13th of Flamerule of the year 1492
Searching through the room a few treasures were collected. An old Alchemist’s toolkit that even while a bit rusty was an excellent set that if repaired would give a benefit to any alchemy using that toolkit. A scroll with the spell Dark Lightning captured Yllanys’ attention as well as a magical ring. The contents of the tables were interesting to everyone, especially ISAC. The four tables were strewn with a ghastly mix of skeletal remains and metallic fragments that resemble limbs and other appendages, suggesting bizarre and unsettling attempts to meld flesh with machinery. What was odd, that unlike the door on the level above them, all of these doors had large iron wheels on them instead of a handle. The doors appeared to be thicker and more robust. Of the two sets of doors on the south wall, the one on the eastern side had been bashed in like several of the doors they had passed through.
Trying to understand how the automatons worked, or what activated them. They wondered if they were a form of undead since there, they seemed to be a combination of skeleton and metal. They did note that it took someone or something to be seen within a room and they might be able to take advantage of that for future rooms. ISAC pointed out that when Kieren was invisible, they did not seem to activate, but once he turned visible, they immediately activated. They also wondered if there was any relation to the Death Guards they had meet several months ago, except the Death Guard actually bled. Looking through the opening in the broken door, it led down a corridor, but a turn prevents seeing any further. Deciding that checking each set of doors instead of just following the path of crushed doors.
Vladimir and Angelica took the door to the Northeast which led to a short corridor and another set of doors. Opening the second set of doors revealed a large room with three large furnaces and forges. Looking around it was odd that there were not any tools, but when they looked into the forges, they were able to see several sets of hammers set within some sort of mechanism. Ace was attracted to the four boxes on the south wall where four large boxes sat. Looking inside, he found that they contained silver, gold, mithril, and an unknown dark blueish metal. Gathering all of and cramming it into his bag of holding he seemed pretty proud of himself. There was also an empty pedestal in the room where an automaton would have resided but was missing. Looking more closely Fwoosh noticed that there was some sort of copper metal covering a portion of the pedestal where an automaton would have stood. Fwoosh and ISAC took turns standing on it, but nothing happened.
Deciding to take a short rest before moving on, the group rested and healed themselves for an hour hoping that green slime did not fall on them during the rest. Deciding to go through all the doors in a clockwise fashion from the forging room, they approached the next set of doors. While heavy and rusted, these doors did not slow them down very much. Once again there was a short hallway leading to another set of doors. The hypothesized that if all of these entranced had two sets of doors, perhaps it was some sort of isolation method. The doors themselves had a seal that when the wheel was turned on direction pushed out a metal seal into a channel in the doorways. When they spun the wheel the other direction it retracted that seal into the door allowing them to open the doors. The doors had wheels on both sides allowing them to be opened from either side. It made them wonder what types of experiments had occurred here, and if any of it still required some form of isolation.
The second set of doors opened into another “assembly room, but this time with two very large tables with the bones of different large creatures that had been assembled, mixing the different types of creations creating some sort of Chimera. A quick look also showed that there were four of the more robust metal men in the room and two other sets of doors, one of the east and another to the south. Not wanting the immediately engage in combat, they shut the doors without entering and moved on to the next set.
Robust Metal Men
Skipping the ripped open door, they moved on to the other set of doors on the south wall. Once again, there were two sets of doors separated by a short hallway. Once opened this room had a set of five rusting metal cages. Within each cage were molded and degraded bones. With a quick lean in, Vladimir was able to see the two guards in the room. Earlier they had wondered if a Detect Magic would be able to see a power source within the guards, or at least get an idea which ones could activate. Yllanys made a quick lean in being held by Vladimir with his Detect Magic allowing him to see that within the two guards there was a cylindrical shape of conjuration magic. The one to his left had less energy than the other one. Since they confirmed that was some sort of magical power source, ISAC thought about using a Dispel Magic as a means of either shutting one down, or at least causing damage to it.
The party prepared for combat and ISAC jumped in and unleashed his spell on one of the guards. It seemed to have some sort of effect as it reacted somewhat slower than the one that had not been affected, and combat started once again. As many of the combats it lasted but a few rounds and the only interesting point was when Yllanys Misty Stepped to on top of one of the cages and had it collapse under him leaving him stuck within it. Besides old moldy bones, there was nothing of value in this room. The next set of doors after opening the second set revealed some sort of storage room. Whatever had been in that room originally had decayed and rooted into either mush or nothing recognizable. Not bothering to go in and search.
The next room, after passing through the ever present two sets of doors they entered the most interesting room they had come across so far. It caused ISAC to have some brief flashbacks to the room he had awakened in he had had been killed. However, anything in this room was of a much cruder construction than the equipment from his awakening room. There were eight tubes, four that were broken and four that seemed to be whole. The whole ones had something floating within it and a reddish haze filling the liquid within. The object inside did not have a specific shape but was just a blob of something more solid than the liquid. It was the broken tubes that present to them something a bit more horrific. The tubes had cracked and opened at some point and their objects had fallen out and the liquid evaporated. The fallen object was a form about the side of a human child. It was not metal, nor organic, but some sort of synthesis of the two. It did not have any specific features, but all were about the same size within a small margin.
Deciding that they were not ready to face four of the heavier duty guards, they looked into the hallway behind the smashed in door. Moving down the corridor revealed another set of doors surprising none of them. Behind these doors was a set of stairs heading downward. As they slowly moved down the stairs, the humidity and poisonous of the air got severely worse. The floors were so slippery with moss and slime that they were able to move a third of their speed or less to prevent them from slipping and falling. A set of bashed in doors greeted them at the bottom. Besides being hit the occasional green slime they somewhat safely arrived. Behind the doors was a long hallway with three openings further down, two on the west and one near the end on the east wall. At the very end a pool of water filled that end of the hallway.
ISAC headed down the hall looking down each of the openings which proved to have a set of iron doors, much like the ones of the first floor, heavy, rusted, but with a handle to open them. These were a bit more ornate. It was the second area near the end of the hall, but not the last hallway, that were bashed in like many they had seen previously. Looking through the hole in the door he was able to see a large room that appeared to be a bedroom of some sort. A huge, rotted carpet covered the floor. Wanting the rest of the group with him, ISAC went back to the group at the stairs and described what he had seen.
The last battle had worn them out more than they preferred, they decided to head back to the first floor for another rest. Before taking their rest, they decided to explore the last two sets of doors they had disregarded when here before. Pushing against the other set of doors on the south wall it revealed another storage room. It was still in a very poor condition, but better than the one they had found on the second floor. Since what inside was left in better shape, although still moldy and slimy. With an hour of time searching, they found a set of artificers tools, a magical potion and a crystal. Heading to the last set of doors it opened up to a room that had huge machines within it that were heavily blackened from being burnt and the walls were peppered with burn marks as if something had exploded inside with lightning striking every surface in the room.
Within everything explored on this floor, they settled down for a longer rest. Eating rations and having a cold camp they attempted to make themselves as comfortable as possible with only Angelica having the poor luck of attracting green slime on her.
14th of Flamerule of the year 1492
With a full eight-hour rest behind them, they were feeling pretty frisky and were ready to handle the third floor. Once they were on the third floor the falling green slime pummeled several members of the party before getting to the set of doors that were bashed in. As they approached Vladimir noticed that the pool of water was actually much deeper than just the floor. It in fact went down nearly ten feet and there was something moving within it. Backing up quickly they prepared for something to leap out. Fwoosh tossed a dagger into the water which as expected caused something to leap out.
Grey Colored Slime
A large sized grey colored slime leaped out of the pool and slide toward the party. It swept forward attempting to eat Angelica and spit out a cloud of acid that effected the majority of the party degrading all those that had non-magical armor. It was a swift and furious battle with the slime doing severe damage to anyone that was nearby and every hit it successfully landed caused the armor of that person to further be degraded. Quickly apply what little healing they had available, they thought they were still ready for more encounters. Realizing that they could not see much more from the hole, Vladimir stepped into the room and was greeted by two larger nastier looking metal men.
Nasty Looking Metal Men
Combat was initiated once again and the only two points that was interesting was when Angelica took flight to get out of range and Yllanys took a Thunderstep with Vladimir to the top of the bed which promptly collapsed further under them causing both to prone and hugging in the middle of the fallen bed. With the combat completed and the group in the most wounded state they had ever been in so far, through that hanging around and searching the room was the best possible choice they could make. Dancer and Fwoosh were able to dig up some rotted bags of coins and gems and with Yllanys Detect Magic another magical item, the Crystal Orb of Divination.
The Prone State of Vladimir and Yllanys
Applying what little healing that had left, they were feeling far less frisky than they had before. Running back upstairs and taking a short rest in the storage room to get a bit more healing.
And this is where the session ended.
