Session 16

The group just finishes combat with the Dustwalkers, and hear someone calling out from the mouth of the cave. He asks if anyone is in there. He looks human, is holding a lamp and has a pistol pointed to the ground.

Athtar prepares two elixirs of life and downs them, but they don't provide much respite.

The group discerns that the man is not a threat and introduces themselves to him. Theo asks him for his name. He replies, "Duster Walkers" The man confirms. Theo also asks if he's here to investigate the mines. He replies, "Yes, I am."

Theo then explains what the party is doing here. Duster asks if the party could use any help in healing. Athtar pipes up saying he could use some help. Duster pulls a healer's toolkit out and Athtar moves closer to him. Theo monitors. Duster unfortunately can't meaningfully patch Athtar up just yet.

Gimli keeps exploring the cave and finds what appear to be dwellings for the Dwarves that worked these mines. Raiding the chests, he finds 3gp worth of jewelry. He also finds a keyring and takes it.

Theo suggests listening out and seeing if they can find where the construct might be. Theo and Gimli head through the corridor deeper into the mines. They find that the tracks split into three rails, one of which extends onto an elevator.

Duster helps patch Athtar up and Athtar also prepares another potion to heal himself. He's doing much better now.

Theo asks if Duster is willing to help with the construct. He agrees and joins the party. They push the minecart up onto the elevator and descend.

Athtar understands how the elevator works, realizing that the raised step is an E-stop for the elevator, and the rest of it is mostly automatic.

The gears on the elevator are somewhat rusty, making them dangerous. Theo uses his arm to pull the dust off, thinking that the dust from the storm might be metal filings. His hypothesis is correct, and he manages to pull it off. He then cleans the gears of the residual rust. They load the ballista onto the elevator and file in.

They descend the elevator. It is slow, creaky, and it feels rickedy, but they make it down in one piece. Theo, Gimli, and Athtar lead for the ballista. They find a raised platform with chests for materials. There are also numerous tunnels leading deeper into the mines.

As they move deeper, they find the construct. It is a large, clockwork construct and it holds a massive halberd. It is very rusted. It bears resemblance to a humanoid creature. It seems to have a bronze-ish color with splotches of red.

As the group calls out and announces the construct, it responds, slowly rising up from the water in the cave, and looks to the group. Its joints creak and spark for the group to make out its shape in the darkness.

Duster activates his bullseye lantern, revealing the construct soldier. It has its halberd in hand and is ready to fight. He then pulls his pistol out and fires an energy shot at the construct, missing.

Theo comes in, preparing a lightning blast at the construct. He hits. As it lands, it hits square in the chest. the construct makes audible creaking that sounds like a scream, taking additional damage.

Pete manages to push the cart up. He almost loses control over it but manages to restrain it in time. He pushes the cart into firing range of the construct and fires the ballista at it. The bolt grazes the construct's shoulder, dealing little damage.

The construct approaches Theo, upset that he hit it hard. The construct swings its halberd at him. It swings through his shield, breaking it and dealing some damage to him. It raises its arm, and raises a shield of its own.

Gimli puts a Tree Sentinel by Theo, protecting him from further damage. He then fires a blast at the construct but misses.

Athtar throws a vial of bottled lightning at the construct. He misses, but the lightning splashes and zaps the construct.

Duster reloads and then takes a shot with his pistol at the construct. He hits, dealing some more lightning damage. He recalls knowledge to learn that the construct has attacks of opportunity.

Theo makes a new shield and makes another blast at the construct. He misses.

Pete is up, he reloads the ballista and aims it at the construct.

The construct steps up to Theo and punches him. The tree blocks the punch, but the construct moves to grab Theo. It fails.

Gimli refreshes his tree sentinel and then throws an axe at the construct using his wood kineticism. He misses. Athtar pulls another versatile vial out, but before he finishes, the construct's head turns to him and it swings its halberd. The tree blocks the swing but the construct cuts right through the tree and cleaves into Athtar. Athtar then tries pulling another vial out, and throws it at the construct. He barely misses, dealing more splash damage. He moves away from the construct.

Duster heads to the minecart. He loads a lightning bolt into it and fires it at the construct. It sidesteps.

Theo raises his shield and tries to see what's wrong with the construct that set it off. He notices that the construct is oddly fluid in its movement, unnaturally so. He then sees a glimpse of a black liquid coating its gears. Theo tries to extract the element. Unusually, for a construct, it works, and a black liquid similar to oil leaks to the ground.

Pete loads lightning ammo into his gun and readies his weapon.

The construct moves up to Gimli and swings his fist to punch him. It misses, but then swings its halberd at Athtar, missing.

Gimli puts another Tree Sentinel between him, Athtar, and the construct. He then makes a blast at the construct dealing pure vitality damage to it...but it does nothing, as it can only harm undead.

Athtar tries to throw another vial but misses completely. The splash doesn't reach the construct. He moves back.

Theo steps back to make a thunder strike. He hits, but while it doesn't do much, it does at least make the soldier clumsy.

The soldier shoves Gimli, who was holding its arm, and then grapples him, restraining him.

Gimli tries to break out of the restraint but fails. Athtar pulls his last vial of bottled lightning, but completely misses again. He heads up the raised platform and goes to the edge of the platform.

Duster fires the ballista at the construct, hitting it square in the shoulder. The sounds of gears grinding screech through the cave. The construct isn't down, but it's almost there. He attempts to demoralize it but fails.

Theo attempts a lightning blast at the construct. He hits, forcing it to drop Gimli. The black Eiker drips off its gears, and the construct falls to the ground, mostly intact.

Gimli explores the cave. He sees a large opening. He falls into a crevasse.

Athtar prepares a void elixir and hands it to Theo to heal up.

Athtar and Theo attempt to dissassemble the construct. Since they're trying to be careful and not damage the construct they don't manage to pull it apart. They decide instead to try and carry it out in full.

Duster and Pete inspect the raised platform. There's various lamps and diagrams on tables. One of the papers has a charcoal rubbing of a symbol. It is a circle surrounded by a square, surrounded by a triangle, surrounded by a circle.

Pete looks at the machine over the rails opposite the elevator. It is a crane-like machine to lift items into carts. Pete suggests dragging the construct where they can put it onto the pallet and then lower it into the cart.

They decide to put a bedroll down and drag it to the crane. Athtar mans the crane with Theo's help, and Gimli gets the construct onto the pallet. They successfully get it into the cart. Theo then removes the rust from the construct and the bolt that was embedded in the shoulder.

Theo suggests checking the water the construct was kneeling at before. When he checked before, it was murky and he couldn't see anything through it. Pete uses a glowstick. It starts shallow, but drops into darker murkiness very quickly.

Pete takes his pistol off and pulls his dagger out. He then walks into the water with the glowstick. The water is so murky, he can only see a few feet in front of him. He cannot make anything out, but he feels a current at his feet. He thinks that if he were to follow it, he would find a tunnel. He walks back out.

The group explores the other caves. The blue crystals are just common material. They venture deeper. They find a pool of black liquid. Gimli spots a cave drawing on the wall. There is writing on the wall. Theo can read it: "Here Calliax was bound, forever sealed, forever unmade."

Athtar does know Calliax from old history from the Aslanty. They were never at the frontier, having been an island nation. Their island was sunk into the Earth, and their empire destroyed. He was the court Alchemist. Athtar recognizes the symbol as that of the Philosopher's stone.

Athtar looks at the blood and the oil. It looks similar to Theo's blood, but it is not the same. The biggest difference is that Theo's blood is more like its own living entity.

Duster feels a similar feel to that of an elemental. He feels very off about it.

Athtar attempts to take a sample, and the oil reacts. It tries to grab him and pull him in. He manages to pull away before it could grab him. It splashes back down and returns to its original form, but doesn't manage to get any of the liquid.

Theo and Athtar back away, preparing to light it on fire.

Before they do, Pete steps close and runs his arm over it, it makes the same kind of motions he does. He attempts to touch it, and it tries to pull him in just the same as Athtar.