Session 25: Bringing Online

The party investigates a subterranean warforged staging ground, pushes a button, pulls some levers, and runs into a familiar adversary.

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Dormant Mechanisms

Faced with a strange, dark, wide open space, the party was cautious about moving forward. Tentatively moving throughout the chamber, and inspecting what they find, the party identifies a variety of strange etched pillars, dark etchings on the floor, and a large crystal towards the center of the room. Some of the pillars seemed to have bands of dark material at various heights, and some of the floor etchings led to side rooms, where the party found large machines that seemed forged for war. In the opposite side room, Tilly encountered what seemed an army of warforged, albeit inactive, like an army of statues.   At the far end of the main chamber, a structure rose out of the floor. Strange machinery submerged in water seemed to bookend it from the sides, and Therrik cautiously took some of the water into his waterskin. Tilly identified a side room off to the right, where the floor etchings also seemed to enter, although it has yet to be explored. Instead, the party pushed into the structure's main chamber from the front, encountering a strange black pillar, with an etched ring on the floor around it. 6 inactive warforged stood along the edges of this circle, and a panel of sorts with an inset for a gem stood next to it. Tilly noted immediately that the gem she had taken from the tower in the desert is a likely fit; but with the inactive army still fresh in their minds, the party erred on leaving it be for now, opting to climb a strange spiral ramp to the floors above.   High above, the next room appeared barren, although one entire wall seemed of glass, and darkness on the other side. The party continued above to find a room full of machinery. A pair of hatches, a pipe with its own hatch, and a sort of pedestal and display were all present. Along the floor was a grid-like pattern of the glassy, black material that seemed to fill the etchings of the first chamber. The party was careful to avoid stepping on them as they explored the room.  

Setting things in Motion

Investigating the pipe, Tilly finds a big red button on a wheel of sorts. Therrik, excited to see what all of this stuff does, happily turned the wheel while she pushed the button. The resulting sounds of rushing water, whirring equipment, and loud clangs and bangs in the distance, put the entire party on alert. The pipe began filling with water, forcing Tilly and Therrik to flee, but not before taking some hits getting thrashed around, along with Fork waiting at the entrance. Brian was able to close the pipe, and the party took a moment to plan their next move. One of the sounds that they had heard, was the locking mechanisms on the other two hatches opening; so they took tentative peeks inside, to find a pair of levers. Despite Brian's protests, Tilly and Therrik pulled them in unison, which lit up the central panel with something of a puzzle.   The puzzle seemed to have to do with the light spectrum, and the party quickly worked it out. With a hum, the room illuminated. What had once been a black grid along the floor now glowed bright blue. The crashing and booms from below seemed to have somewhat subsided, and the party, with nowhere else to go, decided to descend back down. In the room with the large glass wall, they could now see the main chamber below; the black etchings on the floors and pillars now all glowing bright blue. Descending further in to the main chamber with the circle of warforged, they were met with a familiar voice in their heads. "Thieves! Tresspassers! Forged, kill them, retrieve the dreamer!" The creature that had attacked them in the desert tower was standing in the doorway. It stepped out of the room, the entrance closing behind him, as the warforged hummed to life, their eyes glowing blue.   As the rest of the party are engaged by the warforged, Tilly goes invisible, intent on getting the gem into the inset they had seen before. After a few exchanges of blows, she successfully installs the jewel, and the black pillar rises, to reveal yet another warforged. But this one seems different, and as it... awakes? It says, "I was having such a nice dream, where am I?" Tilly beseeches this golden eyed warforged for help, and he draws a pair of axes to him before aiding the party in wiping out the rest of the blue eyed enemies.   As the party gets their bearings at the end of the fight; healing up on Therrik's healing spirit, and Vita contemplating leaving bear form, Fork finally gets a good look at the warforged, and realizes with a start that it's an old acquaintance of his.