Aporeu chronicles Issue 88: Trials of the Tinkerer 2

Stories from the adventurers

This week

Trying to fix a gate by batlling some undead.

Trials of the Tinkerer 2 by Gurh

Trials of the Tinkerer (Part 2)
Greetings my dearest reader. My name is Gurh, and I have recently been allowed access to the adventurers guild. My friend and protector, Ansem has brokered an agreement with the guild, which in turn has given me the opportunity to finally make a difference within the universe. With a little trepidation and excitement, I accepted my first foray into the adventuring community.
A tinkerer by the name of Tulli, had requested a group that was willing to attain a part for his side of the gate. The gate in its current state was suffering a tragic malfunction, which in turn led to nausea, vomiting and general discomfort. As such, our assistance was most appreciated. Our party consisted of a Knight in shining armor, which went by the name of Data, a rather peculiar male green creature, which I now have discovered is called a “Goblin” calling himself Booyagh, a female human named Rowan, another female human named Blanche, and lastly, I need to include myself.
Now, before I continue this epos, I must elaborate a part of my personal physique. I am a Minotaur from Lauzea, and sadly, I am deaf and mute. Thankfully, through Ansem I obtained a slate with chalk. This facilitates my communications. Mister Data, a stenographer as well as a blacksmith, somehow, through magical means managed to write messages as they were spoken for me. This made my first mission an immense amount easier on the social part. Unfortunately, this also means that although I will attempt to be complete, and thorough in my reports to this gazette, due to the nature of my affliction, some parts will sadly be lacking.
With said piece of information out of the way, allow me to continue. Our quest begins in front of “The Lornan”. Which I believe is the name of the location of the quest pick up point. A blue man arrives and begins communications. The man is called Tulli, and he is our employer. I do not know what race he hails from, so I cannot elaborate further upon that sadly. Tulli wishes that we endeavor to find a chestlike apparatus that has unique tubing, wiring and configuration, to repair his transdimensional transportation gate.
I assure the group through personal experience, that said gate travel is easy as gyros. This turns out to be an atrocious lie not shortly after. The blue man offers us a set of Tiaras, with some technology behind it. Sadly, I cannot understand what it is, but it is explained that said items prevents us from exploding when traversing the gate to his world. A very unnerving statement. But, with my gate experience, I travel through the gate composedly… At first. Tulli and the group go through the gate as well, and the journey ends up in upending my stomach as well as causing intense and execrable anguish to my fellow party members,Tulli, and I.
We are welcomed by another blue skinned creature, this one a female. She offers us tea and rest. During said rest we receive a map and further explanations. We are to travel to Abandeaux’s Keep. The world we are currently residing in is recovering from war and is in civil unrest, so caution is advised. With that, we decide to travel forth, into a rather dense fog. Said mistiness creates a navigational obstacle, and due to it we end up veering off course. It takes a small amount of effort, but through deduction and the use of landmarks on the map which we can still see, I manage to figure out a way back to where we need to go. Our journey has however attracted a few hungry predators. A small pack of wolves assault us, and I take point. The wolves bite deeply into my skin, and the pain is visible, but I will not be deterred. I bite away the agony, and with aid from the party I am in, we manage to eliminate the threat. After the elimination, I discovered that the bigger of the wolves was in actuality a shapechanger. Peculiar, but the stories of lycanthropy are in fact true, this I can confirm with my very own eyes.
It takes a little time for us to backtrack to Abandeaux’s fort, at which point the two other ladies in our party decide to use rats to scout the area. I am unaware which technique facilitates this approach, but with magic in abundance, one mustn’t be surprised, but informed. Animal communication and control are things one can expect, so please, I can now confirm that these skills are in fact legitimate.
After a moment of calm, the rodents return with the information that there are things in the castle. Using the ears of my companions, we begin scouring the castle. We initiate our search in the basement. It does not take long until we discover a group of humans whose souls are now long gone. I believe their exact term is a zombie. I find that slamming my Branding Iron into them is an efficient method of eliminating their threat, but when I hit them, they keep getting back up. Meanwhile, mister Data appears to be hammering them into submission almost instantly when he does hit said enemies. Booyagh, who is a spellcaster, is initiating a theorem, practicing different magical spells upon the lesser creatures to figure out where their weaknesses lie. After a few zombies, we also find a skeletal creature, which turns to ground bone with a single swing of my weapon. Sadly, we do not discover the apparatus.
With little information to go on we continue our search, eventually reaching the first floor. There, I will now divulge yet another unique talent that I would not believe had I not seen it with my very own eyes. Latrinomancy. The capacity to converse with a toilet is displayed by Blanche, whose social interaction with a mens bathroom informs us that more of the undead are residing upstairs.
With that information, we travel upstairs, where a weakened man lies. Blanche uses a healing spell and the man tells us a shadow has hurt him, and it is roaming the castle. He himself was looking for the apparatus too, and was viciously mauled. It strikes me as odd that the shadow creature was not thorough, but perhaps the individual, who introduces himself as Gordon, managed to fight it off.
I go into the next room, where we find a room filled with corpses. Knowing the dead can rise, I quickly begin decapitating the dead bodies. A correct assumption, as the dead quickly begin rising, followed by a sudden and total blinding. Coldness envelopes me, and a slow feeling of despair enters my bones, if only for a moment. In less than six seconds, the darkness dissipates, and Blanch, Data and I find ourselves trapped in a room full of the undead. My first priority is to protect the lady Blanche, who is assaulted by several zombies. She releases a flock of spiders, and fights off most of her assailants, until she manages to escape the danger, and Data and I begin cleaning up the room.
Sadly, I did not see what happened in the other rooms. From what I have divulged from their written reports it was (And I quote:) “Fukfukfukfukfuk” [Booyagh], “Rather scary, but nothing a mercenary like me can’t handle. Shame about Tix.” [Rowan] “The clever use of my insects, Moon beam, and my Totem ensured none of us fell to their assaults.” [Blanche].
Whatever truthfully went down, the traitorous Gordon, attempts to vacate the premises using secret passages. Good sir Data quickly ends these aspirations with a quick and decisive blow to the back of the head, when the shadow creature that the traitorous Gordon mentioned slips past. Data and I begin pounding the wall, and manage to find just enough room for me to slip through, as well as Blanches bright moonbeam. With a last herculean attempt by the insects, lunar light and my trusted Branding Iron, we disintegrate the shadow into dust.

With the adversaries of this fort taken care of, a quick survey shows that the apparatus is positioned in one of the siderooms. We obtain it, and return to Tulli. Tulli then requests us to assist him in finalizing the repairs on the transdimensional transport gate. Data assists in extracting the specific part from the apparatus, while I keep the power going by using a special wheel device which uses my legs to power. I believe Tulli called it a cyclebi. Booyagh is assigned onto investigating whether or not the pieces are holding, while Rowan is busy powering another piece of the machine somehow. Sadly, my positioning does not allow me to see how, which means I cannot divulge more. I also know Blanche ensured that any gaps or problems were sorted, but again, due to my positioning, I could not observe this. Thankfully, we all succeeded in our tasks, and the gate, which was once broken, was now restored. A testimony, that even broken things, can one day be mended.
My name is Gurh, and I thank you dear reader, for taking the time to read my report.

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Trials of the Tinkerer 2 by Rowan

25th of Sharaf
Dear Myllandra, I don’t know why I still address my diary to you. It’s been more than 7 years since you left me. But here we are again.
Today, Tix and I went on our first trip through the ‘gate’. Finally I could experience this door to supposed other worlds by myself. It was my second mission with the guild, and except for the metal-man Data, they were all new faces to me. That’s good, because new people are new potential friends. First, there was a little goblin named Booyagh. I must admit I had to suppress my first urge to blast him on sight, as he looked like he just escaped from prison and took a stroll through someone’s laundry basket right after. Then there was Data, whom I have met on my first mission with the guild. He talks funny (is it even a he?) but he’s strong and a great shield to have on the frontline. The third person was a… minotaur, I think. A cowlady. Her name is Guhr and she is deaf, which is really inconvenient. But she seems nice, witty and pretty intelligent for someone on the frontline whacking with a branding iron. The last adventurer was a woman called Blanche. She is very odd. She talks to toilets, and calls forth spiders to fight her battles.
After the briefing in the quest handler Lornan’s office, we go to the gate and find this blue man, called Tulli. He has a strong accent, and is very enthusiastic about the gate. He does warn us that it’s malfunctioning, and gives us all some kind of circlet to get through safe. I tell Tix to get into her little hidey hole for a bit, as it’s probably not safe for her. Booyagh seemed reluctant, so I held his hand while going through. Well, turns out it wasn’t safe for us either. It’s hard to describe what I felt going through, but it was incredibly painful, and I needed to throw up. Tulli also felt awful, and he apologized extensively and offered us all tea (which his daughter made) while he explained our mission. We were to travel to Abando’s keep to find a mechanical device the size of a chest, so Tulli could harvest parts to fix the gate. He gives us a map, and a warning about the current state of the country. I call Tix back, and tell her to be inconspicuous for now.
Once we had rested enough to recover from the ordeal that was the gate, we get on our way. There’s a heavy fog this morning, which makes it really hard to navigate. Somehow we end up near a lake or something, which isn’t even on the map. I propose we backtrack, and Guhr lets us know she has found the right path back, so we follow her, until we (well except Guhr obviously, but she caught on quick) hear some howling not too far away. We decide to take a stand where we are, and I hide behind a wall. Soon, smaller wolves and one bigger throw themselves onto Guhr, but as a team we quickly get rid of them. The large one was even a werewolf. Interesting to see how that is not unique to Chronicle.
After we make short of the (were)wolves, we find the castle pretty soon. It looks ominous and deserted from the outside. Blanche apparently has a little pet mouse to do some scouting, and I propose to let Tix (very inconspicuously, being a rat and all) lead it. During the scouting, I communicate with Tix, and I immediately call her back after narrowly escaping a hit in the cellar. When we enter the castle not long after our four-legged scouts return, Blanche immediately goes to open to the door that Tix described to me as the door to the cellar, as sounds can be heard from behind it. We get treated by a bunch of zombies and a skeleton, coming through that door one by one. Booyagh seems in a mode to experiment, throwing all kinds of spells at the undead. I just blast at them, keeping Tix close to me, but my game seems a bit off today. It’s not everyday you encounter walking corpses. At some point, Data makes a weird noise that makes one go away, and in the cellar we find a couple more. But no chest-sized contraption.
As we check out the throne room (where obviously some fight has happened), kitchen, and latrines, something peculiar happens. Blanche spends some time in the latrine, talking to it. We are all very confused, but she’s adamant there are more undead upstairs. So we go up, warily. Upstairs, we find some rooms empty, some with undead we make quick work of. And then Blanche finds a heavily wounded man. He calls himself Gardon, and warns us for the shadow that is roaming this castle. He also says he suspects the thing we came for is in the room beyond. Gurh, Data and Blanche enter the room and find a huge bedroom with a pile of bodies. I am weary, so I stay in the large hallway, together with Tix and Booyagh. Then, sadly Gordon shows his true colors and a lot of things happen in a very short time. I am not exactly sure if I got it right Myllandra, but this is largely how I remember it. Gordon casts some spell in the room with our front and middle liners inside, then gets out and locks the door behind him, glaring at me and Booyagh maliciously. Booyagh panics and tries to hide in another room, and I freeze for a moment, then try to blast the bastard, sadly missing. The bastard follows the poor little goblin, who is probably cornered, so I grit my teeth and get closer, while Tix unlocks the door of the other room. I find Booyagh in a library, cornered indeed, and there’s a black shadow threatening him as well. No idea where that came from? I try to blast the shadow, but instead hit the wall. Booyagh somehow gets out, and they turn on me, being the closest target. In the meantime, Blanche has summoned a powerful beam of light. Frustrated by being so incredibly useless, I give in to my inner darkness (yes I know how much you hate it) and suddenly, I feel so powerful and awesome. There’s shadowy wings sprouting from my back, and I glare at Gordon and the shadow. I must’ve scared both, because they both make a run for it soon after, and go into the big room again, where the others (and a swarm of spiders) have made short work of a bunch of zombies. I send Tix in after them, but sadly she perishes in the beam of light. Shame, I figured she’d be able to handle it, being resistant to magic and all. She agreed, obviously. Oh well, lesson learned.
Data and Gurh make short work of the fleeing bastard and shadow, and we find the machine in the room Booyagh had been hiding in. We get it back to Tulli, who is very happy, then proceeds to ask us to assist him with some tasks concerning the tinkering. Well I know a bit about magic, but I’m not good with machines. Luckily, Tulli seems to have the perfect task for all of us. I get to infuse the thing with magic in exactly the right amounts, which took quite some effort, leaving me exhausted afterwards. But somehow, by combining our efforts, we got the whole thing fixed. Tulli was ecstatic. And I was just as happy to go home again, without complications. Satisfied. And maybe having made some new friends?

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On the next issue:

The Necropolis of Amulius 2