Session 6 (10/08/2021)

## Day Three, Mid-Morning

**As** Swage finishes assessing the magical items, Pele looks over the runes in the large circle around the worktable. She sees that the runes are written in Abyssal and are the incantation for a resurrection spell to reanimate the dead. Pele asks C345 if he knows the knight on the table, but he does not.

It looks as if someone had started the spell, but the adventures are unsure if the spell is close to being completed. Kaz thinks that Zertis must have set up this scene since Estafador said that he had taken up residence at the end of the tunnel.

Swage asks C345 what his earliest memory is, but the robot can’t seem to recall anything he could describe as a “first” memory. He does remember, however, that before he was deactivated, he was helping someone carry parts and haul equipment. C345 describes the fellow as having a kind, furry face, soft ears, and a wide nose. Swage whispers “Firbolg” to himself. C345 says their name was Professor Honeywood.

Swage approaches the knight on the table. He cannot detect any biological components, but he does see a little glass jar containing a small crystal embedded in the knight's chest cavity. There is a small hatch near the orb, and Holly pulls the door open. Inside, he finds a revolting mix of eyeballs, flesh, and other bits floating around in some sort of horrible slurry. He is disgusted and turns away quickly. Swage peeks in, and he can see that it’s an assortment of various humanoid creatures making up this mix. He estimates that it's about enough material to be from one or two people, or maybe a few creatures.

Pele reaches out and touches the orb. It feels warm to her touch, like an incubating egg. It makes a strange humming sound, and its pulses vibrate through her hands.

The adventurers debate over what to do about this knight. C345 thinks it would be nice to turn on the knight because he would finally have someone who could speak with him in the unique language of robots. Plus, C345 says that the group doesn’t need to worry as he’s a very good fighter, while he looks admirably over at Kaz. Kaz beams with pride and heartily slaps the robot on his back. Swage and Holly are interested in turning on the knight, but they at least want to tie it down with some ropes before activating it. Kaz wants to turn on the knight so he can fight it. Pele suggests maybe they could remove its legs before activating it, and if it was upset about its missing legs, they could just say we found it like that. Dove wonders if maybe removing its arms might be a good idea. Esha, who is still in her wild shape as a giant lizard, licks her eyeball.

The group doesn't see any weapons or shields near the knight, but Holly and Swage still tie it down with their ropes, just in case. C345 leans over the table, turns some knobs, and flips a few switches. Sparks flicker out of C345’s fingertips, and the crystal in the small jar begins to glow. The end of the table slowly rises until it’s in a vertical position. C345 turns to the party and says, “Okay, he’s on!”

The knight’s eyes flicker on and off, and its armor plates shift and close tightly around its body. The glowing crystal disappears behind a thick chest plate, and nearly all the hoses disconnect one by one from the knight’s body with hissing releases of steam. One hose remains connected to the back of the knight’s helmet.

The runes glow brightly, and the surrounding circle begins to spin. The orb’s humming noise gets louder and louder, and its pulsating light flickers faster and faster until suddenly it stops. The room dims, and the adventurers see the lights of the knight’s eyes come to life.

In a deep, rumbling voice, the knight asks, “What is the meaning of this??” The adventures cheerfully say hello, almost in unison.

The knight ignores the adventurers and asks C345 who these intruders are. The giant robot flexes its arms, and the ropes tied around it snap and fall away. Swage looks on in despair as his favorite rope is destroyed.

The knight reaches a giant hand up behind its head and unplugs the last hose from its helmet. He says, “I guess we could always use more test subjects. Oh, I didn't introduce myself. I've seen you before, but I don't know if you've seen me like this. My name… is Zertis."

He steps forward on his thick legs and the ground of the room shakes. “And you are the nuisances I can’t seem to get rid of.”

The adventurers quickly try to get more information as the large robot advances on them. Zertis says that he only came to this area after fleeing persecution in Sillea. During the Eberron War, some people did not approve of his work with automatons and tried to kill him and his fellow scientists along with their creations. He moved his automatons and his laboratory to this remote location but did not anticipate a town forming above his facility. He recalls a past mayor with a peculiar condition, and he agreed to “heal” the mayor in return for the mayor becoming his eyes and ears in the town. This mayor served as his puppet until the day another afflicted individual came down and became his new puppet–Shasta. Zertis claims no connection to the toxic green clouds that were rolling through the city.

Holly asks who Professor Honeywood was, and Zertis says that Honeywood was a former assistant until he became a test subject. When Holly asks what kind of tests, Zertis cruelly replies “the painful kind.”

Pele looks up at the giant robot and says, “So, is this your monologue? All evil geniuses have a monologue.”

Zertis scoffs and says, “Oh, but I’m not– “

“What? A genius?” interrupts Pele, as the other party members chuckle.

Zertis angrily moves towards Kaz, and the goliath bows up. Kaz stares into the robot's eyes and says, “Listen up, you nerd. We're going to see the difference between a man made of metal and a man made of stone.”

Before a Zertis can take his first swing against Kaz, Dove shoots an arrow into the giant robot. In response, Zertis’ huge left forearm gauntlet slides open to reveal a large blade. His right-hand closes into a fist and becomes like a dense metal mallet. He swings his left arm and slices Kaz with the blade. Kaz feels a little woozy but shakes it off and begins to rage. He smashes Zertis with his maul. Esha quickly darts across the stone floor on her nimble lizard feet and takes a big leaping chomp at the robot. Her bite misses. Instead, she gives the robot an aggressive lick.

Holly and Swage attack the robot with crossbows and daggers, as Pele launches a magic missile. She is shocked to see that Zertis can quickly conjure a shield that deflects her trusty spell. C345 mimics Kaz’s rage and swings his metal pipe at Zertis. The powerful hit lands squarely on the knight’s metal helmet.

Dove takes another shot with her bow but misses the robot. Zertis lifts a thick metal foot, and as he raises it, the adventurers can see a magic circle of runes appear on the ground. He stamps his foot into the stone, creating an earth tremor that knocks Holly to the ground.

As Swage hits the robot with his mace, Holly pulls himself up and makes a nimble leap onto Zertis’s back. The dwarf swiftly stabs him in the back of the head. Pele attacks with a fireball, and C345 lands another blow with his metal pipe.

Zertis grabs the dwarf, smashing him with this mallet hand and stabbing him with his dagger. Holly is thrown off and is nearly unconscious. Kaz continues pummeling the robot while Esha casts a healing spirit to stabilize Holly. Instead of an adorable ethereal rabbit, this time the spirit takes the form of a grouchy, potbellied brownie with a bad attitude and questionable personal hygiene. It doesn’t hide its annoyance as it stomps over to Holly and begins healing the dwarf.

Swage has noticed that all the metal of the knight's armor is something to be appreciated. He asks Zertis if he wanted to keep doing this, as he strikes the robot again with his mace. As the Firbolg's hit lands, Zertis drops down to one knee. He casts his gaze down and begins to laugh manically. He raises his head and says, “You think this is the only body I have?”

His armored chest plate slides open, and a blinding light bursts from his chest. Holly, Swage, and Kaz are all blasted back against the stone walls in the explosion.

As laughter echoes through the cavernous room, the smoke clears to reveal Holly and Swage’s unconscious bodies slumped against the walls. Kaz is gravely injured but still able to stand. He raises his head and shouts, “Get back here, you nerd!”

Kaz picks up the unconscious dwarf and sets him down next to the knocked-out Firbolg. The exasperated brownie begrudgingly gets to work healing the injured fighters, complaining up and down about how they’re all just a bunch of idiots. As Holly and Swage are stabilized, Holly sits up and takes a big stab at himself with his healing dagger. Swage asks for a hit too, and the dwarf happily obliges him with another stab.

C345 isn’t sure where Zertis’ spirit could have gone, but he does know that there are more pieces and parts in the room where C345 was awoken. He adds that he can also do a self-destruct sequence, just like Zertis did. Kaz grabs C345 by his shoulders, looks squarely in his eyes, and emphatically says, “Please, don't you ever do that.”

Swage notices that a few pieces of Zertis’s armor survived the explosion. He gathers up the chest plate, some cogs from the robotic legs, the blade-arm, and the face mask from his helmet. The Firbolg tries to get all the heavy pieces into his bag, but the only way to make them fit leaves the blade sticking out dangerously from the top.

Pele checks out the potions and jars on the shelf and Dove eagerly follows along. The Tabaxi had resisted the temptation to touch the jars earlier, but now her curiosity was getting to her. Pele finds a ring, a small glass jar with a black blob of ooze, and a few unlabeled glass bottles filled with colorful liquids. She touches the ring and notices it’s been crafted into tiny iron chain links that go all the way around the band. She peers at the little ooze in the far, and it seems like the ooze is peering back at her. Pele starts to hand the potions to Esha, but she turns to see a giant lizard facing her. Pele says she’ll just hold on to the potions for now, as Esha transforms out of her wild shape with a laugh.

Swage looks over the newly found items and searches for any magical properties. He identifies the ring as Elven-made, and it allows the wearer to cast mage armor on themselves. The faceplate from Zertis’s helmet is also magical and provides extra damage and protection when dealing with mages.

The dagger from the armor is not magical, but Swage sees that it has been coated in a toxin that works as anesthesia to put people to sleep. He quickly searches for some torn pieces of cloth to wrap up the blade for safe transport.

Pele was curious to see if Zertis's presence had returned to the chamber with the automatons’ tombs. As the group arrives, they can see that the room looks as if it hasn’t been touched since they left it.

Pele, Kaz, and Dove put their heads together to try to figure out what could have caused Shasta’s condition. Pele describes a creature called a chimera, and how its bites can cause different types of damage depending on what types of creature make up each chimera. Kaz reflects on his years of nomadic survival and recalls were-creatures that are known to live in regions like. He is unsure if the condition can be passed through bites, though. Dove consults her Demonomicon but doesn't find any information about Shasta or anyone with a condition like his in her book.

She is, however, able to find an entry on the Archivist they had met in Honeywood's lab. The page has a drawing of Estafador, that looks just like the demon they met, down to his pipe and spectacles. The entry says that he normally resides in a forgotten library, collecting souls and knowledge. Mothers tell their children stories of the Archivist frighten them into behaving. Estafador is fearsome and formidable, and no one knows his true purpose.

Delighted over finding more interesting information in her book, she then decides to look up the awful demon they encountered on the mountain. Her search turns up empty, and she is struck by a crippling headache that forces her to close the book.

The adventurers decide to pause in this room to regroup and attune to their newfound magical items. Kaz is still worked up from the fight with Zertis, so he stomps back down the tunnel to return to the room that housed the robot knight. Holly watches him leave and hops up to join him.

Pele attunes to the mask, and Esha attempts to form a connection with her sentient scimitar. As she places it in her hand, she can feel the scimitar shiver with antici…. pation. She hears an unfamiliar voice in her head, asking what her purpose is. She doesn’t know how to respond, as she had never been asked this sort of question by an unknown, disembodied voice. The voice tells her that she will not be able to use the scimitar until she determines her purpose.

Swage takes the armor pieces out of his bag and uses the metal to craft a new chain to replace his broken rope.

Kaz returns to Zertis’s lair and goes absolutely ham. He shatters the orb into a million pieces, pulls down the shelves, smashes the braziers, and busts up the barrels and crates. Holly watches him, gleefully pointing out things Kaz might have missed and items that could go for a little more crushing. He can destroy everything except the table where the knight’s body was lying. He can’t seem to push it, break it, pull it, or flip it. He scrawls the word NERD on the table in bold, angry letters. He smashes the hatch full of liquefied remains, and the disgusting sludge splashes all over himself and the floor. Kaz feels like his work is finally done, and he and Holly leave through the tunnel.

Pele is delighted with the adorable little ooze that she found on the shelf of potions. She coos over the jar and decides she will name the ooze Larry. Dove is wary of oozes, so she carefully pulls the Demonomicon back out to see if she can find any information. Her headache has begun to subside, and she comes across a drawing that exactly matches the ooze in Pele’s possession. She warns Pele that Larry is an Ink Guardian Ooze, a caustic and corrosive creature that never sleeps. It may look small, but it can greatly increase its size if released from its container. She adds that they can learn to be only selectively caustic, but only under the guidance of a monster tamer or a very experienced adventurer.

Holly returns, followed by Kaz, who dripping with viscera from the busted-up hatch. The adventurers are ready to return upstairs but are unsure what to do about C345. Pele invites him to join the group and leave the cellar, and the rest of the group enthusiastically agrees. C345 happily accepts the invitation. Pele does inform the group that they will have to be careful, since some people do not think highly of robots. She explains what she had learned about the Eberron Wars and how robots and their creators faced intense persecution and violence.

## Day Three, Evening

**The** adventurers vow to protect C345 and to help him blend in, and they all climb up the staircase, duck through the hole in the wall, and step into the kitchen. It is now around lunchtime, but everything in the kitchen looks exactly as it did the night before. Nothing has been moved or cleaned, and no food has been prepared.

Pele runs upstairs to check on Shasta while the others wait in the kitchen. The door to Shasta’s bedroom is still closed, and Pele gives a few knocks on the door. Shasta responds haltingly from behind the door. Pele thinks he sounds flustered, and he calls out nervously that he'll be down in a minute. She tries to give the doorknob a quick turn, but the door is locked.

A few moments later, the door opens and Shasta steps out into the hallway. He is finely dressed; except he is not wearing his usual flamboyant hat. He looks tired and teary-eyed. Pele peeks around him, and she sees that the room is completely trashed. The furniture is destroyed, the wallpaper is torn, the drapes are shredded, and the carpet is pulled up in several places. The bed is a rat’s nest of torn blankets and sheets, arranged as a beast would in its den.

Shasta tries to move Pele away and shut the door, but she is persistent. She asked if Shasta had any company last night, which he vehemently denied. In an attempt to quickly change the subject. Shasta asks Pele how the meeting with the shaman went. Pele pauses and says that he might want to come downstairs with her first. As walks down the hallway, she quickly slips Larry inside the door to her room.

The rest of the party is milling around in the kitchen, and Dove is pawing through the pantry, looking for snacks. As Pele and Shasta descend the stairs, Swage steps in front of the hole in the wall, attempting to hide it behind his broad shoulders. Shasta looks around the kitchen and immediately asks for Zertis.

The adventurers look at each other nervously, and Pele tells Shasta to take a seat. They begin to all talk at once, barraging Shasta with everything that had happened since they left the manor just yesterday morning–the demonic creature on the mountain, the shape-shifting lady found under a rockslide, the dead shaman, the vault beneath the great hall, their new robotic companion, the fight with Zertis, and the eccentric Archivist. “Yea,” adds Kaz, “and your basement is just lousy with demons!”

Shasta looks at Holly, bewildered. “You killed my butler?” he asks. “Yea,” says Holly, “but he killed me first!” Swage also tells Shasta that Zertis didn’t heal him as much as he claimed and that Zertis merely thought of him as a puppet.

The mayor slumps lower in his chair and asks about the shaman. Pele confirms that the party found him dead and presents Shasta with the soul contract. He asks why the group has the contract, but they turn it around on him and ask why he felt the need to even make one.

Shasta sighs and sadly admits that the contract he made with Baldor was to protect the town… from himself. He says that he has a condition that can make him a detriment to human life. He was bitten by an unknown creature as a child and began to experience changes that were not normal. He then left his home in search of a way to be healed, which is how he ended up in Seidan. The mayor at the time suffered from a similar condition, and his healer offered Shasta the opportunity to be cured. After the mayor died, Shasta himself inherited the position. The contract was meant to protect the townspeople and create a sanctuary, as nothing evil can come in or go out. Shasta casts his eyes to the ground and says that this also means that he can never leave.

He doesn’t understand how demons could reside under his home, and Dove opens the Demonomicon to show him who they had met. She flips to the page about Estafador and holds the book open for Shasta to see. He stares at the book and looks back up at Dove. Shasta asks if she intends to show him something because the pages of her book are blank. She flips the book around and sees the drawing of Estafador as clear as day. She shows the open book to everyone, but Shasta and the other adventurers all just kind of look around uncomfortably and mumble some half-hearted assent. Now they’re a bit concerned that Dove has simply been making up everything about this “magical” book, and the confused Tabaxi wonders if her fellow adventurers know how to read.

Swage cuts through the awkwardness to ask Shasta more about the strange bite, and if he has any scars from it. He asks Shasta where he was bitten, and Shasta replies, “Outside my childhood home.” Swage clarifies that he meant where on his body was he bitten. Shasta shuts down and says that it’s a sensitive matter. Swage muses that Shasta must have been bitten on his butt.

Holly asks about the cavern beneath the Great Hall. Shasta says that it’s not unknown to him, but he hasn’t been down there in many years since the cavern hasn’t been of any use lately. It used to serve as a meeting hall where confidants from many lands and kingdoms would meet. The previous mayor would hold conferences to discuss matters of the town and the kingdom.

Shasta only met this group once, and he didn’t know that much about them, but they called themselves the Crow’s Nest.

He said the members were odd folks who wore hooded cloaks and had black masks with hooked noses like a bird’s beak. It's. They spoke in a peculiar manner that sounds like a mishmash of tones and accents. Pele thinks to herself that this description sounds a lot like Kenkus.

Shasta slowly shakes his head, trying to take in all the heavy news. He offers the adventurers another night’s stay in his home, and he assures them that they will be safe from any of his “outbursts” because the moon has begun to wane. He does have one more favor to ask, though. He requests the adventurers deliver a letter to his father.

Thinking back to the last journey the mayor sent them on, the adventurers were a little apprehensive. They ask for more information and want to know if they will be well-received as his messengers.

Shasta says that he is not close with his father, but they do have a polite and cordial relationship and will occasionally exchange letters. His father was currently residing in Nethis, aiding the kingdom in its research into the Spell Scar. Shasta says his father is very powerful and is able to ask the Kingdom of Nethis for his help as well. The adventurers slowly realize that Shasta’s father is Lord Gregus Soulkeeper, the ruler of the Kingdom of Sillea!

The party presses him for more information, and Shasta explains that he was a wizarding apprentice and was learning to use his powers to control the wind. He was cared for by his father but faced derision from the royal family since he was born an illegitimate child. His half-siblings of “proper” lineage never trusted him and were suspicious that he may try to take over the kingdom one day. They pressured him into leaving Sillea, and the attack from the mysterious creature all but sealed his departure.

He traveled alone before settling in Seidan but keeps in touch with his father through letters. He tells the adventurers to seek out the guard Jackalobe that they will most likely find him in a tavern called the Yawn and Yarrel Club.

The adventures agree to deliver the letter but remind themselves to stay on Shasta’s father’s good side.