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From the Diary of Rikku Yuffina Kyrus: Iron Gods Session 20

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.
  • Arthur, a human assassin sent by the Technic League more than 7 years ago to take out Xoud and imprisoned in carbonite after his failed attempt.  That is until the fellowship release him and they join forces.

The Choking Tower

Session 20

By Rikku Yuffina Kyrus

When we awake, we can hear a strange beeping sound from under the bed. We look under, and pull out a metal frame. Inside is a frozen man. We press the button, and the icy thing starts to melt. The man gets up, and asks where he is.  Then he remembers and says his name is Arturo, the Assassin.  He was sent to the tower seven years ago.  We ask him if he wants to join, and he says sure.  We investigate the doors.  All of them are magically locked, and all have no handle.  One of them has a metal panel embedded inside it.  We get close, and the metal panel shoots us with electricity.  Charisma unlocks the door with her magic, but we still need to go close to push it open.  Arturo and I disable the trap, and we push the door open. It leads to a stairwell.  A pile of rubbish sits just beyond the door. On top of the rubbish heap is a big purple mushroom; spikes protrude from its trunk.  A stairwell going down is right next to the heap.  We close the door and we open the south door.  This room looks like a toilet.  There is a dripping sound, and the floor is covered in water.  We search and find nothing.  We go open the northeast door. This small room looks like a study.  Books are stuffed into the shelves, and paper filled desk sits to the right.  To the left is a slightly ajar door.  No signs are anywhere.  We search and find more hand-drawn schematics.  As soon as we get close to the door, a smoky mist like creature fills the whole room.  It starts to choke us.  Brocktha strikes at the mist.  Sylvanus and I do the same.

The mist continues to fill the place, and we are losing breath.  Tufast casts a spell, and a hole appears.  It sucks up the mist, and then both disappear (DM’s note: Tufast cast banishment).  We continue searching and find nothing else.  We exit. Arturo, Sylvanus, and I sneak up the stairs.  We hear continuous banging coming from above.  We continue going up.  We reach a landing and peer into a large room.  Anvils and weapons are to the sides of this room.  Rattling pipes go up into the ceiling.  In the ceiling is a big hole.  Three azer’s are banging on anvils and crafting things.  Eight gearsmen, maybe animated by magic, are standing sentinel around the azer’s (DM’s note: They are basically animated armour from the monster manual modified to look like gearsman.  This was a running theme throughout the tower).  A staircase going up is at the end of the room.

Sylvanus sneaks down stairs to tell the others.  Arturo sneaks past the Azer’s and the “gearsmen”.  One azer seems to see him, but looks nervous and continues to work pretending not to see him.   I try to do the same thing, but the gearsmen see me and attack.  The azers look even more nervous, but ignore the combat. Arturo comes out of his hiding place, and assassinates one of the gearsmen.  I hide and sneak attack the same one.  It falls to the ground, then, it slowly disperses.  One of the other gearsmen commands the azer to attack as well.

The azers pick up their weapons, and half-heartedly attack us.  The robots also punch Arturo and me.   The others come bounding up the stairs.  Sylvanus shoots one of her shurikans at a robot.  Brocktha hits one of the robots with his chainsword.  Hiedt comes up the stairs and shoots a laser.  A robot falls and disappears too.  Charisma shoots magic missiles at one robot, burning holes through it.  Tufast shoots blue, crackling lightning at the same robot, and it falls too. The azers swing again, but ‘accidently’ miss.  The robots swing their huge arms at us, and knock me down.  I try to sneak up on one of the robots, but stumble.  Arturo sneak attacks another robot.  Sylvanus punches the same robot, and it falls.  Brocktha cuts through one robot, and Hiedt shoots lasers too.

That robot disappears.  Charisma uses magic missile again and Tufast’s finger tips shake, and lightning busts out.  One robot dies.  The two remaining robots punch and wham.  They hurt me badly, and Charisma hands me a potion.  The azers, seeing that the robots are dying, attack them.  The robots command them to stop, but the azers don’t listen Sylvanus, Arturo, and I keep punching, and stabbing one robot.  Hiedt fires more lasers, helping us.  Tufast and Charisma cast spells at the other one, while Brocktha slashes at it.  They both collapse, and finally disperse.  The Azers surrender.  We tell them we wont hurt them, and ask what they are doing here.  They had a contract to work for Xoud, but when Xoud died, his robot apprentices kept them here.  They make weapons and certain things for the apprentices, who live on the ninth floor.  The hole in the roof is for a crane, on the next floor; the seventh one.  The crane is a smart robot, and drops supplies to the Azers.  If anyone, but the apprentices go near the crane, it will attack. We show them the granite baton with the number one.  They said yes, they made it.  It was for Xoud as a key for something.  We ask them if they will join us, just to help make weapons and to upgrade Scrapwall.  They said sure.

We tell them to continue working, while we go to the stairs. We go up the stairs and come to a landing.  There are two doors, and stairs going up.  We ignore the doors, and go up.  There are three more doors, and more stairs.  I send Stuart Little up the stairs.  He comes to a wide landing.  It is a lab and workshop, open to the sky.  There are no doors, and some smoke rises to the top, and out.  There is a small platform, with a telescope on it.  Two hovering four armed robots fly around.  They have the shape of a human, but their skin is steel.  Dark hoods cover their faces.  They go back and forth from the telescope and the table, and keep casting spells.  I command Stuart Little to return to me. We discuss what to do for too long pushing the impatient Tufast over the edge.  He storms up the stairs and confronts the robot apprentices – alone.  Once he comes to the landing, the robots approach him.  They say in unison, “You are not on our worker list. Identify yourself.”  Tufast says he is a new employee.  He also says Xoud is dead.  The robots ask, “Has Xoud extracted the brain tape from the android, and does he need our assistance?”  Tufast repeats that Xoud is dead.  He also says there is a giant raid on this tower.  One of the robots goes away and casts a spell.  It comes back and says, “There is no such attack.”  The other one casts a spider web spell behind Tufast.  They both say, “Please lay down your weapon. We will go to Xoud to confirm what you have reported.”  Tufast lays down his weapon, and they take away the web.  Both go invisible, and one says, “Come.”  Tufast follows them.  They take him to Xoud’s room.  We stealthily follow. One of the robots opens the electrified door.  It says, “This wasn’t here before” at the sight of the violet mushroom.   It commands Tufast to go into the stairwell with the mushroom, go down the stairwell to Lab 0, and find Xoud.

Tufast asks if he can have his weapon, and the robots finally lose patience and attack.  Sylvanus casts fairy fire, so we can see one of the once invisible robots.  Arturo attacks from hiding the visible robot.  Brocktha throws Tufast his maul.  The invisible robot casts a spell, and flailing tentacles emerge from the ground.  They grapple Tufast.  He struggles to get out, but fails.  The same robot casts another spell, and a smoky cloud appears.  It lands on us, and starts choking us.  Sylvanus runs up, and punches the visible robot with her magical fists.  Hiedt shoots at the same robot.

I try to sneak attack, but fail.  The other robot summons another smaller robot, with a pistol.  It shoots, but was completely off target.  Three rays of fire come out of Charisma’s hand and scorch the robots silvery skin. The visible robot murmurs a few words, and two streaks of black magic fire at Brocktha.  The bolts pathetically miss, and sink into the walls.  Arturo opens the electric door, and shoots an arrow at the purple mushroom.  The spikes on its body start shooting in all directions, and the mushroom gives off a loud, high-pitched shriek (DM’s note: a modified screecher mushroom that shoots poison spines in all directions until silenced).  We hear the clanking of heavy metal coming up the stairs soon after the screeching start.  I sneak attack the visible robot.  It says, “System Failure. System Failure.”  Then it lands, its other two arms stop casting.  The robot casts another dark bolt, which narrowly misses Brocktha.  Brocktha slices up the visible robot.  The robot explodes.  The invisible robot casts a spell, and Tufast starts vomiting.  Sylvanus grabs her Ion Tape.  She closes the electrified door.  Then she seals it with the tape. We see the tips of two gearsmen going up the stairs as she closes the door.  Hiedt turns his gun onto full burst and tries to shoot the invisible robot.  It loses concentration of its spells; the tentacles and cloud go away.  Tufast is still vomiting.  Charisma casts magic missile, and shoots in the direction of the robot.

The robot responds by casting its own powerful magic missiles fanning out and hitting all of us.  The shrieking continues and we can hear heavy banging on the electric door. I sneak attack the robot remaining apprentice.  It says, “System Failure. System Failure.”  It lands and becomes visible.  It goes berserk, whirling its arms and hits, Arturo, Brocktha, Sylvanus, and me.  Hiedt shoots two more crimson lasers, and damages the robot.  Brocktha slices this one up too, and it explodes; the banging and shrieking stop. We go to the top floor and search.  We find scrolls of air, gaseous form potions, spell books, and rods of wind.  We look through the telescope and see a city of ice and metal.  Tiny blue figures walk around the city.  Charisma identifies it as the city for the air genies.  We take a long rest. We go back to Xoud’s room, and open the electrified door.  There are no gearsmen, but the mushroom is still there.  Hiedt shoots, and kills it in one hit.  It doesn’t scream.  Sylvanus casts a hide spell on us (shadow monk’s ability to pass without trace) and we sneak down the stairs.   At the bottom we see five gearsmen like constructs with transparent shields and metal maces.  They all bear the symbol of the Technic League.  We stealth past them and go through the door they are guarding.  There is a corridor that turns right.  We turn with it and see a door.  We continue down the corridor and see another door.  The corridor curves to the right.  We turn too, and see two doors.  The corridor turns right again.  We turn too, and see a last door.  The corridor ends at the door.

We can hear a loud humming coming from the last door.  We enter. There is a huge, hot kind of stove to the right.  Pipes go to the ceiling.  In the center of the room is a huge blue ball thing with white blades coming out of it.  Desks and bookshelves are to the sides of the room.  Behind the blue ball is a door.  A sign at the top says, “Lab 0.”  There are four holes beside the door.  Around the room are four Technic League people.  One is a wizard, and the other four are hirelings. Arturo assassinates the wizard, and he falls to the ground dead in one shot.  One Technic League grunt pulls out a giant needle, and chucks it in the air.  It starts circling Arturo, and every now and then, it dives at him.  Hiedt shoots one grunt, and Sylvanus punches the same one.  He groans and dies.  Brocktha hits one with his chain sword, and slices him in half.  I sneak attack another grunt.  Charisma casts magic missile at the same grunt, and he dies with holes in him.  Lightning emerges from Tufast’s hand, and it burns the last grunt.  After a few minutes, the needle stops spinning, and drops to the ground. We search the room and find some notes and letters.

It looks like the Technic League has been here for a few weeks, and is trying to open the Lab 0 door.  There are letters to someone.  We examine the holes next to the door. One is the color of granite, the next one green, the one after that blue, and the last one is red. We put the rod with the number one in the granite hole.  A light turns on.  We need to find the other three keys it would seem.

Posted in Dungeons & Dragons, Game Log, Iron Gods

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