The Water Facility

"The Water Facility" is episode 12 of SuperQuest Saga. What happened to everyone that worked here...?

Introduction

 * Will Stark will be your compassionate 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.
 * Brian will be playing Carter Huttenburg the level 4 warlock.

Recap
Last we left off, the party had made their way through the sewers. They had to fight and kill the Jiankoto Scarab and they followed the plant life all the way to the municipal water plant. Standing at the end of the sewer tunnel on the edge of a huge water reservoir, they could see the plant life growing out of the lake and into the sewer lines. Persephone turned into her Mizu Fox form and swam across the lake to try to get one of the boats at the water plant dock, but she alerted the security guards who are now stalking towards her with glazed over eyes, looking like they are about to attack.

Vaporeon Used Water Gun!
Persephone dives under the water and out of their range, the water is dark and nasty. Carter and Sebastian see that Percy was spotted and the security guards are searching for her. Percy swims stealthily around to try to catch the guards unaware with a water gun attack and manages to hit one.

Carter casts Mage Hand and hands Vander a gun, and then takes a shot at the red dragonborn. He somehow manages to land a hit from the great distance. Primina follows his lead and takes a shot as well, but misses. The two dragonborn both use their breath attacks on Persephone, and she dodges some of the damage from the lines of fire and acid blown her way. Persephone aims for the black dragonborn and hits him with a water gun attack, launching him into the water. Sebastian grabs his blaster cannon and takes a shot, but misses. Vander takes some shots as well but they all go into the water.

Carter takes aim again, but misses. Primina misses her shot as well. The red dragonborn pulls out a pistol and starts shooting at Persephone, but misses. The black dragonborn swims back to shore. Persephone fires a water gun at the red dragonborn, but it misses. Sebastian tries, and fails, to shoot the dragonborn. Vander misses as well.

Carter and Primina both miss their shots. The black dragonborn rejoins the red one on the dock and they both fire on Persephone, hitting her. Persephone swims and jumps up onto the dock and Wild Shapes into a smaller version of the Jiankoto Scarab. She swipes twice with her blade arms at the black dragonborn, but she’s not used to the new form and misses. Sebastian takes a shot at the dragonborn, but misses again. Vander puts down the gun and sits down.

Carter casts Mage Hand and retrieves his gun from Vander and holsters it. He fires at the dock and manages to hit the black dragonborn. Primina aims at the black dragonborn as well, but misses. The red and black dragonborn holster their pistols and pull out laser batons to smack Persephone, both hitting her. Persephone uses her multiattack and swipes at the black dragonborn, but both attacks miss. Sebastian fires his big gun again, but again he misses.

Carter fires again but doesn’t hit. Primina also misses. The two dragonborn attack Percy with their batons again, one misses but one lands a critical hit. Persephone manages to hit the black dragonborn once with her serrated blade arm. The dragonborn drops to one knee, bleeding all over the dock, but he’s still up. As they’re fighting, she notices that the dragonborn are not making sounds as people usually do when fighting, their movements are all like that of an automaton. Sebastian finally makes contact with his gun and kills the black dragonborn; his head explodes as he is riddled with bullets, and his body falls dead on the dock.

Carter fires, but instead of hitting the remaining dragonborn he accidentally hits Persephone. He tries to blame Primina for the friendly fire. Primina quietly shoots, but misses. The red dragonborn hits Percy with his baton again. Persephone backs up a little, the red dragonborn taking the opportunity to hit her with an attack again, and uses her Poison Spine attack. She shoots a poison quill from her back and it hits him in the neck, he seizes up and is paralyzed for a moment. Sebastian lands a critical hit with his BFG and destroys the dragonborn.

Mind-Freaked
Persephone walks over to a boat, slices one of the ropes and pushes it towards her allies. Carter asks Primina if she has something to say to Percy, and Primina asks if she’s okay. Persephone gives Carter an annoyed look and shifts back into her firbolg form. Prim states that the scarab is the least cute of Percy’s Wild Shape forms.

They all hop into the boat and Carter manages to get the boat started. Persephone asks if they can take a short rest, and they sail out to the middle of the reservoir to rest safely. After the rest they dock on a bit of shoreline adjacent to the water treatment plant. There is only one doorway in and it appears to be closed; there is fencing on their right blocking off a parking area.

Percy tells them that she observed the dragonborn acting oddly during the fight, like they were hypnotized or something, and Carter examines the bodies. He finds two arbalest pistols, two laser batons, and a ring of keys with two key cards. Carter keeps one pistol and one baton and Persephone takes the other set. Carter is fairly certain these two were mind controlled. Persephone uses the key cards to open the door and they enter the municipal water plant.

The Municipal Water Plant Dungeon
The door opens to a long hallway with two office doors on both sides. The hallway is bisected by a large entrance lobby before it continues across the room. The party walks into the large lobby area first. On the right they see the main entrance and reception area. There are three tv monitors on the wall behind the reception area going through some sort of slide show with a voice over. To the left they see some stairs descending to a secondary level and at the far end of the building is a huge window that has a view directly into the lake, under the water.

Persephone excitedly runs over to the huge window, she can see that the view is of the interior reservoir and there is an enormous plant stalk growing directly in the center. She can see the room opens up to the right and left with pipes running along the floor and ceiling of the room. She sees a blue dragonborn with glazed over eyes approaching her, brandishing a laser baton.

More Security
Carter sees that Persephone looks distressed and moves forward to help; once he’s at the bottom of the stairs he can see the dragonborn approaching Percy. He fires an Eldritch Blast but misses, hitting the glass window instead. Persephone casts Thorn Whip but the dragonborn does a tactical roll to the side and dodges. She runs back towards the stairs away from him. The dragonborn starts pursuing and blows a breath of lightning at Carter and Persephone. Carter dodges some of the damage. Sebastian dashes forwards to get in the dragonborn’s face. Primina angles herself to take a shot at the dragonborn and draws first blood.

Carter snaps and casts Eldritch Blast again, hitting the dragonborn, and moves behind everyone. Persephone pulls out the arbalest pistol she picked up earlier and shoots it, but she isn’t familiar with how it works and misses. The dragonborn swings his baton at Sebastian but the blows glance off his armor. Sebastian raises his axe and says “Your ancestors will welcome you soon.” The axe imbeds into the dragonborn’s chest and he is on death’s door. Primina takes a shot, hits him in the forehead, and drops him.

Remove the Head or Destroy the Brain
Carter suggests being a little more careful going forward, and he looks out the window. They discuss how to kill the plant and Carter suggests cutting the plant from its source of water. They decide to gather more information to figure out how to best proceed and return to see the corporate slideshow in the reception area.

The slideshow has images of the water treatment plant and the voiceover talks about the history of the treatment plant and how many people it serves. The one interesting tidbit is about how the plant was built upon mines which were originally used to dig out ice. The water here is the original source water that is constantly being recycled. Carter looks for a directory, and they see there are eight rooms labeled with numbers on this floor and stairs that go down near where the pipes were.

Sebastian asks if Yuma provided Percy with any additional information about the Nymphae Collosus’ weaknesses. Persephone sends a quick text to Yuma and Dag. Yuma informs her that the Nymphae Collosus is an alpha flora of its ecosystem, it usually enslaves its entire territory; it has no natural predators. Yuma also thinks there is a problem and sends Percy a video of a news broadcast from Sableside; they see the forty Dreadstars fighting for their life as the population of Sableside riots. Yuma thinks the Nymphae Collosus is getting ready to bloom its spores, it will try to enslave the entire district within four hours. They have to find and destroy its core.

Carter starts texting anyone who might have data on cutting off the water supply. No one really knows, but Watt and Victoria ask about what is going on since they see the Sableside news. Carter calls Victoria to give an update; they’re at the water plant on the trail of the source of the riots. Persephone chimes in that it’s a psychic flower. Victoria doesn’t want to know if they’re breaking laws and tells them to be safe. She asks if they need anything from her, and Percy tells her not to eat the ice cream. Victoria asks if Primina is okay, and Prim confirms. Carter hangs up.

Just Like Silph Co.
Carter suggests they start checking out rooms, and using the key cards they are able to open some doors. The first room has a bunch of large computer screens monitoring the chemical composition and pressure levels of the reservoir. A red alert is flashing on all screens; there are leaks and the pressure is dropping, and there is a foreign chemical in the water that the filtration system is not catching. Carter believes the spores from the plant are contaminating the water. Persephone suggests they head downstairs since that is where the plant is coming from.

Carter sneaks to the stairs and peeks around the corner. The stairs descend to a dark room with a little bit of light filtering through another window into the reservoir. Persephone and Sebastian slowly follow. Carter casts Dancing Lights and creates the shape of a person who moonwalks down the stairs and into the room. Nothing attacks the lights and they can now see that it is an empty elevator lobby. They decide to go downstairs.

They find the room is pretty much empty except for a few waiting chairs; they can see more of the Nymphae Collosus stalk reaching down in the reservoir outside. The elevators appear to have no power. Carter checks for structural damage to the building but doesn’t notice anything. They look for stairs and, seeing none, decide to force the elevator doors open. When Sebastian pries the doors open, all they see is an empty elevator car with no power. The party decides to search the other rooms for a power source.

The next room they try is locked but they are able to open it with the card key. It is another monitoring room that is pretty much identical to the other one. They continue their search and find an unlocked room; this one seems to be a manager’s office. Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian enter and look around. Carter finds a picture of a lizardfolk woman in a bikini on the desk, and another photo of two lizardfolk children playing. The nameplate on the desk says “District Manager Duke Solus.”

Carter turns the computer on and tries a few passwords but none work. Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian all start checking the drawers. Carter finds a removable, secret compartment in one of the doors and finds a vial of glowing blue liquid. Persephone recognizes the liquid as something she heard about from Carter, who heard about it from Fred Luo. It is a magical drug called Hot Shot; it’s an addictive drug that makes the user feel euphoric and strong, and they cannot be frightened. Persephone thinks this would be a good item for Sebastian, but he’s already been using the Haste patches and she’s worried about addiction to more substances. Sebastian suggests this could help wean him off the patches, and Carter tosses the vial to him.

They head across the lobby to check out another room and discover a breakroom. They find a first aid kit with bandages and a medical syringe gun with three cartridges. Primina agrees to hold onto it. The room next to the breakroom is locked but they open it with the card key. It appears to be a maintenance room full of power tools, spare parts, light bulbs, etc. There are blueprints of the treatment plant on the center worktable. Sebastian inspects the plans and sees that the elevator downstairs actually drops really far into the asteroid, there seems to be an underbelly level under the reservoir where a warehouse and filtering system is. They need to get the power on to access the elevator. Sebastian takes the plans and Carter stocks up on batteries.

Sebastian Plays Grand Theft Auto
The next door is locked but the key card grands them access. It is a security camera room showing five different rooms and angles throughout the entire building. They find equipment that will allow them to look back at older footage. They pull the file from about three weeks ago, when people first started disappearing. Everyone seems to be working as normal, employees entering and exiting, everything normal. Carter wants to check the same hour every day for any abnormalities.

The next day everything seems to be functioning well enough. Every once in a while they see people start rubbing their foreheads like they have headaches. This behavior gets more exaggerated over the next couple days. By the fifth day people are starting to walk around in a daze but work is still getting done, but on the sixth day everyone is acting like a zombie. Then the next day everyone is gone.

The party checks out the next room and find a janitor’s closet with cleaning supplies. Carter takes a push broom. The last room is locked but the card key grants them access. Inside is a white room with three things that stand out immediately. They see the back wall is full of breakers and switches, the network system and electrical grid is in this room. This grid is behind a glass wall and door that has a lockdown system on it. Between the party and the glass door is a large robot, like Artax. Persephone says “Asimov!” but nothing happens, and the robot asks them to display appropriate ID to enter the area.

Persephone holds up the key cards and tries saying Asimov again. It looks with its robot eyes and grants them clearance. Persephone tells Carter and Sebastian that she knew the password would work on more than one robot. Carter suggests shutting the robot down and Sebastian is ready to try with his cybernetic training. Persephone is hesitant to mess with it since they were already granted clearance. From his cybernetic experience, Sebastian recognizes that it probably has some pretty secure fail-safes and will most likely attack if someone messes with it.

Carter tries to open the door to get in, and the key card does not open it. Carter politely asks the robot if it knows how to get back. The robot does not respond. Carter asks if it knows how to do anything else besides grant access. The robot does not respond. Primina pulls out her bracer jack and tells the party she’s been learning from Victoria so she wants to give it a shot. She pulls out a wire and plugs it into the interface but she is unable to bypass the security system. Carter asks her to walk him through it and she shows him how, but he also is unable to get in. Primina thinks they might have to force the door open.

Persephone looks at Sebastian and tells him he’s got this as she casts Guidance. He pulls out his crowbar and starts working to pry open the sliding door. At first he feels resistance like it won’t open, but then he hears a snap and wires start to come away from the interface. An alarm goes off and the security robot moves forward to attack.

The Party

 * Sebastian Crenshaw: A half-orc paladin. Definitely doesn't have a drug problem.
 * Persephone Goldpetal: A firbolg druid. Too busy skipping to check for enemies.
 * Carter Huttenburg: A human warlock. He doesn't drink sugar.

NPCS

 * Vander: A halfling man. A commoner still in search of his daughter.
 * Primina: A young woman of mysterious origins. The MacGuffin. She's been learning a thing or two.

Music

 * SuperQuest Saga Theme - by Brian

Out of Character

 * Carter does not drink sugar.
 * The zero calorie cola is called Asteroid Cola°.

Nat 20's (4 total)

 * Special Guest Jake (Dexterity Save)
 * Will (Baton Attack a Dragonborn Guard)
 * Freeland (BFG Attack)
 * Brian (Dexterity Save)

Nat 1's (3 total)

 * Brian (Arbalest Pistol Attack)
 * Brian (Arbalest Pistol Attack)
 * Brian (Eldritch Blast)