3B. The Artificer

Garron Chao needs someone to help him get past a tricky engineering issue and he's asked the party to talk to a genius artificer who lives in the woods.

Structure

Exposition

If they talk to Rokus about what's beyond the door, he'll say that if he has to deal with talking to (ugh) people, then he's going to get something out of it first. He's set a bunch of traps in the maze beyond the door that are made up of experimental components or techniques. The PCs will have to go through the maze and he'll be collecting data on how well they work.

Rising Action

As the PCs go through the maze, they will have to roll perception at the correct points to spot where the traps are. Then, they will get a saving throw to dodge them or otherwise resist.

• First trap door, triggered by stepping on top of it, will put you in a slide that dumps you in the moat outside: Perception 15; Acrobatics 18
• Smoke cloud, always visible, covering the whole pathway, will make you really itchy if you fail your save: Constitution 18
• Ankle trap, triggered by stepping on top of it, will snap on your ankle, the wall next to it will open, and you'll be pulled through: Perception 17; Strength 18
• Pushing mechanism, triggered by walking in front of it, wall will open and trap will push you through it: Perception 18; Dexterity/Strength 19
• Powder spray, triggered by walking anywhere in the squares it cover, will cover you in powder, but do nothing on its own: Perception 19; Dexterity 20
• Slime pit, triggered by walking on top of it, drops you into a pool of liquid that reacts with the powder to create a sticky goop, reduces speed by half: Perception 18; Acrobatics 20
• Slap machine, triggered by walking under it, four hands spin and smack the person's face: Perception 20; Dexterity/Strength 18
• Swinging rock, triggered by walking under or in any of the three squares below it, falls out of ceiling, wall opens, and pushes person through: Perception 20; Dex/Strength 21
• Kitty battering ram, triggered by walking in front of it, wall opens and pushes person through: Perception 18; Dex/Str 23
• Final trap door, triggered by stepping on it, will drop you into a slide that leads to an underground room and a ladder leading up into Rokus' house: Perception 20; Dexterity 23

Climax

When they arrive at the artificer's house, they see that it is mostly workshop with small living quarters attached to it. When they come in, Rokus has started making tea and points them to the bedroom where they'll find Vyzzyg. Vyzzyg is unconscious and missing their left arm. They have a bag next to the bed that Rokus has clearly gone through. Rokus says that Vyzzyg had a journal that talked about the previous party. Marco's distinctive dress was mentioned and since he was with a half-orc woman, Rokus thought they might be the same people.
Rokus found Vyzzyg in the woods when he was out hunting. Vyzzyg was already unconscious, missing their arm, and suffering from numerous smaller wounds; Rokus isn't a healer, but he thinks Vyzzyg has been cursed. The healing potions he gave them healed the wound on their missing arm and the other little wounds, but Vyzzyg hasn't woken up.
The curse on Vyzzyg can be removed by a greater restoration spell or remove curse. Vyzzyg will wake up and the last thing they remember is trying to keep chromatic dragons from destroying the Mornaug library, getting their arm ripped off, and fleeing by using a teleportation scroll they had. It's true they were thinking of going to Rockport to meet up with the party, but the teleportation scroll shouldn't have taken them all the way here. They have no idea how they got cursed.
Vyzzyg feels ashamed that they ran rather than staying to fight more. A lot of the dragons in Mornaug were evacuated, but there were still a lot of their friends that stayed behind. Vyzzyg stayed thinking they would at least try to defend that previous library, but in the end they panicked and abandoned their library and their friends.
Rokus will offer to make Vyzzyg a prosthetic arm that will change when they do if they want that.

Resolution

The party goes through the maze and does well. Latrans gets slimed and can't climb a rope. Rokus will likely reference this to Latrans forever. They end up going down the slide, except Zinyra.

Rokus offers to give them schematics in exchange for testing his maze upgrades (or other bartering). 

Rokus gives you the schematics with the solution to Garron Chao's problem and then a separate set of notes on how to make it drive and how to hotwire it.

They met and woke up Vyzzyg. Vyzzyg told them about the destruction of Mornaug and said that the last thing they remember is that they tried to teleport out of the library on the way to Rockport. They don't remember anything after that. They don't know how they got cursed.

The party made a library and librarian's quarters for Vyzzyg and brought them home.

Parent Plot

3. Everybody Wants Something