Horror at Elder's Station, Part 1: Don't Open the Maintenance Hatch

General Summary

Four strangers join forces to find the answers behind the corruption eminating from the midst of an ancient space observatory that only appears for 32 days every 24 years.

Formation of BTW

It was three days from the end of the Firestorm, a celestial event happening in Mad Dwarves' Quarry every 24 years. The Twin Slabs were experiencing death, crime, famine, and stillbirth. The Harengon Arcane Archer Bryan Brynalds and his Autognome friend, Selvek the Judicious, sat ready to order their food at the Beastro. The Giff Gunslinger Wumbo the Freeman also made his way to the Beastro for a bite of food. Meanwhile, the Souldiers Barbarian Tony Smith walked the Twin Slabs' streets.
Suddenly Bryan, Wumbo, and Tony all felt their bounty pucks alerting. Quartermaster Valkan Riogan was calling all bounty hunters for a mission. The various bounty hunters scattered to reach the Xenotermination Headquarters. Wumbo slammed into Bryan. Bryan hopped after Wumbo. Tony attempted to trip them with his harpoon. Wumbo cleared the chains, but Bryan tripped and faceplanted dropping his bounty puck. Selvek collected it for him, and followed on.
Wumbo arrived first, breaking the door to the headquarters for the fifth time. The others arrived behind him. The receptionist screamed in terror, but then relaxed herself. It was irregular but fortuitous that Wumbo had brought teammates because this particular bounty required a crew. The party went to be briefed by Quartermaster Valkan.
Quartermaster Valkan, an elderly bald human, told a long winding tale explaining the nature of the mission.

Long ago, the Elder Elves left Amalgam and explored the wonders of space looking for an even more ancient race called the Reigar. A small group of these Elders left the Lunos Colony and journeyed to a remote asteroid belt to build a magical research station to find the Reigar without the constant interruption of simpler minds.
Thousands of years ago, the Elders disappeared suddenly. Occasionally, dwarven miners or other visitors to the asteroid belt would see the station but most blew it off as an illusion. 24 years ago, the station re-emerged for 32 days during the celestial event known as the Firestorm. Then it blinked out of existence.
26 days ago the Firestorm started once again, and the station reemerged. We need you to dodge the firestorm, navigate the asteroid field, dock with the station, avoid the ancient wizards’ paranoid defense systems, recover their secrets and the source of the station's unlimited power, and leave before the Firestorm ends and the station disappears. - Quartermaster Valkan

Quartermaster Valkan offered each member of the party two Graxsteroid shards, worth 1 million gold pieces each, if they could sucessfully complete the mission. For insurance, he also gave them 1 Graxsteroid shard to use in the purchase of gear for the mission. They immediately set out on a shopping spree.

Shopping Spree

BTW began their shopping spree by searching for rings. They immediately noticed RingBear, a ring store run by Growler the Panserbjørne. He sold them Rings of Fire Protection, and Rings of Revifivy.
Next they entered into Potion Notions, but left after meeting Calamity the Space Clown, who very possibly could've laced his potions with Thrilljoy. Potionless, the party tried again at the Potion Pantry.
The party next went to General Grenade and Other Military Supplies and bought... grenades.
On the way to Bryan's spelljammer, the party met a strange Gnome. He claimed that he knew what they needed. He sold Bryan a Clockwork Amulet. He sold Tony a Mystery Key. He sold Wumbo a Hat of Vermin. He sold Selvek a smoking pipe.

"I'm going to smoke so much grass when we get back to The Briar." - Selvek the Judicous

The party then left the Twin Slabs and boarded the Brynalds' Brigantine.

Surviving Mad Dwarf's Quarry

After two days of travel the Brynalds' Brigantine reached Mad Dwarves' Quarry. Everyone looked out beyond the bow of the ship and saw what appeared to be storm clouds, with pillars of fire crackling down from them for brief moments. The fire landed among the tops of shimmering magical asteroids. Selvek warned the party to prepare as he approached the station.

“We have to be careful. The storm is at its fiercest on the final day." - Selvek the Judicious

Almost, instantly a column of fire demolished an asteroid. Tony took control of the ship from Selvek, and steered the ship away from the asteroid's fragments, and into the direct path of another asteroid. Bryan took control of the ship's controls and attempted to manipulate the gravity envelope to avoid a collision. Unfortunately, the asteroid entered the envelope and crashed straight through the ship, leaving a large hole.
Meanwhile, Wumbo noticed a ship out in the quarry. He readied his rifle and fired onto the Mad Dwarves' ship. He hit their helmsman, breaking their concentration and upsetting the operation of their spelljammer. The Mad Dwarves struggled to recover, but this mostly went unnoticed as a column of fire struck the party's spelljammer. Tony Smith ran over with a bladder of water to extinguish the fire.
As Tony fought fire, Wumbo and Bryan knocked away climbing equipment that were being used to board Bryan's ship. Before long Tony was wrapped in chains. Dwarves were dragging him through the hole in the center of the boat. He fired his harpoon into the aft section. He pulled, but the Dwarves pulled harder. Bryan jumped in at the last second, firing his laser pistol at the chains. The chains exploded, freeing Tony but hurting him slightly.
As they docked, a column of fire grazed Selvek and finished off the Dwarven ship.

Exploring the Station

As Selvek stayed behind to mend the ship, the party entered the station. They walked past another ship docked at the station and into a large cargo bay. They walked to the back wall and Tony swung open a large rolling door. Behind the door several ancient constructs stood dormant. Tony reactivated one, it shouted in the base language of constructs. Tony frightened, slammed the door shut and left the construct on the other side.
Bryan investigated the middle door, finding a nonfunctioning elevator. They searched for a hatch and found nothing. The party continued to search the station by stepping through a broken wall into a hallway. They found a room where a large table sat against a wall. Bedrolls surrounded the table. Tony noticed a maintenance hatch behind the table and moved it. Nobody was willing to go in.
Suddenly, Tony had an idea! He started searced the area with his Magical Awarness. He found an aura of Transmuation Magic leading back into the hall, through the canteen, and into the latrine. He followed it, entering the latrine. Inside the party found a flooded bathroom with a corpse face down in the water. Tony prodded the body. A weeping voice called out, "You won't have to worry about him."
Tony followed the voice to a stall in the back corner. He found a weeping Elf in old clothing. "Are you a rescue crew?" the Elf asked.
"No," Tony replied, "Who are you? Who sent you?"
"I'm Rowlthal," the weeping Elf answered. "Nobody sent us, we're just adventurers."
"What happened here, Rowlthal?" Tony asked.
"We saw the white crabs, and that was fine until they jumped at us," Rowlthal answered
If Tony had hairs they would've stood on end. He focused and used Magical Awarness again. The transmutation magic was present again... on Rowlthal. Tony reached for his weapon but it was too late. Rowlthal stood and screamed. His face was covered by some slimy white moster, and his skin looked similar. He had been transformed into a Skum, and he attacked Tony.
Wumbo ran into the adjacent stall, and fired down on the Skum. It hung on to life, wailing thrice more on Tony. But the poor monster wouldn't last much longer, as Bryan jumped over the stall and clung to the ceiling with his magical armor, before blasting the Skum with his long barreled pistol.
It was finished. The Skum was defeated. It fell to the ground, but in one final moment of lucidity Rowlthal spoke a final chilling warning to Tony.

"Don't open the maintenance hatch" - Rowlthal's last words

Created Content

Beastro Ringbear Growler the Panserjborne Potion Notion Calamity the Clown Potion Pantry General Grenade Strange Gnome Rowlthal

Report Date

09 Dec 2022

Primary Location

Elder's Station

Related Characters

• Bryan Brynalds
• Tony Smith
• Wumbo the Freeman