Session XXX: Angel in the Core

Following a quick deliberation, the party decided to leave the planetouched Octaphasic Triangulation Laboratory and investigate the area known under the abbreviation "HSK," deep in the maintenance section of the facility. Upon returning, they were attacked in Department "SCh" by a combined force of floating, exploding, and telekinetically-attuned corrupted staff. In the course of the battle, Del'Gado successfully used a grenade, Jacqualine summoned a celestial spirit (which in turn destroyed a turned scientist), and Tropam cast Magic Missile, attuned to thunder damage, to utterly delete another. After the fight, Jacqualine and her summoned spirit used healing magic to partially recover from the damage the party sustained. Del'Gado used the unfortunate term "deflower" to refer to the party possibly bringing Caerlin back from his bouqeted self. The proposal was ignored by Jacqualine, who very much enjoyed the silence of his absence.   Entering the Logistics Division, the party becomes witness to a large amount of storage containers and a destroyed octagonal device, which they could deduce was a an LDA. Tropam and Del'Gado went around and investigated all containers whilst Jacqualine tried to make sense of the ruined LDA (which she could not). Tropam found a series of crates which housed malformed metal alloys termed "novamatter." He studied them further, and discovered that they were attuned with magic; narrowing it down, he concluded that they were attuned to different planes of existence. Tropam grabbed some of them. The party then entered the medical wing.   As the designated investigator, Tropam combed through the infirmary. Of note, he found medical files on professor Leonid Kirensky, which stated that he had suffered from some personal trauma ever since his son died. His behaviour had become even more erratic, and he frequently talked about strange events that had not occurred. Whilst the examiner recommended that Kirensky should serve under less demanding projects, this was ultimately rejected by the Head of Dimensional Research. Once the medical wing had been thoroughly searched, the party decided to have a rest before adventuring any farther. Tropam set up a place in the head doctor's office, but excused himself for a few minutes before casting Tiny Hut, citing "stomach problems." Jacqualine seriously doubted this excuse, and Del'Gado accompanied him to a bathroom, keeping watch outside.   Tropam was actually going to contact a higher entity from another plane to ask about his parents. This only had a small chance of backfiring into temporary madness; luckily, this did not occur. He received answers from an unknown, but chatty, being. Tropam asked if his parents were alive and if they were in Toril or the unending corridor maze: the being affirmed that they were alive but not in a place Tropam knew about. The being then speculated that Tropam was going to contact it again with more specific queries, and asked that he prepare himself for an unpleasant reality. Also, it asked Tropam to "look beyond the veil" on his new friends. Once Tropam returned to their resting spot, Jacqualine counter-communed with her deity, intending to catch Tropam in his lie. The deity responded audibly to Jacqualine's queries, and the harengon's deception was shattered on the spot. He explained why he had lied, and an argument about clear communication and general safety ensued. They eventually reached an agreement not to take unnecessary risks (such as by going mad), especially when in a dangerous environment, if they had safe means on hand to do so. Before resting, the party watered bouquet-Caerlin in toilet water.   The last area in the upper section was the Novel Engineering Department. Leaving no stone unturned, the party entered this part too. The main floor had several benches seemingly dedicated to the creation of ZRIs and some to the refinement of a specific sample of novamatter, Z-N1, into forked rods. The party found several work orders signed off by professor Kirensky, directing the department to fit all external exits (vents, central entry) with a variation of the inhibitor. Indeed, they discovered schematics that suggested that Kirensky had come up with the ZRI himself. The engineers were unsure what it was even supposed to protect against; the ZRIs' only distinguishing features were their fixed frequency and presence of a small amount of novamatter sample Z-N1.   After scouring through the main floor, the adventurers searched Chief Engineer Morozov's quarters. The Chief Engineer had decorated his office with a large stone mural and several paintings seemingly depicting heroic figures from an ancient age. Tropam found some notable items: a handwritten note by Morozov and books on alchemy and mythology. The note indicated that the Chief Engineer had listened in on a phone conversation between Kirensky and Director Zeldovich. During this conversation, Kirensky told the Director to seal the whole of Dimensional Research away if they ever lost communication with them: he referred to a specific sign for the event. The books were filled with notes by Morozov. Tropam found that the Chief Engineer seemed to have a specific interest in deities associated with thunder and in the character of Hermes Trismegistus: in particular the winged, serpentine staff that he brandished. The stone mural in the back seemed to depict just this figure, in addition a large world-tree. Del'Gado saw that the contour of the staff clashed very slightly with the rest of the mural. He told the party this, and Jacqualine went ahead to take a closer look. She recalled a useful spell for shaping stone, and directed the staff to point directly at the world-tree. This broke several undetected magical wards and opened the base of the world-tree, revealing a splendorous axe. Jacqualine used a spell to determine that this axe was magical in nature and Tropam identified it. The party acquired the Axe of Perun: a diminished, albeit still a potent, artifact once blessed by a god.   The only unexplored parts of Dimensional Research were now the vast maintenance sections and the HSK area. Tropam guided the party through maintenance without getting lost, and ended up in a staff break room that was located just before the HSK area. There was a board with notes from staff and management. Some stood out: one reminded staff to leave the premises at midnight on the third day after Mercury had been in retrograde. Another reminded personnel that clearance level 7 was needed to enter the monitoring chamber on mornings, level 9 at midday, and 9-T on evenings. After reading through this, the adventurers entered the HSK section.   The HSK area was a large, circular room containing a massive, cylindrical container. The monitoring station was located several floors up, overlooking the HSK container, which Tropam rushed to. Del'Gado walked around it, and Jacqualine received a message from her deity: she and the party should not investigate this further. Meanwhile, investigating this further, Tropam found the door leading to the monitoring chamber open, with two broken ZRI devices on the floor. He found a manual intended for staff. The HSK Reactor was the main power source for the entire facility. The manual contained a guide for the interpretation of vital signs, and informed staff how to keep these stable within the reactor. The term "shackled" was used unusually many times, and the only people that were ever permitted to open the reactor were professor Kirensky and a select staff of scientists related to project Open Horizon. On the way down, Tropam found an operator's note containing a verse that talked about angels, ending with the question "Have we imprisoned an angel?"   Once Tropam had returned, Jacqualine explained to the party that her deity warned them about this area and that they should leave immediately. She convinced her fellow adventurers, and they began leaving the HSK premises. However, Tropam started to argue with Jacqualine, telling her that someone was likely imprisoned inside, and that someone who worked here thought that it was an angel. Jacqualine countered by saying that if someone was inside, they were probably very angry now. The debate was now certifiably heated, and Del'Gado used this opportunity to silently leave and to sneak back inside the HSK reactor area. He located a small, tinted window on the top of the reactor that allowed him to see inside. Dressed in a suit that connected to machinery, a radiant woman with short, white hair was suspended within. Del'Gado saw no signs of her even being conscious, and noted that she was wearing an unusual bracelet on her left wrist. He tried to visually ascertain what this woman was, and could reason that it was a being from the Upper Planes: her striking appearance suggested, according to him, that she served a deity of distinct goodness and beauty. Shouting from the upper platforms, Del'Gado relayed what he saw inside to his bickering companions. When Jacqualine heard "goodness" and "beauty" connected, her clerical instincts (and absolutely not her luck) led her thoughts to Shelyn, the goddess of art, beauty, love, and music. She still insisted on leaving, but now Tropam felt confident enough to defy the eladrin's command. He successfully polymorphed her into a mouse (again, for the cleric's luck was not with her today). Tropam picked up both a very combative mouse and the bouquet formerly known as Caerlin.