S2 Week 5 - "Into the Deepforge"

After a frantic scramble across the barren wasteland that was the ruins of Brineshire, our heroes were able to safely escort the goblin engineers (and their unfortunately-colored bomb) to the border of the eldritch force field, where the plucky little scientists prepared to detonate the massive contraption.

Lia, following goblin logic, used her Prestidigitation to change the entirety of the bomb to a red hue (see Week 4 - Part 2). When it detonated, the ensuing explosion of brilliant purple did not destroy the force field as planned, but breached it just long enough for the Thalassian forces, and our heroes, to duck through. The goblins, using a very questionable scientific process, estimated that the breach would stay open for approximately 24 hours (but by this point in the story, the party doesn't put much stock into goblin science).

The Thalassian shocktroopers, with their explosive ordinance, began their dangerous descent into the Deepforge. The party was not far behind, with their own explosive charge and a goblin-designed EMP device in tow.

Brineshire, razed by the Deepforged menace (Illustration by John Avon, © Wizards of the Coast)

The party continued downward into the infernal pit, gripping tightly to the metallic cliffside and braving the toxic wind swirling about them. Before long, the party came to a sprawling metal bridge leading to their objective: the Forgemaster's office, a cube-shaped obsidian mass suspended high above the Deepforge pit by a series of cable and bridges.

Our heroes were assaulted by Reavers and Drones as they pressed onward across the bridge. Fernal tripped a vice-like trap, limiting his movement, and Book was almost knocked unconcious, but the party had little trouble dispatching these pests while steadying themselves against the poisonous wind of the Deepforge. However, upon their defeat at the hands of the party, the Reavers called for back-up! A veritible horde of Drones barrelled down toward the shocked heroes, who did the only heroic thing they could do at time: they ran the other way!

Erwise quickly sprung a complicated lock mechanism with his adept theivery skills, and the party jumped through the waiting doorway, with barely enough time to slam the entryway shut before for the Drone horde smashed into the solid metal door.

The party now stood in a mysterious entryway, with blueprints and conquest maps scattered about, and an ominous portrait of a cephalopod-like creatures staring out our heroes with cruel, empty eyes...

The Forgemaster's Domicile, suspended above the Deepfoge (Illustration by Mark Tedin, © Wizards of the Coast)

Exploration of the structure yielded many frightening secrets, thanks in no small part to Mootan's enchanted glasses, which allowed him to read Deep Speak. In a huge, warehouse-like room on the second floor, Book and Mootan discovered the reasoning behind the Reaver's collection of humanoid brains: each brain collected was dematerialized and then reconstructed into lines of data, which in turn was programmed into each and every Deepforged creature. Why the Deepforged specifically need to do this, however, is yet to be seen...

On the lowest point of the structure, the party discovered a massive radio dish used to transmit data into the heart of the Deepforge. Exploring this array was exceedingly treacherous, as the entire area was suspended on a windswept scaffolding literally hanging off the bottom of the building!

Erwise lept on to the dish, attracting some unwanted attention from nearby repair-bots. Identifying our heroes as a "structural anamoly," they sprang toward them with blowtorches and repair hammers! The bots did not prove to have an impressive amount of combat prowess, but the narrow catwalks became quite treacherous for our heroes. Erwise and Book were knocked unconcious when they were cornered by the pesky robots; however, Mootan quickly scurried from catwalk to catwalk in order to save his ailing party members.

At the far end of the scaffolding, the party found a database of information transmitted by this bizarre radio dish. Apparently, a valuable Deepforged power core was somewhere in the depths of the Forgemaster's domicile, just a few floors above them. If they could obtain this priceless artifact and plant their explosive ordinance, their victory would surely be complete...

... but who knows what Deepforged horrors await them in the lair of the Forgemaster?

S2 Week 4 (Part 2) - "A Lesson in Complimentary Colors"

The party cramped themselves into one of the larger submersible transports, flanked by Thalassian soldiers and goblin engineers (whom the party was tasked with protecting). Erwise and Lia decided to strike up a conversation with the nervous goblins, who seemed quite proud of the massive bomb that they had created.

Erwise: "So, if worse comes to worse, we may have to set this thing off ourselves. How do we do that?"
Goblin 1: "By saying the magic word!"
Erwise: "Well, what's the... wait... err..."
Lia: "Can you write it down for us?"
Goblin 2: "We... don't know how to write..."
Erwise: "OK... then how does this thing work anyway? Can Book operate it?"
Goblin 1: "It's simple really! You non-Goblins think too hard. See, the force field is GREEN right? All we needed to was make a bomb that would explode the opposite color of green! So we made a bomb that would explode BLUE!"
Erwise: "..."
Lia: "..."
Goblin 1: "I know! It's genius!"

And so, Erwise and Lia begrudginly explained to the goblins that the opposite color of green was, in fact, red. Yelling, finger pointing, and a quick red paint job followed. Luckily, Erwise still had his paint set.

Cysero: "I can't believe that the fate of the world may rest on the fact that Erwise stole a paintset from some jerk in Chivil."

But there was no more time to prepare; the craft had landed on the desolute coast of the Deepforge, formerly the ruined town of Brineshire. The Eldritch force field flickered in the distance, slightly weakened. The Thalassian troops charged forward. Our heroes were in the next wave, assigned to secure the beachhead and then escort the goblins and their bomb into the town ruins. The final wave bringing up the rear consisted of Thalassian bombadiers, demolitions experts, and shock troopers, tasked with setting bombs inside the Deepforge once its shields were down.

The Deepforged machines were well-prepared against invaders. As the party and the Thalassian soldiers advanced up the beach, taking cover in foxholes and against muddy ledges, automated constructs rained down death over their heads with rapid-firing bolts of arcane energy. The machines had the high ground atop a ruined factory, repurposed as a fortified bunker, and fired mercilessly upon the hapless humanoids below. The group was slowed by barbed wire and eldritch mines, and to make matters worse, the Deepforged began to shower the beachhead with mortar fire, making even the most secure of foxholes potentially unsafe.

The remains of the ruined bunker, now a temporary base of operations for the party.

Advancing up the muddy hill toward the bunker was slow-going, and the party was assaulted several times by gun and mortar fire. At one point, a mortar struck dead-center on Erwise, Fernal, Lia, and Mootan, temporarily deafening them and striking Mootan down, who would have perished if it weren't for the healing powers of his shamanistic spirits!

The party caught a break when one of the Deepforged turrets misfired, causing a huge explosion and clearing the way for the party to enter the bunker. But first, Fernal wisely regrouped with one of the demolition experts advancing behind the party, and teleported him into the fray! The next thing party saw was a brilliant flash of light as the remaining Deepforged forces crumbled to dust in a fiery explosion. The bombadier had done his job, that was for sure.

The Deepforged Beachhead was secure, and the party took refuge in the bunker. The entire first wave of Thalassian soldiers had been wiped out. When the dust settled, all that remained were roughly fifty Thalassian foot soldiers, a dozen bombadiers, two goblin engineers, the Thalassian general, and of course, our intrepid heroes.

A stretch of derelict, smoldering ruins is all that remains between the party and the Eldritch field where hour heroes will activate the goblin bomb with the help of its creators. Will they achieve their mission, or will the machines win the day?

S2 Week 4 (Part 1) - "I suppose that the Elemental Chaos counts as cover..."

The party stood in awe. The chamber before them, with a high vaulted ceiling ending in an open oculus at its apex, was shrouded with poisonous green exhaust. Through the deadly mist, a phosphorescent glow and mechanical hum sent a beam of energy spiraling skyward. Their objective, the Eldritch Field Generator, lay directly ahead of him...

... and it was alive!

Suddenly, it became all too clear that the Deepforged where using a half-creature, half-machine race of aberrant horrors as a source of power for both their force fields... and their portal technology.

Before the party could act, a crackling zone of energy appeared at the feet of Fernal, Erwise, and Book. Fernal resisted the strange swirling energy, but Book and Erwise were sucked into an unstable portal! They were flung into the Elemental Chaos, swirling with bursting fire and hazardous debris caused by the unpredictable nature of the constantly fluctuating plane. They both tried to dodge out of the way of oncoming meteroids, but each of the heroes were struck, and Book was critically injured.

Meanwhile, Lia and Mootan were engaged by two Deepforged Constructs, sent to guard the Eldritch Field Generator. The hulking sets of armor could take quite a beating, and used the power of magnetism to draw damage away from the party's intended target. Fernal, in turn, distracted the Constructs, allowing the more vulnerable spellcasters to move away relatively unscathed.

Book and Erwise were then violently ejected from another portal, returning them to their realm of existance. Erwise immediately took a chameleon-like stance, using the enshrouding fog to strike the Eldritch Field Generator and then move to safety.

(It was a funny rules conversation, actually. Went a little something like this:

Me: "OK, you exit the Elemental Chaos. You're once again in the chamber where you started."
Cysero: "Erwise activates 'Chameleon' to gain stealth!"
Me: "You can't do that. You have to already have cover before using that ability."
Cysero: "Well... it's not like he could see me. I was in the Elemental Chaos!"
Me: "I... suppose that the Elemental Chaos counts as cover.")

Book still remained stationary on the ground and the Eldritch Field Generator closed in, preparing to once again launch the Warforged into the Elemental Chaos. But the slashes from Book and Erwise had taken their toll; the creature's portal malfunctioned (critical fail!), sending itself wailing into the Elemental Chaos and vanquishing it permenantly!

The celebration was short lived, however. The Hive of Deepforged Reavers was on full alert, and were closing in fast!

The party escapes The Hive and returns to the relative saftey of Base 13.

Scrambling down the winding hallway, Erwise found the final Thalassian patrolman, who had bravely held off the encroaching Reavers for hours as the party pressed onward. The soldier selfless offered to buy them just a few more minutes to escape (which likely would have spelled a nasty end for him... as we was looking a little worse for ware), but Fernal had other plans. Grabbing the exhausted Thalassian by his collar, Fernal heroicly took the injured soldier under his arm, and continued escaping with the rest of the party.

However, the Thalassian patrolman was the only thing holding the Reaver swarm back! The horde of vicous machines poured from the now unguarded oculus, taking a few swipes at Erwise along the way. The party quickly ducked into the final stretch of hallway, causing many of the Reavers to stumble and crash into each other. This gave Erwise just enough time to activate the door, and swiftly close it after the party had passed through (natural 20 on lockpicking... not that he needed it!). The Reavers crashed into the now closed hallway, causing several of them to short circuit and explode.

The final door was sealed, the party was safe, and they all piled into the waiting submarine. The return to Base 13 was a happy one, and the party, the Thalassian bombadiers, and the Thalassian foot soldiers all prepared for the final assault on the now-weakened Deepforged base.

(To be continued...)

S2 Week 3 - "The Hive"

Our heroes had just breached the inner halls of the hive, having vanquished a small pack of Deepforged Drones and Reavers, when suddenly a loud knocking came from the chamber behind them. Erwise and Fernal, cautiously investigating, found a hulking figure, soaked in muck and seaweed, clutching shattered debris from the breach in the hive. It was none other than Book (played by Rolith), the Warforged barbarian, with AI fully installed and ready for action! No one knew if Book was followed, but one thing was for sure: an extra bit of muscle would certainly be useful in this environment.

The exterior of the dreaded Reaver Hive (illustration by H.R. Giger)

The party, now four strong, ventured deeper into the tunnels and happened across a locked oculus leading to the deepest recesses of the hive. Erwise, perhaps overconfident from his previous success in unlocking mysterious doors, recieved a nasty shock from the portal when he tried to lockpick it (critical fail!). Trying again, he caused the door to explode (yet another critical fail!), injurying everyone nearby! Book didn't fare much better when he tried to interface with a nearby Deepforged data console, and broke the device beyond repair (yes, yet another critical fail!). It seemed that the party wouldn't be getting through this door, and everyone had a sinking feeling that they had just alerted the entire hive to thier presence...

Further down the hallway, a bloodcurdling scream echoed into the ears of the wary adventurers, who rushed to find its source. What they found was indeed shocking: a macabre conveyor belt and horrific set of whirling blades, designed to extract human brains! To make matters worse, a bewildered young woman was trapped in the nefarious contraption, just inches away from a grisly end! The party didn't have time to discern the purpose of this device; they sprung into action! Acting selflessly, Fernal used his dominian over dimensional magic to switch positions with the helpless woman, but now he was the one in grave danger! Book tried interfacing with nearby data consoles, but was not able to deactivate the conveyor belt. Rushing to the aid of his comrade, Erwise was able to pry the restraints open with his thieve's tools just in time, sparing Fernal a ghastly demise!

Untold horrors awaited our heroes at the end of the mechanical tunnel

The party regrouped, and soon discovered the identity of the woman they had just saved. It was none other than Lia (played by Alina), who had been seperated from Erwise and the rest of the original Chivilian party over a month ago! However, the celebration was short lived, as two of the accompanying members of the Thalassian platoon informed the rest of the party that a swarm of Reavers was closing in fast from the lower hive! They bravely volunteered to hold them off while the party advanced.

Our heroes didn't make it far though, as they were cut off from their destination by another skittering pack of Reavers and Drones! The machines sprung upon them relentlessly; Mootan tried to rally the party in an advantageous position, but he was struck down almost instantly by the deadly contraptions! Hope was waning for the group, but they pressed on for long enough for Mootan's Spirit of Vengeance to revive him and ensure that our heroes would have enough healing energy to pull through the fight. Lia was knocked unconcious, and two of the three Thalassian soldiers were slain, but the party somehow lasted long enough to repel the surge of deadly Reavers.

Battered and bleeding, the party pressed onwards to their primary objective. The chamber that contained the Eldritch Field Generator lay just a few feet ahead...

S2 Week 2 - "Man vs. Machine"

(Alina and Rolith once again were busy this week, but will be joining our party next week, at long last! Huzzah! Unfortunately, Galanoth is very busy on Mondays now, and can no longer join us. Sadface!)

Our heroes had a new mission: retrieve a power core from one of the monstrous Deepforged Striders and return it to Xavier using a magical stasis chamber. Certainly not an easy task! Meanwhile, combat programming had begun on Book, the party's Warforged servant; he would be ready for combat in a few days time.

The Thalassian wasteland, poisoned by Deepforged exhaust.

Our heroes set off in the early morning, braving the treacherous twists and turns of the seaside cliffs, thereby avoiding the poisonous exhaust lingering in the inland valleys and the Deepforged patrols along the highlands. There were some close calls, but our heroes navigated the seaside tunnels with relative ease.

Upon exiting the tunnels, the party spotted a peculiar site at a nearby rocky outcropping: a repeating flash of light, as if someone was trying to signal them! Fernal, Erwise, and Mootan chugged a few potions of invisibility and made a mad dash across the wastes, down a conical hill toward the cover from which the signal was originating. Suddenly, a metal screech peirced the skies; they're potions had worn off and a Deepforged Strider was lumbering over the hillside after them!

After an impressive display of athletic prowess (or maybe abject horror caused by the beast following them) our heroes darted into the rocky outcropping, just narrowly escaping a blast from the Strider's deathray. They lost conciousness from the concussive blast, but awakened a short time later inside what seemed to be some kind of subterranean military base... the last remants of the Thalassian military.

A young lass named Moira informed them that it was she that signaled them, and regretably acknowledged that it was because of this selfless act that Base 13, where they were now stationed, had been compromised and was under attack! After being lead to the war room, our heroes learned that Moira's father, none other than the Thalassian General himself, was planning a full frontal attack on the emergence zone known as "The Deepforge." Using a devestating new bomb developed by Goblin engineers, the General planned to punch a hole in the mysterious eldritch force field surrounding the ruins, thereby allowing human troops to arm more explosive ordinance within the forge itself. It was a risky plan that required a very dangerous task beforehand: finding and disabling a conduit feeding energy to the force field.

The ruins of Brineshire, now infamously known as "The Deepforge."

Erwise, (more or less) putting his differences with Thalassia behind him, and Fernal, swiftly silencing Mootan's prophetic babble, volunteered for the perilous mission, and were provided with a small platoon of Thalassian soldiers to aid them.

In a rickety submersible, the team set off to the nearest accessible generator conduit, precariously located within a hive of Deepforged killing-machines, the Reavers. The structure itself was a horrific site to behold, with bizarre alien architecture cruelly mimicking that of natural insect hives. Mootan, now unsure of his prophecy, began to fear the worst for his allies.

The first encounter with the Reavers proved intense; becoming bloodied around these creatures provoked a devastating scythe attack, slicing deep into any nearby party members. Although Erwise was knocked unconcious during the fight, Fernal was able to destract the Reavers for long enough for Mootan to put Erwise back into the fight, with the Thalassian platoon providing aid all the while.

Who knows what unspeakable terror awaits them further in the hive?

S2 Week 1 (Part 2) - "Rats and Frogs and Robots, oh my!"

Slowly working their way down from a muddy hilltop to the ominous swamp land in the valley below, Erwise and Fernal descended using improvised rope and piton system from their supplies.

Just then, with Mootan still out at the crest of the hill, a ear-splitting metal screech accompanied by a neon green search light came lurking above the horizon. Panicking, Mootan scrambled down the hill, loosing his balance and falling. Erwise tried to dive forward to save him, but only succeeded in muddying his clothes. Mootan landed flat on his back, scraped up, but still alive.

Our heroes quickly ducked into the cover of the swamp land just as the machine walker spied their rope. The machine hunted them at the entrance the swamp, but the party was too well concealed to be detected, and the Deepforged Strider moved onward in search of more organic creatures.

(Illustration from "The War of the Worlds" be H.G. Wells)

The group moved deeper in the swamp, goaded onward by a sighting of black smoke against the night sky, signaling that the wreckage of their supply pod was somewhere in this swamp. The going was rough; vines and mud had obscured most of the cobblestone road, but the party was able to adeptly blaze a trail into the murky reaches of the Rimebog, unfettered by waist-high sludge and mysterious footprints.

Ahead in the road, through the underbrush, Erwise spotted a small fire and decided to investigate, finding a foul sight: kobold zombies gathered around a fire, flanked by a kobold necromancer! Fernal blew his warhorn and charged into battle, Erwise (who was previously hidden from the kobold caravan) ambushed the necromancer, and Mootan sent his healing spirit into the fray.

Although a rat swarm and a kobold crossbowman joined the fray from the kobold caravan, the vermin were easily dispatched by the three adventurers. Then, a shocking discovery! The kobold necromancer had some sort of connection with Verminhide (a powerful kobold necromancer that the party dispathced in Season 1), and carried with him both a powerful necrotic incantation and a plague-filled bomb, which he was planning using to destroy a nearby village of bullywugs*! His motives, at that time, were still a mystery...

*Bullywugs are frog people! They smell bad... just don't say that to their face.

Our party advances further into the cold and cruel Rimebog...

The party continued to the bullywug village, both to warn them of the bomb near the village and to investigate the black smoke rising above the settlement, only to find the amphibians in the midst of a celebration. The leader of the village, the "Venerable Lord" Kroak, was leading the village in some sort of religious festival, and it soon became apparent that the villagers believed that the crashing of the supply pod, which they referred to as "The Burning Star," was a good omen. Upon learning of the bomb threat just outside his domain, Kroak dispatched a handful of villagers to "deal with" the problem, rather uncaring for their safety.

Thanks to some fast-talking by Erwise, Kroak allowed the party visitation to "The Great Burning Star." However, once the group was away from the celebration, Kroak made it very obvious that he cared very little of this so-called "omen," and much more about wealth, power, and controlling his populace. Erwise was able to retrieve the supplies from the pod with little trouble. Kroak dismissed them, turning his attention to a mysterious purple glow atop a nearby altar...

The party could have investigated further, and Kroak certainly seemed like an unsavory character, but our heroes were in a battle against a greater foe, and couldn't spare the time to deal with the egotistical bullywug lord. They found their way back to their base of operations and inspected what they had found in the supply pod...

S2 Week 1 (Part 1) - "It's a mad, mad world"

(Only Cysero, Artix, and Dumoose were able to make it for the kick off to season 2. Alina, Galanoth, and Rolith were all working away from the office for various reasons.)

It was another day in post-apocalyptic Thalassia, same as it had been for the past three months.

Morale was low in Erwise's base of operations, the now derelict Dawn's Grasp Chapel, which had avoided destruction from marauding Deepforged thanks to its inconspicuous location, nestled on a hill in the shadows of two barren rock faces.

Xavier's next supply pod was set to land in a matter of hours, but before Erwise (played by Cysero) and Fernal (played by Artix) could prepare themselves for the landing, a mysterious, seemingly deranged hermit burst into the chapel, spewing nonsense about his patron moose god, Godai. This shaman, Mootan (played by Dumoose) fervently explained to our heroes that he was a prophet, over a thousand years old, and was convinced that Fernal was actually part of a prophecy.

The group was suspicious of this fellow, but decided to trust him for the time being. Mootan was content with following Fernal where ever the Genasi Swordmage would go.

Meanwhile, a far off orange glow illuminated the stormy skies over the coast. The supply pod was incoming, and Erwise eagerly anticipated its landing at his doorstep!

Suddenly, an eldritch blast of green energy rocketed forth from the smoldering ruins of the town of Brineshire; the focused beam intercepted the pod, sending it spiraling miles off coarse into the west, toward a foul region called the Rimebog. It would seem the Deepforged menace had concocted an aerial defense!

With little option but to race to the pod before it fell into the wrong hands, Erwise, Fernal, and Mootan set off into the driving rain, sticking to the muddy hill line instead of risking the poisonous machine exhaust which lingered in the valleys below...

Meanwhile, Book and Thrand held down "the fort," ever vigilant against machine invaders.

(To be continued...)