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.