15.04.2023 - Scribe-5 - Exploration and Looting

(Asgeir is late/not coming -> Seb is controlling Sylword)  

• The party sits down to short rest, while Void looks around a bit (sticking close)
  • To the north we hear a heavy, rythmic stomping sound
  • Unrelated, we notice a lot of tiny devices around the big machine strewn randomly around the device
  • Bucket and Salanth chat about Rillifain and her journey forwards
• We split the party to loot
  • Bucket and Salanth go northwards
    • As they're looking around they hear metallic, flapping wings to their right, about 50 ft. away
    • Salanth crits her stealth, while Bucket almost crit fails, she drags him into hiding
    • A large eyeball with wings flies by, seemingly not noticing them
    • She explains that it is the spies of Arnini
    • They continue forward noticing a tavern, with food laying out. The food does not seem to be affected by time
    • They find some barrels and large chests. And a small, very heavy, strong and locked box
    • Bucket then goes into the wine cellar, while Salanth stays guard. He promptly returns
    • Salanth is very causal about carrying the heavy box (50 kg-ish)
    • He leaves her to carry it as he continues exploring
    • He eventually finds a sketchy looking chest, but crit fails when looking for traps. He knocks over a lamp during his investigation, making a lot of noise
    • The chest is full of servant's garb
    • He continues searching, finding a scimitar like a viper's fang. The hilt is modified with hollow areas that can be loosened to remove a vial
    • He also finds some jewelry
    • In his looting frency, he hears the flapping of wings again (their checks are similar to last time)
    • Salanth helps his keep out of sight, even while carrying a heavy box with her only arm
    • After a bit more looting he goes back to the group
  • Sylword and Void head south-east
    • Void has his Detect Magic on, the reinforced door is exuding abjuration magic, and does not seem to open
    • Sylword notices that only some of the windows have been boarded up. Inside the chapel, many many bodies have been piled up. There are runes and moving mechanical circles
    • Sylword assumes that this is
    • Void notices a cart with rubble, and a long sword with a scaly pattern and a hilt that is warm to the touch
    • He also finds 450 gp, 2000 sp and various personal valuables (candlesticks, chalices etc.)
    • He is now overencumbered and is walking 10 ft slower
  • Coty and Scribes go into the nearby rooms to a table with a hand on it
    • The hand is a lightweight mechanical glove, with a circle in the palm (like iron man's gauntlet). It looks like it can shoot force
    • It is a fingerless glove
    • Coty finds a small (about orange-sized) and rusted anchor, with some enchancements done to it
    • We also find two diamonds worth 150 gp each, and other gems worth 300 gp in total.
    • We head south-west, into a forge of some kind
      • On one of the worktables is a discarded mechanical humanoid creature
      • It is about 3 ft tall
      • The creature looks eerily familiar to Arnini
      • Coty pokes it with a stick (unlit torch)
      • This makes it begin to slide off the bench, but Scribes manages to catch it
      • Coty thinks it is a mechanical voodoo doll
      • It seems to be damaged and gutted
      • Scribes wonders why she has only seen dead and gutted warforged since she joined this group
      • The robot consists of highly advanced tech, with some similarities to warforged
      • It seems like Arnini was attempting to build a warforged that looked like him
      • As she is analysing it, her left eye glitches before going back to normal, Coty takes a look at it, but doesn't find anything wrong
      • We decide to take ArniniBot with us, and Coty starts shouting for Sylword. After deciding that it is not smart to shout in hostile territory, Scribes Messages him instead
      • Sylword and Void head over, and starts checking out the forge
        • They notice a hand sticking our of a crate
        • It is a (regular) warforged, that has also been gutted
    • • We also check out the garden connected to the forge. Among other plants is a big sunflower. All the plants are completely still, with no breeze to move them
• We meet back up, and Bucket asks for help to open the strongbox
  • Ignoring Void's offer of a hammer, Bucket knocks it open with his shield
  • The box itself is prabably half the weight
  • Inside is 120 pp, 2200 gp, 1100 sp and 800 cp. in addition to 10 gemstones and a metal vial
• Something has heard the noise, we hear growling from the west
• We head to the magical door, where Sylword tells the party about all the bodies he saw
• However, we decide that they will probably be moved by the device Scribes hacked, and we should leave it alone
• We still hear the mechanical growling from the west and stomping from the north
• Scribes casts Telepathic Bond, while Coty casts Pass Without Trace
  • The latter creates ice crystals that reflect the light and makes us more difficult to see
  • When casting, the left eye of Scribes acts up again. Lasting for nearly a minute this time
• We then head towards Arnini's workshop
• Salanth tells us that the workshop moves around, but you can usually find it by following the sound of mechanical stomping
• Coty leads us through the streets, trying to dodge the mechanical patrols
• In the distance we see a large structure moving left. We've reached the city gates, which seems to be locked
• Sylword uses Locate Creature to make sure that Arnini is in the moving structure
• He then leads us through some side entrance, and out of the city (and to the refugee camp outside the walls)
• We now see the walking structure better. It has 8 legs and a lot of mechanical components
• 
  We discuss how to get up there. Salanth is confident in being able to get up by herself. Coty can transform into a giant bald eagle and Void can cast fly on 3 people
• Salanth tells us that we have to say Arnini's family motto to get through the gates.
• Instead of telling us the motto, she delves into religious questions with Bucket
• Eventually she tells us: "Forged in Fire, Slave of Sire".
• Void casts Fly by sprinkling fairy dust on himself, Bucket and Scribes
• Coty becomes a bold eagle, and carries Sylword
• Both of Scribes' eyes are now glitching, and doesn't seem to stop
• We reach the workshop gates, which look like the gate of an airplane hangar (100 ft tall), with a smaller door that's only 10 ft tall
• Everyone land relatively gracefully, but Coty slides too close from the edge for comfort
• Salanth is already there, waiting for us. She ran up the legs, doing a few somersaults on the way
• At the center of the reinforced smaller door is a hole into the void
• Bucket sticks the gauntlet he got from Salanth (that he attuned to during the rest) into it
• The cogs on the gauntlet starts moving, as something grabs his hand and starts twisting it
• He says the phrase
• A clank unlocks the doors, and they open slightly
• A wave of warmth hits us as the door opens, as well as constant loud mechanical noise
• Coty stays as a volture, as she is able to fit through the door
• We head inside (Coty first)
• There are massive cranes from the ceiling, holding up an unfinished mechanical creature
• Other rooms lead off of this massive hall, leading into workshop ares full of mechanical creatures working on other ones
• We see many more mechanical replicas of Arnini, and many normal warforged
• To avoid being seen we fly along the ceiling
• As we're about to take off, Scribes's eyes flimmers a lot worse
• Everyone except her hears Arnini's voice, welcoming us and telling us to go further into the hall, where something that is about to be ready is waiting for us. He wants us to be the first to see it
• Scribe-5 experiences it as blacking out for a few seconds
• She casually mentions to the others that her visual sensors might be more damaged than she though, and is confused why the others are staring at her

   

Plan

Continue forward to finally defeat Arnini. Telepathic Bond is up, and we have Pass Without Trace. Bucket, Void and Scribes has Fly for a few more minutes. Coty is a giant bald eagle.   Bucket has the diamonds for it now, so he should prepare Revivify after next long rest.   We need to distribute the money from the strongbox (120 pp, 2200 gp, 1100 sp and 800 cp. in addition to 10 gemstones and a metal vial).