Episode 29: 7/31/10

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger 5/rogue/3
Nineve, human knight/8
Sarek, human wizard/8
Haroldur, human wizard 3/cleric 4/mystic theurge 1

We exit the acid zombie room and reunite with Nineve, who stumbles into the lab unexpectedly. Apparently she'd gotten separated from 31E and wandered into us. After a brief exchange of pleasantries (difficult in such repulsive surroundings), we wade through the muck to another door.

Nineve and I shoulder it open. Littered on shelves and cabinets throughout this room are shattered glass vials and tubes, corroded metal tools rusted beyond repair, spools of dark thread, and other things we cannot identify. Several tables, still upright, contain a number of humanoid bones strapped to their rusting surfaces. Delightful. We pick up a few interesting looking items and move on.

Next, we come to a short hallway with several small rooms adjoined to it. We poke around, making our way through the small labs and finding small treasures: mysterious ampules, a bracer, a belt, a sphere, and a torc. As we're rummaging, we start to hear the damp rustling of zombies! We try to talk him out of it, but Haroldur charges forward and throws open a door to one of the labs at the end of the hallway, which is full of zombies! Sarek blows up most of the zombies, and Nineve and I hack through the rest. When we're finished being heroic, we look around and find a few more ampules.

We move to the end of the hallway and up some stairs, and scrabble for several minutes against two seemingly unopenable blast doors. Thwarted, we backtrack a little and make our way down another corridor. It opens into another larger lab. Things are still gross here. Dark, stagnant water laps against a pair of iron vessels against the nearby wall. A large window, overlooking the open lab area dominates the far wall. I am not surprised to find that these large iron vessels also contain acid zombies. I wonder at the significance of that while we prepare for combat.

Sarek drops another fireball from above and I deftly avoid all damage. Nineve activates the mysterious torc in time to gain sufficient SR so as to be entirely immune to the fireball as well. We hack and slash and Sarek throws around lots of magic missiles and a lightning bolt. I powerfully double-slice into my foe, gracefully ducking as it vomits its toxic payload onto Nineve and Haroldur behind me. It collapses into its barrel. Just then, a trio of zombies come crashing through the window. Sarek drops another fireball on them, totally frying me in the process. Aghast, I charge forward and take out all the wounded zombies in one whirling slash of death!

Then, as Nineve is still struggling with her acid zombie, I rush in to assist. I leap heroically up onto the adjacent barrel, but lose my balance as I try to attack. Fortunately, I manage a graceful dismount and even get a hit in while I recover my composure. Nineve decapitates the acid zombie and we heal up and look around for loot - I find two disc-scrolls and a strange metallic belt.

We heal up a little and the decide our only remaining path is through a large observation window 20 feet above the floor. We stand underneath it, hurling projectiles in an attempt to smash the glass, when from the depths of the zombie-chum, a "skuz" appears. It is a vaguely monstrous form of noxious green - a kind of semi-putrid congealed jelly with suggestions of translucency. It rises up from the water behind me, seeming to pull the algae and slime from the surface to constitute its form. As something resembling a head forms, it turns toward me, the jellified jaws opening to spill forth a false tongue of ooze and putrid flesh. It smells just as great as it looks, too. The skuz surges forward, grabbing me and attempts to drown me in the horrid slime. Nineve rushes to my aid and with her help, I escape the skuz's grasp.

Then, grotesque, bloated zombie-like things emerge from the filthy water to join the party. A rusted cage encloses each withered face and unnameable implements pierce the thing’s sodden flesh. Its clawed hands reach for us, dripping filth and dark fluids. Delicious. I move to deal with them.

Meanwhile, Sarek grapples 2 of the zombies and the scum monster with Tentacles of Forced Intrusion. Never play "Gross-Out Chicken" with a wizard.

I slash through 2 more of the cage-face zombie horrors, felling them, but succumbing to their hideous putrescence. I fall beside my foes into the murky depths. I am told Sarek tried to pull me out of the zombie-chum but instead tripped and fell into the ichor himself. Haroldur heals me, and I stand up to find myself threatened by the skuz yet again. Sarek activates the jade falcon, which goes after the remaining bloated cage-face zombies. Then, he magically transforms into an air elemental and blasts the skuz into oblivion. Nineve destroys the last cage-face zombie and we decide it's time to rest.

We exit the laboratory the way we came in, and clean up (THOROUGHLY) once we find a safe-looking place to camp. Before we go to bed it is obvious that I am suffering from the effects of Slimy Doom. In the morning, my condition has deteriorated, so Haroldur uses the Rod of Lawsome to Heal me, and I am completely cured! The rest of the party finishes healing up as well, and we head back into the lab for another crack at the window.

After a few more tries, we smash the glass and use the handy troll-gut rope with grappling hand to climb up into yet another ruined lab. Despite the lack of water in this chamber, the bad smell is even worse here. A raised platform dominates the chamber, where a pair of metal tables surmounted by complex machinery, hoses and other apparatus stand. Patches of strange pale lichen grow along the floor and walls, shedding strange, unsettling light. Nineve is immediately sickened by the horrible stench. We explore the chamber further, when suddenly we notice a strange yellow vapor steaming up from the floor. It materializes into a seething, dimly phosphorescent cloud of fungous loathsomeness, from which a charnel house stench seems to emanate in palpable waves. The caricatured likenesses of legions of screaming faces emerge and dissolve, melting like tallow within the vaporous form.

The monstrosity, a Caller-In-Darkness, radiates a palpable menace. Haroldur uses Amsophar's circlet to Call Lightning. Then, waves of hate emanating from the Caller wash over us. Nineve becomes despondent as Sarek springs into action as a magic missile machine gun. I throw one of the spheres we found, which turns out to be a holy hand grenade of force damage. Unexpectedly, Nineve cleaves herself in the face with her own sword. Haroldur calls down a bolt of lightning and I am dazed as my mind crumbles under the weight of the Caller's hatred. Sarek continues his magic missile assault, and Nineve comes to her senses momentarily and hurls her blast sphere at the Caller as well.

Unfortunately, seconds later, Nineve and I are overcome with grief and decide, in our highly vulnerable and emotional state, to kill ourselves. Turns out we're pretty good at self-destruction. Haroldur and Sarek continue to blast the Caller with their magical attacks as emo-Nineve and I cut ourselves. In the end, Haroldur blasts the Caller from existence. As soon as it is gone, Nineve and I recover from our terrible ennui (but not our life-threatening, self-inflicted wounds). We heal up and move on.

Banks of silent machinery clutter the next room. Here and there a light blinks feebly, or a needle flutters on its gauge. The ever-present fungus has also invaded this chamber, coating the machinery and clogging its intricate clockworks. It’s a pretty safe bet that this is the control room 31E spoke of.

We spot the access hatch 31E spoke of in the ceiling. Wet patches of shiny green goo cling to the seams around the hatch, occasionally dripping to the floor below.
The hatch is locked – I unlock it without much trouble. Nineve opens the hatch and narrowly avoids getting a face full of slimy green goo! We carefully maneuver around the goo and climb through the hatch.

~Ashe

Episode 28: 7/17/10

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger 5/rogue/3
Xicar, human cleric/8
Sarek, human wizard/8
Haroldur, human wizard 3/cleric 4/mystic theurge 1

We barely have a moment to recuperate before we are attacked by another wave of sand wights and ghasts. We dispatch them and proceed to the top of the stairs leading to the entrance to the ziggurat.

With growing excitement and apprehension we cross the paved landing and enter the structure 31E calls a Nexus. Sand covers much of the floor, and has collected in drifts in the corners and among piles of debris. Despite the obviously catastrophic damage to this part of the structure, most of the nearby passages seem to have been cleared of debris long ago. On the walls and ceilings we see for the first time some traces of the pictorial art of the ancient race that must have inhabited the ruined city; curious curling streaks of paint that have almost faded or crumbled away; and on some walls a maze of well-fashioned curvilinear carvings are scratched into the silver-grey metal.

As we press forward, following a strangely silent 31E, the passages become more obstructed by fallen debris, but they share the same common features: The walls are smooth grey metal, and meet in an arched ceiling about 15’ above. Panels in the ceiling flicker brightly on occasion, but generally remain dark. The halls are still and quiet, although we can feel, more than hear, a faint humming seemingly coming from far below.

This part of the Nexus is in poor repair; multiple damaged passages lead off in several different directions. The passageways are thick with sand and dust, and often blocked with rubble and debris. 31E seems convinced that there is a way deeper into the Nexus, it’s just a matter of finding one.

We turn down a likely looking hallway and come upon strange glittering strands of ice, which criss-cross the passage like a frozen spider web. We carefully navigate around without touching any of it.

A little while later, we come upon an area of unstable magic. The hallway seems fairly normal, but for some reason we feel uneasy; our skin tingles and our vision seems to blur. As we pass through the area, Sarek and Haroldur experience a temporal distortion: Sarek has the sensation of moving much faster than everyone else, while Haroldur feels slowed. My skin reacts terribly, suddenly becoming dry and brittle, cracking painfully with my every movement. Xicar definitely gets the worst of it, however. He begins bleeding from the nose and feels violently ill. Moments later, he vomits uncontrollably for several minutes.

We move as quickly as possible through the strange area, and after a few minutes of rest, we all recover. Anxious to put that awful experience behind us, we turn down a passage onto another area of unstable magic! This time we don't risk it - we avoid the area all together. We come upon another ice lattice, which we pass without incident. Pressing on, we come upon a large room. The floor here has collapsed, leaving a ragged hole which we climb down into.

The hole empties into a corridor, which continues on to a large, echoing chamber. It has several exits, as well as a catwalk high above. I attempt to climb onto the catwalk, but without success. We move through another exit and are ambushed by ghasts and wraiths, who nearly kill us all. We drive them off and retreat to a secluded, secure-seeming area to rest and heal.

The next day, we continue our difficult journey deeper into the Nexus. We encounter more collapsed floors and unstable magic fields, as well as a few familiar passages. We wander aimlessly all day, but fail to make any real progress.

The following morning, we try yet again. We avoid an area of unstable magic, but our path is blocked by a damaged double door. Fortunately, we manage to force it open. We wander around a little more, but before long we realize we've circled back on ourselves and are retracing our steps. We chose a different route - this time a place where the ceiling has collapsed, littering the passage with debris. Not to be deterred, we vault over the blockage and continue down the corridor.

After hours of wandering the silent metal halls 31E speaks for the first time in a long while. “Up ahead, I believe we have found what I have been looking for.” Further down the hallway is a metal double door. The door shows evidence of being forced open at some time in the past. Next to it is a panel with several blinking colored lights, small levers and switches. 31E manipulates a couple areas on the panel, but nothing happens. After a moment, 31E extends his arm-blade, and deftly pries the panel away from the wall in a small shower of sparks. “Greycloak Ashe, I lack the requisite appendage and dexterity to properly manipulate the clockworks in order to bypass them.” 31E indicates a mass of intricate gears, springs and cogs that were previously concealed by the panel. With 31E’s directions, I deftly bypass the door controls.

With a hiss and whoosh of air, the door opens revealing a chamber in much better repair than what we have seen of the complex thus far. Glowing panels in the ceiling illuminate the chamber in even, grey light. Several metal desks stand across the room from us, covered in blinking lights. Dark green glass panels covered in glowing green symbols are set into the walls. Immediately to the left, a portion of the floor has collapsed, leaving metal supports and floor panels hanging over the darkness below. Occasionally a shower of sparks illuminates part of the wreckage below. A few decrepit piles of humanoid remains litter the chamber here and there.

31E immediately strides toward one of the panels covered in green text. After a few moments of pressing buttons, he turns to us, the blue lights of his eyes flaring brightly.

"This facility has not been accessed in over 3.78683112 x 10^10 seconds. Strange." He turns back to the glowing screen and starts pressing buttons very quickly, talking while he does so. "The Antiquarian Thinking Engine responsible for system maintenance is barely functioning. Most areas are operating in autonomous mode, if they are functioning at all. However, the security systems throughout the Nexus which remain functional are on full alert. Also, 91.463% of the containment systems have failed. It would be profoundly unwise to simply wander about." More rapid button-pressing and something that might pass for a robot scowl... "I can’t access a schematic that will show a route to the Mirror from here; most of the records are damaged or no longer accessible. What schematics I can access report all routes to the Mirror as impassible." Then, his face lights up, as much as that is possible. He says hopefully, "The Nexus Libram is not far. If a route to the Mirror can be found, there is a high probability I can find it there".

We've been poking around the room while 31E looks at his glowing screens. The humanoid remains have been dead for so long, I can't Sift anything from them. From the looks of it, though, they had their heads blown off... I can't make sense of the text on the screens, either. Because of Intuit Pattern ritual, I can read the words, but I don't understand what they mean.

I ask 31E what this place is for - why was it here, in the middle of such a vast desert? He replies, "This facility was located here to study the ruins of a Storm King settlement known as Kaddastrey." He presses more buttons. "It appears much has been preserved because fortunately, the local barometric pressure and temperature patterns appear remarkably stable."

"You mean this big desert has been here a long time?", I laugh. "I could've told you that!".

31E again turns to one of the glass panels he refers to as a ‘terminal.’ He shows us a complicated glowing diagram that he claims is a map of the Nexus. After a few moments of his explaining what different symbols and patterns on the map mean, it is clear that we will just have to follow him to this Libram of his. However, from what I can glean, it doesn’t seem far at all. 31E again turns to the terminal, and a few seconds later the heavy door nearest him slides open with a metallic screech. Gesturing for us to follow, 31E moves to the doorway. Dog darts past him, with his nose to the floor, tail wagging furiously. Zuko and Nineve cross the doorway directly behind 31E, and suddenly the chamber is full of light and sound.

Red light floods the chamber as a glowing blue field appears, cutting us off from 31E, Zuko, Nineve, and Dog. A blaring siren makes communication nearly impossible as 31E turns to us, looking as surprised as his ceramic faceplate will allow. A trio of ceiling panels retract as three strange contraptions like mechanical crossbows descend from the ceiling and point at us menacingly. A pair of panels on either side of the doorway slide aside to reveal two hulking mechanical monstrosities roughly the size of ogres. Each has an arm ending in a massive pincer, the other in an even more massive hammer. Clanking and clattering, they lurch forward and attack!

Fortunately, one of the big constructs shutters and grinds to a halt with a noise that I imagine sounds like a machine dying. Sarek dives for cover behind one of the metal desks and unleashes a wall of fire on the functioning construct and one of the turrets. We all scramble to break or shut down the hostile machinery, but the loud sirens and flashing red lights make it nearly impossible to communicate. Xicar gets careless and falls through the damaged floor. Twice. We all point and laugh. Eventually, we get break the machines enough so they stop attacking us. We still can't get through the glowing blue field, so we indicate that we'll try the only other exit - climbing down the hole. Hopefully we can meet up with 31E and the others in another part of the ruins.

Using my trusty troll gut rope & grappling hand, we carefully make our way down into the darkness. We find ourselves in another area of the Nexus, one that is thankfully less full of ice lattices and unstable magical fields. What it is full of, however, are unmarked, identical grey corridors. As we move through them, I become convinced that there really is no way to distinguish one area from another.

A horrible conclusion has been gradually intruding itself upon our reluctant minds, and is now becoming an awful certainty. We are lost, completely and hopelessly lost in the vast and labyrinthine recess of the Imperium Nexus. A nameless air of desolation hangs around the metallic paneling, flickering light-panels, echoing corridors, and such fragments of battered furniture as still remain. The lack of dust and cobwebs adds a further touch of the fearful and strange.

Without 31E’s guidance, turn as we might, in no direction can we seize on any object capable of serving as a guidepost or landmark. The idea that we should evermore wander these strange silent halls is becoming a fixed conclusion in our minds. Hope has departed. Yet, for a moment, we derive no small measure of satisfaction from our unimpassioned demeanors; for although we have heard of the wild frenzies into which were thrown the victims of similar situations, we experience none of these, but instead, for a moment, stand quietly with our companions, confident that we share similar thoughts.

Xicar says "I think we're lost". Haroldur waxes poetic about our unswerving devotion to Wee Jas in the face of such hopelessness. Soon, Xicar catches on and the clerics begin to give impassioned speeches (mostly to each other) about tranquility and the inescapable nature of death. Sarek rolls his eyes at them and takes the opportunity to lean against the wall. I listen for a bit, thinking. Then I drop to my knees and start digging through my backpack. I KNOW it's in here somewhere...

After a solid 5 or 10 minutes of rummaging, I pull out a piece of chalk! Now, we may not know where we're going, but at least we'll know where we've been! We get going again, this time marking each intersection with an arrow indicating the direction we chose.

In the distance I hear the metallic voice of 31E echoing from within the alien depths of the complex. We head off in the direction I think the voice is coming from, and after a little while we can all make out 31E’s voice clearly, “I am currently attempting to locate you. Please access the nearest terminal so that I may determine your position.” The message repeats itself every few minutes.

We keep moving and eventually find a terminal. A blurry, glowing green image of 31E’s face plate appears on the screen. 31E’s voice seems to fill the chamber, however it crackles and pops, making him a little difficult to understand, but you manage. “Ah, I have found you. Good, the others are with you as well. I was beginning to believe the fragment had been lost within the facility. The irony would have been…extreme.”

"The area you are in is 98.2% non-functional. Activating the terminal has extended my awareness within the facility, but that is all, none of the primary systems are functioning. Currently you are above one of the low security laboratories. I will guide you. The laboratories indicate a fluid containment failure, but otherwise appear to be undamaged.

"Once within the laboratories, I will be unable to communicate with you. Within the laboratory control room there is a ceiling hatch that will lead you to a maintenance area. That is your goal. Unfortunately, the maintenance area is quite active. At present I am attempting to take control, but the Arcane Engine in that sector is currently operational. It will probably see you as a security threat. I will try to keep it occupied from here, but I cannot guarantee your safety".

We shrug and look around for some kind of guidance. Suddenly, green lights along the floor flicker to life, illuminating a path down one of the labyrinthine hallways. We follow the lights, which eventually lead us down a stairwell. The stairs terminate at a short hallway and a heavy double door of the same familiar grey metal. A glowing panel in the arched ceiling flickers intermittently.
The door is sealed, but with my experience helping 31E unjam one of these earlier, I manage to pop it open. I wished I hadn't.

As the door finally opens, our senses are violently assailed. A flood of warm, stagnant water streams through the doorway as our nostrils revolt at the stench which suddenly fills the place. A horrible odor, a gagging, eye-watering smell assaults us. Although we are no strangers to the stench of death, the peculiar potency and abruptness of the assault is nearly overpowering. The reek seems to be coming from the chamber beyond, and from the water, dark and opaque, that now covers the floor of the small chamber to a depth of several feet. The filthy water laps up against us. Here and there are ragged bits of something drifting in the water as it settles.

Sarek immediately casts Fly. The rest of us aren't so lucky. I wrap a handkerchief over my nose and mouth and hope for the best. Haroldur mocks me a little, saying REAL adventurers don't need such nonsense, but as we wade in, he goes a bit green around the gills and follows my lead.

As we're wading around what must be the main laboratory corridor, Xicar suddenly trips on something unseen and horrible under the surface and falls face-first into the rancid zombie-chum. He gets right up, but I can tell by the look on his face that he will never be the same again. There are some things you can't un-smell!

Haroldur opens a door and calls for us to follow him. A short flight of steps raises the floor of this new chamber above the level of the rancid water, although the metallic floor is uneven and moist with fungus. Tables here are overturned and broken. Several broken glass cylinders stand against the far wall, and splatters of a strange black fluid stain the wall, floor and ceiling around them. Four large iron vessels leaking a noxious green vapor stand against the opposite walls.

As we enter the room, horrible nuclear waste zombies emerge from the vessels to attack. One more climbs out of one of the vessels, but immediately melts into a stinking pile of goo. Green vapor pours from the open sores covering the flesh of these dead things as they stumble toward us. Their decaying features leer and gibber at us, deformed claws reaching and dripping with toxic fluids... These guys are nasty. They attack Haroldur with their goo-fists! As we soon discover, they also spray a fan of pea-soup green vomit when they drop, and have to be put down twice before they actually stay re-dead. Since we can't smell any worse, we make a quick search of the room before leaving and come up with some intact ampules and an odd apparatus!

~Ashe