The Crystal Dominion - Session 17 Summary

[avisarr]

The Crystal Dominion - Session 17 Summary

The Heroes:

RedEye - A sayune darkwalker with rogue skills and a few spells of sorcery.
Eiran - An elven ranger and archer with a gift for communicating with animals.
Sir Tristan - A knight in shining armor, man of honor and courage, and a skilled swordsman.
Alan - A human arcanologist... a magic tinkerer with a keen ability to "reprogram" spells and magic items.
Rikhaal – A human priest of Barrinor with an array of spells and powerful healing magic.

NPC Characters:

Koeglur – An ogre warrior, former slave, rescued by the party. Now serves the party.
Osh – A 12 year old human male serving as a squire to Sir Tristan.


The Story:

Last session, we ended with the party exploring the first dark and quiet chambers of the Mine of Kalrothis. The first main chamber contained the crystal fountain and a number of undead corpses which the fought and defeated. Off of the first main chamber were a number of side chambers which the party began to explore one at a time.

The first side chamber was a large room which seemed to be a garage for huge, armored wagons. Three of these large wagons were in berths along a side wall. A fourth wagon was in the center of the open chamber, flipped onto its side and damaged. Near the upturned wagon was a corpse.

Rikhaal walked over to investigate the body, but no sooner had he reached it, the edge of the circle of his lantern light illuminated two mechanical feet. A mechanical sound was heard, like a wheel beginning to spin and click. He hoisted the lantern as a mechanical man stepped into the light. It was not quite a golem, it was an automaton. The thing was the size and shape of a man, but it was a mass of metal, wires, gears and pistons.

Before Rikhaal could react, the automaton leapt fully into the circle of light and charged. A blade extended from its right arm, a shield unfolded from the left.

Instantly the rest of the party ran forward to assist Rikhaal. They quickly had the automaton surrounded and were trading blows back and forth. Eiran stayed back by the overturned wagon and fired precisely placed arrows.  He was attempting to put an arrow through the automaton's single eye.

After firing a few arrows, Eiran heard something move inside the overturned wagon. He peered in through a small window in the wagon's rear door and saw something move inside.

The party managed to beat the automaton into junk.  They could clearly see that it had a power crystal in its chest cavity functioning as some kind of power source. It collapsed in a metal heap. As soon as the battle ended, the party saw a tiny automaton, shaped a bit like a spider and about a foot across, scurry out from the shadows. This little automaton scampered onto the broken carcass of the automaton they had just killed. The little spider-bot extended small tools from several of its legs and began to make repairs.

They immediately ran back over to the overturned wagon to help Eiran and see what he had found. Koeglur and Tristan together wrenched the wagon door off the wagon.

Once the door was off, another automaton appeared, stepping out from the wagon. However, this automaton was quite different from the one they had just defeated. The one emerging from the wagon was slender and seemed to be of a different type. It had hands instead of weapons. Also, this automaton was badly damaged, especially its throat area which was mostly missing except for a few dangling wires.

The party managed to resist the urge to attack. This new automaton seemed somewhat timid. Alan coaxed it out and examined the thing closely. It was of a similar construction, but different design than the other one. Alan concluded they had been built by the same wizard, but served very different roles. Where as the other automaton seemed a combat model, this one seemed designed for some other purposed. This new automaton also had a power crystal in its chest as a power source.

Alan also determined that the automaton may have been able to speak at some point, but that it was missing a vital component required for speech. The damage could not be repaired. Alan would need to find a compatible voice box to restore speech to the thing.

Alan discovered that the automaton would respond to hand gestures, but could not understand their language. Understandable assuming that this automaton had most likely been created by the wizards who once lived and worked in this mine... some 2000 years ago. He most likely spoke and understood Traxxian. None of the party members understood Traxxian.  But they did have a number of papers in both Traxxian and Drakkellian (mostly papers from N'sahd – his spell book, journal, translated letters and other material).

While the rest of the party continued exploring a few of the other nearby rooms, Alan stayed in the wagon storage chamber with the automaton and began teaching him their language using those papers. The automaton seemed to be able to read a page of text very quickly and with Alan showing him words in both languages and teaching him the pronunciation, he was quickly able to learn basic concepts and words.

While the language lesson was going on, the rest of the party moved on without Alan.  They explored the wagons and found a few power crystals. It seemed that the crystals were cut in a standard size and transported in metal brackets that stored 8 crystals each.

The party went back into the main chamber to the other side and went into another side chamber. This one was clearly a stable. A dozen horse skeletons littered the ground. There were also three animated undead horses in the far end. Rikhaal called upon the power of Barrinor and obliterated them with holy fire.  He could not allow undead to exist, even if they were just horses.

Also in the stable was a large mechanical horse. It seemed to be of a similar design to the other automatons. But this one had no crystal in its chest cavity. It was inactive. The horse was partially disassembled and one of its legs was laying on a work bench.

In the next side room, as soon as they opened the door, several undead canines leapt out and attacked. The first bore Tristan to the ground and began to maul him. It was followed by two more. A fierce battle erupted. Blade and magic and Rikhaal's holy light quickly destroyed the skeletal dogs.

Inside they found a large kennel. The walls were lined with dozens of cages. Some had the skeleton remains of dogs that had starved to death centuries ago. Six of the cages had animated undead dogs.

Tristan and Koeglur open up those six cages one at a time and killed the undead dogs. Rikhaal insisted that they be dispatched, but killing them with hammer and blade allowed Rikhaal to save his magic.

While the party explored the kennel, RedEye slipped next door and used his magic to phase through the door of the next chamber. Inside was a storage room in disarray. As soon as he entered the chamber, something leapt onto his back. He immediately phased again and backed up. The creature was a giant rat (undead by the looks of it) and it had given him a nasty bite on the shoulder before he had been able to go incorporeal again. He quickly exited the room by walking through the door again, back out into the main chamber. He then resolidified and examined his bleeding shoulder.

The group, having finished with the kennel, came back out into the main corridor and asked RedEye what had happened to him. He explained about the rat. The group charged in and quickly disposed of the skeletal rat.

Inside the room they found a cluttered and messy storage room. The only thing of interesting was a human corpse (skeleton) in the center of the room. An arrow was through his shoulder. A quick scan of the room showed that the arrow was magical. Upon closer examination they found that the arrow tip was crystalline and glowing green. A vaporous trail of green mist flowed from the tip continuously and left a trail of particles in the air as the tip was moved about.

Also, they found another power crystal in a storage bracket on a shelf in the back of this room.

Alan, who was still back in the wagon storage chamber, finished with the automaton and was now able to communicate through rudimentary gestures and phrases written on parchment. The party regrouped in the main chamber and informed Alan of everything he had missed. Tristan, who very much liked the mechanical horse in the stables, asked Alan if he could re-attach the mechanical leg and see if he could get the horse working again. Alan agreed to try and went to the stable to begin work. Alan was actually delighted to spend more time with these strange mechanical constructs and found them to be absolutely fascinating. The automaton with the damaged voicebox is now following Alan around like a puppy.

While Alan was again preoccupied with mechanical work, the party moved on. They had finished exploring all of the side chambers. They now moved to the far end of the main chamber. There they a large mechanical gate. It has a complex looking system of locks and bolts and gears. It also had four mechanical arms attached to it. As the party approached the arms unfolded and extended long blades. They were quick, dexterous and dangerous, striking at anyone who attempted to approach the door. Koeglur tried to smash them with his hammer while keeping out of reach, but the mechanical blade arms still managed to slash him several times.

RedEye used his magic to become incorporeal and phase through the door. On the other side he resolidified. He began working on prying off an access panel on that side and began working on disassembling the mechanics of the door. It took him a while and a bit more of his magic, but he was eventually able to disarm the device and all four arms on the party's side of the door went suddenly limp. RedEye worked a bit more and managed to unlock and open the door.

The party entered the chamber with RedEye. It was a long chamber that was divided lengthwise down the middle by a stout stone wall. This stone wall effectively split the chamber into two long parallel corridors that appeared to both open up into a chamber on the far side. Since both corridors were parallel and went down to the same chamber, it didn't really matter which way they went. They chose to go down the right corridor. The corridor was decorated with several magnificent tapestries and five suits of armored that were ensconced in alcoves on the left. There was also a door along the right side. They ignored the door and continued down the corridor.

Half way down this corridor there was a mechanical click and  six huge portculli came crashing down through the ceiling. The six portculli were evenly spaced and divided the corridor into five square shaped cells with two people in each cell. These portcullis were dense enough such that it was difficult to get a sword thrust through them.

Immediately, the five suits of armor stepped out of their alcoves. Because of where the portcullis gates had come down, each "cell" had one alcove and one suit of armor in it. The suits of armor drew blades and attacked the people in the respective cell. Battle was joined.  

In the first "cell" was Koeglur and Tristan who had been leading the way. Koeglur had tried to catch the portcullis as it fell, but it had been too heavy and it had pinned him to the ground with an iron spear through his shoulder. Tristan was forced to battle the armor suit in their cell by himself.

In the second cell, RedEye was trapped in a cell with Osh. Having no desire to fight the suit of armor, he grabbed Osh and phased both of them to an incorporeal state. He then carried Osh out of the cell back to the main chamber and resolidified.

In the third cell was Captain Radermak and one of the soldiers. They fought together against their suit of armor.

In the fourth cell, Eiran and Rikhaal were trapped together. Rikhaal summoned an Ice Axe with his magic and begun to swing at the armor suit that was in their cell. Eiran fired arrows into the things chest plate.

In the fifth and final cell, the rest of the soldiers were captured and one of them was pinned.

RedEye phased again and ran through all four cells, insubstantially, to get in front of the far portcullis. This put him just outside of the cell where Tristan and Koeglur were. RedEye tried to free Koeglur from the portcullis that had him pinned down.

Captain Radermak and the soldier were in the third cell which happened to have the door. The door had not been blocked.  They pushed their way through the door to escape their cell. Within seconds, the party heard screams coming from beyond the door which quickly faded off. They could only guess at what had become of them.

RedEye grabbed Koeglur, phased him (allowing him to stand up) and pulled him out of the cell.

Rikhaal eventually destroyed his animated armor suit with his ice axe.

RedEye yelled to Osh to go fetch Alan. Osh ran back to the stable where Alan was working on the mechanical horse. Osh told him to come quick... that the party needed him.  Alan was deep in his work and declined to be interrupted.

Back in the cells, the battle raged on. One of the helmets was knocked off of the armor suits, revealing that they were not merely empty suits of armor, but were actually animated skeletons in armor. At that point, Rikhaal called upon the divine power of Barrinor once again and blasted the skeletons to dust with holy fire.

With Koeglur's help lifting the gates, they eventually got everyone back down at the south end of the hall, where they had come in. The party decided that perhaps they should regroup before venturing forth again.

RedEye scanned the walls and ceiling with ethereal sight and saw cables running in ceiling leading to a small lever in one of the alcoves where one of the suits had been. Clearly, the skeletons hiding in the suits of armor had been "awake" and aware.  The one in that alcove waited until the party had been in perfect position and then pulled the lever and sprung the trap.

The party went round to the other parallel corridor and RedEye confirmed the same setup – a series of skeletons in armor, one with his hand on a lever to spring a similar trap.

Rikhaal summoned the holy fire and detonated all but one. The last one dropped out of his alcover and charged the party, but was quickly dispatched by Tristan and Koeglur.

The party decided to regroup with Alan back in the main corridor and heal up.

This is where we ended session 17.

Several of the soldiers have been lost, but the party has picked up a new pet... the automaton that Alan has learned to communicate with.