Fumble in the Jungle: The Characters

NOTE: Characters are always evolving, and as they evolve new information is added to their bios. Check back often! These change regularly, and when a new character is added, so is their bio!

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Ella Steamgear is the younger cousin of Winry Steamgear and Bella's identical twin. Ella and Bella are twin souled; Ella got the emotions and impluses, Bella got nothing but cold logic. She's a Priestess of Gond, and she became such after a freak explosion happened in her lab. Bella was dying, so Ella reached out to Gond for a miracle and Bella's soul was transferred into a gearforged body, saving her twin's life. Before this explosion occurred, Ella was preparing to leave the Friendly Arm Inn and go into the woods to learn to be a druid, with her half-drow wife; her wife was killed in the explosion. Her workshop was the most important place to her, but losing her wife in the lab tainted it a little for Ella, and she decided to leave home for a while to find herself.

The matriarch of the Steamgear clan is an archdruidess, so some of the Steamgear children learned to combine nature and technology. Ella idolized Granny and always wanted to be a druid; she loves all animals and wants to adopt all of the cute, fuzzy babies.

Ella's temple is said to be the oldest temple of Gond in Toril, and upon joining the clergy, she was given a gear that is said to have been blessed by Gond. It is part of her pocket watch.

In the alternate strand of Fate the Raven Queen merged with Ella, she was a wizard because she found a dusty old spellbook in the family library. Ella has a spellbook made of sheet metal and each spell is inscribed on gears. She wants to become the greatest wizard of her generation.

Ella loves to take apart anything mechanical to learn how it works, and she loves to talk at length about her work. While mechanical things are her main focus in life, she still loves people and will do anything for someone she cares about.

When the twins were younger, Bella killed Ella's little pet worm named Squirmy. Ella still carries the dead worm in a pickle jar and often pulls it out to shake angrily at Bella when they fight.

The twins are 61 years old, with Ella 57 seconds older than Bella. They both stand at 3'4 and weigh about 40 lbs. The twins have aqua hair and gray eyes, pale skin. They have a slim, toned figure with minimal curve. Ella has several eyebrow piercings.

***
Bella Steamgear is Ella's identical twin. She is a Paladin to what she believes to be Gond, but it is really to Haagenti, the Demon Lord. Bella is a sociopath, and she kills anything that she thinks might take Ella away from her. She was who caused the explosion in Ella's lab, because she didn't want her sister to leave. She was killing Ella's wife to force her sister to stay behind. Unfortunately for Bella, her girlfriend walked into the lab at the wrong moment, and as Bella went to move her out of the way, the explosion went off. Her girlfriend died, and she almost did. Ella reached out to Gond to save them, and her prayer was answered by Gond.

In the separate strand of fate the Raven Queen merged into Bella, she believed herself to be a Warlock of Gond, but it was truly a Solar of Haagenti she made her pact with. In the alternate timeline, Bella was never turned into a gearforged, so the merging turned her into a cyborg of sorts. A seamless blend of gnome and machine.

***
Tekandyl Al'Tayn is a male drow who was cursed, compelling spiders to attack him on sight. In one fate line he was a Champion Fighter who worked for Bregan D'aerthe. In the other, he was an Arcane Trickster working for the Coldfire Initiative.

He is a private person, as most drow are, so the party knows little about him. Tek is one of the people who mostly leads the party, and several of the guides the party hires end up being loyal to him.



***
Wartle of Clan Koopa is a tortle who is looking for glory and adventure. He uses shields to fight instead of swords, and is always willing to go charging. Wartle is fearless and is overly confident in his abilities, which makes him easy to manipulate into walking into dangerous situations.

Wartle is searching Chult for the lost artifacts of Koopa, to return glory to his clan.



***

The half-elf sorcerer Xandala has come to Chult in search of the Ring of Winter, an artifact in Artus Cimber's possession. Xandala knows that the ring has kept Artus alive for over a century, and she craves its power.

Xandala's magic traces back to a draconic bloodline, and parts of her skin are covered by a thin sheen of protective scales. She has befriended a pseudodragon named Summerwise, who thinks that Xandala's quest for the ring is dangerous but has given up trying to talk the sorcerer out of it.

Xandala asked the party to help her find Artus Cimber, a man she claims is her father. Artus can't be found using magic, but Xandala has heard that Artus left the city with a reptilian man who doesn't talk and smells funny. Both were last seen heading into the jungle.
Artus possesses the Ring of Winter, a powerful artifact that Xandala wants.

The Ravenloft Chronicles- Shit Storm: Book One, Chapter Twenty-two

Threats on All Fronts

Dramatis Personae:
Tilea Aervavil'A'Sum, the Wild Elf Circle of the Moon Druid Barbarian
Scritch, the Weremonkey Squirrel Thief and Tilea's Animal Companion
Sachi Kno, the Vistani Weremonkey Thief
Tabitha Marie Lennox, the Human White Witch of Mystra, youngest of the Lennox triplets
Spot, Tabitha's Homunculus
Nikko, Tabitha's Flying Monkey familiar and Warlock of the White Witch
Azure, Nikko's Witch Light Familiar
Dot, the Tabaxi Cheetah Therinthrope Homunculus and White Witch
Pip, Dot's Flying Monkey Familiar
Speck, Dot's Homunculus
Isabella Catalina Hazelgrove, the Human Assassin and Scritch's Knight
Isabeth Katherine Hazelgrove, the Human Assassin and Catalina's sister and Knight
Sypha Alohrea Lennox, the Human Sorceress, eldest of the Lennox triplets
Agatha Leah Lennox, the Human Black Witch, middle of the Lennox triplets
Syndal Al'Vherin, the Four-year-old Human girl who Tilea released from an amulet,- kidnapped by Strahd, now working with Talmot Now cleansed of the soul brand clouding her mind
Clarah Kno, the Silver Dragoness and Sachi's insane wife

Comrades we have lost:
Pineck, Anvil's Horse- turned into soup by a cursed crate
Kithri "Quickshadow" Tealeaf, the Lightfoot Halfling Werebat Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter and Ruin Raider- left to become Archivist
Forgrotken Anvilrocker, the Blugrim Forge Cleric of Moradin- killed by the Talmot Wives
Lythana, the Human Werewolf Order of the Ghost Slayer Blood Hunter- captured by the Talmot Wives, then turned evil mauled to death by Tilea
Bruenar Shieldwall, the Shield Dwarf Shield Fighter the party hired- became the Harbinger of Apsu

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Tabitha's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view since the Witch can't be everywhere at once. 

***** Kilencedik Honap 10, CY 745, Amarune, Moonshae Isles

       Deep in the endless ocean of the Elemental Plane of Water, Shaft chased Tilea, who was in the form of a leviathan and in possession of his elemental sphere.

      In Sachi's paradise, Belmont activated something that caused spirits to swirl around him, sending Sachi flying. 

       We were staring down Morgan Le Fay, and we had the ritual. I handed Nikko an item to drop a Hut on us so we could work on the ritual without interference. While we wouldn't be aware of much of what was happening with the others, taking the Black Witch down was more important. I felt a random jolt of pain as the hut closed over us; Scritch had hit her and it somehow hurt my Sestras and I.

       Kittie landed a blow on Morgan, and it didn't hurt the triplets. As Scritch went in for another strike, the Witch sent him away. He ended up in Sachi's paradise, and managed to break Krynn out of her restraints, then he took her to the safety of Tabitha's Temple. 

       Sachi faced off with Belmont, landing several hits on the man. At the same time, Clarah managed to bite and swallow Rowena, and Cat clutched her head and fell to her knees, screaming in agony; the other Cats had gotten to her. Belmont managed to ensnare Sachi in his whip and flung him right into Clarah's mouth; she began choking on her monkey... Rowena set off a fireball in Clarah's stomach, which didn't hurt the dragon, but it caused both Sachi and Rowena to fly out of her mouth in a burst of flames. Cat recovered quickly and broke Syn out of her bindings. The girl turned to Belmont with hate in her eyes and activated her Sunblade. She unleashed a flurry of swings at him, hurting him badly, and engulfing him in flames. 

       We were hurrying to get this ritual going. It didn't sound like it would take too terribly long, but it wasn't exactly easy. I hoped the others were okay, and that my Shieldwalls would be able to throw that sarcophagus together in time.

      Scritch was back in the fight against the Black Witch, and he scored a nasty hit on her, following it up by using Sachi's signature move and throwing shit in her face. Kittie landed a couple big hits of her own. Morgan tried to drop the triplets' Hut, but Nikko completely resisted her attempts. Three hags appeared, as backup for Morgan. 

       I felt Morgan try to stop the ritual, but I flawlessly deflected her attempts. Just as I did, the first piece of the ritual went off.

       Outside of the Hut, some bindings appeared on Morgan's wrists. 

       Sachi and Rowena tumbled to the ground, and as soon as they landed, Cat stabbed Rowena with a witch killing bolt. Cat then stepped up to Belmont's flank and stabbed him in the kidney. She used a spell to make him exhausted, but Sachi countered it. Syn was furious and moved to finish Belmont off herself, so Sachi tried to distract her. Syn swung at Sachi, annoyed by the monkey, and as she swung the Sunblade at him, he panicked; Sachi lost his hand for his interference. As she turned back to Belmont, Sachi told her "you punch like Talbutt," drawing her ire, allowing Belmont a moment to heal and rejuvenate himself. 

       Kittie turned to the three hags Morgan had summoned and unleashed a series of brutal attacks on them, killing all three of them before they could even act. Scritch continued to engage Morgan, though this time she managed to evade his attacks. I reached out to them through my candle to tell them to try to trip her so we could hit her with the Talisman of Pure Good, but opening that channel allowed her to attempt to mess with the ritual again; I fended her off with ease. 

      Syn, Sachi, Clarah, and Cat all surrounded Belmont and began to attack him, Sachi's odd attempts at throwing Syn off were gone for now. Most of their attacks missed. Cat hexed him while Syn hit him with more exhaustion. Belmont made it begin to rain, which hurt the others and set the landscape of the paradise on fire. Scritch appeared in the paradise, grabbed Syn and Cat, and went back to the fight with the Black Witch. 

       The Black Witch tried again and failed again to dispel the triplets' Hut. Scritch laughed at her, so she blasted him. Grant appeared, grappled Morgan, and said "I really hope they can pull this off." 

       Morgan tried again to dispel the ritual, and again she failed.

       More bindings appeared on Morgan's wrists outside. Two robed figures appeared and grabbed Kittie; Mask had accepted her application. 

       Suddenly, Sachi and Clarah appeared in my Hut, and Sachi ran away instantly.

      The area was bathed in sunlight as Syn hit the Witch hard, cutting her into pieces. Scritch returned to paradise to retrieve Rowena's body, then Sachi ran away with the rod of security, to get Belmont away from the triplets before the ritual concluded. Scritch and Cat tied up Rowena's corpse, just in case. 

      The Black Witch didn't seem to be meddling with my ritual anymore, so it was going well, and fast.

       Sachi took the rod of security to the first layer of the Hells and offered it to Tiamat; she sent him to Elysium. Sachi then took the rod to the fifth layer of Limbo and threw it; it just kept going on and on. That layer of Limbo was destroyed, just like Barovia had been. It just couldn't handle that much concentrated power. 

       Syn, having mostly neutralized the Black Witch, looked at the Hut, intent on attacking it; Agatha was still evil. The Sunblade was driven to destroy all evil. Scritch prepared to send Syn to Krynn to keep her away from Agatha. 

       Just as Morgan began to reform, the triplets finished the ritual and the last of the bindings appeared on her. Grant turned and asked for the thighbone of a saint, Cat had found one on Rowena's corpse. 

       I dropped the Hut just in time to see Grant stab Morgan Le Fay through the heart with a sharpened bone. My heart leapt in my chest; could Mask have sent him back to us? Then my Shieldwalls came running out of the Temple with the finished sarcophagus and we threw her in it. Before I had a chance to tell them to get the Book off of her, she was completely sealed in the tomb. I hoped that the Book wouldn't be able to get her out of there.

       Sachi appeared then and announced he left Belmont somewhere and he thinks he blew it up. As he rambled, I looked at Aggie and inclined my head. She threw a fireball at him.

       Tilea realized Shaft's sphere wasn't burning her quiet so much anymore, it seemed to be duller somehow, and stopped swimming. She asked the sea creatures and learned that sharks had eaten Shaft; she awakened the sharks to thank them for destroying Shaft. 

       I realized Tilea was probably still in the Elemental Plane of Water and sent her a message that she could come back. She didn't bother to shift before I pulled her back to us, so a fucking leviathan appeared instead of the elf we expected.

       Grant told us that Kittie had impressed Mask by killing three hags, so she took his place in the casino and he was returned to life. I was elated... that my friend was back... I totally would have been this happy if another dear friend was returned to life... I definitely have no other reason for being so happy he's alive again...

       As punishment for blowing up Barovia, all of Sachi's holdings in the thieves' guild now belonged to Grant. He told us Belmont would be drawn to Syn soon, so we needed to hurry to prepare to deal with him once and for all.

       The girls were in the Temple, and Krynn was in a trance, holding a fulgurite crystal that was glowing with multiple colors. She had to fight off the evil spirit of Shaft, and there was nothing we could do to help her; either she'd do it or she'd fail, there was no option in between. We needed to get Grant's weapon to kill Belmont, and at the mention of his name, Syn stormed out. We couldn't teleport to her or anything. Cat sliced her hand and did something that showed us Syn. She was standing in front of Belmont holding out an orb. Grant opted to stay behind, as did my Sestras. We asked them to look after Krynn while we dealt with Belmont.

       Everything here was on fire, and it wasn't easy to put out. Scritch and Cat went at him right away, and Belmont responded by throwing fifty fucking daggers at Cat. Tilea began a storm and turned into a tempest elemental; but whatever she was trying to do didn't seem to work. I healed Cat, then Dot and I tried to hit Belmont with some debuff spells, but they didn't work. Syn bathed Belmont in a sphere of golden light, then got in his face and cut one of his fingers off.

       Scritch, Sachi, and Cat all began to beat on Belmont. He chucked an axe at Sachi, but it didn't seem to do much to the monkey. Tilea attempted to curse Belmont, but apparently he couldn't be cursed; that wasn't fucking good. I tried to hex him, but he had something that kept that away too, and he resisted both Dot and Nikko's attempts to feeblemind him.

       Belmont moved away, knocking Syn over as he passed her. She stabbed her sword into the ground and with a blinding flash of light, she morphed into what looked liked a solar of pure radiant energy. She sliced into him and hurt him bad; his body began to disintegrate into little silvery motes. There was an odd red glow at his core and as his flesh fell away, we were now facing Demogorgon.

       "I was so close... Why? Why did you have to ruin it for me?" Demogorgon said. "If you eave now, I will spare you."

       Sachi, as always, decided to run his fucking mouth. He told Demogorgon that "now" was already gone, and the Demon Lord did something to Sachi to make him suddenly believe everyone wanted to steal his stuff.

       "Now that your friend is suitably silenced," he began. Then Sachi started mouthing off some more. He really didn't know anything about the insane little monkey. He hit Sachi, and still Sachi kept rambling on. Tilea slammed into him with thunder. Demogorgon asked if that meant we don't want to make a deal, and I instantly told him no, before the others had a chance to try to make some sort of deal with him.

       A second Demogorgon appeared behind Syn and hit her hard. Scritch, Cat, and Tilea all began beating on him. I tried to use my Talisman to destroy him, but the bastard just barely resisted falling. Then I flew right up to him and socked him in the jaw, trying to send him back to whence he came; he again just barely resisted me. I healed Syn while Nikko and Dot both tried- and failed- to hold him in place. The others surrounded him and kept striking at him, seeming to do some damage, but with a Demon Lord there's no telling how effective they actually were.

     I tried to use my Talisman a second time, but it resisted again, as well as attempts from both Dot and I to dispel it, and Nikko's attempt to hold it in place. Syn managed to get rid of the illusory demon, so we were only facing the real Demogorgon- this was not very comforting. We continued the physical assault and it kept resisting everything Dot, Nikko, and I threw at it. Syn barely missed him and he teleported away.

       We started debating how to pursue it, when Syn focused on the Belmont's glowing whip, abandoned on the ground. After a moment she took off at the speed of light- like we'd seen Belmont do before. The others thought maybe it was in Shaft's mirror realm, but before we went there, I wanted to check in with my Sestras at the Temple.

       Just as I began to speak a message to my Sestras, every single ward and alarm in the Temple went off. Demogorgon had gone after Krynn. There were demons all over the bazaar, they'd breached my hallowed ground. I instantly transferred all non-combative people to the fifth floor. I looked around, furious at what had happened to my Temple. Tabitha began glowing with a brilliant white light, was levitated into the air, and with a sweep of her hand, she banished every demon within 30 feet of her. Suddenly the demons were gone. I'm not sure what happened.

       Sachi decided to drop a fortress on top of the demons, once that proved effective my Shieldwalls began doing the same. As we found possessed dwarves, Sachi began sticking them in beads of force. We swept through the Temple, floor by floor, until we reached the fifth floor, where we found Krynn. My Temple was in horrible shape, I was just done with this shit. I sat down on the floor and pulled out some items to sacrifice... then the demons were gone, as were the items, but I hadn't done anything. Tabitha had again glowed with a white light and sent away every single demon in the Temple. 

        Scritch could see Demogorgon was possessing Krynn. Krynn stood up, holding a fulgurite wand that was pulsing with energy, with an odd look in her eye. Tilea turned into some kind of weird fey and possessed Scritch, then Scritch vanished, taking them to the ethereal I think. I pulled out a couple more items, trying to banish it, but it didn't work. Syn's whip wrapped around the wand and the pulsing stopped.

       In the ethereal plane, Sachi put sovereign glue on his kataras and stabbed Demogorgon's spirit, trying to rip it out of her. He couldn't see the rod being ripped from her hands by her twin's whip. Scritch accidentally killed Sachi in the ethereal, but cleared the possession in the process. He was revived in the ethereal, and had to dissolve the glue to take his swords back to the material plane with him. 

       Krynn was freed of Demogorgon by whatever Scritch and Sachi did in the ethereal realm. When Sachi reappeared, Cat decided to turn him to stone. He turned into a gaseous form to stave off the effects, so Cat threw dust of dryness at him, turning Sachi into a dehydrated ball. That was the moment Aggie and Sypha burst in. Apparently Demogorgon had locked both of my Sestras in a force cage when he arrived. I was wondering where the Hells they were.

       Scritch threw the Sachi ball at me, and hit Aggie in the face instead. I seriously thought my Sestra's head was going to explode. The ball of Sachi exploded on impact, and we were all covered in Sachi dust... It was gross. I realized someone was still missing: Grant. I worried Demogorgon had killed him or Mask had taken him away again. I was worried for my friend... absolutely for no other reason at all...

       We all collapsed on the floor of the Temple, taking a much needed breath. I asked what was next, if there was anything more we needed to accomplish. Syn said that they had a rite of passage to complete, but it would take a while since they needed Barovia back first. Thanks to our efforts, Krynn had a chance of being the protector she's supposed to be. Tilea released the remaining souls from Shaft's sphere, which should help with that.

       Grant strode in and I was -pleased- to see my friend wasn't dead. He told Sachi that his death in the ethereal wasn't a sacrifice because Scritch took advantage of an opportunity.

       A bit later Strahd walked in. He thanked us for what we'd done, while bitching Sachi and Tilea out for destroying Barovia. Strahd couldn't deal with Demogorgon himself because he was hiding in a consecrated soul, so he was completely untouchable.

       Later that night, after everyone else had left, I was surveying the damage to my poor Temple when Grant found me. He started babbling at me about the lore around my family... I was so confused, I couldn't figure out what in the Nine he was trying to say. After a moment, he exclaimed "dammit, I was never good with words," closed the distance between us, pulled me into his arms, and kissed me.

Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book Two, Chapter Three

A Gift for Lolth

Dramatis Personae:

Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren, who is the last Vale Elf

Eurydice, Aurora's faerie dragon familiar

Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Conjurationist Wizard and Priest of Lolth, the Dark Conjurer

Sarlockh, Pharin's choldrith familiar

Vilrath, Pharin's flesh golem

Dervish, the Kasathe Fighter and Dragon Blood Sorcerer

Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Arcane Trickster

Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party; also know as Cinder, the ancient power that is said to destroy every world

Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor

Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; Kas Reincarnated 

Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid

Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue

Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Fighter and Beast Master

BarraZotreth, Andolin's displacer beast animal companion

Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person since the bard can't be everywhere at once.

***** Lacysnows 11, CY 710, Airship 

       I went to heal Alyssandra, but there was some sort of magic on her that prevented me from doing so. There was this fucking protective magic on her soul that was blocking me, so all I could determine was that the magic she used to kill one of the Lothars was draining her life force. All we could do was make her comfortable- if she was even aware of us.

       A while later, Pharin heard from his bodyguards that they'd found an illithlich, but the Cult of Kas had found it too, so we had to go rescue it or something. We were transported to this weird ass greyscape, with no actual details, aside from a single figure, holding a gun. It hit Pharin in the shoulder with an anti-magic bullet- the fucker was prepared to deal with Douchebag. Unfortunately we needed his magic to get the fuck out of this place, so I begrudgingly dug the bullet out of his arm. Gods I hate that drow. Dervish decided to "help," but he only got in my fucking way, and got himself shot in the process. I imbued some wine with healing magic and thrust it at both of the idiots, just as the gunslinger killed one of Douchebag's bodyguards. At that point we kinda gave up and escaped. I had to res the stupid bodyguard when we got back.

       A couple hours later- because we can't fucking have any fucking time to unwind between this madness- storm clouds formed around the nearest beacon and fucking lightning started hitting the ship. We were having trouble keeping the shields up, so Pharin decided to use a spell that made the ship look like an illusion... causing Dervish's people to flip the fuck out. Apparently being an idiot is common among his fucking people. We put all of Dervish's mages on creating and maintaining an elemental shield to absorb the lightning. It was hitting us about every thirty seconds or so. I ended up having to conduct fucking repairs on the stupid ship because every other caster was maintaining that shield. 

       When the shield eventually went down, Scottie- Dervish's abjurationist who was the best at making and maintaining our shields- asked Douchebag for salt, so Pharin decided to just conjure a fuckload out of a mine. Then he sent the dirt off the ship... and if I hadn't been paying attention, it would have literally covered the little town we were above. I set out a Bigby's Hand to catch it all. Apparently, Scottie needed the salt to help reduce the damage we took from the lightning strikes. 

       Later that night, about an hour after I got out of reverie, the darkness outside seemed muddled briefly, like blurry almost. Before I could think much on that, a massive explosion erupted ahead of us, and a huge shockwave rocked the ship. Willow, Ralliakkan, and Lyathfikash emerged with a fucking tarrasque and a horde of demons on their tails. 

       Pharin had the ship sweep down to get them, we scooped them up in a net, and hurried to get back in the air. Unfortunately for us, one of the demons was able to jump aboard before we got much distance between us and them. And of fucking course, it was a fucking Demon Lord- Baphomet. Vish was paralyzed with fear, and Dervish ran back into the Mansion. Fucking cowards. 

       The Demon Lord waved his hand at Douchebag, dispelling all of the buffs he'd placed upon himself. At least something can still shut his ass down. I used my Lolth Blade to twin myself, sending her into melee with him- I didn't want to get right up in his face. But of course, nothing ever goes according to fucking plan. My shadow twin stumbled as she swung her shadowed Lolth Blade at him, and he fucking yanked it out of her hand. With any other item, against any other thing, this wouldn't have mattered, but somehow, when this fuck hole took her sword, the real one vanished from my hand. That's not fucking good...

       With my Lolth Blade in hand, Baphomet made a gesture, and suddenly we were in the fucking Abyss. Ralliakkan activated something that slapped our terrified kasathe out of their stupor- along with her brother, who I hadn't noticed was also scared of the Demon Lord. Then Douchebag had a really bad, but really good idea. Since we were already in the Abyss, in the Endless Maze- Baphomet's domain- he decided to try to shift the entire ship over to the Demonweb Pits. He needed more power to do this though, evidently whatever Baphomet had done to him had shut down his ability to cast anything, so I reluctantly let him use Eurydice as a magical battery. I just hoped he wouldn't completely fucking destroy her. 

       My shadow twin struggled with Baphomet, but she couldn't get my Lolth Blade back from this fucker. I thought bitch slapping him with Bigby's Hand would be fun, but the stupid thing missed. This was just not my fucking fight. Vish and Willow got up to him and both managed to get in a couple decent hits before Baphomet decided to grab Dervish and Vish. Now that Pharin had made me aware of the lock that kept him from casting, I was able to dispel the fucking thing. My shadow twin managed to wrestle my sword back, and I swooped down to grab it myself- I couldn't risk losing the damned thing. 

       Willow seemed to hurt it pretty fucking bad, and I noticed Ralliakkan had begun climbing the Demon Lord. It was fucking hilarious watching this drow scale a Demon Lord who had his hands full of kasathe. He did not look amused. He swatted at Ralliakkan with Dervish, missing, but managed to connect with Vish. Willow was still bringing on the pain, and my twin managed to bitch slap it with her Bigby's Hand, though she missed with her Luna. I tried to stupefy Baphomet, but of course, it didn't work, and my fucking Hand missed. 

       As Baphomet went for Willow, apparently the eladrin was irritating him more than the drow on his back, a shockwave bloomed out of the ship, sending Willow flying- but she had a broom, so she got back. The shockwave did destroy both mine and my twin's Bigby's Hands though. Scottie waved his hand at Baphomet, and glyphs appeared on its skin. Then the rest of the mages sent a blast of pure arcane energy right into his chest, while Ralliakkan bound him to the ship. We all began beating the fuck out of him while Douchebag worked on shifting us to the Demonweb Pits. 

      Lolth greeted us when we arrived in the Demonweb Pits. She was absolutely delighted by her gift of a Demon Lord; now she could absorb Baphomet's portfolio and grow even more powerful. Lolth asked us to bring Alyssandra to her, so Douchebag had the Mansion spit her out, and he floated her over to the Demon Queen. He also gave her Andolin, and she said she'd send him back to us when he was better. She said she would restore Alyssandra, but in exchange she wanted Scottie. To my surprise, Scottie agreed, and he vanished instantly. Lolth was also curious about Willow, so I gave an amazing performance of her life story- and I only made up some of it... okay, a decent amount of it... fine, most of it, but if I didn't embellish it would have been fucking boring as shit. After my tale, Lolth invited us all to stay the night in her domain.

***** Lacysnows 12, Airship

       We returned to about the same time we left and were able to continue traveling peacefully for a while. I finished the song I'd been working on, and it was seriously the best song in the world. I was also very pleased to discover that Pharin hadn't completely destroyed Eurydice when he used her to get us to Lolth.

       I attempted to clear the clouds that were still filling the sky, but I couldn't make anything happen. Whatever did this had more power than I could muster on my own.

       We'd been traveling for about ten hours when the ship suddenly began sinking slowly. Something was draining our power. It was as if the magic was being unwoven strand by strand. Then Scottie appeared on the deck and told us the Null was a distraction from the Beacon. His eyes flashed and for just a moment, we saw the symbol of Oghma in them. He said he had an idea, and told Douchebag that is he used what Scottie was about to do for his own personal gain, or tries to harm him in any way, Dervish got to kill him. Then he stabbed himself in the heart, blood sprayed across Pharin, and he vanished.

       I sighed and began setting up the circle for a resurrection spell. I'd need it when he reappeared.

       Ralliakkan and Willow noticed a black dot moving up ahead of us, Ralliakkan jumped off the ship to investigate, coming back really quickly, and told us something about the dot just felt wrong. Ralliakkan told us we needed to hide, so we turned the ship invisible and raised the shield. Then a hole was punched into the ship, somehow getting through our shield, and Sarlockh began screaming in my head. Whatever the fuck had hit us was hurting her somehow. The ship started plummeting to the ground, so I quickly sent Dervish to find whatever the fuck was causing this. It was a fucking bullet fragment, just like the one I'd had to dig out of Pharin yesterday. Dervish had to chop out a chunk of the mast to get all the fragments out, just in time to prevent us from crashing.

       Another shot hit the ship and we went skidding to a stop, but thankfully we were just above the ground, so our crash didn't destroy the damn thing. Two more shots rang out and Ralliakkan went flying. Just as we began to head toward the gunslinger, two of the mage's heads kind of exploded. One was dead and the other mortally wounded. Guess it was a good thing I was setting up this res circle. Then I got hit hard by one of those stupid bullets. I dug it out and healed myself on my way to him, and as soon as I was close enough, I dropped two firestorms on him. The fucker dodged Every. Single. Fucking. One. 

       Eurydice, Willow, and Vish all decided to use their fucking Wands of Wonder on him. Willow ended up dropping a fireball on him- which he fucking dodged- Eurydice cast a spell to slow him down- which he fucking avoided- and Vish dropped an elephant on top of him... That was Willow's job. Then Dervish scared the stupid elephant. 

       Of course, somehow that fucking gunslinger ended up on top of the elephant, instead of mashed into the ground under it. I hate this guy. He shot Dervish right in the chest and he collapsed, looking dead. But fucking revivify did nothing. Vish flew to the gunslinger and began beating on him, and Willow followed, misty stepping behind him. I tried to neutralize poison on Dervish, and thankfully that fucking worked. 

       Something was wrong with Ralliakkan. She randomly stopped dead in her tracks and started speaking ancient drow- then she took off flying. It was fucking weird. Pharin and Ralliakkan had merged together and turned into the Avatar of Lolth. They managed to merge just in time for the Sultan to arrive- as the Avatar of Vecna.

       The gunslinger stabbed Vish twice, then shot both Willow and I. Willow cried out that she couldn't see or hear, so I hit her with a spell to neutralize poison and, thank Gods, it worked. I caught a glimpse of the gunslinger's sword hilt, and realized I'd seen it before... he had fucking Excalibur! We needed to get that fucking sword. That was the moment he jumped off the elephant and vanished in a puff of smoke. I fucking hate this guy. 

       Dervish spotted him 500 feet away in a fucking tree. When we caught up, he told us he was just paid to distract us and fucking vanished again. I really need to kill this fuckwad. 

       We hurried to go find out what he was distracting us from, it was probably bad, especially since Douchebag and Ralliakkan weren't with us. 

       We reached Douchebag and Ralliakkan just in time to see Pharin expelled from Ralliakkan as a fucking ethereal dragon- then he imploded. A web appeared and Andolin stepped out and snapped a rod in the Sultan's direction. He did something that made the Sultan grab his head in pain for a moment, and the second the Sultan looked up, he tried to dominate Dervish, Willow, and I, but with a flick of his fingers, Andolin ended it. The Sultan actually looked scared.

       Dervish flew above the Sultan and opened a portable hole full of adamantine, dumping it on him. I hit the heap of metal with a lighting bolt, while Willow and Eurydice pulled out their fucking Wands of Wonder. Willow dropped a stinking cloud on the metal heap, then Eurydice dropped darkness on it. Willow did it again, but I couldn't tell what she'd done this time. She'd casted detect thoughts, and the Sultan invaded her mind, making her want to kill Andolin. Suddenly Andolin was using a hold person spell on Willow- I don't know how he was accessing Pharin's magic, but that was pretty fucking cool. 

       Then Dervish and I were hit with commands by the Sultan, and as we turned toward Andolin, he held us in place too. Fucking weird. 

       The adamantine ingots exploded out from the center, and the Sultan directed them all at Andolin. He missed, and the ingots just sort of swirled around the Sultan instead. The desire to kill Andolin subsided, and we were all released from the hold. 

       To make this fight even more bullshitty, the fucking vampires started showing up- and my firestorms didn't hurt them. Fuckers had learned what pyros Douchebag and I tended to be. Andolin threw the Sultan into some of the vampires as they surrounded us. From what we could tell, the Sultan was near death. 

       The fucking vampires said we were coming with them to find the Beacon. We told them we needed to res Scottie first, to buy ourselves some time, and he was revived. That was mildly annoying, I'd hoped to come up with a plan while working on bringing out shield master back. The vampires said they were going to use us as trap fodder. Good fucking luck, dudes. We're way too fucking stubborn for that shit. 

       As we were reluctantly following the stupid vampires, I got an urgent sending from Gabrielle. She said something was attacking and burning the countryside. I assumed it was Cinder, and told her so, and to call Narg. When I told the others, Pharin decided to actually be helpful for once, activating Cinder's dagger to attempt to draw him to us. I hoped it would work, and that my people would survive. 

       We entered the town of Highfolk, and it was completely empty. It had been abandoned for a long time, everything was run down and decrepit. I felt the urge to try to find out what happened here so their story would be told. But I didn't think the vamps would give me that opportunity. I realized Ralliakkan was nowhere to be seen, so I figured she was up to something. Hopefully, if we needed her she'd save our asses. 

       The vamps led us to a locked door, and Willow picked the lock without checking for traps... She was sprayed in the face with acid, then another trap hit her, and her lock pick broke. This was going fucking great. I fixed the lock pick, and she got the door unlocked- setting off a trap that turned 100 of the vampires at our backs to stone. Wish it had hit all of them, but we'll take what we can get. 

       Considering the number of traps we'd found just by opening the fucking door, I pulled out my Horn of Valhalla and summoned some berserkers to scout the hall for traps for us. Better them than us, right? Four died right away from a big ass trap. Willow found the triggers for four more traps and managed to disable them without killing my minions. 

       Over the next few hours, we fell into a pattern of send berserker down the hall, find trap, it dies, rinse and repeat. Thankfully I have a fuckload of these horns, so I was able to keep summoning more. We were searching every inch of the place, as slowly as possible- trying to kill time. Dervish kept saying if we didn't take the time to search it all now, we'd just have to take the time later. It was honestly getting on my nerves, but we needed to kill time. The vampires were actually pretty amused by our bullshit. 

       Eventually, we came upon a parlor room of sorts that had a small keyhole in the wall. Willow didn't find the trap, so she set it off instead. It just barely missed her. Now that she was aware of it, she was able to disable it. Then she spent forever working on the lock- apparently, it was some sort of epic lock Ralliakkan had told her about. When she finally picked the lock, the wall fell away to reveal another hallway. 

       Willow spotted a panel that had seemingly appeared and sent one of my berserkers toward it. The hall collapsed under him. In the next room we found, Willow found another panel, so we sent a berserker toward it, he punched the wall and died. I had to summon a new batch of berserkers with that, my first eight were now gone. I'd feel bad, but... meh. 

       In another panel, we found a folded piece of paper. Willow held it out with a mage hand, and Douchebag used a spyglass to read it. It read: "I learned exploding runes today!" Then it fucking exploded. The next panel contained more exploding runes, killing a berserker. As did the next one. The next berserker, having watched three of his buddies now die, refused to go punch the wall when Dervish demanded it. Instead, he attacked Dervish. It was kind of hilarious until Dervish killed him. 

       Much later, Willow found a rabbit's foot in a panel, which hit her with an orange beam and knocked her out. I couldn't wake her magically, so Dervish tried to kiss her awake... he's definitely not her true love. At that point, Ralliakkan appeared and started bitching at us for being jackasses. 

       To save my last berserker, I chucked an iron cooking pot that Narg had given me down the hall, and it triggered a pit trap. We were now facing a long hallway, with a big ass pit in the middle of it that had a fucking gravity spell in it. It appeared to be a dead end. I sent my berserker down the hall, and he almost made it back. He slipped, and Eurydice polymorphed him to help him... but he turned him into a fucking hummingbird, so he still died. Dervish summoned a lizard- which also died. 

       Ralliakkan told us to get rid of them vamps, so Dervish went into jackass mode. He started flying just above their heads, drawing them to follow him. At that, their leader, a douchey monk, said "execute it now" and all magic shut down. The stupid gravity pit was still functioning though.

       Andolin told them that the Beacon definitely wasn't here, and said we must have missed something, turning all of the vamps around to begin the search anew. He managed to get them to go out the door. Dervish started running back to the door when he saw Andolin, and the monk- pissed off by our bullshit- grabbed Dervish, kicked him, and sent him flying through the doorway. Andolin breathed fire at the vamps before slamming and locking the door. Cracks appeared in the doorway as soon as it was shut- the vampires were going to break it down fast. They ran back to us as fast as they could. 

       Ralliakkan got to the end of the hall and started working on the wall on the other side- of course, there was a hidden panel down there. After a few moments, she got the wall to open, revealing another fucking hallway. At that point we heard a crash echo through the halls- the vampires had made it through the door. Ralliakkan turned off the stupid gravity trap so we could get across. Vish carried the unconscious Willow across, with Dervish, Andolin, and I following. I had a feeling I would need that cooking pot of Narg's, so I gave Eurydice a strength potion and sent her to retrieve it. 

       Once we were across, the gravity trap was turned back on. Ralliakkan said she'd stay behind to keep them off of us, so Andolin sealed up the hall behind us. Through the rings, she told us Cinder was there... then we think he killed her. 

Map by Anna B. Meyer

Tales from Toril- The Adventures of Critical Bumbersnoot: the Odd Company: Book One, Chapter Sixteen

When Machines Revolt

Dramatis Personae:

Winry Steamgear, the Rock Gnome Alchemist Artificer Wizard

"Critical" Bumbersnoot, Winry's Dachshund Mechanimal Construct
Dunderbittles, Winry's Clockwork Ladybug Welding Spider familiar

Oskar Heartforge, the Shield Dwarf Werewolf Priest of Moradin

Jak Foostus, the Minotaur Monk

Bex Thriceorphaned, the Goliath Juggernaut Barbarian Circle of the Crescent Druid
Trip Hazard, Bex's Golden Cat animal companion
Edwarda Eldersprok, the Rock Gnome Transmutationist
Alphonsa Eldersprok, the Rock Gnome Eldritch Knight Transmutationist  

Comrades we have lost:
Mara Quinn, the Water Genasi Revenant Werewolf Sea Sorceress- turned into a vampire, then killed by the party, then risen as a revenant, and killed again by the party

Carmina Taenfeather, the Human Knight- stayed behind
Amara aka Lady Talina Neverember, the Human Noble- stayed behind
Lady Sylvia Sweetwater, the Human Rogue- stayed behind

Gill O'Darby, the Human Ranger- stayed behind

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Winry's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the artificer can't be everywhere at once. 

***** Kythorn 11, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), The Lost City of Lantis

       Before we left the power plant, my cousins and I pulled the power cores out of the two centurions, the gnome Mechanical, and one of the hounds. I also took three inactive spiders with me that I could later take control of and the spider I'd already taken over with Dunderbittles help. I disconnected the alarm on the gates so it wouldn't call as many crabs to us, and we'd hopefully be able to slip out a little more quickly. I also copied the map Oskar had found.

       Just before we began the painfully long process of opening the damned gate, Oskar sent out a spell that dropped a pillar of flame at one of the two Mechanicals who were watching us from the roofs of the tow buildings just outside our gates. It set off a flare. So much for not calling attention to ourselves. Jak sent out his Hand at the other Mechanical, and it also set off a flare. At least the alarms were disabled, that might help us a little bit. I hope.

       Oskar and Jak were the only ones who could do anything for the first little bit, and they made quick work of the two Mechanicals outside. Unfortunately, after thirty seconds the fucking alarm started blaring again. I ran back up to the tower and discovered the backup systems had kicked on. Just as I was about to disable them, Oskar broke the alarm. I hurried to the other tower to disable its alarm, and I was only able to get it to be a little quieter, not disconnect it entirely. So Oskar broke that alarm too. I suppose in this instance, brute force was a little better than the finesse of an engineer. 

       At the one minute mark, other Mechanicals started approaching the gate- which was still not open enough for all of us to get out yet. It was a few crabs, guards, and hounds. Jak sent out his Hand again, and Oskar got his spirit weapon going. I could finally see them enough to shoot at them with NATAS. They came at us hella fast and began attacking under the gate. For some reason, this prompted Bex to turn into a cat and run away. 

       We were all fighting the Mechanicals now, and I was glad I'd been able to put Dunderbittles into that welding spider. She now had a chance to unmake everything hit, which would increase our chances of making it out of here alive. I couldn't sit on Bumbersnoot and see to shoot, which put me at a serious disadvantage. One of the Mechanicals managed to knock me prone, opening up the way for two others to drop me- thankfully Oskar saw it and revived me right away. At that point I retreated to the safety of my dog, and Dunderbittles managed to score a serious hit on one of the Mechanicals that had hit me; it began leaking oil. 

       Jak went down, and at that, Edie put up a wall, filling the gap under the gate to give us all a moment to breathe. This locked out Bex, but she shouldn't have left before we were ready anyways. Then Edie put spikes on the wall, and we were metal crunching and Mechanicals sparking. Oskar was able to revive Jak, while Dunderbittles and I killed the hound that had slipped through our defenses. Ali was working on keeping the wall solid for as long as she could, but eventually they broke through. All that was left were three crabs at this point. Edie made spikes shoot up from the ground to kill two of them, and Oskar's spirit guardians killed the last one.

       I activated one of my spiders to shut the gates behind us, and we all ran to the tunnel to the next dome. The mouth of the tunnel had another set of towers with gates, but of course the gate controls were on the wrong side. So I activated another spider to shut the gates behind us, and put an adamantine padlock on the lever to hopefully keep them from opening it. Jak sent his Hand into the second tower and smashed those controls, so they couldn't use that to pursue us. Edie sealed the wall behind us too- anything we could do to keep them from chasing us, we did. 

       We were in some sort of train station, there were tracks on either side of the tunnel, along with a couple of carts. There were also some long-abandoned stalls that looked like they'd once been a market of some sort. An eerie amber light slightly illuminated the tunnel, which gave it an almost haunted look. In the control booth, I found manuals on how to operate the cars. There wasn't enough power to use the station, but I was able to rig up a centurion power core to the cart to get it going. It was a hella bumpy, wild ride down the tunnel, but it was fun. The power core overloaded just as we skidded to a stop at the other side of the tunnel. 

       I closed the gate on this side of the tunnel too, just to put as many obstacles between the crabs and us as possible. This dome was a little smaller than the last one, and there was a plaque on the wall next to the towers that said R&D- research and development. I could live here forever. According to the map, there wasn't a power plant in this dome, and the tunnel to the next dome with a plant wasn't usable. There was a shorter tunnel to a much smaller dome that we could get to though. 

       In the center of this dome was a massive building that was locked. I had to pick the lock, but it was so complex that Dunderbittles ended up cutting part of it to help me. There were tons of crates in the hallway ahead of us, we opened a couple, and they were full of sea salt. Another stack of crates was full of cubes of zinc, with a metal grinder behind it, to turn the zinc into powder. A little further into the building, there were metal shelves with smaller crates on them. Bex cracked one and acid leaked out, it quickly dissolved the entire crate. It was sulfuric acid. 

       Another room had hydrochloric acid, which was created by mixing the sulfuric acid with the salt. The next section we entered had several tanks with components in it, all moving them into a metal still. The still had tubes feeding into tanks that all had shutoff valves. It was stamped with an H, which Edie- after pulling out a book- determined was for hydrogen. A highly volatile compound, created by mixing the hydrochloric acid with the powdered zinc. As soon as she identified it, she told Jak and Bex to stay the fuck out of that room. 

       Upstairs was a control room, and the displays said this dome was a 50% power. The power in this dome depended on the power in the dome we came from, and the dome ahead of us. In the center was an enormous metal capsule shaped building of sorts- it was like a building within a building. There were cables leading from this capsule up to a bag looking thing. I found the roof controls and a chimney switch, and of course I had to see what they did. The roof switch opened up the roof of the building, and we could see a couple of rings leading up to the very top of the dome. The chimney switch created a tube that led up to the top of the dome, from the capsule. The capsule was an airship that could eject us all out of here and up to the surface of the water. It ran on chemistry instead of magic. I knew our people had lost tons of knowledge, but this entire place was beyond anything I could have dreamed. My cousins and I could easily live here for the rest of our lives and still never go through everything. 

       We spent the next four hours packing up all of the research we could and loading it into the ship, so we could take it all with us. Out of the three of us, Edie was the most distracted by the notes. I managed to keep myself a bit more on task by keeping in mind that the Mechanicals needed to be stopped. At one point, Bex ripped a set of notes, just to be a bitch, so I fucking shot her with NATAS. Yes, I can fix those with mending, but it's the principle of the matter. While we worked, I set Dunderbittles and the spider I'd taken control of to work on taking over another inactive spider for me. I hoped I'd be able to get a few of them up and running to help us make this all easier. 

       After four hours of us packing up all of the research we could, we saw purple and white flashes coming from the big dome in the center of the city. That wasn't good. Reluctantly, we came to the conclusion that we needed to leave this wonderful dome and continue with taking down the Mechanicals. We went to the gates to the smaller dome, hoping there really was a way to get us to the next domes hiding in there somewhere. 

       The controls on the gates were a little more different than the usual gates, it had pumps and switches. The pumps removed the water I could see beyond the gates, and when the water drained, I was able to open the gate. There were three large shapes in the dome ahead of us. Two mechanical sharks and one mechanical crab. After tinkering with the controls in them a bit, I figured out how we could operate them. I had to leave my hacked spider in the gatehouse, to open up the dome behind us, so we could get out. Plus, leaving one fully under my control behind, would let us get back inside upon our return. 

       I took the crab with Oskar, Edie and Bex took one shark, and Jak and Ali took the other one. We really could have fit into two of them just fine, but it was better to take all three vehicles, so we had space for stuff to bring back with us. Unfortunately, the other research dome was completely destroyed, so we couldn't get anything from it yet. As we went, we saw more flashes of light coming from the center. That worried me. Bex and Jak scouted, since the sharks could swim, while I was moving a bit slower, scuttling along the bottom. Bex found a whale that seemed frozen in between breaths. Not frozen from ice, just paused in the midst of what it was doing. When she got within ten feet of it to check it out, Jak said she froze, while she said the whale was moving normally and everything behind her was moving at superspeed. Jak had to pull her shark back here with its grapple. This proved my theory that time moved faster down here. My estimate was each tenday was a month, since Edie's letter was dated two tendays ago, but Ali said they'd been here two months. That meant we could spend more time down here without much worry. 

       The other dome had a little docking port for the crab, but not for the sharks, so Oskar and I had to go flip the switch so the others could get in. A centurion was guarding the gate, and Oskar and are not stealthy. I sent Dunderbittles to continue sneaking to the tower while Oskar and I kept the Mechanical busy. She was almost there when it noticed her and shot her. My poor familiar went down... again. I need to boost her armor or something. 

       Oskar rushed the centurion while I had Bumbersnoot use his lightning breath on it. Oskar beat on it with his hammer and his spirit weapon, and I hit it once with NATAS before she shorted out. I hate when that happens. We'd unwittingly lined ourselves up, so the Mechanical hit both of us with a fire attack. It hurt hella bad. Oskar continued beating up the Mechanical, and I sent an acid beetle at it, which didn't do nearly as much as I'd expected. Oskar killed it, just before another one rounded the corner and breathed fire at us, dropping Bumbersnoot. Oskar revived my puppy and Dunderbittles, who continued with her directions to drop the gate and open up the dome. The problem was, I was on the wrong side of the gate when she did it. I yelled "abort" at her, and the painfully long process to raise the gate began anew. With poor Oskar stuck going toe-to-toe with the centurion on his own, but he killed it hella fast.

       Two more Mechanicals came at Oskar, and he ducked into a nearby building for shelter. I polymorphed myself into something small enough to get under the gate, after shrinking Bumbersnoot to put him in my bag, and I scurried under the gate. A Mechanical spotted me, and popped my polymorph instantly. I scrambled to get myself into the tower with Dunderbittles, and slammed the door. I took a moment to heal myself before opening the door again, I knew I couldn't take much more damage in my current state. When I opened the door I shot the Mechanical with NATAS, then Critical Bumbersnoot knocked it prone, and Critical Dunderbittles severed its leg, causing it to blow up. I shot at the crab standing in the doorway of the building Oskar was in, and Oskar dropped it. 

       While waiting for the dome to be ready for the others to come in, I disabled the alarms on the gate,  hopefully for real this time. Dunderbittles was a great help, making a repair drone my familiar was definitely the right call. Once the others were through, we headed for the power plant, and managed to avoid everything but the two centurions guarding it. The others decided they'd draw the centurions fire while I got to the tower and shut the gates. Edie and Ali would be in the other tower so we would have people at both sets of controls. The plan started off right. We got the gate closed, and the others killed the first centurion quickly. The other one was fucking invisible. It was pretty hilarious at first, watching to others flail around trying to hit it. But when it finally became visible, it was in the corner between the gate and the tower Edie and Ali were in. It glowed with a purple-white light and blew up. That entire section of the gate, and the tower crumpled. 

       We dug as quickly as we could to find my family. Bex had also been caught in the blast, and we found her first. Ali was alive, though her arms were destroyed, and the metal of her armor had melted and flattened. Edie wasn't so lucky. Her head was smashed in, in such a way that Oskar couldn't revive her just yet. My heart was broken. Edie and Ali have been my best friends for my entire life. We're more like sisters than cousins. But we had to push on, and I had faith that Oskar would be able to bring her back to me. 

       Inside the plant was mostly stripped, aside from the consoles needed to access and monitor the plant. The two foot thick adamantine doors to the power core hadn't been breached yet though, and the password format was the same, thankfully. Inside, I got the power up and running, and we sat down to rest. Bex said she saw a streak of purple-white light in the core, but I watched for a bit after she mentioned it, and didn't see anything out of sorts.

       I tried to get Ali out of her armor so Oskar could take a look at her arms, but her helm wouldn't come off. After some pressing, she told me she was the armor. Her soul had been bound to it after an accident. I was too emotionally drained to press her, even though it was tempting to do so. I fixed up her arms, since it was just the metal that needed repairing. 

       After our rest, Jak and Dunderbittles went off to scout out our path. There were some beetles flying around patrolling, but they didn't notice us. We reached the gates to the central dome unmolested. Since this area was fully powered, I could set the carts to go automatically, without having to steer them. One of the two carts was full of scrap, so we moved some scrap over to the other cart and hid ourselves in it. Oskar vanished in the scrap, I was impressed. We decided to leave these gates open so we wouldn't raise suspicion. Plus, I was getting low on spiders. 

       When we reached the other side of the tunnel, a bunch of spiders grabbed metal off our carts, and thankfully, they didn't try to grab any of us. Oskar did a really bad job of getting out of his cart, and one lingering spider saw him, but he killed it instantly. I grabbed it for parts, but upon touching it, I felt sickly and dropped it. There was just something wrong with these Mechanicals. 

       In the middle of the central dome was a massive building with eight different clocks on it, and each clock displayed a different time; they all moved at completely different speeds. There was a sickly, purple energy there, and it had the same wrongness to it that the spider had. It was so tall we could see it across the dome. After looking at it, Jak's mind broke a little, and for the next few hours, he thought Dunderbittles was his lucky charm and he wouldn't allow himself to be separated from her. 

       As we moved through the dome, heading toward the last one with a power plant, we managed to avoid most of the Mechanicals on the way. We didn't want to create a conflict and find ourselves overwhelmed. At one point we had to duck into a building to hide from some crabs, and Dunderbittles helped Jak hide, partially cutting into one of his horns, which I had to mend. 

       When we drew nearer to the central, Jak slipped ahead to scope it out. There were swarms of hundreds of spiders running around it, and Mechanicals were being built like crazy. A ton of power was being routed into the building, but he couldn't see where exactly it was going. He said the building was creating the Mechanicals so quickly it was practically shitting them out. There were also some weird, fleshy Mechanicals that would bow whenever they drew near the center. I was scared of what awaited us inside. But first we needed to hit that last power plant. 

       I was able to call a cart to us at this tunnel, by rigging my other centurion core to the station. We got over there easily, and this cart was much easier to control than the first one. We had to hide from more beetles, but we made it again made it to the plant unmolested. There were the usual two centurions patrolling, and they had the sickly, purple energy in them too. We didn't want to have another confrontation with them, so we instead decided to just draw them out and shut the gates. Again, the plan started off well, but we had some unexpected complications. The towers and no doors, and the controls had been stripped. I'd have to hotwire the gate shut, so I sent Dunderbittles and Ali to the other tower to do it. 

       The problem was Dunderbittles set her side off a hair too early, and Oskar wasn't quite in the gates yet. Ali ran out and snapped a spell to hold the gate up for him, but in the process she was completely smashed. All that was left of her was her helm and a gorget that was hella reinforced. I grabbed them and hoped Oskar could use them to bring her back too. This mission was beginning to wear thin. I may have found what I've spent my life searching for, but the loss of my family sucked the joy out of it. 

       We entered the plant, which was as stripped as the last one. Before I got anything turned on, there was a lurch, and we were pretty sure the Mechanicals just blew the gate. I got the power up and running in here, and found a supervisor's handbook in one of the desks.

       The supervisor's handbook was useful. I found out about escape pods that would eject us into the ocean above, but I didn't mention those to the others, since Jak really wanted to blow up my ancestral home. I was losing serious patience with him down here. I also found a back exit we could use to leave the plant if there was too much waiting for us outside for us. There were instructions on how to raise the city to the surface of the ocean, which I wanted to do. In addition to all of this was a key to unlock all of the padlocks I'd had to pick while here- that would have been nice yesterday. 

       All we needed to do was take the central core. If we could secure that, we'd really stand a chance against the Mechanical army. We came up with a rather ridiculous, but brilliant, plan to get ourselves out of the plant without too much conflict. Bex was going to summon a bunch of animals and send them out as a distraction. The hope was they would distract the centurions long enough for us to make a run for it. Among other things, Bex summoned the cutest baby goat, and I decided we needed to keep it. I snuggled it up on Bumbersnoot with me. 

       Our distraction worked! The animals distracted the Mechanicals enough to let us run. Our ridiculous ideas didn't stop there. When we got back to the tunnel, Oskar had a completely fucking insane plan that I thought might work. There were three carts at our end, so Oskar suggested we just put the first cart on full throttle, and empty, to just smash into the central building. Then, we'd send the second cart with a bomb to blast our way in. He'd taken some of the acids, salt, and zinc from the research building that I could tinker with to make it awesome. 

       I summoned an air elemental and put it in the front of the cart to fuel the explosion, then set the sulfuric acid to slide into the salt, which would then slide into the zinc, and would hit the fire elemental in the back. It was fucking epic. We heard some clattering with the first one, and gave it a moment before sending down the explosive cart. Several explosions, each louder than the first, rang out throughout the cavern. Then we hopped in the last cart and went after it. We were almost to the end of the tracks when we hit a slighting warped section that sent our cart spiraling in the air. The bomb had made a huge hole in the central building. As we not-so-gracefully landed, another explosion rang out, the purple energy in the top of the tower swirled up and the clocks sped up. The tower exploded and I felt a weird, sickening lurch; Dunderbittles, Jak, and Trip Hazard all were sick from it. 

       We walked straight toward the entrance we'd created. Oskar cast his spirit guardians and destroyed any spiders who came near us as we strolled in. When we reached the bridge of the building, there was a huge mechanical thing below us, roaring angrily and absorbing all the scrap metal it could get, then basically shitting out more Mechanicals. Looking at it, Oskar realized he was looking at a Demon Lord, and mentioning that reminded me of Haagenti, a Demon Lord of Alchemy. Of course a fucking Demon Lord had taken over my ancestral home. We needed to get the fuck rid of him. I hoped that taking him out would take out the army of evil Mechanicals that were all over the city. 

       The interior of the building was stripped down to bare bones. Suspended about fifty feet in the air was a huge ring with runes on it, and all that power that had been gathering was being pumped into it. We climbed 100 feet down to the forges below, one of the few solid surfaces in this fucking building. As soon as we got down there, wires flew at us, grappling Bex and Oskar. I'd already rigged up Bumbersnoot to keep us from getting grappled, and somehow the goat (which Jak had been carrying) allowed Jak to just step out of them. 

       Then Dunderbittles attacked me. She missed, and was then confused about why she did that. This was hella worrisome. The ring in the air was definitely a portal, and I thought we could hack into it and change its location with Bex's staff, which had plane shift on it. As we debated, because some people don't fucking respect my opinion, even in literally my area of expertise, the forge we'd been huddled behind was ripped out of the ground and we were face to face with Haagenti. Bex grabbed me, and Bumbersnoot by extension, and began running to get us to the ring so we could change its location. Bumbersnoot attempted to attack me, and ended up getting Bex instead. Dunderbittles attacked me for the third time, so I shoved her in my bag. The little twat cut herself out of the bag- I'd hoped putting her in there would cut off Haagenti's hold on her, but I guess I underestimated his reach. Dunderbittles tumbled toward the ground, and fell right into Haagenti's open mouth. I'm glad I shoved her in the bag that just had spare metal, not the one with my more important stuff. Though I'd put NATAS' microscopic Mechanical bugs in her when I hacked her. That was worrisome. 

       Jak came to the conclusion we needed to be moving faster, so he ran up, grabbed Bex, Bumbersnoot, and I and continued running us up toward the gate. Wires shot at us, but only managed to lightly pierced Bex. Jak ran up to the floor right above to gate and smashed a hole in the floor- using Bex as a weapon, which was hella cool, but looked like it hurt- and the four of us tumbled to the circle. Bex's spell went off at exactly the right moment, and seven runes on the gate lit up. There was a flash, and Jak and Bex vanished. Bumbersnoot and I tumbled to the ground. 

       Haagenti roared in anger at our interference, and it hit both Oskar and I. I managed to finally snap Bumbersnoot out of the charm the Demon Lord had placed on him, just as Oskar decided he was fucking done. Rage in his eyes, the dwarf raised his hand, and slapped the Demon Lord. Haagenti vanished in a flash of light! Oskar had sent him back to the Abyss! 

       Then the building began to collapse, so I shrunk Oskar, got him on Bumbersnoot with me, and we fucking ran. The circle came flying right at us, and Bumbersnoot executed a beautiful jump, and flew right through the portal, landing next to Bex and Jak in the Beast Lands.