Operation Enigma

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

The party made their preparations and said their goodbyes aboard Lanternwurm. A dangerous mission awaited them. The new teleportation circle would send them blindly on a one-way trip into the so-called Agony Engine fortress. There, they would look to remove the Enigma of Combination, locking the engine in its stationary form to limit its capacity for devastation.

The Agony Engine sat on a peak in the Bluespire Mountains, where Corwen had once visited in a scouting party. Agent gives the group a set of com-crystals, new communication devices, and told them they had brokered a deal with the flying sanctuary engine Cloudhope for an extraction. They were to do their work quickly and quietly and then get to a tower or open sky. Though the Agony Engine and its Overseer were still rebuilding power and not fully active, they had to assume everything was dangerous.

The greenhouse cabin had managed to create an anti-fungal virus from Farrow’s sample, keeping it in a jar-like device within a lined metal briefcase that could be set off like an aerosol bomb with a timer, if desired. There was no time to follow up on the information that the notebook the party found was a diary of the Countess Ravonna of the Agony Engine, but future avenues could be finding a powerful cleric of knowledge or transmuter wizard to read the object or reverse its age. That would have to wait though.

In meantime, the party members displayed some of their new enchanted items hatched of their Mundane Eggs. Farrow had a protective short cloak; Khonshu, a headpiece that allowed him to comprehend languages; Corwen, a magical compound bow; and Arcturius-9, a device that allowed his arms to convert into attacking mantis claws.

Exploring one set of doors first, Farrow’s drone scouted to see a hall leading to a room full of piles of various coins. The adventurers followed to look through, finding a huge dwarven statue on one wall. Not seeing any reason not to collect some funds, they filled their bag of holding with some piles and planned to come back for more if time allowed.

Changing the lights to hit the other doors at the opposite end of the rooms led to stairs going into a crypt. They found sarcophaguses and dead bodies being grown with fungus. A back access led to a cavern filled with fungi. Farrow took a sample with her drone and executed some head shots on the bodies as a precaution. In the center room, they found the Enigma of Combination under a heated force field. Two torches burned on the adjacent walls. After trying to throw different objects at the barrier and poking at it, Khonshu used a waterskin to put out the two torches, turning off the shield. Corwen then used his collapsible pole to poke the Enigma into Mule.

After a stop to pick up more coins with a floating disc spell from Khonshu. They redirected the light beams to power the circle. Not knowing how to activate the last light, Khonshu called Agent with an update. However, once Corwen brought the enigma into the circle chamber, the last light lit up, apparently powered by proximity to the artifact. Agent’s reply to find the power source connection became unneeded, and the control panel offered them an escape route. Figuring out some readings, Farrow gathered the circle could only teleport them somewhere else within the fortress. One set of coordinates would place them upwards on the tower top. This was the setting they tried, again entering a warping transition.

The party felt the icy winds as their vision cleared. They were on a long, open pedway between towers, with huge gates blocking the two ends. A section of the pedway appeared collapsed from a previous impact. Before they could fully regain their senses, both sets of gates opened and dozens of figures marched out to pincer them in.

The multiple ranks of enemies looked more refined and human-like than previous fungal zombies, with fungus looking like shards and chitinous armor. Some eyes retained some aspect of intelligence. There were foot soldiers, caped and armoured guards, archers, and witches among them.

In the back of one of the group, a familiar robed figure stood with arms crossed under wide sleeves. Levander told them he wished they were meeting under better circumstances and that they needed to return what they had taken. He spoke about harmony through unity, and the offer of a hivemind peace and order through the fungal symbiotes if the party joined them.

Farrow covertly sent a com-crystal message to Agent to request extraction while the party tried to stall. They offered to return some coins from their haul, and tried to talk Levander out of his stance. The man looked tired and glazed over, but he seemed to be a true believer or somehow charmed. They asked where his master was, and he replied it was none of their concern. Failing to negotiate, the party threatened to destroy the Enigma and Corwen held a decoy satchel near the guard railing.

While still pleading with the party to change their mind, Levander apologized and threw some ash in the air to cast a ruby flare into their midst, exploding in a massive fireball that rocked them.

With that, mass combat ensured. The forward ranks of fungal foot soldiers charged and Arcturius-9 was there to meet them with greatsword swinging. An angry Farrow also ran in to blast with her staff as Corwen provided cover fire with his bow. Khonshu and Mule focused on protecting their rear, conjuring a pool of grease to slow some soldiers and pick them off with pike and forceful rends.

Though they cut down many foes, numbers threatened to overwhelm the Lanternwurm infiltrators. Enemy archers returned fire and fungus witches started working spells to launch red magic missiles that homed in on their targets.

Drawing on their resources, Corwen threw a crystal pellet that attempted to trap a group of enemies but only shunted them around the space as a bubble of force emerged. This lined up some targets for a surging Arcturius-9 to slash his way to a spot to launch their javelin of lightning, colliding with Levander’s invisible armour and shocking all the foes along the way.

In the distance, Cloudhope appeared, but it would still be a long few minutes before they could be rescued. The party renewed their offense, while taking healing potions to regain stamina. Arturius-9 kept the front ranks of enemy on their guard as he tirelessly wore them down. Farrow fired beams and pulses to knock creatures off their feet while trying to distract them with a drone. Corwen continued looking for sniper shots through the fray and Khonshu and Mule created an effective bottleneck for the other ranks of fungal zombies.

More dark magic worked against them, with Khonshu and Corwen being charmed by a witch and Arcturius-9 and Farrow being put to sleep at various points. Luckily they shook off effects with help from their friends. Khonshu decided to unleash the fire elemental from their magic gem and the large inferno wreaked havoc on the enemy army, lighting them on fire with a touch. Levander attempted to dispel the summoned creature but was unable to sever the magic.

Farrow opened the metal briefcase to set off the aerosol anti-fungal virus bomb. A thin white mist floated out on the air. Where is contacted fungal creatures, the growths shriveled and weakened them, spreading from one to another.

Another crystal pellet only managed to capture one archer, but it did push Levander to the edge of the tower top. He cast a spell to become invisible as the tide seemed to be turning. Attempts to disrupt Khonshu’s concentration failed as he was able to shield himself from more missiles. Arcturius-9 fought off magical chains conjured to restrain him and cleaved through more soldiers. With the flat of his blade, the cyborg swung at one of the spheres of force taking up the space and sent the trapped archer gently flying over the edge. Meanwhile, Farrow took a fire breathing potion to blow flames at enemies.

The sunset skies around them began darkening as a planar storm blew in, creating wild magic effects. At first everyone was outlined with faerie fire, giving away Levander’s location and making it easier for strikes to land. Then magical darkness fell and combat became more difficult, with Levander disappearing as the fire elemental dashed towards him, still commanded by Khonshu.

A now flying, invisible Levander told the party they would regret their choices as Farrow fired omnistaff beams in the general direction in the air. It seemed the man in desert robes still wanted his one-time companions to join him after all this and he seemed reticent to see them destroyed.

Nonetheless, with his forces mostly dismantled and a floating platform from Cloudhope launched and speeding towards them, Levander apologized and fired a second fireball explosion. This one exploded with such force that it blew apart two of his weakened guards, knocked the nimble Corwen down to critical health, deactivated Mule, and drove the breath from Arcturius-9 and Farrow, leaving them burned and dying. Only Khonshu with his tiefling resistance managed to avoid the worst of the heat.

Going into survival mode and showing they would not quit, Corwen and Khonshu got more restorative potions to their teammates before they expired completely. Farrow then used her staff to mend Mule back to action and blew out more fire breath at the few remaining attackers. The storms had changed to a zephyr breeze giving them all a lightened gravity and blurring effects, though the combat seemed mostly contained now.

An ice storm was summoned by an invisible Levander in an attempt to eliminate the fire elemental, but it still burned angrily. After that, the flying man must have recognized the defeat as he was no longer heard from, even as they looked over the edge down into the snowy valley below.

As the platform pulled away back to the flying sanctuary engine, they saw a red glow flare inside the windows of the Agony Engine and heard an unearthly woman’s scream of rage echoing into the storm.