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.