Session 5
The Pit
The Pit
General Summary
The elevator lift shudders violently as it begins its descent into the blackened maw of Brimstone Hollow's lowest depths, known ominously as "The Pit". The party, along with five other Indents (including the young pregnant couple), stand packed together in the rattling cage. As the lift groans downward, the air grows thicker and hotter. The scent of sulfur, burning metal, and decay stings the lungs. Aetherium-powered lamps flicker, throwing erratic shadows as steam hisses from vents in the rock walls. They are resigned to their fate.
The elevator comes to an abrupt halt - below is a subterranean wasteland, a bubbling hell of sulfur pools, acidic brine, and skeletal remains. Stalactites drip yellowish condensation, hissing as they strike the ground. The air shimmers with heat rising from bubbling pools of sickly greenish-yellow liquid. Thick fog clings to the floor, curling like fingers around the scattered bones of workers who never made it out. The Indents that are with the party remain near the elevator shaft as its the only source of ventilation, meanwhile, two dwarves among them examine the machinery and note that the elevator’s counterweight release system is jammed, preventing ascent back up. A Replacement Gear Assembly (a large, iron strut) must be found and inserted to manually release the counterweight from below. Implying that its that party's fault they're stuck in this mess, the dwarves ask the party to search for it nearby.
The only way forward is deeper into the pit. Through the haze, a red blinking light becomes clearer. Embedded in the crystalline rock face, half-buried beneath mineral deposits, is an old Warforged — long since deactivated. Its metal plating is corroded, its face frozen in an expressionless grimace, and jagged Aetherium Crystals have grown through its body, fusing it into the stone. Its chestplate flickers, the weak glow of an Emergency Transponder haphazardly hooked up to its own circuitry, the signal pulsing faintly. Thane Boykos uses his expertise as an artificer to deduce that in its final moments, this warforged must have hooked up its own internal power supply to keep the transponder going, as the transponder would lose the signal if it had lost power, reducing the warforged to barely more than a husk sustaining the signal. Thane is tasked with the laborious process of removing the transponder, as he uses the nearby Aetherium Crystals as makeshift energy cells, gradually transferring the flow of energy such that the transponder is removed without losing power (3 successful Arcana Checks). As he works, the bubbling brine nearby distorts and shifts—then from the depths several sulfurous oozes emerge, drawn by the movement. Combat ensues and the party defends Thane as he works, dispatching the Oozes and recovering the iron strut they're looking for, after finding it suspended within one of the defeated Oozes.
Once the transponder is retrieved and the elevator repaired, the party ascends back into the upper mine—only to emerge into absolute carnage. Corpses litter the ground. Indents and guards alike lay dead, weapons and tools scattered in the dust. Blood is splattered across the cave walls. The buried weapons stash has been unearthed, and the smell of gunpowder and smoke hangs in the air. At the center of it all stands Overseer Gorem Handrik, bloodied, panting, and holding two smoking flintlock pistols. At his side is his magitech whip, still sparking with electric energy. A single surviving guard stands facing against a wall, visibly shaking, next to him several other guards have been executed in a similar fashion. Handrik slowly turns the gun to the final guard, pulls the trigger and a click is heard, it appears he has run out of ammo - his lips sneers as he says "Guess its your lucky day". As the party gets closer, Handrik turns his bloodshot eyes to the party. He drops the unloaded pistols and equips his whip, as the wounded Handrik fights against the party. Alucard manages to pick up the empty pistol and loads it with ammunition he found previously, executing Handrik with a lethal gunshot to the head in a dramatic fashion. The party loot the body and exit the mine with the other indents.
The party exits the mine into the late evening night, around them is a hysterical crowd of indents, some taking refuge while others flee. As the dust settles, a deep, droning alarm sounds, and searchlights flood the area. From above, an Imperial Frigate looms, descending with a deafening hum. Indents scatter in terror as Imperial Legionnaires descend from grappling lines in mass, forming fast acting squads of crowd control that herd the Indents aboard train cars by force. A voice booms from a loudspeaker: “Attention, all indentured workers! The mine is now under Imperial jurisdiction! You are to report for reassignment immediately!”.
