Tuesday 29 August 2023

Session 351 - Into the Underways

 Date: 15 August

Moon: N̴̡͎͓̳͔͇̗̯͚͈͉̝͔̘͌͂͘͘͜͜Ę̶̛̛̥̝̰̰̞͙̯̽̀͊̃̽͊̔̒̅͊̐̎́͝W̶̜̗̫̬̠̣͓̤̹̪̣̝̱̍͗͐̉͊̕̕̚ ̵̛̦͉̖̣̰͛̒̀̓̌̾̒̋͑͘M̶̧͈͔̮̱̭̈́́͜ͅŐ̶͇̫͚̐̔̋͂Ö̶̬͎́͗́̇̀̓͊̾̃̄̿̆N̶̢̠̲̾̓͐̎͋̓͂̌̅̈́̋̚̕̕͝͠
Zenith: Oberon

Events:

--- Primordial Tech

- After many trials, our heroes have formed a tenuous alliance with the goblins who lead them to a secret door. Within is the nerve centre of the Pyramid - ancient machines and a God-summoning holo-plate hooked up to a huge green-tinted screen. This thing looks absolutely ancient.
- They turn it on, but no God hologram appears. Instead the screen turns on with green audio bars like a hi-fi and Oberon's voice is piped in... but it's a very early version of Oberon! Soon another Oberon joins him - the modern Oberon - connecting directly to the God orbiting the world.
- They ask many questions, discovering that the pyramids were constructed in an earlier epoch as a combination atmosphere repair system and Shub-Niggurath killer. They would take poison from the sky and pump it deep into the earth where it would kill the monster in the core.
- They also discover that they can cleanse further areas by adding pylons back to the grid. The pylons and further pyramids are accessible by rails that run underneath the entire Drudge Wastes.
- Before leaving, Grumblebelch asks for knowledge of the ancient technology and gets reams of dot matrix printed paper from one of the machines. Then she changes the passwords so nobody else can access the terminal ever again!

--- A MAP!?
- They continue through this hidden zone into a wide corridor, where they find what they discover to be debugging tools, including a talking Dwarf head that states problems with whatever it's looking at.
- The next room contains a mapmaking device! It busily prints out a whole new section of the world map!
- They pore over it, comparing it to their current (very old) map of the old world! Odo's eyes go wide as she realises that there's a pattern to these pyramids and pylons!

--- Obligatory Spiders
- Aximander is at the height of his moon-wrought powers. He is more Elf than Man, the devil himself, wielding powers inhuman and incredible.
- While everyone else is obsessed with the map, he walks out into the main hall and nukes the spider guarding the way forward. In a charred egg sac, he finds a Potion of Jealousy.

--- Golems Below
- Catching up to Aximander and stepping gingerly over the spider corpse, the others follow him down to the deeper level below the pyramid.
- There they find a fountain with nice, fizzy, minerally water. The fountain depicts Dwarves constructing a golem from clay.
- There's a smell of woodsmoke, and they discover that through the next area there are a bunch of giant golems arguing about the Idea of Thorns. One argues that cities are necessary for the spread of nature, another argues that cities should always be destroyed in the first instance so that nature can thrive.
- Odo and Tyler Lockheart wade into the discussion. Tyler, naturally, is just a centrist who thinks everyone should just be civil. He offers a joint. They talk Thorns for a bit.

--- Spiders Above
- The others have snuck past and entered a grand hall with many pillars. Robo-raptors are tied by chains to the pillars, and spiders scuttle in webs above!
- Aximander goes full Roy Mustang and starts blasting, balls of fire detonating in the webs on the ceiling and causing spider corpses to fall like rain, to the delight of the raptors!
- A Chaos Burst causes a wall of force to erupt against the ceiling and rain starts to fall! In the chaos, the party dashes past to a big door on the opposite wall.

--- Explosive Clues
- They find a hexagonal room, then turn down a corridor to find themselves in a sort of Dwarven temple! Guard rails head down the long corridor, and on either side are bas reliefs.
- The reliefs show a story of Goblins betraying Dwarves in a city, Dwarves forcing Goblins into retreat to the surface, a Goblin-made poison superweapon killing all the Dwarves in the city, and a final powerful hero who inverts the pyramids' poison pump sending it all to the surface to create the Drudge Wastes.
- A side chamber has a clay golem prototype. There is talk of attempting to animate it, but ultimately they do not.
- There is a corridor with 6 doors coming off of it. Everyone picks a door and opens it simultaneously! Everyone is blasted with various elements simultaneously!
- Inside the rooms are runes (hence the elemental blasts) and small versions of several pyramids. Given the makeup of the pyramids and the elements of the runes that blasted them, our heroes put together that these must be the elemental types of the golems in the various pyramids. Neat!
- There are also little models of the golems arrayed around the pyramid dioramas, which is pretty cute.




--- Various Cliffhangers
- The last room contains a big square hole in the centre of the room that leads down to some rails! It's the Underways!
- More interestingly for Odo, a side chamber has a big diamond as a keystone which is holding up the ceiling... She works with Tyler to create a device that will pull the whole thing out.
- Also interestingly, Sydney finds their way to a room with many dead stone Dwarves clutching little golem figurines. They surmise that these Dwarves are actually empowering the golems by sending their souls into them.
- Also also interestingly, Aximander opens the doors at the very end of the temple. The cracks in the stonework around it glow with a bright white light, and beyond the door is a shimmering corridor filled with scintillating energy,
- Odo PULLS OUT THE DIAMOND and the ceiling RUMBLES
- Sydney YANKS A MODEL GOLEM and the Dwarf's eyes OPEN
- Aximander steps into the corridor and SEES SOMETHING LOOMING
- We end the session because the pub is closing!

Total: 8000 exp



Treasure:
- A new map!
- Debugging tools, including a Dwarf head and a number of old coins with different numbers on them. (1000 exp)
- Potion of Jealousy
Total: 1000 exp

Enemies:
- 5 Black Widow spiders (500 exp)
- 4 robo-raptors (400 exp)
Total: 900 exp


OOC:
- Carter the Chronicler and Paymaster and Vanguard (300 exp)
- Kitty the Expedition Leader (100 exp)
- Ollie the Quartermaster (100 exp)
- Tom the Chef (100 exp)



Exp Totals:
- Carter / Sydney, Level 7 Magic-User: 76573 (Level up at 144000)
- Ollie / Jojo Fullbeard, Level 6 Muscle Wizard: 53689 (Level up at 72000)
- James G / Tyler Lockheart, Level 6 Specialist: 40088 (Level up at 48000)
- Kitty / Julian & Aximander, Level 5 Languid Wastrel: 32058 (Level up at 36000)
- Tom / Odo Grumblebelch, Level 5 Dwarven Barbarian: 15954 (Level up at 16000)
Level Up! +1d10 HP! +1 to Saves! +Lorebond! +Backstory!





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