Campaign 4, Session 18

The group descends further into the Spire and finally meets the mysterious "Necromancer" they've heard so much about.

Jarash the Crablord, using the adamantine battleaxe, carved a tunnel from the start of the level to the staircase down, allowing the group to bypass all the water. He explained to them that his wives, Salzyfe and Zundila, had been captured by the necromancer who lived below, and he hoped they would be able to defeat the necromancer and rescue them, else he would flood the level to try and drown the foul being.   19.12.1291   The group spent the night and ate on a feast of crabs before descending down the stairs. After descending down the stairs, they found themselves in a room with nothing but a black lever and a red lever and an archway to the east. Distant ticking echoed through the walls, as if many large clocks were all operating in them. In the archway was an empty hallway of stone, but at it's end there was a curved wall of bronze, with a narrow seam of light coming through the bottom, and the wall vibrated slightly. After some debate, the group elected to retreat into the first room and pull the red lever. When they did, they heard noises, like the sound of gears turning and heavy objects being moved. Returning past the archway into the hallway, they found the bronze wall was gone, and instead, there was a hallway that went to the east. At the end of this short hallway was a set of double doors, with an emblem of an automaton's head inside interlocking gears painted on the door.   The group opened the door and found themselves in front of a strange minotaur creature, pretending to be a statue. One of it's arms, as well as one of it's legs, had been replaced with automaton parts seemingly made from the same material as The Spire. It's horns had also been replaced. It swung it's giant greataxe into Guiliman and the battle began, the martial might of Guiliman and Jimmy dispatching the poor creature, who mocked them with it's dying breath, telling them it wished to die and that it's existence was suffering. Upon the creature, they found a magical amulet and a bag of rubies and gold coins. The amulet turned out to be of a defensive nature, and it was elected for Guiliman to wear it. Further exploration of the chamber found a pool of water that was fed by a tiny portal to the plane of water, and another set of double doors.   Opening these sets of double doors, the group found orderly piles of automation parts and other scrap, being sorted by a pair of automatons, who proceeded to attack the party, firing nets from their hands which entangled Guiliman and Jimmy. Thankfully, they were both able to escape the nets, Guiliman through destroying his and Jimmy by slipping out instead, and destroyed the automatons. In this room, they also found another red lever, and a door to the north. Opening the door to the north, they found a smaller bronze door, similar to the one they encountered earlier. The group sent Guiliman and Jimmy back to the first room to pull the black lever, although they heard the same noises again, nothing seemed to change. They came back, and then the group elected to pull the red level in the scrap room, and the mechanism turned to open a new hallway to the north. They followed this hallway to a door, and Jimmy opened the door.   When Jimmy opened the door, the chamber behind him suddenly spun away, cutting off both his ability to retreat, and the rest of the group from him. In his room, he found himself fighting a powerful automaton who was guarding a black lever, and had seemingly pulled the lever to trap him in this room. Jimmy fought valiantly, and did damage the creature, but eventually was beaten down by the automaton, the creature's metal construction proving to be harder to damage with his blades. He did not bleed out, but passed into unconsciousness.   The group meanwhile, found themselves with a new hallway in front of them. Knowing they needed to get to Jimmy, they sent Mongoose back to pull the red lever, which she did, but that only changed the first hallway from the scrap room, not the one they needed to get to Jimmy. From the new hallway, they heard loud cackling and the sound of something humanoid. Christie made her way that direction, only to see a man who's body was half automaton parts, two sets of whirling blade traps, and several partially built (as well as one fully functioning) automaton. She elected to scream and run back into the hall way. The man cast a spell of stinking cloud, filling the hallways with the gas, causing Christie to get very sick. Hans moved into the room and threw a bomb of ice at the man, which hurt him. Guiliman joined him in the room, standing just out of the range of the spinning blade traps. The automaton charged Guiliman, and the battle began in ernest, the mage dropping another spell, pelting Guiliman, Hans, and his own automaton, with ice and sleet, making the whole place difficult to move about. Mongoose made her way back to the group, and seeing the stinking cloud, dispelled it with her magic. The mage continued to laugh at them, this time sending a fireball at them. Eventually, the automaton was destroyed, and Guiliman and Mongoose got directly up to the mage, Hans working his way into the room and unleashing another painful cold bomb. Guiliman landed a mighty blow with his sword, but found it hurt the mage little, for his skin was seemingly made of stone. The mage responded by electrocuting the warrior, and then left, unconcerned about their attacks due to his stony skin. The group gave chase, but the mage responded with a spell of fear, sending Hans and Guiliman fleeing. Knowing that her weapon would not penetrate the mage's skin, Mongoose fired a bolt of searing light, and the mage was finished.   Knowing they needed to get to Jimmy (but unaware of his predicament), they pulled the black lever until it was set back to lead them into the room, Hans trying to sneak into the room this time...