The Delve Part 3

Session Summary

• We are seeking information about magic gemstones

Key Lore/Important Info

Loot

Encounters and Interactions

Orrery Room

• We emerge into a large space with a high domed ceiling
  • Constellations we don’t recognize
  • Huge clockwork orrery that models an alien solar system
  • Bookshelves filled with books mostly about astronomy/astrology
  • Levers that control the orrery
  • Unclear where the exit is
  • See on the far side, that one book has been pulled out and someone has been reading
• The book is open to a page that reads like a manifesto of a religion dedicated to the stars
  • Nicely bound
  • Cosimo decides to read the book
  • Title is about a God we don’t know the name of
  • Notice patterns in the book
    • Starts to feel like book is reading Cosimo
      • Starts to drain him
  • Slams the book shut
    • It hurts Cosimo
    • But he gains knowledge
      • Once per day can cast spells
        • Remove curse
        • Magic jar
    • We roll back Cosimo’s knowledge with the Orrery
• Merkin tries to play with the levers of the orrery
  • As he is doing this, we start to notice some effects
    • We heal and then suffer

Starting Room

Machine Room

• Room is dominated by a giant machine
  • Steam coming from it
  • Control panel with dials switches and levers
  • Someone is working the dials
  • Wearing a fancy red hat with a huge feather
  • Large red cloak (not a librarian cloak)
  • Rapier
• I introduce myself
  • Archibold Reginald Hammersmith III (Archy)
  • Gives us his card with his just his name
  • We ask directions
  • Points us towards a direction
  • He’s met Lorian’s parents
  • Merkin sleeps with Archy

Steam Powered Printing Press Room

• The steam powered machine from the other room is connected and it is connected to other rooms
  • Printing and dropping pages into collection boxes
  • No obvious way out of the room
  • We notice a pool of shadows that seep under the printing press slinking around the room
• Shadows are living ink

Fight with Living Ink

• I start the battle and hit the ink
• Merkin casts daggers
• Four ink monsters try to cover me but I resist
• Lorian sneak attacks the ink monster
• The ink monster has wrapped up Lorian and he’s blind and can’t breathe
• I splatter the shit out of the largest living ink
• We ultimately take them down
• A librarian walks in and is shocked by how much damage we’ve done

Return to the Previous Room

• Archy is there and provides advice to go back and then go back down
• Cosimo stays awake to watch
• We all have very disturbing dreams about ink
  • Drowning in ink
  • Inky dreams
• Cosimo talks with Archy about what he’s doing
  • The machine is either producing prophecy
  • Or cataloging all music
  • Or seeking the ultimate spell
• While chatting with Cosimo, three large skeletons come it to fight
  • Cosimo offers to fight the skeletons with Archie
  • The skeleton raises up to return attack
  • Archie then freezes the skeleton and then the skeletons bash their own heads in
    • Did this with his finger

Long Room

• Room Description
  • Looks like a chapel
  • Huge pillars
  • Rows of pews
  • Heavy tome on top of it
  • Designed for worship
  • Glass tubes have broken through the room carrying a pink mist
    • They don’t belong in the room, they seem invasive
  • Bookshelves line the room
• Tome
  • “Eternal Youth”
    • It would be hard to figure out how to do it
• We opt to go across

Doorway to Hell Room

• Similar to previous rooms with devils
• All of a sudden each remembers encountering this room only once
  • Pretty sure we’ve never been here before
• I suddenly forget that other people have feelings
• We return to the chapel

Room lined with glass jars

• Connected to the chapel
• Each jar has a human brain it
  • Labeled with names and where they were interred
  • Names of note
    • Cassian Armitage
      • Tells us that he knows Archie
      • Archie is not a human
  • We ask the brains where to find information on the gems
    • They consult and recommend taking the door on the left
  • We drop some liquid in the jar and it kills the brain

Map Gallery

• Room description
  • Framed maps all over the room
  • Some depict things that are familiar some are very foreign
  • A couple maps seem related to Amon Fell (the country we are in)
  • One depicts a clear route between The Crucible and the Queen’s Rest
  • We exit down

Back Alley Type Area

• Steam pipes passing through the walls
  • Huge valve at the far side
  • Lots of steam
  • We back up to the map gallery

Calculation Engine Room

• Grey librarian in there manning the machine
• Terminal
  • We ask information about gems
  • I put my name into the machine
    • It outputs “unknown input”
• We follow recommendations about how to find the books it recommends

Taxidermy Salon

• This is an area with books about gemstones, so getting closer
• This room is fully of taxidermy animals
  • Rats have been tending the room and building the taxidermy society
• Lorian chats with the rats and they tell us where to seek out books on gemstones

Glass Vat Room

• Cooper tubes connected to other areas
• Brass hatch on the side
• Oily smears inside the fish tank
• Something has nested in the room but nothing there currently
• Librarian cloaks part of the big nest

Library Room (Common Magical Gems)

• Center of the room, large lecture
  • Bolted to the floor
  • Each corner of a book is held down
  • Seems like a spell book
  • It’s a spell book that when you turn pages it does some damage

Rare Magical Gem Room

• Solidly closed and locked area for valuable and interesting things
  • There is a lock
  • Other objects
  • Lorian picks the lock
    • As the lock is tripped
      • A huge black ooze scrambles forwards
        • Looks very aggressive
  • The ooze is in a battle with a giant skeleton
  • I stand guard while they look for books
• Merkin finds a piece of paper of interest

Return to the Main Library

• We back track all the way up to the library seeing things we’ve seen in the past

Location and Travel Details