Reel Steel

18th April 2023

## Adventurers Attending

* Foxglove
* Aloissius
* Creed
* Skamos
* Grrder

## Mission Notes

Arriving at the guildhouse our adventurers are met by Samuel the head clerk in the guildhouse meeting room. Receiving details about robots or automatons attacking and kidnapping people in the outskirts of Hollyhead.

Picking up Hamer and the cart, our adventurers travel to Hollyhead and are spooked by a crow before heading into the town proper alighting at the Merry Mollusc and speaking to Jynnus about town gossip. Hearing rumours of robots kidnapping and attacking locals and travellers in the forested outskirts of town, Jynnus sends for Captain Reno to provide more detailed accounts. With Captain Reno having mentioned something about mechanical turtles he leaves back for the docks. Before our adventurers depart, Timmy a young boy arrives and asks our adventurers to find and return his mother who has gone missing in the woods.

Searching the woods outside Hollyhead our adventurers find a clearing with a woodsman, leg caught in a trap, being growled at by a nearby apprehensive wolf. Skamos attemps to beguile the wolf by pulling a sandwich from his pack and throwing it to the side of the wolf. Before the wolf can decide whether to eat the sandwich or not a mechanical turtle crawls through the undergrowth into the clearing and begins screeching. As combat commences Creed does a good job of stabbing and accidentally exploding the mechanical turtle. Meanwhile, Aloissius frees the woodsman. Lingering too long, two more mechanical turtles arrive and learning little lesson from the first, Creed sets about exploding those all over himself too.

Investigating the surroundings, it appears all tracks lead to the mountains and the party heads in that direction. Discovering four warbots at the base of the mountain carrying unusual passengers inside.

"I am Arcturius Brain the smartest man in Meraki and you have fallen into my trap" begins and continues the unrelenting tirade of self congratulatory monologues from the apparent inventor and creator of all things mechanical in the area. Releasing his greatest creation onto the field, a hulking wartortle that draws a rather wieldy lightning axe and begins pursuit of our adventurers.

Foxglove meeting the warbots in combat, begins to discover ways to more precisely attack the constructs without damaging the passengers inside and attempts to separate what appears to be Timmy's mum and a wealthy looking merchant from their mechanical prisons, while Aloissius completely destroys the one containing a wolf.

As combat continues it becomes apparent that Arcturius and his rather large shield guardian atop the hill are being protected by a wall of force and so Skamos sets himself to climbing the mountain to get around their protections. Meanwhile, Arcturius, controlling the wartortle and Warboys, begins unleashing strikes on our adventurers, with the wartortle handing out significant lightning damage, enough to knock Creed from his broom. As the combat continues and Timmy's mum and the merchant are freed, the tide begins turning and Arcturius decides it's time to leave. Docking his mechanical booth onto the shield guardian before rocketing together into the air in flighted escape. "Until next time, guild members, next time you won't be so lucky".

Left to deal with the wartortle, despite its impressive stature and hefty attacks, it is slowly picked apart by our adventurers, with wolves arriving to aid the battle, finally Foxglove uses his precision striking between the wartortles moving shield plates to separate key power relays in the wartortles insides finally destroying the war machine.

Left victorious and finally freeing the bunny in the last warbot, our adventurers escort the freed back to Hollyhead before making their way home.

## Rumours

* Who is Arcturius Brain and what does he have against the guild?
* Why was the wartortle so reminiscent of Takeshi?
* Where can Arcturius be found and stopped from causing more havoc?