Search & Secure Site 102

## What Do?

Search and Secure Site 102 [Third Qualification Quest]

* Task 1: Check at least five buildings for structural integrity. Clear them of threats.
* Task 2: Secure the temple, and spend a night within the temple to verify it is clear of threats.
* Task 3: Any items found are to be given to the Professor or marked for the field crew.
* Preserve as much of the site as possible.

## Where Go?

Archeology Site half a week's flight from Velden City.

## Lily's Report

The trip from the city was mostly uneventful. We did see a pack of giant eagles carrying a dead horse and rider into the trees. Three days in we came across a heavily damaged airship. We hailed it and found it was called the *Victoria.* The acting captain was a man named Seth. We had a job to do, so we gave them directions and promised to get a message back to Velden City and try and have someone meet
them and help them get back with an escort.

Once we reported to Site 102, we met with Professor Van Holt and had him notify Velden City about the state of the *Victoria*. We headed into the ruins right after that.

The first day, we encountered the giant scorpions, killing
five of them before we retreated to building. We found the building partially
collapsed, but cleared the collapse enough to make a retreat route if we needed
it. In the back of the building we found the remains of a scorpion, and the bones of a tiefling and half orc. From the epitaph carved by the tiefling, and
her journal, we learned this group was the Soaring Tigers. They had found the
ruins about five years ago, and it went … badly. But they left us an explosive
and dimetrium, and information on the scorpions and the stone shifters in the
ruins.

Anthos and K built a funnel of stone, and then we summoned
the scorpions one at a time, drawing them off of the main group to deal with.
We killed eight scorpions and the King before moving on to another building,
securing it, and resting.

The second day we spent exploring the ruins, clearing
buildings and searching for the temple. In one building we found another of the Soaring Tigers: Maksim. He left a final message, and was in a closet on the
second floor. We also found a… robot man? named Edgr. From the view sphere in
his head, we learned more about the Tigers’ final battle with the scorpions.

We reached the temple on the end of the second day, entered
through a window when the door was rusted shut, and were fine until morning.
The chamber held a

The crystal sconces lit up with the morning sun, and created a ball of energy that the stone and fire shifter was attracted to. Anthos prevented it from taking the sphere, leading to a fight. The weight of the creature destabilized the temple floor. It cracked under us, and Seipora saved us with some sort of … floaty magic. My wings were spent, and we fell into a sulfurous lake below the temple. The water was hot, but not dangerous, and we swam to shore. The Rod of Alertness had dropped into the water during the fall, so Anthos and Seipora went down to retrieve it. They attracted the attention of a siren, and fought it off while finding the Rod.

From there, we ended up walking deeper into the tunnel complex and found a room full of rows upon rows of statues all surrounding a larger statue. Once within the room, the doors sealed and the statues would randomly come alive. Once destroyed, the living statues yielded part of a puzzle key. It took several statues to complete the key and escape the chamber. The largest statue was holding a javelin called Radiance, and we took the statue with us when we left.

We passed a room of geysers with sky visible above, and eventually found a tunnel that led to a more conventional exit. There we learned the large statue was a memorial to the the lord of the ruins and there’s a metallic guardian that was waiting at the exit. The guardian demanded the return of Radiance before it would allow us to leave. We left the javelin in the ruins just beyond the guardian, and it let us pass. I could hear it walking further into the tunnel as we left, so it’s likely returned Radiance to its lord.

We returned through the opposite side of the city, clearing another building and finding the building we think is the scorpion’s nest. It wasn’t a good idea to investigate with all of us hurt and low on resources. We did venture into the scorpion tunnels the following day, finding a few more scorpions and the queen with her brood of eggs. We also dispatched a few more of the stone shifters that started throwing rocks at us from high above. After dispatching all of them, we returned to the dig site and handed over all of the artifacts to the professor.

The journey back to Velden City was again mostly uneventful, though we did see the roc passing well above us and also a fight between a chimera and a manticore.