Adventure #16 - What's Mine is Ours: Act II

General Summary

Adventure #16 - What's Mine is Ours: Act II 7/26/24
Players: Karl: Erberk Torunn Seth: Gimp Chris: Dimple Nackle
Synopsis: After having some time to prepare, the party meets Lionel Brownfoot at the Elderflower, and then together depart for the Myneheart Delve once more. Using the technological battle wagon for transport with Erberk at the helm, they traverse the field and forest road, through the Blackridge Mountain Tunnel, and arrive back at the entrance of the mine, just as they left it. They speak the dwarven word for water to enter, and continue their exploration of the mine with weapons in hand. Following the stony tunnel, the party recognizes the mine cart rails they initially found, along with the room with all the crates that they had taken previously. The party takes another careful look around, but after finding only their own footprints on the dusty floor from their last adventure, they decide to continue their exploration.
The railway leads into a new room with what appears to be a inset storage wall with strange, decrepit backpack-apparatuses with tubes hung on hooks and lined along the wall, along with mithral hook-hammers. The party takes some time investigate, and deduces that these must be some kind of respirators for filtering air while working in the mine. One pack is inspected, but is found the be too dusty and aged for use. A switch is located on the wall, and after being pulled by Erberk, the inset wall moves downwards and out of sight, as a new wall of respirators rotates into view, like a spindle. It's decided that these were meant to quickly outfit many miners before going into the mine, and as the party inspects the newer respirators, two giant centipedes fall out of their hidden nests from within the storage spindle and attack the party. Gimp uses his spear to skewer a centipede through its open mouth, Lionel accidentally throws his weapon at Erberk in the fray. Eventually both creatures are dispatched, and the party puts on a respirator from the wall, takes a mithril hooked-hammer, and continues on.
The rails continue into a massive room with a large turn table at its center for rotating mine carts and redirecting them on different sets of tracks to different tunnels. As the party looks around for maps or writing, Erberk finds a switch and activates it, causing the turn table to rotate slowly while it's rusty parts creak and groan noisily. As the noise reverberates off the walls and fades away, dozens of squeaking mouths chitter overhead, and a bat swarm scoops down and swarms Lionel. The party works together to fend off the swarm, and the few remaining bats dissipate and retreat back up the the rocky ceiling. After the battle, they notice they have multiple directions to choose, and Erberk decides to continue straight along their original path.
The railway is followed until it abruptly ends at what appears to be a cave in, which seals the path and stops them from going further. Erberk notices a skeleton hand holding a key sticking out from the rubble, and he takes the key for himself. On their left, the track turns and leads to a large room with a number of minecarts and mithril tools, and it's decided that this room was used for repairing mine carts. The party finds a few odds and ends of value, pocket them, and then turn back to the turntable room.
Back at the turntable, the party moves northwest, and finds another room entirely lined with mine carts. Upon inspection, each one of them holds a specific type of item; one cart holds loose rubble, another holds mithril ore, another holds the husks of various subterranean creatures, another filled with broken tools and parts, another filled with precious stones and gems, and the last holds a single dwarven skeleton with an ancient arrow in its ribcage, and a small rectangle card on a necklace around its neck. The party takes the card, makes plans to take all the gems back with them after they've finished exploring, and returns to the turntable room.
With only one last direction to investigate, the party follows the final path that ends to a locked door. At first Erberk tries to use the key he found in the skeleton’s hand, but it doesn't fit. After some debate, they use the rectangle card in a thin slot in the wall, and the door opens to a dark room, where a motionless figure sits at a large helm. The party cautiously approaches with weapons drawn, but finds the figure remains motionless. They come close to the figure for inspection, and find that it is some strange metal automaton with four arms and three legs sitting frozen in place, with one of its hands reaching behind its back as if trying to reach for something. The helm which it sits is also strange and very high tech, very much like the battle wagon they traveled in, with countless buttons, levers, switches, dials, and all marked in a language unknown to any of them. In front of the helm, a smooth glass surface takes up the entire length and height of the wall, but is all but black. Erberk inspects the automaton, and notices that the automaton was reaching at a hole on its own back, which seems quite like the same size as the key that he found. Erberk then pulls of the key, inserts the key into the hole, and then turns, which makes a repetitive clicking sound, like a music box being wound up. After a few cranks, the sound of thousands of gears begins to whir within the automaton, and its metal hand reaching behind its back begins to twitch, flex, and then move freely. Tiny tools come out of the finger tips of the automaton's hand, and it begins working on the arm that it's attached to, seeming to repair it and granting motion to the arm once more. The arm moves to a non-functioning limb and the hand begins to repair it, and soon all four hands and arms are restoring the automaton itself. In a few minutes, the repairs have been completed, and the automaton stands silently awaiting commands. Erberk sees a hand-scanning plate on the automaton's back, and after remembering using a similar scanner to activate the battle wagon, he places his hand on the scanner, which lights up and scans his palm with a thin blue line of light from beneath the plate. Upon scanning, the automaton turns towards the helm, hits some buttons, and a sudden bright light dazzles the party from behind the large glass wall on the other side of the helm. As their eyes adjust, the party sees that the glass wall is in fact a large window, and on the other side is a massive and seemingly endless cavernous mine, going in all directions all far as they can see. Within the mine, bats fly in panic from the sudden light, and dust and cobwebs shroud every surface. Lionel tears up from the sight, and thanks the party for helping him find, explore, and secure this portion of the mine. With lots to do and plans to make, Lionel tells the party that he is more than satisfied with this amazing discovery, and that all the gems they found are theirs for the taking as payment. The party makes preparations to leave, and the automaton suddenly leaves too, fast and far ahead of them. The party shrugs, makes their way back to the battle wagon, and finds the automaton sitting at the helm ready to drive their vehicle. Surprised, Erberk sits next to it and thinks about returning home, and the vehicle moves before he speaks the command, and it drives them back to town.
When the party returns, Erberk sits down with the automaton and asks a series of questions. They are as follows:
Who is in charge? Alforbac Myneheart the VII
Name of facility? The Myneheart Delve
Last data entry before shut down? Hostiles have breached Sector 7G. Initiate lockdown of Sector 7G, and reroute power to auxiliary power reserves. Initiate Emergency Evacuation Protocol Phase 3. Preparing rail system for mass survivor extraction.
Date of last shipment? 4th of Orcanta, 86143 SC
Last command before extended shut down? Initiate Lockdown of all sectors. Reroute power from all sectors to auxiliary power reserve. Disengage rail system. Initiate rescue beacon.
Last shipment requisition? Shipment #39572F Recipient: Kingdom of Chrythalia Shipment contents: 50 carts of Mythryll ingots
Last known location of the Tree of Knowledge? Information unavailable
Last disciplinarian action?
Discipline Report #384G 1st of Orcanta, 86143 SC Frontline miner Casrildan Odyew reprimanded for sleeping during work hours in Sector 8D. Sent home for a week without pay
War update? Information unavailable
Last known date of extended shutdown? 9th of Orcanta, 86143 SC
Last hostiles reported before extended shutdown? Information unavailable
Length of time offline? Information unavailable
Mine Layout? Mine layout available from Central Control
Last excavation report? Excavation Report #39537D 1st of Orcanta, 86143 Carts of Mythryll for all sectors: 384 Status of Sectors: Stable Worker incidences: None
Employee record of Alforbac Myneheart the VII?
Alfdorbac Myneheart the VII
Race: Dwarf
Age: 98
Description: 7th Generation Manager of the family owned mine, The Myneheart Delve.
Work History: Frontline Excavator: 86,055 SC Crew Supervisor: 86079 SC Sector Supervisor: 86097 SC Mine General Manager: 86128 SC
Hostile report? Information unavailable
Description of hostiles in Sector 7G? Information unavailable
Inventory report? Current Inventory unknown
Last known location of Alfdorbac Myneheart the VII The Myneheart Delve
Your name? 01110000 01100001 01110100 01100011 01101000
Your task? To repair, maintenance, and upgrade machines
Which sector is Alfdorbac Myneheart the VII located? Precise location unknown
Is 7G still in lockdown? All sectors are currently in lockdown
Direct access from mind to kingdom? Invalid request
Crythalia Kingdom location? Latitude 47, Longitude 55

Report Date

26 Jul 2024

Primary Location

Aberystwyth