Our Brave Band of Adventurers the Crimson Lotus:

• Charisma, a “human” -mutant- sorceress whose power source is Gamma Radiation which she was exposed to as a child.  As a child of the Atom her hair goes green in the presence of radiation and she progressively gets greener the more powerful spells she casts (and as she gets angry).  She has no love for the Technic League.
• Heidt, a ranger who has traded an affinity for nature for an affinity for machines.  This android has mastered cybertheurgy as well as the lasgun.  Has chosen the mechromancer archetype (blog post at some later point!).  Seeking to learn more about his history he has become an archaeological expert on all things related to the Rain of Stars.
• Rikku, an elven rogue who was adopted by Khonnir Baine when he found her wandering the wasteland near Torch more than a decade ago.  She claims to be a blood elf from a far-away land.  Her history is tied up with a nearby ruin.
• Sylvanus, a dark elf monk who escaped the clutches of mind flayer slavemasters in the area of the Scar of the Spider after a daring raid by surface dwelling heroes freed her.
• Brokthor, a human fighter who was raised by dwarfs and thinks he IS a dwarf.
• Tufast, a human cleric who serves Thor –  power of thunder and lightning.  Much like his barbarian family he hates technology and has a particular spite for robots.  He sees the cleansing power of lightning as the perfect antidote to the curse of the robot infestation of Nimmeria.

The Choking Tower

Session 19

By Rikku Yuffina Kyrus

We go into one of the east doors.  A sign in Gothic above the door says, “Lab 1: Alchemy”.  The door has a porthole in it and we peer in.  We see another door straight across a ten-foot room.  This door also has a porthole. I use my magnoculars and see an old alchemy lab.  Sylvanus and I stay outside and the rest go into the first door.  They can’t open the second door without closing the first one (DM: Its basically a magical airlock).  They do this and it feel like something is cleaning and touching them, like an airlock.  The second door opens, and they walk in. They search and find some potions of greater healing and gaseous form potions.  They come out and we go to the sad face door to the south.  The sign on the top says, “Lab 2: Fluid Syphoning Research”.  Sylvanus, Charisma, and I stay outside again while the rest go in.

They pass the airlock and enter a room that has debris and clutter made into four pyramid like piles.  There is a dead dwarf skeleton in between the four pyramids.  There is a vibrant red mist and it forms into a floating man-shaped creature, with glowing red eyes and hooked hands.  It attacks.  Brocktha smacks the creature with all his might, and Tufast sends all the debris flying to the back of the room with thunderwave.   The red mists hooked hands slithers forward and grabs Tufast.  It holds onto him and beings draining Tufast’s blood.  Hiedt shoots two laser blasts at the mist and it shrieks in pain.  Brocktha pulls out his chain sword and whams the mist.  The mist turns away and cowers from Brocktha, but it still clutches Tufast.  Tufast struggles to break free, but only finds his life being sucked from him.  The mist tightens its grip on Tufast and grapples Brocktha.  Brocktha tries to make the mist let go of him, but the mist starts squeezing.  Sylvanus, Charisma, and I rush in, only to see Hiedt fire two more blasts and kill the creature.  It howls and disappears.  We search and find a purple, magic ioun stone and some gems.

We go out and enter the other “angry” east door.  A sign on the top says, “Lab 3: Gaseous Ooze Research”.  It’s an airlock and we all enter.  We get cleaned and look through the porthole.  We can see tables and shelves.  A skeleton in a moldy robe is slumped over a desk.  A filthy green slime covers everything and a green mist hangs everywhere.  We enter.  A green female ghost emerges from the skeleton.  The mist surrounds it and it attacks.  Brocktha hits the ghost with his chain sword.  Tufast shoots thunderous blue lightning from his fingertips.  Hiedt shoots glowing crimson beams at the ghost.  The ghost engulfs Tufast and the green mist starts suffocating him.  The ghost swipes her claw-like hand at Brocktha.  The ghost starts clawing Tufast, who is still choking for breath.  Brocktha whacks the ghost and she howls, then she glares at him.  The ghost starts to whisper some evil things to me and in confusion I feel myself plunging my dagger into Brocktha’s body instead of the apparition.  Charisma’s hands start glowing with radiant energy, and bolts of green pierce the ghost’s form.  Tufast’s hands start glowing, then there is a flash, and the ghost’s green mist disperses.  Tufast stops choking and breathes again.  Brocktha grabs his chainsword and slams the ghost.  She shrieks in agony and disappears.  We search the room and find a shiny dress, a wand, and some spell books.  We examine the notes on the desk and find out the skeleton name was Anada Vask.  We take a quick rest.

When we wake up, we open the wooden door to the southeast and find a stairwell.  We climb up it.  Along the way we find a granite-like baton with the number one in Gothic on it.  We reach a landing.  To the left is a door, but there is a strange, small metal hole in the centre, as if something has chewed through it.  A hole in the wall opposite the other one also looks chewed.  We look through the hole in the wall and see boxes and metal cages.  There are skymetal pieces everywhere.  In the dim light, coming from the porthole in the door across the room, we can see a ripped and chewed gearsman.  We can hear a munching and scuffling sound.

Sylvanus throws a grenade into the room through the small opening in the wall and we hear something whine in pain.  A six-foot long mongoose like creature with eight legs scurries out.  We’ve seen these before.  They are alien dogs that like to eat precious metals.  They are called auromvoraxes.  They are usually metallic coloured.  But this one looks like it has fire, air, and smoke running through its body.  It attacks.  Brocktha hits the dog, but he soon backs off and says the dog is hot, and it hurt him.  Tufast whams it with his maul, complaining of the same burn.  Sylvanus jumps behind the dog and punches it.  Her hands look more burnt than anyone else’s.  I dash forward and stab the creature. It howls once more and I can see the burn marks on my hands.  Hiedt fires two laser blasts and the dog cringes.  Charisma shoots three bolts of magic missiles.  The dog rushes forward, and bites Tufast, then it scurries back through its hole.  We can’t fit through the hole se we go looking for another entrance finding a door.  We are on a balcony and can see the airquariam.  We see the shark lunge forward, then it stops, and retreats back to its lair.  We go to the one airlock door.  On the top are these words, “Lab 5: Animetal Research”.  We peer through the porthole and can see the auromvorax licking its wounds.  We open the door.

The auromvorax charges and whams into Brocktha knocking him down.  The dog jumps on top and tries to tear out Brocktha’s armor.  Brocktha pulls out his chain sword and slices the dog on the back.  He whines but continues to rake Brocktha.  Tufast hits the dog on the back, trying to pull him off, but the auromvorax resists and stays fast.  Sylvanus and I punch and stab again.  Charisma uses burning hands, but the dog seems fine.  Hiedt shoots a bullet.  The dog barks and tries to rip open Brocktha.  Brocktha again tries to slice it, and puts a bleeding mark on the dogs shoulder.  Tufast tries to pull the auromvorax, but the dog turns and opens its mouth.  It lets out a smoky breath.  When it clears away, Brocktha says he can’t see, and Tufast says he is blinded.  The dog turns and bites Tufast.  Sylvanus and I put holes and marks all over its body.  Charisma shoots more magic missiles, and Hiedt shoots more radiant bullets.

Suddenly, the auromvorax shakes and explodes into a fire, air, and smoke elementals.  They scurry away.  We find some interesting schematics, and then we leave.  We go to a door that has been smashed open.  We look in and see a nest, which smells like sulfur.  A skeleton, clutching a jar, full of metallic seeds lies to the west.  There is nothing else so we loot and leave.  We take the seeds.  We walk up the stairs and end up at a door with an auromvorax hole in it. We push it open and find a landing.  The stairs continue, but there is a door to the right.  We open it and see a blackboard with common writing on it listing 9 labs and what each did before Xoud’s death.  We see another door straight ahead.  We try to open it, but Charisma says it is magical.  Charisma casts a spell and the door opens.

Inside is a room full of luxuries. There are tapestries of Numeria and the Para-Elemental Plane of Smoke.  There is a bed with buttons, a tech bed.  An air mattress covers the floor.  We look outside a big window.  There are floating blocks of cinder and there is smoke everywhere.  We think that is the plane of smoke.  When we try to go through, something stops us.  We search and behind one of the tapestries, is a red button.  Before we can press it, Xoud comes out of one of the tapestries and says, “You are not welcome here.”  Then he cackles and a burst of flame comes out of his hands.  We tell him we are here for the brain tape and he says, “Not another one.”  The rug we are standing on animates and it starts smothering Tufast.  Brocktha hits Xoud, and he disappears, cackling his horrid laugh.  We focus on the rug and rip it apart.  We press the button and find a secret wall shelf.  Inside is a huge green spellbook. We find a metallic egg inside the shelf.  We press a blue button and we can hear someone talking common, but its other backwards or mixed up.  Hiedt says its broken.  While taking a short rest we hear a subtle beeping coming from under the bed…