Realm of the Technomancer Play Report Part 2

 

It didn’t take long for Panyus to understand that they were not returning with news of victory.  But, dead hirelings aside, they did manage to pique his interest—mainly by talking about the exploding metal canisters and various other oddities (giant mushrooms, glowing fungus, a severed head wrapped up in wire tucked inside a niche in the stone column that rose from the bubbling mud)— and agreed to show him a little of what they’d found.  Evidence of their success—the dead blue men and the dead furry white monster— forced him to agree that the job was bigger than he’d previously imagined.  They returned to the presumed safety of the tower and discussed what should happen next.  Fezziwig, (for reasons not entirely understood by the other party members, something about an upcoming holy day he needed to plan for) would stay behind.  But Panyus would replace him, accompanied by two of Burne’s Badgers (or, as they prefer to be called, “guards.”)  Another guard would take Panyus’s place guarding the steel doors between Burne’s laboratory and the weird mud world beyond.

After a few days to recover from their wounds, the newly formed party returned to the mud world.  As soon as they opened the steel doors, they were attacked by another one of the furry white monsters.  An unseen second assailant flung one of the metal cannisters, but this one merely filled the area with smoke without injuring anyone.  Although surprised, Deah dodged the blows of the white monster, while holding its attention long enough for the rest of the party to fire their arrows and stab it with their long spears.

When the white monster was dead, the party made their way down toward the mud lake, stopping along the way to harvest a couple giant mushroom caps.  They noticed that there was a new head in the box—this one looking like it came from one of the blue men.  They decided that this time, they’d just leave it alone.

The mushroom caps were useful as both sleds and rafts.  The party split into two groups and using their spears, propelled themselves across the lake on the mushroom caps.  They approached a beach and landed there.  There were several huts on the beach and perhaps some movement on the distant side.  Thimbur went ahead to scout the area.

He reached the first hut, finding it constructed of shaggy white furs draped over a rusty metal frame.  Peering through a gap in the skins, Thimbur saw several of the blue men (or perhaps they were women) conversing with a much larger blue man who stood with his back to the door.  Thimbur returned to the group and reported what he saw.  They decided they should rush into the hut and attack with their melee weapons, in the hopes that the blue men would not use their explosive weapons inside the hut. Thimbur, Deah, and one of the guards rushed into the hut, ambushing the large blue man.  Panyus and the guards waited outside to watch for trouble.  The large blue man was a fierce opponent—despite receiving a grevious wound in the sneak attack, he returned the attack with fury.  The other blue people, however, fled screaming, and this attracted the attention of others on the beach.  Worst of all, a floating skull began flashing multi-colored lights and shrieking.

Thimbur and Deah killed the large blue man, but then, without understanding why, fell to attacking each other.  Panyus intervened, using his own magic to combat that of the floating skull.  Burne’s Badgers were as fierce as their namesake, firing arrows at the other blue men who were coming to the aid of their fallen leader.  Panyus added his magic to this fight as well.  The attacking blue men were killed without any loss of life among the party members.  Thimbur discover that the large blue man carried two of the exploding metal cannisters.  He kept one for himself and gave one to Thundar.

The party explored the beach and determined that while there were blue people remaining in the other huts, they were not an immediate threat and, for the time being deserved cautious mercy.  Thimbur discovered a rope bridge leading form the beach to a rock island in the middle of the mud lake.  He fought more blue people and retrieved more of the exploding cannisters.  Meanwhile the rest of the party discovered a corridor leaving away from the lake, and thought they detected a light source at the far end of it.  After rejoining Thimbur, the party explored the corridor.

blue bulb, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

They found its workmanship to be similar to that near the steel doors—very smooth and regular finishing.  And it was illuminated by the same amber lights they had seen in Burne’s laboratory.  At the end of this corridor, they found a single metal door, guarded by a single blue man and white monster.  After killing them both with an exploding canister, the party burst the door open—and found themselves in the engine room.

As Panyus had told them, it was filled floor to ceiling with enormous metal boxes, all of them shaking and glowing from the strangepowers they contained.  Thick metal ropes connected the engines to each other and to the walls of the room.  Small clouds of steam exploded from the pipes sticking out of the metal boxes.

But there wasn’t much time for close inspection, because the room was also filled with blue people, several of them carrying odd contraptions, all of them heavily armed.  One of their number , who stood in the corner, waving his arms and scribbling on the walls, seemed to be in middle of a ritual.  Both Deah and Thundar threw an exploding canister, one aimed at the leader of the ritual, the other tossed less deliberately into the middle of the room. The powerful blast killed several of the blue people, and also killed one of Burne’s Badgers.  The rest of the party retreated, closing the door behind them.  They stumbled down the corridor, finding the ground suddenly unstable beneath them.  They lay where they fell, shielding themselves from any falling debris.  A second explosion shook the engine room.

After waiting several minutes, the party returned to the engine room and found all the blue people dead.  And all the engines ruined, the metal boxes ruptured from within, their mechanical guts spilling out.  The party waited several more minutes, avoiding eye contact with Panyus, and scavenging for items of value among the blue people.  Thimbur pocketed what seemed to be an odd L-shaped club.  The other oddities—including what looked like a set of bagpipes filled with warm mud, a humming sword, and a leather armband with a needle apparently designed to stick into its weaerer’s flesh, were taken by memebrs of the party, but claimed by Panyus. 

 

When they returned back to the tower, Panysu flatly refused to pay the 250 g.p. fee.  According to his reasoning, he had hired the adventurers to save his master’s engines, not destroy them.  When Burne returned, he would summon them to discuss what should happen next.  As a sign of their good faith, he recommended that they should leave behind the bagpipes, the sword, and the armband.  They could keep a couple of the exploding cannisters.  And he never saw the L-shaped club.  If they wished, they could be permitted to stay in the tower until Burne returned.  That would avoid any awkward questions in the village about what had happened to Young Edward and Johnny the Morose.