Escape from Cantopia

After Baldur had recovered from his wounds, the party returned to the ruin of the pentagonal tower and finished their work, cleaning the debris from the staircase. After that they descended into a  pentagonal chamber about twice as large as the ground floor of the tower. The only feature of the room was sliding door of bronze mesh flanked by two statues of bald-headed men holding bronze tools in their hand. Interestingly, the statues did not resemble natural humans as the artist had carefully avoided any round surfaces and instead composed them of various triangular or polygonal faces, giving them a sharp and somewhat calculated appearance.

Beyond the sliding door there was a lift shaft and it was Hygelak’s successful Sculpture test helped by Baldur’s ancient knowledge that revealed that the heads of the statues could be turned by 90 degrees so that they faced each other and with metallic noises, an elevator platform rose from the darkness below.

Foresighted enough, the heroes realized that they didn’t have any light sources and so they returned to the surface were Baldur tested his Beginner’s Luck for Scavenging in order to find inflammable lamp oil in one of the surrounding buildings – and failed. The consequence was that Baldur actually did find a cask of lamp oil, yet the scent of the burning liquid would attract the attention of the vicious spider hybrids.

At the bottom of the elevator, the heroes discovered a huge subterraneam complex that appeared to be some kind of temple hallowed to mathematics and science. Unfortunately for them, the temple was also connected to the lair of the spider hybrids, and while Hygelak successfully tested his speed to copy a complex mathematical equation that was carved into the surface of the central altar using sheets of parchment from Baldur’s backpack and the grime-stained thigh bone they had fashioned into a torch in an Indy-Jonesish fashion, about one hundred of the eight-legged monstrosities crawled out of the loges that dotted the walls of the room on four stories.

The heroes appeared to be doomed as the monsters approached them but then, they realized that one of the abominations was indeed quite bit larger then its specimen and also appeared to ancient with its wrinkled, spotted face and its long silvery-white hair and beard. This elder spider began to speak, introducing itself as Zhagratax, Lord of Cantopia. Although Zhagratax didn’t have the PCs killed on sight, he was rather hostile and asked for a good reason why he should not feed the intruders to his underlings right now. Only when Baldur mentioned his quest for the Mystificator did Zhagratax raise his brows suspiciously and engage in a DoW with Hygelak (“You have illegally trespassed the borders of my realm. My underlings should eat you alive!” – “Listen to what we can offer, maybe we can strike a bargain that is more useful to you than dividing three human corpses among one hundred hungry spiders.”).

Hygelak used his Oratory as the main dueling skill while Zhagratax relied on his (not so good) interrogation and the bodies of argument started at 9 for Hygelak and 7 for his arachnid adversary. The duel took two exchanges and at the end, Hygelak could convince Zhagratax, that the heroes could be useful to his agenda, indeed. Zhagratax then stated that the heroes would not be eaten, at least not now, and had them instead imprisoned in the crypt below.

Down in the catacombs, the heroes found the final resting place of about thirty priests that had been buried in niches in the wall in three concentric circles around a central chamber with two stone sarcophagi with ornately sculpted lids that displayed a man and a woman lying on their backs. The statues had the same precisely calculated look as those at the upper exit of the lift shaft and when Hygelak inspected them closely, he realized that the amulet of the female lid figure actually showed the crest of his own family.

In order to lift the sarcophagi’s lids, Baldur tested his Beginner’s Luck for Scavenging again, successfully retrieving a steel elbow from one of the burial niches in circular corridors surrounding the central chamber. With a successful power test, Baldur removed the lids from the sarcophagi without breaking them or making noise, revealing two skeletons that had been buried with rich pieces of grave furniture, most notably jewelry worth five dice of cash on hand.

A few hours later, Zhagratax summoned the PCs for an audience and told them that the fabled Mystificator was guarded by a individual called the Puppeteer who resides in a great manor on another hilltop (Cantopia is built on three hills). Zhagratax asked the characters to kill the Puppeteer who was his nemesis and deliver his head to the subterranean church of science. He even gave them a spell-powered lighting thrower, a mighty weapon that would allow them to kill the mighty Puppeteer. Zhagratax also promised the characters that they may take the Mystificator for themselves.

Thus, the heroes left the subterranean cathedral and head to the Puppeteer’s manor on the opposing hilltop. There, they discovered a huge square structure with a perfectly round dome on top. The building only had a single entrance that was not locked, yet a mighty curse prevented the Puppeteer and his minions to leave just as well as it hindered Zhagratax’s spider hybrids to enter.

Inside there was a vase chamber with a circular collonade that supported the dome above. In the middle of the room, a bald-headed man was sitting on the floor, obviously meditating, who turned his headed in mechanical manner when the PCs entered. He then spoke to them with a metallic voice and it was obvious that this was no living creature but a masterfully crafted mechanical guardian. When the explorers told him that they wished to talk to the Puppeteer, the guardian stepped back a number of arcs descended into the perfectly smooth marbe floor to form a spiral staircase leading down.

The heroes descended the stairs and emerged in a chamber that was connected to a long corridor by an archway. The corridor was flanked on both sides by about one hundred alcoves in each of which another mechanical guardian was standing and staring at the newcomers motionlessly.

The heroes walked down the corridor and finally came to another big circular chamber in the center of which a gaunt old man with a bald head, clad in a brown loincloth was sitting on the floor. This man turned out to be the Puppeteer, one of the two legendary engineers of ancient Cantopia and lifetime rival of Zhagratax. He explained to the heroes that in the days of the Cataclysm, he had refused to enter the pact with the Devil Norimaar and had thus escaped the cruel fate that had befallen Zhagratax and his fellows.

He had, however, also refused to join the ranks of the invading archangel Thereniel and has thus been imprisoned by the Angelic warlord and cursed to spend an eternity in his manor in Cantopia. When asked about the Mystificator, the Puppeteer deliberately told the heroes that not this device was his greates achievement but what was hidden within it – for the Mystificator was a cryptologic device in the form of a copper column that composed of pivoted discs with numbers and letters and obscure symbols on them. Only if those discs were brought into the correct constellation and a lever was pulled would the Mystificator reveal the secret contained within. Pulling the lever with the discs in the wrong constellation would however, destroy the treasure that was stored in the column.

Fortunately for the PCs, the Puppeteer offered them right away to give them what was inside for it was of no use to him anymore. This treasure turned out to be the blue prints for the most advanced technical device the Puppeteer – and any mortal engineer – had ever developed: The Bronze Juggernaut, a gargantuan mechanical rhino powered by magical energy that would trample the ranks of enemy, raze fortifications with its massive head and burn its creator’s foes in a cone of flames from its mouth.

The Puppeteer had developed this ultimate weapon in long years but then he has never been able to actually construct it for Thereniel’s curse held him captive his own manor and the construction of the Bronze Juggernaut would require large amounts of bronze as well as a huge construction hall and a massive forge – so he gave the blueprints to Baldur in whom he saw a promising aspirant who might realize his grand plans and use the Juggernauts for noble ends, as they both shared an urgent need for independence from both Angels and Devils.

Yet the Puppeteer knew just as well as the heroes that Zhagratax would not simply let them walk out of Cantopia with the blueprints of the Bronze Juggernaut in their bags. So it was Kyrila who proposed that the Puppeteer should construct a flying vehicle with which they could take off from the manor’s domed roof and fly to safety. I really loved that idea and so I decided that this should not be a big challenge for the Puppeteer with his G7 Engineering skill – and it happened that two days later, the PCs managed to escape from Cantopia, flying over the ruined city’s roofs with gliders fashioned from wood and cloth like the flying devices envisioned by Leonardo DaVinci.

Zhagratax and his vile specimen could do nothing but hiss in fury and hatred at the humans that had tricked them and betrayed their alliance – yet for Hygelak, Baldur and Kyrila, the adventure has just begun.