Date:
Tothsday, 20th of Fidios, 2993 AE
Next Week:
Weather:
Frigid, party cloudy, snowy
Player Characters:
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)
Significant NPCs:
Rudishva floor cleaning robot
2 Rudishva skeletons
Assassin vine
10 large zombies
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist
Basil, Right for Riches employee
Computer of the Beacon
The Plan:
- Explore the rest of the Rudishva Bastion
- Magically scry the Rudishva teleporters
- Explore the Great Cavern at the Bottom of the Great Chasm
What Happened:
Rather than taking their usual week of downtime between delves, the Right for Riches company went back into the Rudishva Bastion the next day. They had left one of their Teleport Rugs behind in the Bastion, behind the force field, so it was easy to go back. Vallium went back through the Rug wearing Ioannes's Salamander Amulet, used the yellow card to dismiss the force field, and walked through the fire trap to the conference room. There the others came through the Rug to join him. They went north and west and saw the floor cleaning robot sitting in its niche, all done cleaning up the mess they made the day before. They went east and looked at the high-tech console, but decided not to interact with it yet.
They went back west to an iris door propped open by a burned Rudishva corpse in a blue jumpsuit. Ioannes examined the corpse and saw that it had been burned in multiple locations by some kind of narrow energy blasts, not by a single large fire covering the entire body. Inside the room were a couple of manikins of a large human (with leathers, furs, and a spear) and a heqeti (with primitive jewelry). At the foot of each manikin was a plaque with Rudishva glyphs. Beyond the manikins, the room contained a bed, a desk, and a wardrobe, all made of some kind of white metal. There was also some artwork on the wall, an amazingly detailed picture of some colorful stars.
Vallium, Vael, and Ioannes all ran to investigate the wardrobe, and an explosive trap went off, catching all of them. Ioannes and Vael were severely injured, Vallium less so because of his armor. Uvash, who had been standing back, ran into to heal Ioannes and Vael before they passed out. Once he healed Ioannes, Ioannes pitched in to heal the others, and then they drank some healing potions. At that point, Vael decided to search the room for traps before touching anything else. He did not find any more traps, but he found a small panel under the bed with many buttons, each with glyphs that he thought were Rudishva numbers. They searched the rest of the room and found some Rudishva clothing and some confusing high-tech gadgets. They took everything portable (including the manikins!) through the Rug back to the Beacon. The art changed every few minutes to a different picture, and they spent a few minutes looking at the pictures, but didn't figure out how to take the screen off the wall without damaging it, or make it cycle pictures faster, so they left.
They continued west down the hallway and found a storage room, with many mostly empty shelves made of strange white metal. On the shelves they found a few pieces of waxy paper with Rudishva glyphs on one side, and a few small metal cylinders with Rudishva glyphs on one end. They took everything for later translation by Akla-Chah.
At the west end of the hall was another iris door, which also opened to the yellow card. This one contained another desk, another bed, another wardrobe, an orange table, a couple of chairs, and another screen with variable landscape art. The desk contained a high-tech gadget that matched the description of the Tablet of the Beacon. It also contained huge, magical, gold and silver -- no, actually platinum -- keys. And a large egg-shaped device on thin legs with one of the small cylinders sticking out of one side. Vallium started putting everything into Larel's Sack.
There was another iris door on the back wall of the room. This one opened to a small room containing a sink with a spout and two buttons with Rudishva glyphs, an area with a nozzle on the ceiling and a drain on the floor and buttons with the same two glyphs, and a third device with a lid and a single unlabeled button. The third device contained water in the bowl under the lid. Uvash declared it looked like a holy water dispenser and drank some of the holy water. The others were less certain and declined to drink any. The button on that device flushed the water down the drain and caused the water to refill. The buttons on the others dispensed hot and cold water. They decided that the smaller one was for face- or hand-washing and the larger one was for body washing. They left the bathroom, with Uvash still insisting that the middle appliance was so high quality it must serve a religious function.
They went back east to an iris door on the north wall. This one also opened to the yellow card. Within were a couple of huge stone chairs, facing the other way. Two large horned skeletons jumped up from the chairs to investigate the intrusion. Vallium waved the yellow card at them, and this worked, causing them to sit back down in their chairs. At this point the party started examining the room while Vallium kept an eye on the skeletons and kept holding the card up, in case they forgot who he was. There was a 40' wide shaft to the north, with white marble walls and silvery caulk, going up into darkness. The shaft was magical. There were several broken human skeletons in the shaft, some with magical equipment. Ioannes examined the skeletons in the shaft and decided they died of small-area blunt force trauma, like from multiple attacks with a mace attack, rather than from a single long fall. Vael saw that the shaft went up to the limits of his light, but did not fly up to investigate farther.
The equipment on the bodies included some magical mail, a magic staff, some potions and scrolls, and a magic ring. There were also some tiny ancient silver pennies and large ancient gold solidi scattered around. The group looted everything, while Vallium kept an eye on the skeletons. There was an exit from the west of the room to another room, containing a pool of opalescent liquid. Nobody had an empty vial on them, but Ioannes had some back in the Living Wheelbarrow they'd left in the Beacon, so Vael went back through the Rug to get the wheelbarrow. He used an Apportation spell to dip the vial in the liquid and collect some. Interestingly, the liquid cling to the outside of the vial as well. Vael stoppered the vial without touching the liquid and put it in the wheelbarrow for later investigation.
The group all left the room, with Vallium still waving the yellow card at the skeletons to assert his right to be there. They went east and opened another iris door, which contained another bathroom with the same three fixtures. They went north to one more iris door, and found another bedroom, with a small portable black mirror, some more of the small cylinders with glyphs on one end, some orange Rudishva jumpsuits, and a bag made of a strange substance, containing several tetrahedrons of unknown purpose. They once again took everything portable.
With the Bastion searched, they went back to the Rug to the Beacon, dropped off all the items they had gathered, and showed the possible Tablet of the Beacon to Akla-Chah. She agreed that it looked like the Command Tablet and that if the bridge computer recognized it as genuine, its holder would assert command over what was left of the Beacon. Vael went to the bridge and plugged the Tablet into one of the slots in the arms of the central chair. One of the black mirrors on the wall lit up with a nataraja figure, which addressed him in Rudishva as Captain. He ran back to Akla-Chah, who addressed him as Captain Vael and asked if he needed any information or had any orders for her. He instructed Akla-Chah that Ioannes, Vallium, and Uvash were also to be treated as officers of the Beacon, and Basil as crew. He asked if she could translate for the computer, and she said that she could, but that if they spoke Archontean in the bridge for a while, the computer would probably figure it out.
After some time talking to Akla-Chah and the bridge computer, they decided to try to figure out the teleporters. They all went back through the Rug to the Bastion, then bypassed the fire trap again to the teleporters. Vael cast Trace on the Returning Pebble, then put it on the silver disc on the floor, then touched the yellow card to the yellow panel on the wall while not standing on the disc. The pebble disappeared. Vael concentrated on the Trace and felt that the pebble was almost 1500' up, near the surface. He went back through the Rug to the Beacon and checked both teleport rooms. The Pebble was sitting in one of them. Having verified basic operation, they decided to try again with a live (but expendable) test subject. Vael and Ioannes went through the other Rug to Gosterwick, then stumbled through the cold from their apartment to the Grain House. There they bought a live chicken and some chicken feed. Ioannes was able to restrain it well enough to get it back to their apartment, through the Rug, and back to the Beacon. Vael put some feed on the silver disk, let the chicken walk onto the disc to eat, then put the yellow card against the panel, causing the chicken to teleport. Going through the Rug to the Beacon, they verified the chicken was alive on the other disc. They then put some bricks on a teleporter disc and found that that could not teleport anything onto it while it was occupied. However, just a small pebble on a disc was not enough to prevent teleporting to it.
Having tested one teleporter, they repeated the process with the other two teleporters in the Bastion and the other teleporter in the Beacon and found that they sent the Pebble to various other places in the Halls. Done with the chicken, they gave it to Basil to cook for dinner. Finally, they all went through the one between the Beacon and the Bastion, two at a time. They then decided to use the other teleporter in the Beacon and ended up in a small room with an iris door along one wall.
The objects in the teleporter room included another pair of large gold and platinum keys, a large horn of some strange creature, some odd item shaped like a Rudishva hand, a Rudishva-sized full body armored suit, several more of the tetrahedrons, another of the high-tech turrets like the ones that had been guarding the entrance to the Bastion (but inactive), a couple more of the small cylinders, and a large high-tech chest that was too heavy to lift. Everyone hid in the corners, and Vallium pushed the button on the chest. It opened with a hiss of air. Inside were shelves containing many rows of small identical-looking boxes. Vael came over and pulled out one box, which was transparent and contained some seeds, with Rudishva glyphs. They kept that box to identify and closed the chest. They took the other items back through the Rug to the Beacon.
The room to the south contained three large bins, but they were empty. There was a frieze on the wall showing various species of people bringing treasure to the Rudishva. There was a bit of treasure left in the room, including an obviously broken larger Rudishva weapon, a smaller Rudishva weapon, a magical all-wooden spear, and a bunch of silver and steel bars.
While three of them were investigating the objects, the iris door closed behind them, and they could not open it again, even with the yellow card. Uvash, on the other side but without the yellow card, could not open it either. They had the Rug, so they went back through it to the Beacon, teleported back through the teleporter to join Uvash, then opened the iris door again with the yellow card, and this time they put some steel bars from the room through the iris door to keep it open. (They had previously noticed that Rudishva iris doors would not close on an object or person.)
An iris door on the west wall of the souther room surprisingly led into a huge, magically lit room, containing a garden of many strange plants, with exits in many directions. As they looked at the garden, Uvash wandered too close to the wrong plant, which sent out some tendrils to try to grab him. He blocked the attack, and a battle with the assassin vine began. It was a short battle, as the plant was bad at dodging Vael's Create Fire spell, Vallium's sword, and Uvash's mace. After a few seconds, the vine was dead, and Vael moved his magical fire out of the garden to avoid burning any more shrubbery.
To the south was a room containing a large swiveling chair holding a Rudishva corpse in a blue jumpsuit. Surrounding the central chair were many small podiums with black mirrors on top. The Rudishva had both another yellow Rudishva identity plaque, and another silver one.
West from the garden was some kind of library, with many receptacles for books on the west wall, but only three scrolls remaining, all in Rudishva Glyphik, which they could not read. There was also a book on a table, which seemed like a work in progress, showing translations of about 250 Rudishva glyphs to Mithric. A few other desks appeared to have some kind of technological devices built in, but they were inert.
To the north were a few small sleeping cells, each with a bed. There was also another teleportation disc, this one with a silver panel on the wall. Vael pulled out the Wand of See Secrets and activated it, then ran around the area to magically look for secret doors. He found one in the southwest corner of the garden, and one in the southern wall of the eastern treasure building. Both secret doors opened to a wave of the yellow card. The one in the southern wall led to another teleporter. The one in the southwest corner led to an oval passage about 6 feet tall, so a bit tight for a tall human, or very small for a Rudishva.
They followed the oval passage, with Vallium in the lead. It crossed a small stream that had worked its way through the passage from side to side. The passage led to a dead end, which Vael assumed had a secret door. Rather than bothering to search for it, he just waved a yellow card near that wall until a secret door opened. Beyond was a room full of dead bodies of several types, some Varuda, some Varumani, some Heqeti. There were also a couple of Varuda pennants on the walls, and some inactive technological consoles. While they investigated, the bodies woke up and attacked. They were zombies! The zombies initially had Ioannes and Vael surrounded, but Ioannes blocked the first attack then ran back to the entrance behind Vallium. Vael used Blink to escape to the north, then used Larel's Cloak to turn invisible and hide. That let Vallium and Uvash fight the zombies. Once surprise was lost, it was a one-sided fight: Vallium killed about eight of them, and Uvash killed a couple more. When everyone was sure the zombies were all down for good, they searched the room, and found a couple of maps pinned to corkboards on the wall. They took the maps.
Doubling back to the garden room, Vael sent the Returning Pebble through both remaining teleporters, finding that one went down a ways, and the other just went about 20 yards east. He used Scry Gate to look through both, and saw that the lower one led to darkness. After sending a Continual Light rock through, he was that it led to a small room with just the teleporter, off a short corridor with iris doors on both ends. The other teleporter led to a large, brighly-lit room with at least two other teleporters, a couple of nataraja figures like the one they had guarding the stairs to the Beacon, and a wall of fire.
That felt like enough exploration for one day, so they went back into the closet with the teleporter to the Beacon, removed the steel bars propping the iris door open, and teleported back. They had a lot of new items to identify.
GM's Comments:
It gets a bit tedious to come up with appropriate descriptions for high-tech objects. I'll be happy when the PCs are familiar enough with them that I can just say "Rudishva toilet."
I was impressed that Vallium thought to use the yellow Rudishva identity plaque to avoid combat with the skeletons. It was not obvious that would work, but it did.
I'm continually amused by how the PCs are so extremely careful sometimes, and just rush into danger at other times.
Achievements:
- Regalia: Found the Command Tablet a.k.a. the Tablet of the Beacon: 1 XP
XP:
- Exploration: 14 new locations, 1 XP
- Loot: Lots of Rudishva tech, some magic items, and some coins. Probably 2 XP.
- Achievements: 1 XP
- Total: 4 XP
Next Week:
- Meet with Roger the Rapier and the Five Fingers of Destiny. Give them an ankh key for the secret of the treasury of Thoth.
- Explore south past the room with the zombies.
- Explore the other two teleporters in that area.
- Explore the stream.
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