Navigating past the terrible tower of zappiness, they return to the medusa’s lair – but first spend several minutes shooting arrows at the forest of tentacles that apparently still guards this area. Once vanquished, they go about locating the dwarven coat rack and smear the jelly onto him.
Minutes pass and nothing happens. Paranoia stars swirling. Is it a trick? Was it a ruse to lure them all here so they could be disposed of beneath the city? Errmehgerrd!
More jaded heads prevail and they decide to sit a while and see if the stuff just takes time. What if it takes so much time that they are trapped by the tentacles again? Should they shuffle the stoney one into the hallway and wait there? What if they’re attacked…and so on.
Happily, the time spent dithering allows the magical goop to function and the glazed dwarf is returned to a fleshier state. They decide to venture into the place guarded by the axe-swinging demon and descend the stairs. They encounter a long hallway, which they traverse – eventually coming across another scene of inter-cult conflict, as a minotaur displaying an ebon hand face tattoo is fighting against a trio of Venom cultists. One is down and the other two are losing to the enraged minotaur. The party waits until all are weakened and then attacks, wiping them out.
The journey to the end of the tunnel brings them to an iron door. Beyond the door lies a silo filled with scaffolding and a strange contraption that whirrs and whirls, gears meshing and widgets widgeting furiously. The device is over 100 feet tall and guarded by one of the transformed apartment dwellers. The guard is swiftly slain and it doesn’t look like the noise of combat has been detected, given the billowing gouts of steam and the ongoing roar of machinery.
Some scouting reveals a hatch on the side of the contraption and after a few harrowing near misses that almost result in party members being pitched over the edges – they gain access to the interior of the machine. They roam around cramped maintenance tunnels and marvel at the myriad of strang tubes, devices, dials, wires, and whatnot that they discover as they climb down the interior of the machine. It is hot and moist and noisy, but down they go.
The temperature gets noticeably cooler as they descend and there are some strange flashes of different realities superimposed on the world they inhabit…endless swamps and strange reptilian creatures lurk at the edges of vision. An undead is encountered, but seems more confused than aggressive and they uncharacteristically do not slay it.
Finally, they stand at the top of a long ladder that leads to the base of the machine. There, a strange cone-shaped demon(?) with visible entrails and a gaping mouth is communicating with a thin humanoid wearing a leather cap and goggles. Bayga declares that this is the chief gadgeteer and there is a moment of debate before a parley is attempted. The demon vomits a cone of acid and maggots and worse, shooting up with geyser force. The damage nearly slays Bayga and Zaal, so it looks like retreat is on the menu. Some kind of alarm has been raised and a hasty retreat might preserve life and limb.
The larger folk move faster than the vertically challenged party members, so the short ones take advantage by committing as many acts of sabotage as they can. Pulling levers, removing wires, smashing boxes and twisting dials. This seems to have some effect as the spinning cylinder starts to develop a screeching wobble that grows in eccentricity and intensity as they continue the sabotage campaign. At one point along the ascent, another hatch to the exterior is opened and the gnome sees a number of transformed folk clambering up the scaffolding, clearly attempting to head off the party.
When they arrive at the top, the wobble has damaged the interior circle of scaffolding so some desperate measures are taken to try and escape before everything explodes and/or collapses, leading to Kegdrain nearly losing his life as he falls to the scaffolding level below. A few moments of panic and the group is away, fleeing through the long tunnels at top speed (such as it is), when a tremendous rumble and some earth tremors announce that the machine has likely disintegrated – collapsing into the pit. What about potential side passages? Yeah, no. Not today, since several of the party are dangerously low on health. A camping session is undertaken in the long hall – and it seems as though there is no pursuit. Invisibilities are undertaken and the group creeps onto the surface the following morning.
The Oldtown district is abuzz with activity. An earth tremor has caused the collapse of several buildings on the surface and there are crews excavating the rubble, builders coming to shore up adjacent damaged buildings and the like. It is relatively simple for the group to make their escape across the bridge and find a cab driver who is perfectly happy to take some extra coin for passengers that he cannot see.
From Rivergate to the house in the south of town…no watchers detected, but what does that really mean? The red mage was able to find them so they think it’s likely that others can as well. Perhaps the Surgeon, perhaps the cult-dude who robbed them of their cult wares a few months ago. Maybe a new enemy they’ve made! How exciting!
Overnight in the house is followed by a trip to the docks to secure seedier and perhaps less watched lodgings…but then again they were identified as potential recruits / rubes within moments of setting foot on the docks, so maybe that isn’t a good idea. Eventually they return to Delver’s Square and the flohouse room they still have rented. There they try to stay unnoticed while they gather some information about the current state of affairs.
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