Skyfell Campaign: Session 17
Skyfell Introduction
I started a once-per-month Dungeons and Dragons game in my Skyfell campaign setting. I wanted to provide my players with a log of their adventures and then realized that such a log might make for fun blog posts. See the Session Index for a complete listing.
The cast is:
Rodney - Tauffae Twofeather Topshelf - male orc, Fighter (Champion)
Dan - Drekzhar - male minotaur, Bard/Rogue (College of Swords, Swashbuckler)
Michelle - Bronte Whitewinter - male firbolg, Cleric (Tempest Domain)
Session 17: Clockworks of Carnage - Smoke Test
Preparation
This session took place back in mid-June. It was the first session since the SIP order was relaxed. I wanted to create a comfortable space for everyone while still maintaining social distancing. To that end, I rearranged my couch into pieces with a bit of space in between each section. It created a nice gathering area for theater-of-the-mind type play. That said, I’m not so sure how well it would have worked with a full map and miniatures.
Outside of this, there really was no additional prep other than to read the summary from the previous session and get lunch made. I ended up trying my hand at making the Pomegranate-Walnut Chicken Stew recipe out of the Antoni in the Kitchen cookbook. It came out pretty well but a little sweet for my taste. I think I’ll try the Hunter’s Stew next.
Pre-game
We initially spent some time catching up. It had been a while since we had been able to see each other face to face, so there were air hugs and foot high-fives all around. We then ate while I did the Session 16 recap before diving right back into the game.
In-game
The dragonborn family (of the clan Cindertail) was very grateful for the party’s intervention in what could have been a horrific fate. The husband (Mehen) ranted about shutting down Clockworks of Carnage while his wife (Ferideh) tended to their teenage son (Rivaan). Oma and Bronte used the opportunity to take a closer look at each of the would-be mechanical assassins. They also wanted to see if they could retrieve the constructs’ crystals and badges.
They were able to vandalize only one of the destroyed constructs in this way before Constable Manfred arrived with two security constructs at his side. These security constructs wore badges that identified them as P54 and P18. Their navy-blue clothing was similar to that of the V-series constructs. Their general physical design was also quite similar if not slightly larger and slightly more menacing, especially given the shortswords dangling from their hips.
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| Clockworks of Carnage Security Construct Source: Heroforge, design by me |
Before Manfred could begin to suss out what had happened, Mehen lit into him about the dangers of the citadel. He promised to tell everyone he knew to stay away from the place if they cared anything at all for their families. Manfred did his best to calm Mehen, but there was nothing for it. Meribore and Bronte, on the other hand, were much more successful at placating the dragonborn family. They eventually offered to escort the family to the infirmary to have them checked out more thoroughly. Ferideh agreed and the five of them left the scene. Meribore and Bronte would rejoin the party at the administrative building where Manfred’s office was located.
The infirmary was on the first floor of the Tinker Inn. It was staffed by one of the clockwork fighters, a kenku named Flik-flak-Boom. He explained that he was trained in healing and would take good care of his three new patients.
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| Flik-flak Boom, Clockwork FIghter Source: Heroforge, design by me |
Before Meribore and Bronte left the dragonborn, they discussed the possibility of taking on the family as passengers. They agreed to reconvene at the evening’s Meet-and-Greet to work out the details. The two firbolgs then stopped by the gift shop. The store was no longer staffed by a construct as it had been. Now, there was a clockwork fighter looking after things. His flamboyant manner, flowing hair, devilish mustache, and knowing grin marked him as the one and only Thunderhead. He was another of the heels in the Clockworks of Carnage league.
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| Thunderhead, Clockwork FIghter Source: Heroforge, design by me |
Thunderhead explained that since they were in transit (and therefore off season), the clockwork fighters handled many of the critical functions of the citadel. When they docked at a city, however, the staff numbers would be supplemented by locals so that the fighters could stay in their main roles. The gift shop was usually handled by constructs but the one assigned the job had gone missing. Meribore and Bronte asked him about the other fighters. Thunderhead immediately fell into what was obviously his character, promising to rain down righteous destruction on The Stomper and her clockwork flunky Hammer Time (his arch enemies). He capped the monologue with a maniacal laugh and a twirl of his mustache that was both devilish and charming.
Bronte purchased a storm globe for Tauffae. This trinket was a small crystal globe filled with water. Inside was a figurine of Storm Maiden (Thunderhead’s construct) poised for a lightning attack. When one shook the globe, sparkles of silver glitter spun in the water until they settled. This was intended to be a gift for Tauffae to help keep him amused when he had nothing much else to do. Meribore also purchased a wind-up figurine for herself. They then headed for the admin building.
Back at the spa, Tauffae, Oma, and Drekzhar shamed Manfred into admitting that Cheb’s disappearance was an important matter beyond his abilities to investigate. Sure, Manfred could help someone find their lost coin pouch or track a child who had wandered away from his or her parents. He could even intimidate unruly guests into behaving. But a full-scale investigation like the one that would be needed to look into Cheb’s disappearance and the malfunctioning constructs presented was not something he could manage.
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| Constable Manfred Source: Heroforge, design by me |
Oma once again offered their assistance. This time, Manfred accepted. Tauffae asked if he could get a uniform just like the ones P54 and P18 were wearing. Whether due to the party’s heckling or Tauffae’s hatchling’s eyes, Manfred agreed to the request. (Natural 1s do play out in odd ways sometimes.) Tauffae was elated.
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| Happy Tauffae Source: Heroforge, design by me |
The matter settled, they headed back to the admin building to wait for Meribore and Bronte. On the way, Omagoshno noticed a construct repeatedly sweeping the same area of the pathway that wound around the coliseum. He asked the others to wait while he checked it out. The construct, with ID badge indicating it was V282, quietly mumbled about being unable to get rid of the accursed spot on the ground and of feeling empty inside.
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| Construct Sweeping the Sidewalk Source: Heroforge, design by me |
It occurred to everyone that this was the spot where V31 (the construct in a repair bay back at the maintenance shed) had fallen. They also noticed that one of the alcoves that formed the ground level of the coliseum was empty. Whereas all the other alcoves had a statue of a clockwork fighter and their clockwork in it, this particular alcove had neither.
Manfred explained that there had been a statue there for a fighter named Taren Dask and his clockwork Mantis. Taren had become obsessed with the notion that clockworks could think and feel just like humanoids and should therefore be treated as humanoids. When people weren’t swayed by his words he turned to violence. In the ultimate act of solidarity, he even attempted to fuse his soul with a clockwork body. Luckily he and the body were destroyed before this was fully accomplished. Manfred was intimately familiar with this story because he had been the one to deliver the killing blow to Taren’s clockwork frame.
Skyfell Cultural Note
Throughout the centuries, there have been but a handful of tinkers who have tried to fuse their soul with a clockwork body. All of these have ended in spectacularly dismal tragedies. At best, the soul-fused goes insane and ends its own life. At worse, that insanity drives the soul-fused to horrific violence until it is destroyed. Tescalain has outlawed the research. The Gearmount Foundry officially condemns it. Clockworks of Carnage opposes it. That doesn't mean that ambitious, and perhaps note entirely stable, tinkers don't keep trying.
Throughout the centuries, there have been but a handful of tinkers who have tried to fuse their soul with a clockwork body. All of these have ended in spectacularly dismal tragedies. At best, the soul-fused goes insane and ends its own life. At worse, that insanity drives the soul-fused to horrific violence until it is destroyed. Tescalain has outlawed the research. The Gearmount Foundry officially condemns it. Clockworks of Carnage opposes it. That doesn't mean that ambitious, and perhaps note entirely stable, tinkers don't keep trying.
Meribore and Bronte caught up with the party as this exchange was going on. They reported back that they had dropped off the family at the infirmary, that the father was interested in paying for passage off the citadel, and that the construct working at the gift shop had gone missing.
While the party discussed what they should do next, The Stomper joined them.
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| The Stomper Source: Heroforge, designed by me |
She showed the party a delivery manifest she had found in Cheb’s office. The paperwork indicated he had received a number of components that could be used to create an object to psychically bond a clockwork to a user. In that discussion, the party told her about the difficulty Queen Tinker had had with Infernal Stalker and wondered if maybe the components had something to do with those technical problems. The Stomper found this very unusual as the bond between a fighter and their clockwork is an intimate relationship. The clockwork wants to do right by the fighter and the fighter doesn’t want to see the clockwork hurt. In some ways, it was the purest sort of love there could be.
All of this talk was over Tauffae’s head and his eye wandered to a small cluster of children enjoying the most delicious-looking funnel cake he had ever seen. Immediately, he began to drool as his mind filled with fantasies of filling his mouth with the deep-fried dessert. His focused attention made the guests uncomfortable. There was clearly going to be an incident. Drekzhar noticed what was going on and promised to buy Tauffae as many funnel cakes as he wanted later. So, at least that bit of mischief was managed.
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| Yummy Funnel Cake Source: Pexels |
With all this new information, the party decided to return to their rooms for some rest and to later attend the Meet-and-Greet where they could discuss passage for the Dragonborn family, eat, and recuperate. They would also likely see D84 there and they, understandably, wanted to have a little talk with it. But first, they took the malfunctioning construct back to the maintenance shed where The Stomper could shut it down and get it prepped for repairs.
Tauffae, however, never did get his construct uniform.
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| Sad Tauffae Source: Heroforge, design by me |
About an hour later, the party assembled at the Meet-and-Greet. They found a table and settled into a buffet of assorted of cold meats, breads, fruits, cheeses, and beverages. There was also funnel cake. Lots of funnel cake. Shortly, the evening’s event began with Ringmaster Overclocked working the room as he welcomed the guests and built up their excitement.
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| Ringmaster Overclocked Source: Heroforge, design by me |
Then, the clockwork fighters, along with their clockwork companions, paraded out on the stage in pairs (hero and heel) as Overclocked explained their backgrounds and their long-lived rivalries. Impassioned and boisterous smack talk was then exchanged between the rivals as their clockworks fell into pseudo-combat clearly designed to show off each of their special abilities.
The audience loved it all.
When the Underkraken and Queen Tinker were announced, only the Underkraken (along with Gargantuan) appeared on stage. Ringmaster Overclocked called for Queen Tinker a couple more times before proceeding without her. He and the Underkraken did their best to perform a script that clearly was meant to include a third person. They were not doing a very good job.
In the meantime, Tauffae had been trolling the room for food and D84, mostly definitely in that level of priority. In the midst of the awkward dialog unfolding on the stage, D84 poked out its head from behind a curtain on the left end of the stage. It gestured at Tauffae and then ducked back behind the curtain.
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| D84 Sneaks a Peak at Tauffae Source: Heroforge designed by me |
Tauffae quickly filled his mouth with the pile of meats he had collected before indicating to the rest of the party to follow him. He then crawled onto the stage at its far left end (trying really hard not to draw attention to himself) and headed backstage to wait for his companions. The others showed up shortly after along with Constable Manfred. Tauffae explained what had happened. The party looked for any sign of D84, but it wasn’t around. There was, however, another of those “Employee Only” doors that led into the maintenance passages under the citadel. Bullbreaker (another of the clockwork fighters) was in the wings waiting for his turn on stage and told the party that D84 had gone into the passages.
Their path determined, the party descended into the maintenance tunnels. It started with a long flight of stairs and led them to a ten-by-ten-foot hallway. A sign on the wall indicated that the Temple of Gond was in one direction and the spa was in the other direction. They decided to head for the spa. Almost immediately, they found a couple of doors that were for a custodial closet and a storage room but that was it. They continued on down the tunnel for quite a bit without any other interesting finds. It was Meribore who eventually noticed a set of scrapes on the floor that formed a quarter-circle arc from the wall to the middle of the hall.
Once this was pointed out, Omagoshno spotted some thin cracks in the wall that were indicative of a hidden door. Taking a closer look, he found a mechanism inside a cleverly-hidden compartment. Overly excited at his find, and possibly still a little full of himself regarding his stunning exhibition of tinker skills back at the gear hoard (see Session 14), Oma immediately started fiddling with the mechanism. His enthusiasm was rewarded with an electrical blast that would have easily killed the average person.
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| Oma Go Boom Boom Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes |
Oma's shock was only slightly tempered by a strange twitch in his pants. Back in the catacombs that led to the Shadowfell, Oma had discovered a piece of quartz in a cage (see Session 10). Subsequent nightmares regarding the stone drove Omagoshno to put the stone in a Bag of Holding for safe keeping. Prior to going to the Meet-and-Greet that day, however, Oma's curiosity once again got the best of him. He decided to carry the stone in his pocket so that he could monitor it. He wanted to know whether it was actually evil or if his imagination was just getting the better of him. As the blast of lightning from the trap had struck him, it also struck the quartz. The rock was now, apparently, reacting to that strike. It was vibrating ever so slightly. This was, it should go without saying, quite a curious discovery to find in one's pocket.
Bronte attended to Oma’s wounds, and his pride, completely oblivious to the activity going on in the dark places of the gnome's trousers. Drekzhar stepped in to complete the examination of the mechanism. He determined that the trap had been sprung and so it was now safe to open the door.
Inside, the party found another passage. It was 10-feet wide with an arching ceiling. A narrow, horizontal line of decorative white tile buffered by thin, stone trim bisected the walls about a third of the way up from the floor. Below this line, the stone was engraved with ornate, organic knots. Above this line, vertical grooves created a sense of continuous movement toward a pair of heavy doors 50 feet away. The stonework was quite ancient but had only a few cracks and stains to betray its age. Here and there were masonry patches clearly indicating someone was actively maintaining the hall. Black and white marble tiles decorated the floor forming a simple, organic pattern that complimented the one on the walls. Upon the doors, there was an iron plaque. Engraved into that plaque was the same design as on the coins that had granted the party passage into the Shadowfell.
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| The Coin with Inscription: "To traverse that which has been sundered" |
“Well,” Constable Manfred said, “I suppose I should explain this.”
End session 17.
Experience earned:
Bronte - 2530 (21,282 total)Drekzhar - 2300 (22,003 total)
Meribore - 2300 (21,208 total)
Omagoshno - 2300 (21,849 total)
Tauffae - 2530 (21,444 total)
Supplemental Materials
The following is a list of the music I've been playing during this arc.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Stop by my YouTube channel "Ovens and Dragons" and partake in the exciting world of cooking for gamers.
Also, check out my DMsGuild offerings:
- Epic Gnomish Inventing
Rules supplement for creating gadgets. - Gnome Concept Packages 1
Collection of gnome-related backgrounds, feats, magic items, and more. - Great House Servants
Collection of backgrounds centered on the servants of a great house. - Mildew's Revenge
A first-level adventure. - Random Plot Generator
A tool for creating adventure prompts for one-shots and story arcs. - The WhatNot Shop’s Absurd Accoutrements
A collection of unusual magical items. - The WhatNot Shop's Bracing Beverages
A collection of strange potions. - The WhatNot Shop's Common Curiosities and Trivial Trinkets
A collection of common magic items and trinkets. - The WhatNot Shop's Dastardly Doodads and Orc Oddities
A collection of orc-themed common magic items and trinkets.
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