View source for Smaller Details Part 5 - finale!

When last we left our brave anmd noble heroes, they had disabled the machinery at the heart of the concentric circles. 
 
No more robots are coming to life. There's still more of this place to explore, perhaps more adventurers, but it seems you've /mostly/ completed the job you were sent here to do. 
 
Mostly. 
 
With the system powering the artifice and the great crystal machinery in the cneter of the room depowered, the lights within have flickered and dropped several levels in brightness. It's more now of an ambient dimness instead. Enough to see by but far more shadows. 
 
A door leads out of here and into the outter ring and another door to wahtever lays on the opposite side of this area from where you entered.



Adjusting the robo-skulls he's stuck onto hooks on his armor, Baz hefts his huge curved blade over one shoulder and sets off towards the door way on the opposite side and whateveer lays beyond. "Right, one moah door. May as well looky-look around and see if dere's anything fancy like a new axe in here. Ya?"


Lucy forces a polite smile. "Yes, let's see what else there is to discover here. We've found everyone we were sent for on the way, so we may be the first ones in this area since the Kulthians!"


Kore looks around slowly and then takes a deep breath. "Back to the exploration then. I feel like I should do something to this machine to make it harder to repair..." She tilts her head slightly and then withdraws a vial of alchemical fire. "This will probably muck it up." After finding somewhere likely to toss it into the works Kore starts to walk toward a passage. Onward and forward!


Tirr oooh's and nods "Soo am I still gonna be worrying about a fight? Or can I start taking notes and drawing pictures of what's happening?" Asks Tirr, no she's not very knowledgeable about adventuring, but she's honest about it!


GAME: Kore rolls perception: (12)+12: 24

GAME: Tirrynelth rolls perception: (10)+6: 16

GAME: Baz da Ork rolls Perception: (7)+3: 10

GAME: Lucy rolls perception: (6)+12: 18

GAME: Kore rolls disable device+2: (18)+13+2: 33


Kore kneels beside the door way and holds up a fist to signal the group to stop. She already has her tools out of the pouch on her belt where she keeps them. "This is... Fascinating." Scraping follows as she slowly removes the moulding on the doorway, revealing worksings on the far side. "This trap is - welll, it's a combnation lock. This is essentially the entrance to a vault. And if we get the combination wrong we'll be locked out."

Kore speaks calmly and methodically as she works. First she teases a single gear until it rotates a single click. This lets her slip the slender steel bar in between the gears in question as she works one loose.

"So I can't afford to get this wrong... Mmm." Kore reaches up and draws her free hand through her hair and comes away with a hair pin. It falls in a mass down her back once it's releaed. This pin is driven in between two other gears, preventing them from moving and telling the lock it's been disturbed. Then it's a matter of twisting until a tumbler clicks. It can't fall into place but each tumbler on clicks when they hit the notch that would lock them into place.

After that's done Kore removes her pin from the lock and lets the tumblers fall. She comes to her feet as the trap receds. "Well. That was interesting. ... Shall we?"


The big Ork more or less slumps down to watch Kore work. His black eyes blinking and squiting. He raises an armored finger now and then as if to ask a question but thinks better of it. Eventually as she finishes he slowly raises to his feet and nods. "Right, dat was." He pauses as if looking for the right word. "Alot 'arder den just having me rip the door open I think." There's a snort as he flexes his arms. "I coulda done it ya know." He adds defensively. "But dat uh, pokey and gears and stuff was impressive."


Lucy holds her breath as Kore works on the trap. She also watches, with what might be professional interest. When the trap is disarmed she nods in approval. "Nicely done...sometimes precision is just as important as strength."


Tirr peers at the trap that is just disarmed and the tumblers and then glances to Kore and offers a genuine smile "That was jolly well done." she says happily... "Maybe we're on the downhill stretch and once we're done here we can finally leave?



Welp. 
 
ALl that leaves is to open the door. 
 
Which BAz can do by turning the wheel with some strength, whenever he's ready. It's kinda stuck.



GAME: Baz da Ork rolls Strength: (17)+5: 22


You say, "Don't let your guard down. It would be a shame to come this far and then end up like..." she trails off and is careful not to look at any of the others that were rescued earlier. "End up stuck down here."


"YEARRRGGH WAAAGH!" The big Ork grapples the giant wheel and gives it a heavy wrench. Bending his knees, swelling his arms and just hauling the door out of the way. Having achieved victory over the inanimate object he thumps his chest once and announces. "I'm the biggest, and da strongest!" Then barks a laugh before he casts light onto the tip of his sword and waves it into the doorway.


Tirr nods slowly "Don't intend to let anything down I don't think." she states simply. She rubs at the back of her neck again, figers brushing over that retracted crest of hers. "Sooo now what? Are y'all familiar with these kinda ruins and what do you think is next?



Krrchunk! 
 
The door opens slowly and the room is illuminated by a soft, amber glow coming from within. Pushing inside, you see a great many magicite crystals almost immediately stacked one after the other against the wall in neat bundles, softly glowing with the magical energy they contain, kept carefully wrapped in some sort of transparent sheeting. This vault, as it can really only be called a vault, also has rows of drawers set into a wall on the opposite side from the magicite. Some open, some not. They look more or less like someone had previously ransacked theri contents. Some of the drawers are even pulled free of the floor, littering the ground. 
 
A single skeleton lays upon the ground near them, his chest a mass of shattered bone and ash. 
 
The room is illuminated by a single, glowing dim orb above you.



"Oy, lookie here." Baz says as he tromps in, strait towards the corpse. He uses his lit sword tip to stir the bones. "Ya, I've seen dis a'fore. Magic, right? Dere must be a wizard still in here!" he announces over the aged to mere bones pile beneath him. "We should search, right?"


Lucy stands near the entrance, ready for anything. She pauses and peers at the skeleton. "What could have done that? Trap? Automaton?"



Regardless, he definitely looks like he's been here for a long time and undisturbed. His body didn't mummify, but everything did... liquify eventually. 
 
The stain undernerath the skeleton is pretty vile.



"Right." Baz reaches out and turns over the drawers already on the floor searching them, then stacking them out of the way. Then he makes his way over towards the ones on the wall, rubbing his leather and metal covered hands. "Oooh, wot we gots here?"


GAME: Baz da Ork rolls perception: (1)+3: 4 (EPIC FAIL)

GAME: Kore rolls perception+2: (16)+12+2: 30

GAME: Tirrynelth rolls perception: (19)+6: 25

GAME: Lucy rolls perception: (1)+12: 13 (EPIC FAIL)


Tirr glances around the place curiously, then rubs at the back of her neck.. She glances at the orb thingie and begins to look around the place curiously, head cocking to the side now and then on that long neck as her tail lashes slowly behind her while she looks around.


"Wot is dat?" Baz says, he stares into the back of an empty drawer. His black eyes squiting, then he starts sticking his hand in there. His arm, grunting and straining. He switches arms, then uses his sword to scrape around. His face repeatedly returning as he tries to figure out what it is. Grunts, growls, muttered curse words as he then bends his hands to try and wrench the shelve area apart. Finally he pulls out his gutting dagger and rams it into the back and then proudly draws it forth. "Aww yea, I found!" He pauses, looking at the small thread stuck to a decades old mumified date. "Nut'in." He flicks it off and meekly goes back to trying to find sometihng.



GOOD NEWS EVERYONE 
 
A thorough search of the room shows that not all of the 'drawers' wer ecompleteled emptied! You find a number of very old Kulthian coins in one, for example, and the magicite should surely pad your goold earnings for your rescues. 
 
However, as this occurs, twin gaps in the ceiling open. 
 
Two, well... 
 
They look like excessively complicated manacannons... have begun to descend. 
 
Great.


 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  ATTENTION  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

        NeverSleepsPool has dropped a TIMESTOP!

        Please +init, then cease all roleplay and actions immediately and wait for NeverSleepsPool to instruct you further.

        For in-combat commands, type: +thelp.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-



GAME: Lucy rolls weapon10: (14)+10: 24

GAME: Lucy rolls 1d3+7: (2)+7: 9


GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+7: (10)+7: 17

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+7: (13)+7: 20

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+7: (13)+7: 20

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d4+1: (2)+1: 3

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d4+1: (2)+1: 3

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d4+1: (1)+1: 2



GAME: Kore rolls acrobatics: (16)+10: 26

GAME: Kore rolls perception: (16)+12: 28

GAME: Kore rolls cmb: (19)+5: 24


GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d5: (1): 1

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+7: (10)+7: 17

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+7: (7)+7: 14

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+7: (15)+7: 22

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d4+1: (2)+1: 3

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d4+1: (2)+1: 3

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d4: (3): 3



GAME: Tirrynelth casts Shield. Caster Level: 4 DC: 15


Tirr sees the mana things flinging what looks like magic missiles around... She frowns, then uickly casts a shield, erecting a slightly visible barrier between her self and the firing guns..



The cannons open fire. 
 
In short, three round bursts of magical energy, they light up with unerring accuracy on Lucy and Granit, hitting both of them painfully in the chest. 
 
At least now you know what happened to the other guy, right?



GAME: Baz da Ork rolls CMB+1: (17)+8+1: 26


Lucy slips a small pick out of her pack and rotates it in her hand until it's in position to swing. Which is exactly what she does, hopping up as she does. The point digs into the side of the machine. For a moment Lucy thinks she may have disabled it...until it swivels towards her and fires, burning into her chest and eliciting a shriek.


"Awww I wants one!" Baz says as the cannons lower and one fires at Lucy. He laughs and races forward, then smashes his shield upwards into the weapon closest to him. Straining against the arcane machinery to push the barrel up so it's less of a threat. "I gots it! Now ta get it down so I can use it!"


GAME: Granit rolls CMB: (15)+8: 23

Granit gets out of Kore's way, and moves to shove the fork of his guisarme against the turret barrel, supporting Baz' efforts and trying to keep the weapon's mouth away from others.


GAME: Lucy rolls weapon10: (14)+10: 24

GAME: Lucy rolls 1d3+7: (2)+7: 9

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (12)+5: 17



Lucy hops a few steps to one side, and then the other, trying her best to see the turret from around Baz's shield and Granit's polearm. One hand clutches at her chest where she was shot earlier, but the other holds the pick ready. Finally she sees an opportunity and jumps again, banging the point of the pick against the base of the turret. "Why would they have something like this INSIDE the room?" she calls out.


GAME: Kore rolls disable device+2: (6)+13+2: 21


GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+7: (20)+7: 27

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+7: (16)+7: 23

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+7: (3)+7: 10

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d4+1: (2)+1: 3

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d4+1: (3)+1: 4

GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d5: (2): 2


The whirring, grinding, clanking of its gears care audible as it tries to power through the various people holding it down. The turret's simply not strong enough, doesn't have enough leverage or weight, to get past Baz and Granit's efforts, though. 
 
The second turret opens fire on Tirrynelth. Her magical shielding simply absorbs the energy bolts.



GAME: Tirrynelth casts Scorching Ray. Caster Level: 4 DC: 16

GAME: Tirrynelth rolls ranged: (6)+3: 9


GAME: Baz da Ork rolls CMB+3: (11)+8+3: 22


Tirr blinks, looking between Baz and the canon rider curiously, she then points a finger at the turret baz is bothering and fires a ray of red light at it... missing quite thoroughly...


With support from Granit's pike Baz grunts, growls and with a mighty roar shoves his shield even further up. Extending his armored body with a burst of strength to slam the barrel against the ceiling and keep that cannon from attacking anyone else. "AHHAHAA! I AM THE BIGGEST AND STRONGEST!"


GAME: Granit rolls cmb: (7)+8: 15


Granit switches over to the other turret, trying to set his polearm and wrangle the turret. Howver, he's working hard to stay out of Kore's way and he's not being that effectual.

GAME: Lucy rolls weapon3: (14)+12: 26

GAME: Lucy rolls 1d4+12: (4)+12: 16


GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (6)+5: 11


GAME: Kore rolls disable device+2: (11)+13+2: 26


Lucy shifts her pick to her 'off' hand and draws her rapier. It gives her a little more reach, but Baz's efforts have pushed the turret flat against the ceiling and even with a jump she doesn't think she can reach. Instead she walks up to Baz and plants a foot on his knee, then jumps, the little extra bit of clearance allowing her to stab her rapier into one of the dents she created earlier with her pick. She lands lightly on her feet, then prepares to do it again. "Nice work Baz!" she encourages.


GAME: Tirrynelth casts Scorching Ray. Caster Level: 4 DC: 16

GAME: Tirrynelth rolls ranged: (20)+3: 23 (THREAT)

GAME: Tirrynelth rolls ranged: (12)+3: 15

GAME: Tirrynelth rolls 8d6: (29): 29

Tirr blinks and squints now, she missed, time to correct! She points her finger again, muttering stuff and well a blast shoots out from said finger, the red beam striking the turret quite solidly! "It worked!!!"



GAME: Baz da Ork rolls 1d20+7: (13)+7: 20

With one arm holding the shield that pins the barrel in place the other begins looping some of his travel rope through the gears and supports, around the barrel and just about anything else he can loop or tie to. Finally Baz has the gun relatively cow-tied, unable to attack for the moment. "Hah! Now I will call it Gresh, and it shall help me serve Kor!"


Kore does a quick leap and catches hte barrle of one of the turrets. She scrambles across it and grapples with her legs before working out her tool kit and starting to remove bits of paneling. Over the course of about fifteen seconds Kore tears free a variety of things and eventually it whirs to a stop and is completely still. The diminutive elf breathes a sigh of relief as it does.


GAME: Granit rolls cmb: (9)+8: 17

Granit adds his polearm to the leverage that Baz is applying to the turret. He looks over to Kore. "Quick! This one!"


GAME: Lucy rolls weapon3: (13)+12: 25

GAME: Lucy rolls 1d4+12: (4)+12: 16


GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (7)+5: 12


GAME: Kore rolls ranged+1: (4)+7+1: 12

GAME: Kore rolls ranged+1: (19)+7+1: 27

GAME: Kore rolls 1d3+strength+1+2: (1)+2+1+2: 6


Kore reaches nto the pouch on her belt, still hanging from the turret by her legs. Upside down she withdrawsa pair of shuriken. Eyeing the other turret she makes a couple quick throws. The first glances off but thesecond slips through crumpled armor and strikes the power converter she'd just disabled in the first turret. With a *zort* it lurches to a sudden halt. The turret is dead.


Tirr peers curiously. She looks from one thig to the other, then umms "So we won right? You might wanna take those gun thigies to an artificer.. Am thinking they might wanna see it.." She suggests...


Lucy peers up at one turret, then turns her head to look at the other. "It's almost like they were here to guard something." She turns and looks at the skeleton. "And maybe he was a thief - or an explorer."


Granit steps back, lowering his guisarme. "These seem like guard turrets, yes." A nod to Lucy. "Agreed."


Reaching up both hands after shouldering his shield. Baz starts wrenching on one of the 'guns' and trying to tear it from the ceiling in as close to one piece as possible. "So, we gets dez things. Dem stack of shiney rocks and we get back ta going through the drawers right? Den we get paid for bringing the first group o' fools up and we maybe get a bonus for clear'n out this weird crap? Sounds like a red banner day, time ta do some drink'n!"



...well, the good news is that you're able to pull off the turrett, should you want to, and finish searching the room. More coins, really, is what you discover, amongst other useless trinkets and small bits of artifice and art. 
 
Eventually, you're able to return to the exit unmolested with the surviving adventurers and release them into the care of the clerics who'll be happy to tend to their wounds and your own. 
 
The area explored and secured, the Artifier's Guild is no doubt going to thoroughly enjoy catalogueing what you didn't destroy outright. 
 
..what's left of it, anyway.

[[Category:Logs|Smaller Details Part 5 - finale!]]