Into the Gray

Session Summary

Arachne, Star, and I explore a room in search of magic. Star finds a pink rug, and we notice a concentration of magic near a locked door. I examine the crack under the door and find a sheet of metal. Star successfully lockpicks the door, and we find a desk emitting a green fog. Arachne sees magic under the floor leading to the desk and attempts to open a locked drawer. Suddenly, a loud slamming noise shuts the room and Arachne and Star get trapped while we work to break them out, which we finally do. Some papers managed to survive. We find paperwork detailing that the New Dawn may be creating owlbears using magic, which they plan to use in war. Elzira and I are unsettled by the discovery, especially since we have seen the creatures migrating to the north. We find a journal that belongs to Hulderick, who works in the tech department of Conqel, which contains information about the company's research and secret labs. Star picks locks while Wash uses Unseen Servant to open desks. The journal refers to a tunnel that smells awful and whatever was there was terrifying. We also learn about the myth of the Disco Thief in Conqel.

Log

Still in the New Dawn Warehouse

I run around trying to find sound. I hear absolutely nothing. I’m not even certain I’m in the right spots.

Star peeks through an open door, stealthily of course. 

Arachne sees a concentration at the first door on the left. 

In the room where Star is looking, he sees a pink rug on the floor. 

Star looks into the room on the left. He sees another rug, blue, and it looks like another rug. Filing cabinets seem to have been here and are now in disarray. 

Arachne does not see magic coming from the rugs. 

She points out that she sees a higher point of magic around that door and she is interested in it. 

The doors look like they used to have labels. 

Arachne sees the letter “L” on the door label. We estimate about 6-8 letters might have fit on the sign. #clues

I get down on the floor to try and look under the door. Firstly and most importantly, there is a small crack. I can see a pink rug. Secondly and way less importantly, it appears there is some sort of little small section that almost looks removed. I feel in the crack. 

Arachne tries the door and it is locked. 

In the cracks it feels like there is a sheet of metal in the door, maybe. I make a DEX saving throw. As I hear the door knob jiggle, the top of the metal thing rapidly shuts. I manage to get my fingers out but it really stinks. I take 8 damage. 

Arachne pokes me with her foot and makes sure I still have all my fingers. I do! 

I can see that as the door is left alone, the metal retracts. 

Star tries to lockpick the door. He succeeds after some difficulty! Side note: His bonus points for his crit roll on locks earlier are +5. #tempboons

I move out of the way before he opens the door. 

At this point, Arachne can see that there is magic under the floor and leads to the desk. There is magic that is right next to the slot that is closed. There is magic that leads to the desk. 

She tries to rush in and I cover her from the doorway. She doesn’t see any obvious traps as she walks into the room. She points out the magic areas to me. Paperwork seems to be missing from the sides. She tries to open a drawer. It is locked. She rattles it. She sees a little pulse go through the magic line. She prepares to smash it with her mace.

Star fails at opening another door. He comes in to see if he can help. He cannot.

I hand off my crowbar to Elzara to see if she wants to try and open the door that Star failed at. 

Arachne evaluates whether the desk is welded to the floor. It does not appear to be. She tries to shove the desk to the side.

INITIATIVE

#encounters/traps

Suddenly, there is a loud slamming of metal from a door. The room shuts. Something starts to emit from the desk. 

Arachne and Star roll a CON saving throw. They both take 3 damage.

As of now, the only thing everyone outside knows is that something is wrong. 

Elzira asks what’s going on. Arachne dropped the desk as soon as she was dealt damage. “The desk bit me!” she shouts.

I try to investigate the door. It looks pretty well sealed. I yell at Elzara to try to open the metal sheet with the crowbar I just handed her. 

She looks at the metal thing and then looks at me with a question mark in my face. I replied “Take it down!” She brings out her hammer. She deals it 5 damage. 

Wash fires a Baja Blast at the walls. He can see that behind the normal wall, there is metal walling. He deals 20 damage.

Twinkletoes uses Shocking Grasp and deals 8 damage.

Star, inside the room, takes 5 damage. There continues to be something emitting from the desk. It’s some kind of fog, almost green. Star tells Arachne to help him cover the desk with the carpet. She argues a bit and agrees to start doing that while he tries to unlock the desk. He fails. “Come on, man, you don’t have to be this way,” Arachne says to the desk. She also takes 5 damage.

Both make a CON saving throw. 

Elzira looks around the door for some kind of button or lever. He doesn’t see any, but he notices at the very bottom out of the little slot, there is the tiniest bit of a piece of paper sticking out on the bottom. He tries to pull it out. For some weird reason, the paper is able to slide up almost painlessly on the door side. He can see it’s a piece of paper and it just has text that describes the function of something. There is no time to read it. 

I run over to see what the paper says. It basically describes the purpose of the device. It is to block off access for 10 minutes and to filter the air at 9 minutes. There is a hidden emergency disable button on the inside but does not specify where though. I tell everyone that they are probably suffocating inside, and I shout inside that there is some kind of button to disable it. 

Elzara smashes. Wash strikes. They deal 8+5+5 damage.

Twinkletoes deals 14 damage to the door with Shocking Grasp.

Star tries to unlock the desk again and fails. 

Arachne tries to establish whether the whole desk or a specific portion is spewing out the gaseous form. After moving the desk earlier she does see it is disconnected to the desk. She finishes wrapping up the desk. 

They both take 6 damage. 

Elzira yells “Find the button!” and ends his turn. 

I shout through the door to see if there is a window or anything. There isn’t anything. I use Shocking Grasp on the door for 9 lighting damage. 

Elzara smashes again for 20 damage. 

Wash casts Unseen Servant on the other side of the door and search for the button. 

Twinkletoes does 4 damage. 

Arachne and Star take 5 damage. Star searches the room for the hidden button along the walls. He NAT 20s. He manages to search the whole north facing wall and is quite confident there is nothing there. 

Arachne tries to reconnect the desk to the magic source. After a couple of seconds, the magic starts to reconnect. Otherwise, nothing changed.

Elzira hits the door with a stick. Somehow… he misses. 

I twin Shocking Grasp and deal 21 damage. 

Elzara smashes and deals 10 damage. 

Wash goes to search the other pink rug room. It looks like right behind the desk there is a little bit of an indent where there would be decorations or a standup picture. He looks more carefully. It’s a fairly small cubby hole. It looks like there used to be something here. It looks like on the ground, there is a broken standing frame. 

Twinkletoes casts Shocking grasp for 10 damage.

Star takes 4 damage. He searches the east wall. He does not find the button. 

Arachne takes 4 damage. “How are you holding up,” she asks Star. Star says he’s doing alright. She tries to search the west wall but doesn’t find anything.

Elzira casts Fire Bolt on the door, dealing 12 fire damage. 

I twin shocking grasp for 21 damage. 

Elzara deals 9 damage. 

Wash tries the desk and fails to open a drawer.

Twinkletoes deals 6+7 damage. 

Star searches another wall section and finds nothing. 

Arachne grabs her holy symbol and asks “Hey ma’am, this room is fucked up and evil, if you know where the shutoff button is, I’d love it if you could help me.” Nothing happens. She hears back a message we don’t hear.

Elzira shoots again and deals 13 damage. 

I twin Shocking Grasp for 25 damage.

Elzara deals 11+11 damage. 

Suddenly Arachne hears a click. There was a hidden section in the wall. There is a whooshing noise as air seems to be cycled out. The desk still seems to be going for it. 

Wash pries open the desk in the other room and makes a DEX save. Out from the desk drawer flies out what appears to be a brown sludge. He just barely gets out of the way. 

 On the outside all we’ve heard is air moving.

Twinkletoes deals 9 damage. 

Star takes 1 damage. He searches the back wall.

Arachne takes 1 damage. She looks at the top of the desk for engravings, papers, etc. and then decides to try and pick the desk again. However, she does not do so successfully. She takes 3 more damage. 

Elzira deals 13 damage. 

I deal 9 damage. 

Elzara deals 5+10 damage. 

Wash grabs papers and checks the back wall. He tells the Unseen Servant to help Arachne. 

Twinkletoes deals 6 damage. 

Star takes 1 damage and investigates the desk. 

Arachne takes 5 damage. She casts Cure Wounds on herself for 16 health. 

Elzira CRITS the door with 29 damage. This ball of fire hits the door and for a second it looks like nothing happens. Unusually it sits there and then suddenly explodes in a color of rainbows. The metal shears off from the bottom. It rips the desk in half. The bottom part of the door also shears perfectly around the Unseen Servant who is left unharm. There is a massive indent in the wall where the sheet of metal hit. 

There is a big storage tank that was hidden inside the tank. It is almost miraculously unharmed. 

There is some paperwork that hasn’t been destroyed. Arachne yoinks it and takes it to Wash and Elzira. The paperwork reads: 

“Sample tissue was acquired, it appears that they have used magic to create some sort of creature that is the combination of an owl and a bear. I have made a request to management to acquire a specimen. Copying this capability would give us quite the edge should we require it in the eventuality of a war, that does seem to be the purpose of this facility, after all.” #clues

• Who first invented the owlbears? New Dawn clearly borrowed the technology right before the war began.

It is signed by Gulnara. The date: 7/6/5219

Elzira says that this was messed up. I point out it’s even more unsettling that we’ve been seeing them migrate to the north. 

I go to look for the metal sheet under the other doors. There are none. I let the group know. 

Wash warns us to be careful of visceral diarrhea in all the desks. We decide to have the Unseen Servant look around and open desks while we compare notes. 

“The tunnel was dark, no duh, and there were brown smudges along the walls. Testing is needed to determine the material, but it smelled awful, it was an unbearable smell that made me think of feces. Whatever left this could demolish [redacted]. I’m thinking that maybe those legends weren’t just made up, and this is what caused them in the first place. We must be wary in our efforts.”

17/6/5221 - Appius Ragnhildr

Star tries picking locks while Wash has the Unseen Servant use the crowbar. 

I stand in the doorway as the Unseen Servant pries open a desk. Nothing happens. I carefully go in to get paperwork with no issues. This one looks less like a paper and more like a journal. This is confirmed when I open it up. At the end of each entry is “Signing off, Hulderick” 

7/7/5201

Dear Journal,

Today I finally got to start actually working work. It’s been a long way, but finally working in Conqel in tech is a dream come true. I can’t believe I’ve made it all the way from Hronp to here. I’ve just met my coworkers today, from what I can tell, there are different department leads, Gulnara gives me the creeps, and I refuse to believe that’s a real name. Pretty sure it’s made up, but I’m scared to ask honestly, that mask creeps me out. I wonder why Gulnara wears it all the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because Gulnara works around poison so much, that seems about right. The others seem pretty normal and I’m happy to work under Alastor Ryouichi, even though I’ve been asked to use the title Boss of Science. Very silly. Will not be doing that.

Signing off
Hulderic

8/7/5201

Dear Journal,

The Boss of Science told me a bit about Conqel the other day while we were casually chatting. Did you know there’s a myth here about a Disco Thief, apparently some people know this person as the Funky Phantom. Depending on who you ask the Disco Thief is either a saint stealing from the unjust or an agent of chaos trying to tear apart society. Pretty cool mythos if you ask me. I was told by management the other day (apparently SOMEONE noticed me writing this, I suspect it’s Gulnara; the creep) and I was told that this journal shouldn’t exist, should be written in code, and shouldn’t leave the building. Well I’ll do that last one. What are they going to do, read it? Anyways, second day of work going well and we’re working on some really cutting edge stuff here.

Signing off
Hulderic

25/3/5210

Dear Journal,

I’m finally taking the Boss of Science’s mantle. I know that title was because unlike others we tended to be less specialized and that’s not quite true anymore, but I think I’ll see if I can’t inherit the title for myself. Oh, turns out that one of the first things we used the portals for was to make secret research labs that we could remotely access. I understand why; things don’t seem to be going well with Kelderheim, but this makes me nervous. I don’t like it. Just seems suspect, you know. I’ve also heard we’re relocating to Perfrind and that, of course, it will be secret and there’ll be some sort of front for the whole thing. Of course. Why not. Sure. Great. Love it. I’ll talk with management but honestly why would they listen to me, I’m just a scientist.

Signing off,
Hulderic.

[undated in the journal]

I swear if anyone else comes into this office to bother me I will absolutely tear them to shreds. WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO HURT SO MUCH SOMEONE IS KNOCKIDFF[this is followed by indecipherable scribbles]

15/7/5215

Dear Journal,

Okay so I think I’m going to have to be more careful with these. We’re just journaling the haps baby.

Signing off,
Hulderic.

15/10/5218

Dear Journal,

They didn’t even ask me what carpet I wanted. This pink is ugly and sucks. I wanted the green carpet. Do you think Gulnara would notice if I switch rugs? Only one way to find out.

Signing off,
Hulderic.

Star keeps trying to pick locks. It takes about an hour for him to do that. It’s about noon. He finds a modified orb in a desk. 

“Vera needs to step it up, due to the requirement of the project to allow for teleportation to ensure the subject’s safety, we’re required to make these things large clunky orbs. It’s annoying to secure and too easily noticeable and removable in the event anything leaks to the enemy. We might almost have a functional design but it’s not good enough. I’m also concerned about the incident the other day. It seems to me it might increase aggression in general and not just intelligence. I’ll be asking Putra to look more into this before we try testing on any already sapient beings. If my hypothesis is correct these are actually unusable in their current state, large and clunky or not.”

26/5/5220 - Afra Rusudan

Another drawer gets popped open and a noise happens. It seems to be activating a teleporter. There is a quick noise and then it stops. We would have seen lights coming from what might have been inside one of the drawers. 

Star opens another desk and manages not to spring a trap. 

“After long exposure the subjects had an increasing sign of intelligence and eventually escaped. Future tests will require more thorough methods of ensuring that escape will not be possible, already needed to cover one PR storm and broken windows at that. The results make us excited but we also need to recover the items in question before they cause any more issues in the surrounding area. Results are looking promising but we must proceed with caution.”

12/12/5221 - Dr. Sanjay Putra

I wander into the room with the portal sounds. When I check in the drawers, it looks suspiciously like there was something here but no longer. I check around inside the drawers and desk to find whether there are remnants of a portal. There are some strange things connected to the lock but that’s all. 

I ask Elzira what it is. He can tell it’s something of a trigger but nothing else.  We ask Wash but he can’t detect any portals. He remembers there were stories of people working on self-contained teleportation devices. 

It’s about 2pm by the time we wrap up reading everything. Hulderic’s name jumps out.