As you stumble further into the building a single hanging chandelier flickers into life. It’s dim, an off-green, and buzzes like a wasp. No discernible flame; a strange fixture indeed.
A panoramic statue depicts folk from all walks of life, from sky-fishers up to scroll carrying scholars. No one approaching king or lord that you can make out. Everyone has a worthwhile job. The heads of each figure have been destroyed, and done so thoroughly that there aren’t enough remains to piece one back together.
Half of the room has collapsed, leaving only two doors to explore. They’re both large, solid stone and round, and unlike anything you’ve seen before. They don’t have doorknobs, nor keyholes, so you’re not certain how to open them yet.
The walls have scratch marks on them ranging from four feet off the floor to above head height. There are scraps of metal on the ground worth 2 resource. Share it evenly or make a deal.
Resource
Resources are beast parts, plants and the like for others to study back at the steading.
They’re a good source of income and improve the Steading’s knowledge of the new world. If you can find a buyer with cash to spare 1 resource is worth 50 coins, but you might have to settle for less.
Later, when you want to craft an item, resource will stand in for some or all the materials/ingredients you need. Think of it as a version of Adventuring Gear for the things you might do at the Steading.
"Well ain't that a sight!" muses Otto as he looks at the statue. "Although I guess some... thing didn't take a liking to their heads. I wonder if it was the same critter that made all of these claw marks on walls. What do you think might've made those?" Otto wanders over to the metal scraps.
[OOC: Is this a familiar metal? Gold, silver, iron? Do the scraps look like they fit to anything in the room or to each other?]
"On our way out we should definitely gather up this scrap and see if we can get some coin for it. If Mido asks about it a share, I have no problem with it to keep the peace, but as long as he says nothing, I won't bring it up of you won't and we split down the middle if he says nothing? Deal?" Otto will offer the his hand to shake on it.
[OOC: After whatever deal is eventually agreed upon, Otto will turn his attention to the doors. By round are we talking disks like a Hobbit door or spheres?]
"Let's see if we can get one of these things open. You have a preference? If not I'll just flip this here coin. The prime minister side up we go for the door nearest the one we came in, city of Osnos we see about the one across from where we came in."
The metal fragments include coils of copper wire, scraps of high grade steel and a sliver or two of an alloy you can’t place. Sharp and strong, you can’t bend it, a metallic white-grey. Couple of bent cogs, but otherwise nothing you could rebuild something with. You don’t know what they were once part of, and they don’t immediately strike you as being beyond modern technology such as airships, brewery pumps and flintlock pistols.
The doors are disc-like, and upon inspection must roll off into a cavity built into the wall. It’s the only explanation. You can’t see how they open. Do you put your hands on it to try and shift it Otto?
Wei, are you investigating the room? Perhaps Discern Realities is in order.
Wei shakes Otto's hand. "Agreed." Though he isn't usually interested in material wealth, Having something worth bartering with or working with at the Steading could be useful.
Wei takes a close look at the doors at the statue, the scratches and the doors.
Otto watches Wei take it in. He takes out the lighter he fiddled with at the briefing and starts repeatedly opening and closing it again. While fiddling, he expectantly waits for any insight.
Nothing here could be called recent. That said, someone, or a group, took a hammer to these statues. The fact every head is gone and no worthwhile trace remains is the work of those with higher thinking. A beast could never be so thorough.
Speaking of, the scratch marks run the full length of the room, over and over again, about an inch or two thick in the worst areas. Taking a look closer you see they also cover the ruined end, crossing over the fallen debris at the same height as the walls.
The doors have a couple of light marks, but are mostly unscathed. These could be the tracks of an animal, yet there’s something too uniform about it, and lacking in meaning. What could possibly leave tracks that isn’t a person or animal?
Otherwise you note water is dripping in through cracks in the ceiling. A section of it caves in beside you, and you barely have time to step aside. Not only is this place a ruin, it’s actively getting worse.
Wei studies the doors and takes a moment, before pulling out a little plain figure made of woven sticks. He'd found them, deep within the Great Forest, almost as if they were left for him by someone, or something...or the island itself.
"Stand back," he tells Otto, before turning to the left-hand door. He whispers "grow" to the figure and tosses it into the edge beneath the door. The figure expands explosively, vines shooting in between the floor and the stone door, pushing, straining to grow bigger, shifting the door aside with great effort in a matter of moments. The rock groans, the vines snap and wither after the furious growth, leaving a gap wide enough to walk through. "Let's hope we don't have to do that for every door. I don't have many of those left."
He hefts his spear. "Let's move quickly. This place is falling apart." He leads the way through the door.
The chandelier flickers and dims as the door is forced open. You enter a short corridor with a half opened door at the other end. It’s wide enough for you to pass beyond it one at a time. A wall light buzzes into life, then pops.
The next chamber (Room C) is partially collapsed, but what remains consists of upturned stone tables, empty coffers and smashed chests. A row of shelves lies empty, save for a single gleaming ring. Beneath it gathering dust on the cracked floor is a big, big emerald.
Ancient Ring
0 weight
Cut Emerald
1 weight
Who’s stepping into the room first?
Also a small bonus for doing something cool, Wei will sense if something crosses the vines for the rest of the expedition.
You dive Wei, and crack your jaw on the remaining floor before falling into the dark below. You land on rubble, and none too comfortably.
You take 4 damage.
Wei, you land in front of a machine with an unknown purpose. You hear a twang of metal fall by your leg and clatter off to the side. The only light in the room is dangerous sparks arcing from it and several lights that glow dimly at odd intervals before returning to darkness. It rumbles in a way you’re sure isn’t right, even with your limited experience with mechanics. The room is hot! Real hot! You are disoriented. (You’re in Room D)
You begin to fall Otto, but catch yourself at the last moment. Unfortunately you drop your rapier trying to grab Wei. The ring and emerald are across the newly made gap. Beyond them is a staircase.
Dare you leap over and grab them? The floor looks okay from where you’re standing.
You can’t see jack down the gap, so you will hurt yourself if you jump down after Wei, but it’s the quickest way to get to him.
Sorry, Wei, gotta pay the bills. Otto uses whatever space he has to make a running leap over the gap. If I make this, I'll grab the ring and gem and make my way down the steps and assume they lead to where Wei is.
You make it across and skid into an upturned table. You pick up the ring and emerald in each hand, and they vanish from sight. You can still feel the weight of them in your hands.
Are you taking a moment to look over the room, or ponder these items? Or are you just gonna pocket them and run down the stairs?
Well that's interesting... Otto pockets the items. He calls out to Wei, "Hey, you okay down there?" while tentatively reaching into the closest non-smashed container. Maybe, just maybe there's more unseen treasure...
Otto, when you search the room, roll+WIS!
On a 10+, you find 50 coins worth of regular cut gems.
On a 7-9, choose one.
- You find 50 coins worth of gems, but it gets the drop on you.
- You look up in time to draw your pistol.
Wei, all you really see is this thing is missing parts, leaking a fuel or coolant, and is shuddering dangerously! However, you senses are keen indeed, give me a Discern Realities roll.
When you closely study a situation or person, roll+Wis.
On a 10+ ask the GM three questions from the list below.
On a 7–9 ask one.
- What happened here recently?
- What is about to happen?
- What should I be on the lookout for?
- What here is useful or valuable to me?
- Who’s really in control here?
- What here is not what it appears to be?
Take +1 forward when acting on the answers.
You can use the gems as cash, or perhaps sell them on for an inflated price if you trick someone rich and dumb!
With time to spare you notice the same kind of scratches around the walls of this room. They lead down the stairs, and stop abruptly half way.
Your ears prick up at the sound of something metal clanging against the stairs... but nothing appears to face you. Guess you’ll have to investigate. Maybe you could push that table along to use as cover across the top of the staircase, it’s up to you...
Without his rapier as a mainstay, Otto decides he better have some cover if he's going to have to reload his pistol. He sets about pushing the table across the top of the staircase. He draws his pistol and peers over his makeshift cover...
You see a spider-like contraption on it’s side. You hear a constant whirring sound as it’s legs move slowly, methodically as if trying to walk. There are several crossbow bolts in its side.
The blast of lead sends the contraption hurling down the stairs. It lands out of sight. You hear the sudden clatter of metal on stone, over and over, could be movement, but still you see nothing! ...Is it finished?
Smoke swirls from your pistol. You expend 1 ammo.
A wall light lazily starts up on the staircase, then flickers on and off before maintaining a steady dim light. You don’t see any shadows cast at the bottom. Time you find your pal, you reckon.
Wei
What happened here recently?
You’re right, this is a weather machine—who knew such a thing existed? The machine has been tampered with, parts are missing, and copper wires have been tied together roughly. It’s been jury-rigged. It shouldn’t be turned on, let alone doing what it’s doing.
What should I be on the lookout for?
It’s incredibly hot, touching the machine would be foolish, however there appears to be a series of tall vials attached to the machine, and one is full of a black liquid. It must be the fuel needed to run the machine, or at least something vital to its functioning. The simplest course of action would be to smash it in the hopes that stops it.
What here is useful or valuable to me?
Potentially the black liquid.
Otherwise if you can turn off the machine without it melting down you could take parts with you, or come back here another day with hired hands and a galleon to pick the whole thing up. You’d have to keep your find secret with Otto until you could afford such an expedition.
The very fact there is or was a civilisation native to the Storm March is valuable information to be used wisely!
You hear a deep hum, and then feel a jolt of pain in your side. You collapse and roll down the remaining stairs. You were hit by an electric charge! Above you, clinging to the side of the wall, the emerald eyes of the contraption looks down on you. How could it vanish and reappear like that?
It drops down onto the stairs, and a couple of cogs drop out from its underbelly. It was in a fight before you got here.
You hear a click, and your foe ripples with a translucent film... but it doesn’t become invisible again, instead it returns to full visibility. It’s running out of power. The damn thing is as big as a dog, but fortunately not in good shape. It has a few crossbow bolts stuck in its side, and a deep dent in its head from your own shot. You reckon pulling a bolt of two out will bring its inside with it.
Otto, you’re on your back but otherwise thinking clear, and your pistol is tight in you hand. You feel a sudden wave of heat against the side of your body. A machine is making a racket to your left, but it’s too dark to make much out.
Shooting the thing up will take time, it’s evidently tough. Instead, if you want to bridge the gap and get up close to pull out the bolts, roll to Defy Danger with DEX.
Wei, you need to stop this machine right now!... but you also hear the unmistakable cussing of Otto as he hits the deck on the other side of the room. What do you do?
Time to dance you little monster. Otto holsters his sidearm and closes the distance. He can't help but try to roll with a flourish when close enough to bridge the final gap and try to pull out the bolts until the beast stop moving, he stops moving, or runs out of bolts...
Ripping the old bolts from the mechanised beast, you’re hit by a sudden burst of cogs and smouldering innards!
You feel a black-eye throb, a cog hit you so hard your right eye is swollen shut. You carry -1 forward to fire your pistol or spot something in the dark room.
You stumble back down the stairs but manage to keep your footing.
The contraption skitters down after you, but one side of its body is done in. It’s course bends with only one set of legs working, and slowly comes to a stop facing a wall in the boiling hot, gloomy room you find yourself in. It’s shut down, all out of what remaining power it had.
Spider Defender ancient, rare, techno, 5 weight
Otto, there’s a great hulking machine in this room. It looks like it could blow any minute!
Wei frowns. Stopping the machine completely may disrupt the plants and animals living on the island. But doing nothing, the island will drown itself.
"I'm working on it!" Wei yells.
Wei wields his spear like a club and smashes the vial of black liquid. Perhaps the life below would be able to continue without it, or maybe there was a way to fix the machine after. For now, it needed to be stopped.
The vial shatters and the black liquid bubbles and boils before your eyes! You hear the machine begin to slow instantly, but unfortunately the liquid ignites moments later! Half the machine is on fire!
The room is filling with smoke! You can only do one other thing each in this room before you start taking severe internal damage that will take days of rest to repair! Think quickly!
- Get Otto’s rapier; it’s just on the rubble.
- Haul the spider defender up the stairs if you want to keep it.
- Take a sample of the liquid before it burns away completely (for argument’s sake you’ve a little bottle on you).
After that you’ll need to make haste up the stairs.
There it is! Otto sees his rapier and grabs it. "The spider will keep if this place doesn't totally fall down around our ears, so I reccommend getting some of that fluid before both it and we disappear from the premises!"
"Agreed!" Wei pulls a vial, he keeps them for whatever various liquids he might find, honey, sap, pollen, juice from a fruit, etc. He fills it with the black liquid and gets out.
You’re not experts of roaring blazes, but there wasn’t that much fuel left, and the room is empty save from the machine and rubble. You’ll be able to revisit this place one day, but not today. Smoke billows out of the broken floor, the smoke a thick toxic black, already causing you both to cough and shut your eyes as you race away.
Eventually you squeeze back out the entrance the way you came to find that the sky has already cleared. Droplets lazily fall from every plant and overhanging rock. The sun is warm on your skin. You stint to high Heavens of smoke.
Many questions are left unanswered.
- Who crafted the mechanical guard, and are their more?
- Who built the weather machine and why?
- Who sabotaged the building and the machine within?
- Has anyone heard of the invisibility magic held within the ring and emerald?
- Will the island below survive without the machine?
- Who, if any, should know what you’ve found here today?
What you do realise Wei is that without the constant rain surely other islands will receive a fairer share. Perhaps that barren island barely in view is so sparse before this one, before or after this incident, has been absorbing clouds otherwise destinies for it. Nature endures, things may be different here now, but surely it doesn’t need that machine...
Harley is sleeping upside down Otto, but your curious mount waits patiently facing the entrance, and they drop something from their jaws as you approach.
Rusty Emblem 1 weight
Made of a heavy grey metal, a hand-sized circular disc with a pattern embossed onto it. There is a hole in the middle. It has no purpose you can think of.
At the very top of the overgrown building you see the first signs of smoke seeping through the cracks. You hear what must be another section inside cave in. What a sorry mess. One last question hits you:
- How is a building ruined like this but leaves no corpses behind, not so much as a bone. Where did the people go?
Wei whistles for Jiang, wondering if his curious mount went looking for something. He is relieved, looking down at the island. He looks at Otto. "I think we should recommend that 'settling on this island is inadvisable'. Due to "adverse weather conditions" and "dangerous local wildlife". I think we should keep knowledge of that...machine... close. For now. Until perhaps we can return and study more, perhaps. Would you agree to that?" He looks at the vial in his hands. "I will let you keep all the resources we found if you would agree to that." Wei offers the resources they had split earlier. "I will give you the liquid too, if you know someone discreet who can study it?"
Posts
As you stumble further into the building a single hanging chandelier flickers into life. It’s dim, an off-green, and buzzes like a wasp. No discernible flame; a strange fixture indeed.
You find yourself in a large chamber (Room A).
A panoramic statue depicts folk from all walks of life, from sky-fishers up to scroll carrying scholars. No one approaching king or lord that you can make out. Everyone has a worthwhile job. The heads of each figure have been destroyed, and done so thoroughly that there aren’t enough remains to piece one back together.
Half of the room has collapsed, leaving only two doors to explore. They’re both large, solid stone and round, and unlike anything you’ve seen before. They don’t have doorknobs, nor keyholes, so you’re not certain how to open them yet.
The walls have scratch marks on them ranging from four feet off the floor to above head height. There are scraps of metal on the ground worth 2 resource. Share it evenly or make a deal.
Resource
Resources are beast parts, plants and the like for others to study back at the steading.
They’re a good source of income and improve the Steading’s knowledge of the new world. If you can find a buyer with cash to spare 1 resource is worth 50 coins, but you might have to settle for less.
Later, when you want to craft an item, resource will stand in for some or all the materials/ingredients you need. Think of it as a version of Adventuring Gear for the things you might do at the Steading.
[OOC: Is this a familiar metal? Gold, silver, iron? Do the scraps look like they fit to anything in the room or to each other?]
"On our way out we should definitely gather up this scrap and see if we can get some coin for it. If Mido asks about it a share, I have no problem with it to keep the peace, but as long as he says nothing, I won't bring it up of you won't and we split down the middle if he says nothing? Deal?" Otto will offer the his hand to shake on it.
[OOC: After whatever deal is eventually agreed upon, Otto will turn his attention to the doors. By round are we talking disks like a Hobbit door or spheres?]
"Let's see if we can get one of these things open. You have a preference? If not I'll just flip this here coin. The prime minister side up we go for the door nearest the one we came in, city of Osnos we see about the one across from where we came in."
Geth roll 1d2 for Coin Flip
[OOC 1 = door to B, 2 = door to C]
Oo\ Ironsizide
The doors are disc-like, and upon inspection must roll off into a cavity built into the wall. It’s the only explanation. You can’t see how they open. Do you put your hands on it to try and shift it Otto?
Wei, are you investigating the room? Perhaps Discern Realities is in order.
Wei takes a close look at the doors at the statue, the scratches and the doors.
what happened here recently?
geth roll 2d6+2 discern realities
Oo\ Ironsizide
Nothing here could be called recent. That said, someone, or a group, took a hammer to these statues. The fact every head is gone and no worthwhile trace remains is the work of those with higher thinking. A beast could never be so thorough.
Speaking of, the scratch marks run the full length of the room, over and over again, about an inch or two thick in the worst areas. Taking a look closer you see they also cover the ruined end, crossing over the fallen debris at the same height as the walls.
The doors have a couple of light marks, but are mostly unscathed. These could be the tracks of an animal, yet there’s something too uniform about it, and lacking in meaning. What could possibly leave tracks that isn’t a person or animal?
Otherwise you note water is dripping in through cracks in the ceiling. A section of it caves in beside you, and you barely have time to step aside. Not only is this place a ruin, it’s actively getting worse.
"Stand back," he tells Otto, before turning to the left-hand door. He whispers "grow" to the figure and tosses it into the edge beneath the door. The figure expands explosively, vines shooting in between the floor and the stone door, pushing, straining to grow bigger, shifting the door aside with great effort in a matter of moments. The rock groans, the vines snap and wither after the furious growth, leaving a gap wide enough to walk through. "Let's hope we don't have to do that for every door. I don't have many of those left."
He hefts his spear. "Let's move quickly. This place is falling apart." He leads the way through the door.
The next chamber (Room C) is partially collapsed, but what remains consists of upturned stone tables, empty coffers and smashed chests. A row of shelves lies empty, save for a single gleaming ring. Beneath it gathering dust on the cracked floor is a big, big emerald.
Ancient Ring
0 weight
Cut Emerald
1 weight
Who’s stepping into the room first?
Also a small bonus for doing something cool, Wei will sense if something crosses the vines for the rest of the expedition.
geth roll 2d6+0
[OOC: Is Aid appropriate here? I suppose lack of a Bond gets in the way?]
Oo\ Ironsizide
"Hells!" Otto grabs air where he hoped Wei would be.
Oo\ Ironsizide
You take 4 damage.
Wei, you land in front of a machine with an unknown purpose. You hear a twang of metal fall by your leg and clatter off to the side. The only light in the room is dangerous sparks arcing from it and several lights that glow dimly at odd intervals before returning to darkness. It rumbles in a way you’re sure isn’t right, even with your limited experience with mechanics. The room is hot! Real hot! You are disoriented. (You’re in Room D)
You begin to fall Otto, but catch yourself at the last moment. Unfortunately you drop your rapier trying to grab Wei. The ring and emerald are across the newly made gap. Beyond them is a staircase.
Dare you leap over and grab them? The floor looks okay from where you’re standing.
You can’t see jack down the gap, so you will hurt yourself if you jump down after Wei, but it’s the quickest way to get to him.
Geth roll 1d6 for Gravity
Oo\ Ironsizide
Are you taking a moment to look over the room, or ponder these items? Or are you just gonna pocket them and run down the stairs?
Oo\ Ironsizide
He uses some herbs and a poultice to cover his scratches and wounds. [+7hp]
Now, to carefully study this contraption...
On a 10+, you find 50 coins worth of regular cut gems.
On a 7-9, choose one.
- You find 50 coins worth of gems, but it gets the drop on you.
- You look up in time to draw your pistol.
Wei, all you really see is this thing is missing parts, leaking a fuel or coolant, and is shuddering dangerously! However, you senses are keen indeed, give me a Discern Realities roll.
When you closely study a situation or person, roll+Wis.
On a 10+ ask the GM three questions from the list below.
On a 7–9 ask one.
- What happened here recently?
- What is about to happen?
- What should I be on the lookout for?
- What here is useful or valuable to me?
- Who’s really in control here?
- What here is not what it appears to be?
Take +1 forward when acting on the answers.
Otto, old boy, payday has arrived!
Oo\ Ironsizide
You can use the gems as cash, or perhaps sell them on for an inflated price if you trick someone rich and dumb!
With time to spare you notice the same kind of scratches around the walls of this room. They lead down the stairs, and stop abruptly half way.
Your ears prick up at the sound of something metal clanging against the stairs... but nothing appears to face you. Guess you’ll have to investigate. Maybe you could push that table along to use as cover across the top of the staircase, it’s up to you...
Oo\ Ironsizide
You see a spider-like contraption on it’s side. You hear a constant whirring sound as it’s legs move slowly, methodically as if trying to walk. There are several crossbow bolts in its side.
Geth roll 2d6+2 for Volley
Oo\ Ironsizide
Geth roll 1d8 for Damage (1ap)
"Take that, ya varmit!"
Oo\ Ironsizide
what happened here recently?
What should I be on the lookout for?
What here is useful or valuable to me?
[Ooc: sorry, might've been a -1 cuz disoriented but roll is still 12]
The blast of lead sends the contraption hurling down the stairs. It lands out of sight. You hear the sudden clatter of metal on stone, over and over, could be movement, but still you see nothing! ...Is it finished?
Smoke swirls from your pistol. You expend 1 ammo.
A wall light lazily starts up on the staircase, then flickers on and off before maintaining a steady dim light. You don’t see any shadows cast at the bottom. Time you find your pal, you reckon.
Wei
What happened here recently?
You’re right, this is a weather machine—who knew such a thing existed? The machine has been tampered with, parts are missing, and copper wires have been tied together roughly. It’s been jury-rigged. It shouldn’t be turned on, let alone doing what it’s doing.
What should I be on the lookout for?
It’s incredibly hot, touching the machine would be foolish, however there appears to be a series of tall vials attached to the machine, and one is full of a black liquid. It must be the fuel needed to run the machine, or at least something vital to its functioning. The simplest course of action would be to smash it in the hopes that stops it.
What here is useful or valuable to me?
Potentially the black liquid.
Otherwise if you can turn off the machine without it melting down you could take parts with you, or come back here another day with hired hands and a galleon to pick the whole thing up. You’d have to keep your find secret with Otto until you could afford such an expedition.
The very fact there is or was a civilisation native to the Storm March is valuable information to be used wisely!
[OOC: How big is this thing? Might make a mighty neat trophy if it's small enough.]
Oo\ Ironsizide
It drops down onto the stairs, and a couple of cogs drop out from its underbelly. It was in a fight before you got here.
You hear a click, and your foe ripples with a translucent film... but it doesn’t become invisible again, instead it returns to full visibility. It’s running out of power. The damn thing is as big as a dog, but fortunately not in good shape. It has a few crossbow bolts stuck in its side, and a deep dent in its head from your own shot. You reckon pulling a bolt of two out will bring its inside with it.
Otto, you’re on your back but otherwise thinking clear, and your pistol is tight in you hand. You feel a sudden wave of heat against the side of your body. A machine is making a racket to your left, but it’s too dark to make much out.
Shooting the thing up will take time, it’s evidently tough. Instead, if you want to bridge the gap and get up close to pull out the bolts, roll to Defy Danger with DEX.
Wei, you need to stop this machine right now!... but you also hear the unmistakable cussing of Otto as he hits the deck on the other side of the room. What do you do?
Geth roll 2d6+2 for Defy Danger (DEX)
Oo\ Ironsizide
You feel a black-eye throb, a cog hit you so hard your right eye is swollen shut. You carry -1 forward to fire your pistol or spot something in the dark room.
You stumble back down the stairs but manage to keep your footing.
The contraption skitters down after you, but one side of its body is done in. It’s course bends with only one set of legs working, and slowly comes to a stop facing a wall in the boiling hot, gloomy room you find yourself in. It’s shut down, all out of what remaining power it had.
Spider Defender
ancient, rare, techno, 5 weight
Otto, there’s a great hulking machine in this room. It looks like it could blow any minute!
Oo\ Ironsizide
"I'm working on it!" Wei yells.
Wei wields his spear like a club and smashes the vial of black liquid. Perhaps the life below would be able to continue without it, or maybe there was a way to fix the machine after. For now, it needed to be stopped.
The room is filling with smoke! You can only do one other thing each in this room before you start taking severe internal damage that will take days of rest to repair! Think quickly!
- Get Otto’s rapier; it’s just on the rubble.
- Haul the spider defender up the stairs if you want to keep it.
- Take a sample of the liquid before it burns away completely (for argument’s sake you’ve a little bottle on you).
After that you’ll need to make haste up the stairs.
Oo\ Ironsizide
Eventually you squeeze back out the entrance the way you came to find that the sky has already cleared. Droplets lazily fall from every plant and overhanging rock. The sun is warm on your skin. You stint to high Heavens of smoke.
Many questions are left unanswered.
- Who crafted the mechanical guard, and are their more?
- Who built the weather machine and why?
- Who sabotaged the building and the machine within?
- Has anyone heard of the invisibility magic held within the ring and emerald?
- Will the island below survive without the machine?
- Who, if any, should know what you’ve found here today?
What you do realise Wei is that without the constant rain surely other islands will receive a fairer share. Perhaps that barren island barely in view is so sparse before this one, before or after this incident, has been absorbing clouds otherwise destinies for it. Nature endures, things may be different here now, but surely it doesn’t need that machine...
Harley is sleeping upside down Otto, but your curious mount waits patiently facing the entrance, and they drop something from their jaws as you approach.
Rusty Emblem
1 weight
Made of a heavy grey metal, a hand-sized circular disc with a pattern embossed onto it. There is a hole in the middle. It has no purpose you can think of.
At the very top of the overgrown building you see the first signs of smoke seeping through the cracks. You hear what must be another section inside cave in. What a sorry mess. One last question hits you:
- How is a building ruined like this but leaves no corpses behind, not so much as a bone. Where did the people go?