COMPLETED: Explore the Greensward Bluff Catacombs

General Nimitz has discovered a plot set up by the Hawthorne family to reopen a secret passage from the castle grounds to the sea. He invites the party to come discuss more on the estate and to possibly answer any questions that the party may have. There he reveals some documentation leading him to his conclusion but nothing definitive. He would like the party to discover if there is such a passage and to secure it for garrison occupation.
The Regent is looking much more tired than he did just a few days previous when they saw him at the Dinner with the Duke. He's wayward and so gives concise response to all the questions posed concerning the quest, stating particularly that the butler may be able to help them with any acquisition of records. Pious asks about his sister, Elizabeth, who the General confirms is on the premises and is a fine ward. Pious without revealing their relationship wonders if he could bring her news of her brother. Nimitz agrees and fetches her to the study.
When Katya aka. Elizabeth arrives she was in her Tiefling form and while shocked did her best to hide it from the General, Pious while her brother is also or was a member of a crime syndicate. She agrees to go with them to Holly House. She settles back into her old room in a secreted off the section.
Before leaving they go ask the Butler if there was any further documentation or blueprints that he had turned up since the Regent first asked. He says that unfortunately he hadn't but there was still something that might aid in their search. You see since time immemorial there has stood a lighthouse on the bluff, it has no keeper and has never been entered. However on it there is a metal frame which seems reminiscent of a door only it doesn't open by any means known to the party. On it's face the engraving is meticulous and flowery with a stamp of an insignia in the middle of it.
In the afternoon Mess decides to check the local library for more concerning the lighthouse and the symbol he found. Even with the aid of Registrar Bitteman the only think he finds is a variant of the symbol he had seen which belonged to a faction called the Tinkerjin Gnomes.
The following day the party gets together to search the grounds of the Castle Spire Keep. They start with the lighthouse, The Spire. Investigating the "door" revealed nothing but did remind them of the construction used in the Chamber of the First Flame. The party investigates the base of the tower and reveals that most of the exterior is a facade covering bars of dark iron. Understanding now that some of the wall is fake they remove some portions surrounding the door in order to find a potentially hidden switch, but to no avail.
Next Araz attempts magic, first a fire bolt which is absorbed into the door. Ostreseliea believing it to be magical inspects further with detect magic but unfortunately it doesn't register as such. Araz ups the spell level to lighting bolt, but instead of dispersing the magic harmlessly some force recollected the spell and fired it back at him. With one final attempt he thinks that maybe only fire spells get absorbed, so casts scorching ray which bounces back only missing him by a few inches.
Thinking that there truly is no way of getting in they think to leave defeated, but as they are walking through the courtyard Pious reminds them that the Chamber of the First Flame used similar construction. They reenter the now dark and silent room, but find it not to be actually silent. A quiet hum emanates from the rear of the chamber. They are presented with a wall of ornamental gears and shafts. And with a closer look they identify a small chamber with a similar looking black iron and gold door. Aethelin is able to squeeze into the space comfortably and finds two switches which when activated together open to a passage behind.
Following the corridor about 400 feet they find themselves in a small receiving area. Portions of the ceiling have collapsed, cracking the floor and making movement troublesome. This room contains several lockers all of which are empty, and glass tubes affixed into the corners where the walls meet the ceiling. The only other way out of this room is a pocket door made of metal, as they approach the door whirs attempting to open but catches on something. With a little effort they open the door leading to a short hallway containing 4 more doors. Pious goes ahead opening first the door that leads into a cafeteria of some sort, long tables lined the far wall with gnome sized chairs surrounding them.
That wouldn't be too strange but for several pods containing skeletons made of metal. Just behind a large pile of rubble Pious could make out a small figure rummaging there, but decides to leave it. Continuing onward he then attempts the last door but it doesn't respond so he turns to the immediate left and reveals a small sleeping area. Within another of that figure he had seen in the cafeteria, it becomes instantly hostile and attacks. It isn't particularly threatening and is dispatched quickly, the only casualty one of Mess' rats.
Mess then desires to investigate one that is still functional. But it notices one of his bats and leaps swatting it out of the sky. The rest of the party swarms in making short work of it. Aethelin and Mess start investigating these pods. From what they can tell their occupants are completely inert, but with all the written languages being in gnome it's hard to say. Ostreselia whilst searching through the foot lockers finds a strange looking medallion embedded with a black stone with a mirror finish. This shape perfectly matches that of a flat surface found on both the door leading further into the facility and those found on the pods containing the skeletons.
She first places it onto a pod who's lit indicator was red to no effect. She then attempts another pod with a green lit indicator. Soon a black slate beside the pods begins to shift with runes, then a progress bar begins to fill. Ostreselia attempts to stop the process but doesn't know what she's doing, before the bar is completely filled lights within the skeleton begin to glow. It begins to scream in both confusion and pain then bursts from the pod knocking Ostreselia to the floor. It's a bit harder to take down but fortunately everyone is there and they manage without further harm. Pious investigates this machine to find it's structure is composed of a sort of metal that has an almost fuzzy quality.
With that taken care of they proceed into the next room which turns out to be another hallway. Within they meet another of these skeletons but this had forged bits of metal onto itself. Pious notices the same fuzzy quality but also sees that the metal that had added seems to have welded itself there.
The following room seems important, there are several workbenches surrounding a large crystalline floor. Again portions of the ceiling have collapsed even onto the window looking down into a large chasm. Looking down Mess sees rows of machinery, lightning arcing between them. At the bottom a blue light pulses and distinctly geometric patterns emerge indicating sentient construction. The workbenches' primary feature is a large black slate with green runes being emitted from them, surrounding that there are buttons, levers and knobs. The four benches in the middle differ from the others in the room because of a large red button affixed behind glass. On each of these benches there is a triangular panel that fits the medallion Liea picked up earlier.
Leading out of this room are several doors including one double door. Beside this double door there are 2 buttons an up and a down arrow, and a triangular panel. Trying the medallion, some text shows on the workbenches behind them in red. However it's still in Gnomish.
After inserting the medallion at one of the workbenches the black slate shifts into something new, but it's all written in gnome. Aethelin knowing Elvish can piece together some words, Elvish and Gnomish both being Fey languages. But it's not enough to really understand, They eventually notice a small book icon on the main screen and see several different language settings. After they set it to common the runes now reflect common. Attempting the double doors now reveals there isn't enough power to run the elevator and that they will need to redirect power. Also the embossed letters spelling "Elevator" in gnome convert to common.
Ostreseliea and Mess begin looking into how they might do that identifying the draws of power in the local area and the power requirements for the elevator. Strategically they start to power off pods that are in both this room and the adjacent room labelled "Frame Maintenance Room" so that if their occupants emerge they can be dealt with one at a time. After the first, Liea has an itch in her mind that something might not be right. She looks up the personal journal of the owner of this medallion, a Doctor Crankswell.
His latest entry is his only audio log and it's labelled "Regrets" after the computer translates it into common the voice is emitted from the console. "What have we done? We’ve always been compelled to push the boundaries of the physical. I’ve made automata with the delicacy and insight to create beautiful flower arrangements. Machines that till the earth, trench the oceans, read to the blind.. Beautiful things. We thought to find a way to preserve the lives of some of our greatest minds, those lost in their youth… We’ve succeeded. Their minds are indeed intact, some even say their souls are bound within these steel cages. What sort of life is this, locked eternally into these metal frames without the sensation of touch, without the heart to feel love or joy, only a logic computer with which to perceive the world. I’m not a religious man but may the gods forgive us for these atrocities. We are scrapping the project, the council has decided not to exterminate those that have been soulbound but to put them into stasis, with the hopes… by the gods… of renewing the project at some point should our frame technology become sufficiently advanced."
Realizing these metal skeletons contained souls gives everyone pause. Liea keeps digging through the logs. Crankswell came on partway through the project, volunteer trials had not yet begun. Things were going well for sometime, the minds were indeed transferred from the bodies of the volunteers to the frames of the machines. Continued trials were met with more and more success. It wasn't until the team attempted to capture a soul from the astral sea that things became complicated. Some of the original patients were experiencing disassociation with their new bodies. Complaining of nightmares, a gnawing at their mind that made it too difficult for the brain manage the new frame and some unconscious part of them emerged to pilot it. In some cases the original host never came back into control. New frames were developed that could accept new material as an extensions in order to allow the mind to form a stronger bond with the frame, this did nothing but postpone the problem. Eventually the council decided their frame technology was not sufficient for their goals and the project was scrapped.
Seeing now that these soulbound were no longer the gnomes they once were eases the burden of deactivating them, and their work proceeds to get enough power. They intermingle deactivating one pod and several terminals. Proceeding well until they deactivate the terminal in the "Frame Maintenance Room" which deactivates the pods in it's room and allows enough energy back into the grid to cause a short opening the pods on the other floors.
The whole facility echoes with the screams of the isolated soulbound now traversing the ventilation system. With enough power on the local grid, they activate the elevator and shuffle inside. They don't really understand what everything means but as soulbound begin pouring out of the maintenance tunnels they press the bottom button and the doors slowly close, just catching the blade of one of the sentinel units this facility had developed.
They look out of the glass wall of the elevator as it descends to the power plant, lightning arcing along the walls all the way down illuminate a strange creature that had latched itself onto a central column of the plant. The creature bellows at the newcomers as the elevator opens it's doors once more and leaps to attack them.
The party struggles to get around the creature but eventually surround it, dealing massive damage. With each decisive blow a portion of the creature's flesh falls to the floor before taking form once more as a smaller version of its parent.
During the melee Araz attempts to cast a spell a little too close to the creature incurring it's wrath the bite knocking him unconscious. While in the darkness of his mind he hears a voice call out to him "Breathe". Torrents of wind surround his limbs preventing him from falling and bolstering him up.
Eventually the creature falls along with all its spawn. Investigating the power plant Ostreselia notices a portion of the wall that is clearly the same concrete they had seen above, indicating it leads to the outside. Araz casts a spell to knock the wall down revealing a passage into a cave system. With the dust settling they hear voices come from further down a man and a woman "I thought you said they'd be coming from the other way." echoes the voice of the man "Perhaps they are more resourceful than I thought, I'll leave them to you." responded the woman.
After a tense moment of indecision Mess sends some undead servants to investigate, the man wields a great sword and is inching down the tunnel. About half way to them he calls out "Hello, please don't shoot I just want to ask some questions." Ostreselia answers him asking what he wants to talk about. He's looking for Pious, he heard they had picked up this job and was hoping to find him. Liea convincingly tells the man that he's not with them, and advances to confront him. He puts down his weapon, putting on airs of nonchalance, explains that his boss is not very happy with Pious for not completing his last job.
Eventually an invisible assassin sneaks behind the party somehow signaling to the man that their target was indeed with them. Ax says that he has a letter for Pious and wonders if she would deliver it but at just that same instant the unseen attacker stabs Pious in the back. Ax reads aloud from the scroll and casts the whole area in darkness. After a moment of confusion in the dark they hear a voice proclaiming their task done, both assailants disappear down the tunnel.
Araz steps out of the darkness looking for Pious finding him gasping for air in the coolant reservoir and aids him up. The rest of the party doesn't pursue, instead focusing on Pious. They take a while to hash out who those people were and why they were after Pious. Agreeing that everyone needs to be more open about their past so as nothing comes and bites them in the ass in the future.
They scout out the remainder of the tunnels before deciding to rest up here. During the night each are tempted by the necklace of bone that adorns Mess' neck, it seems to call to them. Aethelin even feels the urge to kill Mess, in order to claim the necklace for herself. Thankfully she had already woken Ostreselia, who stops her.
The following day they ascend to the tops of the cliffs once more. First on the agenda is to hide Pious before someone discovers he's less dead than they intended. They then head off to the General's in order to claim their bounty. He informs them quite sheepishly that the state of the coffers is such that Greensward cannot afford the party's costs (which were enforced by Maeve Grimjaw . Instead offering to pay for the staff to be employed at Holly House, all with multi-year tenancy.
While they are away Gaunter O'dimm appears to Pious with a deal.  It seems benign enough give a seemingly random person a mirror and have his face permanently altered.  Hesitantly he accepts.  While delivering the mirror he nearly has second thoughts but does follow through.