RQG 203 - Excessively Sneaky

## Content Warnings

Undead & zombies, physical violence. Discussions of: human remains. Mentions of: migraines & fatigue, injury, memory loss, death & dismemberment. SFX: fire, scraping & clanking, continued water sounds, deep percussive sound, roaring & screeching.

## Summary

Having found the kill switch, the party makes a swift retreat and reunites with their allies.

## Synopsis

Having just defeated the malicious colour, everyone takes a moment to collect themselves. Cel is struggling with words after the colour's drain attack and Zolf determines that he will be able to heal the damage but he needs meditate and prepare the right spells for it first. He apologetically tells Cel that they will have to put up with it for a little while and that they should just focus on getting out for now.

Cel inspects the kill switch and confirms Hamid's previous assessment of it. They also recognise that it had some broadcast elements similar to what Shoin was using and it should work with the machine that Tesla and the others have built.

Everyone leaves they council chamber and they decide to try the stairs opposite to the ones they came down, hoping to avoid the fossil construct. The stairs go on for a while and curve around to the left, leading up to an open mithril gate. Zolf is able to translate the dwarves script on the gate to something along the lines of "Forbidden. For the eyes of the council alone." They follow the corridor past the gate to another similar gate, past which is a straight stretch of corridor that is 10 foot wide, 10 foot high, and clad in some kind of metal plating. At the end of the corridor is a massive vault door and a seemingly normal, non-infected corpse lies at the base of it. Zolf figures that this is the Svalbard seed vault.

Skraak takes the lead to check for traps but as they enter the corridor, he is suddenly pinned to the floor as his metallic equipment is attracted to a powerful magnet. Skraak is unharmed but embarrassed that they're stuck. Cel removes all of their metallic equipment before heading over to help Skraak get out of his breastplate.

Once freed, he checks the rest of the corridor and the corpse by the door, finding a stone key. The party decides to leave the vault closed rather than risk exposing it to the infection and Zolf takes the key for safekeeping. They tie rope to Skraak's equipment and Azu drags it free of the magnet trap. With no other way out, they head back the way they originally came. As they traverse back up the stairs, the strange fatigue afflicting Cel and Azu fades, and Hamid notices that the kill switch becomes less active.

They find the fossil construct milling around the room where the zombie horde was, the large doors into the room have been bashed open and the construct is inconveniently between them and the exit. Zolf points out a smaller staff door at the south end of the room that the construct won’t fit through and they decide to try and sneak across while invisible.

Cel casts invisibility on themself, and Hamid casts it on everyone else. Before they cross the room, Hamid casts knock to open the door from afar. Two shamblers immediately burst out from the open door and attack the fossil construct. Zolf points out that the construct is well distracted now and they just sneak back the way they originally came instead. The corridor outside is covered in the bits and pieces of around 50 shambler corpses after the construct's rampage and it is making short work of the two new shamblers, completely unaware of the party.

They retrace their steps and climb out through the dome. On the roof of the complex, they can see that the park area is no longer empty and shamblers are moving about in the fog but with invisibility still active, everyone easily make it across. The spell runs out as they make it back to the tunnel with the stained glass displays. Skraak guides them around the triggers for the displays and is very sad that they don't get to set them off.

Back in the entrance hall, Hamid hears the sounds of lots of quiet movement from all sides as a lot of shamblers seem to have been attracted by the general commotion. With their previous route most likely blocked by shamblers, they decide to forgo stealth for the last bit and sprint straight toward the exit, passing within the range of several watchers plants who all start shrieking. As they run across the bridge, they see a swarm of innumerable shamblers converging on the entrance but they have already made it far enough across the bridge that only a few give chase. Only two shamblers make it all the way across the bridge and Azu easily bisects them.

Sumutnyerl, Einstein, and Wilde greet them once they're across and Einstein compliments their sneakiness despite the massive horde that has started to slowly spill onto the bridge. Wilde asks about the kill switch and Hamid quickly shows it to him before they all hold hands and Einstein teleports them.

## Dice rolls & mechanics

* Zolf makes a Heal check to asses Cel's condition: 24
* Cel rolls Knowledge (arcana) to inspect the kill switch: 38
* Hamid casts *detect magic* and determined that the magnet trap is not magical.
* Azu takes 10 to pull Skraak's equipment away from the magnet trap.
* Everyone makes a Perception check: Azu (18), Cel (21), Hamid (30), Skraak (19), Zolf (15)
* Cel casts ‘’invisibility *on themselves and Hamid casts it on everyone else.*
* Cel casts *targeted bomb admixture* and *channel vigor* on themself.
* Hamid casts *knock* to open the door.
* Everyone makes a Stealth check to sneak across the room: Azu (33), Cel (48), Hamid (51), Skraak (nat 20; 66), Zolf (24)
* Everyone but Cel (who flies) takes 10 to climb the rope.
* Everyone makes a Perception check: Azu (17), Cel (22), Hamid (27), Skraak (19), Zolf (25)
* Everyone makes a Stealth check to sneak across the park area: Azu (32), Hamid (42), Skraak (56), Zolf (24)
* The shamblers in the park make an opposed Perception check: 2
* Cel makes a Knowledge (nature) check about the shamblers: 32
* Azu and Zolf make Knowledge (religion) checks about the shamblers: Zolf (11), Azu (17)
* Everyone makes a Perception check: Azu (23), Cel (19), Hamid (29), Skraak (21), Zolf (20)