Has He Lost His Mind?

General Summary

The party pushed further into the ruins, coming upon a crumbling library containing little worth taking. Further down the hallway, Ra'zon found a door leading into a side room. Upon battering it down, he triggered a pressure plate that sealed him alone in the room as hundreds of mechanical beetles began pouring out of brass pipes in the wall. Ra'zon struggled to fend them off as the rest of the party pushed in to assist him. Although the swarm knocked Anton unconscious, the group managed to defeat them. While Grom attempted to cast a dome of protection for the party to recover in the group was ambushed by another patrol of automatons, including a much larger and more powerful model than the ones the previously fought. During the intense fight, Ra'zon was knocked unconscious but the group eventually proved victorious. Grom finished casting his protective dome, and the group rested up to recover.
After resting the party inspected the room further, discovering a small brass owl. Ra'zon deduced that the goggles he found earlier had something to do with it, and after putting them on he realized he was able to command the owl. Using it to scout ahead he discovered what was once a soldier's barracks, now occupied by several more automatons which were powered down. Anton was successfully able to stealthily deactivate most of them without waking any of them up. Moving into the central chamber the party found a large faintly glowing crystal that was being inspected and worked on by a jittery dwarf. The dwarf had clearly gone mad over years of isolation but proved to be able to be reasoned with after Grom was able to calm his mind with magic.
The dwarf introduced himself as Ardevin dho'Barzh, one of the early pioneers of flashdust weaponry. Ardevin told the party that twenty-four years ago he was hired by the Mitican Empire to design weapons for them. After designing a prototype battle suit, he hired a captain out of Kassoth—Julius Spaulding of the Cutlass—to ferry him and the prototype to the Empire. On the way there however the crew marooned him on this island, taking his commission and the prototype with them. At the mention of this, Grom recognized the Cutlass as the corsair ship he once served on under Captain Hockley Thorpe. He also remembered that Captain Spaulding had been the previous captain before Thorpe mutinied and took command, and that he had often heard Thorpe bragging about some powerful weapon he took from Spaulding's stash.
Ardevin said he had no further interest in the battlesuit, as his research had progressed far beyond that due to his work with the waytower's still-functioning arcaltium crystal. Despite repeated efforts by the party to persuade him to come along with them, he proved unwilling to leave his laboratory behind but did say that if they were to ever find a another crystal he might be willing to relocate. After a short bit more conversation with him, the party returned to their newly-repaired ships and resumed course to Kassoth.

Chapter Seventeen

"Has He Lost His Mind?"

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Previous Chapter: Storm at Sea

Next Chapter: Arrival in Crimsonhold

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Ingame Date: 17^th-18^th of Rainseed, 1855
Real-Life Date: September 5, 2020
Protagonists:

• Grom
• Ra'zon the Broken
• Anton von Rheintach
• Elria Svistra

Featured NPCs:

• Ardevin dho'Barzh

Locations:

• Ardevin's island