Realm of the Technomancer Play Report Part I

 

Burne’s apprentice Panyus rarely emerges from the tower of his master. One day he showed up in the common room of the Inn and quietly approached the table where Thimbur and Fezziwig were seated. He had a job for them. Burne was out of the village on important business and something strange had happened in the master’s laboratory. He needed some assistance in “cleaning up” the problem. Absolute discretion was required and due to the sensitivity of the problem, he needed their commitment before he could bring them into the tower. After some bargaining, the parties agreed on a price. The next morning, Thimbur and Fezziwig arrived at the tower together with two other adventurers (Deah and Thundar) and two local hirelings (Johnny Morose and Young Edward).

Panyus led the group up to Burne’s laboratory, a dusty, cramped room halfway up the tower. Moving aside a large oaken table, Panyus slid two large stone blocks out of the wall revealing a narrow chute illuminated by a soft amber glow. Panyus led them down the ladder to a larger laboratory underneath the tower. This room was large and bright, illuminated by unseen light sources. An assortment of oddly-shaped glassware sat on a steel table, several of the containers holding brightly colored fluids, bubbling over brightly colored flame. A soft warm breeze wafted through the room. Panyus did not allow the party to tarry, but opened a set of steel doors and led them into a small chamber. He closed the door, the room trembled slightly and another set of doors opened. “Here,” he said “is where things get weird.”

He showed them a map, illustrating their way to the engine room. They were to discover the source of the weirdness and correct it. The weirdness, he explained consisted of lots of mud, things being moved around, and weird creatures. No, he wouldn’t come with them, but would wait for them in the small chamber. They should signal their return with a special knock. And he would let them borrow his special glowing wand. The party stepped into the corridor and the doors closed behind them.

About thirty feet down the corridor, they began to notice the mud Panyus had told them about. It was black and slick, and a thin layer covered the smooth stone floor ahead of them. Cautiously, they walked onto it, and noticed no ill effects. Continuing, they saw a bright, pale light ahead of them. Approaching, they found a stone column, clouded in steam, and encircled by a pit. An iron bridge crossed the pit to the column. Ropes made of braided metal hung from the unseen ceiling. When Thundar stepped onto the iron bridge, a ferocious-looking creature covered in white fur dropped down and grabbed him. His companions pulled him to safety while Thimbur rushed at the weird beast—a bipedal combination of a bear and a man, but stronger and more agile than either. It grabbed Thimbur and threw him down the pit to land in hot mud. But having been shot by several arrows and stabbed with spears, the creature jumped across the pit to the far side and ran away. The party helped Thimbur out of the mud and continued their exploration.

 

They found that Panyus’s map did not resemble the reality they were experiencing. While he drew a straight corridor to the engine room, the party found themselves in rough-hewn, steeply-sloped and forking passages. They followed one of these passages into a room illuminated filled with giant mushrooms and glowing fungi. A pair of odd-looking blue men were there, harassed by foot-long centipedes. When the blue men saw the party, one of them threw a metal canister in their direction that erupted into a ball of flame as it hit the ground. All sustained minor injuries, but none were prevented from attacking the blue men. After the blue men were killed, the party searched them, but did not find any more of the powerful missiles.

The party decided to harvest some of the giant mushroom caps, turning one of them into a “sled,” for continuing down the sloping mud passage. They placed the dead blue men on the mushroom sled, and, let it slide down the passage before them, and then anchoring a rope to follow after it. Hearing the sounds of their mushroom sled meeting living—and alarmed—creatures, the party hurried back up the slope to find easier ground to fight on if necessary. The party caught only a glimpse of the humanoid forms that were climbing up their own rope after them before another one of the exploding cans landed among them, killing Johnny the Morose and injuring other party members severely.

Leaving Johnny’s body behind, the party fled, and took refuge in a nearby side passage. From there, they waited and watched. They saw five of the blue men who, seeing Johnny’s body, scrambled to examine it. The party seized this opportunity and attacked with a volley of arrows. In the ensuing melee, Young Edward lost his footing and slid down the slope. Thimbur, after ambushing and killing one of the blue men, slid down after him.

After the main party had killed the blue men, they followed after Edward and Thimbur, arriving on the shore of a vast mud lake just in time to see Thimbur kill the shaggy white-furred monster with his spear. Edward had been killed by the monster. Thimbur skinned the white furred monster while the rest of the party worked to carry Edward up the muddy slope. Together, they returned with both of their dead hirelings to the steel doors. They knocked and Panyus opened.