The Ouroboros

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

In the days and weeks that followed the Agony Engine’s appearance, it transformed and climbed down from its mountain perch to terrorize the surrounding areas before returning to a summit. It had destroyed villages, farms, and crops. It had harvested planar shards and left the fields barren for others. Food and energy security is becoming a concern if this continues.

The fortress seemed to enjoy its nest, but it could easily move on to other locations when this area was ruined. Lanternwurm has observed it but has been careful to keep our distance.

At the greenhouse cabin, Farrow tried to make reparations from her previous visit to Jozu, the plant expert using a mechanical wheelchair, and Melarue, the elven groundskeeper. Tinkering a new arm for Jozu’s chair and apologizing formally, the gnome still didn’t completely convince the older man. Farrow’s pet hoar fox Peppermint also gnawed on some plants. Jozu focused on business, the sample left for him to analyze, orange and green filaments growing in jar. He said it was similar to a parasitic clubhead fungus but with some qualities of yellow musk creeper and zombie mould.

Over fifty refugee survivors from the Steeljaw wreckage had been taken aboard, mostly families of humans and half-elves. Arcturius-9’s role as enforcer came up to maintain peaceful relations as the groups integrate and find new homes. The cyborg made the rounds, finding some trouble starting over a card game misunderstanding. Taking over the table intimidatingly, Arcturius-9 won the pot and bought rounds of drinks to keep the peace.

Meanwhile Khonshu continued his construction of a compass-like device to communicate with elementals. He tested it on the elemental gem the party possessed, obtaining simple answers in a séance-like fashion. The artificer didn’t get much information on what or if the fire elemental was thinking, but his elemental speech was improved by his work.

The young animals belonging to Farrow and Arcturius-9 continued to grow, Peppermint the fox taking on a gluttonous aspect and the unnamed owlbear becoming bullying.

In the meeting with Agent, she explained they’ve tried looking into sending a blind signal transmission toward the Agony Engine as they suggested. They thought they may be able to do a one way short message sending. The party decided to address their former comrade Levander and asked about the Agony Engine’s path of destruction.

This Agony Engine was becoming a grave concern for all engines and settlements. From their intelligence and the accounts of their expedition, Agent’s experts speculated that the fortress was using some powerful transmutation device to allow its shapeshifting. The party proposed it may be the crystal Levander sought and obtained, the Enigma of Combination. They think if that could be retrieved, the fortress would be locked in whatever state it is in, hopefully immobilized.

With the salvaged Annulus from the Steeljaw wreckage, Agent believed they were on the way to a functioning teleportation circle. For now though, all they could do was send a group to a location they had knowledge of and emotion connection to, and that resonated with the Annulus. Other planar technology seemed to show a field they could divine through it. After searching, Agent thought the Agony Engine might have such a spot within. But such a teleport would only work for this party. Likely a one way ticket.

Agent knew this would be the most dangerous task she had asked of these four, and she didn’t do this lightly, but the party thought it was the right thing to do.

Lanternwurm could take the party near where the entrance was supposed to be and have them venture out, keeping this low key to avoid attention. This in itself could be a hazardous outing, but Agent somehow felt this trial would help set them on the paths they were meant to walk. She knew some of them had their own agendas as well, and this might help them grow towards those.

The fall leaves were changing in the fields they passed. At a certain point, Agent arranged for the group to disembark before dawn with a translated map given to Khonshu. The train would come back this way the next day and Agent would keep surveillance for them. The walk took almost the whole day; the woods around seemed to shift, but the map and Khonshu’s calculations held true.

After a break to eat, they found the location, an isolated clearing. Only a lone rundown windmill sat like a huge crouched cat. Cautiously exploring the dilapidated windmill, Corwen and Arcturius-9 covered the front and back entrances and entered to find it empty. Farrow deployed her drone to fly up the stairs and ladders leading up the four floors while she and Khonshu and Mule combed over the debris covering the main floor. The tiefling eventually uncovered a man-sized hole leading downward.

The four of them, plus drone and Mule, kept formation as they explored the next doors and chambers. The darkened hallways seemed to twist in maze-like fashion, Arcturius-9 eventually lit a torch. They fought off various vermin such as centipedes, snakes, and rats as they made their way. At one hallway, alien-like statue heads protruded from the walls. The drone buzzing past triggered centipedes to crawl out of the mouths. Running through before more came, the group closed the door behind them and came to some dead ends and piles of old bones. They also found a room with a large chest. After Corwen snuck in to dispatch the snakes in the area, Arcturius-9 opened the chest to find hundreds of ancient silver and gold coins as well as a box containing a dozen turquoise animal figurines. They collected the treasure in their bag of holding and tried to double back only to find the halls and room had changed on them when not in view.

The party eventually found a shallow circular pool of collecting groundwater where a giant rat was drinking. Fighting off the pests, Farrow collected a sample and saw the water start to vibrate as heavy steps approached. The animated statue again harassed them before they separated themselves. Splitting up to try to map out an area they could enter at the same time from different doors, the party entered a chamber with a large central statue and four other statues in the corners. They were of similar design to the animated statue but looked less combative, depicting androgynous warriors draped in robes. The central one pointed blindly forward and its base had an inscription in fluid script.

The party asked questions of each statue. They learned the master of the Agony Engine was a Countess Ravonna, a powerful sorcerer from another time skilled in charm and necromancy. She wanted to restore forgotten ways and voices, to be feared and loved, but through dark arts, parasites, and infection. Her power was still reforming and not at full strength, leaving opportunity to act. Farrow learned that she carried a diary of the Countess, retrieved in their expedition but still unreadable due to decay. They also confirmed that the Enigma of Combination was the component that allowed the engine’s transformations and stealing it would lock it in shape. And the party also learned the way to get out of the Ouroboros was to seek lower ground and find the Mundane Egg.

After the forth question, the statues asked, “How will you ride the wheel?”

Their visions wavered and each was pulled into a dream trance where they lived out a life-cycle of a crawling or creeping animal: Farrow and Khonshu as giant centipedes, Corwen as a giant frog, and Arcturius-9 as a giant spider (one that was eventually slain by the party itself in the badlands fortress expedition).

Coming out of it, Farrow was sick and then looked in horror as her companions dissolved like sand and giant vermin matching their visions emerged. The polymorphed critters still retained their basic personalities but were limited in intelligence. Mule was confused but unaffected. Farrow steeled herself and took command, herding the vermin as they looked for a way forward.

As rooms shifted on them, the found a chamber with three barrels and giant rats. In their new shapes, the party set upon the rats in a natural way. Mule had scooped up centipede Khonshu and they worked together in a weird symbioses. Farrow read the runes on the barrels that said, “Hill Giant’s Brew.”

Turning back revealing a pit of snakes down a hall. Thinking to use the barrels of what she thought was alcohol as an incendiary, Farrow directed the party creatures to help roll a barrel to the pit. Creating a fuse and cracking the barrel open, they firebombed the snake pit. Repeating this again reduced the snakes to burned remains. Spider-climbing down, Farrow was dismayed to find no exit downward.

The roaming statue appeared on the other side of the pit, and the party retreated and closed doors, hoping to change the layout. However, now the pit was no longer there and the statue got closer and closer. Stuck at a dead end, Farrow placed the last barrel in the bag of holding and they prepared to engage the statue. The vermin shapes were no match for their assailant, unable to damage it. Farrow rolled out the barrel to attempt one last fire bomb, but it unluckily exploded at her feet. After healing herself with her medkit, Farrow used her omnistaff force strike to knock the statue back into a tight corner, giving her friends a chance to run past its swinging stone arm. Mule moved in to block the statue off, taking a grievous battering in the process. Running down a hall to a door revealed stairs leading downward. Relieved, the party disengaged as best they could. For a while it seemed Mule might be left behind, but they all recovered to the safety of the tight spiralling stairwell.

A rough cavernous chamber that felt serene yet eerie greeted them. Crystal shards in the natural walls gave off light, as did the pool of water ahead, multiple colours and maybe some new ones.

A chorus of softer voices spoke from a rock island in the middle, from a large crystal glowing in time with the voice. “No one can ride the wheel for long,” it said.

Frog Corwen was drawn to the water and hopped in. This transformed him back to his old self. The other followed into the thigh-deep water. They felt a warmth of light inside, like a fond memory or dream. Even those who weren’t emotional creatures felt a relaxed, confident, somewhat sad glow like starlight within. It healed their wounds and offered a respite after a harrowing trek.

When asked about a way out, the voice agreed, “It’s best you leave here. This time is yet to come. We can hold still for a moment while you go.”

But at the steps, their familiar foe appeared, shaking the water with its steps. The voice only said this was one of their brothers who had lost his way. The renewed party engaged in combat, Arcturius-9 grappled it into the water it seemed to want to avoid. This seemed to corrode its exterior, making it vulnerable as Khonshu used a calculated smite and Mule tore at the statue. Farrow and Corwen both failed to strike with their beams and arrows through the chaotic fray. The party started gaining the upper hand and Farrow saw the opportunity to toss one of the crystal pellets they had salvaged. This further damaged and trapped the statue in a bubble of force. Arcturius-9 tossed the stuck opponent to the far side of the pool and the party made their way up the stairs, finding only a hallway leading back to the chamber they first entered. Climbing back up, the group found safety on the surface, waiting under the stars for their pick up.