Second Ptolus Campaign Journal, #53
7th of Wind
Later in the day, we decide to pursue various threads of our investigation into the Shuul and their secret project beneath the Foundry. Diethan tries to get some info from a dwarf contact. She recommended talking to Frima Copperlace in the Foundry to get the lowdown on what’s going on there.
She also notes that the Tower of Science sure has an unusual lot of security measures on the top levels, including dwarves and orcs (large ones from out of town that don’t seem to think like regular orcs). Their head of security, Arnor Stoneblock, is a good dwarf, though, who’s sure to keep his eye on them. But he’s been pretty busy lately, as they’re awaiting a big shipment of something or other coming in by airship tomorrow night at the tower. Large generators at the base of the tower produce lots of power. (Diethan recalls that, when he was in the Tower of Science, it vibrated slightly at all times. That’s a lot of power!)
We arrange with our cleric friend Mand Scheben to meet with Aprata Nachov to find out more about the Cinderpriest and the anti-technology item he has. Would it work against the Great Drill?
Session CII – 8th of Wind
Lady Rill of Castle Shard agrees to see us this morning. I’m hoping she can tell us something about a sorcerer known as Vanum Vaal of the Ennin. We meet her in the Shard chamber at the center of the castle. She tells us that Vanum Vaal is a polymorphed ogre-mage who poses as a human. He can be found sometimes at Danbury’s and in the company of a half-dragon named Sartaris. She adds that Poselle (an Ennin contact of Teris Brunchart’s) is not a human as we’d thought but a lamia, and Annagais (who gave Chellaster the Blood of the Vampire book) is a naga. They all frequently pose as humans to exist in the city.
The Pactlords trade slaves simply to earn money for their other operations, Rill says. Freedom-loving groups that might want to help us assail them include the Knights of the Golden Cross. But that organization has seen better days.
Calista recalls that the half-dragon Sartaris is the guy we met as a ghost in Lanasal’s tower of the future – he hated us because we killed him. Wow, that’s really weird. As we’re leaving, Rill asks us if in the future we spoke to someone named Rybus. We remember he was a future Lord of Castle Shard who was to succeed Lord Zavere. She notes that she’s not sure she can trust her future self. She thinks the black pearl we brought back for Zavere communicated some strange things to him.
Next on the schedule today is a lunchtime visit with Aprata Nachov at Taggert’s, the only tavern on the Street of a Million Gods and a temple to the God of the Keg. She’s familiar with the Cinderpriest, she confirms. She says his new benefactor is Arachthon, Dweller in the Caverns of Cinder. She says he has lots of chaos bombs that render technology inoperative. He’s dangerous to deal with, though; he always reveled in destruction. But now he gets off on ash, cinders – things that have been destroyed. He’s a madman who supplies weapons to others who want to destroy things. “I hear the Balacazars just bought some big chaos bomb,” she says. She’s willing to broker a deal with him to get us three bombs.
Tonight is the delivery of the mysterious shipment at the Tower of Science. We’re trying to figure out the best plan to steal the aelectrical key. It’s hard to know whether we should use the delivery as a distraction before we even know what’s being delivered. Diethan goes over to the Tower in his guise as a student to see if he can find out more about the location of the vault where the key is stored. He manages to hide in the privy long enough to give his escort the slip and wanders about the Tower disguised magically as an engineer and later as a guard. Here’s what he learns:
- The large central elevator services only the first three floors.
- A smaller lift on the third floor near a machine repair shop goes all the way up to the roof.
- One level beneath the roof is the astronomy lab (he’s almost caught when an astronomer there tries to get him to repair a delicate mechanical orrery). It seems to take up about a quarter of that level’s space.
- Adjoining the astronomy lab are the geology lab and a large iron door with a big mechanical lock – aha! The vault! A big, armed construct stands outside that door.
- On the ground floor is a locked door marked “Generator,” but the room beyond it is quiet. A similarly marked door on this level does generate extra noise and vibrations. That door’s locked too. The large room beyond is filled with strange mechanical devices in the center of which is a blue dragon, six feet long. Its arms and wings are strapped to a machine that is draining its lightning breath.
- The delivery tonight is intended to give them some “real power” for their generators: an even bigger dragon. It’s being supervised by “that half-dragon” – the Shuul apparently won’t have any use for him after this shipment is delivered.
When Diethan returns to give us this amazing report, we realize we need to act tonight. And if all goes well, we’ll take care of Sartaris, free some captive dragons, and get the key all in one fell swoop.
Invisible and powered up with other magic as well, we wait for the airship to arrive at the Tower and levitate ourselves up the exterior. The airship has moored at the roof and guards on the Shuul’s trademark flying mechanical bugs. “Wow, will you look at the size of that thing?!” we hear from someone on the roof. I fly up to a top floor window in the archaelogy lab with Diethan, Calista, and Archinemus. Using my set of magical tools, I cut the glass of the window – it’s not normal glass, so it takes a little while – and we slip in. The astronomer from earlier in the day is still working in the lab, but Calista manages to distract her as we enter. Calista then magically repairs the cut glass as we subdue the astronomer and sneak out to the vault door.
Calista casts a spell of silence on the construct guarding the vault door so it can’t sound an alarm as we attack it. But to our bad luck, the dwarf security guard shows up at that moment for us to contend with, and the construct shoots Archinemus with a gout of ether from one of its appendages. While Calista restores him, I pound the construct and Diethan subdues the dwarf. I go down under another burst of its ether, but together Diethan and Archinemus take down the construct.
Meanwhile, Barbatos, the Cobbledman, and Sir Feruch teleport into the privy at the Tower (thanks to our wizard friend having captured that place in his image crystal) and make their way down to the generator rooms. Their goal: to take out the generator powered by the small blue dragon.
Archinemus and I are working to open the incredibly complex vault door when the lights suddenly go out and the vibrations in the floor from the generators stop. Barbatos and Feruch did it! But just then we hear from the roof, “What’s going on? Power failure?!”
Then two creatures appear out of nowhere from a strange shimmery field in the astronomy lab: a human in dramatic draconic-looking plate armor and a strange three-mandibled creature. The human calls out, “In the name of House Dallimothan and Destor, I command all activities here to STOP!”
Now it’s my turn to wonder what’s going on…
