- Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
- Jack "Blocker" Jones. Human Male Temple Fighter of Aquamarina from Porn City – Jamie
- Tom Eade. Human Male Fighter from Porn City – Jeff
- Esmeralda "Ezme" Abernathy. Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane
- Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
- MARMALADING: Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven
- Willow. Half-elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
- Lois Price. Human Female Wizard of Porn City – Ian
- Munch Ease. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl
by Jeff
"Now go and crack that code!" was Julius's instruction to Lois and Cody.
Joining the rest of the party back at their inn, Lois passed on the instructions.
"And why should I?" questioned Ezme. "He's never done anything for me"
"We are indebted to the Guild," reminded Cody. "They've actually been quite easy on us"
"And" added Tom. "I got a nice mace"
"And you got the magic ring too" grumbled Jack.
"Yeah, but I saved you all with it" stated Tom.
Of course, the party returned to the sewers and were soon clustered around the shallow shaft containing the metal dome and its trapped hatch, surrounded by Cody's five-metre diameter Airy Water spell.
"Hang off the magic rope?" suggested Ezme. "That lightning only flashed across the dome surface"
"You'd need to be pretty dexterous" stated Jack, looking over at Munch.
Munch descended the short drop, but before he clambered up onto the top of the dome, he noticed some movement around the small annulus between the dome and the smooth wall of the shaft and bent down for a closer look.
There was a consistent gap of about an inch between the side of the dome and the stone wall, and a green gas was swirling up from below the dome and squeezing up the outside of Cody's Airy Water barrier before dissipating somewhat to the tunnels above.
"That horrible gas stuff is coming from down below" reported Munch. "I can see it"
"Don't worry about that" instructed Cody. "Just get up to the hatch"
Munch clambered up the side of the dome, past the headless body of the creature, and located the hatch, and the much more important "keypad". He activated his magic rope directly over the "keypad" location so he could hang there and punch in the combination.
Now Munch wasn't the brightest of chaps, but he had rehearsed long and hard with Cody on the combination numbers to enter. 1,3,4,7,2,9 (six numbers) and was all ready to press that sequence in from the top right, the bottom left, and the bottom right (the top left starting position having been ruled out after a field of lightning had erupted over the dome on that starting position). But he was still nervous and sought some confirmation.
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| How many numbers? |
"Sure" said Cody confidently.
"Shall I start at the top right then?" Munch queried.
"Sure" said Cody confidently.
"Six numbers, yeah?" questioned Munch again.
"Sure" said Cody confidently.
"How come there are eight symbols marked out around the hatch then?" asked Munch.
"No, there are just six" stated Cody. "We saw them before"
"NO" yelled Munch. "There are definitely eight"
WHAT?" called Cody. "Wait, I'm coming down"
Munch had spotted that the six symbols previously deciphered via the Comprehend Languages spell, also had two extra symbols off the end of the first six, but that these two had been scratched and partially rubbed off. They were illegible!
"Bugger" grumbled Cody after taking a close look. "I can't use the spell on those"
"There are two other numbers in the combination" Cody yelled back up to everyone else.
"But we have no idea what they are!" he concluded.
"It's a sequence puzzle" noted Ardern. "What were those first numbers again?"
"1,3,4,7,2, and 9"
"Simple" replied Ardern after a moment of contemplation. "The next two numbers are 2, and 2"
"What?" queried Cody. "How do you know that?"
"1+3 is 4" responded Ardern confidently. "And 3+4 is 7, etc."
"But 4 + 7 is 11" said Jack.
"Sure, but 1 + 1 is 2" said Ardern. "And 2 + 9 is also 11, which is 2"
"Ah" grinned Cody. "And 9 + 2 is also 11. Brilliant"
"I know" said Ardern with a grin.
Munch took a bit of time to practice with the new sequence of 8 numbers and then dangled upside down from the magic rope and punched in the code.
"CLICK - ZZZZZ - WHIRRR" went the dome, and then the hatch opened to reveal a dimly glowing spherical chamber.
"What's in there?" called Lois.
"Nufin" called Munch, trying to peer down into the chamber from the end of the magic rope.
"No creatures, no seats, no nufin" Munch continued. "Maybe some lights, and a bunch of that web-snot"
"Get in there and have a look" called Cody.
"NO WAY" yelled Munch. "You get in there and have a look"
Everyone climbed down onto the top of the dome, and then Lois slowly and carefully lowered herself down into the chamber below the dome.
"So, there is quite a lot of that web-snot in here" Lois called up. "But the air is actually quite fresh and I feel fine. No increased congestion or anything. The inside is indeed a spherical chamber with metal walls. There are nine darked windows around the central perimeter, equally spaced, a series of about 36 buttons scattered around below the windows, a bunch of small blinking lights, 3 levers. And the whole chamber is vibrating"
Casting a quick Detect Magic, Lois also reported "No magic in here either"
"And no Evil" stated Jack after casting his own Detect Evil spell.
"Toss in a big bag" requested Lois. "And I'll gather up all that web-snot stuff"
While Lois was clearing up the inside of the chamber to make it safer for everyone to access, Tom was peering at the body of the creature which was still lying headless across the domed roof of the chamber. He had noticed something odd!
"Hey" called Tom. "This thing's wounds are healing up!"
"What" squawked Jack. "Are you sure?"
"Yup" replied Tom. "Look at this cut here"
Tom was right. The wounds we had inflicted a few days ago were definitely closing up, and it even looked like a new nub of a head was sprouting from the centre of the open neck.
"Holy crap" stammered Willow. "I've never seen that sort of healing before"
"Don't worry" grinned Tom. "I got this"
Tom drew his mace from his belt tag and began pounding!
Back in the chamber, Lois had scraped all the web-snot into the bag and thrown it out of the chamber, allowing everyone to climb in for their own look around. Well, everyone except for Willow that is. His wide girth proved a little challenging to fit through the circular hatch, and he had got himself stuck in the opening! His legs were dangling inside above everyone's heads, and only a muffled yelling could be heard.
After a lot of squirming and pulling from below, Willow dropped through with a PLOP, right on top of Ezme.
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| Willow drops in |
"Get off, you fat bastard" grunted Ezme, as Willow tumbled off her to the dish-shaped floor.
"That wasn't a 3m fall" Ezme noted.
"You're right" replied Lois. "It appears there is a void below the floor here of about 0.5m down to the outer shell of the chamber, assuming it is actually spherical"
Much poking and prodding didn't reveal any way to access said void, so we turned to the other things of potential interest, buttons and levers etc.
"What if I just pull the hatch closed?" wondered Munch aloud.
"NO" yelled Cody.
But it was too late; the hatch clanged shut with a thud and we were all sealed into the small chamber.
"I'll just give it a push then" grumbled Munch with a sheepish grin.
But the hatch didn't budge!
"I'll just use the code thing again" muttered Munch worriedly.
After entering the numbers into the keypad (which was fortunately duplicated on the inside of the hatch, with all eight key code symbols marked around the perimeter of the hatch), Munch jerked back his hand [Successful roll vs. Dexterity] just before a bright flicker of lightning flashed across the hatch.
"Ohhh shite" Munch swore.
"Backwards" commanded Ardern confidently.
Munch punched the code in reverse; 2, 2, 9, 2, 7, 4, 3, 1 and the hatch folded open again.
"Phew" exhaled Munch feeling very relieved and then went and closed it again!
But it was fine. Having solved the exit combination, the hatch could be opened and closed easily, and everyone began looking closely at the windows, lights, buttons, and levers.
"Two up, one down" muttered Munch quietly as he reached to push the down lever to the up position.
"NO" yelled Cody.
But it was too late; the lever slid up with a "click", and one of the windows opened.
Well, it didn't really open. It just flickered on like a dim light was glowing on the far side, shining through a dark grey plate of glass. There were three brighter sections though, like tiny lights of different colours flashing on and off. One was red, one was a bright green, and one was a dull green.
"Oh, pretty" exclaimed Munch, then pulled the lever down.
The window went dark again, and everyone turned to Munch and frowned.
But Munch didn't care, he was having fun. He grabbed the centre lever and pulled it down.
Nothing happened, so he pushed it back up and moved to the final lever.
"Click" and all the lights went out.
Pitch black and silent.
Just the grunting of Willow as he jostled another of the party.
"Um, the vibrations have stopped too" noted Lois from the darkness.
"Off switch" decided Munch as he pushed the lever back up.
The lights came on and the vibration started up again.
A little experimentation with the levers confirmed they were independent toggle switches. One for the power to whatever this chamber was, one with no apparent function, and one to activate the window.
"That ain't no window" declared Ardern. "Let's try shining a light through it"
Opening up the hatch, we lowered one of Cody's Continual Light croquet balls down the side of the exterior dome till it should have been directly outside the functioning window. No light shone in, nothing when the window was "open", and nothing when it was "closed".
But we did find that the second lever did have a function after all. With the hatch open, toggling the second lever activated some form of Real's magic Light. Shafts of brilliant white light burst upwards from around the perimeter of the dome, lighting the whole shaft like it was midday.
"Oh" exclaimed Munch. "A Real lantern thing"
Some further investigation with the "window" and the levers revealed that the green gas wasn't being generated by the chamber (It still flowed up past the dome perimeter even with the chamber power off), the bright green flashing light on the window acted like a toggle button that opened and closed the roof hatch, the red flashing light was another power switch that turned the chamber off, and the dim green flashing light didn't appear to do anything.
"I think that the vibration is stronger now" noted Ardern.
"OK, maybe that dim green light does do something then" noted Cody.
"What about this button?" asked Munch, reaching for one of the buttons below the operating window. "NO" yelled Cody.
But it was too late; the button depressed with a "click", but nothing happened.
"I think it's time to report back to Julius" suggested Lois, worried about what all the buttons might actually do if randomly pressed by an eager Munch, or anyone else.
"But we don't know much yet" retorted Cody.
"Yeah", grumbled Ezme. "You know he'll just send us back to explore everything, and not pay us"
"Like this button" exclaimed Munch, reaching for another random button below the window.
"NO" yelled Cody.
But it was too late; the button depressed with a "click", and a small drawer slid open from the wall.
"Oh" exclaimed Munch. "Look, a book. And a ... giant pen?"
"How did that draw even fit inside that skinny wall?" asked Ardern.
Munch picked out the book and flipped it over a few times; heavy, made of metal, no pages!
"This is a weird book" he stated. "It's a button book, with four silly buttons around its edge"
"Let me see" requested Ezme, holding out her hand.
Munch tossed the silly book over to Ezme and reached for the giant pen. Pulling it out of the drawer, he flipped it over a few times too; heavy, made of metal, with two small nipples on one end, and a side button, just where your thumb would want to press.
"This is a weird pen" he stated. "It's got no nib. But I like it"
The giant pen was a heavy metal rod, about an inch in diameter, and a foot long. The two nipples were on one end, raising up 2-3mm from the slightly domed surface, and the button in the side was about 2/3 the length from the nipple end. Along from the button, the surface of the pen was knurled to give the end away from the nipples a nice gripping surface. Munch waved it around a bit, pressing the button randomly, but nothing happened.
While Munch was playing with the pen, Ezme was fondling the book. She peered at all the sides and edges, stroked the sides, and then considered the buttons. Three sat along the left edge, while one was on the right. Ezme pushed on the right-hand button, which depressed slightly and then sprang back when it was released. Everyone watched worriedly, but nothing else happened.
"Two at a time" commanded Arden confidently.
"Hey" called Ezme. "It lights up, and it has pictures!"
A little later, after some button pushing, the book began to talk! Ezme shrieked and shut it down, but after Cody cast a Comprehend Languages spell, she got it talking again.
"Why did you hang up on me?" a voice asked from the book.
Ezme shut it down again but continued to push some of the other pictures that appeared on the front of the book. Eventually, a list of writing appeared, names and numbers.
"Some form of code" suggested Ezme.
"No" stated Jack. "It's an evil book and has captured someone's soul"
But a Detect Evil spell didn't indicate evil at all.
Munch, bored with the activity surrounding the book, went back to pushing random buttons around the wall of the chamber, with all sorts of results. One opened and closed the chamber hatch, like the lever, and one started all the windows and lights flashing with a horrid cacophony of piercing wailing. Munch used the Power lever to shut everything down. That fixed than one!
"Hey" called Tom. "I just saw some form of map flash up on the window thing"
"Well, our air is running low" stated Cody. "We can't linger here anymore!"
"OK" said Munch. "But just going to try one thing with this giant pen"
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| My arm! |
"NO" yelled Cody.
But it was too late; the button depressed with a "click" and with a loud "CRACK" Munch was thrown across the chamber, smashing into the chamber wall and slumping to the floor.
His arm, where the nipples of the pen had rested, was gone, shrivelled away to just a blackened husk of dried skin.
That was enough! A quick Cure Major Wounds from the wand got Munch back to his feet, and then everyone shoved Willow up through the hatch and followed him back up through the tunnels to the surface where they retreated back to the Inn. Lois and Cody went off to the Guild to report to Julius.
Munch bemoaned the state of his arm but was quite excited about the potential of his new toy and waved it around threateningly. He even tested its repeatability on a chunk of raw steak from the kitchens, which was reduced to a shrivelled and smoking pile of charred dust.
Munch quietly chuckled evilly to himself.
Lois and Cody also had an "interesting" experience with Julius. He was very agitated and anxious when they reported to him and told them that he needed the communication device handed over to him immediately. And that was before they even told him anything! How was this possible? The party had only just returned from the sewers, hadn't spoken to anyone, but Julius already knew they had some form of communication device. He obviously meant the book that Munch had found in the hidden drawer, and which Ezme had experimented with and carried back from the chamber.
"GET IT NOW" yelled Julius at Cody and Munch.
"That was weird" noted Lois. "I think I'll just check in with my contacts"
Lois slipped off deeper into the Guild while Cody returned to the Inn.
"He knows you have that thing" Cody told Ezme. "You better hide it somewhere safe. And don't tell us where you hid it."
Much discussion and argument ensued.
Hand the non-magical magic book over to Julius.
Return to the chamber and search for more treasures.
Leave town, never to return.
Lois eventually turned up at the Inn and reported that Julius had long been suspected by the Guild of having an unhealthy interest in the egg creatures and the spherical chambers, for more than twenty years!
"So, he already knows about all this stuff" muttered Cody. "I knew he was a prick!"
That information soured our relationship with Julius and the selfish choice won out; back to the chamber we went. Although Ezme did disappear for a while before we left and reported that the "book" was now in a safe place.
Back in the tunnels and before heading into the gaseous area, Cody cast his Airy Water spell [two attempts required to succeed, dropping his available magic points to zero] and Lois cast the Transfer spell to give Cody some of her own magic points, just in case.
The headless creature was showing further signs of regeneration, so Tom hauled it up off the vibrating dome and onto the ledge above before pounding it further with his magic mace. Then it was all-hands-on-deck so to speak for a systematic exploration of all the buttons. Cody marked them all with a number, and we already knew what some of them did: the (now empty) drawer, the hatch control, a few with indeterminate function, and the one that flashed all the lights and set off the siren.
Starting with the next button, number 6, we began our investigations. This one popped open another small drawer, containing what looked like medical supplies, which Willow scooped up into his container.
Number 7 didn't seem to do anything.
Number 8 set off the flashing lights and all the noises, so Munch yanked the power lever. But when he turned it back on, the lights kept flashing and the noises kept noising.
"Oh bugger" Cody muttered.
"The vibrations are increasing too" yelled Munch.
"It's all good" suggested Ezme. "It'll be fine in here"
"No chance" yelled Tom. "We got to go, NOW"
Tom forcibly ejected Willow out through the hatch and then chased the others out too. Once everyone was up on the landing we all began jogging away from the shuddering and screaming dome, Tom at the rear keeping us all moving quickly. Up through the smooth tunnel we hurried, out into the first large chamber, and on through the sewers towards the exit. The stone walls were vibrating, and a strange pressure built up in everyone's head.
Suddenly there was a massive "CRUMP" from deep in earth, the ground shook violently, bits of stone and rock spalling off the walls and roof. Then a powerful blast of air thundered along the tunnel from behind, throwing everyone off their feet and tumbling us forward. The massive concussion must have dislodged the ground in a significant way, because a fall of rock and stone crashed down all around us.
[Individual saves vs. CON as the tunnel collapsed around us, a failure delivering thirteen points of damage, while a success limited the damage to only six points]
Ardern, Lois, and Jack all failed and were crushed into unconsciousness, with Lois spurting blood from a critical wound. The wand of Cure Major wounds was used to stop Lois's bleeding, and stabilize her, although she was still unconscious. While Cures were cast on Jack, Ardern, and Lois, Tom managed to push through the rubble to a clearer section of the sewer, and once the previously unconscious were able to move under their own power, we made our way out of the sewers into the city above.
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| The Porn City sink-hole disaster |
We slunk off to the Inn to regroup, with Tom and Ezme heading back out to assist where they could. Cody hastened to the Guild to recharge his magic, and Lois received a message to report immediately to her contact.
It turns out that Julius had been killed, inside the Wizards' Guild, hung, in his own room, then drawn and quartered! And he had known where the "book" was; the Guild had heard it was in the Soixante-Neuf Temple. Which does make us wonder if the Guild had any part in Julius's death. But hey, what happens in the Guild, stays in the Guild! Even the funeral. The reading of his will would be happening in a few days, and Lois was invited.
We all rested up, helping with the city's disaster response as we could, while waiting for the reading. Lois figured she would get a message at that point about what the Guild wanted us to do now. Sure enough, at the reading Lois was surprised to receive the deed to Julius's holiday villa in Le Brun, a week-long journey from Porn City near the upstream forks of the Broken River.
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| Looks like we are off to Le Brun. |
The Guild wanted us to head over there, search the place, and locate any evidence that linked Julius to the metal chambers. Various rumours held that there had been three of these spherical metal chambers located in the general Wild Coast region!
And even better, we are to be paid 3000 gold and a magic item, each!
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