S3E4 - We'll Cross That Glyph When We Get There

General Summary

Triumvirant Council - Vortica and the other leaders of Valtara
Reminder: The founding council consisted of Vortica of the Izzet League, Oleg Strelinko, a Tortle of the Simic Combine, and the sphinx Raelesa, of the Azorius Senate.
Zedd doesn't know that Theo has taken the documents in the lab. He is arriving back at the lab with the Guild Signet #3: Gauntlet as Theo returns to the foyer.
He was one of the last automatons created before stasis. He has 2-4 weeks worth of Mizzianite, so he doesn't want to give us a tour. He'd rather be straight to work.
Dream asks him about what research they've performed on the gauntlet. Normally, a lot of tech is used to use/control/direct the flow of Mizzium, but he's able to do it with just the gauntlet, for both power level and direction. But he says that he doesn't have information on what the research itself was, becasue it happened thousands of eyars ago, and the researchers died before he was activated.
Dream casts identify on the gauntlet: Confirms this is one of the signets. It currently doesn't have the guild pact signature active. It says in technical terms all that we've just learned from it. The Duke pulls out his ALUR, and it indicates that the guild pact magic is above him.
Kraterillin still has guild pact magic running through him, in the fungus that's on him. That's what the sentries detected and why they woke up Zedd. Zedd looks at Kraterillin like...he's the solution.
So...we need to look for a way to put guild pact magic into the automatons if we want to save them and bring them back to Ravnica. Teri's fungus feels normal, but his self-insight check makes him sense that he doesn't belong here. The Guild Pact magic's purpose is to not be here, or that something's existance here is to not be around guild pact magic. "It's been brought into the clean room."
The barracks are locked down. We can't go in.
The lab/spire should have some sort of independent generator, says Zedd. They looked for as much ass they could, but the spire was generally avoided by the automotons.
Theo asks Zedd what happens if we need time to make a device to detect Mizzianite, since he has limitied time. He says he won't shut down while we're here. Then he asks what our first steps are. Teri says food, water, and shelter.
Zedd directs us to one of the farms, that look like overgrown Carvana-like green houses. He's going to look around for a power source while we find food.
It is earily silent as we walk. The only movement is created from the breeze. The tech around us looks more advanced than we've seen in Ravnica, even though it's from almost 7k years ago.
Outside of the buildings, we see large blocks of diffused Mizzianite. They're connected to the building via wires. We haven't seen this in Ravnica, because Mizzium is created by beings connected to the Weave, or via energy creation. Mizzium usually dissapates, but these things look like Mizzium storage (batteries - although we don't know what batteries are).
With his Detect Magic up, The Duke notices that his spell isn't running out; he doesn't have to recast it.
Teri and Theo notice that there isn't much security on the buildings. There is some from the war that was built after, but otherwise it gives off the vibe that there was lots of societal trust.
In the green house, the dirt looks dry on the ground floor. As we look up, all of the floors look the same. But at least we have water from the lake.
Where we're at the greenhouse, the ALUR spoints back to the spire. So we go back. We don't see Zedd right away, so we start looking around in the lab. There's storage and conference rooms. We come upon a thick, inert mizzianite door that's sealed shut. There's a panel on the side of the room that we infer would've controlled it. It has symbols, and numbers in common. The Duke casts Knock, and he hear something move behind it, but it's still not opening. Teri manages to pull it open. Zedd walks up as we open it, surprised that we found it. It's a stairwell that goes both up and down.
Spiral staircase made of steel and concrete. We go downstaris first. It's covered in dust and cobwebs. The walls are covered in those Mizzianite batteries, like 15 of them. There's a generator in the room. The Duke asks Zedd if these will work, and he says he thinks so. Then the Duke asks if Zedd can tell if it's inert or not. Zedd puts his hand on it, and says that it has Mizzium in it. The Duke recognizes that the generator needs fire to create Mizzium.
The party splits. Dream, The Duke, and Zedd stay downstairs to try to power the Mizzianite. Teri and Theo get the layout of the other floors. Teri starts collecting firewood for the generator, with Zedd helps him.
2nd floor: vortica's living space 3rd floor: office buildings 4th+ floor: labs. Theo grabs any journals or notes.
Dream initially uses firebolt, and then we make an old fashioned fire inside of the generator.
Dream fills Zedd in. We want to bring the five of us back. We may not be able to help Zedd, but we can help him help his people. He is rather understanding that we probably can't return the whole city. He doesn't want another war. his hope is that we can find a bridge to bring him in/out of Valtara. He wants to bring a few more than just himself.
Izzit scientists thought that the Mizzium could be renewed but never figured it out.
As we're setting up camp, we hear a thump coming from behind one of the batteries. The Duke's detect magic senses a small orb. A little golden orb with feathers and a singular eye peaks out. We hide. It hops out on two legs. It has two arms. Metallic. The feathers look decorative. It's an old sentry drone. Dream messages Zedd to go say hi.
The thing runs, and we corral him. He's been out for over 1100 years. He was an assistant to Vortica. After the lab was shut down and the council died, he hid. When he went into standby there were still rebels trying the end of the war. Ro4M
We ask him to be our lab assistant now. He says that there probably isn't enough energy. He plugged himself into the generator in the hopes that someone would turn it back on. He is familiar with the lab and all of it's different tools, so he can direct us to the right places. We ask about any multi-dimmension travel. He can take us to the Ro4M tells us about a secret tunnel to the mines below behind one of the batteries. They connect a few different mines and experiments. That's how he can take us to the tunnel.
Get into the tiny hut. Dream looks over the notes that Theo took from Vortica's lab. There's a beacon at the top of the spire that has a low power transmitter; a beacon back to Ravnica. LONG REST.
Ro4M reports that most everything in the spire was...consumed by the automotons. The only place with anything left is the beacon.
We head to the next lab, following Ro4M through the mines. The Duke has Detect Magic running. MO: Ro4M, Teri, Dream, Zedd, The Duke, and Theo 30ft back, in the dark. The mines are definitely out of working order. Some parts look picked clean. The Duke pings some lines of magic in the floor, in a circlular shape. Dream can tell that it's a Glyph of Warning. After we all cross safely, she uses Floating Disc so that Zedd doesn't have to step on it, but once he crosses the threshold, a wall of fire shoots up between the party and The Duke, who is caught between the flames and the trap. On the other side of trap is another wall of fire. The two walls start moving in towards each other. Dream and The Duke try to Dispel it and both fail before Dream can finally break the encantation.
We think Zedd shouldn't come with us, since he set it off. We decide to keep going and make the decision if we see another glyph.
Teri notices a lifted plate that's covered in dirt. He pokes the floorplate while the rest of us hide farther away. A gelatinous cube drops from the ceiling. After the combat, The Duke figures out that his non-concentraition spell (Mirror Image) lasted x20 it's normal time.
We reach a metal door in the mine. Ro4M wipes off a panel, and states that theres no power. Zedd uses the gauntlet to power on the panel and open the door. There's a large room with a raised platform across the room. On the platform is a circular device, 8-10ft high, 8ft across. There are columns in the room; not all have remained standing. We see another large battery and a smaller generator.

Report Date

03 Jun 2024