The Machine
Structure
Exposition
Taken Prisoner
4th of Raperi’el 1245 AE (Dimble) After looking around in his cell Dimble noticed that among the other prisoners were several Raitin. He recoginised one of them as Kojiro. Kojiro recognised Dimble as well and came over to talk. Dimble learned that several Raitin were captured by the Dark Elves after having recently deserted. Kojiro told Dimble they could perhaps use the golem to escape if Dimble acts as if he has technical knowledge about it. Seeing that Kojiro had no bad intent and just wanted to escape Dimble decided to go along with the plan and once a Dark Elf priestess came by he convinced her to let him work on the golem.Rising Action
4th of Raperi’el 1245 AE (Original Group)
Carefully the group entered the edge of the ruined gnome city. In the distance they could see the center which had lighting, suggesting that it was currently occupied. Although they were still far from the enemy settlement they decided to tread carefully and remain on the lookout for anyone creeping up behind them through the ruin’s shadows. It did not take long for someone to appear. Luckily the Gnome was unarmed and putting its hands up as she came closer. Once the group could get a better view they noticed that it was Musashi. She told the group how she, Kojiro and several others deserted from the Raitin only to be captured by the Dark Elves later. Only Musashi had managed to escape and had been trying to find a way to free Kojiro ever since. Because she claimed to have found the workshop of the golems, which they could use to attack the settlement, the group decides to follow her. After reaching the entrance it was obvious why she needed their help. Big pieces of rubble were blocking the entrance but Aiden and Finrod managed to clear it without problem.
Once Musashi managed to open the door by using a strange device next to the door they continued further inside. The interior looked unlike any style they had ever seen before. The walls, ceiling and floors were made of a metal-like substance and lighting was placed in long lines along the ceiling. After some exploring they stumbled upon a room filled will all kinds of strange mechanical equipment. In the room they managed to find some notes in ancient gnome that were somewhat intact and took them along. Another thing they found was a strange looking device that looked like a big chest with a translucent top. On closer inspection they saw that a Gnome with blueish skin was sleeping inside. After pressing some buttons the chest opened and the Gnome inside awoke. He was very frantic at first and speaking a language nobody could really understand although Mushashi could get some words in by using general Gnomish. Eventually Finrod found a language that the gnome could speak, Avaronian.
The gnome indentified himself as Yamaderis, an inhabitant of the underground Gnome Empire, known to them as Lower Gnome Federation. In his time the Avaronian Empire was not even an empire yet but rather a small country in the north of Farlis. Luckily for the group the Avaronians and Gnomes traded which was the reason why Yamaderis spoke that language. Afterwards the group learned that Yamaderis was a scientist that developed golems and that he put himself in some kind of sleep during an attack by Nethiks, very violent insectoids. Apparently the other Gnomes did not return after the evacuation as he was not awoken. After some deduction the group made an estimation that the events he described had to be almost 4000 years ago. This shocked Yamaderis of course causing him to fall unconcious again for a while. Once he woke up Yamaderis was determined to learn more. But he would need to get into the Dark Elf settlement for that.
To get inside the drow settlement they decided to let Yamaderis change the settings of the golems in the vicinity so that they would attack Dark Elves in addition to Nethiks and other violent creatures. He neededthree days to change the parameters of the golems.
5th of Raperi’el 1245 AE (Dimble)
After a night of bad sleep both Kojiro and Dimble were allowed inside the golem to find out how it’s controls work. They could not plan any escape since two guards were watching their every move. At the end of the day the gnomes managed to move a leg of the golem but not much else.
7th of Raperi’el 1245 AE (Dimble)
On the 7th of the month the Gnomes got decent control over the golem but feigned some problems. But they needed to find a way to escape with it soon.
Climax
8th of Raperi’el 1245 AE (Everyone)
Once they were prepared the golems set out from many directions towards the Dark Elf settlement. At first the Dark Elves seemed to be suprised so many of the otherwise harmless golems were marching towards them. When they started attacking the pandemonium broke lose. Once several walls were breached the original group entered and manged to get inside the city.
Meanwhile Kojiro and Dimble were working on the Mining Golem. Outside all of the guards became frantic and started running towards the walls. One of the guards in the golem decided to take a look and went outside as well. This was the opportunity they needed with a quick electric shock from Kojiro and an attack from Dimble the guard was killed. Now they had control of the golem and used it to open the cage where their friends were trapped. They quickly got out and started looking for weapons.
While the large Golem was starting his rampage the others were not far off trailing behind several reprogrammed arcane golems. As they saw the large Golem, which Yamaderis called the Mining Golem, on the other side of the square they were attacked by several Dark Elves who blocked their advance. Other Dark Elves were attacking the Mining Golem but of them went to a nearby door and managed to unlock it. Seeing the original group dealing with the last remaining Dark Elves the freed prisoners decided that that direction would be the safest. Suddenly a big demonic looking creature with four arms and large teeth emerged from the unlocked door and lunged at the Mining Golem dealing a lot of damage to it.
As Kojiro saw Musashi in the distance he wanted to go in that direction while Dimble wanted to get away as far as possible with the Golem. Dimble was however unlucky since the golem took too much damage and was on the brink of destruction because of it. They decided to detonate the golem and escape. Kojiro escaped and ran towards the group telling them to run from the explosion. The freed prisoners and the rest ran as far as possible. Meanwhile Dimble escaped from the Mining Golem but not without disguising himself. A few moments later the golem exploded. One of the nearby golems fell over and landed on Dimble trapping his leg.
Once the Mining Golem was destroyed the adventurers could get a breather from the fighting. The only remaining fights in the ruined city seemed far in the distance. They managed to get the disguised Dimble from under the fallen golem. Dimble only told his recent companions about the disguise and lied to his original group. After saving the disguised Dimble, Yamaderis asked to look into the nearby building to retrieve his favorite automaton.
Inside however they found a much stranger encounter, a Dark Elf strapped to a table. The table itself was connected to various tubes and next to it stood Lofior. The treachery god laughed and taunted them after which he pulled a lever. Strange fluids coursed through the tubes into the Dark Elf and after a short time he transformed into the same demonic creature they saw before. Lofior even possessed the creature which made everything even worse. Closely afterwards all the lights went out and it became completely dark. Nimble and Syro, who were still outside, saw large dome appearing around the building and couldn’t help their friends anymore. While the others were fighting inside Nimble saw several Avaronian Spectres closing in on the destroyed Mining Golem. They appeared to start a ritual to teleport it away. She tried to stop them but got a quick reaction in return from their leader wearing a mask with the face of a manticore. She took a lot of damage from a single attack from their leader and went into hiding. The Avaronian spectres managed to get away with the golem before she could do anything about it. Meanwhile the fight in the dark was fierce but the adventurers survived after which Lofior left the body, still laughing.
Resolution
In the rest of the ruined city the fighting had stopped and the group decided to return to the laboratory where they found Yamaderis. Before that Yamaderis retrieved a humanoid robot who appeared to be able to translate for him. He told the group that first he wanted to check if the people of this city were safe and he asked them to accompany him to an elemental portal. The portal however seemed inactive and there were no signs to indicate if the inhabitants had made it safely through it but the lack of gnome skeletons suggested they did.
Once they were back in the lab Dimble finally revealed his true identity since his leg was getting bad and he needed someone to help him with it. Yamaderis offered to either repair his leg or replace it with a better mechanical version. Dimble chose an new limb which improved his speed. The adventurers were tired after the long battle and decided to rest before heading back out the next day.
9th to 19th of Raperi’el 1245 AE
The journey back through the Lower Realms was not without fight but the group encountered no strong opponents along the way. They arrived safely in Golandon where they went to Savas Keleris. He feared that the loss of the Mining Golme would cause problems in the future but he was also happy that the group got something even better, Yamaderis. Savas was looking forward into working with the scientist and offered a place in his villa and a good paying job. Yamaderis liked this aspect since it would most likely be the most comfortable living for a civilization of this technology level.
Parent Plot
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