The Land of the Endless Sky [Pathfinder Campaign Journal]

[Lappy9001]

Chapter 10: The Demon, the Portal, and the Clocktower
After an appropriately somber moment following the events of the last session, the party embarks to the tower in the distance!

Mystery Metal

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After an uneventful hour-or-so long trek through the jungle, the party makes their way up to the severed tower in the distance. Ever the appraiser of exotic stonework, Garo immediately investigates the tower and finds that its architecture is unfamiliar and presumably very ancient. Cautiously, they enter inside the open stone doors to find a largely empty room strewn with tracked in dirt, dinosaur egg fragments, and nesting material, although fortunately they do not find any territorial beasts. In the far back wall of the tower is a staircase that spirals upwards, and upon inspection, a trap door is discovered some distance from the base of the stairs.

The group opts to investigate the trap door first, and once Vosen declares the door unlocked and trap-free, they open it to reveal a basement floor littered with crates upon crates of a strange greenish-yellow metal. Noone is able to identify the strange material, boxed up as both ingots and clockwork parts, but Garo concludes that it must be valuable, and at least very rare, so they manage to drag around as much as they can carry (which turns out is about a half ton). Laden with potential treasure, the party proceeds up the staircase.

The staircase leads the group into a long stone hallway, forming a valley of sorts, with the ceiling giving way to a much larger room concealed by darkness. Yet another iron staircase at the far end of the hallway climbs up to the landing above. Gamil, instructed by the group, flies upwards with a torch, showing a convulted amalgamation of clockwork parts, all composed of the metal found at the tower's base. Seeing no immediate threats, Vosen ascends the stairs followed shortly by the rest of the party.

Clockwork Sentinels

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The landing is largely barren, but they quickly locate three dead bodies and a the remains of a makeshift camp. Judging by the cages, traps, and cracked dinosaur eggs, it is likely the dead men were poachers seeking to capture dinosaurs for pit fights and curiosities back in Spire. A quick examination of the bodies shows crossbow bolts lodged into their flesh, probably an ambush while they slept. Several 'X' marks lead the party to a metal lift, large enough for all of them with room to spare, and a single lever. With no other plan, everyone gets onto the lift and pulls the lever.

The machinery above immediately whirls to life, churning and spinning to an unknown purpose as the lift is tugged upwards with alarming speed. As the elevator stops at its destination, the party sees a thin catwalk above the deathtrap of spinning cogs with several suspended platforms supporting clockwork humanoids! One of the constructs hops nimbly onto the catwalk, crossbow-like weapon pointed at the party, and communicated in a garbled speech. Beinlein tries to communicate, but even with a Comprehend Languages spell, is unable to avoid confrontation (the machine's 'voice' was damaged and was not producing any actual language).

The clockwork constructs seem to be divided into humanoid archers and two humanoid casters, with several spider-like constructs that fling nets and heal their fellow units. The party, unwilling to leave the catwalk for the precariously thin support beams, is left without any cover, and comes under heavy fire from high-powered bolts and blasts of lightning. Groot, in particular, finally takes enough damage to send him out of the material plane! The party makes short work of the constructs on the catwalk, and Vosen takes out the others with some masterful acrobatics, and with a well-placed Silence spell from his wand. However, Vosen loses his short sword after being disarmed by one of the constructs before destroying the machine, and dismantling its arm-mounted bolt gun for his own use! Hearing reinforcements approach, the party (minus Groot) quickly leaves the catwalk to the door at the far end, leading to the top of the tower.

The Portal

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The party reaches the roof of the tower and out into the open, seeing a large portal some twenty feet across. With clockwork guardians in pursuit, they order Gamil to open the portal. Almost instantly, it seems as though the imp's entire demeanor has changed; no longer snivelling and cowardly, Gamil holds himself higher and speaks slowly through a wide grin, "First, I need something of yours. I need someone's blood. Hers," he points to Nualia, "in particular." Puzzled by his requests, the party begrudgingly decides to allow Gamil a drop of Nualia's blood, who then flies over to the portal and places his hand upon the stone. A swirling maelstrom of muddy red flows through the portal as the party braces themselves to step through. "I will warn you, the trip may be a little...rough," Gamil sneers. Not trusting the imp a bit, Lago readies himself to subdue the fiend the second things go awry.

With a strange tugging sensation, the party is pulled rapidly through the swirling mass, witnessing strange and horrific images in a split second. Fire and brimstone, moaning forsaken souls, and strange emptiness permeate the hellish landscape as Gamil whispers, "They were all once like you," before the party is thrown out of the portal onto cobblestone.

Archdown

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Looking around, the group finds themselves in the square of a small town, apparently build around a large arch, more than double the size of the portal they escaped through. Gamil is nowhere to be seen, but the familiar darkness of Huron above quickly materializes. The party manages to pacify the alarmed passerbys (somehow) before getting their bearings. Vosen recognizes the town as Archdown, a town a few hours from Illium.

Garo finds a shop to sell some of the party's recently acquired riches, as a hooded figure passes the party and ascends the arch. Built with steep stairs on either side, the arch appears to be used to conduct town meetings, or in this case, a sermon. The figure throws back his hood to reveal a handsome half-elf with blonde hair who begins to speak the praises of the Dark Queen, preaching freedom from all things and singing the blessings of the dark cloud above.

Spotting a half-orc in Voyager armor keeping a watchful eye over the procession, the remaining party speaks to him as Lago and Nualia decide to get information from the preacher by pretending to be very enthusiastic listeners. The Voyager introduces himself as Grimnar, and once the pleasantries are exchanged, he alerts that a Message went out to all Voyagers that the group is wanted back in Illium immediately for some extremely important business. Grimnar states that he can provide transportation, if need be. Before they decide to leave, the party opts to track the preacher, who has managed to convince a half-dozen people (plus Lago and Nualia) to follow him for recruitment into the Dark Callers. After promising to return shortly, Grimnar agrees, and begins travel preparations.

Definitely wasn't expecting the party to grab all of that metal, but oh well. Vosen's new weapon is seriously cool, and can function as a shortsword, hand crossbow (with 4 bolts), and disarming weapon with a flick of the lever that fits over the arm. The bit about the Dark Caller preacher was meant to be merely descriptive, but I decided to roll with it and fast-track an important event to the next session.