Wreckage and Whispers

The Party: Arcturius-9, Corwen, Farrow, Khonshu

In their downtime since the party last set out, each adventurer had their own pursuits. Corwen brewed several healing potions with his herbalism knowledge. Khonshu kept correspondence with the genasi contact they made in the Locks and continued his artificer arcane research with his cartographer’s tools. The tiefling also sought readings on elementals and how they may feel about being bound to devices. Farrow took her fungus sample to the greenhouse cabin and met with an elf woman and elderly man in a wheelchair to research potential uses. The man’s chair had all sorts of mechanical appliances that intrigued Farrow, and she broke a part in her excitement. She was asked to leave while they looked into her sample. Elsewhere, Arcturius-9’s carousing took him to a middle-class establishment where he made friends with the bartender. Later, the fighter entered the sparring car to engage in some night time pit fighting, humbling his opponents and earning some coin.

The two animals taken on by Farrow and Arcturius-9 had also been getting accustomed to their new homes. Farrow’s training of her hoar fox kit to learn to fetch was coming along, though she was displaying some greedy tendencies. And the owlbear cub in Arcturius-9’s quarters was responding well to his firm hand but was becoming a bit of a braggart, making a show of bravery but running from danger.

A few days later though, Lanternwurm was on the run. A dark cloud on the horizon approached and the engine’s diviners warned of a coming danger. The dust cloud seemed to give chase at alarming speed. As Lanternwurm’s more powerful casters raised defenses and fired hindering spells to slow the entity, the engine’s power started shorting out, slowing the train down.

So the party members found themselves in the middle of a repair operation deep in the bowels of Lanternwurm. They were tasked with trying to adjust a power conduit as elemental sparks emerged. A network of light metal rods on pivot points needed to be linked up manually as the automated functions failed.

The party had a brief respite to prepare for their mission. They ate and discussed their history with the fortress from the badlands, the so called Agony Engine, and their one-time companion Levander they assumed was on board. They wondered if there was a way to send or broadcast a message to him and brought the idea to Agent. The warforged director thought it was worth looking into with their developing communication capabilities.

Under the last red glow of sunset, Lanternwurm wove a path back along where they were chased. Now they spotted smoking ruins in the wake of the fortress, which was no longer seen in the area. Agent and the Overseer sent multiple groups down to a line of smoking sites. They believed them to be pieces of an unlucky smaller sanctuary engine, Steeljaw, last seen at the Locks during the Thunder Moon Festival. It looked like they were set upon, captured, torn apart, and discarded piece by piece. The party was to recover any salvageable parts, being aware that some pieces were likely volatile now, and help any survivors.

Gathering the wounded they could revive, the party confirmed Steeljaw was attacked and torn apart by the walking fortress. They didn’t know where their Overseer, named Sharn, was now, or how many other survivors there were. Part of the engine core was in this hill cavern and was in danger of exploding or drawing attention of other creatures. The party armed the survivors with spare weapons and told them to sit in the mouth of the cave to await Lanternwurm’s return.

Farrow gazed into the cavernous hole in the hill side ahead and saw a glowing light much further in. With her drone scouting ahead, the party made their way through a slightly caved in passage into a larger chamber, light by glowing components and an electrified loop in a structure on the far wall. Fluorescent crimson liquid stood in a trough in the middle of the engine room. Parts of the room were collapsed and four dead bodies lay on the floor from the crash. It was higher ceilinged than the tunnel way entrance, with stairs to a second story edge wrapping around the space.

As best they could tell, large battery structures to either side of the annulus used to feed it energy; it was slowly fading now, but had no cut off switch. The battery tower cores had already been salvaged by something larger. Investigating the odd liquid showed it wasn’t dangerous to the touch. Some submerged pipe connections were found in the fountain-like areas. Farrow sent her drone to one end pipe to see if it could be unclogged with some shots. Upon the second shot, a shaking and minor cave in occurred at the entrance, partially sealing the passage.

The salvagers decided to try to put some of the liquid onto the electrified hoop. Spotting a large red gem embedded in some metal device remains, Arcturius-9 recovered the jewel and unsuccessfully tried pounding the metal scrap into a bucket for the party. However, they also had waterskins and vials, and Corwen took a sample and then splashed some red liquid onto the annulus, causing it to dim slightly. While discussing what to do, the half-elf thief kept hearing whispers in the chamber that grew louder until others also heard them. They spoke in foul language only Khonshu understood, saying, “I hunger.” Flashes of blue light also started appearing.

As the blue light coalesced into portals, a giant otherworldly shape poked through. A hideous maw with rows of teeth and a pair of clawed hands appeared. The creature seemed stuck between worlds, trying to enter this one but unable to fully get through. The maw and hands started moving and menacing the party members. The mouth spoke gibbering madness, shaking their resolve and corrupting Arcturius-9’s mental integrity. Flashbacks caused the cyborg to keep taking psychic shocks as he tried to stay away from the maw.

The hands flew around independently, one grasping and dropping unlucky party members and the other casting threatening magics at them. At one point, the maw switched its babbling and the adventurers heard it speak to their fears as it reanimated the corpses on the floor. The fight was difficult, with razor teeth, a nauseating tongue, and too many claws wearing the group’s resourcefulness down. Khonshu’s trusty construct Mule went down defending the party, and Farrow’s drone was put out of commission by a thunderous slap of a giant hand.

At last there was a turn of the tide as Khonshu forced the maw back into its portal with his artificer-enhanced pike. The hands attacked blindly still. Corwen took full advantage with a well-placed sniper arrow shot. Arcturius-9 had a surge of wrath, hacking through all the zombies surrounding him, he ran past Farrow who opened her bag of holding to reveal the enchanted bone javelin they had acquired. The cyborg scooped up the weapon and hurled it, saying the Draconic command word that transformed the missile into a piercing lightning bolt to lance into one of the hands. Following up with her upgraded magitech omnistaff staff, Farrow discharged rays of lavender light to disintegrate the first hand as it hovered and the second as it blindly fumbled towards the glowing annulus.

With no time to enjoy their victory, the group recovered what they could and got back to work. Arcturius-9 and Corwen cleared the collapsed portion of their exit while Farrow and Khonshu try to take the annulus off its two pronged holders and lower it into the red liquid below. Farrow’s new extending mechanical arm wasn’t enough, but Khonshu added his fiendish innate spellwork to add to the lifting force. The annulus sparked out, dulled, and went quiet in the liquid. Khonshu was able to repair Mule enough for it to walk with them, placing the annulus on top of the steel defender. They saw the loop had runes running along its length.