Session 11: Clockwork Tyrant

General Summary

54th of Varmalev 21st year of the Second Era
The party continued through the tower and arrived in a room that was completely dark except the light pouring down into the central area which was enclosed by a 10 foot wall that didn't reach the ceiling. They found their way to a portcullis leading to the central area, and saw beyond it a sand floor littered with bits of metal that appeared to belong to the machines they fought outside the tower.
The chain used to open the portcullis appeared to be trapped, and Alaric disarmed it, but Malcolm still wanted to avoid the central area of the room. Alaric scaled the wall to see if they could walk along the top of it to the staircase on the opposite side. Unfortunately the top of the wall was angled and slick.
Entering the central area, the portcullis closed behind them and the one across the room seemed to be sealed by a secondary door. They noticed a small red dome above that resembled the eye that had confronted them earlier. IT informed them that is considered it's efforts to stop them thus far a waste of resources and time, so it would now attempt to gather useful data from its next attempt. A series of alcoves in the wall opened revealing a new form of construct with a bipedal form that resembled a skeleton, carrying a sword and shield. The new constructs proved more difficult to destroy, but Meara took the brunt of the damage. Alaric used the Mask of Many Faces to dissuade the constructs from attacking him, Malcolm perched over the portcullis out of reach, and Zuko made strategic use of his invisibility ring.
The party took a short rest and continued up the tower until they reached what appeared to be the personal bed chamber of Lord Ozin Lorimer. Finding nothing of interest except a runic ward against scrying, the party attempted to proceed up the next staircase but found only the banister, and no actual steps. They noticed in the mirror that the stairs were present, and with the Magnifying Glass of Identify telling them that it changed reality based on observation, they figured out that they could ascend the stairs backwards as long as they observed the stairs in the mirror. Zuko experimented by looking away from the mirror before it was out of view and was briefly stuck in the staircase when he looked back at it.
Reaching the top floor, Zuko scouted into the large chamber ahead. He observed a large construct slumped in a chair. It resembled a in-proportional suit of plate armor with no head. Behind it was a large glass sphere filled with flashing lights and arcing with what resembled lightning. Strapped into a chair next to the sphere and attached to it by a strange piece of head wear was an unconscious Lord Lorimer.
The party formulated a plan and rushed into the room gaining the element of surprise. They attacked the sphere which gained the attention of the eye stalk before an arc of lightning struck the large construct and it rose from its seat to attack. The party continued to focus on the sphere until it broke open and a rush of arcane light flowed toward the large construct; the red eye from the stalk appearing in the glass dome where its head should have been.
The construct seemingly sacrificed its last lightning based attack to charge two archways that constructed the skeletal constructs they fought earlier. Malcolm finished off the large construct and the arcane light dissipated in the air, seemingly taking the hostile intentions of the machines with it. The last skeletal construct, now without orders, simply stopped fighting.
While helping Lord Lorimer out of his chair they observed brain matter filled the sphere. After a brief moment of confusion, Lorimer recognized Malcolm, confirming that he helped alter his face. Lorimer explained that he was experimenting with a concept he called artificial intelligence, and used the brain of a condemned murderer to create the machine mind, then supplemented it with his own intelligence.
Declaring the experiment closed he invited the party to tea. Stepping out of the chamber they found themselves back in the tower lobby, unchanged by their previous time in the room, before he used a key in the double doors and changed the room beyond to his study.
Malcolm explained that that they were there because a strange arcane crystal stole their memories. He was immediately concerned at the mention of the crystal, because he was commissioned by the make one not long ago and drop it off at the Palhas City Temple of the Black Star. He said if it is in fact the same one he made, he would be able to at least partially reverse the memory loss. Malcolm explained that the crystal was in pieces and still in White Bluff.
Lorimer was unconcerned because he kept an arcane recall on any particularly dangerous times he created for others. As he passed Meara, her silver medallion started vibrating. Lorimer assured her that it was simply reacting to his heart. His original had gone out long ago, and he replaced it with necromancy magic; shedding light on how a human managed to live for multiple centuries.
He successfully recalled the shattered crystal, confirming it was the same that the emperor had ordered him to make. When he said that he planned on asking the Emperor what was going on, the party informed him that the emperor had passed the day before. He didn't seem overly surprised, stating that his illness was something even he couldn't diagnose, and he suspected dark magic was involved. Lorimer informed the party that it would take him three to four days to reconstruct the crystal, and agreed to allow the party to stay in the tower.
Over the next three days, Zuko studied his infernal. The first two days Malcolm studied the pepper box blueprints while Alaric took the crossbow mechanism out of the construct from the yard and on the third day, Malcom began studying it to create a working weapon for Alaric. Meara spent this time reading a book that Lorimer had translated from halfling:
Grandmother, Grandmother Written in Halfling by Kaslan Lowhill
Contents:

Details fable like stories of a young halfling who found an old shack in the woods near his home town that wasn't there before. Inside was and old witch. This witch agreed to help his town with their various plights in exchange for him going out on quests to collect various magic items. The help she gave the town often came with precarious downsides, but the author admits it took some time for even him to recognize that she was causing them misery.

Describes the crone in detail. Mentions seeing her house move through the forest on two giant bird legs. Describes his first quest for the crone and returning just in time to see her having a spat with her own iron dentures (some disagreement about wanting to explore nearby ancient ruins.) The teeth left their owner and spent some time casting spells on the crone to give her grief. It revealed that the dentures knew the following spells: heat metal, blur, shield, magic missile, ray of frost, grease. Reveals that the dentures speak common, dwarvish, elvish, infernal, and sylvan; which the author found impressive but not compared to the crone who could speak every known language. The dentures were however in his opinion smarter and wiser than the crone.

Describes the crone flying in a mortar and swatting at forest creatures with a giant pestle when the town came under attack by fey creatures. Revealing her use of the following spells:

• , message, minor illusion, command, disguise self, hideous laughter • blindness/deafness, darkness, enthrall • clairvoyance, lightning bolt • banishment, blight, polymorph animate objects, insect plague

Tells the story of the time the crone saved the town from a disease that was spreading. Unsatisfied with his help, the crone jumped through time allowing herself to assist herself in making the cure. Witnessing the power nearly drove him mad.

Kaslan finally realized that all of her help always came with nasty strings or resulted in some new disaster he became convinced was intentional. Rather than confronting her alone, he began quietly trying to gather his neighbors to banish her together. It turned out that many of the smartest people in town were being blackmailed by her. She was an effective and obsessed collector of secrets, keeping these secrets on parchment in a chest made out of a giant emerald. When he discovered his neighbors secrets, he also discovered she had been blackmailing kings and queens for lifetimes. The others, seemed unable to ignore her charm (anyone with an intelligence score under 3 will obey her unquestioningly. They eventually revealed his intentions to the crones and he was imprisoned.

While imprisoned in the crone's hut, he made contact with the iron dentures. Bribed them into helping him get rid of her in exchange for showing him some of the ancient arcane places he visited on his quests for her. The dentures were concerned about doing any permanent harm to his master but agreed to help scare her off. Reveals, that she is resistant to cold damage and non-magic attacks.

Before successfully forcing the crone to run off she threatened him with personal punishment form the elder god of terror, revealing herself as one of his lords. He didn't fear this threat because he knew Mantus had been killed (not many knew this). After successfully banishing her, he tricked the dentures into a box that he had stolen from the crone, realizing that though they had a deal, the teeth were just as bad as she was and he would always return to her. The box was magic and would keep any creature contained inside locked away forever. He admits that he was largely disliked by the townsfolk for the rest of his life. He used the blackmail information on those in power around town to offer him some protection from mob justice, but only his family still cared for him. He planned on making sure the denture were buried with him. The last he heard of the grandmother was that she was tracked down near the western coast by the Hellige Riddere

57th of Varmalev 21st year of the Second Era
The party was called to one of Lorimer's workshops and saw a newly constructed piece of furniture; seating for five with a central setting for the memory wiping crystal. He warned them that the memories would be somewhat disassociated and only the broad strokes would come back at first. He also warned that the memories that return to them during the initial process would be seen by all three of the remaining Vestige crew.
To be continued... @session

Report Date

13 Sep 2019