SESSION 19B: BENEATH THE FOUNDRY
April 13th, 2008
The 8th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty
SEARCHING FOR SHILUKAR
Agnarr strolled into the entrance hall.
“What’s going on?” Tor demanded.
“They think we’re Shilukar.” Agnarr grinned. “Which is probably for the best.”
Agnarr jogged up the stairs to Tee’s side. Seeing the doors he blanched in much the same fashion she had.
With Agnarr guarding the stairs, Tee and Elestra quickly searched the rooms. For the most part they were small quarters with minimal furnishings – utilitarian barracks. There was one room that was slightly larger than the rest, but although the furniture was slightly more luxurious it was still almost devoid of personality. Elestra did find a copy of the Book of Vehthyl laying next to the bed in this room, and this she gave to Dominic.
Since Shilukar had not been found, the depressing possibility that he had escaped began to set in. Agnarr and Elestra began arguing again about why he had attacked the Shuul here in the Foundry. What had he been looking for? The cure? Had he found it? Or was it still here?
Dominic and Tor, meanwhile, decided that their best hope of finding Shilukar again before the morning deadline would be to question one of the thugs that were apparently working for him. They weren’t sure how badly they had been hurt, but hopefully Dominic would be able to use his divine powers to wake them up.
Ranthir and Tee decided to search the Foundry again – Ranthir using his abilities to detect magical auras and Tee with more practical means. They didn’t know how much time they would have before the Shuul returned, so Tee’s efforts would have to be fairly cursory.
But no sooner had the search started, then Tee’s sharp elven eyes spotted scrape marks on the floor of the materials storehouse leading straight into a wall. The magical explosion Shilukar had set off had obscured the marks somewhat, but their meaning was still clear: There was a secret passage right where Shilukar had disappeared from her view.
Tee smiled. “It looks like we won’t need those thugs, after all.”
Elestra ran out of the building and caught up with Dominic and Tor, who had just reached the thugs and were about to begin healing them. With a shrug they abandoned the badly burned corpses and headed back into the Foundry.
THE WORKSHOPS OF THE SHUUL
While the rest of them were gathering in the materials warehouse, Tee had searched the wall and discovered a stone that could be depressed to open the door. Now she pressed it and the wall swung aside to reveal a spiral staircase leading down.
Tee arched an eyebrow. “I like games of cat and mouse… I just wish I knew if we were the cat or the mouse.”
After about 20 feet the stairs bottomed out into a workroom of some sort: Several low stone tables ran in parallel down the width of the room, covered in a variety of mechanical devices and tools which seemed dedicated towards constructing and modifying dragon rifles (of which about a dozen lay around in various stages of completion).
Several hallways twisted away from this room, and Tee arbitrarily headed down the nearest one on the left. This ended at a steel door which had been broken open. Tee showed the damage to the others, “Shilukar.”
Beyond the door lay a storeroom with several short shelves running around its walls. These shelves were filled with chaos storage cubes, which Tee identified from having flipped through the Lesser Book of Chaos they had found in Shilukar’s lair. She quickly warned the others of how dangerous they could be. Elestra shuddered, remembering the horrible, gasping death she had suffered in the pool of raw chaos beneath Greyson House.
They headed back to the workroom and then down the next hallway. Halfway down its length, Tee heard the unmistakable sounds of someone rummaging around. She quickly raised her left hand for silence while slipping her right into her bag of holding and pulling out a thunderstone.
Rounding the corner, Tee saw a door standing ajar. Someone was definitely on the other side – there was the sound of something metallic clattering against stone.
As Tee prepared to creep carefully up to the door, however, Ranthir suddenly stumbled – scuffing noisily across the stone floor. The noises from beyond the door suddenly came to a stop.
Tee reacted instantly, throwing the thunderstone through the door and into the room while simultaneously signaling for Agnarr to take the lead. The cacophonous boom of the thunderstone seemed to rock the Foundry’s foundations, but they were fortunately shielded from the worst of it by the half-shut door.
Agnarr kicked open the door and quickly took in the scene beyond: There were more workbenches here, covered with more strange devices and bubbling tubes of chemicals. Various clusters of these devices seemed focused around a half dozen large metallic spheres. Two of the spheres seemed intact – with shiny, polished surfaces of greenish metal – while another seemed damage and three others were in various states of disassembly.
Shilukar was leaning over one of the spheres, but as the door slammed open he looked up and his eyes widened: “You! Not just Zavere, but—You’re all working for the Shuul?! What have you done with it?! Where have you hidden it?! WHERE IS MY IDOL?!”
Agnarr couldn’t hide the wide grin which split his face. Shilukar was completely baffled by them! Realizing that he needed to keep up the pretense, Agnarr tried lying… and failed rather miserably at it. Fortunately, it quickly became apparent that Shilukar couldn’t hear him at all… he had been deafened by the thunderstone.
This didn’t stop the ebon-skinned elf from taking definitive action, though. Even before Agnarr had opened his mouth, Shilukar had flipped a switch on the side of the sphere – causing it to emit a loud-pitched humming noise and float up into the air.
Agnarr ignored it and charged Shilukar. Rage and frustration fueled his thews as his greatsword slammed into the elf’s side. Shilukar gasped, blood bubbling to his lips, and stumbled away.
Agnarr made to pursue, but the sphere that Shilukar had activated suddenly dove towards him, sprouting large, protruding blades. It plunged into Agnarr’s chest, tearing his pectorals into bloody tatters.
The barbarian stumbled back, dripping blood. The sphere pursued, and Agnarr struck at it – but his blade clanged ineffectually against its metal shell.
On the far side of the room, Shilukar was activating a second sphere. But now Tor stepped into the room, whirling a knotted rope above his head. His skills as a horseman suddenly proved themselves as he dropped a lasso around Shilukar’s neck and pulled it tight.
The elf had just been drawing a potion from his belt, but now he was yanked hard across the room. Pulling him close, Tor tried to grapple him to the floor and bind his limbs, but Shilukar – in desperation – lunged out and flipped the switch on the nearest sphere…
The sphere exploded! Shilukar was hurled backwards into the wall and knocked unconscious. His arm was horribly lacerated and two huge shards of metal had embedded themselves in his chest.
Agnarr had been concussed by the blast, but Dominic was able to get him back on his feet quick enough. Meanwhile, with a certain amount of distaste, Elestra was casting a simple charm to seal Shilukar’s wounds and make sure he didn’t bleed to death… at least, not until they’d gotten the cure out of him.
SEARCHING THE WORKSHOPS
Tee, meanwhile, had missed the entire affair. Hearing Shilukar demand his idol, she realized that he must suspect that the Idol of Ravvan lay somewhere within the Shuul’s hidden workshops. She immediately turned on her heels and headed out into the rest of the complex to search for it.
Heading down the next hall she picked the lock on the door to an office. It was austere and utilitarian, but clearly well used. The desk was covered in a variety of papers. Most of these were incomprehensible blueprints and schematics, but on the top of the stack was a letter of some sort that caught her eye.
Brother Savane—
Brother Tannock has brought me strange news. A man bearing the Mark of Vehthyl has come to our temple. He is to return to us on the 9th of Kadal, at which time I shall see for myself. But if the Chosen of Vehthyl has come to us, then the hour has arrived. Can the Iron Angel be made ready?
Maeda
She quickly scanned the letter, pocketed it, and moved on. The door directly across from this one led to another office, but this one appeared to have been abandoned. She moved on.
The door at the end of the hall was made of iron, and from behind it – as she drew near – she could hear a buzzing, crackling sound. She decided that whatever was behind that door had the strong possibility of being too dangerous to deal with on her own, so she decided to head back to the others.
By the time she got back, Shilukar had been securely tied up Tor. Looking down at the body Tee smiled. “Looks like we were the cats.”
Tee gave Dominic the note she’d found. As Dominic read it, his face creased with worry.
“What’s wrong?” Elestra asked.
Dominic showed the rest of them the note. “I think… I think I might be the ‘Chosen of Vehthyl’.”
“Do you know these people? Brother Tannock? Maeda?
Dominic nodded. “No. But I was supposed to meet with some people on the 9th…”
While the others were distracted, Agnarr slipped one of the attack spheres into his bag of holding. But the conversation soon turned back to their immediate situation. Some of them wanted to leave immediately, but Tee felt it was important to finish searching these workshops for the idol. Lord Zavere clearly thought it was very important.
They returned to the buzzing, crackling door. Tee picked the lock and Agnarr opened it. Beyond was a large room studded with multiple iron rods protruding from the floor and the ceiling. Electrical arcs in scintillating colors leapt between these rods and focused down onto a chaos storage cube which lay on a low platform of obsidian in the center of the room.
They all stared for a moment… and then Tee eased forward and closed the door. “Right. Let’s move on.”
A small chamber held a battered table, some chairs, and an effluvium of food and the like – clearly some kind of informal kitchen or dining room. A quick tossing of this room revealed nothing of interest, and the passing minutes were wearing heavily on their minds.
Going down the last hallway brought them to another iron door. Swinging it open they found an enormous chamber. The floor here was actually sunk by 8 or 9 feet, with a flight of stone stairs leading down to it. The ceiling was vaulted. And in the center of the room there was a massive, humanoid shaped structure. Huge banks of machinery with rubbery tubes and chemical beakers were attached to it in various ways. A second look revealed that, although it was humanoid shaped, it was also hollow – as if it were some sort of impossibly huge exoskeleton.
But there was no idol.
