Into the Gray

Session Summary

Elzira, Star, and Arachne disappear and we find a hallway with a right and left stairway. We go down the left stairway after smelling living creatures. In the next room, we find a piece of paper that says "We are the future of science", but it seems like a front to show visitors. We go down the metallic smelling stairwell and find a locked room with a mechanism for a four-digit code. Elzara uses a key given to her by Star to unlock it, and we find papers about chemical warfare and fear gas. We discover that there was a leak and take the 3 empty vials that caused it. Elzara opens a compartment with disconnected tubes. Arachne starts talking to the safe and it starts replying in beeps.

Log

Still in the New Dawn Warehouse

Elzira, Star, and Arachne all disappear.

At the end of the hall we see a staircase going down to the left. To the right looks like a right that looks inoperable. 

We decide to look under the door and see nothing. We think about smashing through it. From what we can see, it looks like there are some more hallways. It shortly turns to the right. 

It’s a boring wooden door. We all start banging on it. We manage to take it down pretty quickly. 

There’s a turn that goes right and to the front there is a stairway that goes down. 

There seems to be some kind of faint line across the hallway. Across the floor, across the walls, and over the top. It looks like this behind us and in front of the stairs. 

I run between the stairwells to smell and decide which to follow. (Following Gandalf’s advice: Follow your nose.) On the right stairwell, I get the smell of living creatures. A faint whiff of sweat, excrement, etc. On the left stairwell it smells more metallic in the air coming up. It smells almost of magic, if that were possible. #clues

We choose to go down to the animal smell. 

The hallway before looks like it connects to the upper stairwell we didn’t choose earlier. To the left are two doors. They seem like wooden locked doors. Twinkletoes wants to use her dagger to try and pick the lock. It doesn’t work. 

Elzara and Wash use the two crowbars to pry open the door, successfully. 

There is a fairly large room nearly twice as high of a ceiling. It looks like it's to fit machinery inside of. It looks like a research facility but unrelated to the paperwork we looked at before. As we dig through, we notice there is a little piece of paper reading: “We are the future of science. Here at New Dawn, we work on making your life better every day. With our technology, one day we may be able to go to the stars! But until then, we’ll make your life as convenient as possible.”

We can see the other door on the other side. It appears both connected to the same room. All the paperwork we can find seems to be fairly vapid. It’s designed to appear like a research room. But everything seems to be a showroom. Many papers are just nonsense. It seems like a front to show to visitors or auditors. 

We decide to go down the metallic smelling stairwell. We see a bunch of shut doors. 

RETCON: Star made a copy key and has given it to Elzara. #items

Elzara uses this to begin opening doors. The key works perfectly! That means it’s the same exact key that got us into this area to begin with. 

Me, Elzara, and Twinkletoes get a deep sense of unease. Wash cannot walk closer to the room. He is frightened.

Inside is a big central table. In the back of the room are modular pieces of table. There is some kind of mechanism for them to slide and hook, unhook. On the right (north) side are shelves people normally use for paperwork. Immediately to the right and left are storage containers. To the left are two strange wiring tubing items. There was a little panel next to the door on the right side with a mechanism for entering some kind of four digit code. There is no keyhole on the inside of the door. Inside is the same panel. None of the other doors have panels. 

Elzara leaves the key in the lock so it is still on the outside of the door.

I go to shuffle through some papers. It seems like they were working on chemical warfare of some sort. I find this: 

“8/8/5221

I have notified Gulnara of the lack of certainty we have for the quality control of the containers. I’m not sure we should be containing such dangerous materials without a plan for how to ensure the safety of our workers. While the fear gas probably won’t kill anyone, if there’s leakage that could completely make an entire room unusable at the bare minimum. I’m requiring a halt until further notice.”

I look for containers to see if I can stop the leak. I find little vials. It’s very lightly yellow colored. There are 3 out of a total of 25 vials that are almost completely empty. I assume those are the culprits. I take the 3 unbroken vials.

I let everyone know that there is fear gas and there was a leak.

Elzara goes closer to the strange wire contraptions. There are 8 points of tubing that could be connected to. There appears to be a compartment that could be opened. The tubes go into the wall. She opens the compartment. Inside are more disconnected tubes. There appear to be 8. It seems like they would hook up into the tubes coming out of the wall. #clues

Twinkletoes pokes at the tables in the back. Nothing happens.

We all leave and Arachne appears! She makes a CHA save. 

We close the door behind us. 

Arachne casts Detect Magic again. The magic in the walls is once again apparent. 

I listen to the first door and hear nothing. I start listening to the second door but have no time.

Elzara opens the door Arachne asks down the hall. A huge number of the same robots we’ve fought before are inside. They all swivel and look at Arachne and Elzara. Elzara slams the door shut. We can hear them all walking towards the door. 

“I wonder if that means there’s a bunch of robots in the other room.”

“Hey do you wanna listen to the other door?”

I do so. I hear some sort of faint humming noise with a little bit of a whine. They seem separate. I let them know what I hear. It does not sound like a portal.

Elzara cracks open the door and sees turrets. There are cords that look the same as the ones in the other room. The ones in the back look like they are daisy chained together. She closes the door immediately. 

Arachne says it’s not worth going in there. 

 We go back to the last unopened room where there was no sound. There is a familiar setup. In the south east (back right) there is a safe. There is a ton of magic in the back. The tubes appear to carry magic inside of them. She sees the small compartment underneath it. She opens it. She finds the tubes. 

I look for more paperwork. I find something that reads:

“14/2/5222

This will revolutionize war, while our robots give us advantages in infantry situations, this will completely change the way we fight itself. I have just gotten the prototype working, unfortunately, while powerful, it also requires a very specifically produced power source to fire. It is definitely worth the time and effort it provides for the size form, this kind of firepower was never possible to be portable until now.”

I show it to Wash, then Arachne. 

Arachne is trying to carry some of the tubes and then decides to destroy one of the original tubes. I encourage her. She hits it with her mace. 

It looks like there was some kind of magic spark and the tube is greatly damaged.

She says it would probably explode and stops hitting it. 

I point out the safe. “You can pick locks, right?” I ask Arachne. 

She looks. It looks like a safe with a code. There are four wheels. 

I go to crush charcoal and see if I can find fingerprints on the door pad. (11 Investigation.) I can see that the pad numbers “7, 3, 8, 2” are most used. 

Arachne tries the year of the note. There is a beep but it does not open. She cannot find a source, it must be internal. 

We puzzle over the numbers. I suggest 7823 because that is the sequence of numbers. Angry beep.

She climbs up on top of the safe and starts talking to it. She asks it to please open. It does not. There is a soft whine and a series of beeping patterns she does not recognize. The whine keeps going. The beeps has a series of beeps and then pauses. Then another series of the same beeps. Another pause. Then a different series of beeps. Then a different, different beep.