Session recap, 10/20/2010

Here's the recap email I just sent for tonight's session:

Gentlemen,

Here's your session recap:

Back in Chelmsfordshire, Too commissioned the construction of a 20' retractable aluminum pole.  After this was constructed, Too and Rollo Jr. spent a day traveling to the next village, Stinkborough.  They reached the village at nightfall, and were greeted by the horrid stench of rotten meat.  They went to the tavern in the center of the village, The Pig's Bride, and found it full of drunken country bumpkins.

The pair made their pitch for a couple of henchmen to join them, and Father Flaherty (1st level cleric) and three other goons decided to try their fortune adventuring.  There was a brief conversation about Flaherty's religion.  He venerated all the gods, of course, but particularly served Crom, the god of earth and steel.  He started at Rollo, and asked him "Do you know what the gods think of dwarves?"  Rollo replied "No", and was enlightened by Flaherty: "Not much."

In the morning, they purchased equipment (padded armor, shields, and weapons) for their new hires, and began the long march to the dungeon.  Deep in the woods, the party heard the loud shouting of many men in the distance.  "We'll kill all the brutals!"  "Yeah! Kill 'em all!" and such were heard.  The party decided to sneak around, and whoever the men were, they were soon left behind.

In the cave that serves as the entrance to the dungeon, the party found a black bear.  Too, Rollo Jr., and one of the hired goons peppered it with arrows, and it retreated back into the dungeon.  The party followed, and the bear was cornered in the first octagonal room, as all the doors were closed.  More arrows were fired, and the bear rushed the hired goon, mauling him to death.  Too and Rollo Jr. dropped their bows, drew their weapons, and quickly slaughtered the bear.  Brief prayers were said for the dead, and the survivors thanked Crom for the improved division of treasure that would result, and the party went further into the dungeon.

Heading into territory only briefly explored by previous expeditions, they walked through an ancient bathroom, and from there into a room full of metal constructs.  These constructs showed only mild signs of rust, and hadn't had to replace any of their parts with bones.

Too asked them questions:
"What are you?"  "We are... are... servant androids"
"Who do you serve?"  "Company employees"
"What do you do?"  "Janitorial duties!"
"Why aren't you using bones?"  "We maintain ourselves!  We take parts from the others!"
"What is this place?"  "The gatehouse.  It was built by the... the... the..."  "Company?"  "Yes, it was a company.  It was built to control access to the Anomalous Subsurface Environment, before they moved down."
"How do you activate the gate?"  "Power was restored a few weeks ago.  It is already activated."

Rollo joined in:
"I have some oil.  You could use it for lubrication.  Do you want it?"  "Yes".  Handing the automaton a flask of oil, it thrusts it back.  "Not good for lubrication!"

Rollo then went off to search a pile of bones in the corner.  He found many scattered gold coins, and a wall sconce with wires dangling out of it.

Rollo asked more questions:
"Can I have these?" pointing to the coins.  "Yes"
"What is to the north?"  The automaton grabs the map, and jams a metal finger at it.  "Our trap!" it exclaims.

Rollo then ran off to the room to the north, and immediately opens the door in the northern wall.  A massive protonium-metal pipe suspended by wire swung down, hitting him in the chest and knocking him to the floor.

Too and the henchmen left the automatons and went up to Rollo, and Flaherty cast cure light wounds upon the dwarf.  They then headed into this northern passage, and searched the rooms off this hallway.  In one room, they found a pair of golden eagle pins, each with three stars engraved on it.  In another, there was a large mirror on the wall, and a hole with wires sticking out.  Rollo connected the wires from the hole with the wall sconce, pushed the sconce into the wall, but nothing happened.  He examined the sconce, and saw that a portion of it was a trigger.  When he pressed the trigger, the mirror shimmered with a purple light, and disappeared, revealing a hallway behind it.

As the party crossed into the corridor, a pair of bone-and-metal automatons entered the room.  The oft-repeated robot battle cry of "Parts! Parts!" was sounded, and the automatons charged.  The party retreated into the hallway behind the mirror and pressed on a nearby red button, and the opening was replaced with a sheet of grayish metal.  They heard metal fists banging on the other side, but the automatons were unable to find a way through.

Searching these halls, the party came across a room with ancient, rusted shelving, covered with yellow mold.  Too extended his pole and started prodding it, and about half the time he poked the fungus, gigantic clouds of spores would explode out of it.  Fortunately, the pole allowed them to remain at a safe distance from the fungus.  His poking discovered a large bulky object under the fungus on one of the shelves, and he prodded it off the shelf.  When it landed on the floor, it was clear that it was a shield of some white material, much like the walls of this complex.  It was still partially covered with fungus, however, that was still exploding with spores on contact.  Rollo had the idea of tossing a flaming flask of oil onto it, which they did, and the fungus burned off nicely.  Too then claimed the shielf for himself.

The eastern of this secret corridor ended in a large sheet of protonium-metal, with a handle.  Pushing the sheet outwards, they found themselves in the same room that they had fought the strange dust-beings during the last expedition to the complex.  Now oriented, they made their way through the brightly-lit halls to some unexplored rooms in the southeastern portion of the "gatehouse".

The first room they explored, was a small room with many shelves, holding 5 yellowish cylinders with cracked crystal lenses on one end.  There was also a small chest on the floor, with a keyhole.  Rollo tried opening it with a crowbar, but failed.  Too gave it a shot, and when the lock gave, a needle flew out of the chest.  Fortunately he was standing to the side, and the needle flew by harmlessly.  The chest was empty, however.

Heading a bit farther south, they came to a room occupied by a much larger automaton, with no visible tubes or wiring - this one was heavily armored.  It also had a large pod on each arm, with small holes at the ends.  Sitting nearby were three footlockers.

The automaton looked shocked to see them.  "Humans!  Huh."

"So how long have you been here?"  "Three thousand blah blah blah years.  Let me tell you, it's been boring."
"So who are you?"  "I'm Lieutenant Hammer.  Soldier-class automaton.  Yeah, look at these babies, this is what I'm talking about."  The automaton proudly flexed its metal arms.
"Can we open those boxes?"  "Absolutely not!  That's my pay!"
"You get paid?"  "Of course I get paid.  Eventually, I serve long enough, I became a free citizen.  Probably should've happened by now, after three thousand years."
"What are you doing here?"  "I'm guarding the Anomalous Subsurface Environment.  Stupid name for a big dark pit, isn't it?  Orders are that nothing comes up."
"What are you guarding it from?"  "Oh, little fleshy things like you.  A few blasts of my plasma cannons and they run off though."
"If we go down, can we come up or will you shoot us?"  "Oh.  I suppose I can let you come back up."
"Will you come down with us?"  "Absolutely not!  I've got orders!  Until they're rescinded, I stay right here."
"What's to the north?"  "More of those junked-up automatons, all stuck together.  Surprised you made it here alive if you came through there."
"What's to the south?"  "The Anomalous Subsurface Environment."

At this point, the party decided that they should head back to town to resupply before heading down into the Anomalous Subsurface Environment.  On the way back, tragedy struck.  The party ran into a flock of five stirges, who swept down to feed upon the five members of the party.  The henchmen, in their pitiful padded armor, were quickly sucked dry by the stirges.  Rollo and Too defeated the stirges that attacked them, and the rest of the flock, satiated and not wanting to meet the fate of their fellows, flew away.

Rollo and Too made it back to the village of Stinkborough with further incident.