The Night Walkers carried a disruptive aura with them. All potions and holy water needed to have a Fortitude Save by the person carrying them, or else be destroyed. Beari lost two potions, and Arden lost twelve.
Dragon 17, 5043
We fly up a stream looking for the Baba Yaga machine hut. Hour 3 we are surrounded by 7 Stone Giants – large, strong, have clubs, no treasure.
Surprise Round
G30, G31 on Arden miss, miss
G32, G33 on Zora miss, miss
G34 on Beari hits for 18
G35 on Ben misses; G36 on Ben hits for 18
Round 1
Beari casts Bigby’s Clenched Fist and hits G34 for 18 plus stun one round;
Arden sees tattoos & tumbles past G33 for later flanking, hits for 11, 10, 10;
G30 on Zora hits once then bloopers;
G31 on Arden hits once for 25;
G32 on Zora hits once;
G33 on Arden hits once for 24;
G34 stunned (apparently because he was surprised to NOT be stunned)
G35 hits Ben three times;
G36 misses Ben;
Zora hits G33 for 32, 34, 35 kills; see the tattoo and tells group, “Cauldron Born, undead, immune cold, elec. all others stronger when one dies, partial action next round.”
Ben Turns G35 and G36, they flee; casts Flame Strike behind G32 & G34 for 55.
Round 2
Beari has Bigby’s Clenched Fist hit G34 again for 18 (but no stunning this time); casts Fireball on G30 & G32 for 60;
Arden tumbles past G31, “I’ll try to distract this one.” hits G31 for 8, 8, 12;
[Because G33 was killed, all other Cauldron Born are now stronger, but only have a partial action this round.]
G30 misses Zora;
G31 misses Arden;
G32 hits Beari for 23;
G34 misses Ben;
All of the giants yell something in Giant; everyone sees amulets on cords around their neck start to glow “evilly” green;
Zora takes 5’ step, hits G30 for 28, hits G32 for 35 kills, cleaves G30 for 31 kills, charges G34 for 32;
Ben Turns, but the remaining Cauldron Born are now too strong, casts Flame Strike on G34 for 77 kills;
Round 3
Beari has Bigby’s Clenched Fist hit G31 for 17; watches out for returning G35 & G36;
Arden hits G31 three times for 32;
[Because G30, G32, and G34 were killed, all other Cauldron Born are now stronger, but only have a partial action this round.]
G31 misses Arden;
Zora hits G31 for 32 kills, says, “Other giants will return, be ready.”
Arden sees an opening to the side of the stream, it leads to a small clearing (no sign of any trees being demolished).
Beari detects arcane energies on the amulets; Ben detects moderate Evil on all the amulets, knows of no religious significance to the design on the amulets.
Everyone flies up (crawls through the canopy); Beari casts Rope Trick and everyone retreats up for healing and over-time recovery.
XP: 426
Dragon 18, 5043
One Rope Trick duration isn’t quite long enough, so before that spell runs out, Beari casts a second one and everyone transfers over.
Discussion of whether these Cauldron Born Stone Giants were intentionally guarding something, or just wandering randomly. The consensus is that the combination of the ambush-from-invisibility plus the amulets leans more toward deliberate placement of them.
Plan now is to continue flying up to the headwaters of this stream. If nothing is found by then, spiral out in a search from there, on the theory that the CBSGs were guarding an approach to something. Going down through the canopy, the two remaining CBSGs are spotted roughly where they were before. Up through the canopy again and fly north (towards the headwaters) for a quarter mile, then move down to fly over the stream.
After two hours, Arden and Zora hear faint mechanical-sounding noises. Fifteen minutes later the left side of the stream changes from trees to desolation for a long stretch of the riverbank. The sounds are coming from the NW. Flying slowly across the lifeless stumps, for an estimated 350’, we see it! 30’ wide by 60’ long; 20’ tall on top of 8’ legs; crab claws in the front with 10’ reach; spider legs every 5’ along each side of the top, jointed, articulated, 30’ reach. The roof has a hopper into which logs are being fed, and smoke stacks from which the miasma is spewing.
We fly up and circumnavigate the machine clockwise – avoiding the front until last. Along the port side we find writing, and possibly a door. Zora shares one of the knowledge items she was gifted with by the Azamaondi.
We translate, thank you Kira!
Someone comments, sardonically, that it was very accommodating of the wizard to leave instructions for the door where we could read them. Someone else suggests that the wizard has multiple projects like this one, and thus needs to write down the passwords for each project.
Arden, in full hide mode, edges around the front corner and looks: Front has windows: 5’ tall and the full width of the machine, one for an upper floor and one for a lower floor. Each floor has one automaton standing at a control board which takes up half the width of each control room: in the top room it is offset to the starboard side; in the bottom room it is offset to port.
Arden also notes that it takes the machine about five minutes to demolish/devour one tree.
We have now been in the miasma for about three hours, so we fly up, Beari casts Rope Trick (twice), and we rest and plan.
Dragon 19, 5043
We plan:
1. Fly down;
2.a. Beari tries Clairvoyance – if this works, she will advise on elephants;
2.b. Arden hides and looks in windows to advise on elephants;
3. Open door, summon elephants;
4. Watch for machine stopping – if machine continues go to (5), else go to (7);
5. Follow elephants and beat automatia to death;
6. Cause earthquake to stop machine;
7. Prepare for wizard, including Summon Swarm inside the machine (note that spells cannot be cast from inside a swarm);
8. Beari casts Time Stop: then from within casting Wall of Iron twice: once behind the wizard and flat, once in front of the wizard and vertical;
9. Then Beari uses a Bigby’s ___ {Hand | Fist}to push the vertical wall over on top of the wizard [NB: Strength DC:40 needed];
10. Ben summons elephants to dance on the wall;
11. Fight wizard.
We go back to the machine, which has moved on several trees while we were away. We are careful to stay out of sight of the front windows.
Beari finds that Clairvoyance is blocked.
Arden, in full hide mode, from above at each window, looks in. Each control room is about 15’ deep, with that control panel taking up the starboard (upper) or port (lower) 15’ under that window, and about 5’ deep. In the back wall of the lower room, centered on the control panel, is a 5’ wide very steep stairway – more of a ship’s ladder – going up. In the back wall of the upper room, centered on the control panel, is a 5’ wide (presumed matching) stairway going down. Nothing more can be seen of the insides.
Someone pronounces “Garesh” and the door – 5’ wide, 8’ tall – appears. Someone pronounces “Posreef” and the door folds down into a set of steps reaching the ground The entrance opens to a 5’ wide hallway running the entire width of the machine. On the left are two steep stairways, the near one down, the further one up. On the right, halfway along the hallway, is a 5’ opening. Entering the machine does not set off any alarms. A careful reconnaissance reveal the entirety of the interior. It is clear that elephants cannot fit in the confines of the machine; Ben changes his intended Summon Monster from elephants to bison.
Round 1
Everyone else reserves to wait for Ben;
Ben casts Summon Monster IX for four celestial bison, he assigns two to each of the control rooms;
Bisons attack AU31 and AU32;
Ben flies around corner into engine room (too crowded for even bison) and hits AU33 for 17;
Beari moves halfway down the stairs to the lower level and casts Bigby’s Clenched Fist to hit AU31 for 19;
Zora rounds the corner into engineering and hits AU33 for 27, 26, 25, declares AU33 is her dodge;
Arden stays in the machine’s doorway to watch, and reserves for the machine stopping.
Round 2
AU31 shoots beams at Bison1 for 8 & -2 STR, 7 & -3 STR;
AU32 shoots beams at Bison3 for 37 kills;
AU33 misses Zora;
Bison1 hits AU31 for 10;
Bison2 hits AU31 for 14;
Bison4 hits AU32 for 13;
Ben hits AU33 for 11, 7, 15, 15;
Beari’s Bigby’s Clenched Fist hits AU31 for 19;
Beari casts See Invisibility on herself, does not notice anything hidden;
Zora hits AU33 for 35 kills; moves to AU32 and hits for 39, declares AU32 is her dodge;
Arden remains reserved.
Round 3
AU31 beams Bison1 kills;
AU32 beams Bison4 for 8 & -2 STR, misses Zora;
Bison2 hits AU31 for 14;
Bison4 misses AU32;
Ben moves to AU31, hits for 10, 15, miss;
Beari’s Bigby’s Clenched Fist hits AU31 for 16;
Beari casts Magic Missile on AU31 for 16;
Zora hits AU32 for 38, 43, miss, miss, 40 kills;
Arden remains reserved.
Round 4
AU31 beams Beari for 13 & -1 STR, misses;
Bison2 hits AU31 kills.
HP: 144
The automatae all slump down into piles of junk metal.
Careful to not touch anything, the group explores the two control rooms and the engine room. They find controls and instructions:
Drive Control Room
Harvest Control Room
Engine Room Controls
Engine Room Gauges
We translate the instructions.
Arden doesn’t want us to play with the controls. Instead, he wants to leave the machine exactly where it is, unable to harvest any trees beyond the current one, and wait for it to run down and stop. He is particularly taken with the engine room instruction, “Warning: never run without chips”. He thinks it will be instructive to see what happens when the machine does try to run without chips.
END OF RUN
