Iron Gods:Log

Session 1

4714 AR, Pharast Sunday the 15th

The party convened with plans to throw in their lot in the expedition under Black Hill with the intent of recovering Khonnir Baine, in hopes of recovering the lucrative 50gp and the scroll of resurrection if not needed. The 200gp reward is for relighting the torch or confirming that it cannot be relit.

They reached out to the town counsel, and the secretary told them that the only counselperson available to assist them is Dolga Freddert. Dolga explained the rewards and offered information. Poing asked if he could keep any junk, and Dolga explained that he would need to speak to the junkmaster Garritt Burnwaddle to determine what could be done there. Point explained that he was already familiar.

Dolga offered the party a writ for a 20% discount at any shop, and explained that this was the best she could offer, beyond a few other piece of minor aid (casting a spell of extended water breathing).

She explained that Khonnir had made an expedition, returning with a large deactivated robot. Dolga explained that there were at least 2 clandestine expeditions after Baine's first one, in addition to the fact that the cave was only found because of footprints leading into the water.

As they approached Khonnir Baine's they heard a scream some of the party recognized as coming from Khonnir's daughter Val Baine, and encountered a robot that appeared to be deconstructing the house. After defeating the robot (which split into several), Val came out and explained that she had reactivated it, and it had stared at her before tearing down the house.

They put some boards up to ensure that the room is closed off and put the broken robots in the foundry for subsequent examination.

Session 2

The party spoke with Val Baine, who expressed that she was grateful for the rescue. The robot, she explained, had been broken, but she was able to fix it. However, it first looked at her for an overlong moment, then immediately went to work disassembling the house. She agreed to let the party investigate her home for any clues to the whereabouts or status of Khonnir. The art in his hone were mostly landscapes: a field of flowers, an oceanscape with a frigate depicted, and finally a crooked tree on a moonlit night. Among his possessions was a Numerian idol of a metallic scorpion (made of a fairly common skymetal) with interlocking plates and a zircon tipped tail. Poing estimated its value to an appropriate buyer at 35g. Khonnir Baine's spellbook is present, which suggests that he did not intend to be in the cavern for long enough to need to prepare spells.

They perused his spellbook, finding: air bubble gust of wind feather fall floating disk unseen servant magic missile

acid arrow resist energy see invisibility web detect radiation

dispel magic fireball fly

Khonnir Baine only seems to work on a single project at a time, and the current project appears to be smelting Glaucite. The robot he has in his house is marked with the Technic League's symbol, which caused some concern in the party.

Val tells the party they can use Khonnir's tavern as a base of operations. She offers the party as much food as they want, but asks them to drink sparingly. She explains that she closed the tavern to spur people to action. This was apparently largely unsuccessful.

Next, the party traveled to the junkyard and met with Burnwaddle, who was trying to organize the waste disposal. Organic waste had been piling up quite prodigiously since the extinguishing of the Torch, this being the city's sole method of waste disposal. Therefore, preventing a major sewage crisis was imperative, especially as the waterway was already toxic enough and adding more threatened to overtax the systems used to purify it. Poing was especially interested in a project of Burnwadde's, which seemed to be primarily interested in "What is in a light bulb that prevents the filament from combusting?" The pursuit was, it was agreed, interesting, but ultimately not especially useful.

The party then proceeded to the Temple of Brigh, where the priest, Joram Kyte, was in great pain. He explained that he had experienced splitting headaches since the torch went out, noting that he believed that he had started to experience them when the Torch had gone out. Elleigh noted that she experienced those same headaches. He eventually agreed to loan the party a pocketwatch to help them with their journey. He also agreed to leave town as an experiment to determine if the source of the headaches was local (given that several people had them).

The party agreed to prepare for their expedition.

Session 3

The party obtained a very large waterproof bag, procured for them by the town counsel, as well as 6 hours of the water breathing spell from Joram Kyte prior to descending in the diving bell. Upon reaching the prescribed depth, Anton cast light on Elleigh's bandolier to ensure they had light in the cavern.

The pary squeezed through a somehwat windy narrow underwater passage and, upon reaching a subterranian shore, were accosted by bioluminescent beetles, which they dispatched before taking a brief rest to recover full vision in their dazzled and irritated eyes. Around a corner, a trio of foul-smelling moss and mold mounds with what appeared to be potentially ambulatory slimes congregating upon them were noted, and the part opted to evade them.

They passed through a small stalactite/mite-y cavern and came upon the remains of a half-orc some of htem recognized from town named Parda Garr. She was a fairly well-liked brawler who had taken in with a bad crowd lately. The party determined that she had no valuables whatsoever on her. Poing offended the party by suggesting that Parda was now "junk," although he was quick to clarify that she didn't USED TO be junk.

Through a combination of gentle body language and sweet talk, they convinced a blindheim they meant it no harm. In so doing, they were able to retrieve some equipment from the remains of a man (that had been largely stripped of flesh, possibly by the aforementioned blindheim) who had been sunk into the pool and weighted down with stones. They found a few gold and silver, two small potions and a small silver symbol, they determined to be the unholy symbol of Zyphus. Anton suggested that this may have been the town's cleric of Pharasma, Mylan Raldi, although this body wasn't the right build - in fact, he was too tall.

Session 4

The party further explored the cavern, coming upon a junk pile in a small sub-cavern with chalk drawings that Thinghaver determined to be fairly recent, based on a number of factors. They did not approach a cavern full of brown mold that was extraordinarily chilly, instead taking a tunnel where an ominous voice announced that they were surrounded. They called out the sitation and a strange man with chameleon skin who identified himself as Breadknife told them he would take half of them to his leader. Cithreal and Elleigh both suggested that he would not be able to keep them surrounded unless they all came together and he agreed. Sevenknives, upon meeting the party, chastised him.

The leader demanded to know what the party's purpose was. When they explained they were searching for a wizard, she said that she wanted no trouble from wizards because of what happened last time. When they asked what happened, she explained, "I got promoted to leader of the tribe." She further explained that there was a lady with purple hair and pink skin that had instructed and paid her to kill anyone who tried to pursue her deeper into the black cavern, and the tribe of humanoids had been largely successful in doing so, having slain several groups before "the wizard" came and knocked the fight out of the tribe. A large hole in their main cavern was determined to lead to the Darklands (presumably to Nar-Vath) and was from where the tribe of humanoids. The leader implicated herself in killing Parda Garr and Breadknife in killing the priest of Zyphus (who he apparently stabbed in a very straightforward manner of which the leader seemed exceedingly proud). The northern caverns, it was explained, was home to a nest of vicious gremlins. The leader told them she would allow them to pass her domain and show them how to open "the door" (an aperture made of apparently skymetal with a cracked, smoked glass panel in front of it). She explained there was a trick to opening the door, and while Khonnir seemed to "just know" the trick "as if he'd seen it before," she didn't think they would.

The party agreed to clear out the gremlins (which Breadknife described as "annoying and stupid" and insisted they were dangerous because of this), and had a fairly hard-fought fight, thanks in no small part to a bound gremlin who seemed to emanate an aura of foul luck. All the gremlins fled or were slain, save the bound one, which the party determined they would interrogate it. They also noticed another aperture door in the northern part of the cavern.

Session 5

The gremlin that the party captured insisted that their misfortune was because they were not worthy. The creature said that it was a pugwampi and that its aura of unlock was a "blessing" that affected them because they were unworthy. Upon being freed, the malicious little creature fled through the cavern claiming it would return with an army of gnolls before being killed by the humanoids waiting in the main cavern. Amid the trash (which appeared to have been deliberately broken), they located 2 silverdisks (which appeared to be spent batteries.

"You got them all! Except for the ones that you got!" She showed them that the door could be opened with a brown access card, of which she produced 5 access cards that she demonstrrated could open the door by being held in proximity to the glass panel. She finally introduced herself as Sef and explained that she and her people are skulks. They discussed the spelling of this name. They bartered with the Skulks for a healer's kit and 2 healing potions, and recognized that the potions they found earlier were identical to these. They stopped to heal their wounds before proceeding.

Through the door was a curved chamber caved in on each side, beyond which was an airlock that still seemed to function. They found a pair of vice grips on the robot in the room. Thinghaver searched the rubble. The door on the south side of the chamber was not accessible with their current keycard. Thinghaver decided that there were between 1 and 6 creatures in each of a half dozen cages. He could not reverse engineer the shape of such creatures.

The next chamber had two strange machines with nozzles pointing in the room. Anton suggested that this was a sterilization chamber. Poing investigated the steilizares and found access panels on them. The stolen screwdriver Cithreal had was the exact (!) kind required to open the panels. From these, he extracted canisters of sterilant, which he stowed in Clank. When they opened the next chamber, the sterilizers beeped in annoyance, but more susprisingly, the next chamber appeared to be a a cavern with a noontime sun flickering dimly in the sky. The chamber itself resembled a desert, with the shambling skeletons of four-armed aliens pantomiming mundane activities in the chamber.

That party followed a path in the room, apparently ignored by the skeletons, until they reached nearly the center of the room, at which points all the skeletons suddenly became aggressive and converged to attack.

Session 6

The party fought and defeated a number of skeletons, but eventually took shelter in a malfunctioning airlock, which zapped them. Poing, angry about this, destroyed the sterilizers. The party spent an hour licking their wounds (putting them at 2:56 or about 2:45 since they entered). They they attempted to ambush the skeletons, who had rallied and were now surprisingly organized. They managed to nearly kill Elleigh, but the party eventually defeated them all.

The party delayed until 4:10 trying to ensure that Elleigh was healed, but, unfortunately, every attempt to heal her had largely failed. Eventually, she drank a healing potion to restore herself. Poing explored some caverns, which contained little of apparent value, save for an amber necklace containing preserved alien insects.

The party leveled up to level 2.

Session 7

The party found three doors beyond and listened at each, noting a hum behind 2 and none behind a third. Poing uses his card to open the door and beyond takes note of the alphabet. Poing pushes a button and the gray screens went a solid blue with text in the upper left:

æåÐÐæç | æåÐÐæç U æåÐÐæç W

15

Thinghaver became interested in a glowing yellow panel on the purple pillar. Poing broke the keyboard in an effort to put them back together. Poing found that one of the machines was a pokey-pokey and another was a tappy-tapp. Poing discovered that the one on the right is a functional monitor that allowed viewing of the desert. They cycled through the cameras and noted that the numeric systems was base 10 and what all the numbers were.

Thinghaver touched the yellow panel and the blue circular thing hummed to live.

12 buttons on the touchscreen (1 is camera) and 6 on the blue.

Elleigh pushed one that made it way too bright. Poing pushed one that made it spark and injured him mildly. Poing pushed another button that displayed a documentary on the creates from the desert.

They explored a bit more and came to a room with a zombified one of the strange creatures in it. They had a back and forth where they established that they could not communicate well with it and it was hostile. Unholy symbols of Zyphus were in the

Elleigh discovered Black striped card and the party discussed whether to double back or continue forward

A yellow triangle with beveled edges flat side up appears when they try to scan on the door the "purple lady went through."

Time: 4:43 PM

They went through a door that reuqired the black

Elleigh touches a button which, in turn, plays an extremely loud warning klaxxon.

26 silverdisks and 3 that are glowing with a soft blue glow and a flashlight.

They also found a bin they couldn't open with their current badge level. They affixed it to Xerxes to carry.

They made their way into a bloostained hallway with signs of a struggle between organic and inorganic creatures.

Session 8

They moved to a different room that appears to be an organic lab that contains a large amount of broken equipment. There's an Ooze in a glass canister. Two oozes attacked the party, but were handily dispatched. They found a murder sterilizer as well, which they decided to leave alone.

4 lines of text. 2nd down lit blue. Numbered descending 4 to 1. Bottom line flashes red. Pushing the dark blue text made the doors open for a moment.

A break room containing a vast array of toothpaste tubes. A random handful of tubes. 13 different colors: blue (light) - fruit veggie medly blue (dark) - really unusual flavor yellow-brown - bread-ish dark-brown - sweetened root flavor black-blue - vegetable paste - thick and gritty black - weird meaty flavor red - beefy flavor white - cream-cheese flavor light green - wintergreen - thick like cream cheese forest green - pinine flavor cyan - grainy flavor orange - tastes like cirtus fruit canary yellow - tastes like eggs

The experimented with a microwave and ate some heated paste.

They found some plumbing access. They are convinced that there is a bathroom. Both of the knobs spit cold water on both the sink and shower.

"Hi! Where am I!" "Yes, that's why I asked it!" On a skyboat underneath a mountain.

"This is a room!" "I don't think I was anywhere a whiloe ago!"

"Can you name me?!" - Wilbur Save

"The red floor food! I like that!"

The party concluded that Wilbur was a psychically aware shambling mound, and suggested that it can consume waste materials.

Wilbur was grateful for floor food.

"Hello Anton! What are you?"

I am a human.

"I don't speak any languages!"

"I can understand them!"

"They were thinking 'I'm doing things! I need to do things. These are the things I do.'"

Anton was convinced that Wilbur can understand the robots and mentioned it to the party.

The party found Khonnir Baine in a sick bay after bypassing a medical room full of questionable medical drones.

"Why?" Can you explain to them what's going on? "I don't understand at all! Ok!"

This is a restricted area for white access only.

"I cannot read its mind. There is something else in there."

They thanked Wilbur for his help. He did not respond, but began eating food.

The party speculated that they have administered something to Khonnir that has sedated him. Upon finding out that the robot expected a white keycard for access, they moved on in hopes of finding one.

Session 9

The party opened the door and discovered 5 plant men on the other side of the door, along with a massive collection of tangled overgrown plants. They decided not to confront these and allowed the door to close. Instead, they moved on to another room that appeared to contain troughs of water and a large bubbling machine, with dead and dying plants lining the sides. Inside was another one of the creatures, which presented its hand to shake. Elleigh accepted and was mildly injured. Thinghaver likewise accepted a shake, also being mildly injured. Anton determined that the hammer the creature was holding was, in fact magic.

Thinghaver went to the room with the medical droids, who apparently thought that Thinghaver had a head injury (Wilbur translated). Thinghaver asked Wilbur if he thought that he had a head injury, but Wilbur clarified that he was "full of parasites." Poing tried to get the creature to shake hands with Clank, but it seemed completely uninterested in this. They ended up in a conflict with all the plant men and Wilbur ate two of them and subsequently ptooied out two hammers and a black access card. They defeated the rest of them

Cithreal treated everyone's injuries at 5:22 - Cithreal perfomrs an hour of healing bringing it to about 6:30.

Poing found an electric screwdriver in the next room, which was overgrown with mold. They opened several rooms that appeared to be cells containing the remains of several individuals that appeared emptied. They found several items amid things and moved all the stuff into the fourth room. Clank discharged the contents of one of the sterilitic canisters into the room, rendering all the mold inert. They looted 2 potions of moderate healing, 5 silver holy symbols of Brigh (worth about 5gp each), a suit of magic chainmail (+1 potency rune), a ring (magic, unknown).

Session 10

Thinghaver and Poing were unable to open the crate they obtainer earlier, but Elleigh was able to open it through theivery. It contained a suit of form-fitting armor, several grenades and a gun. Elleigh took the gun and the party kept the suit.

They returned to the elevator and pressed the four and it tried to do something again. Poing and Thinghaver were able to force the elevator access hatch open. After substantial difficulty, the party made their way to the top, where they found a door they were unable to open. They returned to the lower level and were frustrated by another door they could not access on the other end of the room with Khonnir in it.

The party decided to fight to the robots in the medical lab. These they defeated with minimal injury (save that Poing was injected with an anesthetic agent by one of them and injured badly in the process). They found a few more items but no white keycards and resigned themselves to confronting the robot to rescue Khonnir.

Session 11

The party faced down some robots and defeated them pretty handily (although Poing was stunned by on). Cithreal treated Khonnir's wounds - he appeared to have been injured especially around his legs. "Need go home" was one of the few articulate things Khonnir could manage to get out. "My daughter... Val... is my daughter." They brought Wilbur to diagnose Khonnir, and Wilbur suggested that his head was filled with robots. Khonnir tried to rise, but seemed largely incapable of doing so. The party exhorted him to not continue after it became clear he was at serious risk of injury. The party asked Khonnir about his condition, but he could only say, "No, they did something..." After they discussed this for a bit, it was suggested that, perhaps, they could "shoot him in the head" with the lightning gun. The reasoning being that lightning kills robots, but were stopped by the articulation of the additional detail, "Lightning kills wizards, too."

At 6:31 the party helped Khonnir obtain his gear and make their way out, arriving at the edge of the water at about 6:45. After some finagling, the party left the cave, recovering Parda's body on the way out. The party spoke to Sef about Wilbur, warning her not to confront it. Sef agreed reluctantly, and insisted that she and her tribe needed to relocate to a new cave or give up on caves entirely, because this one was nothing but trouble.

Upon getting out and being greeted by two enthusiastic town guards, Thinghaver started to explain that Khonnir's head was full of tiny robots, and Elleigh interrupted to clarify that Khonnir was just exhausted by the trials and tribulations he faced in the cavern. The party did, however, add that "A few of our party members are infested with parasites." The party was reminded that Mylan Radli, cleric of Phraasma, was still in town, but that Joram Kyte had left town. They returned Khonnir home and Val was extremely grateful to have him back.

Upon getting back to the tavern, Val was overjoyed to see her father, and rushed out to meet the party and express her deep gratitude. After they explained the situation, she asked her father, "How do we handle the robots in your head?" "I... don't remember..." Khonnir replied.

The party suggested electricity and Khonnir suggested they speak with Sanvil, officially a seller of scrap metal (but known by at least two of the party to also be something of a technophile who made a brisk trade of contraband). The party visited Sanvil's shop, where he informed them he was just closing up, but that he had a few minutes for them. The party went inside and explained the situation to Sanvil. He assisted in identifying the lightning gun as a not-killing gun. He also identified all the grenades as well as a radiation sensor and the nutrient paste. There was some discussion of making trades with him, but the party stated they would shelve this until they dealt with the current crisis.

The party brought Khonnir somewhere safely away from technology and detonated an EMP grenade they obtained from Sanvil close enough to clear out any local robots. Khonnir immediately appeared to recover somewaht, stating wearily, "Well that's a little bit better."

Session 12

Khonnir explained that the robots (whose language, Androffan, was one in which he was well-versed) had been performing experiments on him and seemed to be malfunctioning. He said he had no interest in reentering the cave, partially because of the traumatic expeirence the first time and, partially, because the nanites had likely injured his brain and he could not remember how to cast spells anymore. Somehow, he seemed oblivious to the party saying they would continue the invetigation, insisting that the town should hire adventurers to determine the cause of the issues.

Khonnir was also concerned that he had killed the Skulk's second chieftan, if, indeded, there was another person they were concerned with who had come through first. He felt this might have diminished his accomplishment. Khonnir had no awareness of the woman who had come through first.

The party asked about Parda, and Khonnir pointed out that he had gone it alone both times.

The party joined Khonnir for his visit to the town council. Dolga congratulated the party and offered them the promised scroll of raise dead and 100gp. Discussions with Khonnir and Dolga clarified a number of points, including that the reward for re-igniting the Torch (or providing conclusive evidence that it could not be re-ignited) would be 400gp. The party agreed that they would have a full night's rest to prepare. Khonnir insisted alcohol would gently soothe his damaged brain.

The party gave a flashlight with batteries to Garritt, who was delighted, but concerned that it was different from the bulbs he had been working with, inasmuch as it seemed to be made up of a cluster of small bulbs. He promised unlimited scrapping rights if they brought him another so he had one to dissect.

During R&R back at the tavern, Khonnir mentioned that the hill was artificial and speculated regarding why ancient Numerian barbarians would have buried the metal structure beneath, and suggested it may have been a vehicle that became stranded rather than a strange, intentionally constructed technological ruin.

4714 AR, Pharast 17th

The party awoke, this time with Thinghaver experiencing a splitting headache. The rest of the party doing fairly well, however, and they agreed to convene to return to the caverns. First, however, they wanted to determine why Parda Garr went down there, as well as discern any infomration they could regarding the Cleric of Zyphus.

They asked around among the Ropefist Gang Mambers (having heard that Parda had been associating with them) and found out that she had been trying to impress Garmen Ulreth, the owner of Silverdisk Hall. The party made their way there and, between Poog and Thinghaver, counted cards long enough to bring out security to address it, notably including Garmen. The party spoke with him and learned that Parda had been wanting to collect a robot from the cave to impress him so she could join the gang (which he maintained wasn't REALLY his gang). Poing gave him advice on game protection, which infuriated him.

The party visited Mylan Radli, the priest of Pharasma, who explained that Parda had approached him begging for a water breathing spell so she, too, could explore the black cave and return with a robot. He refused because he felt that Khonnir's account of his first expedition left him concerned that the cave was much too dangerous. He further stated that she had conferred with a "pilgrim" en route to the Land of the Linnorm Kings (for unknown reasons). Radli clarified that the Pilgrim didn't seem as well-versed in theology as would be expected and he had concerns. The two were not seen again.

On their way to the entrance to Black Cave, they were greeted by Joram Kyte. Kyte informed them, "My headache is coming back, so it's definitely related to the Torch."

Session 13

Poing asks Joram Kyte to help Khonnir Baine's brain damage. Joram expressed concern and relief, and suggested that the tiny robots were misbehaving, which is troubling. Wilbur was vibing, and he stated that they were creatures he enjoyed being near and would follow.

The party descended back into the black cave and Thinghaver asked Wilbur if he wanted to come along. Wilbur said that he likes being close to the party, so he would be happy to. The party proceeded to the large dome, where they noted that the skeletal aliens were present. Wilbur said they only had one mind between them all, but that mind wasn't really present. They asked if it could see their mind, and he said you can't see minds, nor could he determine direction. When asked what the mind was thinking, he said, "I don't know these feelings."

The party tried to identify the emotion by feeling different things and asking Wilbur if they were similar. He suggested that it was anger, defensive, and somewhat violent. Hungry? Yes, very, but also no. Apathetic? No. Confused? Yes, a little. Thinghaver asked Wilbur "Can you influence how something is feeling?" Wilbur said he could make things feel "BLWEHGH" which Poing suggested was a useful emotion.

The party recollected that the skeletons are smart enough to set ambushes. "It is smart enough to set ambushes," Wilbur corrects.

Poing speculated that the undead are the result of some sort of cyclic magic which keeps them tied to the location, and that, if this is the case, removing them permanently would require removing whatever was tethering them here. The party decided to strike preemptively this time, but when they did, all the skeletons ran to the next door and disappeared into the small cavern that led to the rest of the chambers.