2022/11/16

Last time in the Iron Kingdoms, squirrels were on cocaine.

As the party stood outside of Alexandr's lab that was spewing forth light into the nighttime sky, they knew that they would have to act fast to prevent the situation from getting any worse. After being quickly instructed by Alexandr as to how to shut his machine down, they entered the lab. After a few moments for their eyes to adjust to the bright conditions they saw the Stryker warjack standing in front of the machine that was the cause of all of this. The Stryker seemed to be drawing power from the machine and as the party approached it moved to stop them. In addition to the warjack, the energy that the machine was putting out had coalesced into humanoid figures of energy which threw the party around in an attempt to maintain their corporeal form. A fight ensued between the party and the entities that sought to keep the device running, with the party eventually proving victorious. Shakes was able to turn off the machine and with that the light dimmed and the energy beings dissipated.

Stepping outside, the party was greeted with the Finger's Watch securing the scene, under the oversight of three of the high captains, Atrixia, Laryana, and Matea. The party passed Alexandr off to Laryana as his rough explanation of what had happened was above their level of knowledge. Matea was dealing with the damage to the industrial facilities in the area, leaving Atrixia to debrief the party as to their opinions as to what happened. The main question was whether the explosion was due to negligence, incompetence, or malice. Charlotte was of the opinion that the main cause of the explosion was that Alexandr succeeded far more than he was expecting to in his experiments and the result was that it breached his containment. Alexandr didn't seem to have wanted to cause an explosion, and for it to be negligence the outcome would have needed to have been predictable. Atrixia thanked the party for their insight, and told them that they should probably get Lady Ashcroft's warjack back to her before she starts poking her nose around where it doesn't belong.

With the situation at the laboratory under control, the party then continued to the meeting site where they were to hand off the Stryker back to Cygnar. Lady Ashcroft was waiting for the party with a group of engineers that were to take stock of the warjack. Both Lady Ashcroft and the party had questions for the other concerning the night's events, with the party wanting to know the reason that the Stryker broke from the party to chase the explosion, and Lady Ashcroft wanting to know more about the explosion in general. The engineers were helpful and postulated that the accumulator that would draw power from nearby storm chambers was capable of drawing power from the generator and thus the compulsion to stay near storm chambers overrode all other orders. This made sense to the party though Lady Ashcroft was less than happy with her engineers that they were discussing classified designs in the open like they were. The party shared a little bit of information on the explosion in exchange, as an explanation as to why the warjack was damaged upon delivery. Likening the Stryker to a squirrel on cocaine. Eventually the hand off was complete and the party was paid, with Lady Ashcroft remarking that this was likely the beginning of a solid relationship between the party and herself.

A few days after the handoff, while the party was meeting in Undertow, they were met with a courier bringing a message to them from High Prelate Isabel Tieri as well as the Finger's Watch. There was need of the party's services to prevent potential public panic, and more would be explained when the party met with Isabel at the cathedral of Morrow. At the cathedral, there was a Sargent in the Finger's watch in addition to Isabel. The two explained to the party that in the wake of the explosion, rumors concerning its cause were beginning to pop up. The most troubling was that the explosion was the result of a cult of infernalists hidden under the city; abducting people to use their souls for their nefarious goals. While the explosion wasn't infernal in origin, there still were a number of missing persons cases that had been popping up within the past month or so. Mostly people who wouldn't be noticed, but still, 64 missing people within the past month causes people to talk. The Finger's Watch had searched most of the city and not turned up anything of note, which left the main focus now on the tunnels that run underneath much of the city state. The Finger's Watch doesn't have the manpower to really sweep the tunnels so they were turning to the party to see if anything comes up down there. The added benefit was that the party is a public entity who will express that the government is taking the disappearances seriously. As for the tunnels, there is a Rhulic excavation company that is under contract to expand the old tunnels under the city to serve as storage or living space. Isabel remarked that they might be a good place to start, regardless the party needed to get to the bottom of the matter and deal with it, be it infernalists or something else.