Like Clockwork
Revolution
23/9
29/9
The Bonner Boys help Lyr rescue his brother from Kadre Kadel, the Dwarven Gulag
Indigo’s eyes open, burning brilliant moonlight within them. He’s in a room at the inn near Haven Battlefield. That day they started the Council of Dragons so they celebrated here. They even agreed that, now that the threat of Dragons has been quelled, they would move to save Lyr’s brother Farney next. Everyone got good and wasted after that, meaning Indigo wakes up to see Daryl sleeping quite comfortably while Lyr tosses and turns. A nightmare where something is chasing him probably. Daryl would sleep soundly though, after finally fixing the Dragon problem he’s been dealing with for so long. Danger may still be out celebrating. Still, Indigo has a meeting to attend. Indigo stands, bathed in the fresh moonlight flooding into the room. A full moon. He hasn’t attended a Circle of the Moon meeting since Mirian. He takes a step and immediately slips on one of Lyr’s numerous bottles. The racket wakes both Daryl and Lyr. When Lyr asks where Indigo is going, Indigo throws it back on Lyr by telling him to clean up his goddamn mess. Lyr makes Indigo pass him the bag of holding so he can store them there. Indigo steps outside, he just wants to go for a midnight stroll. Heading downstairs, there are still some drunks in the bar. He heads outside. In the town, he can see Danger at a window smoking a joint and studying Sylvan before feminine hands draw him back inside. Out on a hill in the woods, Ludomir Imbirum XIV awaits in a beam of moonlight. He stares up at the stars. Tells Indigo to look with him. They see a star go out. He doesn’t know what’s doing it, but he’s happy it’s happening. Stars are little pricks of light pushing back his and his love’s beautiful darkness. Which reminds him, why didn’t Indigo have Braes consume the Shadow Seed? This must be done as soon as possible. Ludomir makes Indigo take control of Braes and force him to eat it. Whatever good that may still be in Indigo tries to resist this direct order, but ultimately fails. The dragon cries and fights. It burns on the way down. Indigo can feel it. That’s not all though, the effort causes his brass to spread inside his own body. His right hand now cracks with every movement, constantly in pain. Ludomir tells Indigo that he has plans, and Indigo will help him accomplish them. Stay with his friends, as they are Ludomir’s greatest threat, and take advantage of their attempts. For example, they are headed to Kadre Kadel next. The Dwarves have a very special stone there. The 24 Karat Star. It shines brighter the more one covets it. Indigo is to take that for him. And if he comes across a Revenant with two rapiers, kill it. Indigo runs into Danger on his walk back to the inn. Danger greets him in a totally normal fashion, typical of any such encounter if one were to run into someone they knew out on the town, but Indigo gives him the cold shoulder.
It’s raining heavily as Lyr leads the party up the mountain to Kadre Kadel. It’s the first time they’ve visited Kriegcastel since Sanguine sacked its capital. The difference is immediate. The border of Golems has collapsed. Unmoving bodies all around. Though they were never alive it’s still unnerving. They move into the woods as Lyr tells them how he escaped in the past. See, Farney’s automatons weren’t very well developed but he had managed to build a clockwork beetle in their time. He used one to mess with the steam vents in the gulag and open them, blinding the guards. The head guard, Slava, had taken Farney right before the plan was to be executed, but he had instructed Lyr to escape and come back for him. “He got out through the mill at the peak of the mountain, but there are other ways in like…” He trails off when he sees a beetle on a tree. A beetle made of metal. One made recently. Clear proof that Farney is still alive. They set it to return to its source and follow it to-- A riser; a small hut that can arise from or descend into the complex below. In it, four Dwarves. Danger throws Lyr inside, opening the fight. The other party members leap in as the riser descends underground. They, unfortunately, cannot stop a Dwarf from alerting the rest of the base to their presence. There will be enemies waiting for them when the riser finishes its journey. They pop off a Fog Cloud and with the added aid of Pass Without Trace, the party moves past a veritable swarm of clockwork Beetles and another humanoid clockwork soldier. Farney’s technology has improved. The party heads further and further downstairs, passing by the factory where all kinds of clockworks are being made. Here they discover plans for the Myrmidon, the most formidable clockwork yet. Finally, they arrive in Lyr’s old cellblock, and the guards finally take notice. Luckily the party is a well-oiled machine at this point. They take them out with ease and free all of the prisoners here; scientists and their families. They instruct them to wait for safety before making a run for it. At the base of the gulag, Slava waits with the Clockwork Myrmidon, holding a blade to Farney’s throat. She offers the party a choice. Defeat the troops the capital sent after her on the surface, and she will give them Farney and let them leave. Stay and fight her, and she guarantees Farney dies. The party agrees to fight the troops, but Daryl quietly casts invisibility on himself and takes position behind a control panel near Slava. The others head up to engineering, where Indigo clocks a vault with druidic writing on it. “In here.” Sheer curiosity overcomes the others who help Indigo open the vault. Inside is a small gemstone that shines brighter and brighter the longer they look at it. Indigo grabs it and stows it in his bag of holding, taking it back from Lyr. On the surface, they meet Johelm, who tells them he’s come to take Slava out before she can lead some kind of uprising during their country’s time of need. Lyr wants to have it both ways. He wants to save his brother by fighting these guys but he also wants to convince them to run. Dwarves don’t run. So Indigo creates a wall of fire around Johelm and his men, killing almost all of them instantly. He feels nothing. Together they take out the rest. Slava meets them up top and passes them Farney. She realizes Daryl is missing and asks where he is. Meanwhile, at the base of Kadre Kadel, Daryl presses the button that releases every prisoner in the mountain. Slava hears the carnage and runs inside with the Myrmidon. Daryl passes them on the way up. All's well that ends well it seems as the party reunites above a mountain in turmoil. Then a portal opens at the peak, spewing saltwater at them. No, four portals. One throwing water, the others fire, earth, and air. They fly above, where the four tears create a void between. And then it all ends. The party approaches him. A yellow man with a familiar staff. The one from the zoo in chapter 2. He’s bald, a slight goatee, and in his hands he gathers up five eggs. Cerulean, looking through Daryl, makes it clear; Those are dragon eggs. The man can’t speak much common, but he appears to beg the party not to destroy the eggs. Instead, they take them, and him, to the only group that can figure out what to do next.