RQG 51 - Elementary my dear Bertie!

## Summary

The party investigate the depths of Mr. Ceiling's home, finding four coloured crystals containing elementals. They break both the fire and the water elementals from their crystals, and flee. As they try to run, the whole party collapses.

## Synopsis

The party hears a hissing from the room full of brains. In the middle of the room, Zolf sees a small amount of gas coming from the central room with a light coming from beneath it. They move over to the light, revealing a small circular staircase going downwards. Hamid and Zolf checks the brains in columns, which don't have any fluid entering or leaving them. Hamid casts 'Detect Magic' and discovers there is no magic coming out of the column. However, there is something magical in the bottom of the staircase.

Below, the room is more functional and dirty, with the steam coming out of some pipes. There is also a vault door further into the room, which leads to a large, metal, domed room. There is light coming from four crystals, which are all held in carts around the room, which can slot into a junction box in the centre of the room.

To the far right of the door there is a red crystal, trapping an elemental, probably fire. To the right of the door is a white crystal with an air elemental inside. To the left of the door is a nature elemental in a green crystal, and to the far left is a water elemental in a blue crystal. They decide that this is probably what is powering the machine. Sasha looks at the controls, and realises that they control the carts holding the crystals, and that a thick cable can be brought down. Hamid and Zolf realise that this is something to generate power, and there are instructions, in English, for how to power it up.

Hamid heads over to the fire elemental's crystal. It acts strangely for an elemental. Zolf and Bertie head back upstairs, before Sasha presses one of the suspicious buttons. There is a sudden hiss as the red crystal's cart falls down, cracking the crystal. The fire elemental explodes out from the crystal, Sasha gets behind the console as Hamid is knocked down. The fire elemental approaches the halfling, grabbing him as he attempts to flee up the stairs.

Sasha cracks open the water elemental's crystal and the party flee as the two opposing elementals fight. As they run, Sasha collapses, followed by Brutor, followed by Bertie, then Hamid and Zolf.

## Quotes

**Sasha**: "Bertie, bring your light over here."
**Bertie**: "Clop, clop, clop, clop, clop..."
**Hamid**: "B-Bertie it's okay, you don't need to add sound effects to your actions..."
**Bertie**: "Clip clop clip clop, clip clop clip clop, clip clop clip clop... I miss, I miss Monsieur Horse..."
―The team investigate the room under Mr. Ceiling.

"Right, do we wanna go down the mysterious steaming staircase, or do you want me to just chuck a bomb down there and deal with it?"
―**Sasha**

**Bertie**: "I'm just not very reflective!"
**Sasha**: "That's... oddly self aware of you, Bertie."
**Bertie**: "Sometimes it just slips out, bits of, bits of self-knowledge—even a stopped clock is self aware twice a day!"
―Bertie is self aware.

**Bertie**: "So I suppose the question is—are these creatures here because they are prisoners who should be freed by four mighty heroes of conquesting blah blah blah blah blah, or are they terrible monsters who must be destroyed *grr* because this is their lair?"
**Zolf**: "A bit of column A, a bit of column B."
**Bertie**: "So we free them and then murder them, is that the ... is that the plan?"
―The party discusses how to handle the caged elementals.

**Zolf**: "You're, you're the wizard."
**Hamid**: "But I haven't dealt really with elementals ever, like, that wasn't on the curriculum, I only did a year and a bit!"
**Sasha**: "Wait, are you not a proper wizard?"
**Hamid**: "What do you mean? I mean I didn't get my degree..."
**Sasha**: "Ah, alright, no one cares about a degree."
―Hamid tries to provide information about elementals.

**Sasha**: "Why don't you say hello, with Fireball?"
**Hamid**: "I can't... cast that spell..."
**Sasha**: "Or any spell! Like a "hello" spell, you can cast Message on it!"
―Hamid tries to communicate with the fire elemental.

**Zolf**: "I'm sorry if I don't want to be diving head first into mad dashes like we have been! May I remind you last time we did that, you *literally* died!"
**Sasha**: "I seem alright now, I got better."
―Zolf is hesitant to release the elementals.

"Sir Bertrand MacGuffingham has custody this weekend, Mr Smith, come on, let's go to the gift shop!"
―**Bertie carries Zolf**
## Dice rolls and Mechanics

* To inspect the brain columns, Zolf rolls a 22 on a Heal check, and Hamid rolls a 21 on Knowledge Arcana.
* Hamid casts Detect Magic, and notices magic from the bottom of the staircase.
* Peeking past the vault door and into the dome, Hamid rolls an 18 on Perception.
* Entering the dome, Bertie rolls a natural 1 on Perception.
* Upon entering the dome, Sasha and Zolf roll 20 and 15 on Perception respectively.
* Going up to examine the crystals, Hamid rolls a 20 on Knowledge Arcana and identifies the presence of elementals within the crystals.
* To inspect the column, Sasha rolls a 19 on Disable Device, Zolf and Hamid roll 16 and 25 on Knowledge Arcana respectively.
* At the control panel, Sasha rolls a natural 1 on Perception, which yields no results.
* In the dome, Hamid and Sasha roll 24 and 20 on Perception respectively, and notice the crack at the base of the crystal.
* Sasha and Hamid roll 23 and 8 for a Reflex save respectively, Sasha manages to avoid damage via Evasion, while Hamid gets knocked out by the shockwave caused by the fire elemental escaping its crystal.
* Hamid and Sasha roll 2 and 14 on Perception respectively, and she notices Hamid's clothes burning.
* While running from the fire elemental, Hamid rolls 12 on Reflex, and his leg gets caught by the elemental.
* Rolling 4 d6, Hamid takes 14 fire damage (19 - 5 fire resistance) due to contact with the fire elemental.
* Sasha rolls a 17 for a Reflex save, but gets slammed back by the vault door as a tidal wave slams it open.
* The rest of the party rolls Perception, with 10 from Bertie, 11 from Zolf and 20 from Sasha, and they all notice the unusual colour of Hamid's skin.
* After Sasha falls, the rest of the party rolls Perception, with 1 from Bertie, 15 from Zolf and 22 from Hamid, and Zolf and Hamid notice that Brutor has also fallen unconscious.

## Elemental Breakdown

Going into initiative order, Sasha rolls 18, Hamid rolls 5, Zolf rolls 4, Bertie rolls 2.

The fire elemental picks up Hamid and investigates him.

Sasha hammers the button for the water elemental.

Hamid screams.

Zolf does nothing, but feels vaguely ashamed of himself.

Bertie sees a huge flaming foot in the doorway to the staircase and looks towards it, burning himself. He then closes the door.

The fire elemental places Hamid down (Hamid stops screaming) and returns to its crystal.

The water elemental's crystal starts to crack.

Sasha runs to Hamid and they flee up the stairs to Bertie and Zolf. She stays and peeks around the door.

Hamid continues to flee.

The fire elemental roars.

The water elemental flows out of the crystal and a gush of water rushes up the stairs.

Sasha is thrown by the water on a reflex save of 17 and is submerged, taking 4 damage. She swims upwards.

The party realise that Hamid's skin is a brass colour. He changes his clothes and then they all run for the exit.

Sasha passes out, followed by Brutor, then Bertie, Hamid, and finally Zolf