Back in the corridor, sitting in the silence area, Antony noticed a movement in the corner of his eye and spotted one of the large dog-like machines from the room to the north stalking along the corridor. Dacien reacted quickly and put a wall of ice in place to slow it down. Faldak, reluctant having been warned by Dacien that the creatures will take pleasure in ripping through his armour and weapons, took up a guarding position in the corridors as the other made their way into the main room, with the dire wolves from Zhedd’s summons squeezing behind the dwarf to offer support. The wall only delayed the creature for a couple of rounds as it tore through the ice and made short work of the wolves too.
Gerald conjured a blade
barrier back in the control room, knowing that there were two of the
dog-like creatures, to avoid being flanked. Mendel dashed after the vampire and
found him in a small chamber in the centre of the control room, dominated by a
large white ‘throne’. The vampire was stood at the back of the room, near some
vents in the wall, from which came the sound of chittering and squeaking.
Mendel’s blade dug deep into the vampire, and it fled as a gas through the
ventilation shafts. Mendel then found himself flooded by hungry rats that
poured out of the vents to carpet the room and the archer. The window now free
of its frame, Gerald and Lenny began creating
water to conjure jets to wash the swarms of rats into the blade barrier and clear the room. Dacien
took more time to examine the throne – with comprehend
languages he was able to decipher the writing in the room too. The throne
had a red dial on the left arm with the words RECORD, REWRITE and REPLAY
etched around it. The dial currently pointed at REWRITE. Inserted into the
right arm was a rectangular object that had flashing lights within, and written
on the edge of this was a name “Stephen ‘The
Rock’ Rocklin”; similar cassettes lined the wall with other names (one of
them was ‘Mendel’), but also ‘Temple Indoctrination 1’ and ‘Temple
Indoctrination 2’. Dacien sat in the chair, moved the dial to ‘REPLAY’ and his
mind was flooded with images from the life of Stephen Rocklin. This started
with a ceremony in front of a large crowd and a large metal ship of some kind; a
flight through space; a banner depicting the leaping frog they had seen
outside, but with the writing now legible reading ‘Terraforming Horticultural
Expeditionary Force: Rigel Outer Galaxy’; the metal ship taking damage and
crashing in a barren rocky mountainous
area; an argument with another officer on the ship; Stephen leading an escape
attempt with some other green-tinted skin folk in a smaller ship, which was
shot down; Stephen meeting some native elves and humans, and showing them the
frog symbol; the building of the frog-shaped temple; Holding some of the humans
and elves down in the throne and pressing ‘rewrite’; seemingly years later, one
of the strange golems the party met outside attacking the temple building and
damaging the large white tank the party had seen earlier; the golem being slain
and tied to the altar and its brain removed; the people fleeing the temple as
Stephen tried to repair the tank (bent over the terminal that the party had found
recently damaged); Stephen researching in books from the locals a creature that
had a certain longevity and resistance that might allow him to remain and
maintain the building despite the dangers; and finally, Stephen mulling over a
decision. The onrush of the mental images dazed Dacien and left him confused
for a moment. Fortunately he recovered his senses to aid Faldak in fighting the
mechanical dog, and ended the combat quickly with a disintegrate spell. The second mechanoid has slink down a side
corridor to the levels below. Feeling battered from the series of encounters,
the party teleported back to Sasserine
to rest.
Dacien spent the night pouring over the diary they had
recovered, which mirrored the story he had seen upon the throne – that Stephen
Rocklin was part of a horticultural terraforming crew looking for new planets
to explore, their ship The New City
was struck by a missile whilst scanning Mystara, and crashed; the prime
directive of his training did not allow for engagement and interference with
native creatures, but Stephen felt, in the absence of any hope of rescue in the
short term, interaction with the locals was necessary. This led to a rift with
his commanding officer, and Stephen led a mutiny to escape in a life boat. That
was shot down by the main ship, and crashed in this swamp, where, using the
frog imagery from their vessel, they convinced the locals they were agents of
the Frog God. The explorers then used the brainwashing powers of their memory
recording technology to indoctrinate the locals into working with them, and with
the terraforming engine, building a community that would allow them to
interbreed and survive. Things went well for some time, until a cyborg sent by
the corps security force tried to destroy all evidence of their presence here.
This damaged the reactor power source, making the area dangerous for his colleagues. Stephen commanded them to leave and
build a new life in the surrounding areas, whilst he remained and tried to
repair the damage and keep the terraforming engines running. The locals had
spoken of a creature that had very hard to kill and could grant this power to
others, so Stephen set off to investigate. His last entry was simply ‘what have
I done?’
The next day, several of the party woke up to find much of
their hair left on the pillows, and a general feeling of lethargy. This struck Lenny
the worst, who found his skin highly sensitive and fragile. Something about
being in the area of the temple had a prolonged effect on her. Dacien decided
to visit the Witchwardens to enquire about possible solutions to Lenny’s
problem. He also mentioned that they had met a powerful undead who might need
some guidance. Dark Priestess Annah Teranaki welcomed the visit and information
from Dacien. She alluded to some interference from the ’fool’ immortal Ixion
during the last war (~4 years ago) which had altered something Annah described as
the Radiance to drain entropy instead of energy/magic from the plane. This was
having damaging effects on the undead that the Witchwardens were trying to help
– and the vampire in control of the Radiance energy here was a prime example of
the short sighted effects of Ixion’s interference. Draining of entropy was
weakening undead, and causing any hungers that they might keep in check to come
to the fore and be much stronger. Annah did not know much about the Radiance
itself, but alluded to more happening in Glantri, and claimed to be researching
more now it was directly impacting them – but that its powers could transcend
magical effects, and cause damage that might be resistant to normal magical
healing. Dacien requested something for Stephen to help control his hunger, and
Annah gave some bloodroot. Zhedd had heard that this could sate a creature’s
hunger for blood temporarily, but also that in a distilled form it could
enhance it and drive vampires into a raging bloodlust.
The party gathered, had a fleeting moral crisis, and teleported to the Temple to try and peacefully
deal with Stephen. However, he was waiting for them and hit Faldak with the
heat beam weapons the party encountered before on the golems. Antony swiftly
tried to call a truce and managed to convince Stephen to hold off attacking
further whilst Dacien telekinsed the
bloodroot towards him as a peace offering. Antony’s words worked and gave the
party time to explain that they were in fact here to help. Stephen confirmed
the background, but added that there had been some pale elves here that had
wanted to investigate the technology inside the temple themselves – likely the
shadow elves that the party had heard of in league with Bargle. They had damaged
the terminal in the main reactor room, which meant the power levels were
running lower and that explained why the terraforming engine could not sustain
the structures within Emerond. Their tampering had also alerted the security
cyborgs to the existence of the temple here, and they had arrived recently to
try and remove all trace of the technology from the area. Stephen could not
face them alone, but the party offered to take them out instead.
(EDIT: Lenny also asked about having the damage from the radiation cured; Stephen knew of no sure way to do this, but did mention a 'game console' on the lower level that could help albeit with a risk)
(EDIT: Lenny also asked about having the damage from the radiation cured; Stephen knew of no sure way to do this, but did mention a 'game console' on the lower level that could help albeit with a risk)
Stephen called out to ‘Weewak’ and the same disembodied voice
from yesterday answered. Stephen asked for a report on intruders, and
pinpointed the location of the 3 cyborgs in the temple, as well as drawing a
holographic map for the party. As the cyborgs were mainly on the lower levels,
they then prepared t o assault the temple nave through the gap in the ceiling
they had seen previously. The party spotted several of the black cylinders with
glowing red gems they had also seen outside onthe walls, scatted around the
supporting pillars of the temple. The cyborgs were slow to react, but again
responded with their lasers when threatened. Faldak was identified as a novel
species, so a preservation protocol was engaged and they trapped Faldak in an
immovable force field. Antony tried to exploit this tactic but using his hat of disguise to appear as unusual as
possible. Zhedd spotted a giant toad on the levels above coming to investigate
the commotion, and conjured a wall of
teeth to catch the cyborgs. One was dispatched b y Dacien’s magic, and the one
o nthe lower level fell to Mendel’s arrows. Before it died, it ejected a
glowing green rod, which detonated in a crackling purple sphere. However, this
explosion caught the other black cylinders in its blast, which set off a chain
reaction of explosions, removing much of the floor and all supporting pillars from
the temple. An ominous groaning sounded from overhead...
Images of the layout, and the effect of the explosions below
PDF
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