Session 98: A home by any other name Report

General Summary

Jeeves asked Bastion to wait a moment while he climbed up the wall and looked in a door from the rooftop defenses. Seeing no threats at the top of the stairs, Jeeves signaled down for Bastion to proceed up. Bastion walked upstairs, finding a hallway and an open door to a large room. Entering the room Bastion noticed a chest, which he tried to unlock. A cloud of blue-white gas erupted, and Bastion found himself with blurred vision.

When Bastion's vision cleared, he saw that he was now standing on a small pillar just emerging from a pool of lava stretching as far has he could see. A short distance away, he saw an imp fluttering above the lava. Bastion tried to communicate, but found the imp was speaking some sort of fiendish language he could not understand. Bastion cowered a bit as the imp approached, but the imp moved back. A Chain Devil soon arrived, and Bastion again cowered. The lava, throughout, was not still, and occasionally splashed Bastion, melting his metalic form. The Chain Devil approached, towering above Bastion, and drooled a black vitriolic spittle on Bastion, while Bastion just cowered in fear. Suddenly, as the spittle struck Bastion's shoulder, his vision went blurry again, and he found himself kneeling on the floor, with Roisin on a bed next to him crying tears that splashed on his shoulder with brief flashes of golden light.

When Bastion was engulfed in the gas, Boris looked in, and saw Bastion looking woozy. As Boris approached, Bastion cowered in fear, and began to make a noise with a condensed series of squeals, tones, and static sounds. Boris backed up, then called in Roisin. Roisin entered the room, and asked Bastion what was going on, while Bastion continued to make the strange noises. Roisin decided to climb up on a bed next to Bastion, and use her pure-hearted tears to heal his hurts. When her noble tears fell upon the metallic man's shoulder, his eyes cleared and he looked up at her normally. Bastion asked if he had been in the room the whole time, and Roisin and Boris confirmed this. With Roy's help they quickly realized Bastion had been subject to a pernicious magical effect that trapped the mind, temporarily, in a form of nightmare. Boris opened the chest, and received a small cluster of darts to the face for his trouble, but managed to shrug off the shadowy force that tried to take his will. Boris found, within the chest, some common clothing, a canister pale-blue almond-like seeds, and a spool of 1/4" thick rope that seemed unusually strong and light. Boris ate one of the seeds, vomited up a bit of breakfast, and laid down complaining he felt extremely overfull. Bastion conducted a ritual to detect magic while Roy conducted a ritual to identify the seeds. Roy explained that the seeds are called "Ration Seeds", a magical food source with each seed sufficient to supply all of the food and water needs for a single creature, even a large, huge, or gargantuan creature, for a full day. Leaving the other items for now, Bastion moved on to another room, walking past the firewood pile at the end of the hall. Entering the north-west room, Bastion found an extremely organized room. Bastion looked through the room, and found nothing of particular interest beside a chest with an extremely complex lock and some abjuration magic. Bastion realized this must be the room where the Locksmith had stayed. Boris ran down to ask the Locksmith for help. The Locksmith answered "Of course, I am happy to help...help...help me?" Boris led the Locksmith upstairs, where the Locksmith explained the room seemed familiar, recognized the lock as its own work, opened the lock, then explained "I think my memory banks are damaged. Will you please help me?" Bastion answered "I will when I can", as Boris asked "How can I help you?". The Locksmith responded "I am damaged, can you fix me?". Bastion explained he could, but it would take quite a long time. The Locksmith asked "I understand, can I stay here until you can help me? The ordered environment helps me function better.", and Bastion agreed to this. The group moved on to the last room on the second floor, and found some basic convenience magics on the fixtures of the room. Boris examined the two chests within, noting the high quality locks and construction, as well as the keys already in the locks. Boris turned the keys, finding the locks and chest hinges to be well made, well oiled, and completely silent. Within the chests Boris found two spools of the thin rope, and two canisters of Ration Seeds. Bastion went to analyze the Locksmith and spend the next hour doing so. Roy examined the room and found the magic in the room was basic conveniences and protections against intrusion. Boris, becoming a bit bored, tested the strange thin (1/4") rope. Boris found the rope exceedingly strong (strong enough to lift Jeeves), very "grippy", easy to grasp and unlikely to slip, easy to knot, and knots, once tied, are extremely difficult to untie. Jeeves tied a small knot in the end, then tried to cut the rope, but really only managed to dull a knife. They determined the rope could be cut quickly, but was very strong and exceptionally resilient. At 10 pounds for a 500 foot spool, this thin rope is also far lighter than normal hemp rope. Bastion eventually, through magical means, determined this rope to be a thing called HMPE Rope, and explained it could substitute for the bulkier and heavier hemp or silk ropes.

At this time Bastion completed his magical analysis and determined that the Locksmith was broken in that its gem magical core was cracked into 6 pieces. The only safe option was to remove and destroy the core. This would, in effect, kill the Locksmith, but was the only option to prevent the creature becoming uncontrollable and a danger to others. Bastion, explained to the Locksmith that he found the broken part. "Thank you, for helping me. Can you remove the broken part and replace it?" "I can do so." "Thank you, will it hurt?" "You will feel nothing." "That is good, it must be a minor brokenness, then. You are very kind, I think you are my friend. Thank you for helping me." Bastion then extracted the damaged core, causing the Locksmith to shut down and deactivate, then crushed the broken gem, suffering a bit of lightning damage to his own form, and observed as the shattered remains sublimated. Bastion explained to the others what had been done, and that he could, potentially, create a new core and reanimate the Locksmith as a new creature.

The party then explored the castle Donjon, finding a store room in the lowest level of the tower, with, among other common supplies, six more canisters of Ration Seeds, 3 more spools of HMPE Rope, a crate full of 200 small objects made of stacked metal plates with a U-shaped bar inserted at the top and a small slot opposite the bar. They also found a pair of crates containing what appeared to be unfired clay bricks of a soft grey material with small metal sticks and a fist-sized device in each crate. It took a bit of time, but the group figured out that these items were 200 Maestro Locks and 2 crates of Blasting Clay. Proceeding up to the lord's chambers, they found more crates of common supplies, and a magically trapped chest, which Roy triggered remotely and safely, which contained 50 bolts of Ballistic Cloth. Climbing to the roof, they gained a commanding view of the entire city and lands beyond, and also discovered a small wooden cage, which had remnants of former magic. Roy explained that this cage indicated there had been a thing called a "Blood Spawn" here, the result of foul blood rituals performed on humanoid children before birth to transform the child, at birth (which always ended when the mother bled to death), into an aberrant horror which could take over the bodies of others.

Satisfied that their newly acquired castle was now cleared and free of any remaining significant threats, the party finally went downstairs to enjoy a lunch with Traebeig, Hibiscus, and their children before resting the remainder of the day and starting their training the next morning.

Over the next few days the group of adventurers rested, reflected, and trained to recover and sharpen their skills. During this training and recovery time, Boris, experimenting with new magics, accidentally summoned a wall of blades, before spending a day to hallow the chapel he had built within the walls of the castle. When Boris completed the ritual, a surge of holy energy empowered that magic, protecting the entire castle and 60 feet beyond the walls. Jeeves, at that moment, began ageing rapidly, before dying of old age within a few minutes. Boris attempted to revive Jeeves quickly, and was relieved to see him recover immediately. Jeeves experienced a strange encounter with the Pale Queen, however, before inhaling deeply as Boris finished his magic to recall Jeeves' soul. After commenting that this encounter with the Pale Queen was not terribly uncomfortable, Jeeves experienced a brief flash of viewing a scene in hell wherein he saw his mother suffering, along with many other souls. Jeeves' mother, in particular, was being forced to engage in the same "business" she had in life, but with fiendish clients with hellish forms composed almost entirely of shapes designed to pierce, slash, crush, and/or tear. It took Jeeves some hours to recover his equilibrium after seeing that vision of the horror his judgement had wrought.

In another strange incident, Jeeves, while preparing to heal an injured peasant a few days later, felt cured of disease, but realized he couldn't contract disease, so it mattered little. In a similar manner, Bastion, while working the garden a day later suddenly felt an urge to remove his armor, which promptly dropped away leaving his bare root-like form exposed, and just kept gardening. A local person whom Jeeves had invited in for an examination, saw this ball of immature roots gardening, and ran from the castle screaming in terror.

Bastion spent time each day giving alms to poor beggars, and Jeeves, similarly, healed many of diseases and injuries, including teaching a local Chirurgen to stop bleeding people as a treatment. Both became somewhat well known in the area for their charity as a result, and stories of these "Roses" began to spread.

At the end of two weeks effort, Bastion placed the newly prepared diamond gem he had created within the still form of the Locksmith. The Locksmith glowed in a golden glow, and when that faded it appeared to be coated in gold, or perhaps even made from gold alloys. The Locksmith awoke and, commenting on how it seemed more capable than it expected, immediately conjured magics to ensure privacy within the keep, and place magical guards and wards throughout the keep. There was also a short conversation in Modron, which resulted in Bastion performing a brief reprogramming to ensure the Locksmith would behave appropriately with regard to biological life forms.