A Spire Amongst The Thorns - 5 Report

The Plundering of the Living Quarters

Following the defeat of the spiders, the group's unbridled curiosity reasserted itself and they decided to investigate the remaining chambers within the tower's living quarters. After much web clearing, cutting down ceiling-suspended entities, and general poking around, the party had acquired several new items that included some fashionable and rare metal infused garments, two deactivated robots (one which Fulgur salvaged for materials and encountered some organic goo within the robotic shell), and many canned goods that seemed to have been imported from several Ave worlds (much to Rorra's delight). After setting up camp in one of the curtained chambers and resting overnight, the party awoke to notice that some of the blue, pulsing webbing had migrated towards their location although no spiders were noticed by those keeping watch. Satisfied that they'd uncovered what they could from this level of the tower, they ventured through the door in the central column of the chamber that was web-free.  

The Power Level

The doorway slid open to reveal a wide staircase with steps of a height that was just slightly too tall for standard humanoid-folk and uncomfortably so for the Trians in the group. The steps were deep enough such that each was essentially a little platform that could hold the entire party and still have room for one or two extra. Each step leading upwards had a door along it's outer wall while the steps leading downwards had none. As they stepped into the staircase, Rorra and Euric noticed an odd, unnatural sensation that was hard to place but made everything seem just a little bit off, however as the party chose to descend the stairs the sensation seemed to disappear.   After a few minutes and many steps of descent, the party encountered another sliding door. Nothing seemed amiss until they opened it and another of the large wolf spiders appeared on the other side of the opening. Fortunately, it looked to be collapsed on the ground, not dead but also not seeming to be conscious. Fulgur sent his flying robotic companion through the door to see if it would trigger any effects or awaken the spider but neither occurred. However, as the first of the group stepped through the opening, one of the floor tiles beyond the door shifted slightly and some glowing, symbiotic gel that had been placed around the door flared brightly and emitted a pulse of gas in a large radius that knocked several of the adventurers out cold, fast asleep. Fortunately, no other threat emerged and the unconscious members were able to be awoken again without cost within a minute or so.   The sleeping mist seemed to require some time to recharge (or had been spent entirely) so the group took the time to investigate the level. As with the living quarters above, the room was donut shaped around the central column that housed the staircase. Several gargantuan machines were evenly spread out around the space and were connected by multiple rings of bright blue energy that pulsed around the room. There were small amounts of webbing here and there but a door to the exterior of the tower was found to be broken open and had a high concentration of webbing. A second door was also found on the central column that seemed to lead to a second staircase, although this staircase contained a lot of webbing as well, possibly the spiders' route from outside the tower up to the living quarters. There were several banks of control equipment at the machines as well as some hints at exotic, semi-organic circuitry and spinning black orbs that seemed to emit no light at all. Fulgur and Forgin tried their best to understand the devices but unfortunately were stymied by the unfamiliar technology.  

Exploring the Staircase

The Tram

Choosing to return via the staircase they had originally travelled, the party made their way back up the 80-ish steps to the door to the living quarters level (Rorra and Euric once again noticing something just a little off as they continued up past this point). Moving to the next step up, despite careful examination of the door the party triggered another sleep gas mine upon passing through the unlocked doorway. Fortunately, once again all that was lost as a bit of time as the conscious party members went about waking up their sleepy comrades. This level seemed to be some kind of station with rails leading out from the tower, curving away into the distance. [With Dosa's help,] the team manages to decipher that a control mechanism will call a car to the tower for transit elsewhere along the rails. They also find a second door embedded in the central cylinder of this level that once again leads to another staircase. Unlike the first staircase they had been exploring, this one seems to spiral away for many steps with no door in sight (rather than one door per step as in the first staircase) and has a few (but not too many) indications of small, regular-sized spider activity. The crew returns to their original staircase and takes one more step upwards.  

The Gardens

The next door happened to be locked but no match for the technicians of the group. This level seemed to be some kind of garden level with walkways that extended out past what should have been the tower's edge and were literally surrounded by innumerable varieties of flowers, shrubs and trees in all directions. Again, there was a second door on the central cylinder of the tower that led back to the staircase with one step per door. Rather than investigating the gardens too closely, the party decided to continue upwards via this second staircase and found another door after a few dozen steps.  

The Configurable Deck

This door was also locked but fortunately not trapped and with some skillful re-wiring of the organic circuitry the group entered a small, dimly lit room with large, panoramic windows and a single door facing outwards to the much larger remainder of the chamber. The room also had several control consoles and, as always, there was a second door along the central cylinder that led back to the single-step staircase (likely a fast travel staircase by some means). Upon activating the consoles, making a few very lucky/intuitive guesses as to the correct sequence, the chamber beyond the windows lit up and the party could see its floor shifting as pillars of panels, large and small, reconfigured themselves to create a uniformly flat floor across the space. The floor seemed to be covered in a fuzzy, almost mold-like substance (similar to some of the molds and fungi that Gladwyn had uncovered in the living quarters) but which seemed to slightly bio-luminesce. The various control panels lit up to display a fairly intuitive customization screen which, although many of the symbols and all of the text was unfamiliar, seemed to be a means of artistically representing different creatures and plant life. Different members of the party took turns playing with the controls and, as they tweaked the settings, different plants and animals started to form themselves out of the mold along the ground: a rose bush, a yellow bird, a rodent, and more. The creatures were not photorealistic [ranging from somewhat cartoonish to approximately PS1 era polygonal detail] but started to move and interact with each other and their mostly blank environment autonomously. Eventually, the party decided to continue upwards via the single-step staircase.  

The Rest and Relaxation Chamber

Breezing through another locked and trap-less door, the party found themselves on a level filled with delightfully, yet subtly, perfumed air, a large variety of lounge furniture, an infinity hot tub, and fully panoramic windows that offered a beautiful view of the brambles outside having reached the height where the tower was piercing through the layer of overgrown flora. Most of the group found the room to be rather relaxing as they strolled through it but they felt they must press on. However, Euric was determined to test out the hot tub and dipped a foot into it finding the temperature, although initially a bit cool, to rapidly become extremely comfortable [some bubbles started appearing from jets along the tub's edge as well]. Reluctantly he agreed to move on without taking a proper dip.  

The Cafeteria

The next level was primarily a cafeteria style floor although the tables and benches were all very finely crafted and built with high quality materials. Very little remained in the kitchen although a small quantity of cans of food were discovered forgotten on a partially hidden shelf. Some had gone bad but others still seemed ok. Dosa armed themselves with one of the sharpest of the ornate knives found in the kitchen, strapping it to one of their larger rats within the collective.  

The Posh Living Quarters

Continuing upwards, the party finally encountered a lock they could not pick or re-wire, much to Fulgur's disappointment. Turning to Euric's preferred method, several party members began trying to bash open the door and succeeded in bending it open a crack. The room beyond looked to be almost entirely empty but with hints of being another set of living quarters. However, this place seemed to be built for an individual or an intimate group of housemates rather than the more communal setup that was observed on the initial living quarters level. Speculation occurred about the importance of this room's inhabitants but the group decided to continue exploring and possibly circle back to the room later.  

The Teal-Webbed Room

Redeeming themselves at the next locked door, the group found themselves looking into a space filled with a deep teal glow. Webbing seemed to cover the walls and columns of the room but it did not look like the spider webs in the living quarters (even the strange pulsing webs that seemed to shift). These, while organic in design and structure, seemed to have almost a metallic sheen to them. Patterns of bright, pale blue light could be seen tracing themselves around the room across the webbing, sometimes breaking apart into separate trails, sometimes combining. Out of the corner of her eye, Rorra thought she saw something scurrying across the webbing and leading one of these bright patterns but it disappeared before she could show the others.   The session ends as the party deliberates whether to further investigate this room or continue their ascent.