ToA: Session 42

## **Going down the Baiyou... Again**

Waking from a well needed, if somewhat disturbed, nights sleep, the squad make their way down river once more. Daedalus attempts to get Artus to open up, but makes little headway. Kinlek meanwhile paints with all the colors of the wind, and communes with the many animals of the jungle. The animals speak of a sickness in the jungle, and of a dinosaur graveyard nearby where the dead dinos still walk.

Due to Kinleks Pocahontas moment, Neb barely manages to notice a massive overgrown building on the shore. Upon closer inspection, it is a massive aqueduct heading to Omu. Knowing this, it would be relatively easy to find the right path. This would however prevent them from finding the GC, Fargus posits, aa that would require a more lateral search pattern. Besides, tales of a dino graveyard intrigues the party, and they set the course towards it. On the way they notice more ruins, or rather, fragments of ruins in the water. Well, some do. Fargus is having a... moment.... to himself, staring blankly into the water, and Kinklek has clearly eaten too many shrooms, as he see and communes with Ubtao.

Eventually, they find the entrance to the graveyard, of sorts. 2 massive, half broken statues of Ubtao welcome the party to what must also be a holy place.

## **Life finds a way?**

Leaving the waterways behind them, the party made their way up a rather steep incline before coming to the edge of a cliff. Below, they found the dinosaur graveyard, filled with different species of dinosaurs. It was truly a majestic sight, only slightly tarnished by they amount of dinosaur bones strewn across the place, and the fact that some of those bones were still moving.

The cliff edge itself was dotted with more ancient ruins and temples, some having clearly fallen down the cliff. One such half broken temple catches the partys attention, as the hear a low hum emanating from the building. Intrigued, they inch closer to the building, and the low hum gives way to the sound of machinery. And not just any machinery as the sound coming from inside the temple reminds the party of a certain warforged they fought. Thinking on it, the building, with it's massive 10 foot tall stone gate, could definitely house a warforged of that size. Both nervous and intrigued, the party opens a smaller door and takes a peek inside.

## **House of the Jaguar**

Inside, they found their suspicions to be right. A massive warforged dominated the room, this one shaped as a mighty jaguar warrior, with a spear in one and, and a claw on the other. Unlike the warforged the previously encountered, this one was in pristine condition. It was, fortunately, dormant. Unfortunately, something was clearly wrong with the machinery the warforged was hooked up to, and it looked incredibly unstable. Furthermore, magic radiation filled to room. Perhaps this was the sickness the animals had spoken of before? Easily dispelling the foul radiation, the party could make their way in.

As each member of the squad crossed the thershold, runes lighted up, seemingly corelating to how much the individual believed in the prophecy, with the less cynical having multiple runes light up. When Neb steps over, his peacock cloak appears once more, and once more they party promptly neglect to inform Neb of this phenomenon. This time they might be forgiven, as they had far greater thing to be concerned with.

## **The Unholy and Unwise Union Between Religion and Science**

The machinery was clearly on the verge of breaking down. This was somewhat kept at bay by the magical radiation, but now that that had been dispelled, it was only a matter of hours before the machinery, and perhaps the warforged, would explode violently. A ludicrous amount of quasi religious arcane and mechanical wards covered the walls and machinery, and some even being set up as perverse "automated rituals". Many of the wards had failed, which may explain all the shattered ruins strewn across the jungle. Hell, the hubris on display might even partly explain the downfall of Omu.

Somehow more concerning was the overwhelming sensation of unbridled, barely contained **hate** that permeated the room. Investigating further, it seemed to be stemming from the warforged, which had several severely pissed off elementals bound inside it. Bound elementals were of course nothing new to the Khovairians, but even the most powerful bound elementals anger paled in comparison to the intensity of this hatred. This could be explained as the power source being corrupted, which seemingly stemmed from Omu.. somehow. The answer to that question may have ben found in the destroyed section of the building, but one thing was certain; The power required to operate this setup was massive, definitely on par with a Khovarian airship.

Further exploring the building, the party finds a magical amulet, and a nasty looking helmet with room for 2 vials, unwearable without pericing the skin and drawing blood. This, along with further examination of the warforged, reveals that said warforged could possibly be piloted. Before they rest get to shoving Fargus into the machine however, an loud noise erupts...

**Has the squad miscalculated to amount of time left before everything explodes? Or has something equally as terrifying discovered the squad? Find out next time, on Tomb of Annihilation!**