Session 20 Recap (Day 08)

Is Pas an imposter? Perhaps the avatar of a god made by a machine? These are the questions Roondar asks himself as the party plans their next move. Maul is similarly skeptical if less erudite in her arguments. Owynka and Carric, on the other hand, truly believe in their mission.

Returning to the priest Jude Blackstone's secret headquarters in Viron, Owynka tells him, flatly, "We met God." Jude is ecstatic, and asks them to tell him all about their divine encounter. Roondar outlines the plan of exodus that Pas laid before them, keeping his skepticism to himself. Jude asks what he can do to help them, with reverence in his voice. Carric, his eyes shining with the light of the lord, lays a beatific hand on Jude's shoulder and says, "You have a role to play, my friend."

Jude, it's clear, is overawed and prepared to do anything the party asks. He shows Carric the ancient, supposedly apocryphal texts he found in the Secret Archives that speak of an exodus. He volunteers that he is in contact with other insurrection cell leaders within the clergy both in Viron and in the other major city-states of the Whorl. They have a vast communication network in place that can be utilized very quickly.

But before the party puts Jude into action, they resolve to investigate the catacombs and find the transports that Pas referenced.

Their first stop is the Cathedral of Pas, a grand building with which they are very familiar: the vaulted ceilings, the penitent worshipers, the colossal statue of Pas at the far end of the nave. From there they find the door that leads to the crypt, which lies below the cathedral.

The crypt beneath the cathedral is vast and empty. At the far end are two passageways and a staircase leading up. The passageway on the left contains a steel door with the symbol of the Order of the Crescent Sun, which slides open as the party approaches. Beyond the door they find a high-ceilinged, dimly lit room that seems to stretch on into infinity. It contains endless pillars that run from floor to ceiling. Every surface is damp, with many puddles of water scattered about the floor. As they proceed, the pillars change shape and the room narrows to a sort of corridor flanked by even larger pillars. In the distance, a bright blue light shines forth from an open-ended chamber.

This chamber is filled with hundreds of odd capsules, about seven feet tall, fashioned primarily of metal with wedges of glass on one side. Many of the capsules slide along tracks in the floor, crashing into each other at the end of the line. Others are hoisted aloft by cranes from the ceiling. In the background, a crackling, droning voice utters familiar words: "Bay 6-3-2-K-7, sublevel 1, purge capsules 9 through 33. Transport to outtake vessel 17B for decontamination and disposal. Error: transport-calibration malfunction. Amend protocols for colonist retention and recalculate inhibition subsystem parameters. Error: protocols offline." The room smells faintly of sulfur and smoke.

Roondar investigates one of the pods. The frosted glass is difficult to see through but after a moment or two of staring, he sees that the capsules contain humanoid bodies. Their faces are twisted and melted, like candlewax, and their bodies are severely misshapen. Maul smashes the glass on one of the pods to investigate the creature more closely. At first it appears to be dead, but moments later it gasps to life, its bloodshot eyes bugging out as it begins to scream and reach toward Maul. Though it seems that the creature is not hostile but rather suffering intense pain, Maul kills it to put it out of its misery.

Along the outer walls of this room are several corridors, about 30 feet wide. The party chooses one of the corridors and finds that it is about 100 feet long and lined with pipes and conduits. The floor contains glass panels, which offer glimpses of a similar corridor below. The ceiling, likewise, contains glass panels that show a similar corridor above. Along the walls at regular intervals are large round hatches, twenty in all, with a small glass porthole in the center of the hatch and a sign above that reads "EMERGENCY." A handful of these signs are lit in red. At the end of the corridor is a smaller open room with wide vents and a ladder that leads both up and down to the adjacent corridors.

Maul approaches one of the hatches with a lit sign above it, and the hatch opens toward her with a pneumatic hiss. Inside the long room beyond are dozens of upholstered chairs arranged in back-to-back octagonal shapes running through the center of the room. The chairs look like they would be quite snug, and each is equipped with straps and buckles.

But the sight that arrests our intrepid party lies beyond the windows of this long room. Through the round porthole and four rectangular windows on the far wall is a vast panorama of a landscape stretching out far below them--too far, in fact, to fathom its distance. The room they are in appears to be hovering hundreds of miles above an immense planet, its atmosphere gliding along in slow motion: cloud formations seemingly hundreds of miles wide sweep across the scene. Below them, vast oceans and green continents are visible. Above, the black sky gleams with twinkling stars. Then, to their right, they witness a brightly shining orb--so dazzling that it nearly blinds them--just rising above the horizon of this vast planet below.

Exhilaration is replaced by a sudden and intense feeling of vertigo. The geometry is all wrong. The Whorl, a concave land enveloping its sun like a life-giving seed in the self-contained cradle of civilization, is the exact opposite of what they see below: a convex world, alarmingly open and vulnerable to the cosmos that surrounds it, its own sun untethered and askew. What they see below them is not the Whorl. It is something else. Something alien.

The shock is intense. Roondar, struggling to accept the scene in front of him, tries to determine if what they're seeing is an illusion. But it seems not. The party retreats back to the room with the crashing pods. In the room behind it are several pods bolted to the floor and hooked up to an array of conduits and ducts that seem to be feeding them power. Many of these pods contain seemingly healthy humanoids.

Roondar waits to see if one of the cranes reenters this room. When one does, he follows it until it stops to retrieve a pod. After it delivers the pod to the other room, Roondar peers in to find that the creature within is a human man, gaunt and pasty-skinned. Maul pries open the pod, and the man, though he seems to have some vague recognition of Maul standing before him, appears to be in nearly as much pain as the other pod creature.

Roondar casts cure wounds on the man. He gasps, and his skin turns a rosier hue. In a croaky voice he asks, "Are we there yet?"

Maul demands to know where the man is from. He seems confused by this question. "Where are you from?" he says. Maul replies, "I'm from here. Where are you from?"

The man says, "I'm from Earth."

Owynka asks, "Do you know about the Plan of Pas?" To which the man replies, "Who's Pas?"

---

THE END, FOR NOW

---

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING ESCAPE THE WHORL....

---

Session 19 Recap (Day 08)

At the top of the stairway the party sees a massive metallic tower gleaming in the pale sunlight, its peak leading ever higher into the darkened sky, pointed directly at the gibbous sun overhead. At the base of one of the support beams of the tower they find a pair of flashing lights flanking a metal door. To the right of the door is a glowing screen and an alphanumeric keypad. Roondar studies the machine and decides to try inputting his name. The door slides open, revealing a small room about twenty feet by twenty feet, and another screen and a row of five buttons on the interior wall next to the door. The screen reads, “Radial Hub Star Control Center P.A.S.001 Access Transport.” The buttons read “Close Door,” “Open Door,” “Activate,” “Pause,” and “Reset.”

Closing the door behind them and pressing "Activate," the party feels the floor shudder under their feet, and a low-pitched whine from below slowly raises in pitch as they feel a sense of vertical movement. After several minutes the high-pitched whine begins to lower in pitch again until the sense of movement stops. The doors open to reveal a large circular room filled with desks and tables, all lit up with screens like those they saw in the Whorl Engine, only this room is immaculately clean. The walls are covered in similar screens showing schematics, readouts, and system statuses. On each station monitor that includes a keyboard is a flashing red square on the screen that contains the word “LOCKED.”

Roondar is fascinated by the room and spends several minutes attempting to decode the method or methods for interacting with the high-tech machinery. Maul checks out the three-dimensional holographic orb floating above the circular table in the center of the room. The orb rotates slowly, but the solid and see-through portions of the orb don't appear to correspond to any landmasses or oceans the party is familiar with.

None of the schematics are identified with labels, but they seem to show values related to various pieces of complex machinery. Carric spots one readout beside the schematic of a glowing circle, which lists two values in red:

Power input 37 percent.
Power output 23 percent. Amplitude conservation in effect. Total blackout estimated in 27 days, 9 hours, 42 minutes.

In time, the impatience of the other party members forces Roondar to agree to leave the room. They follow a slightly curving corridor into an enormous, light-filled space. A large, jet-black slab floats in the center of the amphitheater-like room. On the far wall is a golden orb ringed by seven gold circles. On each of the circles is a smaller golden orb, each one slowly moving along the path of its circle in a clockwise direction. There is an exit to the right of this sculpture, as well as a figure dressed in robes.

The figure introduces herself as Sabeline Coatiel, "adjutant to Lord Pas, ruler of the Whorl, god of the sun and rain, father of all, long may he reign. Welcome, saviors of the realm. We have little time. Echidna, former consort of Pas and traitor to the Whorl, has wrested control of the clergy from our Lord, and uses her influence to lock the control systems of the Whorl and corrupt the Plan of Pas. You have been induced to correct this grave injustice, which imperils all inhabitants of the Whorl. Come, our Lord wishes to speak with you."

She ushers the party through an adjacent archway, which leads into a vast vertical space with no visible floor or ceiling. On the wall opposite the platform is a huge sculpture of the face of Pas. As the party steps onto the platform the sculpture’s eyes ignite in white fire and a complex chorus invades their heads.

In a flash of telepathic code from the Pas interface, they learn all. Eight days ago, Pas wiped their memories to remove the brainwashing instilled in them by his corrupt clergy. Each of them understands now that what the Defenders were put on this Whorl to do has been perverted by the Archbishop of Viron and his clerics, who have been subverting the true Plan of Pas for centuries in order to maintain absolute control over the Whorl, to the detriment of its denizens. And the Defenders of the Whorl have been the clergy’s greatest instrument of this subversion. Each member of the party has supported this lie, unknowingly.

The true Plan of Pas, which Pas himself now entreats the Order of the Crescent Sun to spearhead, is the evacuation of all sentient creatures from the Whorl to the Lands Below: "You must access the Vironian Catacombs from the crypt beneath the Cathedral of Pas in order to locate the entrance to the Subwhorl vault. You will know the entrance to the catacombs when you see it, for it is a large steel door identified by the graven symbol of a crescent sun bisected by two horizontal isosceles triangles--the insignia of your order. Your insignia will grant you access when you approach the door. Within, you will find transports programmed to make the journey. Do not delay. The situation is dire."

The party has questions. They ask whether the angels might help them. Pas responds that the angels are engaged in keeping Echidna's forces at bay, but that certain angels will intervene when the time is right to help spread the Word of Pas and reinforce the Plan of Pas. When the party suggests that they kill the Archbishop of Viron, Pas replies that the Archbishop is inconsequential to their mandate. Echidna, likewise, cannot be defeated by them. There is no time for politics or combat, Pas says, only salvation. When the party asks what they should do to begin, Pas suggests enlisting the help of Jude Blackstone, a faithful but inquisitive servant of Pas who is not prone to dogma.

As the party ponders this, Maul asks what P.A.S. stands for. Pas replies that He is Pas. Maul tries again but receives the same answer. Other questions along these lines result in somewhat circular answers that provide Maul with little additional information.

As the party returns to the sloop docked on the island, it becomes clear that they are split on the best path forward. Roondar and Maul question everything they have learned in the last day, and do not trust the word of Pas. Maul questions even the supposed need to leave the Whorl, wondering why the Lands Below are considered more viable than the Whorl. Owynka and Carric, on the other hand, are ready to believe in the Plan of Pas. Carric realizes that the church is flawed, and that they have botched the Plan of Pas, but the word of Pas--whether he be a true god or something else--should be trusted.

As they run their ship aground northwest of the City-State of Viron, it is clear that some very important decisions need to be made.

Session 18 Recap (Days 07–08)

After the battle with the barbarians on horseback, the party takes a long rest in the Valley of Petrified Soldiers. After some debate, they decide to trek to the city of Paros to find a boat that can take them to Spire Island. They also decide to take Cora and Endir with them, with the plan to leave them in a relatively safe city environment where they'll (hopefully) be safe from marauding bands of barbarians.

Along the way, the party passes several travelers heading west. Many of these folk are traveling in pairs or small groups, and have carts of personal belongings. They seem eager to avoid interaction with the party as they continue on their way as unobtrusively as possible.

Traveling through the Naoussian Swamp, Owynka experiences déjà vu on the path to the city of Paros. She recalls with perfect clarity the Archangel Cahethal alighting upon the swampy hilltop just to the east of the roadway, its leonine figure glowing like a beacon of sunshine in this now-darkened Whorl. The hilltop, now vacant of the archangel’s majesty, seems cold and forlorn.

Approaching Paros in the dimmest of sunlight, the party begins to see the glow of the many fires illuminating the dreary stone buildings within the city's walls. The city gates are open, and no watchmen appear to be stationed there. Inside the gates, they see the fires burning in braziers along the city streets, but no people. Then, Carric spots several humanoid forms lying prone and unmoving beneath white sheets. These shrouded bodies litter the streets. Doors and windows are boarded up, the hastily affixed planks of some painted with white ‘X’s.

Up ahead, near what looks like a well and a statue of Pas, the party spots three gangly creatures hunched over a pair of humanoids on the cobblestone street. The creatures are wearing bulky backpacks and hold long metallic objects in their hands. The humanoids on the ground are wearing the white robes and silver masks that mark them as Defenders of the Whorl. The party decides to try sneaking past these insectoid-looking creatures and, miracle of miracles, actually succeeds.

Continuing on to the docks, the party finds several boats, barges, and skiffs that all look seaworthy, but very few that look as if they could brave the rougher waters of the Bay of Viron. But there is one 80-foot sloop docked at the far end of the wharf that looks hardy enough to make the journey. And fortunately, Roondar spent his early life among boats of all kinds, so he knows a thing or two about sailing. Maul pushes the boat away from the dock and the party enters the open waters of the bay.

After a half hour or so of sea travel, the rocking of the boat begins to take its toll on Carric, who begins to get seasick. Everyone else is fortunate enough to avoid this problem.

As the sloop nears the deepest part of the bay, it suddenly rocks violently to its starboard side, a shuddering creak of timbers accompanying the lurch. It seems that the sloop hit something--or, perhaps, that something hit the sloop. Twenty seconds pass, then the sloop shudders again, knocking everyone off-balance. Maul glances over the side and sees a massive, dark form slide through the water beneath the boat.

Moments later a pale, slimy looking creature with transluscent skin and a distended belly crawls over the side of the ship and flops onto the deck. It approaches Owynka and ensorcells her with an odd feeling of love. Then it moves toward an enlarged Maul as its belly pouch bursts open, spraying Maul with thousands of stinging larvae. But it takes only a few moments for the party to kill the creature and its spawn.

The remainder of the journey at sea passes without further incident, and as the sloop approaches the island the party spots a pier jutting out into the water, which looks like it should provide safe harbor for the sloop. After docking the boat and traveling down the length of the pier they find a stone stairway carved into the steep rock of the island’s sheer cliffs, leading upward. Roondar urges Cora and Endir to stay behind with the ship, which Cora reluctantly agrees to. But she requests that they hurry back, clearly recalling the terrifying encounter on the open water.

The party climbs the tremendous stone stairs, which rise several hundred feet. After what seems like ages, at the top of the stairway they see a massive metallic tower gleaming in the pale sunlight, its peak stretching ever higher into the darkened sky, pointing directly at the gibbous sun overhead.

Session 17 Recap (Day 07)

In the Valley of Petrified Soldiers, the party fights valiantly against the barbarians on horseback, but it soon becomes clear that--despite their formidable skills on the battlefield--the party is faced with overwhelming odds.

Just as half of the party seems destined to fall, a brilliant shaft of golden light and a deep bass note horn blast heralds the arrival of some fantastic, otherworldly being: a raging sphere of golden flame roils above the battlefield, dozens of giant arms reaching out from it. The arms shift their appearance from moment to moment, representing humanoids and giants of all species. Motes of golden flame orbit the central mass, speeding along their trajectories while the orb is motionless and slowing down as it moves about the battlefield.

This golden orb streaks across the sky toward Carric and causes a pillar of flame to erupt from the ground. This pillar seems to cause serious damage to the barbarians nearby, but it also has the effect of healing the party members who are closest to it.

Many of the barbarians fight on, but one cries out, "Iilari’jil, Fire of Forgotten Hope, we beseech your holy flames to spare us and smite our enemies!"

The Archangel Iilari’jil responds telepathically to all, with a chorus of one thousand voices speaking as one: "Skeif of the Forests of Wyr, take up thy weaponry and return to the wilderness from whence thou camest. The fallen goddess Thelxiepeia--daughter of Pas, traitor to her kin, deceiver of men--has been honorably vanquished in mortal combat, more than the foul serpent deservest. Meantime, the likewise traitor Echidna and her spawn Scylla seek the throne, but ye shall no longer venerate this unholy bane of the Whorl. So has Iilari’jil, the Fire of Forgotten Hope, spoken, so shall it be."

At this, the barbarians begin to flee the battlefield. Several are picked off by the bolstered party, but a handful are swift enough to escape. Maul steps toward the hovering archangel and asks what they are meant to do. Iilari'jil responds telepathically, again in a chorus of voices speaking as one, "Travel to Spire Island, unveil the Plan of Pas, and lead thy people unto salvation. So has Iilari’jil, the Fire of Forgotten Hope, spoken, so shall it be."

Then, with another horn blast, the golden orb disappears in a shaft of blinding light.

Session 16 Recap (Day 07)

Several Creator-Friends gather up the creature's body and take him to the back room of the complex, where they begin repairing him. Asked what they're doing, the Creator-Friends say that the Creator should be operational again in one to six days. Roondar asks whether the Creator-Friends can tell him how to stop the imminent meltdown, but they seem unable to provide additional information, or even to comprehend what Roondar is talking about. But they assure everyone not to worry: the Creator will fix it.

The party searches the various subrooms branching off of the main room, but find nothing that hints at how to reverse the impending meltdown. Roondar does his best to understand the complex machines in this room but eventually determines that the technology is beyond his ken. Carric notices that a few of the computer terminal tables--though filthy and apparently unused for a long while--are still active, displaying information that could be of use. On one, the screen is filled with static and flips continuously, but can be read with a bit of concentration:

EAM Transcript // 5752.82.116 // 651.00.208 // Dropkick: incoming transmission from Skyking. Break. Break. // Structural collapse of control rod complex Eight-Eight-Alpha-Zero imminent. // Stand by to verify emergency protocols. // Evacuate personnel, reset conn terminals to substation frequency 446E-6. Abort auto-restart and report to Spire Island, Bay of Viron, for immediate debrief in Radial Hub Star Control Center P.A.S.001. // Clearance unrestricted, authentication code: 6624-0020-1895-6A. // Verify. Verify. // Dropkick, acknowledge.

Another terminal has a red blinking light and displays a map of the Whorl, including a "minimum safe distance" circle centered on the Whorl Engine and the location of the Radial Hub Star Control Center P.A.S.001.

Another terminal displays what appears to be an old engineering log:

Engineering Log H009-110-5693-A. Mission Date +999.07.28. Chief Engineer Madarit ap Crovan’s report on structural integrity of Tower 8-8-A-0: Principal Engineer Bartok ot Evrid reviewed the findings of the technicians who inspected the cracks in Engine 8-8-A-0b control rods X4, T6, and L9 discovered by Director Hipolit ad Zelek on +999.07.27. Preliminary findings indicate subatomic repair of fissures will have a 97.06 percent success rate. Radiation leak danger minimal. Engine 8-8-A-0b remains fully operational. Effect on Whorl engine network array’s power-conversion capabilities remains negligible.

And a fourth terminal lists several readout values:

Fuel rod cumulative efficiency: 64.229% // Mean circuit velocity: 66000 mph // Logistic amplitude: 81000 Kv // Middeck H2O consumption: 160 lps // Service and cooling umbilical ports: inactive // Reaction Control System pods amplitude: 42 rtps // Ingress/egress hatch lever: locked // Elevon seal panel array: venting // Support bulkhead housing pressure: nominal // Auxiliary turbine: active // Injector cooling unit: active // Auto-restart: enabled

As the party debates staying to try to fix the problem or fleeing, an alarm klaxon begins to sound. This seems to make the decision for them and they run for the door. Maul attempts to grab a few of the Creator-Friends on her way out but they slip through her fingers, so instead she shouts at them to leave immediately. Back in the entry shaft, the party finds that the pitch-black darkness from below has been replaced by a searing white light that is growing steadily brighter. As they rush up the stairs the white light intensifies alongside a deep thrumming until they can see nothing but this harsh white glow and the bass note fills their ears to the brink of madness. Just as they can take it no more, they fall unconscious.

The intense white light is replaced with darkness, as the party awakens in the Valley of Petrified Soldiers. Within moments, they realize that their memories have returned.

As if waking from a horrifying dream, they now see the Defenders of the Whorl for what it is: an organization designed specifically to oppress the citizens of the Whorl through intimidation, manipulation, and murder. They recall now, through the haze of years of indoctrination and brainwashing (both subtle and not so subtle) inflicted upon them by their superiors, that they believed wholeheartedly in the Defenders’ cause. But they can see now that they have been serving as the clergy’s unquestioning instrument of death for many years.

Lying on the grass underneath the dim sun, Corric realizes that Cora Brushgather, the halfling he befriended in Old Tyndale, is kneeling over him, attempting to wake him up. Likewise, Roondar sees Endir Greengrass, his "little Liebchen" (a young halfling who ran errands for Roondar in Old Tyndale and helped him gather stories from the village elders) kneeling over him. Corric asks what happened, and Cora conveys to the party that she and Endir--the village's only survivors, thanks to Corric--were hiding in Old Tyndale when they saw a bright flash to the northeast. This didn’t alarm them, because this spectacular display occurs every few years (and is one of the reasons why the halflings always kept their distance from the Typhon Mountains). But then, minutes later, they saw a golden shaft of light coming from this direction, followed by a creature with angel’s wings rising into the sky. They rushed to this spot and found the party.

The party begins to compare notes regarding their restored memories. Roondar thinks back to their encounters with Jude Blackstone, and remembers that the charismatic priest deftly changed the party's mind quite quickly--easily turning an impending arrest into an alliance. But otherwise, his recounting of their initial meetings jibes with Roondar's own, newly restored memories (i.e., Jude was telling the party the truth when they last met him).

Owynka recounts her own strongest recent memory, which is that she did indeed see an angel as Jude had reported. It told her to "commence the Plan of Pas and deliver the peoples of the Whorl unto salvation."

Carric considers the veracity of the so-called Plan of Pas, and determines that there are two versions: the corrupted version sold to the masses by the church clergy, and the authentic version referenced by Owynka's angel, but still cryptic to the party, as they don't know to what the plan actually refers.

Maul, meanwhile, begins to walk purposely to the south. When the party realizes she's leaving, Owynka--calling her "Nalla"--attempts to stop her. Maul turns on her friend and tells her not to call her that. Owynka, understanding, asks Maul what's wrong. Maul refuses to speak of it at first, but Carric and the others, who are all experiencing the shock of their memories, and the uncomfortable truth of who they were before they'd lost them, tells Maul that they all feel a sense of shame and anger at their past selves. Carric says that they've all done questionable things, but that they need each other to finish their mission.

Maul reveals that Owynka had confided in her after Owynka saw the angel Cahethal, and that Maul had subsequently told Bishop Valencourt (papal emissary to the Order of the Crescent Sun) about Owynka's vision. She believes that this breach of trust may have led to the party's death sentence.

Before the party can discuss this further, Carric hears the sound of horses approaching from the south. Several mounted barbarians arrive as the party hides--except for Maul, who enlarges herself and taunts the newcomers. Crying out that they are here to avenge Thelxiepeia's death, combat ensues.

Session 15 Recap (Day 07)

Climbing down to the base of the ruined city, the party approaches the small creatures busily scavenging the blasted pieces of metal and loading them onto tiny carts on the edge of the wasteland. Roondar calls out to the creature nearest to him and introduces himself. The creature is friendly, but distracted by its task and says that it has no time to talk. It is busy collecting material for the Creator. It refers to itself and its companions as "Creator-Friends" and to the party members as "Creator-Friend-Friends."

Talking to the creature for a few minutes, the party attempts to gather some information. Maul and Owynka help it carry one of the larger pieces of metal to one of the carts. Roondar asks about the tower in the distance, which the creature refers to as the Creator-Home. It confirms that it and its fellow Creator-Friends live there with the Creator, who "does not like visitors."

Unfortunately, the party isn't able to gleen much more from these tiny creatures and, when they learn that the creatures will continue scavenging for the next three days, the party decides to head to the tower on their own.

It takes a few hours of traveling through the sand dunes to reach the tower, which is coal black and pockmarked with age or some kind of corrosion. The walls creak continuously, a scraping sound of varying pitches that give the party pause before they decide to enter the gaping archway that leads inside. Just below the chorus of grinding, clanking, and scraping high above, they hear a deep, thrumming bass note coming from below, as if the tower has a massive beating heart buried deep in the earth. Giant, faded characters are stenciled vertically above the door:

8
8
A
0

Inside, the tower appears to be hollow, with a single set of wide, descending stairs that ring the tower's walls, leaving a seemingly endless pit in the tower's center. Arriving at the first landing, the party finds a thick metal door. On the other side is a large room filled with machinery, a cacophany of metallic sounds, several Creator-Friends running around, and a strange-looking humanoid figure apparently working on one of the mechanisms close to the door.

When Roondar makes himself known and attempts to engage in conversation, the humanoid shouts over the clamor that they must leave immediately, referring to the party repeatedly as "unauthorized personnel." Upholding party tradition, Maul responds to this command by whacking the humanoid over the head.

A battle ensues, with the humanoid conjuring a poisonous cloud that sickens Carric, Owynka, and Maul. The humanoid cries out that the party is dooming them all, but the combat continues. Meanwhile, Roondar slaps the stim cypher on his arm and inspects the nearest machine. Although the control panel's screens are flipping so badly that they're difficult to read, Roondar's amped-up intellect is able to discern that the machine is monitoring the mist in the large glass dome to which it is attached, and this particular dome's mist is stable.

Running to the one dome that glows red instead of turquoise, Roondar checks its control panel, which reads, "MELTDOWN IMMINENT."

On the other side of the room, Owynka succeeds in landing the killing blow on the humanoid, who crumples to the floor.

Session 14 Recap (Days 06−07)

Observing that the mechanical/biological hybrid creature they're fighting appears to bolster itself before each attack, the party decides to retreat eastward into the southern tunnel. After an hour, they locate another node via one of the hexagonal rooms containing another silver inlaid pentagram circle, which Roondar determines to be one of containment rather than transport.

Accessing the central hallway of this node, the party finds another room with the transportation system's schema painted as a mural on the wall, which shows that the party is, as they suspected, now just one node east of the system's western terminal station. They climb the stairs beyond the room with the mural but find that they are completely blocked by a cave-in about 200 feet up. The party takes a long rest while they ponder their next move.

Returning to the western terminal via the windy northern tunnel, the party searches for a door hidden in the southern wall, which leads to a circular glowing rod room and a stairway leading up. The party follows this until the sharply angled tunnel of the stairway ends abruptly to be replaced by the night sky. They find themselves standing high above the ground in the ruins of another ancient city.

The sun, as dim as ever, still hangs directly overhead in one of its gibbous phases. To the west, a wide bay of calm water leads into a vast ocean. Behind them, the Typhon Mountains continue their impassable journey northeast. To the north they see a narrow desert valley wedged between these two colossal forces of nature that widens ever outward. Looking down into this valley they see a distant, weird structure--apparently constructed of metal rather than stone--nestled in the dunes about two miles away.

Far below, at the foot of the ruins in which they stand, the party spies several small creatures rummaging around in the ancient buildings. Roondar turns Carric invisible, who sneaks down to get a closer look. He sees a few dozen of these creatures, about 2 ½ feet tall, dressed in ratty, stitched-together robes and brass faceplates scavenging ancient remnants of metallic building materials from the ravaged city and placing them in little wooden carts stationed at the edge of the valley. The party considers their options: attempt to sneak past the creatures (a possibility made more difficult by the geography of the mountainous terrain on either side of them) or engage in conversation....