Biminey exits the temple of the Artificers with the knowledge that he can get the group into the grounds without being attacked by making amulets for them that are essentially visitor’s passes to coin an anachronistic term. He’s also found reference to the rituals and methods needed to repair the elemental ship as well as reference to override controller amulets, a kind of master key, that can be attuned to an airship for the purposes of controlling it much like the original 6 amulets were created during it’s construction.
The group enters the temple grounds and are ignored by the constructs which are going about their programmed business of fighting delaying tactics against the wear and tear of time. Many constructs stand or lie broken and worn out. Bolter turrets mounted in certain areas spark and crackle, malfunctioning while others turn to follow the groups movements.
Down a long flight of stairs they find the outer vault chamber. The outer door is standing ajar, the inner door is sealed tight. The sinking of the city into the swamp though, has destroyed part of the wall and there is enough room for the group to squeeze through.
They drop down into a series of hallways, lit by light crystals, panels roughly 4′ x 4′ that are inset into the walls. The flooring is covered in 6″ of water. As Elissa steps into one of the three hallways leading out the wall crystals start a slow pulse. Â When Torel tries to follow the lights start a rapid pulsing and there’s the sound of metal on metal as doors start to go up around the complex.
Constructs start to appear, some spider like with nozzles for mouths that fire sticky webbing, others childlike in size with razored claws and containers of some fluid that lead to large needles embedded into their palms. The creatures show up scattered out over the course of several rounds though and with the use of corners to prevent being surrounded, focus fire and especially the use of Elisssa’s lighting based breath, Stak’s Azurian longsword which deals lightning damage and Biminey’s Lightning Sphere the constructs are taken down without any of the party going down.
[DM's Note: It hit me after the session that Dra'kin should really be up in front soaking damage. He has hit points as high as any of the group, a huge number of surges and Hellish Rebuke requires him to get hit to be truly effective. ]
The group investigates the area after the fight, finding mostly decayed and destroyed by damp furnishings, equipment and miscellaneous items. Dra’kin is blasted by bolter fire as he steps up to open a locked door but the two wall mounted bolters inside are swiftly destroyed. The room appears to have once held racks of some objects, long gone at this point and was apparently important enough to have secondary defenses with the bolters mounted up on the walls inside.
Down one hallway they discover the end of it has broken apart and light is gleaming from under the water. As they move closer to look it over, the vines and mosses that have invaded in from the swamp come to live and stand up. It shoots a cloud of spores that catch the entire party and they all rush forward in fascination to end adjacent to the creature. Thorny vines swarm up their bodies against the party, all hit with only Dra’kin avoiding the vines as he shakes off the fascination. Hollow pointed thorns on the vines plunge into their bodies, restraining them and draining them of blood. [Fairly nasty creature I came up with. Burst 6 pull as a minor then burst 3 that restrains and inflicts 10 ongoing damage (save ends) which is why I only had the one creature in this fight. I also had three 20's in a row during this fight. Unfortunately for me the 20's didn't actually do anything extra as it was just to apply the ongoing 10 and restrain effects. Damnit.]
They uncover a way through the broken earth and stone and emerge into a vast chamber piled high with crates, timbers and building materials. Naturally suspicious they use Dra’kin’s familiar to scout the area spotting a large form lying in wait behind a pile of crates. They move to attack and as they do so there’s a roar of another creature on the far side of the chamber.
Two dragonlike constructs although without wings are enjoined in the fight. Over the course of the fight two more constructs, comprised of chains and spikes drop into view from above. Again the party’s tactics have improved and they focus their anger and damage onto single targets for the most part although twice they bunch up nicely and are subject to burst attacks that catch more than one person at a time. Their sound fire control and especially the lightning damage pull it out although once or twice someone in the party goes down but is brought back up again to re-enter the fray.
During the fight a large quake throws everyone to the ground and the roof high overhead splits open, it was designed to do that so the elemental ships could be lowered into it but the holding mechanism fractures and it opens up partially.
They search the area and uncover two small containers of residium worth 10,000 gold, a master override amulet and enough specialized artificer gear to proceed with the repair and control of the air ship. They also see on a magical map a green dot among many red ones that appears to be nearing the coast line before it gives up the ghost destroyed by the quake.
The exit the chamber by climbing up through the roof [They didn't check but if they had they would have found the water passage now blocked from the quake]
Outside they find the temple structures had suffered serious damage and the constructs are too busy repairing to pay them any attention even if they were so inclined.
Overhead the clouds are boiling, a vicious greenish black tinge to them that cast the city into dark shadow although miles away the skies are clear. Their first though is that the priests of Eris have breached the tomb of Larkson. Dra’kin and Biminey both note that a subtle arcanic pressure over the city is now gone.
Rather than resting to recover, their recent activities have left them tired and worn out, they proceed to head to the coastline at the fastest possible route which is through the city. Â The city creatures seem to have their hands full and they’re unaccosted.
Hearing the sounds of hunting hounds they swing to the side to investigate and find Merik (Merkin) treed up on top of a pillar while savage dog like creatures snarl and bite from below. Â The party is detected and the hounds vanish into the rubble. The high priest falls, impaling himself on a fence that surrounds the pillar. The party arrives just in time to read his lips as he dies, “I didn’t know… gods forgive…”
They search him claiming a crystalline fragment on an amulet around his neck and continue their mad dash to the coast.
Passing through what they thought was merely an overgrown plaza turns out to be instead a grave. One of the tomb doors shatters exploding and a giant abomination of a creature climbs out. Standing 12′ tall, its guts hang out, wrapping around his torso, writhing like snakes. It is Krag the Butcher, storied creature of a dark past. It spies the party and calls forth its minions which claw their way from not so warded anymore imprisonment and the attack is on.
Stak does a good job of keeping the minions cleared out as they arrive in waves as they make their way up through the earth covering them while the rest pound on Krag. It’s a tough fight but they eventually put him down, even as Torel lies dying on the ground and Biminey after being encased in Krag’s grasping intestines is only released shy of death at the creature’s being killed.
Or so they thought as Krag rises again. With the most wounded scrambling away, the rest continue to batter the abomination into the ground, this time spending the time and effort it takes to dismember the corpse before they consider it dead.
Almost dead from exhaustion and the toll of being on the go, fighting, sneaking and moving quickly for 24 hours they climb into the vacant tomb of Krag and rest while Stak stands watch.
They recover Krag’s Blood Sink Bracers and his Flensing Axe from the body and tomb.
[They were almost completely out of surges across the party, most were down below half health and of course their dailies were long spent. All in all I think I got this balance of fight series just about perfect. See the end of the post for the Blood Sink bracers]
They continue their cautious rush through the city to reach the beach. There they find three men, emissaries of the slavers, waiting with what turned out to be Soozin. The elemental ship is in tow on two ships and is disapearing on the horizon. A third smaller ship lies in the harbor while a ship’s boat is on the beach.
The slavers want knowledge of how to control the elemental ship and they offer Biminey a kings ransom in gold, slaves and power if he has the knowledge and gives it to them. They believe they will be able to figure it out eventually but they’re not patient men.
During the discourse the emissary which turns out to be nothing more than a slave dressed in finery arranges a deal with the group, one of the options he was given to offer is if Biminey doesn’t know how to control the ship, if they uncover it and provide the deal will still stand. Â Biminey though has already told them he knows how to do it. The slave has heard their plans and realizes that most scenarios end with him dead so he counteroffers. He’ll go back and tell the Overmage on the ship that Biminey doesn’t know yet and will work on it but, and he indicates the two guards which are actually just ship’s cooks, he can’t afford witnesses. Without a second thought, Biminey and Elisssa fry the two where they stand using his Lightning Sphere and her breath weapon.
The slave hands over a bottle, instructing them that Soozin has to have one drop in water a day or she’ll die. In comes out that he as well has been ‘infected’.
[They assume the girl has been poisoned but it's nastier than that. They've both been infested with a parasite that's kept dormant by the liquid. If it wakens it spawns immediately and hundreds of it's spawn burrow their way out of the host over the course of a few of the most painful agonizing last minutes of your life. This will come out as they talk to Soozin on the trip home.]
The slave rows back to the ship and the group sets off overland, following the coast where they come across the ship that brought The priests of Eris to the area. They arrange a deal to go back to the city on the boat and learn some boating skills of their own along the way.
Podcast should go out this week sometime.
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Blood Sink Bracers Level 6 |
Modified Image created by me from this one
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