The Mad Artificer of Chaos World
General Summary
PCs: Ryke, C351SL, Kingra
Sidekick: Balsamic After installing the dimensional loop into the Orrery of the Wanderer, Procella, Ryke, Kingra, and Cecil figured out a way to use it to bend space and create a permanent doorway connecting Goblin Manor to Fastandia's Mansion. Waddling through the portal, Balsamic the mimic explored his newly expanded living space. Kingra heard noises from the Narrative Device room, and when they went to investigate, they were attacked by a group of rattar intruders led by an unhinged artificer equipped with arcane devices that shot powerful bolts of green lightning. The exchange of magical attacks caused stacks of books to be shredded, and a deadly arc of electricity caused the Narrative Device to malfunction. The mad artificer vanished in a tornado of torn pages. Recovering from the artificer's onslaught, the team examined the Device. It sparked and whirred, its planar compasses spinning, its indicators showing chaotic readings, and a great mass of ruined book pages swirled in a cavity. They determined that the malfunction had caused dozens of books to become activated at once, blurred together in an unstable, chaotic, pseudo-Book World. And the mad artificer was in there. The only way to reset the Device was to enter the disjointed world and remove the artificer's interfering presence. Injured from the fight, Procella would stand by and watch over the others. They prepared themselves and—including Balsamic!—entered the chaos. The adventurers found themselves in a bizarre landscape, with cyclopean ruins, strange moons in an alien sky, and unfamiliar plants and geologic formations. They rode a roaring vehicle down a dusty desert road. They too were changed by the chaotic magic: Cecil was a clawed combat machine, built of rusty scrap and refrigerator parts; Kingra was part plant, with woody skin and creeping vines; Ryke's prosthetic arm was modified with powers of electromagnetism; and Balsamic's wine-barrel body became an oozing metal drum of toxic waste. Throughout the adventure, magical and psionic powers and physical mutations and abilities would emerge, then change, seemingly at random. As well, they would find damaged and unstable weapons and equipment, of advanced and baffling technology, but in such disrepair it often had to be discarded after using. Their experience was muddled and staccato, different scenes flashing before them. They bartered with a mutated badger and elf for fuel and supplies; they fought giant radioactive beetles and predatory winged fish in a ruined factory; they drank radioactive beers in a junk town tavern served by a four-armed yeti. Huzzhik, the yeti told them of attacks by well-armed "squeakers"—his word for rat folk—and then the party fended off an attack by rattar, kitted out and physically modified with artificer-built technology like flame throwers, lightning guns, and poison vials. Swarming underfoot were venomous constructs in the shape of giant rats. With Huzzhik's advice, the party headed for the rattar lair in the ruins of a science lab facility. They fought a gang of wasteland bikers that gave chase on the road, left their car behind to cross a river of toxic goop, and evaded a giant mutated naked mole rat equipped with a head-mounted mining laser. In the lab, more artifice-wielding rattar and rat constructs greeted them, and the rattar artificer retreated deeper into his lair. He unleashed huge ogre-like rattar cyborgs that would have crushed the party, were it not for clever use of the hazards and equipment dotted around the room: they lured one beast under a giant vat of bubbling liquid and doused it in caustic fluids, then into a high powered particle accelerator that vaporised it. The other was engulfed in freezing coolant, rendering its cracked, raw flesh more susceptible to their attacks. During the fight, Ryke gained the temporary power to manipulate time, allowing him to slip outside the timestream to evade the creatures and tend to wounds. He inadvertently sent himself several hours into the future, and the party, not knowing his fate, had to finish the fight without him. Back in the Narrative Device room, Procella was startled when Ryke suddenly woke up—a side effect of the time power. He made a quick adjustment to the time settings of the Device, and the party were all able to gain a rest before proceeding to the final confrontation. Ryke re-entered the Device. Finally, they found the artificer in a room swarming with venom rat constructs. He attempted to activate a doomsday device, one of the city-killer weapons that had devastated the land in whatever mixed up history this chaos world had. The party fought him and his endless constructs to a standstill, exhausted and depleted of spells and powers, and then the rattar unleashed another massive, erratically arcing lightning bolt as a desperate last act. The bomb detonated. The artificer was shunted from the Narrative Device, and the party leapt up from the chairs and pummeled him into unconsciousness. Ryke and Cecil were finally able to stabilise the Device, and the chaotic energies were purged, and coalesced into a green shard of many shifting facets: the Gamma Fractal. It transpired that the rattar intruders had broken in searching for their unholy religious text, the Tome of Hungering Shadow. The artificer that led them had become distracted by the amazing technologies of the Device however, and had begun to investigate it when the party discovered them. How the rattar are gaining access to the library for their raids is a troublesome question.
Sidekick: Balsamic After installing the dimensional loop into the Orrery of the Wanderer, Procella, Ryke, Kingra, and Cecil figured out a way to use it to bend space and create a permanent doorway connecting Goblin Manor to Fastandia's Mansion. Waddling through the portal, Balsamic the mimic explored his newly expanded living space. Kingra heard noises from the Narrative Device room, and when they went to investigate, they were attacked by a group of rattar intruders led by an unhinged artificer equipped with arcane devices that shot powerful bolts of green lightning. The exchange of magical attacks caused stacks of books to be shredded, and a deadly arc of electricity caused the Narrative Device to malfunction. The mad artificer vanished in a tornado of torn pages. Recovering from the artificer's onslaught, the team examined the Device. It sparked and whirred, its planar compasses spinning, its indicators showing chaotic readings, and a great mass of ruined book pages swirled in a cavity. They determined that the malfunction had caused dozens of books to become activated at once, blurred together in an unstable, chaotic, pseudo-Book World. And the mad artificer was in there. The only way to reset the Device was to enter the disjointed world and remove the artificer's interfering presence. Injured from the fight, Procella would stand by and watch over the others. They prepared themselves and—including Balsamic!—entered the chaos. The adventurers found themselves in a bizarre landscape, with cyclopean ruins, strange moons in an alien sky, and unfamiliar plants and geologic formations. They rode a roaring vehicle down a dusty desert road. They too were changed by the chaotic magic: Cecil was a clawed combat machine, built of rusty scrap and refrigerator parts; Kingra was part plant, with woody skin and creeping vines; Ryke's prosthetic arm was modified with powers of electromagnetism; and Balsamic's wine-barrel body became an oozing metal drum of toxic waste. Throughout the adventure, magical and psionic powers and physical mutations and abilities would emerge, then change, seemingly at random. As well, they would find damaged and unstable weapons and equipment, of advanced and baffling technology, but in such disrepair it often had to be discarded after using. Their experience was muddled and staccato, different scenes flashing before them. They bartered with a mutated badger and elf for fuel and supplies; they fought giant radioactive beetles and predatory winged fish in a ruined factory; they drank radioactive beers in a junk town tavern served by a four-armed yeti. Huzzhik, the yeti told them of attacks by well-armed "squeakers"—his word for rat folk—and then the party fended off an attack by rattar, kitted out and physically modified with artificer-built technology like flame throwers, lightning guns, and poison vials. Swarming underfoot were venomous constructs in the shape of giant rats. With Huzzhik's advice, the party headed for the rattar lair in the ruins of a science lab facility. They fought a gang of wasteland bikers that gave chase on the road, left their car behind to cross a river of toxic goop, and evaded a giant mutated naked mole rat equipped with a head-mounted mining laser. In the lab, more artifice-wielding rattar and rat constructs greeted them, and the rattar artificer retreated deeper into his lair. He unleashed huge ogre-like rattar cyborgs that would have crushed the party, were it not for clever use of the hazards and equipment dotted around the room: they lured one beast under a giant vat of bubbling liquid and doused it in caustic fluids, then into a high powered particle accelerator that vaporised it. The other was engulfed in freezing coolant, rendering its cracked, raw flesh more susceptible to their attacks. During the fight, Ryke gained the temporary power to manipulate time, allowing him to slip outside the timestream to evade the creatures and tend to wounds. He inadvertently sent himself several hours into the future, and the party, not knowing his fate, had to finish the fight without him. Back in the Narrative Device room, Procella was startled when Ryke suddenly woke up—a side effect of the time power. He made a quick adjustment to the time settings of the Device, and the party were all able to gain a rest before proceeding to the final confrontation. Ryke re-entered the Device. Finally, they found the artificer in a room swarming with venom rat constructs. He attempted to activate a doomsday device, one of the city-killer weapons that had devastated the land in whatever mixed up history this chaos world had. The party fought him and his endless constructs to a standstill, exhausted and depleted of spells and powers, and then the rattar unleashed another massive, erratically arcing lightning bolt as a desperate last act. The bomb detonated. The artificer was shunted from the Narrative Device, and the party leapt up from the chairs and pummeled him into unconsciousness. Ryke and Cecil were finally able to stabilise the Device, and the chaotic energies were purged, and coalesced into a green shard of many shifting facets: the Gamma Fractal. It transpired that the rattar intruders had broken in searching for their unholy religious text, the Tome of Hungering Shadow. The artificer that led them had become distracted by the amazing technologies of the Device however, and had begun to investigate it when the party discovered them. How the rattar are gaining access to the library for their raids is a troublesome question.
Report Date
03 May 2022
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