The Bunker
General Summary
Starting off as a normal workday for personnel of UAP's Advanced Machinebuilding Plant Y-2, as well as a normal tour day for a group of tourists visiting it, quickly turned for worse as a flooding alarm was sounded, with anomalous flash flood breaking the dam upstream and only enough time to evacuate personnel, visitors and nearby passerbys into the reinforced bunker underneath the factory, which was built back in the times when a global nuclear war with Muscovian Union was expected.
Amongst everyone else taking refuge in the metallocrete dungeon underneath flooded factory, a group of three - Elza Ravoma, a local CNC operator, Erina Fosberg, a witch from a tour group and Gemdrop, another visitor - that'd come to be pivotal in solving the mystery of the flash floods.
While the three were touring the place and helping with setting up common room in the so-called "Safehouse" (a.k.a "Junction", a living level with all required amenities and access to other levels), they all felt a strange, malign influence, that would soon be identified as presence of Abyssal Glutton.
Once tour of the place was done, the three have reached the control room and met Nurami, director of the factory, that briefed them on the situation and tasked arachnid and two felids with trying to understand, what was happening, when even seismic signals failed to reach the intended receivers.
After signing up for it, the three, unable to visit other levels at that day due to busted door to elevator, were able to figure out the reason for it going bust - an old, damaged hydraulic hose, with repair spell on it, that was timed to dissipate at a specific time. A first sign of darker things at work here.
The final clue for the day was found in the sickbay - a piece of paper, stuck in the central vacuum system connection socket, with a drawing on it. A sigil of the Esoteric Order of Abyssal Glutton, as Erina recognized it.
On the next day, after waking up and dining, the three were tasked to go to the Production Floor 1 and repair the ELF communication system.
With Erina picking up a pistol, Elza opting for another pistol and Gemdrop deciding to lug a shotgun, the trio, equipped with action cameras, have boarded the elevator and rode it into the depths.
Once there, with Gemdrop recognizing old TSC logos on parts that were left behind, Elza gets to reactivating the place, with Erina's magicks helping her to power the old hardware before the geothermal power plant was brought to life - and yet, that's also where they hear the language not of this world for the first time.
Leaving the powerplant section and going to control room, Elza is forced to reveal her access card spoofing device, as the team enters it and downloads the map of the level.
One gantry crane ride after, the trio is on the other end of the hall, dismounting it and hearing the unearthly throatsinging from the ELF system access room.
As they try their best impression at doing the room clearing, all they catch is a fleeting impression of the one responsible for singing - a lump of body parts, made out of ebon and covered with runic lines, attached to eachother with no rhyme or reason.
Once it disappears into the portal, Elza gets to fixing the ELF system, with Erina and Gemdrop being left to wander the rest of the level in peace.
With Elza's labor taking six hours, the two have plenty of time to check it, albeit only Gem is able to find something unusual - a magic grimoire in the kitchen, masked to look like a normal cookbook, standing in a row of other cookbooks. A needle in the haystack of needles.
While trio returns to Junction for a bit of rest and meal, having turned their guns in upon entering, Nurami and team bring ELF system online and manage to get some information.
As it turns out, the entire factory, submerged unnaturally deep underwater, is in Time Stall.
Of three, it's Gemdrop who manages to assess the full unfortunate reality of the situation - and the three figure out the need to deal with cult, wherever they are, in order to be able to dispel the Time Stall and end the unnaturally long and hard flood, which might, if enough time passes, crack the bunker like a submarine under crush depth.
With meal reinvigorating them and plans figured out, the three rearm and board elevator again, reaching the cargo loading bay.
As Gem overhears some strange, pouring and chewing sounds, Elza manages to restart power generation, allowing the three much more flexibility there.
Once felids and arachnid reach the control room, Gem gets another moment of glory, being able to pick the backup lock and let all three in, with Erina noticing paperwork about Peacekeeper CRMC production and deliveries and Elza finding out about specifics of TSC's research and development - something that three would soon use.
Within the diner, after some investigation, Erina and Gem notice traces of ritual, done by someone, on one of the tables - two rituals, in fact, as Fosberg figures out after investigating glyphs further. One of them is giving off perception of depths and gluttony unimaginable, while the other seems... fragmented, runes upon ebon, parts linked with parts in strange fashion - almost like the thing they've seen in the comm-system's access point room...
At that moment, a plan is born - pit two powers against eachother.
The first seance doesn't go all that well. The call is going out, but there's no ringer on the other side.
Here, Elza's read of TSC documentation comes in handy - using data from it, the arachnid manages to assembling electroarcane circuit, that allows to amplify the effect of seance somewhat massively, massively enough that Erina is able to reach the entity she tried to call.
With all words said and all desires voiced, all that's left is to shake on deal.
And it is done.
As all three see copies of themselves shaking with Erina, she feels a strange alteration to her - one that's not in force yet, but could be, if she wishes it so.
With the deal shaken on and gratitude to the power expressed, the trio moves on to the rail platform, deciding to investigate the southern autonomous launch module of Peacekeeper CRMC first.
Far as Gem can see, there's next to no cultists left inside the security car - at least, if strange outlines on the bunks and chairs are to be discounted.
The launch control car, in the meantime, holds only one cultist, shaken enough not to react to Gem's presence any.
One taser strike later, the cultist is apprehended and looted, with notable findings being walkie-talkie, ritual instructions, spellbook, weird knife and an eyeshade, for some reason.
With no one replying on the radio, the trio proceeds to the second ALM, where they discover a WarDog mule robot that factory bought not too long ago, with Gemdrop, soon after, finding plans about ritual to be held at Multipurpose Floor and Elza recovering data from robot.
One call to Nurami via wired phone later and the three are provided identities of missing people, as Elza's data analysis of records from robot shows, how to reach the floor that elevator currently can't.
With robot reprogrammed and new determination, Elza, Erina and Gem, as well as their new mule, reach the multipurpose floor, with Erina picking out the chanting from get-go.
Sneaking into the control room and overlooking CCTVs, they are able to see, that an improvised alter is being set up on the laser cutter table, with camera in the diner/kitchen area being suspiciously offline.
With decisions made and control room rekeyed to Elza's card, the three move out to the laser cutter, putting rescue of innocents first.
After botching the surprise attack, Elza manages to make up for it with another burst from her pistol, wounding one of the cultists, as all three members of trio are asked, if they want to take their gift from the deal.
As the battle goes through, Erina's wounded with a thrown flechette from cultist, while Gem and Elza miss their shots and Gem gets wounded with war razor, enchantment forcing her wound to spill more blood than usual.
Once more, the offer repeats - and this time, Erina decides to take it.
With her new ability, she launches an assault on the vargfolk cultist, missing, albeit managing to tear his hood.
The cultist, likewise, misses on their attack with flechette, having it go wide and get tangled by fins in the cabling of laser cutter.
The next to take up on offer is Gem, who manages to leverage it into a better grip, steadying her shotgun and firing it into canid cultist, turning their head into a bloody mist.
The third and final of trio to take up on offer is Elza, who manages to shoot the Mirromy cultist into heart, making them bleed strangely-dark blood and foul-smelling water.
With the danger dealt with, Erina returns to form and heals up Gem, before Gem goes to check on the state of sacrificed-to-be-no-more. Discovering them sedated and with elevator repairs taking too long to be usable, a plan is hatched at modifying the improvised sleds they are on into something that robot mule can tug through the maintenance rampwell and into the working elevator on cargo handling floor and order it to go towards Junction.
As soon as innocents are out of the way, two tourists and one worker head towards kitchen area, where they see a single Gaismagorm Fujiokan cultist trying to summon something... before ritual goes sideways.
Not only does the intended entity (whatever it was) fail to reach that plane of existence, but, through the gap, a strange, ebon-like entity, consisting of mishmash of body parts without rhyme or reason, reach out to him and, before he could even react, dismember the cultist.
With that macabre act done, the strange thing waves to the team, as it falls back through the breach of reality, right as it closes, prompting Elza to ask Erina about what did she ask for during seance and Gem to fall onto her ass.
With their share of weirdness for the day full, the trio elects to return to Junction, albeit not before Gem loots the remains of cultist, netting herself a Magnum with ammo, some traditional Fujiokan jewelry, a medkit... and a journal, bundled together with a book.
Upon return, they are greeted by Nurami and the rest of factory management team, that confirm their previous suspicions - with cult out of the way, the Time Stall dissipated and the water is washing away, with comms being re-established too.
Turning the guns and cameras in, the trio opts for Nurami's offer of some in-room food service today, before returning to their place for recovery.
The rest of the day is spent in small talk, revelations about eachother and, in general, discussions.
Final few days go on faster, than usual - with Elza busy helping factory team and Gem working with Erina to decode the arcane documents, they learn a whole lot about where did the cultists come from (Coalwell cell, sent to make up for failing in something, linked to "cleavage"), how did they reach the factory (hired two stalkers, one of whom they've later sacrificed to start the flood - and, due to the other stalker running away, the ritual was incomplete and pressure was insufficient to crack the bunker open and let the Glutton feast) and so on.
After more revelations about eachother are had, things are figured out and plans are made, Elza and Erina agree about making an alter to whatever force they've made a deal with and, upon reaching spare parts production room, Erina holds a seance - a very well-received one, going by the huge slab of supernatural ebon placed with extreme precision into the CNC machine, that Elza programs to cut into alter to Erina's specifications.
With the underground factory holding one last parting feast, a feast in celebration of the survival against all odds, as soon as it ends, the rescued tour group and locals are sent out through unblocked rail tunnels on the railcars, delivered from surface, to the rescuers above.
And while Erina opts to take a bus home after reaching the train station above the ground, Gem decides to start enacting her plan... and Elza stays within the underground part of factory, ready to fulfill her promise to Erina and execute her part of the plan the three had figured out too.
Rewards Granted
$1000 per person payout, Magnum revolver + ammo pack (Gemdrop), 4x Cultist IDs, 1x weird dagger (Erina), 1x spellbook (Erina), Fujiokan jewelry (Gemdrop), Yashak's book (Gemdrop), ritual page (Erina), alter (Erina), future job prospects, LV2 and 200xp over it.
In addition to it, Nurami sent following gifts to participants from outside
Erina - Seance Kit+ (stained mahogany box, contains tools that aid in contacting supernatural beings either as part of an act or a genuine ritual. This kit includes a nonmagical spirit planchette set (see Pathfinder Adventure Path #43: The Haunting of Harrowstone 19, or treat as a board gameUE worth 25 gp), 10 candles, 10 candlesticksUE, one entertainer’s outfit, one harrow deckUE, one magnetUE, 10 sticks of incenseARG, one scroll of augury, and two scrolls of prestidigitation. In addition to that, Elza Ravoma added Electroarcane Signal Booster, developed from docs she'd discovered, into it.)
Gemdrop - advanced lockpick (masterwork Thieves' Tools, includes skimmers and other devices for breaking electronic locks too) and locksmithing kit.
Character(s) interacted with
Elza Ravoma, Erina Fosberg, Gemdrop, Nurami, Juka, Katoru (Mirromy cultist), Airad (Vargfolk cultist), Yashak (Fujiokan cultist), Aniru (stunned Akulian cultist), workers of the machinebuilding plant.
Notes
The toilet, that everyone had low Perception roll for, had clues towards fate and escape of the surviving stalker. That one might resurface in the future.
Report Date
06 Nov 2024
Primary Location
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