Laboratory Inspection

Discovery, Scientific

The yet-to-be-named Sapphire Oath  delve into the laboratory of Opcurious Tiburs to get to the bottom of the mystery and save the expedition leader Dario Rebić.

After the doppelganger debacle and agreeing to aid the expedition for Guilt, Greed, Glory, and maybe even a bit of Goodness, the tentatively name “Original 4G” had a night to rest. Despite Marduk still feeling a bit of exhaustion from the day before, it was decided that they couldn't wait for him to be fully rested. If the doppelganger had taken expedition leader Dario Rebić back to the laboratory, they did not know how many other shapechangers or other dangers threatened the merchant or the expedition in general.
  Before heading out, Emmon Tunnely returned to the party offering his services as a confidante for the party. While measures had been taken to form close knit ties between the guards and laborers to double check identity, no one knew the adventurers so well as to be able to do that. Maybe if he went with, he could vouch for them. While appreciative and initially a bit suspicious, the crew could see the the fear in the halfling's eyes and hear the quaver in his voice. This isn't something he wanted to do but felt an obligation to help in any way he could. The general response of the party led by Marduk was that while Emmon's idea was appreciated, it was foolish in practice. If the party were infiltrated and replaced, that meant the situation was bad enough that Emmon too would quickly be grabbed. Either the party was true or it would be false and little Emmon wouldn't be able to withstand the tide.
  The party marched their way back to the excavation site. While yellowed grass remained, so did the destruction of the blights. Soil remained upturned, no refuse was removed and no renewed life had grown. For the first time since the dig had begun, strained life had not crawled back over the facility. The door into the pitched and slant front door was still thrown open from where Marduk had left it. The campaigns climbed down into the heavily slopped.
  The initial chamber was large, taking up the majority of the building that had been uncovered. The stone floored room seemed to be a combination muck and storage room, separating outdoor life from indoor. Crates, barrels, and clay storage vases filled the room, dividing out labor tools, wood, rope, and natural resources like bone, antler, and leather. A trudge of footprints through the dust and grime led to a door going further in. Sliding over to it, the door was pulled open to reveal a slanted living space. A window to the left was torn open with both dirt and light pouring inside. This was the hole the manic Colter had crawled out from. Across the room beyond the large central table was a broken cage, likely where Colter had been moments before that.
  The companions searched the room. Notes on the table detailed food production and usage on a daily regimen as well as monthly and yearly trends. Searching a chest-of-drawers, a cracked leather roll of hand tools were found. No definitive answers yet. The far end of the room had a set of stairs going deeper but there was one final room yet to check upstairs, a door on the righthand wall that likely led to a “mainfloor” room still complete entombed in earth due to the slant of the building.
  Opening the door, the companions found the final third of this house to be finely stocked kitchen. Baskets and barrels of produce, work stations, a complete set of functional plumbing. Despite this, things were off. Most obvious was the produce. All of it was rubbery and gray with only hints of their original colors or textures. The plumb fruits did not leak their juices when cut and the flakey cabbages stayed compact unless torn apart. The water was stagnant but treated to be potable. A closed system. In a pitcher in the room was more of the smooth, chemical clay. Knowing they wanted to dispose of it but not wanting to waste time, Ravel placed the pitcher in the main room's Duggout hole before the companion's continued their way downstairs.
  Marduk took the lead into the dark. The deeper the descent, the more the stairs wobbled back to a mostly level directionality. While never perfect, the overall terrain evened out. Masoned walls, ceiling and floor created a landing that then turned to the right. A dim light shone out from around the corner which greatly aided the party, each of them of a lineage of heightened vision. Marduk rounded the corner first to see a magical candle mounted on the far wall of antichamber. The antiechamber served as a hub between the wider staircase descent to this level and narrower paths both left and right to get deeper into the dungeon. On either side of the candle stood two sets of tarnished and rusty suits of armor. The guardian suits were old and derelict but still did their best to fulfill their purpose on Marduk's approach.
  Grinding filled the stone corridors as they sprung into action. The companions jumbled forward to Marduk's aid as this fight was not as cohesive or efficient as previous endeavors. While rusty and not nearly as impenetrable as they might have been in the past, the suits put up while the fight. Their punches and tackles impacted hard across the party as the heroes found themselves fumbling against them. Companions either moved into the center of areas preventing large blasts from targeting both foes or they ran to take the exact spots others were planning filling just a second later. Despite this, victory was assured if not slowed. Beatle's enchantment sent one suit crumbling to the ground for a moment while Ravel and Lord Sapphire assaulted them with lightning and frost. Marduk's blows rent through the corroded metal as Beatle's expert sword play scratched away at the empowering runes within the armor.
  In the end, the guardians were defeated but not before doing a number on the party. However, if these were the guardians of the laboratory, hopefully there wouldn't be many other extraneous threats. The companions took a breather, tended to wounds, and examined the area. The candled connected into the wall shown with magic light itself rather than any flame atop. Lord Sapphire identified that while the enchantment was lasting, it was fragile, and removing the candle forcibly would likely plunge the area back into darkness.
  Delving deeper, Marduk took the lead once again. Choosing the west hall rather than the east, the companions moved single file into the darkness beyond light. The driftglobe was proposed for light but it was denied for the sake of stealth. This choice would quickly be reversed when Marduk wrapped around a serpentine turn to trigger an old trap that sent a large metal spike grinding out of the wall. Marduk evaded the spike which let it fully extend causing a thunk as the trap broke, leaving it protruding into the hall. Realizing that the combination of exhaustion and reliance on darkvision made the tell-tale signs of traps harder to identify, Ravel took the front with the driftglobe out to shine light on all.
  The hall extend long and straight to the south following the spike's pointed direction. Ravel led the party forward getting nearly to the end when two new changes occurred. A path branched to the east both in the the hall and the way forward also turned east. More noteably as Ravel's attention was forward, she could see a trace of an arcane rune upon the far end of the long hall signifiying a magical trap. Lord Sapphire called out that the rune was for evocation magic. This spooked Ravel causing her to jump into the side corridor to get out of the line of the hall... just for her to trigger a spark and spray from a ceiling nozzle flooding the side path with flame. The companions pulled her back out and put her out. After some discourse, the companions felt it best to retreat to the northern end of the long hall, tuck around the corner, and set off the magic trap from a distance. Lord Sapphire leaned around the corner to fire their crossbow at the sigil at the far end causing it to erupt into an electrical explosing, a line of lighting filling the hallway. While some managed to reach out and tag the sorcerer around the corner, the bulk of the damage was held at bay by pulling everyone from the hallway and the combination of taking cover and being behind the broken spike trap that served as a lightning rod.
  With the trap sprung, the companions rushed back down the hall in case it was recharging its power to get around it's corner and find themselves into another lit chamber though this one much larger, sprawling into a complex. Twenty-five foot wide halls went East, West, and South. Additionally, though, there was a darkened hall right across from them that was likely connected to the path untaken after the animated suits of armor. Instead of continuing deeper, the companions backtracked to fully explore the small maze of traps to ensure not secret treasure vaults were missed. Sub cooriddors were found connecting the east and west trapped halls with two, waist high swinging glaive traps identified along the way.
  Returning to the dungeon's well-lit core intersection, they pondered their options further. The junction had a sewer grate in the center that sounded with flowing water. The East hall was slightly crumbling with three doors and the sides of the hall with a table at the far end. The West hall was a quarter as long with a heavy set of reinforced double doors keeping it closed. The South Hall had similar doors at the end though they were splintered and broken down. Even at a distance, a cauldron could be seen steaming over coals. South it would be.
  The companions entered into the work chamber for everyone to now easily smell the mineralized chemical scent Ravel had identified in wolf form. On a side table the companions found a pile of papers filled with notes on different people in the expedition, research for future stolen identities. Not far away the companions for the corpse of the man the information was likely siphoned from. Ravel took a moment to say a prayer and found a bone ring to return to their family at a later time. At the far end of the chamber, a series of vials, beakers, burners, and such other equipment that Ravel took for her Alchemical and Herbalist skill sets. Among the work they also found two potions, one for immediate trauma (healing potion) and one for system problems (Elixir of health). A long lasting toxin was also found but after some debate of its use either in the drinker water here or later problems, it was decided that both the toxin and the notes should be burned.
  Seeking to destroy as much as they could, the companions then used broken pieces of door to make a skit to haul the bubbling mud cauldron to the intersections sewage grate. Dumping the contents down, splashes turned into a greater rush of water as the mass of mud had narrowed the area of flow. The pressure did then begin to wisk the mud westward. Moments later though, a splattering could be heard from beyond the heavy western doors. Tentative on if they had just made their own drowning flood trap, they party confirmed no water was leaking from under the doors before opening it.
  The Large chamber contained two supporting pillars, with a chair between them. Centered on the far wall was a statue that stood floor to ceiling holding a vase that poured water out on to an ornated grate below it. Standing under the flow of the water was a being made of sludge. Twice the size of Marduk, the clay man stood still under the water flow. Hands and feet were rough yet sculpted. The face had impressions for eyes though no defined ears, nose, or mouth. More mud was now splattering out of the fountain in spurts. Taking a moment to look around the rest of the room, a table to the near north corner sat covered in papers while the near south corner had more laboratory supplies.
  The companions approached the creature, attempting to as the creature questions. It's head traced the movments of the speakers though it didn't respond. Ravel attempted to physically interact with it wanting to check for illness or answers to it's solitary state under the waterfall. The creature began to below and swing it's arms in an upset tantrum but Beatle managed to call the creature with reassuring cooed words, subservient body posture, and pantomime. The golem remained clearly upset but did not continue the aggression. That is until Ravel went to look for any other usable equipment on the alchemy table. The large creature slid across the room in a sudden flurry of slick movement. It slammed down with both arms shattering the table and sending Ravel tumbling to the ground to not be caught in the flurry. Touching the stuff in it's room was a bad choice.
  The moments that followed were of protection and retreat. Beatle released mischief into the room, temporarily blinding the creature with water spraying flowers. The golem was disoriented and turned around in it's blindness, it's mental map turned over since there was only ever one source of water in the room. This allowed Ravel enough time to scan for any undamaged equipment before fleeing though not finding anything to take with. Lord Sapphire held to the doors ready to slam them shut when everyone got out. Marduk used the distraction to gather up the northern papers since it would be unwise to come back in here and touch things again. The companions stumbled through the door as the mischief turned from flowers to molasses to slow the golems chase. The slams of the tantrum could be heard from behind the door though it seemed reinforced for such occassions.
  Slowly, the companions caught their breath. Still no captive merchant. The east hall yet to go. Sneaking forward, the north wall had two doors, the second of which was open. The southern wall had a single open door. Marduk crept into the small room to see a handful of beds, most of them containing dried, jerky-like corpses. Wanting to investigate, the bugbear continued forward though buttressing his wait on the bed was almost a tragic moment caused a creak. The Creak caused a single dead head to snap in his direction. Stealthfully, the bugbear extricated himself from the room. Pulling his companions to the far wall, he informed them of the undead presence. They started to formulate a plan before being cut off by another noise, a struggling muffled noise from behind the closed door. Creaking the door open, this chamber was half the size of the other and only contained three beds. The left and the right had similar corpses. The center had a large, mustachioed man in his skivvies bound and gagged. As the panicked man struggled, both adjacent beds groaned as the corpses sat upright.
  As the zombies rose from their beds, the companions sprung into action. Working in unison, the team expertly picked apart the problem. Ravel conjured a beam of moonlight in the doorway to act as a searing defense when they had to funnel out. Before they could even fully leave the room, though, Beatle ensared the two zombies with a sleep spell. Marduk wisely called a warning that the other zombies would likely be active as well. As they piled from behind, Lord Sapphire magically masked herself from sight. Beatle blinded the front two of the rush causing them to amble outward towards no one. Marduk dealt with a final pair from a third door as the party gained momentum. From safety, Lord Sapphire pepper crossbow bolts. Marduk hacked large portions of zombies away as Ravel cleaned up the stubborn remains with her moon beam. Beatle danced between lullabies and fencing to support where ever he could.
  As the conscious zombies were taken care of, the party then began to elminate the unconsious once. Marduk cleaved, Beatle deboned, and Lord Sapphire madly churned their blade through rotting skulls like a mobster with an icepick. In the tempo though, the party did not eliminate one of them fast enough that turned it's ire on the bound merchant. It had commands to eliminate if disturbed. Ravel was faster though, finishing off the brutalized zombie with her searing light before lending a healing word to the bashed man.
  Freeing the barely clothed man, the companions then began an interrogation to ensure that this truly was Dario Rebić. The man was earnest to prove himself and to get to safety. He happily fell under Lord Sapphire's magical sway to confirm that he was not some aberrant monstrosity. Once he had proven himself, the companions finally took a moment to relax. Ravel approach the table at the far end of the hall to collect a pile of old coins and in doing so noticed the uneven false wall of a secret door. Despite finding a notable incident, the party withheld for the moment to better take care of themselves.
  As the party took their breather, Marduk began to sort through the information he had gathered from the golem chamber (Opcurious Tiburs Journal Summaries). In addition to having reference materials for future questions, he gathered a gist of what happened in the laboratory. Despite the danger of the golem, the doppelganger seems to have been the greater threat created within this laboratory. Opcurious Tiburs so much as acknowledged that it would be his doom after the forces of nature itself had swallowed up his laboratory as he worked.
  Wishing to finish up what they could before returning Dario Rebić to the camp, the merchant was instructed to close himself up into one of the zombie holding chambers as the crew continued on. Opening the secret door, the party found a narrow hall leading to small office. A spiked log hung from the ceiling by chains, a long sprung trap the doppelganger had not been able to reset. Within the main room, the companions found a desk covered in a thick adhesive as well as a locked chest. It took a while, but the crew eventually managed to pick it to find good cause for their patience. A flask of alchemist fire was rigged to fall if improperly opened. In addition to collecting the incendiary flask the party gather coinage as well as a Scroll of Wither and Bloom.
  The table was treated far more harshly. With the adhesive covering it, the means of searching it was to concus the furniture with a crowbar to knock drawers loose and disshevel the items within. In the mess, the companions found an enchanted chisel made of adamantine. Going back to the notes Marduk was able to figure out that the item was called Golemwane. Marduk confirmed that the chisel had been used to make the golem but was therefore equally good at destroying constructs as well.
  After turning over the room, the companions carefully escorted Dario Rebić. Out of the laboratory and back to the encampment, the party returned to an applause. Colter took the lead in the cheers, stirring morale at the victory. Colter went so far as to begin showing Rebić's appreciation for him promising the companions rooms within the merchant's home for a vacation if the heroes joined the caravan back to Argil. The encampment had a lively night in catharsis knowing that they would have to pack up what they could for the failure of a return journey in the coming days.