Session 8: The Citadel

### Exploring the Donjon Depths

The party had broken into the prison complex below the Donjon on Bral, determined to break out their pilot, Coalition agent Deg Torvath. They were gathered at the base of a stairwell in the Donjon Depths, deciding between two reprogrammed modron monodrone guards to confront. They decided on the lower hallway's monodrone.

      After sneaking to the other side of the hallway's entrance when the monodrone's back was turned, they found another stairwell up and what seemed to be another dwarven tomb, carved from ancient stone, with a sarcophagus, flanked by everburning torches, and overseen by a strange runic carving that seemed to depict several odd figures - a huge being with a beard and a large fist holding a hammer or an axe, and a small figure seemingly throwing another figure into some sort of device. When shown the carving, Torman was able to roughly translate the ancient dialect, which said something like "IF NECESSARY BREAK ROCK / BUT FIRST REQUIRE SACRIFICE".

They also found what seemed to be an evidence locker, and after breaking into it, several intriguing items - many different documents including a letter sealed with an ornate red seal, some sort of magical bowler hat, some sort of bronze bracelet emanating magical energy, and a bag of what looked like a narcotic drug, which was labeled a Pouch of Kelchormelan Eyedust.

Resolving to ambush the monodrone patrolling the lower hallway, Locke was able to shove it into a Bag of Holding, where it struggled but could not escape. The party advanced into its hallway and found a huge wooden double-door at the end.

### The Prison Wing

Peering through a crack in the door, the party found what seemed to be a huge semicircular prison panopticon, patrolled by a guard in heavy armor carrying a crossbow and a huge shield, and watched by another guard from a window out of view above them. There were four cells at the level of the double door and then, up a stairwell past the dwarven tomb with the rune carving, a second larger semicircular level with six cells.

The party tried various means of determining if Deg was in the cells - he didn't respond to a magic message sent directly for him, and when a magic message was sent to an occupant of one of the cells, it was received by a peculiar figure wearing red clothing, with several glowing yellow orbs circling around its head. In a creepy voice, it responded by babbling about how "THE ORBS HAVE COME TO SAVE US! WE WILL RETURN AND BECOME ONE WITH THE ORBS!" and other such effusive orbs-worship.

While it didn't seem like Deg was in the prison wing currently, the party decided to advance into the prison wing to find answers regarding his whereabouts. They stuffed the upper hallway's mondrone guard into the Bag of Holding as well and investigated a side room in the upper level that seemed to be a war room filled with various documents and a map of the star system showing several fleets converging on Bral. They then split up and assembled at the double doors at the end of the lower hallway and at the end of the upper hallway, where they reasoned a guard was, as they'd heard a voice addressing prisoners come from a window there into the prison complex. Both groups coordinated via magic message and breached the rooms simultaneously.

In the lower prison complex floor, the party charmed the heavily-armed guard and then questioned her, learning that Deg had been taken by Branta Thaldrom to an interrogation room in the north wing of the complex. She broke the charm and fought back, but was eventually defeated and knocked unconscious.

At the end of the upper hallway, the party found a more lightly-armed guard. After battling and subduing him with blindness and a lassoed rope, he submitted and begged for mercy. The party questioned him about Deg's whereabouts and he echoed what the first guard had said. The party also found an ancient dwarven console of some sort, covered in carved stone knobs and clockwork levers, with some indicator gems, but it seemed to be inactive and unusable. The guard said the device had never worked and it was no use trying.

    The commotion had attracted the prisoners to the doors of their cells, and many of them were yelling and cheering. The party could now see them all now. They began simultaneously trying to break open the locked steel door to the north wing and talking to some of the prisoners. The cells contained:

#### Upper Level

##### Cell 2A

A sour-looking tall figure in prisoner garb with a head similar to that of a muskox.

##### Cell 2C

The Children of the Orbs, two strange, obscured figures with glowing yellow orbs floating around their heads who would not stop babbling about the glory and perfection of the holy orbs, or something to that effect.

##### Cell 2D

A very strange tall shirtless pink alien being in prisoner pants who seemed to try to talk to the party with a strange whirring language no one could understand.

##### Cell 2E

An astral elf in some sort of well-pressed formal dark gray uniform. The party opened his cell and questioned him, and he said his name was Virta and he was a courier who was tasked with delivering privileged correspondence between elven diplomatic posts when he was unjustly arrested in violation of various treaties. He asked if the party could help him escape.

##### Cell 2F

Two duergar in prisoner garb. The party opened their cell and tried to speak to them, but they just stared grimly and refused to talk or leave.

#### Lower Level

##### Cell 1A

A shady human figure with a long coat and some weird facial gear on. Other prisoners indicated they didn't trust him.

##### Cell 1B

A lanky green alien with some sort of odd armor on.

##### Cell 1C

A perplexed-looking autognome with a silver-colored chassis.

##### Cell 1D

This cell is empty.

Finally, the steel door came down, melted off its hinges. At the end of a long hallway Branta Thaldrom appeared, greeted them, a brandished a huge greatsword that was glowing yellow.