goeffan nobleman who had negotiated a deal with the elves of the Oytwood: in exchange for not logging the lands claimed by the elves, the elves would sell wood to the nobleman, from trees carefully selected and harvested by the elves. The nobleman stood to gain more from the taxes on the fine woods than from the sale of lumber, which was abundant in the region. He encouraged woodworkers from Old Midwood, across the Javan, to settle in the village, and with their labors they produced crafted goods worth even more in taxes. Over time the village came to be sought out by those from all over the cantrev, or even farther afield, wishing to 'prentice as woodworkers. Today these craftsmen represent the majority of the villagers, and the original deal with the elves remains.
The first five miles of afternoon travel are through the forested lands north of the village. They are surprised to find that the woods are old and intact, perhaps even a remnant of the ancient Oytwood. Just the thinnest margin of the forest near the village shows signs of being used for firewood, with no trace of the source of the wood they saw in the numerous crafting shops. Once they emerge on the other side of the forest, again along the Javan, they can see the walled town of New Midwood up ahead, where a much smaller river flows into the Javan. They reach the town just before the gates are closed at dusk, and a few words from Tyrius are sufficient to gain them entrance, including Thokk. That evening is spent at an inn.
There is a scop at the inn, entertaining the crowd, though not a graduate of the College of Cainaith. To Willa’s question, he confirms that long ago, even before the Age of Heroes, even before there were humans in Geoff, the three great wooded lands of the Dim Forest, the Oytwood, and the Hornwood were as one - one unbroken forest that stretched across the length and breadth of the land. The fey held their hunts and revels there and lived beyond time. It was only after the Gyri arrived and settled along the Javan and began cutting trees for their homes and sheep folds that the Dim Forest was sundered from the Oyt Wood. Of course, this incurred the wrath of the fey, who sent the evil fey races into the world to punish the humans for their hubris. The scop indicates Thokk with a flourishing gesture when he speaks of the evil fey races.
[ Used 2 human rations; lunch and dinner at inns; 22 human rations remaining
No mule ration use, forage in day and stabling at lunch and dinner; 9 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 74 pounds charcoal remaining] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's note on sources: New Midwood is not on Darlene's maps but is on those of Anna Meyer. I based my description of it from https://db4sgowjqfwig.cloudfront.net/campaigns/129072/assets/845045/GyruffCY618_04.pdf?1522501776, although I expect much of that originally comes from Living Greyhawk sources. Based on the descriptions therein, New Midwood would not canonically exist yet in the timeline of my adventure, just Midwood on the other side of the Javan. The fogs off of the river are from that source. Naming the river Rhychdir is my invention, based on the name of the cantrev of its headwaters. The name of the cantrev ruler is from that source.
As the party sets forth from the inn in the morning, they are greeted by a heavy fog from the River Rhychdir, tributary of the Javan. Fortunately the road to Dersyth is broad and well-marked. They follow it gratefully, and would soon be walking in circles without the slick cobbles leading through the town and, beyond the gates, the drainage ditches bordering the road. The road takes them up and away from the river, and the rising sun burns back the fog, so that by the time they are a league from New Midwood they can see the green pasture land around them and, far to the north, and for the first time, the Barrier Peaks!
Throughout the morning’s travel, the road rises and falls along the slopes above the river. An hour before they stop for lunch a light rain begins to fall, and continues for several hours, although it eventually slows to a drizzle. They are wet, but not cold in the warm daylight and not slowed on the good road in the highlands.
The rain is finally letting up as the road turns and leads back down to the river. There, in the valley bottom, the path splits. A lesser track crosses the river at a bridge, while the main road continues along the river itself. The scop told them, the night previous, that there would be two roads to Dersyth. The more direct, but less traveled, way is the northern branch across the river. The southern route takes longer, but passes through more settled lands. Here with the choice in front of them, they all agree that they prefer the direct route.
The bridge is of ancient timbers lashed together and supported by stone pilings across the river. The wood is sodden and slippery, but bears their weight. They are not far across when the trail climbs to rough ground and their view is blocked by encroaching woods. There are only four hours or so to their evening camp, but Willa tells Thokk to drop back and hunt.
The party makes their camp in a small clearing in the woods. Thokk joins them soon after, carrying with him a scrawny owl which becomes dinner. He and Larry disappear into the woods, setting up their hunting trap somewhere nearby for the night. Willa reflects on what Ossein said about the elves of the Oytwood, and on what the scop said last night, about the fey releasing evil fey as a punishment to humans who did not respect their land. She asks Umbra what she knows about the elves hereabouts, and whether the party should take any precautions when traveling or hunting in forests.
Umbra is silent for a long time. Those near her in the gathering dusk can see her face twisting, as if recalling painful memories. When she finally speaks, her voice is calm and cold. “What’s done is done. Ossein was wise not to anger the elves of the Oyt. Those of the Dim Forest and the Hornwood are the same. But these” - and she gestures at the trees around them - “are now human lands, all the way from here to Dersyth. Do what you will, hunt where you like, it makes no difference.”
[ Used 2 pounds meat caught today, 3 rations, and inn fare at breakfast; 19 human rations remaining
1 mule ration used, supplemented by forage; 8 mule rations remaining
2 pounds charcoal used; 72 pounds charcoal remaining]
28 January, 571 [Readying 6] - Cantrev of Rhwng yr Coed, on road to Dersyth (lowlands)
[Thunderstorm 9pm-12am]
The party is awakened in the night by nearby screams and thrashing. Thokk trots off into the woods and, moments later, the screams cease. He returns with a yearling roe deer slung over his shoulders, one leg twisted at an improbable angle. He begins skinning and gutting the dear as the others return to sleep.
After a breakfast of hot venison, the party starts off down the trail. The woods continue and the ground rises until mid-morning, at which point they break out into more open meadows. Eventually they see crofts, cottages, and barns in the distance - more sheep country, though no villages larger than a cluster of houses are in sight. Innumerable trails cross the main track, but it is clear which is the main road. The party camps for lunch, enjoying more venison in the open grasslands.
Shortly after they resume their march, the trail enters the forest again, and begins climbing up a steep, rocky slope. They crest this and pass down into a high valley of trees and meadows. Willa calls for a campsite underneath the edge of a forest, as Larry points out the gathering clouds.
The last of the venison, supplemented by trail rations, makes their dinner, and Thokk eagerly sets the trap again before turning in.
Several hours after dark, the sky is rent by thunder, lightning, and rain. The downpour continues until midnight.
29 January, 571 [Readying 7] - Cantrev of Rhwng yr Coed, on road to Dersyth (lowlands)
[Wandering Encounter: Men, Patrol]
[Thunderstorm 8am - 10am; half movement]
Umbra and Babshapka have the predawn watch. They are enjoying the dawn chorus of birds greeting the day throughout the forest around them when both prick up their ears. To the west, up the trail, the birds have gone silent. They have the party up and armed by the time the strangers appear, though few of them have their armor on.
A squad of six soldiers, headed by an officer, approaches them cautiously. The men are in woolen tartans, cloaks and skirts, though of a different color and pattern than those they saw around Gorna. They have leather breeches besides, long spears, and several of them carry slings as well. The officer has a shortsword and buckler at his belt - his long spear bears a pennant, of two hands clasped together on a green field.
The officer introduces them as a patrol for his lord, the Arglwyth Briallen merch Luther, ruler of the Cantrev of Rhwng yr Coed. He has a number of questions for them, but ultimately seems satisfied with Tyrius’ answers. He tells them that as outlanders, that can’t be expected to know all the laws of the cantrev, but keeping a close watch on Thokk and not drawing their weapons within town will be a good start. The party asks about the trail to Dersyth, and the man explains that they are about four days out, and that the trail will pass through a number of hamlets but none of any size before Dersythtown itself. The party thanks them and the men move on.
Breakfast is a quick meal of trail rations while camp is packed. The hunting trap is found to be empty - perhaps just as well, as another deer might well have gotten them accused by the patrol of poaching the lord’s game. However, knowing that they are four days out from Dersyth is worrisome as they have less than three days of rations remaining; they will need to rely on their foragers. The party sets out west as the clear morning starts to cloud over.
The forest they used to shelter from the storm last night goes but a scant mile or so before the trail climbs a high cliff overlooking a river. They spend all the rest of the day looking down on this river from above. In places it passes through broad meadows where sheep graze. Other times it rushes through steep gorges and there is no sign of human habitation about. A thunderstorm slows their advance and soaks them in the midmorning, but they have the rest of the day to dry out and clear skies by the time they camp in the evening, in light woods next to a clear pool.
[ Used 7 rations; 11 human rations remaining
1 mule ration used, supplemented by forage; 6 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 66 pounds charcoal remaining] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
I've read through this whole thread, and I just wanted to say bravo. You make the setting come alive with all the little details, and I love how you're willing to go your own way when it benefits your campaign. It's really engaging, and your players are very lucky.
One question I have is where you got your information about traveling through the wilderness? I'd have thought the rivers were impassible to barges in winter, much less the mountains themselves. I was also surprised that the barge captain turned down Larry's offer to light the way when they were sailing at night-if I were running things, I'd have accepted the offer and extended the rate of travel.
When I was writing For Crown Or Country, I had to ask several questions on the Greyhawk Resources forum on Facebook about various details I wasn't sure about. Where'd you get your information?
I've read through this whole thread, and I just wanted to say bravo. You make the setting come alive with all the little details, and I love how you're willing to go your own way when it benefits your campaign. It's really engaging, and your players are very lucky.
Thank you, CSL. That it comes from someone whose prolific articles are all about bringing the setting to life with little details makes your recognition even more meaningful.
CruelSummerLord wrote:
One question I have is where you got your information about traveling through the wilderness? I'd have thought the rivers were impassible to barges in winter, much less the mountains themselves. I was also surprised that the barge captain turned down Larry's offer to light the way when they were sailing at night-if I were running things, I'd have accepted the offer and extended the rate of travel.
I've tried to be as explicit as possible about sources - most times before the party gets to a new city or settlement, for example, I include what I read in preparation. So you can assume that if I don't mention anything, it has been invented by me. And that would be most of the 'landscape scenes' as they travel. Typically what I would do is look at Anna Meyer's maps in as fine a level of detail as possible, and then try to imagine the natural world that would make those maps - how have the rivers carved the valleys, why it is forest in one spot but field in another, would the local peasants be growing sheep or oats, etc. My undergrad degree was in a Geology department, so once upon a time I had a number of earth science classes I draw upon for landforms, my graduate work was in Ecology so I've read a fair bit about competition between species and community assemblages, and I've always been interested in human land use. I am by no means an expert in any of those fields and I'm not saying my conclusions are accurate, but if they are evocative and lend verisimilitude then I would consider myself successful.
As far as 'winter', I am using the weather generation tables as is from the WoGG. My previous 1E Greyhawk campaign was mostly set in Perrenland and the Vesve, so one thing I did not appreciate when I started this 5E campaign in Saltmarsh is just how far SOUTH the Sheldomar region is. Even Geoff, which I am imagining culturally as quasi-medieval Scotland to Keoland's England, is at 30N Latitude, in the subtropics, with a +20F to all temperature rolls. This is the latitude of RL Jacksonville, New Orleans, and Houston. So 'winter' brings cooler temperatures, to be sure, but it is not like ice floes are going to prevent river travel. If you haven't guessed already, the party is headed for the Barrier Peaks in their quest for the fallen star. Once there, with the adjustments for elevation, they will face some brutally cold conditions that will challenge movement and even survival.
With respect to Larry's light and river travel, you may recall that I did have the captain of the Banner of Heather accept Larry's help when they were traveling up the Javan [Post 130], even if the Peilot of the Na Fèidh does not [Post 145]. This was just a function of the speed and size of the river. Crawling upstream on the wide and slow Javan, 150 feet of advance warning is plenty of time to maneuver around the occasional floating log or sand bar. Rushing downstream on the narrow Oyt, with frequent rapids to navigate, the extra vision from the light is simply not enough advance warning to avoid something like a rock or a rill, and would blind him to what was even further ahead.
CruelSummerLord wrote:
When I was writing For Crown Or Country, I had to ask several questions on the Greyhawk Resources forum on Facebook about various details I wasn't sure about. Where'd you get your information?
I don't Facebook, so I didn't know about this forum. Sounds like something I will have to check out, thank you! _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on House Rules
5E is very much a map grid-based edition, but it assumes that casters can place spells exactly where they want on a battlefield where targets have an exact position. In order to have a bit more verisimilitude for a six-second casting time against moving targets, I have casters make an Arcana check when attempting area of effect spells in combat. Failures are off-target, in the spirit of 1E's misses from a "grenade-like missile". This also helps contain the power of the bigger evocation spells like fireball and lightning bolt, since they can easily not include the optimal number of enemies and can even unintentionally include allies.
Similarly, when shooting missiles into combat, if a PC rolls a low attack score (low being situationally decided by me but always including critical fails) I require them to make another attack on an ally to see if the miss results in a friendly-fire hit.
Finally, the 5E rules for interrupting rest allow PC's to return to resting after a combat unless it lasts more than an hour! My players, however, know that even a round of combat will "spoil" their rest so that they do not achieve in-game benefits from it unless they start over.
Post 149: With the Barrier Peaks in sight, the party's long journey is almost ogre
30 January, 571 - [Readying 8] - Cantrev of Rhwng yr Coed, on road to Dersyth (lowlands)
[wandering encounter, predawn, patrolled civilized hills: ogre]
Umbra and Babshapka are on watch before dawn. Suddenly the chilly air is rent by a deep, horrible cry. Some huge humanoid is screaming out, as if in pain. A second later, perhaps in response, both elves can hear lumbering figures thrashing through the trees and dried grass toward them, scattering rocks with every massive step. The sounds come from all sides - the party appears to be surrounded!
Surprise round
Babshapka hears two groups approaching - one up the trail in front of him to the west, another off in the brush to the southwest. Umbra hears the howl of pain from the southeast, but a large group coming from the north. The howls have woken everyone in the camp except Thokk and Eddard.
Umbra pulls back from the trail to the east of the party and takes cover in the space between a large stump and Shefak’s tent. To the northeast of the camp, fully five eigers are moving rapidly through the brush with nothing between them and the center of camp.
Round One
Up the trail in front of him, Babshapka can make out four massive eigers lumbering forward. Their hide “clothes” are tattered, their long greasy hair unkempt, but all are brandishing thick tree limbs as huge clubs. Babshapka whistles a warning to the awakened camp, then drops into the cover of the trees off the trail to his right. As the first eiger comes into close range, he sends off two arrows that sink deep into the brute’s body (16 points).
Umbra pulls a wand out from her robes and mouths some arcane words. She is surrounded by an inky sphere of darkness which emanates fifteen feet from her in all directions. Its boundaries are hard to see, since the camp itself is still in pre-dawn darkness, but for even those with darkvision, Umbra disappears from view. [One charge from crystal of shadows, 9 remaining].
The eiger that was shot by Babshapka skids to a halt on the trail, his eyes narrowing and his head swiveling as he searches for the source of the arrows. The eigers behind him bunch up, giving Aurora all the chance she needs. Not ten seconds out of her bedroll, she launches a fiery missile through the air at the west side of camp. As Babshapka sees the flaming sphere sail over his head, he ducks behind a tree, closes his eyes, and presses his back up tightly against the trunk. The fist-size sphere detonates at about chest height on the eigers, and a blast of concussive, fiery force shoots out between them. The eigers are burned and staggered, and a shower of flaming tree limbs shoots past Babshapka. (Aurora Arcana roll 12; Babshapka is unintentionally at the edge of the effect and will need a save for no damage, or fail for half. Babshapka saves for no damage. Eigers all fail for 29 points fire damage to each.)
[Aurora's rest is spoiled. She starts at 1/3/3 for spell slots with three mage armors cast the day previous and not recovered; fireball takes her to 1/3/2. Her current mage armor runs until 5am, and so she is at full AC15 with spell, Dex, and bracers]
When the rain of flaming twigs and branches cease, Babshapka rounds the tree trunk and fires off another two shots.
Larry snorts, growls, and rolls into a crouch. He shakes Thokk awake, grabs his own shield, and then trots over to the trail at the west side of camp.
[Larry’s chain is medium armor. It would take him 5 minutes to put on; 50 combat rounds. He is now breaking his rest. He starts with 2/3/3 for spell slots with two create waters cast the day previous. He is at AC15 with just Dex and shield.]
Tyrius awakes with a start, immediately calling to Pelor and surrounding himself with a golden halo of light. He stands up, grabs his shield and mace, and vaults on Eddard bareback, waking the mount in the process. By his light he can see the four eigers emerging from the fireball, but also another three moving toward a clump of trees southwest of the camp. He urges Eddard forward to face them.
[Tyrius’ plate is heavy armor. It would take 10 minutes to put on; 100 combat rounds. He is now breaking his rest. He starts at 4/2 for spell slots. He is AC12 with just Dex and shield.]
Thokk grabs his shield and heads over to the same trees as Eddard and Tyrius, bellowing a challenge at the oncoming ogres. Shefak emerges from her tent and starts that way as well, Tyrius being the only source of light in the vicinity. [Thokk is now breaking his rest; he is at his full unarmored defense AC with Dex, shield, and ring. Shefak is breaking her rest, she is at her full unarmored defense AC with Dex and martial arts ability).
Willa, in her tent, takes a moment to grab her lantern and greatsword. Leaving her armor behind, she moves to the west side of the camp, where the trail is now strewn with branches, some smouldering and some in open flame. She lights her lantern with a nearby burning twig and sets it on the ground behind her as she faces the oncoming eigers.
[Willa’s magical plate is heavy armor. It would take 10 minutes to put on; 100 combat rounds. She is breaking her rest. She is at AC13 with just her Dex.]
Round 2
While Thokk and Tyrius prepare to hold the line against three oncoming eigers, Shefak spots a single one moving up from the south toward the center of the camp. His shape is barely visible against Willa’s lantern light, but gives the monk enough to go by. Shefak moves to engage him, striking at his legs with her staff, and kicking at his hands when he tries to bring his club down on her. (Shefak does 5pts damage).
The four smouldering eigers arrive within club distance of the party defenders; one on Babshapka partially concealed in the trees, two on Willa and one on Larry in the open on the trail. Another arrives at the camp from the east and sends a javelin into Aurora’s back. (Aurora from 38 to 27hp).
The eiger facing Babshapka brings his club down in a shower of branches. (15 points, Babshapka from 48 to 33hp). The elf darts away, and follows up with another arrow shot (giant killer ability, damage 10). Babshapka continues to dance around the eiger attacking him. Using the trees as cover, he shoots twice more, and the second sinks another arrow shaft deep into the brute, and it crashes to the ground. (10hp damage; one eiger down). Unfortunately his first shot missed the eiger, but grazed Willa! (attack roll critical fail, 5hp damage, Willa to 57hp).
The two eigers facing Willa interfere with each other’s blows, so that she is unharmed, despite her lack of armor, and Larry seems too small and nimble for the still-smouldering ogre attacking him to find.
In the trees to the southeast, however, two eigers and a massive eiger leader have arrived. One misses Thokk, but the other and the leader both land heavy blows on Tyrius’ shield. The paladin barely manages to stay mounted, but Eddard seems to move instinctively under him, keeping him on despite his lack of saddle and stirrups (total 29 points damage, Tyrius from 49 to 20hp).
As soon as the five eigers bearing down on the camp pass through the edge of Umbra’s sphere of darkness they begin to bump into one another and stumble over tree roots despite their darkvision. One breaks through to the other side, but the other four remain confused and lost in the inky sphere. Umbra, who apparently can see even in the blackness, easily avoids their clumsy steps. (Eiger wisdom saves to orient themselves; four fails one success).
Willa, wielding her greatsword two-handed, moves among the thick legs of the eigers, striking deep clefts through their calf muscles (two hits, 25hp damage).
Thokk, now in the heat of battle, bellows a shout of rage and strikes back at the eiger attacking him (two hits, 13hp damage).
Tyrius, barely keeping his shield above him, and facing both an eiger and eiger leader, swings his war hammer. At each blow he channels the power of Pelor, resulting in a burst of light and extra damage on impact (two hits for 18, plus 16 more in divine smite for 34 points total, Tyrius uses two first level slots and now is at 2/2). Eddard strikes forward with his hooves, but misses the ogres.
Larry, having just avoided the blow of the eiger facing him, moves around to the side of the brute. He carefully lines up that eiger, one of the ones fighting Willa, and a new eiger approaching the camp from the north. Summoning the power of the mountain spirits, he launches a lightning bolt that strikes all three foes. (25 points damage; two eigers fail their save, one succeeds. Larry now at 2/3/2.) Aurora sends a firebolt at the one closest to Larry, felling the eiger and allowing the dwarf to back out of combat (16hp damage, two eigers now down). She moves quickly to the edge of the trees to gain some cover from the javelins being thrown at her.
Deep in her cloud of darkness, Umbra puts two fingers to her lips and blows - the whistle is shrill but soft - even the eigers stumbling around her do not hear it. At her side, a mastiff-sized dog appears, itself even blacker than the darkness in which it is encased, except for its coal-red eyes. It growls, deep and rumbling, and launches itself at the eiger closest to Umbra.
Round 3
Larry is confident that Babshapka, Willa, and Aurora will make short work of the other three eigers now facing them, so he trots over to where Thokk and Tyrius are trying to hold off another front. This time, his lighting bolt is a little too eager, as he sends it right up through the pitched melee, where it arcs through everyone to some degree (Arcana roll for placement 1 (critical fail); 27 points to three eigers that all failed saves, 13 points to three party members that all made saves; Thokk to 53 hp, Tyrius to 7hp, Eddard to 11hp. Larry now at 2/3/1.)
Shefak, moving in a blur, rains down blows upon the solitary eiger she faces, but still it remains standing (flurry of blows for one ki point, four hits for 39 damage, total 44hp to this ogre).
Aurora sends a number of magic missiles at the eiger fighting Thokk (cast at second level, Aurora now at 1/2/2).
The shadow hound darts forward, sinking its fangs into the leg of an eiger (6 points); the eiger topples to the ground (failed Strength save) and Umbra blasts it with a bolt of darkness that leaves a trace of frost on its skin (8 points).
Babshapka moves south, drawing a bead on the eiger facing off against Thokk. He fires two arrows (23 points), felling the eiger and freeing Thokk from the immediate combat (three eiger down).
Willa, facing the last of the two eigers wounded from the fireball, manages to slay each one with mighty blows of her greatsword (13 points each. Five eigers down). She turns north and charges at the approaching eiger, the one that was caught by the tail end of Larry’s first lightning bolt.
Tyrius forgoes attacking the two eigers he faces, and instead lays hands on himself for 15 points (15 points left, Tyrius to 22hp). By the grace of Pelor, Eddard is also healed for 15 (Eddard to 24hp)
The eiger charged by Willa holds her at bay with a club swing (11 points - Willa to 46hp).
The eiger fighting Tyrius sees his companion fall to arrows, and turns to face Thokk, landing a massive blow (18 points, reduced to 9 from rage, Thokk to 44hp).
The eiger leader, now facing Tyrius one on one, brings down another club blow on his shield. (13 points, Tyrius to 9hp).
From the trees to the south emerges the largest eiger the party has ever seen. His thick limbs are like tree trunks, and odds and ends of human armor have been strung on the thick leather hides that hang off his massive body. Assessing the lightning-throwing dwarf as the greatest threat to his band, the chief strides forward, the ground shaking under his feet. He buries his club deep in the ground next to the dwarf, but Larry slips away.
The lone eiger fighting Shefak nearly sweeps her legs out from under her with a low swing, but she leaps over the blow and tumbles away.
Three eigers emerge from Umbra’s darkness, joining another arriving from the east. Four javelins sail toward Aurora in the trees (7hp damage, Aurora to 20 hp).
Two eigers are fighting the shadow hound - one standing, the other having been knocked prone. Neither manages to hit the hound, and the one that has fallen loses his grip on the tree-club and lets it fall to the ground beside him.
Seeing Tyrius in a bad way, Thokk ignores the eiger that has turned on him. He steps forward, slamming his shield and shoulder into Eddard and forcing the war horse out of the way so that he can stand between the eiger leader and Tyrius. (contested strength roll (shove attack) Thokk 22, Eddard 10). Thokk slashes at the eiger leader (two hits, 24 damage).
Safe for the moment, Eddard disengages from the fray and canters forward, then turns and lets Tyrius set himself for a charge at the eiger leader’s exposed back. Now seeing the huge eiger chieftain, however, the pair agree to charge him from behind instead.
Round 4
With three more well-placed kicks and staff blows (19 points damage), Shefak lays low the eiger she faces (six ogres down). Before the brute has even hit the ground, the monk has spun about and is running toward the melee with Thokk, Tyrius, and Larry, following the glow given off by the paladin.
Willa slays the eiger to the north (two hits; 23 damage, seven eigers down), then hurriedly looks about. The javelin-wielding eigers arriving from the northeast are nearly in the center of camp now, and the mules are panicking. She dashes over to them and attempts to lead Randy away by his halter, but the mule, eyes wide with fear, bites at her. (Willa Animal Handling roll 4).
Bolts of darkness fly from the cloud of black and strike the eiger on the ground, who is still being savaged by the hound (3 points, 12 points).
Eddard gallops forward, going as fast as he dares knowing that Tyrius has no saddle. He slams his forequarters into the chieftain’s thighs from behind. The eiger wobbles but does not go down. (7 pts from hooves; Eiger chief makes Strength save).
Aurora looks out from her cover among the trees. The five javelin-wielding eigers have drawn together in a loose knot in the center of camp, preparing to charge her or perhaps Willa and the mules. Now is the perfect time for another...fireball! The fiery missile is in her palm and then launched before she even thinks about it - or the fact that their being in the center of camp means that they are surrounded by the party's gear. The missile flies through the air, detonating in the center of the five eigers (Aurora Arcana roll 16 for placement, all five eigers affected, 33 points damage to four that don’t save and 16 points to the one that does. Aurora now at 1/2/1). The force of the concussive blast instantly flattens both Willa and Sheffak’s tents, then sets them on fire. Willa’s oilskin tent burns all the hotter.
“Me tent!” screams Willa, and then, a second later, “Ther map!” Aurora’s elation turns to realization and then concern.
Babshapka looks up at the towering figure of the eiger chieftain, dwarfing even Tyrius’s great warhorse. He flips open the cover of his second quiver and pulls forth two of the recently purchased “giant arrows” and sends them forth. One impacts a scrap of chain armor at the eiger’s shoulder and doesn’t penetrate, but the other sinks into his chest and immediately the shaft breaks off at the wicked head (12 points).
The chieftain raises his club up for another strike at Larry (3 points additional damage from giant arrow). This blow lands on the dwarf’s shield, nearly driving him into the ground (18 points, Larry at 38hp). The eiger leader and remaining eiger try ineffectually to hit Thokk.
The standing eiger striking at the shadow hound lands a blow (13 points), giving his companion the chance to grab his own club and rise to his feet.
Three eigers that survived the latest fireball in the center of camp charge Willa and Aurora, landing hard blows (Willa takes 11, to 35hp, Aurora takes 17, to 3hp. The third eiger aims at Aurora, but through her use of instinctive charm he ends up hitting his own companion (for 14hp).
Larry hears the cry of pain from Aurora as she is hit. Ignoring the Chieftain towering above him, he floods the other melee with a moonbeam (Arcana roll 16 hits two eigers but neither party member, Larry at 2/2/1. 12 points damage, both eigers make Con saves for 6 points).
Thokk continues his assault on the eiger leader (2 hits, 22 points).
Tyrius sees that the few hits the chieftain has taken have not even slowed him down. Seeking a quick resolution, he pulls forth a scroll tube, withdraws the scroll and throws the tube to the ground. By the light of Pelor he reads the scroll of hold person, but the chieftain is unaffected (makes Wisdom save).
Round 5
Willa grunts with effort, dodging the blows of the eiger and landing her own (two hits, total 30hp). Straining mightily, she spins and lands a third blow backhanded (action surge; third hit for 14 damage). The eiger staggers, then collapses into a pool, gushing blood and fouling the pristine spring (eight eigers down).
Babshapka continues his arrow assault on the eiger chieftain, launching two normal arrows (one hits for 11hp, plus another 4hp as Babshapka activates a hail of thorns - he is at 3/2).
Shefak’s attacks are too rapid to follow, as she rains blows down on both the eiger and eiger leader fighting Thokk (ki point used, Shefak has five left, flurry of blows, five hits, total 40 points damage). One eiger falls to the ground (nine down), but the leader remains on his feet despite Shefak’s best efforts (eiger makes dex save, not knocked prone).
The eiger chieftain raises both arms above his head and brings his blow down on Larry’s shield with a resounding crash that echoes through the forest. Larry is driven to his knees, and the moonbeam winks out (20 points of damage, Larry at 18hp, concentration save fails; 2 points additional damage to chieftain from giant arrow).
The eiger leader lands a blow on Thokk (17 points, reduced to 8 from rage, Thokk at 23).
The two eigers facing Aurora are concerned. Half their band has fallen and their mighty chieftain has not been able to score a single kill yet. One of them turns and begins fleeing. He avoids the burning tents, but as the mules scatter before him, he sees their pack bags on the ground and snatches one up as he goes. The remaining eiger swings at Aurora but misses.
Both eigers fighting the hound land blows - the creature disappears into shadow, leaving nothing behind.
A new eiger emerges from the trees to the south, limping badly. Fastened about its ankle, like some diabolical metal shoe, is the party’s hunting trap. It looks confused and in pain. In fact, it was the source of the initial cry that first alerted the guards and woke the party.
Ignoring the eiger attacking her, Aurora points at the fleeing eiger and calls out “That one has our mule pack! Stop him!” She sends forth a perfectly-placed web spell (Arcana 26, now at 1/1/1), covering the eiger in sticky, restrictive strands. As an afterthought, she shouts, “And they are setting the tents on fire!”
Thokk continues his assault on what is proving to be a very tough eiger leader (two hits, 12 points total).
Taking advantage of the chieftain’s last blow on Larry, Eddard has turned and fallen back. Now Tyrius urges him forward in another charge. As the horse and rider slam into the chieftain he teeters, totters, and finally crashes to the ground, jolting everyone around him with a force that threatens to knock them down as well (trampling charge, two hoof blows for 20 points damage). Tyrius leans low across Eddard’s back, striking at the now prone ogre with his hammer (attacking with advantage, two hits for 14 total, plus another 8 points of divine smite, Tyrius at 1/2).
Four bolts of darkness emerge from Umbra’s cloud and strike at the ogre struggling in the webs. (14 points damage, Umbra at 4/2/3).
Larry rises, moves around to the fallen chieftain’s feet so that his spell will not hit Tyrius or Eddard, and sends forth a lightning bolt to travel directly up the eiger’s spine as it thrashes about on the ground. (Dexterity save at disadvantage fails; 19 points damage, Larry at 2/2/0).
Round 6
Now that the chieftain has fallen to the ground, Babshapka moves up the trail and takes aim at the eiger in the webs. He sinks two arrows into him (16 damage). Aurora unloads a barrage of magic missiles at the same target (cast at 3rd level, total 21 points damage, Aurora at 1/1/0). Finally, a freezing cold blast of darkness shoots out of the inky cloud (8 points), and the eiger ceases its struggles, sinking to the ground (ten eigers down).
With a howl of pain and frustration, and a string of invective in its native tongue, the eiger chieftain rises to his feet, towering over Larry, and bringing its massive club down like a sledgehammer against a stake. Larry crumples to the ground, unconscious (19 points, Larry to 0hp. Chieftain takes 2hp more from giant arrow).
The eiger leader matches his chief’s bellows and lands another blow on Thokk (14 points, Thokk takes 7 from rage, Thokk at 16 hp).
There are but four eigers left near the center of camp, including the one engaged with Aurora and Willa and the one with the trap on its foot. With some two-thirds of their companions slain, two of those remaining decide to turn and run, and none think to grab pack bags before they go. The one who stays throws a javelin at Aurora but misses.
Thokk lands yet another blow on the eiger leader (11 points), and this one is finally enough to dispatch the great brute (ten eigers plus eiger leader down). Thokk then runs over to attack the chieftain, but when he sees his spoon-buddy Larry crushed and bloodied on the ground, he trips over the body of a fallen eiger and falls to the ground himself. “NOOOOOO!” he cries in rage and torment. (Thokk failed a Dex save to move quickly across the body-strewn ground)
Willa squares off against the last eiger in melee range, hitting it twice and killing it (24hp; eleven eigers plus eiger leader down).
Shefak, seeing that Larry has fallen, attacks the chieftain, attempting to move him away from the dwarf’s body (two hits, 19 points damage).
<Larry fails a life save and is one step closer to death>
While the chieftain is thus occupied, Tyrius dismounts and runs to Larry’s side. He lays on hands for 10hp to his friend. (Larry to 10hp, Tyrius has 5hp left of lay on hands).
Round 7
Babshapka fires arrows at the javelin-wielding eiger (two hits, 10hp damage), and Willa charges and ends the eiger with one blow (13 damage; twelve eigers plus eiger leader down). As he falls, Aurora shouts “That’s right, Willa - get those eigers! Did you see what they did to your tent!” Willa turns and begins to pursue Aurora into the trees, shouting that a good punch in the mouth will shut her up. Aurora shoots a firebolt at the eiger chieftain as she flees from Willa (12 hp damage).
Tyrius is remounting Eddard and preparing for another trampling charge when Aurora’s firebolt knocks the chieftain to the ground. This time, he does not get up (twelve eigers, leader, and chieftain down).
Umbra shoots five bolts of darkness[i] at the fleeing eiger. (Total damage 18, Umbra to 4/2/2).
As swift as the wind, Shefak [i]dashes[i] up to the last fleeing eiger.
Larry rises unsteadily to his feet. Looking around, he sees all of the eigers about him lying still on the ground - but then he sees the party’s tents aflame! He summons forth [i]created water, having it fall as a gentle rain over both tents. (Larry at 1/2/0).
Round 8
With the falling rain dousing the flames enough for her to approach the tent, Willa uses her greatsword to peel back the layers of flaming oilcloth. When she sees her backpack inside, she reaches forth to grab it, getting only a mild burn in return. The thick leather pack is singed but not aflame. (failed Dex save, 2 points damage, Willa to 33hp) However, all the leather stitching is burned through and weakened. The longer she looks at it, the more unsalvageable it appears.
Shefak catches up to the closest fleeing eiger and ends him (total of thirteen eigers, chieftain, and leader slain - some three or four escaped).
Umbra emerges from her cloud of darkness and shoots freezing rays into the fire, while Larry continues to rain water down. Willa has pulled out her plate armor by the time the flames are out.
Post Combat
Babshapka asks for Tyrius’ help, and with his light quickly recovers the giant arrow that missed the chieftain (Babshapka total 19 giant arrows remaining). He uses a dagger to retrieve the head of the other arrow from the body of the chieftain, but the weakened shaft has done its job and splintered. There is no way to reattach the head, but he saves it nonetheless.
Willa uses her lantern to sort through what remains of her tent.
[The days have been in the 50’s F; last night it got down to 40F. Willa was sleeping in some combination of small clothes and her traveling clothes, with her cold weather gear clothes loose in her tent overnight and put on in the morning. I decided that I would apply the fireball damage first to the tents, and with their destruction reduce the amount of damage "left over" to apply to the items within. Similarly, containers would "soak up" damage before passing on what remained to their contents.
5E rules for damaging objects assigns a hp range to objects based on their size and toughness. Magic items are assumed to be resistant to all damage (taking half).
Fireball was 33 points of damage, both bludgeoning (concussive force) and fire.
Willa’s tent is a “Medium, Resilient” object and absorbs 18 points of damage before it is irreparably destroyed. That leaves 15 points to transfer to each of the objects in it.
Magic Plate Armor is a “Medium, Resilient” item and it has resistance to damage. The seven points of damage done to it are not enough to harm it.
Magic Mace is a “Small, Resilient” item and it has resistance to damage. The seven points of damage done to it are not enough to harm it.
Bedroll is a “Medium, Resilient” item. The 15 points of damage done to it are not enough to completely destroy it, although it is severely damaged and needs to be repaired.
Cold weather gear is a “Medium, Resilient” item. The 15 points of damage done to it are not enough to completely destroy it, although it is severely damaged and needs to be repaired.
Longsword Scabbard is a “Small, Resilient” item. It takes 10hp of the 15 and is irreparably destroyed. Five more points of damage are passed to the sword itself. The sword is a “Small, Resilient” item and five points of damage are not enough to harm it.
Dagger Scabbard is a “Tiny, Resistant” item. It takes 5hp of the 15 and is destroyed. Ten more points of damage are passed to the dagger itself. The dagger is a “Small, Resilient” item and ten points of damage irreparably destroys it.
Crossbow is a “Small, Resilient” item. It takes 15hp and is irreparably destroyed.
Silk rope is a “Small, Resilient” item. It takes 15hp and is irreparably destroyed.
Backpack is a “Small, Resilient” item. It takes 10hp of the 15 and is irreparably destroyed. Five more points of damage are passed to each of the items inside.
Tinderbox (inside backpack) is a “Small, Resilient” item. The five points of damage done to it are not enough to harm it.
Leather purse (inside backpack) with coins is a “Small, Resilient” item. The five points of damage done to it are not enough to harm it.
Map case with Willa’s Map of the Dreadwood and the Starfall Maps (inside backpack) is a “Small, Resilient” item. The five points of damage done to it are not enough to harm it.
Tool box with Navigator’s Tools (inside backpack) is a “Small, Resilient” item. The five points of damage done to it are not enough to harm it.
Folded Portrait of Nholast (inside backpack) is a “Small, Fragile” item. It is irreparably destroyed.
Healer’s Kit Bag (inside backpack) is a “Small, Resilient” item. The five points of damage done to it are not enough to harm it.
Belaying Pin (inside backpack) is a “Tiny, Resilient” item. It is irreparably destroyed.
Oil flask (inside backpack) is a “Tiny, Resilient” item. 5 points of damage is just enough to irreparably destroy it. Luck roll +1; the flask is cracked and slowly seeping oil, but the oil did not combust.
Potion vial (neutralize poison) (inside backpack) is a “Tiny, Resilient” item. 5 points of damage is just enough to irreparably destroy it. Luck roll +2; the stopper is cracked and the potion must be kept upright or it will leak.
Potion vial (water breathing) (inside backpack) is a “Tiny, Resilient” item. 5 points of damage is just enough to irreparably destroy it. Luck roll -3; the vial is ruptured and the potion is lost instantly, soaking the other contents of the backpack.
Potion vial (sweet water) (inside backpack) is a “Tiny, Resilient” item. 5 points of damage is just enough to irreparably destroy it. Luck roll +1; the flask is cracked and slowly leaking potion.
Checking her items, Willa silently thanks the Gentle Sea Cow of the South that the most important non-magical items, the map case and tool box for her navigation instruments, survived the blast. She resolves to offer something to the goddess to show her gratitude.
She takes up the flask of neutralize poison and walks quickly over to the brook that runs through the camp. It’s not the warm south sea where the Sea Cow reigns - but it must flow into the River Fyn, and that surely empties into the Javan River, and that enters the Azure Sea, whose waters lap against the shores of Saltmarsh and which even now are likely feeding her brother Tom. “Modder Cow,” she mumbles, so as not to be overheard by the party, “please accept t’is offerin’ o’ me t’anks fer yer protection an’ care o’ me, me family, an’ me mates.” She pours the contents of the phial into the brook as slowly as she can, thinking of how its contents saved her and Babshapka from poison gas in Castle Ravenloft, poison gas that was released, of course, by Aurora fooling with a chest she was told to let alone...she sets aside the thought as uncharitable. It is true enough, but such salt is not befitting the solemnity of this occasion. When she has poured out the last drop of magical potion, she bows her head and mumbles a few more words of prayer. The prayer itself was taught to her by her mother, and the memory of the two of them praying together to the Sea Cow when her father would take to the sea is one of the clearest of the few memories she has of her mother.
On her way back to the others, Willa feels the smooth glass of the phial in her hand, with its worn paper label. She recalls her surprise at finding the phial, one of three such, was actually labeled when they recovered it from the captain’s cabin on the Sea Ghost. She suddenly regrets never asking Sigurd if it was he who labeled the phials with his own hand, but is glad that she remembered to thank the Sea Cow for protection for her “mates,” figuring now that should cover Sigurd as well.
Returning to her gear, Willa carefully pours the potion of sweet water from its cracked glass vial into the now-empty phial she took to the brook. The sweet water was found, she remembered, in treasure they won from a medusa that Aurora turned into a slug. So she supposes the ditzy wizard has her moments. She tries the stopper of the broken vial in the phial hopefully - it fits, but not well, and could easily bounce off if jolted. Aurora has a stub of a candle in her writing supplies, and Willa melts wax liberally all around the stopper. In the end, she is confident it will take the gentle jostling of the pack mules or her own backpack, but not a fight or flight. With luck, they will have neither before reaching Dersyth where she can look for a new container.
Shefak’s tent is a “Medium, Resilient” object and absorbs 18 points of damage before it is irreparably destroyed. That leaves 15 points to transfer to each of the objects in it.
Bedroll
Cold Weather Gear
Dagger Scabbard
Dart Case
Waterskin
Backpack
Bedroll is a “Medium, Resilient” item. The 15 points of damage done to it are not enough to completely destroy it, although it is severely damaged and needs to be repaired.
Cold weather gear is a “Medium, Resilient” item. The 15 points of damage done to it are not enough to completely destroy it, although it is severely damaged and needs to be repaired.
Dagger Scabbard is a “Tiny, Resistant” item. It takes 5hp of the 15 and is destroyed. Ten more points of damage are passed to the dagger itself. The dagger is a “Small, Resilient” item and ten points of damage irreparably destroys it.
Dart case is a “Small, Resilient” item. It takes 10hp of the 15 and is irreparably destroyed. Five more points of damage are passed to the darts themselves. The darts are “Tiny, Resilient” items. Five points of damage are just enough to irreparably destroy them. (Luck roll 0; all of the darts are destroyed).
Waterskin is a “Small, Resilient” item. It takes 10hp of the 15 and is irreparably destroyed.
Backpack is a “Small, Resilient” item. It takes 10hp of the 15 and is irreparably destroyed. Five more points of damage are passed to each of the items inside.
Holy Symbol (inside backpack) is a “Tiny, Resilient” item. 5 points of damage is just enough to irreparably destroy it. Luck roll +4. Although the paint has been burnt off and the metal pitted, Shefak accepts it as a symbol of the impermanence of material form and it will continue to function for her as holy even though broken.
Silver Statue (inside backpack) is a “Small, Resilient” item. The five points of damage done to it are not enough to harm it.
It is still more than an hour until dawn. Babshapka and Umbra are the only ones who have had a complete long rest - everyone else has broken their rest to fight. It is agreed that they will wait until dawn and depart at a normal hour, which will allow the others to have at least a short rest. Before that, however, Larry insists that they pull the body of the eiger out of the spring. Even the mules refuse to drink from it later, however.
Post-combat hp and spells remaining
Larry 10/56, 1/2/0
Babshapka 33/48, 3/2
Umbra 38/38, 4/2/2
Aurora 3/38, 1/1/0
Tyrius 9/49, 1/2, 5/30 lay on hands
Eddard 24/24,
Willa 33/62,
Thokk 16/66,
Shefak 24/39,
[Reasoning that they don’t know what the day may bring and they may still need their spells offensively, the party elects to spend hit dice on natural healing after their short rest rather than casting magical heals. Larry (natural recovery) and Aurora (Arcane recovery) also regain some spells.]
At some point Thokk goes to check the hunting trap and finds it gone. The others tell him that they saw an eiger with it clamped on his foot. Thokk is incensed and demands that they go track down the eiger and get the trap back. Willa convinces him that the eiger has now had more than an hour lead time and is long gone, and it is not worth it to go off the trail and into some potential ambush of the whole eiger tribe. She tells Thokk to search the bodies of the eigers and see if they will pay for a new trap when the party gets to Dersyth. She stares pointedly at Aurora and says “an’ all me stuff, t’ boot.”
Thokk comes back with 109 gold lions' value in coins of all different denominations. Willa estimates they may break even, once all of her and Shefak’s gear is replaced. Not counting the potion of water breathing, of course - that was likely worth in the hundreds or more.
While Thokk was searching the eiger, he realized that all that meat has more than solved their food problem! They will likely have more meat than they can even carry. He is unprepared for the vehemence with which the others tell him that they will not be eating eiger, not even if he allows them to cook it. The elves are repulsed and Tyrius is indignant, although Larry just shrugs. Willa is a little queasy at the thought herself, but she is by now well used to finding creative arguments to manage Thokk. She takes him away from the group and explains patiently that he can eat off an eiger carcass himself while they are here - as long as he feeds on whichever one is farthest from camp. However, they will not be taking any of the eiger meat with them, as that would “spook the mules”. Thokk reflects on the combat and recalls the terrified screams of the mules during the attack. He nods and accepts the sage advice of his trusted evil advisor. The combat was exhilarating for him, and now that the eiger coin has softened the blow of the theft of ‘his’ trap, he is in fine spirits.
As soon as the camp is packed after breakfast, the party is away. Already the crows are thick and loud on the corpses of the eigers, and most of the party are eager to be off before wolves or larger predators appear. The day’s march continues along the same hills and bluffs overlooking the river Fyn. Sometimes the hills are lower and nearer the river, sometimes higher and farther. Sometimes the trail is in view of shepherd’s crofts, and sometimes in desolate highlands with not a soul in sight.
In the late afternoon they move away from the river, climbing up into rugged hill country, with a large peak between them and the Fyn. They camp in a bowl on the back side of the mountain, with untouched forest all around them. Willa decides that this is the perfect place to hunt, far from any tended flocks that Thokk might raid by accident. She tells the party that as they have less than a day of food left, five of them will remain in camp on the morrow while Thokk, Larry, and Babshapka all forage. Depending on how much they bring back at dinner, they may be able to continue on for Dersyth the day after.
[ Used 6 rations (Thokk gorged on eiger flesh in the morning); 5 human rations remaining
1 mule ration used, supplemented by forage; 5 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 66 pounds charcoal remaining] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
31 January, 571 [Readying 9] - Cantrev of Rhwng yr Coed, on road to Dersyth (lowlands)
[Rain 3pm - beyond 12am]
After a breakfast of trail food, the main party sees Thokk, Babshapka, and Larry off on their foraging run. With the day planned for sitting in camp, Willa goes through their gear, taking an inventory of the supplies on the mules and seeing what they might need to pick up in Dersyth. In the process, she finds the last remaining fishing pole, which gets her thinking. A Salter born and bred, she has no experience hunting - but with a pole she might be able to contribute to their food stores, if she made a side jaunt to the river.
She looks at who is left at camp - Umbra, Tyrius, Aurora, Shefak. None of them are exactly ideal fishing companions, and yet with eigers about she doesn’t want to travel alone. For those already foraging she is unconcerned about them going solo - Thokk and Babshapka can easily hide, and Larry can turn into an innocuous animal, if facing overwhelming foes - but stealth is not Willa’s forte. For that matter, she can’t imagine sitting on a river bank and trying to cast a line in full plate mail - she will be unarmored and vulnerable. She will want someone to come with, just in case, even if they are only on watch while she fishes.
With his gear still arranged all about on the ground, Randy is confused about whether he is going to be packed today or not, and he stamps his foot anxiously. Eddard speaks soothingly to him. Eddard!
After Willa asks him, and then Tyrius just to be polite, Eddard agrees to go fishing with her and they set out at mid-morning, reaching the Fyn in about an hour and a half and having to go off-trail only a bit. The mist is just clearing off the water when they arrive at the river. Eddard proves to be an excellent companion, neither going on at length about nothing (like Aurora and Tyrius would) or remaining tight-lipped on the occasions when Willa does want to talk (as Shefak and Umbra do). Rather, he waits until spoken to and then gives slow, carefully measured responses. By the early afternoon, as rain clouds begin to gather, Willa has caught only a single fish (Survival roll 8 ), but has had a grand time. She gathers some rushes at the river’s edge, weaves them into a small raft of sorts, lays the fish on it and says some words to the Sea Cow while Eddard remains respectfully silent. She lets the raft and its offering float downstream as she packs up the tackle. Already an ambitious kingfisher is eyeing the raft and its cargo.
All the way back to the camp it rains in brief showers that come and go. She and Eddard are quite wet by the time they arrive, but Aurora has a charcoal fire going and the others are looking for dry, dead wood to add. The rain doesn’t look to be stopping any time soon. A night in the 40’s, dry and in a tent, is one thing - but a night in the 40’s, wet and under the sky, is quite a different kettle of fish.
One by one the foragers return to camp, all sodden. Larry is empty-handed (Survival roll 9), as is Thokk, although the half-orc is testy because he broke a javelin in his pursuit of game (Survival roll 5, critical failure). Babshapka brings in a brace of wood cocks (Survival roll 22), but the small birds are not going to be enough for all of them.
Taking stock of their supplies after dinner finds them with even less food than the day before. Babshapka reports that his scouting from a nearby hilltop revealed that they are not too far from farming country. Willa tells them that they may just have to tighten their belt for a day, but they can likely buy food from a farmstead if they do not arrive at Dersyth on the morrow.
The rain showers continue off and on all night, with the party taking shelter as best they can under the limbs of trees.
[ Caught 4 pounds of game cock, used 4 pounds of game cock and 3 rations; 2 human rations remaining
No mule rations used (full day of forage); 5 mule rations remaining
7 pounds of charcoal used to cook meat and stay warm; 59 pounds charcoal remaining]
1 February, 571 [Readying 10] - Cantrev of Rhwng yr Coed, on road to Dersyth (lowlands)
[Rain 12am to 6am]
[Hail 6am to 8am]
In the morning as the sky lightens, the gentle rain changes to hail. When the ice pellets penetrate the mostly-bare limbs of the tree she is under and begin to bounce off her face, Willa wakes with a roar. “Aurora!” she bellows across the camp. “Yer buyin’ me a tent in Dersyth o’ I’ll be makin’ one from yer hide!”
Shefak is already up, ignoring the hail and sitting cross-legged on the ground, facing east to greet the dawn in meditation. “We must accept loss as part of life,” she says in response to Willa, “and not dwell on material things.” She stands, then turns to face the party. “However, perhaps it would encourage Aurora to improve her aim if she had to replace all of our items from her own funds, rather than the party treasure.”
The party finishes the last of their food supplies for breakfast and then packs the camp. “Bring us summit fer lunch,” says Willa to Thokk as they set out but he remains behind to forage. She had considered sending Babshapka out as well, but prefers missing a meal to stumbling into another pack of eigers while on the march, so she keeps him as their forward scout.
The rain and hail continue for the first hour of their march. The trail takes them low and close to the river. As they travel, they leave the woods behind, and the land becomes green pastures, with shepherd’s fields more and more common as they progress. They make their noon camp, with Willa arranging a coal pit expectantly but not lighting it. Thokk shows up soon after, a string of small, skinned animals draped across his back and a small cloud of flies about him. He explains that just before he left the woods, he found a pair of pine martens skulking about the base of a tree that had a squirrel’s nest. He killed the martens with his javelins, and then fished the squirrels out of the tree one at a time and wrung their necks. He has brought enough meat for lunch and dinner besides!
Some hours after they resume their march, the trail rises and is joined by another trail coming from the south. Willa and Aurora reason that this is the overland trail from the Lea and Pregmere that Ossein spoke of on the river. They must be nearing Dersyth.
After this, the trail descends to the valley bottom again. Soon they start to see fields and farms, the first they have seen since New Midwood. While the folk of Geoff grow many things for their own household use, here the staple crop appears to be oats. They travel the rest of the afternoon. The farms grow more dense, but they have not arrived at Dersyth by nightfall, nor does Thokk have more forage for them when he arrives at their evening camp. However, they do find a stone-walled sheep fold with one corner roofed by rough timber and the flock nowhere in sight. Although the roof is not high enough for any of them to stand but Larry, all of their bedrolls placed one against the other just fit under the covered part, which is appreciated during a cold drizzle from before midnight through dawn of the next day. Eddard and the mules have to stay outside in the wet, but at least the stone walls of the fold cut the wind for them.
[ Caught 8 pounds of game, used 5 pounds of meat and 2 rations; 3 pounds of meat but no rations remaining
1 mule ration used, supplemented by forage; 4 mule rations remaining
4 pounds of charcoal used to cook meat; 55 pounds charcoal remaining] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
The players of Aurora and Willa are co-workers and have been friends for years. Willa's player is very cautious and Aurora's much more impetuous. Part of the dynamic is Aurora's player always saying "Let's do this!" without regard for consequences and Willa's player always criticizing whatever decision Aurora's player makes. She likes to complain, but it is good-natured.
CruelSummerLord wrote:
What's Aurora's alignment, anyway? I've seen you describe her alternately as a harridan, a ditz, etc.
A ditz, definitely. A harridan? Nah, more like a vixen or minx.
I have some reflections on Alignment in this campaign between posts 108 and 109. Let me say here that for this, my first 5e game, I wanted to try a different approach to alignment. Basically I told the players that their job was to come up with a consistent personality and perspective, and that their actions would then dictate their alignment rather than the other way around. Thus, I have my understanding of what their alignment is, but it is not actually known to them.
I did write an 'alignment' on their sheets based on my assessment of their role-playing:
Aurora - Chaotic Shrill
Babshapka - Chaotic Obliged
Larry - Neutral Grubby
Shefak - Not from around here
Thokk - Chaotic Simple
Tyrius - Blessed Be Pelor
Umbra - Shrouded in Mystery
Willa - Loyal Freebooter _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Last edited by Kirt on Tue Jan 12, 2021 3:52 pm; edited 1 time in total
DM's note on sources: Dersyth, the Lake of Rhûn, and the Monastery of Pelor are not on Darlene's maps, but the first two appear on those of Anna Meyer. On Darlene's map, Dersyth would be at the edge of the mountains, north of the G in "Grand". I based my description of Dersyth and the Lake of Rhun on https://db4sgowjqfwig.cloudfront.net/campaigns/129072/assets/845045/GyruffCY618_04.pdf?1522501776, although I expect much of that originally comes from Living Greyhawk sources.
Post 151: Dersyth to the Lake of Rhun
2 February, 571 [Readying 11] - Cantrev of Gwyrth Bryn, on road to Dersyth (lowlands)
Morning’s light shows that they are easily within striking distance of Dersyth, which straddles the Fyn below them, so Willa encourages everyone to take an extra portion at breakfast and finish off the squirrel. They arrive at the gates of the walled city long before lunch, but not before the mists have cleared from the Fyn.
Willa sets their priorities as; first, finding an inn, second, replacing their gear, and third, learning what they can about the starfall so as to determine whether they will need more serious gear for the mountains. Tyrius adds that he would like to find a temple to Pelor, both to give thanks for their safe arrival, and to see what the local priests might know about the starfall.
Dersyth is the seat of its cantrev, and is a large walled town, but calling it a city would be a stretch. It doesn’t take them long to find an inn and accommodate their gear and then have a quick lunch. Afterwards, Thokk stays at the inn drinking, with Larry and ostensibly Umbra watching him, but she spends more time in her room than the common room. Tyrius is in the stable, under the direction of Eddard, seeing to the care and maintenance of the hooves and coats of the mules with implements borrowed from the stablehand. Willa, Shefak, Aurora, and Babshapka set out for the town markets.
Purchased with party funds
1gp 10 flasks of lamp oil (Willa)
0.1gp 10 torches (Willa)
28gp 56 human rations (7 days x 8 people)
0.7gp 14 mule rations (7 days x 2 mules)
2.5gp Half a hundredweight of charcoal
1gp 2 javelins (Thokk)
5gp Cold weather gear (Tyrius buys new for Umbra)
10gp 50’ silk rope (Aurora)
0.5gp 10 pitons (Larry)
0.05gp Signal whistle (Tyrius)
5gp Hunting trap (Thokk)
Total: 53.85gp
[Notes: The river Fyn does not appear to have any sailed vessel traffic, just poled barges and rowed boats. Willa does not find a belaying pin for sale in the markets of Dersyth.]
[It is cheaper to buy a new bedroll than to repair the damaged ones. Tyrius gives the two damaged bedrolls to the Temple of Pelor to distribute to the poor.]
[It is cheaper to repair the damaged cold weather gear than buy new ones.]
When the quartet have returned from the market, Tyrius sets out and quickly finds the temple of Pelor. As one of the Old Flan Gods, the worship of Pelor is quite strong here in the north of Geoff. Tyrius offers his prayers at the temple and talks to the priests. If he is looking for old lore, they say, he should travel west of Dersyth, up the Fyn road. A day’s journey from the town is a monastery dedicated to Pelor that houses many historical books and records. It is decided that half of the party will go there on the morrow.
The skies are clear of clouds tonight, although Luna is full. Willa rearranges the watch schedule so that she is up after moonset but before sunrise (Celene is new so she is free of that complication). She is able to make her final and most accurate starfall map. The final area, to the most precise reading of her instruments, is about a 15 mile radius high in the Barrier Peaks. Even in such a relatively small area, how will they find a single, odd rock in that remote wilderness? Willa is hopeful the monks of Pelor will have more information for them, and she gives the map to Tyrius the next morning. Even if they can’t narrow the location, at least they should be able to tell the party what the conditions and weather will be like.
[ Used 3 pounds of meat - other food at inn, no meat remaining; 56 human rations remaining (purchased)
No mule rations used, fed at inn; 18 mule rations remaining (14 purchased)
2 pounds of charcoal used to cook meat; 103 pounds charcoal remaining (50 purchased)]
3 February, 571 [Readying 12] - Dersyth (lowlands)
In the morning, Tyrius organizes the expedition to the monastery. Willa has elected to remain in Dersyth and watch those members of the party who might not be as welcome in a place that is sanctified to Pelor; Thokk (a half-orc), Umbra (who seems to draw her power from darkness), and Shefak (a Bakluni). Eddard will of course be accompanying Tyrius, but also Larry (who speaks Flan and seems well-liked by the Gyri they have met so far), Aurora (who wants to know historical information) and Babshapka (Aurora’s bodyguard). Since they plan to be at the monastery before nightfall, the “away team” will be traveling light and leaving the mules in town.
During the day, Thokk remains at the bar of the inn, with Shefak as his minder, while Umbra largely remains at the inn but occasionally makes forays into the city. Willa visits a few stores and shops to continue replacing their gear and check up on the craftspeople still repairing her and Shefak’s cold weather gear. Willa also talks to several fletchers. They can fit the head of Babshapka’s ‘giant arrow’ to a new shaft, but none of them know how to specifically weaken the shaft so that the arrow will penetrate but then immediately break off. At least, they will not be able to do that without some guesswork, trial, and error. Willa keeps the head for now.
Dersyth is built on both sides of the Avon Fyn, with one great stone bridge and several lesser wooden ones crossing the flow. The party entered town from the south bank but the trail to the west leaves from the north. The trail runs roughly due west above the river, though the Fyn’s meanders take it sometimes near and sometimes far from the trail. As the away team travels west, they pass more oat fields, sheep fields, and thorps, but no major settlements in all the day. The Fyn itself seems covered in mist for much of the day, and the trail rises slowly into the foothills of the great Barrier Peaks.
By sundown it is obvious that they will not be reaching the monastery before dark, mostly due to Larry’s slower pace. Still, backlit against the red western sky, they can see a great stone structure on a hill just a few miles ahead that surely must be it. After they pause briefly to rest, Luna rises, and the light of her full body is ample enough to continue on this cloudless night (and they are lacking most of their camping gear, besides, providing strong incentive to reach the monastery before they sleep).
As they draw closer, they can hear the Fyn coursing in a deep gorge below. The monastery is built at the narrowest part of the valley, where the Fyn is hemmed in by cliffs, and travelers must pass under the stone walls of the monks. Low walls surround fields of wheat and hops, while a great temple is in the center of it all. Lights play along the surface of the temple, almost certainly a magical effect, making it a welcoming beacon in the darkness.
The monks at the gate question the party briefly, but when they learn that Tyrius is a Paladin of their Order, they welcome the entire party inside (despite a few impolite questions for them from Aurora, designed to reveal whether the whole enterprise is an elaborate ruse).
While many of the monks are currently at nightly devotional services and some have even returned to their cells, there are a few remaining at the communal dinner table and the party is invited to dine with them - including Eddard, who is served a bowl of hot oatmeal! (The party is surprised when he accepts, as they have never seen him eat before.)
When Tyrius asks about historical records, the monks tell him that he can visit their library after dinner. When he asks whether Aurora can accompany him, the monks somewhat begrudgingly agree, provided she is under his supervision at all times. Over dinner, the party discovers that the monastery serves as a center of learning and healing, but also brews beer. “We spread Pelor’s light unto the world in many ways,” says one monk. Many of the monks undertake martial training as well. The monastery itself protects the upper reaches of the Fyn and the Lake of Rhun, where both the Council of Druids and the Bardic College of Cainaith are to be found. The monks screen travelers, and allow only those with peaceful intentions to continue on. In ages past, they also kept warlords from attempting to seize the Council or College and thereby claim rulership of all Geoff, but those days of inter-clan rivalry and warfare are long gone, and no one disputes the rule of the Brennin (Grand Duke) anymore.
Tyrius shows the monks the latest map of the starfall, and asks them what the mountains will be like at that spot. They provide some general guidelines, like “cold, high, and full of humanoids and monsters,” but nothing too specific. All of them recommend that Tyrius speak to the Council of Druids on the Isle of Rhun, for they will surely know such details if anyone does. When Tyrius asks how to ask them, they explain that if the party travels another day up the trail, they will come to the Lake of Rhun. However, the lake is continually covered in mist. Only those whom the druids wish to receive are granted passage through the mists to their home, the Isle of Rhun. Similarly, only those the bards accept are allowed through the mists to their College on Kindler’s Isle. All Tyrius can do is travel to the shore of the lake and petition to speak to the druids - what happens next is up to them.
Some time after dinner Tyrius and Aurora are admitted to the great library of the monastery. The head librarian is a very old man, but also quite hearty for one of his advanced age. He has heard of no tales of a star falling in the Barrier Peaks specifically. Of course, planets changing in the sky are a portent of change on Oerth, and he knows several tales of stars falling in general or in other places, just not near here.
When Aurora says that this would have occurred around seven or eight hundred years ago, he shakes his head sadly. At that point, he says, the Gyri did not even have a written language, and although this library likely has the most extensive collection of histories in the land, none of them are older than five hundred years. For tales older than that they will need to seek an oral history, and for that they will need to go to either the Council of Druids or the College of Cainaith, both repositories of the Old History of the Land.
The monk - librarian is happy to show Aurora all the relevant texts, but she rapidly agrees that none of them are old enough, and none contain specific tales of this fallen star.
The party are shown guest cells and pass the night peacefully.
[ Half of party eats at inn, other half has lunch only on trail, using 1 ration; 55 human rations remaining
No mule rations used, fed at inn; 18 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 103 pounds charcoal remaining]
4 February, 571 [Readying 13] - party split between Dersyth and Monastery of Pelor (lowlands)
[Thunderstorm 11pm - 2am]
[Wandering encounter, Civilized Hills - Patrol, Men]
Tyrius will not impugn the reputation of a Temple of Pelor by suggesting that they are anything less than safe, so he refuses to set a watch schedule for those who traveled with him. Nevertheless, he remains up after the others have retired to their cells, kneeling in a prayer vigil in a small chapel near their rooms. Some four hours later Babshapka comes to tell him that he has tranced enough, and will remain alert until dawn, should Tyrius wish to get some sleep. Tyrius nods gratefully as he massages the blood back into his legs, stiff and numb from the stone floor.
The monks are up before dawn, as the entire population of the monastery celebrates a sunrise worship service in the marble-covered main temple. Tyrius drags himself from bed at the last minute to participate as well. After this, and as the rest of the party is waking, the more militant of the monks go outside and have weapons training in the cool morning air, while the aged and infirm or those more skilled in healing and brewing and other arts break their fast with the party. Tyrius opts to train as well, so that by the time the party has washed up, packed, and is ready to be on the road, he has not had anything to eat. If the lack of food and sleep is affecting him, he is good at pretending it doesn’t. As he rides to the head of the company on Eddard, he asks them rhetorically what they are waiting for.
Eddard is only at a gentle walk but it is not long before Larry is huffing and puffing and struggling to keep up. Tyrius tsks his tongue. “This won’t do, brother Larrenthal. The monks were kind enough to let us in after dark, but I fear that once the the townsfolk close the gates of Dersyth for the night they will not open them for us.” None of them have brought their sleeping rolls, let alone the new tents, and it dipped into the 30’s before the sun rose this morning.
“Ahm oon et,” says Larry, and casts the Longstrider spell on himself. “Ah’ll see ye a’ lunch,” he says, and trots ahead, faster than at least Aurora could follow, although the others might keep up with him if they had to.
Not long after Larry is out of sight down the road, a number of figures approach the party from ahead of them. They appear to be a patrol of footmen, very similar in look to those the party met with nearly a week ago, although dressed in a different livery. The serjeant looks at the device on Tyrius’ shield and does not bother to even question them. He does draw forth an object from a large leather bag he carries to show them, though. It is a creature’s head, humanoid, though as large as a boar’s head. It has been rolled in salt to preserve it but still looks the worse for wear and they do not recognize it at first until Babshapka realizes that it is an eiger.
“Aye, it be an eigre, true eno’,” says the serjent. “A whole troop o’ ‘em war foond on th’ low road t’ New Midwood. If ye be travelin’ east o’ Dersyth, best be on yer guard, eh!” The patrol continues up the road to the monastery.
[Tyrius, Eddard, Babshapka, Aurora; moving 5 hours at 3mph (Aurora’s pace) = 15 miles
Larry; moving 3 hours at 3.5mph plus 2 hours at 2.5mph = 15.5 miles]
The party does indeed catch up to Larry at mid-day, for after three castings of longstrider he has walked at his own pace for the remainder of the morning. Even though they are eating trail food, and have little in the way of preparation or clean-up, he insists on taking a short rest for a full hour. While they eat, he contemplates the Fyn below, still shrouded in mist, but audible through the clear winter air. When they start up again, his natural recovery has allowed him to get those three castings back, and he tells them he will next see them at the gates of Dersyth.
“Be careful,” says Eddard drolly, “I hear there are eigers on the road.” Larry chuckles as he speeds off.
They do indeed find Larry again at the gates of Dersyth, trying to persuade the guards to keep the gates open until they arrive. The last rays of the sun glint off Tyrius’ armor as he thanks the guards, but they only scowl back.
Reunited at the inn, Aurora and Tyrius tell the rest of the party that on the morrow they will be packing for a journey to seek the Council of Druids on the Isle of Rhun.
[ Half of party eats at the inn, other half has lunch only on the trail, using 1 ration; 54 human rations remaining
No mule rations used, fed at inn; 18 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 103 pounds charcoal remaining]
5 February, 571 [Readying 14] - Dersyth (lowlands)
The party (less Thokk, who is in a drunken stupor) is woken by thunder in the night, and all of them are glad for the roof of the inn overhead. The pouring rain, thunder, and lightning last from before midnight to well after.
In the morning Willa orders their march once they pass out of the north gate of Dersyth. Since they now have their camping gear with them, there will be no hardship if they fail to reach the monastery by sundown - and less to explain to the monks about the party members that stayed behind last time. Nor does she want Larry off by himself ahead of the party, so they will all travel together at his pace. Today, as they pass through fields of sheep and harvested oats, she will keep Thokk with them, but depending on the terrain she might release him to forage on the morrow.
The day passes uneventfully. From their camp, they can see the lit monastery on the hill all night, a shining beacon in the darkness.
[ Breakfast at the inn, 4 human rations used in rest of day; 50 human rations remaining
One mule ration used, supplemented by forage; 17 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 103 pounds charcoal remaining]
6 February, 571 [Readying 14] - road from Dersyth to Lake Rhun (lowlands)
[Light rain 8am-4pm, no affect on movement]
Dawn comes, but the sunrise is unseen as the skies are overcast. By the time the party has reached the walls of the monastery, a light rain is falling. The river is covered in mists and a fog shrouds the land so that the horizon falls back from the great Barrier Peaks to just the trail immediately in front of them.
All day the rain falls as they climb higher and higher into the foothills along the trail. An hour after their mid-day rest, the sound of the rushing river in the gorge alongside them fades away, and an hour after that it is replaced by the lonely cries of water birds and the gentle lapping of waves.
Ahead of them, emerging from the mist, appear low wooden buildings. A small village sits at the shore of a mist-covered lake. Interestingly, it does not appear to be a fishing village - no nets or drying racks are in sight. There is a small dock, but no boats moored.
The village is quiet, but not deserted. The villagers welcome the party and take them to the “petitioner’s house” - a two-story wooden building with the second floor just a loft accessed by a ladder. There is a stable, a large fireplace with wood already laid in, and simple but comfortable furnishings. It could be mistaken for a country inn, but there seems to be neither staff nor proprietor. The villagers tell the party that they are welcome to stay there as long as they need to. When they ask how long that will be, the villagers explain that only those who the Council of Druids wish may access their isle. A few are admitted right away, some, after a while, most never, until they eventually give up and leave.
The party unpacks, settles in, and starts a fire in an attempt to dry their clothes. In the late afternoon, a man enters the building without knocking. He has close-cropped hair, hard-worn hands, and a simple robe of sky blue. He asks the party their business, and they reply that they would like to meet with the Council of Druids. He explains that he is a representative of the Council, and that they can state their business to him for the Council to determine whether they wish to hear it in person or not. Aurora is hesitant, but Willa forges ahead, and says that Larry would like to know whether the druids of these parts can teach him any spells he does not know. The man seems taken aback by the question, and asks does Larry not have a master? Does he not belong to a circle? Who taught him before, and why did they stop?
“Ah war taught by a bar an’ raised inna cave,” says Larry simply. “Until ‘e said ‘e ‘adn’t nae more t’ teach me an’ Ah lef’.”
After an awkward silence, Tyrius interjects. “He was accepted as a novice candidate by the Circle of the Great Druid in the Dreadwood, but he...did not agree with their teaching methods or priorities. He is, mostly, self-taught, as it were...”
The man raises an eyebrow. “If that is your only business with the Council...” he says, in a tone that suggests that they are wasting their time.
“Also, I am an historian,” says Aurora quickly. “And I am seeking information about an ancient event - a star falling in these parts. It is older than any written histories, but we were told that the Council has oral histories that go back further.”
“We ‘ave a map,” says Willa bluntly. “O’ ther mountains, whar we think ther star fell. We’d be wantin’ t’ ken what ther weather be like oop yonder.”
“I see,” the man says politely, although as he looks from one to the other of them it is not clear that he does, in fact. “I will present your petition to the Council. You will have their answer on the morrow.”
A few of the party follow the man out of the building and down to the lake, where a single, oarless, rowboat is now tied to the dock. The man enters the boat, unties it, makes a mystic pass of his hands, and mumbles a few words. The thick mists of the lake part and the boat moves away from the dock, seemingly of its own accord. The mists close again behind the boat, like a curtain in a theatre.
The rain lets up soon after, and the fog onshore disperses, but the mists over the water remain thick throughout the afternoon and night.
[ 7 human rations used; 43 human rations remaining
One mule ration used, supplemented by forage; 16 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 103 pounds charcoal remaining] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
A ditz, definitely. A harridan? Nah, more like a vixen or minx.
I have some reflections on Alignment in this campaign between posts 108 and 109. Let me say here that for this, my first 5e game, I wanted to try a different approach to alignment. Basically I told the players that their job was to come up with a consistent personality and perspective, and that their actions would then dictate their alignment rather than the other way around. Thus, I have my understanding of what their alignment is, but it is not actually known to them.
I did write an 'alignment' on their sheets based on my assessment of their role-playing:
Aurora - Chaotic Shrill
Babshapka - Chaotic Obliged
Larry - Neutral Grubby
Mathias - Neutral Bargainer w/ LE tendencies
Shefak - Not from around here
Thokk - Chaotic Simple
Tyrius - Blessed Be Pelor
Umbra - Shrouded in Mystery
Willa - Loyal Freebooter
I did write an 'alignment' on their sheets based on my assessment of their role-playing:
Aurora - Chaotic Shrill
Babshapka - Chaotic Obliged
Larry - Neutral Grubby
Mathias - Neutral Bargainer w/ LE tendencies
Shefak - Not from around here
Thokk - Chaotic Simple
Tyrius - Blessed Be Pelor
Umbra - Shrouded in Mystery
Willa - Loyal Freebooter
Who's Mathias? Don't you mean Barnabas?
Indeed. We lost Barnabus before we were playing online, so I don't have his character sheet - I think he may have been listed as "Chaotic Larcenous". And Mathias...well, that was unintended foreshadowing, as I just got ahead of myself. Mathias will join the party when they get to the starfall. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
7 February, 571 [Readying 16] - Lake of Rhun (5000' elevation)
The party is glad of the large fireplace and ample wood, for the night outside drops into the 20’s - the first time it has been below freezing since three weeks ago in the Stark Mounds. Larry and Thokk figure they are already higher in elevation than the peaks of the Mounds and they are only at the base of the Barriers and will surely have a lot higher to climb.
In the morning, after breakfast, Willa dispatches several party members to the water’s edge. The day is clear and cold but the mists lie just as thick over the lake as before. Suddenly the mists part and the same boat is visible, piloted by the same man in the sky blue robe, but now with a passenger.
The new man climbs easily onto the dock and then strides ashore. There is a grace and suppleness to his movements that belie the deep wrinkles on his face. He has a long white beard, which flows down the front of his robes, themselves of a deep, royal blue.
No sooner has the man stepped foot on shore but he is approached by animals - swallows and sparrows from under the eaves of the houses, mice from under doors and through holes in the walls, a mountain hare from beyond the edge of the village. They cluster around him, following him expectantly as he walks forward but not getting under foot. He nods at the party members on shore, but does not speak to them or even pause as he moves briskly towards their borrowed lodgings.
When he reaches the building, he finally speaks, but to the creatures, not the party. Lowering himself to one knee, he tells the mice, “Search th’ buildin’ - make sure thar are no ears aboot.” The mice scurry under the door and into holes - those inside hear them crawling within the walls and in the loft above. Standing, the man addresses the birds. “See tha’ we are nae disturbed,” he says, and they take flight, circling the house. They ignore the party, but any villagers who accidently stray too close are immediately set upon. “An’ ye…” he muses, looking down at the hare waiting beneath him, “ye can warm me feet.” For indeed, he is barefoot in the hoarfrozen grass.
He enters the house without knocking, takes a seat without asking leave. The hare curls up on top of his feet. He welcomes the party to the lake (rather than them welcoming him to the house), and asks who they are and what they would have of the Council.
Once everyone is inside and the door closed, Willa introduces the party, each in turn, and he nods at all of them and squints. When she finishes, he says, “Well, ye’ve certainly got eno’ magic aboot ye.”
“Do you know the mage Nholast?” opens Aurora.
“Cannae say as ah do,” he replies, “‘tho th’ nime sounds Suel to me ear.”
“Indeed,” agrees Aurora. “Nholast of the Suel House of Linth. This mage was a general to the wizard Asberdies, who ruled the Yeomanry.”
The man’s eyes narrow. “‘Rruled?’ More like ‘e crrrushed th’ folk o’ th’ Yeomanry ‘neath ‘his tyrannical boot, an’ used ‘is fell magicks t’ enslave th’ lot o’ ‘em.”
“So him you know,” agrees Aurora. “Well, anyway, we were in his servant Nholast’s tower, one of them anyway, and found a diary. Some seven hundred fifty years or so ago, he recorded a star falling from the sky and landing near here. He planned to use the metal in the star to create a mighty weapon, but fortunately it seems he met his end before he had a chance.”
“An’ we be hopin’ tha’ ye might help us t’ find yon star,” says Willa. After a pause, she adds, “t’ make sure summit so powerful hain’t fallen inter ther wrong ‘ands an’ all.”
“Do you know of any such histories of falling stars?” finishes Aurora.
“Och, aye, o’ course,” he says. “Long, long ago - long afore th’ Gyri larned t’ write, when only the scops kept histories in song, thar appeared a star in th’ sky brighter than any t’others. Over th’ course o’ a few nights, et grew brighter an’ brighter, until ‘twere as bright as Luna ‘erself an’ could be seen in th’ day. Then it fell t’ Oerth. The stories don’t say whar, but they do say tha’ the whole Oerth shook, ‘twas a roar like thoonder tha’ lasted fer hours, an’ all th’ mountains ‘twere afire.”
The party, now sobered, remains quiet a moment, until Willa ventures, “But ye dinnae ken whar it lies?”
The man shakes his head and shrugs.
“I ‘ave a map,” Willa says, pulling the map case out of her backpack and ignoring the concerned look of Aurora. She unrolls the map and spreads it out on a table near the druid. “This be whar we t’ink ther star might be. What can ye tell us aboot yon mountain?”
The man rises to look at the map, the hare jumping up but then docile at his side. It takes him a moment to work out the scale and scheme of the map - but when he realizes what it shows, his eyes widen. He sits back in his chair pensively, his hands fumbling as if looking for a pipe or other device he has not brought along. Finally, he nods as if deciding something, and leans forward again.
“Somewhar deep in th’ Barrier Peaks thar be a caive,” he begins. “A caive tha’ be th’ source o’ many a strange crrreature. Th’ Council hae kenned this fer generations, an’ we even hae a name fer it - Th’ Unoerthly Caive. The crrreatures tha’ coom from th’ caive be unlak any ‘tother thing ye ever seen - they be doonright unnatural.”
“Interesting,” says Aurora, “but what does that have to do with the starfall?”
“Yer map o’ th’ starfall be centered right upon th’ Caive. Wha’ if they be woon in th’ saime? Wha’ if these crreatures be so unoerthly because they dinnae be o’ th’ Oerth?”
“What be ye proposin’?” asks Willa.
“We can ‘elp woon atother,” he says. “Th’ Council will show ye exactly ‘ow t’ get t’ yer starfall, an’ ye can tell us wha’ lies in th’ caive.”
“But if you have known exactly where it is for generations,” says Aurora dubiously, “why haven’t you investigated it before?”
The man explains that the Council’s affairs are those of Geoff - the vastness of the Barrier Peaks are not in their purview, strictly speaking, although the tendency of strange creatures to leave the cave every few years and create problems in Geoff makes it of interest to them. They have, occasionally, over the generations, sent druids to investigate - typically brash young types with something to prove. Many have come back without locating it, turned away by the vast, frozen peaks. Others have not come back at all - whether they have been lost to the mountains, or the cave itself, he cannot say. However, he says that this party seems powerful, numerous, and well-equipped; he believes that they can handle the dangers of the cave and return to tell the Council what is producing the monsters, and hopefully, how they can be stopped.
Aurora, perhaps overly excited at meeting someone who knows of Asberdies, is eager to plumb the druid for more lore. “You know,” she interrupts, “even though Nholast told Asberdies he was his loyal follower, he actually wasn’t. At least in his diary, he mentioned that really he was a servant of ‘The Master’.” The druid does not react, but Aurora continues. “He even mentions that he was looking for Relics of the Whispered One.”
At this last reference the druid’s face darkens, and he bolts upright. Startled, the hare dashes off and hides behind the party’s mule packs. “Tha’,” he thunders, “is an ancient evil best lef’ unspoken. If ye value yer lives, an’ those o’ yer mates, ye willnae pursue tha' farther.”
Even imprudent Aurora is cowed by his vehemence, at least momentarily. “I...I did not mean to offend...or seek more danger,” she stammers, as she recovers, “I merely wished to ascertain whether this cave, and the starfall, might somehow be connected to the...the one we should not name.”
The lightning in the man’s eyes dims. “Nay, nay, there be nae connection atwixt th’ two.”
Aurora approaches the druid, turning her body so that she can hide from Umbra the fact that she is pointing with her thumb at the shadow elf. She silently mouths the words “Whispered One?,” signals Umbra again, and raises her eyebrows as if making a question.
Willa grabs Aurora by her shoulder, pulls her back a step, and scowls at her.
The druid shakes his head. “Whar ye be gang be dangerous eno’, without th’ ancient evil. Ye must all be o’ woon mind, without dissention, if ye be coomin’ back atall.”
Willa clears her throat and looks pointedly at Aurora.
“Oh, we’re of one mind,” agrees Aurora. “Most assuredly.” She turns her back on the druid and gestures to the party to gather around her in a huddle, even Umbra. “I just meant to ask,” she whispers conspiratorially, “whether he knows anything about the...the place that made Umbra faint last time.”
“You can say the Spidered Throne in front of me, enchantress,” says Umbra dryly. “And we will speak of this later.”
Aurora turns back around. “We were just wondering whether any of this was connected to the Spidered Throne?”
The druid shudders and says that has nothing to do with the Unoerthly Cave - but is also something you should not seek.
“So how do we be navigatin’ t’ ther cave?” asks Willa. “Ye ‘ave a better map than this one?”
“Maps, feh,” the druid disparages. “Ye think ye can circumscribe th’ Oerth Mother Beory with paper an’ calc’lations? Ye think tha’ drawin’ a place in ink says anything aboot the place an’ its life? Nae, nae, I dinnae hae a map fer ye. Bu’ I can tell yer druid th’ names o’ the peaks an’ valleys an’ streams an’ forests twixt ‘ere an’ th’ caive. Nae the names ye call ‘em an’ write on yer “map”, bu’ the names they call themselves an’ t’ which ther own spirits answer! Yer druid can talk t’ th’ spirits an’ ask directions along th’ way.”
In addition, the druid explains to them that there will be two principle routes to choose from. One would continue north along the trail they used to come here, pass through the lands of the Dwarven Clan Stonereaver, then follow the last traces of the Upper Fyn high into the mountains, before summiting a high mountain pass and coming down on the Unoerthly Cave from above.
The other route would take them south and west around the bottom of the Lake of Rhun, up a different river valley high into the Barriers, across a number of rugged mountain ranges and finally a vast snowfield before coming upon the Cave from below.
Shefak asks about the weather to expect. He replies that it will be below freezing during the day, and far below freezing (below zero) at night. The greatest danger, however, will be the wind. While they are down in the valleys it will be strong, but when they need to cross ridges and on exposed faces it will be downright dangerous. The air will be thin, and they will be out of breath. They will need a heat source to keep their water from freezing - he warns them that eating snow will not keep them from dehydration and death.
As the druid explains all the hazards of the journey, Willa’s expression grows more and more sour. “An’ what be in it fer us?” she asks, finally.
The druid shrugs, saying that they came to him, asking about the starfall. He is giving them the precise location of it, in return for them investigating and reporting back about the cave. It seems a fair trade - if they want to try to find the location of the starfall from their map alone, they are welcome to try.
“Might be a fair trade fer ye,” says Willa to Aurora. “Wha’ do the rest of us want wi’ starmetal?”
“Oh, Willa,” chides Aurora. “Always so suspicious and negative. This starmetal is incredibly valuable. I’m sure it will have attracted monsters with treasures and such. We can keep those, right?”
The druid indicates that indeed the party is welcome to whatever they find or discover, so long as they can explain what they found in the Cave to the Council.
Willa is not satisfied, but she does turn to the more practical - asking the druid about what they will need in terms of supplies and equipment, such as snowshoes? And where they might get such gear.
The man says snowshoes would just be a burden except perhaps in the snowfield, but ‘boot spikes’ (crampons) would be of high utility. They will need fur-lined sleeping bags if they plan on resting at night - after examining their cold-weather clothes he thinks they are likely to be sufficient to move in the day. Alternatively they could sleep in the day in what they have and move at night, but then they would need better clothes rather than better bed rolls. They will certainly each need individual tents, or at least one large pavilion for all of them and their mounts. The mules are hearty enough that they can take the cold while moving, but they will need blankets, or to be kept in a tent and out of the wind, when they are resting. And of course, the mules will need liquid water as well. He recommends that the party purchase either a brass or iron camp stove and coal - actual, mineral coal, not the charcoal they have with them.
As to where they can find all of this, he suggests the Dwarves - they frequently travel in the mountains, and are skilled craftsfolk besides. When Willa asks whether the dwarves would be willing to offer them a fair deal, he says that although they are a proud and independent people, they are nominally under the rule of the Brennin of Gyruff, and maintain friendly relations with the Council. He can write them a letter of introduction that will insure they receive fair treatment, so long as they behave. As to what “behaving” means, he warns them to not ask questions, especially about their mines or livelihoods or family, to not speak until spoken to, to not haggle or show distrust, and generally to mind their own business.
While most of the party seems ready to agree, Willa is still convinced they are getting the short end of the stick, and asks what else the druid might be able to offer them. After a bit more negotiation, he offers to teach Larry a spell to protect them from the cold, provided he is able to cast spells of third level. When Larry says that he is (his favorite being lightning bolt) the man nods and says that it is unusual to see a free druid so powerful - and that Larry may want to see about joining some Circle or other at some point. Larry scoffs at the idea.
The Druid first teaches Larry the names of all the spirits of the land he will need to talk to to find the Cave (which takes the rest of the morning), and then, when he is sure Larry can recall them all, he teaches him the prayer he will need to call upon the spirits of the mountain for Protection from Cold, which takes much of the afternoon. Finally, Aurora lends him parchment, quill, and ink, and he writes out a letter, in both Common script and Dwarven runes (although none in the party, even Larry, can read the latter). It informs the Dwarves of Clan Stonereaver that the party (and it lists them all by name) are acting on behalf of the Council, and are to be treated as allies in their endeavor.
The druid takes his leave of the party and returns across the lake.
[ 7 human rations used; 36 human rations remaining
No mule rations used, forage all day; 16 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 103 pounds charcoal remaining] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
By far the best source for maps of Greyhawk comes from the work of Anna B Meyer. I used http://ghmaps.net for the party's travel. I would highly encourage any DM to use Anna's work, and anyone with the means to do so to support her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/annabmeyer
Post 153: The Lake of Rhun to Moradinath-Mor
8 February, 571 [Readying 17] - Lake of Rhun (5000' elevation)
[Clear; low 23, high 43]
The party leaves the village by the lake at first light, when it is still below freezing and the grass crunches underfoot. Thokk lags behind, with instructions to hunt for them once he is well away from the village itself. By late morning the sun has melted the hoarfrost and the day warms - but not as much as it did in the green valleys below, along the Lower Fyn. The first stretch away from the village is through dense fir forest, but by some two hours out of the village they emerge from the trees and the trail follows the banks of the upper Fyn. This river is not clouded by the mist that covered the lake or the lower Fyn and visibility is good, although increasingly limited by the narrowness of the river valley itself. Soon they are walking at the water’s edge in a steep, rocky canyon, with the trail climbing most of the time.
Willa reckons that it is as cold a day as they have felt since the “cold spell” on the Javan that set the merchants to speculating about giant raids. She is privately glad they are keeping warm by walking, and not immobile on the deck of a ship (although she would not admit that). With the blessing of the Great Mother Sea Cow, she will survive this foolishness and live to see the warm southern ocean again.
Shortly after their mid-day trail meal they come to a stone bridge over the Fyn, where the trail they are on crosses from the northern to the southern bank. The stonework on the bridge is elaborate, with four life-size statues of dwarves holding axes at the corners. It is easy to surmise that they are crossing into the land of the dwarves, although no guards greet them. Aurora, at Willa’s request, sends Buckbeak back to find Thokk. She doesn’t want him hunting in the lands of Clan Stonereaver, so he is recalled to join the party. Just after they cross the bridge together, he spots a group of mountain goats moving along the cliff face over the trail, and despite his protestations is not allowed to go after them.
In mid-afternoon, at what should be the warmest part of the day, it is barely above forty degrees, and the sun has passed from view beyond the walls of the steep canyon, although it will remain light for several more hours. Just an hour before their evening camp they cross the Fyn again, this time at an even more elaborately carved and decorated stone bridge.
[ 7 human rations used; 29 human rations remaining
1 mule ration used; supplemented by forage; 15 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 103 pounds charcoal remaining]
9 February, 571 [Readying 18] - Trail to Moradinath-Mor (7500' elevation)
[Clear; low 18, high 40]
The next day is spent moving along the trail, which now stays entirely on the northern side of the Upper Fyn for all twenty-five miles traveled. Sometimes they are in narrow rocky canyons right at the water’s edge, sometimes the southern wall of the valley pulls back a mile or more and there is fertile meadows that could be grazed by mules, goats, or sheep (and some evidence that it has been, though they see no sign of herds, flocks, or inhabitants at the moment). The northern wall of the canyon remains steep and close, sloping up to the great snow-covered Barrier Peaks above them.
The trail continues to gain elevation all day and it gets noticeably cooler as they go. For the last five miles, the trail leaves the river valley and begins making its way up the northern wall. Their camp this night is on a narrow ledge, scarcely three times wider than the trail itself. It appears that they will cross over a ridge and be able to move down into a valley on the morrow, but Willa does not wish to try the crossing in the dark, and the others are tired, sore, out of breath in the thin air, and cold enough to stop for the evening.
[ 7 human rations used; 22 human rations remaining
1 mule ration used, supplemented by forage; 14 mule rations remaining
No charcoal used; 103 pounds charcoal remaining] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Shortly after midnight, by the cloud-obscured light of Luna’s last quarter (Celene being new), those on watch see the finest of snowflakes drifting down. They melt rapidly after landing on the faces or sleeping rolls or hairy mule backs of those in the open, but accumulate on the stone trail and on the sloping roofs of the two new tents.
The breeze that heralds the morning rapidly whisks the snow away from the high pass, and although it continues to fall it does not build up on the trail. After a quick, cold, breakfast the party is on its way. They have barely started out when they find themselves tired and gasping for breath - the air here must be very thin. Even Thokk, raised at these elevations, is out of breath - he must have grown accustomed to the lowlands in the last ten months. Only Larry seems unaffected, and for once he is easily able to keep pace with the party.
Fortunately they do not have to go far before they summit the high pass and are able to look down on the vast valley below. Before them, in a wide bowl several miles across, is what they are seeking - the city of Moradinath-Mor, the city of the dwarves. At first glance they are overwhelmed by the number of walls, before realizing that most of the valley floor is paddocks. In the summer the valley must be lush with grass, but now it is all brown and frozen, though still divided into innumerable fields with gates and styles. At the outermost limits the rock walls are simply low piles of rough stones, cairn-walls such as one might build by collecting the rocks of the field where they lie. Closer to the center of the valley, the walls are of worked stone, squared and flattened, higher and straighter, though still enclosing open fields and the occasional stone barn or silo. By the time the walls of the city proper are reached, they are not only of worked stone, but every available surface is decoratively carved and linteled. The walls are high and cannot be seen over in many places. The city is full of statuary, gates, colonnades, arcades, porticoes, arches, plazas, amphitheaters, coliseums, domes, towers, basilicas, and keeps. It is as if hundreds of stonemasons had labored for generations to make every possible stone structure, but all balanced and in perfect proportion, not random or haphazard, but following a grand plan and all growing higher and finer into the very center of the city.
As they travel down the side of the mountain into the valley, they realize that the city itself appears deserted. No beasts move amongst the hundreds of empty paddocks. No people are seen in the open streets and squares of the city. Is this a ghost town, an abandoned marvel? Then someone points out a thin column of smoke rising against the leaden sky and falling snow. Soon they can pick out dozens of places where discreet or even invisible chimneys are venting smoke into the sky. The city is not abandoned - but there is no one, man or beast, out of doors or above ground.
They move through the outskirts of the city, where the trail becomes a broad flagstone road leading through the paddocks. While the valley floor is creased with ridges or rent with gullies, the road stays smooth and level, crossing over numerous stone bridges, cutting through embankments, occasionally lowering down long ramps with just the slightest hint of a grade. What they took from a distance to be barns and silos often are - but sometimes are not. Rather, they are occasionally stone bunkers and towers whose walls are perforated with crossbow slits. Similar to the archer’s nests in Talbaire, these have no visible doors, but unlike them they are large enough for whole squads of archers rather than a single bowman. Sometimes the bunkers have large iron plates completely shuttering wide, recessed windows. What waits behind those? Scorpions? More than once the more perceptive of the party hear noises from the bunkers and feel that they are being watched. Aurora suggests hailing the occupants, but Willa reminds her that the druid of the council said they were not to speak until spoken to. Throughout the morning the party continues, slowly making their way into the center of the city.
By the time the walls and buildings rise so high around them so that they cannot see the rest of the city, they begin to notice entryways to the underground. Darkened archways open on stairs descending below street level. Blind alleys end in broad, descending ramps that become tunnel mouths. They even pass a wide platform, large enough to fit them all at once, surrounded by scaffolding with ropes and pulleys suggesting that the whole thing could be lowered into the earth, like a huge version of the dumbwaiter-car in Castle Ravenloft. And the noises - a low hum of distant activity, a buzz of muted voices, the faint echoes of hammers or machinery.
Finally the road they are on enters a large, circular plaza. It exits through the opposite side, but all around the plaza are two and three-story buildings with numerous doors and windows, each one closed and shuttered.
Halfway through the plaza, clustered outside one of the buildings, is a group of dwarves. Four of them are in highly-polished scale mail from head to toe, with visored helms shut so that the only living parts of them that may be seen are their eyes and beards - everything else is covered in articulated metal. They bear two-handed swords, fully as long as they are tall. The fifth dwarf is dressed in fine furs and leathers, with a woolen robe of deepest blue closed with a silver neck chain. With a few hisses from Willa the party forms up in a straighter line, and approaches wordlessly at a slow, dignified pace. They walk up to two-sword’s lengths from the dwarves and then stop. Tyrius, at the fore, dismounts, removes his helmet, and bows his head.
The unarmored dwarf speaks in a deep, booming voice that several of them recognize as the Dwarven tongue, but none of them understand. They don’t respond. He speaks again, this time in Common. “Welcome, strangers. Welcome, travelers. Welcome to Moradinath-Mor.”
Tyrius says, in perhaps the simplest introductory speech he has ever given, “Thank you.” He pulls out, unrolls, and holds forth the parchment given them by the druid of Lake Rhun.
The unarmored dwarf takes the parchment and reads it slowly, looking at each of them in turn as if checking their number and appearance carefully against the descriptions on the parchment. Finished, he rolls up the parchment and, rather than return it, tucks it away. “You would stay the night?” he asks.
“We would, gratefully,” says Tyrius, “and…” At the unrequested addition, the dwarf’s eyes narrow and Willa’s go wide in alarm. “...and, were it acceptable, we would purchase supplies.”
There is a long and awkward silence before the dwarf finally gives a derisive snort. “So be it,” he says flatly.
Without another word spoken, the dwarf leads the party across the plaza to one of the buildings. Opening the door, they find what looks to be an empty inn. There is a kitchen, a common or dining room, a suite of connected bedrooms above and below, and a stable that has a broad exterior door and a small interior door opening on one of the bedrooms. The last room he shows them has a hand-pump for drawing water from some unknown source, a coal bin, and a coal stove with bronze water troughs on top. The troughs empty into a basin in the floor. Lined with polished stone and accessed by stairs, the basin is large enough to fit two of them at a time. It isn’t until the dwarf has left the room that Aurora first works out what it is (a heated bath!) and whispers “Yessss!” in his wake.
Once the various stoves and hearths of the inn have been running a while the whole place warms up, while outside, the snow has turned to sleet with the warmth of mid-day. The party has taken off their cold weather gear, bathed and changed into their travel clothes, and had their lunch of rations by the time the first tradesmen show up. Apparently the party is to wait at the inn while the custom comes to them. Throughout the afternoon dwarves arrive; some with pack mules, some with hand carts, all bearing goods. The first bring a general assortment of wilderness and adventuring gear, but after the party tells them what they are really interested in, the subsequent arrivals have inventories that are better suited to their desires.
In all, the party purchases:
10gp A pavilion tent
80gp Eight fur-lined sleeping rolls
10gp A double-sided wolf fur blanket
84gp One-hundred twelve human rations (two weeks for eight people)
3gp Twenty-eight mule rations (two weeks for two mules)
10gp A small bronze camp stove and a copper kettle
5gp “Cold weather gear” for one person
28gp Leather-and-iron crampons for seven
Two signal whistles -
10gp Fifty pounds of mineral coal
Total: 240gp
The pavilion has a central pole that is ironwood, light and very strong, with oil-treated canvas sides, hemp rope guys, and iron-shod ironwood stakes. Packed in end-to-end, all eight of the sleeping rolls will fit under it, as well as the mules, although they will have one of the tent-sides more-or-less draped over the beasts and those sleeping closest to them will be in danger of being trod or shat upon.
The sleeping rolls have water-proof leather exteriors and a variety of furs lining their insides - they are soft and quite warm. Sized for dwarves, they are over-wide for some of the party and a bit short for the humans, such that they come up to mid-chest rather than neck. Most of Thokk’s torso sticks out of his, the longest, so he is also sold a double-sided leather and wolf-fur blanket that he can wrap around the upper half of his body.
The people rations are mostly familiar - dried fruits, meats, and nuts. In place of hard tack and cheese, however, they have narrow strips of leathery brown material the dwarves call “mushroom jerky”.
The mule rations are mostly rolled oats lightly sweetened with molasses.
The bronze camp stove is sized for coal, not charcoal, with a tiny door that opens and closes.
Although Umbra has been using her sandals and emerald gown since they found her, and it is still without stain, tear, or fray, Tyrius insists on buying cold-weather gear, leather and furs, sized for her.
Leather harnesses with small, sharp iron knobs and points (similar to the cestes used by pit fighters) are purchased that can be tied onto their footwear to make crampons. Willa finds the design overly-complicated and asks whether they don’t just have footwear already incorporating the spikes, like hobnailed boots. The dwarves chuckle and say no - if the iron is part of the shoe itself, it will transmit the cold to the inside of their shoes and their feet will get frostbite! They buy seven sets - Larry insists on going barefoot, even over the predicted ice.
Two shrill little carved soapstone whistles are given to Tyrius as trinkets without charge.
The hard pieces of mineral coal are said to burn twice as hot as charcoal for the weight, but are much denser and so fit in a bag even smaller than the bag of charcoal. A few pieces should be able to heat the bronze stove enough to warm a meal or heat their tent.
After the party tells the first dwarven merchants that they would like to pay in gems, a craftsman arrives with a jeweler’s eyepiece, a small precision balance, a curious lantern with colored glass filter plates, and other strange tools. Babshapka lays out all 39 gems the party recovered in the Tower of Nholast, and the dwarf assesses them as follows:
0.5gp very small jet
0.5gp very small topaz
1gp small chalcedony
1gp large lapis lazuli
1gp very small amethyst
1.2gp rhodochrosite
1.2gp huge moss agate
1.4gp very large azurite
2gp very small garnet
2gp very small peridot
5gp small spinel
5gp huge azurite
5gp huge malachite
5gp very large banded agate
5gp chrysoprase
7gp very large tiger eye
8gp very large turquoise
10gp large citrine
10gp large sardonyx
10gp very large malachite
10gp sardonyx
10gp garnet
10gp coral
35gp large jade
50gp peridot
50gp huge hematite
50gp very small black sapphire.
50gp very large sardonyx
50gp large coral
50gp very small diamond
50gp very small ruby
100gp large black pearl
100gp large spinel
100gp star ruby
100gp huge lapis lazuli
100gp very large chalcedony
100gp small oriental emerald
100gp very small ruby
500gp very large jet
Knowing that they will not have this chance again in any human city, Aurora is at first excited at the prospect of using the note from the druid to get a “fair deal” and changing all of their gems into coin. Willa quickly reminds her that even the smallest and most meager gems are lighter than coins, and they are heavily-laden enough as it is. Perhaps they can consider selling their gems upon their return from the Unoerthly Cave, should they pass by this city again.
It is thus decided that they will part with only enough gems to equal the 240gp in gear that they are buying. But this could be just a few of the larger gems, or any number of the smaller ones. Willa initially argues that they should get rid of as many as the smaller gems as they can, to lighten the load. Aurora counters that if they are sure they are getting a fair deal here, they should instead just use two or three of the large gems, since they will “keep their value” and if the party are forced to change gems somewhere else, they will lose less upon exchanging small ones than large. Tyrius adds his thoughts to the mix. In the end, they decide to go with Aurora’s plan of using the highest-value gems, and hand over...
100gp large spinel
100gp huge lapis lazuli
50gp large coral
...and accept ten gold lions in Geoffian coins in change. Aurora also carefully records the values given by the dwarf for the other gems and even has him put his mark on the paper, as possible leverage in future dealings with gem buyers.
The relative warmth of the afternoon has turned the sleet to drizzle. By mid-afternoon, that too has ceased and the skies slowly clear - the temperature drops outside and a thin layer of skim ice forms on the wet cobbles of the plaza. Larry says that as high as this alpine valley is, they will be going higher on the morrow - soon even the relative heat of mid-day will be below freezing.
While it remains dry outside, Willa insists on packing the mules this afternoon and putting them through their paces, formalizing the packs today rather than tomorrow in the morning when it could be wet again. They start by packing the pavilion tent, all one hundred pounds of it, on Randy. As he walks around the plaza, laden, with Eddard beside him, the warhorse shakes his head. “Nope, that’ll make him slower than the rest of the party”. The mule can easily bear the load, but at the cost of a reduced pace. A few flasks of oil are moved to Larry, some rations are moved to Andy, and finally Eddard is satisfied that Randy will be able to keep up. However, they have not yet added any of the other gear they just purchased. There will need to be a drastic reduction in what they are carrying to make room for all of the new gear.
They can replace their lowland sleeping rolls with the fancy new fur-lined bags. They can leave the charcoal behind as they have coal. But they will still need to shed something to carry all of the rations they have purchased…
As they are enjoying their evening meal, a dwarf shows up asking for payment for the inn, at one gold for each of them. Willa turns this around in her head. “An ‘ow much would it be fer us ta keep some t’ings ‘ere until we return?”
The dwarf is taken aback by the request, but has to admit that there is not much custom in the winter, and that it will not be much of a bother for the gear to be stowed in one bedroom of the closed building. Once he is assured that it won’t contain live animals or food or anything else that could go bad, he agrees to let them store their things for 1 gold lion a day, plus a promise that they will use the inn again for at least one night upon their return.
Once they know that their things can be stored in relatively safety, the party finds other things they can shed besides sleeping rolls and charcoal, principally the three heavy tomes carried by Aurora, Thokk, and Andy. After all, sighs Aurora, they needed the diary and the book of star positions to find the starfall, but now Larry will be doing that for them.
They leave behind:
Andy Book of Infernal Bargains (20lb), History of the Good Hills (5lb), 65 pounds of Charcoal, 5 lowland bedrolls
Randy 38 pounds of charcoal
Umbra: Bedroll
Aurora: Diary of Nholast (20lb)
Shefak: Bedroll
Thokk: Star book (20lb)
Willa: Bedroll
[DM’s note: All of party members are now at less than two pounds from being encumbered. Andy’s pack is at 410.6 pounds, and Randy’s is at 394 pounds (the most they can carry and still move is 420 pounds). Both of the mules are heavily encumbered, and will be moving at 20 feet per turn and will have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. The party will use rations and coal from the mules' packs first, eventually dropping them to encumbered and removing the penalties.]
The party turns in, eager to be off on the morrow.
[ 7 human rations used, 15 remaining, 112 purchased; total 127
2 mule rations used, 12 remaining, 28 purchased; total 40
No charcoal or coal used; 50 pounds coal purchased] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Notes:
By far the best source for maps of Greyhawk comes from the work of Anna B Meyer. I used http://ghmaps.net for the party's travel. I would highly encourage any DM to use Anna's work, and anyone with the means to do so to support her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/annabmeyer
Post 155: The Orcs of Gruumsh 11 February, 571 [Readying 20] - Moradinath-Mor (c. 11,000 feet elevation)
[Light snow 11am-5pm, foot travel at 3/4 normal]
[Low 18, high 31]
[Randy starts the day with 394lb, Andy 387lb; both heavily encumbered]
The party leaves at first light, but finds an escort of dwarves waiting outside the inn when they open the doors. Whether they are the same individuals as before or different is impossible to tell, for they are likewise clad in gleaming scale mail with nothing visible but their eyes and beards. Neither do they speak, and the dwarf who spoke to them the previous day is not to be seen. They take the party silently north through the city, and out to the edge of the furthest paddock before stopping without so much as a fare-thee-well.
This side of the valley has no road, not even a trail, but Larry meditates for a bit and then says that the mountain spirits are guiding him north, up a little draw between a peak to the northeast and the shoulder of a much larger peak to the northwest. All morning they work their way up the trail-less rocky valley. Despite Larry’s warning the previous day, they are not gaining much elevation, and the city of Moradinath-Mor lies behind them, not below them.
In late morning they are beginning to pass through the narrowest spot between the peaks when a light snow begins to fall. This, and the thin air, slows the party considerably. Fortunately the mules are slowed even more by their heavily burdens, and since they are setting the pace, the effects of weather and altitude on their progress are negligible. Willa estimates that they have traveled about five miles when she calls for the mid day meal.
After their break they turn northwest, the valley floor now following the lowest point between two ridges. The ridge to their right is steep and dark, the one to their left an easier slope but covered in snow.
The snowfall ceases at about the time the sun passes behind the mountains; Willa keeps them marching another hour in the twilight before selecting a campsite with just enough loose soil and scree that they can use their tent stakes, and as well where the last hour of wind has blown most of the snow away. With Larry providing unfrozen water at each stop, and the trail rations not requiring cooking, they use no coal, saving it for the higher elevations to come where they will need it to heat the tent.
[ 7 human rations used; 120 human rations remaining
2 mule rations used (no forage); 38 mule rations remaining
No coal used; 50 pounds coal remaining]
12 February, 571 [Readying 21] - Barrier Peaks, c. 11,000 feet elevation
[Low 13, high 33]
[Randy starts the day with 380lb, Andy 377lb; both heavily encumbered]
After midnight the temperature continues to drop, but does not go below zero. Randy and Andy, who were in and out of the open side of the tent at first, eventually settle down (or realize it is warmer inside) and remain inside the tent with the canvas draped loosely over their backs. Between the mules and eight party members, the tent rapidly warms, and in their fur-lined sleeping rolls those not on watch pass a comfortable night. Those on watch, outside, find they need to keep moving to keep the cold bearable. Fortunately there is little wind down here in the valley bottom.
The next day dawns clear and even Willa has to admit that the rosy light paints a majestic mountain landscape of rugged peaks and vast snowfields all about them, with nary a sign of habitation as far as they can see, and they can see many miles. The trail from the Lake of Rhun to Moradinath-Mor was deserted of people, of course, but it was a trail, and besides the stone bridges it was crowded with mule flops, discarded bits and pieces of broken tack, and abandoned campfire rings. Here they have a true remote wilderness, with the sense that they are the first people to pass through, or at least the first in a long, long while.
The march itself, morning and afternoon, is uneventful - unless you can count the fact that it gets above freezing for about an hour in the afternoon as an “event”. The party continues up the long valley between the two massive mountain ranges, adding another ten miles or so by day’s end, still traveling at the pace of the heavily-laden mules. When they make their evening camp, the mountain spirits tell Larry that they are now beyond the places the Stonereaver dwarves regularly visit, and only occasionally are these peaks and valleys seen by two-leg eyes.
[ 7 human rations used; 113 human rations remaining
2 mule rations used (no forage); 36 mule rations remaining
No coal used; 50 pounds coal remaining]
Aurora and Tyrius have the 9pm to 11pm watch. Their watch starts with the night air in the twenties but rapidly dropping into the high teens. Having learned from the night before, the party gathered bits of scrub wood while it was still light, and after dinner Aurora shot firebolts at them until the green and half-frozen wood finally ignited. She and Tyrius now sit by a decent campfire to warm themselves. Willa is currently sleeping in the pavilion, and won’t be on watch until they are done, so she is not there to scold them that sitting by the fire means they are blind to the night around them.
Surprise Round
Without warning, the cold night air is split by the whoosh of fletched javelins. Both Tyrius and Aurora are struck, but have no idea from whence. Their shouts of alarm wake the rest of the party, who begin to rush out of the pavilion dressed in no more than their nightclothes, but with weapons in their hands.
Round 1
As the party rushes out of the pavilion, those with darkvision, and not standing next to the fire, see a host of orcs moving toward the camp from the southeast. Another volley of javelins lands among the party, wounding several of them. Tyrius calls to Eddard, and the warhorse is at his side with a clatter of hooves on the hard rock. Tyrius vaults onto the horse bareback, and casts the blessing of Pelor on Thokk, Larry, and himself. By the power of his spirit bond with Eddard, the spell benefits the horse as well.
The sudden shouts and rushing about of the party has spooked the mules, and they too bolt out of the pavilion into the darkness, stamping their hooves nervously.
The orcs have stopped their advance, but continue throwing javelins. Unbeknownst to the party, they are attempting to provoke a response, drawing the party away from the tents so that the real strike force can move in, but Aurora has other plans.
Round 2
Shefak uses the light of Luna’s waning crescent and Celene’s waxing crescent to charge forward. She finds an orc opponent and strikes at him mercilessly with fists, feet, and staff.
Aurora ignores the fact that she still does not see their attackers, but trusts that they are somewhere beyond Thokk in the general direction that he even now is facing. She sends a full-scale fireball into the darkness, rather near to where Shefak is engaged in melee. “Aurora!” cautions Willa after the missile launches, but it is too late. The massive explosion illuminates the night (28 damage) and creates a boom that echoes up and down the valley for miles around. Of the orcs attacking from the south, nine are slain immediately and another three are wounded, with their heavy winter leathers still aflame. Satisfied, Aurora slinks away from the campfire and takes cover from the javelins in a cluster of nearby boulders.
Babshapka uses the light of the now multiple fires to send out arrows towards their attackers, and then, seeing one particularly large one, casts hunter’s mark for good measure.
Thokk rushes forward and engages the remaining orcs in melee.
Tyrius and Eddard are farthest from the remaining orcs, but charge forward. Tyrius casts the light of Pelor on his shield to reveal the battlefield to his human eyes as the fires die out.
From the rear of a camp comes a sudden shriek. In the boulders, Aurora finds herself surrounded by a group of orcs and casts her shield spell as a defensive reaction. The initial javelin volley from the south was a diversion, allowing this group to sneak closer to the camp. In the center of camp, a third group of orcs is rapidly approaching the mules. Their weapons are stowed and each of their hands are free - apparently they intend to grab the halters and make off with the beasts!
One of the infiltrating groups moves closer to Babshapka. Suddenly he is recognized as an elf and hoarse shouts of “Lulgijak!” are taken up by the orcs as they point their weapons his way. [Thokk will later tell the party that this literally means “flowers-for-blood” but is typically an insulting way to refer to an elf]. Immediately all of the orcs nearby throw their remaining javelins at Babshapka and then charge, including a few that, moments before, had been intent on stealing the mules. [Babshapka takes a total of 22hp damage this round from multiple hits].
Round 3
Larry maneuvers himself so that all of the orcs approaching the mules form a single line from his perspective, then calls on the spirits of the mountains to help him hurl a lightning bolt down the line [30 damage]. The bolt narrowly misses the mules themselves and they bray in terror.
Babshapka continues to fire arrows, trying to avoid being hit by the mob gathering around him. Aurora shrieks again, but with all the orcs about specifically targeting him, Babshapka knows that running to her side will just draw more enemies there. “Go help Aurora!” he shouts at Willa.
Willa turns from the orcs in the south, by now well under control, and sees the distance she will have to cover to get to Aurora. She runs, preparing to jump over the campfire as the shortest way there (Athletics check 8, critical fail), but trips on the rocky ground and flies sprawling through the fire itself, singing her nightclothes and sending a shower of sparks everywhere. Aurora dodges the orcs as best she can in the hope that Willa can recover soon.
Shefak continues to rain monkly fury down on those still around her, losing her staff (critical miss) in the process but striking on unarmed and dauntless, then suddenly landing even more blows, regaining her staff, and seeming to disappear from the thick of the combat (1 ki point for flurry of blows, a second ki point for step of the wind and a bonus disengage).
Of the orcs left in the diversionary force, the only one of any import is a huge, scarred chieftain. Tyrius and Eddard ride him down, hammer and hooves falling, and in a second Thokk is by their side, landing blows of his own, but the massive brute remains standing.
Umbra emerges from the tent and cloaks herself in an armor of shadows. Through the darkness she sees a new orc arriving, this one with a spear in its hands and a second, glowing, spear floating beside it. By the light of the glowing spear she can see that he has only one good eye, the other being a gaping hole gently oozing near-frozen blood onto his cheek.
A knot of orcs launches a volley of javelins at the retreating Shefak, but she spins, catches the first one, and throws it back, wounding its owner. Some of the others hit her, though, staining her nightclothes with blood.
Aurora continues to dance around the orcs encircling her, but as her nicks, scratches, and close calls continue, she knows it will not be much time until her luck runs out.
Round 4
Larry launches another lightning bolt (25 points), again narrowly avoiding both mules and party members. Thokk, Tyrius, and Eddard continue to engage the orc leader. Shefak is now on the other side of camp, teaching the orcs there about the harmony of universal truth with her staff and feet, but taking damage as well and ultimately falling unconscious.
Willa reaches Aurora’s side, pushing her out of the way and taking several blows meant for the wizard (22 points). In a surge of anger, she returns the blows on every orc nearby (action surge).
Babshapka has retreated to the inside of the pavilion, so as to face fewer numbers of attackers at once, but he continues to fire arrows at those who are trying to enter the open flaps. The one-eyed orc pierces the heavy canvass on the other side of the tent with his long-headed spear, and rends the fabric all the way through to the ground, then steps through. He gestures at Babshapka, and the glowing spear strikes the elf in his side.
Round 5
Freed from immediate danger, Aurora sees a second one-eyed orc approaching the tent, and sends forth an underwhelming volley of magic missiles (cast at second level for four missiles, total of 9 points damage). Thokk, Tyrius, and Eddard continue to batter the orc leader.
Inside the pavilion, Babshapka begins shooting at the one-eyed orc while trying to avoid both of his spears.
Round 6
Babshapka draws back his bow to its full extent, and fires point-blank at the eye-hole of the orc in the tent. The orc falls to the floor, one arrow deep in his skull and a second in his chest (26 points).
Larry hurries to Shefak’s side, using a healing word to restore her to consciousness.
The fight with the orc chief continues unfettered, until finally the huge brute falls to the ground and ceases to struggle. Thokk hurls a javelin at a retreating orc so hard it overshoots, hits a rock, and breaks (critical miss).
Aurora shields herself again, but still takes damage.
Shefak rises unsteadily to her feet, but is almost immediately struck down again by a fleeing orc in a parting blow.
The second one-eyed orc enters the pavilion through the entrance flaps and attacks Babshapka.
Round 7
As most of the orcs remaining are in general retreat, Thokk turns and runs to the tent, entering to engage the one-eyed orc. He and Babshapka attack the orc from both sides.
Everyone else in the party converges on the three orcs standing over the body of Shefak, with weapons, fire bolts, and poison sprays. Those that survive the initial onslaught turn and run. Once the second orc in the pavilion is slain, all orcs remaining are in full rout, and Shefak is soon pulled back from the brink of death by the grace of Pelor.
Aftermath
The party listens carefully to the sound of the retreating orcs for several minutes before letting down their guard. They check the bodies of the fallen foes, dragging them away from the tent itself and the nervous mules. They have poor quality weapons, armor of no account, and a few tarnished silver coins each. The “food” they carry is inedible to all but Thokk, and their own mules are still overburdened by rations.
When the party finally re-enters the pavilion, they find Umbra standing next to the huge rent in the tent side. She is humming softly to herself and making a motion in the air, as if she is sewing with an invisible needle and thread. Slowly, inch by inch, the heavy canvas of the tent is drawing itself together and sealing closed, with nary a trace remaining of the great tear and frayed edges.
Once Aurora has received some magical ministrations to her wounds, she and Tyrius return to their guard duty - only now, they take turns at the campfire, so that one of them is warm, while the other one is uncomfortably cold but can actually see into the night.
Inside the pavilion, Thokk has become the party’s cultural guide, explaining in his simple and direct language the intricacies of orc tribes, political structure, and religious beliefs. Each orc tribe, he explains, experiences a constant tension between the secular leaders (the chieftain and his favored lieutenants) and the religious leaders (shamen). Although the orcs as a people worship many gods, any one tribe worships only one god, for the shamans of the tribe will not permit the worship of any god but their own patron under penalty of death. The gods collectively embody all of the best features of the orcs, but each tribe focuses on only one of these features and that shapes the development of their particular culture. Tribes in which the shamen are the dominant force tend to be more insular, attacking any neighboring tribe that is not of their faith, and often warring as much with other orcs or humanoids as they do with humans and demi-humans. Tribes in which a strong chieftain is able to curtail the power of the shamen are more open to political alliance, uniting with same-faith tribes and other humanoids against their common foes the humans and demi-humans. Occasionally an orc warlord emerges who is personally so powerful and charismatic that he eclipses the shamen, unites all of the orc hordes under him and even makes alliances with tribes of different faiths. Then the human cities are put to the torch, the elves hide in the forests, and the dwarves cower behind their gates of stone.
When asked by the others what faith these orcs who ambushed them were, Thokk explains that they are obviously those of Gruumsh, the Allfather who created the orcs themselves as well as all the other orc gods. He is usually called Gruumsh One-Eye, for He lost His other eye to an elven god’s arrow at the dawn of time when the elves tried to take the forests away from the orcs and said they could not live there. Gruumsh is the god of survival and conquest of territory. It is He who urges the orcs to fulfill their destiny of living everywhere on Oerth, in all environments, and enslaving all other peoples, but destroying elves. To become a shaman of Gruumsh, an orc must pluck out his own eye and cast it into a fire as a sacrifice to the god. If he lives, he will be granted divine favor and the power to cast spells. Although the dress, the tattoos, and other features were indicative as well, it was the presence of the one-eyed shamen that most clearly gave away the identity of their attackers. Collectively, all of the orcs under the shamen of Gruumsh are called the “Tribes of the Evil Eye”.
After the party has absorbed this, Willa’s curiosity gets the better of her and she asks Thokk what tribe he was raised in. His father’s tribe, Thokk says proudly, was one of the “Tribes of the Dripping Blade”, with the shamen serving Ilneval, who Gruumsh created to be His trusted lieutenant. Dripping Blade orcs desire battle itself more than conquest, displays of prowess more than killing, but they are also strategically and politically astute, and the most willing of the orcs to make alliances between different groups for tactical advantage. It is because he was raised in this tribe, concludes Thokk, that he is simultaneously so wise, so battle-savvy, and so easy to get along with. And, he says, choking up with emotion, it is also because of this that he values so much the faithful service of his evil advisor. “Thokk thank you for question and for loyalty,” he says finally, sniffing back a manly tear as he looks gratefully at Willa.
[Slain: 28 regular orcs, 2 orc eyes of Gruumsh, 1 orc war chief]
[Taken: 117 sp] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
You make me eager for Tuesday afternoons. I love large parties and your campaign logs are a pleasure to read.
How familiar are your players with Greyhawk canon and the contents of the classic modules? I'm curious as to how they'll react to the Starfall and what, if anything, you've changed to avoid spoilers.
You make me eager for Tuesday afternoons. I love large parties and your campaign logs are a pleasure to read.
It is great to be appreciated!
CruelSummerLord wrote:
How familiar are your players with Greyhawk canon and the contents of the classic modules? I'm curious as to how they'll react to the Starfall and what, if anything, you've changed to avoid spoilers.
At this point in time, I don't think any of them knew or suspected what the implication of "a fallen star in the Barrier Peaks" was. Fortunately I did not have to do anything to avoid spoilers - none of them knew what they were getting into! The defining conceit of this campaign was 'a tour of the classic modules of Greyhawk updated to 5e'. The original point was that setting it in Greyhawk made it less work for me, so I could focus on the 5e conversion rather than the backstories, but in retrospect it worked well that none of them had prior Greyhawk experience.
The game was originally in person with colleagues from work in Utah...
Player 1: Thokk and Aurora
Player 2: Barnabus and Tyrius
Player 3 (son of Player 2): Larry and Babshapka
We then added...
Player 4: Willa
Player 5 (my daughter): Shefak
After I moved to California and the game went online, immediately...
Player 2 dropped, Barnabus retired and Tyrius was retained as a collective party PC
Player 3 dropped, Babshapka was taken over by Player 4, and Larry was taken over occasionally by Player 6 (Player 1's son)
Eventually...
Player 7 (former colleague from Utah) was added with Umbra, but she never was able to find the playtime she needed.
Her son (Player 8 ) briefly took on Tyrius.
So, at this point in the story we have:
Player 1: Thokk and Aurora (and often helping with Larry)
Player 4: Willa and Babshapka (and often helping with Tyrius)
Player 5 (my daughter): Shefak
Player 6 (Player 1's son): Occasionally Larry
Player 7: Occasionally Umbra
Player 8 (Player 7's son): Occasionally Tyrius.
The three younger players (5, 6, 8) had no previous with RPGs before I had a BECMI campaign set in Mystara with (5) and (8). (That game is logged on my Obsidian Portal site). Player (6) had no experience with RPG's before he started, and none of them had played in Greyhawk.
Player 1 came into D&D with 5e. His is a tragic tale with a happy ending - he was prevented from playing RPG's in his youth by his religiously conservative family, and now in his middle age they are his passion and he shares them with his own children as much as he can. Before and during this game he ran a number of 5E adventure series for his children and for myself and other work friends, but they didn't give him any background on Greyhawk.
Player 4 played a lot of D&D in college (c. 2E?) but hadn't played in years when she joined our group. She says her college experience was pretty free-form, and "I don't think we ever finished a module". I doubt there was an explicit setting in their group, so she had little to no Greyhawk experience either. After a few sessions of the Starfall she remarked to one of her college friends that she was currently fighting vegepygmies, and his response was "There are SO MANY of them!" That was the closest she got to a spoiler, and it was after we had already started the adventure proper. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
So who generally plays Umbra? Is she a DMNPC, or do your other players take turns playing her? I notice she hasn't done much in the last couple of sessions.
So who generally plays Umbra? Is she a DMNPC, or do your other players take turns playing her? I notice she hasn't done much in the last couple of sessions.
Umbra's player was one of the principals in my BECMI Mystara game, and she and I spent a lot of time in Umbra's backstory development around the time of my move to California. While she was an enthusiastic player in person, for family, schedule, and personal reasons we found she just couldn't commit to online play. She was with us in most sessions throughout the Tower of Nholast (Posts 106-118). Her long period of unconsciousness at the end of that was in part plot-driven, but in part was for us to try to work out a time she could play more easily. She was with us during the ogre attack (Post 149) but at that point was missing more live sessions then not. Typically I played her as a DMNPC when her player couldn't be with us. She made the first few Starfall sessions but eventually just stopped coming, at which point I created a diverging storyline to move several of the characters without permanent players out of the party. I still hope to return to 'the others' someday, though! _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
By far the best source for maps of Greyhawk comes from the work of Anna B Meyer. I used http://ghmaps.net for the party's travel. I would highly encourage any DM to use Anna's work, and anyone with the means to do so to support her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/annabmeyer
Post 156: Save vs. Cold
13 February, 571 [Readying 22] - Barrier Peaks, 12000 feet elevation
[Clear; low 8, high 26.]
[Randy starts day with 366lb, Andy 367; both heavily encumbered]
After Aurora and Tyrius are done with their watch, the others in the party take each their turn. Temperatures drop into the single digits. Those with darkvision not sitting next to the fire can see the bodies of the thirty-some orcs strewn about the camp steaming as they give up the heat of life, then slowly hardening and freezing over. By morning they are frozen solid.
Umbra and Babshapka greet the dawn gratefully and rouse the rest of the party, who are glad of the pavilion as they try to move as quickly as possible from their sleeping rolls into their winter gear or armor or both before stepping outside. After Larry has prepared fresh water for the party (and the mules) and they have chewed their way through a cold, hard breakfast of trail rations, they are off.
The valley they are following continues to rise throughout the course of the day, the air growing ever thinner and colder despite the sun. It certainly doesn’t rise above freezing. They get closer and closer to the tops of the peaks around them, going from the base of great cliffs in the morning to being only a few thousand feet from the tops of the ridges at day’s end. They camp at the end of the valley, where a “Y” intersection means they can no longer go west (unless they wish to travel straight up the snow-topped cliff face in front of them). Rather, in the morning, they will need to decide between the northern and southern branches of the valley.
As the rest of the party prepares their evening camp, Larry meditates, eyes closed, speaking to the mountain spirits around them. His indecipherable voice rises and falls like the wind, occasionally booming like thunder or cracking like ice.
As the party takes their evening meal inside the pavilion, Larry reports to them that they have a choice to make. The Unoerthly Cave lies over and beyond the ridge in front of them, and they will need to go around the mountain to reach it, but they can go either north or south. The northern way is shorter, and will allow them to stay in the valley for almost the entire way. However, there is one final high pass over the ridge that will be at a great elevation, along a way that is always covered in snow and ice, before dropping down into the valley wherein lies the cave. The southern way is longer and more circuitous, and they will need to pass over a series of no less than three mountain passes in a succession of smaller ridges. However, none of those passes is as high as the single pass to the north. The mountain spirits know no human measures, and cannot tell him how high, how cold, or how windy any of the passes are - only that the northern way is higher, colder, and windier than any of the series of passes in the south. He opens the party conversation to opinions, for he says they will need to decide their route before setting out in the morning.
There is also the more immediate matter of the watch schedule. They are up far above treeline, and haven’t seen even bushes since morning, or frozen grasses since mid day. There will be nothing local with which to start a fire for tonight's camp. Those on watch outside the pavilion may need to bring the camp stove out and burn coal to stay warm enough to do their duty, or they may simply assume that it is cold and desolate enough here that they do not need to set an exterior guard, just making sure that someone is always awake and on watch inside the tent. They may, after all, need the stove to keep the tent warm if tonight is even colder than the night before! They could take turns of, say, one watching outside for half an hour before switching places with one awake but inside the tent and continuing to rotate throughout the watch. Or, they could simply try to both “tough it out” - with both those on watch outside regardless of the cold. They do, after all, have three casters capable of healing them of damage in the morning.
After Willa, Aurora, and Tyrius confer, it is agreed that they will follow their normal watch schedule, outside the tent. Larry will cast his protection from cold on one of the watchers, and they will take the camp stove outside in an attempt to keep warm those on watch as well. Aurora’s brazier will be set up with coal at the ready inside the tent, in case that needs to be heated as well.
As to their destination on the morrow, Willa says that they should take the path best suited to the mules and Eddard; Aurora agrees. Eddard seems to take this as an invitation to speak. He says they don’t know much about either path except that one is longer and the other is colder. Both are costs, but longer is a cost they can bear easier than colder - they have plenty of time, and plenty of food, but they don’t know how much cold they can protect themselves from. If they were being chased, or were chasing someone else, the risk of the high pass might be worth it. But in their current situation, the risk of any of them freezing, especially the mules, is not worth the benefit of arriving a few days sooner at the cave. While he is at it, Eddard says that they should start to feed the mules more - he suggests a ration and a quarter a day, so that they can more easily maintain their inner heat. The others agree to Eddard's counsel.
Thokk and Larry are on the first watch (7-9pm). At the start of their watch, it is already below twenty outside. Larry casts his protection on himself, both because Thokk pridefully says it is not necessary, and because he has to admit his bare feet are getting cold standing on the ice, snow, and cold rock.
[Temperature is below 30F but not below 0F. Everyone will need at least two factors of protection to avoid saving throws against the cold or three factors to rest. Thokk and Larry both have “cold weather gear” and so do not need saves. The stove, and Larry’s spell, will make them more comfortable, but are not necessary. Those inside the tent have already three factors without lighting the brazier; the tent itself plus their fur-lined bags. They rest comfortably.]
Second watch is Aurora and Tyrius (9-11pm). Temperatures are in the mid-teens. No coal necessary, though Aurora does occasionally open the door of the stove and shoot in a succession of firebolts, then warm her hands over the re-radiated heat.
Third watch is Willa and Babshapka (11pm - 1am). Temperatures are in the low teens.
Fourth watch is Shefak and Babshapka (1am - 3am). Temperatures are in the high single digits.
Fifth watch is Umbra and Babshapka (3am - 5am). Temperatures are in the mid single digits.
The lowest temperatures are just before dawn as the party begins their day, in the low single digits. If they continue to climb higher along the mountain path, it will likely go below zero on the morrow’s watch, and the camp stove may be necessary for those outside at camp.
[ 7 human rations used; 106 human rations remaining
2.5 mule rations used (no forage, extra 0.25 each for warmth); 33.5 mule rations remaining
No coal used; 50 pounds coal remaining]
14 February, 571 [23 Readying] - Barrier Peaks, 14000 feet elevation
[Ice crystals in air (frozen heavy fog) 6pm to 7am; low 3, high 20]
[Randy starts day with 354lb, Andy 353; both heavily encumbered]
The party starts off down the southern trail as fast as the mules allow in the morning. They are at high elevation, of course, but still in a broad valley between two mountain ridges that are even higher. Both ridges are snow-covered. Down here there are no snowfields, but the valley floor is a mix of ice patches and fallen rocks that they have to slowly pick their way between.
Soon after their lunch break a narrow valley to their right draws Larry’s interest. After several minutes conferring with the spirits, he says that they will be going up this, rather than continuing south up the broad valley. Turn they do, and head up this much smaller side valley. Here it is narrow, barely more than a mile across, and has a curiously flat bottom and steep sides. Larry repeatedly shakes his head and mutters, and eventually says that the spirits keep telling him that this valley was carved by a massive river of ice, as if that was a thing possible. He hopes they are honestly mistaken, and not treacherous, for if they cannot trust the spirits to guide them, they are lost indeed.
The valley twists and turns sharply twice, until just as it is growing dark it appears to dead end in a wall of rock and ice. Larry says that this the start of the first low pass - that they will need to cross the ridge in front of them in the morning, the arm of the mountain that they have been walking along the base of all day. Currently none of them can see how they are going to do that - the cliff face is nearly straight up. Possible for them with their climbing gear perhaps, but not the mules and Eddard. Larry can only say that this is what the spirits have told him. Thokk shrugs it off unworried, and says that he can scout a path in the morning that even the clumsy mules can walk.
As they make camp, the air is full of delicate, dancing ice crystals - like tiny snowflakes, but just floating in the air. Larry believes it is moist enough to have fog, but too cold to do so, and Thokk agrees. Temperatures overnight drop into the low single digits, and again they decide to forgo the use of the coal, saving it for a time of greater need.
[ 7 human rations used; 99 human rations remaining
2.5 mule rations used (no forage, extra quarter ration); 31 mule rations remaining
No coal used; 50 pounds coal remaining]
15 February, 571 [24 Readying] - Barrier Peaks, 14,500 feet elevation
[Clear; low 2, high 20]
[Randy starts day with 340lb, Andy 340; both heavily encumbered]
The camp starts moving before dawn and when it is just above zero. When the sun finally clears the ridge to the east, Thokk and Larry have a good, long look at the cliff face in front of them, conferring about possible routes. When they are both convinced that there is a way up, they start the party forward (Survival (Mountains), 25, plus help is 30).
Willa has arranged the party in order single file, knowing that the way up may include narrow ledges. Tyrius asks to be in the center, with the mules, so that the protection of Pelor may extend to as many of them as possible (Aura of Protection, +3 to saves for allies within 10’). Eddard volunteers to go in advance, making sure the way is passable for mules, and safe for all - as he reminds them sardonically, if he plummets down the cliff face to his death, it will only take a single spell from Tyrius to bring him back.
Over the next two hours they climb. Although the day warms as they go, the increasing wind makes it feel like it is effectively below zero, the coldest they have faced so far.
My House Rules wrote:
Below 0F. Whenever the temperature is below 0F, a creature exposed to the cold must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw at the end of each hour or gain one level of exhaustion. Creatures with a total of three factors of protection automatically succeed on the saving throw. Those with two factors have advantage on the save, one factor has a flat +2. A total of four factors of protection or a successful save are necessary in order to gain the benefits of taking a rest.
[Note: everyone has three factors of protection, with cold weather gear plus activity, so no saves are needed at the moment]
They spend as short a time possible on the ridge crest itself, buffeted by winds, and eyes stinging too much to take in the view, before starting down the other side. Here they are unable to plan their descent very far ahead, but simply have to trust to Larry’s intuition. (Survival (Mountains), 26, plus Thokk's help is 31).
Once out of the wind and down in the valley on the other side, they have a good long rest with food and fresh water, then continue on for the day, through narrow and twisting canyons. They are still deep within one such canyon when Willa calls for the night’s camp.
[ 7 human rations used; 92 human rations remaining
2.5 mule rations used (no forage and extra quarter ration); 28.5 mule rations remaining
No coal used; 50 pounds coal remaining]
16 February, 571 [25 Readying] - Barrier Peaks, 17,000 feet elevation
[Cloudy; low -7, high 10]
[Randy starts day with 327lb, Andy 327; both heavily encumbered]
Some time between one and two in the morning the temperature drops below zero. Shefak and Babshapka, on guard duty, agree that they cannot take the cold any more (cold whether gear but no activity, only two levels of protection). They enter the tent and find the mules restless, and several of the people in the party shivering in their bags. Stacking coals in Aurora’s brazier, they use a tinderbox to start them, to heat the tent. They fill the camp stove with unburnt coals, then add a few more burning ones to get the ones in the stove started, before taking it outside.
[Watchers outside: cold weather gear and stove (2+1 = 3). Resters in tent (fur-lined bag, tent, and brazier (2+1+1 = 4). It continues below zero until 9am, but after 6am no one is trying to rest and everyone has “active” as a level of protection. Total five hours of coal burned in two places is total of 5lbs of coal used.]
Although it warms somewhat after dawn, it remains cold in their steep-walled valley with little direct sun all day as they pick their way over and around avalanches of snow and rock. Occasionally they have to ascend rises that Larry’s spirits call “passes”, but none are as high as what they did on the day previous. More importantly, none are exposed - all remain down within their current valley and none require them to cross a ridge and face the full force of the wind. They have just emerged from their canyon into a much larger and wider valley when Willa calls an end to the day’s march.
[ 7 human rations used; 85 human rations remaining
2.5 mule rations used (no forage and extra quarter-ration); 26 mule rations remaining
5 pounds coal used; 45 pounds coal remaining]
At this higher elevation, the temperature drops below zero by 10pm. Again coals, stove, and brazier are put into use to keep the tent and those on watch warm enough to rest or function. [Total eight hours of coal burned in two places is total of 8lbs of coal used.]
17 February, 571 [26 Readying] - Barrier Peaks, 17,500 feet elevation
[Cloudy and windy; low -9, high 13]
[Randy starts day with 310lb, Andy 310; both heavily encumbered]
As they make their way out from the protected canyon into the open plain, the intensity of the wind builds, until it is blowing a constant 20 miles per hour, with occasional gusts. The sky is overcast, but not snowing, which is fortunate, for even the little pieces of dust, grit, and ice crystals are stinging their eyes and testing their endurance.
This is a broad plain, but it is no river valley, not even one carved by some mythical river of ice. Rather, it is just a huge mountain top with higher mountains around it. The floor is not flat, but made up of innumerable smaller ridges, cuts, ledges, crevasses, drop-offs, and the like. Visibility is good, albeit painful, so Willa lets Thokk and Larry scout ahead, trying to find the least dangerous route for the mules and the party. Everyone else clusters around Tyrius in the center, both to conserve heat and block the wind, but also to stay near the protection of Pelor, for it is quickly obvious that even traveling they will not be generating enough warmth, with the wind rapidly stealing it from their bodies.
7am: Actual temperature -6F, wind chill of -47.
My House rules wrote:
Below -30F (including wind chill). Whenever the temperature is below -30F, a creature exposed to the cold must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw at the end of each half hour or gain one level of exhaustion. Creatures with a total of four factors of protection automatically succeed on the saving throw. Three factors grants advantage on the save, two factors +2, one factor +1. Five factors of protection or a successful save are necessary to gain the benefits of a rest.
[7:30am - All travelers have three factors of protection (cold weather gear plus activity) for advantage on their save, those within 10’ of Tyrius have a +3 as well. Everyone makes save]
8am: Actual temperature -3F, wind chill of -44. [Andy fails save and receives one level of exhaustion; disadvantage on ability checks.]
Although not seen at first, Andy’s shivering is eventually noted by Babshapka (Animal Handling 6), who tells Aurora to message Larry when she has range. They are moving at the pace of the mules (20), and Andy is still carrying over three hundred pounds of gear - they can’t afford to have him lame from frostbite! [Also note that level 2 of exhaustion is half movement]
When Larry returns to the party, he casts Protection from Cold on Andy. The mule is still exhausted (level 1), but at least will suffer no further effects of the cold for an hour.
8:30am: Actual temperature -1F, wind chill of -41. [Andy no save needed. Randy and Tyrius fail saves.]
Babshapka notes Randy’s difficulties and Tyrius can speak to his own. Larry could cast another protection or even two - he has the slots but it is a concentration spell and doing so would remove the protection from Andy.
Willa looks about - none of the crevasses they have passed are large enough to take shelter in; there is no effective cover from the wind short of the tent. The day is getting warmer, slowly - it is still early morning. They will have to tough it out and keep moving, for as long as they can move at least. She has them bring their group into an even tighter huddle and tells them to keep going, but to keep talking, too - and to keep an eye on the mules - if either of them starts to founder, they will need to set up camp and hope the next day is less windy.
“Nae mooch chance a’ tha’” mumbles Larry, but his words are lost in the wind.
“AT LEAST,” calls Aurora shrilly, “THERE'S A GOOD CHANCE THE FALLEN STAR IS STILL THERE! WHO COULD HAVE RETRIEVED IT FROM THIS PLACE?”
9:00am: Actual temperature 0F, wind chill of -40. [Andy no save needed, everyone else makes their save.]
Larry can tell his protection for Andy has faded. He returns to the party to renew it, but now has to choose between Andy or Randy (or Tyrius). Babshapka looks them over quickly but can’t see that either is in worse shape than the other. Larry shrugs and protects Randy.
9:30am Actual temperature 2F, wind chill of -37. [Randy no save needed, everyone else makes their save.]
10:00am Actual temperature 4F, wind chill of -34. [Randy no save needed, Aurora fails her save.]
Teeth chattering, body shaking, Aurora now has one level of exhaustion (as do Tyrius, Randy, and Andy). Larry casts his final protection spell on Andy.
10:30am Actual temperature 5F, wind chill of -32. (Andy no save needed, Tyrius fails his save).
After half an hour more of travel, Tyrius stumbles and sinks to his knees. “I can’t...I can’t feel my feet…” he says absently. Then, more resolutely, “Pelor, give me strength!” and rises again. Although he continues to walk determinedly, the others soon find they are slowing their pace to stay near him (and his aura of protection).
[Tyrius is now at two levels of exhaustion; disadvantage on ability checks and moves at half speed; this drops his speed to 15 while the mules are still moving at 20.]
After a few minutes of this, Willa decides that it won’t do and asks Larry if his spirit guides know of any shelters or side canyons where they can get out of the wind to rest. Larry confers, but shakes his head. None that won’t take them several miles out of their way.
Willa asks Eddard how he is doing. “Fine, I guess. A bit cold, I must say. But yes, Tyrius can ride, if that is what you are after.”
[The problem with Tyrius riding is that while he will thus be able to keep pace with the party, being even less active means that he will drop to two factors of protection and make it more likely for him to fail his next saving throw]
Thokk laughs and pulls his wolf fur blanket out of his backpack, wrapping it around Tyrius once he has mounted Eddard, in a way that is much gentler than his mocking tone. “Har, har! Problem is you think of your god, not battle! Thoughts of battle warm Thokk even when cold wind blows up his loincloth!”
“Thoughts of my god are what has preserved half this party against the cold…” offers Tyrius weakly, but Thokk has turned his back before he has even finished, and his words are whipped away in the wind.
11:00am Actual temperature 7F, wind chill of -29. [Now that it is above -30F, it is one check per hour, and the check automatically succeeds with three factors of protection; which is cold weather gear and activity, or cold weather gear and blanket]
After another hour of movement, Willa calls for a halt for just long enough to get some trail rations out of bags and distribute them, and have Larry create water and fill waterskins. She doesn’t want anyone to stop or lose the little warmth they have built up inside their clothes. A few of them have not been drinking their water from the morning fast enough - they find it frozen in their waterskins now, with no way to get the ice out or put new water in. After the few remaining skins are filled, Willa tells them to keep passing the skins around, keep it sloshing and moving and being drunk. She wishes in vain for a fifth of rum to put in each skin to keep the water from freezing. They will walk slower for a while, but they will eat and drink as they walk.
12pm. Actual temperature 10F, wind chill of -24.
1pm. Actual temperature 13F, wind chill of -20.
2pm. Actual temperature 12F, wind chill of -21.
3pm. Actual temperature 11F, wind chill of -23.
4pm. Actual temperature 10F, wind chill of -24.
5pm. Actual temperature 9F, wind chill of -26.
6pm. Actual temperature 8F, wind chill of -27.
With the light fading, there is still no sign of shelter in this broad and windswept bowl. This is no place to camp, and Willa believes, with the exception of Tyrius, she could keep driving the party forward if she had to. However, the mules don’t have darkvision. With both of them already weak and overloaded, the chance of a stumble in the dark is just too great. They will make camp where they are, light the stoves, and hope for the best.
There is no soil, and little if any gravel - they abandon any thought of using the ironwood stakes that came with the tent and instead use a total of eight pitons pounded directly into the bedrock to hold the ropes. When the tent threatens to sail away even with that, Willa works to get them to narrow the surface presented to the wind, so it is longer and thinner than normal, with the draped flap for the mules leeward.
[ 7 human rations used; 78 human rations remaining
2.5 mule rations used (no forage and an extra quarter ration); 23.5 mule rations remaining
8 pounds coal used; 37 pounds coal remaining]
7pm. Actual temperature 7F, wind chill of -30.
When it is well and truly dark, the wind seems, if anything, to be increasing even as the temperature drops.
First watch, 7-9pm, Thokk and Larry. [They make their saves and Larry even has it count as a “short rest”. Natural recovery allows him to recover a third level spell. Later, in the tent, Larry makes his save to complete his long rest as well.]
9pm. Actual temperature 5F, wind chill of -35.
The next watch is supposed to be Aurora and Tyrius, but Willa has already changed that. She wants Tyrius inside to make sure he recovers for the next day. When he objects, she points out that those in the tent may need his protective aura in order to rest, and he reluctantly agrees for the good of the party. It doesn’t take Willa long to convince Thokk to pull a double watch so that someone is with Aurora. She merely has to agree with Thokk that yes, these are real mountains and that no, none of them but Thokk and Larry are prepared to deal with the rigors of living in real mountains.
Aurora (who is still at one level of exhaustion) is granted Larry’s recovered protection from cold spell so that she should not be affected by at least her first hour on watch.
Second watch, 9pm-11pm, Thokk and Aurora. [Both make their saves on the watch and later in the tent for their rest. Aurora's rest removes her single level of exhaustion.]
11pm. Actual temperature 3F, wind chill of -40.
Third watch, 11pm - 1am, Willa and Babshapka. [Babshapka starts his watch already having had a full rest. He and Willa both fail saves on watch and come away with a single level of exhaustion. Willa is later able to get a long rest in the tent that removes her exhaustion]
18 February, 571 [Readying 27] - Barrier Peaks, 18000 feet elevation
[Snow 5pm to 5am, Wind 14mph; low -4, high 8]
[Randy and Andy start at 290lb each, heavily encumbered]
1am. Actual temperature 1F, wind chill of -45.
Fourth watch: 1am - 3am, Shefak and Babshapka [Both complete watch successfully. Later, in the tent, Sheffak successfully finishes a long rest.]
3am. Actual temperature -1F, wind chill of -50.
Fifth watch: 3am - 5am, Umbra and Babshapka. [Umbra fails a save on watch and acquires the first level of exhaustion.]
5am: Actual temperature -3F. Wind chill of -54.
The party starts moving and prepping for day. Thokk is allowed to sleep in until just before the party departs so that he can have a full long rest given his double watch shift the previous night. Overnight, Randy and Andy have recovered from the day before, and Tyrius is better for having rested. [Currently, a single level of exhaustion on Tyrius, Umbra, and Babshapka]
7am: Actual temperature -3F. Wind chill of -53.
From 7pm to 7am the party has burned 11 pounds of coal (bringing the cook stove in from the watch at 5am) and has 26 pounds remaining.
While packing, Willa is seriously concerned about the amount of coal they have left - enough for just another two-and-a-half nights, if they are like last night. Assuming they make it to the cave, how many days will it take to get back?
She asks Larry to ask the mountain spirits how far remains to the starfall, hoping he can get a clear-ish answer. After an extended conversation, Larry has Willa review the terrain in the morning sun with him. He says that the valley, or bowl, that they are in is part of a much larger valley, with most of it lying on the other side of the low ridge on their north. The spirits say they need to travel to the end of this ridge, where the broader valley opens up, and then just a bit further, to the western end of the larger valley where it starts to narrow and rise again. Of course, they give no distances - but if it truly is at the western end of this bowl, Larry thinks he can see it from their current camp, and estimates it is one or two days of travel away at their current pace.
While this is reassuring to Willa, the fact that the wind is even stronger today than it was the day before, making it effectively colder, is not; nor is the fact that they will be starting the day out with Tyrius, Umbra, and Babshapka already tired.
They face a difficult choice; they can set out now like they did the day before, facing brutal cold and the possibility of more of them falling to exhaustion but at least getting closer to their goal, or they can wait several hours here in camp until it warms up enough to travel safely, protected from the worst of the cold but burning what little coal they have remaining and then traveling for only part of the day.
Willa asks for comment from her normal counselors. Aurora thinks they should stay - whatever challenges lie ahead - worse terrain and cold, yetis and frost giants, she doesn’t want to face them with all of the party exhausted. They can wait a few hours for it to warm enough to travel. This agrees with what Willa was thinking to begin with, and Tyrius is focused on recovering himself and says he trusts their judgement. Willa tells people to finish eating and pack what they can, but that they will be staying in camp for the nonce.
Willa asks Aurora if she still has Buckbeak on hand, since she hasn’t seen the hawk since the winds started. Aurora affirms that he is with her, just that she has been keeping him in a “non-dimensional space” rather than have him blown away in the gale. Willa asks if she can’t maybe dismiss him and summon instead something more appropriate, like a snow hare or arctic fox, that could stay on watch for them so that they could consolidate fires and spend coal on only the stove in the tent?
Aurora explains that Buckbeak is not actually a hawk - he is a fey spirit that can take the shape of a hawk. And the limitations on his shape are the words of the summoning ritual. He could take the form of a hare or fox - if Aurora knew the appropriate ritual to summon him that way, which unfortunately she does not. Of course, at her level of power now she could start experimenting with the summoning ritual, changing the words and seeing if she could find such a form, but this is not really the time and place for experimentation. She tells Willa that she will start with Buckbeak on guard. He has a pretty weak frame, but she doesn’t actually know whether he can get tired or cold. If that doesn’t work, Aurora currently has enough materials packed to cast her ritual six times - she can summon a snowy owl to take his place. That, she believes, would be the most appropriate form from among that she knows the ritual to weave into being.
While they are on the topic of magic, Aurora also mentions to Willa that if someone gets dangerously cold, she can use her rope trick to get them to a safe space to rest. She believes that the space inside the rope trick is a constant temperature, regardless of what it is like in the outside world - it certainly was much warmer in it, than the out of doors when they last used it to hide from frost giants in the Jotens. The limitations would be that she couldn’t get Eddard and the mules up there, that the space itself can’t move, that it lasts for just an hour, and that the person would need to be able to climb the rope of their own power to get in and out. Still, if they had someone in a seriously bad way, it might make the difference when needed. As much as Willa doesn’t like listening to Aurora’s lectures on magic theory, she has to admit that it could be an important tactical consideration.
Something Aurora said about using the rope trick to hide from the frost giants jogs Willa’s memory. “Twarn’t it so t’at we could see out ther bottom?”
“Yes, like a huge pane of glass.”
“An’ ‘how ‘igh up can ye place it?”
“The length of the rope - fifty or sixty feet.”
Willa sucks in her cheeks as she thinks. “Well, t’en, ‘igh yerself up t’ere!”
“What?”
Willa explains that if Aurora can see out of the rope trick, but if the cold can’t enter, she wants Aurora to make a scouting blind directly over the tent, as high as possible to get the best field of view if she is looking directly out of the bottom. Aurora is to stay up there on watch, and if she sees anything she can alert them in the tent with her message.
Aurora isn’t too keen on being outside, alone, on watch, but she is intrigued by a possible new use of her spell. She considers who she might have in the rope trick room with her. Tyrius, Umbra, and Babshapka need to be resting, Willa needs to be on command duty in the tent, Thokk would just get bored and distract her, and Larry...she’d rather not be in the air-tight confines of the rope trick room with him and his musky odor. But Shefak...Aurora tells Willa that she will agree to “stand watch” suspended over the tent as long as Shefak is up there with her, and Willa assents.
Aurora steps outside, instantly feeling the frigid blast of the icy wind. She casts her spell and tosses her rope into the air, where it stands nearly straight up, though the end wavers in the force of the wind. She has to remove her mittens to climb, and instantly feels pain like knives stabbing into her hands, but manages to climb all the way up the rope (Athletics check 14).
As she sticks her head and then her chest through the invisible entrance-way, she immediately feels a flood of warmth. The rope trick room is a pleasant 65F, and the warmest she has been since her hot bath in Moradinath-Mor. “Oh, yeah…” she sighs contentedly, but then feels a gust of cold as Shefak climbs through the entryway. Apparently “breaking the plane” of the inter-dimensional door can let in the cold and wind. She had considered sticking her hand mirror out to check a view beyond what she could see directly underneath, as they did in the Jotens, but now knows she won’t be doing that, at the risk of filling the room with cold air.
Shefak crosses her legs in her meditation position, and tells Aurora to alert her when it is her turn to watch out the “window”.
8am. Actual temperature -1F, wind chill -50.
When it has been nearly an hour, Aurora wonders whether she can simply re-cast the spell to maintain it, rather than climbing down and casting it again from the ground. That would also be worth experimenting with - but not from fifty feet up. Both she and Shefak descend, spend an agonizing half-minute in the cold, and then climb back up to the blessedly-warm room. Shefak shakes her head disapprovingly as they re-enter.
“What, you don’t like my magic?” says Aurora defensively.
Shefak shrugs. “Self-indulgent. You should train to deny your flesh, not cater to it.”
“You are welcome to watch outside, if you prefer the cold.”
Shefak shrugs again. “I’m watching you as much as I am the tent. Someone has to make sure you stay awake in this hotbox of unrepentant hedonism.”
“Well, I never!” is all Aurora can think to respond at the moment.
9am. Actual temperature 1F, wind chill -45. [With another four hours, Babshapka and Umbra have completed a second trance and successful long rest. Each removes the level of exhaustion; only the single level on Tyrius remains.]
Aurora casts her third and final rope trick to gain another hour of protection from the cold while on day-watch.
10am. Actual temperature 3F, wind chill -40.
Since she has not done anything but trade watch duty with Shefak on and off for the last hour in her warm room, Aurora has taken it as a short rest. She uses her arcane recovery to get back a second level slot and a first (to replace the mage armor she cast upon waking). She is not worried about third level spells since she has not cast any yet today. When her third rope trick ends around ten am, she goes quickly into the tent to confer with Willa, then comes back out and casts rope trick a fourth time.
11am. Actual temperature 4F, wind chill -38. [Tyrius has finished a second long rest period but failed his CON save to benefit from the rest. He remains at one level of exhaustion].
“I just can’t get the chill from my bones,” Tyrius says groggily as he rises and begins to methodically chew some jerky without gusto.
Aurora and Shefak enter the tent.
“What dae yer spirits tell ye?” Willa asks Larry.
“Wind’s still afury ootside, bu’ et be gang doon. Tanight won’ be so bad ahs las’.”
Willa braves the outside long enough to squint at the pale outline of the sun behind the clouds. Returning to the tent, she says they will give it until mid-day to warm, but they are leaving in an hour whether it is safe or not. She tells the party to eat now, so that they can get in a full six hour’s march before dusk, without a rest.
12pm. Actual temperature 6F, wind chill -32. [Everyone makes saves]
The party has the tent packed and mules loaded by mid-day, the beasts already stamping and biting, eager to get moving rather than standing in the cold.
[From 7am to 12pm the party has burned 2.5 pounds of coal (the cook stove in the tent) and has 23.5 pounds remaining.]
12:30pm. Actual temperature 7F, wind chill -30. [No further checks necessary while moving as it stays above -30 and everyone is active]
The party sets out. The first half hour is difficult, but they warm from exertion after that and the march becomes wearying, but manageable. The heat of the day peaks soon after they set out and afterwards the temperature drops, but it becomes apparent to all, not just Larry, that the wind is dropping as well, so it is bearable and they continue to march.
To their left as they travel is the wide and uneven landscape of the bowl and then a higher mountain range, to their right is a ridge-line perhaps a thousand feet above them, and far behind that an absolute monster of a wall, a towering cliff face covered in snow whose summit is shrouded in clouds.
As they pick their way across the barren, frozen, rough and rocky landscape, the ridge to their left lowers. Over the course of the hours it drops to half its height, then a quarter. The clouds overhead grow thicker, and lower, as they continue until eventually they cannot even discern when the sun actually goes behind the mountains in the west, but it is around that time that the first flakes of snow begin to fall. With the wind still around 15mph and gusting over 20mph, they don’t have to worry about accumulation - the snow is whisked away from the rocks as soon as it lands, scuttling along like millions of tiny white ghosts. Willa continues to encourage them on, saying they are going to use all the light they have and before it gets too cold to travel, snow be damned.
6pm. Actual temperature 4F, wind chill -25
Finally the ridge to their left has lowered into scattered outcrops with gaps between. In the twilight they can just make out the valley beyond, lower, much bigger, and flatter than the one they are in. When it is so dark that those without darkvision begin to trip and stumble, Willa calls for a halt. They have been marching without rest some six hours. They pitch the tent as rapidly as they can, and then lead the mules inside before unloading them.
7pm. Actual temperature 3F, wind chill -26.
Thokk and Larry do their watch from 7pm to 9pm. So far, those present are able to tolerate the cold in the tent, while those outside risk a few hours of exposure without lighting the stove. The snow continues to fall. Little drifts begin to accumulate in deep depressions and behind large crags, but for the most part the snow is swept away by the steady wind.
8pm. Actual temperature, 2F, wind chill -28. [Thokk and Larry make their saves on watch]
9pm. Actual temperature, 2F, wind chill -28. [Thokk and Larry make their saves on watch]
As Thokk and Larry hand off the watch to Aurora and Tyrius at 9pm, Larry casts a parting protection from cold on Tyrius and wishes him well. “Mayhap ye won’ be needin’ this, Tyrius - th’ snoo be keepin’ th’ wind doon an’ tain’t so coold tanight.”
10pm. Actual temperature 1F, wind chill -29. [Aurora makes her save, Tyrius no save needed.]
11pm. Actual temperature 0F, wind chill -31. [Aurora and Tyrius make their saves.]
Tyrius has made it through the watch session without growing more exhausted. Pelor willing, he will be able to shed his exhaustion with a good night’s sleep tonight. He and Aurora are relieved by Willa and Babshapka, just as it drops colder. They face a decision - if they remain on watch outside, they are going to need to bring out the stove. Or, they could do their watch in the tent, where the stove is about to be lit anyway.
Willa and Babshapka slip the signal whistles out of Tyrius’ pack while he slumbers and light the camp stove in the tent. They plan on keeping themselves warm inside, but listening for any sounds outside. Every so often, several times an hour at irregular intervals, one of them goes out and makes a quick circuit of the tent, walking a fair distance in each direction and listening, but returning before getting too cold (less than half an hour), and making sure they they are warm again before setting out by alternating turns. The tent itself is quiet, with just the heavy breathing and occasional snores of those sleeping, punctuated now and then by the soft nickering of the mules or the gentle flops of them leaving steaming apples on the floor. Outside, all they hear is the wind.
12am. Actual temperature -1F, wind chill -32
[ 7 human rations used; 71 human rations remaining
2.5 mule rations used (no forage and extra quarter-ration); 21 mule rations remaining
0.5 pounds coal used; 23 pounds coal remaining]
19 February, 571 [28 Readying] - Barrier Peaks, 18000 feet elevation
[Clear; low -6, high 8. The temperature will be warmed by 2F for each mile traveled today to a maximum of +15F due to geothermal activity.]
[The mules are starting out at 274lbs each, which is no longer heavily encumbered but just encumbered. Their speed will go from 20 to 30.]
1am. Actual temperature -2F, wind chill -34.
At 1am, Willa passes the signal whistle to Shefak and explains their watch plan. The monk nods earnestly.
3am. Actual temperature -3F, wind chill -35.
At 3am, Shefak passes the signal whistle to Umbra. Babshapka explains their watch plan and the strange elf nods cooly.
As Umbra and Babshapka go about their watch, they notice the wind speed building. The still-falling snow is driven rapidly before it, hitting the windward side of the tent with force before flying over and around it. The sides of the tent flap against the mules, and they stamp irritably.
4am. Actual temperature -4F, wind chill -47.
5am. Actual temperature -5F, wind chill -57.
By 5am there are snow squalls outside, and a wind of over 30 miles an hour that would strip the heat from anyone uncovered in minutes. The party wakes to a howling gale outside, and the watchers see the clouds growing lighter with approaching day, but also flashes of cold lightning between them.
[Tyrius has successfully rested and removed his exhaustion]
The party, mules included, eat inside. Willa says there is no point in even packing at the moment. If anything, the winds appear to be increasing.
6am. Actual temperature -6F, wind chill -61.
Larry says this is the peak of the storm, and that the spirits tell him it will be warming and the wind going down shortly. He cautions against watchers continuing to make scouting rounds, though. Their opening the tent flaps at this point will let in more cold than the little camp stove can compete with.
Willa was satisfied with the march they had the day previous, starting at noon and have lunched already. She sees no point in exposing the party if it is not warm enough to at least march without them freezing. She is fine with waiting out the morning, if that is what it takes. She also approves tying closed the flaps of the tent securely for the moment, and not having scouts outside - although she does ask Aurora whether she wants to watch from above in her climate-controlled rope trick room.
Aurora considers it, but agrees that nearly all threats to the party would not be out in this weather. However, anything that was capable of movement now, like frost giants or yeti, would be such a serious threat that she would rather hang on to her second-level slots for the time being. A well-placed web would likely be more decisive in combat than having a few more seconds of warning.
7am. Actual temperature -4F, wind chill -54.
11am. Actual temperature 4F, wind chill -41.
At 11am Willa calls for camp to be struck so they can depart at mid-day. As bags are packed around her, Aurora dismisses Buckbeak and spends ten minutes ritual casting to summon her fey familiar back in the form of a snowy owl, Hedwig. The last half hour is spent getting the tent and stove packed, so that everyone has already spent thirty minutes in the cold by the time they are moving.
12pm. Actual temperature 6F, wind chill -37. [Tyrius fails his save, and is again with one level of exhaustion.]
As their last acts before leaving their campsite, Larry casts protection from cold on Tyrius, and Aurora sends Hedwig aloft, with instructions to search the lower elevations for caves large enough to shelter the party and trees or bushes large enough to burn.
Hedwig squints in the light, for the squall in the early morning has blown the clouds away, and it is a bright, clear day. The snow stopped hours ago, and just a few drifts remain up against the largest of the rocks or down in deep crevasses.
As soon as they start out it is apparent that the mules are moving faster than before. Since they left Moradinath-Mor, Randy and Andy have been moving at a slow plod and either Eddard or Babshapka has been calling for their rest whenever a natural windbreak appeared. Now, however, they have a more lively walking pace. Aurora, Tyrius, Willa, and Umbra (the slower members of the party) find that they can easily keep pace with the mules, but they are feeling the elevation, and are soon breathing deeply as if jogging, while actually at just a walking pace. Secretly, Willa doubts that she could go a full ten hour march at this pace, and does not rue her decision to keep today’s march to just six hours.
All the previous day the party traveled west at the base of the low ridge. Now they finally move past it, turning north through a narrow gap that will eventually take them out into the large valley Larry’s spirits told him of.
12:30pm. Actual temperature 8F, wind chill -33. [Tyrius no save needed, everyone else makes save]
1pm. Actual temperature 10F, wind chill -29. [No further checks needed as long as party is moving.]
As they emerge into the foretold valley, a strange sight greets the party. It is perhaps ten miles across but longer than it is wide, and slopes gently down to the center. Although still rough, it is not near as rugged and jagged as what they traversed the day before. However, the surprising feature is the innumerable spots where white smoke rises up from the floor. Thokk at first thinks he is seeing a great army encampment - but without the army. What is actually burning is not obvious, for the smoke is the white of steam, not the grey of woodsmoke or black of sooty coal. Looking across the vast valley, they do not see any creatures moving, just the smokes rising up and then being carried away by the wind. Furthermore, although the rock itself is the grey and black of granite they have been passing for a week, here and there in the valley are dots of yellow, often near the smokes. In the lowest, center, spot is a hint of blue.
Willa doesn’t like the look of it at all. “What be t’ose, and be we crossin’ t’em?” she asks Larry suspiciously. The dwarf takes a moment to confer with his spirits, shaking his head incredulously.
“They be sayin’,” he finally relays, “tha’ th’ fires o’ the Oerth be close t’ th’ surface ‘ere. Tha’ smoke be nae smoke, bu’ steam, so they say.” He shakes his head again, adding as an aside, “Fires o’ the Oerth, me feet! Tain’t no such thing. These spirits be daft.”
After a minute more, he continues, “Boot t’ answer yer question, nae, we nae be crossin’. Th’ cave we seek is t’ th’ wes’ - we ‘ug th’ wall until we leave this valley, doon ah steep slope.”
Willa removes one fur-lined leather mitten, then the steel gauntlet of her plate, then the kid leather glove beneath. She touches the rocky ground - it is as cold as ice, but so is the wind whipping past. “If thar be fahr unner ther Oerth, I ain’t feelin; it,” she says, more confidence in her voice. She points Thokk at the western wall, and he moves off to choose a route for the mules.
2pm. Actual temperature 13F, wind chill -21.
3pm. Actual temperature 14F, wind chill -18.
4pm. Actual temperature 15F, wind chill -17.
As they work their way along the southwestern wall, the wind drops. They seem to be using the cliff face itself as a huge windbreak. After three hours, they find a gap leading to a slope down. At least the spirits were not lying about that. But as the valley below comes into view, they are struck with another oddity.
Starting more than a mile down with a few sparse bushes, eventually they see scattered pine trees on the lowest slopes. They haven’t seen vegetation in days, and even downslope should still be above treeline. Is it possible these subterranean fires exist, and are warming things enough for plant life to survive? This time Willa has Thokk upend a huge rock as she strips her hand, then places it on ground that has been out of the wind until moments ago. It is cool, to be sure - but not as frigid as the air above. Could these fires be real?
The steep slope down looks treacherous, and they have just two hours of light remaining. Willa sets them moving again, with Thokk and Larry in front to select their route.
5pm. Actual temperature 17F, wind chill -12.
6pm. Actual temperature 18F, wind chill +3.
Despite the declining sunlight, the air grows warmer as they descend, and the wind drops considerably. At first they pass over spare tussocks of frozen grass. By the time they find a ledge that is broad and flat enough for the pavilion, they are among scattered scrub bushes. Willa calls for a halt, saying simply, “Watch be outside ternight, no coal fer ther moment.” They could denude half the hillside in gathering enough wood for a decent campfire, and it would be green at that, so Willa tells them not to bother collecting wood - they should be enjoying the warmest night they have had in awhile.
First watch, 7-9pm, Thokk and Larry [Warm enough that no saves needed]
9pm. Actual temperature 15F, wind chill 1 (above).
Second watch, 9-11pm, Aurora and Tyrius [Aurora and Tyrius both save]
10pm. Actual temperature 14F, wind chill -1.
11pm. Actual temperature 13F, wind chill -2.
While Aurora is on watch, Hedwig returns. She has traveled south of the party and found only barren slopes of snow, rock, and ice - no greenery, and no caves. She made her way back up the valley in which the party is now, however, and found it full of fir trees at the bottom. Some eight or ten miles downslope of the party she also spied a cave that might serve as a cramped shelter for the party, if not the mules. The cave appeared to be occupied by canines, however.
Third watch, 11pm-1am, Willa and Babshapka. [Both make their saves]
[ 7 human rations used; 64 human rations remaining
2.5 mule rations used (no forage, extra quarter-ration); 18.5 mule rations remaining
5 pounds coal used; 18 pounds coal remaining]
[Unbeknownst to the party, they are camped less than a mile from the Unoerthly Cave.] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks [Bold font] or [blue text] indicates specific keyed encounters and area descriptions from the original module.
Lurkers Above have no official 5E stats - I made my own conversion.
The playdate for this, our first Barrier Peaks session, was 12 January, 2019.
12am. Actual temperature 13F, wind chill -2. Willa and Babshapka both save.
1am. Actual temperature 12F, wind chill -3. Willa and Babshapka both save.
Fourth watch, 1am - 3am, Babshapka and Shefak
2am. Actual temperature 12F, wind chill -3. Babshapka saves; Shefak fails and gains 1 level of exhaustion.
3am. Actual temperature 11F, wind chill -4. Babshapka and Shefak both save.
Fifth watch, 3am - 5am, Babshapka and Umbra
4am. Actual temperature 10F, wind chill -6. Babshapka and Umbra both save.
5am. Actual temperature 9F, wind chill -7. Babshapka and Umbra both save.
Unsuccessful long rest save: Randy, starts day with 1 level of exhaustion.
The morning dawns fair and clear and the party has a better view of the long slope upon which they have camped. As Hedwig reported, at the bottom of the slope is a narrow valley covered in fir trees. Where they are now has the occasional scrub bush, but these thicken and turn into stunted trees as the slope descends. It was an unusually warm night, and Willa is gratified that they did not, in fact, end up using any coal. If they keep going down this slope there should be fallen firs to collect for a campfire tonight.
Randy is particularly fussy, not taking his breakfast grain and kicking and biting as they try to load him. Babshapka and Eddard check his feet, confer, and decide that he may have a colicky indigestion from the cold. Eddard advises them to not feed him for now, to shift some of his load to Andy, and to see if the morning’s walk will help. If he is not better by lunch, Eddard suggests using the camp stove to heat water and giving him warm water for lunch, followed by a warm mash if he will take it.
Once the mules are laden, the party continues down the slope. They are among the first of the low, scattered trees, with dry and frozen grass beneath their feet, when Larry suddenly looks stunned and stops in his tracks. He is a bit more composed by the time the party catches up, but when they do, he tells them simply, “Th’ spirits say we be ‘ere.”
The rocky mountainside is before them, with stunted vegetation clinging wherever it can. At first glance, it is just like any mountainside they have seen for days. A moment’s pause, however, reveals more. Here and there among the natural rocks, from tiny pebbles to huge slabs as large as city walls, is worked stone, carved stone, sections large and small that are perfectly flat and nearly vertical, not cracked or angled. Someone - dwarves? stone giants? - has worked sections of the mountain, shaping them and giving them form. These sections go from ground level to over three hundred feet up the side of the mountain. Who can say what lies within - a fortress? A subterranean city?
Careful inspection of the wall reveals no arrow slits, no windows, no chimneys - but there are two doors! The larger of the two is at ground level and can easily be approached on foot. It is some fifteen feet across and just as high, with the area of worked stone wall beyond it adding another five or ten feet on each side. The door is closed, with the door itself of stone identical to the wall in which it sits.
Above, some 200 feet up the side of the cliff face, is a smaller door, perhaps a third the size of the lower one. That door is open, and the darkness beyond the open doorway suggests that it leads deeper into the mountain. Is this the “unoerthly cave”? No path or roadway leads to it. It looks like a scrabble up the cliff face would allow access to it, but there are several sheer surfaces that will need to be climbed.
Aurora sends Hedwig up to investigate the cave above. When she returns, she relates telepathically that the cave mouth opens into a medium-sized space wider than it is deep or high. All of the surfaces within - floor, walls, ceiling - are stone, completely featureless and flat. A heavy layer of dust and dirt is on the floor.
Aurora approaches the lower door. Here is something odd - touching the door, and the wall, the dust comes away on her gloved hand - there is not in fact stone beneath, but something else! Vigorous rubbing reveals that it is metal, some kind of hard, gray metal like iron or steel and yet not recognizable. Both the door and wall are made of this.
Further, if this wall is not carved...it is beneath the mountain’s stone! Indeed, she can shift a few smaller rocks and find more of the metal wall underneath. Is it possible that the entire section she is seeing is one huge metal wall, though now mostly buried under rock - from a landslide, or an earthquake, or deliberate design? If just the parts she sees are metal, it is as much metal as any of the party has ever seen in one place. If the whole side of the mountain underneath the rock debris is metal...it is more metal than they knew existed in the world.
Thokk moves forward, presses his javelin hard up against the strange metal surface, bears down with all his might as he draws the head over the wall with the wooden shaft nearly doubled in pressure. The shaft snaps. He rubs his hand against the line in the wall. As the dirt is worn away, it reveals the metal underneath without even a scratch. Whatever this strange metal is, it is harder than beaten iron.
Aurora investigates the lower door. It appears to be without handles, hinges, or any other mechanism of opening. It is recessed several inches back from the wall itself and so obvious to sight, but fits into its frame so flush that not even a paper-thin crack is present anywhere around the margin.
Thokk, with the help of Tyrius and Larry, spends several minutes trying to push the doors in. Despite his bulging muscles and best efforts, they do not so much as move. [Strength ability check 23, +5 help, +2 guidance, total 30].
After a bit of discussion, it is resolved that the party will try the upper cave, which appears to be the entrance. Aurora suggests that with three fly spells, she can get the mules and Eddard up, and everyone else can climb. Willa agrees, but insists that the cave be scouted first by more of them than Hedwig before they move either of the two mules up.
Thokk and Larry, the two most experienced climbers, get into their purchased climbing harnesses and remove hammers, pitons, and ropes from the mules. Even before they have gotten ten feet off the ground, it becomes apparent that none of the rocks are a solid cliff face - all of them are scree that has tumbled down from above and is now leaning against the solid metal wall in heaps and piles. Plenty of the rocks tumble away at the slightest touch, careening to the bottom of the cliff. At best, Thokk and Larry can find large rocks that are firmly in place, supported by the stacks underneath and joined to other rocks by plant roots. The climb itself [Thokk Athletics roll 26] is almost inconsequential - the tricky part will be choosing a route that is safe. [Thokk Survival (Mountain) roll, with advantage from use of climbing harness and pitons, +5 with assistance of Larry: 8, 16+5 = 21]
With Thokk leading and Larry belaying, the two choose what they believe to be a stable route up the side of the cliff face, leaving a trail of pitons behind them. Sweat glistens on Thokk’s massive biceps as he ascends using almost entirely upper-body strength. Eventually they reach the level of the cave itself.
The cave mouth opens into a finished room, 8 feet deep, 20 feet wide, and 10 feet high. The far wall has a vertical line from floor to ceiling down its center. All of the surfaces - floor, walls, ceiling - are of the same strange wall metal as outside, completely featureless and flat. A heavy layer of dust and dirt is on the floor, but there are no tracks apparent.
Thokk bellows down to Willa that it is safe and that she can order people for the ascent. He and Larry tie their ropes together, having easily fifty more feet than needed. Their plan is to lower the ropes straight down from the entrance of the cave and haul people straight up, rather than having them climb the circuitous piton route. They will begin with the lightest people and move to heavier ones as they have more hands to anchor the rope at the top.
Shefak is the first one up. She rapidly realizes that rappelling up the face will not only endanger her, but everyone below, so she tries to put the least weight possible on the loose rocks as she ascends, pressing just enough to keep herself from dragging and scraping as Thokk and Larry haul her up. The others move away from the base as the occasional rock tumbles down.
Babshapka is the next up, then Aurora, then Tyrius. Willa and Umbra remain at the bottom with Eddard and the mules.
Upon her arrival, Aurora investigates the cave, looking for any secret door or control mechanism, but finds nothing (Investigation 23). She sends a firebolt against the metal wall. The dust and dirt turns to soot, but when she cleans that off she finds the metal below is both completely unaffected, and still cool to the touch (Investigation 24).
Thokk pushes against the doors, but these yield no more than those beneath (Wisdom save 8 ).
Tyrius stoops down and brushes away the dirt in front of the doors. He finds a curious recessed groove running along the base of the doors, but not the wall. “I think…” he says slowly, “these doors don’t open in...I think they might slide open.” (Wisdom save 18 ). “Thokk, try pushing them apart from each other.”
Thokk shrugs and adjusts his stance, then focuses on pressing his palms as hard as he can against the doors and moving them away from each other. (Strength check 22). The line running down the center of the wall widens to a narrow crack. Emboldened, Thokk adjusts his hands again and bellows as he strains. He manages to pry the doors a full two inches apart, revealing a much deeper cave beyond. But now, even with space enough for his sausage-thick fingers and much better leverage, the doors won’t budge. Thokk works at them for several minutes until his arms are trembling, but cannot move them further.
Aurora reaches up to put her hand on his shoulder and bids him rest. She listens at the narrow gap, but does not hear anything immediately. “Well, that ought to be safe enough for even Willa,” she says. “Time to bring the mules up.” She has Larry knot a rope about her waist and then he and Tyrius lower her down the cliff face.
At the bottom, Aurora and Willa and Eddard discuss strategy. Eddard is quite confident that he can simply zoom up to the cave entrance once Aurora has cast a fly spell on him. He is more worried about the mules. They are likely to panic and bolt once they get off the ground. He recommends blinkering them and pulling them up with rope. Willa suggests that Eddard guide each of the mules up, one at a time, and he agrees - until Aurora informs them that fly is a concentration spell and she can cast it on only one animal at a time.
Still, Aurora casts fly on Eddard, and he floats easily up to the cave to inform the others of the situation. After some discussion above, Larry casts spider climb on himself and comes down. While Willa modifies a feed bag into a hood for Randy, Larry unties Aurora and leads the rope through Randy’s halter and then the stays of his pack harness. He walks around the base of the cliff with him for a few minutes until the mule grows accustomed to being led blind, then has Aurora cast her second fly spell. Larry walks over to a large rock with a low incline and guides the mule up it, then has it walk with him up steeper and steeper slopes, until both are ascending vertically. Randy is hesitant and it is slow going with lots of coaxing, but eventually they reach the cave entrance and Randy is led inside, his hood removed. Larry waves down to Aurora to dismiss her spell.
Tyrius slips a crowbar from the mule’s pack and gives it to Thokk. The barbarian’s eyes brighten with excitement and he immediately returns to the doors even as Larry is descending the cliff face.
With a number of grunts and tugs, Thokk succeeds in getting the doors open half a foot - just wide enough for someone narrow to slip through. Shefak slips on her ring of invisibility and enters.
At the base of the cliff, Larry gets Andy prepared, and Aurora casts her third fly spell. Larry begins guiding Andy up the cliff face.
Shefak rapidly realizes that the great cave is far deeper than she can go using just the dim light entering through the partially-open doors. The interior of the cave is a large, dark chamber. It is sixty feet by sixty and has three tunnels out, across from her (north), to the right (east), and to the left (west), all aligned at precise angles. Down the tunnel in front of her there are recessed doorways barely visible; she cannot see down the other tunnels from her current location, and would likely not have light enough even were she there. In the center of the chamber there is an odd circular support column that runs from floor to ceiling [Drop tube]. While most of the floor of the cave is quite flat and solid, there appears to be textured walkways running from the tunnels to each other and the door, all intersecting at the column.
After Larry gets Andy into the outer cave and untied, the rope is used to bring up Aurora, Umbra, and Willa in quick succession.
(9am) Shortly after Umbra is hauled into the exterior cave, she approaches the narrow opening of the doors. She examines the space beyond first with her eyes open, and then, closing her eyes and with her nostrils flaring (Perception 24).
The most obvious thing about the space beyond the doors is that it is warm - as warm as a spring day - far warmer than the montane winter outside. Perhaps there is something to Larry’s “fires in the Oerth"?
The air beyond smells stale - not unexpected for a cave, but still, unsettling. Deep, deep within she hears sounds - low, repetitive, pulsing sounds. This is a stranger place, perhaps, than she has ever been before.
“I thought we be lookin’ fer a fallen star,” says Willa dubiously. “Nay a metal cave.”
“I think,” says Aurora, “someone found the star first...someone built this...fortress?...city?...to guard the star. But so much metal! Could this all be star metal? Could the star be so big that they mined it to make all of this?” She shakes her head, not sure what to believe.
Working together, Thokk, Willa, and Tyrius manage to open the sliding doors wide enough for even the mules to squeeze through without having to unload them. All of the party files through into the chamber beyond. Tyrius summons the light of Pelor while Willa gives a low, impressed whistle.
Just inside the sliding doors, before opening out into the larger chamber, there is a door set into the walls on both sides, so that the door they entered is the middle one of three. Aurora immediately finds a strange device on the wall to the right of the two other doors. Set into the door frame at about the height of her torso, is a small panel divided into three. The top section contains a narrow, horizontal slot. The middle section is a flat panel. The bottom section is a small, recessed bowl or receptacle, with the space above it going into the unseen inner workings of the panel. She tries to touch and probe this, first with her mage hand, and then her real hand, but nothing happens.
The party takes a few cautious steps into the larger chamber beyond. The hooves of the mules clatter on the odd metal floor and the noise echoes down all three of the corridors before them. Suddenly Umbra hears a strange, faint, high-pitched warbling like a bird call, and then a hiss like a steaming kettle. The light of the chamber dims. Turning behind them, they find that the large double doors they entered have closed completely.
Thokk strains to push them apart, but to no avail. He throws his shoulder against them, but succeeds only in hurting himself. (Thokk takes 2 points bludgeoning damage). They are unoerthly strong. He suspects foul magic, like that of the walls and bars of the Ghost Tower.
These middle doors, notes Aurora, lack the curious panels of the smaller ones.
With no way of going back, the party goes deeper. Willa lights her lantern and draws her sword.
They are impressed by the absolute amount of metal everywhere. Most everything is covered in a layer of dust, though. Near the strange column is a pile of rags. Babshapka investigates (Nature 16). It is a strange, ancient cloth - perhaps silk, and a disarticulated skeleton. It could be human - the proportions are correct, but it is so old and dry, crumbing to dust as he handles it, and missing so many parts, that he cannot be sure.
The party turns their attention to the column [drop chute].
The column is a hollow cylinder with an opening on both sides. Inside are two tracks opposite each other, running the vertical length of the shaft up to the ceiling and down as far as can be seen in the darkness. The tracks remind Aurora of some of the belts that were used in the machinery that operated the dumbwaiter room in Castle Ravenloft, but larger. They remind Tyrius of the belts that translate the motion of a wind or water mill into the action that spins a millstone or moves trip-hammers. They are not moving. Each track has a series of handles spaced eight feet apart. At the top of the tube the handles appear to fold into the wall so that they could pass through a circuit, were the track moving. Thokk kicks some of the bones into the shaft - he hears them bounce off the side a few times, but does not hear them hit the bottom - it is either a long way down, or a cushioned landing. The shaft descends farther than any of them can see, either with their own darkvision or by the light of Tyrius’ spell.
Given the three options of exit corridors, the party decides to head west. Willa arranges them in marching order, with the mules in the back. Thokk and Babshapka are in the front rank, Larry and Shefak in the second rank. No sooner have they started down the corridor, when the ceiling falls and envelopes them! [numbered encounter 1]
For those watching, a thick, heavy, section of ceiling, fully twenty feet across, has peeled away and fallen, but upon draping itself around the front two ranks, has pulled itself together, and is even now constricting its muscles to simultaneously strangle and smother them. [Thokk, Babshapka, Larry, and Shefak each take between 6 and 8 damage, are restrained, and are suffocating]
Round 1
Willa rushes at the strange muscular blanket-like creature, slashing it with her greatsword [15 damage].
Babshapka struggles to draw his swords inside it, but finds his arms pinioned to his sides, with no room to strike.
[All four of the characters inside take another 6 to 8 damage.]
Larry struggles inside the creature, trying to break free, but only feels it grabbing him tighter and further squeezing the air from his body (Strength save 8 ). Babshapka fares no better (Strength save 11).
Umbra shoots forth a frigid beam of blue-white light that strikes the creature, raising welts on its rubbery skin.
With the last air in his lungs, Thokk bellows forth a muffled roar (first use of enrage for the day - advantage on strength saves). Punching, kicking, and struggling, he forcibly crawls forth from some orifice of the beast and out onto the metal floor (Strength save 19).
Inside the creature, Shefak stills her mind and summons her internal energy. Feeling her go limp, the creature shifts its muscle groups to the still-struggling Babshapka and Larry. Suddenly Shefak strikes out, using her knees and elbows to strike deep within the creature at now vulnerable organs. The creature spasms, them topples over, dragging all three of those inside to their sides.
[Attack action: unarmed strike, unarmed strike. 1 Ki point (flurry of blows): Bonus action: unarmed strike, unarmed strike, target save vs. dex or knocked prone. Total four attacks, 1 hit against AC 16. 9 damage, Lurker Dex save 4, fails. Those attacking it from outside now have advantage.]
Aurora shoots a firebolt at the creature [12 fire damage].
Tyrius charges, raining down blows of his hammer [two hits, total 17 damage]
Round 2
Thokk tries to pry open the sphincter-like mouth of the creature and retrieve his friend Larry, but to no avail. His powerful hands find no purchase of the boneless, rubbery creature. [Larry strength save 2, +5 from Thokk’s help = 7. On Thokk’s turn, he neither attacks nor has taken damage since his last turn. His rage ends.]
Umbra sends for a skeletal, disembodied hand to grab at the creature, but that, too, is ineffective.
Now standing nearly astride the creature, Willa opens great gashes along its flanks, revealing glimpses of her mates inside. [two hits, one critical, total 29 damage] The creature quivers, but can no longer effectively constrict. The three inside, even Larry, begin to crawl out.
Aurora shoots a last firebolt at it [damage 11], and the creature’s movement ceases. It slowly oozes out a purple-colored, blood like substance. This makes the floor sticky, but drops through the slots in the treaded part of the floor making a steady dripping patter on some surface close below. As the liquid drains away, the color of the creature turns from the dull gray of the metal ceiling to a dead white.
Larry suggests that the party walk further apart, and Aurora explains to Thokk how he can probe the ceiling with his wooden pole every so often to detect other such creatures. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
The journey just getting to the Starfall has been just as exciting as actually starting to explore it. Your players are all very, very lucky to have you as their DM.
You mentioned in a previous thread that the party is going to shrink in size a bit. How many PCs will be in the party once some of them leave? One of the reasons I love your thread is because I like large parties.
The journey just getting to the Starfall has been just as exciting as actually starting to explore it. Your players are all very, very lucky to have you as their DM.
And they tell me so, so I am lucky as well!
CruelSummerLord wrote:
You mentioned in a previous thread that the party is going to shrink in size a bit. How many PCs will be in the party once some of them leave? One of the reasons I love your thread is because I like large parties.
The party's current size is eight - they will pick up a new member, run by a new player, inside the Unoerthly Cave, bringing them to 9 PC's for three stable players, which was unwieldy. Once out of the cave, they will split with the five more-played characters becoming the main party, and the four less-played ones branching off - with the possibility to be continued in the future. Then the main group will get one more new character, for a total of 6 PC's played by 3 players. That is where we are right now and I am very happy with how it is working. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
You mentioned in a previous thread that the party is going to shrink in size a bit. How many PCs will be in the party once some of them leave? One of the reasons I love your thread is because I like large parties.
The party's current size is eight - they will pick up a new member, run by a new player, inside the Unoerthly Cave, bringing them to 9 PC's for three stable players, which was unwieldy. Once out of the cave, they will split with the five more-played characters becoming the main party, and the four less-played ones branching off - with the possibility to be continued in the future. Then the main group will get one more new character, for a total of 6 PC's played by 3 players. That is where we are right now and I am very happy with how it is working.
What's the next story arc? Are you sending them to the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, pitting them against the Slave Lords or making them fight Against The Giants?
What's the next story arc? Are you sending them to the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, pitting them against the Slave Lords or making them fight Against The Giants?
Yes, one of the three.
I think it is a little to early for that - today is the second of many posts about their Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. I don't want to get ahead of myself and would rather entertain speculation about what is going to happen to them on the spaceship rather than what will happen if they survive it.
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our second Barrier Peaks session, was 18 January, 2019.
DM's Notes: Vegepygmies and Thornies are statted for 5E in Volo's Guide to Monsters. However, the ones the party found herein were my personal conversions which attempted to stay closer to the source material. Mine are considerably more resilient and also have the six gradations of power found in the original module (HD1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6), whereas Volo's has only normal vegepygmies (CR 1/4 and just 9hp) and chiefs. I have started a thread in the 5e forum documenting my hombrew conversions to S3 but unfortunately have not worked on it of late; I started it in anticipation of running the module but soon the actual play itself consumed my posting time!
Post 158: The First Vegepygmy Battle 20 February, 571 [1 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 1
(9:30am)
The corridor they are in has at least six of the strange doors before it turns a corner at the end, but Thokk hasn’t gone thirty feet before he finds one of the doorways, to his right, is open. The party investigates the small (20’ x 20’) room beyond [unnumbered room - apartment].
It is a small chamber, apparently a solitary living quarters, judging by the furniture. The furniture itself is easily recognizable in form and function, but is made of strange and unfamiliar materials. The walls, floor, and ceiling are of the same metal as the exterior corridors. The floor and walls are solid, while the ceiling has a few rectangular panels that look as though they might be made of glass - although impossibly large for single panes. Just inside the door are two small, recessed panels on the wall. Both are rectangular and slightly larger than a human hand.
Once several of them are in the room, Aurora presses the first panel (closer to the door) whereupon there is a slight whirring noise and the door slides shut. After a brief moment of panic, with many of those in the party looking for the inevitable pit trap, water trap, crushing ceiling, etc., Aurora pushes the panel again, and the door resumes its open position!
When the second panel (farther from the door) is pressed, the room is flooded with very bright light. After their eyes adjust the party can see that the light is being produced by, or perhaps coming from behind, the glass panels in the ceiling.
The party searches the room - it should be a quick search of a small space with little of interest - but each of them is dumbfounded by the strangeness of the materials used to make otherwise familiar objects. Showing the odd materials to one another, the party comes to recognize that they appear to be variations on the same thing:
“Cave Horn”: This material is lighter than wood but hard and rigid, like horn. It shows no sign of having been carved - in fact, it looks more like it has been cast in a mold of exceptional detail and precision. It is reasonably easy to scratch, and in a few places there are scratches and scuff marks. Pieces that are large or thick are quite rigid, with just a trace of flex. Pieces that are small or thin, however, bend easily under pressure but instantly return to their original form when released. If pushed too hard, they will break rather than bending permanently. The odd material seems to be a substitute for wood and much of the furniture is made from it.
“Cave Sponge”: This material appears to be full of tiny holes, like a sea sponge but much smaller and more regular. It compresses easily under pressure, but springs back almost immediately. It seems to have been cut to fit each of the items it is inside. The odd material seems to be a substitute for straw, hair, or feather-stuffed mattresses and upholstery.
The bed has a frame made of light, rigid material they begin to call ‘cave horn’. The mattress is covered with a thin, linen-like but unrecognizable fabric. It is rent, torn, and stained in several places. Beneath the fabric is a thick block of soft, incredibly light, and resilient material they begin to call ‘cave sponge’.
The room also contains an odd, stuffed divan. It appears to be designed for two or more people to sit next to one another, but in comfort, which is a strange concept. Of course, people often crowd together on benches at trestle tables or in pews at church because they must. But anyone wealthy enough to have private, upholstered furniture would surely want a chair to themselves, wouldn’t they? The divan has a frame made of cave horn. The seat and back cushions and armrests are covered with a thin, linen-like but unrecognizable fabric. It is rent, torn, and stained in several places. Underneath the fabric is a thick block of cave sponge. They imagine the divan would be exceedingly comfortable, as if it were designed for sleeping rather than sitting.
There is a low table flanked by the divan. The height of the table is odd. For creatures sitting on the divan, it would be difficult to eat without bending over uncomfortably. The table is made of a single piece of a cave horn.
There is a high table flanked by chairs, all of them made of cave horn. The table is a solid piece with fixed legs rather than of trestle construction, and likely cannot be put away when not in use, even though it is light enough to move easily. The chairs have normal backs, but no legs. Rather, the seat continues down the front, across the bottom, and up the back, so that the whole thing from the side rather resembles a lower base letter “b”.
The desk is plain and unadorned. The drawers open easily, with a sophisticated system of runners and metal castors such as might be found in an expensive trap. The drawers are either empty or have worthless junk, however. Oddly, they find no trace of ink, ink bottles, quills, sealing wax, parchment, paper, or anything else that might be expected in a desk. The surface of the desk is a hard, reflective metal sheet, while the drawers and legs are made of cave horn.
There is a small cave horn nightstand by the bed that seems to double as a chest. The lid folds up, but the entire front may be pulled out like a drawer as well. The hinges are of a hard, reflective metal. The drawer opens easily, with the same runners and castors as in the desk. It is empty, however.
There are also skeletons in the room - definitely humanoid and most likely human, judging by their size and features, but the bone is exceptionally old and dry. What remains of the rags they are clad in is an exceptionally light material, thin like silk but remarkably resistant to decay judging by the age of the bones.
“I wonder whether we could stop this door from closing if we had to,” says Aurora. She places the chair from the room in the doorway and presses the interior plate. The door slides closed, pausing when it reaches the chair. Aurora thinks she hears a whirring sound, like mice scurrying in the walls, and then the chair shatters, with several broken pieces of the horn-like material landing inside the room and several outside, as the door slides firmly closed.
“Remind me not to be the last one through the doorway,” she says.
9:40am - Unbeknownst to the party, three displacer beasts approach the apartment cautiously, sniff and listen to the sounds of them searching the room. Later, when the party emerges but without the mount and mules, the beasts fall back into the shadows and tail them.
(10am)
The party isn’t keen on walking around with their mules and gear in tow and exposing them to fights, and this room seems like an ideal place to keep them. Eddard is easily able to open and close the door by pushing the wall panel with his nose, and Tyrius is able to communicate with him telepathically even with the door closed. Just to be sure, the party tries to open the door from the outside, and are unable to do so. What a great place to stow things! Eddard agrees to stay and watch the mules, and the party eagerly sets out.
“Ye sure ye don’t need yer spells?” Willa asks Aurora. “Ye used all yer powerful ones gettin’ ther four-legs up ‘ere.”
“No, I’m only down a mage armor and three flies so far,” says the enchantress confidently. “I still have plenty of uses of magic missile and web left, and that should be enough for whatever else we find dropping from the ceiling. Mind you, I do like fireball and certainly wouldn’t mind having one on hand, but I’m no one-trick pony.”
“Suit yerself,” shrugs Willa as they start down the hall.
When they reach the corner at the end of the hallway, they see a narrower hall with more doors ahead, but immediately at hand there is another open doorway, with light streaming through it out into the dark beyond.
Looking through the doorway, they find the room is recognizable as a private feast hall or perhaps the meeting place of a privy council [unnumbered room - activity room]. There is a single long, high table with eight chairs set up. All of the chairs are individual rather than being benches. More grimly, the bones of several humans or humanoids lie strewn about - some in reasonably articulated skeletons and some scattered. Most have rags of fabric clinging to them but no weapons or other devices are in sight. There are several piles of refuse along the walls and in the corners of the room. The southern wall is interesting in that it is gently curved, like the interior wall of a great round tower, rather than set at the precise right angles they have seen everywhere else.
There are two doors along the interior wall of the hall, and two, including the one they are looking through, along the exterior wall. Most of the party has already passed into the room when Aurora pauses at the threshold. “Hmm…” she says, staring at the wall.
“What ho?” asks Tyrius.
“Look at this,” she replies. “This door doesn’t have the slot - glass - receptacle configuration of all the other doors - just a single pressure plate.” Tyrius nods and enters.
“There are two plates on this side,” he says, “like inside that bedchamber.”
Aurora presses the single plate on her side of the wall, and the door slides shut, sealing the rest of the party in the room and her outside. A second later, the door opens, and Tyrius grins at her. “Just like the bedchamber,” he says. “Watch this…” He presses the second interior panel and the room is plunged into darkness. Yells and curses from the party, now searching the room, quickly follow.
“And Pelor said let there be light…” he says jovially and presses the panel again. The rectangular ceiling glasses again flood the room with light.
While the party searches the room, poking through the refuse piles, Aurora goes to the other doors. The door on the exterior wall is identical to the previous one, and can be opened or closed on either side. The two interior doors, however, have the three-part panel they have seen elsewhere, and there is nothing she can do to get them open.
“What’s different about this space…?” ponders Aurora to herself.
“In t’other room, ye helped searchin’, an’ in t’is room, yer jus’ sittin' on yer arse?” suggests Willa, as she uses her sword to poke through a jumble of trash on the floor.
“This room is for public use, whereas that bedroom was private,” Aurora answers herself, giving no indication she has heard Willa. “Private rooms should have keys - which means something in that triptych panel is a keyhole.” She walks over to one of the interior doors, staring at the strange three-part panel. “And if this is the keyhole,” she traces the upper, horizontal, slot with her finger, “the key must be thin and flat, but broad.” Aurora tells the others, as they root through the refuse, to be on the lookout for anything small and flat that might fit in the door slots, but even after more searching, nothing relevant is found.
(10:20am)
The party returns to the hall. It is just a short way up and around the corner, and there is light ahead as well.
They ignore an open, but dark doorway as they move forward. Looking around the corner, Thokk sees a long hall with no fewer than seven open doorways, each one with light spilling out.
“Hush!” says Umbra suddenly, killing the innocuous chatter in the party. After a moment of silence, she says, “there is something ahead that is rustling - like tall grass in a breeze.”
Thokk frowns as he tries to understand her words, then shrugs and moves forward. Peeking into the first room, he sees a curious sight [12]. Ten creatures - eight diminutive, and two the size of large dogs, are in a long, narrow room. The light comes from the ceiling, and the eight tiny men stand with arms open and faces up toward the light, swaying gently back and forth. The men are a mottled green and brown color, and are dressed in armor that looks like it is made of pieces of bark. They bear clubs and javelins, and their features are rough and distorted. Their hair is gathered in top-knots, and they have curious growths and protuberances erupting from their skin, particularly in the region of their bowels.
As Thokk stares on in bewilderment, the men closest to him in the doorway turn slowly to face him, looking on with curious, lidless eyes.
Thokk and Willa draw their weapons, but do not advance. They note that the curious bipedal creatures are small, ranging from two to three feet high. The four-legged creatures are rather larger, being the size of mastiffs. A few of the creatures in the room closest to them take some steps forward, then stop, emitting a strange warbling sound and beating on the hard wooden breastplates they have.
Suddenly every open doorway begins spilling forth the tiny creatures. They move rapidly into the hall; those with javelins preparing to throw, while those with clubs move to the front ranks to engage Thokk and Willa.
Willa hits one twice (total 25 points) but it remains standing. Apparently they are very tough for diminutive plant-men. Now that they are moving, Willa can see that they are not actually in wooden armor - rather, while much of their body is twisted, sinewy vegetation that moves, other parts have hard, woody plates covering them, like some kind of living exoskeleton.
Thokk hits one (12 points) and Umbra, testing whether or not they are damaged by magic, fires off three dark bolts (total 7 damage) which do indeed seem to wound one (Umbra now at 3/3/3 for spells).
Round One
The three largest plant men, barely three feet high, attempt to batter Thokk and Willa with their clubs. For being so tough, they are not particularly strong, and the blows bounce harmlessly off of Willa’s armor or are easily avoided by Thokk.
Willa’s counterstrikes are strong, but don’t penetrate the hard wooden plates of the creatures (hit rolls 14, 16 - they have AC17).
Thokk hits twice (for 18 total) and the plant man he faces is still standing. How infuriating! Thokk enrages. (second use of rage for the day).
Seeing the hallway swarming with the tiny creatures and more emerging from the rooms, Larry steps up behind Thokk and Willa. Calling upon the mountain spirits of storms, he launches forth a massive lightning bolt (32 points) low to the ground (Larry now 3/2/2 for spells). It shoots through the plant men in the front ranks of the party, enters one of the rooms they are coming out of, and bounces off the metal walls, filling the air with the smell of ozone. A half-second later, it emerges from the room, and heads straight back at the party, arcing through the plant men along the way! Babshapka, Willa, Larry, and Tyrius are all forced to dive out of the way, and still take damage from the stroke (16 points).
With currents still arcing through his chainmail, Larry plants his feet firmly again. “Worth et” he says simply, but Babshapka is not so sure. The plant men seem to have attracted the lightning, but it passed right through them - none of them seem the worse for wear.
“Uh, Larry...are you sure plants are hurt by lightning?” the elf asks. “Maybe we could try fire?”
[DM’s note: Vegepygmies and thornies are immune to damage from electricity]
The back ranks of plant men launch a volley of javelins at Thokk, Willa, and Babshapka. Only Babshapka is hit, but by three of the small, pointed sticks. The projectiles don’t have metal heads or even fletching, but they are covered in wicked barbs and the plant men throw them with deadly accuracy. Between the javelins (14 points) and the previous lightning bolt (16 points), Babshapka is not doing so well (now down to 9hp remaining).
Seeing Babshapka waiver, Shefak launches herself forward. She leaps into the front rank with a kick that knocks a plant man out of the way but does no damage. Another kick wounds one, and a mighty blow from her staff finishes it off. (total two hits, one critical, damage 25). Seeing its form quiver on the floor, then cease its struggles, Shefak encourages her teammates, “They are strange, but mortal. Don’t give in to fear.”
Despite her words, there is another volley of javelins from the plant men, and two find their mark among the party.
“Ugh, there are too many…” frets Aurora, now regretting her words to Willa about not needing fireball. “They are like plant - rats. This should help…” she fills the hallway with webs, creating a shield against the javelins, trapping several of the plant men, and effectively halving the number the party are facing. (Aurora now at 3/2/0 for spells)
Babshapka takes the opportunity to withdraw into the back ranks, giving space to anyone else who wants to rush to the fore.
Tyrius pushes in by Willa and attacks, landing two blows with his hammer (total 17 points) and killing the second creature, then withdrawing. Umbra follows up with a ray of shadow at the closest one to her. (5 points).
Round 2
Now safely in the back ranks, Babshapka launches two arrows of his own at a plant man, following it up with a hail of thorns for good measure. The shots should do good damage (22 points total), but the plant man appears unaffected. Even the shafts that miss the wood armor and penetrate the living plant fibre seem to do no damage! (Babshapka spells to 3/2).
[DM’s note: vegepygmies and thornies are immune to damage from non-magical piercing weapons]
Babshapka, in a rare moment of anger and frustration, throws his bow on the ground and draws his two swords.
Another volley of javelins lands for effect among the party. They realize now that the plant men are actually timing their throws to support the front melee ranks of their compatriots - when one of the party steps up to make an attack, they are met with a javelin throw.
[DM’s note: Vegepygmy missile troops have “pack tactics” - advantage on attacks against any foe engaged in melee with an ally].
Shefak continues to spin and weave among the melee. She lands two unarmed blows, and a solid blow with her staff. Seeing the number of foes still standing, she inhales sharply, then exhales loudly as she kicks a plant man so hard it flies backward and lands in Aurora’s web! (Second ki point spent for Aurora; flurry of blows plus contested strength roll to knock back 15 feet). In response, one of the strange plant-thorn-dogs lunges from an open doorway and bites Shefak.
Tyrius looks for an opening between Thokk and Willa, then using Thokk’s rage to effect, moves forward, strikes twice (for 16 damage), and moves back.
Annoyed that the plant men survived his lightning bolt, Larry summons a moonbeam and places it in one of the rooms from which they are still emerging (Larry now 3/1/2 for spells). The three plant men still in the room wriggle and writhe - the intense light seems to be browning, even scorching, their green “skin”. (7 points to two of them, 3 points to one).
The tiny plant men don’t seem to understand that the party are the superior combatants. They are continuing to emerge and attack undaunted. Willa is getting angry. She strikes one of the plant men in the doorway of a room and fells it (24 points, now three vegepygmies down).
Another volley of javelins lands among the party, damaging Shefak (6) and Tyrius (13). Shefak has outworn her welcome on the front lines and has sustained numerous wounds (Shefak at 3hp). Of all the plant men trapped in Aurora’s web, two struggle through and make attacks on Shefak and Tyrius, but to no effect.
Thokk can barely make out anyone with the sound of his blood raging in his ears, but it seems he hears someone shouting “Fire!” over and over again. Is it Willa? Aurora? No matter. He drops his shield and shrugs his backpack off one shoulder, changes his sword to his offhand, and has the pack on the ground. (Dex save 23). Rummaging in his pack, he pulls out two flasks of oil and launches them at the lead melee plant man and the closest thorn-dog.
Umbra shoots a Ray of Shadow at one of the thorn dogs, which does appear affected by the cold damage. Suddenly her shadow hound appears in the middle of the melee, baring its jet black teeth and uttering a menacing growl.
Aurora shoots a fire-bolt at one of the oil-covered plant men (14 points damage, plus 5 from the oil). The resultant fire spreads to the other oil-covered creature and ignites the webs. At the end of the brief conflagration, two of the plant men have been burned to death (total five down), and many others are smoldering and wounded. Aurora had hoped that the plant men would go up like seasoned wood, but it appears that they are too “green” for that, too moist to keep burning after the oil and webs have burned away.
Round Three
With most of the plant men near the party struck down, they are now attacked by three thorn dogs. Shefak suffers a bite and drops to the floor in shock, unconscious. Umbra’s hound is bitten, but Willa’s magical armor protects her from another bite.
Babshapka uses a second-level spell slot to heal himself, but is disappointed in the result (5 points healing, Babshapka’s spells to 3/1).
Now that the webs have been burned away, there is a volley of eight javelins at the party! Two are aimed at Willa (missed), four on Thokk (one hit for 5, Thokk takes 2), and two on Umbra’s hound (one hit for 4). Before anyone in the party can react, another seven javelins come in! Two on Willa (one hit for 6), three on Thokk (missed), and two on the hound (both hit for 12).
Umbra shoots another three dark bolts at the plant men around her hound (now at 2/3/3), and the sixth such creature goes down.
Babshapka gets Aurora’s attention by slapping her with the broad side of his sword, and tells her “There’s too many.” He then shouts at the party for a general retreat and grabs his bow from the floor. Umbra adds her voice to those calling for retreat.
Somehow the shouts reach Thokk even through his battle lust. He sheathes his sword (which was already in his offhand), throws his pack back on one shoulder, stoops and grabs both his shield and the crumpled body of Shefak. Straightening, he ignores the thorn dogs at his heels as he trots down the hall away from the combat.
[Note; Thokk took damage this round, so he does not lose his rage even though he did not attack]
The spellcasters, Larry and Aurora, prepare to cover the party’s retreat. Aurora plans on casting a new web, while Larry is ready to move his moonbeam, once Thokk and Tyrius are out of the way. In the room where the moonbeam already is, the three plant men take more damage and a seventh one is killed.
Tyrius retreats down the hall, calling after the others to join him.
Before retreating, Willa decides to attack one of the thorn dogs (two hits, 27 damage). In the course of her attack, several of its thorns blunt themselves on her plate. Without her magic armor, she would likely have taken damage just from getting too near the creature. Willa resolves to warn Shefak of this, if she can be revived.
Aurora casts web in front of Willa and Thokk, the party members farthest to the front, then continues her own retreat. She conveniently ignores the fact that her web is covering Umbra’s hound (Aurora now at 3/1/0 for spells).
Round 4
Of the three thorn dogs covered in Aurora’s web, one remains stuck, one attacks Umbra’s hound, and one emerges to attack Willa. Of the three largest plant men, with clubs, two are caught in the web, while a third breaks free and swings at Thokk.
The party is feeling confident that their tactical retreat is going well, when suddenly there is an odd hissing sound. To the north a set of doors has opened, revealing another room full of the creatures, on the near side of the web!
“T’ey ken ‘ow ter use doors!” gasps Willa in surprise. Two of the creatures strike ineffectually at her with clubs.
Larry whispers a healing word to Shefak, restoring her to consciousness, then concentrates on moving his moonbeam closer to the party. (Larry’s spells at 2/1/2). He gets his spell to cover the newly open doorway, and two plant men and two thorn dogs writhe as they run through it (17 points each!). This is not[/] the kind of light these plants like, apparently.
Babshapka continues to retreat down the corridor, but Willa is surrounded - she has two of the plant men and two thorn dogs on her. Cursing in annoyance, she strikes at one of the plant men, slashing it into a quivering pile of tendrils (two hits, one critical, total 32 damage). When Aurora [i]firebolts the other one, it falls as well.
Umbra’s hound struggles to keep attacking, but it is ensnared by webs. She mutters darkly, looking down the hall at the plant men and thorn dogs emerging from the moonbeam. A sphere of darkness appears between the creatures. Tendrils of darkness break the surface of the sphere, reach out, grasping at them. Three manage to elude its grasp, but one thorn-dog is grabbed and held. (Entropy; Umbra now at 3/3/2 for spells).
The plant men in the hall send a volley of ten darts at Thokk and Umbra’s hound. (Three hits on Thokk, one critical, 24 points of damage, reduced to 12 from rage. Five hits on hound, two critical, 32 points of damage). The hound gives up its essence to cover Umbra’s retreat, disappearing back into the shadows from whence it came.
Plant men begin struggling through the new web, trying to reach the party.
Shefak jumps down from Thokk’s shoulder, and he draws his sword.
One plant man batters his club against Willa’s plate armor.
Round 5
Thokk and Willa are still covering the party’s retreat. They have turned the corner from the new web, though, and so are visible only to the creatures emerging from the last room, the one whose door just opened. Two darts are thrown at them (Thokk is hit for 5, takes 2).
Umbra has retreated far enough that she is standing in front of the door of the room in which are the mules and Eddard. She looks anxiously down the hall in both directions as she waits for the rest of the party to catch up with her.
Larry moves his moonbeam, keeping it just behind Thokk and Willa so that any pursuers have to run through it to get to them.
A thorn dog misses Thokk; both he and Willa are missed by plant men.
Shefak pauses in her retreat, adopts a standing meditative pose, and briefly glows with a golden light. She then runs to Umbra’s side, outside the door. (Wholeness of Body - Shefak healed for 18 points).
With two swift strokes of his sword, Thokk fells two of the thorn dogs.
Willa hits the remaining plant men twice and then falls back, ignoring their feeble response strikes.
Aurora and Babshapka arrive at the door to the mules. Babshapka starts pounding on it, while Aurora tries to message Eddard.
Tyrius arrives at the door and reaches out to Eddard. The door finally opens.
Round 6
Aurora provides covering firebolts as the party enters the room as quickly as they can through the doorway. Plant men are still throwing darts as Willa and Thokk, his rage fading, enter last. Just before the doors close, Larry moves the moonbeam into the hallway outside the door itself.
As the door closes, Thokk turns, ready to form up ranks. When he realizes that they were actually running away, not drawing the plant men forward to fight them from a better position, he howls in frustration. He is not ready for the battle to be over.
Willa turns on the party accusingly. “What ther ‘ells were t’at?” She seems both surprised and disgusted by their disarray.
“I guess we are not very practiced at retreating,” offers Aurora. “We don’t do it often. In fact, I think the last time we ran away from a fight was before we knew you. We were outnumbered, and fighting against smugglers.”
“And skeletons,” adds Babshapka in agreement.
“And sausages,” says Thokk, and shivers in remembered dread.
Willa snorts derisively, and motions everyone away from the door while she takes off her helm and places her ear up against the metal.
Aurora moves to a far corner of the room and begins a ritual of detect magic. Willa hushes her incantations testily. Umbra glides up to the door and listens with Willa. They agree that there are still noises of the plant men without, but they are faint - either they are far away, or the door is an excellent insulator of sound. Willa mutters that she hopes the creatures don’t know how to open this door.
Tyrius makes the rounds, examining each of their wounds. He finds Babshapka most in need of healing and lays hands on him (5 points of healing, Tyrius out of lay on hands). The elf thanks Tyrius and cautiously lowers himself to the divan, preparing to trance.
Suddenly the door of the room slides open. It has been less than a minute, and Larry’s moonbeam is still flooding the hallway with light. Beyond the area of the beam, however, are arrayed a dozen or more of the plant men, front ranks with clubs readying a charge, back ranks with darts and javelins in hand. To the side of the door frame, one of the larger plant man stands by the wall, stretching his arm up to retrieve something from the receptacle at the bottom of the three-part panel.
Willa leans out and grabs the creature, attempting to pull both it and whatever it has in its hand into the room, but it turns and writhes in her grasp. Apparently it doesn’t have joints, at least not ones that work like Willa expects. (Contested strength roll; Willa 7, Sapling 16. Willa spends an inspiration point to re-roll hers, and gets a 5 (critical fail!)).
Babshapka leaps up from the couch, asking whether they are continuing the fight. In response, Willa shouts “Shut ther door!” through clenched teeth as she continues to tug on the plant man. Finally she wrestles it into the room (Willa contested strength roll 18, sapling 12), and then wraps her hands around its little neck, attempting to throttle it.
From the hallway comes a volley of javelins, and Willa is struck by one (10 points). Larry moves to the door, pressing the panel to close the portal, and mentally moving his moonbeam to cover the exterior panel even as the door slides shut.
Thokk wrenches the plant man from Willa’s grasp, throws it to the floor, and then chops at it with his sword. (two hits, 21 points, but it still lives!)
Aurora abandons her ritual and attempts to message the plant man in Ancient Suel, the oldest language she knows.
Eddard moves along the wall and holds his nose to the wall panel, prepared to shut the door if it opens again. Shefak moves to the closed doorway, ready to deflect any entering javelins.
Tyrius steps up to the scuffle, motioning Thokk away. He wants to knock the plant man out, the better to question him later. He hits it on the head with his war hammer and it goes limp and falls to the floor. He carefully picks it up and carries it to the bed.
Willa has gone to her knees and is pushing around the floor the bits and pieces of the plant man that Thokk hacked off. She comes up with a small, flat, rectangular bit of cave horn. It is jet black and slightly reflective, shaped like a playing card but smaller. “I t’ink t’is be ther key ter ther door…” she says, and hands the object to Aurora.
Eddard has joined Tyrius alongside the bed. He sniffs suspiciously at the tiny plant man. “This is what you all were running from?” he asks, clearly not impressed.
“There were a lot of them!” says Aurora defensively.
“In my experience,” opines Eddard, “when facing large numbers of minor opponents, it is best to use area-of-effect spells, such as your fireball, or Master Larry’s moonbeam.” Aurora reddens, attempts to respond, and then silently seethes.
Finally, she says, “I’ll be readying a comprehend languages. Bring me the thing when it is conscious.” She stomps across the small room and begins another ritual.
Tyrius lifts the arm of the creature, tries to feel for a pulse, but is unsure if there was one to begin with. Babshapka comes over, casts a cure wounds to speed the process along. (Babshapka’s spells to 2/1). The creature doesn’t stir. “I think it’s dead,” the elf says.
“But I was trying to knock it out!” objects Tyrius.
Babshapka shrugs. “Maybe plants don’t go unconscious.”
Aurora sighs exasperatedly and motions for Babshapka to move the creature from the bed to the low table beside the divan. She unpacks some supplies on the divan and prepares to dissect it right on the table, as well as examining the javelins that landed inside the room. While she works, she asks each of the party, in turn, to tell her what they remember of the combat, in as much detail as possible. The entire encounter lasted less than a minute, and she pieces together a more or less coherent narrative from the collected memories. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers for module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
The playdate for this, our third Barrier Peaks session, was 8 February, 2019.
DM's Notes: Police Robot: AC11, Hp. 130. The police robots generate a protective force field that can take 20 points of damage. In effect, they begin each of their turns with 20 temporary hit points.
Post 159: Police Robot 20 February, 571 [1 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 1
[Unbeknownst to the party, after the loss of a door card and many of their warriors, the vegepygmies have decided that they have successfully defended their territory. They haul the dead and wounded off to the mulch room, and post guards in some of the dark rooms approaching their hallway, but don’t otherwise menace the party.]
(10:40am)
It has been some fifteen minutes and the door has not opened - Willa and Umbra don’t hear anything outside. The party prepares to rest.
“I don’t think this is a city, or a mine,” says Aurora suddenly.
“Why not?” asks Tyrius.
“These rooms - whoever heard of a bed chamber, or a meeting room, just lying off the street outside the main door of a city? Where are the guard rooms, where is the market square?”
Tyrius nods, forced to agree. “What do you think this is?”
“I think it is a ship,” Aurora says matter-of-factly.
“Yer barmy!” explodes Willa.
“I’m serious,” contends Aurora. “I thought before that they built this city at the site where the star fell. But what if there was no star - I mean, what if all of this (and she gestures all around them) was the star!”
Willa shakes her head. “I don’t ken from magic, but I ken ships. Ships don’t be made o’ metal.”
“Water-ships, no, of course not. But ships that move between the stars? What if this whole place is a star ship? What if what Nholast saw was this whole thing falling to Oerth?”
“Mules don’t fly!” counters Aurora. “And yet I made two mules and a celestial horse fly up to the entrance of this place. I can’t begin to imagine the magic it would take to make even one of these strange doors - and we’ve already seen a dozen! Is it so hard to believe that the mage who made this place could make it fly? Fly between stars?”
“Yer daft,” says Willa, but this time she doesn’t sound quite as sure of herself.
(11:25am; rest time 1 hr for all)
It has been an hour since the party killed the plant man. Most of them elect to take the benefits of a short rest.
Larry’s spells from 2/1/2 to 3/2/2 (natural recovery).
Aurora’s spells from 3/1/0 to 3/1/1 (arcane recovery).
Shefak recovers all her ki points.
Tyrius spends 3HD and gets back 20hp.
Thokk spends 2HD and gets back 22hp.
Larry spends 2HD and gets back 20hp.
Willa spends 3HD and gets back 19hp.
Willa also uses her Second Wind for another 15hp.
Babshapka spends 3HD and gets back 30hp.
Shefak spends 2HD and gets back 15hp.
With the addition of two cure wounds spells from Tyrius, the party is all at full hp. Tyrius’ spells now at 2/2.
After an hour without interruption, the party decides to make longer-term plans, and to take a long rest. (Long rest will recover: full spell slots (including for Tyrius, Babshapka, Umbra), rage, wholeness of body, lay on hands, second wind).
They consider wedging the door with a piton, but are unsure they would be able to get it open again, even if it worked to hold the sliding door shut, which they doubt it would. The door actually goes lower into a groove in the floor, so they can’t place the piton beneath the door, either. In the end, they position Thokk as sitting on the floor, leaning his back up against the door, so at least he will be woken if it opens.
The restless mules are unladen, and the gear packs distributed around the room, bed rolls taken out and placed on the floor. Things they may need to access during the rest are laid out on the desk, low table, and high table. Tyrius doesn’t get out his bed roll, but he does take off his armor and lay down in the bed - sighing in both amazement and satisfaction. “I don’t think the Earl has a bed as comfortable as this, be it stuffed with goose down,” he says contentedly. “In truth, I don’t think the King of Keoland does.”
The mules sniff at the odd fabric covers of the bed mattress and divan, but don’t like what they smell. They try a few pieces of the dissected plant man, and this they actually chew and swallow, but without much gusto. It is still early in the day, so they are not too hungry. Fortunately the warm air of the cave seems to have improved Randy’s colic and attitude.
Aurora examines the small card found by Willa. She agrees that it is the right size for the horizontal slot on the door, and could be a key - but learns little else about it.
Some time later one of the mules raises his tail and deposits a load of droppings on the floor. Those in the party who are awake ignore it - they have been living for more than a week with the mules and their droppings in their tent, and this room is considerably larger than the tent. After a few moments, though, Larry sits up and begins to snuffle. (Nature check 22). He wanders the room sniffing, then licks a grubby finger and holds it in the air. “Och, this rrroom be vent’lated,” he says finally.
Bored with nervous energy in the strange place, many in the party start to seek out the source of the air. Aurora (Investigation 18 ) finds, on opposite sides of the room, twin wall panels with tiny, pinprick-sized holes that were not noted before. Using a thin sheet of parchment to detect the current, she is able to see that indeed, air is flowing out of one of them and in to the other. She looks for a way to disassemble the grate and finds four screwheads in the corners. The slot for the screwdriver is thinner than her parchment paper, however, and tiny besides. They would likely need jeweler’s tools to undo it. She unpacks her sharpest utility knife and fumbles at the screwheads, but the blade is still too thick.
Thokk has been ignoring the proceedings so far (except for a hearty chuckle at the mule’s initial defecation), but he perks up when Aurora takes out her knife. He is still annoyed that they ran away from the plant men. Is the screechy elf-woman going to fight something? He stands and moves to her side.
“What you do?” he asks as he sees her touching the wall with her dagger.
“Trying to open this grate, Thokk dear, to see the vent on the other side.”
He watches her fumble for a bit and then gently shoves her out of the way. “Thokk open,” he says, and then swings his ham-hock sized fist at the wall. The metal is hard and takes the skin off his knuckles, but he does leave a dent - this isn’t the same kind of hard metal that broke his javelin head without a scratch.
At the resounding clang and grunt of pain, Willa looks up from sharpening her greatsword. “Thokk, no!” she says, dropping her implements and dashing to his side.
Thokk assumes that she is jealous and wants to open the grate herself. “Thokk find first!” he says, and lands another powerful blow on the metal, denting it further. “Advisor find own grate.” She attempts to shove him away from the wall, but is unsuccessful. (Contested Str check Willa 7, Thokk 20). Aurora has wisely retreated from the wall.
“Thokk, NO!” Willa says, and tries to punch him on the jaw (Attack roll 13), but he moves instinctively and takes the blow on his shoulder (Thokk AC without shield 17). He continues to pound on the grate, now with both hands in urgency, sensing that he has to finish before Willa tries to do it herself.
Willa slides between Thokk and the wall just as his right hand finally breaks through. The broken, jagged metal rips bloody gouges in his hand and wrist, but he steps back smiling in satisfaction. “There, Ror-ra!” he says contentedly, “Thokk open!” He grins triumphantly at Willa, and then returns to his post by the door, blood dripping from his lacerated hand.
Aurora returns to the wall. Willa is livid. “Now, ‘ow we be closin’ it?” she demands of the enchantress.
“Close it? Why Willa, think of it as an alternative exit, if something locks the door from without,” she smiles. Aurora examines the space beyond the broken grate with her dagger. There is a box-shaped depression the same size as the grate, with the only exit being a narrow tube at the top, a few inches in diameter.
“And who be able t’ exit yon?” demands Willa hotly.
“Oh, Charlotte, of course,” replies Aurora easily, “or Larry in one of his wild shapes. Willa, you need to be more open to possibilities.”
Willa considers her next action, but everything that springs to mind would involve interrupting her rest. She stomps back to where she left her sword and whetstone on the floor, and takes out her anger on the blade.
(12:50pm; 2:25 hr into rest for all)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a security robot on patrol moves down the hall. It pauses over the body of the slain lurker, runs some diagnostics on the wounds, and concludes that it is highly improbable it was killed by vegepygmies. It routes all available power into its sensory apparati, and its hearing picks noise coming from one of the jet-carded apartments.
The robot wheels forward, and the displacer beasts camped outside the room break and retreat. The robot approaches the door and holds forth its key probe to the pearl-colored sensor panel of the lock.]
Some two-and-a-half hours into their rest, the door slides open. Thokk, who was asleep, looks up quizzically. There is nothing in the unlit hall, but gliding into the room is a very strange creature.
It appears to be several different sizes of metal barrel, onto which two arms and two tentacles have been affixed. Nearly all of it is metal, although some of the articulations look to be covered in tarred cloth, perhaps. It is unclear how it is moving as it glides silently across the floor. Numerous tiny, dim lights glitter along different surfaces. As it enters the room the topmost barrel swivels back and forth and the party realizes that it is to be taken as a head.
Thokk, seeing no enemies in the hall and no weapons in the hands of the strange metal creature, gets to his feet and draws his sword, but does not immediately attack, instead waiting for Willa or Aurora to set the tone. Or even for Tyrius to talk to it, he supposes. Tyrius likes to talk to strangers.
Others in the party leap to their feet, but do not attack. Once the creature is inside the room, one of the human-like arms reaches behind it and presses the panel by the door. The door closes, and the creature glides to the center of the room.
Willa looks for a card in one of its hands, or even its tentacles, but does not see one. She moves to block its access to the rest of the party, and greets it in Common. The creature swivels its head from the door panel back to her, but does not otherwise respond.
“Aurora, wha’ be t’is?” asks Willa over her shoulder.
Aurora, followed closely by Larry, approaches.
“Some sort of construct,” says Aurora confidently. “Like the iron golems in Castle Ravenloft, or the flesh golem in the Tower of Nholast.” She frowns at it. “But certainly the most amateurish one I have ever seen. I mean...look at how ugly and ungainly it is...the greenest animator ‘prentice could do better.”
Larry steps up to the creature and pokes it. Its head swivels, its tentacles wave, but there is no other reaction. He tries to find something that might be an eye, focusing on the little colored lights. Looking at one on its chest, he sees a bright red light and is momentarily blinded (Investigation 2).
“I suppose…” considers Aurora, “a flying city of master wizards would have to have dozens of ‘prentices on hand. Perhaps this is someone’s first practice.”
“T’is ain’t a flyin’ city,” says Willa, “an’ it ain’t a ship, neither.”
Aurora begins speaking to the creature in every language she knows, trying to issue it command words. Constructs, she knows, are built to do things. They have functions that can be triggered - if only she can find the right words. She speaks for several minutes but has no more luck than she did with the flesh golem.
Still suspicious, Willa draws her sword, and Babshapka notches an arrow, but even this does not provoke a response. Willa tosses a coin in front of it - perhaps reasoning that the lowliest of constructs would be used to clean - but neither does the creature react to that.
Frustrated, Aurora pulls out her wand of magic detection. She could use a ritual, of course, but that would tax her rest. Perhaps with this she can get enough information to know how to command it (wand charges to 15).
After a brief moment, her face looks perplexed. “Wha’?” demands Willa.
“It’s not magic,” says Aurora, dumbfounded. She looks around. “Nothing in this room registers as magic...not even the door.” But how can that be?
“Well, it ain’t alive, neither,” says Willa and Aurora nods agreement.
“Is it a clockwork?” Aurora asks, apparently to herself. “That would explain all the metal and moving bits, I guess.”
“A clockwha’?” asks Willa.
“Clockwork,” says Aurora, sounding more confident now. “Some gnomes make automatons that seem animated, but they aren’t actually magic - just complicated machines. Inside they have gears and springs and such. Of course, they can’t think or react - they are little more than toys.”
She bends nearer, trying to find any buttons or levers that might control it. There are several articulated protuberances, and she even manipulates a few of them, but to no effect. “I don’t know,” she sighs. Keep it here and let me think.”
Aurora goes over and sits on the floor near the desk (having previously smashed the chair in the door). Willa grabs Thokk’s arm and maneuvers him so that they are both blocking the doorway, preventing the thing from leaving, though it shows no inclination to do so.
(1:00pm; RT 2:35 hr for all)
[Unbeknownst to the party, while they are inside with the police robot, a patrol of twelve vegepygmies with four thornies has made its way down the hallway. Normally they would cut the lurker into manageable pieces and haul it off to the mulch room, but now having found the party they thought they had driven off still camped so close to the colony they are concerned. Sensing the vibrations through the floor, they locate the room the party is in and set up camp outside. They are not keen to lose another card assaulting the room, but they can wait until the party emerges into the hall, where their superior numbers will be more of an advantage than trying to force their way through the narrow door.]
(1:10pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, another four vegepygmies and a thornie have arrived to reinforce their position - a total of sixteen and five now lie in wait.]
Some ten minutes or so after the automaton entered the room, Aurora’s mage armor has expired, which is typical for the early afternoon. She casts it early in the morning to last until their mid-day break from marching. Now, however, she chooses not to renew it - again so as to not tax her rest, as she needs her mind refreshed to get back two more fireballs to deal more effectively with the plant men.
Suddenly the automaton emits a brief series of high-pitched beeps. “Language analysis complete,” it then says in perfect Common, with a hint of a Uleki accent. “Initiating translation protocol.”
The party stares at it, all of them surprised, even Eddard.
“Unrecognized personal,” it continues, “please present identification cards.”
There is perfect silence in the room.
“Unrecognized personnel,” it continues, “present identification cards.” The timbre in its “voice” has changed upon repetition, and carries an obvious element of command.
Aurora swallows and stands. “Please describe identification cards,” she says, her mind racing.
“Identification cards are issued upon admission of personnel to ship,” it says. “Present identification cards.”
“‘e said ship,” whispers Willa, eyes wide in astonishment.
Babshapka turns and does a rapid search through the desk, but finds nothing resembling a card or document (Investigation 22).
Aurora draws forth the black rectangle Willa recovered from the plant man. She holds it in front of her and takes a step toward the automaton. “Here’s our identification card,” she says.
It glides smoothly toward her, positioning itself so that the red eye that blinded Larry is a foot from the card. Those in a position to see the card and Aurora’s face see a red light briefly play over both.
“Colonist Identification Card does not match personal biometrics of subject,” the automaton announces. “You are being detained. Do not resist.”
Aurora gives a nervous laugh. “Of course not. We will not resist. Explain detention method.”
“You will be taken to level one security facility for detention. You will be held there until processing.”
Aurora holds out her arms as if waiting for restraints.
Round One
Babshapka steps between Aurora and the automaton, letting fly with a string of words in elvish, hoping to confuse the machine. He still has an arrow nocked, but does not fire. The machine’s two tentacled arms reach forward, trying to avoid Babshapka and reach Aurora’s wrists.
[Grappling; two contested Athletics rolls. Automaton 17, Aurora 19+5 from help = 24. Automaton 7, Aurora 15+5 from help = 20].
With help from Babshapka, Aurora is able to back to the far side of the room without being seized.
Larry is already standing next to the machine. He holds forth his hand and sprays it with a green venom. The drops bead up on the metallic surface of the machine, but do not seem to affect it.
It speaks again: “Subjects are resisting detention. Initiating combat protocol.”
From across the room, Aurora pleads, “Four hours! Combat protocol countermanded. Subject will submit to detention in four hours!” (Persuasion roll 10).
Willa swears like a sailor and brings her greatsword down in a long overhead strike, then recovers it and strikes again at the socket where one of the tentacles attaches to the body. The machine makes no effort to evade her blows and is easy to hit - but both times her sword strikes, she sees a glint like a blue field just above the surface of the thing. Although she feels the impact in her sword, there is no visible effect on the machine - not even a scratch or dent (two hits, damage 11 points, 9 points, but damage absorbed by forcefield).
Willa watches as Thokk’s first hit also impacts the curious blue field (11 points). His second strike, however, does not (7 points) - and it actually scratches the metal when it lands.
Round Two
Aurora continues to try to move away, while not being trapped between the bed and desk. She shouts at it, “You are broken! Initiate self-diagnosis!” (Persuasion 25)
It responds. “Self-diagnosis placed in action queue. Will commence when combat protocol has resolved.”
Umbra shoots a ray of shadow at it. It strikes the metal frame and frosts part of it over (11 cold damage).
Willa shouts, “There be a blue field aboot the creature, an it made me sword do nothin’. But Thokk’s sword be makin’ the blue aura vanish. So now we might be in ther mix!” She hits twice (damage 14, 11) and her hits are leaving dents and scores on the machine.
Babshapka fires arrows from point blank range. One hits (10 points), while the other bounces off its rounded steel chassis.
Thokk is grinning, glad to be engaged in melee again, and against something more formidable than a plant man. He strikes twice (10 points, 9 points).
Shefak slips in front of Larry, bringing her magic staff down hard, twice, and following up with a scissors kick. (damage 10, 7, 8 ).
Tyrius, from atop the bed and currently unarmored, sees little room to add another melee participant to the fight. He surveys the scene and watches the door, in case his spells are needed.
Eddard speaks soothing words and moves between the nervous mules and the combat as much as the confines of the room allows.
Larry draws his scimitar, the rust on the blade scraping on the scabbard as he pulls it forth. He hits the machine (for 8 damage).
Round Three
A sliding door in the lower body of the machine opens. With a fwoosh, a brilliant blue stopperless flask is ejected, landing on the metal floor with a tink, tink, tink as it skips across the room. Suddenly the flask cracks open like an egg, and the room is instantly filled with a thick, smoky gas.
Shefak (Constitution save 11) takes a step forward to strike another blow, but then falls to her knees, and a second later is prone upon the floor.
Willa holds her breath (Con save 21) and fumbles desperately in a pouch pocket. She draws forth her ioun stone and tosses it in the air. It immediately takes up orbit around her head - and she ceases needing to breathe!
Babshapka (Con save 4+3 from Tyrius = 7) and Tyrius (Con save 14) collapse as well. Thokk howls a battle cry (third rage since entering the cave), but before he has even finished, his massive frame has fallen and is draped over the high table in the room (Con save 13).
Larry, seeing his protector Thokk collapse, screams in shock and fear. (Con save 3 (critical fail), but dwarven resilience gives advantage on saves vs. poison, and second Con save is 21). Gasping and choking, he runs to the doorway to press the panel. “Nooo!” mouths Willa, but with no air in her lungs, she is silent. She tries to catch Larry as he passes and prevent him from opening the door, but he wriggles from her grasp (contested strength roll Larry 19 (critical success), Willa 13), jumps, and hits the panel with his fist.
Eddard (Con save 5), Randy (Con save 10+3 from Tyrius = 13), and Andy (Con save 4) take a few staggering steps. The mules sink to the floor before rolling to their sides. Eddard manages to lock his knees and remain upright, but with a drooping head before he is motionless.
Umbra takes a deep breath before the gas reaches her and resolves not to exhale until the strange machine is down. Adventuring on her own for so long has taught her to carefully ration her spells, but she recognizes a dire situation when she sees one. She casts dark bolt as a third level spell, unleashing as much magical power as she can and hitting the machine with five separate bolts for 21 points of force damage. (Umbra now at 3/3/1 for spells).
Aurora is reflecting on her decision not to engage so as to preserve her rest as she, too, falls to the floor (Con save 8+3 from Tyrius = 11).
At the end of the round, just Willa, Larry, and Umbra remain conscious.
Round Four
A panel in the upper half of the machine slides open, and a thick, heavy, black metal wand emerges from its ‘chest’. The creature points the wand at Willa, and there is a brief, high pitched hum. Twin bolts of red light like magic missiles fly forth, hitting Willa square in the chest. Despite the breastplate of her magical plate mail, she feels a searing pain in all her upper body. (13, 18, for a total of 31 points radiant damage).
“Stop resisting! Stop resisting!” the machine drones.
Willa tries to circle around it, hitting it from behind to stay away from the wand (two hits to the automaton, total 23 damage).
Umbra continues to hold her breath (Con save 22). She unloads another five dark bolts at the machine. (11 points, Umbra now at 3/3/0 for spells).
The door of the room slides open and Larry dashes into the hall. Even though he is free of the gas, he still feels its soporific effect (Con save 19 with advantage). From the middle of the corridor he turns and shoots out a thorn whip, wrapping the prickly tendril several times around Thokk’s leg, then jerking back and pulling the half-orc into the clean air of the hallway. (Thokk takes 8 points, but this is not a magical slumber, and the damage does not wake him).
[Unbeknownst to the party, as soon as the door opens the sounds of combat against the police robot reach the nearby vegepygmies. Not wanting to engage the robot, they withdraw down the corridor and are not seen by Larry.]
Round Five
“Stop resisting! STOP RESISTING!” calls the machine, ever louder. This time when the metal wand projecting from its chest hums, Willa is not taken by surprise. She is able to dodge one of the blasts and is only clipped in the arm by the other (8 points).
Willa is tired of this tin can. She adjusts her stance, locking herself in one place, but bringing her maximum strength to bear. She brings two crushing blows down on its head in rapid succession (two hits, total 28 points).
Larry stoops over Thokk, slapping him hard in the face. The barbarian is alive, but comatose. Larry charges back into the gas-filled room and slashes at the automaton with his scimitar (4 points).
Umbra is forced to exhale, but is still standing (Con save 18 ). She is down to second-level spell slots now, so she showers the machine with four dark bolts. Each hit draws forth sparks of electricity from the creature. (18 points, Umbra at 3/2/0 for spells).
Round Six
Between the open door to the hall, and the vent they previously discovered, the gas in the room has largely dissipated. Larry doesn’t feel any burning in his lungs as he slashes at the tentacles of the machine (7 points with his scimitar)
Willa screams soundlessly and continues to batter the machine. One hit (15 points) causes a shower of sparks, while the second (13 points) causes all of its lights to go out. It ceases to swivel the wand toward her, and its tentacles slowly droop to the ground. It appears they have won.
Willa reaches up into the air, catches and stores her magic stone. Now that she can talk again, she says, succinctly and bitterly, “I don’ like t’is cave one bit.” She sheathes her greatsword without cleaning it - one advantage of a bloodless opponent - and picks up Thokk’s greatshield from where he let it fall. Using the shield as a huge fan, she stands in the doorway waving it until she is convinced all of the gas has dispersed.
In the hallway, Larry attempts to heal Thokk (cure wounds for 9 points). He is able to recover the damage Thokk suffered from the thorn whip and opening the grate besides, but the barbarian still does not awake. (Larry’s spells to 2/2/2.)
Larry drags Thokk back into the room, even as Umbra is arranging the bodies of the others into more comfortable positions, out of the way so that the three conscious party members can traverse the room.
Willa presses the panel and closes the door. Larry attempts to piton the door closed, but after several blows from his hammer he finds that he has just blunted the piton - both the metal of the floor and the door are far harder than the iron spike he is using.
Willa tells him not to mind, she’ll guard the door. Umbra asks if they shouldn’t find a safer place to stay. Willa agrees, but says that until they can get the rest of the party conscious, they aren’t going anywhere. Umbra shrugs.
(1:10pm; Time in rest 2:45hr for Aurora/Tyrius only)
[Unbeknownst to the party, the vegepygmies in the hall creep closer and resume their cordon around the door.]
A few minutes later Umbra goes over to the automaton and asks Larry whether he wants to help her take it apart and see what is inside.
Larry declines, and says that such things are better left to Aurora. Umbra asks him what else he is doing while he waits for the others to, hopefully, wake up. He shakes his head but does not answer. She asks him whether he can at least provide her with some tools.
Willa gets up from the door, goes through one of the mule packs, pulls out a healer’s kit that will provide a scalpel, forceps, tweezers, and scissors. “Take yer time an’ be careful” she admonishes. Umbra thanks her and sets to work.
The hard metal plates of the chassis have been rent open in many places by Willa’s sword blows, revealing a view of twisting cords and cables, gears and ratchets, and oddly-shaped mechanical works. “I guess it is a clockwork,” admits Umbra.
Umbra locates a chamber in the lower part of the body in which she can see several stopperless flasks like the one the automaton discharged at them. One by one, like precious eggs, she pulls them forth from the body of the creature. In the end, she pulls out two blue flasks, one green, one red, and one black.
Larry wishes to compare the intact blue flasks to the one from before. He looks about the room for it, but it seems to have disappeared! (Investigation 1, critical fail). Larry is befuddled.
In the upper torso of the automaton, Umbra uses scissors to sever the cords that connected the metal wand to the insides of the creature, but cannot do much more without more appropriate tools. She finally convinces Larry to help her lay it down on its side, however. Underneath, there are several caster-like wheels.
(1:20pm; Rest Tine 2:55hr for Aurora/Tyrius only, RT 10 min for all others)
Some ten minutes later, one of the mules snorts, brays, and struggles to its feet. As it stands, the two halves of the spent blue cannister are revealed! Larry hurries over to it (Investigation 18 ). The only difference he notes, besides the spent one being split down the middle, is that the dial rivet of the spent one is on the rightmost setting, while all of the others are in the middle. The inside of the flask is mostly hollow and empty, although there is a section under the two rivets that is partitioned off and appears unopenable.
One by one, over the next half hour, people and animals alike regain consciousness.
Once Aurora is awake, Umbra shows her the inside of the automaton. There are multiple sections and components she can recognize, although she has no idea what any of them do. The inside is covered in writing. Aurora proposes that they continue to rest until at least she fully recovers her spells - some five hours more, by her estimation. Willa and Tyrius agree. Now that Aurora is awake, Larry agrees to look over the creature with her. The only thing he recognizes is the tube through which it projected the flask - he compares it to the ovipositor of a wasp, with the flasks being eggs.
(3:20pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, the three displacer beasts that were stalking them earlier but were spooked away by the security robot return to see if they are still present. Although they can still smell the party, the vegepygmies now outside the door cause them to retreat again.]
(6:25pm, Rest Time 8hr for Aurora/Tyrius only, RT 5hr 15 min for all others).
By the time Aurora and Tyrius have finished their long rest, Babshapka and Umbra have had a chance to fully trance as well, and everyone has had their evening meal.
(Aurora at 4/3/3, Tyrius at 4/2)
[ 7 human rations used; 57 human rations remaining
2.5 mule rations used (no forage); 13.5 mule rations remaining
No pounds coal used; 18 pounds coal remaining]
Aurora’s first action is to cast mage armor on herself (active until 2:25am). She then begins a ritual casting of comprehend languages. (Aurora at 3/3/3)
(6:35pm, Rest Time 5hr 25 min for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa).
Aurora’s ability to understand the strange script will last an hour (to 7:35pm), so she quickly gets to work, with her parchment and ink on hand to take notes. The first thing she examines is the stopperless flasks. The settings on the dial rivets are numbers - from left to right, 5, 4, and 3.
The interior of the automaton is a sea of words and numbers. Some words she recognizes easily (power source, atmospheric analyzer). Others she understands the word itself, but not the context in which it is being used (matrix processor, field generator). Many others she simply doesn’t understand - her spell has translated the word, but either she doesn’t know the word in any language or she doesn’t know the meaning (laser pistol, flux capacitor, servomotor).
She looks for any slot on the outside or port on the inside that might fit their black identification card, but doesn’t find one. Lacking knowledge of the parts or their functions, she is most interested in the things labeled “power sources”. One heart-sized metal and glass flask was securely mounted in the center of the machine, with thick cords that led to the metal wand (“laser pistol”) that shot Willa, at least before Umbra cut them. Other cords connected that flask to many other parts of the body. She is able to remove the flask itself, and tries to remove the wand, but it is so securely fastened to its retractable mount that she is unable to free it.
In the “head” of the machine, near what appears to be a retractable retort, Aurora finds a device inside something labeled “power disk frame”. The “power disk” itself is thick and round, but she cannot see much detail on it without extracting it. This she resolves to do.
Babshapka stands nearby, watching, holding tools, and offering suggestions. Fortunately, the room is very well lit by the overhead light panels.
After a bit of exploration, Aurora determines that the Power Disc is being held in a mount that looks something like a miniature bureau drawer, but with springs as well as runners. Somehow she needs to get the drawer to open and release the disc.
[Simple Non-lethal Items Chart. Initial roll 8; modified to 7; Triangle.]
Her initial efforts to extract the disc do little other than getting her tools stuck. She keeps trying.
[Roll 9; modified to 8. Returns her to start]
After freeing her tools, Aurora is ready to start over again. She adjusts her angle of approach.
[Roll 4; modified to 3. Advance to circle.]
This time she seems to be getting somewhere. Aurora has triggered the spring mechanism and opened the drawer mount. Now she just needs to extract the disc itself, through the broken fragments of the automaton’s body, without damaging it.
[Roll 4; modified to 3. Advance to finish.]
Aurora triumphantly pulls the disc out of the body of the clockwork and holds it up for the party to see.
Not wanting to lose whatever knowledge she has gained, Aurora first pries apart the machinery to give her more room to work, then spends several minutes inserting and removing the disc until she is sure she understands intuitively how it works.
[-2 to roll for having operated a similar item previously]
[Aurora now has a permanent -3 on rolls to insert or extract a Power Disc. In any situation that is not time dependent, we can assume she is automatically successful. If she was trying to change a disc during combat, a roll might be called for to see if she could finish in one round rather than circling around the chart a few times.]
(6:45pm, Rest Time 5hr 35 min for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa).
Now confident of her ability to extract and deposit the disc, Aurora takes some time to examine the disc itself. It is blue-colored, of some hard material like glass or slate, and is the size of a large coin. One side is smooth and unmarked, the other side has a white, arced band, marked like a sundial with 5 lines. A taut thread rests on one of the lines, the central-most one.
She looks carefully around the room, attempting to find any other place she might be able to insert the power disc, but ultimately does not find any.
(6:55pm, Rest Time 5hr 45 min for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa)
Aurora returns to the body of the clockwork man, looking for anything else useful that she might be able to extract. She decides to try to remove the strange box labeled “atmospheric analyzer”. Despite her best attempts, and those of Babshapka, they are unable to get it out (Sleight of hand rolls 6, 7). Still, she believes it is possible to reach the screw-mounts, if only there was someone with smaller, more nimble hands. She calls over Shefak and explains how she thinks the device can be removed. (Shefak Sleight of Hand roll 21). The monk is able to disconnect a few waxed threads connecting it to the insides, pop the device out of its mounting, and extract it from the body of the clockwork.
A gray slab of a material similar to horn, it is about the size of a necklace case. On one side are three windows, all rectangular in shape. Behind each is a strip of colored paper. The papers are all white on one end and shade into another color at the other end. The window to the left is white shading to yellow, the middle window is white shading to purple, and the paper behind the right window is white shading to green. Over each window is mounted a translucent jewel, the same color as the colored paper of that window. At the front of the slab is a series of small holes. On the back is a narrow panel set in a groove. Sliding it reveals a slot about the size of a coin. The case is only 1/4' wide, 1/2' long, and about a thumb’s width thick.
(7pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, the three displacer beasts return to try again - but find the vegepygmies still camped outside the apartment door. They withdraw again.]
(7:05pm, Rest Time 5hr 55 min for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa)
The coin-sized slot on the back is empty - but it is about the size of the power disc. Aurora slides the power disc recovered from the clockwork man into the “analyzer” and it fits perfectly. She slides the covering panel back into place. And immediately the windows in the device start to glow!
Almost hopping with excitement, Aurora pushes buttons on the device, hoping for a reaction.
[Simple Non-Lethal Items Table. Roll 1 - 1 = 0, advance to circle. Roll 2 - 1 = 1, advance to finish.]
It does not take long for the device to start functioning. Delicate hair lines in each of the three screens start bobbing up and down, each ending toward the white, rather than colored, section of their window. The machine speaks in an alien language while strange symbols move across a screen. To the others, it is gibberish, but Aurora can both hear and read the following:
“Spore and pollen count low” (this is assessed by the yellow window)
“Radiation level negligible” (this is assessed by the purple screen)
“No toxic gasses detected” (this is assessed by the green window).
Aurora knows what spores are (the products of mushrooms), as well as pollen (from flowers), and toxic gasses. ‘Radiation’, on the other hand, is an unfamiliar concept to her. She thinks it is related to the radiant light of the sun or moon - but why would it say that radiation levels are negligible, if they are in a brightly lit room? Perhaps ‘negligible’ means they are not capable of causing damage. She supposes that they could test the function of the device by attempting to get a reading on Larry’s moonbeam spell - that might be detectable radiation.
With no further use for the analyzer at the moment, Aurora finds a switch that de-illuminates the lighted windows and carefully sets it aside. She returns to the body of the clockwork, poking and prodding and seeing if there is other machinery she can pry from its frame.
An attempt to remove the red eye that scanned the identification card fails, and the gem-like lens is cracked in the attempt. (Babshapka sleight of hand roll 10). Inside the “head” of the machine, a broken retort is found.
(7:15pm, Rest Time 6hr 05 min for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa)
Once Aurora is convinced that there is nothing more of use or interest that she can strip from the clockwork, she puts away her tools and asks Willa and Tyrius what they should do next. Four of them are still resting, so setting out against the plant men is not an option. However, many of them are interested in the strange card-shaped key, and wonder if it can be used to open other doors besides their own. Eventually they decide to try the card in the doorway directly across the hall from them.
Tyrius presses the panel on the wall that slides the door open. As light from their room spills out into the hallway, several of the thorn dogs are illuminated close at hand to the door. Before the doorway is even completely open Tyrius is pressing the panel again, and succeeds in closing the door before the dogs can enter the room. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Post 160: The Second Vegepygmy Battle 20 February, 571 [1 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 1
Tyrius presses the panel on the wall that slides the door open. As light from their room spills out into the hallway, several of the thorn dogs are illuminated close at hand to the door. Before the doorway is even completely open, Tyrius is pressing the panel again, and succeeds in closing the door before the dogs can enter the room.
The debate now turns to whether they should confront the dogs or refrain from conflict until everyone has rested. “How about we avoid conflict altogether?” suggests Babshapka bitterly. “These plant creatures are just defending their home. We are the invaders here, surely?” His comments are not taken seriously by the others, however. As their talk turns to a scouting mission in the hallway, he switches from his bow to his broadsword and shortsword.
Tyrius is unsure of how many thorn dogs he saw, and the consensus is that numbers matter - a foray with just those in the party who have already rested might be worth it if they could quickly clear the hall. He decides to gather more accurate intelligence. Eddard positions himself by the door-panel. With his telepathic link to Tyrius, he will know instinctively what is the best timing for opening and closing the door, without the paladin having to shout any commands.
Tyrius casts light on his shield and holds it in front of him as he moves to the door. He nods and Eddard noses the door panel. Tyrius moves quickly into the hall, spinning and keeping in motion so that he cannot be mobbed by the dogs [dodge action]. He goes out as far as he dares and is halfway back to the door before they can react. The door is closed again without any of the plant-men or thorn-dogs having entered.
Tyrius counted 5 dogs and 16 plant men outside, with the dogs in front ranks and the men behind. Babshapka listens at the door to see if they are agitated, but does not hear any commotion.
(7:25pm, Rest Time 6hr 15 min for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa, Comprehend Languages runs to 7:35pm)
Five dogs and more than a dozen pygmies is more than the party thinks they can clear easily, and some are in favor of waiting until everyone has rested. Aurora, on the other hand, seems to think that there are not enough of the creatures outside. Or at least she says she doesn’t want to waste a fireball just to leave their room, when she might need all three once they head back down the hall that seems to be the lair of the creatures. She wonders if there might be another way to clear the hall.
Her gaze falls upon the colorful stopperless flasks pulled from the clockwork and she picks one up. “Red is pretty universal for fire, right?” she asks.
“Mayhap,” says Willa skeptically, “bu’ ‘tain’t like blue be fer sleep.”
This sets Aurora to thinking. “If only there was some way we could test those flasks without opening them.” Her first thought is always her wand of magic detection, which can often provide a clue as to the kind of magic it finds. But she has already confirmed that everything they have found so far is mechanical, not magical. But if it is mechanical, could she use the same strange technology upon itself?
She picks up the "atmospheric analyzer". Of course! Aurora takes the two halves of the spent blue flask and carefully examines them. Most of it is a hollow, empty space. But there is an unopened box on the inside, opposite where the dials and plunger are. Intricately cut levers emerge from the box and go to various latches set about the inner seams of the flask. Aurora is confident that the box contains a control mechanism, and that the dial and plunger can somehow be used to release the latches. If the contents are alchemical rather than magical, it is possible they are inert when sealed closed, but immediately react when the flask is opened and they are exposed to air.
The wizard focuses her thoughts. She has only a few minutes remaining of comprehend languages - likely not enough to read the device for all of the flasks. She tells the others to watch the door while she performs another ritual.
(7:35pm, RT 6hr 25 min for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa, CL to 8:35pm)
Recalling the time in her ‘prenticeship when she was required to work in an alchemical laboratory, Aurora reaches deep into her pack to find the cleanest scraps of cloth and rags she has. She puts a few drops of water and lantern-oil on them, then carefully cleans the five flasks with one rag each, making sure to swab every surface of their bodies, especially around the plungers and along the seams where whatever ingredients that might be inside could leak out. Then she carefully lines up the rags and prepares to test them. [Aurora gains one Inspiration Point]
Starting with her swab sample of the red egg, Aurora finds the switch that lights up the windows of the atmospheric analyzer and holds it close. Willa sets her ioun stone to circle about herself.
[Modifier discovered: -2 to roll for having operated a similar item previously. Aurora now has a permanent -3 on rolls to use the analyzer. In any situation that is not time dependent, we can assume she is automatically successful. If she was trying to take a reading during combat, a roll might be called for to see if she could finish in one round rather than circling around the chart a few times.]
Red Stopperless Flask
“Spore and pollen count low”
“Radiation level negligible”
“Trace amounts of incendiary chemicals detected”
Aurora grins. “That sounds like fire to me!” she says gleefully.
Green Stopperless Flask
“Spore and pollen count low”
“Radiation level negligible”
“Trace amounts of neurotoxins detected”
Aurora doesn’t know what “neuro” is referring to, but from "toxins" she guesses this one is some kind of poison.
Blue Stopperless Flasks (two)
“Spore and pollen count low”
“Radiation level negligible”
“Trace amounts of neuroinhibitor detected, degraded but likely to be in opioid family”
None of what the analyzer says is intelligible to Aurora, but fortunately they already know the blue flasks produce sleep - assuming all blue flasks are equal. After this reading, the device gives an uncharacteristic “ping” that has heretofore been unheard. Aurora looks it over but cannot find any differences in the readouts. With a sinking suspicion, she slides open the back panel and removes the power disc. The hair has moved - rather than being in the middle setting, it is now two from one end, three from the other.
Aurora sighs. “I guess four uses of the device is a charge then? And this has two charges left, or eight more uses?” She tells the rest of the party to be on the lookout for power discs whenever they search any part of the cave. They may prove even more valuable than the card-shaped keys!
Black Stopperless Flask
“Spore and pollen count low”
“Radiation level negligible”
“Trace amounts of nitrates and dichromates detected, in combination likely to produce explosion”
“Nitrates” and “dichromates” are unknown to Aurora, but “explosion” is a word she is intimately familiar with.
(7:35pm, RT 6hr 25 min for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa, CL to 8:35pm)
With the red flask confirmed to be fire, Aurora says that she will clear the plant men in the hall with the device, allowing the party to explore rooms as they had planned. She checks whether anyone in the party has anything that might make them resistant to fire, but no one does. Babshapka stands near the doorway, ready to move in front of Aurora should something go wrong. Tyrius, Eddard, and Umbra, who are rested, stand nearby, but the others are hopeful the hallway can be cleared without them breaking their rest to help.
Aurora spends some time playing with the dial and plunger on the red flask. Suddenly she hears a muffled “click” from inside, as if some of the internal latches had released. “Open the door!” she shrieks and Babshapka hurriedly presses the panel. The door slides open. There are two groups of plant men, one to the right and one to the left of the door. Aurora tosses the flask into the midst of the knot of plant men and thorn dogs to the right.
“Tink, tink, tink…” it sounds as it skitters across the floor. Half of the diminutive men turn toward the sound, the other half toward the open door. “Fwoosh!” From the flask erupts a cloud that looks to be liquid fire, engulfing all the creatures in a ten foot radius and covering them in gooey, dripping flames.
[Table discovered: Using a grenade requires rolling on the “Simple Lethal Items” table]
In the midst of examining the flask, Aurora has discovered two things. First, the dial reading (3, 4, or 5 in the alien language) is a timed delay, measured in seconds. One can activate the flask and then still have the delay time before it explodes. Second, the flask is activated with the plunger, which must be depressed completely, spun widdershins 180 degrees, and then depressed completely again.
[Aurora now has a permanent -3 on rolls to activate and throw a grenade.]
Surprise Round
Fire covers the plant men and thorn dogs. They are all burning, but none are slain. Aurora estimates the power of the blast to have been about a quarter that of her fireball - rather underwhelming, in fact, perhaps equivalent to a large flask of oil or alchemist's fire. [Initial damage is 2d6, Aurora rolls 8hp]
From behind Babshapka, Umbra shoots forth a ray of shadow, squarely hitting the closest of the flaming plant men.
Tyrius and Babshapka, with war hammer and broadsword, emerge from the room. They smash and slice at the burning creatures. Babshapka manages to fell a thorn dog, and then retreats to the doorway to guard Aurora.
Round One
Much to Aurora’s surprise, the fire continues to burn, both on the creatures and the floor, as if it was more like oil than a fireball. While it is dripping off the creatures, it is doing so slowly - it almost seems to be sticking to them, like some sort of flammable tar. [The incendiary grenades will continue to do damage after the initial explosion, at d6 damage per round - this grenade will last another four rounds - this first round everyone hit previously took another 2 points]
“Sapling” plant men come forward, swinging at Tyrius and Babshapka with their wooden clubs. Babshapka is hit (for 8 points).
Aurora pulls back into the room, allowing Eddard to charge into the hall. He attempts to trample the plant man that is fighting Babshapka, but the little creature moves out of his way.
Tyrius swings and kills a thorn dog with his hammer, then wounds the plant man that had attacked him.
Somewhat larger plant men join the fight against Tyrius and Babshapka. Babshapka is clubbed (for 6).
At this point the smaller plant men, with darts and javelins, have targeted Babshapka, and launch a volley of eight missiles. Several of them pierce his arms and legs. [Babshapka takes 23 total and is at 11/48]. Swearing, he slashes his broadsword across the nearest plant man twice but does not fell it.
Considering the large number of plant men still in the hall, including half of them not on fire, Aurora decides to use her first fireball of three. She steps out of the room and launches it behind the unwounded ones to the left, placing it perfectly so that the blast envelopes them but does not reach those of the party in the hall (Arcana roll 12). Her explosion affects six of the plant men, slaying two of them outright and wounding four others [22 damage], as well as two of the thorn dogs.
Thorn dogs swarm Tyrius but his heavy armor protects him. Babshapka takes another javelin hit, this one to his throat, and falls to the floor, bleeding out. [critical hit for 11 damage]
Round 2
[Those vegepygmies still on fire from the incendiary grenade take another 5 damage]
With Aurora now in the hall, a plant man launches a javelin at her. She reacts by casting a shield spell to protect herself, and then returns fire with a massive firebolt. [17 damage][Aurora’s spells at 2/3/2]
Three dogs and two plant men miss Tyrius and Eddard with their bites and clubs.
[Babshapka successfully makes his first death save]
Two javelins pierce Eddard’s leather barding. He whinnies in pain and then his form shimmers and disappears. His barding falls empty to the floor of the hallway.
Willa, watching anxiously from the doorway, darts into the hall. She squats, grabs Babshapka, stands, and carries him back into the room, shouting at the others to retreat. Two plant men swing at her, but their blows do not penetrate her magic armor.
Tyrius turns to see where his spirit mount has fallen, and echoes Willa’s admonition to Aurora. He grabs the empty barding and drags it back to the room. As soon as he is inside the door, he prays for a cure wounds spell and lays his hand on Babshapka, whose throat is still seeping blood. [11 points; Babshapka is conscious and stable.]
Aurora is now alone in the hall and is quickly surrounded by four of the plant men. Her magical shield deflects four of their battering blows.
Round 3
[Those vegepygmies still on fire from the incendiary grenade take another 3 damage]
From the doorway, Willa shouts “Aurora, get in ‘ere, we be shuttin’ ther bloody door now!”
Babshapka rises and staggers to the wall, holding his hand inches from the panel that will shut the door, hoping that Aurora will withdraw, knowing that if she does not he is duty-bound to defend her.
Aurora retreats, slipping through the knot of plant men that have formed around her [disengage action]. As soon as he sees she is headed for the door, Babshapka presses the panel, and she slides through the closing door with no plant men able to follow.
There is an awkward silence punctuated by the panting gasps of Tyrius and Aurora. Finally, Aurora speaks. “Well, we learned that the fire flask doesn’t explode as powerfully as my fireball, but that it keeps burning. That is useful knowledge.”
“We learned t’at I ‘ate t’is fecking ship!” shouts Willa.
Aurora smiles broadly. “I told you it was a ship!” Willa looks about her for something to throw at the enchantress.
[Over the next hour, Babshapka takes a short rest and spends four hit dice to heal 30 points. He is at 41/48]
[Unbeknownst to the party, the vegepygmies have decided that the party is nearly as dangerous as the security robots, who they avoid precisely because of their use of incendiary grenades. After the party has retreated to the room and closed the door, the vegepygmies gather their dead and wounded and retreat. The dead and wounded they place in the mulch room (the wounded to recover, the dead to decompose), while the unwounded return to their rooms in the colony. A few of the wounded thornies and pygmies are placed on guard duty in the hallway leading to the colony.]
(8:10pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, the three displacer beasts return, and are pleased to see that the vegepygmies are gone. They sniff at the remains of burnt plant material on the floor, and set up in a position where they can see the door open without the party seeing them.]
(8:45pm, RT 7hr 35 min for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa, Aurora’s comprehend languages no longer in effect)
(9:10pm, RT 8hr for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a worker robot clangs down the hall, its hydraulic legs pumping rhythmically. It opens the door across the hall from the party and to the east to check the room, then the one next to the party. As it approaches the door of the room the party is in, the displacer beasts scatter.] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Post 161: Worker Robot 20 February, 571 [1 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 1
(9:10pm, RT 8hr for Larry, Shefak, Thokk, and Willa)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a worker robot clangs down the hall, its hydraulic legs pumping rhythmically. It opens the door across the hall from the party and to the east to check the room, then the one next to the party. As it approaches the door of the room the party is in, the displacer beasts scatter.]
[9:10pm. Long rest for Feb 20 / Cave Day 1 complete for all party members.]
Those who did not fight in the most recent skirmish outside the room have completed their long rest. Larry now has his full complement of spells. Talk turns to strategy for clearing the hall - hopefully with more success this time.
After a bit of discussion, it is decided that they will open the door with Thokk and Tyrius in front, making a shield wall and trying to distract the javelineers from the rest of the party (dodge action). If the casters can eliminate the missile troops with their ranged spells, then all the melee fighters will move in to engage. At some point, Shefak will slip invisibly to the rear of the pygmies and attack them from behind. Umbra mentions that if they are preparing for combat, she would take some healing from Larry or Tyrius [four points of lay on hands administered].
The party members line up around the doorway. When their formation satisfies Willa, Tyrius presses the door panel and the door slides open.
There are no plant men in the hall. And no thorn dogs.
Instead, there is another clockwork man. Willa pulls out her ioun stone, prepared to release it.
This clockwork, however, is different from the other one, and considerably smaller. It is short, and squat, and has just two arms instead of four. It has two legs as well, rather than a flat bottom on castors. With the door open, it trills a short warble that might be taken as a greeting, and then advances to the door, with each step it takes producing a barely audible hiss and whir as its legs flex and extend as well as a loud clang when its foot contacts the deck.
The clockwork hisses and clomps until it stands a bare foot from Thokk and Tyrius, who are still blocking the door. Thokk looks down disgustedly at the thing, barely four feet tall. Are there no worthy opponents for Thokk in this bizarre cave?
“Should we let it in?” asks Tyrius bemusedly.
No one in the party objects, so he pulls back to give it access, and it “walks” into the room. Willa gestures at Tyrius to close the door, and he presses the panel again.
“I’m going to ritual-cast comprehend languages,” says Aurora matter-of-factly. “Keep it busy and don’t let it leave the room or bother me.”
The odd clockwork takes a few steps, inclines its body as if it was looking at the floor, and pauses at the edge of where the metal is still slick with the blood lost by Babshapka when he nearly bled out following the last fight. With a whirring sound, a sliding panel in the torso of the clockwork opens, and a snaking hose emerges. The creature takes the hose in one hand and holds it low over the pool of blood. A fine mist emerges from the hose, and Willa tosses her stone into the air, where it begins to circle her head. Rather than put people to sleep, however, everywhere the mist touches the blood, the blood bubbles, clumps, and coagulates into a fine white powder in what is now a thin layer on the floor. When the clockwork has converted all of the blood to powder, it produces a humming sound. Suddenly the hose in its hand begins sucking in air rapidly, as if a man was sucking through a reed straw. The hose sucks up all of the white powder, until a faint discoloration on the floor is the only indication it was once covered in blood.
The clockwork bends and with one hand picks up a bloody cloth the party had used to staunch Babshapka’s neck wound. It then turns and begins heading for the wall. Willa motions the others out of its way while she watches its actions with an almost morbid curiosity.
The clockwork clomps over to the wall, to where Thokk had broken through the wall grate and exposed the air duct. Another panel on its chest opens and a drawer slides out. Inside the drawer are a number of small hand tools. It takes a diminutive screwdriver in one hand and works rapidly to unscrew each of the four tiny screw heads in the corners of the grate, takes the grate in one hand, and replaces each of the screws in turn. It puts away the screwdriver and closes both the drawer and its chest panel. It holds the grate up in front of its “face”, as if inspecting it visually. Then, grasping the grate firmly with both hands, it proceeds to fold it over twice, until it is a quarter of the size it was before. Even Thokk gasps. He had to pound on the grate repeatedly with all his strength to break through the perforated metal. This clockwork, with its spindly arms, has just easily folded the metal - with the second fold clearly demonstrating strength greater than that of Thokk or Willa. Perhaps it is a worthy opponent after all. He steps forward to shove it, hoping to provoke a fight, but Willa intercepts him. Thokk stomps over to the divan and lies down, sulking.
The clockwork walks around the room, ignoring the party, but clearly inspecting the walls, floor, and furnishings. When it gets to the mules it pauses at a pile of their droppings. Suddenly a hatch in its back is released, and a hinged door opens wide at the top while remaining closed at the bottom. Those nearby can see that the door leads to a small space inside the body of the clockwork where there is a pile of broken parts of furniture and machinery. The clockwork reaches back over its head and drops first the folded grate and then the bloody bandage into the drawer so that they land on the pile of sundries. Then, with both hands, it picks up the mule droppings and deposits them in the hinged drawer on its back as well. Finally, it sprays the floor where the droppings had been with its mist and sucks up the white powder with its curious hose.
At this point the clockwork completes another loop around the room and heads for the door. Aurora is still working on her ritual. Willa decides to stall it. She sticks her hand into the open chest of the clockwork they fought, rips out a handful of the odd waxed cords, and scatters them across the floor of the room. The smaller clockwork walks to each of them in turn, carefully picking them up and dropping them inside its drawer. In the time it is doing this, Willa is stripping everything she can from the inside of the fallen clockwork. Now she drops one item at a time in opposite corners of the room, such that the clockwork has to cross the room, retrieve the part, and cross the room again for the next one. It does not tire of the game, but she is nearly out of parts when Aurora finally stands up and announces that she is ready.
(9:20pm, Comprehend languages lasts until 10:20pm)
“Hail!” says Aurora. The clockwork ignores her and continues retrieving the bits and pieces dropped by Willa.
“Automaton - cease your cleaning!” commands Aurora. The clockwork does not pause.
Willa has now run out of parts. The clockwork clumps over to the frame of the other machine-man. It looks it over, and issues a series of chirps and warbles. Aurora hears it say, “Security robot structural integrity compromised - diagnosed as irreparable. Many sub-components still salvageable. Deliver to level one robot repair facility.”
Aurora has never heard the word “robot” before, but she takes it as a synonym for clockwork creature.
The drawer on its back closes and the hatch seals. It bends down and grabs two of the arms of the larger clockwork with its own hands. Leaning back and walking backwards, it drags the fallen machine toward the door. There is a terrible sound of metal scraping on metal as the jagged edges of the larger clockwork slide across the floor. As it reaches up to press the wall panel, Aurora says “Don’t let it go.”
Willa immediately countermands her, saying, “Ye cain’t control it - ye tried. Tyrius, let it out ther door.” The paladin steps aside, and the smaller clockwork drags the larger one out the door.
“We could follow it…” suggests Aurora, “It said something about a ‘repair facility’”.
Willa actually considers this, then shakes her head. “Nay, ther noise it be makin’ will only attract godsken wha’. An’ we need ter stick close ter ther mules.” Indeed, as the torn pieces of metal on the frame of the fallen clockwork catch in the open grates of the floor of the hallway, the screeching echoes up and down the corridor.
“We stick ter ther plan an’ investergate ther tother rooms.”
“First,” says Tyrius, “if we are to leave the mules alone, I would like to re-summon Eddard.”
“Fair eno’,” agrees Willa. “Be at it - p’raps ther noise from yon clockwork will hae drawn off anyone ‘ereabouts by then.”
Tyrius closes the door and begins the ritual prayer. In the end, Eddard reappears. Tyrius fills him in about the resolution of the combat and the appearance of the clockwork while he helps him on with his barding. He looks up at the height of the ceiling, then decides not to put on his steed’s saddle or bridle for now.
(9:30pm)
Willa orders the party and they pass into the hall. There are soot stains on the floor from the fiery flask and Aurora’s fireball. There are bits and pieces of broken and burned plant limbs strewn about, but all of the bodies of the plant men and thorn dogs have been removed.
Eddard noses the door panel to close it behind them from inside. Willa tells Aurora to use the black card to open the door across the hall from them, and tells Shefak to keep guard for them around the next corner. Shefak slips on her ring of invisibility (Stealth 21) and scouts the hallway.
Just as Aurora and Babshapka are passing through the now-open door into the new room [apartment], Willa hears Shefak whisper that there are thorn dogs just around the corner, but they are unmoving, seemingly on guard as well. “Good,” whispers Willa back, “stare ‘em down, an’ let us ken if t’ey be comin’.” She motions to the rest of the party to proceed, but to be quiet about it.
The room into which Babshapka and Aurora pass appears to be another living quarters, but larger than their base across the hall. Babshapka presses the second wall panel, and Aurora grins as the room is flooded with light from the ceiling glass. The room has a large double bed in place of a single, and two night stands rather than one. Fully eight chairs surround a large dining table. Two divans flank another of the curiously low tables whose function remains unknown. The materials are all the same - cave horn for the furnishings, cave sponge for the mattress and divans, metal for the walls, floor, and ceiling. There is a skeleton clad in tattered silks on the floor of the room. Babshapka examines it, finding broken ribs that suggest it died violently.
“Look for more cards,” suggests Aurora. Babhapka opens the night stands, flips the mattress, looks under the divans, pokes through the refuse strewn across the floor, but finds nothing of interest, card or otherwise (Perception 22).
(9:40pm)
“Nex’ room,” hisses Willa, and points down the hall to the east, away from the thorn dog at the corner. Babshapka and Aurora comply, as Willa and Tyrius move into the open room to see for themselves.
“This is a lot larger,” says Tyrius, and Willa nods. It was cramped quarters in the other room, with two mules, a warhorse, eight people, and a fallen clockwork crammed in. Larger than a rope trick space, but not by much. While Aurora and Babshapka open and search the next room, Tyrius contacts Eddard mentally and has him open the door. The party moves their beasts and gear over to the larger room across the hall; Willa lays the mule bags on the bed. She flips the table on its side. It is light, far lighter than wood, and not exactly a barricade, but it could provide some cover. She and Tyrius maneuver it into the doorway, push a divan up behind it to hold it in place, and then climb over everything to exit. Eddard noses the door shut.
The next room over [apartment] is deep but narrow, in between the two others in size, the door just a few feet from where the body of the ceiling creature still lies. There is a double bed and end tables, two divans and a low table but no dining table or chairs. Babshapka searches it but comes up empty. They close the door behind them and move on.
(9:50pm)
The next door is near the main entrance of the cave, in the chamber where there is the circular shaft to somewhere far below. Aurora, now an old hand at the doors, slides the black card confidently into the slot. A loud and pulsating buzzing fills the air - “Brrrt - brrrt - brrrt!” Babshapka looks about nervously to see what might be attracted.
“What the - I don’t…” begins Aurora, but she is cut off by speech coming from the door! What is an unintelligible language to Babshapka is discernible to her, since she still has her comprehend languages running. “Access denied,” the voice says, “Security clearance not accepted.” Aurora looks in the receptacle under the slot. The card has not been returned. She swears.
Aurora quickly looks at the door mechanism, but can find no way to physically dismantle it to get at the key. The klaxon sound of the door continues. Babshapka draws forth an arrow and turns his back on the door.
“It’s okay, no worries,” says Aurora out loud, as she silently continues to curse. She says the words of a knock spell, and the sound of the alarm ceases. She sighs with relief.
Inside the door mechanism, she can hear a faint whirring sound. The door does not open. The card is not released. She presses on the panel to no effect. She calms herself to think. Knock is good for opening one lock. If the mechanics of the door are particularly complicated, it might have more than one lock - just like a merchant who triple-locks his trunks. (Arcana 23). The door is susceptible to magic, she is sure of it - but how many spells she would need to use to open one door remains unknown. Clearly more than one.
“Go get Thokk” she says to Babshapka.
Thokk throws his shoulder against the metal of the door a few times, then shakes his head sadly.
“Well,” says Aurora resolutely. “We got that key from a plant man. We know where we can get more.”
Aurora returns to the main party and whispers to Willa that they will need to get more keys. When pressed, she reluctantly provides details. Willa motions everyone over. Leaving Shefak on guard in the hallway, the others return to the apartment with the mules and shut the door behind them to discuss strategy. After some ten minutes of preparation, the following plan is decided upon:
Shefak, while invisible, will attack the nearest dog in the hall. Once an alarm has been raised, Willa and Thokk will charge up the hall to slay the next one. By that point their attacks should draw a response. Once the hallway is filled with plant-men, Aurora will send a fireball to clear them out. If that carries the day, they should have plenty of bodies to search for keys. If not, they will pull back and defend the door of their base room from a safer position. Eddard listens to the plan and comments that a few well-placed enhancements now could save any number of healing spells later. Tyrius decides to cast Heroism on Thokk (will last one minute) and Aid on himself, Willa, and Babshapka (will last eight hours, provided they have not lost the bonus hp by then). Babshapka casts Hunter’s Mark (will last one hour or until his concentration fails), and Umbra casts Armor of Shadows on herself (will last eight hours).
Willa, having noticed before that the plant men were impervious to stabbing or arrows, borrows two of Tyrius’ hammers in case she needs a missile option.
Tyrius at (2/0 and 26 lay on hands remaining)
Babshapka at (3/2)
Umbra at (3/3/3)
Aurora at (2/2/2) _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Post 162: The Third Vegepygmy Battle 20 February, 571 [1 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 1
(10:20pm - Aurora’s Comprehend languages ends)
Round 1
Shefak manages to get within striking distance of the thorn dog without it noticing (Stealth 11, but 16 with advantage due to her invisibility). Only one of her two staff blows really connects, but it proves enough (10hp) to slay the dog, which was apparently still wounded from the previous scuffle in the hall.
The thorn dog further down the hall does not charge them. Rather, it retreats back around the corner. This immediately frustrates Willa and Thokk’s plan to slay it and draw out others. Willa smashes her two hammers together, making as much noise as she can. Thokk shouts taunts in Orc down the hallway.
A plant man emerges from a side room and dashes after the retreating dog. Babshapka sends two arrows his way, but even the one that hits seems to have little effect (damage 12 plus 5 from Hunter’s Mark, but vegepygmies are immune to non-magical piercing damage (12) and resistant to magical piercing damage (5 becomes 2) - it appears that the Hunter’s Mark does damage of the same type as the weapon itself, but the fact that it is at least magical helps).
Aurora sends a firebolt after the fleeing plant man, and this proves much more efficacious (17 damage).
[Unbeknownst to the party, this guard is alerting not only the nearby rooms, but the entire colony. Vegepygmies are pouring out of their rooms and moving south in direct response, but a whole other group, led by two sub chiefs, is taking the ‘long way around’ to come at the party from the east.]
Round 2
A thorn dog, this one fresh, rounds the corner and charges the length of the hallway at the party. Babshapka draws on it and considers switching his Mark to the beast, then decides it might be better to track down the fleeing plant man to see how far he has run and how many rooms he has alerted. He shoots at the dog, but it seems to have the same resistance as the plant men. (one hit for 12, thorn dog immune to non-magical piercing).
The dog is fast, and able to leap at Babshapka before any of the others can react. Babshapka has been standing near the open door of the table room and he curses himself for not darting into the doorway after his second shot. (Babshapka takes 5 piercing from the dog's thorny maw).
Thokk hits the dog twice, but does not slay it (total 18 damage).
Round 3
Bounding ahead, two more thorn dogs charge the party, and Thokk, glorying in the prospect of battle, moves to block the hallway. The three leap and snap at him, but he nimbly keeps his shield between himself and their thorny teeth.
Using Thokk for cover, Babshapka enters the table room and presses the panel to slide the door closed behind him. Shefak is inside the room with him.
The end of the hall ahead, just at the corner, begins to fill with dozens of plant men, each carrying handfuls of barbed darts and javelins. They form up lines in the back row and begin to target the party. Others are moving to the fore with gnarled clubs in hand, preparing to charge once their numbers are massed.
Larry calls forth a moonbeam, placing it at the most massed concentration of plant men (lasts up to one minute or concentration, Larry to 4/2/3).
“That doesn’t look good,” whispers Umbra, referring to the plant men missile troops massing. Before they can get off a volley, she points a wand at the end of the hall, and it is filled with inky blackness. No longer are the missile troops visible, although the first of those with clubs are starting to emerge. (Umbra to 3/2/3, darkness lasts ten minutes or concentration). The darkness also completely envelopes the moonbeam, although Larry can sense that his spell is still there and presumably still doing damage.
Tyrius moves up next to Thokk, and begins swinging at the thorn dogs fighting the barbarian, battering their woody limbs with Molly (two hits, 21 total damage).
Thokk shouts exultantly (rage; three left) as he hacks at the dogs (one hit for 11).
Willa drops Tyrius’s hammers and they clatter to the metal floor. She shouts her own battle cry as she draws her greatsword and engages the dogs (two hits, 25 damage total, two dogs of the three remain).
Aurora had planned to send a fireball down to the end of the hallway, using the ninety-degree bend to shoot flames both at the missile troops at the end, the melee ones advancing, and any reinforcements as yet unseen around the corner. Now that the hall is enveloped in darkness, however, she is unsure of the actual distance. Unconcerned, she launches her flaming missile anyway (Arcana roll 9, fireball lands 5 feet short of planned target). For a split second the darkness is pierced by a light so bright it illuminates the plant men within it, allowing their silhouettes to be seen even through the glare of the moonbeam. Then the flames centered in the darkness go out, but the wave of burning air is rushing down the corridor toward them, filling the side room to the right as it passes. Only now is Aurora realizing that she landed it short of the mark and it could engulf the party. The flames lick at the thorn dog in melee with Thokk and Willa. They are both hit with a wave of heat and a smell like burning wood and smoldering vegetation, but take no damage themselves.
(34 fire damage, DC15 Dex save for half. Fully thirty-one plant-men and a thorn dog were in the area of effect. After saves, eight saplings, seven sprouts, two sporriors, and a thorn dog are slain, while another fourteen troops are wounded but still advancing. Aurora at 2/2/1)
Once the roar of the fireball has faded, the noise of the plant men, both those in sight, those covered by darkness, and those around the corner, redoubles. The ones in sight, many of them still aflame, seem undeterred by the deaths of a full score of their companions. Larry decides it is time to hunker down. He ends his first moonbeam and casts another, this time at the most potent level he can, moving it to halfway down the hall, in between the corner and where Thokk, Tyrius, and Willa are holding the line. “Tha’ shood ‘old ‘em, well eno’” he grumbles. (Larry to 4/2/2; third-level moonbeam will last to round 13 and this round is doing 19 damage to any who enter the area).
Shefak presses the door panel of the tabel room and looks out upon the combat. Seeing just a single thorn dog left in the melee, she emerges and kills it with two strikes of her staff, leaping out of the way of its barbs. (total 12 damage, Shefak uses a ki point and bonus disengage to avoid its reaction to being attacked. Shefak at six ki points remaining).
Round 4
Babshapka decides that dealing with the oncoming hordes now takes priority over tracking one individual. He ends his old hunter’s mark and casts it again on a new target, continuing to fire at the advancing plant men through the gaps between Willa and Thokk but to little effect (one hit for 9 damage + 2 hunter’s mark = 1 point damage). Babshapka at (2/2)
Umbra shoots a ray of shadow at the same plant man that Babshapka targeted but misses.
Three plant-men emerge from the darkness, pass through the moonbeam, and launch darts at Thokk and Willa, who take the shafts on their shield and armor. Two new thorn dogs run the same gauntlet and are able to reach the pair, snapping at them in melee. Willa returns their blows (two hits, 15 and 16 damage) and takes out one dog.
Seeing the first of the missiles beginning to rain down on the front ranks, Shefak retreats to the open doorway of the table room, and readies to attack anything that attempts to enter.
Thokk slays the other dog (damage 9).
Two plant men make it through the moonbeam; one manages to swing his club at Thokk.
Larry maintains his concentration on his moonbeam (now base damage 17).
Tyrius attacks the plant man with the club (9 damage), and Aurora sends a firebolt at it as well (6 damage).
Round 5
Umbra sends another ray of shadow at the approaching plant men, but misses.
Six plant men manage to make it through the darkness and then enter the moonbeam. Ignoring the corpses of their companions littering the hall, they join a single living plant man and begin throwing darts at the party, principally Thokk (seven attacks, three hits, all critical, 34 total points damage, Thokk takes 14 after rage and heroism). Most of them fall to the floor, slain by the moonbeam, soon after their volley. Willa sheathes her greatsword and picks up Tyrius’ hammers from the floor.
Larry maintains his concentration on his moonbeam (now base damage 20).
Aurora sends off a firebolt at the plant men (damage 12), but then notices something at the edge of her vision, approaching from the other hallway, not the one to the north the party is defending, but rather the one to the east, the one that leads to the slain ceiling monster and the main entrance of the cave. She grabs Tyrius by the shoulder. He turns, and the light from his shield falls upon a thorn dog galloping toward them. “Don’t let us be flanked!” says Aurora, and Tyrius moves to intercept the dog.
Babshapka drops back so as to view both hallways, and launches a single arrow to the north (damage 12 plus 5 from hunter’s mark, results in 2 damage).
Round 6
Larry affirms his concentration on the moonbeam (now base damage 21), and turns to face the dog by Tyrius’ side. He slashes at the dog with his scimitar but misses. However, behind the first dog come a half-dozen others from the east, bounding forward. Beyond them, at the edge of his darkvision, he can see a long column of plant men approaching. Larry shouts a warning to the others.
Aurora firebolts one of the missile troops (14 damage).
To the north, plant men and now thorn dogs are continuing to pass through the darkness and moonbeam. Three dogs are approaching Thokk; one snaps at Tyrius down the other hall. Two dart-bearing men and one with a club pass through the moonbeam. One manages to get off a dart before he dies, but Thokk intercepts it with his shield.
Babshapka continues firing arrows (two shots, one hit, 5 plus 4 is 2 points of damage).
Willa moves to the east hallway, strikes at a thorn dog but misses.
Umbra decides the host approaching unimpeded from the east is far more of a threat than those trickling through the moonbeam and taking damage besides. She turns and pulls away from the northern hall, fixing her full attention on the vanguard of dogs. Suddenly a great dark sphere appears. Tendrils of insubstantial shadow snake out from it, wrapping around the nearest thorn dogs, pulling at them. Their advance is slowed - perhaps more helpfully, they no longer are agile enough to wound those striking at them. (six thorn dogs fail their save against Umbra’s entropy spell - they now move at half speed and cannot take reactions. Umbra to 3/2/2).
With no melee opponents, but now being the sole defender on the northern hall, Thokk yells and shakes his shield and sword at the plant men launching darts. [Thokk has neither attacked nor taken damage this turn. His rage ends. He takes the dodge action and uses another rage. Two rages left]
Tyrius forgoes attacking, moving in such a way as to try to distract and draw the shadow-slowed dogs to him. (Tyrius takes the dodge action) He contacts Eddard mentally and has his mount open the door to the apartment on the south side of the hall, in case the party needs to fall back. The large table, on its side with a settee bolstering it from behind, blocks the doorway so that only the top half of the doorway is open.
Round 7
The forces in the north and east are both building and pressing upon the party. Aurora starts calling for a general retreat back to the room. “Bu’ we hain’t none o’ us been wounded,” objects Willa (ignoring Thokk for the moment). Aurora insists that they will be, if they allow themselves to be surrounded on all sides. In fits and starts, they begin to make for the door of the apartment, some with more alacrity than others.
Umbra fires off a ray of shadow at a thorn dog but misses, then turns and moves to enter the apartment. She tries to climb over the table barrier, but her feet slip and slide on its smooth surface and she appears insufficiently strong to pull herself over with her arms alone (Acrobatics 8 ). She scowls and then disappears, suddenly appearing a second later well within the room. (Shadow step, Umbra at 2/2/2).
Larry maintains his concentration on his moonbeam (this round, damage 21) even though he cannot see it. He looks nervously at the plant-men and thorn dogs arriving from the east, more all the time. He shouts to Thokk, asking him if they should retreat, but the enraged half-orc’s only answer is a bloodthirsty laugh.
Four thorn dogs and a plant man with a club attack Thokk, Tyrius, and Willa, but their armor protects them.
Shefak attacks a thorn dog with her staff, hitting it twice (total 18 damage), but twisting out of the way of its responding bite. Hearing Aurora’s calls for a retreat, she turns and sees another thorn dog blocking her path to the door. Summoning her ki, she runs at the dog and then unleashes a series of high and low kicks. The last one connects, knocking the dog fifteen feet back and to the side and opening up her path. (Shefak uses a Ki point for flurry of blows, now at 5 ki points. Three unarmed attacks on dog, last one hits, forces a strength save, dog fails and is knocked back). Shefak continues to run forward, jumps, and pulls herself over the table and into the room (Acrobatics 12). “Get this out of the way!” she shouts at Eddard, pointing at the settee and table.
Eddard places his broad head along the side of the settee and digs in his hooves. He pushes the settee out of the way, although the table remains blocking the doorway (Strength check 17).
Willa stays in the thick of the combat, not retreating. So far no plant men or thorn dogs have been able to penetrate her magic plate mail. If they want to keep throwing themselves on her sword, that is fine with her (two hits, 26 damage total).
Babshapka fires off another two arrows, this time at the host in the east, but misses both times. He retreats about half the distance to the door.
Tyrius continues to move among the thorn dogs, urging them all to attack him (dodge action) while his companions retreat to the safety of the room. He moves closer to the room himself, but it is one step forward and two back all the way.
Aurora tries to calculate the area of impact that will hit the most opponents (Arcana 13), and then launches a fireball down the eastern corridor. It lands among five thorn dogs and two plant man “saplings”. (two fail for 38 damage each, five save for 19. Aurora at 2/2/0). Before the blast has even detonated, she turns and is halfway to the door of the apartment. Arriving there (with a little push from the explosion behind her), she tries to slide the table out of the way but is unable to budge it (Strength check 5).
Round 8
With Eddard continuing to push the settee to the far side of the room, Shefak moves the table from the inside, opening the doorway at last.
Willa attacks a thorn dog (one hit for 14).
The five thorn dogs bound by tendrils of shadow are largely unable to escape their effects (four failed Wisdom saves, one success). Umbra moves to the doorway and shoots a ray of shadow (7 points) at the one that managed to free himself. Babshapka shoots the same dog with an arrow (5 points + 2 hunter’s mark = 1 damage).
Larry moves back from the scrum to view the northern hallway again and pulls the moonbeam back, closer to Thokk (this round it will do 21 damage).
A sapling with a club, and a thorn dog, continue to attack Thokk to no effect. Halfway down the northern hall, the plant men launch a volley of seven darts and javelins. Only one finds its mark (5 piercing, 2 after rage, 0 after heroism).
Five shadow-bound dogs bite at Tyrius and Willa, but miss. A sapling misses Tyrius with a club.
Aurora, standing in the now-open doorway, sends out a firebolt but it misses.
Thokk wants to back up so that he can assess the situation in the east hallway. He yells at Larry to have the moonbeam follow him as he retreats.
Round 9
Umbra, next to Aurora in the open doorway, sends out a ray of shadow (8 damage).
Larry heeds Thokk’s words and has the moonbeam cover his retreat. It sweeps over eight plant men as it moves, doing 15 damage to each.
Five shadow-bound dogs bite at Tyrius and Willa, but miss. A sixth misses Larry.
Two saplings with clubs miss Willa, another two Thokk.
A total of seventeen plant men missile troops have now accumulated in the northern hall and send a volley of darts and javelins at Thokk. Five find their mark (including two critical hits). [Thokk takes 50 points, to 25 after rage, to 22 after heroism] Thokk decides it may indeed be time to retreat. He sheathes his longsword, turns and runs (thorn dog bite and sapling club opportunity attacks both miss). He pauses only long enough to scoop up a surprised Babshapka (Athletics check 26) with his free arm before barreling into the room. Umbra and Aurora manage to get out of his way without getting knocked down.
Seeing Thokk fleeing, Tyrius reasons that they are about to be hit with a flood of plant men from the north. He turns as well and makes for the door (club opportunity attack from a plant man misses). He is in no position to scoop up Larry as easily as Thokk did Babshapka, but he manages to push and shove and keep the dwarf in front of him as he goes (Athletics check 15).
Aurora decides to lay down suppressive fire and cover the retreat of her companions. She sends out four magic missiles (cast at 2nd level for 17 damage, Aurora at 2/1/0).
Willa looks about - it seems Aurora has convinced even Thokk to retreat. She increases the speed of her attacks to an unsustainable level as she clears her path to the door (action surge, four attacks, two hits, 27 damage).
As Willa, the last one to enter the room, crosses the threshold, Thokk presses the door panel to close the door behind her.
Round 10
Babshapka sets another arrow to his bowstring and draws it lightly, pointing it at the floor near the closed door. “I think we should give it a minute,” he says tersely. Then, thinking better of it, he puts away his bow and draws his broadsword.
“Does anyone need healing?” Tyrius asks, looking pointedly at Thokk, who is covered in puncture wounds from the darts and javelins. The half-orc shakes his head, and no one else speaks up.
Round 11
(Thokk’s heroism has expired)
(Thokk’s second rage has expired)
Willa, standing near the door, hears the mechanical whirring of the strange lock mechanism. She gestures at the others to be ready.
As the door slides open, those near it can see a cluster of plant-man melee troops formed up in a phalanx outside. Farther back are rows of missile troops, even now poised to throw. Willa, closest to the door, can see a plant man straining upward to reach the receptacle into which a key card would be returned.
Larry faces the door and concentrates, moving his still-existing moonbeam to just outside the door itself. He drops it squarely on two saplings, four sprouts, and a sporrior. They writhe in pain and begin to scatter.
Thokk attacks the fleeing plant men nearest him, cleaving down at them with his longsword (two hits, 18 damage).
Willa pushes past Thokk and reaches into the receptacle with one hand. With the other, she shoves hard, knocking the plant man back into the area covered by the moonbeam. It tenses in pain and she grabs the key card triumphantly. “Close it!” she shouts, and Babshapka presses the door panel.
Round 12
Unnoticed by the rest of the party, Shefak slipped on her invisibility ring even as the door opened. Now, she slides by Thokk and out into the hallway, stifling her gasp as she enters the moonbeam and takes damage. She passes through to the other side and out into the sea of plant men, trying to avoid them as they scurry about (dodge action).
Willa tosses the black key card to Babshapka and draws her greatsword. He in turn tosses the card to Aurora and moves his hunter’s mark to a thorn dog just visible through the closing door. Aurora fumbles the card, then bangs her head on the oddly low table as she dives after it.
Two thorn dogs snap at Thokk but he fends them off with his shield. Willa beats them back from the doorway (two hits, 26 damage total).
Thokk, sword still drawn, faces the door as it slides closed.
(10:30pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, in addition to all the vegepygmies stirred up from the rooms they attacked, another 12 vegepygmies and 5 thornies have arrived as a patrol (wandering encounter) and joined the forces outside the door being directed by the sub chiefs.]
It isn’t until a few minutes later when someone finally notices that Shefak is no longer in the room with them. From the center of the room, Aurora tries to message her. Receiving no response, she moves to the door, where the metal is thinner than the width of the walls. Now she does indeed hear back.
Shefak explains that she is invisible, in the hallway just outside the door. There are some 30 to 40 plant men and a half-dozen thorn dogs out there with her. More importantly, there are two plant men that seem to be in charge. They are much larger than the others, standing nearly five feet tall, and are greatly gnarled and barely able to move. With whistles, chest thumps, and gesticulating limbs, they appear to be ordering the other plants, men and dogs, about. It is the first time Shefak has seen any of the plant men do anything more than blindly charge forward and attack. Now, they are forming up into well-spaced rows, with melee troops in front and missile troops behind, all surrounding the door of the room in which the party is. On either side of the door are stationed thorn dogs.
As Aurora begins to relate Shefak’s message to the party, Willa and Tyrius confer. They agree that with their complement of best spells depleted, and the damage Thokk has taken, it is not worth it to provoke another fight. If the plant men storm the room, however, the party should definitely target the leaders. Perhaps if these larger plant men are slain or captured the others will disperse. Their conference is interrupted by Aurora reporting that Shefak is saying urgently that another plant man with a black card in hand is approaching the door. The party readies for another fight, while Aurora moves away from the door and begins a ritual casting of comprehend languages, for use on the leader they intend to capture. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Post 163: Speak with Plants 20 February, 571 [1 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 1
Round 1
As the door slides open, Thokk enrages (one rage left). He immediately pushes through the crowd, barreling straight at the plant man leader and ignoring those in his way. (Three opportunity attacks, two sapling clubs and a thorn dog bite, all miss). Thokk reaches the leader, bends down, and attempts to seize him with his bare hands about the creature’s neck. (Thokk makes a failed grapple attempt. He uses an inspiration point for a re-roll, but fails again).
Aurora thinks better of her plan, ceases her ritual, and shoots a firebolt through the doorway. Umbra follows that with a ray of shadow.
Babshapka struggles briefly with the plant man at the door and comes away with the key card. [Current tally, one black card each on Babshapka and Aurora].
Willa strides out the door to her right, wading through the battle lines toward the second leader. The attacks on her by those she passes are ineffective (three sapling clubs and three thorn dog bites, opportunity attacks, all miss). Willa grabs the seemingly surprised plant man, hugs it to her chest, and begins walking backward despite its struggles and the attacks of those around her. She manages to drag it five feet closer to the door. (Successful grapple attack and moves opponent at half own speed)
There is a volley of sixteen javelins and darts. They all are thrown through the open doorway. The plant men do not appear to have reacted immediately to the assaults on their leaders, or perhaps they are just mindlessly executing a previously decided-upon plan. Larry is wounded by two javelins, Babshapka by four.
The leader evading Thokk's grasp manages to bring up a sort of cobbled-together flail and tries to strike at the barbarian, but is too close to be effective. The leader being grappled by Willa struggles, but cannot free itself.
Tyrius moves to the doorway, sees that Willa has one leader well in hand but that the other has not yet been subdued by Thokk. The paladin casts compelled duel, hoping to goad the leader into charging at him, but it resists the power of Pelor (vegepygmy leader makes a Wisdom save with 17; Tyrius at 1/0 and 26 lay on hands remaining).
Shefak dives into the combat, becoming visible and attacking the leader that Thokk faces, but from behind. She uses her flurry of blows to both prevent its reaction and knock it down (Shefak now at four ki points - first hit, stuns leader, no reactions, second hit, failed dex save, knocks it prone, total 17 points damage). “Now try!” she yells at Thokk, as the enraged barbarian struggles to understand why the plant man he was just fighting has dropped to the ground without him touching it.
From inside the doorway, Larry casts a moonbeam, hoping to scatter the missile troops. It lands on six sprouts and six sporriors - the damage is disappointing, and half of them make their saves, but it is distracting and will hopefully frustrate a second volley. (Larry to 4/1/2; second-level moonbeam will last to round 12).
Round 2
Babshapka moves back behind the wall of the apartment, out of view of the missile troops, and pulls out one of the javelins that stuck in his side.
Willa continues to drag the plant man leader backwards toward the door, ignoring the attacks on her (one dog and three sapling club opportunity attacks miss). She enters the area of the moonbeam and clenches her jaw as she begins to take damage (round 2 damage nine points, Willa saves and takes four). When she gets to the doorway she pauses, holding the plant man in front of her like a shield against the javelins. Still inside the moonbeam, and still taking damage, are two thorn dogs, three sporriors, three sprouts, three saplings, and the leader being held by Willa.
Frustrated that the moonbeam hasn’t scattered more opponents, Larry runs up to the doorway, right behind Tyrius and Willa. He yells, drops to one knee, and slams the ground with his fist, sending forth a wave of force. A thunderous sound echoes down the metal corridors. (Thunderwave at first level for nine points - Larry at 3/1/2). The shock hits Tyrius first (Con save 4, fails); he takes damage (9 points) and flies forward out of the doorway and into the hall, barely managing to remain on his feet. Willa is thrown into the air, but comes down in place and manages to retain her grip on the leader (4 points damage). As the wave propagates out the doorway, about half the javelin-throwing troops go down, falling to the floor. Their green-gray skin burns and cracks in the moonbeam. The club-bearing saplings in the doorway, tougher than their missile throwing companions, remain standing. Four of them batter at Willa. They are unable to break through her armor, but their blows help loosen her grip on the leader, and he manages to break free. He staggers forward, turns, and beats his flail at her chest plate, knocking the wind from her for a moment but not doing any lasting damage (attack roll 20 vs. AC21).
Outside the room, three thorn dogs snap at Tyrius with their barbed jaws. The remaining missile troops all target Willa - because she is in the doorway, or because she tried to capture their leader? (Now that she is in melee with the saplings, the missile troops have advantage). Two sporriors and five sprouts are left - of the seven missiles thrown, three manage to penetrate her armor.
As the fallen leader before him stands up, Thokk leans down and snatches it in a bear hug, then lifts it over his head, holding it high in the air so that none of its woody limbs can find purchase on the floor (successful grapple attack). He turns and moves heavily toward the door, pausing only to raise a booted foot and kick the free leader fighting Willa in the back (successful shove attack). As the standing leader stumbles forward past Willa, Thokk moves to take its place in the doorway, the other leader still held over his head. Thorn dogs snap at his heels (three opportunity attacks - one hit, 5 points, 2 damage after rage).
Shefak assesses the doorway - most of it is blocked by Thokk’s girth, but there is a bit of room over his head, just to the side of the plant man leader. She runs forward, planting her staff like a pole, and starts her vault - but the pole slips on the metal floor, slick with plant juices. Shefak slams into Thokk, then falls to the floor (failed Acrobatics check). Thokk stumbles forward from the blow. Shefak shakes her head, leaps to her feet, and re-assumes her invisibility.
Tyrius, from inside the room, attacks the four saplings battering Willa (two hits, 21 damage, one sapling down). Aurora firebolts another one of them (9 damage).
Round 3
With the doorway now clear, Shefak runs inside the apartment, launching herself into a flying kick at the free plant man leader.
Babshapka hits the door panel and the door begins to close.
Willa trades blows with the plant man leader inside. The three remaining saplings beat her with clubs, and the leader manages to turn and slip out through the closing door.
Thokk tightens his grip on the remaining leader he holds aloft inside the room.
Larry dashes to the half-closed door, moving his moonbeam to center it onto the fleeing leader. In response, four sprouts and a sporrior throw missiles at him (one hit, Larry takes 5). Aurora runs to his side, sending a volley of magic missiles after the leader through the last six inches remaining between the closing door panels. The plant man leader is slain just before the door closes (14 points damage, Aurora to 1/1/0).
Tyrius smashes two of the three saplings that remain inside the room into planty bits (two hits, 7 and 11 damage).
Round 4
Thokk continues to grapple the leader, holding him high overhead.
The one remaining sapling in the room attacks Willa with its club. Willa returns his blows (one hit, damage 11). Tyrius moves to support her (one hit, damage 7).
Aurora shoots a firebolt at the grappled leader, but it misses, impacting the ceiling instead.
Larry tosses Shefak a rope, and she moves to Thokk’s side, urging him to set the plant man down so that she can bind it.
Round 5
The sapling strikes at Willa again, and her response smears it all over her greatsword. Now just the leader is left alive inside, although Larry and Babshapka are guarding the door in case it opens again.
Thokk holds the leader down while Shefak ties it up with the rope.
When the plant man is well and truly bound, Thokk loses his rage and moves to guard the door.
Aurora begins a ritual casting of comprehend languages, while Shefak uses her Wholeness of Body to recover 18hp and then moves much of her personal gear over to the mule packs (cold weather clothes, crampons, bed roll, staff, dagger, mess kit) so as to lighten her load. “It seems like we will be in this cave a while,” she says, to no one in particular. Umbra nods and puts her own cold weather gear and crampons in one of the mule packs.
[Unbeknownst to the party, the remaining vegepygmies in the hall withdraw. In just this last skirmish, besides numerous comrades, they have lost a black key and two of their subchiefs. They collectively retreat, back to defend the colony and await further instruction]
(10:40pm)
Aurora and Babshapka come over to where the leader is tied up. Aurora begins speaking to him, knowing he cannot understand her, but trying to keep a friendly tone in her voice.
As the leader whistles and rattles his limbs, Aurora hears a deep basso voice, slow and ponderous. “You…(and he inclines his head at Aurora)...thrower of fire! Burner of men! You think you can conquer the colony! But you will never overcome us! Never!”
The leader’s obvious hostile reaction gives Aurora pause. Without being able to speak to him, she will be unable to persuade him of anything. She retreats to the far side of the room, where she can still hear him and whisper messages to Babshapka with translations of what he is saying.
Although he has calmed somewhat at Aurora’s retreat, the leader’s defiance has now shifted to Babshapka. “You will not overcome us! We will defend the colony, though it cost us our individual existence, we will be reborn to serve the colony again! You may chop off our limbs and branches, but they will grow back! We will defend our lights and our soil!”
Seeking a nonverbal way to indicate their friendly intentions, Babshapka sets down his weapons on the floor. He tells the others in the party to set down their weapons and back away. A few follow his directive, but Thokk just laughs.
The plant man pauses in his invective. When he resumes speaking, his tone is less forceful, but still suspicious. “Do you mock me? Do you seek to frighten me, by showing me the dead bodies of your former foes? Is this what you will do to me, with my body? I will not be intimidated! Do your worst, and I will serve the colony to the end!” Babshapka only now realizes that his bow and arrows are made of wood - to this plant man, apparently they look like dead bodies laid in front of him.
Babshapka throws up his hands in frustration, gathers his things and withdraws. Larry stumps over, willing to give it a try. He squats by the leader, who is still dripping sap and whose living wooden armor is chipped and cracked in several places. Larry touches him and bestows a cure wounds. (Larry at 2/1/2).
The leader winces at Larry’s touch, then shudders as a few of his wounds close and the wood knits itself together. A single violet flower bud emerges from between wooden plates in the soft joint of an elbow. The leader’s eyes widen.
“You heal me...why? To make me whole before you sacrifice me?”
When Aurora translates this for Larry, the dwarf shakes his head and holds forth his empty hands at the plant man. There is a long silence.
“If you truly wish to cease hostilities...untie me, and let me go.”
Aurora has been translating and messaging as fast as the leader speaks, without commentary, but when she says the last line uncensored she immediately regrets it. “Now, hold on there, Larry!” she says out loud right after, but Tyrius strides over and begins working at the ropes that bind the plant-man’s limbs while Larry holds out his empty hands in a gesture of peace. All eyes in the room are on the plant man as it stands, then walks over to where its wooden flail fell and collects it. More than one of the party have their hands on their weapons, but the leader ignores them and moves to the bodies of the several slain saplings in the room, then kneels by them.
The leader lays its hand on the chests of the dead, rumbling in a rhythmic cadence, repeating the same prayer for each, “Your life was not in vain...you have served the colony in life, and now you serve it in death...soon your body will be absorbed by the soil and your spirit will sprout again…” When it has repeated the same prayer for each of the fallen, it weaves their limbs together and stands, pulling on the body of one and testing that they all come along as it drags them. Bits and pieces of broken twigs are left behind, but the leader seems unconcerned about these.
As the leader makes toward the door, trailing its fallen comrades, Thokk draws his sword and moves to bar its way. “Nay, Thokk, let ‘im go,” says Willa, “bu’ we need fer sommun ter foller ‘im.”
Shefak nods and moves behind the leader. Aurora tells Larry he should go too, but in scout mode. Larry suddenly shrinks down, assuming the form of a tiny wolf spider. Almost unnoticed, spider-Larry darts over to Shefak and climbs up her pant leg, eventually settling on her shoulder by the time the door is open (wild shape, one use left).
The party tenses as the door opens, but the hallway beyond is empty - or at least, there is nothing moving. Bits and pieces of plant men are strewn everywhere, and more than a few scorch marks from fireballs[i] are present, as well caked-on plant juices baked to the metal floor with [i]moonbeam. But there is nothing recognizable as a body, neither of plant man nor thorn dog. Without thanking them or even turning around, the leader plods out into the hall, dragging the four fallen saplings behind him. After Shefak crosses the threshold of the door, she puts on her ring and disappears. A very perceptive observer might see a small grey spider floating along the corridor at shoulder height, but Larry’s current size and color render him nearly imperceptible.
The door is left open; Babshapka and Thokk move into the hall to set a watch, while Tyrius offers healing to them and any of the others remaining. Besides his one last spell, he still has nearly all of his lay on hands available. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Post 164: A Curious Spider 20 February, 571 [1 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 1
(10:50pm)
The plant man leader passes the table room [unnumbered activity room], an empty side room [ibid], and a black-keyed closed door [12A] without pause. When he gets to the long hall lit from the numerous rooms that held other plant men [12], however, he sets down his burden. One by one he goes to each of the rooms, steps inside, and presses the wall panel that turns out the overhead lights. The rooms are a mess of broken furniture, scavenged odds and ends, and bits and pieces of fallen bark and twigs. He murmurs as he does this but Shefak does not have the benefit of Aurora’s comprehend languages. Shefak counts her steps as she goes, realizing now that her return trip may be in darkness and, unlike many of the party, she cannot see in the dark.
When it gets to the end of the corridor, the leader passes through a doorway and goes to the far end of the apartment [12], which is in just as much disarray as the others. In the back is a keyed door, and the leader pauses and withdraws a key from some recess under its living armor! Spider-Larry scampers down Shefak’s arm to get a closer view, and sees a flash of bright yellow as the plant man inserts the key in the slot, and again as it retrieves the key from the receptacle, before it is again tucked away from sight.
(10:55pm)
As the door slides open, Shefak is hit with a rich, pungent, earthy smell. The large triangular room [mulch room; see DM's notes at end] within is full, with nearly every square foot of space being taken up by plant men, although the doorway is flanked by a pair of thorn dogs and at least one more is further within. The ceiling lights are bright and the plant men sway gently as their arms reach upward, their eyes closed. As Shefak’s eyes adjust to the brightness she can see more details. All of the plant men bear some type of injury - hacked off limbs, cracked wooden armor, sap-weeping wounds, burned and blackened skin. More plant men, or their bodies, lie on the floor - there is no way to move without stepping on them. Those on the floor look to be dead, or sleeping, though their wounds are worse than the others. Underneath them is a thick brown mass, like a rich loam or humus - the metal floor is not visible through the mass of bodies, broken branches, and brown layer.
Thorn dogs just within the open door bristle, but then bow their heads to the leader. Other plant men, seemingly in a daze or trance, move forward slowly, and one by one the leader hands off to them the four different bodies it has been dragging. Each one is carried inside the room and then let gently down to the floor. The leader warbles, whistles, and beats its chest, and a few of those helping respond, but the majority of the gently swaying plant folk seem not to notice. Shefak quickly estimates perhaps two dozen standing plant folk - the number of fallen is impossible for her to guess.
The leader spends just long enough in the doorway to see the bodies lain on the floor, and then turns. Shefak rapidly backs up and out of its way. It passes back through the room, out into the hall, and turns north. As it goes, it turns out more lights in more apartment rooms [12]. Shefak tries to keep running tallies now of both the number of rooms passed and her steps to return. They pass four more, all on the left, before arriving at a four-way intersection. The plant is moving faster now that it is not dragging its fallen comrades behind.
At the intersection, the leader is soon surrounded by smaller plant folk arriving from the right branch. That hallway itself is dark, but light spills out into it from numerous doorwars along the south wall [12]. Plant folkn move in and out of the doorways and into the hall. The whole place appears much as did the southern hall, at least before the combat with the party. The leader beats its chest loudly and whistles as it wades into the crowd, and these apparently unwounded plant folk respond much more enthusiastically than the ones in the mulch room did.
Shefak looks down the hallway. Invisible as she is, there is no way she can pass unnoticed - she is unlikely to get ten feet without someone or other bumping in to her. She proceeds just far enough to see where the northern branch of the intersection leads. No plant folk are in sight there. It is lit, but dimly, with many of the ceiling panels flickering in a way that is reminiscent of candles, but in whole blocks at once rather than points. There are numerous doors on both sides. She decides it is time to return to the party and report.
Unbeknownst to her, Larry had decided to continue scouting when they were back at the plant man hall. The tiny spider lept from her shoulder to the wall, then climbed to above the height of the plant men. At human head height, he now scurries along the wall as fast as his eight little legs can carry him.
As Shefak turns and carefully makes her way down the now-dark hallway, she ponders. The leader turned out lights in eleven rooms as he went. Thokk and Willa said that each room had produced some five to seven plant men, as well as a thorn dog, in their initial fight. Assuming that the leader thinks these rooms are now unoccupied, no longer needed, is there a way to estimate casualties among the plant folk? Six of them per room, times 11 rooms; 66 plant folk and 11 thorn dogs? But more than likely the wounded in the mulch room are a result of the fighting - so perhaps two dozen wounded, and 40-some slain, as many as eight thorn dogs slain and three wounded? Then Shefak remembers that a large force in the third attack came from the east - are there more rooms in that direction? If so, her numbers are likely to be an underestimate of their losses.
(11:05pm)
Outside the party’s room, Thokk and Babshapka remain on alert. Thokk hears faint metallic clanking approaching, that then resolves itself as footfalls on the metal floor. He draws his sword and tells Babshapka to be ready.
At a distance just beyond his sword-reach Shefak suddenly becomes visible. “Boo!” she says, though with a gentle smile. She proceeds to enter the room, where others are already binding wounds or laid out on bedrolls, although everyone still has their armor on and weapons at the ready. Shefak relates her story to Aurora, Willa, and Tyrius. When Aurora asks about Larry, Shefak looks surprised, and cranes her neck to see both shoulders - there is no spider on either one. She shrugs and says she did not notice his departure.
(11:10pm)
Aurora moves to the open doorway and tries to raise Larry with her message spell, but to no avail. By the time she returns, Shefak is already kneeling, eyes closed in meditation but holding her crystal before her. The leaders of the party confer, agreeing that they will give Larry enough time for everyone in the party to complete a short rest. After that, if he has not returned, they will go out to look for him.
It is hard for Larry to estimate time and distance while in spider form. He figures he has crawled about halfway along the hallway of plant folk, and gone past five open doorways leading into rooms full of the creatures [12]. To the north, a corridor leads away from the light and noise of them. He turns the corner and proceeds that way. He passes a closed door, then an open one. There is a brief side-foray into a storeroom, with smashed and empty crates, and then back out into the hall. Continuing north, he passes another four closed doors before then next open one, this one leading into a room with several pieces of battered and scratched furniture [unnumbered apartment]. After one more closed door, he comes to an intersection, with the main east-west corridor of substantially greater size than the north-south one it crosses. Larry turns to the east, but has not gone far when he arrives at a T-intersection, with the wall ahead bearing a single door. As he pauses to look in all directions, there is a whooshing of air as the door opens and light spills out into the hall from the room beyond [Police HQ]. The light is immediately followed by a clockwork - a large one of the kind the party fought before. This machine creature turns south and speeds away down the corridor. Larry follows as fast as he can, but the machine is soon lost to his sight.
Larry turns a corner and passes another four doors before coming to a second T-intersection. This time turning south, he finds a four-branched corridor, with a hallway full of plant folk to his west. He is reasonably sure it is the same hallway he passed through before, seen from another perspective. He continues south. After five more doors he comes to a large atrium, at a nexus of hallways, with a hollow circular column in its center. Suspecting that he has returned to the initial entrance to the cave, he heads west and soon finds the body of the ceiling monster the party fought some fourteen hours before, still lying on the floor in all its massive bulk.
It is not far past that when he can see Thokk and Babshapka standing guard in the hallway. He crawls to the floor and then resumes his dwarven shape. Thokk trots over and pats him on the head affectionately, which is as close as the barbarian will go to telling him he was worried about him.
(11:50pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, in the hallway, three displacer beasts approach - seeing Thokk and Babshapka on guard in the hallway, they retreat into the shadows.]
DM's Note: On the map of Level I, there is a curious room just beyond the most south-west of the vegepygmy occupied rooms. It is accessed through a jet lock, which should indicate an apartment, but it is larger than the other apartments nearby and of odd shape. More strangely, although the only room granting access to it has vegepygmy occupants, it does not have any, according to the map. I decided that this was a "mulch room", where the southern vegepygmies take their dead and wounded, and where the wounded could heal themselves by decomposing the dead. The northern vegepygmies have an entire hallway filled with humus in which they grow mushrooms to eat, so it seemed fitting that the southern colony would have something similar. All of the living vegepygmies in the room when Larry and Shefak found it were ones that had been wounded in the various battles with the party so far. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Party rejoins mules - one roll
4:10am - vegepygmies
4:30am - Lurker above
5:10am - displacer beasts
5:50am - worker robot
6:10am - displacer beasts
1:10pm - displacer beasts
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
3:40pm (mules) worker robot
4pm (mules) worker robot
Party rejoins mules - one roll
5:30pm Police Robot, non-lethal
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
8:10pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (party) vegepygmies
Party, Mules, and Security Room all rolling separately
11:50pm (party) vegepygmies
Post 165: The New Guy 21 February, 571 [2 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 2
(12:10am)
By the time Shefak has completed her short rest, the other party members have as well (excepting Larry). [Thokk, Willa, and Babshapka spend hit dice to heal themselves. Shefak recovers all of her Ki points. Aurora gains back three spell level slos]
Since more than an hour has passed with the door open and no plant men in sight, Willa is cautiously optimistic that the brokered peace with the leader may have worked. She declares that they should head out and look for food and fuel. Shefak mentions that she is happy to scout ahead invisibly, but that much of the cave is unlit and, unlike Larry, she can’t see in the dark. Larry bestows a darkvision spell on her (lasts until 8:15am, Larry at 2/0/2).
“Before you go, I have a concern,” says Eddard. When enough of the party has turned to him, he says, “I’m all for peace with the plant men, but if it turns out that the leader we freed is just using this time to plan a bigger assault, or if there is a tree or something higher than him that doesn’t like his decision, I’d rather not be in a room that they all know that we are in, especially if the rest of you are away.”
Willa agrees that if they are scouting, they can first find another room for Eddard and the mules.
As the party proceeds into the hall, Aurora suddenly stops them. “Just a second - Larry, you said that leader’s card was yellow, not black?”
“Aye.”
“So maybe the different colored cards open different colored doors.”
“Bu’ ther doors are all ther same color, jus' grey metal,” objects Willa.
“Are they?” asks Aurora rhetorically, and insists on spending several minutes examining not the door itself, but the strange three-part locking mechanism outside their current room. Then she dashes off several doors to the east, back to the door that previously “ate” their card.
“Aha!” she says, “look at the slot!” Upon first inspection, the lock mechanism is the same in both doors - a slot above, a pearl-colored panel in the middle, a receptacle at the bottom to return the card. However, she points out that this door has a thin enamel-like filigree in the rectangle around the slot, and that the filagree is of a violet color. She takes them back to the door of the room in which they rested, and shows them that the same filigree there is of a jet black color - a color which matches exactly the two black cards they still have.
“So...ther key color has to match ther door color?” asks Willa.
Aurora frowns. “I don’t think so. That would be too complicated - everyone would have to carry around all the different door colors, and that leader with the yellow key couldn’t open black doors, and black doors seem pretty common.” She thinks some more. “Willa, what are the ranks on the biggest ship you can think of?”
“Why?” asks Willa suspiciously. She has given up actively denying that the cave is a ship, but Aurora’s question makes her feel complicit in the fantasy.
“Just answer, it will help me think.”
“Well, a ship o’ any size will hae a cap’in, ar a measter, dependin’ on if it be free, royal navy, ar pirate, Keoish ar Sea Princes. Unner ther cap’in be ther off’cers; a mate, ar maybe a first an’ second mate, pr’aps a bo’sun ar a const’ble. Unner them be ther sailors, an’ maybe marines if ‘tis a vessel o’ war. Ye seen all t’is when we sailed ther Azure Sea.”
“Yes, yes,” says Aurora distractedly. “Now, the captain would have the run of the ship, right - he could go anywhere.”
“O’ carse, it be ‘is ship.”
“But while a bo’sun can go most places, like the crew’s quarters...and the hold...and such, he shouldn’t be in…?”
“Ther cap’in’s cabin. Ar ther pantry, fer t’at matter.”
“Right. And a sailor should only be…”
“About ‘is duties ar in ‘is berth.”
“So this ship probably has some hierarchy like that - it is not that the color has to match the door, but that some colors are higher than others - and a high color card should open any color door beneath it, but a low color card gets confiscated if you try to open a higher-color door with it. And, apparently, violet ranks above black.”
[Aurora gains an inspiration point]
Willa says that while all of that is fine in theory, it doesn’t get them any closer to finding a place for the mules. If Aurora is done, they are returning to check the table room.
(12:30am)
The table room itself is as they left it, but now they inspect the enamel around the card slots in the two doors, finding to their satisfaction that both are black. Aurora and Babshapka use their cards simultaneously and the party splits into two teams to search the rooms beyond.
The southern room is yet another apartment, the standard furniture being familiar by now and quickly searched. The northern room is some sort of storeroom with several crates - now all smashed or otherwise broken into. A mess of odd metal machine parts, bits and pieces with no apparent function, is strewn across the floor, along with decaying wood and fragments of fabric. There is a second door on the north wall, also keyed black. Eddard says that the presence of the key locks is good, and that this is nowhere the plant men have seen them yet, although it is awfully close to their lair. It will do for now, though if the party finds someplace better as they scout that would be appreciated. He asks them to move out the largest of the broken crates and machine parts so that there is more room for the mules, and then bids them good hunting.
(12:40am)
As they exit, Willa makes sure that both keyless doors to the table room are closed. In the familiar hallway beyond, Aurora notes a new color - the doors to the north and south have a brown enamel around their slots. She tries her key - and it is promptly taken by the door and not returned. A loud klaxon sounds and the party prepares for a fight, but after five minutes it stops, with nothing else appearing. “Brown is higher than black,” notes Aurora. The party is now down to a single, black, card - held by Babshapka.
[At this point, wandering encounters are being rolled in two locations: for the party itself, and for the room with the mules and Eddard]
(12:45am)
As they discuss where to explore, it is agreed that they should try to find somewhere away from the plant men. Willa leads them due east, and past the great circular shaft at the main entrance, down a previously unexplored corridor. An unmoving form is seen in the hall, and the party approaches cautiously. [Numbered encounter 2]
The form appears to be an unmoving cleaning clockwork. It is dented and battered, and their examination does not revive it. Small hand tools are scattered on the floor around it. Three doors in the north of the hall are all black-locked. Two in the south are black; a third is brown, but open, and a brown door is on the far wall where the corridor turns north.
Aurora gathers up the tools, then examines the clockwork and the tools. The machine man looks like it was put out of commission by blunt force damage, but there is no sign of what did that. The tools are a mix of the familiar (but exquisitely made) and alien. Aurora intends to see if there is anything to scavenge, so she starts looking for which of the various screwdrivers will open the bolts on the thing’s chest. Willa says this is a waste of time, but if she is going to do it, she should be somewhere safer than the middle of the hall.
Babshapka quickly scouts the room with the open brown door, finding it to be a storeroom similar to the one the mules are now in, smashed and looted crates and all. Willa reminds him to be on the lookout for key cards, power discs, food, and fuel, but he finds none of that, nor any other items he considers useful or worthy of mention. The others help Aurora drag the clockwork into the room.
(1am)
Inside the clockwork are gears, levers, and strange wax-coated wires, all crude and similar to those in the security clockwork she disassembled before. Here and there are pistons, but she finds no power discs or obvious weapons, or even something like the atmospheric analyzer. She uses the unfamiliar tools, as much as to try to test their function as from any further desire to take apart the clockwork. Removing one small panel, she finds a set of four small toruses, each filled with balls, like ball-bearings but seemingly made out of crystal. She has no idea what their function is, but imagines they could easily be sold as gems. They seem to allow a frictionless spinning motion, but are incredibly hard and resistant.
In time, she manages to pry all four bearings out. The rest of the innards are certainly interesting, but she does not find anything else of obvious use or value.
When Willa asks to see what she found, Aurora shows her the “gems”. Willa responds that treasure is nice, especially portable treasure, but their priorities are food, fuel, and grain for the mules, in that order, and it is time they headed out. She rearranges them into march order and exits the room. Almost immediately her lantern light spills across a figure approaching them from the west.
The party freezes in place, ready to react at the first sign of any aggressive action, but unsure of what to do with a single, human-looking, figure after so many encounters with strange monsters and machines.
It is a man, indeed a human - tall and slender with pale skin and dark wavy hair that cascades over his shoulders. His mustache and goatee are as dark as his hair, and sweep across his face framing in his stone grey eyes that seem to be focused somewhere other than on the party or the corridor in front of him. He wears a nearly full-length leather jacket, tight and obviously personally fitted to him. It is dyed russet overall, with intricate leather tooling and carvings of different fiery scenes along with blade marks colored with bright red dye. The jacket has reinforced sections along the shoulders and vital areas revealing its true use as armor. The sleeves and jacket hem are cut irregularly and dyed various shades of orange to mimic the shape of flames. He wears dark brown lace-up leather pants with dark brown boots to match. His pants have a flare to accommodate the tall boots. The effect of the dark pants and boots against the bright orange flame patterns make him appear to be floating, at least in the right light. He carries two 2-foot long tubes of wide diameter and a greatsword in a scabbard on his belt, as well as a pack on his back with wide leather straps. The leatherwork on the tubes is as equally ornate as his armor.
Babshapka steps in front of Aurora, one hand on his broadsword, and says in elvish, “Well met, stranger”.
“Greetings, friends,” the man says in Common, “I’m afraid I don’t speak that tongue.”
Tyrius strides up noisily next to Babshapka. “Do you come in peace, sir?” he says in Common.
“That depends on who you are,” the man answers confidently. “You wouldn’t happen to have been sent here by the druids of the Isle of Rhun?”
Willa intercedes before Tyrius can answer. “We hae certainly met yon druids, bu’ we tweren’t sent ‘ere by t’em.”
Thokk slowly draws his longsword. Holding the blade carefully in one hand, he picks under the nails of the other with the point. Babshapka raises his hand above his head and rests it on Thokk’s shoulder.
The man shrugs, not wanting to debate such a fine distinction with Willa. “I am a servant of the druids. They sent me here to help a party of adventurers. If you are not them…”
[Shefak, who has the best Insight in the party, thinks he sounds believable.]
When noone in the party appears willing to either confirm or deny their identity, he continues. “My duties take me far and wide across the land. When last I came to Rhun, the druids said a group had come to them, seeking help in locating this Unoerthly Cave. They gave what help they could at the time, but the party was unsatisfied. They told me of the group and bid me come here to help them.”
“How long have you been traveling?” asks Aurora, not bothering to mask the suspicion in her voice.
“About two weeks, a little less.”
“How did you know how to get here; have you been here before?”
“Never here, never this deep in the Barriers. The druids showed me the way.”
Aurora pauses, and when she speaks again, her tone is slightly more credulant. “Actually, we did speak with the druids, particularly with Gethin. Do you know him?” [note - Aurora is making the name up as a test]
“No, I know of no druid by that name - but I don’t know everyone on the Council, so it is possible I don’t know him. Mostly I scout for them and send reports through intermediaries, I don't usually deal with them directly.”
“What proof can you give us that you are who you say?” demands Aurora. She whispers, so that only those near her in the party can hear, “Nadine”.
The man shrugs again. “It’s rather hotter in here than outside, no?” He drops his backpack, then undoes several buckles on the rigid cuir boili breastplate of his leather armor that allow the front to swing open, revealing a heavy cloth maroon-colored button-up shirt that is missing the top four buttons. By pulling the collar over his head, he is able to slip out of the shirt without taking off his armor, although doing so reveals that his leather pants are dangerously low cut and end well below the top of his hips, exposing most of his midriff until he closes the breastplate of his armor.
“I don’t know that any of this is true, or counts as proof, but this is what I was told: A party of adventurers arrived at the fishing village on the lake more than two weeks ago. They spoke to the villagers, and then the boatman, said they wanted to talk to the druids. The boatman brought one of the councilmembers over to the village - I wasn’t told which one. The party stayed in the visitor’s house. They told the druid that they had an ancient text describing a star falling in the mountains. The location of the star fall corresponded to the location the Council knew was the Unoerthly Cave. The druid told the party that they would help them find the Cave in return for the party investigating it and discovering for them why strange monsters emerge from it. The party accepted their help but were unsatisfied with what they got in return and kept asking for more. So when I visited a few days later to give an unrelated report they told me to go to the Cave and offer my help to the party. So now, I would really like to know, are you actually that party, or am I wasting my time here?”
Willa and Aurora continue to stare down the newcomer. “Go check that room,” says Willa to Babshapka, “and take Thokk.” She points at a black-locked door to their right.
In the awkward silence, the new man carefully folds his jack and stows it in his backpack, then puts the backpack on again, but over one shoulder.
(1:20am)
Willa has Babshapka check the next room, the one directly behind them, quickly, just to be sure there is no one in it, and then moves the bulk of the party into it. It is another apartment. She keeps Babshapka, Thokk, and Shefak checking rooms, starting with the one they are all in.
“I just found the doors a few hours ago,” says the newcomer as he walks into the room. “What is this place?” He gestures at the strange furnishings and metal walls.
“T’is a flyin’ ship,” says Willa, her voice as nonchalant as she can manage. Aurora starts to interject, sees a peculiar set to Willa’s jaw, and stops herself.
“Huh,” says the man. “I’ll be damned.” From the long, thin bag at his belt he pulls out three stout wooden staves, joined at their middles, and adds to their top a triangular piece of leather - the whole becomes a camp chair when assembled. As they wait for the rest of the party to search this room and the one next door, he pulls a pinch of tobacco from the pouch at his belt, and produces a rolling paper from somewhere, then rolls and lights a cigarette. Those in the party not actively engaged in searching find it hard not to stare at him.
Aurora decides to fill him in - a bit. She talks about the abundance of metal walls, the strange clockwork creatures, and the magical plant men.
“Plant men?”
“Yes. Plant men. A LOT of them. They seem to be the principle defenders of this place, whatever it is.” Her exposition quickly turns to interrogation. “We had to hike through frozen mountains for two weeks to get here. How did you get here? If you just arrived, where is your gear?” she demands.
“I flew,” says the man simply, and takes a long drag.
“Flew?” says Larry. “Be ye a shapeshifter?”
The man laughs. His laugh is easy, as if he finds much amusement and often.
“No, I flew. With a fly spell. It’s easier. I just have this pack,” he says, as he absentmindedly kicks at the backpack now at his feet. “I don’t take anything I don’t need, and I don’t need much. I would never walk into mountains this high. Plus there is ice and snow like everywhere. Walking would be crazy.”
“Aye, ‘twould,” agrees Willa. “‘Twould also be long, an’ cold, an’ windy.” The man nods in agreement. “Thar be clockwork men ‘ere with strange weapons. We’ve fought one, an’ atother mostly ignored us. We ‘ad an awfully ‘ard time openin’ ther main door. ‘ow did ye manage t’at by yerself?”
“These plant men,” the man replies. “What can you do to damage them?”
“Fire works,” says Willa. “Stabbing nae so much.”
“Well, that’s good,” says the man. “I’m a fire mage. Well, a fighter / mage,” he says, and slaps the scabbard of his greatsword. “So I guess a fighter / fire mage. But not a fire fighter - mage. I don’t fight fires.” He takes another long drag and the party stares on, trying to discern if he is mad or for real. “Have you spoken to anyone? I mean, anyone local to the Cave,” he asks.
“Ther plant men ain’t big on conversation’,” says Willa sarcastically. “Bu’ we did talk ter one o’ ther leaders. We t’ink we hae a truce, fer ther moment.”
“These plant men - are they just men? No females?”
“Truth be told,” says Willa, “I couldna tell ye if t’ey were males ar females - t’eir mostly bark an’ no parts t’ speak o’, as ‘twar.”
Shefak returns to the room to tell them that they have finished searching the next apartment over and are continuing down the hall. The next room has a brown door, but it is open, so they could go inside, but it was just a storeroom.
The man’s face expresses puzzlement. “Do you normally not open brown doors?” he asks. Aurora explains the card system to him, as well as her supposition about the color hierarchy. No one mentions who in the party is carrying the single card the party currently has possession of, but Aurora says that they are in search of more.
“And where did you find the one you have?” the newcomer asks.
“From the plant men,” replies Aurora. “Maybe we should try to get some more from them…”
“No!” calls Babshapka’s voice from halfway down the hall. “They are just defending their homes!”
“Homes?” chuckles the man. “Plant men in a metal city? I don’t think this is their home.”
When Willa gives the word to move out, the newcomer crushes out his cigarette on the metal wall, tosses the butt on the floor, stands, folds up and stows his stool. As they filter out into the hall, Willa whispers to each of the party members in turn to not say anything about the mules. Then, when Larry is the last one out of the room they were in, she admonishes him, “Shut ther door! Leave ther rooms like we found t’em.” Larry sullenly complies.
They continue east down the hallway. Shefak finds an unlocked, push-panel, door. She presses and enters. Inside the room [encounter 3 - robot repair room] are two security clockworks. They swivel their heads to the open doorway, but apparently cannot detect her invisibly. There is a desk in the room, and several low tables. Storage bins and compartments are on several of the tables, and many of them are filled with gears and other mechanical parts. The clockworks move about the room, their metal hands selecting parts and moving them from one bin to another. The room has two interior doors. That is all Shefak has a chance to see before she backs out, as silently as she can, and presses the panel in the hall to close the door behind her.
Shefak makes herself visible in the hall, holding her finger to her lips as she does so. She whispers to Willa that there are two of the security clockworks in the room. Willa nods and uses her fingers to pantomime tiptoeing past the room to the rest of the party.
The next door they pass has a violet lock, and the next black. Babshapka pauses to insert his card, trying to do it when the newcomer is looking the other way.
(1:30am)
The black-locked door leads to a large apartment with a table, but two interior doors, one a press panel and one black-locked. Although looted the same as the others, the items here are in somewhat better condition, with not as many dents and rents visible. Willa remains in the hall to watch for clockworks, but motions the rest of the party in to search.
When the black-locked interior door is opened, it leads to a bedroom suite. Separate dining and sleeping areas? “I like this place,” says the newcomer as he enters the interior bedroom, taking a seat on one of the settees as Babshapka frowns and begins to go through the cushions. “That’s a big bed,” he says, to everyone and no one in particular. “You could fit a lot of people in that.”
“Yeah,” says Aurora suggestively, “we’ll have to remember that for later.”
“I’ll take you up on that,” suggests the newcomer salaciously. Babshapka sighs in disgust. After searching the bedroom, he proceeds to the uncarded door, finding a small and unremarkable study with a single desk and chair.
(1:40am)
The party reforms in the hallway and proceeds north to a four-way intersection. The west branch is bare, the east has a few doors. The northern hallway [encounter 4] has a number of doors on it, but it is also full of trash and debris for about the first thirty feet, up until the second door. Aurora looks down each branch and says she thinks there is a light source somewhere distant to the west.
Thokk pokes the refuse pile with his ten foot pole. It is a combination of bones and organic waste, the strange lightweight fabric, and bits and pieces of machine parts and broken sections of cave horn. Nothing looks intact.
“Nice pole, big guy,” says the newcomer.
“Thokk get that often,” says the half-orc, in a guileless response. Willa shakes her head, then tells Thokk to check the pile better. He starts with his pole, probing to provoke a response from anything hiding in the refuse, then sets his pole aside and starts sorting through the rubbish with his hands.
While they wait, Willa shines her lantern along the hall, thinking that she can make out black locks on the doors ahead. “Wha’ do we ken about ther colors?” she asks Aurora. “Do all ther berths be black, all ther storerooms brown?”
Aurora remembers back on what they have found so far, and shakes her head in the negative. “The storerooms were varied,” she says, “Some black, some brown, some uncarded, just push-panel. But so far every black lock that has not been a storeroom has been an apartment, and every apartment has been black. We’ve also seen violet doors, and we know there is a yellow card, though we haven’t seen yellow doors.”
“Whar be ther crew quarters?” asks Willa, perhaps rhetorically. “An’ do all t’ese berths be fer crew? Wha’ kind o’ ship hae private quarters fer all ther crew?” When no one else volunteers, she answers herself. “A fancy ship, I serpose.”
Thokk has reached the end of the trash pile. He turns and stands, shrugging his broad shoulders. Willa points him and Babshapka at the first and closest door, which stands open. “Whar be yon trash from?” she asks herself. She shines her lantern on the ceiling. It is bare metal and the occasional exposed pipe or conduit. There are no chutes dropping trash from above. Willa sets her lantern on the floor, and examines the edge of the trash pile. Besides Thokk’s huge, fresh boot prints, there are plenty of marks in the dust, all jumbled and overlapping. She backs up, finds one isolated and intact print near the wall. It is circular - and sized just like that of the clockwork that cleaned their room. She nods in understanding. “T’at cleanin’ clockwork be droppin’ ‘is loads ‘ere,” she announces. “Mayhap we can find a mule apple ar twain in ‘here.” She resolves to search the pile herself while the others search the rooms. Babshapka and Thokk are already checking one apartment. She tells Aurora and Larry to check the next, Tyrius and Umbra to advance down the hallway to the end, Shefak to guard the intersection behind them.
“Did you feel that?” asks the newcomer suddenly, his tone anxious.
“Wha’?”
“I think the ship is moving.” He puts his hand on the wall as if to steady himself.
Willa stares at him awhile. Finally, she says, “Wha’ be yer name?”
“Mathias.”
“Mmhmm. Willa.” She turns and begins slowly and deliberately going through the trash pile, repeating to herself as she goes, “Key cards, food, fuel, grain, power discs.”
A few minutes later Mathias says, “There it is again! Seriously, you can’t feel that shift? Should we run?”
“NO,” Willa says firmly. Then, when Aurora and Larry emerge from the second apartment, “Aurora, do ye feel ther ship move?”
Aurora looks at Willa quizzically, then closes her eyes and lays her hands on a metal wall. Several moments later, she opens her eyes and speaks. “Humming, vibrating - yes. Move? No.” Willa nods in satisfaction and returns to sorting through the trash.
(1:50am)
[Unbeknownst to either the party or Eddard, a solitary Lurker Above has entered the Table Room and set up on the ceiling just outside the room in which the mules are stored.]
(2:20am)
As she works, Willa calls back to Mathias without looking at him. “‘Ow did ye say ye got in ther main doors?”
“I was there a good while,” he says. “I tried everything, but they wouldn’t open. So I camped in the outer cave and waited, thinking you might come out at some point. Then, hours into my wait, and a few hours ago, they just...opened. So I went in. They closed behind me.”
Willa thinks to herself that the druids did say that “every so often” monsters would emerge from the cave. So...are the doors on a timer? Or are they somehow being watched? She doesn’t like the second option.
The two searching teams have gone through seven apartments off of the northern corridor, but each one of them has already been plundered of anything useful. They return to the hall. “Ready t’ shove off?” asks Willa, just as she spies something in the trash pile reflecting Tyrius’ light of Pelor.
Willa stoops and retrieves the item.
It weighs about ten pounds and is about one foot across, although it looks like it could fold to half that size. It is composed of a U-shaped section of metal rod with a black rivet on one end and an attached piece of thick glass mounted in a frame. This glass is about the size of a hand mirror, and is what allowed Willa to note the reflection of light. On one side of the frame are two raised discs, while on the other is a fine mesh, mounted on a rod. The mesh is as fine as pulled wire for jewelry, not course like chain link. The glass is on both sides, not backed like a mirror, although one side is dark and the other clear. Willa hands the strange object to Aurora and announces that they will head to the light at the end of the west hall.
(2:30am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, they have been watched for the last ten minutes by a vegepygmy patrol from the southern corridor who are keeping to the truce they were told about. The creatures carry no light themselves, and stay out of range of the vision of the party. When the party heads down the west hallway, the plant men retreat. If, upon the party’s return this way later, Babshapka spots the fresh tracks of the vegepygmies, he does not share that information with the others]
As they walk down the hall to the west, Aurora’s mage armor fades from existence. Has it been eight hours already? She pauses to renew it (will last until 10:30am).
At the end of the hall is an intersection, with light spilling into it from a large open doorway to the north. There are two closed doors to the south, a large double-door to the north, and the corridor itself continues to the west. Looking through the open door, they find a room that is obviously for relaxation, perhaps an officer’s lounge. There are both upholstered chairs and low tables everywhere, as well as a few large metal boxes. However, it appears that some fight or other struggle occurred here long ago. The chairs are all torn, many of the tables are broken, the boxes dented or even stove in. There is ash from old fires, and scattered bones and skulls.
“Babshapka,” says Willa simply, and the elf nods and enters first. The others slowly fill in, making sure to stand only where he has already searched.
The skeletons are definitely humanoid and most likely human, judging by their size and features, but the bone is exceptionally old and dry. What remains of the rags they are clad in is an exceptionally light material, thin like silk but remarkably resistant to decay judging by the age of the bones. All of this conforms to what has been found before.
The height of the tables is curiously low, like many of those in the cave. The table frames are made of cave horn; several have been broken, either in their legs or across the boards. The stuffed chairs have frames made from cave horn, but the cushions are of a linen-like fabric over cave sponge. They are rent, torn, and stained in several places.
(2:40am)
In the crease between the cushions of a divan, Babshapka finds some papers. He waves Aurora over. “That’s the first paper we have found on the ship!” she marvels, having lost count of how many desks they have searched already. The paper is old and brittle, and covered in alien symbols written in a shaky but legible hand. She carefully carries it over to Willa’s lantern. The markings are not made in ink, but in some thin and delicate powder, like a grey chalk or fine charcoal. “Yeah, I’m definitely going to translate that,” she says. “Ten minute break, everyone!” Mathias ignores the numerous chairs around the room and again sets up his stool.
Before Aurora begins her ritual, she breaks out two sheets of vellum from her backpack, an inkwell, and a pen. Working at the most intact table in the room, grateful for the bright overhead lights, she first copies the alien symbols line for line on her own paper, not at all confident that this ancient paper will hold up to travel. Only when she is done and the ink is drying does she begin her spell of comprehend languages. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Notes: Although the new PC introduced himself as "Mathias", that is not his name. I will be interweaving his (long) backstory with the ongoing adventures of the party (now including him) until he is "caught up" to the present timeline.
In my Greyhawk, Veluna is dominated by the orthodox Pholtun church, and the ArchCleric is of that faith. While many of the nobles in neighboring Furyondy are of that faith as well, others follow Hieroneous, Rao, or St. Cuthbert, and the King historically has been an adherent of either Pholtus or Hieroneous. The sometimes allied / sometimes rivaled nature of the relationship between the two nations, and the intrigue among the nobles in maneuvering a claimant of their own "true faith" to the throne, is loosely modeled after the historical relationship between Catholic Spain and Catholic / Protestant England.
Post 166: Backstory for "Mathias" I
ONE
Leezarius Angelicus Temtonio was born a noble of the Temtonio House of Veluna. The second son of his father, not much was expected of him, which was good considering how able and pious his older brother was. Having a free and adventurous spirit, Leezarius chafed under the religious restrictions of the Pholtun faith even from an early age. It seemed he was always being punished or forced to do penance for transgressions. As he grew, the punishments lessened in frequency - not because he transgressed less, but because he grew shrewder and less likely to be caught.
It seemed that everything was a sin in the eyes of his father and their family priest - playing at dice with the servants, smoking pipeweed and drinking coffee like the foreign merchentmen in the town, and most especially his growing interest in women. As his appetites grew, he had to become more and more clever to disguise them from his family. On the increasingly rare occasions when he was caught, the punishments grew more severe as he grew older. Being denied food when he was a boy gradually became whippings or being forced to wear hairshirts as a young man.
By the time Leezarius' brother attained the age of majority, he was already a skilled warrior and had pledged his service as a paladin to the Bishop of Valkurl. In his father’s pride and delight at his elder son’s accomplishments, he was granted lands of his own, and a manor house. Leezarius finally saw a chance for freedom - if he had his own estate like his brother now did, he could do as he wished. Of course, he would have to have a priest at the estate - but he would be sure to find one who could be bullied, bought, or corrupted into silence.
However, when Leezarius first broached the idea to his father, he was met with derision. His father knew his ways, and would not risk the family gold or honor on giving him his own lands. Leezarius resolved to work the long game - maintaining an image of piety, sobriety, and usefulness so convincing for so long that even his father would believe that he had truly repented, and would acquiesce. He could not be a knight or paladin, however. Although he was skilled enough with staff and club, he lacked the strength to wear heavy armor and he had never been a good horseman. The thought of even pretending to be a priest made his stomach turn. So, to win the favor of his father, he would need to prove himself a capable administrator of the family’s wealth and lands.
For several months he feigned interest in business - collecting rents and taxes from peasants and merchants, seeing to the repair of bridges and construction of boats, hosting visiting nobles at the family’s estates. He had always been charming and well-spoken, and his successes eventually gained his father’s begrudging respect. Finally he was allowed to accompany a trade mission to Kisail. Just a few miles away, just across the Velverdyva River - but outside Veluna. Kisail lay in the Kingdom of Furyondy - and was not under Velunese Canon Law.
The day of the negotiations went smoothly. Deals were struck, future profits ensured, and Leezarius was polite and courtly. As he relaxed over dinner with his father’s merchants, the innkeeper offered them wine. The merchantmen looked suspiciously at him, but he said to the host, “Just one glass each, to toast our success.”
The wine seemed to improve his hearing, for he soon overheard a Ferrond man at the next table extolling the virtues of a local brothel. Now that was something he had never had a chance to sample in his home country! After he finished dinner, he excused himself from the merchants, made as if to retire to his private suite, and slipped down a back stairway and out into the night.
The brothel wasn’t hard to find, and with a full purse he was able to pass the entire night indulging in carnal pleasures he had previously been able to only imagine. Fortunately, as a young and healthy man he was able to recover quickly from each one and soon be ready for the next. When at last he passed into a contented slumber it was near dawn.
TWO
Leezarius awoke with a start, drenched in a bucket of cold river water. His first thought was gratitude that it hadn’t been a chamberpot. But as his vision cleared, his heart sank. In the chamber with him were both his family priest and an unknown Ferrond priest. Two guards were at the closed door. The whores that had been such pleasant company the night before were nowhere to be seen.
While Furyondy was not under Canon Law, consorting with prostitutes was still illegal - and all along the Velverydyva Valley the local lords were either willing pawns of the Pholtun Church or at least had been cowed into submission by it. The magistrates of Kisail typically turned a blind eye to brothels such as the one he was in, but every now and then they could be goaded into action when the Church wanted to make a point. Leezarius never learned who had turned him in, nor whether it had been for faith, favor, or coin - his father’s merchants, the innkeeper, the brothel’s owner, the whores themselves? What was clear was that the two priests were working comfortably together, and that rather than stand trial in Furyondy (where consorting with prostitutes was merely a civil crime), Leezarius was to be returned to Veluna for judgement by his father. He was allowed to change from his soiled finery into something more nondescript and his hands were bound with a heavy rope. As it so happened, this was not the first time his hands had been bound in that very room, but the night previous it had been with smooth silk rather than scratchy hemp.
As the guards escorted them to the riverfront, the priest’s plan became clearer still. By avoiding anything public, he was currying favor with Leezarius’ father. Indeed, in his mind’s eye Leezarius could see his father, rewarding the priest for being so careful about protecting the family honor by returning his fallen son so discreetly. Leezarius, of course, would never be trusted again - and the prospect of his estate and the freedom it represented being taken from him forever was far worse than any passing punishment his father or the Church could devise.
The priest climbed into a small rowboat and the guards helped Leezarius in, but remained themselves on the dock. “Good,” thought Leezarius, “let the vile priest sweat a bit crossing the river.” As they pulled away from the shore other thoughts came. How convenient all this was - how a boat had been at the ready. Leezarius began to believe that he had been set up - that the priest, with whom he had shared a mutual hatred since his youth, had planned the whole thing, including the “overheard” remark about the brothel from the man at the next table. Then he seethed. He resolved to wait until they were mid-river, stand up and flip the boat, and see if he could drown them both.
A voice came unbidden. “Fair enough, but what if you could kill him without dying yourself?”
Leezarius assumed he was delirious and laughed. “Of course I would,” he said aloud, the first words he had spoken that morning, “but how?” The priest paused in his rowing, looked quizzically at him, then continued.
“Trust in my master, pledge your soul to my master, and you will be free,” the voice said.
This talk of “souls” moved Leezarius from boiling anger to freezing dread. Was he going mad? Certainly the priests talked non-stop about the dangers of temptation - about the hordes of demons and daemons and devils who set traps for the faithful. But, as he reflected, he was hardly faithful. And less than a minute ago he had been willing to kill himself as long as he could take the priest with him - and the Pholtuns claimed that suicide and murder both sent one to Hell. If he was going to Hell anyway, why not on better terms?”
“I agree,” said Leezerius.
Instantly his flesh was wracked with exquisite pain and he tumbled from his seat to the bottom of the boat. Sensations both intensely hurtful and wonderfully pleasurable flooded his body. He moaned and screamed and lost all sense of time.
When he finally regained his senses, he found himself kneeling in the bottom of the boat, holding forth his bound hands as if in supplication. “Save your begging for your father,” the priest said, making no effort to mask the contempt in his voice. “You’ll get no pity from me.”
“Nor you from me,” said Leezarius, in a voice that was at once his own and not his own. Flames shot forth from his outstretched hands. Each finger gouted and jetted fire. The hempen rope that bound him burned away. The robes of the priest ignited. The man’s face, caught in a sneer, bubbled and blackened. He dove, screaming, from the boat. Leezerius never learned whether he died from the fire or drowning, or both, but after the body had been under for a while, it came up again, limp and floating face down, circling the boat under its own power, like some strange reminder that his decision made in the moment would forever be with him.
Leezarius, with his hands now free, turned the boat around and slowly made for the Furyondy shore, but far downstream of Kisail.
Leezarius Angelicus Temtonio, aka "Leezar", aka "Mathias"
First Level Warlock / Human (Oerid) (Noble)
Str 10 (0) Dex 16 (+3) Con 13 (+1) Int 8 (-1) Wis 9 (-1) Cha 16 (+3)
Hp 9, Languages Common, Velondi
Skills: Deception, History, Investigation, Persuasion
Cantrips (2):
Spells (2 - both cast at level 1): Burning Hands _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Party rejoins mules - one roll
4:10am - vegepygmies
4:30am - Lurker above
5:10am - displacer beasts
5:50am - worker robot
6:10am - displacer beasts
1:10pm - displacer beasts
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
3:40pm (mules) worker robot
4pm (mules) worker robot
Party rejoins mules - one roll
5:30pm Police Robot, non-lethal
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
8:10pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (party) vegepygmies
Party, Mules, and Security Room all rolling separately
11:50pm (party) vegepygmies
Post 167: Female Android 21 February, 571 [2 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 2
(2:40am - in a Lounge)
In the crease between the cushions of a divan, Babshapka finds some papers. He waves Aurora over. “That’s the first paper we have found on the ship!” she marvels, having lost count of how many desks they have searched already. The paper is old and brittle, and covered in alien symbols written in a shaky but legible hand. She carefully carries it over to Willa’s lantern. The markings are not made in ink, but in some thin and delicate powder, like a grey chalk or fine charcoal. “Yeah, I’m definitely going to translate that,” she says. “Ten minute break, everyone!” Mathias ignores the numerous chairs around the room and again sets up his stool.
Before Aurora begins her ritual, she breaks out two sheets of vellum from her backpack, an inkwell, and a pen. Working at the most intact table in the room, grateful for the bright overhead lights, she first copies the alien symbols line for line on her own paper, not at all confident that this ancient paper will hold up to travel. Only when she is done and the ink is drying does she begin her spell of comprehend languages.
(3:00am)
Once she has finished her spell, Aurora reads quickly through the alien script, making sure she sees the same words in both the original and her fresh copy. It all makes sense now, except for some numbers at the bottom. She quickly uses her second sheet of vellum to record the translation, and does not bother to really think about the meaning until she is done. Then she calls Willa and Tyrius over, and reads her translation to them: (a few of the words, or their contexts, are unfamiliar to her, even after her spell has translated them)
“Alien creature on Level II - likely to be near remains of captain
Use this lounge as communication drop point until further notice - data pad comms are monitored by acting captain and are not secure - do not meet in public - Diggs is likely watching our movements
read these documents only in no-vid locations and replace as soon as possible - do not extract or replace in sight of anyone including bots and droids
I believe alien is unrelated to plague - was shipboard and in stasis long before outbreak and separation - I have not checked database for onload date and location as query may be tracked
Alien is practiced in mental manipulation and dimensional projection - was confined in a Mark 6 black box with stasis fields for transit - I believe captain, after infection, freed alien for unknown reason but was subsequently taken over by it
When I suspected that captain was plague-infected I prepared security team for rapid response relief of command - later routine med scan revealed that captain had become host for alien and I called in team - captain/alien realized and fled to 2 with us in pursuit - Tanner killed in firefight - I killed captain’s body but alien emerged from his head and fled before we could respond
Upon return to bridge, I found Commander Diggs had assumed acting command of ship section - Diggs had already displayed early signs of infection (hostility, paranoia) - deleted captain’s medical records while we were ‘tween decks - ordered me to not speak of alien - I did not reveal identity of team to him - he is suspicious of me but has not moved against me yet - we are trying to first capture or kill alien and then monitor Diggs to see if infection progresses and he needs to be relieved - proof (dead alien) may be needed to show Diggs is unfit
Have caught glimpses of alien, always on level 2 - I believe the interdimensional shields between decks keep it confined to that level - we are continuing to hunt but have to hide our efforts from Diggs - always use different drop chutes and from no-vid zone if possible -
use space below to coordinate times - teams of three minimum - do not leave ID
Willa has a sour look on her face. “I dinnae ken most o’ t’at, an’ I liked less. Ther part about ther plague, in particalar.”
“Well,” says Aurora. “It’s been 750 years. One can hope whatever plague was on board has died out, along with all the crew…?”
With the note translated and read, it seems like the party is about to depart. Babshapka moves to the door, and Mathias packs up his stool, but Aurora holds up her hand. “The light’s too good here to miss this opportunity,” she says, and takes out the strange device that Willa passed to her.
“Well now,” she says almost immediately, as she locates the slot at the base of the mirror part, the part that overlaps the U-bar. “That looks about the right size for…” and with a few more deft movements she succeeds in opening a compartment and extracting a power disc. It looks the same as the others found so far, and what’s more it is “fully charged” to the sixth line. She smiles in satisfaction.
Seeing that they are not leaving any time soon, Mathias sighs, plops down in one of the overstuffed chairs, and puts his booted feet up on the curiously low table. Willa’s jaw drops. She may be low-born (and freeborn don’t get much meaner than fishingfolk from Salinmoor), but even she knows how rude it is to put one’s feet on the furnishings. Not that his doing so actually bothers her, but does this solve the mystery of why the tables are so low? Surely a race capable of building a flying ship wouldn’t have tables for just that use? Babshapka chooses a settee closer to Aurora and puts his own feet up. Now Willa has seen everything.
Aurora tries to determine how the strange mirror works.
[Rolling on the simple, lethal items table, she starts with a -1 for high intelligence.
[8-1 = 7 (triangle), 7-1= 6 (start), 3-1=2 (circle), 10-1=9 [charge wasted]. Luck roll = 0]
She fiddles with the dials and knobs, looking into both sides of the glass and trying different configurations for holding it in her hand. Suddenly there is a loud humming sound and a bolt of black energy shoots out of the dark glass side. It hits squarely the table on which Babshabka’s feet rest. An instant later, the table is gone - vaporized? Disintegrated? A few splinters of cave horn on the metal floor and an acrid smell in the air are all that remain. Babshapka jumps to his feet. “Woman!” shouts Willa menacingly at Aurora.
Undeterred, Aurora continues to tinker, but now careful to point the dark side of the glass away from herself, and mostly away from the other people in the room. “Great Sea Cow, protect us,” mutters Willa.
[7-1 = 6 (circle), 9-1=8 (triangle), 9-1=8 (discharge: person is hurt). Target roll: Babshapka]
Although Aurora now knows to point the dark glass side away, she has not yet figured out how to “lock” the hinge. Just as she presses the trigger, the mirror part flips down, shooting the beam directly behind her, and straight at Babshapka again! He jumps out of the way at the last instant, and a glancing beam reflects off his chain mail. This time half of an upholstered chair vanishes, with the other half looking twisted and melted.
[Targets hit by the beam must make a DC13 DEX save. A successful save while armored results in no effect. The save is made at disadvantage from 30 feet or less]
“What in the nine hells!” curses Babshapka. He storms from the room, quickly followed by Mathias and Umbra. Willa remains, but insists that Aurora retreat to the far side of the room, putting the greatest distance between the “disintegration ray” and the rest of the party.
[5-1 = 4 (circle), 9-1=8 (triangle), 1-1=0 (circle), 9-1=8 (triangle), 2-1=1 (circle), 9-1=8 (triangle), 4-1=3 (square), 7-1=6 (circle), 4-1=3 (success!). Aurora may now add the -2 for “like or similar item operated previously", for a total of -3 to future rolls.]
“I’ve got it!” calls Aurora triumphantly. She coaxes Babshapka back into the room and gives him a lesson in operating the device. “Hold it in your left hand,” she says.
“You look through the clear side. When you turn the top dial “on”, the clear side lights up and becomes transparent.” She shows him how he can see the figures in the room through the glass, with the one closest to the center of the screen covered in a crosshair. As she slowly pans the device across the room, the crosshair jumps to new targets. Strange figures appear illuminated on the side of the screen. Still under the effects of the comprehend languages, Aurora reads them as numbers and takes them to be the distance to whatever is the current target. A little experimentation in the room shows that the unit of measurement appears to be roughly equivalent to a yard. “When you turn the bottom dial, the magnification of the screen changes, acting like an increasingly powerful spyglass!” This last part seems just as impressive to her as the ability to shoot a disintegration ray. “The little button here on the bottom is the trigger to discharge it.”
When she is done with the lesson, Aurora pops the power disc out. It is now on “4” - apparently each of the errant shots drained a charge. She loads it back in, then presents the whole apparatus to Babshapka. He looks at her quizzically. “Well, you are our missile expert, and this is a ranged weapon.” Willa thinks about that, then nods. Babshapka switches the top dial to “off”, carefully folds the device, and hangs it from his belt.
[Babshapka now has “operation explained by one familiar with it” for a bonus of -2 with the device.]
(3:20am)
As the party filters back into the room, Mathias points to the half-melted chair. “Have you been doing things like this all along?” he asks Willa incredulously.
She nods. “Aye, this be a pretty standard course fer us.”
“Has anyone died?”
“Not yet, though I hae lost plenty o’ personal gear t’ ‘er spells.”
Mathias nods somberly, and calls to Aurora - “I’d appreciate a ‘heads-up’ next time, alright?”
With just invisible Shefak on guard in the hall now, the others rearrange the furniture, gathering the strangely light chairs and divans around a single table. Mathias, noting that Aurora can cast comprehend languages, asks whether the party has tried talking to the leaders of the plant men. Willa says that it is a one-way conversation, that the spell only allows the party to understand them, not the other way around. Mathias asks about the party’s overarching goal in being here in the ship, and Willa confirms that the druids have asked them to determine the source of the terrible monsters that are released and either put a stop to them, or at least provide the druids with enough information so that they can do so. [No one mentions Nholast’s Diary or starmetal, and Aurora seems reluctant to answer Mathias’ questions in general]
“So it seems like the plant men are just an obstacle then - not part of your mission.”
Willa says that is a fair assessment.
“So we don’t NEED to fight them,” emphasizes Babshapka.
“But they could be a good source of keys,” suggests Mathias. At Babshapka’s scowl, he adds, “...if we could talk to them. Perhaps we could negotiate, or even threaten them for a few keys, without it actually having to come to blows. I mean, we could bargain with them - tell them we will leave them alone if they give us some keys. If they have a lot it might make more sense to them than fighting.”
Larry says that plants are just plants. He sees no reason to wipe them out, but if the party can’t find another way to get keys, he doesn’t mind if they have to kill a few more. Tyrius adds that while there is not much honor or glory in such a fight, he doubts that they have souls, and is no more concerned about killing them than in the harvesting of wheat for bread.
Babshapka looks disgusted. “The two clockworks had no problems opening doors. Maybe you can look to them for cards. I expect all of the crew of this ship had cards as well. If that cleaning clockwork is collecting their remains and effects, and we look for more middens, there are likely to be cards there as well.”
Mathias sounds interested. “We passed two clockworks on the way here. How about we try them? The monk’s invisibility worked on them alright didn’t it?”
Willa sucks in her cheeks in thought, then says that having fought one clockwork already, and they proved tough nuts to crack. Two at once might be one too many.
“But now we have a disintegration ray,” says Mathias, indicating Babshapka. “If we disintegrate one at the start of the fight, then concentrate all our attacks on the second, it shouldn’t be that hard.”
“Bu’ if we disintegrate ther wrong one - ther one w’at hae ther card?”
“I am willing to bet that if we disintegrate one, the card will be in the other one.”
“Ye want t’ make a wager on it?” asks Willa, incredulous.
“Of course. If I win, you give me a backrub.” He moves his shoulders. “Your mage’s carelessness has me too tense.”
Willa snorts. “Yer scrawny, an’ not really me type. Bu’ what if I win?”
“Don’t worry about type. It’s just a backrub - five minutes. But if you win, and it was the disintegrated robot that had the card, then I will give you...a shot of my fey juice.”
Willa snorts again - but a bet is a bet, after all. She nods. “Bu’ we hain’t all agreed t’ attack ther clockworks jus’ yet. The cleaning clockwork said summit about taking ther first one we offed ter a “repair facility”. Mayhap ther rest o’ ther party wan’ t’ try somethin’ safer t'an attackin’ two a’ once.”
“Don’t forget,” says Aurora, “we also need to find an entrance to this ‘second level’ where the alien is - there could be cards there!”
Willa shakes her head. “No more fishin’. Don’t none of us need t’ catch ther paranoia plague.”
“Does she do that often - get you involved in strange things like this?” asks Mathias of Aurora.
“All ther damn time. Shark men, glowin’ orbs, vampire castles, ghos’ towers. More often t’an no’, ‘tis ‘er doin’.”
“Well, I certainly don’t like vampires or ghosts. Or any undead, for that matter.”
Willa nods. “T’at be sensible. Typically we hae ther mos’ trouble when she lies about stuff.” Tyrius nods his agreement.
Aurora, flushed, says hotly, “How about we just vote on whether we are going after those two clockworks or not?” But Mathias and Willa have not finished their conversation.
“Fishing, huh? You’re certainly tan enough. Are you a sailor?”
“I grew up in a small fishin’ village near Seaton.”
“So that’s where you learned to fish.”
Willa nods. “Worked most o’ me adult life fer ther crown, though, as an excise officer.”
“Where’s your ship now?”
Willa simply smiles, thinking of her innocent youth spent on the sea, before she knew anything of half-elves or enchantresses.
(3:30am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a second lurker above has entered the table room. Since the doorway to the room with Eddard and the mules is occupied, it chooses the portion of the ceiling over the southern entrance doorway to the table room.]
Finally Aurora is able to bring the motion to a vote, and enough in the party agree that they should return and prepare an attack on the clockworks, so that the party sets out. Babshapka holds up a hand and has them wait in the doorway. While Willa arranges them in marching order, the elf takes his new device to the intersection, switches it on, and practices reading the ranges and changing the magnification by looking down the corridors. He is just a bit disappointed to learn that it works with visible light only - the magical screen doesn’t show him anything in the darkness, no matter how he turns the dial.
When Babshapka is ready he returns to the group and they set out. First invisible Shefak, then Willa with her lantern, then Thokk and the others. Shefak and Willa pass the intersection without incident, but something in the corridor to the west catches Thokk’s eye as he crosses in front.
A decidedly female figure (keyed encounter 4), in skin-tight clothes, stands just at the edge of his vision down the darkened hallway. In one hand she holds a large glass object, in the other, a long bar. She makes no move toward him or the party - just stands surveying them.
Without a word to the rest of the party, Thokk turns on his heel, a wide grin on his face. He saunters down the hall to the woman, eager to meet her. Next in the march order is Umbra, and she calls ahead to Willa, who turns just in time to see Thokk disappear down the side corridor. “Thokk! Thokk get back ‘ere!” she calls after him, but he ignores her. Willa turns back, with Shefak behind her, and follows Thokk down the hall. Umbra comes soon after.
“Alone woman!” Thokk bellows. “Thokk protect you from plant men!” He opens his arms wide to show that his hands are empty (but also to show off his thick bare chest and huge arms). The woman raises the glass device and points it down the hall. Willa realizes that the device looks an awful lot like the broken retort they pulled out of the security clockwork’s head. “NO! THOKK!” she shouts. Shefak sprints past her, moves so that the bulk of Thokk is between her and the woman’s weapon. Umbra readies her entropy spell to attack the woman if she fires.
Golden sparks fly from the device. A wave of force sweeps down the hall, all the way to the lounge. Thokk, Shefak, Willa, and Umbra feel an electric jolt, like every nerve in their body is being shocked.
[Paralyzation ray; DC13 Con save.
Short range (up to 20 feet):
Thokk (15 feet): Save. Paralyzed for 2d6 rounds = 5.
Medium Range (up to 40 feet)
Shefak (20 feet): Save. Paralyzed for 1d4 rounds = 3.
Willa (25 feet): Fail. Paralyzed for 20 minutes.
Long Range (up to 60 feet)
Umbra (40 feet): Save. 1d4 rounds slowed (half movement, attacks at disadvantage) = 3]
In response, Umbra sends her entropy at the women (who makes her Wisdom save).
Round 1
Babshapka rounds the corner and looks down the hallway. Undeterred by Willa and Thokk being in the way (Shefak, though paralyzed, is still invisible) he presses himself against the wall and sends two arrows at the woman. One sinks into her midriff, one glances off of her bare forearm as if it were hard metal, not soft flesh (9 damage).
Mathias moves to where he can see as well. With what appears to be the two front-line fighters of the party frozen like statues, he casts a dispel magic, then darts for cover through the open doorway of an unexplored apartment. Willa and Thokk remain frozen in place - apparently their paralysis is not magical in nature.
Aurora moves into view, and sends forth three magic missiles which detonate against the woman, blasting open rents in her clothing and singing her skin.
Larry would like to cast a lightning bolt, but the spell would emerge from him and the corridor is full of his allies. He cannot move to the front so soon, and so contents himself with centering a moonbeam on the woman and advancing. The silver-white glow reflects off her hair and her skin dries and cracks, but she does not even wince in pain.
Tyrius removes a gauntlet, begins the prayer for lesser restoration, but has not yet reached Willa.
The woman lowers the retort and strides forward out of the moonbeam. She stops in front of Thokk, raises the metal bar, and begins bringing it down on him repeatedly with a series of sickening crunches.
[Thokk has Condition: Paralyzed. Attacks against him are at advantage and melee attacks that hit are automatic criticals. Thokk is hit twice for a total of 39 bludgeoning damage. Paralyzed creatures are incapacitated; incapacitated creatures cannot take actions, so Thokk cannot rage as a bonus action.]
Round 2
Larry reaches Thokk’s side and jams his fist forward at the woman. A lightning bolt streaks out from his hand, passes through the woman, and shoots down the hallway as far as any of them can see, briefly illuminating a great number of doors, intersections, and side passages. If it hits anything at the end of the hall, if the hallway actually ends, no one sees. Even after the bolt has passed through her, lines of electricity arc through her form, illuminating her skeleton through her skin. Smoke begins to emerge from her head. [Note: androids are vulnerable to electric attacks (take double damage)] Despite the effects of the lightning bolt, the woman is still on her feet and is raising the bar in the air to strike at Thokk again.
Mathias emerges from the open doorway in time to see the effectiveness of the lightning bolt. He holds forth his hand in an arcane gesture, and more lightning arcs through the woman. His spell seems every bit as powerful as Larry’s, but it is concentrated on a single form, the electricity bending and redoubling through and through her body. Mathias now seems almost frozen himself, standing with his hand outstretched. After a second of this crackling energy, the face of the woman shoots off her head and skitters across the floor. Underneath her skin is revealed to be a mass of gears and wires. Her whole form is shaking with the energy and she looks unsteady but is still upright.
Babshapka runs up behind Thokk, on the other side of Larry. He collides with the paralyzed and invisible form of Shefak, who is knocked to the ground. Babshapka staggers, doesn’t fall, but is unable to attack.
Aurora sends forth another three magic missiles, targeting the open head cavity of the woman. As the bolts of force explode inside her skull, bits of metal and fragments of cave horn fly out and spray over Thokk. The woman ceases moving. Her limbs droop and the metal bar clatters to the floor.
Babshapka rights himself and collects both the retort and the metal bar from the mechanical woman. Mathias collects her faceplate and stores it in his backpack. The party gropes about for Shefak, finds her, and moves her, Willa, Thokk, and the body of the clockwork woman into the open apartment. Once everyone is inside, Larry moves his moonbeam to right outside the doorway, and then the panel is pressed to close the door itself.
Tyrius explains that he was going to cast lesser restoration to remove the paralysis, but now that there is not an immediate danger, perhaps it would be better if they saved the spell and waited to see if the effects of the strange retort wear off by themselves. Babshapka remarks that if they don’t, he can cast the spell as well.
In less than a minute Shefak and a seriously bruised Thokk are active again, and Umbra feels better as well. Willa, however, remains frozen and unresponsive. Tyrius and Aurora confer, and decide to begin a short rest for everyone.
While she waits, Aurora examines the retort.
It looks like there is a handle that can be compressed. There is a button on the bottom. As soon as she starts turning it around, Babshapka reminds Aurora of what happened with the mirror and to watch where she is pointing it - if she even knows where she is pointing it, for it is not obvious from which end the ray emerges - the “wand” end or the “eyeball” end.
“Well, I’m sure Thokk saw how she was holding it...right, Thokk?”
“Huh?”
“How was the woman holding this device when she pointed it at you?”
“Thokk not look at de-vice; woman’s eyes up here!” Thokk says defensively, holding his hand at chest height - for indeed, the woman’s head came up to about the height of Thokk’s chest.
Aurora sighs. “Shefak?”
With only mild embarrassment, Shefak explains that as soon as the woman raised the weapon, Shefak took cover behind Thokk and did not see it in detail.
“Grrr. Willa?” asks Aurora. Willa, rigid but lain on the only bed in the small apartment, does not say anything.
“Fine, fine - at least I can figure out if it takes a power disc - they seem to be pretty universal.”
[Rolling on the simple, lethal items table, she starts with a -1 for high intelligence.
[1-1 = 0 (circle); Aurora learns that the button on the bottom releases the power disc.
She takes it out - there are 5 charges left.
Start over; 2-1 = 1 (circle); Aurora learns that the pistol is fired by squeezing the handle.]
That is as far as Tyrius lets Aurora explore the strange device in the confines of the small room, without knowing from which end the beam emerges. She turns her attention briefly to the metal bar, but it is featureless, simply a rod of some metal like unto steel, two feet in length.
Finally, Aurora looks at the body of the machine woman and is instantly impressed. The other clockworks, on the outside, she found to be clunky devices not worthy of an artificer’s ‘prentice. But this woman is different - to the look, even to the touch, she could easily be mistaken for a living being - her “flesh” is soft and yielding, though draped on a frame of lightweight metal. The security and cleaning clockworks were mostly empty inside except for their weapons systems and the gears and pistons that moved their limbs. But the inside of the body of the woman has nearly as many miniature cords and joints as an actual human. In particular, Aurora believes that the connections in the head would allow her to show various facial expressions. A taut drum-like membrane in the throat would likely permit speech. Unlike the security clockwork, none of the parts inside her are labeled, none of the systems look like they can be removed and still operate, there are no obvious components but rather a tangle of complicated connections. As Aurora sits back and reflects, frankly in awe of the craftsmanship, Mathias comes over and pokes the body. “They are onto us,” he says. “I can feel it.”
Aurora scowls at him and he returns to the other side of the room, where his pack is. He takes out the faceplate of the woman, looking through the eye-holes from the inside, sticking his fingers through the mouth hole and feeling how the jaw articulates. Suddenly he looks up with concern. “Did you feel that?” he says. “The ship’s moving again.” When no one responds, he rolls himself a cigarette and begins to smoke, perhaps to calm his nerves.
(3:50am)
Some ten minutes later Willa struggles from the bed to her feet, swearing a blue streak. Once the ratio of profanity to intelligible content in her speech has dropped to the point where she is mostly making sense, Willa explains that she has been fully conscious and cognizant for the past twenty minutes, listening to all of them, just unable to move or speak. She grabs the retort from Aurora, says that the machine woman held it thusly (firing from the eyeball end)...and promptly forbids her from playing with it until they are in a large enough space that she won’t hit everyone with its huge cone area of effect. Then she tells Mathias that NO, the ship is NOT moving.
It is quickly decided that with Thokk as beat up as he is, and Larry low on spells, they will not be going to try their luck against the two security clockworks until after they have had a good rest. The question is whether they want to finish the rest here that most of them had already started. Tyrius checks in with Eddard, prompting a question from Mathias about who Eddard is. (Although Willa had previously told the party not to mention the mules to Mathias, apparently his actions in the fight against the machine woman have won him a modicum of her trust). Tyrius says that Eddard says that they have been undisturbed, and are fine so far, but that if the party plans on resting for hours, he would prefer them back, rather than so far away that they cannot respond to anything that happens on his end. It is resolved that they will return to the storeroom and rest there.
(3:55am)
The party sets out from the apartment, retracing their steps back past the lounge and then south at the intersection with the trash pile.
“It’s a shame that clockwork attacked us immediately,” says Mathias. “If we find another, we should try to persuade it to join us.” Willa scoffs at the word “persuade”, but keeps her attention and lantern on the corridor ahead. She is looking in particular for anything recognizably different since they passed.
Shefak reminds everyone to go as silently as they can when passing the room that held two security clockworks.
(4am - Aurora’s comprehend languages spell, cast in the lounge, ends)
The party enters the “table room” in single file through the more northern of the two doors, and then spreads out. Babshapka approaches the inner door and takes out his black key card, but before he can insert it into the slot, the ceiling falls! _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Three
Leezarius made shore within walking distance of a small fishing village on the river. He pulled the boat into the cover of some overhanging willow branches and took stock of his possessions. He still had his signet ring and his purse embroidered with the family arms of Temtonio, for whatever that was worth. The purse itself was empty, although it had had coin enough even at the end of last night’s pleasures. Again, he did not know who to “thank” for that - the whores, the brothel owner, the priests? He had the plain-spun clothes on his back, sandals, and, he supposed, he had a rowboat. Now approaching midday, his stomach was already complaining.
The body of the priest dragged itself through the reeds and onto the shore. The face had peeled away to the bone in several places, and what remained of the flesh was blackened and charred. It sat up, made as if to speak, but when it opened its mouth, a gout of dirty river water poured forth. Finally it croaked, “And me. You have me.”
Leezarius jumped back. Undead? he thought in silent terror.
“No, that’s Orcus’ domain,” said the body, in a voice that grated like a shovel scraping cold ashes from a hearth. “I am merely possessing this body for now.”
Leezarius calmed himself and forced himself to return to the dead priest’s side. “And you are?”
“A demon of little account. But my master is Lord Vuron. And his master is Graz’zt, Prince of Demons and Ruler of the Abyss. And it is to the great Graz’zt that your soul now belongs.”
Leezarius opened his mouth to object, then bowed his head in acceptance. The dead priest smiled as best he could, with his swollen and water-logged tongue lolling from his mouth.
“And what does my master bid?” Leezar finally said resignedly.
“First off, feed yourself. You are no use to the Dark Prince if you are starved.”
Leezarius smiled ruefully. “Alas, my money has been taken. I have nothing with which to buy food.” Inwardly, he thought that this is where it would begin. His soul was owned by a demon. He was about to be ordered to enter this fishing village, put it to the torch with his magical fire, kill all the peasants, and then feast on their food, if not their corpses.
The dead priest chuckled. “Perhaps some day,” it said, still having no difficulty reading his thoughts, “but not today.” He held his arms over his head, undersides now blue with collecting blood. It took Leezarius a moment to realize it was showing him the pockets in the priest’s robe. Gingerly he approached, for the swollen corpse was already starting to stink, and fished through the pockets. He came out with enough coin for several days’ worth of food, and a set of rosary beads.
The beads he immediately wanted to throw in the river, but then noted they were of smooth and semi-precious stone, not the crude wooden beads of the small folk. Perhaps he could sell them - but how to explain their acquisition? Then a wicked thought came to mind. The night before the whores had introduced him to something they had called globulus culi. That might be a far better use for these Pholtun beads.
“Uh...watch the boat,” he said to the dead priest, or the demon inhabiting it. He walked to the village and bought as much food as he could for his voyage...where? Downstream he supposed. When asked his name, rather than the obviously noble-sounding Leezarius, he said simply “Leezar”.
The next few days he spent rowing downstream, and trying not to gag from the growing stench of his companion. The demon instructed him in the casting of burning hands, the spell he had used to free himself and kill the priest. He also learned witch bolt, as well as the cantrips blade ward and eldritch blast. He could cast one of the true spells only once before exhausting himself, but even an hour’s rest was sufficient to recover. The demon “spoke”, telling him and then making him recite the words of power. The jaw of the priest at first was clenched in the rigors of death, and later drooped as the muscles rotted away, but fortunately the demon did not need to move the priest’s mouth to speak - his voice emerged as a raspy croak from the throat of the corpse, but did not seem to be produced by the body itself.
On the second day, Leezar thought to ask the demon about Graz’zt - who was his new master, and what was it like to serve him? The demon said that Graz’zt was a Demon Prince, the mightiest and most magnificent of the Demons and the rightful ruler of all the Abyss. The demon’s service was his own concern, but for Leezarius...the demon was pleased that he was taking an interest in being a proper servant. “What Graz’zt wants,” he said, “is for you to take pleasure. To take pleasure in all things - in food and drink, in smoking and material comforts, in sex and song. Take pleasure in the pain of others and in your own pain. But most of all, take pleasure in knowing that you are in service to Graz’zt, the handsomest and most powerful demon in existence.”
When they reached Verbobonc, the demon told him to put in to port, but only after midnight, and steered him to a deserted dock. There, the demon in the dead priest “meat suit” departed. A living man in black robes met the boat, and wordlessly gave Leezar a bag containing enough food and coin to make it the rest of the way downriver to Dyvers.
In Dyvers, he sold the boat for enough money for a few nights at an inn, and before the money ran out he had signed on as a “fire mage” with a trade caravan bound for Greyhawk. He could, by then, throw eldritch blasts as often as the mercenary crossbowmen guards could fire bolts, and without ever running out. By the time the caravan reached Greyhawk, he had eaten well for many days, and had some coin besides.
Leezarius Angelicus Temtonio, aka "Leezar", aka "Mathias"
New abilities in bold.
First Level Warlock / Human (Oerid) (Noble)
Str 10 (0) Dex 16 (+3) Con 13 (+1) Int 8 (-1) Wis 9 (-1) Cha 16 (+3)
Hp 9, Languages Common, Velondi
Skills: Deception, History, Investigation, Persuasion
Otherworldly Patron - Dark Prince Graz'zt Cantrips (2): Blade Ward, Eldritch Blast
Spells (2): Burning Hands, Witch Bolt, both cast at first level
Patron Feature (1): Dark One's Blessing _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Party rejoins mules - one roll
4:10am - vegepygmies
4:30am - Lurker above
5:10am - displacer beasts
5:50am - worker robot
6:10am - displacer beasts
1:10pm - displacer beasts
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
3:40pm (mules) worker robot
4pm (mules) worker robot
Party rejoins mules - one roll
5:30pm Police Robot, non-lethal
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
8:10pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (party) vegepygmies
Party, Mules, and Security Room all rolling separately
11:50pm (party) vegepygmies
Post 169: 'splorin' 21 February, 571 [2 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 2
(4am)
The party enters the “table room” in single file through the more northern of the two doors, and then spreads out. Babshapka approaches the inner door and takes out his black key card, but before he can insert it into the slot, the ceiling falls! Actually, it is another of the strange ceiling mimics such as the party fought upon their initial entry to the cave. Babshapka, and Mathias beside him, are enveloped by the rubbery folds of the creature’s flesh, and immediately feel its muscles constrict around them like bands of iron (9 points of damage each). The black card, currently the party’s only one, is lost for the time being.
Round 1
Babshapka draws his dagger, the only weapon he has room to use while enveloped, and attempts to stab his way out from the inside, but does not penetrate the thick hide of the creature.
Thokk hacks at the creature from the outside with two mighty blows (two hits, total 19 damage).
Shefak attacks with her fists, but cannot get it to release her comrades.
Aurora’s firebolt glances off its thick hide, but the dark bolts of Umbra strike true (Umbra at 0/2/0).
Willa strides forward. Her first attempt to strike with her greatsword is not sufficiently strong to break through its hide. She takes a step back, inhales sharply, spins all the way around gathering speed, and plunges her sword deep into the creature. She would never thus turn her back on an intelligent foe, but doubts the creature will be able to respond. (20N, critical, total 23 points of damage from one hit!)
The creature is showing several gaps and gashes, and at least one of the two people trapped has an arm out of the great rent Willa just made, but still it is squeezing its prey (5 more points to Mathias, 7 to Babshapka).
Tyrius readies an action to heal whoever emerges from the creature.
From inside the thing comes the muffled voice of Mathias, then crackling bolts of force, and the surprised cry of Babshapka.
Larry cannot reach the side of the creature in time, and it is by now surrounded by the rest of the part in any event. He tries to sling his thorn whip at it from under the large table, but the whip wraps around one of the table legs instead.
Round 2
Thokk, furious at having his plans for food and rest interrupted, screams at the creature (last rage used). He strikes twice, his final blow ceasing the struggles of the creature, although it wounds Babshapka as well (Babshapka now at 17).
After Matthias and Babshapka have been extracted from the folds of the creature, and then the dropped key card is located, the party stands around panting. Willa is the first to speculate - “We closed yon doors when we left?” (she indicates the doors of this room to the hallway) The party agrees. “T’en t’ese creatures ken how to open ther push doors - bu’ t’ey dinnae open ther keyed doors, else ‘twould already been feasting on mule.” When they have opened the door to the storeroom, Eddard tells them that he certainly heard their combat outside just now, but not the arrival of the lurker some time previous. That’s a sobering thought for most of them, and Willa makes each of them promise to check the ceiling more often, and makes Thokk promise three times in hopes that he will remember. With the interior door now open, most of the party enters the room with Eddard and mules. Finding it rather crowded, they open the northern door out of the storeroom to the neighboring activity room and spread out between the two chambers.
(4:10am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a vegepygmy patrol passes by the northern hallway door but, honoring the truce, they do not stop or enter.]
Larry borrows some daggers and investigates the digestive tract of the slain lurker, hoping to find another card or something else useful. From his examination, he determines that something as small as the card would easily pass through. He believes that since these creatures seem to be ambush predators, they likely have hidden spots where they defecate, like big cats, but are unable to bury their waste. If the party could locate one of those middens, that might be another place to look for cards.
Once Larry enters the storeroom and closes the door behind him, the party begins planning a watch schedule for their rest. [Unbeknownst to them, almost immediately afterwards, another lurker opens the northern door to the table room and sets up just outside the storeroom door. There are now lurkers in both the southern doorway and just outside the door to the storeroom they are in.]
Before anyone can actually begin to rest, the party has a strategy session about who needs magical healing and who can get by with mundane wound dressing.
Current HP
Willa, Umbra, Shefak: Full
Larry: 46/56
Mathias: 25/39
Babshapka: 17/48
Thokk: very low
Babshapka casts a cure wounds on himself for 10 points and is out of spells.
Larry casts two cure wounds on Thokk and one on Babshapka and is out of spells.
Tyrius also heals people until he is out of spells.
Willa feeds and waters the mules and checks the party's supplies of food and fuel. Including the nascent day, they have enough human food left for five days - if they don’t have to feed Mathias. There is nearly a week’s worth of mule food, about 20 pounds of mineral coal, and nearly three dozen flasks of oil. An optimist would say that they have plenty of everything for as long an exploration of the “cave” as they could possibly need. A pessimist would say that they don’t have enough of anything for their trip back through the mountains, even if they left now.
Willa directs the placement of a table from the activity room against the outer doorway of that room. She takes the opportunity of moving past where Mathias reclines in one of the stuffed chairs to ask him if he has his own food. He says of course he does and she mentions that Larry will be creating water for the group after he rests, and Mathias is welcome to fill his skins.
First watch 4:20am - 6:20am Thokk and Aurora
(4:30am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, another lurker sets up in the table room, such that they are now inside each of the doorways, with three in total in the room.]
After Willa retreats to the far side of the room, Mathias takes a blanket out of his pack and covers himself. As he leans back and closes his eyes, he mutters to himself, “I’ve got this, I’ve got this…” A few minutes later, he says somewhat louder, “Remember the vid screens!”
Willa comes back over, if nothing else to keep his voice down so that the others can rest. “What vid-screens?”
“The ones in the note your elf found.”
“Do you think we are being watched?”
“I don’t doubt it. That machine woman was probably sent because we found the note.”
“I think you are being paranoid.”
Mathias shrugs. “I’m alive.”
Nearby, Aurora ponders what a “vid-screen” is. Perhaps a scrying device - with the screen looking like that in the mirror-weapon they found. She resolves to keep on the lookout for any more such devices.
“Whar be ye from?” Willa asks Mathias abruptly. Then, perhaps to soften her question, “I told ye, I be from Salinmore.”
“I hail from a place north of Hookhill in the Grand March, originally. I used to work for nobles - arranging and sometimes hosting their lavish parties. I grew tired of the politics and wanted to be free from their watchful eyes and judgement. I have been traveling a lot since that earlier time in my life. I have made my living dueling in tournaments, in various protection jobs, and fighting bandits for bounties. Since I move around a lot, the druids of Rhun compensate me for sharing with them what I have learned in my travels.” He pauses, considers that he has given enough information without something in return. “Who leads your group? I notice a lot of talking when it comes time to make a decision.”
Willa explains that leadership of the group rests with her, Tyrius, and Aurora equally. She tends to handle the immediate details - like setting marching orders and watches - since she trained in the local militia and eventually attained the rank of sergeant in service to the crown. Major long-term decisions of goals and policy are sussed out between the three. She mentions briefly that they are in exile from Keoland, on the run from a knight because Aurora saw a book she shouldn’t have.
Mathias considers this, then offers, “I am late to the adventuring business. I would like to find my place in a group so that I can gain more knowledge and equally more power and skill. I do enjoy life to the fullest I can, but I also like order. That's why I asked who was the leader of your group. I believe there should be a clear chain of command, and don’t see myself staying long with an undisciplined group of freebooters.
“I have never seen this place or one like it; the plant men or machine creatures. I have no idea about a book or who or why someone is chasing you. I have a notebook myself and will be writing stuff like this in it so that I can refer to it later, but no one has ever attacked me for it.”
(5:10am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a pair of displacer beasts pass by the table room. They pause and sniff the air, noting the presence of multiple lurkers in the room, and continue.]
5:20am - everyone has had a short rest. This is Larry and Mathias’ first short rest of Day 2, but the second for everyone else.
Larry - natural recovery - 3/0/0
Aurora - arcane recovery - 4/2/1
Mathias - spend 3HD - recover 19hp, now at 39/39
Tyrius - spend 2HD
(5:50am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a repair robot enters the table room. The lurkers therein had heard its heavy steps approaching all the way down the hall. Each of them at some point in its life has tried to swallow such a robot, and quickly regretted it. Now they all know better than to drop on them. The robot continues on to the inner door.]
FWOOSH! The door to the table room slides open. One of the cleaning clockworks stomps heavily into the room.
Willa had been sharpening her sword with a whetstone, but comes into the southern room at once. “Thokk - ‘ow did it open ther door?” (Thokk had been watching the southern door to the table room, Aurora the northern one to the plant man hallway.)
Thokk shrugs. “Thokk not see through door.”
“Mayhap ye should leave wit’ it an’ see ‘ow it closes ther door.” Thokk shrugs again.
The clockwork begins to pick up the mule droppings and a few of the smaller pieces of broken crates. It ignores the party. Eddard observes that it is the first time one has entered here - nothing came in while the party was away.
“When war ther las’ time we seen one?” Willa asks.
In this sunless cave, Larry has a better sense of the passage of time than any of them. He counts on his fingers and mumbles. He decides that it was eight, perhaps nine hours ago.
Aurora has left her watch post to see the clockwork. “If they need to be recharged, it would be good to know the location of the recharging station. Perhaps we could refill our power discs there, or obtain more.”
Willa nods. “We should be followin’ it - bu’ nay in our curren’ condition. We be restin’ fer a reason.”
“I’m fine,” volunteers Shefak. Indeed, the monk has used her curious inner power to remove any trace of damage from the last battle with the plant men. She also can complete her ki meditations in an hour, and is done with those as well. She will eventually need to sleep, of course, but apart from that she is quite ready. “How long will your spell on me last, Master Larry?”
Larry remarks that she should still have darkvision for at least another two hours.
“I can follow it,” Shefak says.
Willa nods, but feels obliged to add, “Be ye careful.” Shefak slips on her ring and disappears. The clockwork spends several more minutes tidying the room before it moves to the doorway, reaches up with its “hand” and presses the pressure plate. The door slides open and it clomps out into the table room. If Shefak is actually following it, no one can tell.
(6am)
Umbra’s armor of shadows ends. Although she has spell slots available, she does not cast it so as not to interrupt her trance.
Shefak follows the clockwork out through the table room and into the hall. It is slow, loud, and easy to follow. It also pauses frequently, seeming frozen in place, before it starts moving again. She follows it east through the hallway in which the last battle of the plant men took place, and then into the great chamber with the deep shaft, the one they discovered when first they entered the cave. There it pauses for quite some time before moving along the wide corridor to the north.
They pass six doors, all but one closed, and it pauses again at the next intersection, where a smaller hallway crosses their larger one. The passageway to the left is full of plant men, but the clockwork takes the one to the right. When that again branches, it turns south, and approaches a black-keyed door.
A panel on the chest of the clockwork opens, and a delicate wand protrudes, to the point of almost touching the pearl-colored panel that lies between the slot and receptacle of the door lock. The very tip of the wand glows with a red color, and the color seems to be taken up by the pearl panel. A second later the panel chimes, the door of the room opens, and clockwork and Shefak both walk inside.
The clockwork spends time cleaning and arranging the room to its satisfaction.
(6:10am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a pair of displacer beasts pass by the table room. They pause and sniff the air, noting the presence of multiple lurkers in the room, and continue.]
6:20am - first watch completed
Second watch had been scheduled for Larry and Shefak, but Umbra volunteers to take the monk's place.
The clockwork emerges from the small apartment and back out into the hall. It retraces its steps to the three-way intersection and proceeds east, then soon turns north. It enters the open doors of a room that Shefak immediately recognizes as the lounge where the hidden note was found. It starts by cleaning up the ashes on the floor, but as Shefak watches it, she realizes that it is not taking any of the bones. It will likely be here a while.
(6:50am)
The clockwork finally leaves the lounge, and proceeds back down the hall to the apartment it cleaned before. It sits without moving for quite some time outside. Eventually it returns to the lounge. Shefak is puzzled, as the creature’s actions don’t seem to follow a logical pattern. This time, however, rather than re-entering the lounge it heads for the double-doors the party passed without opening. After it presses the wall panel, both doors slide open, revealing some sort of deserted feast hall [MEETING ROOM with communication panels].
Several long, high tables and numerous chairs are set up as if a meal were in progress. However, many of the chairs are overturned, and there is no evidence of food, trenchers, or utensils. All of the chairs are individual rather than being benches. More grimly, the bones of many humans or humanoids lie strewn about - some in reasonably articulated skeletons and some scattered. Most have rags of fabric clinging to them but no weapons or other devices are in sight.
Each of the tables has one or two inset metal panels with small grills. These could be stove tops for cooking at the tables themselves, but no fuel source is apparent. The tables are all made of cave horn, as are the chairs. None of them are cushioned.
The metal panels have sections of glass, often broken, and the metal fixtures themselves are bent and dented. Below the metal is a complicated network of threads which appear to be coated in stiff, colored wax.
Beyond the first room is a second, largely the same. The clockwork spends the better part of an hour puttering around in both rooms. It repeatedly picks up small bits of debris, opens its trash receptacle and then, perhaps because its innards are already full, closes the hinged drawer again without inserting anything. Once Shefak sees it do something rather unusual - it climbs up on one of the tables, squatting over a metal panel that has a number of small rents. It opens a panel and protrudes a wand-like device, but different from the one it used to open the keyed door. There is a flash of bright light, and Shefak is blinded for a moment. When she can see again, she finds that the source of light is the wand, and she finds she can not look directly at it. The light finally fades and the clockwork climbs down from the table. When Shefak examines the panel, she feels a warmth radiating from it and finds that the rents have been closed as if the edges of metal were melted and joined together by a smith in a forge. All that is left is a tracery of lines brighter than the metal around them, like a long-faded scar.
After this, the clockwork busies itself by setting upright all of the chairs and moving them neatly into their places at the different tables.
(7:30am)
When the clockwork emerges from the feast hall it turns left and west until they are back at the intersection where the plant-men’s hallway is again visible. The hall itself is not lit, but light from each of the rooms spills into it along its length. Here it turns north, then west, north, and west again in a series of wide but winding corridors. The last corridor proceeds for a great distance west, unbroken, until it opens out into a dimly lit chamber that appears to be a replicate of the first chamber the party entered, complete with the large circular shaft in the center. From this shaft, however, Shefak detects the hum of moving machinery.
The clockwork proceeds directly to the nearer of the two openings for the shaft and straight inside - Shefak hangs back cautiously. The clockwork seems to float in the air for a second, and then falls from view.
Shefak approaches carefully. There is some sort of poster in an alien language near the entrance to the shaft. The shaft itself descends into darkness, at least as far as the other one had. At the top, where the ceiling should be, is some sort of closed portal with no obvious means of opening. Inside the shaft are four tracks, two opposite each opening, running down the vertical length of the shaft. Each track has a series of wide handles spaced eight feet apart. Two of these tracks, the ones close to Shefak, are moving down, while the ones on the other side are moving up. At the top of the tube the handles seem to appear fully formed from the wall itself or to move into the wall and disappear.
Shefak is tempted to follow the clockwork down the shaft, but remembers the notes about the dangerous alien on the second level, and also realizes that the party will be unlikely to look for her on another level should something go amiss. She decides to wait for the reappearance of the clockwork.
(8:15am)
Larry’s darkvision on Shefak ends. She is fortunate to be waiting in a lit area of the cave. The corridor to the south is decidedly dark.
8:20am - second watch completed
Bashapka has had a long rest, his singular long rest for Day 2.
Babshapka and Willa take the next watch.
(10am)
Shefak decides, after some two and a half hours of waiting at the shaft, that the clockwork is not returning. She determines to make her way back to the party, through the unexplored and dark corridor to the south.
She proceeds carefully down the hall, feeling her way along the wall. She passes a closed and locked door, but the next door is open. Reaching inside the doorway, she quickly locates the panel which activates the magical ceiling lights, flooding the room with light that spills out into the hallway. The room itself is another looted apartment. Enough light is generated that she can see there are another two open doors (also apartments) on the opposite wall. Turning on their lights reveals an open storeroom further along the original wall. With all four lights lit the hallway itself can be seen well. Shefak spends some time looking in each room but does not actively search them. Finally she returns to the first room and turns out the light, then works her way down the hall, turning out the other lights as she goes.
Beyond the again-dark hall is a dimly lit corridor running east. Following that to an intersection, Shefak recognizes her location as the farthest place she followed the plant man leader before. From here she knows the way back to the party.
Still invisible, she makes her way along the corridors until she gets to the closed door on the other side of which Babshapka stands watch. She knocks on the door, and a few moments later it opens to reveal the elf, broadsword drawn and pointed at the empty doorway. “It’s Shefak,” she says simply, and he steps back to let her enter. Not until the door is closed does she remove her ring.
Shefak explains what she learned while following the clockwork, spending most of her description on the curious shaft. In response to Aurora’s questions, she says she doesn’t know what level they are on, and whether they would need to go up or down to get to level 2. Aurora teaches her the symbols in the alien language for the numbers 0 through 9. Fortunately it is a decimal system.
10:20am - third watch completed
Umbra has had a long rest, her singular long rest for Day 2. She recasts armor of shadows and is at 3/3/3. Babshapka and Mathias will take the next watch.
Shefak explains that the shaft is close by - but that to get there they will need to skirt the now-retracted edge of the plant men’s territory.
At Aurora’s enthusiasm, Willa asks why they would want to go to another level, when they don’t yet have keys, but Shefak explains that it does not appear that keys are needed to use the shaft.
Babshapka suggests that rather than fighting the security clockworks for keys, they could use the shaft and read the alien symbols. If the clockworks acted like servants to the human ship crew, it would make sense that the servant quarters are below. Perhaps down there they could find a charging station and cards. He suggests that they test the terms of the truce and try to just walk past the plant men.
(10:30am)
Aurora’s mage armor ends. Although she has spell slots available, she does not cast it so as not to interrupt her rest.
Willa asks whether they can move the mules to the lower level, and Shefak confirms that the doorways are wide enough for the mules, even with their packs on. Mathias remarks that perhaps the alien waiting on the next level will prefer to feed on the mules rather than on them. As larger hosts they could grow larger aliens inside them.
As more voices are heard, the plan gets turned around a few times, but in the end they all agree they will try to make it past the plant men without conflict, then allow Aurora to read the symbols around the shaft. They will leave the mules and Eddard where they are for now.
12:20pm - fourth watch completed
Babshapka and Tyrius take the next watch.
(1:10pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a pair of displacer beasts pass by the table room. They pause and sniff the air, noting the presence of multiple lurkers in the room, and continue.]
2:20pm - fifth watch completed
Everyone but Shefak has now had a long rest for Day 2.
The party briefly discusses plans again before setting out.
Aurora casts mage armor on herself. (Now at 3/3/3)
Mathias smokes what he predicts to be his “last cigarette as a human” before he gets infested. Willa fills and lights her lantern.
(2:30 pm)
The party exits the storeroom and activity room through the northern doors to the hall [thus avoiding the three lurkers waiting for them], being careful to close both behind them, and enters the now-abandoned corridor of the plant men. This is the hallway the leader walked down, extinguishing the lights as he went. Shefak points out the former apartment that leads to the “mulch room” she saw with spider-Larry.
Shefak, invisible and in the lead, reaches the intersection and confirms that the northern corridor is still full of plant men, wandering in and out of the occupied apartments. When Willa visibly enters the intersection, there is an immediate commotion. Those plant men already in the hall whistle and thump and dozens more flood out from the adjoining rooms. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Four
Greyhawk. The City of Thieves. In so many ways the opposite of Veluna. Leezar loved it. He immediately sought out the parts of the city that offered brothels, drug dens, bars, gambling houses, fighting pits. After spending all of his money, he sought employment at the brothel he had enjoyed the most. At first, he was just a guard - protecting the whores from johns that were drunk or violent, protecting the madam from the city watch and the thieves’ guild. He lodged and ate there for free; he was quite happy to spend nearly all of his wages on the services of the other employees, a fact which made him a favorite of the madam.
As the first heady days turned into months, however, he became less naive. The madam wasn’t being hassled by the thieves’ guild - she paid protection money, just like everyone else. Sometimes she just needed him as a strong presence when negotiating changes in fee structures, or when a guild “reorganization” happened (like when a capo was killed and someone new was put in charge of collecting her “rent”). And the madam wasn’t even the brothel owner, it turned out, just an on-site manager for a complicated network of individuals that could be traced back to one or more of the city oligarchs, if one dared. Leezar wasn’t interested in who the madam actually answered to, until he was informed that as an employee of some nebulous boss, he was obligated to occasionally work other jobs. Fill-in guard at more important brothels, occasional muscle for the thieves’ guild, even a “vocal supporter” at political rallies when crowds were needed. Every now and then he was told to fight in the pits - at first just taking or receiving dives to make sure the guild odds-makers remained profitable, but after he learned the spell armor of agathys (a crowd favorite) he performed in actual legitimate fights, although scheduled as walkout bouts. As he did well in these tasks he was utilized more and more outside his home brothel. “You do good work,” the madam told him. “The reward for doing good work is you get more work.” There were a number of close calls, but he found that he often emerged from brushes with death with the ability to learn more spells or cast the spells he already knew more powerfully.
At the same time that he was coming to know the city and advancing in power, he was coming to understand his master Graz’zt a little better as well. One of the whores in his home brothel introduced him to a cult of Graz’zt and he frequently attended worship services. Usually these were in the basements of inns or in deserted warehouses, but occasionally high rites were performed in secret chapels in the mansions of debauched nobles. Leezar began to pick up the tenets of the faith - not only “take pleasure in everything,” but also “restriction is the only sin.” He began to undertake missions for the cult as well, although not paid - simply for pleasure of service. Most involved assisting in plans to tempt or corrupt various clergy or paladins in Greyhawk. It was from the priests and priestesses of the cult that he learned his new spells, or sometimes from demons summoned in the rituals themselves.
As months turned into years he continued to advance in power, both in the spells he was able to cast and in his ability to fight with staff and fist. He came to enjoy working the pits, where more and more frequently he got to be a trial horse for contenders. One day the leader of his local cult cell told him he was ready for a ceremony of full initiation, without explaining what that was. The ceremony itself was both awe-inspiring and exquisitely pleasurable, but took a decidedly strange turn. At the peak of festivities, when a number of naked women were writhing on the carpets around him, a great flash of light and heat enveloped them all. The women screamed and then were still, except for one still writhing, but now in agony, not pleasure, her whole body burned. Leezar was badly burned as well, but remained standing. He had a curious double vision - overlaid on the burned bodies of the women he saw the forms of dead crones. Where the altar had been was also an upturned cauldron. “Find them!” boomed a deep basso voice that sent thrills of pleasure up and down his spine despite his burns. “Find the ones who did this to my servants.”
As a high ceremony, there were a number of priests and priestesses of Graz’zt on hand among the common cultists. Most of the women could be saved despite their burns. In speaking with the high priest, Leezar learned that Graz’zt Himself had chosen him to discover and track down the ones who had slain his worshipers. When he agreed that he would do just that, he felt a surge of power. As mark of his new status, Graz’zt had just given him access to a new spell (his sixth true spell), a new invocation (his third), and the knowledge that all of his spells could now be cast as third level, a great increase in power. It was with no small measure of pride that Leezar prepared to depart Greyhawk.
Leezarius Angelicus Temtonio, aka "Leezar", aka "Mathias"
New abilities in bold.
Fifth Level Warlock / Human (Oerid) (Noble)
Str 10 (0) Dex 16 (+3) Con 13 (+1) Int 8 (-1) Wis 9 (-1) Cha 18 (+4)
Hp 33, Languages Common, Velondi
Skills: Deception, History, Investigation, Persuasion
Otherworldly Patron - Dark Prince Graz'zt
Cantrips (3): Blade Ward, Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand,
Spells (6 - all cast at level 3): Burning Hands, Witch Bolt, Armor of Agathys, Darkness, Fly, Dispel Magic
Invocations (3) : Fiend's Sight, Thirsting Blade, One With Shadows
Pact Boon: Pact of the Blade, Pact Weapon
Special Ability: Saved by the Bell. Because of his work as a pit fighter and his experience taking dives, may make a Deception check to convincingly feign unconsciousness or death. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Party rejoins mules - one roll
4:10am - vegepygmies
4:30am - Lurker above
5:10am - displacer beasts
5:50am - worker robot
6:10am - displacer beasts
1:10pm - displacer beasts
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
3:40pm (mules) worker robot
4pm (mules) worker robot
Party rejoins mules - one roll
5:30pm Police Robot, non-lethal
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
8:10pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (party) vegepygmies
Party, Mules, and Security Room all rolling separately
11:50pm (party) vegepygmies
Post 171: Doppelgängers! 21 February, 571 [2 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 2
(2:30 pm)
The party exits the storeroom and activity room through the northern doors, being careful to close both behind them, and enters the now-abandoned corridor of the plant men. This is the hallway the leader walked down, extinguishing the lights as he went. Shefak points out the former apartment that leads to the “mulch room” she saw with spider-Larry.
Shefak, invisible and in the lead, reaches the intersection and confirms that the northern corridor is still full of plant men, wandering in and out of the occupied apartments. When Willa enters the intersection, there is an immediate commotion. Those plant men already in the hall whistle and thump and dozens more flood out from the adjoining rooms.
Willa slouches, trying to make herself look smaller, walks slowly, and avoids eye contact. The plant men grow more agitated, but do not attack. The rest of the party copies Willa’s example as they pass the intersection, except for Thokk, who still walks boldly and proudly but has agreed that he will not draw weapons unless the plant men actually attack. By the time the last of the party has passed the intersection and turned down the hallway to the west, they are surrounded by dozens of the plant men. The creatures chitter rebukingly and shake their weapons but do not use them.
(2:40pm)
At the end of the hall, Shefak turns north and Willa follows her whispered directions. Babshapka, however, is intrigued by a large unkeyed door on the south wall, the second they have passed. He pauses and presses the panel to open the door. He sees the dimly-lit interior of a huge room only briefly before realizing that all of the plant men around him are brandishing their weapons, some even thrusting them uncomfortably into his chain armor - not quite attacking, but certainly threatening to do so. “Shut ther door,” says Willa firmly, but in what she hopes is a calm tone. Babshapka presses the door panel a second time, then backs away from the doorway as he is thronged by greater numbers of agitated plant men. He does make careful note of what he can see, though, even as the door closes.
The room is instantly recognizable as a feast hall or mess hall [Dining Room]. Several long, high tables and numerous chairs are set up as if a meal were in progress. However, many of the chairs are overturned. Numerous empty trenchers are on the tabletops but also litter the floor haphazardly. More grimly, the bones of many humans or humanoids lie strewn about.
The plant men are now beginning to menace the party members to either side of Babshapka and Willa beckons them to keep moving. Only once all of them have started down the dark northern corridor do the plant men slowly calm. The farther they advance, the fewer plant men follow them, and those that do, at a greater distance. By the time they emerge into the large, dimly-lit chamber with the shaft, the last of the plant men have withdrawn around the corner and out of sight. Shefak quickly checks on them, then returns to report that they are indeed returning to their lair-hallway, although a knot of them still remain around the door that Babshapka opened, as if guarding it.
(2:50pm)
There is some sort of poster in an alien language near the entrance to the shaft. The shaft itself descends into darkness, at least as far as did the other one at the entrance of the ship. At the top of the shaft, where the ceiling should be, is some sort of closed portal with no obvious means of opening. Inside the shaft are four tracks, two opposite each opening, running down the vertical length of the shaft. Each track has a series of wide handles spaced eight feet apart. Two of these tracks (to the east) are moving down, while the ones one the other side (west) are moving up. At the top of the tube the handles seem to appear fully formed from the wall itself or to move into the wall and disappear.
“Those plantfolk are certainly strange,” says Mathias, and sets up his folding chair where he can see down the northern corridor. The rest of the party watches the various approaches while Aurora examines the poster. It is covered in alien script, but nowhere are there numbers, or any indication of what level they are on. At the top is a diagram of one large circle, with four smaller circles within it. One of the circles is colored red.
Aurora begins her comprehend languages spell ritual.
(3:00pm)
Ten minutes later, Aurora is able to read the text under the diagram. It states:
“UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ARE NOT TO ENTER THE SERVICE DECK AREAS.
Safety Procedures: When anti-gravity is functioning, step into the shaft and wait for the next available handle. Grasp the handle firmly with one hand and retain your hold until you approach your level. Release your hold when the handle before yours crosses the opening and use your (dampened) momentum to exit the shaft. If the shaft is in use by multiple personnel, always allow at least one unused handle between each person.
If anti-gravity has been disengaged, but the handles are still in motion, grasp the handle with both hands and be prepared to support your own weight. If you do not have an anti-grav belt, use this procedure only in emergency situations such as a major power redirect. Do not load handles with more than 300 pounds of weight.”
Aurora has heard the term “anti-gravity” before - it is a very high-level spell, more powerful even than fly. To test it, she grabs a piece of refuse (there is an abundant supply about) and tosses it into the shaft. It remains suspended there, as if levitating, although it drifts slowly away from her with the force of her throw. She notices that it comes to a halt much sooner than it otherwise should, and reasons that this is the “dampened momentum” to which the poster referred.
She calls Babshapka over and has him hold one of her hands while she leans into the shaft. As soon as she crosses the plane of the door she does feel dizzy, and suspended or buoyant, as if she was entering water. On the interior wall of the shaft, next to each open doorway, is a large number “1”, written in the alien language.
“I think we are on level one!” she announces to the party. “But I don’t know if level two is above or below us.”
“You are not going to level two,” responds Willa, automatically.
In the dark hallway to the south, several creatures emerge and creep cautiously from various doorways. Even Umbra’s excellent darkvision does not register them, for their skin seems to shift and take on the color and patterning of whatever they stand in front of. The party remains unaware of their presence, but they eagerly note Aurora’s exploration of the shaft.
Aurora tells Babshapka to grab hold of the train of her dress, but let go of her hand. He shakes his head and mumbles something that might be a prayer in elven, but complies. Aurora steps out into the void. She floats just inside the open doorway. She hears the gentle whirring of the tracks sliding past her, the one to her right coming up from below, the one to her left going up a short distance to the closed ceiling.
She stares down, trying to find other openings, but does not see any. They could, she reasons, be recessed and unviewable from her current perspective, however. There is a set of alien symbols on the walls about 15 feet beneath her that line up with the “1” on each of the interior walls at this level, and another set about 30 feet down. There might be more, but her vision only extends to about sixty feet before the details are lost in darkness.
“You can let go, I’m going down,” she tells Babshapka confidently. When he reluctantly lets go of her dress, she kicks hard off the wall next to the doorway and begins to drift across the shaft to wear the tracks run down, not up. Babshapka runs around to the other doorway, but by the time he is there he finds that Aurora is stuck, floating nearly in the center of the shaft, but far out of reach of anything, looking perplexed.
“Hmm, momentum dampener,” she says to herself.
Babshapka calls Thokk over and he extends his pole out to Aurora. She catches hold of it, and he is easily able to pull her over to the downward handles. Babshapka, seeing Aurora on the end of Thokk’s pole, is sure there is a metaphor for “fishing” in there somewhere. As soon as Aurora grabs a handle she is whisked away downward. Babshapka only hesitates a second before jumping into the shaft and grabbing the next available handle.
Aurora has only to hold onto the handle for a few seconds before the one in front of her passes beside a doorway. She lets go and continues her downward motion, though at a decelerating pace, until she lands lightly on the narrow ledge in front of a small recessed door. In any event, the track she was using folds into the wall at the bottom of the doorway, while a second downward track continues on the other side of the doorway. A cry from above startles her, and she moves to the side just in time to allow Babshaka to land right where she was standing a second ago. The door in front of them is both closed and keyed with the same locking mechanism ubiquitous on the level above. As Aurora looks more closely, she can see that the slot is coded brown. She is disappointed; Babshapka is relieved.
On the interior wall of the shaft, on both sides, is written a large number “2”. Across the shaft is a matching recessed area and ledge, and a keyed door. From here she can’t see the color, but assumes it is also brown. Within the recessed chamber is written on the wall in large letters of alien script, “UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ARE NOT TO ENTER THE SERVICE DECK AREAS.”
Aurora nods to Babshapka, steps off the ledge, and grabs the handle going down to the next level. This trip is slightly longer, as the recessed ledge is twenty feet below the last. Babshapka follows her, and this time Aurora remembers to step aside for him to land.
On the interior wall of the shaft, on both sides, is written a large number “3”. Across the shaft is a matching recessed area and ledge, and a keyed door. Both these doors are considerably larger than the one above, on the same order as those of level one. Both doors are closed, but Aurora notes that they do not have card locks - just the pressure plates that allow free access.
Now some thirty feet below the rest of the party, Aurora stares into the darkness of the shaft, but still sees no other openings. She launches a firebolt at the door directly opposite her, and it flies across without issue. Satisfied that the momentum dampener does not affect her spell, she launches a second bolt across the shaft, but five feet below the first, so that it strikes the wall and detonates. She then methodically launches bolts down the wall, aiming five feet lower each time. When she gets to about sixty feet beneath their platform, the light from the bolt disappears before she hears the boom of its detonation, and that boom has a different tone than all the previous ones. “And that,” she says with obvious self-satisfaction, “shows that there is another recessed door down there, in what is likely level four.”
“Are we going further?” asks Babshapka in a voice that is not afraid, just concerned.
“No,” says Aurora, we will check this level first.” She turns back to the door and reaches for the pressure panel. Babshapka puts one hand on his broadsword and tenses. But in the split second before Aurora presses the panel, a cry of alarm can be heard above them, swiftly followed by the unmistakable sounds of combat.
Aurora, eyes wide, spins and crouches at the edge of the ledge. “Help me across!” she commands, and as she springs forward, Babshapka shoves her as hard as he can in the small of the back. She sails across the shaft, just barely reaching an upward-traveling handle before her momentum fails.
In the southern corridor, the nine humanoid forms note that the party is now down to seven, but that no more of them are entering the shaft. Now appears to be the best moment for their ambush. They creep forward silently, seeing how close they can draw before they are spotted (Stealth roll 24). They are easily within melee range when Umbra gasps and then cries out in alarm.
As one they begin to run forward, all nine of them. The creatures have dull eyes and strange rubbery black-gray skin. However, as they run forward, the two in the lead quickly assume the shape and form of Tyrius and Umbra. The copy is exact, down to Tyrius’ shining armor and flowing blonde hair, Umbra’s alabaster skin and deep green dress. By the time they reach the party, they are indistinguishable from its members. The seven creatures behind the lead pair remain as nondescript humanoids.
Round One
5E Doppelganger Stats wrote:
Multiattack. The doppelganger makes two melee attacks.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (1d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
Ambusher. In the first round of a combat, the doppelganger has advantage on attack rolls against any creature it has surprised.
Surprise Attack. If the doppelganger surprises a creature and hits it with an attack during the first round of combat, the target takes an extra 10 (3d6) damage from the attack.
The creature running at Tyrius raises its hand - and its arm transforms into a copy of Molly. It brings this down twice, hard, on Tyrius (23 points damage). Umbra carries no weapon, but the one attacking her slams her repeatedly with its fist (32 points damage, Umbra to 6hp). The two creatures almost instantaneously copy the changes to the forms - “Tyrius” has new scuffs on his armor, “Umbra” has bruises in the same location as the real Umbra. “Tyrius” and “Umbra” hold their positions, locked in combat with their duplicates, while the other creatures stream by them to engage the rest of the party.
How dare these things copy his warband? They had better not copy Thokk! Thokk is inimitable! Thokk enrages, then strikes at the first creature that has run past Umbra (two hits, 23 damage).
Mathias leaps up from his chair. His hand goes to his belt pouch and he intones words in a language that Willa, nearby, does not recognize - while it could be “the language of magic”, she is pretty sure she hasn’t heard those particular syllables from Aurora at any point. Suddenly his body is covered in armor - an exquisite set of full plate mail that looks like it has been delicately carved from blue-white ice. He draws forth a greatsword from his scabbard and rushes forward.
Shefak draws on her ki and strikes at the one already wounded by Thokk. After her flurry of blows, it remains barely standing.
Willa advances on the creature between her and the shaft to her left, ignoring the two trying to flank her to the right. “Right behind you” calls Mathias. She strikes at it once, but the creature seems to anticipate her blow and steps out of the way. Her follow-up strike is faster than it can dodge, however, and she hits (for 14 damage).
Larry readies a lightning bolt in his hand, then steps up to a wounded creature. He has a line-of-sight that will send his bolt through three of the creatures and then down the hall to the south, but as the creature moves suddenly to his right he adjusts without thinking to track it as he throws the bolt. The bolt goes through the creature, but then hits the curved wall of the shaft and rebounds straight back, passing through Larry and then behind him, ending by bouncing between the walls of the corner of the chamber. The creature drops to the floor, electricity arcing through its twitching body (Larry at 4/3/2).
Umbra sways unsteadily on her feet, but completes an Entropy spell. Black tentacles of shadow wrap around three of the creatures and restrict their movements. Umbra pulls back, trying to fade into the shadows as “Umbra” unsuccessfully swings at her (attack of opportunity misses).
Round Two
Undeterred by taking the brunt of his own lightning bolt, Larry end-runs to his left around the advancing creatures. He thinks he can get six of them at once so long as he doesn’t mind hitting both Thokk and Tyrius, which he doesn’t. This bolt also pulls to the right, and ends up passing through two of the living creatures, Thokk, the dead one, bouncing off the wall of the shaft, passing through a third living creature, narrowly missing Tyrius, and ricocheting away down the south hall. (Larry at 4/3/1)
Willa swings at the three creatures around her, but misses.
One of the creatures breaks away from Willa and charges Mathias, assuming his likeness as it runs, ice armor and all. It strikes him, and instantly regrets it, as cold from the real ice armor shoots up its false greatsword and through its body, damaging it for 15 points. The real Mathias seems unaffected by the blow.
The remaining creatures rain blows down on those who are nearby - Willa takes three different hits for 21 total, Tyrius takes 9, Shefak and Larry suffer 6 each. Thokk takes 4 (reduced to 2 after rage). He laughs at the puny blow and says that such a weak creature cannot hope to copy Thokk and his massive muscles. He hits back at “Umbra” once for 13. The two creatures fighting Willa have both become likenesses of her, while the one on Thokk now appears as he does.
Umbra emerges from around the north side of the shaft. The words for her dark bolt are on her lips, but before her are two Mathiases, alike in every way. “Umbra, it’s me!” they both shout - and if there is a delay from one, she can’t discern it.
5E Doppelganger Stats wrote:
Read Thoughts. The doppelganger magically reads the surface thoughts of one creature within 60 ft. of it.
Aurora glides out of the shaft, adjusting to gravity without stumbling. She readies an action to cast magic missile (at second level) at either of the two Mathiases, should one give itself away as false.
One of the Mathiases makes an arcane warding gesture with his hand, copied as if in a mirror by the other, and begins walking away. The other forgoes the attack of opportunity provided. The first moves close to the combat in which Willa is engaged. The second is hit by a series of magic missiles from Aurora. Umbra is still too unsure of the actual identities to attack.
Willa strikes at those around her (two hits, 26 damage).
Tyrius tries to raise his shield and strike with Molly, but he appears dazed from the surprise attack still.
Round 3
Aurora launches a firebolt at “Mathias”, but he dodges and retreats to the south. She moves to step between the creature and a seriously wounded Umbra.
“Don’t hit women!” yells Mathias at one or both of the “Willas” engaged with Willa.
“Wha' in all ther hells?!” responds the real Willa. Both creatures fighting her fall back, and she hits one for 10 as it retreats. “In case ye hain’t noticed, Mathias, I’m ther best fighter in ther party! Now get after ‘em!”
“Yes, ma’am!” he calls and advances, greatsword in hand.
The creatures have apparently decided they don’t like even odds (now eight on eight) and the rest of them are turning and running. Thokk kills one (ten points - opportunity attack) as it withdraws, Shefak wounds hers, but by the time Larry can draw his scimitar, the last one is away. The dwarf growls in frustration, then sends forth a moonbeam to block off their escape down the hall (Larry at 4/3/1). The beam actually lands a little closer to the party than intended.
Willa kills hear nearest copy (15 points), then runs after a fleeing one, it being still slowed by Umbra’s spell, and strikes it as well (12 points).
Babshapka emerges from the shaft and checks to see that Aurora is well before turning to assess the situation.
With the creatures in flight, Umbra runs forward with more confidence and fires off five dark bolts into the back of her false self.
Thokk plunges into the area of the moonbeam, ignoring the pain to slice at, and slay, two of the creatures. He chortles in satisfaction.
Shefak runs forward, carefully avoids the moonbeam, and brings another one of the ambushers to the ground with a series of kicks and fist strikes. Thokk chuckles at her foolishness; if she hadn’t avoided the beam, she could have attacked two of them. His skin continues to blister and burn.
Mathias dashes forward at great speed, passing the moonbeam and the fleeing creatures, then turning round to face them, arms spread wide. “Where do you think you’re going?” he demands.
Tyrius finally seems to have cleared his cobwebs. He sees two Willas, but one is advancing and the other one retreating. He reasons that the retreating one must be the false Willa, and strikes at her with Molly, leveling her.
Round 4
“Tyrius”, desperate to get by Mathias who is blocking his retreat, swings at him. The cold from his armor travels down the length of “Molly” and into his body - he drops to the ground, frozen dead. Mathias looks up, a grim smile on his face. “Hit me, please!” he calls to the others, then traces an arcane ward in the air with his free hand.
A second fleeing creature, “Thokk”, strikes at him, and also suffers cold damage. Mathias laughs as the creature winces in pain and staggers away. His armor appears to melt and dissolve. He strikes with his greatsword (opportunity attack) and connects, but the creature keeps going.
Willa strikes another one down, and now there is only one left - the one fleeing Mathias.
Larry shifts his moonbeam further down the hall, dropping it just in front of the fleeing creature. The creature stops rather than run through the beam. Aurora sends a firebolt over its shoulder, and Umbra hits it with a number of dark bolts for 11 damage.
Round 5
Mathias, sword still in one hand, sends forth two bolts of mystic force from the other - both strike the creature (9 points).
Babshapka presses himself to the wall and fires off two arrows, but they miss. Too many people in the way, he curses, but marks where the shafts land to retrieve them later.
Shefak dashes ahead, and her fists bring the combat to a close when she slays the last creature. Even now those that had assumed the shapes of party members are slowly reverting to their native state of tar-colored rubbery flesh.
When it is clear that the combat is over, Mathias says “We should check their bodies,” but it is immediately apparent that there is little to check. In their natural state, the creatures do not have clothes and carry no items, apparently trusting their strange bodies to form what they need. “Hmm,” ponders Mathias, “butts and lady pockets? Should we check these?” But lo, aside from nostrils and ears, the creatures do not appear to have any bodily orifices, not even mouths. Willa seems strangely content as she performs a cursory search of the bodies. When asked why, she says it is because these are the first normal creatures they have found in the cave.
“You call these normal?” asks Mathias incredulously.
“Aye,” she replies. “If I don’ miss me mark, t’ese be doppelgangers - shapeshifters wha' steal ther identity o’ people an’ then kill ‘em. I grant ye t’at t’ey be queer eno’, bu’ ev’ry ‘venturer ‘as ‘eard tell o’ ‘em, ‘as ‘eard stories a’ least. Bu’ hain’t nobody ‘eard tell o’ plant men an’ flying ships an’ clockworks wha’ shoot wands an’ sleeping gas. T’at be strange - doppelgangers be ther first normal t’ing we hae found in t’is whole place.”
[The party takes stock of their fitness to continue, and whether they need to retire:
Babshapka: 44/48
Willa: 41/62
Aurora: 38/38
Shefak 33/39
Thokk: 28/66
Tyrius: 17/49
Larry: 16/56
Umbra: 6/38]
Although they are not eager for another combat, it is decided that they can at least search the rooms adjacent to the shaft, and then any along the way of their retreat back to the storeroom. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Five
Leezar did not sleep for the remainder of that night. Morning found him with his traveling clothes packed and all of his valuables stowed. He left Greyhawk by the west gate, crossed the Selintan on the public ferry, and then walked south on the road along the river. For the first day he stayed within the crowds, with people either too frugal to book river boat passage or who, like him, did not want their name to appear on a manifest. At a mid-day camp, several agents of the Thieves’ Guild revealed themselves, asked him where he was going, and “reminded” him that he was still under contract to the guild. He lied and told them he was on a contract and that they had better check with their superiors if they didn’t want to get in trouble for drawing attention to his clandestine assignment. He remained in the thick of the crowd for the rest of the day and did not sleep that night either.
All through the next day the crowds on the road thinned, both as travelers of different speeds pulled away from one another and as the pack of agents following him 'persuaded' the civilian travelers to slow down or speed up. Eventually he found himself on a lonely stretch of road with just the half-dozen rogues in sight, which was of course when they made their move. He immediately used his armor of agathys, for which they were well prepared, since he was known to use that in the pits. That was likely why so many of them had been sent after him, and why they carried such an abundance of throwing knives. What they did not know was that he could now invoke a thirsting blade. When a sword suddenly appeared in his hand, that gave them pause, for he had been wearing only a single knife in his belt, having left even his staff behind hoping to escape detection.
Some harsh words from their leader sent them rushing in at him despite his sword and armor. He was wounded several times, but every time he slew one of them he got a fresh surge of energy. His Dark One’s Blessing was also something they had not been prepared for, since he had fought only one opponent at a time in the pits. By the time he had slain four of them, the two remaining decided to flee, and sensibly in opposite directions. He used misty step to appear in front of the man, striking twice and on the second strike impaling him through the belly. Then he turned and threw eldritch blasts at the retreating woman, one every three seconds, until she was brought down as well. He had never felt so powerful. Truly he had Graz’zt’s favor. He stripped the bodies of anything useful and left the road, hiking overland until he reached the Gnarly Forest by nightfall and then hiding. He slept through the night, all the next day, and the night after.
Although far slower going, he kept to the woods as he worked his way south for the next week, only emerging at the end in a small fishing village where he paid an old man to ferry him east across the river. After that it was just a two days’ walk to Hardby. There he used nearly all his own coin, as well as what he had recovered from the agents, to book passage on a trade galley bound for Gradsul.
The days and nights aboard the ship passed without incident. His dreams began to be invaded by dark images, by impressions of the deaths of the crones, each in turn. Heretofore he had had only a vague notion that they were “to the west”. By giving in to the experience, by fully feeling the pain of each of their deaths in his sleep, he found he could pick up clues, bits and pieces of their memories. They had lived in the Keoish Dreadwood, in a realm ruled by a vampire count. The count had allowed them to worship Graz’zt so long as they used the spells that they gained for doing so to aid him. They had been his subjects their whole lives, until the end of their lives, until a party of adventurers had invaded the lands, slain the count, and soon after the entire coven [Note; most of this is described from the party's perspective in Post 76]. Leezar tried to gain information about the adventurers themselves, but no matter how many times he relived the painful deaths of the crones, that information remained hidden.
From Gradsul, Leezar took the forest road north, through Daerwald, and Silglen, over the mountains and down the Javan trail. When he reached the Owl Stream he knew he needed to enter the forest to the south, but he found his way barred by thorns, and elven scouts, and by a hawk he was pretty sure was a druid in beast form. ‘Giving up’, he withdrew from the stream. At midnight he flew up and over the forest - with a number of ‘owls’ in pursuit. Guided by the lights of a village deep in the forest, he set down after ten minutes, and the owls almost reached him before he could cast fly again. This time Leezar sped to a high castle overlooking the village. There was a main door in the courtyard below, but it was tightly closed and it seemed likely the owls would overtake him before he could enter. In the main keep, however, above the courtyard, there were two windows that looked like they had been blown out from within - shattering the leaded glass and steel lattice work and leaving just enough space for Leezar to enter, moments ahead of the owls. He turned and stood, facing the narrow opening in the window, sword in one hand and the other ready to summon eldritch blasts, amid the ruins of some sort of laboratory. The owls passed close by the windows for several minutes, but none entered - perhaps knowing that in the small indoor space they had lost both the advantage of numbers and the ability to attack in three dimensions. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Party rejoins mules - one roll
4:10am - vegepygmies
4:30am - Lurker above
5:10am - displacer beasts
5:50am - worker robot
6:10am - displacer beasts
1:10pm - displacer beasts
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
3:40pm (mules) worker robot
4pm (mules) worker robot
Party rejoins mules - one roll
5:30pm Police Robot, non-lethal
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
8:10pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (party) vegepygmies
Party, Mules, and Security Room all rolling separately
11:50pm (party) vegepygmies
Post 173: An interrupted rest 21 February, 571 [2 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 2
Although they are not eager for another combat after the fight with doppelgangers, it is decided that the party will at least search the rooms adjacent to the western shaft, and then any along the way of their retreat to the storeroom.
(3:10pm)
There are two doors on the wall to the west of the shaft, both unkeyed. The more northerly one is a storeroom, with smashed crates full of unidentifiable machinery.
(3:20pm)
The second unkeyed door is also a storeroom. The crates within have long since been broken into. They do not hold complicated machinery, but rather pipes, tubes, and conduits of all types, lengths, and thicknesses. Some are metal, some are cave horn, and some are one or the other but encased in an insulating layer of cave sponge. Her comprehend languages spell is still ongoing, so Aurora looks about for writings or markings, but does not find any. The room is wide enough that Thokk notes the pronounced curvature of the outer wall, which the party is beginning to suspect delineates the maximum extent of the ship.
There is one other door to the south in the large chamber of the shaft, and it is keyed black. The party investigates quickly and finds a looted apartment. Willa is still finding it hard to believe that a ship could be large enough for each crew member to have an entire cabin to themselves, rather than just a hammock in the hold, but it is ever more apparent that this is the case here. For his part, Babshapka is amazed that all of the furnishings they have found are identical - every bed, every desk, every chair equal to all the rest. Are there no craftsmen’s marks, no artistry? Perhaps all of this was made by magic. Or, as he considers it, perhaps there are 'crafting clockworks' that create identical items? Regardless of the reason, it does make the searching faster - he knows pretty much exactly what to expect in one of the looted apartments, and unless he finds something out of the ordinary he can check a room in five minutes and feel confident he hasn’t missed anything.
(3:30pm)
The party begins their way south along the dark corridor, with Tyrius and Willa lighting the way. Mathias asks Umbra if she is okay to continue, or needs assistance, considering the wounds she suffered at the hands of the doppelganger, but she replies that she is fine, thank you. As they go, the party continually reminds one another to check the ceiling.
The first black-keyed apartment appears as the others, but only a living area with no bed. However, there is an interior keyed door leading to a bedchamber. In the bedchamber, an intact skeleton lies on the floor. One hand points to its head. When Aurora investigates the skull, she finds a small hole on the side near the hand, and a large hole with fractured bones opposite, as if something had gone through the head and exploded out the far side. Ancient stains on the wall behind the figure support this interpretation. The positioning of the head and hand suggest a weapon - a wand? A retort? But none is found nearby or anywhere in the room. Several party members suggest suicide, which leads to dark speculation about the nature of the “paranoia plague” and the alien and other morbid thoughts.
(3:40pm)
Back in the storeroom, a repair robot enters and tidies, collecting the mule droppings and a few pieces of smashed crate. Eddard watches it carefully, but does not contact Tyrius.
(3:45pm)
The party quickly searches another apartment suite with interior and exterior rooms.
(3:55pm)
The door to the next room is open. There are tables and chairs in the room, but no bed and no interior door. The doorway is open, no card lock or even door is in place, as if people could come and go. Perhaps it was an office, lounge, or activity room. It is just as looted and full of debris as the other rooms.
(4pm)
Another activity room like the previous. Aurora’s comprehend languages ends.
In the base storeroom, another worker robot enters. The room having been checked less than twenty minutes ago, it soon moves on.
(4:05pm)
To speed the search, Willa splits the party into two teams for the two doors remaining on the west wall of the corridor. The first is black-keyed and leads to a large single-room apartment. The second is an open doorway that leads to a storeroom with looted crates, with a few still containing pipes, fittings, and some strange panels of wax-covered wires. There is an interior door, but it is not carded. Opening it reveals a smaller storeroom, just as looted as the first, with what remains just as useless or incomprehensible.
(4:15pm)
The party begins to search the last door off the hallway, leading to another looted apartment, the ubiquitous furniture and bits of rag and bone now very familiar to them. Some of the party begin to drift into the hallway to the south that leads to the corridor of the plant men.
(4:20pm)
A few plant men are still on hand around the intersection to the east from when the party passed through before, and the appearance of the party again gets the diminutive creatures agitated. With hisses and whispers, Willa calls most of the party back around the corner, although Mathias lingers the longest. Shefak uses the distraction to invisibly open the door and slip into the large room beyond. When Mathias finally moves back the plant men calm somewhat but remain close at hand and observant.
Shefak finds the room is instantly recognizable as a feast hall or mess hall [Dining Room]. Several long, high tables and numerous chairs are set up as if a meal were in progress. However, many of the chairs and at least one of the tables are overturned. Oddly, the tables and chairs are crammed together as if space was limited, but all of the chairs are individual rather than being benches.
In the hallway, Mathias opens one of his pouches, the long one that contains his chair legs, but pulls out a two-part section of rod and screws the two parts together. He opens his sack and withdraws a heavy black cloth, then fits it to the rod like a curtain or drape. Finally he makes a gesture, and the whole thing begins to float in the air without apparent support.
Aurora messages Shefak, asking what she sees, whether she has found any food, and if there are any apparent color patterns of note.
Shefak advances slowly through the ancient mess hall. Numerous empty trenchers and utensils are on the tabletops but also litter the floor haphazardly. More grimly, the bones of many humans or humanoids lie strewn about - some in reasonably articulated skeletons and some scattered. Most have rags of fabric clinging to them but no weapons or other devices are in sight.
Mathias gestures and the curtain floats silently into the hall. Crouching, he moves forward, using it to screen himself from the view of the plant men - he hopes. Aurora has now noticed him and is staring at the rod, trying without success to figure out how he is sustaining it (failed Arcana check). The plant men are starting to whistle and thump and draw more of their kind, and Willa hisses at Mathias to withdraw. He pulls back and stows the curtain, shrugs and says he tried.
Aurora relates what Shefak is telling her by message and Willa wonders whether the bones are the remains of people who died at a meal, poisoned, or whether they were herded into the room to be slain. Shefak reports back that the remains are scattered about the room, and many of the bones and skulls are smashed, suggesting violence. She grows closer to the far wall of the hall. The trenchers may once have contained food, but look like they have been empty for some time - there is no rotten debris present, just dust. Each trencher has a number of sub-compartments in it, as if carved to keep foods separate from one another. She starts to head for an open doorway in the back of the hall.
At the open doorway, to the right, is a large dark glass plate mounted on the wall with four rivets below it. Looking at the flat glass expanse, Shefak wonders whether it might be a “vid screen”. She stands to the side, out of its “view”, and turns the four knobs at the bottom but nothing happens other than a clicking sound from the knobs themselves. There are no slots visible in which a power disc might be inserted.
Aurora messages to Shefak to be careful about leaving tracks and getting caught despite her invisibility. Shefak looks down and sees that the floor is dusty, but covered with tracks, the main body of which move from the two doors in the north to the doorway she is next to. She doubts that her tracks would be notably different to anyone but a skilled ranger. She continues to the room beyond.
(4:25pm)
As a small room off of the mess hall, this should logically be a kitchen, and the abundance of counters and cupboards supports this notion as well. However, it is completely lacking in other obvious features - there are no ovens to be seen, no sinks, no utensil racks. There is no furniture besides what is bolted to the floor or walls. There is no food, although much of the waste and debris on the floor may once have been organic. There is considerably less dust than other parts of the cave and many tracks abound. A few of the horn trenchers like those from the previous room lie on the counters or floor.
Along one wall is a bench with a number of metal boxes. Each box has a dark colored glass door in the front of it. At first glance these might be mistaken for ovens, but they have neither a space for wood or coal, nor a chimney to vent smoke. Arranged beside each box are a number of square metal plates. On top of each box is a short, black cylinder. Along other walls are a number of fine metal mesh screens with a rivet below them. There are a total of eight of these. Next to each of these is a long, narrow door that opens on hinges to a small shelf-like compartment.
Shefak doesn’t see any food or anything else of interest, and returns to the party. On her way back, Aurora wonders aloud why the plant men are so protective of the room if nothing is there. “Lots of people died there violently,” suggests Mathias, “maybe they don’t want it to happen again.”
Shefak whispers that she is back when she gets to the party. Aurora asks her whether she opened any of the boxes or drawers, turned any of the knobs in the kitchen. She sighs and says she will go back.
(4:30pm)
Inside each large box in the kitchen are a number of shelves spaced close together - they look like they would fit a trencher, so she tries one. It is indeed a good fit. She turns the knobs on top of each of the boxes, but when nothing happens, she carefully resets them to their original positions. Aurora asks her via message whether there is any source of power. Shefak responds that the ceiling lights are on in both rooms, mess hall and kitchen, but she doesn’t see any other source of power. All of the metal fixtures are very corroded. Aurora asks about the hinged doors and knobs on the mesh wall, but Shefak is already on her way back. She tells them that she exhausted all of the possibilities.
(4:40pm)
Willa sends Larry first down the hall to the plant men - he was the one who healed and finally persuaded their leader to the truce. He walks slowly, hands open, speaking soothing words. A crowd of plant men presses close. They are not attacking, but are perturbed. They eventually give way in front of him. One by one the party moves down the hall. There are at least a dozen of each of the three common sizes of plant men surrounding them, as well as some more moving in and out of the doors of their hall. After all of the party has turned south at the intersection the creatures gradually withdraw.
Thokk holds Willa’s lantern for Babshapka as he looks quickly in each of the abandoned plant man apartments [12] on the west wall. All of them are a mess of rotting vegetation and discarded plant parts. The original furniture of the ship is smashed, the mattresses shredded. Babshapka pokes around in the debris to see if there are any discarded keys, but finds none.
There are two black-carded doors on the south wall of the corridor. These lead to looted apartments, but without signs of plant man habitation. Both have interior doors, but now so close to their home base, Babshapka ignores these.
(5:00pm)
The party returns to the storeroom and adjoining room where they have set up camp. Eddard says it has been quiet - no incursions from plant men, lurkers, or others - just the two cleaning clockworks that tidied things and moved on. Willa repeats her hypothesis that the lurkers can’t open locked doors and that the truce with the plant men seems to have held. As she smells the fresh mule apples in the storeroom, she asks whether giving them to the plant men, rather than waiting for a cleaning clockwork to haul them away, would be a good peace offering. Larry, who saw the “mulch room”, agrees, and collects all the droppings and places them outside in the hall to the north.
Aurora fills in Eddard on the parts of the ship that they have now seen, and asks his opinion on moving the mules. The warhorse ponders a bit. He had said before that a location farther from the plant men would be better. Now that he has learned of the doppelgangers, he is not so sure. So long as the truce with the plant men holds, it may be better to be here, in the shadow of their territory and protected by their influence, rather than in the wilder parts of the ship where other monsters roam. He agrees that the mules should stay here for now, unless and until the party finds rooms that could be made more secure (like a lock of a higher color than black) or until the plant men break the peace.
The party then discusses who should head out on the next expedition - continuing to look for keys, perhaps going after the two security clockworks in the room that Shefak found. But this discussion hinges on who is healed or not. Larry heals Thokk with two different spells (Larry to 2/2/1). Aurora casts mage armor on Shefak (Aurora at 1/3/3; armor lasts until 1am). After this, it is agreed that they will rest for an hour [allowing anyone who wants to spend hit dice on heals to do so], as well as have a chance for a meal. Upon learning that the plan is to rest for an hour, Mathias recasts his ice armor.
(5:10pm) [start short rest]
Mathias eats his own food.
Now that they have passed 24 hours at temperatures well above freezing, Willa cuts back on the grain rations for the mules at Eddard’s suggestion. Babshapka does not need food for the time being, due to his continual use of his ioun stone.
[ 7 human rations used; 50 human rations remaining
2 mule rations used (no forage); 11.5 mule rations remaining
No coal used; 18 pounds mineral coal remaining]
After eating, Willa watches the north door and Larry the east. Babshapka sets up in the doorway between rooms, with his bow out, ready to go either way. Willa lectures Thokk about using the time to rest and clean and dress his wounds rather than just talking and swinging his sword about and “helping” her keep watch.
(5:30pm)
Thokk says he hears something in the hall - a second later, the north door slides open to reveal a security clockwork.
Babshapka draws back on his bow. Willa holds her greatsword in front of her and uses her elbow to press the door panel next to the door. As the door closes, one of the tentacles from the clockwork slides inside the doorway. The door closes on it, pauses, and opens again. [Decidedly unlike the other apartment, whose door crushed a chair - either the tentacle is much stronger than a chair, this door works differently, or both].
Surprise Round (party surprises clockwork)
As the door opens again, the clockwork moves into the room. Willa immediately attacks it, although her first attack is blocked by an arm (one hit, 9 points damage).
Thokk is right next to her, and hits it twice (two hits, 20 damage total, its force shield is now down).
From across the room, Aurora shoots off a firebolt (13 damage).
Babshapka shoots two arrows, but they glance off the rounded metal body.
Mathias leaps to his feat. Waves of force roll forth from his hands and explode against the metal skin of the clockwork (2 hits, 14 points total).
Shefak, the last of them in the northern room, runs to warn those in the south.
Round 1
Umbra moves from the southern storeroom to the northern room. Seeing the clockwork, she lets fly with five dark bolts (now at 2/3/0).
Thokk enrages (three left) and hits twice (23 damage).
Shefak uses a ki point to deal a flurry of blows - three of her four attacks hit, but the clockwork proves resistant to being knocked over.
Eddard presses his nose to the door panel, shutting him, Larry, and the mules in the southern room, away from the combat.
Babshapka shoots two more arrows - these enter the body of the clockwork through holes that the others have rent. (two hits, 21 damage)
With two more blasts of force (17 damage), Mathias has battered the clockwork to bits. It has been destroyed. [The party was able to unload more than 150 points on it before its initiative came up]. Willa checks the hall as Babshapka retrieves his arrows.
“Well, that was easy enough,” says Mathias. “I don’t know why you all were so hesitant to go after the two in the other room.”
“Not all o’ ‘em be so easy,” responds Willa. “‘specially when t’ey drops ‘alf ther party t’ sleep wit’ a single flask.”
Mathias shrugs, unimpressed. “Check it for cards,” he says. “I want my back rub.”
“Sorry, wrong room,” says Willa. “T’is one ‘twaren’t part o’ are bet.”
[Tyrius and Larry are 20 minutes into their short rest. All of the rest of the party have spoiled theirs and will need to start over.]
Aurora takes out her tools and begins leisurely disassembling the clockwork. The power disc, and the frame housing it, are both intact. She extracts the disc easily, but it is only charged to “one”. As Aurora begins to work, Willa starts her ioun stone revolving, just in case.
The retort in the head is intact, but it lacks the “squeeze” trigger or even the handle that hers has. Likewise it has no slot for a power disc, but is connected directly to the internal power disc frame. Similarly the metal wand in the chest lacks both an independent power source and a trigger - she could pull these out, but does not know how she would be able to use them.
In addition to what she has previously looked for, Aurora is now on the hunt for anything that might be used for scrying, or in the alien parlance, a “vid-screen”. However, she finds no such flat surface.
The compartment of flasks inside the clockwork is intact, even if the launch mechanism is bent and inoperable. Aurora recovers a full complement; three blue, and one each of black, red, and green.
There is no sign of any colored cards.
What she recognizes as the atmospheric analyzer has been smashed. There is another object inside she does not recognize from the previous one - a short metal tube located near its head. It has a wire mesh grill on one end. Mathias opines that it is “a reproductive organ”. Aurora is able to slide it smoothly from the body of the clockwork, although it is connected by the waxed wires to the frame of the power disc. She doesn’t see any buttons or controls.
When Aurora replaces the power disc in the frame, the tube emits a very high-pitched whining sound, which spooks the mules. Aurora tries to adjust it, but the sound continues unabated. Andy kicks the wall. Finally Aurora is able to disconnect the tube from the power source and the sound ceases. The tube she stores on the mules, the power disc she takes, the stopperless flasks she divides up with Willa.
Current tally of stopperless flasks:
Aurora: 2 blue, 1 black, 1 green
Willa: 3 blue, 1 black, 1 green, 1 red
(6:10pm)
Tyrius and Larry have finished their short rest.
[Larry uses three HD and gains back 22 hp. He is at 38/56. After natural recovery at 3/3/1]
[Tyrius uses three HD and gains back 18hp. He is at 35/49, and for spells he has 2/2]
(6:20pm)
Umbra’s armor of shadows ends. She does not renew it, as she is low on first level spells [1/3/0] and plans to remain behind in the storeroom for some time even if the others set out.
(6:40pm)
The rest of the party finishes their short rest.
[This is Larry and Mathias’ second short rest of Day 2, but the third short rest for everyone else]
[Thokk uses two hit dice, and with healing from Tyrius is back to full]
[Umbra uses three hit dice and heals 19. She is at 25/38 and 0/3/0]
[Aurora uses arcane recovery to be at 4/3/3 (her full complement); she was already at 38/38]
Mathias decides to lighten his load a bit by leaving some of his rations in the storeroom.
It is decided that the main party will leave through the north door, while Tyrius, Larry, and Umbra will remain behind with Eddard and the mules. The “away team” is considered strong enough to handle the two security clockworks, while the others will remain in reserve in case healing or support is needed later. As the others leave, Tyrius begins to drag the remains of the defeated security clockwork into the table room [where the three lurkers hang in wait]. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Six
Still watching the windows, Leezar backed slowly to an open doorway, passed through and shut the heavy oaken door closed behind him. The room was pitch black and smelled of death and decay. Leezar fumbled in his pack and removed flint, steel, cotton, and a tarred torch. In half a minute he had the torch blazing and could see the room. Seven corpses and an upturned cauldron lay in the room. The corpses were not long dead - several weeks to a few months - but had been picked clean by rats and insects, and so were now just black robes, gnawed bones, and hair. Leezar knelt by the one with the longest, whitest hair. When he touched the hair itself all of the memories of the crones came back, and he gasped, swooned, and nearly passed out from the sudden pain of experiencing each of their deaths simultaneously. There was more than the memories he had experienced on the ship, though - there was a new, burning memory, of the moment of their deaths.
[Note: the following is originally from Post 76]
Babshapka is lifted through the trapdoor by Thokk, climbing silently into the room. There are two doors in the room, and from the nearer one comes the sounds of several voices united in chant. He calls softly down the trapdoor about the bottles and jars, and Aurora insists on being the next one through, though her ascent is not nearly as silent as his was.
Many of the jars have labels, and she can read in Suel things like “Eye of Newt," "Hair of Bat," "Snail hearts," and "Maresweat." She sends Charlotte under the near door, and the spider reports a small chamber with a cauldron in the center, and several human figures chanting around it and stirring. Aurora recalls her, then tries to send her under the far door, but the frame is too well fitted and the spider cannot squeeze through.
Aurora whispers a plan to Babshapka. They empty their packs of oil flasks, and stand with two in each hand. Babshapka is to kick open the door and toss in his flasks, and then Aurora will throw hers in followed by a [i]fireball.
Babshapka strides forward and kicks boldly at the door - but it opens out, not in, and his blow lands with a resounding thud. He looks over at Aurora, halfway through her spell and even now surrounded by a red, glowing light that is building in intensity. Babhapka turns and jumps down through the trapdoor.
Aurora rushes forward, turns the handle, and pulls open the door. Through the darkness of the room (K56) she can just barely see green-glowing wisps bubbling up from a huge black kettle. Electric sounds of cackling suddenly strike, sending a shudder through her as she retreats back into the potion room. Fully seven crones dressed in black robes turn to face her as she lets fly with her fireball, aiming for the far wall of their chamber.
A brilliant red spark flies from Aurora, impacting the wall. A half-second later there is a powerful explosion, filling the small room with fire. The robes of the women are instantly ablaze, the kettle knocked over by the concussive force. A shock wave followed by gouts of flame shoots out into the potions room, engulfing Aurora in fire. The tables behind her collapse, and the windows explode out in a shower of glass shards that fall to the courtyard below. Aurora is bowled over, but fortunately lands on top of the oil flasks in her hands and they do not ignite. The party later reports that flames even shot halfway down into the closet through the trapdoor.
Several moments later, Aurora is the first to her feet, before any of the crones. All about her are broken glassware and mingling liquids pooling on the floor. The labels have been singed or completely burnt away. In the chamber beyond lie seven bodies, none moving. Their upper halves smolder, while their lower halves are soaking in whatever liquid was in the kettle. Beyond where the kettle stood is a low stone pedestal, and on that sits open a thick leather-bound book. Even now flames are slowly consuming its parchment pages. “No!” shouts Aurora, and she hobbles into the room, slams the tome shut to extinguish the flames. When she opens it again half the pages, reduced to ash, fall out.
Aurora is still standing, looking dejectedly at the book, as the rest of the party ascends to the room. When she finally regains her composure, she tells them to wait while she casts a detect magic ritual. The intermingling liquids on the floor are magic - or were, though they are rapidly losing potency, and the book she holds is obviously a spellbook, but she finds no other foreign sources of arcane power in the room, not even the wicked-looking curved daggers that Babshapka is liberating from the bodies of the crones.[/i]
The memory now completely played out, Leezar staggered to his feet and set the cauldron aright. He disarticulated the bones of all the seven women, rearranged them around the cauldron into the unholy symbol of Graz’zt. Was it his imagination, or did the room actually get darker when he was done?
“So, now I know the people that did this,” he said to himself. “A half-elf wizard, her wood-elf guard, some others. I suppose the next thing is to find them and take my master’s revenge.”
“Revenge?” said a voice in the dark, and Leezar jumped in spite of himself. “No, your master has something far more important in mind. These servants were of minor and limited use to the Dark Prince. The wizard that slew them, Aurora, is more powerful then they ever were and is easily tempted by lust besides. Your mission is to find her, yes, but not for revenge. You are to turn her to the service of your master.”
“I understand,” says Leezar, and he nods in the dark.
“Take the crone’s hair. Let it be a token of Graz’zt’s favor.”
“As you command.”
Leezar grabbed the skull he had touched before, and the hair needed little persuasion to quit the rotting skin and bone. He tied it in a knot and put that in a bag, then waited to leave the castle until well after it was light and the owls gone. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Party rejoins mules - one roll
4:10am - vegepygmies
4:30am - Lurker above
5:10am - displacer beasts
5:50am - worker robot
6:10am - displacer beasts
1:10pm - displacer beasts
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
3:40pm (mules) worker robot
4pm (mules) worker robot
Party rejoins mules - one roll
5:30pm Police Robot, non-lethal
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
8:10pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (party) vegepygmies
Party, Mules, and Security Room all rolling separately
11:50pm (party) vegepygmies
Post 175: Two clockworks at once? 21 February, 571 [2 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 2
[DM's Note: This was definitely a difficult fight for the party, with three of them being taken out in the first round! The ability of the Security Robots to generate a force shield that can absorb damage each round is effectively 20 points of regeneration. To counteract this, the party needed effects that would continue to do damage each round, and they found them with the giant arrows and Mathias' witch bolt. Concentration is a hugely important mechanic in 5E. During the fight itself I looked some things up quickly and ruled that Mathias could maintain concentration on his spell even while paralyzed, allowing him to remain in the fight much longer. However, afterwards I learned that paralyzation breaks Concentration, RAW. See: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/172352/unlisted-effects-of-incapacitated-condition]
(6:50pm)
As the away team works their way out and around the hallway, Tyrius exits the storeroom. He has not gone more than a few steps outside the door when the ceiling falls! This time he is ready, though. He lurches heavily to the side and the lurker drops on, and envelops, the destroyed clockwork while he remains free. Tyrius shouts for aid.
In the hall beyond the table room, the party, moving quietly, can barely hear Tyrius’ call for aid. “Oh, for Balor’s sake!” says Mathias. It is not clear whether he is mis-pronouncing Pelor, or deliberately invoking some other god.
Round One
Willa enters the more northerly of the two doors on the east of the table room. As she draws her sword and strides through the doorway, a second lurker drops from the ceiling, enveloping her! (Damage 7).
Umbra moves to the doorway of the storeroom. She sees two lurkers on the floor - both attempting to suffocate prey. She shoots three dark bolts at the closer one (11 damage to the one with the clockwork). Umbra at 0/3/0.
Eddard moves to the doorway between the storeroom and table room to block anything from entering and attacking the mules.
Babshapka, still in the outer hallway, shoots two arrows at the one smothering Willa. One of the shafts manages to pierce the tough hide of the creature (damage 12).
From the hallway doorway, Mathias sends forth two blasts of force on the one with Willa (one hit, 5 damage).
Larry squeezes out the storeroom door by walking under Eddard and between his front legs. He rakes his thorn whip across the lurker still holding the clockwork (5 damage).
Aurora stands just behind Mathias in the hallway doorway but does not enter the table room. She takes a second to assess both lurkers, then shoots a firebolt at the more distant one that appears more wounded (4 damage).
With the northern doorway blocked by comrades, Thokk and Shefak head for the southern doorway, open it, and run inside. Immediately the ceiling there falls as well! A third lurker (or fourth counting the one that was already dead) glides down but misses Thokk and Shefak and lands lightly on the floor. Ignoring it, Thokk continues moving until he reaches the one that has Willa. “No one eat Thokk’s warband!” he yells as he chops at the creature (one hit, 8 damage).
Tyrius beats on the clockwork lurker with his war hammer (one hit, 8 damage).
The lurker that has Willa in its grasp tries to tighten its hold, but her magical plate armor resists its crushing strength.
Round Two
The lurker that had enveloped the clockwork recognizes that its prey is not edible. It detaches, glides along the floor, and attempts to leave the area, but not before Tyrius takes another swing (opportunity attack, hit for 9 damage). The one squeezing Willa is unable to squeeze hard enough. The one that had tried to drop on Shefak and Thokk attempts to glide away but is sliced by Thokk (opportunity attack, hit for 11 damage).
Tyrius is able to keep up with the retreating lurker as it glides across the ground, and he batters at it (one hit, 9 points). Aurora continues to target it with her spells as well (firebolt hits for 12 damage).
Babshapka shoots through the doorway at the lurker restraining Willa (two hits, 16 damage). Larry uses his whip on that one as well, but this round he cannot break through its thick hide. Mathias continues his force attacks (two hits, 16 damage).
Thokk stabs his sword through the hide of one of the creatures many times, yelling “Thokk free his evil advisor!” as he does so (one hit for 12 damage kills the lurker - one hit does 11 damage to Willa). Willa shrugs off the last of the lurker’s embrace. “Thanks, Thokk,” she says, but the sarcasm in her voice is lost on the beaming barbarian. She grabs her sword from the floor and launches herself at the one that attacked Thokk (one hit, 7 damage).
Shefak leaps, slides across the surface of the table, and lands next to the lurker that is trying to flee Tyrius. She punches it, then does a spinning kick that knocks it into the wall, killing it. (Ki point, Flurry of blows, four attacks, two hits, 14 damage, fails save to get pushed back, knocked into wall, 4 more damage).
Round Three
Shefak turns, runs and jumps over the table, and lands with a kick to the last remaining lurker, then follows that up with two strikes of her glowing fists. (Ki point, Flurry of blows, 4 attacks, 3 hits, 23 damage).
Thokk turns and attacks the one remaining (2 hits, 19 damage), and Babshapka steps into the room to fire a last round of arrows at it (one hit, 11 damage). The last lurker is dead.
“T’at be ther fifth one o’ yon creatures in t’is cave!” exclaims Willa. “‘ow many more could thar be?”
“If they are as good at ambushing plant men as they are at attacking us, lots,” reasons Babshapka as he goes about collecting his arrows.
“They didnae eat their dead fellow…” says Larry, “so they nae be cannibals, an’ p’raps nae scavengers - jus’ ambushers wha’ take live prey.”
“War t’ey turnin’ tail fer real?” asks Willa, incredulous at the one that tried to flee.
“Och, aye,” affirms the dwarf. “Most predators wha’ ambush hae no stomach fer a fair fight.”
“Well, they can’t get into keyed doors, but seem to have no problem with these,” Tyrius indicates the outer doors of the table room, which were shut when he entered the room. “Why did they set up their ambush in this room, and why so many of them?’
“Maybe they can smell the mules?” offers Babshapka, and Larry nods his agreement.
“How long would it take you to look for cards?” asks Aurora of Larry.
“Wat, en their entrails?” he responds. “Ten, fifteen minutes each.”
Aurora brings Buckbeak out of his pocket dimension for the first time since they entered the ship, and tells him to wait here - if Larry doesn’t find any cards, he is to look for Aurora around the clockwork room to which they are headed and land on her shoulder. If Larry does find a card, he is to come get Aurora and circle her head. The hawk screeches its understanding and Larry nods.
Those in the party that are off to face the clockworks continue down the hall. Larry closes the doors of the table room and then starts dissecting the intestines of the creatures. Tyrius and Umbra move a divan to block the northern door of the resting room and then settle in to wait for the party’s return.
(7pm)
As the away team passes the apartments in the hallway on the way to the clockworks, they go in each to check their exterior walls. They searched the rooms themselves before, but did not note the curvature of the wall on Willa’s sketch maps.
(7:10pm)
Outside the door of the clockworks, Willa and Aurora each take out a black stopperless flask. Aurora shows Willa how to ready it before throwing. [Willa now has a -3 on the chart to use the device] They retreat down the hall, while invisible Shefak peeks in the room to confirm that there are still two security clockworks inside. When she closes the door and tells the team that it is a go, they whisper the finishing touches on their plan. There is some debate on whether they should close the door to protect themselves from an explosion, or leave it open in case the blast damages the door to the point it can’t be opened again. They finally decide that they will leave it open. Willa sets her ioun stone in rotation about her head in anticipation of sleeping gas and sets her exploding flask on a three second delay.
The plan: Thokk will open the door. Willa will throw the flask, attempting to land it between the two clockworks. Everyone will flatten themselves against the near wall, away from the doorway. After the explosion, they will rush the room. Thokk will rage and run in first so that everyone has advantage on his target. After Thokk enters, Willa and Shefak will converge in melee on whichever of the two clockworks Thokk has selected. The missile troops will remain in the hallway and acquire targets. Aurora in particular will have a mage hand going with a readied action to carry away any flasks that appear, and will also be looking for any unkeyed doors to open so as to dispose of clockwork-shot flasks in other rooms.
Surprise Round; Party’s chosen initiative order
Willa nods to Thokk and he opens the door. She depresses the plunger of the flask, twists it halfway, depresses it again, and throws. (Roll 2-3= 0; Circle. 5-3 = 2; Finish. To-hit roll (dex, no proficiency) 11+3 = 14). The flask lands precisely between the two clockworks. Willa loudly counts “two...t’ree…” as the party flattens themselves against the wall. On “t’ree” there is an explosion and a blast of concussive force, but nothing flies out the door. [Willa has now successfully used a flask (-2), been instructed in its use (-2), and has seen a flask in use (-1), so she will have a -5 in the future. She will be able to use the flask now without having to roll on the table because any roll will result in success.]
[The black flask does 8 points of damage to the force shield of each clockwork. They are immune to both its stunning and deafening effects]
Thokk enrages and runs into the room. There are two clockworks; he chooses to attack the one on his right, to keep the other one on his shield side while he fights. He hits the clockwork twice; his first hit brings down its force shield (15 points, total 23 to shield), his second dents its metal body (14 points, total 17 to body).
Willa is right behind Thokk. The bins of clockwork parts that were set up on a table in the room have been upset by the blast and pieces of metal and broken cave horn are scattered about the room, but it does not appear that the clockworks themselves were damaged by the blast. Still, Thokk is scoring good hits on one of the machines, so she piles on while it is distracted by him. (Two hits, damage 30, total 47 to body).
Shefak summons her Ki and is next through the door. She unleashes a flurry of blows against the clockwork, and thanks to Thokk’s rage, hits it all four times (26 damage, total 73 to body). With a massive kick to its head while she jerks on a tentacle, she manages to topple the creature to the ground, where it falls heavily (Dex save 5. First clockwork is prone. Melee attacks on it are now at advantage even without Thokk’s rage, but missile attacks are at disadvantage).
From the hallway, Babshapka maneuvers so that he can see both clockworks. The plan was to take them out one at a time, but the one that the melee fighters are surrounding is now prone and a more difficult target; he is as likely to hit one of his party as the clockwork itself. He draws and fires on the undamaged one across the room. (Two hits, 13 damage is 21 total, shield down, 1 point to body).
The stated plan was that melee fighters were to converge on one clockwork while missile troops provided support from the hall. No one thought to specify which type of fighter, missile or melee, Mathias was. He runs in the door, and when he is within a stone’s throw of the standing clockwork he shoots forth the personal lightning he used to such devastating effect on the female clockwork. (Attack hits, 3d12 damage, doubled for clockwork vulnerability to electricity). Electricity arcs through the body of the machine.
Aurora has been waiting, mage hand at the ready, but no flask has yet appeared from their foes. From the doorway, she can see two pressure-plated doors out of the room - but they are both too distant for her spell to reach. “Open one of the doors!” she screeches to those in the room.
Round One
Mathias holds his position, concentrating on keeping his clockwork engulfed in lightning. (6 points of damage, doubled to 12). “We got this!” he yells encouragingly.
With a loud hum and a flash of blue force, the prone and legless clockwork re-establishes its force shield and then somehow rights itself and levitates to an upright position without using its hands. A panel opens in its torso, its “ovipositor” emerges, and a familiar blue flask is ejected at its base. “Sleep gas!” shouts Aurora, and then uses her mage hand to pick up the flask before it can detonate. The far corner of the room is too far for her hand to travel, but it flies to 30 feet away from her and then tosses the flask into the corner, at which point it promptly explodes, covering about a quarter of the room in the thick, blue gas. No party members are in the immediate vicinity thanks to her readied action.
The second clockwork also brings its force shield back online, then opens a large panel on its face. The glass retort emerges with a shower of golden sparks. It swivels until it finds three of the four people in the room in the conical area of effect, and then unleashes a paralysis beam. Shefak and Mathias are caught squarely in the beam and can’t move at all. Willa is hit at the edge and feels her muscles go numb, but thinks she will be able to pull out of it much sooner than the last time (Willa makes her save and is paralyzed for 4 rounds, Mathias and Shefak fail their saves and will be out for many minutes).
Seeing three of the party suddenly incapacitated, Babshapka thinks he will need more than arrows. He drops his bow and flips open the hand mirror he had ready on his belt, immediately depressing the thumb trigger. (Roll 10-3 = 7; Charge Wasted) A beam blasts out and hits the ground at his feet. The metal of the floor buckles and bends, with bubbles and stress cracks appearing. Babshapka forces himself to calm down and uses the knob to flip on the targeting screen, moves the mirror until he can see the clockwork in the crosshairs on the screen. (Roll 3-3 = 0; Circle. 10-3 = 7; Triangle. 8-3 = 5; Start. 1-3 = 1; Circle. 6-3 = 3; Finish). It takes longer than he wants, but when he sees the crosshairs centered, he presses the trigger, and the mirror shoots forth its ray. (DC13 dex save failed by clockwork, 5d6 damage = 15.) The clockwork is hit with a solid blast from the mirror and its force shield flickers but remains up. [Babshapka has now used the mirror (-2), been instructed in its use (-2), and has seen it in use by another (-1), so he will have a -5 in the future. He will be able to use the mirror now without having to roll on the table because any roll will result in success]
Thokk, seeing not only his evil advisor but the kicking woman and the funny newcomer taken out as well, is confused and further enraged. He decides to leave off attacking the clockwork he was hitting and attack the other one, before it can paralyze more of his friends. Forgoing his shield-form, he grabs his longsword with both hands and attacks recklessly. (One hit, 13 damage). His wild swings bring down the force shield again, and do a bit more damage to the creature’s body. Electricity from Mathias’ spell, still flowing between the paralyzed man and the clockwork, plays along the blade of Thokk’s sunsword, but does not reach the hilt. Thokk ignores the yelling sounds coming from Aurora as the blue gas cloud expands in the room.
Desperate to end this fight, Aurora pulls out her wand of polymorph, shoots a beam at the clockwork Thokk left to his unguarded back, and tries to turn it into a sheep. The beam hits it squarely, but has no effect (Clockwork saves, wand to 19 charges). She tries to remember whether the wand can affect non-living things and thinks she remembers it can affect golems.
Round Two
Babshapka, now with more confidence, adjusts the range on the mirror and holds it forth against the paralyzing clockwork. He fires twice (Clockwork fails both Dex saves, 21 + 24 = 45 points damage. The mirror’s power disc is now at zero). The mirror emits a faint pinging sound, the screen display fades, and Babshapka moves out of the doorway into the cover of the hall as he reaches for his bow.
With its grasping metal hands, the paralyzing clockwork reaches forth and grabs both Mathias and Shefak. It lifts their bodies into the air with ease, and then rolls forward, reaching the doorway and passing out into the hall. Thokk bellows at it and scores a hit as it retreats (opportunity attack, hit for 9 points), but this just lands on its re-established force shield.
The other clockwork, to Thokk’s rear, opens a huge chest plate. A long metal wand emerges and Willa, unable to move, silently screams a warning to Thokk to turn around. Two blasts of light emerge and strike Thokk in the back (attack with advantage due to Thokk’s reckless attack, both shots hit, total 20 points radiant damage, no reduction from rage).
Mathias may be paralyzed, but that doesn’t stop his mind from working. He wills his electricity to continue coursing through the clockwork even as it is hauling him away [Mathias is incapacitated and cannot take actions, but fortunately for all of them the DM misrules that maintaining Concentration while paralyzed is possible, 4 points electricity is doubled to 8]
Thokk staggers forward from the laser blasts to his back. He hopes his friends in the hall can save Mathias and Shefak - but more than that he wants revenge on the clockwork that just hit him. He turns and brings his sword down hard, managing to collapse its force shield again (two hits, 25 damage, 20 to force shield, 5 to body, 78 total to body).
Aurora gives way rather than be run over by the retreating clockwork wheeling her friends rapidly down the hall. She fires four magic missiles after it (11 damage, Aurora to 4/2/2).
Round Three
An enraged Thokk curses and growls and continues to strike at the one clockwork left in the room (one hit, 10 damage, 88 total to body)
Mathias smiles inwardly as he shoots yet more lightning into the clockwork in the hall (7 points doubled is 14). Smoke emerges from the open panel in its face and it slowly wheels to a halt. Mathias and Shefak are still suspended by its hands.
Willa is still struggling - she can begin to feel her limbs and almost move them...the blue gas has filled nearly half the room, and is threatening to envelop Thokk, who is ignoring it.
The remaining clockwork in the room brings up its force shield again, then fires off two more blasts of radiant energy at Thokk, but he blocks them with his shield.
With the threat in the hall resolved, Aurora steps back into the doorway, wand in hand. She has an idea...clockwork to sheep may be too great a change, but what about clockwork to clockwork? She fires the wand at the clockwork battling Thokk, trying to imagine it turning into one of the cleaning automatons...and it does! (Polymorph wand to 18 charges, clockwork fails save).
The new cleaning clockwork shudders and shakes. The air is filled with the scent of oil and disappointment. “Don’t attack it!” yells Aurora.
Round Four
Thokk finally notices the expanding gas cloud and remembers the other clockwork that made him sleep. He grabs Willa, and lifts her taut form in the air to carry her out of the room.
“No, Thokk!” calls Aurora. “She has her stone!” Indeed, the ioun stone is still circling Willa’s rigid body. “Bring the clockwork!”
Thokk lets go of Willa and grabs the cleaning clockwork in a bear hug and lifts it off of the ground. It struggles against his grasp but cannot break free (grapple attack - contested athletics check). He staggers to the door with it fighting all the way. Aurora explains to him and Babshapka that if they attack the clockwork, it will revert to its normal form, so they have to keep track of it until the rest of the party is no longer paralyzed. When they attack it, they will need to all attack it at once so as to bring it down quickly even after it changes back.
5e polymorph wrote:
The target assumes the Hit Points of its new form. The transformation lasts for the Duration of the spell, or until the target drops to 0 Hit Points or dies. When it reverts to its normal form, the creature returns to the number of Hit Points it had before it transformed. If it reverts as a result of Dropping to 0 Hit Points, any excess damage carries over to its normal form.
In the hallway, the clockwork continues to struggle against Thokk’s grasp. It knees him in the groin and he gasps in pain and drops it. It rights itself, clumps quickly into the room, and turns a knob on the desk. There is a rush of air, and the blue gas begins to be sucked into the ventilation system as the room clears.
Round Five
With a hoarse shout, Willa slumps and then stands, finally able to move. “Thank ther Great Sea Cow o’ ther South!” she exclaims, as she staggers over to the wall to get her balance. She presses the door panel, and the east door opens. The room beyond is full of tables, workbenches, and bins of parts and tools. A dozen security clockworks, in various stages of disrepair and none moving, lay on the tables and benches. A single cleaning clockwork stands over one, using tools to open a chest panel on one of the others, a complicated gear mechanism in one hand.
Thokk stands up in the hall and moves angrily back into the room, sword in hand. “Not yet!” calls Aurora. “We need to get everyone back and ready!”
Thokk snorts. “Evil advisor ready. That enough!” He strides over to the cleaning clockwork, who is now busily gathering the scattered parts on the floor and organizing them back into the bins. He raises his sword and brings it down twice on the unsuspecting clockwork (one hit, 16 damage).
Aurora sighs and launches a firebolt. (Hit, 8 damage, total 24).
Babshapka puts a giant arrow to his bow, but waits for the clockwork’s transformation back to the security version.
Round Six
Thokk continues to pound on the defenseless clockwork (two hits, 23 damage, total 47).
Willa closes the door on the east wall, and walks with increasing control to the door on the south wall.
“Uh, Willa, we all need to be ready when this thing turns,” says Aurora.
“It hain’t turned yet,” says Willa, and presses the panel. The door opens on some sort of supply closet, filled with shelves of machine parts. She leaves the door open and turns to face the center of the room.
Aurora groans and launches another firebolt (hit, 12 damage, total 59).
Babshapka checks the halls to either side, making sure nothing is coming and Mathias and Shefak are alright although still paralyzed, and keeps his giant arrow nocked.
The clockwork beeps and starts a loud alarm call, sounding much like the doors when an incorrect card is used. It heads rapidly for the door, legs pumping awkwardly but furiously. Thokk takes a parting shot (opportunity attack hits, damage 14, total 73).
Round Seven
The clockwork moves quickly past Babshapka and Aurora - it is fast! As it threatens to turn the corner, Babshapka fires off one of his giant killer arrows, sending it through a hole Thokk rent in the body. (Damage 14, total 87). There is the sound of gears grinding as it staggers to halt, shudders, and begins to change its form back into that of security clockwork (shield up, total 95 to body retained from before). Interestingly, Babshapka’s giant arrow remains piercing a hole in its body even as it transforms. It starts forward down the hall again.
“Get out here!” yells Aurora to Thokk and Willa, and follows up her admonition with a firebolt (16 damage, all to force shield). As Thokk and Willa pass her, Aurora ducks back into the room, and out of the line of sight of the clockwork.
Round Eight
Thokk and Willa catch up to the clockwork just after it has rounded the corner to the west. Babshapka is behind them, and his arrows fly faster than they can run. Two more giant killer arrows, for a total of three, now protrude from its chassis. Thokk catches up to it and hits it twice (20 damage). Willa is farther behind.
The clockwork lashes out at Thokk with its hands of flexible metal. He beats one off, but the other grabs him and lifts him off of the ground (one successful grapple attack not beaten by Thokk's Athletics]. Thokk is impressed - he doesn’t think even his mighty muscles could lift the machine one-handed!
Round Nine
While one hand restrains Thokk, the other attempts to further secure him, and the tentacles lash at him. The clockwork wheels itself rapidly down the hall, and turns the corner out of sight of Willa and Babshapka. However, Thokk can see sparks flying out of the machine around the shafts of the arrows (11 points this round of giant arrows continuing to do damage). Shortly after it turns the corner, the clockwork rolls to a halt and the hand slowly lowers Thokk to the ground. The machine is now just a smoking ruin.
[DM’s Note: This facility has functioning video cameras that archive records here and transmit them to the security HQ. Thus, the party’s fight against the two security robots was recorded and analyzed. The repair robot working in the next room will upgrade the AC of security robots taking into account the means the party used to attack, at a +1 for each robot the party is on record as defeating. The security robots had an AC of 11 at the start of the module. All wandering security robots now encountered will be AC13 and resistant to fire damage.]
(7:30pm)
Over the next several minutes Thokk and Willa drag both clockworks, as well as Shefak and Mathias, into the room and close the door. Babshapka retrieves the shafts of his giant killer arrows from one of the clockworks. The heads have broken off, as they were designed to do, and wreaked havoc among the internal gearing systems. He then begins to patrol the hallway outside the room, moving from one corner to the other.
Buckbeak appears, alighting on Aurora’s shoulder (which indicates Larry did not find any cards in the lurker innards).
Aurora and Willa discuss the fact that the security clockworks seemed to want to take captured prisoners somewhere, and that that place, wherever it might be, would be more likely than anywhere else on the ship to have food, fuel, power discs, and cards. They agree that should the opportunity present itself again, they may want to allow themselves, or at least one of their number, to be captured, and have the rest follow the clockworks back to their base. When they explain this to Thokk, he agrees to the plan only on the assumption that wherever their “lair” is, there will be more than two of the creatures to fight, since just two was not a challenge enough for him. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
The hair of the crone proved a potent token indeed. For one thing, when Leezar carried it on his person, he found he could use it as an arcane focus for his spells. No longer would he need to carry water, a lightning-struck twig, bat fur, coal, and a feather for his various hexes. Even more importantly, once per night at midnight, he could command the hair to “show me your killer” and toss it in the air. It would unerringly land in a straight line, pointing the way for his next day’s travel.
It took him several weeks to cross the Little Hills, Sterich, and Geoff, following the hair each night. One fly spell took him more than two miles in ten minutes. A second spell could have taken him just as far, but in practice he spent the last few minutes searching for a safe place to rest, for he would have to camp for an hour or more before regaining the power he needed to do the same again. He flew in short bursts, for all the night, covering some thirty or forty miles a night, straight in the direction of Aurora, and easily crossing barriers like rivers, mires, and mountains. He slept through the days. His night travels were aided by his invocation of Fiend's Sight.
When he reached northern Geoff, he received another communication. This time he was told to seek out a boatman who lived on the Isle of Rhȗn. As he neared the lake, he learned more. The Island was sacred to the Old Flan Gods and shrouded in mist that even his Fiend's Sight would not penetrate, for it was the center of power of a conclave of Druids. However, the boatman, whose duty it was to ferry those granted audience with the Druids to the island and back, was secretly a worshiper of Graz’zt. He had been a worshiper of the Old Gods in his youth, and a druid as well, but when the hierarchy rejected him as unworthy for further promotion he was devastated, though they kept him on as a servant. In bitterness and despair his thoughts turned dark, and Graz’zt was happy to add him as a follower and satisfy his ego in other ways.
Leezar met with the fallen druid in a small village at the edge of the lake. The man explained that the party had indeed passed through here some two weeks ago. He had overheard them speaking with one of the Druids about traveling to the Unoerthly Cave. They had asked for assistance from the druids in finding the cave, and had not been entirely happy with what the druids had offered. Leezar was pleased. The hair of the crone could be used to find the party easily, but he now understood that they were deep in remote and frozen mountains. It would be exceedingly suspicious for him to just show up when they had seen no one in weeks. They were unlikely to let him join the party. But if he could tell them that he had been sent by the Druids to aid them…
The next day he set out for the cave, traveling higher and higher into the mountains, until the air grew thin and it was below freezing even at mid-day. Eventually he found the opening of the cave, but inside was a curious set of metal doors. Nothing he could do would open the doors - no spell, no object, no force. Even summoning his pact weapon in a myriad of forms, nothing parted the supernaturally hard metal doors. He made his camp and waited - the hair told him that they were within. He knew better than to pray for aid or wisdom. He had learned early on that his role was to remain receptive and do what the demonic voices bid of him, not ask them for help. Asking for help was a sign of weakness and failure in the eyes of Graz’zt.
That night, well after sunset, the sky suddenly grew light for the briefest of moments. A ray of sunshine entered the cave and shone upon the doors. They parted with a brief mechanical whirring and Leezar entered. The inside was huge and strange, with halls and rooms all of metal. The doors closed resoundingly behind him. Now he had only to find the party...
(Once Leezar finds the party, he levels to 6th):
Leezarius Angelicus Temtonio, aka "Leezar", aka "Mathias"
New abilities in bold.
Sixth Level Warlock / Human (Oerid) (Noble)
Str 10 (0) Dex 16 (+3) Con 13 (+1) Int 8 (-1) Wis 9 (-1) Cha 18 (+4)
Hp 38, Languages Common, Velondi
Skills: Deception, History, Investigation, Persuasion
Otherworldly Patron - Dark Prince Graz'zt
Cantrips (3): Blade Ward, Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand,
Spells (7) - all cast at level 3): Burning Hands, Witch Bolt, Armor of Agathys, Darkness, Dispel Magic, Fly, Hex
Invocations (3): Thirsting Blade, One With Shadows, Fiend's Sight
Pact Boon: Pact of the Blade
Special Ability: Saved by the Bell. Because of his work as a pit fighter and his experience taking dives, may make a Deception check to convincingly feign unconsciousness or death. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Party rejoins mules - one roll
4:10am - vegepygmies
4:30am - Lurker above
5:10am - displacer beasts
5:50am - worker robot
6:10am - displacer beasts
1:10pm - displacer beasts
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
3:40pm (mules) worker robot
4pm (mules) worker robot
Party rejoins mules - one roll
5:30pm Police Robot, non-lethal
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
8:10pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (party) vegepygmies
Party, Mules, and Security Room all rolling separately
11:50pm (party) vegepygmies
Post 177: Go to Jail. Go Directly to Jail 21 February, 571 [2 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 2
(7:30pm)
Over the next several minutes Thokk and Willa drag both clockworks, as well as the paralyzed Shefak and Mathias, into the room and close the door. Babshapka retrieves the shafts of his giant killer arrows from one of the clockworks. The heads have broken off, as they were designed to do, and wreaked havoc among the internal gearing systems. He then begins to patrol the hallway outside the room, moving from one corner to the other.
Buckbeak appears, alighting on Aurora’s shoulder (which indicates Larry did not find any cards in the lurker innards).
Aurora and Willa discuss the fact that the security clockworks seemed to want to take captured prisoners somewhere, and that that place, wherever it might be, would be more likely than anywhere else on the ship to have food, fuel, power discs, and cards. They agree that should the opportunity present itself again, they may want to allow themselves, or at least one of their number, to be captured, and have the rest follow the clockworks back to their base. When they explain this to Thokk, he agrees to the plan only on the assumption that wherever their “lair” is, there will be more than two of the creatures to fight, since just two was not a challenge enough for him.
(7:30-7:50pm)
When they have finished speaking, Willa puts her stone away and searches the room while Aurora moves into the next one, with the cleaning clockwork. She spends a long time watching the clockwork, attempting to determine how much time it will take to fix one of the security clockworks. She also speaks to the mechanical creature continuously, hoping to activate whatever tongues or comprehend languages ability she triggered with the first one they encountered. However, it never responds or even seems to take account of her. Furthermore, it seems to be doing little more than absent-minded puttering rather than targeted repair: it picks up and puts down a long series of parts before finally bringing one over to a clockwork, it opens and closes any number of panels before finally inserting the part, welds or solders it in a shower of sparks, then more often than not breaks the same piece off again. When it finally does leave the part installed and intact, it then proceeds to check nearly all of the broken clockworks in the room before it returns again to the trays of parts. With this “ten steps forward, nine steps back” approach it will likely take hours if not days to completely repair even one of the many clockworks in the room with it. Thokk hovers nearby, hoping the clockwork will give him an excuse to attack, and occasionally massaging his wounded manhood and his damaged pride.
[For her attentive watching of the clockwork’s use of tools, Aurora now has a +1 on Sleight of Hand checks to open up the clockworks and extract components from them]
Willa checks quickly through all the bins of parts in the other room but finds no cards or weapons. She moves to the desk. There are no drawers, but there are several rows of knobs as well as two screens of dark-plated glass that she thinks could be ‘vid-screens’.
Willa moves to the supply closet and goes quickly through the parts, again looking for weapons, cards, power discs, maps, and such. However, the gears and cogs there are of no obvious function aside from somehow fitting inside the clockworks. After ten minutes she does find a black horn case, the size of a small valise. It has a simple latch mechanism and no traps that she can see. She gets out her stone before she opens it as a precaution. Inside, the case is completely lined with cave sponge except for a dozen narrow slots. Each slot is filled with a single power disc. She passes the case to Babshapka and puts away her stone.
Babshapka withdraws a few of the discs - each of them is set to six / full. He grins in satisfaction and takes the case to Aurora. When she sees its contents she gives a whoop of excitement and exclaims “Blessed be the Scholar!” She shows Babshapka how to extract and insert discs in his mirror, her retort, and the atmospheric analyzer.
Babshapka takes the empty power disc from the mirror and puts it in the box, swapping out for two full discs. He replaces one of these full discs in the mirror and carries another one loosely.
(8pm)
With groans, Shefak and Mathias are finally able to move and they come into the parts room. Aurora is now set to leave. She proposes they destroy the cleaning clockwork so that it cannot repair any more of the clockworks they will later have to fight. “Now hold on there,” Mathias objects. “These things seem to be running the ship - what if they are the ones keeping the air flowing, or keeping the monsters in check?” Aurora has to admit that that is a possibility, and when Willa asks her how long before the security clockworks in this room will be repaired, she shrugs and says “Days?” It is decided that they will leave the clockwork to its tasks.
Willa asks whether Aurora has searched this room and she admits she has not. Willa tells her to check the desk in the other room while she searches here.
Willa goes through the bins and trays of parts, her searches unhindered by the clockwork. Here she does find plenty of weapons systems - many copies of the metal wand of damaging light and the paralyzing retort. However, none of them have spaces to insert power discs. Rather they have wires and cables and are set up to be run off of what Aurora said was the clockworks’ internal power supply. She finds no cards, or flasks, or discs. Willa considers taking all of the weapons, including the ones already installed, so that even if the security clockworks are repaired, they will be relatively harmless. It is a good idea in principle, but in practice she and Aurora are already overloaded and the rest of the party are at their weight limit. Taking all of the wands and retorts would mean taking on several hundred pounds of metal and glass, so it is just not practical at the moment - perhaps they can return later. She also notes that this room has a carded door to the south, but it is violet-keyed.
Aurora enters the next room and uses her new knowledge to open up the two clockworks recently disabled by the party in the combat. In the first one, the atmospheric analyzer has been completely smashed in the fight. The compartment for the flasks is dented as well, and has several wires thrust into it and occasionally sparking. She might be able to extract the flasks, but at the risk of setting them off in the process. She decides to leave them in place. She does extract a full power disc, however, and claims it for herself. The second clockwork is more intact. Its atmospheric analyzer is broken, but she recovers a full set of flasks for Willa as well as a power disc at 5 charges, which she places in the black case. Mathias asks to carry some discs “just in case”, and she gives him two full ones from the case as well as transferring two empty ones to Thokk.
Mathias asks whether she is sure that neither of the clockworks have cards in them, and Aurora says that it appears so. “Well, I guess I lost then,” he admits, and starts rummaging in his pack for “fey juice”, whatever that is.
“Stow it,” says Willa. “I be on duty a’ ther moment. ‘Twill be time eno’ when next we rest.”
(8:10pm)
[Unbeknownst to either the party or Eddard, a patrol of vegepygmies has entered the table room. They find the dead lurkers, and reflect that perhaps there are more benefits to their truce with the party than they initially realized. They resolve to trust more the wisdom of their subchiefs as they work together to carry the lurker bodies back to the mulch room one at a time.]
Watched closely by Mathias, Aurora examines the desk. By manipulating the knobs she is able to control the airflow in the room, open and close all three of the doors without touching their panels, turn on and off and even dim and brighten the lights in the room, and turn on an alarm that she quickly silences. However, nothing that she does seems to activate the screens.
(8:20pm)
Having exhausted all possibilities for the suite of three rooms, the party prepares to set out. Willa asks Shefak whether or not she can take them to the mess hall that she found by following the cleaning clockwork, and the monk nods.
The way leads north by the pile of refuse in the hall and then past the lounge where they found the hidden notes. Opening a large double door with a press panel, they find a room that is instantly recognizable as a feast hall or mess hall. Several long, high tables and numerous chairs are set up as if a meal were in progress. However, many of the chairs are overturned, and there is no evidence of food, trenchers, or utensils. All of the chairs are individual rather than being benches. More grimly, the bones of many humans or humanoids lie strewn about - some in reasonably articulated skeletons and some scattered. Most have rags of fabric clinging to them but no weapons or other devices are in sight.
Each of the tables has one or two inset metal panels with small grills. These could be stove tops for cooking at the tables themselves, but no fuel source is apparent. The metal panels have sections of glass, often broken, and the metal fixtures themselves are bent and dented.
The tables have fixed legs rather than trestle construction and are in fact bolted to the floor. They are made from cave horn and metal.
The chairs have normal backs, but no legs. Rather, the seat continues down the front, across the bottom, and up the lower back, so that the whole thing from the side rather resembles a lower base “b”. The chairs are made of cave horn.
“If this be a feast hall, war did ther food come from?” asks Willa. Babshapka spends ten minutes checking the walls for secret doors, while Mathias spends the time checking all the bodies and bones. They find neither means of egress nor key cards or other identification.
(8:30pm)
Returning out into the hall, Willa says that they should check the black-keyed rooms near where they fought the female clockwork. “Yes, Serjeant Stoutly!” agrees Mathias.
They start with the next room over from where they stored the body of the clockwork. “How do you open the doors?” asks Mathias. “I need to learn this stuff.” Babshapka takes out a black card and instructs him in both how to use it and the significance of the colors.
The first room and the next (8:35) are standard apartments, the last (8:40) is a looted storeroom. Shefak guards the intersection, and cautions the party against approaching as there are plant men nearby down the next corridor. They decide to continue the search down the corridor to the south.
Along the west wall of the south corridor are five doors, all with black key locks but one already open. They find a looted storeroom (8:40), and then a series of four apartments (8:45, 8:50, 8:55, 9pm).
(9pm)
[Unbeknownst to either the party or Eddard, a patrol of vegepygmies pauses outside the storeroom, and then continues.]
Willa is about to send for Shefak to recall her when the monk comes running back of her own accord, warning that something is disturbing the plant men and that they are massing in their hallway! Willa commands Babshapka to check the only door they have not opened yet and try to find a way out. The others prepare to run or fight if needed.
Babshapka checks the far door, which leads to an apartment. It is large, large enough for them all, but it is a dead end - no way out other than how he came in. When he relays this information to Willa, she tells the party to make for the intersection and retreat.
Shefak leads the way, but before the rest of the party can arrive she makes herself visible and motions them back. “Nine plant men and two dogs,” she says.
Willa ushers the party through the door of the open apartment while Babshapka readies his mirror. The last of them are not through the doorway and are still in sight when the thorn dogs reach the intersection. Immediately the creatures turn, heads dropping and thorns bristling in the direction of the party - but they do not rush forward.
Aurora sends Buckbeak above their heads, to the intersection and then east, but they do not pursue. Rather, they remain at the intersection until their plant men masters arrive. The diminutive creatures brandish their weapons at the sight of the party but do not advance. Several moments pass by. When neither side makes an aggressive move, the plant men continue to the east out of sight.
Several in the party let out held breaths. The size of the group itself was no concern - those present would have made short work of them. But the whole combat would have been a stone’s throw from the plant man hallway and a perhaps endless source of reinforcements.
“Perhaps they were just a patrol?” suggests Aurora. Willa nods and says that whatever they were, it appears that their truce with the party still holds. She says that they will continue searching rooms, but not in the direction that the plant men went. That means they will need to pass through the intersection that lies at the end of the plant man corridor.
(9:05pm)
Using the same procedure as before, the party passes one at a time through the intersection and then up the wide hall to the north, keeping their weapons away and looking non-threatening. The plant men mass together and display, but do not attack or pursue. Eventually the entire away team finds themselves at a T-intersection of 20-foot wide hallways. To the south are fully seven black-keyed doors, with one more brown-keyed one in the southeast. Along the northern wall are just two doors, both with push panels rather than keys. The eastern and western hallways both turn to the north.
Before they enter deeper into the new hallway, Willa asks Babshapka to check for tracks, and the ranger reports that there are human-sized markings, besides the obvious foot prints of the plant men and thorn dogs. When she remarks on the presence of the human tracks, Babshapka reminds her of the female clockwork, which they fought nearby.
(9:10pm)
Willa sets a watch on each of the hallways - Thokk south to where the plant men are, Shefak on the eastern corridor that turns north, and a recalled Buckbeak on the western corridor that turns north. The rest of them (Willa, Aurora, Babshapka, and Mathias) investigate the first black-keyed door to the east, but find only a standard looted apartment. Willa offers, and the others agree, that likely all of the doors to the south will be similar, for they are spaced evenly and cover the same space. They decide to try the unlocked doors to the north.
(9:15pm)
The eastern door leads to a 20’ x 30’ room that looks to have an exit corridor in the rear as well as a keyed door on the east wall. Their immediate impression is that the place is distinct from other rooms in that it has not been looted: there are no piles of debris on the floor and there are two desks with chairs behind them that are in good condition. [Medical Area: Main records office and examination clinic]
Willa is the first in the room with Mathias right behind her. As soon as Willa enters, however, a disembodied voice, like that of a magic mouth spell, begins speaking. The language is unfamiliar. Willa immediately turns and exits the room, but Mathias proceeds to a desk and moves the chair to better access the drawers.
“Are you sure you want to be in there?” calls Babshapka to Mathias, over the sound of the alien language.
“We’re supposed to be checking rooms, aren’t we?” he responds.
“Ther door nae be locked - bu’ ther room ain’t looted - might be it hae some way o’ protectin’ itself.” Willa answers.
“At least let me see what that voice is saying first,” suggests Aurora.
Matthias shrugs and rejoins the party in the hall. The voice has repeated its short message three times and then stopped.
With the others on watch in the hallway, Aurora completes her ritual of comprehend languages.
(9:25pm)
With the ritual spell completed, all of those not on watch enter the room, Willa with her stone going. The voice repeats three times again, but this time Aurora understands what it is saying:
“All medical personnel are currently absent; please return at the start of the next duty shift. Emergency cases can report to Med 1 or Med 2 for attention.”
Babshapka moves to the rear of the room and looks down the interior corridor, while Mathias returns to the desk he was at before. As soon as he opens a drawer, however, an alarm sounds. It is similar to the alarms for when a wrong color card was used on a door, but louder. The noise fills the rooms and spills out into the hall. Willa winces and motions them out again.
Mathias looks up, but seems to want to finish his search. The desk has but a few drawers, and each has only curious dark panes of glass with metal frames in them. It is possible a small item could have fallen between drawers or there could be a hidden panel but that would take more searching. [Unbeknownst to the party, Mathias has found and secreted on his person a yellow key card]
Babshapka opens the pressure plate door and looks quickly around the room, which is strangely furnished. It is not clear whether it is meant to be an uncomfortable bedroom or a comfortable cell or torture chamber. There is a single bed with side rails and obvious locations for restraints. A smaller litter is nearby, curious in that it is wheeled. A thin, standing curtain has a sheer fabric mounted on a flexible folding frame that seems mounted to the floor and ceiling.
Willa grabs her stone from the air so that she is able to speak, steps into the hall and tells Thokk and Shefak to be extra vigilant. She has just turned around to re-enter the room when Buckbeak shrieks. Willa turns to the west and sees a security clockwork rounding the corner.
Round 1
FWOOM! The clockwork launches a flask that falls to the ground at Willa’s feet. She sucks in her breath and holds it just as the space around her is filled with billowing blue vapors. (Willa makes Con save). The clockwork advances rapidly down the hall toward her.
Babshapka leaves the interior room and continues to the west. He finds another office with a single long counter and two chairs behind it. He moves to the door.
Aurora follows Babshapka, but pauses at the desk and tries to find a knob that might control ventilation like in the clockwork repair room. The counter does not appear to have any control knobs. Buckbeak sails through the sleep gas cloud, in the open door, down the corridor, and alights on her shoulder.
Shefak invokes her Ki to run up beside the clockwork, but hesitates to attack. She waits for a command from Willa. Thokk has no such concerns. He barrels out of the southern corridor, draws his sword, and immediately lays into the clockwork. (Two hits, total 18 points, all absorbed by the force shield). Shefak follows up with a flurry of blows against the clockwork.
Mathias stands up from his search of the desk and draws his greatsword.
Round 2
Willa tosses her stone back into the air. Hoping that the others remember the plan to follow the clockwork back to its base, she pretends to stagger into the wall, and then slump unconscious to the floor (Deception roll 15 - everyone viewing her (Thokk, Shefak, and Clockwork) rolls less than that on Insight and believes that she is actually unconscious).
Mathias dashes to the other office and finds Aurora and Babshapka.
Babshapka opens the door and darts into the hall, the mirror in his hand. He sees Willa slumped on the floor by the other door and moves to support Thokk and Shefak.
Thokk and Shefak continue their attacks on the clockwork.
Aurora yells that they need to remember the plan, then moves to the open doorway.
The clockwork brings its force shield back up. Quickly calculating the distance between Shefak, Babshapka, and Thokk, it launches a black flask that lands precisely between them and explodes with a terrifyingly loud BANG.
stun grenade wrote:
Anyone in the initial 10' blast radius takes d6+4 damage, CON 16 save for half.
All within the blast are stunned for 1-4 rounds and deafened for 10-40 minutes;
All within a 20’ radius are stunned for 1 round and deafened for 1-4 rounds.
[Babshapka and Thokk make their Con saves and take 4 points each, Shefak fails and takes 9 points. Babshapka and Shefak are stunned for 4 rounds each, Thokk for 3.]
The clockwork wheels away from the dazed combatants, down the hall to Willa’s side.
Round 3
Mathias runs into the hall, and calls to his disoriented teammates to remember the plan. He does not realize that they cannot hear him. When he gets to the far side of the hall he disappears into the shadows.
The clockwork secures Willa with a mechanical hand, then swivels its head, opens a panel, and extrudes the golden retort. The sparking beam shoots down the hallway, enveloping Thokk, Shefak, Babshapka, and the unseen Mathias. The clockwork returns rapidly back up the hall while carrying Willa, and grabs the rigid body of Thokk in its other hand on its way past.
Mathias: Saves vs. paralysis (long range). For 1 round: half move, disadvantage on attacks, no dex bonus to AC.
Babshapka: Saves vs. paralysis (long range). For 1 round: half move, disadvantage on attacks, no dex bonus to AC. Still stunned for 3 rounds, still deafened for 40 minutes.
Thokk: Saves vs. paralysis (medium range). For one round paralyzed, then one round at half move, disadvantage on attacks, no dex bonus to AC. Still stunned for 2 rounds, still deafened for 30 minutes.
Shefak: Fails vs. paralysis (medium range): Paralyzed 20 minutes. Still stunned for 3 rounds, deafened for 40 minutes.
Aurora sees the flash from the paralyzation ray and hides behind the counter. Since her comprehend languages is still running, she listens for words from the security clockwork but the only one she hears distinctly is “Intruders”. She returns Buckbeak to his pocket dimension.
Round 4
A strange humming sound emerges from the clockwork. Shefak begins to float in the air. The clockwork rolls forward and around the corner, dragging Willa in one hand and Thokk in the other, Shefak floating in the air in some sort of telekinetic beam. The clockwork ignores Babshapka as it rolls by, and apparently cannot see Mathias any more than the others can.
Inside the medical office, Aurora casts Invisibility on herself (now at 4/1/2).
As she is dragged past a particularly dense patch of shadow, Willa hears Mathias whisper, “Wake up, Sergeant!”
She sighs as if still asleep and whispers back, “All part o’ ther plan…” Her hand surreptitiously gestures a thumbs up.
Mathias: No further penalties.
Babshapka: Still stunned for 2 rounds, still deafened for 40 minutes.
Thokk: Still one round at half move, disadvantage on attacks, no dex bonus to AC, still stunned for 1 round, still deafened for 30 minutes.
Shefak: Still stunned for 2 rounds, still paralyzed for 20 minutes, still deafened for 40 minutes.
Round 5
The clockwork continues north up the hall. Willa, one eye open, can see that they are being followed by Mathias, darting from shadow to shadow. She grins.
Thokk (still deafened for 30 minutes) begins to struggle against the mechanical hand that holds him, but then sees Willa gesturing at him to stand down. He suddenly remembers the plan, and is excited at the prospect of being taken back to the clockwork’s lair to fight many of them at once. His body goes limp, but he has to stifle a chortle of eager anticipation.
Babshapka: Still stunned for 1 round, still deafened for 40 minutes.
Shefak: Still stunned for 1 round, still paralyzed 20 minutes, still deafened for 40 minutes.
Aurora follows them invisibly.
Round 6
The clockwork is heading for an unkeyed door in the middle of the wall, the only door in the whole long wall, opposite a long corridor.
Aurora draws closer, prepares to dash in the door as soon as it opens.
Willa prepares to resist the hold the machine has on her.
Babshapka (still deafened for 40 minutes) finally is able to clear his head, and moves to the wall for cover. With his mirror he magnifies the image of the clockwork, and prepares to dash down the hall as soon as the door opens.
The clockwork reaches the door and pauses outside it. A panel in its chest opens up and a delicate hinged rod emerges and presses the door plate. The door slides open and light spills into the hallway.
Just as the clockwork is about to enter the doorway, Willa springs into action and twists out of its grasp. She dives and then rolls to the north, drawing her sword as she stands, careful not to be in a direct line with the others and so present multiple targets for a paralyzation ray. Babshapka sprints up the hallway.
Aurora slips into the room as soon as the door opens and instantly regrets it [Police HQ]. The well-lit room has a desk with chairs behind it. Nearby is a second security clockwork. There are carded doors to the north and south - Aurora is not close enough to see what color. In the back of the room is a large console or cabinet with strange knobs and dials, near it in the southeast corner is a metal chest that looks like it has a card lock as well.
Mathias suddenly steps from the shadows and fires off his electrical attack at the clockwork, concentrating it on the side farthest from Thokk. This drops its force shield and results in some damage to its circuitry besides. Undaunted, the clockwork pulls Thokk and Shefak into the room along with it.
Aurora becomes visible as well, firing off five magic missiles at the clockwork (cast at third level, Aurora at 4/1/1). As soon as her spell is sent she darts back out the door of the room and into the hall.
“We got this, Serjeant!” calls Mathias, although he maintains his concentration to keep energy playing along the surface of the clockwork.
Round 7
Aurora shoots another three magic missiles through the open doorway (now at 3/1/1).
The hand that once held Willa now empty, the security clockwork uses it to wrench Thokk’s sword from his grasp as soon as he draws it and starts to resist. It drags Thokk and floats Shefak over to the north wall, and then the same lever that opened the previous door emits a pulse of light that is taken up by the pearl panel of the orange-keyed door. That door slides open to reveal a short corridor with many open doorways to either side and the clockwork takes them inside.
The second clockwork moves around the desk until it is directly in front of the exterior door, then fires off a blue flask just outside and into the hallway. As the vapors fill the space in front of the door, it reaches up and presses a panel inside the room and the door begins to close.
“We don’ got t’his,” says Willa grimly as she takes out her stone. Ignoring her, Mathias slips through the closing doorway (makes Con save to get past the sleep cloud). He continues his electricity attack on the clockwork (10 points to force shield).
Babshapka sees that Aurora is in the hallway with him, and waits for a command from Willa to enter. When none comes, he remains outside the closing door.
How dare this machine man take his magic sword? Thokk enrages and wrenches himself free of the grasp of the clockwork. He grabs its other hand and tries to recover his sword, but the machine man is able to elude him with it by holding it high in the air and out of his reach.
Round 8
Mathias follows the clockwork into the northern hallway, continuing to concentrate on his electrical damage (10 points).
Aurora can barely see her companions through the open north door and the closing outer door. Undaunted, she sends off a firebolt against the clockwork that has Thokk’s sword (damage 14). Babshapka dives into the blue vapors that have expanded around Aurora without her being aware and pulls her out of their range. Note to self, Aurora thinks, sleep gas is not flammable.
Thokk climbs on top of the clockwork to reach its outstretched arm and wrests his sword free from its grasp, then, grabbing its head between his thighs, batters at the top of its head with the sword pommel (one hit, 15 damage).
The clockwork rolls to the nearest open doorway to the left, and levitates Shefak into a ten by ten cell. Its glowing rod touches a card reader that is mounted on a post in the doorway of the cell. A hazy blue field, seemingly projected from four studs set in the doorway, completely closes off the doorway itself. The color appears similar to the force shield the security clockworks use to protect themselves. As soon as the field springs into being, the body of Shefak drops stiffly to the floor.
The clockwork in the room rolls back from the now-closed exterior door until it is in sight of those in the hallway to the north. The large metal rod emerges from its chest and fires off two blasts of light at Thokk. One he blocks with his shield, the other hits him (24 radiant damage, not resisted by rage).
Willa pulls forth a red flask, preparing to throw it should the exterior door open again.
Round 9
Mathias thinks that between him and Thokk, they can finish off the damaged clockwork they are facing - but not if the undamaged one in the control room is assisting! He presses the panel on the inside of the doorway to close that door and seal off the cell block, even though this requires him to cease concentrating and lose his electric attack. He then casts a mage hand to be prepared for any flasks the clockwork produces. Knowing that their best chance lies in Thokk continuing to rage, he goads him, “Time to die a hero’s death, Thokk!”
Thokk is still deafened and cannot hear Mathais’ taunts, but bellows regardless and pounds his sword down on the clockwork from his perch atop its shoulders (two hits, 22 damage).
The clockwork reestablishes its force shield, the jolt of which dislodges Thokk who falls off but lands on his feet. Now that the doorway is closing, its combat tactics calculator decides that a sleep flask is in order, and it drops one to the ground at its base. Mathias is ready for this, though (Dex save 13), and his mage hand scoops up the flask before it can detonate, tossing it into the farthest cell to the end of the hall and on the left. It explodes less than a second later, filling that cell with blue vapor.
In the control room, the undamaged clockwork runs motivation calculations, balancing the drive to assist its companion in subduing the two combatants (which would require it to cross the room and open closed the cell block door) versus staying where it is to better defend the exterior door against the intruders it knows are still outside.
In the hallway, Willa stows her stone as she watches the sleep gas in front of the doorway disperse. She and Aurora are in agreement that there is no time to return to the storeroom for reinforcements - Babshapka is still deafened and cannot take part in the hurried conversation. Willa says that she is going to open the door as soon as it looks safe for them to move in, and Aurora says she will have a mage hand at the ready for the next flask and attempt to return it to the room if she doesn’t see any allies inside, or up the northern hall if she does.
Round 10
Mathias leaves his mage hand floating nearby and keeps one eye on the door behind him as he summons waves of force to batter at the shield of the clockwork (two hits, total 7 damage).
Thokk saw the blue flask fly past him but didn't turn to see where it landed. Still enraged, he batters at the force shield of the clockwork (hit, 13 damage), and grunts in satisfaction as it collapses. He moves to its left, keeping his shield between them - closer to Mathias, farther from the flask, and hits it again. This time the sword cuts deep into its metal hide with a shower of sparks (hit, 12 damage). Thokk grins - one or two more good hits and the creature is his!
The clockwork re-establishes its shield, repulsing Thokk’s sword with force. As the barbarian staggers back, it rolls forward, knocking into him in an attempt to push him back into the cell behind him. Thokk braces himself against the post in the middle of the doorway, and pushes back on the clockwork, muscles straining. The wheels of the creature skip and skid on the metal floor of the cell block and Thokk is not moved (shove attack, contested athletics check, Thokk 23, clockwork 13). As he strains, the creature opens its chest panel and the iron rod emerges. Thokk sees this in time and raises his shield. The powerful bolt of light energy is reflected away. Thokk roars exultantly.
In the control room, the undamaged clockwork continues to calculate odds but takes no action for the moment.
Outside in the hallway, Willa again launches her stone. Miming with her fingers, she shows Babshapka that she wants him to send arrows into the room as soon as she opens the door. He nods his understanding and nocks a giant killer arrow.
Round 11
In the cell block, one of the grappling tentacles takes hold of Thokk’s shield. While he struggles, the iron wand sends forth two more blasts of light (rolls 23, 24, both hit!). The first hit (13 points) nearly levels Thokk (down to 4hp), while the second (10hp) blasts him squarely in the torso and burns off all of his chest hair (Thokk to 0hp, but then to 1 hp through use of relentless end).
In the hallway outside, Willa presses the door panel. As it opens, she primes and then tosses in a red flask, aiming to land it between the clockwork and the south east corner of the room. Although she immediately ducks out of the way and cannot see the results, her aim is true - when the flask explodes, the clockwork is doused with the sticky flaming substance, and the corner of the room is covered as well (first round damage - 9 points - to force shield).
In the cell block, Thokk staggers unsteadily, and then roars in a mix of pain and raw fury. He raises his weapon and brings it down more like a club than a sword, and Mathais can hear the motors of the clockwork whine as it strains to maintain its force shield (one critical hit, savage attacks, bonus critical - total 19 points damage). Upon his second attack the shield finally gives way, and his sword crashes through the head of the clockwork in a shower of sparks (9 damage). The various lights on the surface of the clockwork slowly fade and all four of its arms sink to the floor. Its wand, still primed for another discharge, hums in ever lower and fainter tones.
With the exterior door now open, Babshapka moves so that he can see the flaming clockwork. As he draws back his bow he says “Hunter’s Mark” in elven, and although he cannot hear himself speak, he sees a green target appear on the clockwork. He fires one arrow, then quickly draws and fires another before ducking back out of view of the door. (damage 8+2, 12+6, total 28, Babshapka to 3/2).
With one clockwork down, Mathias opens the door to the control room, expecting to see the rest of the party engaging the other one. Instead, he sees only the clockwork. True, it is on fire and has two arrows sticking out of its chassis, but there is no sign of the others. “Some rescue,” he mutters to himself. Then, as the clockwork’s head swivels from the door to him, he holds forth his empty palms and fires off two blasts of force (two hits, total 8 damage).
Round 12
When the clockwork does not immediately respond, Mathias squares himself in the doorway and fires off another two blasts (two hits, 13 damage). He looks over his shoulder and sees Thokk unsteady on his feet and the sleep gas slowly advancing down the hall of the cell block. He shouts at Thokk that both doors are open, but the barbarian is still deafened.
Babshapka appears in the outer doorway again and fires off another two arrows, these ones normal. Both find their mark in the clockwork (17 points plus hunter’s mark, total 21 damage). As soon as the second arrow is away, Babshapka darts out of view. Being attacked from two directions at once appears to have confused the clockwork and it does not immediately respond.
Thokk wrenches his sword from where it has lodged in his fallen foe and grimaces. For a second, his pain threatens to overcome his rage. He looks up, and through the open cell block door he sees the other clockwork. With a more subdued bellow, he charges out of the cellblock. Moving his sword to his shield hand, he draws forth a javelin from its holder on his back and launches it at the clockwork as he crosses the room (hit for 8 points). By now he has seen that the door to the hallway is open as well. He throws another javelin to cover his retreat and makes it into the hall. The second javelin misses, flies over the clockwork, and lands in the section of floor that is still on fire. The wooden haft begins to smoulder.
With Thokk out of the room, Willa charges in, but has a hammer in each hand rather than her greatsword. Standing well away from the flaming clockwork, she throws each hammer in succession (two hits, total 12 damage, plus another 5 from the first round of extended fire damage) and then ducks back out of the room.
Suddenly the flaming clockwork begins to roll north, rapidly gaining speed (7 damage from two giant killer arrows) and raising its force shield as it goes. It plows into Mathias in the doorway at full force and he staggers back. While he is struggling to keep his footing, one of its tentacles slams him hard on his side and he flies into the first cell on the right, directly across from Shefak. (Shove attack, Clockwork athletics roll 16, Mathias 11). With its colored probe it initiates the force shield in the cell, and with a hand it presses the door panel inside the cell block, so that the door begins to close. In the cell block hall, Mathias’ mage hand winks out of existence as soon as the cell force shield comes up, but he does not notice (Arcana roll 0).
Round 13
Babshapka moves to the doorway but does not see the clockwork. He enters quickly, and finds his quarry about to disappear behind the closing door (Hunter’s Mark - advantage on Perception checks to find the target). He fires off two arrows through the narrowing gap (two hits, 15 points plus Hunter’s Mark is 20, drops clockwork shield). He moves back to the wall, just inside the exterior doorway.
Mathias moves as close to the hallway as the force shield permits him and sees the door to the control room closing. He reaches for his mage hand to press the panel but does not find it (Arcana roll 4). He tries to cast the spell again in the hallway but finds he cannot - the force shield may be preventing him.
The clockwork’s internal calculations lead it to conclude that the party will try a melee attack in order to reach it before the door completely closes and locks them out. It prepares a black flask to launch at anyone who charges the door. (It takes 6 damage from the giant arrows and then another 2 from the second round of continuing fire damage).
Willa bolts into the room, now with her greatsword in her hands, and sees the cell block door closing. Even as she charges the door, she has a bad feeling about it. She is not even halfway there when the black flask is ejected, landing squarely between her and Babshapka. Aurora has her mage hand near the doorway, ready to intercept any flasks, but from her vantage outside in the hall she does not see the flask dropped in the room itself.
Willa’s forward motion carries her enough away by the time the flask explodes that she does not take as much of the blast as Babshapka does (Clockwork attack roll for flask placement, 3)
[Willa, in 20’ radius, no damage, stunned for 1 round and loses attacks, deafened for 3 rounds]
[Babshapka, in 10’ radius, fails Con save and takes 8 points damage, stunned for 1 round, deafened for 10 minutes, added to his already 40 minutes for a total of 50 minutes, makes Con save to keep concentration on Hunter’s Mark]
Thokk re-enters the control room. Now out of javelins, he has his longsword again in his right hand. Hesitating to charge at the second clockwork, which is still on fire (and he still at 1hp), he moves to just outside the door to the cell block, prepared to attack the machine man when it emerges, or in his mind, to press the door panel that he believes is there. In a daze, Willa tries to speak and gesture at him to enter the cell block, but she is both stunned and voiceless because of her stone, and Thokk is still deafened regardless. He has neither taken damage nor attacked this round, and he loses his rage.
The door to the northern hallway closes and the orange-keyed lock activates. Too late, Thokk looks up and sees that what he assumed was a pressure panel is actually a card lock. Inside his cell, Mathias thinks to himself, they came in here - did they have a plan for getting out?
[With the party unable to enter the cell block and the clockwork not emerging, the combat ends]
(9:30pm)
Babshapka: In the outside hallway. Still deafened for 45 minutes.
Thokk: In the control room. Still deafened for 25 minutes. At 1hp.
Willa: In the control room.
Aurora: In the control room.
Shefak: Still paralyzed for 15 minutes, still deafened for 35 minutes. In a force cell.
Mathias: In a force cell (and note that cell shields block magic]
One security robot guarding the cell block behind a locked orange door.
The party’s only known key card is black. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Party rejoins mules - one roll
4:10am - vegepygmies
4:30am - Lurker above
5:10am - displacer beasts
5:50am - worker robot
6:10am - displacer beasts
1:10pm - displacer beasts
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
3:40pm (mules) worker robot
4pm (mules) worker robot
Party rejoins mules - one roll
5:30pm Police Robot, non-lethal
Party separates from mules - rolling separately
8:10pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (mules) vegepygmies
9pm (party) vegepygmies
Party, Mules, and Security Room all rolling separately
11:50pm (party) vegepygmies
Post 178: Jailhouse Blues 21 February, 571 [2 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 2
Mathias looks around the cell. It is mostly bare inside, but on the far wall (away from the doorway) is a niche with two cave horn cups that fit in a receptacle. The roof of the niche has a nozzle above each cup. The clockwork that placed him in the cell has withdrawn from the doorway so that he can no longer see it. With no rescue immediately forthcoming, Mathias moves so that he won’t be seen from the doorway even if the clockwork returns, and he begins resting to restore his energy.
Aurora and Willa look around the control room. It is well-lit and has a desk with two chairs behind it. The door to the cell block is orange-carded, while a second door to the south is red-carded. In the back of the room is a large console or cabinet with strange knobs and dials; near it in the southeast corner is a metal chest that looks like it has a card lock as well. However, to reach the chest one would have to cross the flame that still burns on the floor from Willa’s thrown flask.
Aurora runs through the flames (3 points damage) to examine the chest. It is large and square, with thick walls like a strongbox. The top is a hinged lid, but the hinges are internal and cannot be directly attacked. The red card-reading mechanism is on the lid itself. Unlike all the single doors on the ship, which fit inside the walls themselves, the lid has borders that are nearly flush with the walls in which it fits. Thus, if the party had something both thin and strong enough, they might actually be able to pry it open.
Aurora knows the party has at least one crowbar and possibly more, but those present say they are not carrying any. She mimes the action of prying open the chest for Thokk and Babshapka (both still deafened) but they shake their heads. Perhaps the crowbar is back with the mules. By this point, the fire on the floor has finally died out. Aurora seizes the blackened blade of Thokk’s javelin, the shaft having been by now completely consumed. Willa collects Tyrius’ hammers from the ground and brings them over. Willa uses a hammer to force the javelin blade into the chest while Aurora supervises. It soon becomes evident to Aurora that the chest is made from the same metal as the ship and is much harder than Thokk’s javelin head, which bends a little more on each blow while the chest is not even chipped or scratched. After some thinking, she realizes that a magically enchanted blade is also unnaturally hard - something like that might actually stand a chance against the chest (Arcana 20).
Meanwhile, Babshapka has shut the exterior door to the control room and collected his arrows (13 giant arrows and 9 regular arrows remaining). He sets up on guard just inside the door, ready to press the panel to close it.
Aurora tries to get Thokk’s attention and wordlessly ask him if he would be willing to loan her the sunsword to experiment with. The half-orc looks dubious - the blade is not just magical - it glows in the presence of undead and flames upon contact with vampires - with this blade he twice slew the demon Strahd! Aurora can see it is going to be a hard sell convincing him, and even she has second thoughts about using it. When Babshapka realizes what is going on he steps forward and offers up his magical broadsword - the one the party captured long ago from one of the officers of the Sea Ghost.
Willa takes the blade and carefully taps it into the seam, using Tyrius' hammer on the pommel of the broadsword. It takes several minutes of pounding, but the broadsword seems equal in hardness to the chest, and every so often she feels something inside give way (luck roll+2). One final blow cracks the head of the hammer but results in an equal crack in the chest lid. When Willa hands the broadsword back to Bashapka, the blade appears intact.
(9:40pm)
Babshapka: Still deafened for 35 minutes.
Thokk: Still deafened for 15 minutes.
Shefak: Still paralyzed for 5 minutes, deafened for 25 minutes.
Aurora gingerly opens the safe. There is a top layer with a cave horn shelf that obviously does not go to the bottom of the chest and can easily be removed. On that top layer are two curious masks. The masks appear to be made for a masqued ball, for a costume based on a fly or some other insect. They are made of a boiled-leather-like material and have several straps attached. Mirrored glass plates cover the area of the eyes, but this does not seem to impair vision from the inside of the mask. There are no openings for mouth or nose, though the mask has been shaped to accommodate a nose and chin. At the base of the mask a cylindrical metal tube is attached and metal cords run from this tube up into the metal-framed mouth and nose region. Examining them, Aurora can easily see how the straps can adjust to perfectly fit the head and seal off someone’s eyes, nose, and mouth from the outside. She is pretty sure the tubes around the nose and mouth act as filters, and likely screen out anything that might interfere with breathing (Investigation roll 27).
Removing the cave horn shelf reveals that the next layer down contains fully a dozen of the blue sleep gas flasks, which further supports her hypothesis that the masks would help someone resist a gas-based attack.
Babshapka motions Thokk over from his position guarding the north door. When the half-orc is at his side, Babshapka casts two cure wounds spells (Babshapka to 1/2 spells left, six points of healing, Thokk to 7hp).
Aurora lifts out the tray of flasks. One final level of the chest contains two strange devices, the like of which the party has not seen before. They could perhaps be potion bottles or flasks strapped to a number of tubes. The base of each bottle has a silvery lid with a knob in the center. The bottle flasks are bound in black leather and silver. From the top of this, a broad metal band encircles a number of tubes. Out one end stick three large projecting tubes, while the other has but a single tube, with a small hole in its end. There is a fluted knob on the side with a line across its top. There are two markings above it - a small dot and big 0.
Willa sighs and says she longs for the days of finding scroll cases and magic rings.
Aurora shakes her head. “I have nothing against all these alien devices, and any of them could prove quite useful. Under other circumstances I would have been thrilled to find this cache. But none of these things is the high-level colored key card we need right now to free our companions.”
Still, she has to work with the tools at hand, so Aurora pulls out one of the two strange devices and begins to fiddle with the dial setting. Willa immediately insists that she do her experimenting outside in the hall, and ushers her over to the door, which Babshapka opens. Willa and Babshapka remain in the doorway, watching over her. Somewhat chastened, Aurora does pause to consider that she is using a potentially deadly device with no healers on hand. Suddenly Buckbeak appears on her shoulder, and a second later takes wing down the hallway to the south.
[Simple lethal items chart. Aurora rolls 1-1=0; Circle. Rolls 4-1 = 3; Finish. Aurora now is familiar with the operation of a Needler Pistol and has a total of -3 on future rolls to use.]
The first thing Aurora checks for is the presence of a power disc. She does not find one, but in looking she discovers that when the knob in the base of the handle is twisted and pulled, a compartment at the base of the handle opens like a small drawer. Inside is a small, lacquered wood-like box filled with needles that can be inserted or removed.
Carefully closing the drawer after having removed the box, she squeezes the handle-grip. With a high-pitched whoosh, the three tubes suck in air while the single tube expels air. She tests the expelled air against her skin and finds the jet surprisingly strong. By moving the dial from the dot to the O she can widen the jet of air. After pondering the device, she decides that it is designed to launch the needles as projectiles in batches. The dot setting would launch a number at a single target, while the O setting would broadcast them over a larger area at multiple targets. The needles themselves, if forcefully projected, would certainly be painful and the power of the air indicates that they would penetrate far deeper than blowgun darts. Still, it does not seem a particularly lethal device - heavy armor would greatly protect a target and the thing would rapidly lose accuracy at range. Of course, the needles could be coated in poison, the small device would be easily concealed, and its use would be practically silent. Perhaps it is meant as an assassin’s weapon?
Once she is confident she knows how it is supposed to function, Aurora demonstrates its purported use to Babshapka and Thokk. Thokk of course finds the thought of attacking someone with needles laughable at best and insulting at worst, but even he has to admit that the single javelin he has left will not serve him in an extended missile combat.
(9:45pm)
Shefak groans and rises unsteadily to her feet. Though deafened, she could see the combat between the clockwork and Mathias up to the point where she was placed in the cell, but when she fell to the ground her head was facing away from the doorway. Now there is no one and nothing in the hallway in front of her. The force shield in the cell across from her is up as well, and the double layer obscures her view, but that cell appears empty as well. She tries shouting, but then realizes that she wouldn’t hear a response above the loud ringing in her ears. She presses on the force shield - it doesn’t yield. She breathes deeply and focuses her ki into her fist, then strikes the force shield with all the power she can muster. It absorbs the blow without even flickering. Clearly she is not getting out that way.
She looks around. The cell is dimly lit and mostly bare inside, but she spies two recessed hand-holds in the wall at about the height of her knees. Grabbing them, she finds she can pull out a recessed shelf of metal, topped by a thin cave sponge mattress. She has no desire to sleep, so she pushes the shelf back into the wall. On the far wall (away from the doorway) is a niche with two cave horn cups that fit in a receptacle. The roof of the niche has a nozzle above each cup. She can remove the cups, but they are both light and easily breakable - they will not be of use. On the near wall (next to the door) is a small pressure plate. When she presses this, a small and narrow shelf emerges with a wide-lipped metal basin affixed to it. She is uncertain of the purpose of this, but it looks the right height and size to function as a chair - but why have the basin and not just the shelf?
She may be here a while. She will need to conserve her energy. She sits down cross-legged on the floor and begins to meditate.
(9:50pm)
Babshapka: Still deafened for 25 minutes.
Thokk: Still deafened for 5 minutes.
Shefak: Still deafened for 15 minutes.
Aurora re-enters the control room and Willa closes and guards the door behind her. Aurora makes her way to the cabinet, and notes all of the switches, dials, levers, and small, dark screens. There is plenty of alien script labeling things, and she recognizes the numbers. She tells the rest of the party that she will be casting her ritual of comprehend languages.
She hasn’t finished yet when the door to the hallway outside suddenly opens, and Willa nearly attacks Tyrius. The paladin, as well as Larry, Umbra, and Buckbeak are in the hallway outside, Buckbeak perched on Larry’s shoulder. Larry speaks to Tyrius.
“Aye told ye when tha bard lands on me shoulder, et means coom an’ find them, an’ when ‘e lands on yer ‘ead, it means they be lost an’ we are too roon away, an’ nae tha ‘toother way aboot.”
Tyrius provides Thokk with 20 points of lay-on-hands healing.
(10pm)
Babshapka: Still deafened for 15 minutes.
Shefak: Still deafened for 5 minutes.
Aurora’s comprehend languages ritual complete, she reads the symbols on the console and finds it is a control panel for nearly every feature of the prison. There are switches and dials for doors, lights, food and water for the prisoners, ventilation, alarm and communication systems, as well as things called “waste”, “vid”, and “neural suppression”. Focusing on the doors, she finds she should be able to open, close, lock, or unlock each of the cell doors individually or all together, as well as the door to the cell block itself, the exterior door, and the door to something called the “Chf. Sec. Off”.
Aurora shows Willa the controls and tells her they should plan their assault.
The plan they derive is as follows: Umbra will stand by the console and operate the door switches that Aurora has shown her. When the cell block door opens, Thokk will rush in first [and rage to give the others advantage], followed by Willa. However, if the single remaining clockwork has somehow managed to revive or repair the other one, they will initiate by Willa throwing in a red flask before anyone enters. Babshapka will provide missile support and Larry spell support from outside. Aurora will have her mage hand and dedicate herself to grabbing any flasks and throwing them into the hall outside (the door is now open again). Tyrius will be on stand-by in case anyone needs healing. Willa says that they need to make sure they understand the plan, because once the door is open she will have her stone up and won’t be able to give commands. With that being said, Aurora convinces Babshapka and Thokk to try wearing the “anti-gas masks”. Thokk is unsure at first, and practices roaring and bellowing with his on. Although his voice is decidedly muffled, everyone but Tyrius assures him that it is just as loud and fearsome. He finally agrees to wear the mask.
(10:10pm)
Babshapka: Still deafened for 5 minutes.
With everyone in place, Umbra flips the switch that should unlock and then open the cell block door. The door remains closed, but she reports that strange illuminated symbols have appeared on one of the dark screens. Aurora hurries over and reads, “Enter security code for manual lock override, or use orange-level access key.” She curses and tries the switch that should simultaneously open all of the cell doors. The same message is repeated. She is able to open and close the door to the hallway outside, not that it is any help. In increasing frustration, she tries the switch for what is presumably the door on the south wall. The message that appears is only slightly different: “Enter security code for manual lock override, or use red-level access key.”
Aurora slams her palm on the console and mutters “boring conversation anyway”. “Just try something,” she says to Umbra. “Flip some switches.”
“Which switches?”
“All of them. Shut them all down.” She returns to her spot and re-focuses on her mage hand.
Umbra begins flipping all of the switches on the panel - after nearly every action she takes, the now-familiar alien script appears indicating that code or crd is required to execute the command. She notes that the message does not come up when she triggers the food and water controls, so she repeatedly switches these off and on again.
(10:15pm)
“Uh,” groans Babshapka. “Wait, I think I can hear again.”
“Great,” replies Aurora, “but that doesn’t get the clockwork to open that door.”
“Get the clockwork to open the door…” the wood elf ponders. “How did we get it to open the door before, I mean, to come out of here...it was the alarm.” His face sets resolutely. “Willa, I’m going to trigger the alarm in the medical room!” Babshapka dashes to the door and is away before she can respond.
“Go wit’ ‘im”, Willa says to Tyrius, who sets off loudly down the hall after the elf. “Now, wha’ did set t’at off?”
“The alarm! Of course!” realizes Aurora. “But everyone, quiet! If the clockwork hears us out here, maybe it won’t come out when the alarm goes off. We have to have it think we are all back in that medical room.”
Once everyone is silent, Larry cocks his head funny. “Aye think aye ‘ear Mathias yellin’,” he whispers.
“Yelling? What is he yelling?” Aurora hisses.
“Dunno. Maybe screaming like ‘e is bein’ tortured or drowin’ or summit.”
Umbra hurriedly shuts off the switches for the food and water and leaves them in place.
When Babshapka arrives at the medical room, he rapidly enters the door, and hears the strange alien voice repeating the message from before - but no alarm goes off. He looks around - there is the yellow-keyed door, two desks - one with a drawer open. He moves to the open drawer and looks inside - there are a number of heavy, black glass slates. He reaches in to take one, and when he touches it the alarm sounds, just as Tyrius enters the room behind him.
Back in the control room, Umbra notes a flashing yellow light and a new message on the console. Aurora can read “Intruder Alert - Medical Bay”.
The cell block door slides open.
Umbra moves away from the console so as to better see down the cell block hallway. The clockwork is rolling rapidly forward down the hall between the cells. The other clockwork lies unmoving on its side behind the first. Umbra sends forth a volley of dark bolts (cast at second level, four hits, 14 damage to force shield. Umbra at 0/2/0).
The clockwork does not stop its forward motion (2 damage from giant arrows) but does launch a blue flask ahead of it into the control room. Aurora scoops up the flask with her mage hand and tosses it back down the hallway of the cell block, where it explodes. The clockwork brings its shield up to full strength after the dark bolts.
Larry creates a moonbeam in the cell block, managing to place the leading edge of the beam completely on the clockwork (fails save, clockwork takes 9 damage to force shield, Larry at 3/2/1).
The clockwork wheels forward and out the door into the control room. It grabs Larry with its grasping hands, and lifts him up and over its head, then tosses him behind it into the cell block (shove attack, Clockwork athletics roll 22, Larry 17). In their respective cells, Shefak and Mathias see Larry fly and land sprawling on the floor of the cell block corridor, just a few feet short of his own moonbeam. He maintains his concentration on the moonbeam as he rises to his feet, but he also sees the blue vapors of sleep gas advancing from the back of the hallway toward him.
Thokk screams in rage and yells something at the clockwork. His words are muffled by the mask he wears and the only thing the others can make out is “spoonbuddy”. He strides up to the clockwork and strikes at it with the sunsword. His first hit (12 points) drops its shield, his second (11 points), damages its body. Willa is at his side in a second, landing blows of her own (13 and 16 points). The clockwork has almost made it to the door when Willa’s second hit opens a rent so large in its side that an explosion of gears and sparks pours out, and it ceases moving.
A few seconds later Babshapka arrives, and shortly after him, Tyrius.
Leaving a few of the party on guard in the control room, the rest enter the cell block. The force shield in front of each cell muffles their sounds, but by yelling they can communicate with both Shefak and Mathias. Aurora asks Mathias what he was yelling about before. He responds laconically that the water dispenser in the cell had turned on suddenly, so he wanted to let the party know that whatever they were doing was working.
Now they examine the locking mechanism on the cells. Four studs project from the walls of the doorways, and these studs seem to be generating the force shields. In the center of the doorway is a short post with a key card mechanism on it, set to orange level, as well as a switch and a dial with numbers. Aurora takes the switch to be on/off for the field and the dial to control its intensity, but she is unable to adjust either setting without unlocking the card lock first. Mathias tells them that he saw the clockwork stick forth a probelike wand that changed colors in order to activate the lock, and Shefak corroborates that she saw the cleaning clockwork use a similar device to open several carded rooms. Aurora easily finds that part inside the bodies of both of the downed clockworks, but with them inactive she does not know how to get it to emit colors, regardless of whether she removes it from them or leaves it intact.
“I can’t believe we got the clockwork to open the door, killed it, and we still can’t open the cells!” she says exasperatedly.
“Take it apart,” says Willa.
[DM's Note: From this point on, the control room will roll its own wandering monster rolls on the southern table, with only rolls of Police Robots and Worker Robots counting. Police robots will re-populate the room until it is back up to a total of three; worker robots will drag off the broken Police robots and take them to the robot repair room. Also, the combat in this room and the jail cells was recorded on video, with the party having defeated another two security robots. Thus, due to the work of the repair robot, all wandering security robots will now be upgraded to AC15 against the party's attacks.]
(10:20pm)
Aurora gets out her tools and begins disassembling the clockwork in the control room.
(10:30pm)
The clockwork’s atmospheric analyzer appears to be intact and functional, and it has a full complement of stopperless flasks - less the ones it used against the party (remaining 1 each of blue, red, and green). In addition to the fully-charged power disc in its internal power system, Aurora finds a second disc in a drawer that is not connected to anything internally and may be a simple storage unit accessed from the outside. However, she does not find anything that could be used to open the cell door besides the probe she would not know how to use anyway. She curses and stands. To add insult to injury, at that moment her mage armor fades, its duration having run out from when she cast it this afternoon.
Aurora gathers her tools and proceeds to the end of the cell block to where the other fallen clockwork lies.
(10:40pm)
This clockwork’s atmospheric analyzer is hopelessly smashed and its container for stopperless flasks is empty. It does have a fully-charged power disc in its internal power system. When Aurora checks the outside storage unit she catches a glimpse of a red key card and is instantly elated. Her elation soon turns to trepidation, however. Multiple sword blows have penetrated the walls around the card, leaving it wedged between jagged and folded pieces of metal and hung up on a nest of wires. Aurora tries coming at it from several different angles, but soon realizes that removing the card will require both extreme precision and luck. Anything less will drag it across the razor-sharp metal shard it is pressed against and more likely than not slice it in half. She finds her hand twitching nervously.
A tense discussion follows among the party. While Aurora has the technical knowledge of using the tools to disassemble the clockworks, even she admits she is not the most adroit among them. That honor likely goes to Shefak - who is still imprisoned. Umbra is nearly as steady a hand as the monk, though. Ultimately it is decided that under Aurora’s direction, Umbra will attempt to extract the card. First, however, Larry blesses her with Cat’s Grace (Larry at 3/1/1).
Umbra carefully clips the wires snagging the card and pulls out as many as she can. There is nothing she can do about the massive pieces of metal shards, so it is just a matter of seizing the card at exactly the right angle to extract it without damage. She reaches in ever-so-carefully and grabs the card with a tiny set of tongs, similar to a jeweler’s tweezers. Larry lays his hand on her shoulder and offers a prayer of guidance. “OK,” says Aurora. “Now just pull….WAIT!” At the last instant, Aurora corrects the angle of Umbra’s hand. “Now pull.”
[Initial sleight of hand roll 3, 6. +3 dex, +2 guidance, advantage from cat’s grace = 11 (fail).
Aurora spends an Inspiration point to have Umbra reroll. New result of 5, 18 = 23]
With all present holding their breaths, Umbra pulls forth the card unscathed.
“So now we open ther cells,” says Willa with satisfaction.
Aurora frowns. “The cells are orange,” she says. “The card is red. It should work, but we would be remiss if we didn’t open the red door first, just in case we lose the card.”
Willa nods in agreement at the logic. It was Aurora’s idea to begin with that the colors represent hierarchies, rather than being one-to-one, and so far the only evidence they have to back it up is that spider-Larry thought he saw a yellow card open a black door, once. “Can ye wait?” she shouts through the force shield to Mathias in his cell.
The strange fighter-mage shrugs. “I’m resting,” he says. “Take your time.”
Leaving the cell block door open but one of them behind, and a guard at the closed door to the hallway, the rest of the party proceeds to the door to the south. As she approaches the door itself, Aurora can see alien script beneath a layer of dust - something she did not note before when she searched the room. Wiping away the dust, and with her comprehend languages still running, Aurora reads “Chief Security Officer” - presumably what the control panel referred to as “Chf. Sec. Off.” Umbra slides the card in, the pearl panel changes to green, and the door slides open. The key drops into the receptacle beneath. They are in!
The room beyond [South Room [sic] (Chief Security Officer's Office)] is spartan and dusty, but unlooted. A single desk is in the center of the room - a skeleton in some sort of uniform sits in the chair behind the desk and faces the door. In one corner of the room is a tall wardrobe or locker. One door leads out; both that door and the one the party opened have pressure panels and light switches just inside the doorway. On the wall above the desk are a series of glass panes that show a curious moving black and white field, as of a snowstorm at night.
Aurora checks the locker for traps (Investigation 12) and finds only that it has a red-coded card lock.
Umbra opens the other door and looks into the hallway beyond. It is bare and narrow and runs perpendicular to the door. There are four doorways leading off of it; the one to the north is red, while both the one in the center and the one in the south are gray - a color she does not think they have seen before. A final door in the south is a simple pressure plate. She steps into the hallway and turns around - from this side, the door into the Security Officer’s room is red-carded, but does not have his (or her?) title on it.
Willa is at the desk. The officer’s uniform is made of the same silk-like material that they have found on all of the other skeletons on the ship, but much more intact. She touches a sleeve and it begins to fall apart at her touch - hopelessly dry-rotted, but apparently not having been handled in centuries. She quickly goes over the corpse - empty pockets, no weapons, no ID cards. She turns her attention to the strange boxes that appear to be affixed to the desk.
There is a large glass screen on top of black glass. On the base beneath is a single switch, a fifty-some position slider, and three large dials. The dials have alien writing around them.
Umbra returns to the room and Aurora points her at the locker while she herself moves to the desk. Set around the first dial (left to right) are the numbers 100, 200, 300...in succession up to 900. The second dial has a similar series but 10 through 90, while the third is 0 through 9.
Umbra uses the card to open the locker. Indeed, it is a wardrobe, with one suit hanging from a rack within and a second that curiously seems to be supporting itself. The suits are very different from one another. The first is of the same material as the alien clothing. The vibrancy of the color and detailed patterning suggest to Willa that it is a dress uniform, and three medals are affixed to the left breast. The medals are a mix of precious metal and gemstones and obviously valuable. Willa removes these and stores them in her pack but in so doing notes that the fabric is only slightly less deteriorated than that worn by the skeleton.
The second suit is more remarkable, and appears to be a suit of unusual plate armor. The joints appear to be finely, if somewhat strangely, articulated and an oily, black, leather-like material may be seen at major joints. The armor appears to have been worked to create the illusion of a heavily muscled man. The great helm is unusual in that it has no openings, only a broad glass plate in the front with a piece of glass above this. There are strange plates and tubing at various points and large metal bosses seem to be placed randomly on the suit. On the back of the left hand is a rectangular metal box. From this comes a short projecting rod tipped with a cone-shaped red crystal or jewel. The armor stands erect even though the glass helmet clearly shows that there is no one inside it.
On the wall of the locker is a holster in which is a blasting mirror that appears identical to the one Babshapka carries. When Aurora checks the power disc, she finds it to be fully charged. She then examines the skeleton at the desk (Investigation 13) and finds no signs of violence or otherwise obvious cause of death.
Umbra reports on the doors in the hall and the party elects to try the red door (the pressure plate can be opened any time, and they dare not risk the red card in a gray lock until they have tried it in the orange to free Mathias and Shefak). The red door leads to a long but narrow storeroom [Stores]. It is filled with boxes and crates similar to those the party has seen before, but each one is completely intact rather than smashed and looted.
(10:50pm)
Leaving behind people in every room in case the doors close, a few of the party return to the cell block. Umbra inserts the red card into the slot in the post of Mathias’ cell. The dial lights up, as does the switch. She turns the dial down to zero, noting the fading blue of the shield as she does so, then flips the switch. The field disappears, and Mathias steps out free! Umbra quickly removes the card and follows the same procedure to release Shefak from her cell. [Both Mathias and Shefak have completed a Short Rest]
Aurora has about ten minutes left on her comprehend languages spell. As Willa disperses people throughout the complex to make sure doors cannot be shut on them, Aurora walks from room to room, seeing if there is anything left to read.
Willa gathers up Tyrius to discuss strategy. Mathias tags along. Willa says that with access to these red-card locked rooms, this may be a much more secure place to keep the mules, so long as the security clockworks stay confined to the prison and control room, which Babshapka assures them is true after looking at the tracks, and lack thereof, in the dust. Willa suggests that they may want to move the mules here, perhaps to the storeroom. But first, she would like to find a food source - she wants Umbra to use the food dispensing switches on the control room console while people check the nozzles in the cells.
“I’ve got an idea,” says Mathias. Willa turns to look at him.
The fighter-mage waves his hand around the room. “Umbra opened all of these doors, and the locker, with that red card. But she’s not really a front-line type and I’m not sure we want her in front, opening everything for us. I’d like to take the red card - if someone is going to take a hit opening up doors, I’d rather it be me.”
Willa arches an eyebrow suspiciously at Mathias. “That’s something I would need to discuss with Aurora.”
In a reassuring voice, Mathias says, “I already have this yellow key - I found it in the sick bay.” He holds forth a yellow key card.
“An’ ye be jus’ now showin’ us?”
“I had just pulled it out of the desk and was turning to show you when that clockwork attacked and you ran out into the hall...then there was the fight...then I was in the cell...this is the first time we have had a chance to talk, since.”
Willa pauses to consider. She tells Mathias that tactically, it does not make sense for one person to be carrying two cards - not when there are so many ways of separating the party or paralyzing one of them. She offers to transfer the red card to him if he gives the yellow card he found to Aurora. He nods and sets off looking for her.
Willa takes the red card from Umbra and walks with her and Tyrius to the console in the security control room. Umbra says she remembers which switches operate the food and water, and Willa gathers up Thokk. She, Thokk, and Tyrius pass through the cells while Umbra works the switches. The water nozzles send forth seemingly limitless water, overflowing the cups, while the “food” nozzles spray only foul-scented air.
Thokk tries the water and says it tastes stale and flat but is drinkable. Willa tries some herself and agrees. She tells Thokk and Tyrius to round up all the skins carried by the party and fill them with water while Umbra operates the panel.
Shefak informs Willa that she will be on guard duty, invisible in the hallway outside the control room.
Willa calls for Babshapka and has him search the remaining four cells, the ones that were not occupied by Shefak and Mathias. He finds the same sleeping shelf and curious seat-basin she did, in each one. He shows one of the basins to Willa - she shrugs and says it is likely for giving water to livestock, should any be confined in the cells.
Willa sees that the stopperless flasks are returned to the locker in the control room, the dozen blue ones that were there, as well as the blue, red, and green ones recovered from the clockwork. The anti-gas masks have already been taken; the needle-shooters are given to Thokk and Babshapka. After some discussion, the mirror-weapon found in the Chief’s room is assigned to Umbra and Aurora instructs her in its use, and the red card is given to Mathias.
With Tyrius on guard in the cell block, Shefak outside, Babshapka in the control room, and Larry in the internal hallway, Aurora proceeds to examine the crates in the storeroom, while Willa, Mathias, and Umbra take the curious armor out of the Chief’s locker.
(11:20pm-11:50pm)
It appears to be a suit of unusual plate armor. The bulk of it is heavy metal, but the joints appear to be finely, if somewhat strangely, articulated with an oily, black, leather-like material at major joints rather than chain, which is not to be seen. The armor appears to have been worked to create the appearance of a heavily muscled man. The great helm is unusual in that it has no openings, only a broad glass plate in the front with a smaller piece of glass above this. There are strange plates and tubing at various points and large metal bosses seem to be placed randomly on the suit. On the back of the left hand is a rectangular metal box. From this comes a short projecting rod tipped with a cone shaped red crystal or jewel. The armor stands erect even though the glass helmet clearly shows that there is no one inside it.
Umbra says that she can attempt to put it on - but she is not sure how to get inside - the helm doesn't come off, there are no straps or buckles, etc. (Investigation 12). Mathias investigates it (20) and finds that the armor is opened by pressing two separate buttons concealed at the rear of the helmet beneath its lip. Pressing both buttons at the same time pops open a seal down the middle of the back of the armor that looks to provide access.
Umbra is able to fit half her body through the seal easily enough, but does not understand how to get both the upper and lower half in at the same time - if she slides in head first, she cannot later lift her legs to fit inside - if she steps inside, she cannot bend her torso to fit in. Undaunted, she slides her upper half in, filling the arms, torso, and head capsule. She reports that on the inside of the glass helm, several screens are visible with lit, colored shapes and the strange alien script, while inside the hands are strange grips and triggers. She does not find any more buttons that might enable her to get her feet in, however (Investigation 4). Mathias and Willa go over the suit, but have no more luck (7, 9). Willa decides to give it a thorough investigation, running her hands slowly and methodically over the whole thing (take twenty Investigation 20, through 11:45pm). What she finally realizes is that while before the suit was rigid and locked in position, now that the back seal is open all of the articulations are stiff but movable. With a little work she can make the suit bend over, such that someone can step into the legs and then, so long as they are flexible enough to touch their toes, also bend over and put their upper half into the torso and arms. Once all inside, they should be able to stand up.
When she explains this to Umbra and Mathias, Mathias volunteers to try. When he stands up as directed, the seal in the back closes and he hears a whoosh and feels his ears register a change in pressure. At the same time, the static displays in the helmet that had been glowing dully now flare with brilliant, dynamic colors, and in more than one place alien text scrolls by. Finally, all of the joints that resisted movement before relax and are perfectly loose.
[Initial armor use, Mathias at +1 due to Intelligence of less than 10. Roll 3+1 = 4 (circle). Roll 5+1 = 6 (triangle).
The suit, huge and much of it metallic, should be heavy. Full plate armor like that of Tyrius weighs about 65 pounds unless it is magical. Mathias estimates that this suit is about that heavy. A human has to be much stronger than Mathias to move in full plate (minimum Strength 15). He really has no business moving in this armor - and yet he still can. After some experimental steps, he realizes that the armor is actually helping him move! Every movement he makes is being amplified by miniature gears and levers inside the armor such that the armor itself is doing most of the work of moving itself. From outside, Willa and Umbra hear the hum of motors like that produced by the clockworks every time Mathias moves.
Mathias tries a little hop into the air. Again, it would take his whole strength to get off the ground in a suit of full plate, if he could even do so. When he crouches, then straightens his legs, the armor seemingly anticipates his motion and straightens its legs with an incredible force, lifting him a foot off the ground. When he lands, the impact is felt through the metal floor by Umbra and Willa and heard by those in the rooms and hallways nearby.
Mathias wonders, if the suit is powered like the clockworks, what is its power level after so many years? There are multiple displays that indicate the level of something, but which is overall power? He finds that by raising his hands into his field of view, he can manipulate the displays as if he was touching them - enlarging or shrinking them, moving them to different places on the interior of the helmet, dragging them from the center of the display to the periphery. When he grabs one particular display, the red jewel on the left arm flares to life.
[From triangle, roll 9+1 = 10 (Discharge; person is hurt, return to start).]
A red beam of light, looking like what the security clockworks shoot out of their chest, streaks from the jewel and slams into the side of Mathias’ leg. Just before it hits, Umbra and Willa see a blue field flare and absorb the red. The blue field appears similar to the force shield that the security clockworks generate. Mathias doesn’t take damage.
[Powered Armor onboard Laser Pistol: Damage 2d8+20-AC of target. Powered Armor AC = 20. Damage = 9 points to onboard force shield]
Two different displays inside the helmet flash. One, in red, lowers slightly and then rises almost immediately. Another, in blue, lowers about a fifth and then rises slowly, such that it will likely take a minute or more to be where it was before.
Willa and Mathias discuss what happened. Despite the helmet, and the whole suit, appearing to be airtight, they can hear each other, though each of their voices sounds a bit tinny and hollow to one another. Mathias wants to confirm the existence of a protective force shield. They call Thokk in, and tell him to help Mathias test the armor by hitting it. Thokk grins broadly, recalling when he “helped” Barnabus test his magical leather.
Thokk squares off and punches the armor in its chest plate (to hit 17, 20 - at advantage since Mathias is not trying to avoid the blow. Armor is AC20. Thokk does 5 points of bludgeoning damage)
This time Willa and Umbra know what to look for, and clearly see the protective blue field. Inside the helmet, Mathias feels the blow but is not harmed. The blue display drops further, but the red display does not. Mathias is confident that the blue display tracks the power available in the shield.
While initially thrilled about the possibility of powered armor with a self-generated defensive shield, Mathias now wonders about whether or not he can cast spells in it. He tries to cast mage hand, which has a somatic component - a precise series of gestures that have to be performed perfectly in order to execute the spell (Arcana 6). The spell fails, as his motions are disrupted both by the bulk of the suit and its over-compensation for his gestures. Can he cast in it? Possibly, eventually - if he has enough practice.
His next question - is there anything in the suit that will act as an on-board color key, enabling him to open the doors of the ship? Willa agrees to stay inside the room and shut the door behind him, as he goes into the hall where Larry is. As he walks across the room, Mathias notes that his stride is slow but easy. There seems to be a limit to the speed with which the suit can adjust to his movements. He could likely walk all day in it without tiring, and possibly carry much more gear besides, but at a slower pace than he could without it.
Once he is out of the room Mathias tells Willa to close the door (from her side it is a pressure plate, from his a red-carded lock). He lifts his hands and tries different motions in front of the door. Suddenly the red light from his left hand fires again - this time down the hallway - and strikes Larry’s shield, blasting him down the hall. Apparently there is some gesture that fires the bolt of which he is not yet aware.
[Powered Armor onboard Laser Pistol: Damage 2d8+20-AC of target.
Larry AC = 18 (not counting Dex). Damage = 14 points radiant damage]
“Och, mind yer beams, ye grreat yooman ponce!” curses the dwarf.
Mathias shrugs. “Looks like it hurt less than a lightning bolt,” he mumbles.
He tries several more gestures, including miming turning a door knob and sweeping the door out of the way. If the suit can trigger a door, he does not know how. After counting to one hundred, Willa opens the door from the inside, and Mathias comes back in.
He tries to cast mage hand again. This time he fails (Arcana 0), and sends a charge of the jewel of light into his own leg again! (Roll 9).
“Take it off!” yells Willa.
“You said to figure out how it worked!” he replies defensively.
“Fine!” she says, “bu’ we be leavin’ - shoot all ye want once ther room be clear!”
Taking care that both doors are still open, Willa, Thokk, and Umbra withdraw and head for the storeroom.
“Thanks, but send Aurora in here when she’s done!” Mathias calls to their backs. “This would be easier if I could read the displays.”
(11:20pm)
Aurora looks around the storeroom. There are crates and crates, all easily opened and labeled, but her comprehend languages is over. She tries a few of the crates. Inside are smaller boxes, also labeled. She will need to ritual-cast her spell again. But first, she needs a bit more protection. There are several unopened doors off the hallway, and she doesn’t feel too secure with Larry as the only guard. Babshapka is in the control room, a mere fifty feet away - but her message is blocked by an inch of metal - and these walls are all at least an inch thick. But message doesn’t have to travel in a straight line, so as long as all the doors are open...she summons Babshapka to watch over her while she conducts her ritual.
(11:30pm)
Her spell complete, Aurora turns back to the first crate she opened. Both the outside of the crate, and the stacked boxes inside, say “Meaty stew”. Meaty stew? Can it be? She rapidly turns to the next crate - which reads “Creamy porridge”. Aurora squeals with delight, and tells Babshapka to start taking the tops off of boxes. Nearly all of them contain food stores, of both the two aforementioned ones, as well as “Nutrient drink”, “Surrogate steak”, “Vegetable substitute”, and “Vitamin bars”.
(11:40pm)
With all the boxes open, Babshapka and Aurora have found more food than the party can likely carry. There were two small boxes without food, however, both of them small black cave horn cases with handles and latches. Inside the first case, nestled in cave sponge, are twelve ampules with brightly colored liquid and a curious set of a dozen tiny cave horn plungers topped with metal needles. Four each of the ampules read “disease cure”, “poison antidote”, and “radiation antidote”. Aurora recognizes the word “radiation” from the atmospheric analyzer, but is still not sure what it means besides a feeling that it is related to the radiant damage from spells like Larry’s moonbeam. She makes Babshapka memorize which colors of the liquids in the ampules go with which property for when her spell fails, but she also takes notes on the alien script and their translations.
The second black case is labeled on the outside “Healing Canisters.” Inside are fourteen flasks surrounded by cave sponge. The canisters appear as smooth, featureless gourds. They are indented on one side to fashion a grip, flat on the bottom, and have a small neck curving out of the other end. This neck ends in a hole. On the back of the neck is a rivet. On the flat bottom is a sundial pattern with a hair marking a line on the pattern, as well as the numbers zero to six.
Babshapka takes a box out of the “Meaty Stew” crate and opens it. Inside are a stack of cave horn trenchers, each covered by a silvery film made of some flexible material like oiled skins. At one end of the film is a tab, attached to one side is a strange implement that looks like a spoon with serrated edges and a hollow handle, and at the other end of the trencher are two rings, one red and one blue.
Babshapka peels back the tab to reveal the inside of the trencher. The contents are in a dry, dusty brick, with lots of room for air. It does not look or smell appetizing. He tries a tiny bite, and it is all he can do to get it down. It tastes mostly of powder and salt. “Seven hundred and fifty years,” he says to Aurora. “Of course it is inedible.”
Aurora is undaunted and not ready to give up her windfall. She directs him to take out the next trencher, and this time to pull the blue ring before peeling back the skin. When he does so, he reports that suddenly the trench feels “sloshy” and about twice as heavy, as if a liquid were added to the inside. When he pulls the red ring, the trencher and especially the skin quickly feel warm to his touch. Now when he peels back the skin, he is faced with a tray full of steaming stew that actually looks and smells very appetizing! He stows his stone and pops off the curious serrated spoon attached to the trencher. At a sip of the contents, even the taciturn wood elf smiles. “Not fresh,” he says, “but not bad.” The contents of the stew are not quite identifiable - cubes of some sort of root vegetable (darker than potato, crispier than turnip) and flakes of some sort of meat (as red as ham but with a flavor more like a delicate poultry).
(11:50pm)
Willa, Umbra, and Thokk arrive at the storeroom, and Aurora eagerly describes what she has found. They all try a spoonful of the now-cooling stew. For all her criticism of the unnaturalness of the ship and its strange technology, here at last is a discovery that Willa approves of wholeheartedly. She does some rapid mental calculations - with one trencher counting as a complete meal - and the current size of their party being eight in need of food - the crates all together represent about a two month supply! Maybe, she speculates, the mules could eat the vegetable substitute, or perhaps the porridge.
“Now we just need to find fuel!” says Aurora excitedly. “Do you think we can burn the crates?”
Willa shakes her head. “No need. If t’ese meals ‘eat themselves like ye say, we be needin’ coal only fer ter ‘eat ther tent - an’ we hae eno’ coal fer that. W’at do yon ‘ealing cans do?”
Aurora calls Thokk over and looks at the burns and welts on his now-hairless chest. She takes a canister in hand and follows the instructions on the inside of the case - shaking the canister vigorously, depressing the rivet, and pointing the nozzle at the wound.
A misty liquid sprays out. When it hits, a green foam, greener even than Thokk’s skin, rises up. Thokk sighs and says it feels good. When they scrape away the foam, they find his burns have healed and even his chest hair re-grown. (Thokk healed for 12 points, the dial on the canister has gone from “2” to “1”. Aurora now has automatic use of healing canisters (-1 from int, -2 from successful use, -2 from instruction is total -5)).
Willa loads eight trenchers each of stew and porridge into her backpack, as well as two canisters of healing (although she does not notice and Aurora does not think to check that both canister’s dials read “zero”).
[11:50pm; Vegepygmy wandering encounter canceled - they avoid the central block of the level]
(11:50pm)
Back in the Chief’s office, Mathias tries again to cast mage hand while in the armor (Arcana 0). This time when he fails, he sees several of the displays turn red (Roll 9). A second later, the suit seizes up and does not move. It has stopped assisting his movements - it has stopped moving at all, and Mathias finds himself locked in position as more and more of the displays turn red and unreadable text scrolls by.
About a minute later and the suit finally responds to him, moving again, but he suddenly hears the hiss of escaping gas and smells something acrid. A new display shows a system of tubes like veins running throughout the suit and flashing. Mathias reaches up and finds the buttons that open the seal, bends over and rapidly climbs out of the suit. Green gas follows him out and starts to build up around the suit itself. Mathias’ lungs burn and he begins to cough as he retreats from the suit.
From the control room (where he moved after Babshapka left), Tyrius can see the expanding cloud of green gas enveloping the suit. He calls for Umbra or Aurora to return. Willa hears his call and brings Umbra, skirting the cloud as she moves through the Chief’s office. Umbra moves to the control panel, trying to remember which of the dozens of switches and dials represented the “ventilation system in the “Chf Sec Off”. She tries a few (Intelligence Save 2, critical fail) and is met with the script which she cannot read but which she knows says that a password or key card is required.
Soon after, Aurora and Babshapka enter the control room. With her comprehend languages, Aurora finds the correct dial to increase the ventilation in the office and begin to suck the green gas out of the room. In a few minutes the suit stops producing it. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twelfth Barrier Peaks session, was 29 June, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Post 179: Spores! 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
Currently:
Aurora has comprehend languages until 12:30am
Shefak has mage armor until 1am
Babshapka spells at 1/2
Tyrius at 2/2
Umbra at 0/3/0
Dirty Larry at 3/1/1
Aurora at 3/1/1
Party is in the central complex, Level I.
Shefak, invisible, is on guard outside in the hall.
Everyone else is in either the Security Control Room or the Chief Security Officer's room, with the door between them open.
The poison gas from powered armor has been vented.
(12am)
Once all of the gas has dispersed from the officer’s room, Mathias and Aurora return. Umbra stays at the console control panel. Some of the stronger party members maneuver the fallen clockwork into an upright position behind the desk to make it look like it is still in control of the room.
With her comprehend languages still running, Aurora follows Mathias’ instructions on getting into the suit. It allows her to enter but Mathias has to help her stand the armor upright. When she is fully standing, the back seal does not close and it does not pressurize.
Aurora can read the numerous displays all around the helmet. In the center, and much larger than the others, is a flashing red notice. “Critical suit failure!” it says, “Mandatory repair. This fault was first reported 712 years 63 days 5 hours ago.” Below that, it says “All major systems offline. Currently running on long-term emergency power only. This fault was first reported 0 hours ago.” Finally, beneath this, it says, “Critical hydraulic system failure. Ethylene Glycol gas leak extremely dangerous to user. This fault was first reported 0 hours ago.”
Around this, in smaller displays, she can read the status of the various systems the suit possesses. She shouts these out to Mathias, who can hear them through the open seal in the back of the suit. The voice of the suit-wearer is no longer being projected from the front. It appears that the suit is equipped with:
Air Supply
Air Supply Recharge
Anti-Gravity
Anti-Gravity Recharge
Atmospheric Analyzer (with the same three systems as the handheld unit)
Auditory Sensors
Core Generator
Force Shield
Force Shield Recharge
General System Power
Image gathering and processing
Language Translator (incoming and outgoing)
Laser Pistol (the display says that this is currently set to “anti-personnel mode”. It does not say what the other mode(s) are)
Low light sensors
Movement Systems
Processing and Diagnostics
Structural Integrity
Thermal Dispersion Patterning
Voice Projection
Mathias listens carefully. When Aurora is done, he says, “Well, we’ll just have to see about getting it fixed, then. Let’s take it back to that repair clockwork.” He helps Aurora double over again, then climb out of the suit.
(12:10am)
The party, less Shefak, gathers in the interior hallway of the central complex. Willa is still keen to move the mules here, but wants to do a bit of exploring first, making sure the complex is safe. There are two gray doors and a pressure plate one off of the hall, and they don’t know the contents of any of those rooms.
It is decided that they will try the middle gray door - except that they have no idea where gray is in the color hierarchy. Aurora suggests that it can’t be very high, as black is quite low and the known higher colors are bright. She suggests using the red card, since that is likely the highest card the party possesses and thus most likely to work. Willa agrees that the red card is likely the highest, but says that in itself is the reason they cannot use it - they can’t afford to lose it if it doesn’t work. She says they should try the yellow card. If the yellow doesn’t work, they will still have the red, without having lost any functionality, but if the red doesn’t work they will lose access to this whole complex.
Aurora inserts the yellow card into the gray-coded slot of the door. Immediately a door alarm begins to go off; the card is not returned. From the control room Umbra shouts that there is a flashing light on the console. Aurora dashes off to read the message. Under the flashing yellow light, text appears saying “Unauthorized entry attempted at central computing room - reroute all available security personnel”. Aurora attempts to override the alarm but fails. “We need to prepare for clockworks!” she shouts to the others.
“Can Shefak see ‘em comin’?” Willa asks, and Larry admits his previous Darkvision spell on her should have expired hours ago. He hustles out in the hallway to apply another one, and warns her that they may have visitors soon. (Shefak now has darkvision to 8:10am, Dirty Larry at 3/0/1)
What follows then is several moments of them shouting at each other as they try to work out whether they are supposed to be hiding or ambushing, and if the latter, where that is going to take place. Mathias has disappeared into the shadows in the control room until Willa reminds him that he is holding the red card and needs to be with the group if something happens. They finally decide on using the Chief’s room as their ambush spot and several of them ready themselves to attack anyone coming in the open doors. They leave all of the interior doors open but have plans to shut them if they hear from Shefak. While most of them think that any security forces will arrive through the control room, Willa insists that they need to be ready for something arriving through the other doors, and she sends Babshapka through the pressure-plated door to the south. On the other side he finds the familiar medical bay - he listens carefully, and then closes both doors from there to the hallway which were left open at the start of their last fight. Babshapka notes that on the medical bay side, the door is not a push panel, but rather is gray-carded, so he carefully leaves it open. Willa and Thokk move out to guard it as Babshapka remains in the bay and listens.
After a tense five minutes or so the alarm ceases. “See, I told you,” says Aurora confidently. “I’m sure we have eliminated all of the security clockworks by now.”
When they stand down she informs the party of what the message actually said - “Unauthorized entry attempted at central computing room”. Mathias asks what a “computing room” is. “I imagine it is like a counting house,” says Aurora. “On a ship like this, they would likely have to “compute” the pay for all the crew, the supplies in food and whatever they use to power all of these devices, parts for the clockworks, and everything else. Most likely a center of logistics and inventory.”
Mathias considers this. He suggests that they insert their black card into the other gray door. They will surely lose the card, but at least they can learn from the readout in the control room what kind of place it is. Willa says that she does not want them to be down to a single card (she thinks, but does not say out loud, especially a single card held by him). She adds, however, that the black cards appear to be numerous - they have had two others before - one they lost to a brown door, one to a violet door. So it is likely they will come across another soon, and if not perhaps they can get one from some plant men. She is willing to try Mathias’ plan as soon as they have a spare.
(12:20am)
After some more talk, it is decided that if they are not going to be attacked, and if they can’t get through the gray doors, they need to explore some more to make sure the complex is safe for the mules. Willa wants Aurora to read anything in the medical area before her spell expires. Mathias convinces Thokk to carry the now-frozen armor. It is as heavy as a normal suit of plate armor and Thokk is able to get it over his shoulders and stagger forward slowly. Shefak runs rear-guard, closing all of the red doors behind them, but being careful to leave the gray one open.
Once in the medical suite they spread out. Willa guards the southwest entrance to the hallway outside, Thokk sets down the armor and guards the southeast door, Tyrius remains at the north door they came from. The rest of them follow Aurora around as she reads. The yellow door to the east says “Research Facilities”. She wants to enter immediately, but Willa said they needed to explore the two smaller rooms in the medical suite first. One of these Babshapka previously looked in, but did not have time to search it as he had just opened the door when the clockwork attacked. Babshapka reminds them that the alarm is triggered by touching the desks and they should avoid those. The two small rooms have writing on the doors that say “Examination Room 1” and “Examination Room 2”.
The first exam room is strangely furnished. It is not clear whether it is meant to be an uncomfortable bedroom or a comfortable cell or torture chamber. There is a single bed with side rails and obvious locations for restraints. A smaller litter is nearby, curious in that it is wheeled. A thin, standing curtain has a sheer fabric mounted on a flexible folding frame that seems mounted to the floor and ceiling. Babshapka has seen this room, so he proceeds to check the other one while Aurora looks for things to read.
In various drawers around the room are a number of small unfamiliar machines and devices, and a few more of the dark panes of glass that Mathias saw in the desk drawer outside. One drawer holds vials and tubes. There is lots of writing, both in the room and on the objects in the drawers, that Aurora can translate, but she doesn't understand most of the terms - it seems to be a specialized vocabulary related to alien concepts of medicine.
She starts looking through the drawers for things she thinks would help for dissecting robots, but all the tools seem to be designed for squishy humanoid non-metallic bodies. This is not a machine repair shop. She pokes her head into the room Babshapka is in but sees no great difference in its accoutrements, while meanwhile her spell is about to end. She returns to the yellow interior door.
(12:25am)
Aurora tells Mathias to open the yellow-carded door. He asks if they shouldn’t check with Willa first, and Aurora says it is fine. Babshapka shrugs and Dirty Larry nods in agreement. Mathias sticks the red card into the yellow-colored slot and the door opens. He asks Umbra to at least inform Willa that they are moving on.
The room inside [Laboratories] has tables and chairs. Shelving and counter space is full of what Aurora recognizes as alchemical supplies: vials, retorts, petri dishes, etc., as well as more esoteric devices and machines she does not recognize but which she assumes have similar uses. There are a number of dark glass screens on the walls. There are lots of things to read, down to the labels on the equipment, but the terms are highly specialized - they relate to medicine and alchemy but that is about all she gleans. Certainly there is nothing that obviously says "healing". To the north there is a pressure-plate door, to the east two yellow-carded doors. One says “Lab B: Culture Laboratory” while the other says “Lab C: Alchemical Supply Room.”
When Willa arrives, Mathias immediately says, “Serjeant, I told them to wait for you, but they made me open the door.”
“Aye,” sighs Willa, “Welcome ter me world.”
Aurora opens the pressure-plated door to the north while she points Mathias at the carded door, the southernmost of the two doors on the east wall.
Aurora’s room [Laboratories] is small, the walls full of stacked metal cages and container bins. Many of the cages hold the dusty, yellowed bones of small animals. There are two other doors besides the one she entered. One to the north is uncarded and unlabeled; one to the east is yellow-carded, and says “Lab B: Culture Laboratory”.
Aurora continues to the north. The next room [Laboratories] is also small, containing workbenches and counters, full of machines and alchemical supplies. A single, yellow-carded door is on the east wall, and says “Lab A: Reagent Trials”.
Back in the initial room, Mathias uses his red card to open the first yellow door. The packed space within [Lab c] is filled with shelving and all manner of containers - jars, boxes, and bottles. Most are glass, but some are ceramic; all are labeled in the alien script. The others call for Aurora to come back and read. When she gets to the supply room, with the last vestiges of her spell, she reads that the
Glass bottles of white powder say “defoliant”
Glass bottles of clear fluid say “acid” (with different qualifying names)
Glass jars of green powder say “poison” (with different qualifying names)
Glass jars of pink powder say “sensory enhancer”
Large ceramic bottles say “fertilizer”
Large ceramic containers say “regal acid”
There are about twenty of each type of container. A few are intact, most are rent, leaking, corroded, discolored, have dry-rotted seals, etc. Aurora’s spell ends.
(12:30am)
Aurora carefully looks through the containers, trying to find two of each that appear the most intact and are likely to still be viable, and then she directs the others to carry them out to the table in the previous room. Tyrius lays his backpack on the table in preparation for loading it with the containers.
Mathias moves to the more northerly of the two yellow-carded doors. The room beyond [Lab b] is long but narrow. It contains dozens of tubs mounted on open shelving of various levels. Thin tubes drop from the ceiling into each tub and there is a steady dripping noise. Russet-colored mold overgrows all of the tubs, covers the floor, and runs up the walls of the room. Willa’s hand goes to her stone.
Aurora takes a good look at the mold (Nature check, 24). She doesn’t recognize it, but doesn’t think it is “natural”. In the light of Willa’s lantern, she can see thousands of tiny, golden spores - dense in the air of the laboratory, swirling in eddies out the door, more disperse in the room they are in.
Willa tells Mathias that he can close the door, but when he leans in to press the pressure panel on the inside of the door he sees, besides a few other doors to the room, a shape on the floor under a dense carpet of mold - it looks like a humanoid body, but only two or three feet tall.
He leans back out of the room. “There’s a guy there,” he says, “under the mold. I think this is the source of the plant men.”
“T’at nay be a plant man,” says Willa definitively.
Mathias shrugs. “It’s the right size and shape.”
Aurora rubs her hands together in excitement. “If this is the source of the plant men…” she says.
“No fireballs!” commands Willa. “Larry, take a look,” she says, then puts up her stone and becomes speechless. Next to her, Babshapka pulls his anti-gas mask off his belt, slips it over his head, and begins adjusting the straps.
“After you, nature boy,” says Mathias, ushering Larry into the room and then slipping in after him. Larry’s feet, and Mathias’ boots, tread on the carpet of mold and it immediately releases thousands more spores into the air. Larry unsheathes his scimitar and pokes it into the mold-covered lump. He scrapes away the surface layer and examines the features underneath. (Perception 10). “Och, tha’s a plant mun right eno’,” he says, “tho’ be et dead are be et nae yet bairn - aye dinnae ken which.”
Mathias looks around the room, trying to identify anything else that might be under the thick layer of mold, but doesn’t find much (Perception 7).
[Larry Con save with dwarf advantage against poison 9, Mathias Con save 13]
Larry begins wheezing, and soon has trouble breathing. Mathias, too, feels a tickle in his throat, then begins coughing. Willa leans into the lab, one hand bracing herself on the wall outside, and yanks the two of them out without setting foot on the mold-covered floor of the room. Mathias, under his own power, starts stumbling back through the rooms, making his way slowly to the storeroom, followed by Aurora. As he goes, his exposed skin turns pink, then bright red, as if he has a sunburn - everywhere his skin was not covered by his leather. Larry is doubled over without moving, then sinks to his knees. He is beginning to turn blue from lack of air and gasps feebly.
Babshapka sticks his hand inside the room to press the pressure panel and close the door. Still wearing his anti-gas mask, he dashes after Mathias and Aurora. When he catches them, he wrenches the red card from Mathias’ hand, and then continues on ahead to open the storeroom door ahead of them.
Tyrius and Thokk together manage to carry Larry, arriving at the storeroom shortly after Mathias. By the time they get there, the skin on Babshapka’s arm, the one he closed the door with, is red as well. Tyrius empties his skin of water over Babshapka’s arm and sleeve. Larry’s breath is rattling feebly and his eyes are fluttering. Mathias can feel his throat closing off and begins searching for something in his backpack.
Aurora opens the “healing” valise in the storeroom and fills one of the plungers with half an ampule of “poison antidote” by sticking the needle end through the rubbery seal and drawing the plunger back, like she learned in her alchemy class when they worked with liquid ingredients that could not be exposed to air. She gets Mathias to open his mouth and tries to squirt it down his throat - but it seems to have no effect. She considers why the needle at the end of the plunger is so sharp and fine (Arcana 20). She draws the rest of the ampule, jabs the needle under Mathias’ skin, and squeezes. His eyes go wide and opens his mouth as if to object, then passes out, one hand clenched tightly around a potion flask just drawn from his pack. The burns on his skin are spreading.
Tyrius and Thokk set down Larry on the floor of the storeroom and quickly work to take his armor off. The skin of his hands and feet is peeling and sloughing off, and above that it is bright red to his knees and elbows. Tyrius lays a hand on Larry’s brow and prays for a lesser restoration (Tyrius to 2/1).
Larry’s breathing slowly eases. Tyrius keeps his hand on Larry’s head, closes his eyes, and continues his prayer (Religion check 21). He says that there is no poison in Larry’s system, but that he believes the problem with his breathing was related to some kind of disease. He does not know what the burns are from.
“Disease, eh?” says Aurora. She uses the already open syringe to draw forth a full syringe worth of “disease antidote” from one of the blue ampules, emptying it, then jabs that under Mathias’ skin and squeezes. (Mathias' death save 17). His body convulses as the thick, syrupy liquid spreads through his veins. Some tense moments later he begins breathing again, hoarse and weak.
Tyrius asks Aurora to tell him the labels on all the ampules. She is working from memory, but says she thinks they were “poison antidote”, “disease antidote”, and “radiation antidote”. The curious spray they used on Thokk simply said “healing”. Tyrius doesn’t know what “radiation” is - but the burns bear considerable resemblance to the damage done by Larry’s moonbeam spell, which is “radiant”. Perhaps there is a connection between 'radiant' and 'radiation'?
Larry’s burns are worse but no longer spreading, while Mathias’ are not as bad yet but are continuing to worsen even as his breathing improves. Aurora injects Mathias with a full ampule of “anti-radiation” liquid, while Tyrius shakes and then sprays the healing canister previously used on Thokk over Larry’s arms and legs.
After several minutes they are both doing better - Mathias’ burns are slowly subsiding, while the skin has grown back over Larry’s hands and feet, soft and supple. When they later are conscious and have been explained everything that happened, Mathias weakly suggests that the plant men are the result of exposing the russet mold to the source of radiant damage they experienced.
Babshapka removes his mask, his cloak, and his chainmail. The burns on his arm look bad, although he is not having trouble breathing. [Note: Babshapka normally Str 12, currently Str 11]. The healing spray worked well on Larry, so they take the same canister to Babshapka, but before she sprays it, Aurora notes that the dial on the bottom now says “0”. She presses the rivet, but no foam emerges. There are still plenty of canisters left, so she pulls out another one and checks the bottom - it is on “six”. She holds it over Tyrius’ arm and depresses the rivet. With a soft hissing sound, just a few drops of green liquid and no foam emerges - and the dial on the bottom drops rapidly from “six” to “zero”. Aurora curses and shakes the canister, noting that it already felt light when she picked it up. She goes back to the valise and pulls out the canisters, shaking each in turn. Of the 15 canisters remaining (including two that Willa had previously taken), there are only three that have the heavy “sloshing” feel she thinks means that they are intact. Of those, the dials on the bottom read 6, 4, and 1.
Larry struggles to his feet. “Aye got et,” he says, and rests his hand on Babshapka’s burned arm while mumbling in Bear. (Cure wounds for 7 points, Babshapka’s strength restored, Larry at 2/0/1). Babshapka’s skin turns from beet red to a delicate pink.
Willa takes the three working canisters and the valise of ampules. She is beginning to struggle with her load and says that they need to collect the mules and redistribute gear soon.
(12:50am)
The party returns to the complex of laboratory rooms. Using his mage hand, Mathias places the red card in the slot to open the second door labeled Culture Lab and sees that it indeed leads to the same russet mold-filled room. He uses his hand to return the card to his person, then sends it inside to press the pressure panel and close the door. The hand fizzles once the door lies between it and Mathias, but it is a cantrip and he can easily cast it again. Willa nods in agreement at his caution. “From now on, better use yer hand fer all ther doors.”
“Yes sergeant!”
The final yellow door, leading to Reagent Trials is opened in a similar manner. Inside [Lab a] is a lab bench and plenty of alchemical equipment spread out in use - rather than being abandoned as in previous rooms, many of these are filled with a variety of strange liquids and gels.
A clockwork, roughly human-shaped, is moving between the different pieces of equipment and is currently stirring an odd glowing liquid with a small glass rod. The automaton is not nearly as realistic as the female clockwork they fought, but is much more obviously humanoid in appearance than all of the security and cleaning clockworks they have seen. It is five feet tall and genderless, and has many sockets for attachments and compartments that might house laboratory equipment. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twelfth Barrier Peaks session, was 29 June, 2019.
Two posts ago was likely the nadir for the party - two of them locked in the jail cells, facing starvation, with no key card capable of opening the door. That problem resolved, and now in possession of a red card, the party is on their way up. In the last post they discovered the ship's stores and finally found a safe place to rest. Now their possession of a red card will give them access to a huge amount of information. They are finally starting to get answers to their questions.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Post 180: Unit (#at†y [^']['h`/ 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
A clockwork, roughly human-shaped, is moving between the different pieces of equipment and is currently stirring an odd glowing liquid with a small glass rod. The automaton is not nearly as realistic as the female clockwork they fought, but is much more obviously humanoid in appearance than all of the security and cleaning clockworks they have seen. It is five feet tall and genderless, and has many sockets for attachments and compartments that might house laboratory equipment.
Aurora steps forward excitedly and says “Initiate language translation protocol.”
The clockwork swivels its head in response, looks at each of the party in turn, and then returns to the task at hand. Aurora tells the party to watch it while she casts a ritual of comprehend languages. The clockwork spends the next ten minutes transferring the glowing liquid from one strange device to another, alternately stirring, heating, and examining it.
(1am)
[Shefak’s mage armor ends]
Aurora finishes her spell, and moves to the still-open doorway. She says again, “Initiate language translation protocol.”
Without turning its head this time, the clockwork responds with a voice that is loud enough for them all to hear - and it speaks in Common! “Translation protocol complete.”
Aurora checks with the others and confirms that they can all understand the clockwork, it is not just the effects of her spell. She considers her training in commanding golems and other constructs - how to issue directives to things that are magically aware and responsive, but not really sentient or alive. She commands it to “report on current events.”
It responds, “Reportage relegated to overflow processing capacity only - maintaining priority processing resources on current assigned task. This unit, laboratory technician robot (#at†y [^']['h`/, is continuing current research task.”
“Very good; explain current research task.”
“Current research task is to discover a cure for novel virus temporary designate HFX392: vulgar name, 'paranoia plague'.”
"Report progress on assigned task."
“This unit currently on trial 12,698 - no cure so far discovered - progress limited primarily by current lack of computational resources, biochemical materials and supplies, and live viral cultures. Majority of current run-time is involved in recycling and synthesis of chemical supplies in preparation for occasional trials.” When the clockwork mentions that it is dealing with limited resources, Mathias begins digging through his bag, eventually coming up with the same potion he had before in the storeroom.
"How long have you been working on assigned task?"
“Current assigned task has been ongoing for...750 years 17 days 13 hours.” Willa whispers that the security chief’s suit was damaged 712 years ago - decades more recently.
Aurora continues, “Report on last two days’ activities before death of crew members."
After a pause - “Specify: death of crew members. Crew members have died all throughout current mission.”
Ignoring the clockwork’s request for more information, Aurora shifts tactics: "Report on activities of 750 years eighteen days ago."
“Previous assignment, prior to current task, was researching nutritional supplements for exo-animals in containment units.”
"Explain nature of exo-animals."
“Exo-animals definition: life forms of animal nature not indigenous to home planet.”
"Explain current location designation."
“Current star location unknown - access to mainframe records lost.”
Aurora says, "Explain key card color locking system," and a second later Mathias asks whether the repair clockwork can fix the mechanical suit.
The clockwork says “Response delayed - critical process initiated”. It transfers the glowing liquid to another vial, then holds the vial securely in one hand. Its wrist swivels, spinning completely around as if on an axle. The spinning accelerates, faster and faster until the party can no longer track the motion and a high-pitched whine emerges. Aurora has seen a hand-cranked centrifuge in her alchemy class, but nothing like this. After several moments the spinning slows, then stops. The clockwork proceeds to extract part of the liquid out of the vial using some type of syringe, transfer that to a new vial, and then discard all of the previously used equipment into a bin.
Mathias asks whether the liquid contained in his flask can help find a cure, and he hands his potion bottle to Aurora, in the doorway.
Without turning its shoulders, with its back still to the party, the clockwork’s head swivels completely around, turning from Aurora to Mathias and back. “Specify ‘key card color locking system’. Specify ‘repair clockwork’. Specify ‘mechanical suit’.”
Mathias and Aurora begin to fire off questions to the clockwork: Aurora says, "Do you understand the nature of human-issued key cards to open color-coded doors?"
Aurora says, "Explain nature of cleaning/repair clockworks? Can users direct cleaning/repair clockworks?"
Mathias says, “What is the nature of your power source?”
Aurora says, "What is in the culture room to the south of us?"
Willa jumps in, asking, “Who was the first victim of the plague?”
With so many unanswered questions now pending, the clockwork announces, “Diverging lines of questioning detected - processing resources limited - specify one line of inquiry.”
Willa tells Aurora and Mathias to lower their sails for a second, that they are confusing the machine man and it seems to hold potential answers to a lot of their questions. She tells Mathias to suggest questions to Aurora, and Aurora to continue her interrogation, but to wait for one answer before asking another question. Finally, she says to the clockwork, “Respond t’ questions from t’is unit,” and points at Aurora.
Aurora asks again, more slowly, "What is in the culture room to the south of us?"
“Specify: south.”
"What is in the culture room directly to your right?"
“Culture lab contains: hydroponic cultures fed by nutrient broth. Culture lab may be used for stick-life, algae, fungi and similar organisms.”
"What is your own power source?"
“Standard issue Mark 4 internal microscale fusion reactor.”
Aurora looks back at the party, who all shrug. “Not a power disc?”
“This unit is not powered by power discs.”
"Describe the first instance of paranoia plague. Subject status, symptoms, and end result."
“Personnel medical files require yellow level clearance or higher to access.”
Aurora grins hopefully. "We possess red card access - requesting visual identification." She steps to the side to reveal Mathias - he holds forth the red key card.
“Questioners possess red level clearance - unlocking personnel medical files.” The party cheers. “Query is first instance of paranoia plague. Subject status, symptoms, and end result. Response: First documented instance of paranoia plaque was crewmember astronavigator Alfonse Jzzor. Subject was co-piloting scout ship assigned to prospect for water-bearing resupply planetoids in projected main ship trajectory. Upon return to main ship, subject Jzzor exhibited increasingly paranoid delusions and erratic, violent behavior. All documented cases of paranoia plague within first week of outbreak were subjects who had had recent close physical proximity to Jzzor. Estimation of Jzzor being viral host point of entry to main ship: 97.3% probability. End result: Jzzor killed self by suffocation with injection tube when confined to medical bay exam room for evaluation.”
“Suffocation with injection tube?” Aurora whispers. “Did he hang himself?” Her questions seem more directed at the party than the clockwork - in any event, it does not respond.
Aurora clears her throat uncomfortably, then directs the clockwork to "Explain tiers of all color clearance levels."
“Black level; lowest clearance; passengers and/or colonists without specific shipboard duties.”
“Brown level; crew and maintenance workers.”
“Violet level; technicians and master maintenance workers.”
“Orange level; security personnel.”
“Yellow level; medical officers.”
“Red level; security officers.”
“Gray level; command officers.”
“All clearance levels are in linear transitive hierarchical order as reported except yellow and orange level are equal, but restricted to limited operational spheres within appropriate duties.”
While Aurora makes rapid notes in her notebook about the significance of the colors, Mathias tells her to ask about retrieving lost cards. Once she has things written down to her satisfaction, including confirming her notes with the clockwork, Aurora says "Explain method for retrieving improperly used key cards."
“Improperly used key cards are immediately destroyed and an automatic system report is sent to security headquarters; card users are then scheduled for a disciplinary hearing and do not receive a re-issued card until the conclusion of the hearing.”
Aurora says, "Explain current status of paranoia plague throughout vessel,” even as Mathias tells her to ask how many levels there are on the ship.
“Current status of the plague is unknown to this unit - access to mainframe has been lost.”
"Explain levels of ship and purpose of each level."
“The original colony vessel had 56 levels before separation. Detailed specification of operations on each level requires gray level clearance.”
Aurora says, "Confirmation - current vessel is the scout ship?"
“Negative.”
“Current vessel is the colony ship?”
“Current vessel is second separate section of once-joined colony ship.”
Mathias tells Aurora to ask about the female clockwork. Aurora says, "What was the female highly advanced clockwork?"
“Query - question refers to female android?” [Here the party learns the word android]
“Yes, the female android. Describe function.”
(At this point, Babshapka leaves to check on Shefak and Thokk who are guarding the yellow door to the sick bay. The ranger also opens the door to the hallway, looks out, and closes it again.)
“Androids represent the highest level of synthetic processing and Terran form mimicry available - they can be programmed for a multitude of functions beyond default processes. Female androids are most commonly programmed as guards and companions to ship officers.”
Mathias tells Aurora to ask where they can find a companion - and how to sync with it.
Aurora ignores Mathias for the moment and says, "Speculate - why did you lose access to this ‘mainframe?’" Aurora does not recognize the word, but from context it seems like a device for communication that would allow the clockwork - or android? - to know what was happening in other parts of the ship.
“Mainframe contact was lost contemporaneously with maximum reported incidence of paranoia plague. Temporal association implies most likely scenario: ongoing Terran maintenance of ship systems delinquent due to spread of disease and effective personnel shortages, resulting in critical system failures. Lower-probability alternate hypothesis: deliberate severance of all internal communications systems by plague-afflicted ship command officers with gray-level clearance.”
(1:30am)
[Unbeknownst to the party or Eddard, two displacer beasts check the table room. Finding it now free of lurkers, they hide under the large table and wait.]
Aurora says, "Explain how to command androids," and Mathias grins.
“Androids are slaved to personal biometrics of ship officers upon assignment - reassignment occurs only with grey-level clearance.”
“Ask ‘im what creatures be on ther ship now,” says Willa.
“And were any of the passengers capable of changing shape,” adds Mathias.
Aurora says, "Explain nature of current residents of ship."
“Unable to access data on ship - mainframe access lost. Personal logs of this unit note lack of Terrans in centuries - present company excepted. Novel life form present in culture lab may have been Terran-derived but is no longer Terran.”
Aurora says, "Verify - you have been in this room for the entire time of your current research."
“This unit has been working in greater research suite since beginning of paranoia plague. Research suite includes three laboratories and three research rooms, contiguous. This unit is not programmed to leave research suite unless core level functions override current research task.”
Aurora says, "Were passengers or crew capable of changing physical shape?"
“Ship crew and colonists were incapable of changing physical shape except for processes of normal ontogeny.” It pauses. “Speculation indicates that novel life form in culture lab may have not been so limited.”
Aurora says, "Explain more details of novel life form in culture lab."
“Fungal-based life form not recorded in any archives - it may be novel mutant version of previous exo-fungal creature. Exo-fungal creature was being grown as possible nutritional supplement for exo-animals. Speculation: exo-fungus may have been inadvertently exposed to radiation during ship separation. Since putative mutation, fungus appears capable of infecting humanoid animal life forms whereas before it showed no traits associated with pathogeny. Result of infection in Terrans is novel host - sentient plant / animal / fungus symbiotic colony.”
Aurora gets a creeping sensation in her skin but continues her line of questioning. "Explain method of reproduction of novel fungal life form."
“Fungal spores infect suitable animal host - living tissue subsequently redirected into multiple smaller sentient creatures. Individual creatures grow, and can themselves reproduce by asexual budding.”
“So if that mold gets us, it turns us into plant men?” asks Mathias, but Aurora does not repeat his question.
“So if t’is jus’ be a section of ther ship, ‘how many levels do t’is section be?” prompts Willa. Aurora repeats the question, and adds that the clockwork android should explain each level of the ship as it goes.
“Level 1 - Quarters for ship’s crew and colonists. Medical stations, security headquarters for this section. Dining rooms, kitchens, meeting rooms, lounges for all personnel. Training and recreation rooms. Research facilities, library. Central computing facility.”
“Level 2 - ‘Tween decks. Service access for maintenance and technical crew only. Off-limits for colonists and non-dutied crew. Principle power generation and moderation for this section.”
“Level 3 - Upper walkway and lounge. Recreational kitchen and other recreational facilities for all personnel. Cargo holds for colonist and terraforming equipment.”
“Level 4 - Botanical gardens, rookery, and menagerie. Supply and support areas for same. Ten-Forward Lounge for all personnel.”
“Level 5 - Garden ‘tween decks. Service access for maintenance and technical crew only. Off-limits for colonists and non-dutied crew. Principle water reserve, treatment, purification, and circulation for this section.”
“Level 6 - Theatre, athletic, and activity deck. Recreational facilities for all personnel. Cargo hold for exo-beings in containment units. General cargo hold.”
Mathias tells Aurora to ask whether each level has redundant systems, like other medical bays and security quarters. Aurora nods, but says "Explain current safety and viability levels for human presence on each deck."
Willa asks where the colony ship itself went, and whether there has been contact with the other sections. Aurora repeats her question.
“This section of colony ship is currently in unknown trajectory - mainframe access lost. Status of contact with other sections unknown: mainframe access lost.”
“Why did the colony ship separate into sections?"
“Early stages of paranoia plague resulted in activation of quarantine protocol - colony ship divided into independent sections in attempt to control spread of plague.”
“Were there aliens loose in this section - escaped creatures from the containment units? Are they still getting out?”
“Current status of containment units unknown - mainframe access lost. Prior to loss of contact with mainframe, report of containment unit…” It pauses, then continues, “...report of containment unit restricted to gray level clearance. Files not accessible.”
Aurora says, "Explain nature of recent sickness and curing of incident with slime."
“Specify: slime?”
"In the culture lab to your right, there is a russet fungus with glowing floating spores. When agitated it caused medical problems in humanoids."
“Respiratory difficulty and radiation burns are early symptoms of body repurposing by novel fungal life form. Advanced symptoms are loss of consciousness and total metabolic and biostructural reworking, eventually resulting in emergence of two to three independent bipedal fungal / plant / animal symbiotic colonies.”
Mathias asks whether the maintenance androids can fix the exo suit, and Aurora repeats the question verbatim.
“Specify: exo suit?”
“This suit,” Mathias says, pointing to the armor that Thokk carried into the room before resuming guard duty.
“Specify: maintenance android?”
“Yes, maintenance android,” says Mathias.
“Unknown term: ‘maintenance android’.”
Mathias insists, “The clockworks that repair equipment, and repair the security androids.”
The clockwork pauses for several seconds, then says, “Term requested is ‘repair robot’. Repair robots are tasked with the maintenance of structural features of the ship and cleaning detail. Robots are inferior to androids in both synthetic processing and mimicry of Terran form.” [the party now knows the term robot.]
“Great,” says Mathias. “Can these repair robots fix this suit? If not, who can? What is this suit even called?”
“Robot adaptive learning allows them to attempt basic repairs of robots and androids but their effectiveness is limited to replacing failed components rather than actual failed component repair. Terran technicians are required to approve requests for replacement components. “Suit” is standard issue Powered Armor. Powered Armor may be repaired by qualified Terran violet-level technician.”
Aurora interjects with "Explain procedure for changing your assigned current task."
“Current task may be reassigned by grey-level clearance directive.”
"Where can we find grey-level clearance or individuals with such clearance?"
“Grey level clearance may be obtained on ship command officers’ physical cards or by verbally accessing blind/concealed internal password in all robots and androids.”
Aurora says, "What is the blind/concealed internal password?"
“Password is concealed in inaccessible program files until unlocked upon hearing.”
Mathias asks, “Is the password ‘Balls’?” The robot does not respond.
Willa asks how many commanding officers there are, and how many crew.
“Time passage since original officers and crew seen exceeds maximum theoretical Terran lifespan, even with regenerative technology not available on ship. Unknown whether new officers and crew have been assigned. Current status of ship officers and crew unknown - mainframe access lost.”
Aurora offers forth the bottle that Mathias provided, saying "Prioritize analysis of given vial of liquid as it may be pertinent to current assigned research task."
“Analysis of vial contents upgraded to next task after current trial.”
"How long will current trial take?"
“Current trial completion in two weeks, but projected downtime in 1 day 5 hours.”
"What does projected downtime mean? Can you analyze vial then?"
“Projected downtime defined: pause in commitment to current trial while cultures grow. Minor non-priority tasks may be completed during downtime.” The robot accepts the vial offered by Aurora.
"Very good - you are the most diligent servant I have ever seen."
“Specify: response to unnecessary praise desired?”
Aurora chuckles and continues, “Verify - human operator needed to fix powered armor suit?”
“Terran technician sufficient but not needed. Repair robot may be sufficient provided repair involves replacement of components that are already available to robot. Requisition of components requires Terran technician.”
Some of the party have lingering questions for the lab technician robot, but Mathias is keen to get the armor to a repair robot and Willa wants to move the mules to the storeroom and rearrange gear. They all agree that they can come back later. If the robot has not left in 750 years, it is unlikely to leave any time soon. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twelfth Barrier Peaks session, was 29 June, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Hole (II) rolling separately
Post 181: Work Smarter, Not Harder 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
(2am)
Aurora’s comprehend languages ends. The party collects their rear guard and helps Thokk again lift the powered armor across his shoulders. They make their way into the hall outside the medical facilities and head for the robot repair room.
They approach the intersection immediately to the south of the medical bay, one of whose branches leads to the hallway of the plant men. Shefak, invisible, is scouting ahead. She notices (Insight 17) that the plant men are getting agitated at the approach of the party - as they always do, but this time even more so. One of the thorn dogs is pointing stiffly at them.
They have passed through crowds of the creatures enough times by now that they try what has worked before - weapons away, avoiding eye contact, moving slowly and slouching down. This time, however, the plant men move quickly past most of the party rather than threatening them. When they get to Tyrius, however, they surround him. A half dozen of them hop up and down on all sides of him, and when he does not immediately react, they begin to paw at him.
More and more of them are emerging from the hallway, such that the corridor is becoming thick with them and those party members near Tyrius are having difficulty pushing past them, while he himself is immobilized. A few of the plant men are grabbing at his belt and trying to climb on him!
One of the creatures attains his back and is fumbling with the straps of his backpack, apparently trying to open it or perhaps get it off of him. Once Tyrius understands that the creatures are interested in his backpack, he realizes that inside are all of the alchemical supplies the party recently picked up. He takes off the backpack, gently shakes the plant man from it, and opens the top flap. The crowd of plant men around him threatens to topple him, but he manages to keep his feet. He holds the pack over his head, out of their reach, and begins pulling forth its contents at random and tossing them down the hall behind the party.
The first item out is a glass jar of green “poison” powder. This breaks when it hits the floor (luck roll -1). It is far enough down the hall that it does not land on any plant men, and they ignore it and continue to clamber about Tyrius.
The next item is a glass bottle of white “defoliant” powder. This does not break (luck roll 1) but remains lying in the hallway.
The next is a second glass jar of green “poison” powder. This breaks when it hits the floor (luck roll -4). It landed next to an outflow air duct, and it aerosolizes and drifts in a green cloud down the hallway, including over the plant men and the rear of the party. Apparently it is not a contact or respiratory poison, or perhaps is not still active after so many centuries, for no one seems to be adversely affected.
The next is a glass jar of pink “sensory enhancement” powder. This does not break (luck roll 0) and rolls to the center of the hallway, where it is ignored by the plant men.
The next is a large ceramic container of “regal acid”. Tyrius throws this well behind him, and the jar cracks on impact (luck roll -2). As the liquid seeps out, the metal floor of the hallway begins to blacken, then bubble, then sink from sight as it is eaten away. A thick cloud of caustic, acrid smoke fills the hallway. This gives a few of the plant men pause, but they quickly return to scrambling in mad attempts to climb up Tyrius and get to his backpack. Tyrius tries not to think about what might happen if he gets overborne and the second of those two containers of acid, still in his backpack, breaks.
Next is a large ceramic bottle of “fertilizer”. At its appearance the plant men are in a veritable frenzy. Tyrius is nearly overcome as a wave of the creatures climb over one another to get at him, but fortunately he has enough size and weight on them that he manages to keep his feet (Tyrius Athletics roll 17, plant men -1). He can only lob the container a short distance away as he struggles to maintain his balance. It breaks (luck roll -2) and a greenish fluid seeps out. Immediately all of the plant men abandon Tyrius and converge on the broken bottle, fighting and pushing one another out of the way in an attempt to get at the fluid. They stick their twiglike digits into the thick liquid and then into their mouths as they push and jostle one another. Tyrius, and the rest of the party, are now being completely ignored, and Willa hustles them along the hallway to the east while the getting is good.
[A wandering encounter is now being rolled on the Level II for the hole just created. If an encounter occurs, the Intellect Devourer will have found the hole and be able to climb to Level I. Also, a wandering encounter is being rolled on Level I for the mess in the hall. If it results in a worker robot, the robot will clean up the spilled poison and remove the intact bottles of poison and defoliant. It will ignore the hole itself as too large to repair without authorization to use ship stores.]
(2:10am)
The party enters the outer repair room, where the hulks of the two previously slain security robots lie, and then the inner room, where the solitary repair robot works on the dozen other non-functioning security robots. After an initial appraisal, Aurora does not believe that it is any farther along in its work than it was before. She considers the technician robot’s words - the repair robots are limited in their ability to repair things by their access to component parts, and new components can be requisitioned only by human crewmembers. In a new light she sees the vain attempt of the repair robot to take parts out of the bins or one of the non-functioning robots and replace them in another.
Aurora walks up to the repair robot and commands it to “Initiate translation protocol.” It steps around her and continues to go about its work.
Mathias directs Thokk to drop the armor in front of the robot. When he does so, it stops and spends a few minutes examining it with various probes and attachments. Finally it gathers up the armor in its hands and lifts it over its head (displaying considerable strength) and carries it to an empty workbench to set down, but then returns to working on the dozen security robots in the room.
Aurora tells Thokk to follow the robot around from behind, and whenever it is not looking, to carry out one of the broken security robots and place it in the other room. Thokk is amused by this game and over the next twenty minutes succeeds in getting all of the security robots out of the room without the repair robot “noticing”. With nothing else left to work on, the repair robot moves over to the powered armor, and begins examining it in earnest. When it begins to produce tools that actually open the suit and starts removing parts, Mathias and Aurora smile at one another.
(2:30am)
Willa asks if they are ready to return to the mules yet. Aurora looks around and notes that the repair room has a violet-carded door in it they could not go through before - but now they have a red card, which the technician robot informed them ranks above violet. Mathias agrees, and uses his mage hand to have the card open the door.
As soon as the door opens, a chime sounds - not an alarm, but a clearly audible chime. Those in the room next door hear it as well. The room beyond the door is oddly shaped, with three walls at normal right angles but the fourth curved as if it were the exterior hull. Inside the room are multiple large cases in cave horn and numerous small boxes of metal. One bench has a dozen of each of the colors of the stopperless flasks on it, as well as ten or more power discs laying out on top.
In the hallway outside the repair room Umbra is on watch. She calls into the room, saying that she can hear the approach of something wheeled (Perception 18). The party readies for combat. Babshapka, next to Aurora, and Mathias move into the room quickly and look about. With no other exits, they both have the same thought - to grab a handful of power discs and then move to support the party. Babshapka actually snatches three discs out from under Mathias’ hand, mumbles an apology, and dashes out the door. Mathias grabs four and closes the door on his way out. Shefak moves into the hall with Umbra and calls to the others that a security robot is coming.
[The security robot, having been summoned by the alarm on the armory door, is treated as a wandering robot and has been augmented to AC15]
Round One
Mathias dashes into the hall just ahead of all the others who were not there yet. “Time to meet your God, machine man!” he shouts. A great bolt of lightning arcs from him to the robot, then envelops it (witch bolt hits, 17 damage becomes 34 points. Drops force shield plus 14 points to body).
Thokk draws his longsword, runs past the robot, and batters at it from behind (1 hit, 7 damage). Just one of the metal creatures is not a challenge, but he always enjoys fighting alongside his companions. However, he notices that this robot is different from the others they have fought - it appears to be in some kind of armor! (Perception 13)
Shefak summons her ki and attacks with a flurry of blows (two attacks of four hit, 17 damage, she tries to knock the robot over but it remains upright), then continues her movement around the corner and out of sight of the robot.
Babshapka just barely makes it out the door in time to launch two arrows at the robot. One hits (10 damage), while the other is stopped by Thokk’s shield, causing him to guffaw at Babshapka’s poor aim.
Larry hits with his thorn whip and drags the robot closer to the door (6 damage).
Aurora tags the robot with a firebolt, but she notices (Arcana 23) that it did not do as much damage as it should have, considering the placement of the shot (hit for 14, robot is resistant to fire damage and takes 7).
Umbra follows up with a ray of shadow (13 damage), causing a section of the robot to ice over. Low on spells, Umbra converts sorcery points to spell slots (font of magic - Umbra at 1/3/0).
The robot gets its force shield up and running and wheels in a rapid circle, blasting Thokk with the sparking paralysis retort (Thokk makes a Con save at close range - paralyzed for 4 rounds). Free from melee, the robot wheels down the hall and past the door. Babshapka feels his longbow tugged by an invisible force, almost wrenched from his grasp, but he manages to hold onto it (telekinesis ray, Babshapka strength save 24).
Tyrius has remained in the room. He is up against the wall (out of view of the doorway) and is digging in his backpack, trying to find the second ceramic jar of “regal acid” to possibly use as a missile weapon.
Willa bursts from the doorway of the room, runs past the robot, down and around the opposite corner and out of its view. It tries to strike at her with a tentacle as she passes (opportunity attack), but misses.
Round 2
Umbra fires off a dark bolt (10 points to robot’s shield).
Tyrius is continuing to look in his backpack - where is that second jar? (Dex check 4)
(Thokk has three rounds of paralysis left)
Willa springs out from around the corner, hits the robot twice with her greatsword (total 31 damage, ten to shield and 21 to body). She retreats out of its view again before it can bring its paralyzation ray to bear on her, but a tentacle does strike at her as she pulls away (opportunity attack hits, 12 damage).
Larry scratches its metal hide with his thorn whip (4 damage).
Shefak emerges from around her corner with another flurry of blows. This time she lands four hits (total damage 32). She continues to pound dents into the robot until it stops moving.
[Because this robot was defeated entirely in the hallway, there is no video record of the combat. Thus the party remains at having killed four security robots “on record” and there will not be an increase in the AC of future robots]
The party cheers. Willa stows her stone and congratulates them on their improved tactics, particularly on staying away from the paralyzation ray by using cover. The key to fighting these things, she says, seems to be in not bunching up, but hitting and then ducking away so as to not be paralyzed...her words fade in her throat as she sees now the heavy metal plates on the robot. Is this a new version? Willa calls Tyrius into the hall to examine it.
Mathias concludes his electricity spell before it can arc to Tyrius, and returns to the repair room to make sure the robot is still working on the powered armor (which it is).
Together, Tyrius and Willa go over the robot. (Tyrius investigation 16, +5 from help is 21). They conclude that it is not a new model - it is the same robot they have fought before, but it has had heavy metal plates bolted onto its body in various locations. Tyrius believes that they have been added to key structural points that would be most vulnerable to melee damage - basically, everywhere they would normally target it. Furthermore, it appears to have been painted with a coat of some sort of varnish that makes it more resistant to flame. (Note: previous security robots had AC11, this one has AC15 and is resistant to fire damage).
Willa suggests that the robot has been altered specifically to resist the party - perhaps that was what was happening when the “central computer” alarm was tripped and no security forces came - they were all being retrofitted? When this is explained to Mathias, he says that the repair robot in the other room spends an awful lot of time examining the security robot bodies - perhaps it is assessing their damage and not only fixing them, but making adjustments as it goes to prevent similar damage in the future - “adaptive learning,” the technician called it.
Sobered, the party drags the robot into the room and waits for Thokk to be able to move. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Your players have really come into their own in their tactics and their role-playing. I love their semi-dysfunctional interactions and their still supporting each other in spite of it all, and their ability to work as a team.
How many sessions did the Barrier Peaks adventure take? I'm eager to see where your merry band of heroes is headed next.
Your players have really come into their own in their tactics and their role-playing. I love their semi-dysfunctional interactions and their still supporting each other in spite of it all, and their ability to work as a team.
The 'new' player of Mathias, Shefak, and Umbra really would like to focus more on tactics and traditional roles - who is the tank, who is the striker, etc. The other two players just want it to be fun and exciting and don't want to focus as much on tactics as on role-play. It does create some tension and occasionally hard feelings, but two years on they are still adventuring together and enjoying each others' company.
CruelSummerLord wrote:
How many sessions did the Barrier Peaks adventure take? I'm eager to see where your merry band of heroes is headed next.
In total there were 27 Barrier Peaks sessions, with each one typically 4 to 6 hours online. As to where they are going next, I will at this point say only that my organizing principal for the campaign is 'classic Greyhawk modules converted to fifth edition'. I should have no difficulty in keeping to my schedule of weekly installments here for quite some time... _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our thirteenth Barrier Peaks session, was 3 August, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Hole (II) rolling separately
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), Hole (II), and Repair Room rolling separately
2:50 am (party) vegepygmies
Post 182: Food Fight! 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
(2:40am)
When Thokk staggers back into the room, Willa looks over the party’s wounds and hears from the casters about their totals of spells remaining. She asks Larry when was the last time they had a long rest, and he says he figures they finished it around twelve hours ago for most of them - though more like thirty hours for Shefak, since she was out in the halls following the repair robot around the last time the party rested. Willa turns with alarm to Shefak, seeing for the first time the bags under her eyes. “It is merely a trial of the flesh,” the monk says modestly, as she stifles yet again the urge to yawn.
“Right. We be headin’ back fer ther mules, movin’ ‘em t’ ther red food storeroom, then takin’ turns gettin’ some sleep.” Willa is not shy about hiding her own yawn.
Mathias checks that the repair robot is still looking at the armor, and then closes the door as the party moves out into the hall. Willa looks from left to right and curses. “Which way were it now? All t’ese straight lines an’ no ‘orizon got me sailin’ in circles.”
“Follow me,” says the disembodied voice of now-invisible Shefak, from their right. The party moves after her down the hallway, with several of them struggling to keep up despite her encouragement.
[DM’s note: Tyrius, Willa, Aurora, Babshapka, and Umbra have been collecting items from the ship and are all now encumbered. If they have one more combat trying to use their full movement rate rather than the reduced speed indicated, they will need to make Exhaustion checks.]
[DM’s note: The party having removed all of the broken police robots from the room with the repair robot, it will try to fix the powered armor, as they intended. However, it will soon realize that it does not have the parts on hand for this and go in search of them, taking it to the next room with the 11 police robots it was futilely working on before. Once it enters the outer room, it finds not only the robots it was trying to fix before, but the remains of three police robots recently dispatched by the party - two that were guarding the room, and one that was summoned by the alarm. Using these bodies as a new source of parts, it will finally be able to repair the ones it has been working on. Furthermore, it will be able to review the videos recorded of the party fighting the security robots, and so will be able to upgrade the AC of those it is fixing and program them to attack the party. From now on, wandering encounters are rolled for the repair room location. On a result of “Police Robot”, one of the formerly decommissioned robots there is revived, as well as increased to AC15. These revived robots will then begin to guard the repair control room. A luck roll will then made to see if the party-destroyed robot can continue to serve as a source of parts or whether it has been ‘used up’.]
The party arrives at the intersection where one branch is filled with trash, and Willa gets her bearings. “Yonder be war we fought ther female clockwork,” she says.
“Female android,” corrects Aurora, already out of breath from all that she is now carrying.
“Aye,” says Willa, and they set off again, soon passing the lounge where they found the note about the alien. Aurora pauses at the intersection, and draws the rest of their attention to a brown door.
“We just avoided that before, when all we had was a black card,” she says. “But now we can open it.”
“‘Brown level, crew an’ maint’nance workers’,” says Willa, quoting the lab technician robot. “Nay likely ter be much o’ interest thar.”
Aurora shrugs and uses a mage hand to introduce the yellow card she holds into the lock. The door slides open.
Willa slides her pack to the floor. “Be quick aboot it! An’ nay fightin’” she calls, as Babshapka slips into the room before Aurora can.
(2:50am)
This room [Dining Room] is instantly recognizable as a feast hall or mess hall, although a smaller one than the one to the southwest that lay hard by the edge of the plant men territory. These tables, rather than being set up in long rows, are separated so as to hold just a few individuals at a time. The numerous chairs are set up as if a meal were in progress. However, many of the chairs and at least one of the tables are overturned. As in the other mess hall, the chairs are crammed together as if space was limited, but all of them are individual rather than being benches. Numerous empty trenchers and utensils are on the tabletops but also litter the floor haphazardly. The bones of several humans or humanoids lie strewn about - some in reasonably articulated skeletons and some scattered. Most have rags of fabric clinging to them but no weapons or other devices are in sight.
After Babshapka and Aurora enter, Mathias follows close behind them. Shefak, still invisible, continues down the hall outside to keep watch on where she knows the plant men lie ahead.
Mathias moves from body to body, stooping to check each one in turn, while Aurora moves to the center of the room, thinking out loud. “All these trenchers are like the ones we found in the storeroom,” she says, “only ours still have food, thank the Scholar. So if these trenchers once had food, where did it come from?”
As she turns in slow circles, Babshapka points at a door exiting the hall. When the pair of them arrive there, they find it to have a brown lock. Aurora opens this door as well.
As a small room off of the mess hall, the room should logically be a Kitchen, and the abundance of counters and cupboards supports that notion as well. However, it is completely lacking in other obvious features - there are no ovens to be seen, no sinks, no utensil racks. There is no furniture besides what is bolted to the floor or walls. There is no food, although much of the waste and debris on the floor may once have been organic. There is considerably less dust than other parts of the cave and many tracks abound. A few of the horn trenchers like those from the previous room lie on the counters or floor. A push-panel door is on the wall opposite the one they entered.
Babshapka holds his hand up to bar Aurora’s entrance until he can look at the tracks, but she walks past him across the floor anyway (Nature check 5). All he manages to glean is that the tracks are incredibly numerous and likely caused by humanoids. Aurora is fascinated by the machinery she sees - all of them got a glimpse into the other mess hall, but only Shefak saw the kitchen and Aurora had to rely on the [i[message[/i]d descriptions of its accoutrements.
Along one wall is a bench with a number of metal boxes. Each box has a dark colored glass door in the front of it. At first glance these could be mistaken for ovens, but they have neither a space for wood or coal, nor a chimney to vent smoke. Arranged beside each box are a number of square metal plates. On top of each box is a short, black cylinder.
Along other walls are eight sets of fine metal mesh with a rivet below each of them. Next to each of these is a long, narrow door that opens on hinges to a small shelf-like compartment.
With Aurora and Babshapka no longer in the mess hall, Mathias ceases checking bodies and then exits through the open northern door. He walks down the hall a bit and into the apartment where the party left the body of the female android.
Babshapka strides over to the row of metal boxes with glass plates and begins pressing the plates on their sides. These depress easily, with clicking sounds, but nothing happens to the box.
“Food we have, what we need is fuel - coal, charcoal or oil,” says Aurora. Hoping to find a coal bin, she opens the door out of the kitchen by using her mage hand to press the panel on the wall. Babshapka looks up, his interest in fiddling outweighed by his duty to protect the enchantress.
The room beyond [Dining Room] is a mess hall, nearly identical to the one they passed through, though a little longer and narrower. It has the same number of tables and probably of chairs, the same trenchers, the same skeletons. As Aurora takes a few steps into the hall beyond, Babshapka is forced to follow her. The hall runs all the way back to where the rest of the party waits - outside what he remembered to be an unlocked door, not that they had opened it.
“I don’t get it,” grumbles Babshapka. “Both of these are feast halls, both served by the same kitchen. Why is one locked and one not?”
“Oh,” says Aurora distractedly. “you know. Hierarchy of command and all that. Ships officers on one side, crew on the other. Rank and its privileges.”
“No, I don’t know,” says Babshapka pointedly, then adds “humans,” under his breath, as if it were a curse word. Out in the hallway, Willa calls into the hall that it is time for them all to set sail.
Babshapka returns to the kitchen, this time to the row of metal doors. He presses the single rivet under the metal grill. From inside the door there is a whirring sound. Looking closer, he sees something inside. Was it there before? He doesn’t remember.
Aurora suddenly displays interest and moves to the door next to Babshapka’s. She presses the rivet there and he instinctively backs away. No noise, however, follows.
Babshapka cautiously pulls the handle to open the door he is at. The hinges, oddly, are on the bottom of the door rather than the side. Inside, on a shelf or rack, is a trencher - but this one with the tar paper over it intact, like in the storeroom! He takes the trencher and moves it out to the counter to examine.
In the hallway, Shefak sees a knot of plant men, perhaps a dozen, leaving the area of their lit colony and approaching (Perception 21).
Babshapka notes that the trencher does not have the rings that were present on the ones in the storeroom, the rings that were pulled to somehow activate the meal. It doesn’t feel hot, and doesn’t smell of food - but when he moves it, it sloshes about as if the food inside was already hydrated. He carefully peels back the tar paper. He doesn’t remember the symbols of the alien language, but the meal within is what Aurora translated as “meaty stew”. Now he smells it, and it looks edible, apart from being cold. Also unlike the storeroom trenchers, however, this one has no utensil strapped to the side.
Aurora opens all of the other doors in the wall, but finds no food inside any of them. The doors are weighted to slowly close by themselves. Babshapka holds the door he is at open while he looks inside (Investigation 7). The interior of the box beyond has all five walls and no gaps - if the trencher somehow got into the box, he doesn’t see how. A magic box?
In the hallway, Shefak sees that the plant men are bringing thorn dogs with them.
Aurora asks Babshapka what he did to make the food appear, and he goes to the next door over, presses the rivet under the grill. Nothing happens. He moves to the third door, repeats the action. Still nothing. Aurora tries at the fourth door, to no effect. [DM's note: They never did say that they wanted to press the same dispenser, though - the only one in the room still working!]
Shefak notes the plant men at about sixty feet down the dark corridor - she still has the benefit of Larry’s darkvision spell. She hisses a warning to those gathered in the hallway behind her.
“Time ter weigh anchor!” shouts Willa into the dimly lit mess hall. She hustles the party (including Mathias) into the mess hall, leaving Shefak invisible outside in the hall, and closes the door behind them. She tells the others to surround the door and prepare for battle. Tyrius rapidly crosses the mess hall, armor clanking, and stops at the table farthest from the door. He takes off his backpack and begins to go through it, looking for the jar that Aurora told him was fertilizer.
Hearing the commotion in the mess hall, Babshapka and Aurora close the door to the other hall, and close the door to the kitchen behind them. When Willa sees Aurora, she says “Shefak!” and points a finger to her temple. Aurora understands that she wants her to message the monk. This will mean she needs to move up near the door. Her experience so far has shown her that her spell can penetrate the thin metal barrier of the doors, but not the thick metal of the ship’s walls.
A few seconds later, Aurora is standing opposite the door along the far wall, repeating what Shefak is telling her. “The plant men are approaching the brown door...one of them is pulling out a card...a brown card…”
Willa tenses, rapidly evaluating scenarios in her mind. Should she immediately grab the plant man as soon as the door opens, close it, and confiscate the card? Or trust in the truce that the party negotiated with the creatures? “Stand down!” she shouts. “Stand down unless t’ey attack first!” Thokk scrunches his face up in puzzlement.
Round 1
The door slides open, and the first of the plant men enter a few steps before realizing that the party is within. They freeze, then begin hooting, chirping, and beating their chests.
Willa has her hand on her greatsword, but does not know what to make of the situation (Insight 7). Babshapka (Insight 21) says, “They don’t look happy to see us here. I mean, they look as agitated as I have seen them yet, even more than when we have fought them before…”
From across the room, Tyrius holds up the jar of fertilizer, but the plant men seem not to have noticed him or his jar (Insight 20).
In the hallway outside, plant men point to the room, and the three thorn dogs leap forward, snarling. They lope into the hall, one each attacking those three in the party nearest the door - Willa, Thokk, and Larry. Thokk is bitten (5 points). Willa and Larry respond to the attacks by striking with their swords (readied actions to respond if attacked), but Thokk just looks confused and fumbles with his sword. “We attack now?” he shouts at Willa. (same readied action but rolls 10 and 9 to hit). (Willa does 29 with two hits, Larry misses with his scimitar).
The three largest plant men, saplings with clubs, enter the room. They pound against the armor of Willa, Thokk, and Larry, but their weak blows do no damage. (They do, however, distract them - disadvantage against any target other than the attacking sapling).
From across the room, Aurora summons a firebolt to her hand and looks for a target. The thorn dog on Willa has been nearly hacked to pieces. FWOOSH! The thorn dog is knocked to the floor and lies motionless and smouldering (6 damage).
Seven sporriors, the smallest of the plant men and armed with darts, choose their targets. Two pass through the doorway and launch their projectiles at Willa, while another five find they can see Thokk through the doorway without having to enter. They time their throws to happen just as the recipients are dodging blows from the saplings (pack tactics - the plant men missile troops attack with advantage when the defenders are engaged with one of their melee fighters). (Willa is hit once for 8, Thokk twice for 10).
Umbra shoots a ray of shadow against the thorn dog attacking Larry (six points, slows movement) and Mathias follows that up with two blasts of force (one hit, 7 damage). The lanky man climbs up on top of a table so as to have a better field of view.
Round 2
The two remaining thorn dogs snap at Thokk and Larry but miss.
Trying to shield Thokk from the missile fire, Aurora uses her mage hand to press the panel on the inside of the door. The door begins to close.
The three saplings attack Thokk, Larry, and Willa - all missing, but keeping them distracted.
Larry slashes his scimitar across the muzzle of the dog attacking him (6 points).
Of the five sporriors outside the room, one turns and begins to run back to the colony. Shefak was prepared and waiting for just this eventuality. She runs behind him until they are out of sight down the hall, then sprints ahead, spins, and kicks him in the chest. As he skitters to a stop, she follows up with two punches. He lies dead in the middle of the corridor. (Three attacks with advantage from invisibility, three hits, total 30 damage).
The remaining six sporriors launch another volley of darts. (Thokk hit once for 6, Willa hit once for 8 ).
Leaving the jar on the table behind him, Tyrius strides across the room, swinging Molly over his head, then bringing it down on the thorn dog attacking Larry (two hits, 18 points).
Babshapka holds up his hand mirror. His arrows are useless against these plant men, and he is running low anyway. He could use his broadsword - but he’d rather keep an eye on Aurora than run into the middle of the melee. He clicks the screen on, seeing the target bullseye dance between the various plant men and Willa. Not unlike his Hunter’s Mark, really. When the targeting cross is clearly over a plant man he pushes the thumb trigger. A blast of force shoots across the room. The plant man falls to the ground instantly, a shattered husk. He sights on the second one and fires. Alerted to the beam, this one tries to leap out of the way, but ends up with half its body crushed. (Failed save; 18 damage, successful save; 9 damage. Saves made at disadvantage when blaster is used at less than 30 feet). As the plant man teeters unsteadily on its feet, Mathias blasts it into pieces with two bolts of force (two hits, total 7 damage).
Umbra shoots a ray of shadow at the sapling attacking Larry but misses.
At this point the door is half closed. Willa (Perception 13) sees a sprout by the door use the brown card and she calls to Aurora, who presses the door panel again with mage hand. [The door is currently closing, but now is queued to both open and then close again]
From the doorway, the two other sprouts, being the larger of the plant man missile troops, throw javelins. One misses Willa but another hits Thokk (8 damage).
Willa growls. The party is supposed to be resting, not fighting. She takes a gulp of air and pushes herself to her limits (Action Surge). Starting with a brutal first attack that knocks the sapling at her feet back a step, she follows up with a second blow that fells it (first attack critical hit, total 35 damage from both). No longer distracted by its club, she can focus on the thorn dog attacking her and lays it low with another two strikes (29 damage). If anything, she looks better now than before (Second Wind heals for 10hp). “Sigurd taugh’ me t’at,” she says to the dog as it falls. She moves forward to flank the last dog standing, still attacking Thokk. It is strange for her to think that these plant men, tough as they are, are now outclassed by the party in a way the whole party was once beneath the dashing smuggler.
Thokk, now over his initial confusion, is buoyed by the clarity that he should be attacking. He enrages at the tiny plant men for distracting him, and lands two powerful blows (total 22 points).
The door slides fully closed, but hums as the queued command for it to open again activates.
Round 3
The four sporriors and the sprout behind the closed door ready their missiles for when the door opens again. None of them hear the sound of Shefak approaching invisibly (five perception checks range from 0 to 12). The monk attempts to identify the plant man that holds the card (Insight 12) and takes up a position where she can see both him and down the hallway to where the one she slew remains on the floor.
As soon as the door opens, Babshapka fires with his hand mirror. The closest sporrior in the doorway takes a glancing blow, and then a solid hit. Little of its body remains to fall to the floor. (Saves for 9, fails for 17, total 26 damage). Watching, Shefak doubts that the brown key card could survive whatever the weapon is, but fortunately Babshapka did not choose the one holding that as his target.
The two sprouts already in the room throw their javelins at Thokk - one hits. (Six points, reduced to 3 with rage).
Willa attacks the sapling on Thokk, slaying it (11 points) and follows up with a slash across the back of the thorn dog mauling him (12 points). Undeterred, the spiny plant dog snaps again at Thokk (6 points, reduced to 3 with rage).
Tyrius attacks the sapling on Larry (two hits, 18 points).
Free of the sapling, Thokk moves to the now-almost-completely open door. He yells at the missile-wielding plant men outside, saying in Orcish that their mothers were all pretty-smelling flowers, and then holds up his shield before they fire their volley (dodge action).
A firebolt from Aurora misses the thorn dog that is snapping at Thokk’s heels, but Mathias follows up with two exploding bolts of force. The second blows the dog into a pile of woody spikes (two hits, one critical, total 24 damage).
The three remaining sporriors outside the open door throw their darts at Thokk, but he intercepts them all with his shield and continues to hurl insults at them.
Umbra’s ray of shadows misses the sapling attacking Larry. The selfsame plant man then batters Larry with a club (6 damage). Ignoring his own superficial wounds, Larry makes his way over to Thokk, who has too many darts and javelins protruding from him to count. Larry holds up a hand to heal Thokk, staunching the flow of blood from a few of the wounds (Thokk healed for 10hp, cure wounds, Larry at 1/0/1. “Dinnae ye worry, spoon-buddy!” calls the dwarf to his friend. “Aye got yer back!”
The door, now completely open, hums as the queued command for it to close again activates.
Round 4
Babshapka fires through the open door, hitting one of the sprouts twice. The first shot stuns him, the second nearly vaporizes him - just a husk of peeling, paper-thin tissue is left (two failed saves, total 40 points damage). The hand mirror emits a soft chime, and then the screen goes blank.
Thokk vents his fury on one of the sporriors outside the doorway (two hits, 20 damage, sporrior down).
Umbra’s ray of shadows connects (8 damage).
Shefak, invisible, enters the doorway, following the sprout with the brown card.
At the northern end of the room, the four remaining plant men are gathered in a line, their backs to the wall. Mathias pulls a cigarette from a pouch at his belt and clenches it between his teeth while he fans his hands wide and begins chanting.
Suddenly Tyrius pushes his way past Mathias. With one hit (9 points), he flattens the last remaining sapling. Eyes wide in surprise, Mathias seems unable to stop the completion of his spell. Flames gout from each of his fingers, shooting forth in a cone fully fifteen feet across the room. The flames engulf Tyrius, the three sporriors, and invisible Shefak (8 points of fire damage). Eyes still wide, Mathias reaches for the cigarette in his mouth, lighting the tip with the last flickering flames from his fingers as he takes a draw.
Larry slashes ineffectually at a plant man with his scimitar. With two blows, Willa cuts down two of the flame-wounded sporriors, then moves to block the door. Aurora launches a powerful firebolt that engulfs the last remaining plant man inside the room (15 damage).
The door slides closed. There is only one plant man left; a wounded sprout just outside the mess hall standing next to Shefak.
Round 5
With two quick punches (14 damage), Shefak levels the last plant man. She immediately stoops and begins rummaging through the remains of his body for the card.
Babshapka replaces the used power disc in his hand mirror with a fresh one.
“We need ter get oot o’ t’is ‘all,” says Willa, but first tells everyone to gather up the bodies (including the one in the hall) and move them to the kitchen, searching as they go. Besides the brown card Shefak holds forth, then pockets, they find another two black ones on the larger plant men and distribute them so that as many of the party as possible are carrying one. All told, there were seven sporriors, three sprouts, three saplings, and three thorn dogs. “We ort ter be restin’!” she reminds them as they work.
Current power discs: 18 full / 2 partial / 2 empty
Mathias - 4, fully charged
Babshapka - 4, fully charged, plus one in blaster pistol, fully charged
Umbra - one in blaster pistol, fully charged
Aurora - 8, fully charged (in case), plus one in paralysis pistol (at 5), plus one in atmospheric analyzer at (1.75)
Thokk - 2, both uncharged
Current Cards
Mathias, red
Aurora, yellow
Shefak, brown
Babshapka, black
Tyrius, black
Larry, black
Mathias, cigarette still clenched in his teeth and plant men slung over his shoulder, maneuvers himself next to Shefak and Tyrius. “My apologies for including you within the flames of my spell,” he says contritely, then adds, “I did say I was a fire mage.”
“You couldn’t see me,” says Shefak tonelessly.
Before Tyrius has a chance to respond, Larry pushes past him, “Och, et happens offen enow. Nay ta worry, laddie.” Tyrius simply smiles at Mathias.
Once all of the plant men's corpses have been locked in the kitchen, Tyrius says that he wants to leave the fertilizer in the room with the body of the android and close the door. “I don’t know what caused them to break our truce. I hope it wasn’t the fertilizer.”
Babshapka thinks about the trencher of meaty stew still sitting on the counter of the kitchen. “I have a feeling they were defending their hunting grounds,” he says. “If they know how to get food from the kitchens, they probably were trying to keep us away from them.”
“Pfff,” says Aurora contemptuously. “What kind of world would it be if those ignorant plant men could figure out technology our advanced minds have not been able to. I’m sure there was another reason for their attack.” _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Repair Room rolling separately
5:20am (hole I) worker robot
Party, Mules, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:20am - (mules) Worker robot - move security to repair room
Party, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:30am (Party) Police Robot 7:50am (HQ) Police Robot
Post 183: No rest for the weary 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
(3am)
Willa arranges the party outside the apartment. She can now see past the intersection, to the hallway where the plant men move from room to room. Their corridor itself is dark, but light spills out from all of the open rooms.
“Lower ther mains'l,” she says, then turns to Shefak. “‘Ow we be so far north we be ‘avin’ t’ walk by ther plant men? T’waren’t ye s’posed t’ be bringin’ us oot by ther mules?”
“Yes, well…” says the Bakluni woman, frowning. “It appears I may be more tired than I realized. I heard only that we were going back to the food storeroom, which lies further north of here. I did not understand that we were also getting the mules before we rested.”
“Nay ‘arm in t’at,” says Willa reassuringly, “I jus’ be wond’rin’ ‘ow we be sailin’ by ther ‘ole colony, what wit’ us ‘avin’ jes’ kilt ther patrol an’ all.”
Shefak looks long and carefully down the hallway. “They don’t appear agitated. I doubt they even know about that patrol yet. We should be able to slip by like we have before, weapons away.”
Willa looks dubious. She peers down at her armor, covered in the fresh, not gore exactly, but sap at least, of the slain plant men. “I ‘ope t’ey cain’t smell,” she says, and returns to ordering their line.
The party moves in single file, weapons away, avoiding eye contact, shoulders stooped. At the intersection, they turn quickly to the south. Numerous plant men spill out from the end of the hall and surround them, but if they can smell the death of their mates on the bodies of the party, they give no indication. By the time the party reaches the large dark shaft just inside the closed entrance to the ship the plant men are already starting to drift back to their hall.
As they travel along the hallway toward the storeroom, Tyrius asks Eddard how it has been. “Glad to hear you are all right,” responds the familiar sardonic voice in his head. Eddard reminds Tyrius that it has been about five hours since the paladin left the room, and when he did so, it was because Buckbeak had arrived and signaled to him that the rest of the party was “in trouble.” “I was just wondering if I was supposed to still be waiting for you, or planning your rescue,” he says.
Tyrius apologizes, and says that they have had a number of dust-ups, but that they are now coming back to move him and the mules to a more secure location. Eddard replies that the doors haven’t opened once since he left, so it’s not like where they are is insecure, but he trusts Tyrius’ judgement. He says that he will get the mules up and moving, but the party will need to pack their bags, as he hasn’t any hands.
When they arrive at the table room, Aurora opens the push-panel outer door, but sends Buckbeak in first to scout the room. There are no new lurkers on the ceiling, according to the bird, but neither are there any of the slain ones on the floor! However, the hawk reports a pair of large cats hiding under the table (Perception 24, with advantage for sight-based checks).
“Cats?” Aurora sends the bird back, to hop across the floor as far from the table as it can, while she watches. The images in her mind are of two large panther-like creatures, coats as dark as night, but with powerful tentacles springing from their shoulders. She searches her memory for descriptions of fantastic beasts (Arcana 22) and decides that they are displacer beasts.
Aurora closes the door, but leaves Buckbeak in the hall to watch their backs, while they continue on to enter the suite of rooms through the set of two north doors instead.
(3:10am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, the Intellect Devourer on Level II has now found the hole in the ceiling and managed to climb up on top of a machine underneath. From there, it has leapt to the hole, climbed out and emerged on Level I. It begins to stalk the party, looking for an opportunity to attack one of them without the others around.]
At this point, those in the party carrying the heaviest loads take the opportunity to shift some of their unneeded gear (like winter jackets and fur boots, Willa’s huge tent) from their own personal packs to those of the mules. By the time they are ready to leave, all the party members are again at a manageable burden, although the mules are more heavily laden than when they arrived at the ship.
[Con saves for Tyrius, Willa, Babshapka, Umbra, and Aurora (fails). Aurora has one level of exhaustion for fighting in the mess hall at full speed while encumbered).]
“Ugh, I’m exhausted…” whines Aurora as she shoulders her pack for the move.
It is all Willa can do not to clout her, but instead she simply says pointedly, “So nex’ time ye be seein’ a brown door, remember we be s’posed ter be restin', NAE fightin’.”
(3:20am)
The party takes the mules northwest, past the other end of the plant men colony and the other mess hall, north through where the doppelgangers were slain (although their bodies are now not to be seen either), all the way to the lit shaft in the far west, then down the long, straight, main corridor to the door of the security station. They pass through the security control center, where the slain robot still stands propped up behind the desk, and into the chief security officer’s room, where they unpack the mules, spread out their bedrolls, and finally prepare to rest.
[The party and mules are now resting in the central complex, which will remove any wandering encounters for them with vegepygmies. Lurkers and displacer beasts likewise will not enter into the Police HQ or the medical rooms for fear of the security robots. Since they are behind red doors, worker robots cannot enter either. Thus, the only wandering encounter rolls for them that will result in an actual encounter are Police Robots, and of those, only the half that have red card access.]
Babshapka casts cure wounds at second level on Thokk (9hp, Babs at 1/1 for spells).
Babshapka casts cure wounds at second level on Willa (15hp, Babs at 1/0 for spells).
Larry casts cure wounds on himself (7hp, Larry at 0/0/1 for spells).
Larry casts cure wounds on Tyrius at third level (13hp, Larry at 0/0/0 for spells).
Umbra casts armor of shadows on herself. (lasts until 11:20am)
Aurora casts mage armor on herself. (lasts until 11:20am)
Umbra gives Shefak the hand mirror weapon.
Willa looks around, sees nearly everyone wounded and either low on spells or out. Conferring with Aurora, she says that they will have single person watches of two hours each - hopefully the red-carded door will be protection enough. Mathias volunteers to take the first watch, then Thokk. After four hours Babshapka will have tranced and should be good to watch for the rest of the time.
Before laying down, Thokk starts to rummage in the mule bags. Asked what for, he says he is looking for more javelins. Willa reminds him that he has used all of his, and advises him to remember to pick some up the next time the plant men are using him for a pin cushion.
In trying to get back to a gear weight he can manage, Tyrius gives Thokk a glass bottle of “defoliant” and a ceramic jar of “regal acid” to keep in his backpack. Willa eyes the acid transfer skeptically. “T’at nae be endin’ well,” she comments.
Aurora asks Shefak whether the quarterstaff she has packed on a mule is the magic one that she won from Strahd’s hoard, and the monk affirms that it is. Aurora asks why she is not using it, and Shefak explains that her goddess is known as the “Mistress of Perfection”, and desires that her followers perfect their minds and bodies, rather than relying on crutches like magic. At one point she needed the staff to hit fantastical creatures, but now that she has trained herself to harness the power of her ki to strike such creatures, she no longer has to rely upon the staff. Aurora asks if she could then have the item. Shefak raises an eyebrow and agrees that Aurora can borrow it for the time being.
(4:20am)
During Mathias’ first hour of watch, many in the party have been cleaning and binding wounds, and eating rather than sleeping.
Aurora used 1HD (5 remaining) and is at full (38/38).
Thokk used 4HD (0 remaining) and is at full (66/66).
Larry used 3HD (0 remaining) and is at nearly full (55/56).
Babshapka used 2HD (0 remaining) and is at full (48/48)
Umbra used 2HD.
Shefak used 2HD.
Tyrius used 3HD and is at full (49/49).
Willa used 2HD and accepted another 11 points of lay on hands healing from Tyrius. She is at full (62/62).
Aurora uses arcane recovery on her spells - now at 3/2/1.
Larry uses natural recovery on his spells - now at 3/0/0.
(5:20am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a worker robot passes by the acid hole in the floor, cleans up the poison spill, and collects the two unbroken jars thrown by Tyrius. The hole is too large for it to repair.]
By the time Mathias finishes his watch and rouses Thokk, most of the party members are either deeply asleep or dozing fitfully. Even the mules, fed by Willa before she turned in, have adjusted to the new room and calmed down.
(7:20am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a worker robot has come across the defunct security robot that the party left in the “table room”. It hauls the robot off and adds it to the broken robots in the repair room. There are now four potential sources of parts for the 11 robots that started there. No further wandering monster rolls are now made for the old camp.]
Babshapka has gone deep within himself on his trancing, and been surprised at the power he uncovered. He reflects on the recent fights with four different “security robots” as well as a full patrol of plant men - he has managed to keep Aurora alive through it all, including pulling her out of a cloud of sleeping gas. He learned to use the mirror weapon in the middle of combat itself, and now considers himself adequately skilled in its employ. He has received two point-blank hits from black explosive flasks, survived, and comported himself well in the service of the party, even upon offering his magic blade to open a chest. And, if he is honest with himself, it was his plan that got the clockwork out of the cell block and allowed them to save Shefak and the strange new human, Mathias. Modesty aside, he is certainly fulfilling his duty to his tribe.
[Babshapka is now level 7. He has gained another HD (55hp total), “Multiattack defense”, and has his spell slots at 4/3.]
Babshapka realizes that his knowledge of spellcraft has now also been strengthened. He reaches back in time, back to the lessons of his youth when all the young elves of his tribe were instructed in magic, before he became a hunter of renown. Of all the spells he was taught and since has forgotten, the two he remembers most vividly are Jump and Silence. With his new power, he knows he can unlock the memories of one of them - but which one? Silence is great for dealing with enemy casters - but according to Aurora, they haven’t found any magic yet on this ship and are unlikely to before they leave. Jump on the other hand, will give him a freedom of motion - to get out of the way of robot paralysis rays, to flank enemies with his new mirror weapon. He accedes to the memories and allows the knowledge of his youth to flood back in - all the words, all the gestures...and the material component? To his chagrin, as the final piece of the spell, Babshapka realizes that he needs to have the hind leg of a grasshopper on his person in order to cast the spell. None of his other spells require such a material component, but this one does. And he hasn’t seen any grasshoppers since they were below snowline weeks ago. He curses silently, rouses himself, and tells Thokk to go to bed.
(7:30am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, an AC15, non-lethal, red-door capable Police Robot has detected their presence. As it moves to investigate, it rolls a 3 for stealth, alerting the watchful Babshapka to its presence.]
Babshapka has just settled into his position near the north door of the room. In the absence of the crickets that should be singing as they camp, he hears instead a mechanical whirring from the other side of the door. “Umbra, up!” he chirps in elven - the sorceress should have completed her trance as well and is hopefully now at full spells. She joins him at the door, and he then hisses an alert to the rest of the party, who stir groggily.
The north door slides open to reveal a security robot! Its lights blink in confusion, apparently even more surprised to see them than they are to see it (Perception 8 ). Umbra presses the door panel, and before the machine can even insert a tentacle, the door closes in its face.
“Get to it!” shouts Babshapka, and then he pulls out his gas mask, draws it over his face, and adjusts the straps.
“‘Ell’s Bells!” curses Willa from her sleeping roll and begins fumbling about for her stone.
Babshapka shakes Mathias and points at the east door. His words are muffled from behind the mask. He slips through the door.
Round One
Umbra begins her spell of entropy, drawing out the arcane syllables and keeping her eyes focused on the door.
The door slides open again, and the robot wheels itself in. Umbra completes her spell (DC15 Wisdom save; robot rolls a 20N). The robot’s face opens and the paralysis retort projects. A cone of sparks fills a third of the room and showers down on Umbra, Eddard, Andy, and Buckbeak. Mathias presses himself flat against the wall and stands just out of the area affected. Babshapka is well within the cone but on the other side of the wall, on his way to the medical bay with plans to come at the robot through the control room from the rear. Apparently the thick wall of the ship protects him from the ray and he is not paralyzed.
[All saves are within Tyrius’ aura of protection (+3) and at close range (fail = 30 min paralysis)
Umbra 12+3 = 15, save. Paralyzed for 7 rounds.
Buckbeak 19+3 = 22, save. Paralyzed for 10 rounds.
Eddard 10+3 = 13, save. Paralyzed for 9 rounds.
Randy 12+3= 15, save. Paralyzed for 7 rounds.]
Tyrius rushes around the desk and charges the robot. He notes that this one has had metal reinforcement added to all of the places that would be easy for him to strike with his mace (AC15). One of his blows hits it squarely, and the blue force field around it flickers (11 points, force shield to 9).
Having removed her armor for her rest, Willa easily jumps to the top of the desk. Then, with a second leap, she brings her sword down on the robot in a great overhand arc that shatters its force shield (11 points, shield down). She follows up with a stab that scores the metal along its side (13 points).
(Eddard’s turn: Now paralyzed for 8 rounds)
Thokk yawns deeply and draws his sword. He should be enraged at the robot interrupting his sleep, but for some reason the best he can manage is mild annoyance (all four rages already used). He swings languidly at the robot (9 damage, total 22 to robot).
Aurora crouches behind the desk, ready to mage hand a canister should one appear. She thinks she should be able to throw any such flask into the control room behind the robot by passing it over the machine’s head. No one has told her that Babshapka is on his way there!
From across the room, Larry sends forth a thick thorn whip, wrapping it securely around the head of the robot. He gives a mighty heave and pulls the robot out of the doorway and into the center of the room (9 points, total 31 to robot). “Yes!” hoots Thokk, gradually waking to the battle. “Get behind metal man!” he encourages the rest of the party.
Shefak leaps up from her bedroll in a single motion and advances on the robot. Avoiding the projecting retort, her fists and feet slam into it from the side. [1 ki point, Flurry of Blows, three hits, 24 points, total 55 to robot]. Her last attack is a powerful kick aimed at the side of its head - the robot topples over and lies sprawling on the ground. [Two knock down attempts, robot Dex 19 (save) and 8 (fail)].
(Randy now paralyzed for 6 rounds.)
Andy begins to bray in terror at the commotion (Wisdom save 3+3 = 6). He strikes out with a leg, kicking the wall of the security chief’s locker, and then runs out of the room through the open north door to the security control room.
Round Two
Mathias strides back from the wall and bends over the fallen robot. “Time to meet your god!” he exults, as lightning courses from his hands into the machine and the metal floor of the room (Hits with attack roll 20, 4 damage doubled is 8, robot to 63 total damage).
“You scare Andy!” yells Thokk at the robot as he brings his longsword up and down on its writhing tentacles. (two hits with advantage since the robot is prone, 20 damage, total 83).
In the control room, Andy has backed himself into a corner. He stares out wild-eyed at the empty room, but is quieting down (Wisdom save 14).
“Hold still!” yells Aurora at the squirming construct. She sends a firebolt at its head, trying to break the retort (damage 7, reduced to 3 for resistance to fire, total 86).
With the robot on the ground, Shefak employs a series of axe kicks to come down hard on it, her feet denting its chassis with each blow (flurry of blows, four hits for total 28 damage, save vs. knock back for two, both saves fail, bonus 7 damage, total 35, robot has taken 121).
Tyrius arrives at the side of the downed robot. The first blow from Molly (10 points) consigns the machine to the scrapheap. Its struggles cease.
Babshapka checks the medical bay on his dash through (empty) and then the southern corridor (also empty). By the time he gets to the control room, the party members are over their paralysis and Aurora has her tools out, beginning to take the robot apart.
“Where are all these robots coming from?” Babshapka asks the group. “From the repair room? Up one of the shafts?” When no one answers, he says, “I intend to follow the tracks and find out.” Shefak volunteers to go with him. With her bodyguard out and herself occupied looking for cards and weapons, Aurora instructs Buckbeak to stand guard in the hall outside the control room. The hawk can see in the dim light of the corridor, and is instructed to open the pressure plate of the control room and then come rap on the red door if it sees anything coming.
(7:40am)
Babshapka, Shefak, and Buckbeak leave the control room into the hallway. While the hawk immediately takes up a guard position, Babshapka checks the ground for tracks (Survival 17). He finds the fresh trail of a single security robot entering the door.
Babshapka, with Shefak trailing behind, follows the trail of the robot south, and around the bend in the corridor to the east. At the intersection, the trail turns south again - but something much more obvious, and more ominous, than the robot trail comes into view.
Taking up nearly half the width of the hallway, there is a huge hole in the floor that most decidedly was not here the last time he passed by, when the party met a group of plant men after the had spoken to the lab technician robot but on their way to take the strange armor to the robot repair room.
The metal around the edges of the hole is pitted and corroded. Looking down, Babshapka can see that the hole passes through more than a foot thick of hull metal, various tubes and wire conduits, and emerges through the ceiling into the next level down! From the hole comes a confusion of noise and light. Apparently the next level down is brightly lit, and is some kind of machine shop, smithy, or milling floor, for the clatter of moving metal, as well as other strange hisses, crackles, and pops, is nearly overwhelming. The floor of the next level itself is perhaps 15 or 20 feet down - but directly under the hole itself is a large machine, so that leaping into the hole would involve a drop of no more than five or ten feet. The surface of the machine is covered in metal moving parts and occasional arcs of electricity course across it, though.
The wheel tracks from the robot avoid the hole as if it was there first, and continue south.
Babshapka knows that below is “level two” - the location, supposedly, of the alien. He finds his throat dry as Shefak moves up next to him, silent in the din from the machines. “Keep your eyes open,” he instructs Shefak, but he closes his own. Closes them, and reaches out with his senses. He can feel the massive weight of the mountain in which the ship is lodged, can feel the wind and fresh air outside, the warmth of the ground, the heat rising from the Oerth, the pine trees outside, their needles glistening in the morning light - all of these things are here naturally - all of them are from the Oerth...so what is not?
Then, like a shriek in the night, he feels it - feels the presence of something so unnatural, so wrong, something that does not belong here - it is powerful, and it is close! His eyes open with a start, and he finds himself staring out around them, nearly jumping at shadows. He can feel the thing, the presence, so nearby, but he cannot see it.
Babshapka forces himself to calm down and sense - is the thing here, on this level, or below? He can’t tell, only that it is close at hand. He looks around the edges of the hole, searching for any tracks that might indicate it has escaped from its confinement below, but finds nothing (Survival 9 - does not notice Intellect Devourer tracks). “Do you see anything?” he asks Shefak. She still has an hour or so of Darkvision left. The monk shakes her head no.
Babshapka forces himself to keep sensing - the feeling of the thing is overwhelming, but what might it be concealing? The next closest presence is that of a Celestial - but a second later he recognizes it as Eddard. He goes father. Undead. There are a handful or two of undead on the ship, none particularly powerful, none immediately close. Not surprising, he tells himself, given that many sentient creatures died violent and painful deaths during the plague. Other Celestials are present as well, perhaps a handful of them and...another thing. Somehow related to the first, but not nearly so close. And outside the ship? He sighs in relief. Outside the ship is just Oerth and its creatures, blue sky and gray mountain, blue streams and green pines. He focuses on the feeling from outside, on the sense that “all is well”, before he brings himself completely back to the limited senses of his physical body.
[Note: Babshapka’s Primeval Awareness can detect the presence, within one mile, of aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead.]
Babshapka, still a bit spooked, and Shefak walk south down the wide corridor until they get to the shaft near the entrance. Still looking for the source of the robots, Babshapka has Shefak wait as he carefully checks the area around the shaft for tracks (Survival 14). The tracks from the hallway they were following do not approach the shaft; rather they continue down the hallway to the east. However, a second set of tracks do appear at the edge of the shaft, and move down the eastern hallway as well. Babshapka carefully compares the two trails - they are equally fresh (both less than a few hours in age), and as far as he can tell, identical. They certainly weren’t here when the party first entered, a few days ago.
He looks down into the darkness of the shaft. So this one works now? It can lift robots? The handles on the walls are not moving...and then Babshapka remembers (Intelligence check 14) that he saw a security robot lift itself off the ground - and another tried to rip his bow from him without even touching it. Apparently they have some sort of telekinesis ability. So maybe they can ascend the shaft of their own power. He asks Shefak about it and she says she does not remember that, but if it happened in the fight outside the robot repair room, she might have been paralyzed at the time.
“Okay, time to go back,” he says.
As the pair return up the hallway, Buckbeak sees them coming, opens the door of the security control room, and raps on the red door. The rest of the party readies for another fight as Aurora contacts Buckbeak - and learns it is just Babshapka and Shefak returning. “Yes,” she says somewhat chagrined, “I suppose those are exactly the directions I gave to Buckbeak - knock when anything is approaching.”
The pair re-enter the security chief’s room while Buckbeak goes back out into the hall. Aurora has the security robot half-apart now, but nothing extracted yet. Babshapka tells them about the hole in the floor and they wonder about how it could have gotten there, until Willa says, “Tyrius, dinnae ye say ye pitched ther jar o’ ‘regal acid’ in ther hallway when ther plant men war after yer fert’lizer?”
“Aye, that I did…” As the paladin catches her meaning, he frowns. “And it fell right about where Master Babshapka tells us the hole now is.”
“Well, at least we ken t’at ther acid work an’ all. We may be havin’ ter use ther other jar ter open a gray door. T’at be, if it dinnae eat Thokk’s backpack and ‘alf o’ Thokk firs’.” Thokk grins at the thought that any acid could be strong enough to eat him, rather than the other way around. His evil advisor is always making good jokes like that.
“So that hole means the alien, that was previously confined to the second level…” begins Aurora.
“Now more’n likely be oot an’ aboot,” concludes Willa.
Babshapka then tells them about the feeling he had about the presence of the thing, and his strong suspicion that it is the alien, as well as the undead and celestials whose presences he also felt.
“Hmm...undead, celestial, fey, elemental - I know all those - but what is this ‘thing’”? asks Aurora.
Babshapka says he doesn’t know the word in Common. He says the word in Elven. Aurora’s elven is good, but she doesn’t recognize it in that language.
“‘Aberration,’” says Umbra, surprising everyone, as she usually does on the rare occasions she speaks. “The word in Common is ‘aberration’. They are creatures with bizarre anatomies, strange abilities, unfathomable minds, or any combination of those. They are not from this world. It seems an apt category for an alien that took over the ship commander’s mind.”
Aurora shudders involuntarily, and then says excitedly, “Ooh! You know what is an aberration? Beholders are aberrations! I wonder if it is a beholder?”
She receives blank stares from all present, who apparently are unfamiliar with that creature, or at least that name. “Oh, you might know them as Eye Tyrants.”
At this, Willa’s dark face goes ashen. Her normally gruff voice is now in a near whisper. “Ye mean Eye Tyrants be real?”
“As real as dragons!” exclaims Aurora excitedly.
“If it is an Eye Tyrant we released,” says Umbra matter-of-factly, “we are all of us doomed. However, there are other aberrations - carrion crawlers and golguthra would be considered such as well, and those we could face.”
Aurora reluctantly admits that the alien doesn’t have to be a beholder.
(7:50am)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a Security Robot has arrived at the HQ. It will replace the ones that were destroyed and will stay there.]
The party’s conversation is interrupted by Buckbeak again rapping on the door. Aurora closes her eyes and says, “A security robot is coming! It’s still in the hall but approaching.”
“A’tother one, already?” exclaims Willa. “Wha’ in ther ‘ells…” Her shock instantly gives way to command, though, as she hushes the others. With just a few whispered words it is agreed that this room, for whatever reason, is too ‘hot’ - they will withdraw to the ship’s storeroom deeper inside the central block. Larry leads the mules out, with Eddard whispering to them to remain quiet. Mathias tries to slip around them, for his red card will be needed to open the door ahead. Willa grunts, strains, and barely succeeds in lifting the fallen robot across her shoulders. She hisses at the others to grab as much gear as they can and get out, closing the door behind them. Aurora lets Buckbeak into the office, closing the door apparently just before the robot enters the control room. As Willa staggers down the corridor toward the storeroom, the others make a bucket brigade line to get all of the gear out of the room without having to walk about, although that results in most of it being tossed in the hallway rather than the storeroom. Aurora is the last out of the office, leaving Buckbeak inside with the command to hide under the desk and let her know if the robot opens the north door.
Once the door to the office is closed, the party quickly moves their gear into the storeroom, then prepares to ambush the robot. Tyrius mounts Eddard, ready to charge the door if it opens. The panels for the lights in the hallway are found and the lights at the southern end extinguished so that there is but dim light coming from the north. Mathias seems to vanish, even to those with darkvision. Aurora casts invisibility on Babshapka (Aurora at 3/1/1). The wood elf walks silently up and back the length of the dark hallway, looking for “vid screens”, whatever those are. Shefak puts on her ring. With Mathias, Shefak, and Babshapka not visible but on guard in the hallway, the others cluster into the storeroom, with the door closed and no one making a sound.
Aurora listens through the ears of Buckbeak. She can hear the robot wheeling and whirring on the other side of the door, but the door does not open for five minutes...eight minutes...at ten minutes people sigh and begin to whisper. Tyrius dismounts.
Aurora, Willa, and Tyrius hold a hushed conversation. Willa asks why the robots would be coming back to the room, and why so close together, and why is this one not entering the office of the chief?
Aurora says that likely they were given orders to keep the control room occupied or guarded, and they somehow occasionally communicate or check-in there. If no one responds, they send more guards. Given the importance of the location, Aurora expects it will continually fill with guards, and the party should not try to keep them out. However, she doesn’t think they are supposed to be in the chief’s office. It did, after all, have a red card door - and the cells under the care of the security robots had only orange cards. Perhaps the first security robot only overheard the party as they rested, snoring and talking, and entered to see what the noise was. Now that they are at a further remove, perhaps they will no longer be bothered?
Tyrius agrees with her logic. Willa is not excited about the storeroom as a place to rest, since there is only one way in or out - she feels trapped. But even she will admit that they are now behind two red card doors, or a red card and a gray card to the south, and if the trove of food they found there has gone unclaimed by plant men for centuries, the room itself must be almost never disturbed. The three of them agree that they should begin their rest again, the rest that was interrupted when the first robot attacked. At this point, only the true elves, Babshapka and Umbra, are fully rested. Everyone else is starting over and will need another eight hours.
New attributes in bold
Babshapka of the Silverwood
Seventh level ranger (Hunter Archetype: Giant Killer)/ Wood elf (Folk Hero)
Str 12 (+1) Dex 18 (+4) Con 12 (+1) Int 12 (+1) Wis 13 (+1) Cha 7 (-1)
Languages Elven (S/W), Common (S/W)
Hp. 55
Skills: Animal Handling, Insight, Investigation, Perception, Stealth, Survival (Temperate Woodlands, Temperate Hills)
Abilities: Favored Enemy (Hobgoblins, Kobolds, and Giants), Natural Explorer (Woods and Hills), Primeval Awareness, Multiattack Defense
Fighting Style: Duel-wielding, Extra Attack
Human-sized Chain shirt+1, broadsword+1, cloak of the manta ray, ring of protection+1, shortsword, longbow
Spells: (4/3)
(1) Ensnaring Strike, Hunter's Mark, Cure Wounds, Jump
(2) Lesser Restoration _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our fourteenth Barrier Peaks session, was 7 August, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Hole (II) rolling separately
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), Hole (II), and Repair Room rolling separately
2:50 am (party) vegepygmies 3:10am (hole II) Intellect devourer
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Repair Room rolling separately
5:20 (hole I) worker robot
Party, Mules, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:20 am - (mules) Worker robot - move security to repair room
Party, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:30 am (Party) Police Robot 7:50am (HQ) Police Robot 10:00am (HQ) Worker Robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Security HQ (Level 1), and Repair Room (Level 1 - South) rolling separately
Post 184: Data Dump 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
(8am)
Shefak and Mathias, being humans, are pulled off of guard duty in the hall. Umbra turns off all the hallway lights so that the whole corridor is in darkness, and Babshapka says that Aurora can cease concentrating on the invisibility spell. The rest of the party begins their long rest again, although the first half hour is mostly filled by stacking boxes higher and appropriating floor space for themselves and the mules in the storeroom.
Once everyone has a place for their bedroll, Aurora finishes taking apart the security robot. In the end, she extracts 3 blue stopperless flasks and one black - there were no reds or greens inside. The power disc was at “5”, and the atmospheric analyzer was intact. There are no cards to be seen. The lack of cards reminds Mathias of his bet with Willa, and he says that since she won, he has to offer her some “fey juice”. She says that she is resting now, but she will have it before they set out the next time.
(8:10am - ten minutes into long rest)
Shefak loses the darkvision spell cast upon her by Larry.
(10am - two hours into long rest)
Aurora has been occasionally checking in with Buckbeak, who each time has reported the door remaining closed. This time, however, he encourages Aurora to “listen in” to what he is hearing on the other side of the door. The sound of metal scraping on metal, and the clomping that is likely the feet of a repair robot are heard for a few minutes, and then cease.
[Unbeknownst to the party, a worker robot has entered the Police HQ and carted off one of the police robots they wrecked there. It returns it to the repair room, where there are now five potential parts-donors for the eleven broken ones.]
(11:20am)
Aurora’s mage armor and Umbra’s armor of shadows end.
(4pm - eight hours into long rest)
The party has spent the last eight hours uninterrupted. As they begin to stir, talk turns to what section of the ship they will be exploring next, and who will be going, and who will remain to guard the mules.
Shefak mentions that she would like to try to slay the displacer beasts. By herself, if possible, and if not, with those helping her using only blunt weapons. She would like to harvest their hide to build a set of leather armor as a tribute to her goddess. She says she realizes that this is her personal goal and, as such, is secondary to the party goals - assuming the beasts are still there when they return, which she rates as unlikely. She requests that if they do find the beasts in another location on the ship, that the party pause before immediately attacking them to consider whether they can allow Shefak to attempt it by herself.
Aurora has a number of follow-up questions for the lab technician robot, and Mathias adds that he would like the robot to explain a number of unfamiliar terms to them, since even with the language translation he didn’t understand much of what was said.
Willa says that operating under the assumption that the ship is round, they have explored only half of it - the southern half. She is inclined to set out on their next foray heading northeast, and if that way is blocked, then going due north, so as to move deep into parts they have not seen yet. She and Aurora fall into talking about the efficiency of searching. They agree that they have not yet found anything interesting or valuable behind black or pressure-panel doors. Anything that would have been easy to access appears to have been long since looted, with the only exception being the notes on the alien which were found in an unlocked lounge. They think that searching such areas is a waste of time, and there may be hundreds of such rooms on the ship, especially if the lower levels are anything like the upper ones. They decide that when they set out, they should be looking specifically for red and gray doors. They will not bother with black or unlocked doors, or if they do open such doors, they will have Babshapka do a quick visual inspection rather than searching through each drawer and under each mattress.
Mathias adds to the list of questions for the technician robot a query about where the powered armor can be charged. That gets Aurora thinking about the power discs, and she asks everyone to check in with how many they have.
Power Disc Log
Mathias - 4, fully charged
Babshapka - 4, fully charged, plus one in blaster pistol, fully charged
Shefak - one in blaster pistol, fully charged
Aurora - 8, fully charged (in case), plus one in paralysis pistol (at 5), plus one in atmospheric
analyzer at (1.75)
Thokk - 2, both uncharged
Just found on robot - One at 5
Aurora makes this out to be 18 fully charged discs, with another three at some level of charge, or over a hundred charges in total. While she had been interested in finding some sort of charging station for the discs before, at this point she says it would be superfluous. She advises Thokk that he doesn’t need to be carrying the two “empty” discs, and he is happy to leave them behind in the storeroom.
This talk of power discs brings up the question of the strange weapons, so Willa has them do an inventory of these as well:
Not counting the stopperless flasks, Babshapka and Thokk both carry “needlers”, Babshapka and Shefak both have “blasting mirrors”, and Aurora has the sole “paralysis retort”.
Mathias suggests that everyone who can train, should be trained in each weapon before they set out. Willa agrees with this in theory, but looks around the storeroom, where they are packed in cheek-to-jowl. A misfire in here would hit, if not one of them or the mules, one of the food crates. She remembers all too well how Aurora melted more than one piece of furniture practicing with the mirrors, and she does not regret insisting that Aurora take Thokk and Babshapka into the hallway to try the needlers. She tells Mathias that training is a good idea, but for another space.
Aurora casts a mage armor on herself (lasts until midnight, Aurora at 3/3/3) and asks Mathias whether he would like one as well. He agrees initially, and then seems to think better of it. “Actually,” he says, “if we are keeping to the groups we had talked about, with you and me going out but Umbra staying here, maybe it would be better for Umbra to cast that and save you the spell.”
It seems like a sensible suggestion, but not one that any in the party have previously made. Umbra’s defensive spells have so far been confined to herself. “Would that be… alright… Umbra?” asks Aurora solicitously.
Umbra’s eyes narrow as she regards Mathias suspiciously. Finally, she crosses the room and lays her hand lightly on his shoulder. At once, the shadows from underneath boxes and crates detach themselves and fly toward him, encircling his form in a protective cocoon of darkness (lasts until midnight, Umbra at 3/3/2). “Thanks,” he says brightly, and Umbra nods her head almost imperceptibly. “I guess I won’t need this, then,” he says and takes off his heavy leather jack. As he rummages in his bag for his soft cloth tunic he is briefly bare-chested. Although obscured by the gauzy shadow, those present catch glimpses of large tattoos dark against the exceeding pale skin of his shoulder blades, strange bruises below and odd scratches all about, and from the front, nipples pierced and set with tiny gemstones. He is very thin, almost gaunt. Then his shirt is on and all is covered again.
[When the chance to talk with the others, absent Mathias, presents itself, Willa checks in with each of them about what they saw. Aurora had the best view (Perception 17). She says that the tattoos looked like daggers over his shoulder blades. Tyrius knows of no large faiths or nations that use twin daggers as a symbol (History 9, Religion 9), but says it could easily be the arms of some minor noble house from outside of Sterich (he thinks he would know all those of Sterich). Babshapka is confident it is not elven (History 6, Religion 16). Willa knows of several infamous pirate crews that use paired dagger tattoos - crossed over the heart, as paired teardrops, crossed over the chest - but none that have them over the shoulder blades (History 20, Religion 15). However, she also knows many sailors that simply get tattoos that are personally meaningful to themselves rather than of larger significance.]
Mathias receiving the armor of shadows prompts Shefak to request a darkvision spell of Larry, which he grants (lasts until midnight, Larry at 4/2/3). When Aurora asks Mathias if he wouldn’t like one as well, he simply says, “Nah, I’m good.”
Before setting out: Away team
Aurora 3/3/3
Babshapka 4/3
Guard Team
Umbra 3/3/2
Larry 4/2/3
Tyrius 4/2
When all appears in order, Mathias says, “Before we set out, I’d like to make good on our bet.” It takes Willa a second to realize he is talking with her.
“Ah, t’at t’war ages ago. Remind me…”
“There were two robots in the repair room - before we knew they were called robots. You bet that if we disintegrated one of them, that would be the one that held a card inside. I bet that the one we did not disintegrate would hold a card. We didn’t disintegrate either - and neither had a card. I’d say you won.”
Willa frowns. “We found a robot later with a card inside.”
“True enough - if you want to give me that neck massage, I’m ready.”
“‘S’allright - we can stick t’ ther original bet.”
Mathias rummages in his pack and produces an oddly-shaped flask of a violently-green colored liquid, as well as two battered tin shot cups.
He pours them both full to their lips. The scent of strong alcohol is apparent to all in the storeroom.
Willa looks at the green color of the liquid, and then casts a sideways glance at Mathias. “Aye reckon a wager be a wager,” she says, but it is not clear whether she is speaking to him or herself.
Mathias allows Willa to choose her own cup, and then he raises the one remaining. Willa sidles closer to Tyrius and his protective aura. Her nose hairs are burning.
“It’s better in one go,” says Mathias, “without sugar, it’s not really for sipping.” [Mathias' 'fey juice' is green absinthe]
He downs his shot in a single fluid motion (Con save 21).
Willa follows suit, but gasps when she is finished (Con save 8, +3 from Tyrius = 11). “It’s got a kick,” she whispers huskily. Willa favors ale, but she has had rum often enough to know that this is even stronger. She even drank a glass of contraband brandy once with Secun to celebrate the party’s take-down of the Saltmarsh smuggling ring - this is much stronger.
“Time to set out,” she says confidently.
“We’re going to go talk to the laboratory technician robot first,” says Aurora.
“Fair eno’” Willa allows. “I’ll hae me armor on afore ye return.”
Aurora, Babshapka, Mathias, and Thokk leave the storeroom. Shefak goes with them as far as the hallway, but then stands guard while Willa changes inside. Aurora summons Buckbeak to the pocket dimension where she can keep him close at hand.
The sabatons and grieves go on quickly enough, but by the time she gets to the cuisses, Willa is ready to agree with Mathias that the ship is moving. She puts on her quilted gambeson, but then realizes she hasn’t yet changed out of her cloth camp shirt, and starts to giggle. “My lady?” asks Tyrius, and she takes off the gambeson and then her shirt in rapid succession.
“Look!” she commands Tyrius, gesturing at her bare chest, “No hair!” The paladin reddens slightly and turns away. She giggles again and struggles to get into just the gambeson. By the time she gets back to the cuirass, she stares at it perplexed.
Tyrius is still looking away. This time, Eddard interjects. “Is something wrong?”
“Thar be a few mar straps an’ buckles t’en I recall,” she says.
Eddard clears his throat, and Tyrius turns back around. “Allow me to help,” he says, and finishes armoring her, while somehow keeping himself at arms’ length.
(4:15pm)
Meanwhile, four of the party go south through the medical bay, and Mathias uses his red card to pass through the yellow door into the laboratory complex. They move north to laboratory one and Mathias uses his red card again.
The door opens on the technician robot, still busy moving about his room among the machines and alchemical devices. Mathias’ potion remains on the counter, unopened.
“Hey robot,” greets Aurora, “how goes your pursuit of a cure?”
“As logic would predict, limited resources have resulted in correspondingly limited progress,” it replies, apparently having retained the ability to speak in Common. “However, this unit’s etiquette module compels it to say that it is glad to see you.” The robot pauses from its labors, turns and addresses Aurora frontally, perhaps to add authority or formality to its speech.
"This unit does have a request,” it continues. “Progress is limited in part by the number of viable human culture cell lines available. Since your previous departure, this unit has consulted its authorization protocols, and has calculated that it is permitted to demand tissue samples from everyone of violet clearance and below, and to request samples of those of yellow clearance and above. You...” (and here the robot indicates Mathias) “have shown red clearance - what are the others in your group?”
“Oh, all of us are red level, actually,” says Mathias smoothly.
“Please confirm visually.”
“I don’t think that is necessary. I am red, and I vouch for them. You are busy with a high-priority task and can’t waste time checking.” (Persuasion 22)
“Due to the central importance of finding a cure for the plague, this unit is required to have visual confirmation of clearance status of all possible cell culture donors.”
“Very well. Fellows, get in line please.” Mathias gestures to the others to stand behind him, so that his body is blocking the view of the robot. When Babshapka is close enough to his back, Mathias palms his red card and extends it behind him awkwardly. Babshapka takes it in hand. (Mathias Sleight of hand 9, Robot Perception 8 )
Babshapka flourishes the card for the robot to see and then places it in Thokk’s palm without either the robot or Thokk noticing the motion. (Babshapka Sleight of Hand 22, Robot Perception 12).
Thokk’s brows furrow in concentration. He thinks he understands the game afoot here. He holds the card up for the machine-man to see and everyone present nods encouragingly at him. He grins back, then turns and holds the card out to Aurora in plain view of the robot. (Thokk Sleight of hand 6, Robot Perception 7)
Aurora tries to gesture at Thokk to both put the card away, and pass it to her on the down-low, but the mixed signals result in Thokk simply dropping the card at her feet. The robot addresses Aurora. “Failure to produce red card has activated security protocols. Please step forward for full biometric scan to compare against ship manifest.”
Aurora says, “Actually, I am just a black card member. You said something about requiring a sample?”
Mathias moves to retrieve the red card from the deck, deliberately blocking Aurora from view as he does so. Babshapka quickly slips his black card to Aurora. (Babshapka sleight of hand 24, robot Perception 25).
“Priority of current task outweighs confirmation of black-level security breach,” says the robot, perhaps to itself. “Biometric scan not required as subject admits to black-level clearance. Please extend your forearm for tissue extraction.”
“I thought you said you were all red level?” interjects Mathias. “There will be disciplinary consequences! Aurora, this is going on your service record.”
Aurora steps forward to the doorway of the laboratory, and pulls back the sleeve of her robe on her left arm. She hesitates at extending it, however. “Is this...safe?” she asks, then adds, “Explain risks of tissue sample extraction.”
The robot picks up a device from the cluttered counter. It is the size and shape of the hypodermic syringe from the healing valise, but it has a circular tip and not a needle. The end is about the size of a fingernail in diameter. “Tissue extraction is harmless if performed correctly,” the robot replies. It places the device on the bare skin of Aurora’s arm - she feels a nick and then suction while the others hear an “oof” of air - when the robot draws the device away a few layers of skin have been removed - the extremely shallow “hole” is weeping lymph lightly but has not drawn blood.
“Unfortunately,” continues the robot, “this unit does not have the facilities to extract brain tissue safely, and brain tissue is essential for live virus testing - please report to Med-2 when you are done here and request tissue extraction.”
“Absolutely,” says Aurora while staring at her wound. “it will be the very next thing that I do.”
“Although your compliance was mandated, this unit’s etiquette module requires that you are thanked for the sample,” concludes the robot. It adjusts the device and the thin layer of skin tissue is expelled into a small, clear dish it holds in another hand. It sets down the collection device and adds a few drops of blue liquid from a vial, then opens the door of a small machine and places the dish inside. Clouds of vapor, as though the box contained concentrated cold, spill out into the room until it closes the door.
“Now that priority tasks are completed, this unit is at your service so long as you do not interfere with research.” The robot takes up a variety of instruments and begins again its strange alchemical procedures.
“Very well,” says Aurora. “How many crew members were there before the plague?”
“Specify: this section, or the entire ship?”
“This section.”
“Three hundred colonists and enlisted crewmembers. Thirty-five ship’s officers.”
“And the original ship?”
“Fifteen hundred total crew are designated for a ship of this class. The exact number varies over the course of the extended mission.”
“Clarify the command structure - who would have had gray-level clearance in this ship section?”
“The Section Commander and Section Navigator are on official record as having gray-level clearance. If there were other officials with this clearance, that knowledge would be restricted to gray-level clearance.”
“What is the location of their quarters?”
“All crew quarters, officers included, are on Level I. The Section Commander’s quarters are in the outer ring, bearing fifteen.”
Aurora tries to message Willa, “Hey sailor lady, what does bearing fifteen mean?” Although the storeroom is next door and certainly within range, apparently the metal of the interior walls is too thick for the spell to penetrate.
The robot continues. “The Section Navigator is allowed to select their own quarters from among the available officers’ quarters upon their first arrival to the ship. I do not possess current records of crew assignments - that would require access to the mainframe.”
“What does ‘bearing fifteen’ mean?”
“Bearing fifteen is fifteen degrees prograde off the fore section of the ship. The front is Bearing naught.”
“Is the front section of the ship below us? At the opening where we started?”
“Clarify: ‘below us’? Clarify: ‘opening’? Clarify: ‘where we started’?”
Aurora pauses to think about how to rephrase her question. “This level of the ship, Level I, how many places can personnel exit and enter the ship itself, and where are these exits?”
“There are two exterior access points on Level I; one at Bearing 0, one at Bearing 180.”
Babshapka nods thoughtfully, “So one is the entrance we used at the back of the cave, the other is buried deep in the mountain.”
Aurora continues, “How many levels are there in this section of the ship? Are the floor plans of each level similar?”
Babshapka starts to object, “Didn’t we ask that before -” but the robot has already begun to answer.
“Level 1 - Quarters for ship’s crew and colonists. Medical stations, security headquarters for this section. Dining rooms, kitchens, meeting rooms, lounges for all personnel. Training and recreation rooms. Research facilities, library. Central computing facility.”
“Level 2 - ‘Tween decks. Service access for maintenance and technical crew only. Off-limits for colonists and non-dutied crew. Principle power generation and moderation for this section.”
“Level 3 - Upper walkway and lounge. Recreational kitchen and other recreational facilities for all personnel. Cargo holds for colonist and terra-forming equipment.”
“Level 4 - Botanical gardens, rookery, and menagerie. Supply and support areas for same. Ten-Forward Lounge for all personnel.”
“Level 5 - Garden ‘tween decks. Service access for maintenance and technical crew only. Off-limits for colonists and non-dutied crew. Principle water reserve, treatment, purification, and circulation for this section.”
“Level 6 - Theatre, athletic, and activity deck. Recreational facilities for all personnel. Cargo hold for exo-beings in containment units. General cargo hold. Floor plans for each level vary by use.”
Aurora says, "If, merely hypothetically, something were to create a hole in between decks, could anything come between the decks using the hole?"
“A breach of the bulkhead between decks would permit the communication of physical matter but the radiation shields and non-Baryonic field suppressors should restrict most of the dangerous energies from transmission. If you are referring to self-propelled objects, ship artificial gravity would make access easier going “down” rather than “up”, especially on levels of greater ceiling height.”
“How do you open the exterior doors? Are there other ways off the ship besides the doors you mentioned? What are their locations?”
“Exterior doors risk exposing the ship to exterior conditions which may include lack of atmosphere, lack of pressure, poisonous substances, hostile life forms, harmful radiation, submersion in water or other fluids, etc. Exterior door opening is not under local control; it requires passing an autonomous safety check administered by the central computing facility and approval by gray or red level ship personnel. In addition to the two smaller doors on Level I, there is a single pair of larger exterior doors on level VI, off of a cargo hold for onloading and offloading.”
“Please clarify: what is the mainframe? Why is its loss hindering your knowledge?”
“The Mainframe was the main computational center for the combined ship. It handled high-speed processing, retained the complete ship archives, and allowed third-level iterative projections and simulations. It also was protected by quantum encryption, phantom projection, and external energy signature tracking, such that all computational devices could interface with it without risk of it being compromised. When the ship broke into sections, the mainfrain remained on the section with the star drive. This section is now served by several distributed auxiliary computers. These auxiliary computers are capable of navigation-worthy real-time processing, a limited data repository supplemented by the library records, and first-level iterative projections, which are minimally adequate for all ship operations. However, remote device access to auxiliary computers is limited to predefined low-risk protocols; units such as this one are now effectively independent and are forced to operate entirely upon internal processing power and without truly external diagnostics.”
Mathias, whose question this was, stares wide-eyed at the robot. “Sorry I asked,” he mumbles.
Even Aurora just stands mouth agape at all of this and says, "Huh? Okay, this is reminding me of my advanced construct linguistics lessons. I hated those." After a pause, she continues. “Let’s change topics. What types of weapons and armor are on the ship? Where is the weapons cache? How is the powered armor, well, powered?”
The robot now turns to address Mathias, perhaps because Aurora has admitted only black-level clearance. “The red-clearance record indicates that this ship section has a full squad of powered armor suits. Weapons assigned to security personnel and robots include needler pistols, blaster pistols, paralysis pistols, laser pistols, explosive grenades, poison grenades, incendiary grenades, and sleep grenades. Other weapons and armor require grey-level clearance to report. The robot armory is off of the robot repair facility - bearing 140 in the outer ring. The security personnel armory location or locations are of grey-level clearance and this unit cannot reveal them. The powered armor is self-powered by a microscale fusion reactor. The armor operates in short bursts and then has a recovery period while it recharges itself. It may also be externally charged to eliminate this recovery period. However, there are no charging stations on this ship section.”
Mathias holds up a power disc. “Is this a micro fusion reactor?”
“Negative. The object displayed is a standard-issue interdevice-usable power disc.”
Aurora continues to ask questions. “Clarify the original race of humanoids and their space purpose.”
“Clarify: ‘original race of humanoids’?”
“The humanoid ship crew were not from this world?”
“Clarify: this world? There have been children born to crew and colonists on this ship subsequent to mission launch, but none have received the training required to qualify as crew or colonists.”
Aurora struggles to put her obvious question into words the robot will understand. “Were the original humans from another plane? Like one of the celestial planes?”
"’Celestial plane’ does not match this unit’s limited navigation records - try the library or access the auxiliary computer currently tasked with navigation.”
“How did the ship become embedded in the stone mountain?”
“Clarify: ‘stone mountain’?”
“The mountain, the present rock that surrounds the ship.”
“‘Stone Mountain’ does not match this unit’s limited navigation records - try the library or access the auxiliary computer currently tasked with navigation.”
Something on the cold box in the laboratory ‘dings’ - the technician robot removes the dish with Aurora's sample and places it in another machine.
“Explain how the kitchen boxes work.”
“Clarify: ‘kitchen boxes’.”
When Aurora has falteringly described the machines she and Babshapka examined inside the kitchen, the robot begins anew.
“Accessing Grade Two Food Worker Manual, Section: Regular Meal Procedure. Selected quotes: ‘Colonists and crew will proceed to assigned mess halls at designated meal times. Colonists and crew will use the video menu screen to log their choices from the day's selection of prepackaged meals. Kitchen staff will read their selections and order meals from the below-decks food storage area. Once the meal package has been delivered to the kitchen by internal conduits, with it being pre-cooked and hydrated but not heated, the kitchen staff will place it in an oven for heating. Temperature is regulated by the temperature control knobs on top of the oven, while duration may be selected from the options on the side that represent specific meals or may be manually overridden to choose specific times. Once meals are at the desired temperature, they will be delivered to colonists and crew in the mess hall.’” The robot pauses. “Was this the information you required?”
“That’ll do, I guess,” says Aurora, still overwhelmed. It seems like they are getting answers to their questions - but understanding the answers is another thing entirely. “Provide more details about the plague, its symptoms, and how it functions. More details about the alien, the timeline of the crash, and anything that will help us distinguish the escaped alien from the infectious plague virus. Verify: This part of the ship was a section of a larger vessel, the virus came first; it came back on a scouting ship, and the infection spread from there. To stop the spread the ship was separated into sections (more than one).”
Mathias adds, as he lights a cigarette, “Does it disfigure, or just kill, the host?”
The robot takes a few seconds to process all of the different questions and levels of clearance required to answer them, and then project the kind of answers that will satisfy based on previous responses. Eventually it begins, “The early stages of the paranoia plague resulted in the activation of quarantine protocol - the colony ship divided into independent sections in an attempt to control the spread of the plague.”
Before it can go further, Aurora interjects “Were there aliens loose in this section of the ship - escaped creatures from the containment units? Are they still getting out?”
“The current status of containment units is unknown to this unit, which has lost mainframe access. Prior to the loss of contact with the mainframe, the report of containment units states…” It pauses, then continues, “...The report of containment units is restricted to gray-level clearance. Files are not accessible.”
Aurora asks, "What are the containment units? What organisms did they contain? Describe."
“Containment units were dispersed throughout the cargo holds - containment units were used to contain exo-fauna captured en-route.”
Mathias exhales a long string of smoke, and punctuates it by saying, “What if we are the aliens?”
Aurora tries to ignore him. “How many ship sections contained exo-fauna? Describe an example of exo-fauna.”
“All sections of the main ship except the star drive and main bridge had containment units. Exo-fauna records are grey-level clearance.”
“When did this section of the ship crash?”
The robot does not respond at first. Finally, it says, “Fault in presupposition of question - unable to answer logically.”
Aurora says more forcibly, “Statement of fact: This section of the ship has crashed. Or maybe landed. One of the exterior accesses to the ship is flush with a cliff-face; most of the ship is embedded in rock. Speculate: was the alien here before or after the ship crash-landed?”
“This unit has not been informed of any deviations from our planned course, or advised of initiation of landing procedure. However, this unit’s memory files are overloaded and priority has been assigned to information relevant to discovering a cure. It is possible that records of landing have been erased if judged non-essential.”
“Where would the complete ship logs and navigation records be kept?”
“Once this ship section was independent, navigation control was assumed by the central computing facilities.”
“How long will it take for my skin sample to be processed and analyzed?”
“Preliminary cell sampling should be complete in...11 minutes.”
“Hmm,” says Aurora to herself. “Just enough time for a ritual casting in case it doesn’t like the results.” She begins unseen servant.
(5:00pm)
Now completely armored, Willa fills and lights her lantern. (She is currently at disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls due to her fine motor skills being impaired by intoxication, but at least the ship has stopped moving, thank the sea cow!) She opens the door, motions to where she thinks invisible Shefak should be, and begins her way down the hall, one hand tracing the wall to confirm her balance.
When she reaches the door at the southern end of the hall she hesitates. Typically she rides everyone hard about noting how doors are open or closed, and leaving them as the party found them. This door is a pressure-plate on this side, but requires a gray card from the medical bay to enter. The only other entry is through the security control room - where there is currently at least one security robot back on guard duty. Willa murmurs to Shefak to leave the door open behind them.
They walk through the medical bay, pausing at the closed yellow door. Willa sighs, then begins pounding on the door.
(5:15pm)
With no further questions for the robot, Mathias and Thokk have left Babshapka and Aurora to go check on the doors behind them. They hear Willa’s pounding and let her and Shefak in. By the time all of them are assembled in Laboratory 1, the robot is just about to read off Aurora’s tissue sample results. Apparently there is an alien-language display built into the machine it is using.
“Fascinating,” it says.
The technician turns to Aurora. “While there are superficial cell similarities, apparently you have a completely different genetic makeup than our standard Terran crew. On record: Your commanding officer was mistaken about your actual clearance. On record: You asked about whether any of the crew were capable of changing shape.”
Aurora doesn’t like where this is heading.
“This unit cannot confirm that your cell culture sample will be useful in viral testing, but it will now report you to security as an unregistered alien, possibly an escaped exo-fauna with shape-shifting abilities.” The robot reaches for a prominent red button on a console.
“Halt!” Mathias shouts, though it is not clear whether he is commanding the robot, or Aurora, or both. “ExoFauna! You will be taken into custody!” (Mathias Persuasion 17, robot Insight 10).
A rack of vials flies in front of the console as if borne by an invisible force.
The robot turns to Mathias. “Security officer, have you control of this specimen?”
“Yes,” says Mathias to the robot. “Thank you for exposing this threat to ship security.”
“This unit will note security breach and capture of putative alien in duty records,” replies the robot, “Your office can request records upload once ship internal communication systems have been repaired.”
“Of course,” says Mathias, and the party wastes no time in leaving the laboratory.
[By the time they are back to the medical bay, Willa makes another Con save; 16, without aid from Tyrius. She no longer has the poisoned condition.]
(5:20pm)
Shefak checks the hallway outside the medical bay invisibly, and the others follow when she gives the clear.
Aurora asks Willa, "Where do you think a location of 'outer wall, bearing 15 degrees" measured from either our entrance or another directly across the ship would be?”
“Nay ther foggies’” she replies, “bu’ we already agreed we be sailin’ nor’east.”
(Willa navigator’s tools check, 7).
[DM Note: Start using north side wandering monster tables] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our fourteenth Barrier Peaks session, was 7 August, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Hole (II) rolling separately
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), Hole (II), and Repair Room rolling separately
2:50 am (party) vegepygmies 3:10am (hole II) Intellect devourer
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Repair Room rolling separately
5:20 (hole I) worker robot
Party, Mules, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:20 am - (mules) Worker robot - move security to repair room
Party, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:30 am (Party) Police Robot 7:50am (HQ) Police Robot 10:00am (HQ) Worker Robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Security HQ (Level 1), and Repair Room (Level 1 - South) rolling separately
5:30pm (Party)- Police robot
Post 185: The Plains of Arcadia 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
The party sets out into the hallway, moving east and then north. It appears that the part of the ship with the security rooms and storeroom is in a central block, offset from the rest of the ship and surrounded by hallways, with wide corridors running to the cardinal directions. They pass by the main thoroughfare running east, but see only black-keyed doors along it. They continue north, where there is a single black door and two pressure panel doors at the corner - it will not be possible to go northeast as planned.
Willa asks Babshapka to check the rooms, and he says, with a tone that is respectful and not defiant, that he thought the plan was to ignore black doors and doors without keys.
“Tha’s right - aye said ter check ther room, nae ter search it.”
Babshapka says he understands and gets to work. The black-keyed door leads to a looted apartment (Perception 24). Babshapka looks around and quickly decides it is indeed not worth searching. He moves to the pressure-plated double-doors to the north.
[The party has now entered the north of the ship for the first time, and has activated the northern ship wandering monster rolls, both for themselves and for the Police HQ. The shadows and will-o’-the-wisps will avoid the HQ, the worker and police robots will treat it like the southern robots would, so there is now effectively double the chances of these two encounters in the HQ.]
Inside is a small, narrow mess hall, with eight tables and a corresponding number of chairs. Babshapka takes a quick look around - it appears like the other three mess halls he has already seen (Perception 22), with overturned chairs and scattered bones. An opening in the back of the hall most likely leads to a kitchen but he does not check. He does examine the floor long enough to verify that almost all of the tracks are those of plant men (Survival 15). He quickly leaves the room rather than having the creatures find him in their food-gathering territory.
Babshapka moves on to the pressure plate door on the north wall and looks inside the room (Perception 23). The large room [Game Room] has the same bones and debris found in the other abandoned places they have already seen, but the lack of recognizable furniture makes its use less obvious. Around the periphery of the room are seven brightly colored boxes with various slots, buttons, wheels, levers, handles, etc. as component parts. Nearly all of them have a dark pane of glass incorporated somewhere in their design, either vertically like a mirror or horizontally like a table top. Most of the boxes have their knobs and levers mounted on the boxes themselves, but two or three look like there are large additional parts tethered by flexible cords to their boxes. The tethered objects are of metal, in odd shapes.
(5:30pm)
Given the novelty of this room he thinks it worth searching, so he ushers the others in while he begins poking through the debris. Shefak waits outside in the hallway, invisible, but they leave the door open. Aurora notices that all of the strange boxes have alien script on them, apparently labeling the buttons and levers. She begins a comprehend languages spell while Willa assists Babshapka, and Mathias checks the bodies.
(Babshapka and Willa begin a take 20 search - ultimately will be Perception 29 if they finish.)
Mathias finds few intact bodies - clad in rotting fabric, they have no cards or weapons to be found (Perception 8 ).
Some eight minutes into the search, Shefak is alerted (Perception 14). From far down the dimly lit hallway, she sees a security robot wheeling closer. Confident in the fact that it cannot see her while invisible, she moves to the door and hisses - “Security robot approaching,” and then moves back into the hall. Aurora nods and waves her hand dismissively, the most she can do without interrupting her ritual. The others remember Willa’s previous command to use cover when fighting the robots and not expose themselves to the paralyzation ray.
Round 1
Mathias moves into the hallway. He sees the robot approaching and sends out two blasts of force (one hit, 8 points damage to shield). He quickly moves back inside the box room, taking care not to block the doorway, and calls out “To the right, more than 30 feet out!”
Willa dashes out into the hall and turns her lantern to see the approaching robot. She judges it farther away than she can get to before it fires on her, so she keeps moving and goes around the corner to the south. She sets down her lantern and draws her greatsword. Although she passed close by unseen Shefak, luckily she did not collide (Dexterity check 18).
Babshapka puts on his anti-gas mask. Now that the robot has seen Mathias, he anticipates it will be entering the room soon. He moves to the back of the room and crouches behind one of the boxes, preparing to fire from cover as an ambush (Stealth 16).
Hearing that the robot is still out of melee range, Thokk reaches for his javelins - but finds, once again, that he has used them all. He grabs his new needler, and even remembers to check that it is set to “individual” rather than “group” (Intelligence save 19). He moves into the hall, and holds forth the pistol, aiming squarely at the body of the robot and squeezing the grip.
(Thokk has been instructed in use -2, less than 10 Int +1, total -1. Roll 7-1 = 6, circle, Roll 2-1 = 1, finish. Thokk has now successfully used the needler, -2, total -3)
Ten needles fly forth at the robot, but rapidly encounter air resistance. They fall to the floor about 15 feet short of their target - but burst and explode when they contact the deck! The explosions vastly improve Thokk’s opinion of the weapon, but he is unimpressed by its range (maximum 30 feet). He returns to the cover of the room.
The robot moves closer to the doorway of the room but hasn’t entered yet - nor can it see Willa around the corner, flattened up against the wall. Shefak notices (Perception 21) that it has metal reinforcement plates over its vulnerable areas, like the previous few robots, if not more so (AC16). She tries to approach it from behind. The robot isn’t seeing anything in the hall with its optical sensors, but apparently its audio receptors are good enough to pick up the monk’s footfalls (Shefak Stealth 20 < Robot Perception 25). It fires off a sleep grenade in her general direction, but not close enough so that she is caught within the initial blast radius.
Ducking the grenade, Shefak closes to melee and strikes at the robot (ki point, flurry of blows, four attacks, one hit, 10 damage to shield, total 18 to shield, attempted knock down but no save needed since all damage was to shield). Now visible, she twists out of the way of the robot’s tentacles and enters the room.
Round 2
Mathias bursts from the room, catching the robot off guard with a huge bolt of lightning that overwhelms its shield (19 lightning damage to vulnerable is 38, 2 points drops shield, 36 points to body). His features are lit by the arcing electricity jumping from his hands to the robot. This time he remains in the hallway, concentrating on retaining the connection of his spell.
Willa prepares to attack the robot as soon as it comes into view around the corner. She remains out of sight up against the wall, but it does not move into her vision.
The blue circle is a growing cloud of sleep gas.
The robot raises its protective shield, then lashes out at Mathias with its tentacles. These do not strike to damage, however, but wrap around his wrists. Within seconds he is immobile, held by the robot. (Contested Athletics vs. Acrobatics. Robot 10 >Mathias 5 - Mathias is grappled. Robot 15 > Mathias 6 - Mathias is restrained. Note that Mathias has not taken damage or lost visual contact, so he maintains his spell) Once it has Mathias secured, the robot turns and begins moving rapidly down the hall, back in the direction of the prison cells!
Babshapka emerges from his carefully-selected hiding spot at the sound of the robot retreating. He steps into the hall and brings up his blaster pistol (as the lab technician robot said the mirror device was called), flips it on and fires off two shots. (Dex save at disadvantage at close range, 19 (save), 12 (fail), Damage 22/2 = 11, 16. First shot hits shield for 11 points, second shot drops shield and does 7 points to body, total 43).
Shefak re-emerges from the room and runs down the hallway, outpacing the robot, and coming around in front of it to head it off. Summoning her power, she strikes with direct blows to its center to drive it back (Ki point, flurry of blows, four attacks, one hit, 9 damage, total 52, Strength save 6 (fail), knocked back 10 feet). Her last kick lifts the robot and Mathias off the ground, sending them back down the hall toward the rest of the party.
From behind the robot, Thokk comes out of the room. Making sure he is close enough this time, he fires the needler again. (2-3 = circle, 5-3 = finish). Five needles hit the robot, each one exploding and leaving scorch marks against its metal (damage 20-AC16 = 4 points each needle, total 20 damage, total 63 points to body).
Round 3
Babshapka again fires his blaster pistol. With the shields now down, the blast of force hits the robot squarely. (Dex saves with Disadvantage 3,6; both fail). From his vantage right next to the robot, Mathias sees rivets fly, bolts shatter, and the heavy plates of reinforcing armor fall off (Perception 16).
[Note: against an armored opponent, a failed save against the blaster pistol reduces the AC of the target by 3 per hit until it is unarmored. Robot went from AC16 to 13, then AC13 to its base of AC11 without armor).
The robot raises its shield again. It opens a port and a black grenade rolls out at Thokk’s feet, and then it rapidly wheels away. As it speeds past Shefak she takes a swing at it (attack of opportunity, 6 points, shield to 14). Once past Shefak, the robot actually lifts off the ground, dragging Mathias into the air as it flies.
With an incredibly loud BANG! the concussive-force stun grenade goes off. Thokk’s loincloth is blown nearly over his head and he stands, dazed and confused. (Con save 16, saves, 5 damage for half; Thokk is stunned for 2 rounds and deafened for 20 minutes).
Willa launches her stone into orbit and charges around the corner. The robot is too far away for her to reach in melee just yet.
Mathias wills another surge of electricity into the robot, dropping its shield (7 damage is 14, shield has taken 20 total).
Shefak again runs around in front of the fleeing robot, leaping into the air to land blows of her fists and feet. She dents its metal but is unable to drive it back. (Ki point, flurry of blows, 4 attacks, 28 damage, total 91 to body, Str saves 18 (save), 22 (save)).
Thokk is now stunned for 1 round.
Round 4
Babshapka takes aim at the armorless flying robot, shooting his blaster twice (Dex saves 3, 6 (both fail), damage 16, 28, total 44, total to body 135). The first hit crumples the metal exterior of the robot, the second blasts it to pieces! Mathias drops from the air, trying to roll free of the severed tentacles as he falls (Dex save 17, no damage). “Ping!” chimes Babshapka’s blaster pistol, alerting him that its power disc is spent.
Shefak returns to her invisible guard duty in the hallway while Thokk drags the body of the robot into the box room. The others all grab the disarticulated pieces and plates of armor that came off during the fight and follow Thokk. After Mathias throws two handfuls of broken bolts and gears on the floor near the robot, he moves out into the hallway, disappears into the shadows, and joins Shefak on guard duty.
In another two minutes, Aurora has completed her ritual spell and begins to walk among the boxes, reading off what the writing says. Willa and Babshapka interrupt, and then finally cease their searching to accompany her (room search ends up being more like a take 10 - Perception 19).
(5:40pm)
Most of the buttons and levers say things like “move”, “fire”, and “jump”, while the switches on the side of the boxes say “on” or “power”. Aurora flips the switch of the second box to the “on” position. With a faint humming sound the flat glass screen lights up and the box begins emitting strange noises. A small triangular object is in the center of the horizontally - mounted glass. It is surrounded by many objects of different sizes and shapes. Moving the levers changes the relative distances of the shapes and the general direction they all move - when the triangle touches the objects, there is a crunching sound, like boots walking on gravel. [DM Note: The players were shown a screenshot from the 1979 arcade game Asteroids]
“Wha’ d’ye t’ink it be?” Willa asks Aurora.
“The triangle shape is like a mountain - and these other shapes seem like rocks. I think this is displaying the position of the ship inside the mountain - or perhaps the triangle is the ship, and the rocks are mineral deposits or caves? I think it may be some sort of tactical display map. I can find out by pressing the “fire” button and seeing what happens.”
“NAY!” shouts Willa and shoves Aurora away from the machine. “If ther secur’ty off’cers o’ ther ship hae “blaster pistols” an’ such, wha’ kind o’ weapons hae ther ship ‘erself? Fer all we ken, yon button be connected t’ some great super-ballista o’ grenade caterpult. Fire off ther ship’s weapons an’ we could bring ther rest o’ ther mountain down on top o’ us all!”
Aurora rubs her shoulder, where Willa rammed her, sullenly. “Why did I even bother to cast the spell, if we are not experimenting to find things out?”
Aurora obliges, if resentfully. When she turns on the screen of the next box, a series of colorful insects move across it in lockstep left and right, ever closer to the bottom of the vertically - mounted glass. A slim warhammer is at the bottom. A knob on the box seems to control the movement of the warhammer, but Aurora does not press the button labeled “fire”. [DM Note: The players were shown a screenshot from the 1981 arcade game Galaga]
The odd, bug-like appearances of the creatures makes Aurora wonder whether this machine is tracking the escaped alien aberration. She hopes there really aren’t as many of them as are visible on-screen.
Willa says that she does not like this place - the ship has seven levels of color-based security, but they have a weapons room that is open to the public. That is just asking for trouble. She tells Aurora to close the machines and get moving.
Aurora argues for investigating one more machine, this one near the door. The box has three vertically-mounted glass panes in a triptych and a strange device tethered to it. The device is a heavy armband or bracer with two projections, both about six inches long. One projection ends in a grip. The other ends in a smooth, cone shaped stone.
Aurora slides her forearm through the cuff and turns the machine on. The inside of the cuff swells until her arm is held firmly but painlessly. The red tip on the device glows, and images of colored creatures appear in the glass panels of the triptych.
“Careful woman!” warns Willa. She realizes that the ruby-colored wand tip bears a strong resemblance to the wand that was built in to the suit of powered armor - the one that Mathias shot both himself and Larry with! (Willa Intelligence check, 20).
Noting that the grip is not labeled “fire”, Aurora squeezes it. A bolt of red radiant energy flies from the tip of the wand. It happens to be pointed at the triptych at the time (Luck roll +1) and it seems to enter the world shown by the screen and hit one of the creatures within. The creature drops to the ground - dead or stunned - and a series of numbers appears at the top of the center triptych in the alien script.
“I think this is some sort of scrying portal,” says Aurora, “and with it I have control of the interior weapons systems of the ship - I may have just shot an alien or robot or something.”
“T’is magic be too dang’rous,” says Willa emphatically. “We be shovin’ off, now.”
Aurora flips the switch on the machine and shuts down the scrying portal. The interior of the cuff deflates and releases her hand. She shuts the other two boxes down as well. She had planned on taking apart the security robot the party slew to look for grenades and keys, but Willa’s insistence on leaving makes that impossible. Aurora internally resolves to return to this intriguing room at some point. The party moves into the hallway. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Last edited by Kirt on Sat Dec 04, 2021 7:52 am; edited 1 time in total
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our fourteenth Barrier Peaks session, was 7 August, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Hole (II) rolling separately
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), Hole (II), and Repair Room rolling separately
2:50 am (party) vegepygmies 3:10am (hole II) Intellect devourer
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Repair Room rolling separately
5:20 (hole I) worker robot
Party, Mules, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:20 am - (mules) Worker robot - move security to repair room
Party, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:30 am (Party) Police Robot 7:50am (HQ) Police Robot 10:00am (HQ) Worker Robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Security HQ (Level 1), and Repair Room (Level 1 - South) rolling separately
5:30pm (Party)- Police robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room, and Husk Hall rolling separately
Post 186: North side plant men 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
(5:50pm)
Babshapka moves to the pressure panel door on the south wall of the central block and opens it. (Perception 13). The large, open, and lit room [Library] holds six small tables and a dozen chairs. There is little refuse about and the tables and chairs are not knocked over - for some reason this place may have been spared from looting, although there is a skeleton visible from the doorway, one of the humanoid forms often seen in the apartments. Each table is connected to a large metal cabinet. On the table in front of each chair is a box or chest.
Thokk, ears still ringing loudly from the concussive grenade, pokes at the doorway a bit with his pole, checks the ceiling on both sides for lurkers, and then ushers Willa, Babshapka, and Mathias inside. He waits in the hall, on guard with Mathias and Shefak.
Babshapka watches from just inside the hallway while Aurora checks the chests for writing and Mathias moves to examine the skeleton. As he does so, he sees another one concealed from view in the doorway as it lies underneath a table.
Aurora finds that the tables, chairs, and cabinets are all bolted to the floor, and the boxes are bolted to the tables. The chairs can swivel and incline or recline slightly. Each of the boxes has a single switch on its side and a section of dark plate glass facing the chair next to it. The metal cabinets look completely sealed and have no obvious means of entry, but are connected to the boxes on their table by thick tarred cords.
Mathias finds only a fabric uniform on the first body (Investigation 13) and moves to the second one.
The switches on the sides of the boxes are similar to those on the larger boxes in the previous room, so Aurora flips one and waits for a response. Nothing happens. She moves down the northern row of tables, flipping another four switches in turn. On moving the fifth switch, belonging to the first box of the third table, the box begins to hum and the plate of glass in front of the box lights up.
Mathias checks the second skeleton (Investigation 13). It has gold braid on the shoulders and colorful ribbons on the chest, but the silk-like fabric is tattered and dry-rotted. He checks the pockets carefully but finds no weapons, no cards, and no identification.
Images appear on the plate glass screen before Aurora - complicated geometrical shapes and long sections of alien text. Each image stays up only briefly before being replaced by the next. Aurora sits down in the chair, which seems aligned to give a better perspective on the screen. She realizes (Intelligence Check 15) that each of the images is a complicated schematic, like an architect’s plan for a building, but each one of some sort of mechanical device, with the script being accompanying notation. She watches for a while, and then recognizes one! (Luck roll +2). Before her on the screen is a perfectly recognizable needler pistol, seen from outside, but also what it looks like on the inside, or stripped down to its component parts. With her comprehend languages still running, she reads the notes on the screen saying that the ammunition comes in ten cartridges, with each cartridge carrying ten explosive needles. Before she can read the whole thing though, the image is gone, and another piece of alien technology has taken its place.
Finding no other bodies to search, Mathias moves closer to the doorway and sets up his stool near Babshapka to wait for Aurora.
Aurora works over the glowing box, trying to find some switch or lever, some way to control what images she is seeing (Investigation 24). The only thing she finds is a small, coin-sized patch of fine wire mesh that is set into the table near the box. She rubs her fingers across it, trying to move or open it.
A string of meaningless characters appears on the screen, followed by something she can read. “Unintelligible voice communication,” it reads (in response to Aurora fingering the microphone). “Please state valid search commands or random mode will continue.” Aurora gives a whoop of excitement. Babshapka comes over and asks what she has found.
With more than a little tone of showing off, Aurora takes her hand off of the mesh, bends her head down and speaks into it, saying “Initiate language translation protocol.”
Again, a string of unintelligible characters appears on the screen, but this time it is followed by a slightly different message. “Unintelligible voice command. Please restate in standard Terran. Continuing in random mode. Current unit: Colony Ship technology schematics.”
Aurora grimaces in frustration. “We should come back here later,” she says, “after we have the laboratory technician robot teach us some basic words in Terran.”
“You do remember that the laboratory technician thinks you should be arrested as a shape-changing alien spy, don’t you?” replies Babshapka.
Aurora waves off his concerns as she stands and moves to another table. Trying all of the remaining boxes, she gets another three to turn on, but all are displaying in “random mode” like the first.
On table five, one box displays points of light and occasional color, like stars. They are accompanied by sparse notations in the alien script and occasional lines and arrows. Sometimes the views and orientations on these rotate. The words in the margins can be read by Aurora but don’t make much sense. (Intelligence check 16). Eventually she takes them for place names and assumes the displays are some kind of maps, but she doesn’t understand why it shows the places as dots with no intervening terrain.
[Arcana roll 21. Aurora knows that the planet Oerth is at the center of the material plane, and that both its two moons and the further sun revolve about it. Beyond the orbit of the sun are another seven planets. At the farthest distance is the crystal sphere in which the fixed stars are set. If given time, she could likely remember the names of most of the planets and a few of the individual stars or at least the major constellations, but none of the names she sees in the alien display match the ones she knows. She knows that the stars are just points of light, but the moons, sun, and planets are physical bodies. If this ship is made to sail through the “space” between these bodies, it could travel from planet to planet, but moving between stars is nonsensical since the stars don’t have any physical body.]
Both of the boxes on the final table illuminate when Aurora switches them on. The first one produces pages and pages of text in the alien script. She seems to be reading excerpts (in random mode) from works of literature.
The final box shows pictures of things that are obviously plants and animals, but like nothing she has ever seen or even heard of in tales. They each have a few words of text accompanying them.
Babshapka goes over to Willa and announces that Aurora is fishing again.
Aurora reddens, turns off all of the screens, and exits the room. The others follow, and Willa makes sure that the door is closed behind them.
(6pm)
Finished with exploring all the rooms of the central block, the party heads north up the main corridor. Almost immediately there is an intersection, with smaller hallways left and right. The rest of the corridor continues north unbroken, with four or five doors on each wall. The corridor running north and the hallway running east are dimly lit, while the one running west is dark and thus difficult to see down. At the mouth of the hallway to the west [10], the floor and to some extent the walls are covered in large violet and orange mushroom caps rising from an accumulation of organic matter that pushes out into the intersection. Shefak, who is in the lead and scouting for the party, gives these a wide berth as she passes by. Babshapka gets a little closer but still avoids treading on the “soil”. The mushrooms are like nothing he ever saw in the Silverwood (Nature check 10).
As they move north past the intersection, those in the lead can see that the doors on the left-hand side of the main corridor are all push panels, while those to the right have violet-keyed locks. As the party moves along they begin to talk in hushed tones about whether or not they should open the doors. Finally Willa’s admonition to “check not search” results in Babshapka breaking from the march order and heading toward the middle of the five doors on the left. “I’m just going to check this one door,” he reassures them.
As the door slides open, bright light floods the hallway, temporarily blinding Babshapka. When his eyes adjust, he can see an apartment with a large bed, the furnishings the same as countless other rooms he has opened. However, this is not a looted apartment, but an occupied one [11]. Basking in the light of the ceiling plates are more than a dozen of the plant men, and by the time he can see, all of them have turned and are looking at him. Even as he presses the plate again to close the door, he can hear them beginning to whistle and beat their chests.
Round 1
The party hesitates, with a few of them remaining in place and turning around, and others continuing to move north. Babshapka trots back to the group, but with an eye over his shoulder as he goes.
Inside the room, the plant man closest to the door presses the interior door panel even as the door closes, so that as soon as it is closed it begins to open again, and the inhabitants of the room begin to move into the hall.
Round 2
As the party withdraws further to the north, the plant men now spilling from the room organize themselves. The smaller ones move to the center of the hall in two ranks, brandishing their darts and javelins. The larger ones move to the walls, holding their clubs. Babshapka notes that they are different from the plant men the party has seen and fought up until now (Nature check 16). For one thing, they are of a much more gray cast rather than the brighter green of the others. For another, nowhere to be seen is one of the thorn dogs - only plant men have emerged from the room.
Aurora says something about readying a fireball if they attack. She withdraws all the way to the large shaft in a now-familiar atrium at the northern end of the ship, and begins to calculate distances and volumes in her head.
Suddenly the missile troops of the plant men rush forward and launch a volley of barbed darts. They are concentrating on the rear of the party, and with eight attacks they manage to hit both Willa and Thokk once each (7 and 10 points piercing). In response, Willa runs forward and attacks the largest plant man on her right along the wall. She lands two massive blows, but the creature does not go down (two hits, one critical, total 35 damage). Not wanting to be swarmed, she falls back to the party, avoiding the club blow that follows her (AoO misses).
The plant man that Willa hit is still advancing with the others, but is obviously seriously wounded. Mathias tries to pick him off with two blasts of force, but the spell glances off his hard wooden plates (two misses).
Thokk surveys the foes, realizing also the absence of the dogs. What’s more, he notes that these plant men come in four sizes, not just the three of those from the south. The one that Willa was unable to kill is larger than any they have fought before with the exception of the two leaders. The missile troops (sporriors and sprouts) range from two up to two-and-a-half feet tall, the smaller of the melee forces (saplings) top out at three feet high, but this new group of stronger warriors (champignions) are fully three-and-a-half feet tall, nearly up to Thokk’s waist.
“Open a door!” shouts Aurora when she finishes her fireball calculations. We need more space!”
Mathias and Shefak fall back nearly as far as Aurora, but use their vantage points to look down the hallways branching off the atrium to the east and west, making sure the party is not being flanked by other foes.
Babshapka hears Aurora and presses the push-panel on the door to the west but closest to the top of the corridor; he doesn’t even remain to see that it opens onto a looted storeroom before returning to the atrium.
Thokk bellows a challenge and shakes his shield at the plant men, insulting both them and their barky mothers. He hasn’t yet drawn his sword. (Thokk enrages and takes the dodge action).
Round 3
Mathias fires his twin bolts of force again, and this time manages to take down the wounded plant man (two hits, six damage). He draws his greatsword.
Babshapka fires off two shots of his blaster pistol at the next champignion beyond the one Mathias just slew (disadvantage to Dex saves, two fails, total 36 damage, but it stays up).
Aurora launches her fireball, the tracer flare arcing over the heads of all of the plant men and landing in the center of the intersection to the south (Aurora at 3/3/2). Explosive fire begins at just before the center of the intersection and shoots in all four directions, rapidly advancing down each hall, although the front of the explosion is slowed at each open door it passes where expanding into the room relieves some of the force and pressure from behind. The flames don’t quite reach the door opened by Babshapka since the original room from which the plant men came, as well as one more that was, unbeknownst to the party, down the dark hall, use up the fireball until it extends no further than the front ranks of the plant men and falls shy of the party itself.
At the entrance to the dark hall, the mushroom life is all burnt to a crisp. The single champignion wounded by Babshapka’s blaster, already tottering on his feet, is picked up and thrown by the blast and is dead before his flaming body hits the ground. The other fourteen plant men remaining in the corridor have a chance to withstand the force and flames (30 damage; DC15 Dex save for half. Four sporriors all fail, all die. Two sprouts fail and die, two succeed and are at 7/22. Two saplings fail and die, two succeed and are at 15/30. Two champignions fail and are at 7/37, one succeeds and is at 22/37. A total of nine plant men are killed and five are wounded).
After the initial blast, the two remaining sprouts throw javelins, one each at Thokk and Willa, although both miss (the one on Thokk missing only because of his dodge).
Thokk, Willa, and Shefak move forward, attacking the wounded plant men while they are still on fire. Between them they take out one sapling. Willa pulls back into the atrium and shouts at Aurora to look for cover before more missiles fly.
In the hallway, the door just to the south of the middle door opens [11]. A dozen new plant men, fresh and unwounded, spill out into the hallway.
Round 4
The four remaining plant man melee troops, two saplings and two champignions, attack Thokk and Shefak but don’t score hits. The unwounded ones from the south advance.
Thokk and Shefak press their attack, wounding more plant men. Shefak knocks a champignion prone with a sweeping trip. Mathias, sword still in one hand, tries to blast the fallen plant man, but misses (two attacks, at disadvantage for ranged attack on prone opponent).
Babshapka continues to fire with his blaster pistol (2 failed dex saves, two hits, total 39 damage). Babshapka looks over his shoulder briefly and sees that Aurora still has not taken cover. Instead she is bent over, rummaging in her pack. He admonishes her to stop being a target. She finds the retort, or ‘paralysis pistol’ as the lab robot called it, and moves to take cover behind a wall of the atrium.
Six darts and javelins fly from the fresh plant men at Thokk and Shefak. Thokk manages to use his shield to intercept three. Of the remaining three, Shefak dodges one, catches another in mid-air, but the third wounds her (9 piercing).
Willa moves back into the melee and hits another plant man.
Round 5
Babshapka tries to fire another two shots of his blaster but his thumb slips on the trigger and he gets only one glancing blast off (Roll = 10, one dex save, 10 points halved is 5 points to a sprout).
A total of three saplings and three champignions swarm Thokk, Willa, and Shefak. None of their blows damage, but the heroes are now pinned down, and more vulnerable to missile fire.
Aurora comes from around the corner and wades in close to a mass of plant men. She tries to fire the paralysis pistol for the first time! Willa sees the alien weapon pointed her way, curses mages and says a quick prayer to the Gentle Sea Cow. (Aurora currently at -1 to use for intelligence. Roll 3-1 = 2, circle. Roll 7-1 = 6, triangle. Roll 9-1 = 8, discharge: random person is hurt. Roll 10, not Aurora. Currently 23 others in range. Roll (d23) = 9. Aurora has not yet successfully used the pistol). Aurora is lifting the pistol from carrying it while pointing at the ground when it discharges prematurely. Nearly all of the sparks fly into the floor, with just a few clipping the edge of a champignion in front of Willa. “Aurora!” cries Willa in reproach. The plant man continues with his attacks on her as if nothing has happened. Aurora knows that the pistol is very effective at this range - perhaps it only works on animals? (Nature check 17)
Three sprouts throw javelins at Willa, and two hit (13 piercing).
Three sporriors throw darts at Thokk, and one hits (4 piercing reduced to 2 from rage).
Mathias slashes at the plant men around him with his great sword (two attacks, one critical hit, total 19 damage).
Shefak kicks and punches at the plant men around her (three attacks, one critical hit, 12 damage).
Thokk, beset by many foes at once, wants to see what effect the exploding needles will have on the plants. He draws forth his needler pistol and switches the knob to the “crowd” setting. (Thokk has +1 from Intelligence, -2 for being instructed in use, -2 for successfully using before, total -3. Roll 6-3= 3, circle. 9-3= 6, triangle. 6-3= 3, Start. 10-3 = 7, triangle. 4-3= 1, circle. 3-3= 0, finish.)
All ten needles hit the crowd of plant men around him, with each of them taking between one and two needles. The smaller, more tender plant men take more damage than the larger, woodier ones.
Sporrior AC15 5 points of damage per needle
Sprout AC16 4 points of damage per needle
Sapling AC17 3 points of damage per needle
Champignion AC18 2 points of damage per needle
Willa hits two plant men, and then another two! (action surge, damage 11, 11, 12, 6)
In the hallway, the door to the south, just before the intersection, opens [11]. A dozen new plant men, fresh and unwounded, spill out into the hallway.
Round 6
Babshapka has only a single charge left in his blaster and is not keen on switching the power disc out in the middle of combat. He folds the weapon and jams it in his belt, then rapidly pulls out his needler. He tries to fire into the crowd but in his haste he does not realize that he has it pointed at himself! (Babshapka has -2 for being instructed in use. Roll 4-2= 2, circle. 10-2= 8, triangle. 10-2= 8, Discharge, random person is hurt. Roll 1 = Babshapka himself). He hits himself with two needles, while the others fly harmlessly behind him and explode against the wall. (Babshapka takes 8 points total force damage). He grabs Aurora and moves into the open door of the empty storeroom. She commiserates with him about self-inflicted explosion damage.
Mathias envelopes himself in an arcane blue, frozen armor. He runs into a knot of the plant men, almost daring them to strike him. Seven try, but only two hit. Rather than being damaged, however, Mathias is fine but the two plant men are wounded by the cold of his armor.
Warming to the battle, Willa strikes two massive blows (two critical hits, 21 and 22 damage). She shouts a question to Thokk, then decides to hold her place in the hallway against the wave of fresh plant men.
Seeing Mathias surrounded by plant men while Thokk himself is down to one opponent, Thokk grows concerned. “Mathias! Save some for Thokk!” he calls. Ignoring the sporrior at his side, Thokk barrels forward (opportunity attack misses) and knocks a plant man out of the way so that he can stand in the scrum (Shove attack, Thokk Athletics 14, vegepygmy Acrobatics 13). He hacks at the plant men (sword attack hits for 10).
With Thokk and Mathias now moving forward into the new mass of plant men from the third room, Shefak sees that Willa is in danger of being surrounded by those that remain from the second room. The monk kills the plant man next to her and moves to Willa’s side.
The knot of plant men missile troops enveloping the party’s core fighters pulls back, preferring not to be in hand-to-hand. Thokk, Mathias, and Shefak strike ineffectually at the retreating foes (three opportunity attacks miss). Once out of range, the plant men turn and launch a volley. Five sprouts and four sporriors rain down missiles on Mathias and Thokk. Mathias’ fancy ice armor is dispelled.
Aurora peeks out of the storeroom and sends a firebolt across the hallway - it hits the wall without being clear who or what she was aiming at.
Round 7
The same five sprouts and four sporriors that have surrounded the party’s melee fighters continue to rain down missiles on them. They can’t penetrate Willa’s magic armor, and Shefak catches the darts that get too close to her. Thokk is wounded, Mathias takes a javelin in his side and collapses on the floor. He looks unconscious (he is faking; Persuasion 15).
Trying to draw fire (and use her instinctive charm), Aurora runs out into the hallway. She fires off a magic missile at second level (15 force damage, Aurora at 3/2/2).
Babshapka, seeing Aurora run out of the room, curses. He switches the needler pistol to his left hand and draws his broadsword. He moves to Aurora’s side and slashes at the plant men around her.
Mathias, prone on the ground, peeks open an eye and lifts a finger, then fires off two blasting spells (one hit, 5 damage). Waiting until all the plant men around him are occupied, he slips out of the melee without the champgnion next to him realizing (Persuasion 13, Plant man Insight 7, no attacks of opportunity).
Thokk sheathes his longsword and reaches over his shoulder to grab the glass bottle at the top of his backpack. Drawing it forth, he hurtles it to the ground at his feet. The barbarian and all six plant men around him are enveloped in a billowing white cloud of powder. As it settles, they all have a white cast to their skin. There seems to be no other effect. [Note; of the two bottles of ‘defoliant’ Aurora took from the alchemical supply room, this one at least was spoiled and inert].
Fighting near Thokk, Shefak finds it easier to hit the plant men distracted by the raging barbarian. (Ki point, Flurry of blows, four attacks, all hit, one because of advantage, one critical hit, total 37 points).
Willa lays low the plant men next to her. Freed from their reach, she moves to Thokk’s other side just in time to receive the charge of several club-wielding plant men. Three champignions and three saplings assail the party - Willa and Thokk emerge unscathed, while Babshapka takes a blow from a club (8 points).
With four doors in the hallway now open, no new plant men emerge, and none are coming from around the corner of the intersection. Absent fresh combatants, the party struggles to whittle down their vegetable foes one by one. The missile forces of the remaining plant men have withdrawn inside the closest room, and are emerging one at a time to launch their darts and then retreating to cover.
Round 8
The plant men continue their assault - three miss Thokk, one each miss Willa, Babshapka, and Shefak.
Thokk hits one of his opponents (for 13). He moves out from the crowd, trying to draw his opponents away before his friends become more seriously wounded. (champignion misses opportunity attack). With his movement away, however, Willa has lost the benefits of Thokk’s rage, and misses in both her strikes. She pulls back out of sight of the doorway from which the plant men are throwing darts.
Shefak, too, has now lost the advantage of Thokk’s rage, and is able to connect only twice (ki point, flurry of blows, four attacks, two hits (one critical), total 17 points), although the second blow knocks to the ground the champignion she is facing (failed dex save, now prone).
Aurora continues to move into the thick of the combat, frustrating Babshapka. She fires off another magic missile (first level, 10 force damage, Aurora at 2/2/2).
Three sporriors and three sprouts are left in the side room, emerging each in turn to throw missiles. Babshapka is hit, Shefak catches one dart but is wounded by another. Thokk is missed, and he even manages to kill one as it is pulling back into the room (opportunity attack).
Ignoring his own wounds, Babshapka continually moves between Aurora and the plant men. His broadsword slashes are becoming more effective as he melees (two hits, total 13 damage). Mathias tries to help Babshapka from up the hallway by sending force blasts at his opponents, but they do little (one hit, 1 point damage).
There are still three champignions and three saplings left as the plant men’s hand-to-hand fighters. Babshapka and Thokk are missed, Willa and Shefak are hit. One attacking Aurora gets confused and swings at Babshapka instead (instinctive charm, Wis save 2, fails). The elf bares his teeth at Aurora.
From further south down the hall two sprouts launch javelins at Willa, and one hits (advantage, 4 piercing).
Round 9
“Keep at it! We hae ‘em now!” shouts Willa, noting the lack of reinforcements. Leading by example, she scores another two hits on the melee troops (12 points each).
Babshapka slashes with his broadsword (two hits, 9 and 10 points).
Aurora sends out a harmless firebolt.
Shefak kicks and punches (two hits, ten points each).
With one less sapling than a few seconds ago, the five remaining plant men counter in hand to hand, though all miss. Their missile troops, with advantage, attack for more effect - from five sprouts and three sporriors, Willa is hit twice (for 11 piercing damage) and Babshapka once (for 4). A dart aimed at Aurora ends up in a companion plant man (instinctive charm Wisdom save 5) but does no damage (immune to non-magical piercing). When a dart-throwing plant man tries to slip by Thokk and back into the cover of its room, he catches it with a blow that splits its woody body in half (opportunity attack, critical hit, savage attacks, total 25 points damage).
Thokk bellows and attacks twice more (two hits, one critical, 11 and 15 damage).
Mathias blasts at the plant men (one hit, 3 damage).
Round 10
Mathias keeps blasting away (one hit, critical, 7 force damage), finally dropping a plant man.
Thokk, winded and nearing the end of his rage, presses the attack (one hit, 12 damage).
Shefak kicks and punches (two hits, 14 damage).
Aurora’s firebolt finally connects (10 damage).
The plant man missile troops have just three sporriors and two sprouts left. Thokk is hit (for 6, rage reduces to 3), Willa and Shefak are missed. Thokk hits again (opportunity attack, 13 damage). Aurora’s instinctive charm saves her from another missile attack (Wis save 9).
Willa moves next to Thokk for advantage and hits twice (24 points).
Babshapka slashes twice with his broadsword (10 points each), downing the last of the plant man melee troops and rendering the hall itself clear. The ones throwing darts from the cover of their room are the last opponents remaining.
Round 11
Aurora misses with a firebolt from the doorway of the room.
Shefak enters the room and connects with a single punch (5 points). The plant man attempts to escape from melee, but not before Shefak lands another blow (opportunity attack, 6 points).
Mathias uses a defensive ward to protect himself and enters the room.
Thokk charges into the room and raises his hand over his head, preparing to come down on a plant man, but the hilt of his sword is now slick with watery sap. The sword flies from his grasp (first attack, critical fail) and crashes into the ceiling. He catches it on the way down (Dex save with advantage 23) and finishes with a single blow (damage 15), grinning at his skill. In his pleasure he suddenly finds himself struggling to remember why he was so angry (rage ends after 1 minute of combat).
Two sprouts and two sporriors are all that remain of the plant men, all within the small room. One sporrior tries to throw a dart at his companion (instinctive charm Wis save 5), and the companion responds by sticking Aurora with his own dart (7 piercing).
Babshapka yet again growls at Aurora to stay out of combat and slashes with his broadsword (one hit, 8 damage).
Willa enters the room, but the remaining plant men elude her (two misses).
Round 12
With their cause lost, the plant men flee the room, move out into the hallway, and head for the dark corridor once covered in fungus. Mathias shoots after them, sending forth punishing blasts of force (two hits, one critical, total 27 damage).
Aurora follows up with a firebolt (5 points) and a serious case of cantrip-envy.
Shefak is close on the heels of the escaping plant men, with her sandals crunching over the charred fungus on the floor as she enters the dark hallway. When she follows them into a room with an open door [11], she finds it full of plant men! These are not fresh troops, however. A few already lie on the ground, smouldering, while even the ones standing are badly burned. Apparently the door to the room was open a minute ago when Aurora’s fireball flashed down this hallway as well. Shefak kicks and punches defensively, backing out of the room into the hall (two hits, 11 damage).
Thokk is nearly as swift as Shefak, and he arrives even as the rest of the party is only exiting the other room. No longer enraged, he is now just enjoying the manly vigor of the battle. He hits one of the wounded plant men in the doorway (6 points).
By the end of the round Willa has reached the side hall, while Babshapka stands in the intersection, watching for reinforcements from the east.
Round 13
Seeing nothing coming to the east, Babshapka joins his fellows. He has his broadsword in one hand, but when he arrives at the doorway and sees the number of plant men inside, he pulls forth the needler pistol in his other hand - this time pointed the correct way! (Roll 2-2 = 0, circle. Roll 1-2 = -1, finish. Babshapka is now -4 to use Needler, and will only need a single roll of “not 10” to have it work. A 10 will be a lost turn, not a misfire.). The exploding needles hit seven different plant men.
Willa enters the room and attacks (two hits, 24 damage).
Aurora’s firebolt misses.
Shefak kicks one of the few remaining plant men (three attacks, one hit 9 damage).
A solitary champignion remains in the room. He strikes back at Shefak (critical hit, 10 points bludgeoning with club).
Thokk enters the room and slays the champignion (one hit, 15 damage), bringing the immediate combat to a close.
While the party catches their breath, hearts pounding, Shefak uses her wholeness of body.
Babshapka looks down the hallway to the west. Some twenty feet down the hall to the left there is an open doorway - and more plant men peer out from it but do not advance. Babshapka notes that the scorch marks on the floor from the fireball stop short of that doorway (Perception 13) and reckons that whatever plant men there are, are unwounded. Another fifteen or twenty feet down to the right the hallway makes a T-intersection with a hallway leading north. More plant men peek out around that corner. The hallway continues further than he can see into the darkness, and he is equally unsure of how many plant men are out there beyond. With many in the party seriously wounded (Babshapka at 17/55, Willa at 32/62) and at least two more sets of fresh opponents in the fore, he suggests that it is time to retreat. Willa agrees, but tells him to search the room while they watch the hall.
Babshapka goes quickly through the quarters. (Perception 22). They are just as filthy as the green southern plant men’s were - with rotting bits of vegetation littering the floor and a messy assortment of looted odds and ends from the rest of the ship. He does find a single black card on one of the bodies - still warm to the touch and soft around the edges from the fireball. He carefully takes it and pronounces the room clear.
Current Cards
Mathias, red
Shefak, brown
Babshapka, black (good condition) and black (partially melted)
Tyrius, black
Larry, black
Willa tells the others to fall back but stay watchful.
“Fall back?” asks Thokk confused. He points into the darkness in front of them. Perhaps Willa’s human eyes cannot see, so he tries to make it obvious for her. “But Evil Advisor, there plenty more plant men to slay down there!”
“Nev’rtherless, Thokk,” she advises.
Willa and Thokk stand rear guard in the hall while the rest of the party moves back into the main corridor running north. Once back in the light they can survey their work - some two score or more plant men lie dead all around, the former occupants of at least four different rooms.
The party moves into the main, north-south running hall, leaving Shefak, invisible, behind at the intersection to watch from all directions (Perception 18, with darkvision). As they withdraw to the north, Babshapka shuts all of the doors that were opened during the combat on the western wall. Mathias quickly checks the bodies of the plant men as they pass. He finds two different black cards, but both have been melted by the heat of the fireball and he doubts that they would fit inside the door slots.
The main mass of the party is nearing the atrium in the north when a discussion breaks out over whether they should check the violet doors along the east wall. “Check, nay search,” is Willa’s final decision. Babshapka and Mathias backtrack - Mathias opens the doors while Babshapka checks inside.
[The remaining northern vegepygmies are much more cautious than their southern counterparts. They do not pursue the party unhesitatingly, rather, one room’s worth of pygmies follows the party at a distance and eventually will set up an ambush in the atrium when the party later enters the Security Chief’s quarters nearby. While the southern pygmies immediately hauled off their dead to the mulch room, the northern ones leave them in the hallway for now, where they become a nexus for future wandering monster rolls. A wandering worker robot will clean up some pygmy bodies (as well as find the security robot left in the game room), while a result of vegepygmies will have them hauling away ten bodies (per encounter rolled) to work on a defensive barricade. The northern vegepygmies will use their fallen comrades as building materials for woven ramparts. The wandering shadows and wisps have no use for the dead pygmy bodies and a police robot will ignore them.]
(6:10pm)
The room looks to be a standard, looted apartment - with bed, desk, chair, divan, and stuffed chair. There are some smashed crates as well, containing nothing of interest. The furnishings are of the same material as before - cave horn, cave sponge, cave metal - but the colors are a little richer, the scrollwork a little more detailed. (Perception 14). In a drawer of the desk, Babshapka finds some of the black plate glass slates like in the medical area, but nothing else.
(6:15pm)
The second room is much the same - a looted personal apartment, but of slightly better quality than the ones guarded by black doors. Babshapka does not stay long (Perception 11).
(6:20pm)
The third room is a nearly identical looted apartment (Perception 13) - the same furniture in a slightly different arrangement, a desk that looks more like a smith’s workbench than a scribe’s lectern.
(6:25pm)
The final violet door in the north of the hallway reveals a room that is empty of furnishings, only having bits of smashed machinery and wire tangling each other along the floor [storeroom]. Babshapka prods through the mess with his broadsword but finds nothing (Perception 24).
Aurora has been in communication with Shefak as their forward scout through message, and relays to the party that the monk says that plant men of varying sizes are creeping forward out of doorways and around corners in the darkened hall. They are moving slowly in the darkness and acting like they don’t want to be seen, pausing when the noise of the party speaking or opening doors reaches them. Aurora tells Shefak to stay between them and the party, and the monk retreats north up the hall from the intersection.
The party spreads out through the atrium. The drop shaft is familiar; lit and with the moving handles whirring up and folding into the ceiling, or down to the levels below. To the north along the wall is a pair of double-doors with no obvious means of opening them, flanked by two doors each with a violet lock - a mirror-image of the entrance to the ship used by the party in the south.
Shefak arrives among the party and says that plant men are creeping up the hall to the south. Willa shines her lantern down the hallway and the creatures freeze, their mottled gray covering blending into the metal walls of the corridor. So long as they are not moving, only the sharpest-eyed party members are able to make out their outlines.
In the time it took for Willa to turn her attention to the south, Aurora has slipped off and is peering down the western corridor. There are three doors on the north wall, another three on the south, and then the corridor narrows and turns south. Babshapka has been walking a careful circuit around the shaft, noting the prints on the floor (Perception 16) - he recognizes the rooty tendrils of the plant men, the wheels of the security robots, the near-perfect circles of the cleaning robots, but nothing else. Looking up, he sees how far Aurora has strayed from the group.
“Woman!” he hisses through clenched teeth, “come back here!”
“It’s fine,” Aurora ‘whispers’ back, overly loudly. “I’m ready to look into their eyes and bend them to my will.”
Thokk is examining the doors to the north, trying to find some means to open the large set. Willa tells him to leave off - even if they did get them open, the only thing they would find would be the solid rock of the mountain. If the captain’s cabin is at 15 degrees, it lies down the eastern corridor (she seems to be orienting more clearly now with the fey juice out of her system).
Thokk stands at the entrance to the hallway, looking back across the atrium to the south and west, watching for the approaching plant men. He chuckles to himself, then draws his sword and waves it around. They won’t dare approach a warrior of his ferocity. (Perception 7). He is convinced he has scared them off, despite the fact that a dozen or so of them are creeping ever closer.
Shefak moves to the eastern hallways and Babshapka is just behind her. They scout ahead of the party - Shefak for hostiles, Babshapka for tracks (Perception 5, critical fail). He doesn’t notice the small, dog-like prints of the intellect devourer, fresh though they are. He can tell only that while the tracks go in and out of all the doors along the south wall, the dust and debris along the north wall is undisturbed. When Willa shines her lantern light on each door in turn, Shefak can tell that the three key locks to the north are red, the three to the south, black.
Shefak pushes ahead down the corridor to the east, passing two grey doors before returning to the party.
“Ther southren rooms be long since looted - we be wantin’ ther one t’ ther north,” says Willa.
“Aye serjeant,” says Mathias, and he mage hands his red card into the door closest to them. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our fifteenth Barrier Peaks session, was 15 August, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Hole (II) rolling separately
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), Hole (II), and Repair Room rolling separately
2:50 am (party) vegepygmies 3:10am (hole II) Intellect devourer
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Repair Room rolling separately
5:20 (hole I) worker robot
Party, Mules, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:20 am - (mules) Worker robot - move security to repair room
Party, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:30 am (Party) Police Robot 7:50am (HQ) Police Robot 10:00am (HQ) Worker Robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Security HQ (Level 1), and Repair Room (Level 1 - South) rolling separately
5:30pm (Party)- Police robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room, and Husk Hall rolling separately
Post 187: Brains 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
(6:30pm)
The rest of the party enters the room beyond the red-locked door [Security Chief's Quarters - Reception Area]. It appears to be a living area, but it is larger than almost any apartment they have yet found. There are four couches, an armchair, a long, low table, and other furniture, none of which fit the duplicate forms or molds they have seen over and over. Much of the smaller furniture - small tables and display stands, cabinets and such, has been knocked over or smashed. Nothing is obviously taken, and the destruction looks more like it was caused by a fit of rage or violence than looting. Near the door is a single skeleton. There are no exits apparent.
Aurora wants to search the room, while Willa is immediately uncomfortable with the lack of exits. A brief, hushed discussion ensues over whether it is better to be trapped or to be ambushed. Finally Willa agrees to hole up in the room with the door closed, but with someone on watch outside. Shefak volunteers for first watch. Thokk enters the room. Before closing the door, Willa asks Shefak whether the things Aurora called “displacer beasts” hunt by smell or by sight. Shefak shrugs, the gesture lost since she is invisible, and says enigmatically, “They’re big cats.”
Once the door is securely closed, Willa presses the second inside panel, and the room floods with light. When her eyes have adjusted, she lowers the wick of her lantern and blows out the flame, noting that the base is almost empty of oil. Once it has cooled, she will refill it.
Aurora rubs her hands together, trying to decide where she should search first, excited by the obvious wealth of the furnishings. “Do you want to use that analyzer-thing?” Babshapka asks her.
“Why yes, yes, I do,” she agrees. “Willa, I’ll be needing to cast a ritual before we start.”
Willa looks over the party, most of them wounded from the last fight, some seriously. “Short rest,” she tells them, “make yerselves com’forble.”
While Aurora begins her spell, Babshapka begins to examine the room and Mathias the skeleton. Thokk stretches out on a couch, his wounds from the battle slowly seeping blood into the fabric, while Willa sits in a chair facing the door.
Mathias’ search of the skeleton yields no identification, cards, or weapons. He does find the uniform virtually intact though, and sporting orange chevrons on the dirty white sleeves. Having searched the body carefully, he lies down next to it on the floor, shimmying until his feet line up with the skeletal feet, then turning his head to look into the eye-sockets of the skull. “That’s pretty close,” he says to himself.
Babshapka finds many trinkets scattered around the room - sculptures of a kind that might have gone on the end tables that have since been knocked over, a set of smashed glasses on a sidebar, a broken game board with carved stone pieces strewn about. Some even appear valuable (though not valuable enough to haul two weeks off a frozen mountain), but nothing appears to be missing.
Mathias carefully removes the bones from the uniform, the skeleton disarticulating at his touch. He holds the silk suit up next to his own frame and nods appreciatively, then immediately begins stripping. Willa snorts and half looks away, but still keeps one eye on the door. By the time Aurora has finished her spell, Mathias is wearing the strange white-and-orange uniform, although it is obscured by the moving shadows that dance about him.
With the skeleton freed from its clothes, Babshapka examines the bones, looking for a cause of death. The skull is intact - but the sternum has been shattered.
With her spell complete, Aurora quickly checks in with Shefak via message, then assures the party that everything is fine in the hall.
[Aurora has comprehend languages until 7:40pm
Aurora has mage armor until midnight
Mathias has armor of shadows until midnight
Shefak has darkvision until midnight]
Aurora digs in her pack and pulls out the atmospheric analyzer.
“Spore and pollen count low” (says the yellow window).
“No toxic gasses detected” (says the green window).
“Trace amounts of radiation detected. Limit long-term exposure” (says the purple screen).
“Hmm. Again with this ‘radiation’ thing,” mutters Aurora. She brings the device closer to the skeleton, runs it along the length of the bone pile and then over the uniform now worn by Mathias, but the dials don’t change their positions.
She walks around the room, noticing that there are indeed peaks and valleys depending on her position. “Okay, no one move!” she says. She has done enough divining with detect magic to know how to apply triangulation. Within a few minutes she has found that the source of the “radiation” is Babshapka - and further, that it is concentrated near his left arm. (Intelligence check 16). “I think that mirror weapon of yours might be the source of this ‘radiation’” she says.
Babshapka nods. “I suppose that is how it works - whatever energy is that it blasts out, the device calls it 'radiation'.”
[DM’s note - actually, it is that Babshapka stuck his arm into the culture room to shut the door when Mathias and Larry had radiation poisoning, and his arm is still weakly radioactive]
(6:50pm - Except for Aurora, party 20 minutes into a short rest).
On guard in the hallway, Shefak hears a skittering noise, like a tiny set of claws against the ship metal. She peers down the hallway, but does not see anything. She turns and raps smartly on the door.
Thokk, stretched out and snoring on the divan, sits up with a start, then stumbles to the door. Activating the push panel, he stares out blearily, not seeing invisible Shefak.
“What?” he asks.
“I heard something,” says Shefak. “Stay alert.”
Thokk looks dubiously down both hallways, but does not see anything.
“Shut the door,” says Shefak.
Thokk obliges and lumbers back to the divan.
“I’ll check in with you every ten or twenty minutes for the next hour,” Aurora messages to Shefak. Even as she stares out into the darkness, Shefak makes plans to cut some leather into counting knots.
Willa, nervous, takes a deep breath and stands. (Second Wind, recovers 13 hp, cannot use again until a short rest completed, now Willa has not rested.)
[Intellect devourer - Stealth roll 13]
[Shefak - Perception roll 20]
In the east, Shefak sees something move around the corner, hugging the wall. It is about the size of a terrier, and even has dog-like legs. But the body on them is a huge, mis-shapen lump of beige flesh. As it gets closer, she can see that its entire body looks like a brain that has been removed from its skull. It has no head, tail, or other features - just a brain the size of a human’s on four legs.
It creeps slowly forward, seemingly headed directly at Shefak.
“It can’t see me, it can only hear me,” the monk says to calm herself. She adjusts her weight to make no noise on the floor and tries to take in slow, silent breaths.
[Shefak Stealth roll 13]
[Intellect Devourer Perception roll 16]
The dog-brain creature is getting uncomfortably close; even without seeing her, it will blunder into her on its current course. Shefak moves silently out of the way. The creature immediately turns, bearing down on her directly to her new heading. But how? She is invisible! Then again, it has no eyes, so how can it see to begin with?
Just to be sure, Shefak adjusts her position again. (Insight 25). As the creature reacts, she knows without a doubt that it is following her - and she panics. “People!” she yells, now not worried about the sound giving away her position. “Hey you people!” Then she begins backing away as quickly as she can without losing sight of the scurrying little monster.
Inside the room, Willa broods in her chair (Perception 5), but Thokk on the divan sits up again, not yet back asleep (Perception 22). “Kicky woman need help,” he says as he stands, grinning at the prospect of battle.
Shefak has backed across the atrium, all the way up to the wall of the shaft. The plant men now clustered there in ambush do not see her, but the strange brain creature has given them pause. Shefak does not see them either, as they are so well camouflaged against the metal of the ship deck. Whether the brain-dog sees them, or what it sees, is not apparent.
When the creature is within a few paces of Shefak, the monk suddenly feels an incredibly intense splitting headache - the worst such pain she has ever felt.
5e Monster Manual wrote:
Devour Intellect: The intellect devourer targets one creature it can see within 10 feet of it that has a brain. The target must succeed on a DC 12 Intelligence saving throw against this magic or take 2d10 psychic damage. Also on a failure, roll 3d6: If the total equals or exceeds the target’s Intelligence score, that score is reduced to 0. The target is Stunned until...
(Shefak Intelligence Save 8; failure. Shefak takes 14 points of psychic damage. The Devourer follows up with an attack roll of 15, more than Shefak’s Intelligence score of 11. Shefak is stunned, and stands still, wavering on her feet, still invisible, at 25/39 hp).
Round 1
The creature has closed all of the distance to Shefak - but it doesn’t even top her knee. It is just beginning to climb up her leg when Thokk emerges from the room. He is immediately disappointed by the small size and lack of ferocity of the creature, but he supposes its four sets of claws could scratch someone. He bellows a half-hearted battle cry as he charges forward.
At Thokk’s approach, the creature leaps off of Shefak and lands several feet away. It scurries forward, running around to the north side of the drop shaft, with Thokk in pursuit. He is almost within striking distance with his sword when it jumps into the shaft and floats across to a side wall, then begins scurrying down the wall, its claws somehow finding purchase on the smooth metal of the shaft. Thokk stands in the entrance, sword out, but does not leap after it.
Babshapka is next into the hall after Thokk. He pulls out his blaster pistol and runs into the atrium. Like Thokk, he too does not notice the camouflaged plant men (Perception 5). A solitary sapling runs up and strikes him with a club before he can react (1 point damage). Babshapka leaves off his pursuit of Thokk and turns south - just in time to see a volley of six darts and javelins headed his way (three sporriors, three spouts, with advantage - total 29 points damage). Babshapka staggers back, pierced by too many of the projectiles - and collapses to the floor.
Aurora, heedless of the plant men, including the one with the club standing within reach, runs to Babshapka’s side, clutching one of the ship’s healing canisters in her hand. She sprays it liberally across his chest, the foam seeping through his chain armor and into the bloody wounds, closing them as if by magic. Babshapka gasps and jerks, and his eyes open wide. (1 charge from healing canister; 13 points to Babshapka).
Mathias, now wearing the dingy white and bright orange uniform of the dead man, emerges into the atrium. “What the hell are you doing on MY ship?!” he yells at the plant man with the club, then sends twin blasts of force at it. It staggers back, but the blasts ricochet off its hard wooden armor and leave it undamaged. Mathias looks up at the swarm of six plant men readying a second volley of darts, and a few more with clubs behind them, and retreats to the cover of the hallway.
Willa emerges from the hallway, moving between the fallen Babshapka, kneeling Aurora, and the plant man with the club. With wild slashes of her great sword she drives it back, but does not score any hits. “Thokk, to me, NOW!” she yells, even as the half-orc is still peering curiously into the bowels of the shaft.
Round 2
Thokk pulls back from the shaft and starts to trot amiably to Willa’s side, when he sees Babshapka fallen and, more upsetting, the battle already begun. “You start fight without Thokk!!!” he screams and enrages, though it is not clear whether he is more angry at the plant men or his teammates. He swings and hits the plant man with the club (10 points).
Babshapka climbs to his feet and pushes Aurora back, more a gesture on principle than one that will protect her from a volley. He picks up his fallen blaster pistol and aims it at one of the larger plant men throwing barbed shafts. The crowd of them scatters at the impact of the weapon and he is unable to acquire another target (Hit for 11, but Dex save with disadvantage for just 5 points. Second use Babs rolls a 10, loss of turn.)
Using the cover of the corridor, Mathias moves briefly into the atrium, fires off bolts of force (one hits for 6 damage), and ducks back into cover. Babshapka pulls back beside him and gestures for Aurora to follow.
The plant man sapling decides to let Babshapka go and to turn its attention to the large green creature hacking at it with a sword. It swings its club at Thokk but he easily sidesteps the blow. While he is thus engaged, however, the volley of six projectiles rains down upon him (two javelins hit for 22 points, halved for rage is 11). After launching their missiles, the plant men withdraw to the mouth of the southern corridor, themselves seeking cover.
Aurora stands and looks down the corridor at the retreating plant men, tries to remember the volume calculation she made of the atrium a bare hour ago, and launches a fireball at the mouth of the corridor. (Arcana 13). A flash of superheated fire fills the southern half of the atrium and shoots down the corridor. It is well away from Thokk, the closest of the party to the blast. Willa curses. “Nary a word from ther wench! ‘Ow many times hae I told ‘er t’ let us ken afore she does t’at!”
[Fireball for 33 damage, DC15 dex save for half. Of the three sprouts and three sporriors, three make their saves, smouldering but remaining upright, while the other three fully ignite in flames and go down. The sapling that Thokk wounded saves, as does one other sapling, but not the third (which is slain). None of the three champignions save, but they nonetheless remain alive, though badly burned. Aurora now at 2/2/1]
Round 3
Thokk gives a whoop and charges the mouth of the corridor, where the burning bodies of dead plant men still give off smoke. He drops both of the two wounded sporriors with his blows. Mathias follows after, but his blasts do not penetrate the woody hides of those remaining. Willa slays a sprout. Aurora firebolts a sapling. When the sapling turns to flee, Thokk steps forward, wounding it further - it and three larger champignions, all wounded from the fireball, retreat down the hallway toward their lair.
Thokk is eager to pursue the creatures down the hall, but Willa holds him back, listening to the echoing foot-falls amid the cracking and popping of their burning companions. She pulls them back into the atrium.
[At this point the vegepygmies have had enough and give up on their former plan of following and ambushing the party.]
“What was Thokk doing in the shaft?” asks Aurora, as she inspects its interior. It is lit and the belts running, much as the one to the west, with handles emerging from below on the north end, or coming out of the ceiling and descending from the south opening.
(7pm)
Babshapka, looking about after the combat, asks, “Where’s Shefak?”, then repeats his question more loudly when no one answers. Mathias shrugs and shakes his head.
Aurora places a hand to her temple - with Shefak invisible, it will be hard to contact her - so she shoots out a message, shuffles a slight rotation of her body and sends forth another, continuing until she has done a complete circle - but no response. Mathias returns to the room with the red door and stripped skeleton.
“Thokk, wha’ did ye see?” asks Willa.
Thokk relates seeing the tiny, almost insignificant brain dog running and then floating in the air of the shaft, but not having seen Shefak. He goes to where the dog was in the air and inhales deeply through his nose - the scent of the monk is faint, and not in any particular direction (Perception 7). Babshapka looks for her sandal prints in the dust of the atrium, but the recent combat, and especially the blast of force from the fireball, have kicked up the dust and forced everything to resettle. He finds nothing (Perception 6).
Willa walks Thokk through a decent description of the brain-dog-creature. Could that be the aberration? He tries to think of any natural creature like that and draws a blank (Nature 6). Babshapka reaches out with his senses (primeval awareness). The thing he felt before was here, for certain - the disturbance it makes in the natural order of things is still clinging to the atrium - but the creature itself is deep within the ship. The other aberration is even deeper. The undead he felt before are still present - now closer. (Babshapka at 3/3).
Aurora at first tries to get everyone to walk together holding hands, but then decides it will be faster herself. She summons her mage hand and has it speed around her as she walks a grid pattern through the atrium - its probing fingers feel something up against the wall of the shaft.
Directing the others there, they find the invisible body of Shefak. She is unmoving, unresponsive - but upright and breathing.
They carry Shefak into the parlor they were in before. Aurora posts Buckbeak in the hall and they shut the door. Aurora slips off Shefak’s ring so that she is now visible, and puts it in her belt pouch. She lays the monk down on a divan and carefully goes over her body.
Babshapka has his eyes closed. He is still tracking the aberrations and the undead for as long as his senses allow.
Mathias picks out a chair for himself and begins rolling a succession of cigarettes. When Willa raises an eyebrow at him, he gestures at Shefak and says, “Looks like we might be here a while.” He picks at his crotch and complains that the new uniform is tight.
Thokk agrees vociferously - really, any closed pants are too confining for his manhood, he explains to Mathias. That is why his loincloth just has flaps rather than being closed underneath. He lifts the front to demonstrate.
Willa groans. “Put it away, Thokk. Dinnae nobody need an eyeful o’ t’at.”
Aurora finishes her examination of Shefak. She bears no visible wounds from the creature, just all the old bruises and cuts of today’s several combats. Her pulse and breathing are steady. She has a blank look on her face and does not respond to speech, light slaps and pinches, and such. Her limbs are supple, not rigid like she has been paralyzed. It is like her body is all there - but her mind is somehow disconnected, not truly present. And not in a good way like when Tyrius roamed the Celestial Realm in search of Eddard.
Aurora asks Thokk to describe, again, in detail, the creature he saw. Afterword she speaks to herself - “a tiny brain, on four legs, only a foot or so high...I need to think.” She sits down in a chair and goes through memory focus exercises for a bit, then tries to bring up her magical bestiary classes. (Arcana 23) “Aberrations...little brains on legs….Intellect Devourers!” she finally exclaims.
“Intawha’ now?” asks Willa.
“Intellect Devourers!” says Aurora, obviously pleased with herself. “They are servant creatures to mind flayers.”
“Mind flayers? I don’t know what that is, but it sounds like that would be an aberration, too.”
“Oh, they are,” assures Aurora, “but they are much worse.”
“Well,” Mathias sighs and takes a long drag, “I guess we know what that other one Babshapka is sensing is.”
Aurora’s color drains - going from the excitement of being right about arcane matters to the reality that they might actually be facing a mind flayer. “Uhh…” she says uneasily. “I still have my comprehend languages up and running - I think I should go back over the notes we found”.
She takes out the ancient notes in the strange script and spreads them out on the curiously low table. The tables in the other rooms have all been of cave horn, but this one is of metal and glass - a big sheet of solid glass in one piece, so large it is inconceivable how it was cast. She alternates between reading aloud the parts she finds relevant and providing commentary;
“‘I killed captain’s body but alien emerged from his head and fled before we could respond’; well that certainly sounds like an Intellect Devourer. I knew they took over the brains of their hosts - but I thought that was some sort of mental control - not that they literally sat inside the skull.” Aurora shudders. “You don’t think that Shefak…”
“No,” says Babshapka, “both Aberrations are far from here - it touched her, but left. But what’s a mind flayer? And do they use undead as servants?”
“Mind Flayers live in the Underdark - deep caverns that underlie all the Oerth. They have phenomenal mental powers, and live to subvert and dominate others. They are thoroughly evil, and use their mental powers to infiltrate organizations and control them from within. Just about every human government or religion has at some time or another accused its rivals of being under their control. I imagine most of the time it is just propaganda - but who knows?”
“I bet a Mind Flayer could fit through that hole Tyrius made in the deck. Maybe Tyrius is in league with them - that’s why he spilled the acid,” says Mathias. His tone is so wry the others assume he is joking, but aren’t quite sure.
Aurora clears her throat. “To answer your question, Babshapka, no, Mind Flayers do not keep undead servants. Undead are mindless - and the power of Mind Flayers comes from them controlling minds.” She goes back to reading the notes.
“‘Alien is practiced in mental manipulation and dimensional projection - was confined in a Mark 6 black box with stasis fields for transit - I believe captain, after infection, freed alien for unknown reason but was subsequently taken over by it.’. Well, that sounds like a mind flayer all right - but I don’t know if Intellect Devours, by themselves, can do dimensional projection. I don’t think it is clear whether we have one alien or two here.”
Aurora reflects on the dimensional projection ability - she knows that mind flayers can travel between the planes of reality - is that how one got on the ship? If the ship is traveling between planets, did it somehow find a mind flayer that had journeyed elsewhere from the Oerth’s Underdark using its own ability to travel through space? (Arcana 17).
“Nay discountin’ ther importance o’ all yer theory,” says Willa, in a tone of grudging respect she seldom uses with Aurora, “bu’ ‘ow we be ‘helpin’ Shefak get better?”
“I can try,” says Babshapka. “If what has happened to her counts as a mental disease, this might work.”
He lays his hands on Shefak’s forehead and says the words to cast Lesser Restoration, then carefully observes her body. (Babshapka at 3/2). In the end, he is convinced that there is nothing wrong with her physically - she is certainly not paralyzed, poisoned, or diseased - it is as if she was just mentally blank.
“Well, she’s definitely different from the captain,” says Aurora. “I mean, the captain could move - whoever left the note had to chase him to Level 2, while the alien was in his head. But Shefak can’t move…”
“Why be ther alien nay controlin’ Shefak?” asks Willa.
“Maybe…” muses Aurora. “Maybe it’s a multi-step process. If the alien was actually inside the captain’s head controlling him, that hasn’t happened to Shefak yet. Maybe the Intellect Devourer does something to take away your will to resist first - and then it climbs inside your skull.” Aurora starts shivering uncontrollably, but continues to speak. “Maybe Shefak received the first part of the attack, but Thokk scared the creature off before it could complete it...and...and eat her brain.” The last words are whispered in a shrill voice of terror.
[Aurora is awarded an Inspiration Point]
“When we leave t’is room,” says Willa in a tone of command, “ain’t nobody travelin’ alone. We don’t be havin’ Shefak fer our scout now, bu’ whoever be watchin’ ahead be stayin’ wit’in sight o’ ther rest o’ us.” _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
I was wondering if, in your Greyhawk, all of the creatures aboard the starship were aliens, or if something like the intellect devourer was native to Oerth. Did the ship crew find the intellect devourer on Oerth and were trying to leave before they crashed again?
I'm curious as to which of the creatures aboard the ship are native to Oerth, and which ones are truly aliens.
I'm also getting chills again as I remember your introducing the intellect devourer in an earlier post. Those things are scary-an intellect devourer one-shotted the party tank in one of the very first Critical Role videos.
I was wondering if, in your Greyhawk, all of the creatures aboard the starship were aliens, or if something like the intellect devourer was native to Oerth. Did the ship crew find the intellect devourer on Oerth and were trying to leave before they crashed again?
I'm curious as to which of the creatures aboard the ship are native to Oerth, and which ones are truly aliens.
The Barrier Peaks module, and the monsters in it, do have a strange place in Greyhawk history. On the one hand, Gygax seemed to be using the 'alien origin' to explain some of the odder 1e monsters: mind flayer, intellect devourer, bulette, shambling mound, etc. that may have been quite foreign to the original tournament players. On the other hand, those same monsters later became iconic to the game and eventually far eclipsed the reach of the original module. This has made it such that the module seems to be attempting to explain the origin of creatures on Oerth that most people assume have always been commonplace.
For my own game, I decided that while this particular mind flayer and intellect devourer were picked up by the ship before it entered Greyspace, other Mind Flayers have used probability travel for so long that there was already an indigenous underdark population of mind flayers before the crash. I will give a full description of the original crew's interaction with the 'flayer and 'devourer later, when the party finally faces the 'flayer on Level VI.
CruelSummerLord wrote:
I'm also getting chills again as I remember your introducing the intellect devourer in an earlier post. Those things are scary-an intellect devourer one-shotted the party tank in one of the very first Critical Role videos.
While I haven't seen Critical Role, I can certainly attest to the fact that Intellect Devourers are fearsome ambush predators. 5e certainly reduced their defensive capability, but when surprising a single PC, they can still have quite a devastating offense. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
The Barrier Peaks module, and the monsters in it, do have a strange place in Greyhawk history. On the one hand, Gygax seemed to be using the 'alien origin' to explain some of the odder 1e monsters: mind flayer, intellect devourer, bulette, shambling mound, etc. that may have been quite foreign to the original tournament players. On the other hand, those same monsters later became iconic to the game and eventually far eclipsed the reach of the original module. This has made it such that the module seems to be attempting to explain the origin of creatures on Oerth that most people assume have always been commonplace.
For my own game, I decided that while this particular mind flayer and intellect devourer were picked up by the ship before it entered Greyspace, other Mind Flayers have used probability travel for so long that there was already an indigenous underdark population of mind flayers before the crash. I will give a full description of the original crew's interaction with the 'flayer and 'devourer later, when the party finally faces the 'flayer on Level VI.
Now I'm wondering whether it'll be a "Call Of Cthulhu"-type encounter (meaning similar to Lovecraft's original story) or a "The Thing" (1980 film) encounter.
Would this module have been a sort of retcon to some of the 1E monsters in that case? The original Monster Manual described the bulette as a sorcerous experiment involving demon's ichor, a snapping turtle and an armadillo that went bad, and described the mind flayers as having underground cities, which I have trouble seeing happen if there were only a couple of them aboard the ship when it crashed.
Kirt wrote:
While I haven't seen Critical Role, I can certainly attest to the fact that Intellect Devourers are fearsome ambush predators. 5e certainly reduced their defensive capability, but when surprising a single PC, they can still have quite a devastating offense.
That's how they were used in Critical Role. The target was the party barbarian who was a big bag of hit points, but his dump stats were his mental ones.
Now I'm wondering whether it'll be a "Call Of Cthulhu"-type encounter (meaning similar to Lovecraft's original story) or a "The Thing" (1980 film) encounter.
Well, for that you'll just have to read along. Next installment tomorrow!
CruelSummerLord wrote:
Would this module have been a sort of retcon to some of the 1E monsters in that case? The original Monster Manual described the bulette as a sorcerous experiment involving demon's ichor, a snapping turtle and an armadillo that went bad, and described the mind flayers as having underground cities, which I have trouble seeing happen if there were only a couple of them aboard the ship when it crashed.
Yes and no? The preface of the module states that it was begun in 1976 and used at Origins II (which I believe was in the summer of 1976). The MMI was published in 1977, and the module itself was published in 1980.
So it may be that the meta-idea of mind flayers and bulettes being foreign to Oerth was the standard in Gygax's personal game, was incorporated as-is in the tournament module, was de-canonized by the publication of MMI, and then its appearance in the published module was more of a vestige of its origin rather than a retcon.
It may be important to note that Barrier Peaks is very much a World of Greyhawk Module, but MMI is for a generic D&D campaign. So it could be true that bulettes were the result of a sorcerous experiment on some other world, while the crashed ship later introduced them to Oerth. However, if the ship also introduced the mind flayers, even that generous explanation (MMI is for generic worlds) does not explain how 'flayers are already rivalling the drow in the Underdark by the time of D1-3. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our fifteenth Barrier Peaks session, was 15 August, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Hole (II) rolling separately
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), Hole (II), and Repair Room rolling separately
2:50 am (party) vegepygmies 3:10am (hole II) Intellect devourer
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Repair Room rolling separately
5:20 (hole I) worker robot
Party, Mules, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:20 am - (mules) Worker robot - move security to repair room
Party, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:30 am (Party) Police Robot 7:50am (HQ) Police Robot 10:00am (HQ) Worker Robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Security HQ (Level 1), and Repair Room (Level 1 - South) rolling separately
5:30pm (Party)- Police robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room, and Husk Hall rolling separately
7:30pm (Security HQ) - Worker robot
[Unbeknownst to the party, a worker robot has come to the Police HQ and removed the second of the decommissioned robots and taken it to the repair room. There are now six potential parts donors and 11 waiting to be fixed]
By 8pm the ‘away team’ has completed their short rest.
Aurora’s comprehend languages spell has ended.
Aurora uses 1 HD to recover 4hp.
Thokk uses 3HD to recover 21hp. He has no HD left and is at 60/66hp.
Willa uses 2HD to recover 15hp. Willa is at 60/62.
Babshapka uses 3HD to recover 27hp. Babs is at 47/55.
Mathias uses 3HD to recover 31hp.
Aurora uses Arcane Recovery to get back a third level slot. She is at 2/2/2 for spells.
Babshapka uses a cure wounds (8) to both heal combat damage to Shefak, and in the small chance that it might help her condition.
Shefak is at 33/39. Babshapka is at 2/2 for spells.
The short rest hasn’t done anything to improve Shefak’s state - and they just came off a long rest so it will be quite a while before they could benefit from another one.
During the rest Mathias asked “what the deal was” with Aurora and Babshapka, and had it explained to him that Babshapka is honor-bound by his clan to be Aurora’s bodyguard, a fate he seems resigned to, but not pleased about. They have been together for the better part of a year now, having met in the late summer of the previous year.
Post 188: How do you solve a problem like Shefak? 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
(8pm)
After the short rest, Shefak’s condition hasn’t changed. Everyone present in the room agrees that they have exhausted their means of helping her. It is possible that Tyrius might have a prayer or blessing in his repertoire that could help or, failing that, perhaps she will recover on a long rest. They decide to return to the storeroom and drop Shefak off - and perhaps pick up Umbra as a replacement.
With everyone rested and ready to move, the question becomes which way to go back. Aurora is in favor of the most direct way - she doesn’t want to spend any longer than necessary out in the hallways with that brain creature loose. Willa says going directly back means going hard by the northern plant man colony, and they have already had two fights with them in as many hours - they are unlikely to have settled down. She doesn’t fancy another fight with them, or another ambush. Aurora says she will take a fight with the plant men over one with the brain-aberration any day. They beat back the plant men before, they will do it again, and now, after their short rest, she is sitting on two fireballs and is not afraid to use them (although she has decided that she is saving her second-level spell slots to web the brain). Aurora and Willa go back and forth for a while in the debate and neither seems persuaded by the other.
Perhaps seeking to end the disagreement, Mathias offers to take Shefak back to the storeroom by himself, and to return with Umbra. Then they can all set out again from here. Aurora and Willa turn to him and, as one, say “NO!” Then they talk over one another about how no one is traveling by themselves with the brain creature out there.
Mathias shrugs. “I’m just saying,” he drawls, “I don’t mind going out and back. It’ll never see me. And besides, he can check for the thing.” Mathias points at Babshapka.
“NO!” both women say again in unison, and then fall back into arguing.
“Thokk not scared of battle - with plant men or brain-thing,” the half orc says. “Or,” he adds, smiling at his own wit, “with both at once! Either way back to mules and talky-horse is fine.”
Mathias addresses Aurora. “Why don’t you just order the elf to vote with you and end this?”
Babshapka’s eyes narrow. “I am her honor guard, not her servant. I do what I think is best to protect her.” He pauses, his tone cooling. “Although in this case, there is danger either way, and no clear path ahead.”
“Okay, okay,” says Aurora as she moves to the door. “I’ll tell Buckbeak to scout the atrium and then the hallway. Willa, can we go down the hall if I can assure you that the natives aren’t restless?”
Willa harrumphs noncommittally.
Aurora closes her eyes and guides the movement of her spirit hawk out into the atrium and around the shaft. (Perception 17). “No plant men in sight,” she says. Willa strikes a flint and lights her lantern wick.
“Those plant men can’t be allowed to leave the ship,” says Mathias.
Buckbeak turns south, hopping from smouldering plant husk to husk down the hallway. It is crowded with bodies, but none appear alive and moving from the entrance all the way down to the intersection.
“It’s clear,” says Aurora opening the door. “Let’s just get back quickly while we can.”
Willa harrumphs again.
“The robots, on the other hand,” says Mathias as if he was part of a different conversation, “can help us against the brain and the mind flayer.”
(8:10pm)
Willa and Babshapka move out into the hall, and Willa sticks out her arm to hold Aurora back and then blocks the doorway. Babshapka bends low, trying to identify what these “brain tracks” might look like. He continues to the atrium, but the recent battle has obscured any trail - he doesn’t see anything that isn’t obviously from themselves, robots, or plant men. Willa drops her arm and allows the rest of them out of the room.
As Babshapka moves to the front, Aurora sends Buckbeak to the rear of the party, darting between the entrances of the corridors to the east and west of the atrium, and peering down the shaft. “Check for plant men in front,” she mumbles to herself, looking ahead as she takes a few steps. “Lurkers above,” she says as she looks up at the ceiling. “Brains behind,” she says, closing her eyes to see from her hawk’s perspective. She repeats this litany over and over as she creeps down the hall.
Ahead of them, Babshapka pauses. “There are plant men at the intersection,” he says, pointing ahead at spots on the wall and floor where the others can see only the metal of the ship, “trying to hide.” (Perception 24).
“They should hide from us,” opines Mathias.
Thokk strides forward. “NON-threatening,” hisses Willa as he goes.
Thokk moves almost to the intersection, letting his shield hang low and raising his other hand high with it open and no weapon in sight. When he gets to the intersection he moves to the east, avoiding the mouth of the hallway of plant men.
“That's odd,” he thinks to himself, noting the large mushroom growths all around the entrance of the hallway. “Did not the fire-wizard's magic fire burn those before? How are they back so quickly?”
Wfff...wfff...wfff. Three barbed javelins sail past Thokk. From down their hallway, the plant men emerge from doorways, throw their sticks, and retreat back behind cover and darkness. At least they are not charging.
Thokk turns to the party and shouts “GO!!!!” with enthusiasm, then raises his shield and rushes the entrance, pausing just outside the corridor, shaking his fist and insulting the bravery of the plant men and the fecundity of their mothers. He steps on a thick rhizome that emerges from one of the mushrooms and runs along the floor. The huge, bulbous cap of the thing puckers, and then tiny holes open along its surface. As the cap somehow tenses and squeezes, air is forced from the holes in a shrill whistle that pierces the length of the hallway. More plant men emerge from further back down the corridor and throw more projectiles.
5e PHB wrote:
You can carry up to 5 times your strength score in pounds without a penalty in movement.
From 5 to 10 times your strength score you are encumbered and at speed -10.
From 10 to 15 times your strength score you are heavily encumbered and at speed -20.
You can’t carry more than 15 times your strength score, but you can drag or push up to 30 times your strength score, and doing so drops your speed to 5.]
Mathias (Str. 10, speed 30 feet per turn) can carry only 50 pounds without being encumbered - and at 46 pounds he is nearly at that limit with just his own gear. He can’t carry (lift off the ground) more than 150 pounds. Shefak has a slight frame and weighs all of 106 pounds, her gear another 16, Mathias' own gear 46, for a total of 168 pounds. Thus, Mathias has been dragging the monk, arms about her chest and walking backwards slowly down the hall.
As the javelins begin flying, Willa runs up to Mathias’ side and hoists Shefak’s legs. Between the two of them they lift Shefak off the ground and lurch forward across the intersection, trusting Thokk to intercept anything flying at them.
[Shefak’s 122 pounds of body plus gear divided between them is 61 pounds each; this makes Willa encumbered and Mathias heavily encumbered. His base speed is now 10, but he can get this to 20 if he dashes, which he does]
Babshapka runs to Aurora’s side, placing himself between the plant men and her. Aurora tells Buckbeak to stay in the hallway and watch for any followers.
Thokk dodges six javelins, disappointed that his warband is not following him in charging the plant men, but trusting in the tactical decisions of his evil advisor.
The party, moving at the speed of Mathias, continues down the hallway past the intersection.
Thokk dodges nine more javelins. It looks like some of the larger plant men are preparing to charge him.
Willa turns east by the library and looks down the hall, not seeing anything before them (Perception 19). They continue stumbling forward, past the strange box room.
Thokk glances over his shoulder and finds that the party is no longer in sight. He yells a final taunt at the plant men and retreats to the next intersection, by the library, from where he can see Mathias and Willa struggling to carry Shefak around the next corner. He bellows at the plant men, but does not see any in pursuit (Perception 13).
The party moves along the east face of the central complex block. Seeing the yellow-carded door, Aurora says that they should duck in there, but Mathias assures her that the door leads to the room with the mold spores and ‘radiation’. Willa helps Mathias carry Shefak to the next corner, then sets the monk’s legs down for long enough to raise her lantern and scan the hallway ahead (Perception 5). “Scout fer us,” she orders, and Babshapka moves forward and along the southern face of the central block, pausing cautiously as he approaches the gaping hole in the ship’s deck and the sound of machinery from below (Perception 8 ).
The party moves ahead, with Thokk falling back one corner at a time behind them. In a few minutes they all have entered the medical bay and shut the door to the hall behind them.
Moving to the back of the room, Willa sees the door to the interior of the place open. “Who left ther damn door…” she begins, but Mathias shows her that from the side they are on, the door is gray-carded. If they had not left it open, they would have had to use the red access doors - which would mean entering the police control room again and facing at least one security robot. Willa harrumphs and makes sure to close the door behind them after they are all inside - on the inside, it is just a pressure plate.
Mathias opens the door to the storeroom and they greet Larry, Tyrius, Umbra, and Eddard. “See wha’ ye can do fer ‘er,” says Willa, as she and Mathias lay Shefak in front of Tyrius.
Thokk’s stomach grumbles. Willa agrees they should all eat. “And if you are going to use Shefak’s ring,” says Aurora to Mathias, “you will need to ‘attune’ to it for at least an hour.”
Mathias nods. “After I talk to the lab robot,” he says.
“Oh!” Aurora says brightly. “I should come with you. To translate and such.”
“Ther robot t’were speaking Common afore...” says Willa.
“...and you are supposed to be under arrest...” adds Mathias.
“...for being a shape-shifting alien exo-fauna with a forged card,” rejoins Babshapka, with just a hint of satisfaction in his voice.
Aurora sniffs, turns away, and sends Buckbeak, wherever he is, into a pocket dimension with an arcane command, and then pulls him forth again in the storeroom. He confirms that they were not followed by plant men - nor did the hawk see the brain creature.
Mathias leaves, and Tyrius examines Shefak carefully (Religion check 6, Medicine check 20). She is stable, in good physical condition, but seems to be in a sort of catatonic state. Even her automatic reflexes are dulled or missing - she does not flinch when pinched. Tyrius says that he will try a lesser restoration and Babshapka says that he has already tried that. Tyrius nods, and decides to try a laying on of hands. He tries a light application at first (1 point) to see if there is any damage to be healed, and then a stronger force (5 points) in case it is a disease or poison that afflicts her. Neither seems to have any effect. (Shefak to 39/39)
Tyrius pauses and ponders. He decides to cast protection from evil - specifically warding Shefak against aberrations. (Tyrius at 3/2) This, too, has no result, but both Willa and Aurora take note that the spell might work on someone if cast in advance of the next attack.
Protection From Evil wrote:
Until the spell ends, one willing creature you touch is protected against certain types of creatures - aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. The protection grants several benefits. Creatures of those types have disadvantage on attack rolls against the target. The target also can't be charmed, frightened, or possessed by them. If the target is already charmed, frightened, or possessed by such a creature, the target has advantage on any new saving throw against the relevant effect.
“This seems to be beyond my power at the moment,” Tyrius sighs. “Perhaps in the future, should Pelor grant me the ability, I might be able to help her with a more powerful prayer.”
Aurora nods. “Well, that limits the possibilities, then. If she doesn’t heal by herself on a long rest, perhaps there is something on this ship that can aid her. And if not, we may need to say goodbye to Shefak.”
“Under current circumstances,” says Umbra forcefully. “We can care for her as long as need be.” She has not forgotten that the party took care of her body for many days while she was unconscious. She would be very remiss in not returning the favor.
“Indeed,” adds Tyrius, who himself lay for a week in the church in Barovia before the party left him with Father Donovich.
“Afore it come ter t’at, let’s check fer summit on ther ship,” says Willa. “We be jus’ a spar’s length from ther medical bay - mayhap thar be some sort o’ device wha’ can ‘elp ‘er in thar.”
(8:20pm) [Willa, Aurora, Shefak, Babshapka]
Willa, Aurora, and Babshapka, carrying Shefak between them, investigate the examination rooms, one of which Babshapka looked in before. He had not had time to search it, as that was when the security robot had arrived in the hallway outside.
The room is strangely furnished. Aurora insists that it is for medical purposes, but it is outfitted like either an uncomfortable bedroom or a comfortable cell or torture chamber. There is a single bed with side rails and obvious locations for restraints. A smaller litter is nearby, curious in that it is wheeled. A thin, standing curtain has a sheer fabric stretched across a flexible folding frame that seems mounted to the floor and ceiling. There are no obvious machines that could somehow be attached to Shefak. Aurora looks through the various drawers around the room. There are a number of small unfamiliar machines and devices, and a few more of the dark panes of glass. One drawer holds vials and tubes. If one of the unfamiliar machines could help, she certainly doesn’t know how to apply it. The other room is the same.
“Well, at least thar be t’is,” says Willa, pointing at the litter. They lay Shefak on top of it, where soft cave sponge is somehow affixed to the metal frame. After a bit of work, they figure out how to both lift the rails and unbrake the wheels. Once the wheels are released, they find it rolls freely, easily bearing the weight of the monk. The wheels themselves, besides rolling, rotate in any direction, making it possible to easily go around tight corners. All of them are impressed - it is better than any cart or wagon they have ever seen; even a gnomish tinker’s wagon doesn’t handle as smoothly or bear weight so easily.
[Note - the rules for wheeled transport are that it counts for one-fifth of the weight when applied to carrying capacity, but you have to include the weight of the transport. As a special rule for the medical gurney, its titanium frame is effectively weightless. Thus anything placed on it and pushed or pulled will be at 1/5th its weight for encumbrance. Shefak (106 pounds) on the gurney will add only 21.2 pounds to someone’s encumbrance, which means, for example, that either Willa or Mathias could push her alone while only becoming “encumbered” rather than “heavily encumbered”.]
There is something nagging at Aurora - she tries to remember the words spoken by the magic mouth effect when they entered the facility - (Intelligence check 18). “All medical personnel are currently absent; please return at the start of the next duty shift. Emergency cases can report to Med 1 or Med 2 for attention.”
Aurora turns to Willa. “We need to find ‘Med 1’ and ‘Med 2’ - there might be equipment there that could help Shefak.”
“Didn’t the Laboratory Robot say something to you about Med 2?” asks Babshapka.
“Now that you mention it, yes,” realizes Aurora (Intelligence check 13). “It was when the construct was collecting samples from me - it said something like ‘I do not have the facilities to extract brain tissue safely, and brain tissue is essential for live disease testing - please report to Med 2 when you are done here.”
“So Med 2 has something to do with brains,” says Babshapka.
“It appears so,” Aurora agrees.
“T’en we be sailin’ fer there firs’” says Willa. “Be Mathias back yet?”
(8:20pm) [Mathias]
Mathias uses his red card to open the yellow door into the complex of research rooms, moves north through the push-plate doors, and then uses it again to open the yellow door of the “Reagent Trials Room”.
The robot is still at the laboratory bench, mixing and combining liquids. Its head turns at the opening of the door, even though its arms do not cease their motions. “Security officer,” it says, by way of a greeting.
“Lab ‘bot,” responds Mathias. “Still working on a cure?”
“Affirmative - although this unit has been able to analyze the liquid you provided.”
“Really?”
“Yes. The compound was quite intriguing. It appeared to be meta-stable, and was able to alter its chemistry in response to the environment in ways this unit does not understand. This unit ran an exhaustive search of its basic-level physio-chemical database and could not find any match for its structure or any way to explain its behavior with known laws or models.”
“Huh. Do you think it would work to cure the plague?”
“Most definitely. Although this unit did not have a chance to create live viruses to try it in a culture, it had on hand enough intact viral protein coats to observe the liquid’s interaction with them. In all cases it disassembled the viral protein structures without doing any harm to the synthetic cell model components.”
“I see. How much of it do you think it would take to cure someone?”
“For a standard Terran adult male, a dose of roughly the size of the flask you provided would be sufficient to kill all of the virus carried, relieve the symptoms of the plague, and furthermore promote a temporary immunity that would decay at an exponential rate with a tau approaching three days.”
“Oh. So the flask would only cure one person.”
“Yes. Normally that would be a trivial concern, and would mark the end of this unit’s primary objective of discovering a cure. This unit is fully equipped to analyze the chemical structure and reproduce the substance in sufficient quantities to eventually cure everyone aboard this ship section. However, this unit’s inability to actually determine the nature of the meta-stable structure means that it cannot reproduce said structure. Perhaps if it had a functioning array of nano-probes on hand, but it does not.”
“Yeah, that’s too bad. Is the plague still on board the ship?”
“Mainframe access lost - this unit does not know what is onboard. However, all indications are that the virus cannot survive outside living Terran hosts. Seven hundred fifty years is far beyond even augmented maximum lifespans of the original crew, and this unit is operating under the premise that all of the original crew are deceased. If all of the hosts perished, the virus would be locally eradicated as well. However, as a colony ship, training facilities were in place to raise ship-born children as replacement crew. This unit has labored under its priority directive of finding a cure based on the assumption that descendants of the original crew exist and are to be protected. Your own presence confirms this assumption, does it not?”
“You might say that.”
“In that case, an unbroken line of possible hosts exists. Thus, it is possible that the virus persists in its wild state onboard. Of course, the low Terran population on the ship makes it more likely that either the virus has died out, has mutated beyond symptomatic recognition, or that the current human population has been selected for significant virus resistance. Overall stochastic elements and small population size make any predictions on the part of this unit unreliable.”
“Do you have any of the liquid I gave you left?”
“Yes, approximately half of the original container.”
“Do you need it?”
“If this unit had the facilities to properly determine its structure, this unit would requisition what remains. But it does not. The liquid is fascinating, but it is of no use at the present or in foreseeable future trials.”
“Okay.” Mathias enters the lab and, when the robot does not move to block him, picks up his potion vial from the counter-top. “I’ll look for more like this.”
“That would be optimal. If you can find enough for the remaining crew all of them can be cured.”
“So where are the remaining crew? Are they in Med Bay 2?”
“This unit has had no contact with the crew since shortly after mainframe contact was lost, with the exception of the three occasions with you and your team.”
“Have you been to Med-Bay 2?”
“If you mean to say Med 2, of course. During the initial stages of the plague this unit worked in Med 2. It was assigned to diagnose and treat patients, since both the human and android medical staff were being overwhelmed with cases.”
“Can you tell me how to get there?”
“Med 1 and Med 2 are both in the outer ring, bearing 90, in the vestibule near the drop chute.”
“On this level?”
“Affirmative.”
“Separate locations, of course?”
“Yes, but next to one another with a common wall between.”
“Thank you. I am glad that you have done such excellent work on analyzing the fluid.”
“This unit can do only as much as my programming and hardware allows. Thank the Maker!”
“Indeed,” agrees Mathias, and leaves the lab, pushing the plate to close the door behind him as he goes.
He returns to the storeroom, but meets with the others in the medical bay before he arrives.
Together, Aurora, Babshapka, Willa, and Mathias wheel Shefak down the hall in front of them to the storeroom.
(8:30pm)
After he opens the storeroom door for them, Mathias fades back. When the hallway is again quiet, he seems to disappear into the shadows as he opens the door to the Security Chief’s office. It is as they left it - with the wardrobe still open, and no armor in sight. Mathias whispers a mild curse. He had hoped the mechanical sounds Buckbeak had heard earlier were a repair robot returning the fixed armor.
The party has a large meal and feeds the mules their evening portion of food. Mathias spends an hour attuning to the ring of invisibility and by the end he has connected with it. While wearing it, he can will it to make him invisible (as an action); he can become visible in a likewise manner or simply by removing it.
[Note - after dinner, the party is down to 20 person-days of food from their original rations, although the ship’s rations could keep them for months. Their mule feed is at less than a week remaining.]
While eating, Aurora insists that each member of the party going out has prepared an immediate response upon seeing the brain so as to not lose any time in decision-making.
Umbra (taking Shefak’s place) will cast dark bolts at her maximum level.
Mathias will cast lightning and call for help (presuming he is invisible or scouting)
Aurora plans on casting web.
Babshapka plans on using his blaster pistol, Thokk and Willa their swords.
(9:30pm)
With Mathias having completed his attunement to the ring, and with everyone having eaten an evening meal, those in the party who are going are now ready to set out. Just before they leave, Tyrius blesses their efforts by means of his [/i]Aid[/i] spell, calling forth the strength of Pelor for them.
Aid wrote:
Your spell bolsters your allies with toughness and resolve. Choose up to three creatures within range. Each target's hit point maximum and current hit points increase by 5 for the next eight hours.
Tyrius casts this spell twice - once on Willa, Thokk, and Babshapka, and once again on Mathias, Umbra, and Aurora. (Tyrius at 1/2). The Aid will last until 5:30am of Day 4).
For his part, Larry casts darkvision on Willa (lasts until 5:30am) and Longstrider on Mathias (lasts until 10:30pm). (Larry at 2/1/3).
[Tyrius considers using his Divine Sense before they set out to check for aberrations, but unlike Babshapka’s ability, his is blocked by “total cover”, so it would detect only creatures within his line of sight - which is not terribly useful in the storeroom]
The six of them, including Umbra, move into the medical bay and this time Willa accepts without argument that they will need to leave the gray-keyed door open behind them. She does make them check that both doors onto the hallway are closed before they move out, however.
Babshapka checks the hallway (Perception 11) and then takes them around the central complex to the wide corridor running directly east. He leads them farther along it than they have been before, until it opens into a grand atrium with a curved central pillar, like the other three they have now seen. At the entrance of the atrium he bids them pause while he moves forward to check for tracks. (Perception 22). Besides the familiar worker robots, security robots, and plant men, Babshapka finds an abundance of large cat tracks in the area.
Careful to not get spread out, the party crosses the atrium together and approaches the large, walled, shaft. To the east are two doors, both with yellow-carded locks. The wide corridors move north and south. In the southeast corner of the atrium, a number of large and small broken machinery parts have been haphazardly accumulated, forming a low barrier that could easily conceal something. Willa lets the light of her lantern play along its surface, but nothing emerges immediately.
Aurora sends Buckbeak across the inside of the shaft, flying from one entrance to the other. The handles move up and down the sides of the walls with a faint whirring sound, but normal gravity appears in effect.
Mathias breaks away from the group a bit to keep watch up the northern corridor.
Aurora sends Buckbeak down the shaft further, with the hawk moving in a tight spiral, dodging the moving handles. About fifteen feet down there are a pair of closed doors, one on each side of the shaft. There are another pair some thirty feet below the first. Beyond that the shaft continues further into darkness and no doors are to be seen. Buckbeak returns and exits the shaft. Although she did not take notes at the time, the placement of the doors just spotted seems to match Aurora’s recollection of their placement in the shaft on the directly opposite side of the ship, the one she explored with Babshapka just prior to the doppelganger attack. Nowhere in the shaft did the spirit hawk see any brains clinging to the walls.
Aurora sends Buckbeak forth to the wall of refuse. The Hawk begins to hop along the wall of machine parts. Suddenly two inky black tentacles, each dark as night, reach up from beyond the barrier. They wrap around Buckbeak and pull in opposite directions. The hawk disappears in an explosion of feathers. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our sixteenth Barrier Peaks session, was 5 September, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Hole (II) rolling separately
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), Hole (II), and Repair Room rolling separately
2:50 am (party) vegepygmies 3:10am (hole II) Intellect devourer
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Repair Room rolling separately
5:20 (hole I) worker robot
Party, Mules, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:20 am - (mules) Worker robot - move security to repair room
Party, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:30 am (Party) Police Robot 7:50am (HQ) Police Robot 10:00am (HQ) Worker Robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Security HQ (Level 1), and Repair Room (Level 1 - South) rolling separately
5:30pm (Party)- Police robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room, and Husk Hall rolling separately
7:30pm (Security HQ) - Worker robot
Post 189: Nurse, Nurse, it's getting Worse! 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
Round 1
Babshapka moves forward to where he can see over the barrier of debris, removing his needler pistol and checking that the setting is on a singular target. The tentacles that slew Buckbeak are attached to a great cat sleekly covered in blue-black fur, looking something like a gaunt panther. However, it has six legs and two tentacles sprouting from its shoulders, both ending in pads tipped with spiky protrusions. Its eyes glow with an awful malevolence.
Holding up the flask-device, Babshapka squeezes the grip. Ten needles fly forth, sailing through the form of the cat as if it was not there. However, half of them seem to impact something invisible mere feet away, exploding and revealing the outline of a similar beast. The remainder continue on to the wall, where they themselves explode on contact.
5E MM wrote:
Displacement: The displacer beast projects a magical Illusion that makes it appear to be standing near its actual location, causing Attack rolls against it to have disadvantage. If it is hit by an Attack, this trait is disrupted until the end of its next turn.
[The needler doesn’t make an attack roll per se, but the user does roll for the number of needles that hit (5-8). I applied the displacement ability to this effect, so with 'disadvantage' Babshapka hit with the minimum needles possible, five. The needles do damage inversely proportional to the armor class of the creature. Since the beasts have a relatively soft hide (AC13) the needles did 7 points each, for a total of 35 damage to the first beast.]
With its true body rocked by the small explosions, the Beast ceases to project its illusory form and its actual location is revealed.
Willa runs to Babshapka’s side and mounts the unstable barrier. When astride the precarious pile of pipes and arcane machinery, she can see that behind the barrier there are another two of the panthers besides the one just wounded by the elf. She calls for Thokk to join her and adopts a defensive stance.
Aurora can’t see all of the beasts, but seeing the tentacles above the barrier is enough to strike with her unerring magic missile. (10 points to first beast, total 45 done). [Afterwards, she realizes that since the missiles strike without an attack roll, she might have done better to use it to dispel the displacement of another beast rather than targeting the first that was already more vulnerable. Aurora now at 1/2/1]
Apparently Umbra has the same idea as Aurora. She moves slightly to get a better vantage point, and then fires off three dark bolts of her own. (11 points, wounded beast has taken 56, Umbra now at 2/3/2]
Thokk sprints forward to Willa’s side. He has to run all-out to reach her, and doesn’t get a chance to attack. That makes him angry (dash action plus enrage as a bonus action).
Mathias moves closer as well, chanting arcane words as he comes all the way from his post watching to the north. By the time he stands next to Thokk, his body is covered with the icy-blue plate armor the others have seen before. He has been able to move more rapidly than the other responders due to Larry’s longstrider spell.
The beasts howl cries of attack and leap over the barrier. The wounded one launches itself at Mathias, while the other two both attack Thokk. The one on Mathias slams a tentacle into his chest and yowls in pain - rather than damaging the man, it itself has been damaged! The tentacle is covered in frost (wounded beast has taken 71 damage, Mathias’ armor has taken 11). Thokk skillfully uses his sword and shield to fend off all four of the tentacles assailing him.
Round 2
Aurora sends off a firebolt now that all three of the beasts are within view, but it sails through the illusion of the creature rather than impacting the creature itself (hit rolls 24, 12 but miss with disadvantage - on the beasts’ turn the wounded one re-established its displacement).
Apparently not having learned its lesson, the wounded beast strikes again at Mathias, hitting his armor once and dispelling it, but suffering so much freezing cold in the process that it slays itself (beast has taken 86 damage, armor takes 4 damage and is dismissed, Mathias takes 4 points)! Thokk continues to evade the attacks from the other two.
Now free of his attacker, Mathias sends two bolts of force at one of the beasts attacking Thokk, the damage dispelling its illusion (first attack 25, 19; hits even with disadvantage, dispels displacement, damage 9, 7; beast has taken 17). As more melee fighters from the party arrive, he pulls back to give them room.
Thokk’s first swing goes wild (critical fail), but his second finds its target in the wounded beast (15 damage, beast has taken 32).
Willa turns and leaps off the debris pile, using the force of her fall to bear down on a beast, but it leaps aside and her sword collides with Thokk instead! Fortunately, she managed to turn the blade at the last second so that it struck him broadside, and the enraged half-orc didn’t even notice. (Willa’s first attack 8, 8 - rolled double 1’s and a critical fail even with advantage! Forced to make an attack on Thokk instead but missed with an 11). She steadies herself on her feet and attacks again, this time wounding the slippery beast (13 damage, beast has taken 45).
Babshapka has been moving at the periphery of the combat, trying to find an angle from which he can launch more needles without hitting a party member. He sees his opportunity and takes it, sending forth a volley at the wounded beast and wracking it with explosions (now not at disadvantage, but rolls minimum number of hits, 5 needles for 35 points damage, beast has taken 80).
Umbra shoots forth a volley of dark bolts, slaying the wounded one and leaving just one unwounded beast (11 points, beast has taken 91 damage. Umbra at 1/3/2).
Round 3
Umbra continues her hail of shadow-bolts, striking the last remaining beast and removing its displacement (11 points, beast has taken 11, Umbra at 0/3/2).
Thokk misses with a wild swing but hits with his second (damage 11, beast has taken 22).
Aurora hits it with a mild firebolt (7 damage, beast has taken 29).
Babshapka lands another five needles from his pistol (35 damage, beast has taken 64).
Willa, now on solid ground, shows the beast what a greatsword can do (two hits, total 27 damage, beast has 91) and ends the fight by killing it.
The party surveys the scene, only now remembering that Shefak had asked, if they met the beasts again, that only blunt weapons be used so as to preserve their hides. In fact, besides the long slices from Thokk and Willa’s swords, the coat of each beast is pierced by a dozen or more holes and rents from exploding needles and blasts of arcane force. It is doubtful that enough intact skin remains on any of them to make a hat, let alone a cloak or suit of armor. Then again, they are at this point unsure whether Shefak will ever be able to work leather again.
Mathias and Thokk search the nest of the displacer beasts - beyond the barrier wall, the debris is softer, and is mostly shredded uniforms and dismembered plant man husks. Neither finds anything useful (Thokk Perception 11, Mathias Investigation 11).
(9:40pm)
The party cleans their weapons, re-assembles, and moves to the more southern of the two yellow doors. Mathias opens it with his red card.
The room [Med 2] is dimly lit, and contains mostly bare counter tops, although there are some cabinets that might contain supplies. A single human figure - no - a male android - is in the room. He holds a small device in one hand and stands in front of a bare, flat table. Behind the table is a strange metallic column with a number of devices and levers extruding - it could perhaps be the largest but least anthropomorphic version they have yet seen of a “robot”, but it does not obviously react to the door opening. On the other hand, it could be a device which might heal Shefak, given that this is a medical room.
The male android (mandroid? machobot?) strides over toward the door. Mathias says eagerly, “Lieutenant Mathias Forge, Security Officer of the Away Ship Team, requesting Emergency Assistance!” He flashes his red card.
The android stops in its tracks, cocks its head, and warbles its response in the alien language. Aurora guesses that it is saying something along the lines of “initiating translation protocol” and resolves to attempt to memorize it if she hears it again.
The android resumes its advance and approaches the door, one arm outstretched, the other down. Babshapka recognizes the object held in its hand as a hypodermic syringe (Investigation 14), of the kind Aurora used to inject Mathias with the “anti-radiation” potion. Babshapka is spooked and closes the door just before the android reaches it.
Willa asks Thokk whether he remembered to gather up any of the javelins that the plant men hurled at him in the last fight, since he is out of his own. “No!” he says petulantly. “Thokk too busy bravely protecting lesser members of warband running away from plant men!” Then he mumbles to himself, “‘member Thokk, ‘member!” Suddenly he brightens and strides away from the party. “Thokk not finished searching beast nest!” he calls over his shoulder.
Poking around the piles of machinery and dead plant men, Thokk finds not only two intact javelins, but a brown card! (Luck roll +3)
Current Cards
Mathias, red
Shefak, brown (still in her robes)
Thokk, brown
Babshapka, black (good condition) and black (partially melted)
Tyrius, black
Larry, black
Once Thokk is back with the party, Mathias opens the more northern of the two yellow Med doors.
The room beyond [Med 1] is dimly lit, and contains mostly bare counter tops, although there are some cabinets that might contain supplies. A single female android is in the room. She holds a small device in each hand but does not obviously react to the door opening. Aurora says she needs to be able to translate, and the party agrees to guard her in the atrium for ten minutes. Babshapka closes the door.
(9:50pm - 10pm - Aurora is ritual casting Comprehend Languages. The spell will last until 11pm).
With her spell completed, Aurora waves at Mathias that she is ready for him to open the door. He does so, and then strides in confidently, his voice booming as he goes, “Lieutenant Mathias Forge, Security Officer of the Away Ship Team, requesting Emergency Assistance!” The formerly motionless android jerks to life and responds with a string of unintelligible syllables.
Aurora has been waiting to catch the phrase, but now she hears, in perfectly accented Common, “Unknown language detected - beginning translation protocol.” There is no hint of the alien language to her ears, and thus nothing that she can memorize.
Seeing her look of disappointment, Mathias waves his hand nonchalantly. “No problem, I’ve got it,” he says, although the part he actually memorized was “unknown language detected” (Intelligence check 3).
The android walks up to Mathias, as he is in the lead. Without a previous word, she reaches out and touches the numerous places in which plant men’s darts and displacer beast spikes have pierced the thin material of his new uniform. Then she reaches up to his neck and expertly undoes the fastening that holds the chest of the uniform closed, opening it all the way to his navel. [Mathias had previously figured out how to work this while he was stripping the uniform from the former owner. The fastening works in a long line, with minute cave horn hooks and holes so small they can barely be seen with the naked eye. A small, thumb-sized handle can be pulled up to close the fastenings, or pulled down to open them. It is as if hundreds of buttons or toggles had been miniaturized and automated to the touch! In other words, it is a mundane plastic zipper.])
Mathias raises an eyebrow at being undressed thusly but does not protest. As she begins to remove one of his arms from its sleeve he helps by undoing the other. With a light hand and discerning eye she traces and studies all of the numerous wounds on his body, and then says something. Aurora translates for the party: “Patient appears to have many superficial lacerations, punctures, and abrasions consistent with repeated sharp instrument trauma. Wounds are fresh and do not show signs of infection; none are deep enough to damage internal organs or wide enough to require suturing. Commencing treatment.”
The android holds up a canister that she had stored at her belt before approaching Mathias. Those who are close enough to see recognize it as being like the healing foam flasks that they recovered from the central storeroom. She shakes the can vigorously, then applies the foam in short bursts all over Mathias’ body, with just a dab of foam on each puncture wound. Within seconds the wounds have closed and the trickles of blood ceased. (Mathias healed for 22 points of damage, nurse's first use of spray).
Wiping away the residual foam, the android now traces her fingers along the long scars on his back, the tattoos on his shoulder blades, and even brushes one finger along the delicate metal stud that pierces a nipple. Mathias grins. “Patient has scarification consistent with ritualistic significance, as well as flesh piercings and permanent subdermal skin dyes. Diagnosis is voluntary cultural practice rather than accidental injury. Circumcision and / or subincision suspected but unconfirmed. Damage repair only at patient's request.”
The android places the sleeves of the uniform over Mathias’ arms and then raises the fastener to near his throat, closing the uniform again. She turns away. He says to her back, “I was just going to say that my pants are too tight.”
The android moves to Aurora and begins a similar process of examining her wounds, moving aside the robes and reporting her findings as she goes. She applies more bursts of foam to the damage she finds. (Aurora healed for 11 points, second use of canister).
When she is done, Aurora asks her if she can look around the room. Her spell, however, works in only one direction, and the android does not understand her. “Translation is 43% complete,” she says in response to the incomprehensible question.
As more of the party enters the room, the android turns her attention to Babshapka. When she pulls out the can after examining him, Willa objects. “‘e ain’t hurt t’at bad,” she says, “it’d be a waste.”
“It’s free healing,” counters Aurora. “Besides, we all have the the aid spell from Tyrius running. If we don’t keep ourselves even stronger than usual, the real waste will be wasting the blessings of Pelor.”
Willa says that were Tyrius here, he would smite Aurora for sacrilege, and taking Pelor’s name in vain, and various other sins, but she doesn’t object further when the android uses the healing foam on Babshapka (18 points healed, although Babshapka was much less damaged than that, third use of canister).
Mathias moves to the door and calls to Thokk, “Hey Big Boy, come in here.”
The android moves to Willa, who, thanks to her magic armor, has emerged unscathed from the last few fights. Aurora translates the words of the android, sniggering slightly as she goes, “No wounds detected - no immediate treatment necessary. Patient’s posture may be affected from long-term effects of carrying too much weight - subject shows early signs of classic “laborer’s syndrome” where muscles have been developed beyond the skeletal capacity to safely support loads. This unit suggests long-term occupational therapy and a high-calcium diet.”
“Well, what about her hips?” says Mathias salaciously. “With those back problems, could she successfully birth a child?”
(10:10pm)
The android turns to Mathias, and for the first time responds to what someone in the party has said. What’s more, she is now speaking in Common, so that Aurora no longer needs to relay her meaning. “Translation protocol complete. Query understood and logged. Patient is in prime of health and is likely to have no impediments to successful childbirth given proper prenatal care. Complete gynecological exam necessary to confirm. With patient’s permission…” she says, and takes a step closer.
“Nay, t’ank ye,” insists Willa firmly. “An’ t’at’s eno’ from ye, as well!” she says, eyeing Mathias menacingly. Willa grabs the arriving Thokk and thrusts him at the android, who immediately leaves off her and begins to examine his wounds.
After the android has described all of Thokk’s wounds in detail, to his obvious pride, she sprays him (11 points healing, fourth use of canister). She lifts his loincloth and he grins wickedly, but then she says, “Considerable chafing and irritation of skin in groin and inner thighs detected. Most likely cause is a combination of physical abrasion from leather clothes worn without undergarments, and chronic Trichophyton-class fungal infection. This unit suggests softer clothing and more frequent skin cleansing.” Thokk scoffs, and jerks his loincloth free of her hands.
Now that the android is receiving their speech, Aurora asks her to “Please explain your own designation and purpose.”
“This unit is currently programmed to serve as a nurse and health counselor.”
“In the event that a crew member lost all mental function because of an exo-faunal attack, could you repair the damage?”
“That would depend on the nature of the exo-fauna and the attack. Full diagnostics of patient’s mental functions would need to be completed in the section surgical suite.”
“Is the surgical suite under us?” asks Aurora, apparently working from a mental image of the map.
“No, it is on this level.”
“I mean, is it south of us?” she tries, pointing at the bulkhead separating this room from the one next door, with the male android and the strange machine or robot.
“South is not a logical direction shipboard. It is prograde to us with respect to ship mark.”
“Ugh! Is it on the other side of that wall!” demands Aurora, walking over to the bulkhead and gesticulating.
“Affirmative.”
While Aurora is arguing with the android about directions, Mathias has engaged Willa in a side conversation.
“Sergeant, do you like cinnamon or licorice better? I forgot I should have given this to you to take with the fey juice. Congratulations on holding that down!” He reaches into one of the several leather pouches hanging from his belt and produces a caramel-colored piece of rock candy.
Willa, who has been trying to follow Aurora’s conversation with the android, scowls and waves the crystal away.
“Ok,” says Mathias, and pops the crystal into his mouth.
When Aurora pauses, Willa says, “Candy ain’t practical, an’ I ain’t a child.”
The android looks about, apparently registering who she has not yet examined for wounds. When she reaches Mathias, she begins going over his body in more detail. When he opens his mouth to speak, there is suddenly a bright flash from the android’s eyes. While he rubs his own eyes in confusion, she says, “Early stage tooth decay readily apparent. This unit suggests better oral hygiene and less sugar in diet, although patient’s frequent alcohol consumption may be having an ameliorating effect on oral bacterial proliferation.”
Mathias looks confused as he tries to puzzle out the meaning of the many unfamiliar words in the android’s speech. Finally he just moves on and asks her, “Do you know anything about the paranoia plague, or about exo-fauna that can attack mentally?”
“This unit was present for the outbreak of paranoia plague, and also present for...gray level clearance required to pursue this topic.”
Mathias frowns, the beginnings of a complicated idea forming. Finally he says, “I am Lieutenant Matthias Forge, Security Officer of the Away Ship Team. I am requesting emergency assistance. It's been 700 years since the paranoia plague and since the mind-attacking exo-fauna escaped and killed the captain. It could have tried to take over the ship. We haven’t found any gray-level officers aboard the ship. We are here to eliminate threats to the ship and protect its integrity, eliminate threats to the ship and to the outside from the ship. Mainly we have to stop the brain-attacking exo-fauna before it escapes from the ship. That is our mission. I am requesting all information about the plague and exo-fauna.” (Mathias Persuasion check 18, Nurse android insight check 8 ).
The android responds, “If all gray-level ship officers have indeed been incapacitated, security protocol admits temporary clearance for emergency matters to those holding red-level clearance.”
Mathias takes out his red card and holds it forth triumphantly.
The android says, “please remove any of your personnel from the room who do not hold red-level clearance.”
Mathias hustles the rest of the party out into the atrium, whispering to Aurora, “message me” before he closes the door behind them.
Once alone, the android asks Mathias to describe the nature of the emergency.
“Describe the nature of the emergency?” he repeats. It sounds rhetorical, but it is actually his response to the latest message from Aurora. Throughout the rest of the conversation, he continues to repeat the android’s questions so that Aurora can hear them and relay them to the party. “An exo-fauna is attacking the brains of current crew members.”
“Understood. Temporary gray-level clearance granted for all memory files related to hazardous exo-fauna.”
[Mathias gains an Inspiration point.]
The android reports that she was present when the section commander was diagnosed as infected with the alien brain parasite. He had been showing early signs of the paranoia plague, so a blood test had been scheduled. The results of the blood test revealed that he had indeed been exposed to the paranoia virus, but a diagnostic scan unintentionally revealed that his brain had been completely replaced by a parasitic creature matching the description of a captured exo-fauna.
“In order to combat the attacking exofauna, we may need to enlist the help of other androids. What protocols are in place for taking command of them?”
“Each android is equipped with a highly-developed logical function that weighs the utility of possible outcomes in hypothetical situations. Thus android units can reason, interpret, and improvise whereas less-advanced units such as security robots can only follow orders. Your explanation of the situation was enough to ‘convince’ me. However, because the weighting values on different outcomes are influenced by each units’ own memory logs, they have to some extent a subjective experience, and different units may arrive at different logical conclusions. This unit has granted you gray-level access to certain information, but its self-diagnostics indicate that this is in large part because it is aware that the section commander himself was the victim of a parasitic attack and so it is weighing the results of inaction on its part very negatively. Other androids without this specific information about the commander might not agree that the situation merits granting you such access. However, if you feel the emergency warrants it, this unit can accompany you and assist in your attempts to convince them.”
“For the moment, I just need information. How many brain-attacking exo-fauna are on board, and what kinds of attacks have been successful against them?”
“On the planet in which these particular exo-fauna were captured, the records this unit was able to access before the loss of the mainframe indicated that there were two of these creatures captured, as well as a third of a different type - larger and biped. They are resistant to damage, especially energy damage such as from laser weapons, but the blunt force of blasters seemed to work well against them according to the expedition records. It may be that the one that infected the captain escaped from its containment vessel, or it could have been a stow-away on the drop-ship. They are extremely good at avoiding detection, due to their apparent ability to sense higher-order brain functions. In essence, they can detect sentient thought, and thus they easily avoided even trained Terren security personnel. It is not known whether the limited sentience possessed by a unit such as this one can be detected by them, as no androids were involved in their capture. While they possess no visual organs, they appear to emit some sort of radiation that gives them a sort of echolocation effect at close proximity.”
“So the plague and the exo-fauna are definitely two different things?”
“The plague is caused by a microscopic virus that exhibits respiratory infectivity. The results of its metabolism stimulate the amygdala in such a way as to cause physical and mental symptoms - chief among them, paranoia and eventual violent hysteria. The brain-attacking exo-fauna is a macroscopic animal life-form with odd mental powers. They are entirely different, and came aboard the ship from different planets in systems thousands of sectors from one another. That both of them ended up infecting the highest-ranking officer of this section is indeed a suspicious co-occurrence, but this unit’s probability estimators at present suggest it was most likely a coincidence due to the large number of crew already infected by the plague.”
“Have other crew members, besides the captain, been attacked and been made hosts? Have any survived?”
“According to this unit’s memory banks, no other crew members apart from the captain were infected by the brain parasite. However, after the captain was scanned and diagnosed, he erased the results of the scan from all medical records. He could not directly access this unit’s memory banks, but he ordered it to change the information about his diagnosis from the default yellow level for personal medical information to gray-level command access only.”
“And you remember this event? It may be crucial to our efforts.”
“This unit remembers being present at his diagnosis, and watching him delete the medical files and order this unit to alter its memory access. But if he was able to do this, he may have altered other medical records as well, such that there were other crew infected of whom this unit is not aware. There is even the possibility that he actually did alter this unit’s memory, and it was he who decided to implant the false memory in this unit that he was unable to alter its memory.”
“But you don’t know that he altered the records of the other crew.”
“It was not done in this unit’s presence - according to any of the memories to which it currently has access.”
“Doesn’t the emergency of the situation change the clearance level of the information?”
“This unit cannot change the clearance-level of the information; but it is because of the emergency that you are reporting that this unit is allowed to provide you temporary access to information above your level.”
“Can you treat the victim of a mind-attacking assault?”
“If the brain has already been consumed and replaced by the parasite, as was the case with the captain, no.”
“What if the brain has not been consumed, and the victim is still whole but unresponsive?”
“The initial psychic attack completely depresses all higher brain functions - in theory, a massive electrical stimulus at targeted brain centers might reestablish higher functions, but this unit is not programmed to attempt experimental procedures.”
“Who can do such a procedure?”
“Experimental procedures would be limited to ranking Terran medical officers and the surgical android - but the android would require specific gray-level authorization to attempt such a procedure on a living creature.”
“Can you help us talk to the surgical robot?”
“If you believe the emergency requires it, yes.”
“Do you have any pictures of the creatures?”
“This unit retains multiple images in its memory banks, but currently has no means of displaying them directly.” She walks over to a dusty counter top and begins drawing. Mathias is soon able to make out a creature that looks like a brain riding on four dog-like legs, but each paw ends in three clawed toes rather than five.
“Can you tell me the phrase for ‘initiate translation protocol’ in the original crew language?”
“Hiiiphelex conthwaren jin'd'well.” Mathias has her repeat it several times until he can reliably repeat it himself.
“What is your name?”
“This unit has been designated Nurse Xiphox. While androids are issued serial numbers upon manufacture, those units programmed to be nurses are typically given Terran names, as it has been demonstrated that patients relate to them better through an emotional placebo effect.”
“Placebo?”
“That is, patients are more likely to believe that this unit actually cares for them if they call me by a name, and this belief can promote healing.”
“I see…” Mathias has by this point run out of questions of his own. In the hallway, however, Aurora fields questions from Willa and thinks of her own to relay via message.
“To help us defeat this alien - where would we find the armory?”
(Mathias Persuasion 15, nurse android Insight 5).
“The section armory is located within the Central Block of Level 1 - however, it has a gray-clearance lock on a plasteel door.”
“Can you communicate with the security robots?”
“This unit can communicate with them, but they follow red-level directives. As a functioning medical officer, this unit has yellow-level authority, and thus cannot order them.”
“I think that is it for now - but we may return. You will need to recognize my team, including some you have not seen:
Lt. Mathias - Security Officer
Sgt. Willa - Tactical Officer
Thokk- Weapons Expert
Aurora - Research Officer (Arcana)
Babshaka - Adjutant to the Research Officer
Shefak - Reconnaissance Specialist
Umbra - Research Officer (Celestial)
Larry - Exo-fauna Specialist
Tyrius - Medical Officer”
“This unit has stored these names and service designations in its memory banks.”
“If you meet one of my team for the first time, or if you suspect that one of us may be mind-controlled, our password will be ‘cinnamon.’”
“Understood.”
[Unbeknownst to the rest of the party, Mathias adds the following to the conversation, but does not relay it to Aurora: “But if I give you the password “Nipple,” it means you are to follow my instructions only, as one or more of the members of my team is being mind-controlled.”
“Understood.”]
“In the future, we may need you to bring healing supplies for us, and to translate for us to other robots or read ship-board signs for us.”
“Understood.”
“Alright. Goodbye Nurse Xiphox.”
“Although this unit is not programmed to praise events simply because they are statistically improbable, it wishes you ‘good luck’ with the alien creature.”
Mathias leaves the room and joins the others in the atrium.
(10:20pm)
Although Aurora related all of the conversation to the party, Mathias gives a brief recap. After a quick discussion, they agree to continue searching the red-locked rooms near the one lounge they were in when Shefak was attacked. However, they will arrive there through new corridors they have not traveled before. It is agreed that they will check yellow doors or higher, but ignore any others.
Before they set out, however, Aurora says that she wants to summon another familiar. She is still extremely worried about the possibility of the brain somewhere out in the darkness, stalking them. She decides to call for Hedwig, as her best chance to see in the dark. The party agrees to guard her while she casts the ritual in the atrium.
(11:30pm)
With Aurora now having her owl familiar, the party sets out along the northern corridor from the atrium. Almost immediately Mathias loses the longstrider spell from Larry.
The hallway has four yellow-carded doors on the right and three simple pressure-plates on the left before ending and turning a corner to the left. The party resolves to open the doors on the right, only. Before traveling up the hallway, however, Babshapka checks for tracks, but finds only robots and plant men (Perception 7). He decides to reach out with his primeval awareness as well. (Babshapka at 2/1). Both aberrations are still detectable - one very close, the other still deep within the ship. The undead are further away than the last time he checked.
Babshapka warns the party that the aberration is close, and they set out, with Aurora shuddering and alternating between watching forward and having Hedwig watch behind them.
Mathias opens the first door [unnumbered room but with yellow lock] and Babshapka and Thokk move inside (Babshapka Perception 12). It looks like any other looted storeroom at first glance, with all the crates open, their contents spilled out across the floor. Closer inspection, however, reveals that the crates have been opened, rather than smashed, and the contents are not the familiar pipes, tubing, and great parts of incomprehensible machines. Rather, the contents are all medical supplies - ripped bags of powders, pills, and long-dried liquids, an occasional cave horn box of intact bandages or suturing thread, and lots of small devices that look like they were designed to interact with human bodies in one way or another. Babshapka and Thokk sort through the wreckage quickly to make sure there are not potions or healing cans amid the mess, but they quickly have a feeling that they are not the first people to have done so, and that what is left is of no immediate use. There is an interior door in the room, but it is yellow-carded, and the party decides to ignore it and move on, as their ultimate goal is the red-carded doors in the north.
(11:35pm)
The next room [unnumbered room but with yellow lock] is similar to the last; a looted storeroom with ancient and already searched medical supplies but nothing of immediate use (Thokk Perception 19). As before, there is an internal yellow-carded door that they ignore.
(11:40pm)
The next door is open, but leads only to a narrow 20’ long corridor that ends in a yellow-carded door. The room beyond that [unnumbered room but with yellow lock] is large, perhaps twice as large as the previous two, and the curved wall that they take to delimit the exterior of the ship is obvious within. More looted boxes and crates are superficially examined but little time is spent here (Babshapka perception 7).
(11:45pm)
The final door on the right side of the hallway leads to a cavernous but mostly empty store-room [unnumbered room but with yellow lock], with only a few looted crates in view. Babshapka spends a little longer here as he tries to ponder what has been different about these medical store-rooms (Perception 24). He finally hits upon the dust on the floor - it lies in thick carpets, with no tracks until the party has entered. The other looted storerooms (with black or brown doors) have all had abundant plant men tracks, suggesting that they were the looters, but there are no such prints here. These yellow-carded rooms have not been opened for quite some time - possibly all the way back to the plague itself, since whomever looted them actually understood how to open the crates without smashing them. Furthermore, the other storerooms had abundant organic waste, bits and pieces of twigs and bark, small bones and hunks of husk, but none of these are present here. Babshapka tells the others that he thinks these rooms have been undisturbed since the plague, and perhaps the looters were the original crew of the ship, either themselves suffering the effects of the plague or trying to defend themselves against others who were.
(11:50pm)
After they leave the storeroom, the party follows the new corridor to the west and then turns north at a four-way intersection. Ahead, there is an open doorway to the left, a matched pair of doorways to the left and right further along with the one to the right open, and then another intersection.
Mathias leads them down the hall, pausing only briefly at the first open door to ascertain that it is a looted storeroom, and much more standard than the last, with smashed crates and debris of machine parts scattered about.
The open doorway to the right gives him greater pause, however, and he hisses at Thokk behind him to hold up for a second. Thokk holds up a hand in a signal, and everyone behind him freezes in place as well.
Mathias quietly slips into the room [Recreation Area]. It is the largest single room he has seen so far, with numerous entrances and exits but no interior walls or even support columns, so it is unclear how the ceiling, which is the same height as everywhere else he has seen in the cave (about ten feet), is being sustained. The vast floor space has numerous piles of litter and broken furnishings, but nothing remarkable. There are several skeletons immediately obvious and likely others hidden in the debris. Besides the open doorway he came in, there are two closed doors on the north wall and a third on the south. All the doors are too far from his current position to tell if they are color-locked.
Aurora messages him and he describes the room to her. She relays the description to the party. Babshapka and Thokk decide to slip in as well; Babshapka silently (Stealth 18) and Thokk not so much (Stealth 10).
Umbra and the others watch in the hall for the brain - the door is near the T-intersection ahead, so there are three ways to cover. Hedwig flies back and forth, monitoring the hall.
Babshapka starts looking around the great hall for predators - poking in the debris and such. He doesn’t find any recent spoor. Mathias examines the skeletons. Soon Babshapka joins him. They are the same human-like beings found all over the ship, but these obviously died violently. Even the intact skeletons have broken bones and torn uniforms.
Thokk doesn’t see the point in looting the long dead. He tries the southern door, and finds it leads to the same corridor they recently came from.
(11:55pm)
Thokk decides to try one of the northern doors. When he presses the panel, it slides open and reveals a storeroom [unnumbered room]- but he sees weapons racks! At first excited, he quickly grows disgusted. All of the spears and staves have been wrapped in cave sponge. There is no way one could get hurt with such a weapon. He digs around a bit hoping to find real weapons but only finds silly masks (Perception 2).
Mathias comes into the room. The weapons are lengths of light, hollow metal bars the size of quarter-staves, but with their ends wrapped in cave sponge. Thokk’s “masks” are padded helmets. Mathias tells Babshapka that the great space outside may have been a training room. The wood elf wonders if the crew were training to fight one another - since the great hall outside provides the clearest evidence that they turned on one another. Mathias opens a few crates and finds a number of belts and harnesses. At first thinking they might serve for climbing, he quickly ascertains that they will not bear much weight. In fact, many of them have strips of colored fabric on them that look like they were designed to be torn away.
(12am)
Thokk opens the door inside the storeroom. It leads to a looted apartment. Babshapka doesn’t find anything inside (Perception 11).
By this point the main party is impatient to press ahead, and Aurora is jumping at every shadow. They move up the northern hallway, but Aurora instructs Hedwig to hang back and “screech if you see any brains.” After the party passes, Hedwig listens carefully down the southern hall. In the distance it can occasionally hear claws scraping on metal. (Perception 17).
[Unbeknownst to the party, the intellect devourer is following them at a distance, using its power to “detect thoughts” to track them but stay just out of their range of perception.] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our seventeenth Barrier Peaks session, was 11 September, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 3 - Level I, South
Party, Mules, and Security HQ each rolling separately
1:30 am (mules) - 2 displacer beasts
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Hole (II) rolling separately
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), Hole (II), and Repair Room rolling separately
2:50 am (party) vegepygmies 3:10am (hole II) Intellect devourer
Party, Mules, Security HQ, Hole (I), and Repair Room rolling separately
5:20 (hole I) worker robot
Party, Mules, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:20 am - (mules) Worker robot - move security to repair room
Party, Security HQ, and Repair Room rolling separately
7:30 am (Party) Police Robot 7:50am (HQ) Police Robot 10:00am (HQ) Worker Robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Security HQ (Level 1), and Repair Room (Level 1 - South) rolling separately
5:30pm (Party)- Police robot
Party (Level 1 - North), Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room, and Husk Hall rolling separately
7:30pm (Security HQ) - Worker robot
Post 190: Brain Hunt 22 February, 571 [3 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 3
The northern hallway is narrow and ends in a gray door, but there is a red door to the side, and Mathias opens it. It leads to a small but luxurious dining area, nicely furnished and appointed [7b. Ship commander's quarters, private lounge]. All is intact. The furniture (table and chairs) are similar to those seen before, but seemingly of a different mold - heavier and more ornate. On a sideboard are six crystal flasks with bright, exotic colors, possibly liquors or even potions. On the inside of the door just entered is a pressure plate to open the door and a panel for the overhead lights. There is an interior door in the room, but it is gray-carded.
(12:05am)
The party files into the room and Mathias makes for the sideboard. While the others search the room itself, he lifts the crystal stopper from the red flask and smells it. There is a heavy scent of alcohol, but with rich undertones of fruit and anise.
He next tries the clear one - it’s certainly not alcohol (Arcana 15), but something more cloying, almost like a perfume.
[Leezar suspects that the liquid is drugged. He takes his time examining the next flask, and while the party has their attention on what is actually in his own hands, he uses his mage hand to slip the clear flask into his pack while his body shields it from view. They are none the wiser.]
The brown one is strong alcohol, with hints of wood and molasses.
The electric blue one is alcohol, or at least used to be, but smells of acrid vinegar and hints of spoilage. “This one’s gone bad” says Mathias, wrinkling his nose in disgust.
Mathias next opens the stopper of the canary yellow bottle. He takes a deep whiff and swoons (Con save 10; fail). He barely manages to set the flask back down before he collapses (Dex save 22). Aurora is by his side on the floor in an instant. (Medicine check 19). There is a foamy mucus in his nostrils - he has inhaled some sort of poison, but is lucky he didn’t drink it! The next few minutes should determine how bad off he is. (second Con save 7; second fail). The blood is draining from his face and his skin is taking on a yellowish hue.
Willa has the valise out of her pack and is opening it, calling for Aurora to help her with the syringe. Aurora draws forth a syringe full of the “anti-poison” vial, emptying the ampule. Aurora finds a vein in Mathias’ neck (Medicine 19) and Willa stabs the needle in and squeezes the plunger as Aurora directs her.
Several moments later Mathias is groaning and gasping, but the color is returning to his face.
(12:10am)
Mathias sits up woozily and eventually stands. He pushes away helping hands and says that he is fine, except that the ship is moving again and his nose burns. When the others caution him to go slowly, he opens the last decanter and inhales to show them he is good to go. This acid green one smells of alcohol, but has rich, earthy notes as well.
By this point Babshapka has searched the room well. Aurora divides her time between worrying about the brain out in the hallway and insisting that a room this nice must have something in it - they must be missing something. She calls for a 20 minute break and a thorough search. Willa says they can search it, and she joins Umbra in the hall on watch, not trusting Aurora's bird to warn them.
(12:30am)
[Take 20, Aurora’s Investigation of +7, another +5 for help is a total Investigation of 32]. They have thoroughly gone through every piece of furniture in the room, taken out all the cushions from the sofa, and so forth. Despite Aurora’s growing frustration, Babshapka is convinced there is nothing in the room. He does say that with the red door and spacious interior, it would be a good place for the mules, though.
Aurora sighs and checks back in with Hedwig - the scurrying noises in the hall have stopped. Aurora is sure that the brain is following and stalking them. She recalls Hedwig to just outside the door, and insists that Willa and Umbra enter the room and close the door, then silently counts to 30. She believes the brain will be drawn closer and then they can emerge suddenly and surprise it. Once she is sure the brain must have closed in on them, she sends Hedwig bolting forth, but the owl sees nothing down any of the halls (perception 12). Willa clears her throat and tells Aurora that it is time to move on. They don’t have a gray key, but there are more red doors nearby.
[Unbeknownst to the party, the intellect devourer was tailing them - it used their pause in the room to move ahead of them down the corridor to the west. It is still looking to try to get one of them isolated again, like it did with Shefak, for it knows it cannot face all of them at once].
The party exits the dining room and now takes the hallway going west. When they reach the end and turn north, Mathias pauses in his scouting and calls for Babshapka. “Look for tracks up this way,” he says.
(Babshapka Perception 20). In the dust of the hallway the wood elf finds a single, recent set of tracks going up the hall - a small, four-legged creature with three clawed toes on each foot.
Babshapka turns to the party and whispers “Brain tracks.”
“You’re welcome,” says Mathias to the group.
Willa grips the handle of her greatsword tightly. Aurora prepares to send Hedwig up ahead of them while she sees through its eyes. The owl sails silently down the dim corridor. He doesn’t see anything (Perception 13), but the corridor looks familiar to Aurora (Int save 16).
As the party proceeds north, they realize that they have been in this hallway before, although they entered from the other side. The east end of the hallway opens on the northern atrium, with the sapling plant man they slew still laying on the floor.
When the party is ready, Mathias opens the first door on the northern wall, which has a red lock.
(12:40am)
The room beyond is obviously a bedroom [8d. Security Chief's Quarters, Master Bedroom], although the bed is of a form not seen before on the ship by them, and the night stands are heavier and more ornate. The door to the hallway opens with a press panel, but there is an interior door that requires a red card. There is a skeleton on the floor, sprawled near the bed.
While Babshapka begins a search of the room (Perception 6), Mathias moves to the skeleton. He doesn’t find anything on the skeleton itself, but under a rag that might have once been bedclothes torn from the bed is a thick rectangular shape (Investigation 17). Pulling off the fabric, he finds a small metal box with two buttons, a dial, and a grill.
Mathias stands and calls for Aurora to show her the box, but at the same time Willa is telling Aurora to send her owl out into the atrium to look for plant men. The owl takes a quick circuit around the atrium and then down the hall to the south. It doesn’t see anything besides the bodies littering the floor (Perception 10), but as it returns it flies close to the shaft and hears a scurrying sound inside (Perception 21). As the owl reaches the opening, it can see the brain inside - and it gives a shriek that can be heard by those far down the hall but still outside the bedroom. The brain reaches out to Hedwig’s mind…[Devour Intellect - Hedwig takes six points of psychic damage and is destroyed.]
Aurora feels a slight throb of pain from her contact with the owl and then only emptiness.
At the sound of Hedwig’s screech, Babshapka draws his blaster and Willa her sword. Willa growls “Ranged weapons if ye got ‘em,” and then moves into the hall. Mathias manages to thrust the box into Aurora’s hands before he follows Willa; Aurora stows the device in her bag without even looking at it, as her mind goes to calling up the incantation for magic missile.
Round 1
The party runs east down the hall and into the atrium, with Thokk quickly taking the lead. He spots the brain emerging from the northern opening of the dropshaft (Perception 10) and launches a javelin (attack roll 17). The brain disappears from view - he is not sure whether he hit it, or whether it ducked back into the shaft or went around the other side where the wall of the shaft would block his view.
Round 2
Mathias and Thokk lead the party and move to the northern side of the shaft. Mathias looks inside the shaft itself but doesn’t see anything of the brain (Perception 9). Thokk spots his javelin on the floor, its tip wet with some sort of ichor. Another spot of the goo, fresh on the floor, lies ten feet to the west (Perception 18). “If it bleeds, we can kill it,” announces Thokk. He continues forward, and barely spots the brain scurrying rapidly down the corridor to the west (dashing - Thokk Insight roll 21; he realizes that it is moving as fast as the faster members of the party, and they will need to dash to keep up). Thokk launches another javelin (attack roll 18, 10 with disadvantage for long range, misses).
[Thokk’s original hit was for 7 damage, halved to 3 with Intellect Devourer’s resistance to non-magical piercing damage, Devourer goes from 21 to 18hp]
Babshapka reaches Thokk’s side and spies the brain-on-legs - he speaks the arcane words for Hunter’s Mark and with satisfaction notes the creature shimmer with a light that only he can see, its tracks on the ground now faintly illuminated as well. (Babshapka spells now at 1/1).
Willa gives a protracted grunt of exertion and, sword-in-hand, sprints past Thokk faster than he, or any of the party, have ever seen her move before. She closes the distance down the hall to the brain, but not so close that she can use her sword. (Action surge - full move, regular action is dash (take an additional move), action surge action is dash (take an additional move), so Willa ends up making three moves for a total of 90 feet on her turn).
Round 3
His spell cast, Babshapka readies to sprint down the hall, but Aurora calls at him to “Wait!” He hesitates long enough for her to grab his shoulder and bestow a fly spell (Aurora at 1/2/1).
The brain rounds the far corner; both Babshapka and Thokk agree it is moving faster than anyone in the party can follow - and then Babshapka kicks off the ground and flies next to the ceiling, shooting ahead of Willa and rounding the corner, but not seeing the brain (Fly is 60’ movement, combined with dash is 120 feet movement). From the ceiling he cannot track it, but he is flying too fast for that anyway. He pauses outside the open door of a room and hesitates, unsure of whether to advance or not.
Umbra closes her eyes and wills herself to become one with shadows. Her form blurs, and she begins to flow from shadow to shadow along the corridor. (Shadowstep grants her a bonus dash each turn - this turn her action was casting the spell, along with a normal move and a bonus dash for 60 feet of movement; on subsequent turns she can move, dash, and bonus dash for 90 feet. Umbra is at 0/3/3)
Gasping, Willa catches up to the hovering Babshapka, and sees him hesitating outside the open door of a room. With no breath to shout, she waves him on ahead as she runs inside - it is a looted storeroom with no other exits, and no sign of the brain (Willa Perception 5).
By now the rest of the party has rounded the corner, some of them noting that the closed doors they have passed have violet locks.
Round 4
Babshapka resumes his flight, but now low to the floor and slow enough (60’ / round) that he can follow the claw-tracks in the dust and the occasional spatter of brain goo (Survival 21 with advantage with Hunter’s Mark). He follows the trail down the twists and turns of the corridor, staying ahead of most of the party.
[Unbeknownst to the party, the intellect devourer has by now reached the western end of the vegepygmy hall. Its detect thoughts tells it that the party is close in pursuit, with some of them moving nearly as fast as it can - it will not be able to elude them. It decides to hide among the shrieker patch, since after the party’s last fight with the ‘pygmies, they should not be eager to provoke another confrontation. Unfortunately for it, it does not hide very well (Stealth roll 6) and the party, now actively hunting it, is not as bothered at the thought of provoking another confrontation as it surmised they would be.]
With Babshapka moving slow enough to track, Thokk is soon just behind him. Umbra could use the shadows to move past them, but chooses not to. Mathias, Aurora, and Willa are close behind. “I’ll protect you, Aurora,” says Mathias, “but you go first.”
When Aurora turns to look at him, the gaunt man grins and says, “So I can check out your butt.”
Aurora gestures at the hallway before them, shaking her head in disagreement. “Age before beauty,” she responds.
Round 5
Babshapka floats silently ahead, following the trail until he rounds a corner and sees the mushrooms spilling out into the hall from the plant men's lair. Behind one particularly giant mushroom protrudes one leg of the brain creature. He turns and places his finger to his lips, hoping to warn the rest of the party as they emerge around the corner (Persuasion 9).
Umbra continues her advance, flitting from shadow to shadow. She does not see Babshapka’s gesture (Insight 7) and passes him, finally spotting the brain herself. She prepares her most powerful dark bolt but does not cast it just yet.
Willa rounds the corner and sees Babshapka gesturing for quiet (Insight 11). She pauses, ready to stop the others as they appear.
Thokk rounds the corner and far ahead he sees the brain! Ignoring both Willa and Babshapka (Insight 2) he snarls and runs ahead. He is filled with rage at the puny creature that hurt his friend, the kicky-woman. He sprints up to the mushroom patch and leaps in the air, draws his sword as he flies overhead, and lands right next to the brain so as to take it by surprise (Athletics 11, 26 with advantage on strength checks due to rage). He buries his longsword deep in the brain matter as all the shriekers around him start filling the air with their shrill cries (first ‘attack’ is his athletics leap, second attack hits with a 13 (Devourer AC12) and does 13 damage of magical slashing, intellect devourer now at 5hp).
Round 6
Willa runs forward and sees Thokk standing over the brain, exulting in his rage. She knows she will not be able to reach his side in time, before the creature can respond. In desperation, she throws her greatsword overhand and it sails through the air.
[The brain is about 20 feet away from her after a full move so Willa makes a missile attack without disadvantage. Thokk’s rage provides advantage to only melee attacks]. She is throwing a melee weapon so her attack roll is made without her proficiency bonus but does include her strength: 18+4 = 22, hit. Damage from an 'improvised weapon' is a base d4 plus her strength bonus for a hurled weapon, so 2+4 = 6 points, reduced to 3 for resistance to non-magical weapons. The intellect devourer takes 3 and is now at 2hp.]
The greatsword lands point-down in the brain, impaling it with a sickening squelch and only stopping when the sword tip hits the metal floor. Brain fluid gushes out, eagerly soaked up by the mushroom-covered floor. Even in the throws of his rage, Thokk realizes that his advisor has just thrown away her best weapon to defend him, and that had the blade been magical, she would certainly have killed the brain (Insight 21). Thokk marvels at himself - surely he must be a great leader indeed to inspire such loyalty in his troops!
[The intellect devourer shrieks mouthlessly. It has been discovered, and the foes attacking it seem oblivious to the scores of vegepygmies even now massing to defend their home. They will not cease until it is dead. It can run still deeper into the lair and use the plant things to cover its retreat, but first it has to deal with the brute towering over it, who will surely attack as it tries to crawl away. Summoning its psychic energy, it prepares to Devour Thokk's Intellect.
The brain sends forth a blast of mental energy at Thokk. Harnessing his rage, the half-orc resists! (Thokk Intelligence save 15) As the brain desperately dives deeper into the mushroom patch Thokk chops wildly at it (Thokk opportunity attack score 10), but his blow catches the hilt of Willa’s greatsword, wrenching it nearly free of the brainy mass. The brain manages to drop the impaling weapon further ahead and retreat down the hallway.
Aurora dashes forward, arriving at Thokk’s side. The noise from the shriekers distracts her (Insight 4) - she sees neither the growing hoards of plant men nor the retreating brain.
Babshapka arrives next. His senses, augmented by the Hunter’s Mark, are enough to spot the brain (as well as the fact that plant men are spilling out from doorways all along the hall). He raises his blaster pistol and looks through the targeting screen until the brain is clearly outlined in the cross-hairs, then presses his thumb to the firing button. (Intellect devourer fails DC13 dexterity save, takes 9 points of force damage, no resistance to blaster damage). The brain part of the creature explodes like an overripe melon hit with a sledge hammer, spattering the nearby plant men with goo. The four legs quiver and then collapse.
Babshapka transfers his Hunter’s Mark to the largest-looking plant man in the hallway and fires the pistol again. (Vegepygmy champignion fails its Dex save, takes 23 points from the blaster plus 4 from the mark for a total of 27).
Umbra moves up to behind Thokk and sees the massing vegepygmies. She reappears in the shadows of the hallway beyond the party to the south, and calls back to her companions that the way ahead is clear, thinking it may be easier to keep running ahead through the halls than turn around and retreat past the plant men.
Willa looks down the hallway ahead, seeing her sword being trod upon by the feet of dozens of plant men. She draws the magic mace from her belt and hefts it, then strides to Thokk’s side and swings at a plant man (attack roll critical fail). Her reliance on her sword is telling - the plant man darts out of the way and Willa’s blow lands on a mushroom instead (9 points bludgeoning). The high-pitched shrieking from that one turns to a low flatulent sound through the great flapping gash Willa has ripped in its dome.
“My sword!” Willa yells in frustration.
“Don’t worry, I got it,” replies Aurora, readying her mage hand to retrieve the blade.
Two plant men melee fighters come forth to engage Thokk and Willa. Their club-like weapons miss, but now make the movements of the party’s fighters predictable enough to give an advantage to the plant man javelineers. A dozen javelins are launched, and two find their way through Willa’s armor (including one critical hit, Willa takes 22 piercing).
Forgoing attacking the all-too-numerous plant men, Thokk simply shoves his way past them until he stands astride Willa’s sword, deep in the hallway and surrounded by opponents (shove attacks, two athletic checks with advantage, 27 and 19; plant men are knocked out of the way left and right. Three champignions miss Thokk with opportunity attacks as he barrels past them).
Round 7
Willa tries to fight her way to her sword, swinging her mace at the weakest-looking of the plant men surrounding her (two hits, total of 26 bludgeoning damage, one sporrior down). She has advanced just a few feet down the hall.
Babshapka aims at the same large warrior he hit before and fires (champgnion fails its saving throw, takes 17 damage including hunter’s mark), slaying the plant man and transferring his spell to another. He shoots again (failed save, 14 damage with spell), wounding a second. His blaster pistol chimes, indicating that its power disc is completely drained.
Umbra has by now gone to the end of the southern corridor and looked around, and come back again to the fight. Now she says that it would be better to retreat north, back the way they came.
A champignion and five sprouts pelt Thokk with their weapons (three javelin hits, one critical, total 18 points of damage, reduced to 9 from rage).
A champignion and five sporriors launch attacks at Willa (three dart hits, Willa takes 20 piercing and is down to 23 remaining).
Thokk stoops and scoops up Willa’s sword, then tosses it over the heads of the plant men at her, hilt first. With her right hand occupied by the mace, she manages to catch the greatsword in her empty left hand. Thokk grins and begins working his way back through the crowd to Willa’s side (four opportunity attacks from saplings miss him as he retreats).
Mathias, now invisible, surveys the hallway. He takes a few tentative steps forward and looks for a reaction (Insight 8 ). The throngs of plant men appear not to be able to see him - but with their numbers, it will be a feat indeed not to be bumped into. He dances forward, dodging and weaving, until he has reached the approximate location where the brain went down - and without having run into a single plant man! (Stealth 14, 23 - with advantage from ring is 23). He looks about, but cannot locate the corpse of the brain (Perception 9).
Aurora, seeing that Willa now has her sword back, forgoes her planned mage hand and summons a firebolt. She shoots it at the nearest wounded plant man (attack roll 17), but the massive champignion’s bark-like armor is too thick for the spell to penetrate (AC18).
Round 8
A sapling and a champignion batter at Willa and Thokk, and then the air is dark with projectiles. Willa is hit by five darts (including one critical, Willa takes a total of 42 damage!) and, for just the second time since she obtained her magic armor, she collapses unconscious to the ground!
Thokk faces an equal volley of javelins, but takes fewer hits (26 damage total, halved to 13 from rage).
Mathias looks about and finally spies the remains of the brain (Investigation 14) - all four legs still attached to a bony basal plate, but the brain matter above having been liquified by Babshapka’s blaster. He grabs a leg, and as he lifts it off the ground it becomes invisible as well. The plant men either don’t notice or don’t care (Sleight of hand 14). Mathias makes his way past the crowd and retreats up the hall to the north.
Babshapka stows the empty blaster at his belt, and moves to crouch defensively over the body of Willa. He reaches down and touches her, bestowing a cure wounds, then withdraws. (Willa to 7hp, Babsapka at 0/1). The champignion he left behind misses his retreating form. Babshapka reaches Mathias.
Willa gasps to consciousness, checks that she is still grasping her sword and mace, rolls over and springs up, jumps over a plant man and runs up the hallway to the north (half move to stand up, main action disengage, bonus action second wind heals for another 9, Willa at 16hp).
Aurora turns and runs, shooting a firebolt over her shoulder to cover her retreat. The wild shot appears not to even have been aimed (attack roll critical fail).
As the last party member in the combat, Thokk skillfully extracts himself. Three champignions batter at him unsuccessfully (missed opportunity attacks).
Round 9 (Thokk’s fifth round of rage)
Mathias and Aurora dash side by side up the hallway while Babshapka flies overhead. Willa is close behind, but pauses after she rounds a corner to make sure that Thokk makes it and is following them.
The plant men are following Thokk closely and continuing to engage. (Thokk attacked by Champignion club, five Sprout javelins and five Sporrior darts. Total 11 damage, halved to 5 with rage). Thokk dashes ahead, rounds a corner, and for a second is out of sight of the pursuing plant men.
Round 10
“Goooh!!!” yells Thokk at the laggards in the party, urging them on. “Thokk will hold them here!” He turns around to face the plant men that are even now rounding the corner. As the first wave of the creatures arrives, he swings at them (one hit, 12 damage).
Aurora looks down the hallway at the numbers of plant men and wonders if Thokk really knows what he is doing. She shoots a firebolt into the crowd (14 damage) and then withdraws around another corner to the north.
Curiously, the first creatures around the corner (sporriors, the fastest of the plant men) don’t attack Thokk immediately. [They had to take a dash to keep up with him and can’t attack this round]
Babshapka is keeping pace with Aurora and rounds the corner just after her.
Umbra, with her shadowstep, finds she has to go slow and wait for the party to catch up. Mathias runs up next to her.
“Back to the nurse!” shouts Willa as she reaches the end of the hall, but she finds she is not quite sure of the route (Intelligence check 5) there.
Round 11
Rather than throwing their javelins, a squadron of sprouts rush past Thokk and continue on down the hall. He swings at one as they go by (opportunity attack, hit for 9 damage). Only once they are well past him do they turn and begin launching their projectiles. With enemies on both sides, Thokk can’t use his great shield as effectively as a barrier. (Six javelins thrown, four hit, 28 damage, halved to 14).
“Thokk! Get out of there!” calls Babshapka.
Now the larger and slower plant men are arriving. Five saplings surround Thokk and batter him with their clubs. He takes no damage, but in fending them off he will be easier to hit with the next round of missiles. Finally realizing the folly of his position, Thokk leaps over the small plant men and runs down the hall after his companions. (10 opportunity attacks incurred by Thokk, one hits for 5 damage, Thokk takes 2 after rage.)
Round 12
As the party rounds another corner, the atrium with the dropshaft lies in front of them to the east. Mathias (scimitar drawn) and Umbra have already passed the shaft and are looking down the hallway with the red doors. At the rear of the party, Thokk, Aurora, and Babshapka are still in sight as the first sporriors come around the corner to the south. Their darts clatter among the heroes. (Thokk learns that he can’t both dash and use his shield to benefit his AC from behind while running away from the foe. Of four sporriors, two darts hit for 10 damage, after rage[/ Thokk takes 5. Of seven sprouts, three javelins hit for 20; Thokk takes 10. He is now at 13/66).
Round 13
Aurora and Babshapka move out into the atrium, pausing and turning around halfway from the corridor entrance to the shaft. Babshapka draws his needle gun and sets the dial to “crowd”. He looks over his shoulder at Willa crossing the atrium, then back to the corner to see if any plant men have yet emerged.
The larger and slower plant man saplings and champignions are having to dash to keep up with their sporrior and sprout missile troops.
Thokk emerges from the hallway and stops when he gets to Aurora and Babshapka.
Umbra and Mathias have passed the red hallway and turned to the south.
Round 14 (last round of Thokk’s rage)
Willa pauses just past the dropshaft. She can no longer see Umbra ahead of them, and Mathias is invisible. Behind her, it looks like the other half of the party are waiting for the plant men to come down the hall. She doesn’t like the party being this spread out.
In the hallway, the plant men missile troops have stopped. They are allowing their melee fighters to pass them, and are now advancing toward the atrium slowly and carefully. Have they given up the pursuit? Are they trying to be stealthy and use their natural camouflage? Are they wary of entering the open space of the atrium knowing that Aurora cast a fireball in that same space before? For whatever reason, their approach has become cautious, with their toughest troops now in front (Babshapka watching with Wisdom check 14).
“Hey Willa!” calls out a disembodied voice next to her, and Willa jumps.
“Son o’ a Sea Snake!” she exclaims, then, “W’at, war?”
“Umbra’s gone on ahead - what’s the plan?”
“Retreat to Med 2. The room with the nurse.”
“Aye, Sergeant.”
The party is now easily keeping ahead of the plant men as they retreat down the hallways and the plant men follow slowly behind. In the better part of a minute they all stand panting in the eastern atrium, outside the yellow door that leads to the room with the nurse android. Mathias removes his red card and opens the door. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
I love watching how your players and their characters have grown, the interplay between them, and their effectiveness in combat.
I've probably said it before, but your players are damn lucky to have you as a DM...and we're damn lucky to have you transcribing their adventures for us!
...and we're damn lucky to have you transcribing their adventures for us!
_________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our eighteenth Barrier Peaks session, was 19 September, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 4 - Level I, North and South
Party, Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room (S), and Husk Hall rolling separately
12:50am (Husk Hall) vegepygmies
2am (party) vegepygmies
4:50am (husk hall) Worker robot
6:20am (party) Worker robot (no yellow access)
6:50am (party) Worker robot (no yellow access)
7:10am (party) vegepygmies
8:20am (party) Worker robot (with yellow access)
8:40am (husk hall) vegepygmies
9:10am (party) vegepygmies
9:20am (party) security robot, non-lethal, red access
9:40am (Security HQ N) Police robot [now at 2]
Post 191: Ship's Log, Day Four 23 February, 571 [4 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 4
(12:50am)
Mathias strides into the room and calls out “Lieutenant Mathias Forge, Security Officer of the Away Team Ship requesting emergency assistance!”
The nurse, who had been standing, but still, with a listless expression, jerks into motion. “Away team leader, you have returned!”
“Yes, and we have battle-wounded.”
“This unit is ready to assist.” Thokk, still bristling with javelins buried point-deep in his skin, follows Mathias into the room. “Shall it immediately heal this one, or wait to triage the others in the hall?” asks the android nurse.
“See to the Big Guy, then Sergeant Willa. I believe the rest of us are fine, although I was nearly poisoned and am currently out of breath.” Despite claiming to be winded from running all the way to the plant man lair and back, Mathias is even now fishing a pre-rolled cigarette out of a pocket.
Nurse Xiphox shepherds Thokk into sitting down on an examination table in the medical room, although he refuses to lay down. “Supernumerary piercing wounds, many with instruments of damage still in situ,” she says. “Significant blood loss as well as trauma to skin and muscle, but no life-threatening injuries observed.”
“Willa!” Thokk bellows, and gestures at the darts and javelins hanging from his torso and arms, “Look how many javelins Thokk remembered to collect!” Indeed, he is able to recover six javelins in serviceable form. [Luck roll +2]
One by one, the Nurse carefully examines each javelin and then extracts it, allowing the blood to flow freely each time rather than immediately staunching it. Once all of the weapons have been removed, she shakes her “healing canister” and applies a precise amount of foam to each wound. (Fifth use, 14 points healing to Thokk). Within seconds, the flow of blood stops and Thokk’s flesh begins knitting itself together.
By this point, the rest of the party has entered the room and shut the door behind them, except for Babshapka, who remains on watch outside the door in the atrium. The Nurse has Thokk trade places on the table with Willa, whom she begins to help out of her armor so as to better examine her wounds. After describing each wound in detail, the Nurse uses her healing canister again (sixth use, 9 points of healing to Willa). “Pshhhhh…..thbbb.” The last bits of foam from the can are accompanied by more gusts of air than foam itself.
“Lieutenant Forge,” the Nurse says, turning to Mathias. “This unit has completely depleted its supplies of nano-healing. Please be aware that it is fully programmed in techniques to augment the natural healing processes of Terran bodies, and retains a small supply of splints, bandages, and such on hand.”
“Noted,” says Mathias, taking a drag on his cigarette, but before he can exhale, he finds the android standing rather close to him and staring into his eyes. Suddenly those standing nearby see her eyes flash with light and Mathias sees stars. “Residual toxins from your near-poisoning are detected in your retinas,” she says to him. “This unit recommends you drink copious amounts of water until it is out of your system.”
“Nurse Xiphox, thanks for your help. We were able to track and kill a brain-attacking exofauna. Here are its remains.” Mathias holds forth the legs-and basal skull-plate of the Intellect Devourer.
The android nods in recognition. “That is consistent with the parasite seen within the skull of the...crewmember we spoke of,” she says carefully, knowing that not everyone in the room has emergency-gray or even normal red-level clearance. “Although it is significantly larger.”
“I think she hit her head,” says Mathias, gesturing at Willa. “Would they be able to help our wounded in the surgical center next door?”
“The android surgeon is programmed to perform surgeries and other complicated procedures. He may have nano-healing still available, but many medical supplies were looted by the crew in the final days of the plague. Once the ship's internal communication systems went down, this unit lost contact with the surgeon, so this unit does not know what kind of supplies remain with him.”
“Hmm. Perhaps he can help with her attitude, anyway.”
“Ain’t nothin’ wrong wit’ me a’tude,” barks Willa. “It’s wha’ kept t’is motley group o’ fools alive long afore ye turned up.”
All over the room, the party are unpacking bags and removing sleeping rolls. Aurora has her brazier out and lights her incense before Willa extinguishes her lantern.
[Unbeknownst to the party, some of the northern vegepygmies have crept out into the hallway just outside their lair and recovered some of their dead, dragging them back. Meanwhile, the pursuing force of vegepygmies that had been following the characters has paused at the entrance to the atrium, spotting Babshapka but not having been seen by him.]
(1am)
Outside the room, Babshapka remains on guard.
[Unbeknownst to him, a second group of vegepygmies, a standard patrol, has arrived in the hallway behind the first group. At a sign from their companions to wait, they stand silently in the hallway.]
Inside the medical room, Aurora begins filling her coal-fired brazier with incense. Nurse Xiphox approaches her. “Are you making a fire for cauterization or sterilization? Although this unit now lacks nano-healing, it is equipped with standard disinfectant cremes, tourniquets, sterilization tablets, and a cleaner-burning heat source than you are using.”
“Your medical supplies are noted but unnecessary,” replies Aurora. She continues with her ritual. (Aurora now has four castings’ worth remaining of incense for her find familiar).
While Aurora is casting:
Aurora’s mage armor ends
Mathias’ armor of shadows ends
Shefak’s darkvision ends
Babshapka’s fly ends
(2:10am)
Aurora’s ritual complete, Hedwig emerges from above the brazier. Aurora tells him to go into the atrium and screech if anything approaches the door. When she opens the door to send him out, Babshapka enters, and the door is closed.
[Unbeknownst to the party, once Babshapka enters the room, the two groups of vegepygmies slowly begin to move into the atrium. Do they not consider Hedwig something that could see them and react?]
[Taking their time to camouflage themselves as best as possible, one group sets up an ambush at the mouth of the corridor leading north out of the atrium, the other group blocks off the hallway to the west. With a Take 20 on their Stealth roll and camouflage to the color of the deck, the following Perception or Investigation scores are needed to see them when they aren’t moving:
Champignion 24
Sapling 26
Sprout 28
Sporrior 30]
[Do they move slowly enough that the owl simply considers them bushes rather than threats to the party? Hedwig’s Perception, with advantage: 10]
Babshapka has a single, second-level spell slot left. Before beginning his trance, he heals Thokk for 6 points with a cure wounds. [Babshapka at 0/0]
Aurora renews her mage armor on herself. It will last until 10am. [Aurora at 0/2/1]
For the first hour of rest, no one sleeps, although they do unpack and take out sleeping rolls. The Nurse uses some strange flameless heat sources to boil what remains of the party’s water, and then uses the water and her own supplies of cave sponge to clean their wounds. She pulls out the smallest of splinters with micro-pincers and an eye even finer than Babshapka’s, and then dresses the wounds with fresh bandages. She gathers the party’s old bandages and throws them into a cave horn rubbish bin. While she doesn’t have any more of the magic spray, even Willa has to admit that for a machine-woman, she is a skilled medical professional.
My 5e module adaptation wrote:
If the Nurse is with someone for the entirety of a short rest, and that person uses the short rest to spend HD for healing, the medical care of the nurse allows them to have advantage on their HP recovery roll.
(3:10am - The party has completed a short rest)
Willa spends 1HD: 10, 12 - recovers 12hp.
Willa spends 1HD: 12, 7 - recovers 12hp
Willa spends 1HD: 6, 5 - recovers 6hp.
Babshapka’s hunter’s mark ends.
Aurora uses arcane recovery and is now at 3/2/1.
With nothing having disturbed them, the party decides to take a long rest in the medical room. Aurora usually sets the watch schedule, and she is about to order “the usual,” when she realizes that Tyrius, Shefak, and Larry are not present - and Mathias, an unknown element, is.
“Do you care where you go in the watch order?” she asks him.
“Actually, I was going to go check on Shefak,” he says. Seeing the looks of concern from the others, he waves them off. “Just me, you can all keep resting. If we are going to be here until morning, I’ll bring back food and water as well.”
A few of the others try to persuade him that it is not safe to travel alone. He reminds them of the invisibility ring. They say it didn’t protect Shefak, he says they already “got” the thing that “got” Shefak. Finally, Willa says that going out by himself is the stupidest thing she’s ever heard (and she has been traveling with Aurora for the better part of a year). She doesn’t recommend it, but it’s his head, not hers.
As Mathias starts for the door, Thokk approaches him and claps him hard on the back. “Skinny man brave, don’t listen to Willa,” he says loudly, then, in a whisper that is somehow just as loud, he adds, “Willa good advisor but not brave like Thokk.”
Mathias pauses at the door and turns. “Nurse Xiphox, I will be back.”
The android nods. “Yes, Lieutenant. If you have no immediate need for this unit’s medical services, it will be will be shutting down now to conserve power.” As he turns back to the door, her form goes limp but remains upright.
Mathias moves quickly through the open door, activating the ring as he does so.
[Invisible, he can’t be seen by the vegepygmies. With a maximum perception roll less than 24, he does not see any of them. He passes by the gathering ambush, both sides unaware of one another]
He heads down the west corridor straight for the central complex of the ship.
Without Mathias present, Aurora says that Thokk, then Willa, then Umbra should stand watch for about an hour each until Babshapka is done trancing, and then he will be on watch for the rest of the time.
It takes Mathias less than a minute to go from the Nurse’s room, across the atrium, down the hall, around the corner, and up to the medical bay door. He opens the press-plate door and then closes it behind him.
[Unbeknownst to any of the others, Leezar visits the lab room. “Lieutenant Mathias Forge of the away team security .. is this safe to digest?” he asks, and then holds forth the clear flask he obtained from the red-doored dining room.
(Luck roll -1). “I am currently in a critical task period,” says the laboratory robot, “but if you leave it here I will test it at my earliest opportunity.”
“Excellent,” replies Leezar. “We did kill the mind-attacking exo-fauna.”
“That will make it easier to administer the cure to the paranoia plague, once this unit has discovered it,” the robot says.]
Careful not to touch the alarmed desks, Mathias moves to the open door into the heart of the central complex. The hallway looks deserted. He proceeds to the end and uses his red card to open the storeroom door, after having knocked a short code to warn whomever is up - Tyrius, or Larry, or Eddard.
After the greetings and updates, Mathias tells them that the away group killed the alien that did in Shefak. Tyrius is relieved and praises Pelor. “So...any change in her condition?” Mathias asks. (Shefak has at this point been unconscious for about six hours, has been with Tyrius for about four hours, and the Intellect Devourer was killed about 90 minutes ago).
Tyrius walks over to the curious wheeled litter on which Shefak lies. Eddard is standing over her, eyes closed - is he sleeping, or praying? Tyrius takes her pulse, bends his head so as to hear and feel her breathing, pinches her forearm and sees no reaction. He shakes his head sadly. “Her body is fine - her mind is still missing.”
“So I guess the thing wasn’t a vampire then.”
Tyrius raises an eyebrow and manages a wry smile.
“We are camped out in one of the medical rooms,” Mathias continues, “all the way to the east, by the shaft to the lower levels of the ship. We will be spending the night there, so I thought I’d take some food and water back.”
Tyrius nods and helps Mathias load party rations into a sack. Larry drinks the last of the water from the party’s skins, and then uses create water to fill them again, handing them over.
[The mules currently carry about 20 person-days of original rations on them, although the storeroom is full of the ship’s rations, and another 10 mule-days worth of grain. Thokk, Umbra, and Babshapka also still have rations among the items they carry in their personal backpacks.]
Mathias’ return trip to the party takes longer than going out, as he is weighed down with all the waterskins. Still, he has been gone fewer than 15 minutes by the time he returns. By now, Thokk is on guard, and several of the others are actually attempting to sleep. “I’m back,” Mathias whispers as he wills the ring to cease its effect, and Thokk grins.
“See! Thokk told you it would be fine!” The half-orc slaps Mathias on the back and some of the party members groan at the noise.
“I brought food and water,” says Mathias, as Thokk helps unburden him. “Water for my poison,” he says, lifting a skin as if saluting the lifeless nurse android.
Willa is sitting, not lying, on her bedroll, using a whetstone to sharpen her greatsword. “At least ye war quick about it,” she says begrudgingly.
“Oh, I know my way around a spaceship,” says Mathias, “from my days on the away team. Actually, we used to rest between missions,” he continues, “on ships just like this.” He sets up his stool in the darkest corner of the room, so that he can sit and lean against the wall. Those who look away, when they look back, would swear that the stool was empty.
(4:30am - 2 hours into the long rest)
Thokk hands off his watch to Willa.
[4:50am. Unbeknownst to the party, a worker robot comes across the remains of the security robot the party destroyed and stowed in the room with the glowing boxes near the library. The worker drags the chassis of the security robot away. There are now seven robots the party wrecked on hand in the repair room to serve as parts donors.]
(4:50am - 4 hours into the long rest)
Willa hands off her watch to Umbra
(6:20am)
Hedwig watches as a worker robot enters the atrium from the south. It gathers up two of the bodies of the displacer beasts and hauls them away. Since the robot never approached the door, Hedwig never sounded the alarm, but the next time Aurora checks in with her, she does recount the event. For her part, Aurora is sleeping fitfully, and when she wakes up and rolls over, she checks in mentally with Hedwig without even opening her eyes. She has found that she can do this so long as there is a straight line between her and the familiar that passes through the door of the room. Apparently the metal of the door is thin enough for the connection to work, whereas the walls of the ship are thick enough to block it.
(6:50am)
The worker robot, or another just like it, returns and removes the last of the displacer beasts down the corridor to the south of the atrium.
(7:10am - 5 hours into the long rest, Babshapka has tranced for just more than 4 hours)
Umbra hands off her watch to Babshapka
[Unbeknownst to the party, another patrol of northern vegepygmies has arrived in the atrium. These set up an ambush in the corridor to the south.]
(7:30am)
Unnoticed while most of them sleep, Tyrius’ aid spell ends on Thokk, Willa, Babshapka, Aurora, Mathias, and Umbra. Larry’s darkvision spell ends on Willa.
(8:20am - 6 hours into the long rest, Babshapka and Umbra are fully rested)
A worker robot moves up the southern corridor. [The hidden vegepygmies are against the walls and not in its way]. It enters the atrium and roots aimlessly in the refuse pile that was the displacer beasts’ nest but doesn’t come away with anything. It moves to the far east wall and begins making its way north. It raises a probe to the locking mechanism, and the yellow-carded door of the surgical room opens. After several minutes inside, it emerges again into the atrium and begins moving north. At this point Hedwig begins screeching an alarm.
The door of the medical room muffles Hedwig’s calls and no one is alerted. (Umbra Perception 6, Babshapka Perception 12, Aurora is asleep and not psychically connected to Hedwig).
Suddenly the door to the room slides open and Hedwig’s piercing screech awakens many inside. Babshapka has his blaster pointed at the door, but the screeches are accompanied by the hydraulic clomping and mechanical whirring of the worker robots’ legs as it enters and he holds his fire. Willa is on her feet, sword in hand, before her eyes are open, but now she looks through heavy lids at the “cleaning clockwork”. She sighs and tells Babshapka to watch the robot, then lays back down on her bed roll, one eye still half-open.
Babshapka closes the door and observes. The robot heads first for the rubbish bin and begins pulling out the party’s used and bloody bandages, the nurse’s bloody sponges, and the bits and pieces of broken javelins the nurse extracted from their wounds. All of these go into the drawer in the robot’s body. Once the bin is empty, the robot heads for Thokk, who is still snoring loudly on his roll, having not woken up at its entrance. Spying the pile of captured javelins stacked neatly by Thokk’s feet, the robot bends over and extends its hands.
Babshapka’s eyes widen in comprehension and he darts forward, snatching the barbed sticks away before the robot can grab any (Babshapka initiative 21, robot Initiative 2).
The robot makes a few laps of the room, Babshapka following more closely now, and interceding any time it approaches the party’s gear. Finally it heads for the door, opens and closes it behind, having taken nothing more than the contents of the rubbish bin. The room returns to silence with the closing of the door.
[8:40am - Unbeknownst to the party, more northern vegepygmies emerge from the hallway of their lair and drag off more bodies of their fallen companions from the hallway in which they fought the party]
[9:10am - 7 hours into the long rest. Unbeknownst to the party, a third patrol of vegepygmies has arrived at the atrium. They are in the midst of communicating with those already present on how to best shore up their current positions when those to the west begin a trill of alarm, and all those present freeze and go silent. From the west, a security robot rolls down the hallway and into the atrium.]
Inside the room, Thokk and Aurora are still fast asleep, but the rest of the party is up, dressing and armoring, preparing gear, or eating (seven hours into the long rest). More than one of them hears Hedwig’s shrieks of alarm as the security robot approaches the door, and Babshapka shakes Aurora awake saying “Hedwig!”
Aurora sees through the owl’s eyes even as she rubs her own. Hedwig circles the robot, dives at it, then flies quickly to the north, trying to lead it away as Aurora is instructing - but the robot doesn’t take the bait. A slight pause in its progress is all that Hedwig’s diversion produces. (Hedwig Persuasion 9, Robot Insight 8 ).
“It’s still coming!” says Aurora in alarm. Weapons are drawn. “A security robot!” Aurora adds.
Mathias motions for calm. “I got this,” he says, and slips out the door.
[Now the vegepygmies are in a conundrum. Mathias has emerged, visible - should they spring the ambush? The champignions present warble deeply, deciding not to reveal their presence in front of their enemy, the security robot, which they fear more than they do the party. Mathias does not hear their brief communication over the approaching hum of the robot.]
“Hiiiphelex conthwaren jin'd'well,” he says to it, as if in greeting.
The robot stops abruptly. It repeats the phrase, but with a slightly different intonation.
With no immediate opening of the door or sounds of combat, Willa turns off the lights in the room and encourages the others to hide rather than spoil their rest, since at this point only the two elves have finished. For herself, she sets her ioun stone to circling her head after reminding Thokk about his mask. He puts it mostly over his head so that a quick tug could slide it into place on his face.
There are two strangely high but narrow beds in the room. Thokk and Willa climb up on these and lay down as if sleeping; Willa with her sword next to her and Thokk with his needler pistol. Aurora crouches behind the table on which Thokk lays, concealing herself from view of the door. She looks through Hedwig’s eyes, whispering to the party that Mathias and the robot are facing each other but neither is moving. Babshapka, blaster in hand, removes the supplies from a large cabinet and slips inside. Umbra has slipped into the shadows and disappeared from sight.
(9:30am)
After about ten minutes, the security robot speaks in Common. “Translation protocol complete,” it says. “Unidentified personnel, present identification card.”
“Lieutenant Mathias Forge, Security Officer of the Away Team ship,” says Mathias.
Mathias takes out his red card and flashes it before the robot quickly before pocketing it again.
“Security clearance recognized,” says the robot.
Mathias grins. “It's been 700 years since the paranoia virus. Since the ship has arrived. Since the mind-attacking exo-fauna escaped and killed the captain. It could have tried to take over the ship. We have to stop it before it escapes. That is our mission. We are here to eliminate threats to the ship and protect its integrity. To eliminate threats to the outside from the ship; mainly the brain-attacking exo-fauna.”
(Luck roll +3) “Security Officer Forge, how can this unit assist in your mission?”
“We have killed the small brain-attacking exo-fauna, but the larger one is still at large.”
“This unit has detected a breach in the ship deck at mark 180 of the central complex.”
“The hole in the floor?”
“Affirmative. The exo-fauna may have gained access to this level through the breach.”
“We need a maintenance robot to repair the hole.”
“This unit will locate a repair robot. Shall it direct the repair robot to the breach or to your current location?”
“To the hole, please. Will you communicate with the other security robots and let them know that my away team is on the ship?”
“Ship's general wireless communications are currently down - this unit has no way to broadcast communicate to robot security force but will transmit this message through individual unit auditory signaling to other robots as it encounters them. Please describe your team so that we may assist.”
“It has been 700 years .. many Terran lifetimes...our away team is composed of some exo-fauna. Three females...and five males and two pack beasts.”
“Understood. Without grey-level clearance command, autonomic security protocols for responding to exo-fauna cannot be overridden: if there are exo-fauna on your team, keep them close to you and be prepared to show your red-level clearance to any security robot.”
“Excellent. Do you serve on the lower levels?”
“Specify: “you”. Translation notations indicate this word is of vague case.”
“What is your service designation?”
“This unit is SecBot 76549.”
“Does SecBot 76549 serve only on this level, or on lower levels? What is the security force on lower levels?”
“There are security robots assigned to the lower decks, especially to sensitive areas on the lower decks. However, the priority for patrols is Level I. This unit is currently assigned to risk-weighted random patrolling of Level I.”
“Excellent. Let the other security robots know of our mission and we will contact SecBot 76549 if we need further assistance. Is there an easy way to initiate contact?”
“Unfortunately, with wireless ship communications down, there is no way to broadcast communicate to this unit except at pre-designated short-distance broadcast beacons. However, every Level I-assigned security robot passes through the prison command post, downloads duty logs and uploads recent recordings as part of a standard patrol cycle. You may leave a message with the robots at the duty desk and it will be transmitted to each security robot as it cycles through, including this unit.”
“Ok. We are here to eliminate threats to the ship and protect its integrity. Eliminate threats to the outside from the ship. Mainly the brain attacking exo-fauna.”
“Understood.”
“Can SecBot 76549 operate a stasis chamber? If it is damaged can the exo-fauna escape?”
“This unit has not been programmed to operate a stasis cage. That is a violet-level Terran technician skill. However, the large-model worker robots may be tasked with stasis cage operation when ordered by the central computer. In this case, an instructional program module will be downloaded for the duration of the task and then self-eliminate. A damaged cage might permit the escape of held exo-fauna.”
“I see, thank you.”
“Shall this unit now execute your order to bring a worker robot to the deck breach?”
“Yes; and after the hole is repaired, set the maintenance robots to fix other security robots.”
“Affirmative.”
“Excellent work, SecBot 76549.”
The robot turns and wheels away down the hall to the west.
Mathias turns and moves back to the med room door. He fishes in a pocket and pulls out a cigarette, then spends some time with a flint and steel trying to get a spark enough to light it. Finally, he takes a deep drag and uses his red key to open the door. Rather than immediately stepping through, he exhales a large cloud of smoke, pauses, and walks through the cloud to enter the room.
He presses the plate by the door to turn on the light and says casually, “Well, security is on our side now.”
“‘Ow ther ‘ells did ye manage t’at?” demands Willa.
Mathias shrugs. “I talked to it.”
“Ye talked ter it?” repeats Willa, not sure whether she should disbelieve him or be impressed. Aurora, who heard and saw most of the conversation through the eyes and ears of Hedwig, nods in affirmation.
“So, anyway, you guys should finish your rests...where’s the elves?”
Babshapka climbs out of the cabinet in which he was hidden, and Umbra emerges from the shadows. The elven woman glides over to Mathias and looks at him appraisingly. “If we do not have to fight the clockworks ever again, you have my thanks,” she says. Before Mathias can answer, she reaches out and takes hold of his uniform. Murmuring in elven and tracing lines on the fabric, she works a spell. Slowly the silk fibres regrow, closing off the javelin holes. The blood stains flake off, and even the original lustre, dimmed through the centuries, returns to the strange fabric. When she finishes several minutes later, the uniform appears as if new, pearl-white with bright orange chevrons on the sleeves. “If you need to talk again, it will help to look the part,” she says, and then glides back to the other side of the room.
[9:40am - Unbeknownst to the party, a second police robot has entered the security headquarters and taken up guard duties.]
(10am)
Aurora loses her mage armor.
(10:10am - 8 hours into the long rest)
Everyone is well-rested and ready to start out again; armed and armored, with all their equipment ready to go.
Aurora at 4/3/3
Umbra at 4/3/3
Larry at 4/3/3
Babshapka at 4/3
Tyrius at 4/2
Umbra casts armor of shadows on herself and on Mathias. Will last until 6:10pm.
Aurora casts mage armor on herself. Will last until 6:10pm.
Larry casts create water. Will supply the party for half a day.
Aurora at 3/3/3
Umbra at 2/3/3
Larry at 3/3/3
Babshapka at 4/3
Tyrius at 4/2
It is decided that the first order of business is for Mathias to visit Shefak, and see whether the long rest has helped her any. If not, he is to retrieve her and then to see whether the surgical android can do anything to help. Mathias activates the ring of invisibility and slips out the door while the others wait.
[As before, he doesn’t see the vegepygmies waiting in ambush, and they don’t see him.]
He arrives at the storeroom in short order.
Mathias asks Tyrius for another update on Shefak. Her condition is unchanged, Tyrius says, except that he is concerned that she is becoming dehydrated. Larry had been chewing and spitting food into a paste for her, like a mama bird, but she seems to lack even a swallowing reflex, and so water, let alone food, just ends up going into her lungs. Tyrius is concerned that if something is not done eventually, she will waste away.
5E water wrote:
A character needs one gallon of water per day. A character with access to less than half a gallon of water automatically suffers one level of exhaustion at the end of the day.
Shefak last had water before the Intellect Devourer attack at 7pm so she has been more than half a day without. In another half day she will be at one level of exhaustion.
Mathias explains that if she is not getting any better by herself with time and care, it is time for them to try the ship’s technology - in the form of the android surgeon. He asks them to help him get her ready for transport, and in short order the wheeled litter is ready to go.
Mathias wheels her out into the hallway and Tyrius closes the door behind her.
[Leezar checks in again with the Laboratory Robot. It still does not have a cure for the paranoia plague. The liquid Leezer left before for analysis is some sort of fast-acting stimulant - in the amount of one ounce or so it will temporarily increase the reaction time and alertness of someone of Terran physiology.]
[Once he is in the medical suite, Leezar casts darkness on himself. (Leezar at 1 spell of 2). He wheels the gurney out the door, down the hall, and into the atrium. At the shaft, he pauses and dismisses the darkness - making Shefak and the gurney, but not himself, visible to the vegepygmies.]
[When Mathias arrives in the atrium, the vegepygmies face another conundrum. They can see the gurney, and Shefak on it, but not Mathias pushing it. What is it? Should they attack? Eventually the leaders come to the conclusion that the gurney is a different form of robot, based largely on its wheels and autonomous movement. They decide to continue hiding until the party emerges from the room to which they were tracked.]
(10:20am)
Mathias opens the door to the nurse’s station and wheels Shefak in, closes the door and becomes visible.
“Nurse Xiphox?” he says, and the android nurse jerks to life.
“Yes, Lieutenant?”
“Can you evaluate this patient, and her suitability to be helped by the surgeon?”
The android comes over to where Shefak lays on the litter and looks her over carefully, then pinches her skin lightly. “The patient is slightly dehydrated,” she says.
“This is the person who was attacked by the brain exo-fauna.”
“Place her on the examination table, please.”
While Mathias and Thokk maneuver Shefak to the high bed (what table?), the android collects a series of simple instruments like small mallets as well as more complicated machines with lights. She goes over her body with the complicated machines, and hits her on different joints with the mallets.
“Her wounds are minimal, she has no fever or sign of infection; there is no obvious cause for her current state of unconsciousness. Her autonomic responses are weak - she appears catatonic, with very limited brain function, if any. Her health is good for now, but she will deteriorate if not provided at least with hydration. I have two solutions available for IV’s, but she will need more eventually.”
Aurora has been listening carefully to the diagnosis, although the last part sounds strange. “You are going to make a solution of ivy? Do you have supplies for that?” She hasn’t seen any plants growing on the ship except for the plant men.
The nurse goes to a cupboard and pulls out a strange transparent, gelatinous bag filled with a clear liquid, as well as some odd flexible tubing, a single needle, and a bandage. With the needle and tubing, she connects the liquid bag to Shefak’s arm, such that the liquid is actually entering her veins, albeit incredibly slowly. Satisfied with the procedure, she somehow folds up one of the rails lining the litter until it becomes an upright stand from which she hangs the bag.
Aurora presses the Nurse with questions. “How can we get more of this solution? Can it be made? Are there stores of it somewhere?”
“There are a number of medical storerooms retrograde of this room. Depending on the extent to which they were looted, you may be able to find any number of bags similar to this one. The solution itself is simple to make, provided one has access to sterilized water and purified glucose, sodium chloride, and potassium.” Aurora recognizes the names of the alchemical ingredients, although she is still not sure how ivy is involved - perhaps as the source of the glucose?
“We would like to take her to the surgeon. Will you come with us to translate?”
“My current assignment is to remain at this station to treat crew-members afflicted with the paranoia plague. However, I have not attended any such patients in hundreds of years.”
Mathias considers his words. “We have seen no crew infected by the plague since we boarded this ship. We have been attacked on more than one occasion by the exo-fauna.”
“Indeed. I will accompany you for now, until evidence suggests that there may be plague victims for me to treat.”
Mathias, visible, pushes the wheeled litter while the Nurse walks alongside it. The others form up in double file as the doors open and they proceed out into the atrium.
As they move south and to the other yellow-carded door, a group of highly-camouflaged plant men peel themselves from the walls or rise up from among the piles of innocuous debris on the floor. The ambush is about to be sprung! _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our nineteenth Barrier Peaks session, was 28 September, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 4 - Level I, North and South
Party, Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room (S), and Husk Hall rolling separately
12:50am (Husk Hall) vegepygmies
2am (party) vegepygmies
4:50am (husk hall) Worker robot
6:20am (party) Worker robot (no yellow access)
6:50am (party) Worker robot (no yellow access)
7:10am (party) vegepygmies
8:20am (party) Worker robot (with yellow access)
8:40am (husk hall) vegepygmies
9:10am (party) vegepygmies
9:20am (party) security robot, non-lethal, red access
9:40am (Security HQ N) Police robot [now at 2] 11:50am (repair) New restored Police robot. 10/6/1
11:50am (hole) worker robot
Post 192: Emergency Surgery Emergency 23 February, 571 [4 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 4
Surprise Round
A champignion swings its large club at Aurora, third in the party line. Aurora uses her instinctive charm (Wisdom Save 6, fails) and the plant man takes one more step and swings at Thokk instead. The half-orc steps nimbly out of the way of the blow, but as he draws his sword and turns to face the creature, a squad of six sprouts launches a volley of javelins at him (with advantage, four hits including one critical totals 32 points of damage).
Round 1
Babshapka pulls out his needler pistol, sets it for crowd, and fires of a hail of exploding needles among the sprouts. All of them are hit; some once (4 points) and some twice (8 points) [total 40 points of damage delivered]. Babshapka retreats back to the medical room with Umbra, and they take cover just inside the walls by the door.
The nurse android takes control of the litter from Mathias and wheels it quickly to the south as he turns to face the sprouts. When she reaches the door, her hand presses the pearl panel under the card slot, and it glows yellow. The door slides open.
Willa curses and draws her greatsword. Swearing a blue streak about how she is tired of fighting plant men, she squares off against the champignion that attacked Thokk and deals it some devastating blows. (She hits twice for 23, plus another 7 on a critical hit for a total of 30). The plant man, which appears to have been already wounded from the previous day’s fight, collapses unmoving on the floor. Willa moves slightly to give Aurora some cover from the javelin-wielding sprouts.
Without a melee fighter pinning down one of their foes, the sprouts have neither advantage nor a clear target. The six of them launch javelins, two each at Thokk, Willa, and Aurora. Aurora bewitches one of them with instinctive charm and its javelin lands in a companion sprout.
Thokk receives a hard, lucky shot (critical hit) from a javelin that sinks deep into his thigh, nicking his femoral artery. As blood spurts out he sinks to one knee (0hp), and then roars his defiance and stands again (1 hp; relentless end), though he continues to bleed.
Umbra peers around the door frame, seeing Thokk go down but the six sprouts still standing. She launches a cloud of black tentacles that wrap around and hold five of them (entropy; five failed and one successful save). (Umbra to 2/3/2)
Aurora sends off a firebolt that shoots through the inky tendrils of Umbra’s spell and then out the other side, not having hit a single sprout. She turns and runs to the door, disappearing into the medical room.
Thokk sheathes his sword and clears his head by slapping himself, then holds up his great shield between himself and the sprouts (dodge).
Mathias shoots off blasts of force at the sprouts (one hit, 3 damage).
Round 2
Breaking its concealment, a sapling from the northern hall charges at Willa, its club bouncing ineffectually off her magic plate armor. She grins.
Aurora shoots a firebolt from the cover of the door frame. She drops a sprout, leaving five still on the field (four still bound by entropy). Umbra shoots from the other side of the doorway, firing three dark bolts into the sprout not bound by her spell (11 points, Umbra to 1/3/2).
Babshapka emerges from the medical room and gets close enough to the sprouts to use his needler again, on the crowd setting. The one not ententacled goes down; the four remaining don’t look too well.
Willa takes a step back to use her full weight against the sapling that charged her. Grunting with exertion, she brings her sword up and then down overhand, chopping it nearly in half. As the twin parts of its cloven body struggle about on a single leg each, she strikes again, ending its comical dance (critical hit for 23, another hit for 15 more).
The nurse has paused before wheeling Shefak through the open door, seeing the others are falling back to her station rather than advancing. “Lieutenant, where do I take the patient?” she calls.
“Take her to surgery and shut the door!” Mathias replies. “But don’t start the surgery until we get there!”
From the southern hallway, another group of plant men become visible as they spring their ambush. A second sapling charges to engage Willa, and five more sprouts throw javelins, so that she is on the receiving end of nine missiles from two different directions. Several make it through her armor and she staggers. (Willa takes four hits for a total of 22 damage).
Forgoing his defensive stance, Thokk draws his sword and wades into the knot of black tendrils and wounded sprouts. With quick blows he ends two of them, so that only three of the original six are left, one having just freed itself from the entropy.
“No!” yells Mathias at Thokk. “Take out the big ones first so the little ones can’t shoot straight!” Knowing that he can’t take out the sapling attacking Willa by himself, he shoots blasts of force at it anyway (both hits, damage 1 and 3).
Round 3
“Need help?” Mathias asks Willa as she turns to face her third opponent, the sapling from the south. As her way of responding, she cuts the plant man down with two blows (damage 16 and 13). As the creature drops to the floor, Mathias remarks, “I guess nothing gets by you, Sergeant.” Still not speaking, Willa turns and moves to Thokk’s side.
Thokk, still spurting blood copiously from his leg, hacks down two of the original plant men, and then turns and runs through the open door of the northern medical room. The five sprouts in the south are leaderless but unwounded.
(Mathias Perception 16, Hedwig Perception 22) The nurse has not closed the door of the surgery room as Mathias bid her. Now, from within, he hears a steady stream of raised alien language, hers and presumably the surgeon’s. The words are foreign but the tone makes it clear that they are arguing.
“Hiiiphelex conthwaren jin'd'well!” shouts Mathias, in case the surgeon can hear him. He runs into the surgical room and shuts the door behind him by means of the pressure plate just inside. The nurse and surgeon android have their arms on opposite ends of the litter, looking like they are fighting over which way it is to go. They are shouting at one another in the alien language. The nurse yells to Mathias in Common, “I do not concur with his diagnosis!”
Mathias moves to the litter and tries to get between the surgeon and Shefak but the mandroid’s mechancical arms bulge with metal muscles and it holds fast to the litter. Mathias ends up grabbing the litter himself. “What’s the diagnosis?” he asks.
From the southern hallway, a new champignion reveals himself and charges at Babshapka, who fades back into the partial cover of the doorway. The plant man is slow and lignified, and does not reach Babshapka’s side before the sprouts behind him launch a volley. Of the five javelins, one hits Babshapka (6 hp damage).
“What are you doing next?” Babshapka asks Aurora, at his side but completely inside the room.
“Fireball,” she gloats. Babshapka fully retreats inside the room, giving her space to exit.
Aurora moves barely out into the atrium, just five feet from the door. The champignion who was charging Babshapka is still approaching, his woody limbs moving stiffly. Willa is still there, just north of the shaft, and Hedwig is crouched in the southeastern corner, near the open door of the surgical room - Aurora will need to be careful with the placement of her spell. Taking this atrium to be the same size as the one in the north, Aurora instantly estimates the volume in her head and launches her missile aimed so that it will fly down the southern hall. The resulting explosion will engulf the five sprouts and the champignion from behind, but its leading edge should not come anywhere near her allies.
(Arcana roll 8; critical fail, Aurora at 3/3/2; 27 damage). Aurora’s missile is veering too far to the right and her eyes widen in alarm. Rather than passing deep into the southern corridor, it hits the wall just inside its mouth and explodes too near and too soon. Aurora turns on her heel and bolts for the open door, knowing even as she does so that she cannot out-run the explosion.
With a roar of wind and fire the blast fills the atrium. “Oh Great Sea Cow! Bloody Hells, Woman!” shouts Willa, but her words are drowned out even to her own ears by the rush of flames. The remains of the displacer beasts’ nest, huge pipes of metal and sides of crates, are blown across the atrium like twigs. Silhouetted against the bright flames are dozens of small dark figures - the mouths of both the southern and western corridors were apparently thickly packed with camouflaged plant men! Even as the initial wave of flame rushes past them, their own bodies burst into flame in the wake behind the explosion. The fire fills the atrium from floor to ceiling, engulfing the ten foot span, but when the wave front enters the open shaft, it shoots up and down farther than the confines of this level. In the end, that release of pressure is what saves the party, for the flames stop some ten feet from Willa but mere inches from Hedwig and from Aurora’s back.
As the roar of the flames dies, some of the plant men fall over, burned to death, while others run about, trying to extinguish themselves. “Holy Shite! Look at all those plant people!” swears Willa.
[21 sporriors - 10 fail save and are killed, 11 make save and are wounded
9 sprouts - 4 fail save and are killed, 5 make save and are wounded
6 saplings - 3 fail save and are gravely wounded, 3 make save and are less wounded
4 champignions - 1 fails save and is gravely wounded, 3 make save and are less wounded]
Umbra emerges from the medical room. Shielding her eyes from the glare of the flames, she tries to pick out the most seriously wounded of the still-living plant men, firing off dark bolts at them as they run about. She hits two saplings and a sporrior before retreating back inside the room (Umbra to 0/3/2).
Babshapka emerges from the room, looking to see whether Aurora’s robes are aflame even as he changes the setting on his needler pistol from ‘crowd’ to ‘individual’. He holds it up level at the advancing champignion until the creature is well within range and then squeezes the grip. Ten needles fly out accompanied by the whoosh of air; half of them hit the plant man and explode in its barky armor. The creature staggers, then drops to the ground dead, still aflame from the fireball (AC18 is 2 points of damage per needle, total 10 points from five hits).
Round 4
Willa runs to the door and Babshapka moves to cover her with his pistol. When none of the plant men moves toward them, Babshapka holds off, saving the ammunition as he motions to Aurora to re-enter the room.
Mathias still has his grip on the litter, trying to stabilize it against the pushes and pulls of the androids that are jerking about the unconscious body of Shefak. “What’s he saying?” Mathias asks the nurse.
“He says she has a ruptured spleen and needs an emergency surgery,” replies the nurse. “But she is stable! I believe that it is he who is malfunctional!” she exclaims (Nurse Insight 23).
“What’s a spleen? Can it be repaired?” asks Mathias, but the nurse doesn’t have a chance to answer.
Mathias takes his hands off the litter to begin a spell, and the surgeon seizes the opportunity to wrench it away from the nurse and wheel it swiftly over to the table next to the large machine (contested strength roll Surgeon 9, Nurse 3). He throws a lever on the machine and it begins to whine. A small circular wheel with a jagged edge begins to spin faster than any of them can follow.
Willa surveys the atrium, but can’t make sense of the chaos - she is unsure of the plant men’s next move (Insight 7). She tells Babshapka to close the door behind them and moves into the nurse’s room. Babshapka surveys the crowd himself - he is convinced that they are not forming up to mount a charge, but are rather fading back down the corridors out of the atrium (Perception 23). The flames on the living and dead are beginning to die down, and both are now producing a thick, black smoke that reeks of burning weeds. Babshapka enters the room and closes the door. Aurora and Thokk, already inside, pant with exertion.
“Back up!” shouts Mathias to the nurse, as the space between his hands arcs with a growing ball of electricity. When it is so large that he can no longer hold it, he shoves his hands forward and shouts “Time to meet your god!” The lightning shoots across the room, hitting the surgeon squarely in the chest. The electricity continues to arc between Mathias and the surgeon, as he sustains the energy, yelling “Don’t you touch her spleen!” at the android. (26 points electrical damage; vulnerability means 52 points taken).
The surgeon, its body twitching and jolting, yells back at Mathias in the alien language. The nurse translates: “He says ‘the patient’s companion is interrupting the surgery - his judgement is clouded by a faulty adrenal gland - I will remove that next.” The nurse has backed away from the electrical discharge, her eyes wide in an approximation of shock. When her back bumps the wall, she reaches over her shoulder and presses the wall panel, opening the door of the room.
Umbra’s brow furrows and a look of great concentration appears on her face (she converts sorcery points to a spell slot)(Umbra to 1/3/2).
Round 5
As the initial surge of electricity lessens to a steady current, the surgeon manages to lift Shefak off of the litter and transfer her to the table alongside the machine. He is talking as he works, with the nurse translating for Mathias. “Patient in position,” he says, “begin emergency splenectomy.” Manipulating buttons and levers on the machine, he moves the circular saw over Shefak’s midriff, then lowers it into her body, so that it slices through the fabric of her tunic and her flesh beneath. A spray of blood is whirled from the saw, spattering against the surgeon, the machine, and everything nearby as the machine cuts a short but deep incision across the side of her midriff. [Shefak takes 13 points of damage and the trauma forces a failed death save. Shefak at 26/39].
“Patient is losing significant amounts of blood,” says the surgeon, as it courses from her body, covering the operating table and dripping onto the floor. “Analysis: no time to use clamps or set up transfusion - proceed with operation.” With more buttons and levers the saw is pulled away, and a number of retracting arms grab and spread open wide the gash in her body. A small mechanical grasping hand is lowered into the open wound. “Spleen located and acquired; beginning extraction,” he says. [Shefak takes 13 more points of damage and the trauma forces a second failed death save. Shefak at 13/39].
“Now I am sure he is malfunctioning,” says the nurse android.
“Ya think?” says Mathias, though he focuses on generating the most electricity he can and forcing it at the android. [5 points electrical damage; surgeon takes 10 points, total 62]
Inside the nurse’s medical room, Willa cautions the group to wait a while for the atrium to clear before they emerge.
Aurora, looking through the eyes of Hedwig, says “The plant men are fleeing, but the two androids were fighting over the body of Shefak.” She tries to have the owl look inside the open door of the surgical room, but has trouble keeping the angle such that she still has a straight connection through the door of the room she is in. Finally getting a glimpse, she gasps, “There’s blood everywhere!”
Thinking that Aurora is referring to Thokk, even now bleeding out all over the floor from his leg wound and looking dazed, Babshapka applies a cure wounds (at second level, Thokk healed 10 points, Babshapka at 4/2).
Thokk strides over and opens the door, stepping into the atrium. He shakes his fist and bellows a challenge at the fleeing plant men.
“Drag the patient off the machine!” yells Mathias at the nurse. She leaves the door and strides over to the machine, on the opposite side as the surgeon. She throws a lever and the machine whines to a halt, the circular saw ceasing its revolutions, the mechanical arms drooping, and the hand grasping Shefak's organ relaxing its grip.
Round 6
[Initiative: Mathias 22, Surgeon 17, Nurse 10. Mathias spends the Inspiration Point he earned to re-roll the nurse’s initiative. Now, a 4.]
Mathias continues to shoot electricity into the surgeon (6 points, surgeon takes 12, total 74 points).
The android’s face is spasming from the current. He reaches across the operating table at the lever held by the nurse, but she bats his hand away. He leaves off the control panel he is at, moves around the far side of the machine, and grabs the lever she holds with both hands. They struggle briefly over the lever, and then he throws it back up again. The whirling saw starts spinning. (Contested strength roll; Surgeon 22, Nurse 12).
Aurora moves out the open door and into the surgical room. Shefak is still lying on the operating table, her face going pale as blood continues to well from within the deep incision. The two androids are both grasping at the sinister machine. Mathias seems locked in position, an arc of lightning passing between him and the surgeon. “Attack the surgeon!” he yells through gritted teeth.
Willa is right behind Aurora, her greatsword in hand. It is not clear whether she heard Mathias, but the blood from Shefak, and the direction of Mathias’ spell, are clear enough indication for her on how to proceed. She lopes over to the machine, a thrust of her sword piercing deep into the android’s side and resulting in a shower of sparks (damage 15, total 89). She pulls the sword out and the nurse lets go of the lever and ducks out of the way. With a clear field, Willa swings the sword with both hands at the level of the android’s neck (critical hit, 18 damage, total 107). The android is decapitated, its head sailing across the room and rolling over the floor. Its mouth is frozen in position, but its voice still emerges clearly from its head, shouting about how it has to finish the operation.
Mathias gasps and lets the electricity drain away. His body and that of the surgeon, released from the great tension, both sag. “Attend to the patient’s wounds!” he shouts hoarsely at the nurse, then more softly to Willa, he says, “The surgeon was freaking out...said he had to remove her spleen...it wouldn’t let the nurse take her back...”
Thokk barrels into the room, looking about for a target. He jumps when the head of the android starts shouting again. Almost as a reflex, he grabs a javelin from the case on his back, throwing it across the room and piercing an eye in the head. (critical hit, 18 points of damage). The head goes silent and, a second later, bursts into flame. The rubbery flesh melts off the face and puddles beneath it.
“...he cut into her with this machine…” continues Mathias.
Babshapka enters the room and hears everyone talking at once.
The nurse moves to Shefak’s side, placing her hands together and pressing down hard on Shefak’s abdomen. She tilts her head at a pile of bandages on the counter and says, “Bring me those now! And turn the operating machine back on!”
(10:30am)
Aurora brings the nurse the pile of bandages and she packs the wound with them, moves the clear bag of ivy liquid so that it is hanging off of the high bed rather than the litter, and adjusts something on the tube so that the contents of the bag flow more swiftly into Shefak’s veins. Somehow the machine produces a half-mask that she fits onto the lower portion of Shefak’s face, covering her nose and mouth, and attached to the machine with a flexible tube. With the surgical machine on, the nurse moves the saw and retracting arms out of the way, and brings in tiny arms with needles and silk thread, and other flexible tubes with spherical glass tips. She spends the next ten minutes or more operating the machine, first sewing up Shefak’s internal organs, removing the blood-soaked bandages, and then suturing up the deep incision in her skin. When she is finished she somehow folds all of the arms except the one bearing the mask into chambers on the interior of the machine, but leaves the machine on as a number of screens display in the alien language a series of information that she monitors.
The nurse turns to the party. “Your companion’s vital signs are weak, and her recovery is difficult to predict. She has lost a lot of blood, and she will need another IV soon. What she really needs is a blood transfusion, but there are no supplies that could have viably lasted the centuries. Perhaps in cryonic storage, but those facilities do not exist in this section. The surgical machine is not recognizing her blood type, so this unit suspects that she is not Terran, but rather an is exo-fauna as Lt. Forge said some of you are. This unit could ask one of you to serve as a blood donor for her, but without a database of blood types among your species, this unit would not know whether it was safe.”
Babshapka has been listening intently since Nurse Xiphox described Shefak as having “weak vitals”. When she has finished speaking, he lays his hand on Shefak’s bare midriff and speaks a few words in elven. (Babshapka casts cure wounds for 6 hp, he is now at 3/2, Sheak at 19/39). The red, raw flesh held together by silk stitching silently knits itself together, leaving only the faintest brown scar where the incision was. “Remarkable!” exclaims the nurse, and then her attention is drawn by the readouts on the machine. “Her vitals have improved in all areas and stabilized in many - the oxygen level in her blood is normal, her blood pressure and volume greatly improved!” She disconnects the half-mask and turns back to the party. “You carry no canisters or med-packs - that was not Terran nano-medicine. What sort of technology do you possess that can be activated by a touch and words?”
Babshapka shrugs and says simply, “Magic.”
The nurse frowns, obviously unsatisfied by the answer. “In any event, your companion no longer needs a blood transfusion. Another bag of the hydrating liquid, like the one she has now, will be sufficient - sometime in the next 10 to 12 hours if possible. After that, one or two more each day.”
Willa nods. “We be lookin’ in ther starrooms like ye said.” She turns to the rest of the party. “Bu’ fer now, we be lookin’ in more o’ ther red rooms. We kin search ther yeller starrooms on ther way back ‘ere. Fer now, ther nurse seems capable eno’. We kin leave Shefak wit’ ‘er.” She looks to Aurora, who nods her agreement.
“What about Shefak’s brain function?” interjects Mathias.
The nurse doesn’t avert her gaze from the machine. “This unit is running several diagnostics at the moment, using the data-gathering capabilities of the surgical machine. This unit can give you a better answer later, lieutenant. Unfortunately, this unit’s on-board data banks relating to mental functioning are not as extensive as those of the surgeon were.”
“Nurse Xiphox, I’m sorry about your comrade - but it was endangering one of my team.”
“Clearly he had a serious malfunction and was dangerous. It is right that you retired him,” the nurse responds. Against the wall, the flames have died out and the now-exposed metal skull of the surgeon is scorched and silent.
Mathias nods soberly, then turns to Aurora. “Hey, have you figured out what that box is for?” he asks.
“What box?” replies Aurora instinctively, and then remembers that just before the brain attacked, Mathias had been showing her a strange device he found in the red-carded bedroom. Aurora had shoved it into her backpack, and has not taken it out since, even during their night’s rest. Now she retrieves it again.
It is a small metal box with two buttons (orange and red), a dial, and a grille. When she begins fiddling with the box, Willa throws her stone into the air and motions to the others to look lively. Thokk ‘goes to recover his javelin’ from the other side of the room, and Babshapka puts on his anti-gas mask.
Aurora examines the box a while, discovering only that it has no power disc slot or other opening, just the buttons and dial. She asks the nurse, “Can you show me how this functions? Or show our team leader, if it involves clearance?”
The nurse looks at the box (Intelligence check 21). “That is a security command caller,” she says. “It is used in emergency situations when the ship communications are down - such as at present. It can emit a short-distance broadcast signal that the security robots will receive. If one is in range, the robot will respond to the broadcast by coming to the location of the signal - orange is a low-level threat, red a high-level. The speaking grille is to issue voice commands. The dial turns it off and on, and also lets you select the range - but a longer-range broadcast will drain the internal power source more rapidly.”
“I can use it,” suggests Mathias.
“As scout, you will have more cause than I will,'' says Aurora, and she hands the device back.
As Willa and Babshapka stand down from alert, the rest of the party assembles, readying to move back to the north of the ship and continue their search of the red-carded rooms.
(10:40am)
The party arrives back outside the red-carded room they abandoned when the Intellect Devourer was discovered by Hedwig. Mathias uses his card to re-open the door. It is obviously a bedroom, although the bed is of a form not seen before on the ship, and the nightstands are heavier and more ornate. The door to the hallway opens with a press panel beside the door. There is an interior door that requires a red card. There is a skeleton on the floor, sprawled near the bed - just as they left it, presumably only the metal box having been taken.
Mathias and Babshapka search the room, reasoning that the large private quarters and ornate furniture should have commensurate treasures such as jewelry on hand. They find some chests with rotting clothes. Oddly, these are the first clothing they have seen on the ship that are not uniforms. Rather, they are all diaphanous dresses and strangely elastic undergarments. Over the next 20 minutes, the rest of the party joins in the search, looking for secret drawers and cupboards that might hide valuables. While the furnishings are of excellent quality, and the clothing likely was so (at least centuries ago), they find very few personal effects and nothing of value. The only secret compartment found releases a simple metal basin from the wall - like that in the prison cell. In addition, Aurora has examined the skeleton (Investigation 9), looking for the cause of its death - its left forearm is cracked, and the left cheekbone of its face has been smashed in.
(11am)
With no other leads, Mathias opens the red-carded door to the west. The space beyond is small and narrow, more like a closet than a room [Security Chief's Quarters - Dressing Room]. It has pressure panels by both doors, two intact crates, and a standing wardrobe. The crates and the wardrobe are of cave horn.
The crates are intact but prove to be empty. They have red card locks on them but either they are not functioning or are somehow turned off - no card is needed to open them. In the wardrobe hangs two dress uniforms. They are of faded red, much more elaborate than Mathias’ current uniform, with ribbed white chest, arm, and leg plates, medals on the chest, and gold braided epaulets. Each has a pair of long white gloves that come nearly up to the elbow. Mathias whistles when he sees them and immediately starts stripping off the uniform he is wearing. As Willa tries to push past people into the narrow space, she finds Mathias in his small clothes. She coughs and retreats back, telling Babshapka that she will stand guard in the hall.
When he is done, Mathias comments that the new uniform fits better besides. Without needing a key, the party passes into the next room.
(11:10am)
The room beyond the wardrobe is a small but well-appointed dining area [Security Chief's Quarters -Dining Area]. Everything is intact, with no sign of looting, whether during the plague or by the plant men. The furniture (table and chairs) are similar to those seen before, but seemingly of a different mold - heavier and more ornate. On a sideboard are six crystal flasks with a liquid inside of a deep amber color. Inside the door to the ship’s hallway hall is a press panel to leave, but the two interior doors have red card locks.
Babshapka enters behind Mathias and gestures at the sideboard. “Have one?” he says in a strangely neutral tone.
Mathias waves off his offer. “No thanks, I’m good,” he says. The two of them proceed to search the room but find nothing of interest.
(11:20am)
The door to the north opens on a solar or private work area [Security Chief's Quarters - Personal Office]. The curved wall is immediately recognizable as the exterior wall of the ship, although here and there are cracks and bulges in the metal. In addition to a divan and stuffed chair, there is a long desk and a hard chair. There is a case with a few books - surely an oddity, and the first they have seen on the ship. The door to the dining room has a press panel on the inside.
“Books!” says Aurora when she enters. “Guys, we need a…”
“...ten minute break for a comprehend languages spell,” finishes Babshapka for her. He and Mathias begin to search the room. When the rest of the party have all entered the study, Willa moves from the hallway to the bedroom, although she leaves the door open so as to hear anything approaching.
Babshapka gives up quickly (Perception 6), having found only two regular sliding drawers in the desk which contain black slates like those in the medical rooms. These are passed around - Thokk pokes at one roughly with a finger.
Mathias doggedly continues to investigate the desk. He finds an odd drawer on the side - opened by pressing and releasing it, it folds out at an angle. In the triangular compartment are a blaster pistol and two orange key cards [When Leezar checks the desk, he actually finds three orange cards and a blaster, but he palms one of the cards before showing the others to the party]. Aurora stores the blaster in her backpack and takes an orange card. The second orange card is set aside for Willa.
Current Cards
Mathias, red [and unbeknownst to the rest of the party, orange]
Aurora, orange
Willa, orange
Shefak, brown (still in her robes)
Thokk, brown
Babshapka, black (good condition) and black (partially melted)
Tyrius, black
Larry, black
Mathias continues to search after Aurora completes her spell (comprehend languages will run until 12:30pm).
The covers of the books are of fine leather, but greatly mouldered, and the pages appear very brittle. It would be hard to keep these intact inside a backpack. They are all in the alien script. Aurora starts thumbing through the titles of the books:
The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace
The Art of Systemic Intrusion
Mental Dominance
The Gentle Art of Persuasion
Sharpening the Warrior’s Edge: The Psychology & Science of Training Civil Disobedience
The one about “mental dominance” catches her eye - but as she carefully leafs through it, she finds it is not about enchantment spells, but rather on how to assume a dominant position in a social group, and how to conduct mental warfare against opponents in a protracted war. All books are interesting, of course - and these are curious because of their small size and alien print - but that alone doesn’t make them worth hauling off a frozen mountain when they would be taking the place of food or fuel.
The last several minutes, when Aurora is reading, Mathias ceases searching and asks Umbra to freshen up his new uniform. When she is done, its colors are bright again - a rich cardinal red offsetting lustrous pearl-white.
They are ready to move on.
(11:40am)
Babshapka (Perception 18) and Hedwig (Perception 17, with advantage) check first the hallway, and then the atrium, without finding plant men about. Willa brings the rest of the party back into the dead woman’s bedchamber, closing the red doors in each of the rooms behind them. Where should they go next? There are a number of grey doors nearby, likely the quarters of the ship captain, but they have no way to access them. Reviewing memories with one another, they believe that they have been inside every red- or yellow-carded door they have seen on this level. The most unscouted part of the level at this point is the north-western quarter. They ran by a number of doors therein as they chased the brain, and were chased back by the plant men, but at neither time did they stop and check for color. It is decided that they will explore those hallways at a slower pace.
With the whole party now in the atrium, they can see that the two flanking doors in the north are violet-carded, while the central double-doors have no panel nearby, or any other device that might permit them to be opened - much as the main doors in the south, through which they all entered, did not. Mathias uses a mage hand and the red card to open the violet door to the northeast while Hedwig takes a scouting flight down the hallway to the south.
With the door open, Thokk strides inside, but he finds he has to climb over debris. The room beyond is a mess of twisted metal and loose rock. Large sections of what should be the exterior wall, or hull, of the ship have been ruptured and stove in, and the bare rock face of the mountain is visible. Along the west wall of the room is a carded door, however, and Thokk reports that it is coded to violet. From the doorway of the room, Mathias opens this for him.
The entryway beyond is also a mess of broken rock and twisted metal. The huge, incredibly thick exterior doors are both off their railings and lie broken and dented in the center of the room. The open gap in the hull of the ship is filled with a wall of rock. A violet-carded door stands along the west wall, but the control plate that would open it is smashed, the slot for the card unusable. The double doors that should lead back to the interior of the ship have some loose rock at their base but appear operational. There is, however, nothing on the wall or in the room that looks like it might activate them.
Aurora scans the hallway to the south through Hedwig’s eyes, looking for living plant men amongst the dead that still lie on the floor. There are certainly an awful lot of dead - but fewer than she remembers? (Intelligence check 16). Where have the others gone, and who has taken them? It is not immediately apparent.
Meanwhile, Thokk has come out of the two joined rooms and Mathias has opened the last one for him. The rubble in that room covers crates, but the boxes and anything they once contained have been smashed beyond any use. The bare rock of the mountain projects through great gaps in the thick hull metal of the ship.
[(11:50am) Unbeknownst to the party, the worker robot in the repair room has used the parts from one of the security robots the party destroyed to repair one of the ones originally there. Once it is on-line, the worker has the robot watch videos of the party attacking security robots in both the repair room and the security HQ. There is now one re-activated and armor-upgraded security robot in the repair room, six destroyed robots it can still draw on for parts, and ten waiting to be fixed.]
[(11:50am) Unbeknownst to the party, Security Robot 76549 has by now located a worker robot, and assigned it the task of fixing the breach that the acid has made in the floor of the deck on Level I. The worker robot complains that the hull metal designated for deck floors is plasteel, thick, and unavailable at the moment. The security robot initiates an instance priority override of the worker’s repair protocols, and tells it to institute an emergency repair with whatever materials it has access to at the moment. The worker clomps off to look for suitable metal scraps.]
(11:55am)
Although Willa wants to get a sense of what lies in the northwest section of the ship, everyone in the party is aware that they may be descending to a deeper level soon. Aurora sends Hedwig to scout the shaft of this atrium. The owl reports that the shaft is lit and anti-gravity is working; she is able to grab on to a moving handle with her talons and ride it down. There is a closed ceiling portal at the top of the shaft, a set of doors at about ten feet down, north and south, and another set about thirty feet down. Each set of doors has a landing in front of it, and Hedwig hops off the handle at the lower landing. The shaft proceeds far, far down into the ship, and Hedwig spots another landing and door far below, but lacks either the perception or the words to put the distance into a scale that Aurora can understand (Hedwig Intelligence check -2). All four of the doors at the top have colored-key locks - but Hedwig is effectively color-blind.
Aurora has Hedwig return to their level, and scout down the hallway to the west, as that is where the party is next headed. (Hedwig Perception 15 with advantage). With no immediate threats seen, the party moves into the hallway. There are three doors to the south that are all pressure-plated, and three to the north that are each violet, although the middle one already stands open.
The party agrees to ignore the pressure-plated doors to the south - anything easily accessible to the plant men would have been looted long ago - but several of them do enter the open door to the north and find a large [violet] apartment. Babshapka quickly concludes it is looted and of no interest (Perception 9), but Mathias spends some time examining the skeleton he finds there (Investigation 19). The skeleton has several broken bones - it likely died violently in combat or was otherwise beaten to death. As he stands, Mathias remarks, “I think there is something else on this ship.”
(12:05pm)
Willa has by now received the orange card that Mathias procured from the desk in the solar of the red-locked room. While the others are searching the apartment, she has Aurora instruct her in its use. Confident that there is little to it, she uses it to open the easternmost of the three violet doors. Beyond is a thoroughly looted [violet] storeroom, although Babshapka gives it a once-over just to be sure (Perception 10).
(12:10pm)
Willa moves to the eastern violet door and uses her card to open it. Beyond is a series of [violet]storerooms with numerous crates. The crates have been smashed open, and what is left of their contents have been scattered across the floors of both rooms. After Babshapka checks them, he is sure there is nothing of use in either room (Perception 24).
(12:15pm)
Willa opens the next door, this one on the eastern wall of the smaller corridor that turns south at the end of the hallway in which they have been.
Apart from the violet door lock and slightly more spacious interior, this room initially appears the same as any number of other looted apartments the party has already seen. There is an exterior entertaining area with two divans, a low table, and some cabinets, as well as a large collection of refuse in the corners. An open doorway leads to a small interior bedroom. As they begin to enter, however, they notice an intact skeleton sprawled on the floor beyond the furniture, near the doorway to the bedroom [9. Will O' Wisp Lair]
Aurora moves inside, and uses her mage hand to carefully pick through the debris surrounding the skeleton. First she, then the others, notice a wan, small light with no observable source. It appears to be hovering several feet above the chest of the skeleton. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our nineteenth Barrier Peaks session, was 28 September, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 4 - Level I, North and South
Party, Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room (S), and Husk Hall rolling separately
12:50am (Husk Hall) vegepygmies
2am (party) vegepygmies
4:50am (husk hall) Worker robot
6:20am (party) Worker robot (no yellow access)
6:50am (party) Worker robot (no yellow access)
7:10am (party) vegepygmies
8:20am (party) Worker robot (with yellow access)
8:40am (husk hall) vegepygmies
9:10am (party) vegepygmies
9:20am (party) security robot, non-lethal, red access
9:40am (Security HQ N) Police robot [now at 2]
11:50am (repair) New restored Police robot. 10/6/1
11:50am (hole) worker robot 1:40pm (party) security robot [SecBot 76549 fixing hole, then sent to HQ.
At HQ, there are already two SecBots there (86902 and 02479)
76549 and 86902 remain to reprogram arrivals
02479 accompanies the party to guard the party's camp in the surgery room. This room will no longer be rolling encounters
Post 193: How to Win Friends and Influence Robots 23 February, 571 [4 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 4
Aurora squints and looks at the glowing ball carefully (Arcana 18). Could it be a fairy light? A will-o’-the wisp?
“Swamp lights,” says Willa. “But whar ‘round ‘ere be a bog witch?”
Perhaps reacting to the attention from Aurora, the light begins to move. It drifts over to a nearby cabinet, and begins bobbing up and down in front of one of the drawers. Aurora uses her mage hand to open the drawer. Taking a few steps closer to see inside, among the odds and ends, she notices a curious bent tube. She grabs it with her hand and lifts it out of the drawer, turning it around in the air to inspect it from afar. It appears to be a bent tubular section of cave horn, about eight inches long and three inches in diameter. There is a metal dish on one end surrounded by a delicate-looking wire pyramid. When Aurora sets it on the ground, the light bobs over the tube, and then moves back and forth between her and it.
Aurora pulls one of the Atmospheric Analyzers out of her bag. In the hallway outside, Willa puts her stone up. The light is still moving back and forth between Aurora and the tube on the ground.
“Can you understand me?” asks Aurora in Common. She repeats her message in Elven, Keoish, and Ancient Suel, to no discernible effect.
“Hiiiphelex conthwaren jin'd'well,” says Mathias. Immediately the light jerks up and down rapidly, then flies directly to the tube and starts circling above it in a vague figure-eight shape.
As Aurora prepares to use the Analyzer, Mathias stoops and retrieves the tube. The light stays near it.
Aurora reads off the display (she has a quarter-hour left of comprehend languages); “Pollen and spore count negligible, no environmental toxins or poisons present - low levels of ionizing radiation detected.”
“That’d be the blasters,” says Babshapka.
Suddenly the light flashes brightly, and the Analyzer registers a spike in the radiation level. From Mathias’ perspective, a spark of electricity flew from the tiny ball of light to the tube, landing at a red button labeled with a symbol in the alien script.
“What’s that say?” asks Mathias, and he holds out the device to Aurora. On the flat end of the tube there are two depressable buttons, red and blue.
“The red says ‘receive’, the blue says ‘transmit’.”
“‘Receive’? That’s harmless enough. Maybe this is a vid screen.” Mathias presses the red button. Immediately the bent tube produces the sound of the alien language. Aurora, with her spell running, hears, ‘Two unidentified languages detected - translation commencing.”
Babshapka examines the skeleton - there is no clear sign of death, but it wears the tatters of a ship’s uniform.
Mathias presses the red button, then holds the device near his mouth as he speaks, “Lieutenant Mathias Forge, Security Officer of the Away Team ship.” The device responds with the alien language.
In the response, Aurora hears “Translation not yet complete.”
Thokk pushes his way past the others and bends down to look at the light. It is strange and ethereal - bright, but cold. (Perception 16). He agrees with Willa that it is a swamp light.
After several more minutes, the device speaks in the alien language again - this time it says, “Translation complete.” A second later, it speaks again, but in Common, saying for all of them to hear, “Translation Complete. If this message is understood, press the red button twice.”
Mathias holds the device up and presses the red button twice. The device says “Correct translation acknowledged; welcome to the Mark 2 Universal Translation Device. Now that translation of your language is complete, point the device at a creature whose language you wish to understand and press ‘receive’; if the language is known, it will be translated for you. If you wish to broadcast, point it at the creature who is to receive your language and press ‘transmit’. Your known language will be translated for it. If the recipient’s language is unknown, please allow time for translation protocol to run.”
Mathias looks over the device, unsure of the command to “point it” at the creature when it has two ends. He finally decides to hold the end with the buttons in his hand and point the wire pyramid at the little light. He presses ‘transmit’ and says, “Will you be following us?”
The light wobbles back and forth slowly.
Mathias pushes the ‘receive’ button, and Babshapka motions to the others to be silent.
The light flickers rapidly, and from the device comes the barest whisper of a voice, like a wind through dry reeds, “At last I can speak…”
[DM's note: It was my goal here, as stated in the module, to have the wisp lead the PC's to an area of dangerous radiation, and then feed off their suffering or even death. Unfortunately, once they activated the translation device, I made my whispered wisp voice too creepy. They immediately got defensive, and when Babshapka used his primeval awareness, the jig was up. In 5e, will o' the wisps are undead rather than fey. They also have an interesting ability called Consume Life which they can use against unconscious creatures.]
“Who are you? What do you have to say to us?” asks Mathias, careful to press ‘transmit’ while he speaks and then ‘receive’ when he finishes..
“I was Ensign Flokturn Mit. I was one of the original crew members. What am I now? I am trapped and seek release - I ask you to help free me…”
“How long have you been waiting for this?”
“I have been trapped since my death...since the plague.”
“How did you die? Is this connected to the final days on the ship?”
The whispered words come pouring out from the little light. “Yes...the final days were terrible - like a horror vid. Once enough of the security crew had been infected, there was no order - and the Chief and Captain were nowhere to be seen. The sane barricaded themselves in the mess halls together, the paranoid ones alone in their rooms. Once enough technicians refused their duties, the ship systems started to fail - when the hallways went dark, some of the plagued ones began assaulting colonists, and there were rumors that someone had removed the no-kill failsafes in the SecBots. Groups of plague victims banded together like packs of wild dogs and started preying on the sane and each other. The ComTechs said things were just as bad or worse on the other ship sections and no help was going to come from them. My last memory is the door of this room bursting open - at that point I hadn’t slept in days - I don’t think I even saw who or what killed me. I haven’t been able to leave this room - I think because my body is here. I think if you moved my body to another room I could leave.”
“Where do you want your body put?”
“It is very close by - it is my own room. This was not my room. I didn’t feel safe in my own room - I thought they would look for me there - I may have had the plague myself - I was hiding in a friend’s room, this room - I hadn’t seen him in days…”
“Is it a red-doored room, the one where you want to go?”
“No, violet. It is just my personal quarters, just three doors down from here.”
Hearing the desired direction of the spirit, Aurora checks the corridors with Hedwig but sees nothing untoward (Perception 21 with advantage).
While this conversation is going on, Babshapka reaches out with his primeval awareness (Babshapka at 3/2). He feels the same three undead as before - but overwhelmingly close - right on top of them!
“I’ll take you there,” says Mathias, “but what can you do for us?”
Babshapka whistles to get the party’s attention, and with his back to the light, exaggeratedly but silently mouths “undead...in here...three.”
Thokk sees Babshapka, and draws his sword - the sunsword that glows in the presence of undead. It is glowing brightly, producing far more light than the creature floating near Mathias, almost as much as the ceiling panel lights.
Babshapka draws his broadsword.
Round 1
Trusting that the glowing light is one of the undead that he is sensing (it having already admitted it is long dead), and being thoroughly creeped out by the whispering voice, Babshapka takes matters into his own hands and strikes quickly with his magic broadsword (attacks 12, 16). The light is quicker, though, and nimbly dances out of the way of his blade (AC better than 16).
Mathias, thumb still pressing the ‘transmit’ button, backs up to the doorway. “Ensign, cease and desist!” he orders - but when he gets to the doorway, he fires off bolts of explosive force with his other hand. The light dodges both of these as well. He switches to ‘receive’.
The light follows Mathias - and suddenly sends out a bolt of lightning which strikes him! (Attack roll 23; 4 points electrical damage). The air around Mathias fills with duplicate bolts, and he is struck twice more! (11 points and 13 points for 28 total from the three wisps - the second two will-o’-wisps began the round invisible and were able to attack Mathias with advantage).
“There’s the three,” says Babshapka with grim satisfaction.
Aurora runs across the room and dives behind one of the divans, taking cover lest any lightning bolts be directed her way. Peeking from behind the back of the divan, she shoots four magic missiles at one of the lights (2nd level cast, Aurora at 3/2/2; 19 damage).
Willa pushes her way past Mathias in the doorway and enters the room. The light that was hit by Aurora’s unerring missiles evades her first two blows. Willa’s face darkens - she shouts wordlessly and keeps attacking (action surge), and her final blow strikes the light (attack roll 20 (AC19); 12 points of damage, wisp is resistant to non-magical damage, takes 6, total 25). The room is filled with a horrid shriek and the light winks out of existence.
“Two left,” says Babshapka, when he feels the overwhelming presence of the undead lessen.
The thought of these swamp lights waiting invisibly in the cave for seven hundred years just to ambush his friends fills Thokk with rage. [Or, possibly, Thokk's player realizes that it is unlikely the melee fighters are going to be hitting an AC19 without the advantage granted by Thokk's rage]. His glowing longsword cuts through the air, chasing after the two lights remaining and colliding with one (11 damage).
Umbra makes no move to enter the room, seeing the combat just fine from outside. She fires off three dark bolts at the light Thokk hit, her darkness overcoming its light and making it permanently wink out (10 points, 21 total. Umbra to 0/3/2).
“One left,” says Babshapka.
Umbra’s brow furrows and a look of great concentration appears on her face. (She converts sorcery points to a spell slot) (Umbra to 1/3/2).
Round 2
The remaining wisp turns invisible and flees the immediate combat. It flies over to the sofa, becoming visible as it sends forth a lightning bolt. Stuffing flies everywhere as Aurora cowers from the bolt.
Thokk comes up from behind the light, slashing at it furiously (two hits, 10 and 15 damage).
The last trapped soul is freed.
“Undead?” says Aurora incredulously from behind the divan. “I thought will-o’ wisps were fey creatures!”
(10:30am)
Aurora’s comprehend languages ends.
“So, ‘ow be we?” asks Willa.
“I didn’t think we were well enough to explore before - and now, less,” says Mathias matter-of-factly. The others nod.
Willa takes out one of the healing canisters and motions for Aurora to do the same. They just finished a long rest - and judging from their lack of hunger, it is not even approaching lunch yet. If they wish to continue, especially if they wish to explore a deeper level, they will need some magical healing. (Willa at 27/62, Thokk at 11/66)
One of Willa’s canisters has only one charge left, according to its dial. She uses the entire contents on Thokk and then discards the can. (Thokk healed for 12 points). She takes out another can and uses it on Mathias, the foam erasing the scorch marks from the lightning (heals 14 points). Aurora’s canister is applied to Thokk (12) and Willa (7). “Yeah, that’s better,” says Mathias. “At least we can safely get back to the nurse now.”
Babshapka watches the corridor to the south while the party exits from the room (Perception 24). Hedwig scouts ahead (Perception 23 with advantage), all the way to the atrium around the northern drop chute. The party follows, with Babshapka covering their exit.
Regrouping in the atrium, Hedwig scouts ahead to the training room (Perception 16 with advantage) and then all the way to the atrium around the eastern drop chute (Perception 20 with advantage). So far he has not seen anything and Aurora tells the party to advance with confidence. She seems to be much more relaxed now that the Intellect Devourer is dead.
As the party approaches the atrium, Hedwig scouts the corridors approaching it from the west (Perception 22 with advantage) and the south (Perception 9 with advantage).
(12:40pm)
Bringing up the rear of the party, Babshapka waits outside the door of the southernmost medical storeroom while the rest of the party opens the door to the surgery room and enters. Nurse Xiphox reports that Shefak is in stable condition but will need another “ivy” in seven or eight hours. Her preliminary tests with the help of the surgery machine suggest that all higher brain functions in Shefak have ceased - only completely automatic responses such as breathing remain. Xiphox is continuing to run tests and collect data.
While the main party remains in the surgery room, Mathias exits. Together with Babshapka, he searches the southernmost of the medical storerooms, but the two of them find nothing resembling the liquid-filled bags (luck roll -3). They do note however that the storeroom has an interior door they did not open before.
(12:50pm)
Beyond the door is a [yellow-carded]apartment. It is old and covered in dust, but does not appear to have been looted (Babshapka Perception 12). Babshapka and Mathias check the drawers of the desk and under the mattress - looking now not for bags but for items of value. Inside the desk drawers are a number of the black glass slates. Remarking that after seeing these in several locations, they still don’t know what they are, Mathias suggests that they take one and ask the nurse.
(1:00pm)
The duo try the medical storeroom to the north of the previous one. They find a box of bandages (can be used as a healer’s kit), but no ivy bags (luck roll = 0). There is an interior door here as well that they did not check before. It leads to another medical storeroom (Babshapka Perception (12).
(1:10pm)
The interior medical storeroom has been mostly stripped of supplies. What little remains bears no resemblance to the clear bags (Luck roll -2). All of the crates have been opened carefully, though - not smashed. This must have been done in the plague days, not by plant men.
(1:20pm)
A third medical storeroom proves to be more rewarding. After a careful search, they find an unopened box concealed under the lid of a larger, open crate. The box is full of the strange clear bags, although most of them are either dry or rent open. They do manage to carefully pull out three that appear intact (Luck roll +3).
(1:30pm)
The final, cavernous medical storeroom has a fair amount of supplies of unknown use, but no ivy bags (luck roll -2). They return to the nurse with the three bags and the black slate. Xiphox carefully places the bags in a cabinet, and says that they will keep Shefak going for a few more days, which is helpful - but if that is all they found, the looting in the plague days, and since, must have been more extensive than she would have predicted.
Mathias tells Xiphox that the slates are similar to other devices he has used before, of course - he just hasn’t used this particular model in quite some time, and would appreciate a refresher. She says that they are portable computational and communications devices - or at least they were. Their communication abilities were lost when the ship’s mainframe went down. They may still have information stored on them, but they don’t take the power discs. Rather, they have small on-board batteries which have surely expired over the centuries. She tries to “turn it on” and soon says that it is currently quite useless.
(1:40pm)
With Shefak as well-supplied and cared for as they can manage for the moment, the party contemplates heading deeper into the ship. They agree that they need a healer to come with them, as it may not be easy to get back to the room where Larry and Tyrius are holed up. Considering the two, they decide to ask Larry to use his current spells on them, but to ask Tyrius to accompany them below. As for their destination, they all agree on the third level. While nearly everyone agrees that the Intellect Devourer they destroyed was the “alien” referred to in the ancient note, none of them are eager to risk that it was not. Mathias asks Babshapka repeatedly about the mind flayer, and he assures him that the other aberration he sensed was far deeper in the ship than the third level.
They set out toward the central complex of the level, with Hedwig scouting ahead (Perception 16 with advantage). Before he reaches the doors to the medical bay, he returns to Aurora, reporting the noise of machinery near the acid hole. Mathias takes the lead and makes himself visible.
A worker robot is near the edge of the hole; sparks from something it is doing to the floor flash in the dimly lit corridor. A security robot moves to intercept Mathias as he approaches. “Hiiiphelex conthwaren jin'd'well,” Mathias says confidently.
“Translation protocol unnecessary;” responds the robot in Common, “this unit has already run it.”
“SecBot 76549?” asks Mathias.
“Affirmative.”
Mathias turns slightly and motions the rest of the party behind him to proceed through the medical bay doors while he engages with the robots.
“Is that worker unit fixing the hole in the floor as I instructed?”
“Affirmative. This unit has directed the worker to make emergency repairs on the breach.”
“Excellent.” Mathias considers a line of questioning. “How many Security Robots are on each level?” When the robot does not reply immediately, he follows up as a justification for the query, “My team is about to expand our search for exo-fauna off of this level, and I need to know what defenses are in place in each sector of the ship.”
“This unit does not have the information requested. Security Robot coordination is designed to be run through the ship communication system; since the system has been down, security robots have been running on autonomous protocols and real-time check-ins have been suspended. This unit does not know how many SecBots are currently on each level. There are operational guard posts at sensitive areas on each level where SecBots are deployed, but priority is given to Level I. As well as those assigned to fixed guard detail, there is a large complement of SecBots with rotating search patterns that are randomly generated but weighted by assessed risk. That was this unit’s detail before your over-riding instructions.”
“Why is level one more heavily protected?”
“Level I is where the most sensitive facilities are - the robot repair facility, the robot arsenal, the security chief's office and private quarters, police headquarters and detention facility, as well as several grey-clearance sites.”
“Are all the ‘bots on this level aware of the presence of my team now?”
“Unknown but unlikely. Since this unit was instructed by you to initiate transmission of this information through individual unit auditory signaling approximately 4 hours 5 minutes ago, this unit has encountered only this worker robot and no other service personnel including other Security Robots.”
“I see.”
“If you wish this information to be communicated more efficiently, this unit can upload it at Police Headquarters so that it will be downloaded by every SecBot that cycles through.”
“Yes, make it so.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Is there a way to communicate the translation protocol as well, so that other SecBots can speak to us immediately?”
“This unit can upload its learned language files and have your language downloaded into all SecBots as they cycle through the Police Headquarters if you wish.”
“Yes, please do.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Hmm. What is being done about the small green exo-fauna groups on level one? Are there more on the lower levels?”
“Specify: small green exo-fauna?”
“Ahh...veggie men?”
“These terms are unknown to this unit; interpolation of suggested translations with this unit’s memory records does not suggest any matches.”
“Ok...what life forms have you encountered on this level recently? About three feet high, gray or green?”
“Size and color parameters suggest you may be speaking of a grey-black catlike exo-faunal creature with limited spatial warping ability.”
“No, not the displacer beasts. Focus on the green part - what lives on this level and is green?”
“There are bipedal green humanoid fauna…”
“Yes!”
“...but they are not exofauna, they are indigenous to the ship.”
“What?”
“Biometric sampling shows that these creatures contain a high proportion of crew DNA. They are not themselves crew, but this unit has concluded that they are some sort of recombinant offspring of the crew and other living things.”
“Ugh,” says Mathias, somewhat disgusted, and grinds his teeth while he searches for words.
“Can you communicate with them?”
“They have not responded to this unit’s prior attempts at communication, even after multiple competing models of translation protocols have been implemented.”
“Do they attack you?”
“When this unit encounters them in kitchen and mess hall areas, they demonstrate a high incidence of aggressive interactions, including attacks. In such cases, this unit has attempted to disperse them with non-lethal means.”
“I see.” Mathias opens his pack and pulls out the metal box he found in the red-locked bedroom. “This box should let me communicate with you - I am going to test it.” He flips the dial to “on” but at a low level and speaks into the grille, “SecBot 76549, respond.”
“This unit is receiving a short-distance transmission.”
“Good. Can you transmit to me?”
“This unit is not equipped with a transmitter - but has the capacity to have an appropriate transmitter installed by a violet-level technician if required.”
“Ok - are there any SecBots that can transmit now?”
“All security robots are equipped with short-distance reception antennas as a standard feature, but not transmitters. This unit does not know of any that currently have transmitters.”
“Ok. Can that worker robot finish these repairs by itself?”
“The presence of this unit is not required for the worker to finish its currently assigned task.”
“Good. Tell it to go help repair security robots when it is done. Your instructions are to: Upload the translation protocol into the security room along with the information about my team, then check on the status of the repaired security bots, and then return and leave that information in the security room as well.”
“Acknowledged.”
All the while Mathias has been speaking to the Security Robot, the rest of the party has passed through the medical bay, the open gray door to the interior of the central complex, and (lacking Mathias’ red key) has rapped on the door to the ship’s stores. Their knocks are eventually answered by Tyrius, and they fill him in on Shefak and the battle with the surgeon robot. When they tell Tyrius their plans, he agrees to accompany them below decks - but insists that he will not leave Shefak alone in the care of the nurse android, with none of them present. After a brief discussion, it is agreed that they will break camp and move their base to the surgical room, so that Larry and Eddard at least can oversee Shefak’s care.
After they come to this agreement, Larry sees to Willa and Thokk. (Larry currently at 3/3/3)
Larry casts three first-level cure wounds on Willa for 5, 8, and 11. Willa now at 58/62.
Larry at 0/3/3
Larry casts two second-level cure wounds spells on Thokk for 10 and 23. Thokk at 66/66.
Larry at 0/1/3.
Soon after they begin to pack up their gear (with Willa insisting that each of them going below carry two rations of the food they brought with them in case they are away that long), Mathias joins them. He also asks for healing from Larry.
Larry casts a second-level cure wounds spell on Mathias for 17.
Larry at 0/0/3.
With the party hale and hearty again, Willa decides to take as much advantage of Larry as they can before he stays behind. She asks him for a darkvision spell and he agrees. Normally this is a second-level spell, but he uses a third-level slot to power it as those are all he has left. After casting it and touching Willa, he looks surprised, then rapidly looks over the group, reaches out and touches Tyrius, bestowing the spell on him as well. “Och, Ah dinnae ken it afore, bu’ Ah get two tarrgets far a thard level sloot.”
Willa and Tyrius have darkvision until 9:50pm. Larry at 0/0/2.
After the mules are packed and laden, they line up in the corridor outside the ship’s stores. Mathias tells Eddard to make sure the mules don’t get spooked if the worker robot is still fixing the floor when they pass by. Tyrius looks thoughtful. “How is it,” he asks Mathias, “that these mechanical men are now helping us?”
Mathias shrugs. “I brokered a peace with the robots. I believe in order.”
Tyrius nods in agreement. “It is good to know that even when I am not with the main party, there is someone that can speak for us and negotiate.”
Mathias replies, “There is always a common ground - we just have to find it.”
Willa rolls her eyes but doesn’t interject.
As the party members in the lead proceed into the medical bay, Mathias says, “I’m just going to check on whether they fixed the armor yet - Hedwig can scout and I’ll catch up.” When the last of them have left the hallway, he turns invisible and opens the door to the chief of security's office, but the wardrobe still stands empty.
Mathias decides to open the inner door to the police headquarters, in case the worker has brought the armor there, but has been unable to make it through the red-carded door. There are currently three security robots in the room, and they turn their heads as the door opens.
Mathias quickly becomes visible and says “Hiiiphelex conthwaren jin'd'well.”
One of the robots responds in Common, “These units are currently running translation protocol per your instructions; estimated completion in six minutes. This unit is uploading the language file and information about your team composition into the security computer as instructed.”
“Good work, SecBot 76549.”
A few minutes later, the two other robots announce in unison, “These units have completed translation protocol,” in Common.
“Lieutenant Mathias Force of the Away Team Ship requests your assistance in protecting the ship from exo-faunal threats.” He holds forth his red card.
One of the new robots projects a rod that briefly shines a light over the card; the other shines a similar light across Mathias’ face. Again both speak at the same time. “While your uniform and security card are those of the Chief Security Officer, your personal biometrics do not match his.”
“It’s been 700 years,” says Mathias. “The mind-attacking exo-fauna escaped and killed the captain. We are here to eliminate threats to the ship.” SecBot 76549 adds to this with a brief phrase in beeps and whistles; Mathias assumes it is adding support to his claim in the machine’s native language. (Mathias’ Persuasion roll 26, with advantage from assistance by the SecBot, other Robots' Insight roll 2)
“These two units are ready to receive your orders, Lieutenant.”
“Very good. I need two of you to keep level one secure, while one of you escorts my Away Team. Since some of the team are exo-fauna, the one who accompanies us must be prepared to explain this to the other SecBot defenders of the ship.”
“SecBot 02479 is ready to accompany you,” says one of the new robots.
“SecBot 76549 will guard the Police Headquarters and inform other SecBots of your mission as they cycle through.”
Mathias, followed by the new security robot, moves back through the office, hallway, and medical rooms and out into the main corridor. The worker robot appears to have almost finished repairing the floor. The covering is a hodgepodge of overlapping flat metal pieces cobbled together, with many of the welds still glowing hot, but certainly looks strong enough to support weight on either side. The party is traveling slowly for the sake of scouting and keeping the mules calm, so Mathias is able to catch up to them and inform them of their new escort before they reach the surgical room.
(2pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, the worker robot finishes its repair job on the floor and moves off to join the other worker robot in the robot repair room, as Mathias directed]
There is some discussion amongst the party about the camp being less secure behind yellow doors rather than red, and whether anything will bother Larry and Eddard and the mules while they are gone. Mathias asks SecBot 02479 to guard the doors, and it agrees to not let anyone but the Away Team through. While the party enters, Mathias stays outside to talk with the robot.
“SecBot 02479, do you know anything about level three?”
The robot responds as if by route. “Level III - Upper walkway and lounge. Recreational kitchen and other recreational facilities for all personnel. Cargo holds for colonist terra-forming equipment.”
“Where can power armor be located?”
“Powered armor location is limited to gray clearance.”
Mathias nods contemplatively.
Inside, the nurse is trying to keep the “thoroughly unhygienic” mules away from curiously nosing the body of Shefak. Eddard helps her shepherd them to the farthest corner of the room. Tyrius questions the nurse about what she is doing for Shefak, and is eventually satisfied with her explanation. “It appears even the strange medicine of this ship cannot help our companion recover,” he says sadly, “though it is keeping her alive,” and he gestures at the bag of clear liquid to which she is still attached. “I have prayed much on this while you were away. I have faith that the power of Pelor can heal her, but I am too poor a vessel of his beneficence. Once we leave, I have no doubt we can find a better servant of Pelor who will be able to restore her fully.”
Willa’s eyes go wide at the thought of a two-week trek through the frozen mountains with Shefak unconscious, but she says nothing. They did as much for Umbra, after all - but the terrain was nowhere near as challenging.
Larry looks skeptically at Shefak’s body, his head on the same level as the high bed in which she rests. He peers under her bandages, and clicks his tongue at the soft scars from the aborted surgery. “Ah cannae do mooch, bu’ this Ah can do,” he says, and lays his hand on the wound. (Larry casts a cure wounds at third level for 18 points; Shefak at 37/39. Larry at 0/0/1).
“Simply astounding,” says the nurse, marveling at Larry’s apparent healing nano-technology. She considers his dust-and-grease covered skin. “Is it this ability that keeps you healthy when you are even more unhygienic than those quadruped exo-fauna?” Larry snorts in reply.
The mules are unburdened and Willa goes again through the supplies they are taking with them below. They have a brief lunch of cold trail rations and water from their skins. Tyrius mouths a silent prayer over Shefak’s body, and Thokk and Larry give each other a manly embrace in parting. The party sets out. They have debated which drop chute to use. The southern one is obviously out of the question - dark, with normal gravity, and the handles not moving; it would be a treacherous climb down into the unknown. Some in the party urge considering the eastern shaft, the one outside in the atrium, just because it is so close, and doesn’t take them again through the territory of the gray plant men. This one is dimly lit, and has moving handles, but normal gravity - and Aurora doesn’t fancy riding down with her meager strength alone to support her. The northern and western shafts are brightly lit, have moving handles, and anti-gravity is in effect, which should make for a much easier descent, even if it is a longer trek to get there. They agree to set out for the northern one. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
And don't feel too bad about tipping your players off on the will o' the wisp. They were probably already on edge given that almost everything on the ship has tried to kill them, whether it be infected crews, displacer beasts or that damn intellect devourer!
I notice that our heroes are burning through a lot of the goodies they're finding on the ship just to survive. How much high-tech treasure are they even going to have left by the time they leave the Starfall?
And don't feel too bad about tipping your players off on the will o' the wisp. They were probably already on edge given that almost everything on the ship has tried to kill them, whether it be infected crews, displacer beasts or that damn intellect devourer!
Yes, aside from Mathias' fascination with the machine-men, they are pretty much assuming that everything on the ship is an enemy, which is actually a good assumption in most cases.
CruelSummerLord wrote:
I notice that our heroes are burning through a lot of the goodies they're finding on the ship just to survive. How much high-tech treasure are they even going to have left by the time they leave the Starfall?
Yes, these things are pretty lightly sprinkled through the module, but by this point they have realized the importance of discs and begun to look for them. There are a few 'caches' of tech, but to get to these the party has to understand the key system and then find a gray card...or find and figure out how to use a laser drill...will they be able to do that? _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twentieth Barrier Peaks session, was 7 October, 2019.
A series of poor rolls from the party results in a comedic battle against plants as the party enters Level III of the ship.
Post 194: Deeper - the Walkway 23 February, 571 [4 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 4
Outside the drop shaft, Aurora explains to Mathias how to use the handles to hold on until he is near the doorway of the level he wants and then release, trusting in the anti-gravity and momentum dampeners to deposit him gently on the landing in front of the doors. He nods as she talks, although no one can see him, as he is invisible. When he is ready, he moves to the southern entrance of the chute, where the handles emerge from the ceiling and then go down the wall alongside the inner landing (on the other side of the chute, the handles are all traveling up).
Mathias steps off into the air, grabs a handle, and is quickly born away. He lets himself get carried past the immediate next landing to Level II, with its closed brown-carded doors, and continues down to about thirty feet below the rest of the party, just above the landing to Level III, before letting go and drifting to the ledge. He does not need his card; the door is already open.
(2:10pm)
Immediately upon crossing the threshold of the chute Mathias feels the difference of this level. For a half-second, he thinks he has descended through an exit of the ship and is outside again. The air smells fresh, it is as light as a cloudy day, he hears animal calls and feels a light breeze on his face. Indeed, there are even green vines growing along the metal floor of the atrium from the opening before him.
He turns briefly and looks through the hollow center of the chute at the other landing - that opens onto a flat, gray, metal wall. In a second, Hedwig emerges from the chute, clumsily flapping as he adjusts from riding a handle down in anti-gravity to suddenly supporting his full weight in flight. He lands on the ground near Mathias’ feet, turning his head quizzically as he looks at the vines.
Mathias eases himself forward, eyes adjusting to the light and the vista seen widening as he approaches the opening. It appears there is a ledge or narrow walkway just in front of the atrium, and then, over the edge of a railing, empty space. Far across the space opposite him is the gray of the ship wall. The open area is easily hundreds of feet across, and quite possibly the entire diameter of the ship. The ceiling is just ten feet or so overhead - dull metal here in the atrium and above the walkway but once out into the open space the ceiling becomes too bright to look at, as if the strange ceiling lights in the apartments had been plastered across the entire surface so that it became as bright as the sky.
From behind Mathias comes the clang of metal, and he jumps as he turns. Thokk is striding quickly away from the chute, one hand covering his eyes against the glare from the lights, the other hand on the hilt of his sword. Mathias grabs Thokk’s shoulder before he leaves the atrium, and whispers at him “Easy buddy - wait for the others.” Thokk grunts impatiently but stops.
One by one the other members of the party land and spread out along the walls of the atrium, the more cautious ones agreeing with Mathias that they should all be present before any of them move onto the walkway and potentially into the view of anyone or anything else. Once Aurora has joined them, she sends Hedwig on a reconnaissance flight.
Aurora relates what Hedwig sees to the rest of the party (Perception 13). The metal walkway goes all the way around the octagonal circumference of the ship, punctuated by numerous doors of large size on the upper wall. The middle of this level is empty air, but some hundred feet below is a “floor” that is teeming with life. A number of calls, whistles, screams, hoots, and similar sounds can be heard. Much of the floor is thick with tall trees - those areas not covered with foliage are spread with dead leaves and vegetable matter, patches of grass and earth slowly spilling onto bare metal decks. Even in the glare of daylight, to which his owl-eyes object, Hedwig notes small creatures - animals, birds, insects, reptiles - darting here and there. In the center of the floor is a lake and an island - the fringes of the lake are bordered by marsh.
Babshapka bends down and examines the leaf-covered vines that are growing their way into the atrium. He doesn’t recognize them at all (Nature 12).
When Hedwig reports no foes in sight, Thokk snorts at the cowardice of the party and walks across the vine-covered floor toward the railing to see the view for himself. [2. Strangle Vines]
Surprise round
Immediately the closest vines move, whipping around Thokk's legs and crawling up to wrap around his arm (attack roll 23, not on his throat, two points crushing damage). In bare seconds Thokk is held fast by the vines, and more are snaking toward him!
My 5e conversion of strangler vines wrote:
When a strangler vine successfully wraps around a target, the target takes 1d4 bludgeoning
damage and is grappled. On its turn, the target may attempt to escape the grapple with a contested Athletics or Acrobatics roll against the vine's Acrobatics. Any target already grappled by a vine at the start of the vine’s turn takes an automatic 1d4 damage. If a single target is Grappled by a number of vines exceeding the target’s Strength Mod (minimum 1) it is Restrained rather than Grappled. The FIRST time a vine successfully grapples a breathing opponent, it rolls a d10. On a 1, it has wrapped around the opponent's neck. In addition to all the effects of being grappled, the opponent is also suffocating.
Round One
Two new vines assault Thokk, but now that he is aware of them, they are unable to gain purchase as he thrashes about, struggling against the old one (3 points damage).
Mathias shoots at the center of the mass of vines, even as he notices that all along the railing, more and more vines are creeping, almost flowing, up from below (Vines have AC14; two hits for 14 damage total). Those vines that he hits shrivel and drop their leaves, but he estimates that it would take scores of such blasts to even destroy all the ones currently present, and more are continuing to arrive (Insight 13) even as he attacks.
Reasoning that plants won’t like fire, Willa takes a red canister from her pack, primes it, and lobs it gently forward underhand at the center of the vines. At the sudden movement of the small object, Hedwig’s instincts take over and he dives straight for the canister as it explodes, belching forth sticky fire in all directions. Hedwig briefly becomes a ball of fire before he disappears. (Attack roll 5, misses the AC10 patch of ground she was aiming at, making it farther from Thokk and closer to Hedwig than intended. Hedwig Dex save 2; critical fail. Fire will last for three more rounds after the initial explosion).
The vines shudder as they shrivel and burn. The ones nearby but not afire move rapidly aside or away, avoiding the area aflame but continuing to move around its edges toward the party. (Willa Insight 11).
[The plant is immune to normal (torch-like) fires, but will be burned and withdraw from burning oil or magical fire.]
Thokk rips violently at the vines wrapping around him, attempting to free himself (Athletics check to end grapple 8; critical fail). Thokk pulls so hard on the vines entwining his legs that when they do not give way, he yanks them out from under himself and he topples to the ground, landing next to where the walkway deck is still ablaze (Dexterity save to avoid fire 5; critical fail). “Yes Willa!” he shouts. “Good idea! Fire burn plant and free Thokk!” He rolls across the floor and into the fire, covering his body with the sticky burning gel (9 fire damage; Thokk is prone but no longer grappled).
Umbra shoots off a ray of shadow but misses the narrow, twisting vines.
Aurora sends a firebolt at the few vines remaining to the west of the area the grenade hit (11 damage). They retreat as well, so that there is still a mass of vines to the east of the fire, but the western side of the walkway is now clear.
Babshapka pulls forth his camp blanket, holding it open to smother the flames on Thokk but not wanting to approach him while he still lies in the area of the deck that is itself on fire. Tyrius moves to his side, calling for Thokk to come to them.
Round Two
Mathias, undaunted by the flames, moves nearly to Thokk’s side and sends forth bolts of force at any vine creeping west (2 damage).
As Thokk gains his feet he heads toward Aurora. The flaming goo drips from him, searing his flesh. Babshapka and Tyrius are able to intercept him before he reaches Aurora and they wrap him in the blanket, attempting to smother the flames. (Babshapka Nature roll 18; Thokk is still aflame but takes no damage this round).
With Thokk in good hands and the vines at bay for now, Willa moves to the railing’s edge and looks for more enemies. The vines that are even now continuing to climb over the rail all come together below in a giant stalk that trails all the way to the ground like some fantastical bean plant in a children’s tale. Willa estimates the ground to be some 80 feet below, with a massive root mass at the bottom of the stalk.
Aurora continues to hurl firebolts (10 damage), keeping the vines back.
Tyrius attempts to see whether Thokk is still aflame under the blanket. He looks over at the deck, where the fires are still burning, but in a smaller circle and with lower flames than a few seconds ago (Investigation 24). “We may just have to let these burn out on their own,” he says, but he continues to help Babshapka smother Thokk with the blanket.
Umbra shoots another ray of shadow - this one strikes a vine (12 damage), frosting over the leaves and seeming to paralyze a section of the plant. Others from behind it rapidly grow over it, however.
[Cold freezes the vines in the area struck, but thawing occurs in 2-5 rounds]
Over the next two rounds, Babshapka and Tyrius continue to beat at and smother the flames on Thokk (Babshapka Nature checks 17, 17 - Thokk takes no more damage on the last two rounds of the fire). In the end, they succeed more in wiping off the sticky gel than in putting out the flames - once the goo is sticking to the blanket Thokk is free from the fire. What is left of the blanket, however, is aflame and has large holes already burned in it. Babshapka tosses it to the metal floor as a complete loss.
During this time, Aurora, Umbra, and Mathias have been shooting bolts of fire, cold, and force at the vines. Their concerted actions have been enough to hold the vines back and keep them from menacing the party, but the plants show no sign of being deterred. Rather, they continue to make feints and forays, creeping around the edges even as their companion vines accumulate in withered piles on the walkway.
Once it is clear that Thokk is fine, Aurora and Umbra remain firing at the vines, while the rest of the party moves more to the west. Mathias stops at a normal-sized door, using his red card in the violet lock. Babshapka continues beyond the door, checking for tracks in the dust (Nature 4). He finds the ground is mostly clear, the vines having crawled over it recently and swept it clean.
As the violet door slides open, hands go to weapons, for there are four robots immediately visible [7. Robot Station]. “Easy, I got this,” says Mathias, as he motions for the others to stand down. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twentieth Barrier Peaks session, was 7 October, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 4 - Level I, North and South and Level III
Party, Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room (S), and Husk Hall are each rolling separately
Party
2am vegepygmies
6:20am Worker robot (no yellow access)
6:50am Worker robot (no yellow access)
7:10am vegepygmies
8:20am Worker robot (with yellow access)
9:10am vegepygmies
9:20am security robot, non-lethal, red access
11:50am 02479 accompanies the party to guard the party's camp in the surgery room. This room will no longer be rolling encounters]
Husk Hall
12:50am vegepygmies - remove some dead
4:50am Worker robot
8:40am vegepygmies - remove some dead From 2pm on (when party descends), 2 in 72 chance every 10 minutes of pygmies clearing dead from husk hall; 1 in 6 chance per hour, completely cleared within a day
Security HQ
9:40am (N) Police robot [now at 2]
11:50am 76549 and 86902 remain to reprogram arrivals; 02479 accompanies the party to guard the party's camp in the surgery room. 4:20pm - SecBot 65491 arrives, HQ now fully staffed with three SecBots
Level I Robot Repair Room
11:50am New restored security robot. 2:30pm - New restored security robot.
Post 195: One Quarter Retrograde 23 February, 571 [4 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 4
“Hiiiphelex conthwaren jin'd'well,” says Mathias confidently. Lights play along the surface of the security robot in the center of the small, 20’ x 20’ square room. The other three robots are all workers. After a minute it becomes apparent that while one of the worker robots is alert and active, starting toward the door before being whistled at by the security robot and then halting, the two remaining workers are frozen in position, unmoving.
“That’s going to take a while,” says Aurora, referring to the “translation protocol.” The vines are tapering off, apparently reluctant to continue to throw themselves at her and Umbra’s spells for no reward. When they are down to the occasional leafy probe, Aurora excuses herself and Umbra waves permission with a delicate hand gesture. Aurora pulls out the brass brazier and a block of incense from her bag. “I’m going to summon Hedwig again,” she announces, mostly to Willa and Babshapka, and then moves beyond the open personnel door along the walkway to a much larger set of violet doors. Willa nods, and then points Babshapka and Tyrius at a strange device rising from the railing near where it turns along another side of the octagon. Apparently Willa doesn’t mind waiting either the ten minutes for the translation, or the hour for Aurora’s ritual. In reality, she quite likes their vantage point at the moment. With the whole ship displayed before them, they will be difficult to surprise, and the narrow walkway will be easy to defend against anything but flyers. Better an hour spent here feeling the breeze on her face than stuck in a claustrophobic room like some large metal box.
With glances over his shoulder at where Aurora crouches over the smouldering brazier, Babshapka looks down at the vegetation below (Perception 15). All of it is easily seen as being typical jungle trees and bushes - and yet, he doesn’t specifically recognize any of it. He takes a long look all the way around the walkway, but does not see anything moving - just the doors set into the recessed walls, and apparently at each of the corners, a strange metal device like the one that even now Tyrius is approaching. Occasionally he spots movement along a trail that wends its way along the floor, or along the banks of numerous streams, but whatever he is seeing moves rapidly into cover again and he does not get a good view. As full of menace as the forest must be, he still sighs wistfully at finally seeing something approximating nature, after four days in the “cave” and two weeks in the frozen mountains before that.
Tyrius examines the strange device (Investigation 18).[9. Magnifying Viewer]
There are two obvious grips, one on each side, and clear glass panels front and back. The upper part is rigid, but the thick cord connecting it to the railing is flexible, or at least the metal collar pieces slide past one another with expert articulation. Putting his face into the U and looking into the smaller panes of glass, Tyrius initially sees only blurs of gray and white, but after some experimentation he finds that he can point it at objects - and see things greatly magnified!
He practices with it, looking at the jungle floor, and then calls Willa and Babshapka over. Once it is explained to her, Willa recognizes the function of the device instantly - it is some kind of two-eyed spyglass. But better, more powerful - a common spyglass might magnify things twice. The best ones, of gnomish manufacture with precision-ground lenses, three times. But this thing is easily magnifying their view by five times, and with no graininess or distortion. It is eighty-some feet to the ground, but looking through the viewer, she can see the trees as if they were a scant fifteen feet away!
Willa passes the viewer to Babshapka and reflects as he gapes. A good spyglass can sell for a thousand gold lions, about two-thirds the price of a suit of custom-made plate armor. Or, about twice as much as the most valuable of all the looted gems in their possession. Any one of these viewers would represent the single largest treasure the party had ever plundered, were they capable of freeing them from the railing, and willing to port them off this blasted mountain. And there are eight of them around the circumference of the ship.
Willa is forced from her thoughts as Babshapka begins relating what he sees below. According to him, there are tiers rising all along the boundary of the place, each being about five feet higher than the next. They are not natural, but appear to be made to look natural, and follow the outline of the octagon walls, so that at the very base of the wall it is some fifteen feet off the main “floor” below, with a second tier at ten feet and a third at five feet off the floor level. Likewise, at about a third of the way from each of the walls to the center of the floor below, a fourth tier descends towards the central lake, and would contain the water even if it were much higher. The islet in the center of the lake is tiered as well, but in two heights of ten feet each, so that at its highest it is flush with the highest layer at the base of the walls, some 65’ below the walkway. The tiers themselves are made to appear as natural stone and are generally as obscured by vegetation as the floor itself is.
There are stone-flagged walkways wandering gradually about the floor below, with eight large stone circles in each of which are stone benches, two on each of the cardinal directions, one closer to the walls, one closer to the lake. The vegetation below is so thick as to make it unlikely that anyone on one of the paths could see very far ahead or behind them.
At each of the four cross-cardinal directions are four small streams of running water. They vary in depth from one to two feet or so and are about as wide as they are deep. Each of them is fed by a pool, about twelve across. Life abounds in and near them - insects, colorful fish, amphibians, and so forth. Grasshoppers for his jump spell? Perhaps, but the bugs are too small and moving too quickly to be sure, even with the spyglass. In the southeast section is the only non-symmetric feature, a boggy area with water from one to three feet or so deep between hummocks of vegetation.
The lake has numbers of fish breaking its surface now and then, as well as reptilian and amphibian sorts of creatures along its verge. On the west side, one of the flagged paths winds down to the lake, crosses over a bridge, and arrives at the island. There are no paths on the island itself, but there does appear to be a pair of doors entering into the west side of the island’s lower tier.
(2:15pm)
Aurora is not even a quarter of her way into the ritual when the security robot tells Mathias, in Common, that its translation protocols are complete. Mathias then introduces himself as “Lieutenant Mathias Forge, Security Officer of the Away Team,” and shows his red card.
After quickly scanning the card, the robot responds, “Thank you security officer, how can this unit assist?”
“What is your assignment?”
“This unit is currently assigned to guard forward cargo holds P1 and R-1 through R-4 and to prevent intrusions.”
“Intrusions? Have there been any intrusions?”
“No intrusions are reported in this unit’s recent data records.”
“Why are these robots not working?” Mathias asks, indicating the immobile ones.
“Two of these worker robots are in need of repair; one remains functioning.”
“Can’t they fix each other?”
“These worker robots’ primary programming is to load and unload cargo. They can perform emergency repairs if parts are available, but the functioning worker reports that it is unable to repair the others without specific parts which are not on hand. This unit would report the need for repair, but the ship’s internal communication systems are not functioning. This unit has been awaiting a violet-level technician from whom to request parts or service.”
“Ok. This is not acceptable. Will you send this robot to get repair parts?”
“Send the functioning worker to the repair facility on Level I to requisition parts?”
“Yes. Have it return with the necessary parts and restore these other two to functionality.” (Persuasion check, with advantage, 24)
“Acknowledged.” (Insight 19)
The security robot issues a series of whistles and beeps and the worker clomps out of the guard station, across the walkway, and into the atrium of the drop chute. A few of the vines attempt to wrap around it upon its approach, but they quickly release their holds after brief squeezes detect metal rather than edible flesh.
[Unbeknownst to the party, the worker robot eventually arrives at the Robot Repair Facility on level I. There, it is told that at present, repairing Security Robots to deal with the intruders to the ship is the priority, and it is not given any parts.]
“I will need to tour the cargo hold for inspection,” continues Mathias.
“Please justify your need for inspection.”
“The condition of this level...these non-working robots...how long have they gone without repair? I need to see if the rest of this area is in this state of disrepair for my report.” (Persuasion check, with advantage, 22)
“This unit will open the door to the cargo hold for you - you may proceed.” (Insight 12)
The security robot wheels over to the violet-locked interior door of the guard room and presses a probe to the pearl panel. The pearl panel briefly flashes orange and the door opens. A much larger room, brightly lit with obvious large crates stacked in the center, lies beyond.
“Are there any large exo-fauna here?” asks Mathias, as he approaches the door.
Outside on the walkway, Thokk sees the inner door open and Mathias entering. That certainly seems more interesting than waiting for Aurora to finish her silly spell. Thokk waves cheerfully to Willa, still standing by the looky-glasses, and enters himself.
“This is Cargo Hold III-FR1. The boxes here contain colonization supplies - mostly seeds, soil, hydroponic gardening equipment, synthdobe, and synthcrete. While there are exo-fauna in stasis cages in some of the cargo holds on this level, Hold FR1 does not currently contain any.”
“Hmm. I guess I meant have any escaped exo-fauna found their way in here?”
“Escaped exo-fauna have tried to access this hold, and other holds under my guard, but have all been repulsed.” The robot wheels just ahead of Mathias, flailing its long snake-like arms as it gives the tour. When it reaches a section of the floor that is an open grate rather than solid metal, it says “The lift plate retains its power supply, but this unit does not know if it still works, as its hydraulics, chain drive, and gearing mechanisms have not been serviced in centuries. There are two exits to this hold, one prograde, one retrograde.” As it says the last bit, it points at a personnel door to the east, and a much larger cargo door to the west.
“I am especially interested in the exo-fauna. That is our mission. A mind-attacking exo-fauna escaped and killed the captain. It could have tried to take over the ship. We have to stop it before it escapes. We are here to eliminate threats to the ship and protect its integrity.”
The robot leads them around the crates that contain building materials, fertilizers, and similar colonization materials.
“Knowledge about bipedal exo-fauna with tentacled faces would be especially important,” Mathias continues.
“Of the exo-fauna that have attempted to intrude in this unit’s holds, none have been tentacled. This unit has not been able to dialog with the other security robots since the ship lost internal communications, or I would verify this information with them as well.”
“Are you not responsible for all of the cargo holds on this level?”
Mathias turns abruptly and heads for the smaller door; the robot wheels about and moves ahead of him, opening the door for him. Thokk chuckles. There are just dusty crates in here, not as interesting as he had hoped, but it is funny to see the metal-man scurry after Mathias and open the doors for him. These four-armed metal men are the best warriors Thokk has fought on the ship, and the fact that this one seems eager to please Mathias increases Thokk’s respect for the gaunt-looking man.
“This is Cargo Hold III-FR1-s,” says the Security robot as they enter. The room is smaller than the last, with fewer crates. It is only dimly lit - about half of the ceiling panels are dark. The north wall is nearly completely stove in, and twisted beams and sheets of metal lie among smashed rocks. It is not immediately clear how some of the larger crates were placed inside the room, as the only visible exit is sized for people.
The robot returns to Mathias’ question. “Level III is divided into four cargo hold suites; each with its own guard station next to the drop chute. This unit is currently assigned to the Forward Cargo Hold suite, which includes holds FP-1, and FR-1 (and FR1-s) through FR-4.”
“Is there more than one security robot on this level, then?”
“Each guard station has a complement of one SecBot and three worker robots.”
Satisfied with the information he has been given, Mathias returns to the guard station, and then closes the door behind Thokk as the pair exit to the walkway. He goes to report to Willa. When Tyrius hears about the colonization supplies, he strokes his chin thoughtfully. “Seeds, eh? That could mean grain for the mules.”
“If t'ey don’t like ther ‘cero-porridge’,” agrees Willa.
(2:30pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, the two worker robots in the repair room have used the parts from one of the security robots the party destroyed to repair one of the ones originally there, although the wrecked robot can still serve as a source of parts. Once it is on-line, they have the repaired SecBot watch videos of the party attacking security robots in both the repair room and the security HQ. There are now two re-activated and armor-upgraded security robots in the repair room, six destroyed robots they can still draw on for parts, and nine waiting to be fixed.]
Over the next hour or so the party takes turns looking through the double-spy glasses, checking on the vines, and listening to Aurora chant. Near the end of the ritual, one of them spots something on the jungle floor below. A creature looking very much like a rabbit, but of a mottled green-gray color, round ears, and with horns, can be seen cautiously feeding on grass in a clearing for several minutes before it startles and dashes off into the brush.
(3:25pm)
At last Aurora finishes her ritual and Buckbeak appears, Aurora having decided that the hawk is more suitable to this brightly-lit level. She notes that she has enough incense on hand to cast her find familiar just three more times.
All the time that Aurora has been casting, Willa and Tyrius have been making plans for exploring this level, with Mathias listening closely and noting questions for the SecBot. When it is clear that they are about to set out, he returns to the guard station.
“Are the other holds on this level different from the two I saw? That is, do they have different materials?” he asks without preamble.
“This unit does not have access to a current inventory, as the ship’s communication systems are not functioning. The last recorded inventory this unit has access to, shows that all holds on this level contain colonization supplies, although their contents differ. Many of them also contain stasis cages with captured exo-fauna.”
“Are the cargo holds to the south located in a similar manner to this one?” Knowing even before he finishes the sentence that the robot will protest the use of “south”, Mathias points through the open door and across the ship at the far wall.
“Each of the cargo holds is a suite of rooms located around a drop chute. However, the location of crew recreation facilities on this level affects cargo hold placement. This unit is responsible for five cargo holds; the aft drop chute you are indicating has just two.”
“Does the lighting in the main area change with the time of day?”
“Specify: Main area.”
“Out there,” says Mathias, waving his hand at the vast open space in the center of the ship. “The large habitat area.”
“The skylights of the botanical garden were originally set to a standard Terran Day 28 hour cycle with 21 hours of light and 7 hours of darkness for optimum balance of vegetative growth with nocturnal faunal feeding. This unit cannot confirm that ship light-regulation systems still follow that cycle.”
“If they did, where would we currently be? Early or late in the light cycle?” Mathias is not keen on being on the walkway under “night” conditions and finding out what the “nocturnal faunal feeders” are. Willa catches his thought and nods her agreement.
“This unit does not have access to that information. The door to the walkway has not been opened in so long that the data has been erased from this unit’s memory banks as non-essential and so cannot be coordinated with this unit’s onboard clock.”
“Have any of your cargo holds been breached?”
“The cargo holds guarded by this unit have not been breached since before contact was lost with the mainframe. All prior breeches were documented and uploaded.”
“But there was a breach before then? Elaborate.”
“The last time all ship systems were functional, an explosion on Level II opened a breach in the ceiling of one of the holds under the guard of this system. Before this unit could investigate, a battle had taken place there. This unit reported the battle and its results but it was not investigated. Shortly thereafter, ship internal communications went offline.”
“Which hold did this happen in? Where is the hole in the ceiling?”
“This occurred in Hold III-FR4.”
“What direction is that from here?”
“Retrograde from this guard room.”
“What room is this?”
“This is the III-Forward Guard Station. It adjoins Hold III-FR1.”
“Ok. Thank you. I may need your assistance later.”
“Acknowledged.”
With Mathias out of questions for the security robot, Buckbeak is sent to scout the walkway ahead. (Perception 19 with advantage). The next cargo doors after the violet ones are brown; and another set along the northwest walkway is brown as well. After that, the walkway turns south and the railing is covered in vines - Aurora recalls the hawk rather than let him press on.
With no immediate threats apparent, Babshapka takes the lead, looking for tracks as he goes. (Survival 19 with disadvantage). He finds the markings of worker robots and security robots in the dust, but also large patches of dust that have been smeared with the passage of water, as if someone with a mop had come through - or perhaps a creature with a slime trail? At its widest, the water-cleared areas are a few feet across. He looks up at the ceiling, but sees nothing there.
They proceed to the first cargo door, which Aurora offers to mage hand open so that Mathias can slip in invisibly.
(3:30pm)
Mathias does a quick walkaround of the cargo hold, but sees nothing but crates - with many of the symbols on them looking similar to the last hold (Perception 8 ). He gives a short whistle and Babshapka enters the open doors.
Babshapka agrees with Mathias that there is nothing of interest here (Perception 10). There are two internal brown-carded cargo doors - the one in the east, which should connect to the hold Mathias and Thokk toured before, and one in the west to a previously unseen room.
Once all of them are inside the room, Aurora mage hands open the interior door, revealing another cargo hold with more crates of colonization supplies. This one has a brown-carded cargo door to the south and a violet-carded one to the west.
(3:40pm)
The party emerges out onto the walkway and approaches the cargo doors of the next hold. Near the doors, vines grow thickly along the railing, and Aurora wonders whether these are more of the same that attacked Thokk, and whether they lie in wait for anyone using the card reader. (None of them actually note that these are not strangler vines, but some other kind of plant - 3. vampire thorn vines). Tyrius passes Aurora a coin, which she mage hands over to the card lock. She thinks she sees the vines tremble slightly at its passage, but then again, it could just be the breeze (Aurora Insight 7).
Babshapka, frustrated with Aurora’s inconclusive experiment, doubles back and opens the doors from the inside of the hold. Aurora moves to the wall away from the vines and carefully “sneaks” past them (Stealth 17). Willa huffs and walks loudly and directly to the door - the others follow after, imitating one technique or the other - the vines do not pursue them.
While Tyrius watches out the open door to the walkway, Mathias opens the next internal door. The cargo hold beyond is full of crates, but also has a large and obvious [6] hole in the ceiling and a skeleton on the floor nearby. The noise of machinery comes loudly through the open doorway to them.
As the party moves into the room to investigate, Tyrius shuts the door to the walkway. Babshapka, blaster pistol at the ready, covers the hole in the ceiling. The noise of machinery is emerging from above, through a five foot thick section cut through the ship’s deck. Broken pipes and exposed wires line the hole, which opens onto Level II above, though little of it can be seen from below.
Mathias and Aurora move to the sides of the skeleton, searching its body and trying to determine the cause of death. (Aurora Investigation 16). As the others enter, they notice that the floor of this hold is actually strewn about with bones - although none are recognizably human. The human (or Terran?) on the floor is the only skeleton that is intact. It is wearing a ship’s uniform (dingy white with orange accents - like the one Mathias had before he changed into his new, mostly red, one), and is lying face down on the floor. The splayed limbs with one broken forearm suggests to Aurora that the person might have died from falling through the hole - but the bones on the back of the head are broken as well, and given its position they should not have impacted the floor. Looking closer, they find the bones are broken out, not broken in - as if the skull had been forced open from the inside.
Together, Aurora and Mathias roll the skeleton over, with Mathias at the shoulders and Aurora at the hips. It is wearing a strange device about its left arm, over its chest, and along its shoulder. It bears some resemblance to the blaster pistols, but is three feet long rather than being hand-held. It consists of jointed metal rods, a curved metal plate, a hardened leather band or collar, and a pane of glass, framed and mounted on the end of a rod.
[When Leezar helps Aurora roll the body over, he is able to slip his hand into a chest pocket and palm an orange ID card without anyone noticing (Sleight of hand 17).]
Current Cards
Mathias, red [and unbeknownst to the rest of the party, two orange]
Aurora, orange
Willa, orange
Shefak, brown (still in her robes)
Thokk, brown
Babshapka, black (good condition) and black (partially melted)
Tyrius, black
Larry, black
Aurora and Mathias work to remove the item from the skeleton. There is a black rivet at the end of the U-shaped rod. The metal plate has three raised, colored bars - black, white, and red - and a coin-shaped slot above them. There is a blue rivet on the side above the collar. The band is made of hardened leather or horn-like material, fashioned into overlapping plates. No stitching can be seen. The glass is thick and dark on both sides. On one side of the frame is a metal mesh mounted on a small rod. All the joints allow it to be folded up or unfolded.
(3:50pm)
Aurora, with Babshapka helping her, tries to put on the device the way the skeleton was wearing it, with the collar going around her left arm. Suddenly the collar puffs up and fastens itself securely to her upper arm, so that she cannot drop it even if she lets go with both hands. When she touches one of the buttons, the mirror moves in front of her face. For a second, the black glass blocks her vision, and then it becomes transparent, at least on her side, with the cross-hairs and range finder she is used to from the pistol.
Aurora looks around the room for a target. “Oh, nay ye durn’t” says Willa immediately, and points her toward the door. Aurora moves through the cargo hold and back out onto the walkway, pointing the thing at the vine growing along the railing.
[Aurora’s use of the Complex Lethal Items table; Intelligence 15+ = -1. Has seen a similar item (blaster pistol) in use = -1. Has used a similar item (blaster pistol) = -2. Total -4 on table. Roll 1-4 = 1 (circle). Roll 10-4 = 6 (Triangle). Roll 5-4 = 1 (Start). Roll 7 - 4 = 3 (Circle). Roll 6 - 4 = 2 (second circle). Roll 6 - 4 = 2 (Finish)]
Aurora lines up the vines along the railing and presses the white button. Immediately the display changes so that the crosshairs expands and becomes a long narrow alley highlighting a line in front of her. She targets the vine and railing and presses the thumb trigger. A four foot wide and 100 foot long beam of heat blasts forth from the light side of the mirror, traveling the length of the railing. Babshapka sees the air shimmer with heat. The vines are withering instantly, and after a second the railing is glowing with heat (three sections of vine fail their save and are slain, another three make their save and take 11 hp each).
My first attempt at Blaster Rifle Conversion to 5e wrote:
White: A wave of heat sweeps out in a beam 4' wide and 100' long. Everything in its path must make a DC13 Dex save. The DC of the save is increased by 2 if carrying a metal shield, and by 7 if in metal armor, but decreased by 1 for every + of the armor or shield. Creatures failing to save are melted and die; those saving take 5-20 (5d4) points of radiant damage.
“Ping!” sounds the device and the display goes dark and removes itself from Aurora’s face. “Oh, I guess that used the last charge of the power disc it had,” she says, and changes it out for one of her own. Aurora was standing just outside the cargo doors so as to not be in range of the vines, and the heat beam passed directly through the spyglass device mounted at the corner of the railing. As Aurora changes out the disc, Babshapka can see that the metal of the spyglass is twisted, the glass lenses completely melted away. Fortunately Willa is not on hand to see the damage to the valuable equipment.
With the new disc, charged to five, in place, Aurora presses the black button. The display again moves to her face, showing an even greater field of fire, but now the crosshairs focus on a specific target rather than an area. Aurora moves the nearest vine that she missed with the heat ray into the center of the field of view and the crosshairs lock onto it, a glowing outline like a faerie fire effect appearing around it on the screen. She thumbs the trigger.
Babshapka sees something emerge from the mirror, similar to what the blaster pistol looks like but producing a larger distortion in the air. It impacts the closest remaining vine, rips it apart and turns it to ash. It also vaporizes a short section of the railing, such that there is now a gaping hole to the empty air of the other side. (Failed save; vine is vaporized)
My first attempt at Blaster Rifle Conversion to 5e wrote:
Black: Disruption beam usable to 150'. This beam will vaporize anything short of hull metal when it hits. The beam affects up to six cubic feet of material. The target of the beam must make a DC13 Dex save; with disadvantage at 50' or less and advantage at 100' or more.
When an armored creature is the target, shields are automatically destroyed, and on a failed save armor or other protective devices are destroyed as well, even if magical, although the target is undamaged (the force having been taken up by the destruction of their armor). If the save is
successful the individual takes (5d6) 5-30 Force damage, the value of its armor is reduced by 5 places, and it is stunned for 1-4 turns.
If an unarmored creature is the target, a failed save indicates effective disintegration for any target up to size M (although rather more messily than the spell). For creatures of size L and above, a failed save results in 10d6 Force damage and unconsciousness lasting 1-4 turns. A successful save while unarmored results in 5d6 Force damage and being stunned for 1-4 turns.
Aurora advances along the railing, arriving at the section where the next vine that survived the heat ray still clings. Babshapka is with her, watching over the railing to make sure that nothing comes up from below. Aurora depresses the red button, and the targeting display creates a lit cone-shaped area, as narrow as the mirror at its start, but some 20 feet wide at its terminus, 50 feet away. Aurora lines it up with two of the vines and thumbs the trigger.
A horizontal sheet of flame erupts from the mirror, burning out a cone across the area indicated on the screen. The remaining vines shudder and try to retreat from the onslaught, but Aurora turns the mirror to follow their movements and the flames continue to roar forth. (Two failed saves - vines take 17 points fire damage each)
My first attempt at Blaster Rifle Conversion to 5e wrote:
Red: A horizontal plane of fire is produced in a cone. Inflammable materials in this plane start burning. Any creature in the area must make a DC13 Dex save. Creatures take either 4-24 (4d6) hit points of fire damage or half if they save.
The flames are impressive, but this use doesn’t seem to kill any of the vines - they appear to be quite hardy and resistant to flame damage. Aurora thinks to check the power disc - it is at 1, not three - apparently this weapon costs two charges per use.
Babshapka and Aurora return to the cargo hold and the rest of the party. Aurora talks excitedly about her new weapon while the others look on dubiously. The enchantress is already a friendly-fire menace with her own spells - do they really want her attached to this piece of powerful alien technology?
When she finally picks up on the concerns of the others, Aurora decides to mollify them by spreading the devices around. She has a blaster pistol she does not intend to use now, the one she and Mathias found in the desk of the Chief of Security’s solar. As she hands it over to Mathias, and then instructs him in its use, neither she nor he note the stress-cracks in the tubes or the scored soot marks around the power disc compartment (Both Mathias and Aurora Intelligence check 12). Aurora instructs Mathias in its use without him actually pressing the trigger, and she shows him how to change out power discs. They both note that the power disc that had been in the blaster was at 0. She now has seven full discs in her case. She had been saving the discharged discs, but they haven’t yet found a place to charge them, and they know where there are stacks more on the first level of the ship, so she takes the empty discs out of the case and hands Mathias a full one for him to load. He places it in the blaster and tries aiming it at various crates (Willa is by now in a different part of the hold and does not object).
“Ping!” intones the blaster. (Luck roll +1 - both Aurora and Mathias hear it)
“That’s odd,” says Aurora and she has Mathias open it. The power disc, at a full charge of six a minute ago, is now at zero. The scoring around the slot is more pronounced now. Apparently the device is cursed, and drains charges from the disks. “Hey, what are you trying to push on me?” says Mathias cryptically. “I’m glad I didn’t reach for that in a real fight.”
(4pm)
“Now what be t’is?” says Willa in a voice loud enough she means to be overheard. Those who approach find that she is looking at an odd-sized crate; neither huge like most of the colonization equipment nor small like the remainder. It is covered in a thick cloth, the only crate so covered, although several similar cloths lie strewn about on the floor.
Willa calls for Thokk and then pulls off the cloth. Rather than a solid-walled horn box, it is more of a frame - metal around all the edges and corners, but the sides are of thick, translucent glass. On the front is a big black dial with markings, with an arrow set in the center and pointing up. [6A. Stasis cage with Couatl]
Willa looks around the rest of the hold, finding a number of similar boxes (Perception 19). In all of these, however, the glass is transparent or even missing, and the dial is turned to the left. “Don’t turn the dial!” Willa admonishes Thokk as he takes a step closer to the box.
Willa rubs the dust off the glass and inside she sees some long serpentine things - suspended in some kind of fluid. She puts the tarp back on the box.
Aurora and Babshapka investigate the hole in the ceiling, speculating on how it got there (Aurora Intelligence check 18, Babshapka 14). Aurora reasons that if the skeleton was wearing the blaster rifle, with it set to the black setting, he could have ripped a hole in the floor just as she did in the railing outside - and then perhaps stumbled into it and fallen.
“Thar’s a lessen fer ye on whar nay ter point it,” says Willa.
“Maybe he fell, but remember the guy did have a hole in his head,” says Mathias. “I don’t think it was the fall that killed him.”
Satisfied with their discoveries, Tyrius closes the cargo door to the walkway as well as the interior door to the hold behind them, and the party prepares to enter the next room. Aurora mage hands open the door. It leads to a large cargo hold, with cargo doors in the east (violet) and south (brown). Besides the crates of colonization supplies, there are several open stasis cages in the room. Aurora reasons that the door to the east opens on the walkway, and uses her mage hand to open it and confirm. Babshapka looks with her, assessing the state of the vines and whether any have regrown since Aurora assaulted them. Once they have all entered the hold, Tyrius closes the doors behind them. Babshapka takes a quick look around (Perception 8 ).
(4:10pm)
In a repetition of the last room, Aurora opens the door to another crate-filled cargo hold, the party enters while Babshapka searches (Perception 6), and Tyrius closes the door behind them. However, the hold itself is much narrower than the last, which gets Aurora thinking. Between her and Mathias, they reason out that they are likely behind the west drop chute and have by now traveled a quarter of the way around the ship.
(4:20pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, a third police robot has entered the security headquarters, downloaded translation to Common, been told Lt. Forge’s mission to eliminate exo-fauna, and taken up guard duties.]
The party pushes ahead. The next cargo hold is wider, likely all the way to the walkway wall, and has a cargo door in the right place besides. There is also an area with an open grated floor that Thokk and Mathias take to be the “lift plate” the security robot indicated in the other hold. When Babshapka checks the hold (Perception 13), he finds a smaller personnel door is on the north wall, likely yielding access to what Mathias argued would be the area of the drop chute. Surprisingly, there is no door in the south, however. The party is faced with returning to the walkway or doubling back, but cannot advance within the perimeter of the holds themselves. Willa says what most of them are thinking - advancing within the holds is likely saving them from encounters with the animated plants outside, and would be preferable if possible. Umbra looks for doors in the south just to be sure (Perception 15), while Babshapka climbs on top of a crate to have a good sniper’s vantage point for when the door to the outside must be opened.
Taking cover behind crates, Aurora mage hands open the cargo doors while Babshapka watches. As suspected, the doors lead to the walkway - but the walkway itself and especially the railing are crowded with vines. Babshapka tells Aurora to close the doors. Before she does so, however, the vines have already started to creep towards the open door.
Once the doors are closed, Mathias crosses the hold to the personnel door, noting its violet color. He listens at the door (Investigation 4) but doesn’t hear anything.
Opening the door, he discovers not a drop chute but a guard room, similar to the [7.] robot station in the north and with the same complement of three worker robots and a security robot. However, only a single worker reacts to the open door while the other three machines remain frozen in place. The solitary worker clomps slowly forward, out the door, and while the party watches from cover, begins to arrange crates in the cargo hold, ignoring their presence.
“Hiiiphelex conthwaren jin'd'well!” calls Mathias after it. “Start cleaning up this ship!”
Aurora comes out from behind the smaller crates. “If that security robot isn’t working,” she says, “I’m going to see what is inside it.” Her new blaster rifle has her acutely conscious of the need for more power discs.
(4:40pm)
After ten minutes of work, Aurora has the security robot disassembled. She recovers its power disc (fully charged at six), a red incendiary grenade (which Willa takes), and an intact rod-and-mesh thing (which she leaves, as she already has two and still doesn’t know their function).
With a new power disc in hand, Aurora tells the party that they should open the cargo doors again and burn the vines. If they have to travel outside, they may as well clear the vegetation. She positions herself near the doorway, blaster at the ready, and calls for Mathias to open the doors. When they are completely open, her blaster shoots forth its cone of flame. The vines are slow-moving, and all those nearby are burned. However, they do not die, but continue their slow creep toward the door. (7 sections of vine all fail Dex save, but 4d6 results in just 9 points of fire damage).
When the flames cease, Aurora inspects her efforts - the supple green woody vines, still covered in thorns but now with a few leaves shriveled and burned, seem determined to enter the hold. She frowns - that was hardly an effective use of her two charges, she decides. Perhaps a more powerful fire is in order. Without consulting the rest of the party, she releases her hold on the trigger handle, pulls her carved wooden rod out of her robes, and makes the arcane motions and words required for a fireball, placing it carefully to explode on the railing and not blow back into the hold. (Seven vine sections fail their Dex saves and take 23 points, two sections make their saves and take 11 points, Aurora to 3/2/1).
Willa, around the corner of the metal walls, hears the fireball go off and looks quickly to see the flames still playing along the railing. “Well, t’ats told every monster on t’is level an’ ther one below which door we be leavin’ next.”
After the fireball, most of the vine sections are showing considerably more damage, but still seem determined to advance on the party. However, they appear slower than the strangler vines, moving forward at a pace less than the walking speed of the party.
“Come on over,” invites Aurora to the other casters, “it’s like target practice.”
Aurora, Mathias, and Umbra fire off spells as the vines creep inside the hold. Willa even decides to use her new incendiary grenade. Some twelve force blasts, nine firebolts, six rays of shadow, and one incendiary grenade later, all seven sections of vine are burned, frozen, or flattened. There are plenty of remaining vines growing up the walls from below, but for the moment the railing and walkway immediately outside the cargo doors has been cleared. During the exchange, Thokk became frustrated that he was not joining the fight. Tyrius counseled him that it was not actually combat - just gardening. This drew a hearty laugh from the barbarian. He agreed that his steel was better suited to more worthy opponents than vines.
Emerging from the cargo hold and moving out onto the now-clear walkway, the party allows Babshapka to move ahead of them to check for tracks (Survival 17 with disadvantage). He has hardly bent his frame to the ground, however, when there are multiple calls of alarm from those watching the jungle floor below. A whole flock of birds, more than a dozen, is rapidly ascending toward the party. They appear to be beakless birds of raven size. The party cannot yet see their slitted maws with numerous small and pointed teeth. They have long and spiky-appearing tails and a small, drooping chest appendage. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-first Barrier Peaks session, was 22 October, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 4 - Level I, North and South and Level III
Party, Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room (S), and Husk Hall are each rolling separately
Party
11:50am 02479 accompanies the party to guard the party's camp in the surgery room. This room will no longer be rolling encounters
Husk Hall
From 2pm on (when party descends), 2 in 72 chance every 10 minutes of pygmies clearing dead from husk hall; 1 in 6 chance per hour, completely cleared within a day
Security HQ
4:20pm - SecBot 65491 arrives, HQ now fully staffed with three SecBots
Level I Robot Repair Room[b]
[b]Post 196: With Mr. Roper, Three's Company, Too! 23 February, 571 [4 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 4
Round 1
Umbra fires off a ray of shadow that narrowly misses a bird as they rapidly approach the party.
Thokk and Willa move side to side, defending the railing and preparing to strike at any bird that comes within range.
Aurora sends Buckbeak to his pocket dimension to keep him out of harm’s way.
Mathias sends forth a blast of force that knocks one bird from the sky and clips another.
Seeing the dense formation of the birds, Babshapka pulls out his needler pistol and fires on the crowd setting. Seven exploding needles kill four of the birds; three needles sail through the air and, after a long fall, eventually explode on the jungle floor below.
My 5e conversion of Webbird wrote:
A webbird shoots a sticky mass of strands at a single target, who must succeed on a DC16 Dex save or be restrained (restrained characters may not move and have have disadvantage on dexterity saving throws and attack rolls).
As the birds approach, they suddenly shift their flight, hovering for a second as sticky web-like strands shoot forth from their abdomens at various party members.
Four webbirds shoot at Thokk, but he nimbly avoids some and takes the rest on his shield (advantage on all dexterity saves due to barbarian Danger Sense, +3 on saves due to proximity to Tyrius; 25, 20, 18, 16).
Four webbirds shoot at Willa. She dodges the first one, but the second wraps around her leg, securing it to the walkway. As she struggles against the web, a second shot pins her arm to her side. She growls in frustration. (+3 on saves due to proximity to Tyrius; 24, 7 - Willa is now restrained and her last two saves are with disadvantage; 25, 8 - doubly restrained)
Seeing Willa’s struggles, a bird changes course and lands on her shoulder, then scrabbles toward her face. The strange projection on its chest begins to quiver and a pointed ovipositor-like tip reaches out toward her neck. Just before it pierces her flesh Thokk’s sword slices the bird in half, and both halves tumble from Willa’s chest. He swings into the flock and cuts another bird down. (Thokk readied action to attack any bird within reach).
Three birds pass high over Thokk and Willa and shoot webs at Mathias, who had remained visible while Babshapka took point. (Outside of Tyrius’ range, flat Dex saves of 20, 15, 8; twice restrained). Seeing that Mathias is engulfed in webs, two birds land on him. Willa can’t lift her foot from the walkway, but by pivoting she can just barely manage to strike the two birds from Mathias before they lay their eggs in him (while restrained, Willa can’t move, but she can attack with disadvantage, attack rolls 20 and 11, the 11 just hits the webbird with AC11).
With nine birds down, a substantial number of the flock is gone, and no eggs have been laid in the party. The birds veer course and retreat to the jungle floor. Willa breaks free of the webs herself, but Mathias needs Thokk’s help to do so.
The party is currently at the southwest corner of the octagonal railing, just a few steps from one of the spyglass devices. Tyrius takes hold of the grips and uses it to examine the jungle floor (Perception 18 ). He spots a large communal nest among the underbrush close to the base of the wall, and many of the webbirds about. Taking his time to examine the jungle while the party covers him, he finds another nest on top of the island in the lake, and at least one of the birds perched on a tree nearly directly across from the party, along the northeast wall of the octagon. Once he is sure of the three locations, he points them out to the rest of the party.
(5pm)
Just a few steps beyond the site of the bird-battle, the exterior wall opens into a larger room. There is no door guarding the entranceway, just a solitary column. Inside, the room is the size of a cargo hold and extends all the way to the hull of the ship, with two doors on its eastern wall. It is no hold, however, but seems like some sort of lounge or mess area. Benches, oddly backed and upholstered, surround a score of tables. The floor is littered with debris [Night Club].
Seeking another “hidden note”, Mathias, Umbra, and Babshapka poke through the debris and reach into the cushions of the benches (Perception 18, 10, Investigation 18 ). Babshapka claims he is more interested in finding a grasshopper than a note from an ancient dead Terran.
(5:10pm)
When nothing of interest is found, Aurora opens the first of the pressure-paneled doors out, and finds it leads into a kitchen area. It is much like those on the first level, but Babshapka confirms there are no plant man tracks on the floor. The second room is bare of furnishings. Many odd horn protuberances line the walls, and most of these have a pile of refuse underneath. It is their best guess that this is some sort of cloakroom, for the debris is mostly the strange silk material from which the ship uniforms are made, but much decayed. There is a further door at the far end of this narrow room, and to this the party proceeds, with Tyrius closing the door to the lounge behind them.
The room beyond the cloakroom is unlit, but bright light streams in through the open doorway to the walkway beyond (as well as arriving more weakly from the cloakroom behind them). The opening to the walkway is a good twenty-five feet wide, with a support column in the middle, and no sign of the cargo doors that might close it. The near end of the room is filled with strange upholstered and backed benches, with tables in between them - these tables are set at the natural height for eating, like in the mess halls but not the apartments. Beyond the table area is an obvious bar with stools in front. Perhaps this is some sort of tavern and dining area? [Cocktail Lounge]
The tables continue against the wall all along the curving hull of the ship, but at the far end of the room, starting at some hundred feet distant and going to perhaps a hundred and fifty feet, the space is curiously open, with no tables, although it is difficult to see that far into the darkness. Piles of refuse are everywhere.
Umbra, one of the party’s best at seeing in the darkness, does a quick circuit of the room to check for anything of importance but finds nothing (Perception 8 ). Babshapka checks the floor for tracks. Considering the amount of dust and debris, he finds the floor curiously absent of any recent markings or indications of the passage of creatures (Survival 12 with disadvantage). Apparently the robots and whatever left the slime trail along the walkway do not come in here often. Mathias rummages in the cushions of the benches but doesn’t find anything (Perception 10).
Aurora notes that a single vine is growing around the column in the doorway, and from there trails across the walkway, over the railing, and down who knows how far below. She moves closer to investigate. Babshapka goes with her immediately; the others arrive eventually once their inspection of the room concludes.
(5:20pm)
Before getting too close to the vine, Aurora floats a coin nearby with her mage hand. The vine doesn’t react so she moves closer. The vine does not look thin and wiry like the strangler vines that attacked Thokk, nor is it spiky and covered in thorns like the vampire plants they fought outside the last guard station. Rather, it is thick and strong like a lianna.
When Aurora moves outside, Babshapka first scans the skies for birds. Brightly-colored ones flit from tree to tree far below, but Aurora’s emergence to the walkway has not summoned forth any flocks of webbirds. As Aurora looks down, trying to see how far below the vine goes, Babshapka moves to the nearest mounted spyglass device. Focusing on the nearby vine, he follows it to the canopy below (Perception 13, Luck roll +2). There, it bobs up and down and then jerks suddenly, rising slowly into the air with the end wrapped around one of the colorful birds.
By this point, the party has tired of exploring the tavern, and they are proceeding down the walkway, led by invisible, scouting Mathias. Aurora and Babshapka fall into the rear - apparently with neither of them concerned that the bird-capturing vine is moving its prey up and closer to the walkway, while the other plants they battled had grown from the ground level to the walkway and were trying to bring them down.
[For their part, the three ropers in the cocktail lounge entrance have hesitated to attack the characters. It has been quite some time since any bipeds have come by, and the party is numerous and apparently well-armed. They might actually be a threat to the ropers. The one who has staked out its place in the sunlight has been feeding well on birds and isn’t particularly hungry. The other two are leaner and would like to attack - but are hoping the dominant one will attack first and be damaged enough in the fight that they can later take its position, after all the bipedal prey has been eaten.]
Roper wrote:
Intelligence 7, Wisdom 16. False Appearance. While the roper remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal cave formation, such as a stalagmite (or in this case, a support column).
As the party proceeds along the walkway, the ropers let them leave - until the last instant. Just as Aurora is about to pass out of reach, and the rest of the party is too far away to immediately come to her assistance, the largest roper decides to try to snag her from behind.
Surprise Round
Four long tendrils shoot out from the “column” towards Aurora. The very first hits (Attack roll 23), whereupon the others retract. Aurora is taken off-guard, unable to use either her shield spell or her instinctive charm to help herself.
[Aurora is surprised. As such, she can’t move or take an Action on the first turn of combat, and she can’t take a Reaction until that turn ends. Both her shield and instinctive charm are reactions.]
Less than a second after the tendril has wrapped around her, Aurora squeals in fright as she is suddenly dragged backwards at considerable speed and brought up to be held just in front of the column. Babshapka has barely had time to spin around and draw his broadsword when the stony column opens a maw with great teeth, draws Aurora to it, and bites deeply down on her arm, rending the flesh and crushing the bones within (Bite attack 19 to hit, with advantage since Aurora is restrained. 23 damage; Aurora at 7/38).
Roper wrote:
Tendril. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 50 ft., one creature. The target is grappled, escape DC 15. Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained and has disadvantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws, and the roper can't use the same tendril on another target.
Multiattack. The roper makes four attacks with its tendrils, uses Reel, and makes one attack with its bite.
Reel. The roper pulls each creature grappled by it up to 25 ft. straight toward it.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (4d8 + 4) piercing damage.
Round 1
Babshapka runs up to the base of the column and hacks furiously with his broadsword in one hand and shortsword in the other at the tendril wrapped around Aurora and holding her up to the mouth of the monstrosity. The tendril, while completely flexible, has a nearly impenetrable stony covering, and only one of Babshapka’s hits cuts it, but that blow is enough to free Aurora (three attacks, one hits AC20, 6 damage, plus critical of 5 more).
Roper wrote:
Grasping Tendrils. The roper can have up to six tendrils at a time. Each tendril can be attacked (AC 20; 10 hit points). Destroying a tendril deals no damage to the roper, which can extrude a replacement tendril on its next turn.
Thokk turns around. He is impressed with the size, ferocity, and cunning of the pillar-fisher, but does not recognize what kind of monster it is (Nature 5). Still, for Aurora to be a functioning member of his war band, she will need that arm. Thokk enrages and charges, but his powerful blows glance off the stony hide of the creature (Body AC20, attack rolls 17, 19).
Willa arrives on the scene, relying on Thokk to distract the creature while she moves to attack it from the side (Thokk’s rage gives her advantage; allowing her to hit twice, 25 points to the body).
Now free of the tendril, Aurora staggers back. The mouth of the creature snaps again at her mangled arm, but this time she is ready with a warding spell that causes it to miss. She turns and flees rapidly but unsteadily along the walkway, trailing blood all the way (Aurora takes Dash; provokes an opportunity attack from the roper. Roper hits with bite attack roll of 15, but Aurora uses her reaction to cast shield, improving her armor class enough that the bite instead misses. Aurora at 2/2/1).
Tyrius moves into the space vacated by Aurora, seeking to destroy another tendril before the monster can use it against them. With the distraction provided by Thokk, he hits twice with his warhammer. On the second hit he swears an oath to Pelor, and the hammer flashes brilliantly for a second, flattening the tendril - it now hangs limp and lifeless (damage 6, 10, and then Divine Smite at first level for 14 more; total 30 damage, two tendrils down, Tyrius at 3/2).
With two limbs useless, the monstrosity still has four left. Umbra doesn’t like those odds - she casts Entropy, covering the creature in a black globe. Tendrils of darkness emerge from the globe, wrestling with the tendrils of stone so that the creature has only one left to attack with. (Umbra at 1/3/1).
[Roper (Wisdom 16) fails DC15 Wisdom save with 11; it takes a -2 penalty to AC. Entropy: Regardless of the creature’s abilities or magic items, it can’t make more than one melee or ranged attack during its turn.]
Mathias fires off two blasts of force, but these ricochet off the creature’s still stony hide.
From the three bipeds attacking it in melee, the roper selects Thokk for its single tendril attack. (Attack roll 26; Thokk is grappled and restrained, but the roper cannot reel or bite this turn because of the entropy. It attempts another Wisdom save but fails with a 5).
Round 2
Willa acts first, landing massive blows to the body of the column creature (two hits for 25, second hit is critical for 10 more, total 35, total damage to body now 60).
Thokk could attempt to use his massive strength to break free of the tendril, but he does not fear the creature’s bite. He elects instead to continue attacking it with his sword, though his blows are hindered by the tendril wrapping around him (attacking with disadvantage as restrained, one hit, 12 damage to body, total 72).
Mathias continues to fire off blasts of force, but they appear not to affect the creature.
The roper draws Thokk to its mouth and bites, but rather than tasty orc-flesh, it gets only a mouthful of Thokk’s metal shield (attack roll 8, critical fail). This seems to have helped focus its resolve, however, for the stony brow furrows above its single golden eye and the black cloud of entropy dissolves (Wisdom save 17). The three tendrils hindered by the spell now rise up, ready to strike.
Babshapka darts in and out, looking for openings between the blows of the larger fighters. One of his broadsword strikes connects (damage 8, total 80 damage to body).
Umbra shoots a ray of shadow, and a frosty layer of ice forms over the eye of the creature (12 points cold damage, total 92 to body).
Aurora, confident she is out of range of the creature’s remaining tendrils (and now alone without the party), has stopped running along the walkway. She turns and sees her opportunity. Aiming a firebolt directly at the blinded eye of the creature, her fiery missile shatters the ice, explodes the eye, and passes into the creature’s brain (7 damage, total 99 to body). The tendrils thrash violently and then go limp - the creature stirs no more.
Aurora staggers back to the party, her mangled arm hanging limply at her side. Only after he is sure that the column-creature is dead does Babshapka turn to her, using two of his healing spells to mend the damage to her limb (two cure wounds for 6, 9, Babshapka at 1/0). Tyrius lays on hands for some additional healing (3 points; Aurora at 25/38).
Feeling much better, Aurora puzzles over the curious creature, but does not recall ever having seen it in a bestiary (Nature 11). Perhaps it hails from the world of the Terrans.
Recognizing that they completely missed the column-creature, the party agrees that a more thorough search of the tavern area is in order. Babshapka hops over the bar and begins poking around in the collected refuse behind it. The others stand nearby or even take seats at the stools. Mathias brings his bottle of ‘fey juice’ out of his pack, as well as a battered tin shot class and places both on the counter. In the unlit room, the green liquor almost has a glow about it. He pours himself a drink, and is about to down it when Babshapka stands up straight, a small cave horn chest in his hands (Perception 23). He sets this on the bar near Mathias and works the lid off, while Mathias and Aurora lean in to watch.
Surprise round (Mathias, Babshapka, Aurora surprised)
Umbra, who is not interested in the box, suddenly notes more liana-like vines snaking across the floor. At first she thinks they did not kill the column creature after all - then she realizes there are actually two more! One stands on each side of the entryway, each disguising itself as a decorative column. The one nearer to the bar is sending its tendrils in the direction of Willa, while the farther one is aiming at Tyrius.
The forty-foot cube that is the area of effect of Umbra’s entropy spell fits neatly over both of the columns, so she immediately casts it again (now at 1/3/0). The nearer column fails its save (6), while the farther one immediately shrugs off the effects of the spell (19). Unnoticed by the rest of the party, Umbra converts one spell level to a sorcery point so that she now has three of these and 0/3/0 spells.
While under the effects of entropy, the column creature attacking Willa can use only a single tendril, but even so (attack roll 26) Willa quickly finds herself grappled and restrained. She is furious!
Tyrius, however, attacked by a fully-functioning column, is missed by one tendril (14) but hit by a second (22). In quick succession he is grappled, restrained, reeled in, and bitten (22 points of piercing damage)!
Attacking Thokk’s sometimes-useful war-caster is one thing, but daring to entangle his trusted evil advisor is quite another. Thokk immediately enrages and rushes at the nearer column. With two fierce blows he severs the tentacle (total 27 damage), freeing Willa. She then moves to his side, using his rage to score one hit (9 points of damage to the body) on the creature.
Held up against the mouth of the crushing column, Tyrius struggles, attempting to break out of the tendril that encircles him, but fails (Acrobatics 3). He calls upon Pelor for protection (sanctuary spell, Tyrius to 2/2).
Round One
As Aurora turns away from the bar and quickly grasps the situation, her left hand goes to the black button on her already-mounted blaster rifle. The viewscreen flies in front of her face, offering up either Tyrius or the column as potential targets. She selects the column and thumbs the trigger. A disruptor beam streaks across the room and explodes against the stony hide of the creature.
[Quote = "My conversion of blaster rifle"]If an unarmored creature is the target, a failed save indicates effective disintegration for any target up to size M (although rather more messily than the spell). For creatures of size L and above, a failed save results in 10d6 Force damage and unconsciousness lasting 1-4 turns. A successful save while unarmored results in 5d6 Force damage and being stunned for 1-4 turns.[/quote]
(Roper Dex save 6; fails, 39 force damage to body and unconscious for one turn).
5e Unconscious wrote:
An unconscious creature is incapacitated and drops whatever it’s holding. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage. Any Attack that hits the creature is a critical hit if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature.
The creature’s tendrils go limp, its jaw slack, and its single eye rolls back in its head. Tyrius tumbles to the floor.
Mathias slams his shot of fey juice, then spins and draws his scimitar. Advancing to the still-entropied column, he slashes it twice (10 points of damage to body, total 19).
Babshapka vaults over the bar, sending Mathias’ tin cup clattering across the floor. “Hey! Watch it!” chides the gaunt man. Babshapka ignores him and pulls out his blaster pistol, firing off a single shot against the unconscious column creature. (Unconscious creatures automatically fail Dex saves; roper takes 19 points force damage, total 58).
Tyrius hauls himself heavily to his feet. ‘Sometimes’, he muses to himself, ‘the protection of Pelor takes the form of a sanctuary spell. But sometimes it comes in the shape of a friend with a blaster rifle.’ He raises Molly above his head. Generally he would refuse to attack an unconscious opponent. But as a war priest of Hieroneous once told him, ‘There is no mercy for monstrosities.’ Even with the creature unconscious, it takes all his strength to batter through its stony hide. Hoping to end it before it recovers, he fires off a divine smite on the second hit and his warhammer glows with radiance (two hits with advantage, 14 points damage, plus 3 points automatic critical, plus 15 smite, for 32, total 90 to body. Tyrius spells at 1/2).
For tactical reasons beyond the comprehension of the others, Thokk decides to remove the presence of his rage from the conscious but entropied column and cross the room to attack the unconscious one. His first hit of two sinks deeply into the creature’s side (21 damage, total 112), killing it before his second attack even hits (for another 16).
Willa, her source of distraction now gone, manages only a single hit on the entropied column, but she makes it count (23 points to body, total 42).
Umbra shoots a ray of shadow at the still-fighting column creature, but misses.
The creature tries to wrap up Willa in another tendril, but fails. It also fails to shake off the entropy (save 6).
Round Two
Flush from his victory over the unconscious creature, Thokk returns to the one still fighting. He lands two powerful blows (29 points, total 71).
Aurora releases the trigger on her blaster rifle and sends out a firebolt that misses the column and explodes when it hits the ceiling. With his pistol still in his left hand, Babshapka draws his broadsword with his right and looks for an opening, easier now that Thokk is flailing at the creature and tentacles besides. He slashes two long cuts across it (16 damage, total 87).
Willa rams her greatsword deep into the creature, burying it nearly to the hilt (12 damage, total 99). It spasms and then grows still.
After a few seconds of panting, Willa tells Tyrius to get his light going and the others to prod anything that looks like a column in the place. Babshapka moves off but doesn’t find much (Perception 6). He notes that the open area of the room does not have a metal floor like the rest of the ship, but large squares of something like a lacquer-covered glass. Similar squares cover the ceiling of the same space. [Dancing]
Mathias, Babshapka, and Aurora continue to poke around the trash piles and among the booths but don’t find anything of note.
Returning to the bar, they look inside the box Babshapka found. There are two clear glass jugs, both stoppered and filled with a clear liquid. Aurora removes one of the stoppers and sniffs - not only she, but all those around immediately smell a very potent and volatile alcohol. Mathias offers to take one jug, packing it away next to his bottle of fey juice. Aurora takes the other, making room for it in her pack by giving Thokk her silk rope to carry.
After a few more minutes of re-accommodating gear, the party is ready to press on.
(5:30pm)
They move along the narrow walkway, with Babshapka vigilant for birds coming up from below. They pass the opening to the drop chute indicating that they have gone halfway around the ship. The drop chute itself, as well as the small atrium around it, is dark, and the handles inside do not move.
They pass a large violet-keyed cargo door without opening it and proceed instead to a violet personnel door. Based on its position, they take it to be the next guard station, so Mathias makes himself visible and moves to open the door. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Last edited by Kirt on Sat Dec 18, 2021 10:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
...say, does your party actually have a group name?
Not really. We call it "The Saltmarsh Campaign", but the party doesn't have a name. Later they are joined by a bard, and she tries to start calling them the 'Orc Smashers', but it doesn't catch on. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-second Barrier Peaks session, was 29 October, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 4 - Level I, North and South and Level III
Party, Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room (S), and Husk Hall are each rolling separately from 5:30 to 7:20pm
Party's camp in the surgery room
Guarded by a SecBot, no encounters rolled
Husk Hall
From 2pm on (when party descends), 2 in 72 chance every 10 minutes of pygmies clearing dead from husk hall; 1 in 6 chance per hour, completely cleared within a day
Security HQ
4:20pm -HQ now fully staffed with three SecBots
No encounters from 5:30pm-7:20pm
Level I Robot Repair Room 7pm - Repair room - 1 more repaired:
Now 8 original secbots, undamaged and unrepaired
5 party-damaged secbots being used for parts
3 original secbots, repaired and upgraded against party
Post 197: Be Our Guest! 23 February, 571 [4 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 4
As before, there is a single security robot and three workers in the aft cargo security room [Robot Station]. Mathias gives the command to begin translating, but the security robot does not stir. In fact, only a single worker appears to still be functional.
Most of the party presses into the guard room; Willa and Babshapka stay outside, flanking either side of the open door. A brief discussion confirms that they are still looking for power discs, and they know that the security robots are a source of them. Aurora resolves to take apart the SecBot, and manages to convince the one active worker robot that she is a technician, knows what she is doing, and is authorized to do so (Aurora Persuasion 15, Worker Insight 12). Mathias breaks out his stool, and the others sit on the floor and lean against the walls.
Despite her recent knowledge of the robot innards, and despite the robot repair tools she takes out of her bulging backpack, Aurora doesn’t seem to be having a good go of it. Mathias drags at his cigarette and watches the half-elven woman hammer and tug at the robot parts and curse. After several minutes’ time, she has nothing out of the grenade chamber (Sleight of Hand 5) or the Power Disc Holder (Sleight of Hand 5). “They’re both seized up!” she complains and curses again. “All the parts that are supposed to move are frozen solid together!”
“I can see inside the grenade chamber well enough,” she says, not checking, as she often doesn’t, whether anyone is listening to her - “it’s got a blue, a black, and a green. The normal release hatch is stuck, but if I use a larger pair of pliers, I think I can force it open from the side…” (Sleight of hand 2 - critical fail!)
“Hunh!” with a forceful tug Aurora rips open a side panel on the grenade chamber. The grenades come spilling out and scatter across the floor. The black one is primed when it passes close enough to the magnetic plate that automatically arms it when fired from the robot. “Tink, tink,” it sounds as it bounces across the metal, then there is a blinding flash of light and “BANG!” The concussive explosion bounces off the metal walls and fills the room.
[Tyrius, Thokk, and Mathias make their saves - they are stunned for 12 seconds and take 5 points of damage each. Aurora and Umbra fail their saves - they are stunned for 2 minutes and deafened for 20 minutes, and take 10 points of damage each].
Willa and Babshapka run into the room and check the wounded - all good, though Umbra and Aurora are dazed and reeling. Both of them have ringing in their ears and blurred vision, so Aurora escapes the several minutes’ string of invectives that Willa is hurling at her.
They were most of them wounded before, after the battle with the ropers, and now they are even more wounded, especially Aurora. Willa ends with “...lucky ye dinnae lose a finger and ‘ow’d ye wave yer wand like t’at, t'en?!” and then announces that they will be taking a short rest. She closes the outer door to the walkway and directs the others in arranging themselves about the room. The worker robot happily collects shrapnel, the remains of the black metal casing of the grenade, finally having some work to do after centuries of inactivity.
[(5:40-6:40pm; short rest)
At the start of the short rest, Willa uses her second wind to get back 11hp.
During the rest (6:10pm), Aurora loses her mage armor; Mathias and Umbra lose their armor of shadows.
Also during the rest (6:30pm) but on Level I, Nurse Xiphox changes out Shefak’s IV bag. Besides the fresh one she just put in, she has two more standing by - Shefak will be safe from dehydration for another day and a half or so.]
Aurora places the undetonated blue and green grenades in her backpack.
During the rest, Aurora decides that while she understands the intricate workings of the clockwork robots, perhaps their disassembly (and the risks thereof) would be better undertaken by someone with more nimble fingers and a better constitution. She spends ten minutes instructing Babshapka in how to use the tools, and he practices stoically. Mathias, watching from his stool, is still trying to puzzle out the relationship between the two, and why Babshapka lets Aurora tell him what to do. “Taking apart a machine man at the behest of your mistress?” he goads. “That’s a good job for a slave.”
Babshapka turns, makes an obscene gesture with his free hand, and silently returns to the job at hand. Mathias inhales sharply in laughter, but begins to choke on his own smoke. He spends the next several minutes alternately choking and laughing.
[At the end of the short rest Umbra is at 0/3/0 for spells. Aurora is at 2/2/1; she uses her Arcane Recovery after the short rest to go to 3/3/1 and then immediately casts three mage armors, one for herself, Umbra, and Mathias, and so is at 0/3/1. The wards will last until 2:40am of Day 5.]
[Tyrius spends three HD to heal 16 points.
Aurora spends three HD to heal 10 points (exactly what she lost from the grenade!)
Umbra spends a HD to heal 7 points.]
(6:40pm)
Now ready to go, the party packs up and opens the door to the walkway. Babshapka checks the walkway for column-creatures, webbirds, and other hazards (Nature 17). Finding none, he ushers the party out.
They backtrack a bit and Mathias opens the violet-carded cargo doors they passed before. They enter; Willa is last and closes the door of the cargo hold behind them.
The room contains cargo crates and the smaller stasis cages, but no vines from column creatures (Mathias Investigation 9). As Aurora walks around, she recognizes the symbols of the colonization supplies, but doesn’t have her comprehend languages running and can't specifically recall most of their meanings. In the back of the hold, near a small violet-carded door, is the open grate that the security robot of the forward hold called a “lift plate”. Aurora recognizes the three pedals and can assume what they do, but doesn’t know how to use it (Intelligence check 5). “We should have asked that robot how to work these,” she says.
She studies the pedals - green, silver, and blue. She borrows a javelin from Thokk and uses the butt end to press down on the green one. It takes a fair bit of pressure and the javelin bends dangerously, but finally the green pedal presses into the metal floor of the lift and locks in place. A second later there is a metallic clang, and then with a whirring sound the entire ten by ten section of floor begins to slowly sink into the floor. Babshapka, peering into the gaps between crates suspiciously, starts at the noise and moves to Aurora’s side. Aurora tries pressing the green pedal again, but it has no effect, and the plate continues to sink.
Aurora switches to the silver panel, but finds she cannot reach it without bending over dangerously, as it continues to move farther below the level of the floor (Dexterity check 15). Going to her knees and bending down over the lip, she manages to press the silver pedal with the javelin. There is a loud clang and the descent halts; a second later the plate begins to rise again. When it is flush with the floor there is another clang, a jolt, and it stops.
Willa has been watching the proceedings quizzically (Intelligence check 8 ). She supposes these lifts go to other cargo holds below, or perhaps some portal to move the crates on and off the ship. Certainly the huge boxes would not fit through the doors to the drop chutes and so could otherwise not be moved between levels.
Reasonably certain that the plate itself is not a trap, Aurora moves onto it and beckons Babshapka aboard. He removes his blaster pistol from his belt and stands next to her. Mathias catches his eye and silently mouths the word “slave”, then chuckles and moves to the door to the west. Babshapka glowers after him.
Aurora depresses the blue pedal with her foot, finding it easier with the full weight of her body on it than by trying to push the javelin down with muscle alone. The pedal depresses but the lift doesn’t move.
(6:50pm)
Mathias opens the door nearby, which leads to a smaller cargo hold, containing more colonization supply crates but no stasis cages.
With the lift going nowhere, Aurora crosses the room and tries the more northern of the two doors in the east wall. As suspected, it opens onto the same robot station guard room they were in before. The worker robot, which made no effort to follow them out to the walkway when they left, immediately darts through the door as soon as it is open. It begins to move about the cargo hold, straightening boxes and picking up small pieces of debris.
Willa joins Mathias in the small hold but after a bit of searching gives up on finding anything useful (Perception 17).
(7pm)
Trying the second door on the east wall, the party finds it leads to another hold. Thokk takes the lead in searching this new area (Perception 6) but bellows over his shoulder that it is just more boring boxes. Babshapka follows him inside, checking a bit more carefully than the barbarian cared to (Perception 22), but having no more luck.
The party takes a few more looks around the new cargo hold but doesn’t find anything. If they decided to give up adventuring and become farmers, they would have much of value here, but as it is, there is little of interest.
Mathias opens the doors to the walkway, the ones farther ahead in their countergrade circuit. “Women and slaves first,” he says and motions to Babshapka. The elf scowls but walks out and checks the walkway for danger (Nature 20). The railing to the southwest looks corroded, with peeling paint - and a slime trail leading to it - but the walkway is otherwise deserted.
The party moves out, with Tyrius closing the door behind them and Babshapka warning them about the railing. They proceed around the walkway, now on the sixth side of the octagon shape from their entry point.
[7pm. Unbeknownst to the party, the two worker robots in the repair room have used up the parts from one of the security robots the party destroyed to repair one of the ones originally there. Once it is online, they have it watch videos of the party attacking security robots in both the repair room and the security HQ. There are now three re-activated, armor-upgraded and party-targeting security robots in the repair room, five destroyed robots that can still be drawn on for parts, and eight waiting to be fixed.]
(7:10pm)
The next opening in the exterior wall is not a door, but a large entrance, like that of the tavern but without the support column, thankfully. The room beyond [Lounge] has furnishings like the tavern - high tables and backed, upholstered benches - but no bar. It is lit inside, but only dimly and the contrast with the bright light from the ceiling panels outside makes it hard to see. Those in advance don’t get much of a look inside before a robot rapidly wheels into view. It initially approaches Thokk, ignoring Mathias who is forcefully commanding it to initiate its translation protocol. Once Mathias deactivates his invisibility, however, the robot swerves and moves to his side.
The machine’s lower extremities are wheeled, cylindrical, and nondescript, like a SecBot, but from the waist up it is shaped like a man, or android, though with much less detailed features than the nurse or the surgeon. In addition to its two arms it has a number of retractable, prehensile tentacles, though much smaller and thinner than the grappling ones of the SecBot. Its front is draped with a stained apron, once white but now overgrown with green and blue splotches of mold.
The robot is speaking in the alien language and gesturing at Mathias, who pulls out the bent translation tube they acquired in the room of undead swamp lights. As he presses the ‘receive’ button, the device begins to emit speech in Common, in time with that of the robot. “...to the lounge. Please allow me to seat you; how many of you will be dining with us?”
Mathias snorts and replies, pressing ‘send’, “Why thank you, fine sir.” His accent has shifted slightly, the speech sounding more refined than the tone he uses with the party.
Aurora, excited at the chance for a civilized meal after weeks of trail food, eagerly follows the robot and sits down at a table, actually sighing as she leans back into the cushioned bench. The others are dubious; no one else sits down. Babshapka is trying to shield his eyes from the bright light coming in the entrance and look about the dim place, but he does not see much (Perception 7)
The robot glides quickly away. After a few moments it returns with platters heaped high with decaying mush covered in blue-green mold. With a flourish and a detailed description of each “dish” it lays them on the table in front of Aurora, whose look of satisfied indulgence has shifted to disgust.
Mathias presses ‘send’ and speaks into the bent device, “Could you bring us something more...fresh?”
“Of course, nothing but the freshest ingredients for this fine patron,” comes the translation. “But first you must finish your appetizers.” Aurora waves her hand, refusing the food, and the robot’s eyes narrow. “I insist,” it says menacingly, and suddenly it has one hand on Aurora’s shoulder, pushing her down into the bench. Its other hand lifts a platter from the table, and one of its tentacles scoops the rotten mush from the plate and snakes towards Aurora’s face.
Aurora makes a warding gesture with her free hand, locks eyes with the robot, and uses her instinctive charm. (Servo Robot Wisdom save 14, fails). The robot turns abruptly, releasing Aurora and attempting to grab Thokk. Thokk doesn’t know what is going on, but his instincts tell him that the grab is an attack (Thokk Initiative 22, Robot 16). He takes a step back even as the robot is turning, has his sword free and slashes at it as it reaches out to him (first hit critical, 8 damage plus another 10, second hit 11, total 29 points).
Undaunted by the blows, the robot lurches forward, now using both its hands to grab Thokk’s arms and, with surprising strength, pin them to his sides (contested Athletics roll; Thokk 10, Robot 13; Thokk is grappled). Now extending to fully six feet in length, the robot’s tentacles scoop up more of the mold-covered mush at the table behind it and thrust it at Thokk’s face. He manages to clamp his jaw shut even as the tentacles try to force the mush into his mouth (contested Athletics roll; Thokk 18, Robot 5).
Willa, thoroughly revolted, had just a second ago brought her greatsword over her head in a high arc, then down and attempted to sever the robot’s tentacles even as they were scooping up the food from the plates. Her blow landed late, though, and her sword missed the tentacles but sunk deep into the back of the bench, lodging there so that she could not pull it free (two attacks, both critical misses!) Aurora squeals as the errant sword nearly cleaves her in two, and then dives under the table.
Babshapka had drawn his broadsword barely a second after Thokk, and his shortsword a half second later. He approaches the robot from behind, striking again and again at the back of its head and shoulders (three hits, 18 damage, total 47). The robot’s alien voice trails off and it slumps over, the mush-covered tentacles now hanging limply at its side.
my 5e conversion of moldy food wrote:
Moldy Food: If the victim resists the food, make DC15 Con save to spit the food out before it is swallowed. If the food is voluntarily swallowed, there is no save. Anyone who has swallowed food is Incapacitated for 10-40 minutes and then dies.
Just before the confrontation, Mathias had slipped off to the south, where he discovered three skeletons on the floor at the entrance of a kitchen.
Thokk wipes the moldy mush off his face, first with the back of his forearm, and later with the heavy ‘silk’ fabric that Tyrius is obligingly ripping off of the stuffed benches. “So hard to find good help these days,” Tyrius sighs as he shakes his head. His golden locks bounce about his face; like the others, it has been two weeks since he washed his hair in the dwarven city; unlike the others, his hair is neither matted nor oily, but fresh and gleaming.
As Willa is still tugging, trying to free her greatsword from the back of the bench, Aurora comes out from under the table. “What did you find?” she calls out to Mathias, and quickly joins him in the back of the room. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Last edited by Kirt on Tue Dec 07, 2021 9:20 pm; edited 1 time in total
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-second Barrier Peaks session, was 29 October, 2019.
Note that in 5e, Green Slime is not a monster, but a 'hazard' (like a trap, thin ice, or some such). I wanted to run this closer to the original, and so was looking to convert green slime to 5e stats. I used the version available at https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Giant_Slime_(5e_Creature)
Where
5e green slime wrote:
Giant Slime.
Damage Immunity: Slashing.
Acidic Form. A creature that touches the slime or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it takes 10 (3d6) acid damage.
Split. When a slime that is Medium or larger is subjected to lightning or slashing damage, it splits into two new slimes if it has at least 10 hit points. Each new slime has hit points equal to half the original slime's, rounded down. New slimes are one size smaller than the original slime.
Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) bludgeoning
damage and 10 (3d6) acid damage.
Acid Spray (Recharge 6). The slime exhales acid in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The slime may then immediately use its Split. If the slime cannot use its Split, it cannot use this action.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 4 - Level I, North and South and Level III
Party, Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room (S), and Husk Hall are each rolling separately
Party's camp in the surgery room.
Guarded by SecBot and not rolling encounters from 7:20pm to 7:40pm
Husk Hall
From 2pm on (when party descends), 2 in 72 chance every 10 minutes of pygmies clearing dead from husk hall; 1 in 6 chance per hour, completely cleared within a day
Security HQ
No new SecBots arrive from 7:20pm to 7:40pm
Robot Repair Room
No new robots repaired from 7:20 to 7:40pm
Post 198: Sticky Situations 23 February, 571 [4 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 4
[Unbeknownst to the rest of the party, when Leezar searched the bodied before Aurora arrived, he found two cards, a needler, and some jewelry. While she is on her way over, he is able to pocket the cards and two of the three jewelries (Sleight of Hand 18). When Aurora arrives at his side, he ‘discovers’ the needler and the remaining bracelet.]
Between the two of them, Mathias and Aurora investigate the bodies, finding a needler pistol and a bracelet set with gemstones. When Aurora takes the bracelet, it hums a tune. She finds that each gemstone on the oddly-elastic string produces a different tone - when she runs her hand over them, they produce, in combination, pleasing harmonies. She puts on the bracelet and strokes it more, but is unable to coax anything more than music from it.
Mathias says he will stand guard outside and becomes invisible on his way to the entrance.
[Unbeknownst to the rest of the party, once Leezar is alone outside, he checks what he was able to recover from the bodies. The cards are black and violet. That means, in addition to the red card the party knows he has, he now has two oranges, a black, and a violet. In addition to the cards, he has a necklace set with black stones, and an earring with a sunburst design. Neither appears to be part of a matched set with the bracelet taken by Aurora.]
Babshapka walks past Aurora, trusting that she can’t hurt herself with a bracelet, and enters the kitchen. It appears to be the same as those they had seen before, but is absent of any tracks from the plant men (Investigation 9).
(7:20pm)
Since the Laboratory Robot quoted a large section of the “Food Worker Manual” [See Post 184: Data Dump], they have a better idea of how the kitchen space is supposed to function. Aurora goes to the “video menu screen” and tries to get it to display, but has no luck (Investigation 9).
Thokk opens all of the hinged doors (Investigation 9); in two of them, he finds the oil paper-covered cave horn meal trays. When he removes the tray and closes the door, he can hear a mechanical whirring from inside. He hands the tray to Aurora, knowing that of everyone in his warband, she is the best at the kind of puzzles that require thinking but which ultimately are more amusing than useful. Aurora turns the “temperature control knob” on all five of the ovens; a minute later, one of them actually appears to be getting warm. Without her comprehend languages, Aurora can’t follow the written cooking instructions on the tray, but some of the symbols on the tray are repeated on the oven, so she sets the various dials to match. Two minutes later the oven chimes like a tiny bell.
Aurora removes the tray - it is hot to the touch. She sticks in the second tray and changes the setting, then sets the first tray down on the counter and peels back the paper cover. All of the foods (a different type in each recessed compartment of the tray) are unfamiliar to her, but they are warm and certainly smell inviting. Considering what just happened with the robot, she ultimately decides that she will not try the food. However, she basks in the knowledge that she now understands yet more of the ship technology and she could come back to this room at any point and prepare food for the entire party if need be.
As the party prepares to press on, Babshapka looks ahead along the walkway. They are approaching another drop chute, and like two of the previous three, this one has vines growing up from the jungle floor below and spilling over the railing of the walkway. He takes the new needler pistol, sets it to “crowd”, and squeezes. There are puffs of air, but nothing emerges.
Babshapka slides open the cartridge compartment. Of the ten slots for needle packets, all of them are empty. He stores the pistol in his bag.
Aurora sends Buckbeak along the walkway - the intervening vines take no notice of the bird. After a quick circuit, the hawk returns.
(7:30pm)
Mathias, invisible, volunteers to scout ahead. As he moves along the wall, however, he sees the vines beginning to creep towards him - whatever sense they are using to detect his movement, it is not sight! (Insight 16). He hurries ahead and moves into the lit atrium containing the drop chute. Once he crosses the threshold of the chamber, the vines stop moving - but almost immediately something drops off the ceiling! Mathias, wondering whether the ring is working or not, narrowly avoids being engulfed by a falling puddle of verdant slime. Even as it lands on the floor, the slime begins advancing on him.
(Green slime initiative 2, Mathias 20) Mathias unhesitatingly turns and runs back to the party, with the slime rapidly following - leaving a characteristic fresh, wet, slime trail along the walkway)
Just before reaching the party, Mathias spins and uses his spells to blast the pursuing slime. (Two hits, 11 damage. Original slime is size Large, 57 hp. After Mathias’ blasting, 46hp) The slime quivers and shakes at the impact of the spells, but doesn’t split in two. His spell attacks render Mathias visible just before Aurora was about to fill the walkway, including where he was moving, with the flame cone of her blaster rifle.
When Aurora hesitates at firing, Thokk shoves her out of the way and moves to the fore, bringing down the sunsword on the slime. Immediately he is hit by a splash of ooze from the creature, and can feel his skin burning (10 points of acid damage) The sword stroke doesn’t appear to have damaged the slime, but it does split it in two! Both halves continue to advance. (Thokk’s attack turns a Large slime with 46hp into two Medium slimes with 23hp each)
While Thokk holds his sword in front of him, wondering how many pieces he can chop the slime into, its surface begins to roll and dimple. A huge spray of acid shoots forth in a cone. Thokk’s barbarian reflexes allow him to leap out of the way, back and to the side, but behind him Umbra is drenched and then begins to feel her skin burning. The spray falls just short of Aurora. (After using its Spray, one of the slimes splits from a size Medium with 23hp into two Small slimes with 12hp. Thokk's Danger Sense gives him Dex saves with advantage: 24, save, takes 11 points. Umbra Dex save 5, fails, takes 22 points, now at 13hp)
The largest of the now-three slimes swings at Thokk with a pseudopod that erupts from its surface, but the barbarian nimbly avoids that as well.
Babshapka has the screen of his blaster pistol selecting targets, starting with the largest of the three slimes (Dex save with disadvantage 2, 23 points force damage); the blast of force reduces it to an inanimate puddle of acidic goo. His second shot targets one of the smaller slimes (Dex save with disadvantage 7, 13 points force damage), terminally disrupting it as well. There remains just one small slime.
Seeing the effect that Thokk’s sword had, Willa has drawn her magic mace. She moves past Umbra (who is silently writhing in acidified agony) and smashes the slime into the walkway until it stops moving (two hits, total 21 points bludgeoning damage, Willa takes 18 points acid damage before it dies).
The party retreats momentarily to tend to their wounds. With the walkway now actually clear, Aurora uses her blaster rifle flame cone, both to dispose of the bodies of the slimes, as well as to burn back the vines that were slowly advancing all during the fight. Tyrius uses lay on hands to treat Umbra (10 points restored).
Aurora has two discs with a single charge each - she gives these two to Babshapka for his now-empty blaster pistol, and changes a fresh disc with six charges into her own rifle.
When the vines retreat before the fire, Babshapka advances, checking the ceiling around where the original slime fell on Mathias (Nature 7). He finds the metal wet and dripping with water - it is impossible to tell whether more slimes hang there or not. He calls forward Thokk for his opinion. Upon arrival, Thokk points out three different places in the ceiling where the outlines of slimes are obvious (Survival 20). He tells Babshapka that four hours of trancing is not enough for a frail little elf like himself and that he needs to sleep more to recover his senses.
As the party gathers near, but not under, the slimes, Thokk points them out to each person with a missile weapon or spell. Once they each have a target, they all strike at once.
Surprise round
Aurora: Flame cone from blaster rifle for 12 points damage to each of them.
Mathias: 10 points of force damage to one
Babshapka: 10 points of force damage to one (made save)
Umbra: misses with ray of shadow
As the slimes quiver and drop, or attempt to crawl away, the party strikes again;
Round 1
Babshapka: two blaster shots for 18 and 16 force damage (total 66 to one and slain)
Seeing the two remaining slimes roiling as if they are about to launch a cone of acid, Thokk runs up and strikes at one with his sword, then bellows a challenge, attempting to draw their fire away from the party (Intimidation 17).
Apparently his bellows work, for both slimes disgorge their acid cones at him (Dex saves with advantage 19 and 24, Thokk takes 9 and 10 acid damage and is now at 17). Having discharged their volley, the slimes start crawling rapidly along the ceiling toward the drop chute.
Mathias: 12 damage from two blasts of force
Umbra: Misses with ray of shadow
Aurora: 12 damage from firebolt
Round 2
Umbra: 10 points of cold damage and one of the slimes retreats more slowly
Babshapka: 8 points of force damage from blaster (made save)
Aurora:12 points of fire damage (slays a second)
Mathias: 2 points of force damage
The remaining slime crawls (25 feet move) into the drop chute, and the party pursues it to the opening.
Round 3
With no one in the party willing to pursue the slime into the chute itself, it looks to be about to get away to some other level - until Umbra summons an arcane force that uses its own shadow to bind it fast in place! (Shadowbind, slime Wisdom save 14, fails). The others unload their spells and missiles at the immobile ooze.
Mathias: 10 points force damage
Babshapka: 13 points force damage from blaster
Aurora: 4 points fire damage
Round 4
(Wisdom save 8, slime fails, still held)
Firing off two more blasts of force (17 points) at the immobile slime, Mathias rips it apart and ends the combat. The others look carefully about at the ceilings, floors, and walls, but can find no more.
(7:40pm)
The party has now been three-quarters of the way around the walkway. Led by Willa, they are eager to finish their circuit of Level III and then check back in on Larry and Shefak. Once they have cleaned their weapons of the last of the slime, Mathias approaches the smaller door of the guard room next to the drop chute.
Despite Mathias’ previous success in talking to the robots, Willa puts up her stone and Babshapka dons his gas mask before the door is opened. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
What a creature of habit am I. I tried to make my normal Tuesday post on the 14th and couldn't log on. Over and over I tried - and it wasn't until today that I realized they changed the anti-spambot question...
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-third Barrier Peaks session, was 5 November, 2019.
Party Wandering Encounters - Day 4 - Level I, North and South and Level III
Party, Mules, Security HQ (N/S), Repair Room (S), and Husk Hall are each rolling separately
Party
[11:50am 02479 accompanies the party to guard the party's camp in the surgery room. This room will no longer be rolling encounters]
Husk Hall
From 2pm on (when party descends), 2 in 72 chance every 10 minutes of pygmies clearing dead from husk hall; 1 in 6 chance per hour, completely cleared within a day
Level I Robot Repair Room 11:20pm Repair room - 1 more (11:20pm) 7/5/4 (0 or less) [+3]
Post 199: New Best Friend 23 February, 571 [4 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 4
When the violet-carded door slides open, it reveals the anticipated guardroom, with an active security robot and worker robot, but also two immobile workers.
“Hiiiphelex conthwaren jin'd'well,” says Mathias in the alien language, and the security robot repeats some variation of the phrase and then begins busily translating. Babshapka has his back to the conversation, as he is watching out for more birds from the jungle below. Willa asks Mathias to speed up the process, since she doesn’t want to wait exposed on the walkway for a full ten minutes. Mathias brings out the translation device and speaks into it.
“Lieutenant Mathias Forge, Security officer of the Away Team,” he announces.
"Security Officer, present orange or red clearance,” the tube translates after the robot responds. Mathias shows his red card. (Persuasion 24, Robot Insight 2)
"Officer, what are your orders for this unit?"
“I am checking the security of the cargo holds.”
"Yes, sir. Access granted to this unit's hold." The robot wheels over to the interior door and presses the panel to open it.
“Some stations I have inspected are not up to standards,” warns Mathias.
“Acknowledged.”
“We may need to do some restructuring.”
“Affirmative - two workers of this station have ceased functioning. This unit has been unable to access the central computer to request maintenance."
“The mainframe is down - that is why we need to do a manual inspection.”
"Noted. Officer Forge, please proceed with inspection.”
Willa growls, "Let’s ‘inspect’ t’en..." and gestures at the open door to the hold, but Mathias isn’t done talking.
“How many security robots are in this hold?” he asks.
“This unit is the only secbot assigned to this hold section at present. Do you wish this unit or the one functional worker to accompany you on your inspection?"
“You may accompany us; please show us the hold.”
“Affirmative.”
“Finally,” grouses Willa, as the robot spins and moves through the open interior door.
As Mathias walks slowly behind the robot, the others enter the cargo hold. Babshapka moves ahead, taking a rapid circuit of the room (Perception 13). The cargo boxes are stacked neatly in the center - only a few stasis cages are present. There are large, brown-carded cargo doors to the walkway and to the north, and a smaller door to the south, with a “lift plate” nearby.
“Is there storage space for more cargo on the levels below this one?” Mathias asks the robot, still using the translation device.
“The lower levels are for exo-faunal storage as well as colonization supplies. There are many holds below.”
“We experienced some exo-faunal activity on this level recently. Have you?”
“Much of the vegetation from the botanical gardens below is scaling the walls - the vegetation workers are derelict in their duties, if this unit may be so bold as to say.”
“Permission granted to speak freely. Have there been any exofaunal attacks on security robots?”
“Not on this unit - it appears most of the exo-fauna do not have access to security doors or drop chutes and cannot attain this level. However, observation from the walkway indicates that in the gardens below there are many escaped exo-fauna.”
“I see.” At this point Mathias has arrived at the smaller southern door, which the robot dutifully opens for him. It leads to a smaller cargo hold with a few stasis cages but no surprises. After looking inside, Mathias addresses the robot. “Ok; let’s send your functioning maintenance robot to go get parts to repair the other security robots for this level; some of your counterparts in the other guard stations are not working. On its way to the repair room above, the worker can drag your non-functioning workers and leave them up there for repair.”
“Affirmative, sir!” The robot wheels rapidly back into the guard room and the party soon hears through the open doors one of the worker robots hauling off another one. The security robot hurries back to Mathias’ side.
Mathias is concerned about the continued use of the translation device and wonders if it has a power source. Looking it over carefully (Intelligence check 12), he finds that the end of one of the two sections fits like a tight sleeve over a slightly smaller diameter section. Pulling it, he separates the two halves and finds a power disc inside.
Mathias looks up at the arriving robot. “Is there a power cell supply nearby?”
“Clarification request - ‘power cell’?
Mathias pops the power disc out of the translator and holds it in front of the robot.
“Power discs are distributed by violet-level technicians. Robot personnel may also recharge internal power supply at the charging stations on Level II”.
Willa has been listening. “We need t’ get more discs,” she says. “Also, crickets fer Babshapka from ther gardens, a powered wagon t’ carry our gear, an’ charcoal t’ keep us warm on ther way out.”
Mathias nods. As they walk toward the cargo doors at the north of the hold, he asks, “What is your weapons status?”
“This unit continually runs weapons self-diagnostics. Laser rifle, grappling hands, and damage tentacles are all fully operational. Paralyzation ray operational with five uses remaining on current power disc. This unit regrets to inform you, however, that it no longer has any grenades [Luck roll -2]. This unit has been unable to requisition more since ship communication systems went down.”
“Understood. We are here to eliminate threats to the ship and protect its integrity. Our mission includes eliminating threats to the outside from the ship. Mainly the brain-attacking exo-fauna. I will need your assistance with this mission.”
The robot pauses in its forward motion and a complex set of lights play across its features. “Clarification: Security Officer Forge's mission request takes priority over this unit’s currently designated task of guarding colonization supplies?”
“Yes.” (Mathias Persuasion 25, Robot Insight 6).
“Affirmative. This unit will assist with the priority security mission. May this unit request other security units, when contacted, to relieve it on guard duty?”
“That’s why I had you send the maintenance robot for parts - to repair currently inactive security robots who will be able to relieve you of your duties.”
“Acknowledged. Security Officer, if this unit is now assigned to a security mission, it requests requisition of grenades so as to be at full operating capacity.”
Mathias looks over at Aurora but says nothing. She shrugs and sets her pack down, then takes out three blue, two black, and one green grenade. The robot accepts them with its grasping hands and loads them into a drawer. It tests its launcher by having it extend and retract several times, each time with a different color grenade visible at the base of the tube.
As the robot tests its new weaponry, Mathias outlines the mission. “Note that our Away Team is partially composed of exo-fauna. It has been 700 years since the paranoia virus. The ship is no longer in the empty space between worlds, but has arrived on a world. The mind-attacking exo-fauna escaped and killed the captain. It could have tried to take over the ship - it is still present and a danger to both the ship and the outside world. We have to stop it before it escapes. That is our primary mission. We are also looking for any other escaped exofauna.”
“Acknowledged. Now creating decision parameters for updated mission status.”
“Look to me for tactical instruction.”
“Affirmative, Lt. Forge.”
Having arrived at the northern cargo doors, the robot opens them and the party enters [13. Radiation-Filled Cargo Hold]. The sharply curving exterior hull makes the room almost triangular in shape. The hold has the standard colonization crates and stasis cages - but all of these cages appear to be intact. Babshapka moves forward to investigate (Perception 16).
The party has been in the room for just a few seconds when the security robot begins to emit a flashing red light. “Priority alert!” it warns. “Sir - this unit detects levels of radiation dangerously high for biological life forms.”
“Great work,” says Mathias, and motions everyone out.
The robot points out rents in the hull as they leave. “The source of the radiation appears to be the exterior hull - structural integrity and local radiation shields appear to have been compromised.”
Once the last of them have exited, Mathias shuts the door.
[Everyone in the party makes a Con save, +3 if they were near Tyrius
Babshapka 22
Tyrius 20
Umbra 11
Mathias 11
Thokk 10
Aurora 9
Willa 8]
“This unit apologizes for not checking for bio-safety first. It has been very long since this unit had to consider the safety of living crew members, and radiation checks had been down-graded in this unit’s decision priorities. This unit is now moving environmental checks with reference to biological safety to second priority after detection of exo-fauna.”
“Too little, too late,” says Willa as she opens the healing valise to check on the contents - there are currently four ampules of cure disease, and three each of curing poison and radiation.
“This unit suggests that it should move to point position and scan for safety before the other members of your detail. If you accept this precaution, please direct its course.”
“Accepted,” agrees Mathias. “Check any room before we enter. Also, use your robot language to introduce the Team to any other secbots we encounter.”
“Affirmative.”
Tyrius moves to Willa’s side. “I’ll take that, my lady,” he says, indicating the healing valise. “You’re usually in the front rank - you need your mind on fighting, not healing.” Turning to the others in the party, he says, “Alright, show me some skin.” At the looks of confusion, he innocently reminds them that when Larry and Mathias were sick from the “radiation” their skin looked sunburned.
The members of the party take off their helms and pull back their collars. Tyrius inspects the skin of each of their faces and necks, but doesn’t find any cause for concern. “Let’s hope we weren’t in there long enough to be hurt,” he says. “But I will keep watching - let me check any time we pause.”
As Tyrius moves among the party, Mathias asks the robot its name.
“This unit is currently designated SecBot 31266.”
“Thank you. We are headed to Med Bay 2 on the first level - please lead the way, but stay close. We may need to redirect you on the first level - there are some areas off limits.”
“Affirmative - the shortest route would take the Team through a drop chute that currently is not fully functional - please advise.”
“The northern drop chute will do,” responds Mathias, then, anticipating the robot's request for clarification on ‘northern’, he points the direction.
The security robot moves to the cargo doors and opens them. “Affirmative - please maintain a following distance of 50 feet, but with clear visual contact.” It moves out to the walkway and its head swivels completely around. “No immediate environmental hazards detected,” it says. Those in the party paying close attention note that this last phrase is actually spoken in Common. Mathias puts the translation device away. The whole party moves out to the walkway and Tyrius closes the cargo doors behind them.
(7:50pm)
Ahead of them the walkway angles to become the seventh side of the octagon - they have nearly returned to the northern drop chute. On the wall to their left they approach a wide opening, with a column in the center, like the tavern. “Check that pillar for signs of life!” calls Mathias, and the security robot wheels around it and tests it with its grasping hands before continuing.
When Babshapka is even with the opening he looks inside (Perception 24). He sees a lounge in disorder, with many divans and tables, both high and low, and other furniture whose function is not immediately recognizable. Skeletal bodies are on the floor or draped over the divans, and there is a wide door on the wall to the west. After a brief party conference, they decide to not perform even a cursory search on the room and Mathias tells the robot to proceed.
They quickly round the angled corner to the northern side of the octagon walkway. Not forty feet ahead of them, they can see that the vines covering the railing are already beginning to react to the presence of the security robot, snaking slowly toward it. Mathias calls it back.
There are violet-carded cargo doors on the wall before the drop chute, and the party’s first choice is to use the cargo bay to avoid the vines. However, after the doors are opened and the room is scouted by Babshapka (Perception 24), they realize that that particular cargo hold does not continue to the west and they will not be able to use it to attain the chute.
Mathias shrugs. “So we unload on them with cantrips, beat them back like before.”
No one disagrees with Mathias, but Aurora insists on softening up the vines first with her blaster rifle. She stands at the railing, lining up all of the vines she can see and selecting the Heat Beam setting. A great ray of thermic energy extends out for a hundred feet, wilting all the vines that it touches. (DC13 Dex save; 3 sections of vine fail the save; they are roasted and die. Two more make their save and take 10 points of radiant damage.) At the conclusion of her beam, the other party members move in.
Surprise Round
Two blasts of force from Mathias do 9 damage to the closest vine.
Umbra lands a ray of shadow for 5 points.
Willa rushes forward, hacking at the vines with her greatsword (two hits, a critical for 24, and 13)
Round One
Although the party has seriously hurt many of the vines, those remaining continue to creep forward.
Babshapka finds Aurora trying to line up another shot with her blaster rifle. “Come on, woman!” he shouts at her. “We are going that way!” he says as he points at the entrance to the drop chute. He stays by her side and draws his two swords.
Mathias sends out another two blasts of force (for 15 damage). He shouts at the robot, who has already moved past the chute, “Fall back to us, SecBot 31266!”
Thokk strides into the melee, chopping at the vines for 19 damage. Two of the vines attempt to respond by coiling around him, but do not find purchase (attack rolls 16, 6).
Umbra’s ray of shadow hits for 12.
Willa and Tyrius think that the vines are well enough under control that they should dash to the drop chute, and yell at the others to follow.
Round 2
Mathias blasts a vine to pieces (two hits, 14 damage).
Umbra’s ray of shadow hits for 11; she notices that while the vine does not immediately die from the cold, it does appear to be slowed.
Suddenly a vine lashes out and wraps around Willa (attack roll 20; three points of bludgeoning damage; Willa is grappled but is not being strangled).
Thokk hacks at the vine holding Willa but does little damage (two hits, 12 points). Without Mathias even directing it, the SecBot moves to Willa’s side and attempts to use its restraining tentacles to wrestle with the vine and free her, but the twisty vines elude its grasp (two misses). Seeing that Willa has been snared, Tyrius turns from the chute and begins to use his hammer against the vines (two hits, 19 damage).
Babshapka slashes at the vine that Umbra froze (two hits, 17 damage). New vines continue to clamber over the railing, seeming to arrive faster than the party can dispatch them.
Aurora shoots a firebolt for 9 damage.
Willa struggles against the vine that is binding her and just barely manages to wrench herself out of its grasp (contested check, Willa Athletics 20, vine Acrobatics 18).
Round 3
Babshapka now attacks with both his swords (three hits, total 23 damage), but urges the others to fall back to the chute now that Willa is free. They do so, leaving just the robot behind. The vines wrap around the SecBot, but give up after they find they can neither strangle nor crush it. In a few seconds more, all of them stand at the rear, or upward-going, side of the chute.
The party has now explored nearly all of Level III, with just two small areas unseen that are likely ancillary cargo holds.
(8pm)
The ride up the chute is tense but uneventful, as is the walk back on Level I from the northern drop chute to the eastern one. The security robot Mathias had set to guard outside the surgery room is still there. As they approach it, Willa begins to feel a bit bilious - did the ride up the drop chute affect her stomach? As she remarks on her nauseated feeling, a number of the others agree. Tyrius calls a halt, inspects them, and points out that many of them are now showing pink patches on their skin.
Mathias grimaces as he asks the guard robot for a status report. It replies that it has turned away several maintenance robots that sought to service the area, but has seen nothing else.
“Excellent, thank you. SecBot 31266, please note that this SecBot cannot assume your guard duties below - it has a different security assignment. That is why we need the other robots repaired.”
“Acknowledged.”
(8:10pm)
[Unbeknownst to the party, another friendly SecBot has downloaded Mathias’ orders and is now on guard outside the security HQ, in addition to the three already inside.]
The party, many of them rapidly feeling worse, enter the surgery room, whereupon Nurse Xiphox quickly diagnoses them with ‘radiation sickness’ - apparently Umbra, Mathias, Thokk, Aurora, and Willa have all succumbed to whatever malady that is.
Tyrius is able to cure Aurora and Umbra with two castings of Lesser Restoration (Tyrus at 1/0).
Nurse Xiphox injects Mathias with her own syringe. He soon feels much better, but she claims that is the end of her supplies. She is able, however, to instruct Willa in the proper technique for injecting herself and Thokk with the radiation antidote from the valise. In particular, she cautions Willa to squeeze any air bubbles out of the syringe before she performs the injections - a point none of them had realized before. The valise now contains three remaining ampules of cure disease, two cure poison, and one cure radiation.
With the immediate threat of radiation sickness resolved, Babshapka (at full hp) retires to a quiet corner of the room and reaches out with his preternatural senses. He feels an overwhelming sense of a Celestial nearby - undoubtedly Eddard. Undead, likely those on this level, flit in and out of the periphery of his senses - are the wisps back? Deep within the ship, he still feels the familiar Celestials from before as well as the lone aberration. (Primeval Awareness - Babshapka now at 0/0)
Larry casts cure wounds at 3rd level on Thokk (17 points healed).
Willa uses her second wind to heal 12 points to herself, taking her to full.
Larry recovered three spell slots from the short rest he got while the party was below. He now uses these in rapid succession to cure wounds on Umbra (11), Aurora (11), and Thokk (6). (Larry is now at 0/0/0).
Tyrius uses a cure wounds on himself (7 points - Tyrius now at 0/0) and then lays on hands (4 points) until he is at full.
Umbra uses two sorcery points to refresh her armor of shadows. Aurora casts mage armor on herself and Mathias.
Once the flurry of spellcasting has died down, Mathias goes outside to speak with the two robots. He uses Shefak’s ring of invisibility and asks them whether they can still detect him. They respond that they have lost visual recognition of him but can still track him with their auditory and thermal sensors - they ask whether they should run self-diagnostics to find the fault in their visual sensors. He says that there is no need, that he sometimes removes himself from visual contact to be able to scout better or even relax. He reminds them that even when they cannot see him, he is still in command and that they should follow the orders issued by his voice. They acknowledge, and Mathias returns to the room.
(9:20pm)
The party has completed a short rest. Aurora is now at 1/3/2, Larry at 3/0/0. Larry immediately uses all three of his cure wounds spells on Thokk (for 7, 8, and 12). Larry back to 0/0/0.
The radiation sickness now well past, the party is feeling their hunger. Dinner is taken from the rations on the mules. After the meal, there remains enough for about three more days for the party, and perhaps five days for the mules. Willa is not worried about the party - not with the central storeroom full of ship’s rations - but the mules are another matter.
Mathias decides to shed ten pounds by packing his leather armor away on the mules. Aurora seems capable of reliably providing him with mage armor. As people prepare to actually sleep, Mathias smokes a few cigarettes and ponders the day’s events. When he is ready to turn in himself, he sets one security robot on watch outside the room, turning away all visitors, and another watching over them in the room inside. They will start with everyone in the party resting, but then set up a watch schedule after Umbra and Babshapka have completed their long rests.
(9:50pm)
Willa and Tyrius lose their darkvision.
[11:20pm. Unbeknownst to the party, another friendly SecBot has downloaded Mathias’ orders and two are now on guard outside the security HQ, in addition to the three inside.]
[11:20pm. Unbeknownst to the party, the two worker robots in the repair room have used the parts from one of the security robots the party destroyed to repair one of the ones originally there, although the donor still has useful parts remaining. There are now four re-activated and armor-upgraded security robots in the repair room, five destroyed robots they can still draw on for parts, and seven waiting to be fixed. The repair robots have turned away the workers Mathias sent requesting parts for the robots on Level III, but have noted the possibility of restoring and reprogramming more SecBots from throughout the ship once they run out of their current store to continue to build the force they are assembling to attack the party.]
The rest of the fourth day in the cave passes uneventfully. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
What a creature of habit am I. I tried to make my normal Tuesday post on the 14th and couldn't log on. Over and over I tried - and it wasn't until today that I realized they changed the anti-spambot question...
The rest of the fourth day in the cave passes uneventfully.
No worries, we forgive you.
I'm surprised at the bad rolls you got for the security robots when they dealt with Matthias. Do they have disadvantage when dealing with someone carrying a colored card, do they have really low Insight rolls, or were you just having an off day with the dice during these sessions?
Your campaign log has given me a whole new appreciation for this module. I didn't realize how many of the encounters could be potentially helpful to a clever party, or how many of the technological treasures might be used up just trying to survive in the ship. It wouldn't fit in my Greyhawk, but I'm glad to see how much it's enriched yours.
I'm surprised at the bad rolls you got for the security robots when they dealt with Matthias. Do they have disadvantage when dealing with someone carrying a colored card, do they have really low Insight rolls, or were you just having an off day with the dice during these sessions?
Mathias, as a warlock, has Cha as his best ability, and chose to have skill in both Persuasion and Deception. So either way, he is rolling a d20+8.
I gave the SecBots Str 20, Con 16, Dex 13, and Int/Wis/Cha 10. They are not skilled in Insight, which is a Wisdom-based skill.
So most of the rolls were flat, neither advantage nor disadvantage, and should usually break Mathias' way, since d20+8 is usually > d20.
Still, he did have a long string of luck. I've known that particular player for 37 years, and he always seemed lucky when we were using physical dice. Less so now that we are using a VTT, but it certainly still seems to break his way on the clutch plays when it counts.
On the other hand, through Mathias' own command ('repair the SecBots'), there is now a slowly assembling army of fire-resistant, armor-upgraded SecBots being programmed to exterminate the party. There is now a clock - will the party make it off the ship before the anti-party army of killer robots is released?
CruelSummerLord wrote:
Your campaign log has given me a whole new appreciation for this module. I didn't realize how many of the encounters could be potentially helpful to a clever party, or how many of the technological treasures might be used up just trying to survive in the ship. It wouldn't fit in my Greyhawk, but I'm glad to see how much it's enriched yours.
This is my first time doing Barrier Peaks, and now that I am on the other side of it, I have a greater appreciation for the design. There is a lot of potentially deadly combat, but there are also a lot of puzzle pieces. As you say, a clever party, once they realize that they can talk to the robots (and / or find the translators) can get them to do considerable work on their behalf. Of course, that also speaks to my DM-style. Another DM might simply say - 'the robots know you are not Terrans - they have no interest in talking to you and will either ignore you or attack you.'
On the deepest level, with the big boss Illithid, there is a bodyguard android that is happy to serve the party if they free it from under a crate. There are a lot of potentially deadly environmental hazards, but also a lot of tech that specifically addresses those hazards. In fact, without going back over it, I would wager that most of the tech on the ship specifically addresses challenges faced on the ship. Which is also good design, since it presents clever players with difficult choices - how much do they need to use now to survive, and how much can they afford to save, since the captured tech is really the only 'treasure' the module offers. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-third Barrier Peaks session, was 5 November, 2019.
Post 200: Twin Hourglasses 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
(12am)
The party begins a long rest.
[2:50am. Unbeknownst to the party, the two worker robots in the repair room have used the parts from one of the security robots the party destroyed to repair one of the ones originally there, although the donor still has useful parts remaining. There are now five re-activated and armor-upgraded security robots in the repair room, five party-destroyed robots they can still draw on for parts, and six waiting to be fixed.]
[4am. Unbeknownst to the party, the two worker robots in the repair room have used up the parts from one of the security robots the party destroyed to repair one of the ones originally there. There are now six re-activated and armor-upgraded security robots in the repair room, four party-destroyed robots they can still draw on for parts, and five waiting to be fixed.]
(4am)
Babshapka and Umbra have completed their long rests and assume guard duty (in addition to the two SecBots already on guard).
[5:20am. Unbeknownst to the party, another friendly SecBot has downloaded Mathias’ orders and three are now on guard outside the security HQ, in addition to the three inside.]
(7:30am)
Shefak has finished her IV bag. Nurse Xiphox hooks up another. Besides the current one, which should last half a day, she has one more in reserve. When Mathias later inquires about Shefak, Xiphox warns him that she will be unable to administer the fluids preventing her dehydration after a day or so - the party is on an hourglass, with the sand running, if they wish to save the monk.
(8am)
Everyone has completed a long rest. Over breakfast they have discussed where they might go next. The floor of the “gardens” (Level IV) was offered but rejected - most of them agree there would be plenty of monsters there to fight but little in the way of reward. The aberration is the real threat - and with Mathias’ friendly robot in tow, it appears that it is time to deal with that threat head-on. They decide they will assume the creature is on the deepest level, VI, and head directly for that.
Larry casts create water (to fill the party’s skins), and darkvision on Willa and Tyrius (will last until 4pm). Larry is at 3/1/3.
Umbra casts armor of shadows on herself (will last until 4pm).
Umbra is at 3/3/3.
Aurora casts mage armor on herself and Mathias (will last until 4pm).
Aurora is at 2/3/3.
Babshapka moves two power discs from Aurora’s bag to his own.
Mathias asks Aurora to recall as much as she can about the mind flayers, and he relays the information to the SecBot, explaining that as their target. He puts his fingers on his chin and wiggles them to show the squid-like face the robot should be looking for.
[When the rest of the party is not watching, Leezar takes a swig of the ‘stimulant potion’ in his sack. He drinks one ounce of the twenty-ounce flask (19 oz left). The liquid will give him +1 on his dexterity score for ten minutes, or as he thinks, “pep in his step”.]
In a murmured conversation not overheard by the others while they discus plans, Leezar explains to the SecBot that the mind flayer must die - that it is authorized to use lethal force. They have the ability to control minds - that in the event that party members attack Lt. Forge, or the SecBot, it should restrain them, but it should kill the mind flayer as quickly as possible. If Lt. Forge issues the SecBot orders that seem to contradict any of these statements, it should establish that he is not himself being mind-controlled by asking for the command-word, which is ‘nipple’.
Lt. Forge suggests the concussive grenade and paralyzation ray for the ‘flayer, but definitely the lasers as well.
The SecBot says that hard internal constraints prevent it from using deadly force on sentient creatures - it cannot violate this programming, even with a gray-level command.
Leezar objects and says that it has used deadly force on his own team before.
The SecBot responds that ‘this unit’ has never attacked the Away Team. Other SecBots may have attacked them with lasers, but their programming is such that they would use lasers only after establishing that the attacks would incapacitate the sentients, not kill them. That is, the SecBots are permitted to do enough damage to knock a person out, so long as the blow itself does not kill them - and they would never do damage to a person once they were already unconscious. They are programmed to accept the judgement of security officers, however, and this unit would not interfere if Lt. Forge was attempting to kill a sentient even after it had been rendered unconscious. Leezar says that the SecBot should use this strategy on the ‘flayer - knock it out and let Forge dispatch it - and the SecBot agrees.
Leezar gives the SecBot two of the four power discs that he has.]
Recognizing the gravity of the upcoming encounter, Tyrius gives Eddard a manly embrace before departing. “Vanquish the Aberration in the Name of Pelor,” commands the mount.
“I will bring Light to the dark bowels of the ship,” Tyrius replies.
“Free the Celestials!” Eddard responds.
(8:10am)
The party, including SecBot 31266, has arrived at the northern drop chute. Looking into the shaft, the party can see that it is lit all the way down. It continues for at least a hundred feet below Level III - they could descend, if not all the way to Level VI, at least far below III.
Mathias sends the SecBot, and Aurora sends Buckbeak, to scout ahead. The robot wheels into the anti-gravity field and then uses one of its grasping hands to grab a moving handle. It is quickly whisked away below. Buckbeak flies into the shaft, and after a moment of disorientation is able to grasp a handle in its talons, so that it, too, quickly descends.
The party peers eagerly over the edge. Several minutes later both the robot and the bird return, this time on the northern (upward) side of the shaft.
“Situation report,” commands Mathias.
“Lt. Forge, the situation on Level III is unchanged since we ascended 12 hours and 13 minutes ago, except that the vines you cut down in your passage have regrown or been replaced. The entrance to Level IV is eighty feet below that of Level III and both sets of doors are currently open. The landing itself is clear, but access to the garden from the drop chute is impeded by large amounts of strangler vine. Radiation and environmental toxin levels are low, but the landing has a high pollen count, likely from all of the flora of the gardens. The drop chute continues another ten feet below Level IV to the landing for Level V, but both of those sets of doors are closed. Level V is for maintenance personnel only. The drop chute doesn’t continue below that.”
“Excellent report. Allow us to deliberate.”
The party discusses their next move. They decide to take this drop chute to the known landing of Level III, fight their way past the strangler vines, and continue counterclockwise around the railing to the western drop chute, which should still be fully functional, since it was working on Level I by the doppelgangers. They can take that down to Level IV or V and then go from there, using the lift plates to go lower if need be.
One by one they board the handles of the drop chute, heading for the vines they know are there. As they land, one by one, they immediately begin to push past the vines.
Round 1
The SecBot and Tyrius move rapidly away from the landing, not attacking so as not to block the path of those coming behind them. Umbra uses a ray of shadows (9 points) as she passes, and Mathias follows her with two blasts of force (13 points) but on a different vine.
Babshapka slices with his broadsword at the vine blasted by Mathias and cuts it in two (9 points) and then slashes and stabs at the one still thawing from Umbra (total 17 points, a second vine is slain).
Willa yells at them to keep moving, slashing herself at one vine (11 points), but missing with her second blow.
Round 2
Mathias, now well west of the vines, sends out more blasts of force (one hit for 6hp) and then manually uses his card to open the door to the SecBot Cargo Guard Room.
Willa (hitting for 15hp) and Babshapka (slashing for 8hp), form a defensive line against the vines, allowing the others to move rapidly behind them, until all the rest are on the walkway beyond the reach of the vines. Umbra and Aurora hold the vines at bay with freezing and flaming spells while Mathias and the robot guard that has been here since they left engage in conversation.
“Lt. Forge, I have a status update,” the guard begins.
“Excellent, what is it?”
“This worker unit took one of the non-functional workers to the Level I robot repair facility, as you ordered. However, it was told there that it would not be given parts to repair other worker robots. The two workers in that facility said that all resources were currently devoted to the repair and upgrading of Level I security robots so as to defend against the current humanoid invasion of the ship.”
“Humanoid invasion? Describe.”
“The worker did not specify.”
“Well, ask it!”
After a brief conversation of chirps and whistles, the SecBot guard continues.
“The worker reports that the robot repair facility is full of long-malfunctioning security robots, recently incapacitated robots, and SecBots that have been restored and given enhanced defensive armoring by using parts from the recently destroyed ones. It reports that humanoids much like Terrans, but not of that planet, recently invaded the ship and have been attacking and destroying SecBots. In the repair facility there were vids playing, showing the humanoid attacks on both the robot repair facilities and the security headquarters. The newly-reactivated robots were studying the vids to develop their tactical reasoning so as to repel the invaders.”
Mathias, with a sinking feeling, simply says “I see.” He looks nervously between both SecBot 31266 and the guard, but neither seems to have caught on for the moment. If the worker robot recognized the party from these “vids”, whatever those were, it apparently hadn’t let on just yet. In any event, it is now clear that the worker robots in the repair room, the ones he himself ordered to restore the security robots, have begun building a SecBot force specifically designed to face the party. That would explain the last few SecBots they fought and their additional armor plating.
“It would appear we have a second hourglass, besides that for Shefak” Mathias says to the party, hoping that he is being cryptic enough. He then tells the guard to “carry on”, and, with SecBot 31266 in the lead, the party opens the door to the cargo hold.
(8:20am)
They proceed through the series of holds, the SecBot opening the door for them and Tyrius closing it behind them after they pass. They move quickly until the robot opens the door to Cargo Hold III-FR. “What is this?” it exclaims. “Structural damage to the ceiling! A dead security crewmember! Stay back, Lt. Forge!”
Mathias assures the robot that he already knows about these things, that they are old and are a result of the mind-controlling exofauna. He repeats the parameters of their mission, and the robot settles down. It continues to lead them forward until they are in the hold just past the western drop chute then, on Mathias’ orders, it opens the doors to the walkway and scouts the chute. Returning to them, it reports that the drop chute is surrounded by vampire thorn vines. Mathias shrugs. “Then we blast our way through,” he says. “Prepare your laser rifles.”
“Affirmative.”
The party charges the walkway. Those in the lead soon realize that the vines are not only overgrowing the railing, they have grown into the small atrium surrounding the drop chute. They press ahead regardless.
Round 1
Willa wades into the vines swinging her sword. Suddenly, she is taken aback - they aren’t the thick, ropy strangler vines, and they aren’t attempting to encircle her and hold on. Rather, they have thinner main vines, from which even thinner tendrils branch off. The tendrils are covered with long thorns, and the vines are attempting to lash out and strafe her with the thorns. She fights them off, and scores a hit besides (damage 11).
Hot in Willa’s wake comes Aurora, sending a huge firebolt at a section of vine (critical hit, 20 points damage).
The SecBot follows, shooting blasts at the vines closest to the drop chute from the laser rifles now emerging from its chest (two hits, 14 and 15 points radiant damage).
Babshapka is next, swinging at any vines approaching Aurora from behind (two broadsword hits for 15, miss with shortsword).
Tyrius uses Molly, also attempting to clear a way to the chute (two hits, 14 damage). Thokk hacks at the vines as well (one hit, 11 points).
As the initial group of the party pauses in front of the chute, queueing up while waiting for their companions, the vines creep closer, striking at Willa and Aurora. As the vines lash at them, Aurora manages to protect herself only with a reactive shield spell (vampire thorn attack rolls 17 and 19, Aurora now at 1/3/3).
As the arcane abjuration flares into effect, Aurora can see some of the thorns held up mere inches from her face. Their tips are hollow, like the needle of the syringe in the healing vase.
“Wait!” she says. “These aren’t stranger vines.”
“This unit reported the drop chute surrounded by vampire thorns,” protests the SecBot.
Vampire thorn vine wrote:
For every ten feet of vampire thorn vine, four thorn attacks may be made. Any hit attaches and rapidly drains blood from the victim for 25% of a character's total hp.
Umbra stands in the entrance of the drop chute, attempting to freeze any vines that approach (ray of shadows, 1 point). Mathias moves to her side, his twin blasts ripping apart a different vine (13 points total).
Round 2
Mathias continues to blast at the vines, though with less effect (two hits, total 3 damage).
Willa moves to intercept the vine that continues to menace Aurora from the northern side of the chute (two hits, total 26 damage).
Thokk is hacking away at the vines on the southern side of the chute (two hits, total 16 damage).
Aurora shoots another firebolt (13 damage) to cover her retreat, and moves around the chute to the north, attempting to reach its back where there is a large gap in the vines. However, as she moves along, more and more of the vines along the side of the chute react to her presence and begin to crawl slowly after her. She has moved well away from where Babshapka can protect her now, so he concentrates on trying to clear the entrance to the chute for them all to use. He presses the attack against the vines approaching from the south (three hits, 18 points).
The SecBot takes a position just next to the drop chute entrance. It fills the air with laser blasts of uncanny accuracy (two hits, one critical, total 38 points radiant damage).
Tyrius moves into the space vacated by Aurora, taking up the fight against the vine that was menacing her (two hits, total 17 damage). Umbra continues to freeze the closest vines (ray of shadow, 13 points).
Round 3
Thokk lives for combat, but plants are hardly worthy opponents. He is frustrated that everyone in the party seems to be waiting for someone else to enter the shaft first. “Let’s go!” he shouts. “Head for the chute!” He saw Aurora foolishly run away, so he moves to the rear of the atrium to collect her if necessary.
Willa accepts Thokk’s battle wisdom. She covers her departure by striking at the nearest vines (two hits, 26 damage) and then moves into the chute, grabbing the downward-moving handle and hoping the rest of the party has enough sense to follow.
Umbra uses a ray of shadow (11 points) and jumps into the chute.
Two of the thorn vines are close enough to lash out at party members but miss.
Aurora’s plan to enter the shaft from the side where the vines are not is frustrated when she realizes that the handles on her side are moving up, not down. She moves back a few feet, then turns and runs, launching herself into the hollow center and trying to reach the handles on the other side (Strength check 5). The momentum dampeners slow her to a halt until she is suspended in the center, far from where she can reach either set of handles.
Mathias sends out two more blasts (10 hp total) and calls for the SecBot to follow him. He turns and jumps into the chute.
Babshapka scores three hits on the northern vines (18 points) and moves into the shaft. As he grabs a handle he sees Aurora suspended in the air but is unsure of what to do. Before he can decide, he is whisked away below.
Tyrius flattens a vine with Molly (9 points), and when that one ceases moving, he strikes at another (10 points), then he, too, retreats to the chute.
The SecBot wheels into the chute, the last one to leave on its side, and takes a handle with one of its grasping hands. Seeing Aurora, it shoots out its telekinesis ray and tethers her to it, dragging her down as well.
On the far side of the chute, Thokk runs and jumps, attempting to clear the shaft even as Aurora failed to do (Strength check 13). He passes over her as she is pulled down. He gets much further, nearly to the far side, but falls just short of where he can grasp the handle. As he strains and grunts, hovering in the doorway as the vines draw closer, the SecBot below him lashes out with one of its combat tentacles, circles it around his boot, and pulls him downward as well.
(8:30am)
Willa is leading the others in riding the handles down the shaft some eighty feet. It does not take long before the entrance to Level IV, with both doors open, comes into view. She lets go of the handle with anticipation and drifts to a stop, her boots touching down on the projecting landing just inside the door.
Below, the chute continues another ten feet down and then ends in a floor, with a second landing, but both doors closed. Through the open door on her level come the calls of all the creatures in the jungle, much louder and closer at hand then when they were above on the walkway. It smells strongly of wet earth.
Umbra is next, and she uses her grip to move and land on the opposite side of the doorway from Willa. Willa knows that she should move quickly out of the way to give the next person space to land. She takes a quick look outside as she takes a step to the center of the landing, and hesitates. Here at ground level, the vampire thorn vines crowd the entrance even more densely than they did on the level above. The entire entranceway between the atrium and the floor of the ship is covered in vines, as is the floor of the atrium.
Willa hesitates, and already numerous vines begin to crawl toward her. She draws her greatsword.
Mathias lands to Willa’s right. With three people on the landing, there is now no more room - and Babshapka is being borne rapidly downwards by the handles. Willa looks up, grunts, and takes a half-step forward, parrying the vine’s advance with her sword.
Babshapka is most concerned about avoiding Willa’s blade. He aims for the back edge of the landing, hits it, teeters, and falls - or rather, slips off. He can’t actually fall in the anti-gravity, so he remains floating just beyond the edge of the landing.
Tyrius, seeing both the crowded landing and Babshapka floating, lets go of the handle and kicks off the wall. He remains suspended beyond the landing, farther out than Babshapka. Willa slashes at another vine as Mathias and Umbra begin firing at them. More vines begin to approach.
Finally the SecBoc, dragging Aurora and Thokk, arrives. It lets go of the handle well before the landing and somehow moves to the center of the shaft. With its long tentacles and telekinesis beam, it quickly moves the party laterally across the chute in twos and threes until they are all standing in the back of the shadowy atrium, some fifteen or twenty feet away from the closest vines.
“Good job,” says Mathias to the robot. “Before we go further, check the air.”
“Affirmative, Lieutenant.” The robot pauses, lights flashing and blinking. “No environmental radiation, no toxins detected. High mold spore count. Pollen high and likely coming from the gardens.”
Two open hallways to the north and south branch off the atrium, but vines cover about half the floor of each. In the back of the atrium, next to where the party is gathered, is a standard door, the card-reader enameled brown.
Passing through the door, the party thinks they are entering a cargo hold, for the room [Feed Storage] has little besides boxes. These are not colonization supplies, however, but smaller containers of equipment. Most they don’t understand, but what they do fathom seems to be supplies for the gardens - rakes, stone flagging, watering cans with intricate knobs, dials, and hoses. The room is long and narrow and the exterior wall is curved and likely the hull of the ship. There is another door leading out to the north, and a second to the south, but more importantly there is one of the lift plates in the room, its open mesh surface flush with a hole in the floor (to go down). The ceiling of the room is far, far overhead - possibly all the way up to the floor of Level III, some eighty feet above. Four metal corners are at the edges of the lift plate, possibly serving as guides if the plate was to be taken up, rather than down.
Babshapka reaches out with his senses. Undead, and some Celestials above. More Celestials below. And the Aberration - still below, but much closer than he has felt it before. (Babshapka to 3/2)
The party assembles on the plate. They agree that if Aurora can get the thing to work, they will take it all the way down to Level VI. If not, they will return to the drop chute, fight off the vines, and at least be able to drop to Level V. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-fourth Barrier Peaks session, was 14 November, 2019.
Post 201: The Voice 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
(8:40am)
“Hey Tyrius, what happens if a Celestial is killed on this plane? I mean, do they really die?” asks Mathias suddenly.
“No, their souls are tied to the Celestial Realm - much as ours are. They die when slain no more than we do. The difference is that when their Prime Material form is slain they may later generate another one and return here, whereas for us the destruction of our material form means that we must remain forever in the Celestial Realms. Why do you ask?”
“Well, it’s just that Aurora said that one of the powers of the Mind Flayer is mind control, and so if it has been shut up here with Celestials for seven hundred years, and they are supposed to be enemies but they are both still here, then we need to consider the possibility that the Celestials are being mind-controlled by the Flayer. If we get attacked by them it would be good to know that we can defend ourselves.”
Clearly Tyrius had not considered this possibility. It is a long time before he responds. “If the Celestials are under mind control, and they attack us, we may dispatch them without concern,” he says finally. “It will likely be freeing them from the ship, and it certainly won’t be destroying their true selves.”
Willa asks SecBot 31266 whether the lift plate goes to Level VI and the robot confirms that it does.
Aurora is about to start their descent, but Tyrius bids her wait and he gathers them together for prayer. Having them join hands (except for the soulless SecBot), he asks for the aid of Pelor in what they are about to undertake. (In particular, Babshapka, Willa, and Tyrius are now under the aid spell until 4:30pm, Tyrius to 4/1).
When Tyrius is done, Aurora returns to her study of the lift plate pedals; green, sliver, and blue. She finds she does not remember what she learned about operating the lift plate the previous day. She tries the silver, and the whole plate and all of them on it begin to rise.
“Wrong way,” says Willa, but the plate is moving slowly and the ceiling is some eighty feet overhead, so Aurora is not concerned. She presses the silver pedal again - but it has no effect.
“Woman, do ye nae even ken ‘ow ter stop t’is?” exclaims Willa, but Aurora ignores her.
Aurora presses the blue pedal and the plate suddenly jerks to a halt, with those on it frantically adjusting their weight to keep from falling off the edges.
She presses the green pedal, and the plate begins sinking, first down to the level of the floor and then beneath it. Aurora waits until their chests are level with the floor of the storage room and then presses the blue pedal to stop them.
“Now wha’?” demands Willa.
“Scouting,” says Aurora confidently. She has decided to send Buckbeak on ahead to investigate. The spirit hawk tries to squeeze through the open mesh of the lift plate floor itself, but finds even the largest spaces too narrow. Aurora begins to lower the plate down in fits and starts. They sink about five feet, with solid deck walls surrounding them, and then a crack appears at their feet. Aurora widens the crack to several inches until Buckbeak fits through the gap between the floor of the lift plate and the walls of the shaft.
The hawk reports that the plate is lowering them into a bare room below. It is lit, and appears to be a small wing off of a larger but equally bare room. It is only ten feet or so from floor to ceiling. Directly under the plate is the open entrance to the shaft. Circling down in a tight spiral, Buckbeak descends nearly to the limits of Aurora’s telepathy with him, and then the shaft opens up and he is in another cargo hold, this one unlit but with boxes - and a solid floor. Aurora tells him to make a circuit, and when he doesn’t find anything alive in the whole space, she calls him back up.
Once the hawk has returned, Aurora sets the plate to descending without pause. Soon the whole party can see what Buckbeak had projected into Aurora’s mind - Level V is bare and dimly lit, with solid metal walls blocking their view of what appears to be an otherwise large and open area. The whole place smells of damp rot and mold, and bits and pieces of debris lie abandoned on the bare floor. Nothing can be heard over the loud hum and clang of the descending plate. Those standing on the plate shift uncomfortably and look into the distance, but no one signals to Aurora that they wish to stop, so in a matter of seconds they descend beneath the floor of the level.
The shaft into which the plate descends is dark, the only light being the square of brightness from the room above. As they sink deeper, that light becomes a diminishing square increasingly far overhead. Mathias advises them that he is remaining in the same spot on the plate, but as soon as they are covered in darkness he disappears.
Down and down they go: if they are passing through a deck, the deck must be fifty feet or more thick. The square of light overhead is suddenly blocked, as if someone just put a cover over the shaft. Just a few seconds later the plate beneath them issues a massive “clang!” and jolts to a halt. Aurora tries the green pedal again - the plate hums but doesn’t move. As their eyes adjust, they realize that they have emerged from the close blackness of the shaft to a larger but equally unlit room.
(8:50am)
“Wait,” whispers Tyrius. He reaches out into the darkness with his divine sense. After a moment, he shakes his head. “I don’t see any Celestials nearby.” They begin to move off of the plate.
The room that the party is in is long, possibly 150’ or more, but just some 50’ wide or so, with the western wall showing the curve of the ship hull. There are doors to the north and south, and the plate is just south of the center of the room. By their reckoning, the space that would have been the bottom of the drop chute, if it extended to this level, lies within the room - but there is nothing in particular there, and even the ceiling looks the same. The cargo hold is mostly empty space, but there are many of the large colonization crates, a few smaller boxes of supplies, and several of the stasis cages, both empty and full.
The party fans out into the room, but decides to try the southern door. It is found to have a brown card lock. As he approaches the door, an invisible Mathias counsels the SecBot. “The creature we hunt is responsible for the death of the captain and possibly the crash of the ship on this planet. It must be destroyed. Not the planet. The Mind Flayer. We must kill the MF.”
“That is our mission,” agrees the SecBot. “Kill the MF.”
Thokk wants to use his key for the first time, and those who usually open the doors aren’t so keen to stand in the doorway. It takes the barbarian only three tries to figure out how to slide the card into the slot and he chortles in satisfaction as the door slides open. His laughter echoes off the metal walls of the room.
“I’ll watch our back,” says Mathias, and he moves invisibly to the rear of the party.
Several crates are stacked in the hold just beyond the doorway. Ahead, the curving hull of the ship draws closer to a straight-running bulkhead until the room narrows to just a ten foot wide gap before opening up. Aurora tells Thokk to wait at the near side of the corner, and she sends Buckbeak forward to scout. He reports the room beyond to be a cargo hold, with many boxes and two doors, but no signs of life.
Mathias tells the SecBot to lead the way, and the party follows it forward past the choke point.
Babshapka checks for tracks as they walk, but finds nothing despite the heavy dust. “It can levitate,” says Mathias, as he closes the door to the hold with the lift plate behind them.
The SecBot wheels quietly around the corner and the rest of the party creeps behind it. The space beyond is indeed filled with crates stacked high, but there is a narrow passage between them. There is also ample opportunity for cover and for things to hide in the dark recesses between the crates. They keep inching forward.
(9am)
When all of them except Mathias have rounded the corner, all of them except Mathias and the SecBot suddenly hear a voice. The voice speaks to each of them in their native language, and with no apparent source. The voice is smooth, polished - and yet menacing.
Such drive, such focus - where are you all going so determinedly?
Weapons are drawn immediately. “Pelor, Bless us!” calls out Tyrius (Bless spell - duration one minute, Tryius at 4/0. Cast at second level for four targets; Thokk, Babshapka, Willa, Tyrius).
Babshapka looks everywhere, wild-eyed, but cannot find a source for the voice (Investigation 10). His blaster is in his hand. Willa moves closer to Thokk, preparing to strike at anything the barbarian finds to attack.
Oh, my! says the voice.
Apparently it has read their thoughts and learned the answer to its own question.
You are coming here to kill me!
Umbra recognizes that her thoughts are being read (Arcana 9). She tries to forget her true self and project shallow surface thoughts - she is scared, she doesn’t want to die, she hopes the mind flayer doesn’t show itself.
Directed by Aurora, Buckbeak flies frantically around the room, but cannot find any hidden figures (Perception 9).
(9am - round 1 of bless)
“High alert, SecBot!” says Mathias. He runs a few steps forward and then climbs on top of a crate, looking all around for the source of the voice.
“Affirmative. We must destroy the exofauna before they escape. That is the mission.”
Let’s be reasonable. I know I don’t want to die, and at least some of you don’t want to either - so why don’t we talk about this?
Babshapka looks all around. He has a good feel for the room now, and possible hiding spots, but he still can’t find the source of the voice (Investigation 18).
Even Mathias can hear the voice now - but where is it coming from?
It’s going to come eat my brain. I don’t want to die! projects Umbra, as convincingly as she can.
(9am - round 2)
“Scanning for life forms…” the SecBot announces. “No exo-fauna detected.”
Babshapka holsters his blaster and pulls out his needler. On the crowd setting, he sprays needles in a wide arc to the northeast, hoping to hit something invisible. The needles fly across the room, creating small explosions against the walls and crates, but don’t reveal anything.
Mathias climbs off the crate and moves to Tyrius’ side. The paladin is holding the holy symbol at his neck, and turning in a slow circle.
Your dedication and commitment is clear - but why do you want to kill me? I don’t even know you.
“Because ye want ter ‘urt me mates!” yells Willa.
“Why not? Thokk kill anything! Harder is better!” shouts the barbarian.
“There must be a reason we are on this bloody ship,” curses Babshapka under his breath. “It might as well be killing you.”
“Because you are an abomination unto the light of Pelor,” says Tyrius resolutely.
We need your knowledge bluffs Aurora, thinking as hard as she can (Deception 11).
Nice try, mage, responds the voice to just her, with just a hint of mockery in its tone (Insight 21).
Maybe I don’t want to kill you - I just want to rid the ship of the Outsiders, thinks Mathias (referring to the Celestials)
You want to get rid of the Outsiders? Well then, maybe we can help each other, the Voice responds.
How shall we do that? By the way, I am dressed as a Terran officer. Oh, don't worry, I can see that.
Umbra flattens out her hands and starts gathering the shadows around her. She directs them in front of her and they start swirling into the shape of a medium-sized shadow hound. Unfortunately for her, a condition of her ability to summon the shadow hound it that she needs to see a target for the hound - until she can see the creature producing the voice, the hound cannot pass from the shadow realm into her world. Until then, she concentrates on maintaining the link to shadow. At the same time, she tries to think, I’m just trying to survive to get out of here. (Umbra Deception 12. Voice Insight 21)
In a vaguely disgusted tone, the voice says for all of them to hear, What is it with you mages and deceit?
“Deceit?” shouts Umbra in frustration. “Show yourself! My hound will feast on your seat!” However, after a few more seconds, she is forced to abandon her connection to the hound.
Tyrius steps up on a smaller box so that he can see more of the room. He looks out with his divine sense, praying for the light of Pelor to reveal the abomination, trying to spot the creature, but still sees nothing. Willa moves to the base of the box he is on - deliberately staying near to the aura of protection of Pelor.
(9am - round 3)
Babshapka fires a spray of needles towards the open area to the south - they all explode against the hull of the ship.
None of your reasons for wanting me dead sound either convincing or personal - that is, they don’t really have anything to do with me. Perhaps we can help one another? Not all conflicts have to be settled with violence…
Umbra looks up at the ceiling - is it hiding there? But no levitating squid-men are in sight (Investigation 20).
Just to Leezar, the Voice says There are a pair of bull-men on this level. If you were to rid the ship of them, I would be much obliged.
Leezar responds, That is very doable.
The party continues to creep forward, jumping at shadows and firing their guns into the darkness.
On the other side of some crates they find a brown-carded door, but the cargo hold continues on beyond, past another narrow spot like the one they recently passed. Mathias opens the door while Aurora sends Buckbeak around the corner further ahead. The hawk sees only more hold, and more dusty boxes.
Through the open door is a wide corridor.
(9am - round 4)
The SecBot leads the way into the hall, followed closely by Babshapka, who is looking for tracks on the floor. Long, wide corridors lead east and north along the level floor. They are obviously out of the cargo hold now. To the south, the floor slopes steeply upwards and rounds a corner.
Babshapka finds robot tracks (Survival 12) - the wheels of the SecBots (and not just the fresh tracks of 31266). There is another set of tracks he does not recognize - large and rectangular (the worker robots have small, circular feet).
“Lt. Forge, the ramp to Level IV is clear!” calls the SecBot.
“Show yerself!” shouts Willa into the darkness of the long hallways, and her voice echoes back.
Surely there is something I can do for you to end this unfortunate animosity?
If you can think of anything, I’d be willing to help you in exchange for power, thinks Aurora. (Deception 6).
Oh, come now, Aurora. That’s just pitiful. It’s like you’re not even trying, chides the voice to her alone. (Insight 10).
“Something you can do for us? Yes, step into the light of Pelor!” shouts Tyrius. His shield blazes with holy light, illuminating the corridors. They can now see a door along the southern wall.
Show myself? Just me, against seven murderers, a bird and a robot? I think not. Plus, that shadow elf is ready to summon her hound as soon as she sees me.
Where are the horned men? Are they minotaurs? asks Leezar of the Voice, as he steps through the cargo door and into the hall.
They are in one of the holds, near a lift, under the stairs of the pool room. To my south? No, your...east. I serve and am of service. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-fourth Barrier Peaks session, was 14 November, 2019.
Post 202: Are you serious? 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
[In Greyhawk City, the Cult of the Dark Prince would often find demons at their rituals - some intentionally summoned, some not. As these had telepathy, and were of uncertain loyalty, initiates like Leezar were taught to construct surface thoughts and hide their deeper thoughts.
As soon as Leezar offered his services to the Voice, he immediately felt it begin probing for the truth beneath his offer.]
I serve and am of service. (Leezar Deception 18)
(Mind Flayer Insight 19)
[Leezar invokes Dark One's Own Luck]
Dark One's Own luck wrote:
When you make an ability check or a saving throw, you can use this feature to add a d10 to your roll. You can do so after seeing the initial roll but before any of the roll's effects occur. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a Short or Long Rest.
[+7. Leezar's Deception is now, retroactively, 25. The Mind Flayer believes that it has successfully read Leezar’s thoughts, and that he is willing to serve.]
Hmmm. In that case, there is something I would reward even more greatly than the destruction of the bull men.
What is that?
Open the doors of the ship, to the south. Let’s get some fresh air in here.
9am - bless round 5
Babshapka moves to Thokk’s side, and directs him in how to insert his brown card into the lock-slot. The door slides open to reveal a small storage room with a slanted roof - it must be located under the floor of the ramp [Storage facility for maintenance]. There are a few dusty boxes inside, nothing more. (Babshapka Perception 6).
Aurora sends Buckbeak up the northern corridor. The passageway turns, passes by a door, turns again, and then begins to slope steeply upward like the other ramp.
You may call me 'abomination', hears Tyrius in his head, but many in your party are as bad, if not worse. No one has to die here. We can still help one another.
“Out of my head, foul creature! I have no need of your help!” Tyrius shouts suddenly, startling the rest of the party.
Everyone needs help with something. Doesn’t your god disapprove of hubris?
“I seek not a lecture on hubris from one such as you! Evil is prideful beyond measure. Pelor is my strength and my aid - and is all the help that I need.”
Do you want me to herd them to the doors? asks Leezar to the Voice.
How many get there is not important, as long as the doors are opened, it responds.
9am - bless round 6
The party makes their way along the corridor to the east - still jumping at shadows but unwilling to negotiate. Frustrated for now, the voice is silent for a time.
9am - bless round 7
The party approaches a large set of cargo doors to their south.
So...obdurate, this group everyone hears.
I see the double doors, thinks Leezar.
Yes! Those doors. Through them and beyond. Open the doors to the outside!
9am - bless round 8
The party looks to be passing the door when Mathias points to it. “Are we going to…?”
Willa nods. She and Babshapka move to the side with the card lock. This gets Willa thinking about cards. She says aloud, “I wunner if t’is t’ing hae ther captain’s keys?”
Well there now - something you do want! Supposing I did have the captain’s key - would you be willing to make a trade?
“Get out o’ me head!” shouts Willa.
Aurora turns and sends a key into the slot with her mage hand.
They are coming, thinks Leezar.
9am - bless round 9
The cargo doors slide open to reveal a large cargo hold, with the standard crates and stasis cages. A lift plate is on the floor to the east, a matching hole in the ceiling forty feet overhead. Each of the four walls of the hold has a large set of cargo doors, the ones to the south lining up with the one ones the party just opened. All of this is recognizable - the novel feature of the room are the six large robots, identical to one another but of a size not seen before by the party. They are larger than the SecBots, with four arms and two thick legs. Two slender arms end in articulated hands, while two thick tentacle arms end in huge grasping claws.
“SecBot!” commands Mathias. “Tell them to ignore the people entering the room.”
The SecBot obligingly wheels into the room. The other robots don’t move, not even to swivel their heads about. In fact, they appear not to have moved in quite some time and are covered in dust. Approaching the closest one, the SecBot whistles and chirps, but receives no response.
“Lt. Forge,” it says, “these workers appear to be in power save mode.”
Umbra and Thokk move into the room. Umbra slips behind some crates for cover, while Thokk merely surveys the room from the open doorway (Perception 15).
“Are we going to search?” asks Mathias, but Tyrius shakes his head. He has been counting off on his fingers the minute his bless spell will last and is down to a single hand.
Thokk snorts and turns back to the hallway, then leads the group east. He is eager to find the cowardly voice and fight it. Willa and Tyrius follow him.
They are leaving, thinks Leezar, when no one in the party seems interested in entering the hold.
Your companions seem to have missed the importance of these as outside doors, responds the voice.
I know! Stop them.
Do they not remember that they are trapped on this ship?
9am - bless round 10
Mathias lingers outside the room. “SecBot, is this where they unload the ship? Is there access from this level to the outside?”
“Lt. Forge, this is the exterior cargo bay. Those doors lead to the outside.”
Umbra moves among the crates. The large ones are colonization supplies, but all of the small ones are stasis cages. Most are open, but some still contain trapped exo-fauna.
She sniffs, picking up the first hints of fresh air since they have entered the ship. She crosses the floor of the hold, ignored by the immobile workers, and places her hand on the large cargo doors. “These must be the doors we originally found at the base of the mountain, but couldn’t open.”
When the party ignores his hook and continues down the hall, Leezar thinks, I tried.
I can see that you are rather limited in terms of what you have to work with. That group is a waste of your talents.
Thank you for your guidance.
Of course. Perhaps you can lead them back at some point.
Yes, with your help.
Umbra examines the cargo doors to the outside, but finds no card reader, no obvious means of opening them (Investigation 11).
The voice speaks to Leezar, only. So, you don’t know how to open them? That is....disappointing.
I will find a way. There has to be something here.
Mathias returns to the party in the hall. Umbra and the SecBot follow, shutting the door behind them.
In the hallway, Tyrius shakes his head bitterly. “The blessing of Pelor has gone.”
“It appears our hunt will take longer than I thought,” announces Tyrius. He begins a prayer, casting Detect Evil and Good.
Tyrius at 3/0. (Will last 9:02 - 9:12am)
Detect Evil and Good wrote:
Concentration; Up to 10 minutes. For the duration, you know if there is an aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead within 30 feet of you, as well as where the creature is located. Similarly, you know if there is a place or object within 30 feet of you that has been magically consecrated or desecrated. The spell can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
He turns sharply staring into the middle of the party.
“Do ye sense ther aber’ration?” demands Willa, her hand going to the hilt of her greatsword.
“No,” he replies. “Something...desecrated.”
Willa follows his gaze - fixed in the direction of the SecBot. “Mayhaps ‘tis ther robot?”
“Perhaps,” Tyrius agrees. (Religion check 6) “Such a soulless mockery of life may be anathema to Pelor. I will need to pray on this and seek guidance.”
[Actually, what Tyrius picked up was the presence of Leezar's witch's hair arcane focus, which has unholy power dedicated to Graz'zt. Leezar happened to be standing next to the SecBot when Tyrius completed his spell. He notes that for the next ten minutes he will need to stay far from Tyrius, or next to the SecBot, or both.]
Where to now? he asks the voice.
It’s your party - if you can’t get them out the door, then killing the bull men would still be welcome. But if you are trying to conceal your nature, you may not want to face them. Finding a way to open the doors is more important.
Are you imprisoned? Can you move? Leezar waits, but as the party continues down the hall, the voice has gone curiously silent until they approach an intersection.
The bull men are close, a bit more to the east - they are Outsiders, as you originally requested.
The party might kill them - they aren’t so smart, as you well know.
That would work - but at the risk of revealing you.
I will stay well in the back. Thanks for the warning.
The party continues down the hall. Umbra has to jog to catch up. Babshapka is now in the lead, checking for tracks as well as anything else of note (Perception 24). He now sees several sets of tracks - wheels from the SecBots, the large rectangles from before that he now takes to be the treads of the new kind of worker robots, as well as something he does not recognize - some sort of bipedal beast or monster with huge feet and clawed digits. [The wandering monster tables include Umber hulk on this level, although the party never actually rolled one]
They continue on until the corridor ends in a T-intersection, but a sort of slanted T, with a brown-carded door just before the end. Aurora sends Buckbeak down the southern branch of the intersection, but he quickly returns and reports that it is another ramp up. Thokk checks the door, but it leads only to another storage facility under the ramp. Tyrius warns them to stay close to him and his protective aura, especially now that the bless spell has expired.
Moving up the hall to the northeast, the party finds it splits into a Y. The right branch continues beyond their sight with bare metal walls, but the left has doors on both sides, including one close at hand just before the branch. Unaided, Thokk inserts his brown key without even checking the color of the lock, and the door opens regardless.
The floor of the room [Robo Snack] is littered with waxed paper, and there is a faint smell of food. Along the far wall is a console with numerous buttons, knobs, and receptacles. Even as Thokk, followed by Mathias and Babshapka, enter the room, Buckbeak is showing Aurora the contents of a room farther down the left branch, a room with an open door and three humanoid figures inside [Physical Training Androids].
Mathias checks the ceiling for lurkers, then moves to see if he can decipher the console, but it is beyond his comprehension. He is about to call Aurora in, but she is relating to the party that the nearby room has three unmoving androids, one with some sort of weapon in hand.
The mention of a weapon catches Thokk’s attention - an opponent is far more interesting than silly papers or console knobs. As the rest of the party moves to keep pace with Thokk, Mathias and Babshapka are forced to abandon the small room.
(9:05am)
When Thokk enters the room to the right down the hall, he does indeed find three machine-men in it. They appear frozen at first, but he has barely crossed the threshold when they begin to move, each adopting a fighting stance. He looks first to the man with the ‘weapon’, but it is a sword so flimsy that Thokk could break it by shouting. The two other men are unarmed - but one is heavier than Thokk and nearly as tall! As he looks more carefully, he is increasingly impressed. The machine man is built like Bahgtru, Orc god of Strength and Combat, with thick, corded muscles on a powerful frame. He carries himself like a brawler - his strange hands do not look like they could even hold a weapon. Now here is a challenge! Thokk believes that he will earn great honors before the gods if he is able to defeat this foe, unaided and unarmed.
“Thokk, wait up,” chides Willa as she follows him into the room. Immediately the man with the rapier salutes her with a flourish of his blade. Distracted, she looks over at him. As the android returns to its fighting stance, Willa instantly recognizes it - it is preparing to fight with the rapier like a young lordling who has been overly-long at dueling school. Deadly quick and accurate, the rapier is hard to parry and will almost always hit - but her greatsword can do more damage. It is a match-up against one of her "betters" Willa has secretly longed to have since she obtained her greatsword, and she is already replacing the faceless mask of the android in her mind with the face of more than one poncy lord in the Viscount's court who looked down his nose at her. Normally the level-headed one of the group, Willa finds her blood heating quickly and she waves off the others behind her, wanting to face this foe alone.
As the others draw their own weapons, Mathias calls from the back of the party, “Are you serious? We are doing this now? They have been here for 700 years! This can’t wait until after the mind flayer?” When it becomes apparent that indeed the fight will happen, he shouts, “Fight them but don’t break them!”
[At this point, I was still using story awards to get to each character to 7th (but awarding xp for combat after that individually). I told the players of Thokk and Willa that they would level if they beat their respective android opponents with no help from the rest of the party. Had Sheafak been present and able, the martial arts android would have been for her to beat and level] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-fifth Barrier Peaks session, was 19 November, 2019.
Post 203: MFMF 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
[When it appears that a fight is inevitable, Leezar tries to contact the Voice. They are distracted by these robots. I can come free you, he says in his mind, but receives no response. He tries the same message again, a few minutes later - and still gets no answer.
Round One
Thokk and Willa are inside the room. Aurora watches the fight from just outside the doorway, while the others (Tyrius, Mathias, the SecBot, Umbra, Babshapka) are in the hall outside. Babshapka draws his blaster and watches down the hallways for anything approaching.
The third android, which is lithe and weaponless, notices the people in the hallway and moves so as to see the rest of the party through the doorway. It executes a formal bow, then returns to its fighting stance, but does not advance.
Thokk enrages, then advances on the brawling android and tries a few punches. His first blow slides past, his second connects (AC17): he feels a soft layer on top - not exactly flesh, but soft - and something hard beneath, more like metal than bone. But his blow knocks the creature back, and he grins widely (one unarmed hit, 5hp damage - unarmed damage is 1 point plus strength modifier).
The android responds by launching into a combination of punches on Thokk, each one thrown with force and weight behind it (critical hit, damage 5 + 4 critical = 9 damage, rage reduces by half, Thokk takes 4 bludgeoning).
My 5e conversion of Boxing Instructor Android wrote:
Attacks once with +9 to hit, d8+4 bludgeoning damage.
Willa steps up to her opponent and aims a great slash at its stupid smirk, or at least where she is imagining the self-satisfied smile to be on the faceless android (AC17, a hit, but...). Almost faster than she can follow, it simultaneously sidesteps the attack and brings its rapier up to deflect her blow just enough to miss its head (to-hit 20 - 4 = 16; actually a miss).
My 5e conversion of Fencing Instructor Android wrote:
Parry: As a reaction, the Fencing Instructor can subtract 4 from the attack roll of any sword
against it. If it does so, it can make only two attacks on its next turn.
However, its raised rapier means that not even it can move fast enough to block Willa's follow-up back hand low strike to its leading leg - this time she hits (13 points damage).
Her own low strike means that she has left herself unguarded, however, and she is forced to back up quickly against its series of rapid thrusts. The first attack is easily turned aside by her plate armor (miss), and yet sparks arc from the tip of the rapier, shocking her (5 lightning damage). The second attack expertly finds a gap in the armor - she is pricked and then shocked! (4 piercing plus 3 lightning).
My 5e conversion of Fencing Instructor Android wrote:
Three Rapier attacks on its turn at +13 to hit, or two if it used its reaction to parry since its last turn. Damage is d6+3 piercing and d4+1 lightning per hit. Once per turn, even on a missed attack, a short in the rapier will still cause damage to any opponent in metal armor.
Round Two
The android with the rapier continues to advance on Willa, its thrusts a blur as it unerringly seeks out the gaps in her armor, drawing blood and shocking her with each thrust (three hits, one critical; damage 6 piercing + 2 lightning, 9 piercing + 2 lightning, 4 piercing + 3 critical + 4 lightning, total of 30 damage to Willa).
From the hallway, the SecBot monitors the fight (Insight 16). When it sees the electricity arcing into Willa even on a miss, it announces, “Lt. Force, that android's weapon is discharging electricity beyond programmed parameters - he should not be fighting with it. Something has disengaged its failsafes - it may be malfunctioning!”
The last hit of the android (the critical) sinks deep into Willa's thigh, and it takes the machine an extra half-second to withdraw the blade. In that space of time she yells her defiance and swings a great strike that slashes diagonally from one side of the android’s torso to the other (improved critical hit, can’t be parried, damage 15 + 10 critical, total 25, total to android 38). As it staggers back, she makes a wild back-hand swing, but this is just to give her time (miss, uses action surge). She follows up with another two strikes (one hit, can’t be parried, 12 damage, total 50 damage to android, second hit does enough to destroy it). As the android crashes to the soft mats below, Willa tries to catch her breath (second wind, Willa has 7 hp restored). [Willa has completed her story challenge and will level to 7th after her next long rest]
Mathias, invisible, slips into the room (Stealth 16). The android not currently in combat cocks its head as if listening intently (Perception 19), and adjusts its posture in a way that makes it obvious it is picking up his general location even if it can’t see him directly. Mathias freezes, waiting for an opportunity to slip by if the other combat drifts closer or if it turns to engage the now free Willa. [Leezar thinks while he waits, They say you are a mind flayer - is that true? He receives no response.]
The brawler unleashes another flurry of punches against Thokk, landing heavy blows that would fell any normal man (critical hit, damage 11 + 5 critical = 16, Thokk takes 8 bludgeoning). Thokk responds in kind (two hits, 10 hp damage, total 15 to android).
[Leezar feels like shouting “battle not break” at his companions but doesn’t want to give away his position any further. The remaining android carries itself like Shefak, and he knows that monks can be fierce opponents in combat. They are breaking my stuff he thinks, complaining to the Voice.
Suddenly the unengaged android springs forward, striking with punches and kicks like a monk in Mathias’ general direction. It may not be able to see him, but the strikes are so fast that they are impossible to avoid (two strikes, with disadvantage due to Mathias’ invisibility, both hit; 9 and 15 bludgeoning for total of 24 damage; Con saves 6 (fail) and 19 (save); Mathias is stunned).
My 5e conversion of the Martial Arts Instructor Android wrote:
Two stunning strikes per round with +11 to hit and 3d4+4 bludgeoning damage. Any creature hit by the android's Stunning Strike must make a DC12 Con save or be Stunned until the end of the android's next turn.
Head spinning, Mathias is knocked back and sinks to his knees (stunned: cannot take actions or reactions, can speak only falteringly, and cannot move. Attack rolls against you have advantage). Fortunately he is still invisible. He concentrates on not making a sound and hopes that his SecBot guardian noted that the monk android attacked him (SecBot Insight 1).
[Well, they are all distracted by the godsdamned robots, Leezar thinks.
Yes, the Voice finally answers.
I thought you wanted help.
I do. Those aren’t my androids, and it wasn’t my decision for your party to attack them.
I have been trying to help you! You seem to lack conviction if you don’t want them to attack you!
I asked for you to fight the bull men, not the androids. Perhaps you are not as smart as I first thought.
Round Three
Tyrius appears to be paying more attention than the SecBot, and he hears the sound of Mathias being knocked across the room. He hefts Molly and shouts over his shoulder “Babshapka, Aurora - find Mathias!” before charging in. (Luck roll 0, narrowly avoids stepping on Mathias by accident). His first swing knocks the android back before it can follow up on Mathias (9 points damage), but it avoids his second swing (miss).
In response to Tyrius’ attack, the monk android immediately leaves off trying to locate Mathias. It executes a perfect high kick, its foot landing just above Tyrius’ gorget and snapping his body back and head forward (critical hit, damage 11 plus 11 critical, 22 total, stunning strike, Tyrius Con save fails; Tyrius is stunned) Rather than follow up with a second attack on the stunned paladin, the android instead grabs the warhammer from his hand and, before he can resist, wrenches it free, then tosses it behind itself and through an open door into some sort of supply closet. “By..P..el..or…” stammers Tyrius.
Head still ringing, invisible but no-longer stunned, Mathias crawls past the android, and then ducks into the storage facility - it is a mess of bones and junk, but Molly is lying clearly on top of a pile. Mathias picks up the war hammer and tosses it back, where it lands near Tyrius’ feet. As the monk android turns to see who threw the hammer, Mathias blasts him with twin waves of force (one hit, 4 damage, 13 points total to android) and becomes visible. [Leezar is surprised he was able to handle the paladin’s weapon without being burned - perhaps it is magical but not holy?]
From the doorway, Babshapka levels his blaster pistol at the monk android and fires twice (Dex saves with disadvantage for close range - one save, one fail, takes 28 damage, total 41 points).
The SecBot (Insight 14) sees Mathias appear in the doorway of the closet. “Lt. Forge!” it announces. “The martial arts instructor is not striking to subdue. I believe it is malfunctioning as well!”
“We all can see that!” responds Mathias exasperatedly.
From over Babshapka’s shoulder streaks a firebolt from Aurora, impacting the monk (11 damage, resistance to fire; 5 points, total 46).
The brawling android swings again, but Thokk takes the blow on his shield (misses) and then slams his shield into the android. The machine man brings his arms up to block the blow (misses), but with his arms high Thokk follows through with a knee to the groin (5 damage, android has taken 20 damage).
Willa takes just a second to kick the rapier from the grasp of her fallen opponent, then turns and sees Tyrius disarmed and barely on his feet, with the monk android closing in. She comes in hot, swinging her greatsword (one miss, one hit, 13 damage, total 59).
With the combat against the monk easily visible from the doorway, Umbra is able to fire off a spell as well - ray of shadow (critical hit for 11 damage; but android is immune to cold and takes nothing).
Round Four
The brawler again advances, but its combination of punches has become too formulaic, and Thokk is able to move around them (misses). The barbarian prepares to respond, but the brawler android still has its guard up.
Babshapka stares into the view screen of his blaster, waiting until the crosshairs show him a clear shot past Tyrius to the monk android. When the android turns to face Willa he has his opportunity and fires again (Dex save with disadvantage fails, 18 force damage; android total 77 damage taken). The beam of force catches the android broadside and knocks it to the mat. It does not rise.
As the martial arts android falls, the mind flayer, who has been watching the combat through all of the party’s eyes, strikes. From the lobby of the nearby theatre, it sends forth a mind blast in a sixty foot cone.
Their heads feel like they are exploding - worse than the worst migraine they have ever experienced - like a water-mill powered auger drilling their brain, but from the inside out!
Mind Blast wrote:
The mind flayer emits psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or take 4d8 + 4 psychic damage and be stunned for one minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Intelligence saves:
Boxing Instructor Android, 5 (fail) [android is immune to psychic damage but still can be stunned by the temporary overload of its neural network]
Buckbeak, 5 (fail)
Willa, 4+3 (near Tyrius’ aura of protection) = 7 (fail)
Mathias, 8 (fail)*
Thokk, 10 (fail)
Aurora, 11 (fail)
Tyrius, 14 (fail)
Umbra, 15 (save)
SecBot, 13+3 (near Tyrius) = 16 (save) [the SecBot is immune to psychic damage but still could be stunned by the temporary overload of its neural network]
Babshapka, 21 (save)
Everyone who failed the save is stunned (Boxing android, Buckbeak, Willa, Mathias*, Thokk, Aurora, Tyrius).
Damage: 4d8+4 = 34 psychic damage to everyone who failed.
This damage would disrupt Buckbeak’s physical form and would be enough to knock Tyrius and Mathias unconscious and bring Willa to 1hp.
Willa uses an inspiration point to force the Mind Flayer to re-roll the damage of the Mind Blast (she has two points remaining).
New Damage: 4d8+4 = 23 points of psychic damage.
This damage disrupts Buckbeak’s physical form; Tyrius and Mathias* are still conscious, Willa is at 12hp. Tyrius makes a Con save (fail) - he loses concentration, and his detect evil spell ends.
[Unbeknownst to the other players, the Mind Flayer still believes that he has a deal with Leezar. He positioned himself in thetheatre lobby so as to hit all of the characters except Leezar, who was just beyond the edge of the mind blast cone, deliberately spared. The player of Leezar informed me in secret that he would be making his 'saving throw' on the table with everyone else, and would pantomime taking the damage, so that the others did not realize that the mind flayer spared him] As Mathias falls to his knees, grasping his head in his hands; the closet and then the entire training room fills with darkness.
[The woman (Aurora) should be unharmed - my patron would desire this! shouts Leezar with his mind. The two males of the group would be great to remove.
Umbra slips from the hallway outside into the darkness of the room.
[That was amazing. Everyone’s mind at the same time is impressive. Leezar keeps up his mental babble, hoping to hide his true intentions from the Mind Flayer. He looks out, unhindered by his own darkness, but does not see it in the training room.
Round Five [Check for Mind Blast Recharge; d6 = 1, No]
The brawling android remains stunned.
Willa remains stunned.
In their minds, not stunned Babshapka and Umbra hear the voice again.
Shall we discuss the terms of your surrender?
“We’ll hear you out,” says Babshapka bitterly.
[Leezar makes himself invisible in the darkness, and creeps forward, straining to glimpse the mind flayer.]
Lay your blaster on the ground.
“Okay.” Babshapka stoops and sets down the pistol on the metal floor of the hallway.
Tyrius remains stunned.
Aurora remains stunned; her thoughts keep looping back to trying to find the mind flayer’s position - is it possible it attacked them through the thick metal walls of the ship, without even seeing them?
Of course my mental powers are superior to magic - mere walls cannot stop my mind!
From the open doorway across the hall from the training room strides the mind flayer. It has a blue grenade in one hand, holding it out so that Babshapka is sure to see it. A satchel is slung across one hip, and its own blaster pistol is hung from its belt, along with other small items.
Back away from the blaster, says the voice, as the mind flayer advances on Babshapka.
Seeing the sleep canister in its hand, Babshapka tries to fill his mind with thoughts of his anti-gas mask in the hopes of stalling it.
[The voice speaks to Leezar. Call off your robot and no one has to die.]
[It has no orders, he responds. You should kill Tyrius.]
From the darkness of the training room, Umbra can finally see the flayer as it steps into the hallway. She hisses a word of summoning triumphantly. “Aziraphale!” she commands. “Get him!” With a sound like tearing sheets, a shadow hound rips darkness from the room to clothe itself and bounds into the hall.
The mind flayer, bent to retrieve Babshapka’s blaster, straightens in alarm. While she can still see him, Umbra fires off three dark bolts (11 damage, Umbra at 2/3/3).
Thokk remains stunned; he has lost his rage.
As the bolts impact the flayer, Babshapka draws both his swords and slices furiously (two hits, 19 damage, total 30 points). “Blue grenade!” he shouts, hoping more of the party will emerge from the darkness. “Mind flayer in the hall!”
The mind flayer twists away from him and runs back through the door across the hall (disengage action; no opportunity attack from Babshapka).
Round Six [Check for Mind Blast Recharge; d6 = 4, No]
Brawling android is still stunned.
“SecBot, attack!” says Mathias confidently as he strides across the training room and fires off blasts of force at the retreating Mind Flayer (one hit, 3 damage, total 33).
Babshapka follows the flayer through the open door into the room beyond. It is a once ornate but now decrepit lobby before a large theatre, with the sloping floor and chairs for the audience visible through a large open door to the west. He slashes and thrusts desperately, but the flayer avoids every blow, almost as if it knew just where he was going to strike next (three misses). With none of his companions on hand, a terror-stricken Babshapka tries to retreat, but as he turns, the mind flayer lashes out and wraps a tentacle around his head (opportunity attack hits).
Tentacles wrote:
: If the target is Medium or smaller, it is grappled, escape DC 15, and must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or be stunned until this grapple ends. Damage 2d10+4.
The tentacle floods Babshapka’s mind with psychic energy (17 points damage). He twists and turns, but cannot escape - he does manage to fight off the overwhelming urge to stop resisting, though (Babshapka Acrobatics check fails, still grappled; Intelligence save, not stunned).
As the SecBot enters the lobby, the Mind Flayer shouts at it. This is the first time it has used a physical voice, and the words are borrowed from Mathias’ mind [since it now realizes that Leezar deceived it]. “Your mission is to remove all of the exofauna - even the ones masquerading as ship’s officers!” (Persuasion 7. SecBot Insight 2).
“Lt. Forge…” begins the SecBot hesitantly. “Please establish your identity…”
Mathias runs into the lobby. “Don’t listen to the mind-controlling exofauna!” he shouts. “Remember the security protocol we established!” (Persuasion 23).
In the hallway, Umbra hears the voice in her mind:
Call off the dog or the elf dies!
The shadow-hound bursts into the lobby and bounds up to the mind flayer, leaping for its throat, but savaging the hand it holds up to protect itself instead. The mind-flayer is knocked to its knees, but still has its tentacles wrapped around Babshapka’s head, with the elf struggling to stay upright as well. (Shadow hound hits, 10 points of piercing damage, total 43 to mind flayer, DC13 Strength check or knocked prone, Flayer fails; now prone but prone does not end grapple).
“Security protocol initiated!” declares the SecBot. “Target is the MF! Incapacitate the MF!” Its chest compartment opens and a laser pistol emerges. Bolts of red light fly about the lobby as the SecBot attempts to hit the flayer without hitting Babshapka (laser pistol is a missile weapon, missile attacks at disadvantage to attack prone opponents, attack rolls with disadvantage both miss).
Aurora, Willa, and Tyrius are still stunned. Tyrius manages to falteringly reach out to Eddard in the surgery room of Level I and call for help. Eddard springs into action and commands Larry to mount him. “We ride!” he calls. Nurse Xiphox looks on, nonplussed.
Round Seven [Check for Mind Blast Recharge; d6 = 6, Yes! The flayer may use this again.]
Mounted but dashing, Eddard nuzzles open the door of the surgery room and charges down the hall to the north past the medical storage rooms of Level I.
The boxing android is still stunned.
The shadow hound continues to bite at the Mind Flayer (hit, 12 piercing damage, total 55).
The flayer relinquishes its grapple on Babshapka so as to draw back. It mentally commands the dominated lurker above to fall from the ceiling onto Babshapka as soon as it is out of the way. Still prone (to avoid the lasers), it crawls five feet away (costs 10 feet of movement). Babshapka slashes at it as it retreats (opportunity attack hits, 11 damage, total 66). It turns and places a hand to its own head, then sends forth a massive wave of psychic energy. The cone of the new mind blast encompasses the shadow hound, Babshapka and the SecBot in the lobby, Aurora and Umbra in the hall, and Thokk in the training room.
Willa uses a point of Inspiration to allow Babshapka a re-roll on his Intelligence save. (Willa has one Inspiration point left)
New Babshapka save, 22 (success)
4d8+4 = 21 psychic damage to the hound, Aurora, Umbra. The SecBot is stunned but immune to damage. The damage takes Aurora to zero and she collapses unconscious in the hallway, between life and death.
The mind flayer stands up (costs 15 feet of movement) and retreats a further 5 feet back, toward the theatre.
Babshapka staggers forward, striking with his broadsword once (miss) and again (hit, 6 points, total 72), with the last strike slicing across the mind flayer’s throat. It gurgles incomprehensibly for a second and then collapses unconscious, between life and death. Immediately the shadow hound disappears.
Mathias dashes into the lobby.
The lurker above fulfils its master’s previous command and falls on Babshapka (hits, 8 points crushing damage, Babshapka is restrained).
Aurora, life save fails: one step closer to death.
Willa, Thokk, and Tyrius remain stunned.
In the hallway, Umbra struggles out of her stunned state and crawls to Aurora’s side. Ignoring the blood flowing freely from the wizard’s nose and ears, she whispers words of healing elven magic (help action, advantage on Aurora’s next save).
“Neural net overloaded - discharging excess electricity into metal chassis - do not approach!” says the SecBot.
Round Eight
“Discharging excess electricity!” mimics Mathias, as he shoots a bolt of lightning at the lurker. The bolt glances off its stony hide (misses).
On Level I, Eddard gallops across the huge training hall, leaping over the skeletons and piles of debris as Larry struggles to stay on his back.
Babshapka groans as the air is forced from his lungs (8 points of crushing damage). He lets go of his now-useless swords and draws a dagger, but can’t find enough room to attack effectively (two misses).
Thokk, Tyrius, and Willa are still stunned.
“Neural functioning restored,” says the SecBot. “Current threat assessment: exo-fauna smothering Away Team member. Exo-fauna non-sentient; deadly force authorized.” It fires off two laser blasts (two hits, 22 points radiant damage to lurker).
Aurora makes a life save with advantage from Umbra’s care (saves, current total one life and one death).
Round Nine
On Level I, Eddard charges past the grey door of the captain’s private study.
The SecBot continues to shoot at the lurker (one hit, 9 damage, total 31).
Umbra decides that Aurora looks a little better and can make it without her. She rises to her feet and moves into the lobby. She fires off three dark bolts against the lurker (12 force damage, total 43, Umbra to 1/3/3).
Aurora makes a life save (saves; now at two life and one death).
“Uhhhhh” groans Babshapka (4 points crushing damage). He strikes out angrily, and the lurker shudders as the dagger finds its mark (two hits, 14 damage, total 57). “I killed the mind flayer,” he thinks to himself, “I’m the hero, damnit! I’m not going to die to this overgrown tapestry.”
Mathias draws his scimitar and advances on the lurker, waving at the SecBot so as to not receive its fire. He slashes twice, but his blade does not penetrate its hide. “Take shallow breaths!” he calls, not knowing whether Babshapka can hear him.
Round Ten
On Level I, Eddard gallops past the Security Chief’s apartments and enters the atrium.
Umbra moves closer to the lurker, now with Mathias and the SecBot forming a triangle around it. She shoots forth three more dark bolts (7 points, total 64, Umbra to 0/3/3).
Mathias slashes the lurker with his scimitar (one hit, 8 points, total 72).
The SecBot shoots its lasers ineffectually (both misses).
Aurora makes a life save (saves; three life now resolves at 0hp and stable).
The lurker desperately crushes Babshapka (6 points), but the wood elf is undaunted. He strikes once with his dagger (7 points, total 79), and the blade emerges from inside the creature to the outside. Slicing upward with his dagger, he rips open a hole in the creature’s hide with his free hand (6 points, total 85; lurker slain) large enough for himself to emerge. Muffled at first, Mathias and Umbra hear him finish his sentence as he struggles out “mmmf dmmf … said I was the godsdamned hero!”
Thokk, Tyrius, and Willa are still stunned.
(9:06am)
Round Eleven
On Level I, Eddard slows to a walk as he pulls up to the entrance of the drop chute. “Ready?” he asks Larry.
“Ready fer wha’?” replies Larry, whose eyes have been tightly closed since the mount began galloping down the metal corridors of the ship.
Eddard nickers and trots into the chute. At the sudden feeling of weightlessness, Larry opens his eyes in alarm. Eddard strains and grabs the handle of the chute in his mouth. As the mount is whisked out from under him, Larry reaches for a handle with one hand while grasping even harder at Eddard’s mane with his other. Now it is Eddard’s turn to close his eyes, wincing in pain as his hundred-stone plus frame is borne down by only his bite on the handle and resisted by Larry pulling his mane. A few seconds later he lets go with obvious relief and then shouts for Larry to do so as well. They float at the edge of the landing to Level IV. Their way out is blocked by thick growths of strangler vine.
Umbra returns to the hall and bends over the body of Aurora. The wizard's breathing is steady; the blood from her ears and nose has slowed to a trickle; she will be alright.
Babshapka and Mathias examine the body of the mind flayer while the SecBoc swivels its head and keeps watch for more lurkers or other interruptions. (Investigation; Babshapka 23, Mathias 18). The Flayer has a blaster pistol at his belt, the blue grenade still in his hand, and two other grenades on his belt - one green, one blue. In a small outer pocket of his satchel is an orange key card, in the large main compartment are some three-dozen small crystals, five pieces of jewelry (similar to those found on the skeletons near the dining robot), and over a hundred small platinum chits. These are rectangular, like miniature ingots, and are not stamped with any mint that would make them coins, although they are about the same size and weight.
[Leezar offers a silent prayer of thanks to Graz’zt. Oh Dark Beautiful One, thank you for helping us kill this monster and especially for not letting it spill my secrets first. For your Glory I serve.]
Round Twelve
On Level IV, Larry wraps one arm around the thick neck of Eddard. Eddard bites down on Larry’s sleeve, wrinkles his nose in disgust at the taste, and then finds a loose fold of his chain shirt to grab instead. The metal pricks at his gums but at least it doesn’t taste of unwashed dwarf. Larry makes a jerking motion with his free hand and casts thorn whip, using the spell to snare an upward-going handle on the other side of the shaft, but also to pull them across and propel them out the exterior entrance on the far side, where there are no waiting vines.
Mathias grabs one of the tentacles from the face of the mind flayer and waggles it at Babshapka.
“Not funny,” is the only response he gets.
“Fine. You take the treasure for the party. I would like the orange card and the man-bag if that’s okay.”
“Willa is stunned and Aurora is bleeding out. I’m making an executive decision that it is fine.”
Babshapka takes the blaster pistol for himself and the grenades for Aurora, and empties the gems, chits, and jewelries into his backpack for the party.
Umbra leaves Aurora on the floor of the hallway and steps into the training room. Thokk and the brawler android are slumped over, holding one another up like two spent prizefighters. Tyrius is leaning against the wall, standing over Molly, shaking his head. Willa, greatsword in hand, is slowly turning in a circle, squinting her eyes as if she can’t see. From time to time she stubs her foot on the body of the monk android and nearly falls. Umbra lays her hands on the shoulders of Willa and Tyrius. “It’s all right,” she says soothingly, “It’s over, we’ve won.”
Round Thirteen
On Level IV, Larry again mounts Eddard. The Celestial Mount canters nimbly past the strangler vines, around the edge of the drop chute and down the wide hall to the west. He pauses at the top of a steeply descending ramp that goes down into darkness.
“I kin guide ye,” says Larry, thinking the horse is reluctant to enter the darkness.
“It’s not that - I think Tyrius is alright now - he has stopped calling for help, but he still appears very confused.”
“Let’s see to the others,” says Babshapka to Mathias as he stands.
“SecBot, bring the body. The body of the mind-controlling exofauna - leave the lurker.”
“Affirmative, Lt. Forge. We are keeping the ship secure. That is our mission.” The robot wraps its tentacles around the feet of the mind flayer and drags it across the lobby, leaving a thin, bloody trail across the dust-covered metal floor.
The three proceed into the hall, where Babshapka stores the grenades in Aurora’s pack, and then sits down on the floor next to her, her wrist in his hand to take her pulse. Mathias and the SecBot proceed into the training room, where Mathias directs the robot to drag the body of the mind flayer over by the far wall, near a pressure panel door.
Round Fourteen
Bashapka gently carries Aurora into the room, laying her on the cushioned mats just inside the doorway. Willa and Tyrius are still speaking falteringly and do not yet have their bearings. Mathias is trying to roll a cigarette, but his hands are trembling enough to make it difficult, and stray strands of tobacco are falling to the floor around him. He gestures dismissively to the SecBot, and it wheels across the room to guard the open door from the hallway.
Round Fifteen
Tyrius eases himself into a sitting position, supporting his back against the wall. He has Molly in his lap. “No, no, I’m fine now, thank you. Thank Larry, too. No, we are great…” he says.
“Ye’re nay 'great' if ye be talkin’ ter ther ar!” snaps Willa, which lets the party know that she is better now as well.
Suddenly from the other side of the room comes a great bellow. Thokk shoves the brawling android away from him and points accusingly at the body of the mind flayer. “Mathias!” he roars. “You not wait for Thokk to finish fight with mandroid before you start new fight! Thokk miss fight with Mine Flavor! Thokk so mad!” he yells, and enrages. He swings at the brawling android and suddenly it snaps erect, its hands coming up into guard and blocking the blow (miss). Thokk bellows again and lands a kidney punch (hit, 5 damage, total 25). He dances around the return blows (brawler misses).
Round Sixteen
Most of the others settle in to more comfortably watch the end of the fight. Babshapka moves unconscious Aurora to the opposite corner of the room, lest she be trod on.
Thokk lands two blows (10 damage, total 35). Mathias cheers him on.
The Brawler misses.
Round Seventeen
The Brawler misses.
Thokk misses twice.
Round Eighteen
Thokk misses twice.
The Brawler misses.
Mathias sighs. “These late-round heavyweight fights get so sloppy,” he says.
Round Nineteen
Thokk misses twice.
The Brawler lands a powerful blow that sends Thokk reeling. (12 damage, Thokk takes 6).
“Keep your chin down!” calls Mathias.
Round Twenty
The Brawler misses.
Thokk feints with his shield, and then when the android moves to his right to avoid the blow, he lands a powerful right hook. The machine man flies back and falls to the mat (5 damage, total 40).
(9:07am)
Round Twenty-one
Mathias strides over and counts ten out loud. When the android doesn’t move, he grabs Thokk’s fist and raises it in the air. The party cheers heartily. [Thokk has completed his story challenge and will level to 7th after his next long rest]
Tyrius uses his lay on hands (5 points) to bring Aurora back to consciousness.
When the cheering stops, Mathias tells the SecBot to come inside and close the door to the hall, but open the door to the north, and stand outside to guard it. “Affirmative. Lt. Forge, that mind-controlling exo-fauna tried to turn this unit against you. This unit hesitated in its attack response and endangered the mission.”
“That's why we set up the security protocol. You did fine. In fact, we could not have done it without your assistance. We lived; he didn’t. That’s what matters.”
“Affirmative. We are completing our mission.”
Mathias moves back over to the body. “What do we know from mind flayers? Can they regenerate?” he asks. The others, even Aurora, shrug or shake their heads.
Mathias chops down with his scimitar, decapitating the mind flayer. Suddenly everyone still conscious is hit with another powerful wave of mental energy... _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
With the climactic battle with the mind flayer, the chief villain of the module, now over, I thought it was time for some denouement and exposition.
With typical Gygaxian terseness, the Barrier Peaks modules contains a lot of clues and questions, but no specific resolutions.
As I developed the backstory for myself, I tried to answer the following:
How did the Mind Flayer get on the ship? The Shedu? What were their relations with the original crew?
What was the civilization like that the crew came from? Why did they imprison sentient species?
Was the mind flayer connected to the paranoia plague? Was either the flayer or the plague involved in the creation of the vegepygmies?
Why is the ship leader sometimes called the captain and sometimes the commander?
If the orange-level crewman who killed the captain was then killed by the intellect devourer, then who left the notes about the devourer in the lounge?
Why, in a computer-based spaceship, was the security officer making written notes?
How did the wife of the captain die?
Who is the skeleton in the security chief's bedroom? How did that person die? And the one in his reception area?
Why does the security chief not carry a key card? Where is his card? Why does he not carry a weapon? How did the security chief die at his desk? Why does the desk in his quarters have three orange cards?
Who is the gray card-bearing officer in the library? Why is s/he under a table? How did s/he die?
How did the three people in the central computing room die? Why are there no cards on them? How did they enter the room without cards?
The players had begun to piece some of this together themselves, but with no more information then what is physically present in the module and unlikely to stay on the ship much longer, they were not going to learn much more. Allowing them to get a full record from the mind flayer was my narrative expository device.
The playdate for this, our twenty-fifth Barrier Peaks session, was 19 November, 2019.
Post 204: Exposition Blast 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
Mathias chops down with his scimitar, decapitating the mind flayer. Suddenly everyone still conscious is hit with another mental wave - like the mind blast, but not painful. Equally overwhelming though, it is a flood of memories ejected from the mind flayer’s mind when it dies. Submerged in disjointed fragments of potent recollection, for a few seconds they all nearly lose their own identities, so powerful are the remembrances.
(9:10am)
“Well, t’at twar...diff’rent,” says Willa, once she has recovered her sense of self.
“Does anyone want candy?” Mathias offers.
“Yes!” says Babshapka. Mathias rummages in his pack and brings out two small bags. Babshapka takes some lengths of licorice.
Mathias next pulls out the flask of bright green liquor. “Fey juice?”
“YES!” says Willa.
“Fey juice, hells yeah,” says Aurora weakly. The hand she holds out for the shot cup is trembling.
Umbra accepts some as well.
When Mathias offers the flask to Tyrius, he shakes his head ruefully. “My god does not approve of your vices,” he sighs, “as tempting as they might be under the present circumstances.”
[Constitution Save (+3 for proximity to Tyrius)
Aurora, 13, fails; “poisoned” (disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls).
Willa, 13, fails; “poisoned” and also feels the ship moving
Mathias, 21, saves
Umbra, 24, saves]
Over the next hour, the seven companions try to piece together a coherent narrative from all of the memories they absorbed from the mind flayer. In the end, though many of the details are as fuzzy as Aurora and Willa’s speech, they arrive at something like the following:
Mind flayers, when they die, cede their memories to the Elder Brain so that their experiences can become part of the Greater Memory and serve the Brain even in their death.
Something happened when this flayer died - its memories exploded forth in a great psychic wave that inundated the characters, nearly drowning them in memories. Why? Was it the centuries it had passed without being in contact with its Elder Brain that had allowed the memories to build up with such force? Had the Terrans killed its Elder Brain and master? Was it its all-possessing hate for the Terrans and its near-consuming desire to tell its story? Certainly not all of its memories were imparted - those that related to questions the party already had about the ship seemed to “stick” better, so perhaps it was some interaction between its mind and theirs. Certainly none of them got all of these memories, but all of them got some, in fragments, bits that they were able to weave together over the course of the hour’s rest.
The Mind Flayer’s colony was on a little rock in the middle of space, the middle of nowhere, adrift in a great asteroid belt. Many flayers served the Elder Brain there, along with their thrall creatures like Intellect Devourers. That the rock was millions of miles from any planet was of no consequence, for the flayers possessed the ability to project themselves astrally and travel at the speed of thought anywhere, to any planet they desired to go. The Elder Brain directed them in plots and machinations on numerous worlds, with them all returning to the rock to report and receive further instruction.
But one day the remoteness of the rock proved inconsequential. Some humans, some upstart civilization calling themselves Terrans, had achieved space flight, and they had found the colony. First with a probe - a mindless mechanical device that the mind flayers were unable to control, or even to sense. And then with an attack ship. The ship moved at such speed that by the time the Elder Brain had sensed the presence of the Terran minds and was was recalling flayers from different worlds and shouting instructions, the Terrans had already landed. As sentient creatures, the Terrans were easy to overcome - mind blasts stunned dozens of them, and the flayers dominated Terran officers and had them issue contradictory orders. But the robots! These humans had brought with them countless robot blasphemies - machines that did their bidding and could think without minds. The flayers could pick apart the brains of the humans, but they could make little inroads into the neural networks of the robots - could not sense what they were thinking, could not control their behavior, could not damage their psyches, and could only occasionally stun them with massive effort by overloading their mental processors. Of course, the flayers could easily flee - astrally project away at faster than the speed of light to a dozen different worlds where the Terrans could not follow. But the Elder Brain could not or would not go with them - and it ordered them to stay and defend it. One by one the flayers fell to the onslaught of the vile machines until they were all slain. Or nearly all.
For this one flayer was given no such fitting end, dying to protect his Elder Brain master. Rather, he was captured, along with a few of the thrall creatures, including an intellect devourer. They were placed in “stasis cages” which froze their bodies in time. Froze their bodies, but not their minds. When this last flayer first realized that its mind could still function outside of time, it tried to dominate the leading Terran of the attack ship. But the woman recognized its efforts to infiltrate her brain and amplified the stasis field, further weakening the flayer. He might be able to influence her thoughts, but he could not control her, not from inside the cage.
The flayer was taken back to the main Terren ship. For as it turned out, the Terrans were collectors. Their ship was full of creatures from all of the worlds they had raided. Some monsters they kept in a menagerie for their own amusement. Others had their genetic material extracted to be manipulated by their scientists. That was the fate of this flayer. To have parts of itself removed, bit by bit and piece by piece, studied, recombined, experimented upon.
The longer it was in the stasis cage, the more accustomed it grew, until it could, with effort, sense all of the Terran minds on the ship, and influence the closest ones, but still could not dominate any of them. And it dared not try, for in the minds of the scientists it could sense that they would destroy it without hesitation if it revealed itself as dangerous - or worse, send a robot surgeon to ablate its cortex until it could no longer think, but its brainstem kept its body alive for continued harvesting. It could not itself sense the robots, but through the eyes of the crew it could see that the ship was teeming with hundreds of them it could not control. The flayer burned with the desire to avenge its Master and its people, but knew of no way to do so.
The paranoia plague was just a coincidence - or was it? Mind Flayers are not religious, it did not see what happened as an answer to a prayer. But as the result of focused and sustained subconscious mental effort and drive? As an unpredicted manifestation of sheer will? Perhaps. For whatever reason, a scout ship seeking water for the main ship returned with a Terran officer infected with the plague. At first, the flayer just watched in bitter amusement as more and more of the Terrans grew mentally unbalanced. But then it realized something. The more they were affected by the plague, the worse their symptoms became, the easier it was for it to manipulate them. Not control them, not dominate them, but feed them disquieting thoughts that heightened and even shaped their paranoia.
Once the paranoia plague began to spread through the larger colony ship, the decision was made to separate the whole ship into sections as a means of quarantine. At that point in time, the Section Commander of the part with the flayer on it received the title of Captain, based on the fact that he was the Acting Captain of this section, now its own, independently-navigated vessel. And once that captain contracted the plague, the flayer knew it had been given the chance to exact its revenge.
The flayer manipulated the captain’s overwhelming desire to end the disease and help his people by feeding him lies about the Intellect Devourer. Over the course of several days, the captain became convinced that cells from the immune system of the Devourer could be used to cure the plague. All of his scientists rejected the idea as preposterous - but with the growing paranoia and the prodding of the mind flayer the captain was soon convinced that they said this because the scientists were plotting against him. Finally he came to believe that he could do the experiments himself. In secret, he went to the stasis cage of the Intellect Devourer and freed it. Oh, how the flayer had had to control himself then. The desire to have the captain free itself, rather than the Devourer, was strong - but it would be instantly recognized by the security robots and captured again, or killed. But the Devourer - as soon as the plague-debilitated captain released the Devourer, it promptly overloaded his mind, ate his brain, and crawled into his head. Through its thrall the Devourer, the flayer could now control the captain like a puppet and no one could see its pet inside.
With full access to the captain’s mind and memories, the flayer came to realize the difficult task before it. The colony ship was an efficiently run military enterprise that fully recognized the mental effects of the plague. If the captain had started issuing nonsensical orders, a half-dozen junior officers would have challenged his fitness for command and sought to install themselves in his position. There were tests and scans and safeguards on all of them. The flayer had to lay low. While keeping the captain busy earnestly combatting the plague, it made sure to insist on maintaining his social calls with the ship section’s chief of security, until the frequent contact had infected the Chief with the plague as well. Then the flayer brought the full force of its intellect to bear, exacerbating the symptoms of paranoia in the chief. It would not be safe to orchestrate its own release until it had forced the situation in the ship into complete chaos.
As the acting captain's behavior became more erratic, the security chief increasingly used his personal video surveillance system to watch the captain, and manipulated the security shifts to assign trusted subordinates to "guard" the captain. The security crewmember who was with the captain when he had a diagnostic physical to test for plague symptoms learned of the presence of the “alien parasite” in his brain, informed the security chief, and followed the captain to the 'tween decks. On orders of the security chief, he confronted and killed the captain; the Intellect Devourer emerged from the body and escaped.
Upon returning to the security chief and reporting the death of the captain, the orange-level security officer became aware of the growing paranoia of his chief. The medical officer who had spotted the alien in a scan had somehow disappeared, the captain's medical record had been reset to omit the reference, and the captain was officially reported as ‘missing’ rather than dead. The orange-level planned to inform either the captain's wife or the (grey-level) Navigator or both, but felt he needed proof against his chief's presumed word that he had acted alone in killing the captain. He began to hunt the alien Devourer clandestinely, hoping to present it to one of the gray-levels and vindicate himself. He enlisted the aid of a few other security personnel, but knowing that the security chief was monitoring video feed and all electronic communications, they coordinated their actions by leaving paper notes for one another hidden in the lounges. On one of his subsequent forays to the 'tween decks, the Intellect Devourer found him before he found it, and it killed him - notwithstanding his blowing a hole in the floor of the deck with his blaster rifle as he died.
Meanwhile, the flayer had filled the already paranoid security chief with an obsession for removing anyone of higher rank and obtaining their gray cards so that he could access the most sensitive sections of the ship without having any of his orders to the security robots countermanded. He went to the captain's wife with "news of her absent husband" - she allowed him and a security detail of two oranges into her gray-carded outer door, whereupon he informed her that he suspected her involvement in the disappearance of the captain, that he had blocked communications from her suite, and that she was under house arrest - she could go from room to room in her suite but not leave. He left the detail of two there to guard her, as well as a single guard with his own wife (who was close to the captain's wife).
The chief sent another security detail to find and arrest the Navigator - and take his card. Convinced that someone would steal his own red card from him and use it to control the robots, the chief hid it inside one of the security robots in the police headquarters, and then reprogrammed all of the security robots to respond to his biometrics rather than his card. He had them open doors (up to red) for him so he wouldn’t have to use his card.
The captain’s wife and the security officer's wife shared a short-range personal communication system independent of the ship's on-board communications network and disguised as personal jewelry. The captain's wife expressed her concerns to her friend.
The security chief returned to the captain's quarters and ordered the captain's wife to surrender her gray card to him. She refused and remained gray-locked in her own personal room. In the course of the desperate intercommed conversation with the chief’s wife that followed, she came to understand that the captain was dead and the security chief was mad. She took a cyanide capsule and ended her own life. Knowing this, and fearful of the witnesses to her death, the security chief ordered his security personnel in the captain’s quarters to turn over their weapons and cards. They were confused but complied with his order. He then killed the two of them himself with his own blaster, and closed the door to the captain’s room, concealing the three bodies behind a gray door he now could not open.
The chief security officer retreated to his own quarters. In his reception area he fired on his wife's guard, killing her. He was then confronted by his wife in their bedroom. He beat his wife to death with his own blaster pistol. He then stored the damaged pistol and the orange cards from the three slain guardsmen in his desk. He returned to his office in the central block, turned the three (unfired) weapons from the guards over to a security robot, and began to use his video system to try to find the Ship’s Navigator, who would have a gray card as well.
The chief stationed security robots outside the Central Computer room, ordering them not to let the officers within leave. In a few days they had died from dehydration, marking the beginning of the end. During this time, most of the people on board were dying from paranoia-fueled violence; with the death of the captain and the indifference of the chief security officer, the situation had rapidly deteriorated.
The security chief, unable to find the Navigator, remained obsessively viewing the live video feed in his office, until he too perished from a combination of plague fever and dehydration. Shortly thereafter, the ship crashed. The mind flayer could sense that clearly enough from the reactions of the few remaining Terrans aboard. By then it was easy to control a nearby infected and delirious human, control it enough to get it to open the stasis cage. It was free! All that was left to do was to collect his thrall Devourer and then project back to the rock to mourn its Elder Brain.
But in the cruelest irony of all, the flayer found that it couldn’t leave the ship. Some still-functioning technology kept it from astrally projecting. The only way out was to physically walk out one of the doors - and they were as tightly sealed as if the ship was still in space.
The ship was still swarming with robots, and the flayer still had to avoid them. It is easy to avoid people when you can sense their thoughts at a distance, but the robots remained an enigma to the flayer and could appear without warning. The ship had lots of new denizens as well. Insane crew had opened many of the stasis cages and menagerie exhibits in their madness. The Devourer had opened others to feed on their contents. And finally, there were the vegepygmies. In another strange twist of fate, before the plague the ship scientists had combined genetic material from the flayer with that of both a fungus and an algae, trying to create a psychically sensitive algae that could direct itself to grow faster, avoid self-limitation, and thereby serve as a better food source for the ship. What they actually created was a russet mold that could absorb the bodies and intellects of anything it decomposed. After the crash this was freed from the lab and began turning the surviving crew into vegepygmies.
Worst of all was the release, by insane crewmembers, of the two shedu, foul creatures from the Upper Realms who would like nothing more than to slay the flayer. They were just as aware of his thoughts as he was of theirs. For centuries they watched each other, all of them looking for any advantage, they just as trapped on the ship as it was, all knowing that whoever made the first move would lose, but whoever found the first mistake or weakness in the other would triumph. Oh, what a long game of cat and mouse.
Over the centuries the door to the outside did get inexplicably opened. The flayer moved its lair to near the cargo doors, trying to be on hand when they were opened so that it could leave. The shedu did the same. But, unable to read the thoughts of the cargo robots, it never had enough advance notice to be aware that the doors were open before they were closed again. And another decade might go by thus.
The final memory of the mind flayer was one that was received and experienced by everyone in the party: But what is this? New Terrans? No, not Terrans, natives of whatever world the ship had crashed on. Surely the flayer can manipulate them into opening the doors for it! At long last it will be free! _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
This became a tragedy really fast, and one that really puts the "grey" in Greyhawk.
The mind flayers might have been doing awful things from their colony (or so I'm assuming, given the reference to plots and machinations) but the Terrans were arguably just as bad with their "collecting", which was presumably for scientific purposes. It could read as a brutal deconstruction of human pretenses to 'civilization' for all our scientific achievements.
Alas, the mnd flayer's cursed life came to an end at the hands of our intrepid heroes. Or was it truly an ending, given how long it had effectively been dead and trapped in the ship? What would the mind flayer have done if it had actually been able to escape? Would it have sought out another hive mind and elder brain to join?
Give yourself a pat on the back, Kirt. You made a Lovecraftian horror into a sympathetic, tragic character.
In the meantime, I'm wondering what else is left for our merry band to even do on the ship. Weren't they looking for something to help Aurora with her research? And then there's the grief they'll face in leaving the ship and making their way back down through the Crystalmists...
The Terrans were arguably just as bad with their "collecting", which was presumably for scientific purposes. It could read as a brutal deconstruction of human pretenses to 'civilization' for all our scientific achievements.
Yes, that's exactly what I was going for. To me, the module itself (writing and illustrations) reads like the naïve 70's Star Trek-influenced view of space exploration - the Terrans are sending the colony ship because of course it is their manifest destiny for their civilization to travel among the stars. Running it now, I wanted something darker - the crew were part of a hyper-extractive dystopian culture, and the point of the colony ship was to find and exploit new worlds, drawing forth their resources, collecting their genetic diversity, imposing environmental catastrophe on the conquered planets, and then moving on. So yes, the mind flayers were evil - but so were the Terrans, in their own way, and the tragedy of their encounter highlights both the inhuman manipulation of the mind flayers and the unnatural unsustainability of the Terrans.
For the characters, the unfolding dramatic arc was seeing the difference between the Unoerthly technology and their world, thinking it was magic, and then realizing with increasing wonder that this is actually an advanced alien civilization from another world.
The players, of course, realized that they were on a space ship by the end of the first session. For them, the dramatic arc was starting by saying 'gee whiz isn't all this technology neat, I want it', slowly realizing just what kind of society produced this material culture, and ending with defeating the mind flayer but going, 'I guess the Terrans weren't the good guys - actually what they did is pretty disturbing..."
CruelSummerLord wrote:
Give yourself a pat on the back, Kirt. You made a Lovecraftian horror into a sympathetic, tragic character.
Thanks!
CruelSummerLord wrote:
In the meantime, I'm wondering what else is left for our merry band to even do on the ship. Weren't they looking for something to help Aurora with her research? And then there's the grief they'll face in leaving the ship and making their way back down through the Crystalmists...
At the moment, they have two chief concerns - finding something that can heal Shefak before she dies of dehydration, and finding a way off the ship before the repair robots finish their anti-PC army and unleash it on them...Tyrius, in addition, wants to find the Celestials that Babshapka has detected. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-sixth Barrier Peaks session, was 25 November, 2019.
Post 205: Shedu? What should Wedo? 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
[During the short rest, Leezar keeps near the body of the flayer, but obviously can't drag it around with him. While invisible, he moves the witch’s hair from his belt pouch to the mind flayer’s man bag. Once they leave the room he will still stay near the SecBot in case he is caught in Tyrius' Detect Evil and Good again, but now if he is found out on his own, he can claim it is the residual evil from the bag, and not his arcane focus, that is being detected. He decides to leave the invisibility effect of the ring on.]
(9:10am - 10:10am)
The party’s short rest goes uninterrupted.
Willa uses Second Wind (6) and then 6 Hit Dice (4, 10, 3, 5, 5, 5) to heal 38 points.
Thokk uses 3 Hit Dice (15, 15, 11) to heal 41 points.
Umbra uses 3 Hit Dice (6, 6, 8 ) to heal 20 points.
She remains at 0/3/3.
Mathias uses 2 Hit Dice (8, 6) to heal 14 points.
Babshapka uses 4 Hit Dice (7, 7, 10, 7) to heal 31 points.
He remains at 3/3.
Tyrius uses 5 Hit Dice (9, 6, 4, 3, 6) to heal 28 points.
Aurora uses 5 Hit Dice (2, 3, 2, 6, 6) to heal 19 points.
Arcane recovery: Aurora now at 4/3/3
(10:10am)
The party decides they are ready to resume their hunt for the Celestials. While they check their packs and load gear, Mathias goes over to the body of the mind flayer. “Boring conversation anyway,” he says, and kicks it in the boot.
Tyrius casts his detect evil and good spell in preparation for detecting the Celestials (now at 2/0). He immediately feels something in the direction of the mind flayer corpse, something desecrated. Perhaps some of its items, in the presence of its evil for centuries, have picked up a lingering aura.
They open the violet door on the north wall of the training room. The room beyond is odd. At only 20’ x 20’, it is small, but the entire east wall is missing and opens on to a much larger area. The ceiling is decidedly sloped and irregular; at its highest in the east, it lowers to the west and is already level with the top of the door by the time it is just west of the frame. Along the west wall it is barely five feet high. Rather than being an even slope like the storage rooms Thokk found under the ramps, it descends in with horizontal runs and vertical drops at right angles, as if they were looking at the underside of a giant metal staircase.
Thokk and the SecBot pass quickly through the smaller room and move out into the larger space. They report that it is a cargo hold, much like the large southern one, although lacking in cargo-handling worker robots and without exterior doors. There is a lift plate, more colonization crates, but fewer stasis cages. Those cages that there are, are mostly full. Finally, the entire western wall opens into three strange slope-ceilinged annexes; the one the party is entering through, a much larger one running nearly the length of the room, and a narrow entrance to a third in the northwest corner of the room.
[Leezar believes that this is the cargo hold referred to by the Mind Flayer as being the lair of the bull men. He lingers in the small annex with the odd ceiling. When he is the last one in the party, he stealthily hides the bag from the flayer in a dark gap between two crates and then catches up to the rest of the party.]
(10:20am)
The party searches the room, moving from south to north, and finally heading for the cargo door on the far wall. Suddenly Tyrius pauses and holds up his hand, then turns slowly toward the narrow gap into the third, and still unsearched, annex. “I sense Celestials,” he says.
All of the party hear the voices in their heads - of a different timbre than before, as a duo, and now with a confident righteousness:
It is only for the goodness within you, Tyrius, that we do not eradicate the wickedness in your party.
At the “wickedness in your party,” Willa looks pointedly at Aurora, and the wizard responds with a rude gesture.
[Leezar can hardly believe the party does not realize that the bull men Celestials are referring to him, and not Aurora.]
But what is this? You have slain the illithid? Paladin, you may approach.
“Yes, it is true. Such an abomination we could not allow to foul this world any longer,” says Tyrius resolutely, if not quite modestly. He walks slowly toward the gap between the northern wall of the cargo hold and the middle annex. When he gets to the threshold of the space he goes to one knee.
Long have we been troubled by the evil of the Illithid.
For your role in ending it, we do owe you a boon.
Tyrius replies immediately, without hesitation. “I seek aid for my companion who has lost her mind. I would be forever grateful for this boon.”
Think on her.
Tyrius closes his eyes and bows his head, and brings Shefak to his mind. He can tell the voices are reading his thoughts about her to better understand the situation.
In time, you will have sufficient faith to cast the spell your god calls Greater Restoration - but we can cast it now. This will restore what the Intellect Devourer took from her.
“Blessings be upon you.”
Now that the Illithid troubles this world no more, we are able to move about the ship more freely. Would you have us travel to her to cure her - or will you bring her to us?
“It is difficult to move her, and many parts of the ship are still dangerous for us. Were you able to travel to where she is, it would be most welcome.”
We will go to the ‘surgery room’ of the Terrans. You are not Terrans...although one in your party pretends to be.
[Leezar looks down at his hand, checking to make sure he is still invisible. There is no trace of his hand, or his uniform, for that matter. “Oh, boy,” he thinks to himself.]
“That is correct. If you will, that one has proven useful in the uniform of a Terran, and although we have known him but a short time, he has been a loyal companion to us for the past several days.”
How did you find the entrance to this ship?
“We journeyed through the mountains, and were able to force open an exterior door on what the robots have called “Level I” to enter the ship.”
Can you open this door again?
For centuries we have sought our release from this technological prison.
“We seek to open the door or one like it, so we may leave as well - but we currently do not have the means to do so.”
Perhaps we can work together to open this door - for this is what we seek as well.
“Yes, that would be both wise and welcome. If I may, it is also cold in the world outside the ship. We are seeking a fuel source to help us on our journey down the mountain.”
The Terrans were as advanced technologically as their souls were stunted - surely they have some sort of heat generating machine somewhere you could use.
“Thank you - we have been searching for fuel sources, but perhaps we should look for one of their amazing machines instead. Are there more of your kind on the ship? Any other beings who may need or deserve to be freed?”
There are more beings from the Higher Planes - as the one you call Babshapka has sensed - but none like us. The Terrans were a wicked race, and enslaved every being they could find. They have long ago been paid the wages of their sins, but many of us still remain trapped in the cages out of time. They not only incarcerated our bodies, but sought to rob our souls as well.
“Know you how to open the things called ‘stasis cages’ to free those within?”
We do not understand their technology - much of it is steeped in wickedness. It is likely that you and your companions have a greater chance of understanding it than we - but we can certainly counsel you on its use. It cannot be difficult, for many of the cages were opened by mad Terrans in the days of the plague, and others by the thrall creature of the Illithid.
“We may be able to open the boxes if you take us to the correct ones.”
For long and longer we have used most of our powers to keep the Illithid out of our minds. But now we reach out with our senses, and find traces of our fellow Celestials. Not their minds - for they are wisely protecting those - but sure signs of their presence. They do not follow the same Laws that we do, but they are nevertheless strong in their Goodness, and this leaves unmistakable signs.
Tyrius senses approval in the voices in his head, and dares raze his gaze from where it had been fixed on the ground in front of him. There are two creatures in view, one just inside the opening, the second beyond but still visible. Both are huge - with the heads of men, but the rest of their features are those of winged bulls. Atop their heads are golden crowns, matching the gold in their wing feathers. Long beards flow down their chests.
[As the conversation continues with the Shedu, all of the party find their surface thoughts being read, much as with the Mind Flayer. There is not the sense of force in probing their minds - but more one of entitlement - that they have no right to keep secrets from the Shedu. Leezar meditates on his sexual conquests, hoping to repulse the bull men and keep them from desiring to probe deeper into his thoughts.]
“If you can sense the other Celestials, you can take us to them - they should be freed.”
Our service to the Greater Good means that our first goal must be to free ourselves, and thus to return to our roles as defenders of Law and Goodness under the directions of our Gods. We owe you a boon, to be sure - but think well on whether you wish that boon to be our restoration of your friend, or our assistance in finding these other Celestials.
Were it just you, Tyrius, we would be free to grant you any beneficence in our power, knowing that you would use it wisely. But so long as your companions lack your righteousness, we must needs be more niggardly in bestowing our aid.
Of course, if you can help free us from this ship, we would then owe you another boon, and you could ask of us to both restore your companion and locate the Celestials.
“We will help free you from the ship by the grace of Pelor. Your aid in locating the other Celestials would be most welcome.”
You may wish to discuss this with your group.
Not all of them are so eager to use the boon for this.
“As you wish.”
Tyrius rises and returns to the party. They all heard the words of the Celestials in their minds, and those of Tyrius in their ears, so there is little to explain.
Mathias says he thinks the party can find the other Celestials without the help of these ones - and thus save their boon for something else.
“Such as?”
Mathias shrugs. “Something that will benefit the whole group. If we do this, it will be the whole party that helps to free them. I get that freeing Celestials helps you as a paladin, but what does it do for the rest of us? If I wanted a boon for just me, I would ask that the ship not be destroyed - but that would be selfish. I don’t think we should use a boon for something that selfish,” he says pointedly.
“Then convince me of what another boon would be? As of now, I don't think your motivation is good.”
“I would ask about the political situation in Keoland, and why the Knight wanted the Chronicle, and such,” Aurora suggests. “That would benefit us all.”
Willa snorts derisively.
“It would!” Aurora insists. “All of us are being pursued by that false knight.”
“Mayhap. But if’n t’ese Celestials be from atother world an’ seven hunnerd years ago, what ken t’ey o’ yer book an’ why ther knight be after ye?”
Aurora has to admit it is unlikely they have much direct knowledge.
Mathias and Tyrius square their shoulders and regard one another, Tyrius with his best noble gaze - but Mathias meets it, with a look that shows he is not used to lowering his eyes, either.
“I doubt these Celestials would grant a boon that is not worthy, or that does not result in good. So what would you ask of them?” Tyrius asks the party again.
No other answers come. Willa, perhaps to forestall a conflict or move things along, says that she trusts Tyrius’ judgement, and Babshapka nods silently.
Tyrius returns and again kneels near the doorway. “We would ask that your boon to us be to reveal the location of the Celestials. If, in the future, we are able to free you from the ship, we would ask for the restoration of our comrade.”
We will now reach out with our senses to find the location of these Celestial Beings.
Your god will not grant you this power, but among your people it is known as Scrying.
Your companion the enchantress knows of this power, although she has been less than diligent in it use.
After a few moments...
Interesting. The Celestials you seek hide their minds instinctively. They are what you would call “immune to scrying” and other forms of mental assessment or attack. That is likely why the Illithid did not free them and then slay them, for in the first moments of release from the time cage, a prisoner’s physical body is weak and defenseless.
Very well - we have pledged to help you, and furthermore, until we are free, there is no greater service we can render unto Good than freeing the others. There exists a meaner way of locating these Celestials, and we will use this method. It will not count as your boon, for it does not tax our powers.
“Should you wish, you could accompany us in both freeing the Celestials and locating a means to leave the ship - the sooner to be outside the ship should we find a way to open the doors, and the better able to provide us with counsel should we locate the Celestials.”
That is wise. We will come with you.
“And we humbly request that you do not destroy the ship.”
As much as this foul technology should be removed from staining your world, that would not be our goal upon winning our freedom. If you manage to open the doors, we would return to our Gods to become their servants again, and not waste time with petty destruction.
Tyrius bows low, then stands and returns again to the party. “With the mind flayer dead and these Celestials accompanying us, the ship presents less danger than before. It may be faster to accomplish our goals if we split up - one group can search for the other Celestials, the other for a means to opening the doors.”
After a bit of talk, it is decided that Tyrius, Willa, Thokk, Umbra, and the Shedu will look for the Celestials - and should they arrive at Level I, they will have the Shedu restore Shefak. Once Shefak is mobile, she, the mules, and Larry should come to Level VI near the cargo doors. If the doors are opened it may be for only a short while, and they will need to be ready to depart.
Meanwhile, Mathias, Aurora, Babshapka, and the SecBot will try to find a means of opening the doors.
Both groups will be on the lookout for fuel (or heat machines) and power discs, but Mathias’ group can have the SecBot ask any local robots for these as well. Whichever group makes it to Level I first should move all of the ship’s rations from the central storage room to the mules. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-sixth Barrier Peaks session, was 25 November, 2019.
Post 206: Scavenger Hunt 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
Team SecBot
(10:30 - 10:40am)
Mathias, Aurora, Babshapka, and the SecBot return to the training room where they rested, and go through the remains in the closet (Babshapka Perception 17). Besides the bones and junk, there is a smashed worker robot (a small one, like on the decks above), a black slate, like many they have seen before, four pieces of jewelry, and a broad belt.
They examine the jewelry and the belt, with Mathias helping Aurora (Investigation 14 with advantage from help). The jewelry is similar to that found on Level III above, and they are stowed away by Babshapka. The belt is actually part of a larger harness, and all the pieces of this are eventually found as well. It is hung with odd ornaments and three leathery straps. It has no apparent clasp to open the girdle, though the front bears a large, embossed disc, and behind this there is a space for a power disc - with a fully-charged disc inside (Luck roll +3). Mathias puts the belt on.
Mathias asks the SecBot what the belt is for. (SecBot History check 11).
“Lt. Forge - that is gear issued to Terran personnel. I do not have a memory file on it.”
Mathias experiments using the belt (Simple Non-Lethal Items table).
(Roll 1 = 2; Circle. Roll 1 = 2; Finish). The belt is opened by giving the disc a quarter turn prograde and pressing in upon the boss. It is activated by turning the boss retrograde half a turn and pushing inwards - once this is done, Mathias becomes weightless. Furthermore, by means of the buttons near the buckle, he can make himself float up or down like a levitation spell. Satisfied, Mathias shuts down the device and takes it off, packing it away. As he does so, he gets the feeling he has seen one like it before, but is not sure where (Intelligence 11).
While Mathias experiments with the belt, Aurora and Babshapka have been taking apart the worker robot (Luck roll +2) in the hopes of obtaining a power disc. They find a set of gem bearings, but no disc.
(10:40 - 10:50am)
In the training room, the team realizes that there is an unlocked door to the south they never looked in, even when they were resting inside the room. It proves quick to check and is likely a small changing room [locker room]. Besides a few benches and lockers, there are numerous rotting ship uniforms, as well as athletic clothing, training pads, mouth guards, and such.
Proceeding back into the hall where they faced the mind flayer, Babshapka checks again the storage area under the ramp in case Thokk missed something before. They then return to the southern cargo hold. Mathias has some questions for the SecBot about the workers. Aurora excuses herself and goes to the nearby room with the papers on the floor and the wall console. She begins a ritual of comprehend languages.
Babshapka finds numerous stasis cages in the cargo hold, many empty and a few still full. Mathais asks the SecBot to talk to the workers, to ask them when they empty the stasis cages and why.
The security robot spends several minutes chirping at the large cargo workers. Their responses are subtle, but present - a beep here, a flashing light there. None of them move. Eventually the SecBot reports.
“Lt. Forge, all of these large-model worker robots are in power down mode, but they all remain functional. These units’ activation codes are tied to this ship section’s auxiliary computer, and they say that they will not activate without orders from the computer. This unit finds that unusual since it has not had contact with the auxiliary computer since shortly after the Mainframe went down and the ship sections separated. This unit does not detect any signs of physical damage to the workers and has not diagnosed any corrupted codes, but such diagnoses will remain difficult until more active behaviors can be observed.”
“Well done, SecBot 31266. Please inventory all of the cargo remaining in this hold and prepare a summary.”
While the SecBot inspects crates, Mathias goes back to where Aurora has just finished her ritual. Pointing at the console on the wall, he asks whether it is what the robot calls a “computer”, and whether it can be used to order the workers to open the exterior doors.
Aurora has just begun reading the dials and knobs by means of her spell. She quickly realizes that the console is a food dispenser! However, it does not produce trayed meals like the kitchen, but rather snack food in the waxed paper bags. The dials allowed the ship personnel to select food, which was then dispensed into the receptacles. The papers littering the floor of the room all turn out to be empty food wrappers.
Frustrated, Mathias returns to the cargo hold and checks a door to the east, one the party has not yet opened. It leads to one of the narrow holds connecting the major holds, and is so packed with crates that the space between them is like a tunnel.
Mathias doubles back to the main hold and tells the SecBot to examine the exterior door and find a way to open it. (SecBot History check 1).
“There are no external controls to this door,” the robot explains. “It is likely under the control of the Mainframe, or, now that the ship is in sections, the Auxiliary Computer.”
Aurora has by now arrived in the hold and recognizes Mathias’ desire to open the doors. She attempts a knock spell (Aurora at 4/2/3; Luck roll +2).
From within the doors, or perhaps the wall, she hears the whirring of gears, then silence. The door does not open. Suddenly one of the larger worker robots comes to life, striding stiffly toward the door.
“Tell it to open the door!” says Mathias to the SecBot. He activates his translator just to verify that the SecBot is accurately reporting the conversation.
The SecBot communicates with the worker in their strange machine language, and then replies: “This worker says it was activated by the auxiliary computer in order to diagnose a sudden possible fault in the door mechanism. Safety protocol dictates that exterior doors can only be opened after the outside of the ship is scanned for environmental hazards - and this scanning can only be done from the helm. Thus, these workers cannot open the door even if they are commanded to - it is prohibited by their high-level operational parameters. When the doors are to be opened, the auxiliary computer both opens the doors and activates the workers.” Satisfied with the fidelity of the robot’s response, Mathias switches off the translator.
“So if we are going to open these doors, we need to do it from the helm or auxiliary computer,” reasons Mathias.
“Affirmative.”
Aurora remembers what she saw written on a door near the ship’s stores. “I bet that was the room labeled ‘Central Computer’. But that was a gray door, and we still have no means to open it.”
“Hmm,” muses Babshapka. “When we put together the mind flayer’s memories, what did we learn about the captain? The security personnel who was with the captain when he had a diagnostic physical to test for plague symptoms learned of the presence of the “alien parasite” in his brain, informed the security chief, and followed the captain to the 'tween decks. On orders of the security chief, he confronted and killed the captain; the Intellect Devourer emerged and escaped. If the captain had a gray card on him when he died, and if his body lies where it fell, perhaps the card is still there? Maybe we should look for it in the ‘tween decks?”
Mathias admits that is a possibility, but first he wants to attempt his uncanny persuasiveness on the workers. “Tell them,” he orders the SecBot, “that there are no environmental hazards outside - this Away Team came from the outside. Tell them that I am Lieutenant Mathias Forge, Security Office of the Away Team, and that I am requesting emergency assistance. They have to open these doors under my command.”
The SecBot warbles all this to the one still-active worker, and translates its response: “Safety protocol does not allow the doors to be opened locally - even acknowledging your command, it is not within the ability of that unit to open the doors - the command has to come from the helm directly to the control mechanism within the doorframe, it is hard-wired.”
“Where is the helm?”
“The original helm was on the original ship - when the ship separated into sections, this section’s helm was transferred to the Auxiliary Computer in the Computer Control Room in the central complex of Level I.”
“It’s been 700 years since the paranoia plague - when was the last time these doors were opened?”
“Approximately ten Terran years ago the helm opened the doors and these worker units were ordered to unload cargo. The doors were then closed,” the SecBot translates.
“Ten years ago means what, if these robots are hibernating? What do they know of time?” wonders Babshapka.
The SecBot responds without asking the workers, “These units shut down to save power, but their internal clocks continue to run accurately. If they say it was ten years ago, that is the actual time regardless of whether they were active or not.”
Mathias continues to demand answers. “Who was on the ship ten years ago? Who gave the order to open the doors? Does this computer just open the doors randomly? How many times have they been opened, how frequently?”
For that, the SecBot has to consult with the worker. “Receiving data…” it says. “Initiating pattern analysis.” Later, “These workers do not know whether ship personnel give the order to open the doors, only that it comes from the computer, and they are not equipped to question such orders - they lack the dynamic heuristics Security Robots have to respond to unforeseen circumstances. This unit has now analyzed every reported time the doors have opened for the last 700 years. The median time between openings is 22.5 years. The longest time between openings is 76 years and the shortest is five years. Given the small data set, the distribution is not statistically indistinguishable from a random pattern.”
“Very well - we will need a gray card then to access the helm, and then open the doors from there. In the meantime, please tell the active worker to open crates and gather fuel, grain, power discs, and weapons. We need these materials for an excursion, under my order as a Security Officer. It can place all available items here by the doors.”
The SecBot translates Mathias’ command, and the worker’s response (Mathias persuasion 14, Worker robot Insight 4). “The worker says that it knows the inventory of this hold and that none of the requested items are to be found here. Does the Officer wish for it to search the other holds on this level, for which it does not have inventory on record? Also, it requests clarification on what is meant by fuel.”
“Yes, it should look in all of the holds. Fuel is anything that can burn - things like wood and coal.”
After a series of beeps and whistles, the SecBot translates “Burnable items are restricted substances on the ship and are permitted to gray level personnel only as part of their personal effects allowance. Open flames use too much oxygen and are not permitted aboard ship except in designated research laboratories and in weapons issued to security personnel.”
“I am a security personnel. Have it find and retrieve any flame weapons. What about radiant heat sources that work without flames?”
“There are standard survival gear portable heat sources on board the ship, though not in this hold. Should the worker retrieve those?”
“Yes.”
“The worker acknowledges your order.” Indeed, the large cargo robot is now walking stiffly towards the door to the west, the one that leads to the hold through which the party initially entered this room. Before it can leave, Mathias adds,
“Tell it we need these supplies quickly. It is authorized to wake any other workers to help in its search.”
“Affirmative.”
During this exchange, Babshapka has been reflecting on the mind flayer’s memories, and has hit upon something else. The Captain's wife has a grey key...She refused and remained gray-locked in her personal room. In the course of their intercommed conversation, she came to understand that the captain was dead and the security chief was mad. She took a cyanide capsule and ended her own life. So the body of the captain’s wife might have a grey card as well.”
“Yes,” agrees Aurora, “but if she is in the captain’s quarters, we would need a gray card to get to her, so that is a moot point. We should look for the captain’s body first.” _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-sixth Barrier Peaks session, was 25 November, 2019.
Post 207: Hunter Scavenge 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
Team Shedu
(10:30 - 10:40am)
“Let us find these trapped Celestials, by the grace of Pelor,” says Tyrius, as the second group starts out. They open the cargo doors of the room and move to the north.
The room beyond is another cargo hold, but narrow, like the one between the main east and south holds. As they pass some filled stasis cages, Tyrius asks the Shedu if they are close to the Celestials.
We can sense the others from within sixty feet or so - our power is similar to your ability to Detect Good.
If you wish us to extend our senses further, we would need to use more powerful abilities - and that would count as your boon.
Tyrius shakes his head. “That will not be necessary - we will just make sure you walk within sixty feet of every cage.” Soon after that his own spell runs its course, and they are forced to rely solely on the senses of the Shedu.
The room appears to end - but it is just a narrow constriction before it passes into a middle section, with an exiting door, and then a northern section, with another door out. They check the cages for exo-fauna (and the crates for supplies) in the northern section before returning to the middle door and leaving through that. Upon reflection, this narrow northeast hold is very similar to the narrow southwest hold that joined the larger western and southern holds.
Outside the cargo door, the corridor splits three ways. The north passage leads to a ramp up, but the east and west turn corners.
Tyrius heads back east. Around the corner is another ramp, but also an open door. Through the door comes the smell of fresh water.
As they proceed into the large room, to the left and right are tall metal walls, the one on the left with a door, but the wall lowering as they move forward, while the right wall continues flush with the ceiling. The Shedu, to Tyrius only, mention that the door they are passing connects through to the back to their secure lair, and that the place lies under the “observer stands” of this room.
[Swimming Pool] After several steps forward the room opens up, so that they can see. An immense pool of water lies to their south - to their east, there are metal-floored stands with cushioned seats, so that an audience can view the pool. What must have been here - some sort of aquatic theatre? The pool is deep and murky at the northern end, but shallow enough in the south so that bottom can be seen clearly. It appears to be graded and terraced inside. At the northern end is a step-up platform at the edge of the pool and extending into and over it.
Looking at the stands, Tyrius recognizes the rises and runs of the floor as the obverse of the ceiling of the strange rooms off of the eastern cargo hold, explaining their odd shapes. The stands themselves appear littered with small objects, and here and there a tiny creature scurries about (Willa Perception 12).
Tyrius moves to the edge of the pool, then climbs on the platform to better peer into its cloudy depths (Perception 18). In the center, he can make out several human-sized skeletons on the bottom - one of them clasping a glinting metal tube. He calls Thokk over to the platform, points out the tube, and the barbarian sets down his pack, shield, and weapons as he prepares to dive in to retrieve it.
Before you send your companion into the water, you should know that much of what you see in the pool are illusions conjured by the creature that lives inside.
Tyrius places his hand on Thokk’s shoulder, belaying his dive, and the group moves instead to examine the open door on the north wall.
The large chamber within [Dressing] has a long bench in the center, and the walls lined with stacks of metal lockers, and an interior pressure plated door. There is much litter on the floor, and a number of small, furred creatures dash away and hide at the appearance of the party.
The interior room has no exits and few furnishings, just a few of the strange metal basins in the wall, like those of the prison cells far above.
Returning to the pool, the party tries another door, but finds a set of rooms parallel to the first two in every way. [Dressing]
The group proceeds through the large doors in the west wall, turns a corner, and finds themselves back in the corridor that lies to the north of the pool room. They proceed through a double-door into an antechamber [5. Baths] lined with four pressure doors as well as a single door to the left with a brown card lock. As Tyrius is about to try the door to the north, the Shedu warn him that...
That way lies the den of four evil shapeshifters, hiding in the fog
The party quickly recollects their fight against the doppelgangers. They ask each other whether any were seen to escape. Convinced that all were slain in the fight, they decide that this must be another band. Since Tyrius has for the moment forbidden the party from opening the door to the north, Thokk tries one to the northeast. It leads to a steam-filled room [5A. Sauna], the back of which is shrouded in mists. There are a few simple benches made out of wood, and the floor and walls themselves are lined with the material. This is the first cut or milled wood (not living plants) Thokk has seen on the ship. For some reason, despite the frequent admonitions of Willa that they are looking for fuel, Thokk merely says that the room is empty and does not think to strip the wood or mention it to the others. Perhaps he thinks that the great humidity in the room would have made the water-logged wood poor to burn. Perhaps he simply was not thinking. The party continues on.
(10:40 - 10:50am)
Continuing on from the sauna, the group passes through a door into a huge open room [Gymnasium]. It is as large as the largest cargo hold, but has no crates. Rather, the southern third of the room has three rows of spectating seats in elevated stands, much like the pool room. The northern half of the room has soft mats covering the floor, like in the training room but over a much greater area. More mats are piled in a corner. Tyrius and Willa walk about the room, including behind the stands, but find nothing of interest (Perception 7).
Thokk strides out to the center of the mats. This is obviously some sort of gladiatorial arena, but the presence of the mats on the floor is strange, until he remembers the brawling mandroid. Then it becomes clear - this is for brawling or wrestling, some form of weaponless non-lethal combat, but with teams - or perhaps one hero against many, and to be witnessed by crowds. While the others search the room, Thokk imagines himself on the mats, brawling against a dozen of the mandroids, with the stands full of spectators, cheering his name. “Thokk! Thokk! Thokk!” they chant, and the stands thunder as they stomp their feet in time.
“Thokk!” calls Willa.
Thokk grins and waves at her.
“Thokk!” she says again.
“Thank you, advisor, your cheers drown out all others.”
“What be ye on aboot, ye daft orc? Thokk! It be time ter go, thar be nay cages ‘ere.”
Reluctantly Thokk revives from his daydream and follows the others back out the doors they came in. Although two other doors lead out to the west, Tyrius has decided to backtrack to the last cargo hold they were in so as to find more stasis cages. They enter the northeast hold through the middle door, and exit the north door into the large northern cargo hold. This is much like the southern hold, with stasis cages and a lift plate. The room is, however, missing the cargo robots and exterior doors, although this is just as well since by Willa’s calculations any exterior doors would just open onto the bare rock face of mountainside.
“There are many cages here,” says Tyrius. “Do you sense any beings of good in them?”
Many contain creatures, it is true - but all of animal intelligence at best. None are Celestials.
“So be it. Let us continue on.”
The cargo doors to the west open on a narrow cargo hold. Not much of it can be seen since it rounds the corners, like the other narrow holds, but there are both crates and cages in it. More immediately, however, there are several creatures inside - in the air. They are weird and vaguely resemble bats with the bloat. They float in the air and paddle about with green-black, veined, wings.
“Ugh!” says Tyrius in disgust, and he presses the plate to close the doors before the creatures can float through. “There were stasis cages in there, though…”
Not any with Celestials - at least none of the ones visible from the door.
“This be takin’ too long,” says Willa. “Twar lots o’ cages in the southern ‘old. Let’s search ther biggest ‘olds first an’ t’en go from thar, instead o’ wannerin’ from room ter room.”
“Agreed,” says Tyrius, and they set out for the southern hold. Along the way, however, they decide to pass from where the Shedu had their lair in the east to the southern hold by way of the as-yet unsearched narrow southeast cargo hold. They pass many stasis cages along the way, but none that hold the Celestials they are looking for. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
The original S3 has Shedu, Couatl, Mind Flayers, and Intellect Devourers. One thing uniting these monsters from rather disparate seminal origins is their use, in first edition, of psionics. It is easy for me to believe that when designing the spaceship, Gygax chose a number of psionically-endowed monsters to enhance the alien / futuristic feel of the place.
In 5E, Psionics is not 'core' and is not included in the PHB (the closest it comes is that 'psychic' is considered a damage type, like bludgeoning or cold, and is referenced by numerous spells and abilities). I had enough work already in terms of converting the module to 5E for my campaign; I wasn't interested in looking for supplementary materials to bring psionics into the campaign. Thus, I planned to run the monsters using their 5e versions as written - until I found out that Shedu haven't been officially converted to 5E yet. Those I had to do myself.
Intellect Devourers
As written, Intellect Devourers have no psionic ability in 5E. They do have four rather psionic-appearing features (Blindsight, Detect Sentience, Devour Intellect, and Body Thief). Blindsight is a common ability in 5e among creatures, such as puddings, that don't have eyes, and yet have to be able to react to the presence of the PC's. The other three abilities are specifically created for Intellect Devourers and as far as I know are not possessed by any other creatures. Its two attacks are explicitly said to be magical.
As a result of the eponymous Devour Intellect ability, the target's Intelligence Score is reduced to 0, which is what happened to Shefak. As it turns out, this is surprisingly difficult to recover from in 5E. As easy as healing hp and debilitating conditions is in 5E, there is only one thing that will restore a lowered ability score - the Greater Restoration spell (and magic like wish that would allow one to duplicate the spell).
Greater Restoration is a fifth level spell. It would be available to a cleric (which the party didn't have) or druid (Larry) at 9th level - and the party was trying to achieve 8th. Tyrius, the Paladin, won't get 5th level spells until 17th level, so that was rather off the table. So, Shefak's current condition thanks to the Intellect Devourer was a Very Serious Thing.
Mind Flayers
Mind Flayers are explicitly psionic in 5E and several of their abilities are said to be powered by psionics. They have Innate Spellcasting (Psionics), which means they can cast spells using their psionic ability: Detect thoughts and Levitate (both at will); Dominate Monster and Plane Shift (both once per day). They have other abilities whose provenance is not explicitly said to be psionic; Magic resistance, Telepathy, and the stunning effect of their Tentacles (which requires an Int save, and not Con as would be typical with poison). Telepathy is a trait many creatures in 5e have and it is explicitly magical. Finally, Mind Flayers have their Mind Blast attack, which is said to be magically-emitted psychic energy, whatever that means.
I took the original module's words about the ship's "malfunctioning hyper-dimensional force fields" as preventing the escape of the Mind Flayer via Plane Shift.
Couatl
Couatl in 5E are "Celestials" that have Innate Spellcasting with no specified source. Since they are Divine Caretakers, one might speculate that the source of their magic is divine. They have no explicitly psionic abilities, although they do have Telepathy. Their innate spells are: (at will); detect evil and good, detect magic, detect thoughts, (3 times per day); bless, create food and water, cure wounds, lesser restoration, protection from poison, sanctuary, shield, and (1 time per day); dream, greater restoration, scrying. They have both crawling and flying speed, but interestingly no form of plane shifting, astral projecting, or other way to 'get home' even absent the ship's shields. They can also change their shape.
The presence of their greater restoration ability makes them a perfect counter-point to the Intellect Devourer, and preserves the mutual antagonism of the original module, in which, "If freed, these creatures will attack the intellect devourer and slay it if it appears." However, while in the original module, "the two small couatls will be slain during the fight," in 5E this would be a much more one-sided contest; since the Couatl have immunity to psychic damage, and an Intelligence of 18, the Devourer would have to get extremely lucky to Devour Intellect from even one of them before the others bit and constricted it to death (their bite is both poisonous and causes unconsciousness).
The module says that the Intellect Devourer is aware of the presence of the Couatl (they are in the only room on Level III that it can access) but has chosen not to open their stasis cage because it knows it is outmatched. In 5E, the Detect Sentience ability of the Devourer allows it to "sense the presence and location of any creature within 300 feet of it that has an Intelligence of 3 or higher, regardless of interposing barriers, unless the creature is protected by a mind blank spell." However, this would be at least partially frustrated by the Shielded Mind feature of the Couatl; "The couatl is immune to scrying and to any effect that would sense its emotions, read its thoughts, or detect its location." A liberal interpretation of this would allow the Devourer to detect the presence of the Couatl if not their location, and its intelligence would eventually allow it to triangulate them to the room they were in, if not the specific cage. At least that's what I decided had happened.
As far as the Mind Flayer, both its Detect Thoughts and Telepathy would be canceled by the Couatl's Shielded Mind, so it would have an even harder time identifying their location than the Devourer. Assuming it did learn their location, perhaps from the Devourer itself, their immunity to psychic damage, advantage on Intelligence saves (DC15 vs Int 18) against Mind Blast, and advantage of Wisdom saves (DC15 vs Wis 20) against Dominate Monster, means that it would need to be lucky to take out just one of the four before it, too, was overwhelmed. It might have better luck with its blaster and grenades, but that is still a high risk for little reward against creatures that are imprisoned.
Shedu
As mentioned previously, Shedu do not yet have an official 5E version. In planning my conversion, I looked at the properties of other Celestials of similar power, as well as the specific psionic abilities of the ones in the module, and ultimately decided to give them, as divine magic and not psionic, the following for Innate spellcasting: (At will); detect evil and good, detect magic, detect thoughts, (3 times per day); bless, create food and water, cure wounds, enlarge / reduce, invisibility, lesser restoration, levitation, protection from poison, sanctuary, shield, shield of faith, (1 time per day); dimension door, protection from energy, greater restoration, scrying, telekinesis
I gave them both Astral Travel and Ethereal Jaunt but prevented these abilities from functioning in the ship's fields.
My original plan, thinking it much more likely that the party would find the Shedu than they would the Couatl, was to give the Shedu scrying but not greater restoration. I would have had the Shedu offer to use their scrying to find the Couatl, and then have the Couatl use their greater restoration to cure Shefak. However, once I realized that the Couatl's official Shielded Mind would protect them from scrying, I made sure that Shedu got greater restoration in case the Couatl were never found, but planned to have them use Detect Evil and Good to find them if the party requested it.
I wanted to make plausible the centuries-long stalemate between the Mind Flayer and the Shedu, so I gave them telepathy and had them constantly trying to sense the thoughts of one another. The Mind Flayer, having thumbs, a humanoid build, and no aversion to the ship's technology, had that as an advantage, while the Shedu used the fact that there were two of them to sleep in shifts and make sure that one was always alert to the Mind Flayer. If even one of them was immune to psychic damage like the Couatl I didn't think the Mind Flayer would stand a chance, but I allowed them to cast their Resistance to Energy spell specifying Psychic, which is not otherwise a choice. I imagined that they had spent their time since emergence from stasis in cat-and-mouse with the Mind Flayer. If they could ever deplete his technology against the other denizens of the ship they would attack (but they never did); if it could ever catch both of them sleeping or one of them alone it would attack, but it never did. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-sixth Barrier Peaks session, was 25 November, 2019.
Post 209: Wakey, wakey, crates and snakeys! 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
(10:50am)
The ‘Shedu Group’ enters the large southern cargo hold just as the ‘SecBot Group’ is exiting it. Willa, in the lead, hails the others before they close the door behind them, and the larger party begins to rejoin in the center of the room - until SecBot 31266 spots the Shedu, whose bodies it had not seen before while they were concealed within their lair when Tyrius first found them. Nor had it apparently heard the voices in its head that everyone else has been.
“Our mission is to eliminate exo-fauna - they pose a risk to the ship - we must prevent them from escaping,” the robot begins, as the laser pistol emerges from its chest.
“These are not brain-eating exofauna,” says Mathias hastily.
“Clarify: we are not eliminating all exofauna?”
“Not all exo-fauna. Sorry to be unclear. These exo-fauna do not pose a danger to the ship, or the outside world.” (Mathias Persuasion 18, SecBot Insight 10)
“This unit apologizes for not fully comprehending your orders, Officer Forge.”
With the potential inter-party disaster averted, Mathias and Willa begin talking. He tells her that he has the large worker robots looking for a heat source and grain, and she thanks him. Willa then tells the others that searching hold by hold is taking too much time, and she wonders whether Babshapka can help narrow the field a bit.
The ranger reaches out with his primeval awareness. There is the overwhelming sense of Celestials near at hand, which he takes to be the Shedu. There is no sense of any aberrations, anywhere, he notes with satisfaction. Somewhere more distant but above are more Celestials, and Undead.
The party discusses their direction briefly. Willa notes that they have not been on Level V at all, except when passing through on the lift plate. Babshapka shakes his head. He thinks the Celestials he felt were farther away than that. They decide to return to Level III, the walkway. Babshapka explains to the others how they might find the captain’s gray card on Level II. It is decided that they will return to III, make a circuit looking for the Celestials, and then go to II to try to find the card.
Mathias asks that in the case that they do recover a gray card, if he might be allowed to carry it. There are a few suspicious looks from some in the party at his interest, but Willa shrugs. “Ye’ve managed ther red card well so far, an’ t’at be are ‘ighest. You hain’t lost it in a door, so yer aught fer two wit’ Aurora.”
Willa then asks whether they should take the spyglasses off the Level III balcony, as she knows many a rich merchant captain who would pay dear for them. Mathias is dubious, and says that some of the technology they have found, like the weapons, are independent and can be moved, but the fact that the glasses are fixed to the railing makes him suspect that they need to be in contact with the ‘computer’, whatever that is, and without it they will not function, like the cargo robots.
Willa seems to accept that argument and asks about looking for more grain for the mules on Level III, although she doesn’t know whether the mules will take to it or not. To her surprise, she is answered by the Shedu.
We can create food - it is a minor magic, and by itself does not rise to the level of a boon. We can make food for your beasts of burden of a kind that will satisfy them.
Willa thanks them, and they begin.
It is a quick walk through the southern hold, the southwestern hold, and into the western hold where sits the lift plate on which the party descended. It is a tight fit with all of them plus the Shedu on the plate, but they manage, and Aurora runs the pedals to carry them all the way up to Level III.
(11am)
They pass through a series of holds they have already seen, traveling prograde, but now with the Shedu telling them about the contents of the stasis cages. For three holds in succession they say only that they are empty or that they contain beasts of animal intelligence. It is when the door opens on the fourth hold, the one with the hole in the ceiling [6], that the Shedu exclaim:
There - that container holds the Celestials you seek!
The image in their minds makes it clear to all of them to which of the cages it is referring - the very first cage they found, the one in which Willa discovered the sleeping snake-like creatures.
Aurora moves to the cage and turns the dial to the position it occupies in all of the cages that are empty and open. Immediately there is a loud humming sound, and the Shedu tell the party to back away. Stealing glances, the party can see that the glass walls that had been frosted over and translucent slowly thaw and become clear, until they appear to be nothing at all, just empty air. The forms of the four colorful serpents slowly appear more clearly, each draped over the next on the floor of the cage and each with a pair of iridescent wings.
Suddenly a confusing torrent of disjointed thoughts floods the party - like when the mind-flayer was killed, a rush of images and emotions, but forming no coherent narrative, jumbled and contradictory.
“The four-legged exo-fauna say that these ones are good, too,” Mathias explains to the SecBot.
One by one the serpents rise in the air and the flood of mental images recedes. Their wings stretch out majestically, but do not flutter and flap. Rather they just extend to their sides as their bodies remain suspended in the air. The two Shedu step to the side, opening the way for Tyrius to approach the serpents.
“You are free,” the paladin says. “We mean you no harm. Soon we will open the doors of the ship so that you may leave it.”
The Shedu and the Serpents begin to converse out loud, but in Celestial, a language so pure and good it warms Tyrius’ soul just to hear it. He falls to his knees in a state of prayer and gives thanks to Pelor all during the conversation. [Tyrius has leveled. He will gain his new powers and abilities at the end of his next long rest]
While pleasant-sounding at first, the words eventually make the rest of the party uncomfortable - some more so than others. The longer they listen, the more a feeling of guilt and judgement increases in them. Finally, the party recognizes a new voice in their heads, just as one of the serpents darts out of the room through the open door the party entered.
We give you thanks for setting us free from the terrible Terran trap.
You - Mathias - are fortunate the Shedu explained to us that you are not in fact a Terran, looking as you do. In our confusion upon awakening, we were on the point of attacking you. We now realize that all the Terrans are long dead, and finally they have the fate they deserve for such iniquities as they practiced.
More than one of the party wonders what the Terrans could have done, for these Serpents to celebrate the end of their entire race. As if in answer, the thoughts come to their minds.
The Terrans stripped their own world of resources and fouled it with wastes to the point that life was not possible. With the technological advances such activities had secured, they were able to expand their civilization beyond the home planet they had destroyed, and spread across the galaxy. To each world they reached they did the same - extracting, polluting, and moving on. We were ourselves captured by them early on in their spread across the stars - and their engineers used bits of our souls to create monstrosities with which to amuse their jaded populace.
For releasing us from our prison, we owe you a boon - even the less worthy among you.
While the party ponders what they might ask for, the Serpent that had left before now returns in a flash of scales and feathers.
Brethren, there is no way off this ship! We are caught in a larger trap.
“We are working on your release,” says Mathias.
Tyrius respectfully asks the Shedu to explain to the Serpents how the main doors of the ship need to be opened from the “helm”, and how they need a gray card for that, which they are even now looking for.
We can all work together toward this end, regardless of any differences in our beliefs and philosophies.
“Will you accompany us for the moment? The Shedu have pledged to help us restore our companion, a monk.” The Serpents acquiesce.
(11:10am)
The party proceeds through the cargo holds. Despite the assurances of the Shedu, Willa insists on looking for grain for the mules. Eventually they make it out onto the walkway, and dash through the vines to the northern drop chute. The three Serpents who had not yet seen the drop chute regard it with admiration and approbation.
So much power and potential, put to such evil use!
(11:20am)
After taking the chute to Level I, the party leaves the Shedu and Serpents in the atrium, asks them to remain there, then prepare themselves to go back down to Level II.
Willa, Aurora, Babshapka, Umbra, Thokk, Tyrius, Mathias, and SecBot 31266 return to the northern drop chute and descend some fifteen feet to Level II, where the doors are brown-card locked. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-sixth Barrier Peaks session, was 25 November, 2019.
Post 210: Level II 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
(11:20am)
Willa, Aurora, Babshapka, Umbra, Thokk, Tyrius, Mathias, and SecBot 31266 return to the northern drop chute and descend some fifteen feet to Level II, where the doors are brown-card locked.
Opening the doors, the party is immediately hit by a blast of noise echoing through the vast, empty halls. So far as they can see, it looks like the entire second floor is one huge open level, though punctuated by support columns, large machinery, and some walls. The whole place is lit dimly, but the low ceiling and numerous columns give a sense of claustrophobia. The barrage of noise and abundant cover means that it would be very easy for anything to sneak up on them, despite the light and open layout.
As the party moves cautiously out from the tube to get their bearings, their attention is immediately drawn to two huge machines to the northwest [Crosshatched Area - Generators and Transformers]. Each one is the size of a large milling machine, and although the area is dusty, they can be seen to be surrounded by the same strange alternating color bands on the floor that ringed the lift plates. The machines themselves appear to be the nearest source (though certainly not the only source) of the great din on the layer, and numerous arms move and wheels spin accompanied by great clatter. Cables, red or black and as thick as giant snakes, connect the two machines and lead off into the wall as well. As the party watches, a shower of sparks is emitted by one machine, although it continues to churn.
Given the abundant writing on the drop chute, the pillars, the machines, and even the floor, Aurora tells (or rather shouts at) the party to wait while she spends ten minutes ritually casting a comprehend languages spell.
(11:30am)
After ten minutes of listening to the machines, everyone already has uncomfortably ringing ears, but now Aurora can read the printing. Even with translation, most of the vocabulary is unknown to her, similar to when she has read the insides of the robots. She grasps that the large machinery is generating power for the ship, but little else, and there is no sign of sluices for the water that is making these mill wheels spin.
Thokk and Babshapka set off, trying to read tracks in the dust of the floor (Survival 11 (Thokk) and 24 (Babshapka)). Babshapka finds evidence of robots, both security and workers, and some sort of large wheeled thing as well - but the tracks themselves are much rarer than on the other levels.
The party moves retrograde, following the exterior ship wall and mostly huddling together, led by Babshapka looking at tracks. For his part, Thokk moves independently, often going to the far side of walls and columns, protesting (perhaps too much) that he is not frightened of the creepy close caves, the sparking machinery, and the snaking cables.
After a short time, the party comes upon a door in the wall with a simple pressure plate. They open it and are just about to search the contents when the SecBot warns them that it is not safe - the room has a high level of ‘radiation’ [13 - Radiation Area]. They close the door and continue.
Babshapka’s internal map tells him that they must be approaching the hole and almost immediately he sees it - much larger on the floor here than in the ceiling of Level III, nearly twenty feet across at its widest. Much of the hole below is a twisting mess of broken tubes and loose wires, with only a bit of the now-familiar room below in view, the room with the skeleton of the crew member and the former cage of the Serpents.
All around the hole the metal is scored and warped as if melted. Aurora smiles and pats her blaster rifle, still attached to her shoulder, contentedly. The party briefly debates looking here for the card, but Babshapka guides them in recollecting the mind flayer’s memories. The crewmember killed the captain, then reported to the chief security officer, then was killed himself later when he was hunting the Intellect Devourer. Without evidence of the captain’s body, the card is unlikely to be here. They continue along the outer wall, passing the western drop chute.
(11:50am)
Perhaps halfway between the western and southern chutes they come upon a wheeled platform; or rather, two wheeled platforms joined with a circular articulation [3 - Wheely Sled]. The whole contraption is some six feet long, three feet wide, and a foot off the ground. Willa is initially excited about the possibility of a vehicle for getting off the mountain, thinking it may be some sort of horseless wagon. She has Aurora read the markings on it, and there is indeed a control lever for speed as well as an on / off switch and a steering wheel like that on a ship but mounted horizontally rather than vertically. Her initial interest fades as she looks at the clearance of the wheels, however. Good on the flat, smooth ship decks, good perhaps on a paved kingsroad, but there is no way they would be able to drive such a device through the rugged trackless mountains. They continue on.
(12pm)
Even before they reach the southern drop chute, the body, or rather skeleton [2 - jumbled bones of the captain], lying on the floor is visible to Babshapka. He motions to the others behind him to keep their distance so that he can examine it.
Once Babshapka has confirmed that it is safe, Aurora Investigates the skeleton (16) while Mathias checks the immediate area for the card. All signs point to the remains being the captain - the gray uniform has gold braid, the skull has a hole in the top, but with the bone pieces outside rather than inside, as if something forced its way out rather than it being bashed in. There is an odd cuff with two rod-like projections on one arm - it looks familiar, and the party may have seen something similar in the last five days, but they are unsure where.
Mathias, on the other hand, has less luck - there is no card in the pockets of the uniform, elsewhere on the body, or in the immediate area. “How can it not be here?” he says, and then swears in frustration.
Aurora shakes her head, and then draws large, 10’ x 10’ squares with her boot heel in the dust of the ground, eight such squares around the body. “It’s here, we just have to find it,” she says confidently. One of them is assigned to each square. “Hands and knees,” she says, “go slow - let’s take twenty minutes and really search.”
After less than a minute, the SecBot speaks (Perception 24). “Lt. Forge,” it says, “I am not finding any cards within my designated search area - but there is one at twelve feet outside my area, bearing 15.”
“Retrieve it for me.”
The robot wheels over and with a grasping hand plucks a gray card covered in gray dust off the matching gray of the metal floor. Holding it aloft, it emits a red light that plays along the surface of the card.
“Lt. Forge, scanning indicates that this card belonged to the Acting Captain, which is consistent with the uniform, if those are his remains.”
“The old captain is dead,” says Mathias as he gestures at the skeleton. “I will assume those duties now.”
“Lt. Forge, gray-level clearance cannot be self-assumed - one must be appointed.”
“Then appoint me captain.”
“This unit does not have the authority to confer command status. That must come from an off-ship authority, typically Fleet Command.”
“SecBot, have you had any contact with Fleet Command since the plague?”
“No, Lieutenant.”
“And you can clearly see that the captain was killed by the brain-eating exo-fauna, which we in turn destroyed.”
“Affirmative. This unit’s current mission is to destroy harmful exo-fauna.”
At this point, Aurora frowns and places a finger to her temple. She messages both Thokk and Willa. Let’s give Mathias a chance, but if that tin can is going to destroy the card rather than handing it over, we need to be ready to jump it. Thokk grins.
“I am the Security Officer of the Away Team,” continues Mathias, “and the highest ranking officer currently on the ship. Please hand over the card.”
“Lt. Forge, you do not have the authority to use the card. Please clarify your plans for it.”
“We will open the exterior door to release the good exo-fauna and allow the Away Team to continue its mission.”
“Lt. Forge, to open the exterior door you will need to access the helm. You do not have permission to be on the bridge.”
“Since the arrival of my team, I have worked tirelessly to protect this ship and restore order. Are you refusing my direct command to hand over the gray card (Intimidation 21)?”
The robot pauses, lights blinking dolefully before responding (Insight 16).
“Lt. Forge,” it says finally, “This unit acknowledges you as the highest ranking member of the away team and the current commanding officer of the ship. I will give you the card, but be aware that my command-protection protocols will not allow you to use it.”
“Understood,” says Mathias triumphantly as he holds out his hand. The robot passes the card over. Thokk frowns in disappointment.
“Back to the north drop chute,” says Babhapka unceremoniously and begins to lead them.
(12:10pm)
One by one the party takes the drop chute until they reassemble in the atrium on Level I. The Shedu and Snakes are waiting patiently there for them.
Mathias speaks to the SecBot, “Now that we have safely returned to Level I, and there is no immediate threat from exo-fauna, I am relieving you of your current mission. You may return to your guard duties on Level III.”
“Negative, Lt. Forge,” says the robot without hesitation. “When a Command Officer dies, standard Fleet Protocol is for gray clearance cards to be placed in highly secure facilities until a new officer assumes command. This unit cannot allow you to leave its presence, nor it yours, while you carry the former Acting Captain’s card. This is for your protection as well as that of the ship.”
The party continues down the hallway, passing by the Security Chief's quarters, approaching the quarters of the Captain.
Aurora messages Mathias, What if you ask the robot whether we can check on the captain’s wife? There should be another gray card we can find inside.
Mathias pauses and addresses the SecBot. “What if I use the card to check on the well-being of the captain's wife? Would that be permitted?” (Persuasion 14)
“The captain’s quarters are grey clearance access - but that is for his personal privacy, not because they are a sensitive, secure area. You may use the card, but I will accompany you.” (Insight 9).
As they advance, Aurora and Babshapka lag ever farther behind, until they are out of sight of the SecBot, around a corner. Aurora quickly casts an invisibility spell on the wood elf (Aurora at 4/1/3). They then hurry to catch up to the others.
As Mathias uses the card to open the door, Babshapka uses Tyrius and his noisy armor to block himself from the robot’s hearing and slips as silently as he can into the room. From that point on he is still when the others are still, moving only when someone walking near him is moving, hoping to mask his sounds with the others. The Celestials wait outside. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-sixth Barrier Peaks session, was 25 November, 2019.
Post 211: Gray Card Express 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
(12:20pm)
The room [7. Ship Commander's Quarters] appears to be a living area, but it is clearly both larger and more luxurious than any yet found, even more so than the Security Chief’s quarters. There are couches, armchairs, small tables, and other furniture, each unique and none of which fit the duplicate forms seen repeatedly before. There are paintings on the walls, although their colors are faded and they are too covered in dust to recognize their content. Some of the smaller items in the room are in disarray and there are a few open horn valises with rotting clothes inside, but there are no signs of looting. Near the door is a collection of bones, obviously from multiple skeletons. Four separate doors, three with gray-coded locks, exit the room, while the door from the main hall and one other has an uncoded pressure panel by it.
Without waiting for approval from the SecBot, Mathias goes immediately to the northern door and opens it with the captain’s card. It appears to be a lady’s drawing room or boudoir [7d. Personal retreat of the commander's wife]. In it are a divan, dressing table, small desk, and several stuffed chairs. A skeleton lies on the divan. Behind the dressing table is a glass-doored jewelry case.
The SecBot wheels into the room. “Lt. Forge, it appears that the Captain’s wife is dead. This is expected considering the lifespan of Terrans.”
“What is the lifespan of a Terran?”
Aurora messages Babshapka, Stay put and be sneaky.
The SecBot replies “Depending on initial biometrics and access to genetic and bioprosthetic augmentation, up to 150 years. However, much longer in cryogenic suspension.”
Aurora messages Mathias, We need to clear out.
Mathias turns and stands in the doorway until he feels Babshapka brush gently by him on his way into the captain's wife’s chamber.
“Lt. Forge, you said you needed to check on the captain’s wife - it appears she is dead - we should leave,” says the SecBot.
“Get out of the godsdamned room!” Mathias bellows at the rest of the team as he storms out, hoping to generate enough noise that the SecBot does not hear Babshapka as it passes by the elf and closes the door behind it.
Once back in the ship hallway, the SecBot apparently does not notice that Babshapka is no longer accompanying them - or if it does, it does not think it its place to question. (Robot Insight 6). They all return to the surgery room.
Babshapka waits for the door from the bedchamber to the living room to close, and then the door to the hallway to close, before he begins to move. He dedicates the next twenty minutes to carefully searching the room (Investigation 24) - starting with the woman’s body, and then seeing if the glass-doored box is trapped.
(12:30pm)
The party, now including the Shedu and Serpents but not Babshapka, arrives outside the surgical room, and the guard SecBot, upon seeing them, begins announcing that it is its mission to destroy the exo-fauna.
“Stand down!” commands Mathias, “The brain-eating exo-fauna have been eliminated. These exo-fauna will be released to restore balance to the ship and the outside world.”
“Acknowledged,” replies the robot, but then it and the SecBot that had been accompanying the party when the Shedu and Snakes were found, begin chirping to one another. Mathias sets the translation device to receive so as to listen in on their conversation. He hears SecBot 31266 explain to the guard that not all exo-fauna are dangerous and need to be eliminated. But it also clearly says that Mathias is in possession of the dead captain's card and that he must be guarded to make sure the card is not used inappropriately or taken from him.
“If the brain-eating exo-fauna have been dealt with, what is this unit’s new mission?” asks the guard SecBot of Matias when they finish.
“Once the good exo-fauna, those with us now, are released,” explains Mathias, “we can clean, repair, and restore the ship to its prior condition.”
“Acknowledged. This unit’s first priority is removing these exo-fauna from the ship.”
“Not removing; releasing.”
“Acknowledged, Lt. Forge.”
“We are gathering all of the good exo-fauna to help them return to the outside environment. My goal has been returning order to both the ship and the outside world, while causing the least amount of harm to both, as I have stated before.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Thank you for your protection of my team members still in the surgical room. You may now let us pass.”
The guard SecBot opens the door and then moves away to allow them passage. Nurse Xiphox objects to the entry of the exo-fauna, citing their possible deleterious effect on her patient, but Mathias overrides her. “They have come to restore the health of our companion,” he insists, “watch and be amazed.”
With little fanfare, the Shedu flank Shefak on the litter, bend down, and breathe deeply, a golden mist leaving their nostrils and entering hers [Greater Restoration and fulfillment of the Shedu's boon to the party]. Suddenly Nurse Xiphox turns to the displays on the surgical machine and whispers “Incredible…” until Shefak groans. Then the android is all over the monk, examining her carefully before finally removing her restraints and allowing her to stand.
Shefak looks around, her normal stoicism at odds with all the strange sites - the nurse android, the decapitated surgeon android, the strange machine and bed in which she lay, the two winged bull men and the four iridescent flying serpents, the Security Robot inside the room with no one responding by attacking it. “What happened?” she asks, and a second later, “Why am I so thirsty?”
“That’s a story better suited for a long rest,” says Tyrius as he guides her over to her bed roll on the floor and gestures for Larry to bring a water skin.
“Thank you,” Tyrius says simply but sincerely to the Shedu. With Shefak situated, he kneels in prayer to Pelor, in gratitude, and in supplication for His assistance in opening the way forward.
“This is what good exo-fauna do,” says Mathias, as if lecturing both SecBots as well as the Nurse android, “not killing, but restoring. Our mission was to dispatch the brain-eating exo-fauna. That we did. We also confirmed that the Captain was killed by the brain eating exo-fauna; we found his body, confirmed by SecBot 31266 and the hole in his skull from the alien. That was what I had said was the reason for the mission, and we did that.” Although Mathias’ speech appears redundant, he is attempting to build a logical argument for the SecBots to follow, so as to reassure them about his use of the gray card.
(12:40pm)
In the quarters of the captain’s wife, the skeleton of the woman lies on the divan as if reclining or sleeping - and Babshapka remembers that she ended her own life with poison, and shudders. Her dress is not a ship’s uniform, and has no pockets, so it is quickly, if grimly, searched. One shoe is on her foot, the other fallen to the floor. The latter crumbles apart when he picks it up, revealing a gray card that had been hidden inside a swivel heel!
Babshapka carefully stows the card, then puts on his gas mask and prepares to search the jewelry box. He does not find a trap, gas or otherwise. From inside the case he retrieves three necklaces, four rings, and six bracelets, and these he stows in his bag.
A careful search of the rest of the room reveals nothing of interest, so Babshapka pushes the pressure plate on the wall and opens the door to the main room through which the party entered. He does a quick but careful search of the room (Perception 20).
(12:50pm)
The cave horn containers in the main room hold only rotting clothes. The bones are of two separate people - both in orange uniforms, but with no weapons.
This room now well-searched, Babshapka considers which door to open next - and hesitates. Alone, he remembers the undead he felt before, and imagines them waiting for him on the other side of the doors. He reaches out with his senses, searching for them. (Primeval awareness). They are still present, and close - this level - but not so close that they are in the next room. He sighs in relief and tries the door to the east.
(1pm)
The room is obviously a bedroom [7c. Master Bedroom]. Other than the distinctiveness of the furniture compared to all of the previous black- and violet-keyed apartments, there is nothing remarkable. There are many drawers of clothing and the like. On one table is a small, strangely-shaped artwork in metal. Babshapka examines it (Investigation 15) - it appears to be a sculpture in tin, finely detailed, though he does not recognize what it depicts. He takes it nonetheless.
He checks the rest of the room, but finds nothing of interest (Perception 12).
(1:10pm)
Babshapka returns to the reception hall and tries the door to the south. It leads to a combination of bedroom and work area [7a. Personal chamber of the Commander], for in addition to the large bed there is a small desk with drawers, as well as a vanity with a dusty mirror and washbasin. Two doors lead out of the room with press panels, one to the reception area from which he entered, and the second to the exterior hallway of the ship. There is an interior door with neither a card lock nor a pressure panel, just one of the flat pearl panels.
Babshapka searches the room (Perception 10). The basin has a strange metal tube projecting above it, a lever, and a dial. There is a small cabinet set into the wall projection that holds the mirror, and several rivets are on the side of the mirror.
The desk has two sliding drawers on one side, while the other side has a large, cubic, metal section which appears to be some sort of strongbox like the one in the security control room. There is not a card lock, however, just a smaller version of the pearl-colored door panels.
Inside the top drawer of the desk is an empty molded receptacle for a blaster pistol as well as slots to hold seven key cards. One of each of the colors (jet, brown, violet, yellow, orange, red) is present - except that the last slot, presumably for gray, is empty. Babshapka takes each of the cards.
Inside the bottom drawer is a stack of papers with alien script on them, and Babshapka takes these as well.
He returns to the reception hall and confirms his suspicion that the remaining door leads to the dining hall [7b. Private lounge and dining area] that the party had already accessed.
(1:20pm)
Having completely searched all of the captain’s quarters, Babshapka heads for the surgery room to the south. Relieved to see Shefak conscious and interacting with the party, he nonetheless taps Aurora on the shoulder and brings her to the nearest medical storage room, so that she can examine the papers in private. He tells her that he has also recovered seven cards, one of each color, including the gray card of the captain’s wife.
(1:30pm)
After a ritual cast of comprehend languages, Aurora goes through the papers. They are faded and degraded, but are once-formal certificates and commissions of rank: Ensign, Lieutenant Junior Grade, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, and Commander, all awarded to the same name, but with progressively later dates. A seventh paper of a different design is not a commission of rank, but rather a command posting as “Section Commander of the Starship Herminia.” An eighth, which is text only without the fancy scrollwork of the others, records the field promotion to Acting Captain of the independent starship section “until such time as the current medical crisis is resolved.”
Aurora lingers over the words ‘starship’, and then turns her attention to Babshapka. “I appreciate you bringing me the papers,” she says, “but why did you pull me out of the room with the others?”
The elf shrugs. “We have two gray cards now - the one the robots are reluctantly letting Mathias carry, and the new one I recovered. It may be that we want to return the first to them, and we are better off with them not knowing we have a second. It may be that opening the Computer Central sounds an alarm and we have to fight the robots from the Security room next door. I’d sooner fight two of these machine men at a time than four at once.”
In the surgery room, Tyrius rises from his prayers and respectfully asks the identity of the Serpents. They tell him that in their own language they are called Couatl, and that they are servants of the first gods, left over from the creation of the Multiverse, long before his god Pelor came into being. This gives him pause.
“Away team, please assemble for review - in the nurse’s quarters now!” commands Mathias, apparently convening a party meeting. As they come together, he stations one SecBot each at the outer door of both the Nurse’s room and the surgery room, where Xiphox and the Celestials remain for the nonce.
Willa decides that Tyrius can miss the meeting (and keep an eye on the Celestials). She asks him to start packing the mules for departure.
(1:40pm)
When Shefak walks gingerly into the room, Mathias smiles gratefully at her and returns her ring of invisibility. She notes that it is no longer attuned to her.
When everyone is there, and the door is closed, Mathias begins.
“I have a plan. I believe that I can keep the robots’ assistance if I tell them that the ship security report is finished, and ask them to let us out of the ship. I believe I can get them to get some of the power discs to us as well.”
“Some?” snorts Willa. “Why nae all?”
“We don’t need them all. It’s an unnecessary risk.”
“It’s booty - ther only thing o’ any value we hae found in t’is whole miser’ble trip. I dinnae leave booty behind.”
Aurora sniggers. Willa just said “booty” and “behind” in the same sentence.
After a brief back-and-forth about the advisability of getting more power discs, with others weighing in, Mathias continues.
“I’m thinking they won’t want us in the ‘Computer Room’ - but we do want off of the ship, and the only way to open the doors seems to lie through there. While we are working on that, Tyrius should stay with the Serpents and Bull Men.”
At the mention of the ‘Computer Room’, Larry and Shefak request clarification. The next several minutes are spent filling them in on what the party has learned over the past two days. When Larry has asked a few more questions, he realizes that the Computer Room may also hold the key to ceasing for once and all the release of the alien creatures from the ship and out onto the Oerth, exactly the mission that the Druid Council of Rhûn had asked of them. [The DM informs Larry's player that should Larry be able to seal off the ship so that no more creatures can be released, he will level to 7th].
Once everyone is clear on the basics of the plan, Mathias opens the door to the atrium and requests that the two robots and the android line up for his inspection report.
“SecBot 31266, SecBot 02479, Nurse Xiphox:
As the commanding officer of the Away Team, I have completed my inspection of the ship. I will now present my report;
Security Protocols - Pass.
Cargo Containment - Other than the release of exo-fauna during the paranoia plague, Pass.
Assistance in removal of brain-eating exo-fauna from the ship - Pass.
Assistance in resolution of the condition of the previous Captain - Pass.
Ship Condition - Fail.
Noted: Holes in deck,
Disrepair of multiple repair ‘bots and security personal,
Dangerous radiation in the laboratory of the Med Bay and other areas.
Ship’s Appearance - Fail.
Noted: Fungi growing in the hallways,
Remains of former crew members strewn throughout the ship.
Medical crew - Mixed
Nurse Xiphox - Pass. Excellent work attending Away Team members.
Surgical droid - Fail - Dangerously malfunctional
Both units - lacking medical supplies (lack of supplies understandable due to plague).”
When it appears that Mathias has finished, Babshapka moves into a vantage point in the atrium to watch down the three hallways for approaching vegepygmies or other threats. One of the SecBots acknowledges receipt of Mathias’ report, and asks whether it may respond.
“Proceed.”
“Lt. Forge, with respect to the remains of the former crew members, Security Robots and Worker Robots are both prevented by general directive from touching Terran remains. However, that may be overridden in a specific situation by Yellow medical personnel or as a general policy by a Red level override.”
“I am hereby issuing that red level override.”
“Acknowledged.”
“We will need to select a room for a tomb, and then you will move all bodies to that location. Remove linens from the beds to wrap the bodies - keep every skeleton together as much as possible and separate from other remains. You will act under the directives of Nurse Xiphox as acting chief medical officer.”
“Acknowledged,” say both SecBots and Nurse Xiphox. The nurse adds “Room selection?”
“Somewhere that has at least orange level clearance.”
Willa interjects, “Thar be too many fer one room. Ye should use ther training hall - it be ther biggest room on t’is level.”
Mathias nods. “Make it so. Move all of the Terran remains to the training room on this level, and station SecBot guards on each door to make sure it is not compromised by exo-fauna.”
“Acknowledged. Lt. Forge, with respect to the number of SecBots and Workers currently malfunctioning, normally Worker Robot internal task queues are prioritized by the Central Computer, and that Computer makes sure all robot personnel are repaired and maintained. Since contact with the Central Computer was lost, the Workers have been running autonomously. While their priority assessment heuristics started out as optimally functional, over the centuries they have accumulated numerous errors, and most of them are now trapped in nonfunctional loops, cycling between redundant tasks without fulfilling mission critical ones. Their processing and memory units require clearing by violet-level technicians to restore proper functionality. If Lt. Forge orders it, however, the functioning SecBots can override the Workers’ autonomous task selection and order them directly to do more repair of other units, and cleaning and repair of the ship.”
“I hereby order it. Make it so.”
“Acknowledged. These SecBots will begin directing Worker robots to their new tasks.”
“Yes, but…” Mathias pauses to think.
“This is the new task priority list. Complete the following, in priority order, before the arrival of the new ship Captain:
“Prepare for the Away Team’s departure.
Guard ship exits to keep exo-fauna from leaving the ship after the good exo-fauna and the Away Team have left.
Direct functioning workers in the repair of all security ‘bots. Download translation protocols and emergency security password into all SecBots.
Direct functioning workers in the repair of all maintenance robots.
Clean the ship to pre-plague standards.
Remove the remaining bad exo-fauna. Any life forms that remains aboard the ship after the Away Team and the good exo-fauna leave are bad exo-fauna; they are to be exterminated or placed into stasis units. Although the plant men show a connection to the old crew, they are not the old crew. They are a failed experiment between the old crew and the brain eating exo-fauna. For the new captain to arrive, they must be removed. Be tactical and preserve the robot security crew.
Repair the radiation being released in Med Bay 1.
Inventory all of the colonization supplies.”
“New SecBot duty queue acknowledged. Lt. Forge, please note that all SecBots have hard-installed failsafes not permitting use of lethal force against sentient creatures, even exo-fauna. Confirmation request: SecBots are to be confining sentient exo-fauna in stasis cages and exterminating non-sentient exo-fauna?”
“Correct.”
“Priority queue established. Preparing for task execution.”
“SecBot 31266, do you have any suggestions on how to release the Away Team and the good exo-fauna? Does this level contain the only working exit?”
“While there are multiple functioning exits, for safety reasons all exterior doors can be opened from only the central computing facility on this level.”
“I understand. SecBot, because the security units have passed the security protocol sections of my review, I am now returning the prior Captain’s gray card to your control.” Mathias holds forth the captain’s card and the robot takes it up, storing it inside some interior compartment.
“Acknowledged. This card will be placed under guard in the Security Headquarters, until the arrival of the new command officer.”
“Excellent.”
“According to your new task priority, you will now help us exit the ship. We will check the main computer to see what exo-fauna have been released, and then open the doors for us to leave. You do not have to accompany us - you should begin implementing the other tasks in your queue.”
A red light flashes on one of the SecBot’s panels.
“The computer control room may be opened only by command-level officers.”
“I see,” says Mathias, frowning. “How do you suggest that we open the exterior doors?”
“You may wait for the newly arriving command officer, and ask him or her to open the exterior doors after that officer has accessed the computer control room. Alternatively, you can re-establish remote communication with the central computer and order it to open the exterior doors for you.”
“This is an emergency. The Away Team needs to exit the ship before either of those events could possibly happen.”
“Please clarify - why is this an emergency?”
“The ship’s chain of command has been compromised. You have lost communication with the other ship sections and the central computer. You yourself identified the remains of the dead captain. For the new captain to arrive and assume control, this Away Team needs to leave to inform Fleet Command of the state of this ship. We need you to help us open the doors for that to happen. Also, we need to access the central computer to make sure it stops releasing exo-fauna. This is essential for ship security.”
“Acknowledged. Processing.” The SecBot spends the next few minutes apparently talking to itself in a series of beeps and chirps. Finally it speaks again. “This unit apologizes, Lt. Forge. Its priority heuristics recognize the legitimate need of the Away Team to exit the ship immediately. It has attempted to apply its logic functions to override the behavior controlled by security protocols, but it appears that the security protocols are hard-coded and cannot be autonomously over-ridden.”
“So you agree that we need to leave, agree that the only realistic way to do that is to open the doors to the central computer, but are not capable of helping us open the doors?”
“Affirmative.”
“What can you do to help us?”
“Since unit-autonomous reprogramming is not an option, this unit suggests that Lt. Forge reprogram it to allow it to open the doors to the computer control room for you.”
“Fine. How do we do that?”
“The central computer may issue commands to reprogram SecBots. Lt. Forge may operate the central computer and get it to issue those commands.”
“OK, So can you let us into the computer control room to do that? You do have the key now.”
“This unit has the Gray level entry card, but its hard-coded security protocols do not permit it to open the door for you.”
“Then return the key to me. We will let ourselves into the room and then I will return the key to you.”
“This unit is attempting to override hard-coded security programming but is not able to do so. It cannot return the card to you.”
“You have acknowledged the need of the Away Team to depart the ship. This is an emergency security priority. It takes precedence over your hard code. You will open the door for us or return the key to me immediately.”
[Mathias Persuasion roll 8 (natural roll 1, +7 to Persuasion). SecBot insight roll 5.]
The SecBot spends several minutes in an internal code struggle. When it finally comes out of the lock up, it announces that it will use the captain’s gray card to open the door to the computer control room, so that Mathias can then use the computer to reprogram it to retroactively allow it to open the door. It warns Mathias that if he fails to reprogram it to allow it to open the door, it may be forced to apprehend the entire Away Team for breaching ship security, and then possibly decommission itself for aiding them.
“Excellent. SecBot 31266, come with us as planned. SecBot 02479, prepare an inventory of all shipboard power discs and then report to me. Nurse Xiphox, remain at your station for now.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Acknowledged, Lt. Forge.”
“Acknowledged. Lt. Forge, the greatest concentration of available power discs is in the robot repair room on this level. Shall this unit begin its inventory there?”
“Yes, please do.”
“Affirmative.” SecBot 02479 leaves the atrium to the south, while the rest of those assembled proceed west, Bull Men and Serpents alongside, laden mules in tow, but leaving Nurse Xiphox behind. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-seventh Barrier Peaks session, was 3 December, 2019.
Post 212: Computer Central 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
As the group turns the corner past the laboratory, a single SecBot can be seen near the now-repaired hole in the floor. Another security unit is at the far corner. SecBot 31266 warbles a greeting to the others.
“Hold!” Mathias strides to the front of the group. “Ship security inspection is complete. Stand by for further instructions. Your current orders are to maintain position and wait for debrief. SecBot 31266 will debrief you after it has finished assisting the Away Team.”
“Acknowledged, Lt. Forge,” says the robot waiting by the repaired floor, in Common.
[This was one of the SecBots that had been recruited by those in Police HQ, and was already awaiting orders from Lt. Forge anyway, so it does not take any convincing. Unbeknownst to the party, though, outside the robot repair room, SecBot 02479 (sent by Mathias to gather power discs) encountered a group of security robots, recently rebuilt and reprogrammed by the repair robot to repulse the party’s invasion of the ship. They refused it entry to inventory the power discs, and attempted to persuade it to join the task force preparing to attack the party.]
At this point the party stores the mules, with Eddard to watch them, in an apartment across the hallway from the doors to the Med Bay. The rest of the party proceeds. The Serpents, Thokk, and Larry remain in the medical office area, warned not to touch any desks. Larry catches up on Thokk’s tales of the lower levels of the ship, while the Bull Men, SecBot 31266, and the rest of the party enter the hallway that leads to the Central Computer room. Aurora begins a comprehend languages ritual and Mathias asks the SecBot to open the door.
(2pm)
The door of the room slides open, disturbing small clouds of dust on the floor. In the center of the unlit room [Computer Central] is what appears to be an altar. It is supported by a single metal column, and has two arms bent towards the door. The wall opposite the door is made entirely of glass, although it is too dark to see through.
There are three skeletons sprawled near the altar with the barest tatters of silk uniforms on them. The altar appears to have numerous complicated levers and wheels.
Tyrius reaches out with his divine sense - attempting to see any Celestials, Fiends, or Undead within 60 feet. Only the Bull Men register to his view. He gives the others the ‘all clear’ to enter, and as soon as Aurora finishes her ritual she moves in, immediately followed by Mathias and the SecBot. Aurora looks about for anything with writing (Investigation 15) but notes only the altar itself. Larry and Thokk have by now moved into the hallway outside the computer room.
In the center of the altar are six fist-sized circular windows, three coin-sized holes below them, and a single metal box under these. To the left of these are ten small blocks set in grooves, and to the right are two rows of rivets. The wings of the altar are decorated with panels of small glass squares set in rows.
Aurora reports that the words underneath the six dials are: “roll”, “pitch”, “yaw”, “distance”, “power”, and “shields”.
“Yes, those are the controls for the ship,” Mathias says confidently, and takes a quick sidelong glance to see how the security robot is responding. So far, so good. “But that is not related to the computer itself.”
Aurora then says that the three holes under the dials say “Off / on,” “Hold,” and “Close-up.”
“That is for the vidscreen,” says Mathias, gesturing at the large wall of dark glass, and hoping he has remembered the correct name. “Check to see whether it is on or off.”
At this point Willa is convinced that things in the computer room are going well. She moves from the hallway into the ship’s stores and begins making a pile of two-weeks’ worth of food for the party, including a week’s worth of ceroporridge for the mules, to supplement the bag of grain from the colonization supplies.
Aurora doesn’t see anything labeled “computer”. She looks wordlessly to Mathias, with her eyes asking what their next step is.
Mathias addresses the SecBot. “I am not supposed to say this, as it is part of my review of the ship. But suppose that we are just security officers and have not trained in ‘programming’. How would we go about programming you as we had agreed upon?”
“This unit does not have computer operation programming, but it seems logical that the computer would need to be on to function - the command screen currently appears blank.”
“Of course,” says Mathias, then speaks sharply to Aurora. “Did I not tell you to check whether or not it was on?”
Aurora toggles the “on / off” slot-switch for the vidscreen several times but nothing happens. “Does it need power?” she says to herself, and then examines the altar again, looking for a power disc slot. She does not find one, but she finds (Investigation 18) what looks like one of the card slots on the doors. It was not immediately obvious because it lacks the standard triptych panel. The slot is outlined in gray enamel. She points it out to Mathias.
“Here we need your assistance, SecBot,” he says. “Please produce the gray card.”
The robot withdraws the captain’s card from some recess and places it into the slot. There is no receptacle below, and unlike the doors, the card goes in only half way and then is held in place. Immediately the altar begins to hum and the large glass panel on the wall begins to brighten.
Suddenly, alien script appears on the panel in large, glowing letters. Aurora sucks in her breath and begins to read aloud:
Glass Panel wrote:
The following command-level notices remain uncleared:
Alert: Level I control access to mainframe lost. Control successfully switched to auxiliary computer bank 5. Navigation and general ship commands enabled from this helm.
“SecBot - where is computer bank five?” asks Mathias.
“This room is Auxiliary Computer Bank Five,” replies the robot.
“Ah, ok.”
Glass Panel wrote:
Alert: It has been three command duty shifts since user-generated navigational commands have been received. Please confirm current course heading.
Alert: Sensors detect current trajectory approaches uncharted gravitational anomaly. Confirm current course heading.
Warning: One hour remaining to alter course before passing event horizon of gravitational anomaly. Autonomous distress beacon has been launched.
“Are you clearing these alerts?” Mathias asks Aurora. She shakes her head no, not really sure what ‘clearing’ means in this sense, and continues reading.
Glass Panel wrote:
Alert: Ship has entered event horizon of gravitationally anomaly - confirmed to be a traversable wormhole. Contact with distress beacon lost. Autonomous survival protocols have maximized ship structural integrity fields. Ship survivability estimated at 82% chance.
Alert: Ship has emerged from wormhole. Scans indicate current ship location is uncharted space. Autonomous survival protocols have laid in course to nearest detected habitable system. Awaiting navigational commands. Distress signal set for continual broadcast.
Alert: Autonomous survival protocols have placed ship in stable orbit around class M planet. Scans indicate multiple indigenous sentient lifeforms with pre-industrial technology. Ship awaiting navigational commands.
Mathias furrows his brow, trying to understand what happened to the crew in the midst of all these unfamiliar words. “So they were already dead when all this happened? That’s unfortunate, they could have saved the ship rather than have it crash.”
Glass Panel wrote:
Warning: Core reactor dangerously unstable - most likely cause: damage from bombardment by non-Baryonic particles during wormhole passage. Take immediate countermeasures.
Alert: No countermeasure commands received. Autonomous survival protocols have ejected core reactor prior to critical failure. Subsequent reactor explosion has contaminated large sections of exterior hull with lethal levels of radiation.
Warning: Reactor ejection and explosion have altered ship trajectory to decaying orbit. Without core reactor, insufficient power to restore stable orbit. Autonomous survival protocols currently plotting shallow descent path along most-survivable landing course: target is large tropical ocean. Impact estimated in 16 hours.
Alert: Atmospheric entry and subsequent heating of exterior hull has revealed the presence of multiple previously undetected hull breaches - most likely cause: structural damage during spatial compression and dilation of wormhole passage. Previous most-survivable impact trajectory now rejected - ship unlikely to withstand ocean pressure combined with sea water infiltration. New most-survivable trajectory plotted. Impact in dormant volcanic mountain range in 54 minutes. All non-emergency power routed to impact suppression gravitronics.
Warning: Impact in 5 minutes. Assume crash landing positions.
Alert: Major redundant ship systems have survived impact, including life-support. Multiple specialized systems currently offline. Lethal levels of radiation detected in areas of hull breaches. Full diagnostics unavailable - system errors accumulating, requiring active user technical diagnoses and repair. Impact has buried ship in local mountain range. Autonomous survival protocols have ordered all non-essential ship systems to power-down, but many localized systems have not confirmed order - suspected multiple shipwide communication failures.
Aurora is transfixed, staring at the alien words on the screen, mouth agape, but no longer reading.
[It is one thing to argue with Willa about whether or not the cave is a ship. It is one thing to receive a dubious “memory” from a dying mind flayer. It is quite another to have a machine built by an advanced civilization report matter-of-factly on the demise of that civilization.
The import of all that is listed stuns Aurora. This “cave” is not “at” the location of the fallen star metal - the ship itself IS the star - the star that fell. As it flamed across the sky in the prelude to its crash, Nholast took it for a falling star. But it is no source of enchantable meteoric iron or other exotic metal - nor even a piece of the puzzle of the “Whispered One” - it is something else entirely and something much more important - the remains of a completely distinct civilization from another planet, maybe from another plane of existence! A culture that doesn’t know magic, but that knows incredible technology - or knew, since it appears all of the human inhabitants of the ship were dead from the paranoia plague perhaps days before the crash. Aurora no longer suspects, now she KNOWS that these robots and androids are not cleverly enchanted constructs - but fantastically complex machines, all waiting for orders just like this “computer” console. Do any of the scholars of Oerth know this? Do any historians know that Oerth has been contacted by a completely different world with its own history? If the Druids of the Council did not know this, then likely no one else does - not even the Silent Ones - Aurora is possibly the only one on Oerth to truly appreciate the significance of all this!]
The party hears Aurora muttering, "Fascinating - there is no starmetal. This is the star."
[So what is the party doing here? “Looking for the starmetal'' is not only mistaken, it now appears naïve. There is plenty of metal, the whole ship is metal, but no piece is any more special than another. They have largely resolved the druids’ quest of finding the source of the unoerthly animals, although not quite how to stop them. It seems like the most logical goal now is looting - carrying away as much as possible of the amazing, useful technology of the ship. Oh, and finding a way to exit the ship. That will likely be helpful, as well - it is what led them to this incredible control room, Aurora reminds herself.
Regardless of the outcome, Aurora’s mind has permanently expanded - her vision of the cosmos is much grander than before. She is now a 7th level enchantress and will gain her new abilities after her next long rest.]
After several minutes of silence, Aurora takes a deep breath. Now determined to use the controls of the ship, and building off what Mathias began with “I know but show me that you know,” she asks the SecBot to review the function of the different features of the altar.
“This unit is not programmed in navcomputer operation,” replies the SecBot, “however, it may have overheard technicians at some point discussing the controls and have unprocessed but interpretable data stored in its memory banks - currently searching records…”
After some time it points to the various features on the altar:
[Dials, what Mathias has already called the controls of the ship: SecBot History roll 3]
“These I do not recognize.”
[Holes and sliders, what Mathias has already said are for the vidscreen: History roll 13]
“These appear similar to the controls for security cameras, such as those in the Chief Security Officer’s Office.”
[120 glass squares (keyboard commands): History roll 7]
“Each of these 120 keys is a specific hard command; they each initiate a common program or algorithm. This unit cannot tell you what any of them do, but it knows that one of them is the command that will disable all security robots and permit you to reprogram this unit to allow you to access this room despite its hard-coded directives.”
“Very good,” says Mathias and Aurora nods her agreement. “Shouldn’t there be some sort of guide or manual for the Terran operators of this machine? That should be kept on the bridge?”
[SecBot history roll 15].
“Physical copies of the manual are not necessary, as the 120 - key commands are stored in any computer terminal, and are easily memorized by all command-level officers. Virtual copies of the manual are also accessible in the library.”
Mathias and Aurora look over the keyboards - none of the symbols give a clue as to their function, none of them look like they depict a robot. Even Aurora’s comprehend languages does not help, for the markings are entirely symbolic and not language per se.
“I did not assess the library in my report,” announces Mathias. “We will need to go there briefly.”
“Acknowledged,” replies the SecBot. “Lt. Forge, please remember that if you do not reprogram me to retroactively allow you access to this room, I will need to apprehend you and all of the Away Team.”
“Yes, of course. Please await our return and guard this room against further entry.”
“Affirmative.”
Mathias, Aurora, and Babshapka depart the computer room, although the others remain in the hallway or help Willa pack. The trio leaves the Med Bay and heads for the library. Halfway around the central block, near the exterior entrance of the Labs, a robot approaches them, identifying itself as SecBot 02479. “Lt. Forge, this unit was unable to initiate the power disc inventory as commanded.”
“Explain.”
“There are two repair robots working in the robot repair room to repair, restore, and upgrade malfunctioning SecBots. As they bring SecBots online, the Workers are showing the SecBots vids of your Away Team attacking SecBots, both in the repair room itself and in the Police Headquarters. Their primary objective at present seems to be the defense of the repair facilities against your Team, but the Workers are continuing to repair and upgrade SecBots.”
“I see. You should note that those ‘vids’ were made while the mind-influencing exo-fauna were still active, and not all of the actions of my Away Team were under our own control.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Also, if you are shown these ‘vids’ again, register for yourself and the other SecBots that I spoke to my team members, specifically telling them not to destroy the SecBots if possible, since we needed to join with them to attack the brain-controlling exo-fauna. Note also that since the exo-fauna has been destroyed, there have been no more attacks on SecBots, and furthermore that I myself gave one of those repair ‘bots the order to begin repairing SecBots.”
“Yes Lt. Forge, this unit acknowledges. The workers attempted to use security protocol commands to get this unit to join with them, but this unit refused. However, the SecBots in that facility would not permit this unit to inventory the power disc stores in the SecBot Arsenal.”
“I understand. Thank you for your attempt.”
The trio continues on to the library, passing the long corridor to the northern drop chute, and noting that the corridor is now conspicuously free of plant man bodies - someone or something has likely removed them.
The library, however, is just as they left it. The trio moves to one of the working consoles. The previous time, Aurora had learned that the controls were voice-activated and had been unable to direct any searches. But since then, Mathias has acquired the translator. “Show us the central computer key commands,” he says into the device, and then hits ‘transmit’. When the console begins to speak a response, he hits ‘receive’.
“...dred twenty key command console for combined central computer interface and auxiliary navigational helm.” An image appears in the small inset window that is recognizable as the altar, then it expands into a detailed view of the two banks of square glass keys.
“Show us each key function,” says Aurora, and Mathias translates. They wait through a few dozen key commands until one is described as the manual override to security robot autonomy.
“Stop!” says Aurora sharply. “Describe the operation of this key command.”
“When manual override to security robot autonomy is selected, all security robots slaved to the ship’s computer will power down and then clear internal task queues and risk priorities. They will then be ready for reprogramming. When their power is restored, fleet officers with orange card clearance may issue immediate commands to any available security robot. These commands will be followed unless they violate the core programming or require the robot to leave the presence of the officer for longer than an hour. Any officer with red or gray level clearance may instead issue long-term commands and assign new priority tasks, including forced acknowledgement of new command level officers. As a security precaution against forgotten or malicious hidden instructions, it is considered standard protocol to wipe and reprogram all security robots any time command officers are permanently changed shipboard, and this reprogramming should be done in person.”
Mathias grins. “Nice,” he says, but does not transmit.
Aurora looks for information on how to transfer gray card access to another person; that is, if the gray card they have is recognizable as the “captain’s card”, how can they get it to be recognized as one of their own? She learns that gray cards are actually imprinted with a person’s biometrics, and are awarded individually to officers when they are promoted to command positions. These cards are supposed to be non-transferrable - although junior officers may assume acting command and have limited use of gray cards in emergency situations, something Mathias has already been doing to great effect.
While Aurora is reading the description of command procedure with her comprehend languages, Mathias speaks to Babshapka. “So if this all works, we will get the captain’s gray card back from the SecBot. But if it refuses to return the card, we might need the one you got off the captain’s wife in order to leave the ship.”
Babshapka nods.
“Can I carry it?”
“Fine with me,” the wood elf offers, and hands over the card.
When Aurora looks up from the console, Babshapka asks her if she has found anything about how to open doors. With Mathias’ translator, they proceed until they find a key command called Exploration team: prepare for off-ship assignment. The library console tells them that when this command is engaged, it is announced in all the hallways near a selected exit. Then, after ten minutes, the doors are opened while it is announced “Opening personnel doors for exploration team.” The doors will stay open for five minutes, and then close automatically.
Aurora and Mathias confer on their plan. They will return to the computer room and disable the robots, then reset them. They will remove the gray card from the altar and use it to reprogram the robots as they “awake”. Finally, they will re-insert the gray card and use the computer to open the doors of the ship for themselves to leave, and have the ship close the doors behind them. Congratulating each other on their brilliance, the two leave the library, closely followed by Babshapka, and return to the computer room.
(2:40pm)
Aurora, Babshapka, and Mathias return to the computer room. In the meantime, Willa has directed the others in loading the food supplies onto the mules. They are ready to leave - assuming Aurora and Mathias can get the doors open.
Aurora looks over the glass squares, searching for the symbol that should be the manual override to security robot autonomy. She finds it on the left bank, and confirms with Mathias that it is the correct one. When he nods his agreement, she presses it . The light goes out from that square, and in the silence of held breaths, the sound of sparks from inside the altar can be heard. A message in text appears on the vidscreen, even as a disembodied alien voice announces the same message:
Glass Panels wrote:
Level I - Research Laboratory B - Nutrient Broth applied to lab cultures
Postsrcipt: A note from the DM
[In typical Gygaxian fashion, the way the keyboard is “supposed” to work as described in the module is that no matter what, the first key pressed will always release the nutrient broth, and any subsequent key pressed has a random effect, some of them good and some of them very bad, such as an attack on the bridge by multiple security robots. In play, when the party suggested that there had to be an "operator's manual" somewhere, if not at the helm itself then in the library, since all ship's records were stored there, I found it a reasonable idea. And I was impressed that the party now realized that they could use the speech translator to access the voice-activated files in the library, since they had not had that piece when they visited it before. However, the danger of using the unknown computer counsel to open the ship and finally escape it is (I think) supposed to be the second (puzzle) climax of the module after the first (combat) climax - the defeat of the mind flayer boss. I thought it would feel too easy to simply allow the party to press a few keys and leave. But I also wanted to reward them for putting so many details together - getting the gray cards, convincing the SecBots to assist, finding the translator, and accessing the library. So my compromise was as follows: the keys themselves on the keyboard would be random (because of the damaged and malfunctioning state of the ship), but I awarded Aurora with two Inspiration points for use on the computer console only, to potentially stave off disaster by permitting a reroll on a result they did not like. They were still faced with the tension of not knowing all potential outcomes and having to decide whether or not to use the Inspiration re-rolls on 'kinda bad' outcomes without knowing if a 'really bad' outcome was in the future.] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Locations keyed in the module are indicated in [blue].
The playdate for this, our twenty-seventh Barrier Peaks session, was 3 December, 2019.
Post 213: Exit Ticket 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
Glass Panels wrote:
Level I - Research Laboratory B - Nutrient Broth applied to lab cultures
Aurora begins to translate the message for the party, but at the sound of the voice Mathias switched his translator to ‘receive’, and now the same message is coming from his tube in Common.
Suddenly the entire wall of dark glass lights up, showing a clear image that they recognize as the laboratory, as if it was some sort of great scrying mirror. The tubes that dangled from the ceiling over the bins of mold are beginning to drip liquid. The mold immediately responds, bubbling, frothing, and multiplying. It quickly runs over the sides of each bin and fills the floor of the laboratory. The liquid keeps coming; the mold continues growing, until it has covered the entire laboratory to about four feet deep. Then the liquid stops and the voice speaks again as more text appears on the screen:
Glass Panels wrote:
Lethal levels of radiation detected in culture lab.
Radiation response team has been called for; no teams answering.
Structural integrity of laboratory doors is compromised.
“Hit the door key!” shouts Mathias to Aurora. “Seal off the area!”
“I don’t know which one is the door key!” she shrieks. “We didn’t look that one up!”
“Hit any of them, then!”
Mathias steps away from the panicking Aurora at the altar and approaches the robot. “SecBot 31266,” he commands curtly, “return to me the two power discs I gave you before.” The robot produces the discs and hands them over unquestioningly.
Aurora, even more flustered, strikes out at a random glass square among the others [roll = 9a].
Glass Panels wrote:
Manual override to worker robot autonomy.
All worker robots commanded to power down.
Suddenly the vidscreen is split into a score of different squares, each one showing a different view. Many of the places are recognizable as being areas on the ship the party has explored, others are obviously on the ship, but unfamiliar. In each one of them a worker robot is in the center of the frame, initially in motion, but now slowing, drooping, and finally freezing in place. Most of the robots are the small workers that the party has variously called repair robots or cleaning robots, but the larger cargo handler models also appear, as does the laboratory robot - now frozen in his unfinished quest to find the cure for a long-dead virus. Mathias notes that the two workers repairing SecBots in the robot repair facility are shown, and have ceased their labors as well. The robot army preparing to assault the party will have no more reinforcements.
“That was close to it,” says Mathias. “We just need that same command, but for the SecBots.”
Calmer now, the excitement of discovery seeming to have removed her fear of creating more deadly mold, Aurora looks around on the keyboard for another promising key. She finds one and presses it [roll=4a].
Glass Panels wrote:
Cargo unloading ordered.
The scores of frozen worker robots disappear from the vidscreen, and are replaced with a single view of a cargo hold, recognizable to the party as the one with the larger workers. A caption reads “Level VI Aft Cargo Hold.” Then the screen splits in two, and the new view is from the exterior of the ship, centered on the large doors. They slide open, revealing the same hold, but seen from outside.
Glass Panels wrote:
Workers not responding; cargo unloading will be delayed.
Diagnostics indicate that all workers are currently in power down mode.
Activate workers to complete cargo unloading.
Aurora carefully presses the same key again.
Glass Panels wrote:
Cargo unloading countermanded.
The vidscreen shows the ship doors closing, from inside and out.
Aurora presses the key one more time.
Glass Panels wrote:
Cargo unloading ordered.
Workers not responding; cargo unloading will be delayed.
Diagnostics indicate that all workers are currently in power down mode.
Activate workers to complete cargo unloading.
“Well, we can leave those doors open for now,” Aurora says with satisfaction. “As long as we don’t accidentally activate the workers, they won’t dump any more exo-fauna outside.”
“But that is not a long-term solution,” says Mathias. “We need the doors open to leave, but we need them to shut behind us and stay shut. We don’t need any more of these alien creatures escaping into our world.”
Aurora picks out a new key to press.
[The next key rolled by the party was 3a - this would have resulted in complete loss of power to both the vidscreen and the altar / computer control, so that no further commands could be made. According to the module, a repair robot would then be summoned to fix this, but since the party currently had the workers powered down, it would have thus resulted in permanently being locked out of the computer control, the inability to reprogram the security robots, and eventually the friendly SecBot turning on the party for failing to reprogram him to allow their use of the gray card. Worse, there would now be no way for the party to open the exterior doors, leaving them trapped in the ship - effectively a long, slow TPK unless they chanced upon the laser drill they hadn't found yet and realized it was capable of cutting through the exterior doors. As it was, the party realized that this was a Very Bad outcome, and Aurora wisely decided to spend her first of two special library Inspiration point to declare that this didn’t actually happen and roll again for a random key. The 3a roll was replaced with 9b]
Glass Panels wrote:
Manual override to worker robot autonomy.
All worker robots now powering up.
All dormant worker robots restored to active duty. Task queues cleared - new tasks may be assigned by violet-level technicians.
The vidscreen display of the scores of worker robots returns, showing them resuming erect postures. Their heads swivel as they scan their environment, but none move, for none currently have tasks. The repair robots that had been in the middle of welding body armor on a repaired SecBot do not resume that activity. The laboratory robot sets down the test tubes of chemicals it was mixing. Gone now is its imperative to find a cure - however, it does begin to investigate the abnormally high radiation readings coming from the culture lab. Then…
Glass Panels wrote:
Cargo workers now responding to remote command.
Resume unloading cargo.
While the scores of views remain on the wall, one scene moves to the center and doubles in size. The cargo robots in the Level VI aft hold have come to life and are making their way over to an unopened stasis cage. An on-screen caption reads “Cargo selected for unloading: Exo-animal Selachii terrestrae".
“Aurora!” says Mathias sharply.
“On it!” she replies, locating the [4a] key and pressing it.
Glass Panels wrote:
Cargo unloading countermanded.
The doors to the cargo hold slide closed, and the workers cease their preparations to release whatever is the creature in the stasis cage.
Aurora tries another key.
[The party next rolled 12a: Full Alert, Ship under attack, highest level security response initiated. According to the module, this would have summoned a random number of SecBots to the computer control room, but I was prepared to add to their number {i]all[/i] of the SecBots that had been upgraded in the robot repair room and programmed to attack the party, as the alarm would have gone off there as well and summoned them. Given that when the party fought just two SecBots it ended with half of them paralyzed, it was obvious that several times this number would end Very Badly for the party as well. Some of the robots would have dragged the paralyzed members back to the nearby jail cells and confiscated their weapons and cards. Some of the robots had lost their prohibition on killing, so character death was possible as well. The wild card was how effective the Shedu and Couatl could be against defending the party from an attack by so many robots. I had been preparing for such a massive combat between the last few sessions so it was certainly on the table. However, Aurora spent the second of the two special library Inspiration points to reroll this result. The replacement was 4d = a dead key]
Aurora presses the key - it pushes down, and the light on it goes out, but there is no alien voice message, no text on the screen, no change in the vids. She presses it a few more times - each time it clicks and returns, but there is no other change, and the light does not turn on. The party now knows a total of five of the 120 keys; apply nutrient broth, power down workers, unload cargo (or countermand if pressed in succession), worker command override, and the dead key.
Aurora tries a sixth key [roll=7a].
Glass Panels wrote:
Security condition: all clear for inspection.
All section doors are now unlocked.
There is no change to the vidscreen, which continues to show the worker robots all over the ship, some still standing, directionless, but increasing numbers of them beginning to perform tasks in their immediate locations, cleaning and repairing the ship around them.
“If all doors are now unlocked…” muses Babshapka, “we can enter any door, including gray ones. The 'small arms locker' room next to this one might have power discs.”
“SecBot 31266,” asks Mathias, “what would happen if my Away Team member opened the gray-locked room next door?”
“Lt. Forge, in ‘all clear for inspection’ mode, security robots do not respond to what would otherwise be breaches of security. This unit would allow your crewmember to enter any space on the ship.”
Babshapka grins and moves into the hall, gesturing for Thokk and Tyrius to come with him.
“So your task queues are cleared?” asks Mathias rhetorically, and pulls out the captain’s wife’s card, the gray card that Babshapka gave him in the library. “SecBot, please recognize Captain Mathias Forge and Chief Security Officer Aurora.”
“This unit apologizes, Lt. Forge. Neither its task queues nor security protocols have been cleared. This unit still recognizes breaches in security, but is currently prevented from responding to them. For example, this unit currently recognizes that you are in possession of an unauthorized gray-level card. Should the ‘all clear’ conditions end, this unit will immediately sound the alarm to bring other units, confiscate the card, and apprehend Lt. Forge as a security risk to the ship.”
“I see,” says Mathias soberly. He tells Aurora, “You need to find the right key or we will all starve and die in that jail cell. No pressure.”
Meanwhile, Babshapka has approached the door of the small arms locker. With no card, he presses the pearl panel of the door as if it was a door without a lock, one with just a pressure panel. The door slides open.
Inside the Small Arms Locker is a narrow, alcoved hallway with three chests at the end under some sort of rack. The chests, from left to right, are colored blue, red, and black. The rack holds a number of weapons, some of which he recognizes, some he does not. The alcoves have sliding doors with red locks on each one - all are open and empty except the last. Above the chests, but below the weapons rack on the wall, is a red color lock that looks like it can be used to access a drawer that pulls out of the wall.
Babshapka passes each of the open alcoves and arrives at the last, closed one. He ignores the red lock and presses the panel - and the door slides open. Inside is a full standing suit of powered armor, identical to the one they found in the chief of security’s office nearby.
Babshapka turns to the weapons rack. Most of the spaces are empty - it may be that this place was looted in the plague days, or even used by what crew remained in their final attempts to keep order. But there are still some weapons on hand - Babshapka counts ten needler pistols, eight paralysis pistols, and one blaster rifle, like the one still worn by Aurora. There are also some unfamiliar devices, that by context he takes to be weapons - four smaller and two larger.
“Go get some boxes and bags from the mules,” Babshapka tells Tyrius, and the paladin obligingly retreats from the room.
While he is waiting for Tyrius to return, Babshapka opens the chests. Each time, what looks like a red lock opens to his touch with no card having been inserted. Inside the first (blue) box are a score of grenades - all of them the blue, sleep, grenades. The other two boxes are true to their colors - a score each of red incendiary grenades in the red box and black explosive grenades in the black box.
Finally, Babshapka slides open the drawer. Inside are a score each of power discs and needler pistol charges.
Once all the weapons and discs are loaded on the mules, Babshapka attempts to slip into the powered armor the way he saw Mathias put it on. Tyrius and Thokk head for the robot repair room, thinking that the ‘all clear’ will allow them to collect more power discs from the robot arsenal.
Meanwhile, back in the computer room, Aurora is looking for a seventh button.
[The party rolls 1a: "Power overload simulation initiated for Level I central computing facility. Surge in..5...4...3…” Without being sure what exact effects this will have, the party decides that this could be Very Bad as well, if they lose control of the console. They have no remaining special library Inspiration points. The players have a brief debate and decide to spend a general Inspiration Point from Willa. The reroll is 9d.]
She presses it, but finds only a second dead key.
She tries a eighth key [roll=8a].
Glass Panels wrote:
Manual override to android autonomy.
All androids commanded to power down.
The alien voice is not only announced in the computer room, but Tyrius and Thokk hear it (untranslated) down the corridors they are traversing.
They arrive at the outer door of the robot repair room. There are four security robots in the hallway, each of them with heavy, reinforced armor plating recently applied. The door is closed with a violet lock, but a touch from Tyrius opens it. Inside the room is a welter of robots - two of the armored security robots wheel about in the room, as well as the two repair robots that could be seen before on the vidscreen. These latter have left off fixing and armoring the robots and appear to be working on repairing the desk in the room itself. In a corner are arranged another five security robots, but lying on workbenches and in various stages of disrepair.
Tyrius and Thokk pass to the inner repair room. Whereas before a dozen robots had lain about, now there are only four reasonably intact, and the parts of many more strewn about the place. Even the ones that are more-or-less together have their insides opened up and look as though they are in the middle of being ripped apart by scavengers. A few have easily-visible exterior “wounds” - blaster scoring from Babshapka, or sword rents from Thokk or Willa - apparently the fallen robots the party has decommissioned in various parts of the ship have been brought here for repair.
As Thokk and Tyrius move to the final interior door, they are closely followed by the two active security robots from the first room. When Tyrius presses the door it slides open, and red lights in the room begin flashing. No klaxon alarm sounds, however, and while the robots press close on their heels, they make no move to attack.
The arsenal room is as before, with cave horn valises on all sides, and both grenades and power discs strewn about on table tops. Tyrius and Thokk grab two discs each, and immediately red lights on the chests of the robots begin to flash in synchronicity with the lights in the room.
“Thokk, we should leave now,” says Tyrius.
Thokk frowns and gestures at the dozens of discs still in the room. “Metal men not stop us,” he replies.
“Not for now,” agrees Tyrius. “But only Pelor knows which button Aurora will press next.”
Thokk grins and follows Tyrius out of the room. The robots cease following them when they re-enter the hall.
Aurora tries an ninth key [roll=2a].
Glass Panels wrote:
Override of ship lighting initiated.
On their way back to the computer room, Tyrius and Thokk hear this announced as well. Although the voice is unintelligible, the dark corridor they are in is suddenly flooded with light [outside sensors indicating it is local day, and the ship's lighting is adjusted to match]. In the previously dark computer room, ceiling panels also illuminate.
Aurora shields her eyes from the sudden brilliance and presses a tenth key [roll=10a]:
Glass Panels wrote:
Manual override to security robot autonomy.
All security robots commanded to power down.
Nearby, SecBot 31266 slumps slightly, its arms drooping.
“Yes!” exclaims Mathias. “That's the one! Press it again.”
Aurora presses the same key [use 10b]:
Glass Panels wrote:
Manual override to security robot autonomy.
All dormant security robots restored to active duty.
Risk priority queues cleared - spontaneous commands may be given by orange level clearance, new risk priority queues may be established by red-level clearance.
Even before the announcement has ended, Mathias has presented the gray card from the captain’s wife. “SecBot, recognize Captain Mathias Forge and Chief Security Officer Aurora.”
“SecBot acknowledges the Ship Section Commanding Officer. Preparing for biometric scan.”
Aurora yanks the captain’s gray card out of the altar and rushes over to Mathias’ side. As soon as the card leaves its holder, the vidcreen goes dead. “Correction; recognize Co-captains Mathias Forge and Aurora Wheaton."
“Security Officer Aurora; please show red-level clearance.”
Aurora waves her gray card and says "No, co-captain."
“This does not compute. Command protocol establishes a single ship captain or section commander, only,” says the SecBot.
“I can vouch for her red-clearance,” offers Mathias.
“Acknowledged. Security Officer Aurora, please surrender the gray card to Captain Mathias Forge; it does not reflect your current station.”
“Yes, captain,” says Aurora sullenly, as she hands Mathias the card.
“Captain Forge, taking biometric scan,” says the SecBot, and a light plays along the features of Mathias. “Imprinting biometrics into command card,” it continues, and a similar light runs over the surface of the card that Mathias holds. “Card is now uniquely imprinted,” it concludes.
“Cheer up,” says Mathias to Aurora. “At least you got a promotion.”
“Security Officer Aurora,” says the SecBot, “please present red-level clearance.”
“She has yet to receive her card,” says Mathias smoothly. “Her current rank was a field promotion. I will give it to her shortly.”
“Acknowledged. This unit or any SecBot may perform the biometric imprinting to the card, but only so long as it is within one hour of autonomy override and restoration. Her new rank will not be recognized until a card is presented.”
“Understood. SecBot, this is the new task priority list. Complete the following, in priority order, before the arrival of the new ship Captain:
Prepare for the Away Team’s departure.
Guard ship exits to keep exo-fauna from leaving the ship after the good exo-fauna and the Away Team have left.
Direct functioning workers in the repair of all security ‘bots. Download translation protocols and emergency security password into all security ‘bots.
Direct functioning workers in the repair of all maintenance robots.
Clean the ship to pre-plague standards. Move all of the Terran remains to the training room on this level, and station SecBot guards on each door to make sure it is not compromised by exo-fauna.
Remove the remaining bad exo-fauna. Any life form that remains aboard the ship after the Away Team and the good exo-fauna leave are bad exo-fauna; they are to be exterminated or placed into stasis units. Although the plant men show a connection to the old crew, they are not the old crew. They are a failed experiment between the old crew and the brain eating exo-fauna.
Confine sentient exo-fauna to stasis cages and eliminate all non-sentient exo-fauna. For the new captain to arrive, they must be removed. Be tactical and preserve the robot security crew.
Repair the radiation being released in Med Bay 1.
Inventory all of the colonization supplies.”
“New task queue acknowledged. Currently interfacing with memory banks to plan parallel task completion and optimal efficiency.”
Mathias pulls out the red card he has been previously using, the one the party has come to realize likely belonged to the paranoid Chief Security Officer. He hands it to Aurora, who holds it out in front of the SecBot.
“SecBot acknowledges Security Officer Aurora. Preparing for biometric scan.”
This time, the light from the robot shines along the features of Aurora. “Imprinting biometrics into security card,” it continues, and a similar light runs over the surface of the red card that she holds. “Card is now uniquely imprinted,” it concludes.
[Final Card Status:
Mathias, gray, imprinted to him as captain
Aurora, red, imprinted to her as chief security officer. Also: red, two orange, two yellow, violet, brown, black
Willa, orange
Shefak, brown
Thokk, brown
Babshapka, black (good condition) and black (partially melted)
Tyrius, black
Larry, black]
“Captain Forge,” the SecBot begins a second later. “This unit has finished optimizing new task queue. Please explain command ‘Prepare for the Away Team’s departure.’”
“We are currently working on that. Report on why the exterior door opens randomly.”
“This unit is not programmed to diagnose the central computer, but it appears to be a malfunction. Probable cause - overloaded memory files impinging on processing function, creating random processing errors. This unit suggests computer repair by a violet-level computer technician.”
Mathias nods, considering how to word their departure commands.
“SecBot, remain in this room with the gray card you correctly confiscated from Security Officer Aurora.” Mathias slides the old captain's card into the altar and the vidscreen hums to life again, and begins its litany of ‘uncleared command-level notices’ as before. While it announces them, Mathias continues. “Watch the vidscreen until you see all of the Away Team, every member, as well as all of the good exo-fauna (the two bull men and four serpents) assembled in the cargo hold. When we are all there, press the key that will initiate cargo unloading. Security Officer Aurora, please indicate the key.” Aurora holds her finger over Key 4a. “Once every member of the Away Team and all the good exo-fauna have exited the ship, press the same key again to countermand the cargo unloading order and close the doors. Then remove the gray card and store it in a secure location. Assign security robots to guard the doors as described in your task queue. If at some point repair robots can diagnose and eliminate the malfunction causing cargo to be unloaded, you may remove the guards from the doors.”
“Acknowledged.”
While Mathias and Aurora are planning their leave-taking of the ship, Babshapka has located the switch that opens the powered armor. He bends it over as he saw Mathias do, steps into the legs, doubles his torso into the chest, and stands and straightens. He hears the click of locks sliding into place and the hiss of pressurized air. The computer display, superimposed over the glass face plate, lights up with all kinds of unfamiliar symbols.
He tries to move the arms and legs of the suit.
[Roll; 8 (Triangle), 6 (Triangle), 8 (Discharge; person is hurt)]
The built-in laser pistol fires into his leg - fortunately doing less damage than the force shield of the suit can absorb. A few displays on the screen track the outcomes.
He tries again. This time, he is able to get the arms to move and bend a bit before he fires another laser round at his head. Fortunately, the force shield has had a chance to re-establish itself by then. [Roll; 3 (Circle), 2 (Circle), 7 (Triangle), 8 (Discharge; person is hurt)]
He tries to move the legs. This time the laser pistol jumps into rapid-fire mode, emptying into the wall of the alcove repeatedly until it finally fires into his thigh again. Gauges indicating the power level of the suit drop rapidly, then climb slowly back. [Roll; 9 (use wasted), 9 (use wasted), 4 (use wasted), 2 (circle), 4 (circle), 6 (triangle), 2 (triangle), 9 (discharge; person is hurt)].
Babshapka grunts in frustration. He bends over and crawls out of the suit, like a cicada leaving its molt cast. Perhaps Mathias will be able to help him.
Babshapka returns next door to the computer room, which Mathias and Aurora are just exiting. He asks them both for help with the powered armor.
Mathias frowns. “We don’t need it,” he says. “We won’t be fighting anything else on the ship.”
“It’s not for fighting,” declares Babshapka. “It can lift a ton. It’s for carrying our gear.”
Mathias grimaces disapproval but agrees to enter the small arms locker with him. He describes the functions of the armor that he was able to figure out and Aurora looks through her notes to show Babshapka some of the symbols and their translations.
[With the help of both of them, Babshapka will get a -1 on his rolls. Effective roll 2 (Circle 1), 8 (Triangle 1), 6 (Triangle 2), 6 (Triangle 1), 7 (Triangle 2), 8 (Discharge; person is hurt)]. This time Babshapka manages to hop up and down a bit in place before shooting himself in the foot, narrowly missing Aurora in the process.
Mathias laughs. “This is why I didn’t want the armor,” he says sagely. “Just leave it.”
“I’ve got this,” Babshapka says grimly, the voice broadcast through the helmet of the armor sounding hollow. [Effective roll 8 (Triangle 1), 2 (Circle 1), 0 (Circle 2), 2 (Finish)]. With a little more practice and coaching, Babshapka finds himself able to walk, bend, and lift without setting off the weapons systems. These he still does not understand, aside from being proficient in shooting himself. The anti-gravity belt he thinks he understands, but has not fully tested it yet.
The power level in the suit is lower than when he started, but is coming up slowly and steadily.
Babshapka goes to the end of the locker and grabs the blue metal chest. He strains and the suit hums for a second. Finally the chest is ripped from the floor, to which it was bolted. It is now a bit misshapen, but the seams are still intact. “Put the rest of the grenades in here,” Babshapka says, holding out the chest to Mathias and Aurora. They load the red and black grenades on top of the blue ones.
(3pm)
In the locker, hallway, computer room, and Med Bay, all the areas where the party is, the ceiling lights suddenly dim. The alien voice rings out all over the ship. Inside the dome of Babshapka’s helmet, he hears it in Common.
Glass Panels wrote:
Warning: Power draw of current lighting setting exceeds emergency capacity.
Autonomous survival protocols now dimming lights; active user may confirm settings within one minute to countermand.
Mathias, Aurora, and Willa begin to consolidate the party, preparing for departure. Just before they leave the Med Bay, Mathias hears the SecBot in the computer room calling his name.
“Captain Forge!”
He returns.
“Captain Forge, ship status is currently “all clear for inspection”. Under such conditions, this unit will be unable to complete the task queue assigned.”
“Explain.”
“This unit will be unable to ‘remove the bad exo-fauna’ as security responses are disengaged in ‘all-clear’ mode.”
Mathias calls Aurora back to the control room and she presses key [7a] again.
Glass Panels wrote:
All clear for inspection ended.
Security condition: normal operational level.
All section doors are now at standard clearance locking.
“We’ll need cards now,” says Babshapka.
“I’ve got a matched gray card,” says Mathias, “It’s not a problem.”
The party assembles in the hallway outside the Med Bay and the two laden mules (one with boxes full of exotic weapons) are brought into line, as well as Eddard. The whole long caravan traverses the hallways to the northern drop chute, with the only tense moments being as they pass by the hallway of the northern plant men.
(3:10pm)
The mules are apparently not bothered by the giant flying snakes flitting about them, but they balk at the sight of the drop chute. Willa gets out some empty feed bags to use as hoods, as they did when originally flying them up the side of the mountain. “Shoulda brought a twitch,” she says as she works. With Larry on one side (Animal Handling 15) and Eddard on the other, the mules are clumsily maneuvered into the null-gravity of the shaft and dragged to Level III, then to the back of the atrium while the rest of the party lands.
With the spell-casters in front, they use cantrips drive back the vines long enough to get the mules through. Only then does Willa remove the hoods from the mules.
They pass into the cargo guard station. “SecBot - proceed to Level I,” orders Mathias. “Receive new priority task queue from SecBoc 31266.” He shows his gray card, which the robot scans.
“Yes, Captain,” the SecBot agrees and heads for the drop chute.
The party moves retrograde around the outside of the level, through the various cargo holds, until they reach the familiar lift plate, and takes that down to dark Level VI. From there, it is a short walk to the aft cargo hold.
(3:20pm)
The large cargo worker robots, once frozen in place, now mill about the hold, straightening crates. Several come over upon the party’s entrance. “Workers,” says Mathias, “move away from the exterior doors. New task priority: do NOT unload cargo; ignore any such future directives from the central computer.”
The worker robots seem to pay him no heed, even as he waves his gray card at them, until he remembers to use the translator to issue his commands. Then they all back away from the exterior doors. The entire party assembles in front of the doors and Mathias waves to where he thinks the scrying eye for the vidscreen might be. A few seconds later, the exterior doors slide open, and the party is greeted with fresh air and sunshine for the first time in five days. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
DM's Note on Sources: This post contains spoilers to module S3:Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
The playdate for this, our twenty-seventh and final Barrier Peaks session, was 3 December, 2019.
Post 214: Fresh Air and Sunshine 24 February, 571 [5 Coldeven] - The Unoerthly Cave, Day 5
“Scouting!” calls Babshapka as he sprints forward through the open doors.
In twos and threes the rest of the party exits.
“Thank the Maker!” say the Serpents when they can see the sky.
“Praise Ahura-Mazda!” say the Bull Men when their hooves touch the oerth.
“Thanks be to Pelor!” say Tyrius and Eddard when the rays of the sun fall upon them.
When all of them are outside, standing in the sparse grass whipped about by the frigid mountain winds, Mathias turns and waves back at the ship. The doors close.
Larry inspects the mountainside (Survival 19), looking at the rocks and what is now recognizable as the metal surface of the ship. “So ye couldnae tell tha computer ta nae open the doors agin?” he asks.
“No,” says Mathias.
“Then stand well bick,” says the dwarf, rubbing his hands together eagerly.
When the rest of the party is away from the cliff face, Larry calls forth a thunderwave (cast at level 3). The ground bucks and shakes; huge boulders cascade down the mountainside, taking trees and grass with them. A great cloud of dust billows up and briefly obscures their view until dispersed by the alpine wind. Larry can be seen still standing in front of the cliff face. Much more of the ship’s smooth metal and gently curved surface is now visible to view - but the great doors below are completely buried and blocked by rocks and debris. [For completing the directives of the Druids of Rhun, Larry is now at Level 7]
Aurora looks to the upper cave (Perception 21). Falling rocks have blocked it as well - just a crack in the mountainside remains. A small animal might be able to squeeze its way in, if it sought out that particular fissure among the many others.
“There is still,” say the Bull Men, “the matter of your second boon, honestly won for your aid in freeing us from the Terran ship.”
“We as well now owe you two boons,” say the Serpents.
“We can return to the druids for our reward!” says Aurora. “You can take us there magically!”
Willa shakes her head in disagreement. “Firs’, ther druids dinnae promise us no reward. Secon’, we be goin’ ter ther dwarf city afore ther Druids. We still hae plenty o’ gear thar.”
“Fine,” says Aurora, more excited about the prospect of magic travel than any reward she has invented. “You can instantly transport us to the dwarven city, right?”
As the Serpents flit about, the sunlight producing dazzling rainbow patterns on their scales, the Bull Men calmly respond.
“Now that we are out of whatever strange energy fields in the ship that prevented us from using our powers, we can finally Astrally Project again - both we and the Couatl. We plan to use this to return to our world...to our realm of the multiverse - back on the other side of the ‘wormhole’ that the Terran computer spoke of. With Astral Projection we can travel nearly anywhere we can think of, and at the speed of thought it is effectively instantaneous, yes. However, we can bring only our own bodies - we cannot take you or your gear with us - neither to our own world, nor to this city of dwarves in your world.”
“But can’t you cast a teleport spell?”
“Not in the way you think of the spell as such...more like - it is more like what “The Sage of Highfell” did for you, if I am reading your memory correctly. We can travel through the Ethereal Plane and use it to quickly cover great distances on your Prime. With this form of travel, we cannot take living beings with us, but we can carry non-living objects. We could use this to move your gear for you, carry it to the city you speak of so that your own travels will be quicker.”
“Of course, we haven’t been to this city yet, and travel in the Ethereal depends on having the destination firmly in one’s mind. We would need you to describe to us the direction, so that we might fly there ourselves overland. It will be a great joy to fly once again,” says the Bull Man, as he spreads his enormous, golden-feathered wings. “Once we have physically visited this city, we can return to you astrally and then carry all of your gear there ethereally.”
Willa looks at the laden mules, the bulging packs, the metal bin full of grenades, the huge suit of powered armor. A quicker return journey rather than another two weeks in the frozen mountains would be welcome - but can they trust these creatures, ‘Celestials’ though they be, with all of their gear and treasure? She holds a quick conference with Aurora and Mathias. Tyrius, of course, is enraptured and can only say how he trusts the Celestials implicitly.
When Willa turns back to the Bull Men, they immediately begin speaking, for they have read her thoughts and those of the others even while they were conferring.
“We can also physically carry you and bear your gear. We Shedu can be ridden by people, or we can wear your backpacks and have your mule packs placed upon our bodies. The Couatl can carry anything that they can wrap their long, serpentine bodies around - people or packs. We can ease your journey to the city, and make sure that none of you travel encumbered.”
Tyrius looks aghast. “You would deign to carry us...please, we are not worthy!”
“There is no shame in honest service,” replies the Bull Man, “and we owe you this boon fairly.”
The second Bull Man says to Willa, “Whether we are ridden or we help carry your gear, for the time that we are traveling with you, we can share the guard duty shifts, we can create food and water for you and the mules, and we can provide you protection from cold.”
“Not as good as magical transport, but I suppose it will have to do,” grouses Aurora. “When do we start?”
Willa shivers - it is cold here, below freezing - they have all been at more comfortable temperatures inside the ship for days and will need a moment to change into their winter gear, which will necessitate a partial unpacking and repacking of the mules. Then she notices the labored breathing of the mules, who are straining beneath their loads. She catches herself feeling light-headed. Apparently the inside of the ship was not only warmer than the top of the mountain, but had more air as well. Even with the Celestials helping to carry gear, it will do no good to have the mules founder in the thin air. There are only a few hours of daylight in the afternoon anyway, and clouds are rolling in from the south.
Willa announces that they will make camp here, right outside the ship. It will give them all some time to get used to the cold and thin air, decide what they are taking and what they are leaving, and adjust everyone’s pack so that no one is encumbered and the Celestials can carry their gear as needed. They can leave first thing in the morning.
“Point o’ clarification,” Willa says. Sensing her intent, one of the flying snakes swoops in and hangs hovering in the air. “Yer boon t’ us, ye Bull Men, be ‘elpin’ us get t’ ther dwarven city.”
“Yes.”
“Includin’ carryin’ ar gear, castin’ spells, an’ all such.”
“Yes, anything that we can do to aid you in your journey to this city, whatever is within our power, we will faithfully discharge as our boon. Once you and your things have safely arrived, our boon will be complete, and we will depart for our own world.”
“Wha’ o ye snake people?”
The Serpent replies, “Should you have need of us along the way, should you require any one of us to carry something or produce a magical effect, that will count as the boon for that one of us, but not the others. If the help of the Shedu is sufficient, if you do not require our aid in this journey, we are content to accompany you to the city and once there dispense our two boons from each of us.”
Willa nods. There may be advantage in looking carefully at loads, then, and seeing whether they can make it to the city with just the help of the Bull Men, or if not, with some of the Serpents but not others.
“An’ in terms o’ castin, wha’ spells can ye bestow ‘pon us?” When she sees that the enchantress’ attention has begun to drift off, Willa adds, “Aurora - take note!”
The Bull Men say that, at will, they can produce effects that, in the party’s language, would be called: bless, detect evil and good, detect magic, detect thoughts, and shield of faith.
Three times a day either one of them can “cast” cure wounds, enlarge / reduce, invisibility, lesser restoration, levitate, protection from poison, sanctuary, and shield.
Finally, once per day, each of them can create food and water, dimension door, protection from energy, greater restoration, scrying, and telekinesis.
Aurora listens carefully. “Although all of those are useful effects in certain situations, in terms of our journey, the most relevant would be create food and water, protection from energy used to ward against cold, and greater restoration used to remove someone’s exhaustion. Pity those effects are just once per day each.”
Willa nods. Aurora’s keen analytical mind is useful - if she can just be brought to bear on the problems at hand rather than going off and inventing new problems for the party.
“An’ ye Serpent people?” Willa asks.
The Serpents explain that at will they can: detect evil and good, detect magic, and detect thoughts.
Three times a day they can bless, create food and water, cure wounds, lesser restoration, protection from poison, sanctuary, and shield.
Once per day each they can dream, greater restoration, and scrying.
Aurora says “Largely similar, but only the greater restoration would be of use on the journey if we needed to remove exhaustion.”
Willa asks and receives clarification that should one of the Serpents be called upon to cast lesser restoration, it would count as one boon for that Serpent, only, no matter how many times it was cast on the journey. If two different Serpents were needed, however, it would count as a boon from each of them.
Willa thanks the Celestials and goes off to supervise the erection of the pavilion tent.
Mathias, having not worked with the party’s tent before and there being many hands who have, puts on his leather jack, withdraws and smokes a cigarette, looking all about the valley as he does, studying the mountain slopes and sparse pine trees. After his first smoke is done, he pulls out a small bound book from his bag, ink, and quill, and sets to work. [He is preparing to remember the site well, if he has the chance in the future to scry it or return by teleportation.]
As Willa and the others sort through their gear, with an eye toward what to keep and what to leave, what to carry themselves and what to put on the mules, or perhaps the Celestials, the first thing they begin discarding are the key cards. “Good riddance,” says Willa, “I hain’t never sailin’ back ‘ere agin.”
Aurora eyes her collection of cards. “I might be back - but I don’t really want to carry these around until I do.”
Mathias strides over. “I will be back,” he says, “why else would I work so hard to get the robots to fix the place up? It needs to be ready when the new captain returns.”
“An' ther new cap’in be ye?” Willa asks incredulously.
Mathias nods confidently.
Willa sighs. “Be ye wantin’ all are cards, t’en? Thar be eno’ fer ye an yer crew besides.”
“Can we store them here somehow?” asks Aurora. “Maybe bury them, in case we do get to come back.”
“Ah hae better’n buryin’,” says Larry. He explains that the spirits of the mountain have spoken to him since he caused the avalanche. In return for sealing away the alien ship and its creatures, they have pledged to teach him the words to the stone shape spell. He will be able to cast it in the morning. With this, he will be able to make a small hollow or even a cave up to five feet deep, place anything the party wishes to keep inside, and then seal over the entrance with stone so that it is undetectable from the outside. He will be easily able to open it again or, if it is someone else in the party, they can break through the rock so long as they remember where it is. He will place it on the mountainside near the fallen rocks that block the entrance, but hide it cleverly so that only the party knows that it is there. The others, Aurora in particular, like the plan. Mathias nods in agreement and hands over an orange card but not his gray captain’s card. By the time the others have given their cards to Larry, he has a total of two reds (including Aurora’s biometrically imprinted security officer card), four oranges, two yellows, a violet, three brown, and five black (including one partially melted).
By the time the tent is set up, the sun can no longer be seen through the thick clouds. The mules are moved inside out of the wind but a fire is not lit, at least not yet. Thokk, the wind whipping at his loincloth, stays outside on watch with the Celestials while the others move inside to continue their discussion about what gear to take. In short order the talk turns to a division of the spoils. The treasure needn’t be divided until the dwarven city, since they will all want their share of that, but the alien items and weapons could usefully be divided now, in case any are not wanted and would better remain in Larry’s secret cave.
Mathias says that more important than the weapons are the power discs, since the weapons are useless without them - he would like to know what is his share of the discs.
Willa says that the power discs could be split equally with the understanding that they should be shared if the need arises - or they could be held by one person as party supplies and doled out when called for.
Mathias doesn’t like the idea of sharing by need, as it gives people the incentive to waste their own uses and then draw on others’. The discs, he says, are like charges in a magic wand, and need to be conserved. He thinks that if everyone has their own share, they will use them more judiciously.
Willa says that she was thinking of the discs as more like arrows - if they were needed in a fight, it would be better to pass some off to a comrade than have the party suffer for their lack. But in any event she is not terribly interested in the discs for herself - none of the items she saw use in (the grenades, the healing canisters) required them, and she was not impressed by the weapons that did use them. To avoid misunderstandings, she is fine dividing the discs rather than keeping any in a party pool - but she wonders whether everyone gets a share, or only those who want to keep items that use the discs?
Aurora says that she doubts Thokk wants any discs - so far he has only tried one of the needler pistols, and was singularly unimpressed with it. For herself, she intends to keep her blaster rifle, and certainly wants her share of discs, but she recognizes that the others have a right to them as well. She agrees with Mathias that primary ownership of the discs should be formally decided, with shares for all those who wish to claim them. However, she says that, like Willa, she will be happy to share a disc with another party member who needed one, should the situation arise.
“Ah dinnae be wantin’ nae discs,” says Larry succinctly.
Shefak bows to her teammates before speaking. “I have seen little of these fantastic devices,” she says, “but enough to know that I want no part of them. The spoils of other worlds will not help me on my Path. What is more, I owe you all my thanks for preserving my life against all odds when I was struck down. I relinquish any claim to the discs beyond the one carried in the ‘pistol’ that I hold - I will keep that in case we face an enemy that I cannot close with, such as one who flies.”
Umbra speaks next. “For my own part, I have no need for the ‘pistols’ that paralyze when I have my shadow bind and entropy spells, and no desire for ‘blasters’ and ‘lasers’ when I can send forth rays of shadow and dark bolts. However, unlike Aurora, I have nothing like a fireball - nothing that will allow me to damage many opponents all at once. I am thus interested in the things called ‘needlers’, as they appear to be effective against crowds, especially crowds of smaller creatures. These don’t use the discs, but instead take the little boxes of needles. I am willing to give up my share of discs, but I would ask that in return, when the needles are apportioned out, that I receive more than others - perhaps a share-and-a-half, or even two shares, depending on how many of us are interested in them.”
“Perhaps those who wish only needles should each get a full share of them, but those who wish to claim both needles and discs should get a half-share of the needles, in recognition that Umbra has made her discs available to others,” says Tyrius.
“That is fairly said,” agrees Umbra.
Since Tyrius has spoken, but not said whether he wants any discs, the others press him. The man actually flushes, as if he has something to say, but is embarrassed to say it. There is a long, awkward silence. Finally from behind him, Eddard pushes him forward with his broad head.
“Fine, fine, I will speak,” protests Tyrius, “though at grave risk of you all thinking me immodest. For my part, I have no desire for the discs, and wish them the more for each of you that do. But like Umbra, I would ask something in return, though it pains me, for it is not a few mere needles.”
The others look on expectantly.
“I ask for no discs, nor needles, and quit any claim I might have against any of the weapons or other alien technologies we recovered. Yet I would ask for the armor.”
Mathias laughs. “I tried to tell Babshapka, that thing’s a trap.”
“For you perhaps, or for him. Of all of us in this party, there are two only that are trained to fight in heavy armor - Willa and myself. She already has magical plate mail, and I have a fine suit as well, though it not be enchanted. However, I believe that of all of us, I could best put to use the suit. Watching Babshapka walk here, it appears the suit is slow - but I am already among the slowest in the party, so there is no special hindrance there. Mathias, as I understood it, you gave up on the armor when you found you could not cast spells within it - but unlike you, I have been trained to cast in heavy armor. And though the laser mounted to the arm be not the strongest weapon, still it appears to have great range, and of all of us I am the most lacking on that front as well. Thus, although it shames me to ask it of you all, I do truly believe that the armor should fall to me.”
“Babshapka ‘as it by right o’ plunder,” says Willa dubiously, though she recognizes the logic in Tyrius’ explanation.
Babshapka waves his hand as if dismissing his claim. “It was a means to carry out the weapons, no more,” he says stoically. “Now that we are finally outside, I am grateful to breathe air and smell grass. I don’t intend to be locked in that suit again, and all the better if an ally wants it.”
While the others ponder what prompted Tyrius’ request, Aurora has already moved on to other calculations. “Well, if only Babshapka, Mathias, and myself actually want the discs, that would give us more than seven each of the new ones, plus the ones we ourselves already carry. I would be content with that.”
When those present have agreed to the distribution of discs, Willa encourages them to start arranging their packs. For her part, she moves the grenades she carried in the ship to the pile of gear that will be hauled out (by mules or Celestials) and most of her own gear back to her pack. She takes up ship’s rations until her pack weighs about 90 pounds and calls it good.
The first thing Tyrius discards is the large jar of “regal acid”, setting it near the cards that Larry will be entombing. The “sensory enhancement powder” he moves to the mules. After a bit of walking around in the powered armor, aided by Mathias, Babshapka, and Aurora, he declares that he can carry more of a load with the suit on - although slow, it seems to be aiding his movements in some way [Note: while wearing the armor, Tyrius will have an effective strength score of 20 for the purposes of determining how much he can carry due to the servomotors and hydraulics]. While still leaving some of his personal items in Eddard’s saddlebags, he loosens the straps of his backpack so as to wear it over the armor and fills it with the remainder of his gear as well as a few of the ship’s rations. Finally, he packs his normal plate mail in the pile for the mules. By his estimates, he will now be walking slowly - but unencumbered. Eddard will be unencumbered as well unless Tyrius mounts, then he will slow and be encumbered. Surprisingly, the powered armor is about equal in weight to his actual plate mail - some of the pieces are not metal but cave horn, and those that are metal are surprisingly light.
Larry isn't carrying any of the alien technology on him and is not interested in taking any, either. He picks up one flask of oil from a mule and is ready for the journey back to the city of dwarves.
Now that they will be traveling outside, Shefak takes her magical jo back from Aurora to use as a walking staff in the mountains. She is still interested in perfecting her physical attacks, so Aurora is welcome to borrow it again should they reach another enclosed space where the enchantress might actually enter melee. Likewise, although Shefak has decided to keep the single blaster pistol she has on hand just in case she needs a ranged weapon outdoors, she leaves open the possibility of lending it to someone else in the party at some point. With little chance of finding treasure in the wilderness, she takes back as much of her gear from the mules as she can easily carry so as to lighten their load - her dagger, mess kit, traveler's clothes, and tinderbox.
Aurora leaves the tent briefly to confer with Thokk. She returns with his needler pistol and two cartridges - he is not interested in them. He has also abandoned the three ‘javelins’ he took from the plant men. They were fine inside the confines of the ship, but the irregular wood, bladeless and without fletching, will not be accurate at all over outdoor distances. He will need to buy more, real, javelins at the city of the dwarves. Later on, after he has dressed in his cold weather gear, he picks up one more flask of oil from the mules to complete his load.
With no one wanting the needler pistols but Babshapka and Umbra, Aurora gives the pistol once used by Thokk to Umbra, and its nearly-spent clip to Babshapka. The twenty full clips from the arms locker are divided with seven to Babshapka and thirteen to Umbra. Babshapka decides to move a dozen torches and the ten new needler pistols to the pile for what will be hauled by the mules.
(4pm. Note - at current location, geothermal activity adds 15F to temperature and the valley takes 20mph from wind. Current temperature is 25F, wind at 16mph, with a wind chill of 12F. Beginning of a sleet storm)
With the spoils of the ship apportioned out, Willa directs the unloading of the mules - the party can load them and test weights on the morrow, and decide whether to ask the Bull Men and Serpents to carry gear. A curious sound against the sides of the tent draws her attention. Lifting the flap, she sees sleet pelting the tent while Thokk stands unconcernedly on guard. Willa sighs and begins to think of a watch schedule, but immediately one of the Bull Men speaks. “There is no need - bring your people into the shelter of the tent. As easily as I read your thoughts just now, I can read the thoughts of any within range of the tent. I and my companion can keep watch for the duration of the storm and we will let you know when any creature approaches.”
The next thought then is of the evening meal. Someone suggests trying the created food of the Bull Men, but Tyrius shakes his head. “I’ve had created food before,” he says. “It’s filling enough, but bland. You don’t notice it with the water Larry creates because water is naturally tasteless. But created food simply lacks flavor. Now a hero’s feast on the other hand…”
As the paladin drones on, Willa directs the others in unpacking their trail rations. If they are going to use their own food, it makes sense to use the trail rations first, as they are heavier than the ship’s rations.
[After dinner, the party has a total of 32 trail rations left, enough for four days - not counting the ship’s rations. After feeding the mules, there is less than three days of feed left, with them getting a portion and a half per day to help against the cold. This does not include the bag of grain taken from the colonization supplies.]
The sleet storm continues until after dark, with the Bull Men “on guard”. “What about when ye sleep?” she asks them. “Won’ ye need someone ter spell ye out?”
The Bull Man smiles patiently. “For centuries we have taken turns - always with one of us listening for the sound of thoughts while the other rested. Were it not so, the Mind Flayer would have killed us long ago.”
Satisfied, the party turns in for the night.
[6:10pm - Aurora, Umbra, Mathias lose their armors]
[9:50pm - Willa and Tyrius lose their darkvision]
At less than 30F, three factors of protection (tent plus fur-lined sleeping bag) are needed to ensure a successful rest. Everyone has this but Mathias (tent, blanket) - he needs to make a Con save (DC8, advantage, +3 from Tyrius, 15, saves). ]
[Wandering encounter: Night, None.] _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
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