Sairina's Tale of automatons and necromancy - Fizzbang Rescue II

*After the shame of her outburst earlier in the Stuck Pig with Sabrina... or should she say "sister Sabrina"... ugh. Sairina decides it's time to do some image repair. She heads to the Stuck Pig that evening as if nothing had happened earlier that day and says "Now who wants to hear the story of how we rescued the King??". A few adventurers gather round as she begins her tale of the great Fizzbang Rescue part... 3?*

So as you know, about a week ago I was looking for adventurers to regroup and head back out to rescue the adventurers who disappeared on the Fizzbang quest. Well, let me tell you the story of how we rescued "the **King**".

The initial group consisted of **Artemis, Fergal, Furious, Elphim, Uklah**, and I. Thankfully we all had mounts, so the journey there was much more efficient. Getting there, we passed by the infamous **treasure pillar** and **keep**, however, the keep seemed to be filled with bandit-type humans rather than dark elves. I'm not sure what happened there, but of course, we didn't have time to investigate.

About 6 miles from the keep we made camp, and during the night we had a **Ragemaw** sighting! He flew right over the camp but didn't stop to bother us thankfully.

That morning, we headed out in the direction that we thought was N/NE, however, we somehow ended up a **Kathal's Doom Mine**! Then somehow we were completely turned around for quite a while. I thought we were heading West but somehow we ended up back at the mine. Honestly, the mists just made it impossible to see where we were going. Thankfully it's great to see those have cleared up now! *Sairina gives a quick nod to those who helped solve that problem.*

We did spot some **trolls** in this area, which we didn't have time to deal with, but I thought I'd mention it for those of you who are looking to collect the troll bounty.

Eventually, we were finally able to find the **Quartztoil tower**! At the base of the tower, there was a cave entrance, which we decided to investigate. Inside the cave, there was a metal pillar that went straight up with a giant dinner-pate-shaped contraption on top of it. It looks as if it is possibly some sort of lifting device, however, we couldn't find a way to bring the contraption back down!

So with no way to use it, we decided to follow the trail up the cliff with our horses. Here we got a good look at the granite, quartz, and crystal tower covered in snow.

The ride up was FREEZING. Honestly, I wish **someone** (*Sairina looks over at **Artemis**)* would've thought to warn us to bring winter clothing. I'm so used to the swamp I had no idea this place would be so cold!

So when we get to the top I'm completely frozen, inside and out, and exhausted. But we find a dilapidated building which looks to be the elevator control room. We also found a dead gnome inside.

As we're in this building the front gates to the tower open, and out walks **another adventuring party**! There were two halflings, an orc, a human woman, and a Dragonborn. Apparently, they had met the others we were set to rescue, and said they'd tried to make a deal, but our friends had refused. They told us our friends went inside the tower and... never came out. *Sairina pauses for dramatic effect.*

Because they still needed help, they decided to give us the same deal. If we managed to clear out the tower library and make a safe path to get there, these adventurers would give us a vast sum of coin. Of course, practically this made sense for us to try to accomplish if possible, although we explained to them that the priority was rescuing our friends. They agreed and placed no demands on us, and waited for us to enter.

When we opened the front door to the tower, we found a ghastly scene. On the floor were two dead bodies, one of which **Uklah** identified as **Jizo**. There was also a dead automaton. Now, we wanted to be careful when entering the room, because we weren't sure if the automatons were still functional or not. We tried to sneak around them, but unfortunately, I got too close, and they awoke!

An intense battle commenced with automatons violently attacking us. Even small hand-like creatures chased us around the room, pulling at **Furious**. The weirdest thing is that these automatons ebb necrotic damage! Once the automatons were all subdued, we found dead bodies inside. It was some sort of horrifying technological necromancy!

The **other adventurers** told us that the man who runs this place had revolutionary ideas about constructs made with necromancy, however, he dropped off the radar about 100 years ago, and his machines have been here ever since, guarding the place. How insane!

So we head upstairs and find some sort of relaxing room, but then all of a sudden **Artemis** trips out of nowhere! He says that something tripped him, but we couldn't find anything anywhere. Little did we know that this was just a taste of what was to come...

We head up the next round of stairs to find an open courtyard with multiple giant rotting bodies with metal holding them together. I quickly discovered that these evil things are resistant to non-magical weapons, which is just *great* for a fighter like me. Thankfully we were able to eventually put them down, but **Furious** was knocked unconscious in the process, and **Fergal** was very injured.

We decided to then head back downstairs where we healed up and took a short rest. It was during this time that **Fergal** decided to head home. I think these constructs created a phobia in him, and he elected to leave. Thankfully he encountered **Adalius** on the way out and pointed him in our direction.

*Sairina pauses her story for a moment while she asks the barmaid for another ale....*