Session Eighty-Eight (Graveyard of Empires Summary)
Session 88: Silent Running or Reiker Beams Aboard
18th of Ferenden, Mid Morning
Chuck, Axel and Thorfus leave the Colossus head and make it back to the gear chamber after asking it questions (see last session).
After ordering the mechanical monkey to complete the repairs of the Colossus the group decides to head to the portal. We stop at the end of the Wyrm-created tunnel while waiting for the Dwarven troops to leave for their shift change.
During the wait, they hear noises coming from the room near the tunnel’s opening. Edan cloaks himself and investigates. It turns out to be a man scuffling around – smelly, beaten up – and hungry looking.
Edan reports back and Thorfus and who goes up and confront the man with Edan following. The man seems confused and explains a rambling story and introduces himself as Curate Reiker of the Church of the Ark – a friend of Galran a former member of the Starchy Boys :
So, then, here’s the rest (briefly): Your cleric was sent along with several clerics and paladins of Baldric Evenkeel to rescue the town of Newton from an undead plague. Everything went horribly, though — far too many undead (more than could be accounted for from such a small village). You persevered to the end, though, making a valiant last stand against the creatures with a young paladin named Galron and his squire, Kilmar.
In the brawl, you and Kilmar were hit by undead and felt your muscles freeze up — the last thing you saw before the wave of undead crashed over you was Galron, screaming in anguish as Kilmar fell.
Neither you nor Kilmar were dead, though. The undead carried the two of you back to a rift in the ground, inside of which was a mass grave and an elven priestess with dark skin and white hair controlling the undead and commanding several similar-looking elven warriors. They loaded you and Kilmar onto carts along with several other captives and sent you down into the depths via winding tunnels.
After several days of travel (or so it seemed; BTW, let me know if you take Elven for a language), the prisoner carts reached an underground river crossed by an ancient dwarven bridge. While crossing, the strange elves came under attack by dark-skinned gnomes, who threw darts from cover on either side of the rushing water. In the chaos, you freed yourself and plunged into the frigid underground river – leaving Kilmar and the other captives behind and not seeing the conclusion of the elves battle with the strange gnomes.
Eventually, you washed up in some abandoned tunnel alone and freezing with only your holy symbol. All hope seemed lost, but you soldiered on regardless — using your light spell to find your way and creating food/drink to keep yourself alive via prayer. Many weeks of wandering ensued, until your travels in the Underdark brought you to what appeared to be an abandoned dwarven mine. Following the tunnels upward, you eventually came to a chamber with a large hole in the floor and piles of gears and springs scattered across the floor …
No problem — since you know elven, you would have been able to understand your captors (their accent was odd and many of the terms and phrasing archaic, but otherwise understandable). From their talk to one another, you know the captives were bound for their city somewhere beneath the island where they would serve as slave labor. There was also some talk about selling some of the captives to the “Hidden Ones” who were paying a premium for laborers to excavate some ruins elsewhere in the Underdark. The mass grave the elven priestess was using as a source of undead also seems to be connected to these Hidden Ones.
He had no idea how he got here – wherever here is.
After feeding and giving drink to Reiker – Chuq requests permission to probe Thorfus’ sword in order to test a theory. He believes that Marchmain may be tracking us using Ancient Dwarven technology like Thorfus’ Probability Sword. Results are inconclusive.
After loaning Rieker some gear, the Boys wait for the shift change and dash to the portal and dial in to “Engineering”. Transporting without incident except this time the group was scanned as they cross through – but thanks to Axel’s security passes we were not harmed by the site’s defenses.
Entering into an hourglass shaped room, the team quickly gets ready. Chuq (ESP Helm) and Throfus (Command Circlet) scan for threats – Alhough Chuq senses no intelligent threats, Thorfus senses Automatons to the north and can see through their eyes. After some self inspection it seems they are all Undying. Further scans find many more Undying all around the facility – including one room which is a “factory” for making or repairing Undying.
Above the chamber, Thorfus senses a group of flying spheres preoccupied with keeping everything running.
After some discussion – the group decides to heads to the south. The door opens to the engine room. Large machines being tended by Undying, all oblivious to our presence. The Boys decide not to interfere with their work.
The team files through a door to the east, leading them into “Mood” rooms our lounge with glowing stones on tables and a transparent ceiling – showing all who look the sphere Thorfus sensed earlier tending to more machinery. Edan collects one of the “mood” stones for study and the rest are dumped into a bag – they may be worth something.
The Boys decide to explore an area to the South East where they sensed “stored” undying. There they found a corridor with rooms on either side filled with 4 undying each. Locking the doors as they travel to the end of the corridor where a door leads to a repair droid area equipped with what looks like a portal. The Repair Automaton seems inactive, but when a mechanical monkey tries to reach pedestal it’s grabbed by the Automaton and is examined then placed back next to pedestal.
Thorfus has the mokey place his control key on the pedestal and confirms that the portal works.
As they leave the machine grabs a monkey and “upgrades” it making it impossible for Thorfus to control. Apparently automatons must be set to work maintain power.
Next, the Boys turn back and check the Cafeteria, through the a door opposite the corridor they just explored. There a monkey tries take the platinum utensils but are stopped by the “drones” – using his circlet, Thorfus confirms the Drones say they need the utensils, but we take them anyways.
Further down another adjacent corridor we find two more locked doors. The first is a workshop filled with schematic plans and mechanical parts. Edan and Thorfus move to collect all the the plans, but as they touched the center table they trigger a devastating trap – nearly killing Edan (again) and barely annoying Thorfus – thanks to some quick healing Edan survives, but the plans on the central table were destroyed.