Inspecting the panel by the door that just showed us a video, I realize (Nat20!) that I can communicate to a degree with the glitter cloud – a bionanite swarm. I learn from the membanks that it mis-recognized us as deformed androids, which it has spent the last untold years repairing. Its purpose is to fix tech glitches (mutations), and it clearly thought we were more projects to work on. And unfortunately I can only access the log file, not the command interface. I can’t find out what the swarm’s malfunction was, but I do see that it’s still self-repairing. Time to move.

We head to the next room, and I barely have time to survey the rubble in the room since four defective-looking androids appear! Two hit me, and the other two disappear. Vayu swoops me and “castles” me. I try to hit one with The Dawnflower, but this type of combat, or really combat in general, is realtively new to me and I miss terribly. The androids do some sort of nanite surge and the visible circuits in their skin glows with the unsettling color of sheepknuckle. Ting! runs along a wall (like, perpendicular to the ground!), swings around, and claws one of their arms off. In short order we kill these defects, and discover that Ilarris Zeleshu is in the northern-most room. She quickly makes an attack against Aakpesh and then cowardly disappears.

Examining the “bodies” of these androids, they seem incomplete – like the 3D printer is running out of materials but doesn’t know it. They bear a striking resemblance to 10Lo, and after a little investigation and introspection, it seems likely that this is indeed the place that he was created. While looking around, 10LO enters a booth as Aakpesh hits a nearby red button that in Androffan clearly says DO NOT PRESS. A burst of blue goo falls onto 10LO from a nozzle above, and he quickly wipes it off. After reading a bit more, had he left it on, it would have grown skin – something he clearly rejects. The giant tubes in this “finishing room” are apparently where new androids come from. We open a door to a room to the East-Southeast that is filled with tools, and 3D printed bone skulls! there’s also no dust in here, it seems like been used recently.

This work room also has odd weapons, made on forge in that same room. We open the other door to the South, and four more mandroids jump out! In short order, even more show up. I try a “sudo shutdown -h now” in Androffan with no success, so I cast Bull’s Strength on Aakpesh who immediately goes full beast-mode and immediately kills two of them. Two throw something at us (grenades), and Vayu manages to smack one away (c0ncussion grenade). One unfortunately hits us though. OW! (30dam). I step away from the mandroids and liberate a concussion grenade ( deals 5d6 points of bludgeoning damage ) from each dead one by me.

On the other side of the room, one that looks distinctly different from the rest (blue hairs, and the pseduo-flesh doesn’t quite meet) appears and says TO ME, MY CREW! REPEL THE BOARDERS!

*LEVEL UP (after rest)*

Session Date: 06/01/17, Prior Journal XP: 273, Session XP: 1,760.
Title Source: Misfits – Skulls

The feast! Ivik comes in, and asks if he can join us. Not only do we answer that of course he can, but that we have potential trading partners at the table for him to meet. He is most pleased by this. We speak for a few minutes, and he asks us for news of our investigation. We inform him that we have a lead, and he asks if we’d meet with the council. Now. We agree and Ivik picks up the tab, asking the Varisians to please stay and enjoy the food and drink.

The council – they call themselves the Deadeye Council – consists of 18 members. That sounds big for such a small town, but it seems to work for them. The name fits due to them holding archers held in high regard (mostly due to their god), and now that I think about it, the town layout even looks like a bullseye.

You know – that tower we came across a while ago where Aakpesh got that metal mesh membrane? I wonder if those are mutagens that are related to what’s happening here…

Back to the task at hand – this council is no-nonsense, and immediately asks for update. 10LO gives them the overview, and I chime in about the matching parchment Preston found at Ilarris Zeleshi‘s tent. I read them the message in Androffan hidden in the clockwork bird, and it seems to confirm their fears. They seem to think that the Technic League‘s interest is maybe to weed out certain mutagens. Likely to weaponize them.

Since we’ve been of help, the Council comes clean – they suspect that there’s a tech enclave beneath the town. They’ve had a hand in maintaining the tech phobia to try to prevent people from exploring this area. Further, they fear that whatever is down there is somehow malevolent. They tell us of “Old Skelton” who, in the year 4707, was digging a well when he hit something. This shimmering gas emerged, killed him, and returned back down the well. This seems like an obvious starting point, so they give us directions to hiss farm, which is next to the badwater. We’re warned though: when they capped the well, they trapped the cloud with a glyph of warding. The unlock phrase: “never trust a fool”

We decide to investigate tomorrow, so we finish dining with the Varisians and head to bed.

The next morning, a guide leads us to the farm. He talks to us about the town, mostly about how pastoral/back to nature it is, tech-free. We arrive shortly at the farm, which is basically a small cottage and barn, both overgrown.  There’s a large rock slab over an overgrown well – our entrypoint. I detect a faint glow of protection magic from underneath stone slab, Aakpesh says that the slab has been moved recently and points out scrapes. It had been moved aside enough for open access, but then closed almost all the way. We can’t tell if it was closed from the outside or the inside.

Aakpesh “loosenes it” for Preston, who pushes the slab, opening the well. Indeed, there is a warding glyph shimmering down below.

We all make our way down after saying the unlock phrase, with varying degrees of success, but we make it. At the bottom, we find ourselves standing in ankle-deep water. It’s incredibly dark, with no real room to move – perfect place for an ambush. I’m concentrating on detecting magic and/or poison as we go, and thankfully there’s none detected. We come to a dark, metal-walled room. There’s sparking electricity by a door and some machinery. In the next room, a cloud of glittering dust moves towards us.

*roll for initiative*

Aakpesh belches fire at it, but it seems ineffective. To me though, this cloud of glitter looks and acts like a bunch of tiny machines … na-no-tech? It’s also a safe bet that this is the same cloud that killed Old Skelton, so I tell everyone to use electrical attacks if they can. Vayu runs in to flank the cloud, and in short order Vayu, Preston, and Aakpesh all get fascinated by the cloud. 10Lo though quickly break Vayu and Aakpesh’s condition.

Aak burns a mythic point on a devastating smash, and Preston shoots it with an arrow. I hear murmurs in Androffan, just repeating “defective androids” over and over again. In Androffan I try to communicate with it, and try to send it a shutdown command. Nope, but may be using the wrong terms. I think hard back to screens I’ve seen in Torch and Scrapwall, and try again. The cloud winds down and almost shuts down, but doesn’t quite. The cloud whispers “override negated” – and I recognize that this nanite swarm is defective. Aakpesh, with the help of my Bullstrength spell, manages to damage it enough as it loses form and falls to the floor. Things seem well, until I hear “shutting down for self-repair” and I suggest we get moving, while telling 10LO what I’d learned. Maybe it’ll fix its own defects? Maybe it won’t. Still, would be nice to have control of it…

Aakpesh goes through door, and electricity arcs. He’s fine, but we hear it charge back up kinda slowly and then click, like a trap being re-set. Vayu checks out the panel beside the door and tells us it’s one of those proximity card readers. I cast Communal Protection From Energy (electricity) on us (84pts/70mins). Aakpesh triggers the door trap, and we run through. Preston and I are a bit unlucky though, and get zapped for 27pts of electrical damage.

Aakpesh shows us a video on a screen – it’s of doctors? There’s talk of a spell on the door, how what Master Zood seeks lies in this ship, and how Sahasho will help. And in the video is a swirl of glimmering dust.

Session Date: 05/17/2017, Prior Journal XP: 216, Session XP: 1,818 (Russell gets 909 for last sess)
Title Source: Ween – Puffy Cloud (Puffi Claude)

Jacques is (easily) talked into drinking the questionable water. He says it doesn’t taste right – a bit … oily, perhaps? Don’t have a lot of to discuss, as a local kid finds us and informs us that Ivik Gunnett is looking for us. He’s apparently returned from his travels – he’s been trying to set up new trade partners in the region. Apparently Redfang disagrees with this mentality – I’m beginning their distrust extends from robots to outsiders overall.

We head up to High Home, and are lead to a small library just off the council chambers. Library is a generous description though – it’s really just three books. For a town that apparently has such a strong hate of/distrust of technology, you’d expect their printed resources to be greater. Ivik is waiting in this room, smoking a pipe. He’s an older man, paunchy and balding, with a great bushy mustache. After reading our letter of introduction from Dinvaya, he asks for our story. We give him a recap with a bit more of a pronounced anti-tech skew. He asks our thoughts on the Technic League, and without missing a beat, 10LO says if they’re friends of tech, they’re no friends of ours.

This seems to please Ivik, and he goes off on a bit of a big monologue. The two big takeaways: he’s in need of people to run afoul of the Technic League, and he believes they have a spy in Iadenveigh. Of this last point, has no proof. We’re tasked with sussing out this spy, and if we can prove this to the council, the town may even compensate us. This seems tied to our larger problems, so we take on the work.

Ivik pulls a cloth-wrapped bundle from a locked cabinet, and carefully unfolds it before us. Inside, are the broken remains of a clockwork bird. It was brought down about 3 days ago by a hunter, heading North. Inside is a roughly sketched map of the town with the hillside springs circled and labeled “badwater”. On the back is this message written in Androffan:

“Locals identified southern springs as the source of the area’s mutations and now avoid it. Afflictions consistent with mutagenic gas poisoning, as you posited from Silver Mount expeditions. I will explore with caution; locals avoid the area and my current cover would seem noticeably out of place were I discovered there.”

I simply say “Odd language. Huh.” – it’s apparent that Ivik doesn’t read Androffan – no need letting him know I do. It is an odd language – I didn’t exactly lie.

If it was heading North, maybe it was heading to Starfall or Silver Mount? I think Ivik is on to something – this does seem like it was sent by a Technic League spy. Ivik confirms that the streams were the ones that Redfang drank from. And nearby the streams is the family Bardleigh – stonemasons that pick through rubble on side of hill looking for decent stone. Ivik tells us that they could likely tell us more about the “badwater”. Ivik’s also reasonably confident that the spy is a newcomer to town.

10LO and I head to the butcher/dentist/sawbones/etc while the others head to the Bardleighs. I talk to him that I’m a healer, and want to look at these mutations – to see if I can help somehow. 10LO decides to cut early, and rejoins the group as I chat with the “doc”. He says that there are less mutations now, since they know that water is the culprit. I tell him of the healing power of Sarenrae, and we chat for a bit about how both our gods are good, and he says that if Sarenrae would channel her healing powers through me, her heirophant, then there’s someone I can look at.

He takes me to a smaller home, stops at the door to talk to a woman, and motions me in. There’s a perfectly looking baby in a cradle. That is, it looks normal until it opens its eyes, revealing square pupils. After some quick tests, it’s clear that the baby is blind. I cast Cure Blindess on it, bandage the eyes, and instruct them to swaddle the child and not expose it to light for three days. With the divinity of Sarenrae revealed to these people, I return to the group.

Apparently Jacques went swimming in the badwater (of course), and Preston went fishing. They tell me of the Bardleigh kid who’d found some zills (finger cymbals), and what they gleaned from his parents. They talked of gypsies staying at the lumberyard (the campgrounds we could have stayed at), and that they’d been there for about a week.

We head there, and meet Heddick Widefoot, the owner. His lumberyard has high fences … looks a bit fort-ish? He doesn’t want us to start trouble, we’re just saying that we want to return the found zills. He points us to some tents in the middle of the yard.

Like Ivik, they’re trying to establish trade routes. We mention this, and offer up an introduction since they seem legit. We mention the zills, but they say they’re not theirs. Well, not theirs but Ilarris Zeleshi‘s – they met her, a half-elf, outside town a few days ago outside town. Like them, she is Varisian too. We hear a ruffling of a nearby tent and see dark figure scrabbling towards the timberwall. Aakpesh sprints and catches her as she’s trying to climb the wall.

She spits as him, tries to bite him and squirm free, but she can’t escape Aakpesh’s grapple. It’s Ilarris, and I can easily sense both anger and fear. In a show of good faith, I cast Remove Fear on her, and the space that was filled with fear has just been replaced with more anger. While Aakpesh releases her and we try to get answers out her, Preston sneaks off and inspects her tent, finding (and keeping some as evidence) the same parchment that was found in the clockwork bird.

It looks like we may our spy, but we need to get better confirmation. Things would also be easier to have her near High Home when we do, so we offer food and drink to her smooth things over, and in an another show of good faith, extend the offer to the other Varisians. We agree on this evening, and go our various ways. Preston and Jacques though sneak off to spy on the lumberyard. They see Ilarris slip off towards badwater, and lose track of her.

Vayu has a good idea for this evening: when we see Ilarris privately, we can say that we got her messages to earn her trust/trick her. This’ll be much easier as I can read and speak Androffan.

Session Date: 05/04/2017, Prior Journal XP: 216, Session XP: not this time.
Title Source: The New York Room – Minion of the Gypsies