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Based on the response to the last post of this series, I've decided to keep this one strictly to the adventure my players went through, rather that putting out all my planning. If you're interested in a post with my planning for this part, let me know in the comments below.
I will, however, give a map of part of the adventure later on when that becomes relevant.
My Player Characters:
- Zastra, a failed practising chemist. He has a long knife, a flask of Never-Melting Crushed ice, and a test tube of liquid that can make an object look gold.
- Rades, a failed corpse collector. He has an axe, a wheelbarrow, a plunger, a hand that follows him around and listens to basic instructions, and a small Companion Ball that follows him and can store small items.
- Percy, tenth in line for the title of Eminent-Raider of Ruther's Ford. He has a fire poker, a fur cloak, and a warhorse (named Rembrandt)
- J.R. Pufnstuf, a failed mendicant mycologist (studies fungus). He has a khukuri, a mushroom cap hat, a pouch of salty moss, and a mushroom that induces sleep and causes nightmares. He also has a stave of red oil, which drops oil on the ground, making it slick around.
- Salacia, a failed wilderness recluse. She has ragged clothes, a portable raft, and a machete.
- Iah, a failed Rural Tax Collector (the newest member of the party, having replaced Sol who died in the previous adventure). She has a taxman’s pistol and ceremonial armour.
Part 3: The Sash
“The Sash still lies buried with the Tailor’s Daughter. The graveyard she was buried in has sunk deep into the underground.” (Electric Bastionland, pg 321)
Having made a deal with the machinist Brockman Gaiter in the previous adventure, the party sought him out for help in finding the next piece of the nine piece suit.
Brockman didn't know where the Sash/graveyard was specifically, but he did know of a Machine that might. Deep in the Underground is a machine known as "Self" that Brockman believed could help the group.
Into the Underground
Brockman was excited to take a new entrance into the Underground that had just opened up in the borough where he'd been staying. The entrance dropped the crew into an obsidian tunnel, but Percy had to leave his warhorse (Rembrandt) behind. Eventually, their passage through the tunnel came to a steep drop. The group had rope, but nothing to tie it to.
Eventually, the crew used Salacia's inflatable raft in order to descend the tunnel with a somewhat softer landing.
Continuing through the tunnels brought the crew to a Track-Ship: A massive multidecked ship with grand sails that had wheels which allowed it to act as a train on the tracks which it was placed on. The party boarded and Brockman untied the ship which began down the tunnel, propelled by the strong winds of the tunnel.
Exploring the Track-Ship, the crew found that it had three main decks: a buffet, a casino, and a ballroom. Percy and Iah explored the ballroom, with Iah dancing and Percy playing the piano. J.R. Pufnstuf played two of the machines in the casino, turning one £ into four. Zastra tried some of the food at the buffet, but found himself sickened by the experience.
There were no other people on the ship, and the captain's quarters were empty. There was another room on the ship which contained an ever-shifting map of the Underground which was taken by Percy.
The Lair of the Self
The ship brought the group to the Lair of the Machine known as Self. Self existed across several different mechanical devices and monitors unlike anything found up in Bastion. Self claimed to have been expecting the group. Whenever Self responded to one of the members of the party, his visage on the monitors would shift to resemble the person he was responding to.
Self claimed to know why the group was there, but that it was important for children to learn to use their words. He therefore requested that the group tell them why they were there.
Percy claimed that they were seeking £1,000,000. Self said it would take this into consideration, but that it did not think this was why they had come. They explained to Self about the sash and the graveyard with the tailor's daughter.
Self said that the best way to the graveyard was by going through the Quandary Trail, a path fraught with choices and peril. In order to enter the trail, the group needed for everyone to get installed with a mechanical device that would allow them to input choices throughout the trail. These took the form of metal plates installed on the characters' arms with red, blue, and yellow buttons.
The Quandary Tr(ia)l
As the crew entered the path, a digital sign indicating "The Quandary Trail" shifted the "a" and "i" of "Trail," making it "The Quandary Trial."
The crew was told that half of them would need to receive chemical injections in order to progress. Each person was given three choices of who to vote for in order to determine who would receive these injections:
Ties were settled randomly. In the end, it was Salacia, Brockman, and J.R. Pufnstuf who received the injections. Salacia grew a tentacle. J.R. Pufnstuf felt as if he could walk through walls. Brockman blinked out of existence for a moment and then returned.
Continuing into the trail, the group had to climb over a series of pipes. Percy was hobbled in this effort, walking with a limp from then forward.
The team was given the choice between two paths: Orange or Green. The orange path was safer, more demanding, and offered more rewards. The green path was more lethal, more straightforward, and offered one powerful reward.
Brockman, Salacia, Percy, and Iah decided to take the orange path while Zastra, Rades, and J.R. decided to take the green path.
The group that took the green path faced a series of turrets which almost killed J.R. After facing the turrets, they came to a place where there was a box indicating that it would not kill someone who stuck their hand inside, unless they removed their hand too soon. Rades tried commanding the hand that follows him to go in, but nothing seemed to happen once it was in there. He put his own hand in and was wracked with pain that dropped his health each round until it reached 0. At which point the door opened and they were able to go ahead inside. As a result of their efforts, the green team received a portable Forge of Reconstruction, which is a device that can restore a ship or structure over the course of an hour with no other materials. Rades currently holds the forge.
The group taking the orange path were given a series of puzzles involving buttons and force-fields which, because they had four members, were fairly simple to solve.
As a result of their efforts, they each received a minor item. Brockman received Anti-water. Salacia received one use worth of tiny smoke bombs. Percy received a flask of shock eel soup. Iah received a moonsponge.
Both teams met up at the end of their paths, and before them Self displayed two screens. On one screen was the sunken graveyard. On the other was a room filled with gold coins. Self claimed that the group could choose between going to the graveyard that they were seeking, or going to the room with gold coins (which Self estimated were worth at least the £1,000,000 that Percy had asked for to begin with.) Despite Percy's protests, the group chose to go to the graveyard, believing that the other route might be more impossible/fatal.
The group found the tailor's daughter's grave and were able to dig it up, finding the Sash within. Brockman was able to lead them out of the Underground via an exit that wouldn't have been viable for them to use to get in.
And as such, they were able to make their way back to Alaine Crevatte and turn in the third piece of the suit. Only five left to go.
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