Under the Ice

"Under the Ice" is episode 46 of SuperQuest Saga. The party takes the elevator underground and finds a chamber with three submarine pods programmed with coordinates to an underwater laboratory. There, they face recorded monologues from Dr. Zahn, doors they can't open, and security robots.

Introduction

 * Will Stark shall be your sub-nautical dungeon master for this evening.
 * Josh Freeland is playing Sebastian Crenshaw, half-orc paladin.
 * Your Special Guest Jake is playing Persephone Goldpetal, the firbolg druid
 * Echo, who is also Brian, is a wizard in space.

Recap
Last episode the party arrived on Shardlar, found a frozen lake, explored smoldering ruins, located a secret elevator, and got attacked by a giant vague walrus. They got into the elevator, pressed down, and are now descending deep under the smoldering ruins.

Percy Prepares a Feast and Forgets Victoria's Tragic Backstory
The elevator itself is a stark white, cylindrical structure with mirrors for walls. As they descend, Victoria looks at Sebastian and asks him what that was. Sebastian doesn’t know, something came over him and he focused and zoned in. He loved it whatever it was. She says it was low-key terrifying but agrees that it was awesome. Echo agrees on all fronts. Sebastian was hoping for this result from the little deal he made, and it looks like his plan is working.

The last attack has made Victoria think that Artax will be better suited for protecting the group if he is under direct command of either Echo, Persephone, or Sebastian during combat since they are the muscle of the group. Artax has the capability to continue a command after it is given and after that he will fall back on the basic protocols of protecting Victoria. Sebastian thinks he can handle that and Victoria commands Artax to grant Sebastian administrative powers. Echo thinks Artax is very cool.

The party descends for a couple minutes and the elevators come to a stop, its doors open automatically. They see a large room shaped like half of an oval with a similar white aesthetic as the elevator. The room is bordered by a large pool of water in which three pod-like vessels are floating. The pods are spherical, white, with a clear glass viewing shield and they can seat four medium sized creatures.

Echo asks if anyone wants to take a rest for a little while, he got absolutely blasted in the fight. Persephone and Sebastian agree that a rest would be good. Persephone has a spell she can cook up to enhance their rest. Victoria doesn’t think she can eat after witnessing the monster’s face melting in the fight. Persephone tries to convince her and asks what favorite thing her mom used to make. Victoria says not much since her mom died when she was young and they grew up in the slums, she probably won’t eat anything. Watt speaks up and he’s famished. Primina has been quiet and looks rather glum. Persephone offers to get her the most delicious ice cream she’s had in her whole life. Primina thinks that won’t be hard since she hasn’t had very good flavors so far. Percy asks Echo and Sebastian for their requests as well.

Persephone sits with her legs crossed on the floor in front of the elevator and starts meditating for ten minutes as she casts Heroes’ Feast. A huge feast appears on a large picnic blanket; salads, nice space vegetables, a bunch of big turkey legs, hunks of meat, ice cream, sherbert, stuffed shells, baked potatoes, t-bones, it’s all there. Victoria catches a whiff but decides she’s good, she’s not in the mood. Persephone thinks that’s fair since she witnessed a very grisly murder upstairs. Watt eats enthusiastically. Primina takes a few bites and she loves the rainbow sherbert. Victoria takes some time to repair the damage Artax took in the fight.

Another Secret Laboratory
In front of each pod there is a single panel that appears to be some sort of computer module, one assigned to each pod. There are six modules but only three pods, and it is obvious that there is space for three more pods that are not currently here. Sebastian walks up to the control panels and intuitively presses the right buttons to activate the pod. The glass on the pod retracts making an opening for them to enter. Sebastian says they’ll have to split up and asks who will ride with who. Victoria pilots a pod with Persephone, Primina, and Watt while Echo pilots the other with Artax and Sebastian.

Echo takes the lead, they submerge the pods and they find a wide tunnel reaching west and into the lake. The deep waters are dark, but the pods’ headlights reveal some distance ahead. As they pull through the tunnel a map system on the pod’s console begins to ping a location repeatedly. Echo sets a course towards the ping as they keep an eye out for things that look vaguely like walrus.

After about fifteen minutes they reach the location and on the bottom of the lake they see a series of underwater domes, similar to the ones on Manzecoor, clustered together. The digital map on the pod guides them towards the southwest most dome. Echo scans the area for danger as he follows the map. On the structure’s southern side seems to be an enormous metal docking portal; six concave, circular docking connections form a wall, three of them have pods and three are open. A prompt appears on their console screens: engage automatic docking process, yes or no. Echo announces he will dock up and Victoria follows suit. The pods align with the concavities and slowly plug themselves face-first into the structure. All goes dark, then there is the sound of a pressure release and the walls in front of the pod open along with the glass shielding on the pods.

From inside the pods they can see they are in a large rectangular room. It has a similar design theme; all white, acrylic plastic floors and walls that are smooth and clean, cold and harsh fluorescent lights, pipes and grooves of various sizes running along the walls and ceiling. Directly in front of them is an enormous metal door. Echo asks what’s up with this nearly comically large door.

Investigation Time
Echo looks for evidence that anyone was here recently as he gets out of the pod. The room is immaculately clean with no evidence of anyone. They check the other three pods one at a time. For the pod in Dock 1 they find nothing. No candy bar wrappers and the butt of the seats are cold. Echo turns on the activity log of the pod and discovers its last input date was over fifty years ago. Echo checks the logs for the pod in Dock 5 and its last use was a week ago. Persephone asks if that means someone is here now. Primina says Dr. Zahn did say he was waiting here for them, it’s possible he is still alive. Echo thinks maybe he wanted to take a scuba stroll around the lake. Primina suggests he went fishing, but doesn’t seem convinced. Echo suggests he summoned a vague walrus to attack them. When Echo goes to check the pod in Dock 6 he accidentally deletes the log before he can see the data.

Persephone suggests they stay on their guard. Echo is pretty sure someone is here. Persephone sees a control panel for the large door and asks if she should smack it. Echo suggests Primina should try. Primina puts her hand up to the scanner but it flashes red and nothing happens. Watt is not certain but he’s pretty sure they’re being watched and points out cameras in the corners of the room. Sebastian waves at them, and when he does so, a voice comes on over the intercom. They recognize it as Dr. Zahn’s voice.

''“It was some time before I became cognizant of it. The historical inconsistencies. The conveniently omitted pieces of the puzzle. The dissonance between action and intention, the directive and objective, the details and design. I was lost, as I always had been, in my... little ambitions. The true grandness of my delusions could be found in the absurdity laughable notion that my delusions ever were deemed grand at all. But for all my infinitesimal aspirations my greatest virtue was, to my grievous detriment, an insatiable curiosity. A curiosity that led me to defy the closest thing to a deity the galaxy has ever known. And in doing so I uncovered secret elven chronicles and pieced together the truth about the illithid conquest ended 90 millennia past. The blackened thing they found where the first world fell. The unvarnished horrid truth laid upon the few who returned. And I have connected a narrative through a line that contradicts the veritable fruits of our labors. For you see, Solastaren, first and last of his name, holy god of the eternal empire, is quite mad. For 80,000 years he has safeguarded knowledge forbidden from the eyes, ears, and minds of lesser men. Knowledge that corrupts, that infiltrates, that worms and crawls its way into the center of your mind and whispers and scratches. It opens you up to him; the crawling chaos, Nyarlathotep. He who serves unutterable one. Yes, the emperor is quite mad now, and I am afraid I am not far behind.”''

The door opens.

Victoria decides she’s done with secret laboratories. Persephone agrees, bad things happen every time they go in one. Beyond the door is a very long hallway and at the far end is another large sealed door identical to the one they just opened. Echo scans for cameras and spots them up and down the hall as well as three doors on the left hand wall. He points them out to the group. He checks out the doors, there is no obvious way to open them; they either open automatically, with a command word, or with a remote. Echo tries to speak Elven to open the door but it doesn’t respond. Sebastian tries to wedge the door open with a crowbar but his hand slips off the crowbar. Persephone steps up to help and together they pry it open enough for the mechanism to kick in and automatically open fully, revealing a small alcove with an inactive security droid inside.

Persephone asks if Watt or Sebastian can hack the droid. Watt does not think it is likely they will be able to take over its directives but they could try to deactivate it. That runs the risk of activating it and initiating a fight. Watt begins operating on the back of the robot’s neck with assistance from Sebastian but at some point some wires get crossed and its eyes light up and it says “Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert.” and immediately attacks them.

Can't Scare Me, Robot, I Ate My Fucking Wheaties
Echo pulls his gun from his pocket dimension and shoots the security bot with Ray of Frost and moves away. Sebastian critically strikes the robot, stabbing it through the chest and killing it. An alarm system goes off, the lights start flashing red, the other doors open and two more security bots come out. One bot moves up and fires a paralyzer beam at Persephone, Sebastian, and Watt, incapacitating Percy and Watt. Persephone manages to break free from the paralysis. The second bot rolls up with a blade protruding from its arm and stabs Persephone twice. Sebastian commands Artax to stand back and attack, and Artax fires four cannon shots at the bot that stabbed Percy, successfully hitting it once.

Echo shoots the stabbing robot with a Fire Bolt, damaging it a little bit, and moves behind Artax. The paralyzer bot hits Persephone and Sebastian again with a paralyzing beam, but they successfully avoid it. Sebastian critically strikes the stabbing bot and slices it in half, killing it. He moves up to the paralyzer bot but misses with his sword. Persephone casts Primal Savagery causing her nails to grow and drip acid, and she hits the paralyzer bot with her claws. Artax continues to fire upon the enemy, hitting with one of his four attacks.

Echo aims to hit the bot with Ray of Frost but misses. Sebastian slashes twice with his sword, missing both times. The paralyzer bot fires its beam again and paralyzes Sebastian. Persephone strikes with her claws, grabbing the robots chest and ripping it open, killing it.

The alarm sound stops but the lights continue to flash red. They hear Zahn’s voice over the intercom again.

''“Before the beginning there was naught but a cold deep dark. A mindless nuclear chaos bubbling and gnawing hungrily at the center of all, which was nothing. An amorphous blight of ultimate void that knew nothing but itself and thus slept for an eternity in its absolution. And in its slumber it dreamed. Dreams which bore boundless cosmos of colossal proportions. Dreams which bore unimaginable horrors. Nameless gods of the outer dark, daemon abominations, and twisted cities, umbral conceptions that would break the mind to behold. A dark court of ultimate gods who, for all their power, were merely the unwitting creations of that inconceivable lord of all things, and upon its rousing would be unmade and devoured so all was the void once again. And so it was the mad gods commenced their mindless, flopping dance amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes, lulling the Unnamable One into an ever deeper sleep. And as the sleep grew deeper so did the dreams. And those dreams bore things both grand and terrible, horrid and resplendent, animate and bereft. For in blind idiotic accordance of its absolution, the Deep Dark slept. And for unfathomable epochs all persisted until some unknown occurrence disturbed the dream, or maybe the dream was doomed to end in spite of all creation itself. But end it did. And with it came the unfathomable vengeance of the Inconceivable One. The incursion to end all worlds so that all again was nothing.”''

And the door opens.

The Party

 * Sebastian Crenshaw: A half-orc paladin. Low-key terrifying but also awesome.
 * Persephone Goldpetal: A firbolg druid. The best mom-friend, provides all the snacks.
 * Echo: An elf wizard/fighter/rogue. Is quite squishy.

NPCS

 * Victoria Nova: A female tiefling. Done with all this secret lab bullshit.
 * Artax: A robot. He tries so hard.
 * Watt Wainwright: An elderly gnome male. Paralyzed for the whole fight.
 * Primina: A young MacGuffin of mysterious origins. Also over Zahn's bullshit.

Music

 * SuperQuest Saga Theme - by Brian

Out of Character

 * Will has never played Bioshock.
 * Echo has New History and Politics as his skills.
 * During the vague walrus fight last episode, when Echo cast Thunder Step he did a swan dive into the vague walrus and vanished, making it look like he went through the monster.

Nat 20's (3 total)

 * Will (Initiative for paralyzer bot)
 * Freeland (Attack)
 * Freeland (Attack)

Nat 1's (1 total)

 * Brian (Use Computer)