Session One Hundred and Fourteen (Graveyard of Empires Summary)

Session #114:

26th of Jourelden – evening, somewhere deep under the bay.

The day started well, yet I find myself trapped in an air bubble, inside a glass-like dome under water. So much for my uncle’s prediction that I’d get bored and come back to the “business”… bored I am not.

We started the day realizing that there’s no feasible way for us all to explore the depths of the bay (and avoiding those dreadful sea trolls) without some of the helmets and air-tanks we found in the facility.

At the shore, Lord Thorfus instructed his mec-monkeys to gather the equipment as we discussed our options – or rather they did. My mind was wondering how to adapt the engine scheme used by the MidMark’s experimental ship to propel a vessel UNDER the waves. It’s possible! I just need to find how the dwarves created that clear strong crystal and how they filled those tanks. See sketches 75 through 84 for the concept.

I digress – equipped with helmets, suits and air-tanks we make our way back near where the Bitter Horse is anchored and prepare Thorfus for his descent. Lowered by rope and watched over by Chuck in manta-form, he and and a mec-monkey eventually make it to the bottom and thanks to the broachie-talkie we’re able to confirm with Thorfus that the way is clear.

To be honest – I didn’t think that the suit, helmet and tanks would still work after more than 1000 years, but ancient dwarven workmanship has a surprising ability to resist the ravages of time.

It wasn’t long before Thorfus finds the “hatch” and mentions that a button near it is faintly glowing green – confirming that there is a power source of some kind.

Without much prompting, myself, Canis and Giacomo “the great” (he makes me laugh that one – if only he knew) head down ourselves.

While we descended – Thorfus later explained to me – he pressed the faint green button near the door and noticed the room beyond it filling with water, allowing him to open the hatch and entering. Hitting the button on the inside allowed for the water to be drained out – likely by way of an automated push-pump of some kind (i’ll have to take a look if the opportunity presents itself).

The inner door also had a glowing button next to it – red when the the room was filled with water, green when emptied. The whole system works like the river locks near home, except they let you go from water to air. Ingenious!

After a little while we all eventually end up on the dry side of the room – a rather long corridor (~500 ft) which ended at a dome-topped building.

Chuck and myself scouted ahead, finding a room much like the at the bottom of the pit near the beach. In my haste I immediately moved forward to inspect a strange blue glow coming from one of the damaged the engines… and promptly paid a hefty price, shocking myself TWICE! Resulting in a rightly deserved scolding from Kalgunn. I must be more careful, I’ve learned much in the last few months, and apparently I have much more to learn – provided my mistakes don’t kill me. I at least discovered that they were purposely damaged – recently.

After the sting I probed further finding several shark-like bipeds and one decomposing human pined to the south walls with tridents. They were still moving, like the abominations from the research facilities. Seeing no other threats (they’re pinned!), but hearing combat in the distance I reported back to Thorfus and the others.

Seems that the Company have encountered similar “undead” in the past – something about the bodies being under the influence of some kind of DevilFish idol. The only way to destroy them is by dismembering them and then getting them away from the idol.

Moving into the larger space – Chuck “senses” that there are beings desperate to survive coming from where I heard the fighting. After a quick search of the room and those adjacent, Chuck and Thorfus determine that we should try to come to the aid of whomever might need it.

I think we may live to regret that decision. Entering the room from which the sounds of battle emanated from resulted with us facing a large group of undead shark-people and large crustaceans. The battle was harsh – but we prevailed thanks to Thorfus’ mec-monkeys, some excellent bow skills from Ronin and Thorfus and a flash from my recently acquired wand.

The rest is rather still fresh – the surviving live shark-people manage to rudimentary communicate with Chuck, giving us the impression that they’re grateful and that they also know Chuck’s shark-friend.

They had us follow them past their defensive line and eventually to underneath the main dome, where we find ourselves trapped, along with two, well, one of Grel’s crew. Ronin had a “talk” with the other one – the conversation ended rather bloodily I’m afraid.The survivors told us some very interesting things about the last hours of Grel’s fleet – we’re still not sure what happened, but we’re fairly certain Grel was double crossed by the Imperials.

Our prison is similar to a wasp’s nest – made of some organic material and filled with breathable air and fixed to the crystal dome out of which we can see and a hole in its bottom allowing us to swim out if we dare.

OH! Before I forget – the trip to this dome was long and completely under water. The shark-people had us swallow a strange stone which lodged in our throats (rather painfully at first) and allowed us to breathe water and only water, attempting to breath air while still having the stone in one’s thought is not a good idea. I wish I could study one further – unfortunately they dissolve after roughly 2 hours allowing use to breathe normally again.

So that’s we’re sit right now, and I see that one of the shark-people is coming… I’ll continue later.