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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Isklexi" data-source="post: 6827246" data-attributes="member: 6684948">Oddcog's Magma EmporiumWhen the constables reached the bottom of the shaft, they found a long tunnel winding deeper into the mountain and a large mine cart waiting for them. The cart contained a severed duplicant head. As soon as kirk picked up the head, it transformed into Tinker’s likeness and began to speak. Oddcog invited them to ride in the cart to his factory workshop. After a bit of discussion, the constables decided to get into the cart.On the ride over, Oddcog explained a few things to the constables. He told them that he wouldn’t leave willingly with them regardless of any overtures they made because the duplicants he made for Gradiax have an inbuilt form of mind control. As long as Tinker was linked to a duplicant, he would have to obey Gradiax’s commands. Oddcog also admonished the constables for being so foolhardy as to walk into a very obvious trap. After a few minute of rambling conversation with the inventor of questionable sanity, Gradiax seized control of the duplicant head as his human persona Benedict Pemberton.Pemberton told the constables he had no affiliation with this Obscurati conspiracy they were dealing with, and he was willing to negotiate. He offered to allow them to speak with Tinker as long as they left without damaging any more of his forces. Kirk countered that they wanted to take Oddcog back with them. Pemberton insisted he needed more if they were going to take his prize engineer. He demanded that the party destroy Ber’s transport ships after they drop off the first wave of marines, stranding Ber’s soldiers without reinforcements. The constables decided to agree to the original offer and simply speak with Tinker.The cart reached the end of the line in a factory-like area set above a pool of churning magma. Tinker was piloting a steam-powered armored suit at the far end of the factory up on a platform overlooking the area. He shouted to be heard over the machinery saying that he would answer their questions, but if they tried to cross the factory floor, he would be forced to open fire. Though Oddcog’s rambling responses were often rather disjointed, the constables learned two important pieces of information. First, the Ob’s colossus had been designed specifically to lift a flat object a hundred feet in diameter that weighed roughly 43,000 tons and withstand tremendous amounts of physical and magical punishment. With these design specifications, the RHC could start to piece together what the Ob planned to use the golem for. Secondly, Tinker revealed in a rambling non sequitur that Alexander Grappa had contacted him. Up to this point the constables had though Grappa died in the Bleak Gate facility when Borne awoke.[gm]Full disclosure, the PCs believed Grappa was dead, but the actual players were genre savvy enough to know that prominent characters that fall to their deaths without leaving a body behind are almost certainly still alive.[/gm]The constables decided they couldn’t afford to leave Tinker behind and risk losing any other valuable intelligence on the Ob he may be forgetting to tell them. Doran, Rai, and Kirk sprinted across the factory to close the distance with Tinker. Tinker immediately displayed his influence over machines when he verbally commanded the factory’s manipulating arms to grab Kirk off the conveyor belt and opened fire with guns built into his steam suit. Maddox fired a few grenades at the factory’s steam turbine in an attempt to shut down the machinery. However, this flushed out a dragon hiding in the steam cloud around the turbine. The dragon sported several arcanoscientific prostheses, and it swooped down to attack the party’s flank.Doran and Rai continued forward to try and stop Tinker. They suffered the brunt of Tinker’s attacks, including a beam cannon suspended from a rail on an articulated metal arm. Kirk managed to slip free of the manipulator arms and hurried back to the rear to help Irony, Bellicose, and Maddox with the dragon. Rai and Doran had a hard time reaching Tinker between his withering hail of bullets and immobilizing ray gun. The rest of the constables unloaded their strongest attacks and magic at the dragon. The dragon absorbed a tremendous amount of punishment, but its mechanical prostheses rapidly began to fail. As the dragon’s mechanical prostheses failed completely, a door at the back of the factory slammed open and Pemberton emerged carrying the unconscious body of Tinker Oddcog. The constables know the Tinker in the steam suit was a duplicant, but this was the first confirmation they had that the dragon wasn’t Pemberton. Pemberton revealed the dragon was actually his daughter, Terakalir, and he threatened to kill Tinker unless they allowed his daughter to escape. The constables agreed, reasoning that they stood to gain little from killing Terakalir. Unfortunately, Lya Jierre and her lieutenants arrived at just that moment intent upon capturing or at least killing Tinker.The two parties quickly fell upon each other while Terakalir slowly limped out of the line of fire. The constables quickly assaulted Merton and Rush, killing first Merton and then Rush in swift concentrated fire. Lya was more resilient, but in the end she couldn’t stand up to the combined might of all the constables and Tinker’s steam suit. Kirk struck the final blow on Lya with the pommel of his rapier, considering her too valuable as a prisoner to kill outright. The constables then allowed Terakalir to escape, and after Pemberton confirmed her escape from the island, he severed Tinker’s connection to the duplicant. Pemberton warned the constables that they had not heard the last of him before he severed his connection with his own duplicant.The constables quickly searched the factory for anything of value. They scooped up numerous schematics and notes as well as a strange silver orb from the room Pemberton had emerged from. Irony then cast Tenser’s Floating Disc to ferry Tinker’s steam suit. She then opened a gate directly back to Flint. The constables reasoned that the information and prisoners were too valuable to risk traveling with. Once everyone was through, Irony opened another gate to send herself and Doan back to their ship in Ber to report to the Bruse and return the prisoners to Seobriga.[gm]I had Pemberton emerge to give his ultimatum after all of Tera’s prostheses failed. I also had Lya show up then to give a final bout to the battle. I don’t think Lya’s counterswarm stance gave her enough of a defense boost in 4e to make much difference. The players surrounded her and didn’t seem to suffer any appreciable drawbacks for doing so. In true adventurer fashion, they took everything that wasn’t nailed down (and some stuff that was like the arcane eyeball). Since major cities in Zeitgeist have portal beacons, I’m sure the customs officers in Flint just adore the party for all the random prisoners they’ve tossed through over the campaign, and this time they brought through a giant mech suit.I’ll try to get together the stuff they did between adventures in the next post.[/gm]</blockquote>

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