Sacrilege

The party decided to leave the chapel since there was nothing left for them. They exited to the right and saw a modest sleeping quarter. Someone once lived here, but it was very dusty and hadn't been touched in some time.

Sakiran started pulling through drawers and found a necklace with a blue gem inside of it. It had script going in a spiral towards the gem. Flah'fle inspected the necklace, which had script that was similar to Elvish. She also found a simple red robe with a creamy white top half.

Leoric urged them to proceed. He went to the door they had not yet opened and, as he pushed it open, saw part of the wall had crumbled. Stagnant water permeates their nostrils as the corridor leads down with two doors in the corridor and one at the end. Sakiran pushes the door on the right open but it is jammed, so she barges into it. She struggles to push against the door. Leoric tried and got the door open.

They saw some machinery inside that was in decent condition. There were storage containers for mechanical parts and in the centre of the room, there was a humanoid standing there.

Leoric advised them not to touch anything and closed the door again. Pog walked up to the humanoid and greeted it. He turned towards the right and started rifling through boxes of machinery. Flah'fle saw the humanoid figure for himself. He knocked on it to test if it was metal and it did not move.

Leoric saw that it was a mechanical being with wires and circuits exposed. It was wearing some clothes like the red robes from earlier. It had one eye lens and underneath it was a speaker grille. To the left was a monitor that didn't have any power. Sakiran took the robe from earlier and put it on the being but nothing happens. Leoric told her that it may have malfunctioned and gained a conscience as Sakiran expressed confusion. The rain started pouring down more heavily, as Leoric smiled and said the rain doesn't let up. Sakiran said it doesn't rain often where she's from and she always did love the smell.

In a new room, there were components all over the shelves looking pristine and well-organised. Sakiran picked one up and deduced that someone had been here recently and has been maintaining them. Jaxon refused to touch anything. There was a third door that they had not yet entered, so Sakiran opened it first. A rusted chain broke off the other side as she pushes open. She saw a toilet and demanded an explanation as to what it was. Leoric told her that you drink from it. Sakiran said it doesn't make sense as Leoric and Jaxon laugh.

Leoric went back to the room with the humanoid and it was gone. The robe was on the floor, so it had cast it aside. He closed the door and told the others. They saw the room with the stage again, with the humanoid robot is on the stage. It was reading from a book on a lectern, chanting in an unknown language. Jaxon recognised it as very old Elvish from the formation of words. The name of the language is lost to history. Jaxon knows it was chanting about the world and a goddess.

It finished and placed the book down. It was rickety, with loud motors as it picked up a pewter bowl, holding the bowl out to the party. Sakiran put the necklace she picked up earlier into the bowl. Each other member of the party deposited some rands, and it bowed to each person in turn. It walked into the centre of the room towards the corpses on the floor. When it didn't get a response, it kept moving along. After it completed its rounds, it plugged itself into its enclosure and went limp again. Leoric asked for a hand as he unplugs it. Sakiran helped him. "Charging cycle not completed". Leoric deduced that the power is all in one area and looked for a way to reroute it. He flicked a switch and the monitor came on with a symbol, a semi-circle with a gem in the middle stating "Gloria Estel". It stated that the unit's uptime was 4500 years - remaining energy 13%.

They picked the machine up along with the power gem. The party headed towards the exit as Leoric carries the machine over his shoulder. They heard something from outside that sounded like a distant rumble. The rain was pelting down. They hear heavy footsteps as a figure comes hulking out of the wreck. A deep robotic voice rumbled with diagnostics as it walked out. It turned towards Sakiran as it stared at her.

Leoric was first to react, sighting it through the barricade and moving to shoot over the ledge. He fired with his two pistols and another pinged off of its armour. It stuttered activated purge protocols. Jaxon fires off a sacred flame. It is damaged and it targets him. It activates anti magic armour and lands in front of Jaxon and Sakiran. It rears up on its hind legs and claws at Jaxon twice. It slammed into the ground with its claws as it missed, then swung round with its tail. It swung into him and collided with his breastplate. Flea cast Heat Metal to little effect.

Pog screamed as it gets underneath the being, though he got stuck in a piston. Sakiran yelled for Jaxon to run as she activated the rage, but was unable to control the rage this time. She swung with Finisher but doesn't quite hook on. Leoric fired and made something inside the being exploded.

After a short combat, Leoric moved again towards the APC and fired his pistols. He launched a single volley that exploded through the back of its skull just as it was about to attack Sakiran again. It collapsed as its skull was caved in and the viscera landed on Sakiran. Flea investigated the corpse. The outside is too badly damaged for him to even know where to start.

Sakiran was deeply upset by her lack of control and holsters Finisher again. She took out her longsword which had gone unused and slumps on the stairs, her head resting on her hand. Pog crawled out from underneath the machine and is covered in oil and blood. The portal tore him away from this reality. Leoric decided to try to investigate himself. He saw that he could potentially take off the claws and remove the technology to sell. Flea played a tune to inspire everyone to remove the technology carefully. Leoric extracted seven claw blades. They obtained around 400 rands worth of scrap.

They drive a little bit out of the abandoned city. Water is pooling and flooding the streets. As they drive towards Bastion, there are patrols on the roads and there is the occasional aircraft and airship. They saw the rise of the huge city in the distance.

There was a purple beam of energy coming up from the central spire and they saw towns that look advanced, with properly constructed buildings and better technology. They see slums outside of the main city.

The streets were dirt roads. After another half day of travel, they reached the front gates of Bastion. The gate was over three feet thick and it was heavily guarded with troopers and unfamiliar machines.

The party were halted by one of the guards. Jaxon was driving and the guard greeted him for a cargo inspection. They opened the door of the APC. Jaxon is told it's a five rand charge to get into the city. Leoric handed some rands over and the guard confirmed the authenticity before pocketing them and let them go. They started driving into Bastion.