Session 13: Lava Ladders Report
General Summary
Nora Pandost pushes Indigo Team to join in group study sessions with the new book. She soon becomes concerned about where all the books she copied went. When pressed, the party responds thusly:
- Lilmeia Garibaldi hides blank pages in a generic cover
- Graham White gave his copy to Brianna, helping her study. Nora has a lot of questions.
- Ulfgar Shadowhammer says he gave it to someone who already knew about the portal. He’s not saying anything else about it.
- Zeke Abd Al Rashid is just happy to be there.
The party reports to the portal room for the next mission. Yupukesumera and Harold Jehan are there observing, which is unusual. However, when the probe goes through the report gives a temperature of around 1500 degrees and a toxic atmosphere. With no way to go through the portal and live, the party wraps up. They are on break for another 2 days.
In the downtime, Nora, Missed, and Zeke join Graham on a trip to the Morgrave cafeteria in an attempt to locate Brianna. They spot Brianna across the cafeteria, but by the time they make their way over Brianna has gone. The others at the table say she went to the bathroom, but Missed and Nora are unable to locate her.
Late that night, around 12:30am, an alarm wakes the party and sends them racing to the portal room. A crowd of techs are gathered around the door trying to get in. Missed arrives first and quickly picks the lock. The party arrives by the time the door is unlocked, and they race inside.
In the portal room the party finds everything quiet. Then, without warning, the portal opens. A moment later the glass from the control room shatters, and a stick is thrown from the control room toward the portal. Missed acts quickly, shooting the stick out of the air as a precaution. By now the portal crew are pouring into the room trying to get the portal closed. The party scatter around the room attempting to assist. Unbeknownst to them, two of the techs grab a ladder and, when the opportunity strikes, they use the ladder to create a tunnel from one end or the portal to the other. Lava begins to the flow into the portal room. The two attackers pause, ready to die.
Missed incapacitates one with an arrow, the other throws themselves into the lava before he can be stopped. The party works together brilliantly to stop the lava flow, thereby closing the tunnel in the portal. This good news, since if their plan failed Zeke (who had found and equipped the Drukar) was going to throw himself through the portal himself so he could close the portal on his own. This would absolutely kill him.
Fortunately, Zeke's sacrifice turns out to not be necessary.
The immediate danger now passed, the party realizes the Portal Council has arrived, along with Bugdul Gular , Helna Gearwaddle , and Christine Chapple . Yupukesumera goes to the torched body of the dead attacker and starts to take rubbings. He later explains this is for the Draconic Prophecy.
A short time later, all of the major players are in the conference room along with a few techs and soldiers to give a full accounting. Here is the summary:
Shortly before midnight two tech staff presented themselves before the night watchmen outside the portal room. They explained they needed to retrieve equipment. They had the proper clearance and were admitted. The soldiers did not realize there was a problem until the door suddenly locked from the inside. They called in the overnight techs for help. Separately, Yupukesumera sounds the alarm to wake Team Indigo and get them onsite. He doesn't know what is happening, but the prophecy indicated he should take the step.
The details now known, Geoffrey Boulderdown insists on "interrogating" the prisoner. Graham volunteers to assist. Almost everyone else departs. Only Yupukesumera, Order, Bugdul Gular , and Missed stay to observe. Professor Jehan also stays, though he busies himself in the corner making a cup of tea.
Boulderdown confirms his suspicions. The prisoner is a member of the Emerald Claw, a terrorist group, and is also a follower of the Blood of Vol. He and the other attacker were a two man cell. They were told to get jobs on The Portal Project and lay low, reporting to a mystery person. That same mystery person ordered the attack, and they were prepared to die to make it happen. Boulderdown fulfills this objective.
Soon, only Yupukesumera, Order, and Graham remain, cleaning up the remains of the now-dead terrorist. Graham learns three items of import in these final moments:
- Almost all of the members of all portal teams are there due to some outside force pushing. The notable exception is Nora.
- Team Indigo is the only team currently operating at 100%.
- Yupukesumera insisted on the specific members for Team Indigo. The common belief was this grouping was not a good one, and would not last long. However, Yupukesumera insisted, saying it was required by prophecy. The others relented, as he rarely insisted on anything in this manner.
Rewards Granted
Party reaches level 5
