Ghost in the Machine

"The Ghost in the Machine" is episode 7 of SuperQuest Saga. Mechs and Laser Swords are the newest concerns for Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian.

Introduction

 * Will will be your fickle dungeon master for this evening.
 * Josh Freeland is playing a half-orc paladin, Sebastian Crenshaw.
 * Jacob Quezada is playing the firbolg druid, Persephone Goldpetal.
 * Brian McDonald is playing Carter Huttenburg, human warlock.

Recap
Last we left the party was attacked by giant mech-warriors with laser beam swords in a long, narrow room.

Let's Get Started
One of the blade mechs charges in and takes two swipes with its laser sword at Sebastian, the first misses as Sebastian leans back and catches the second with his shield. Carter casts Hex on the closest blade mech, then snaps his fingers to cast Eldritch Blast, opening a tear in reality to fire a white bolt of energy that strikes the robot, pushing it back ten feet. Sebastian casts Bless on himself, Persephone, and Carter. Carter asks what Sebastian did to him, he is unnerved, but Persephone says she feels good. As they’re talking about it Sebastian feels his power flickering like he doesn’t have as strong a hold on it as he used to. Victoria turns and starts firing on the blade mech coming from the opposite side, but misses. Persephone casts Entangle and a bunch of vines start growing from the corner of the room to restrain the blade mech but its body is too strong and it starts cutting the vines away with its sword. She takes a couple steps forward and Wild Shapes into Toasty.

The blade mech slashes twice at Persephone, hitting her. The second blade mech continues moving towards them and fires a grenade from its chest that lands in the middle of the party. Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian manage to endure the shock wave that emanates from it but Victoria takes the brunt of the damage and is paralyzed. Carter jumps off of Victoria’s body and fires another Eldritch Blast dealing critical damage to the Hexed robot, destroying it. Sebastian moves between Victoria’s unmoving body and the oncoming mech. He pulls out his heavy-duty mini machine gun but isn’t ready for the recoil and ends up shooting up at the ceiling. Victoria manages to get herself up, her hair is frazzled by static electricity, and orders Sebastian to duck before she angrily fires upon the robot, hitting it in its face. Persephone as Toasty moves up in front of Sebastian, she digs her feet in and her throat bulges up as she blows fire on the robot. The blade mech twirls its sabers like fans to blow the flames away and takes only minimal damage.

The mech now takes two swings at Persephone as Toasty but the blows bounce off her thick lizard skin. Carter moves his Hex from the destroyed mech to the attacking one, the shadowy aura gliding across the floor to its new target. He fires an Eldritch Blast but the mech swipes his saber and hits the blast out of the way. Sebastian yells at Percy to get out of the way and tries again with his mini machine gun, critically striking the mech and blowing one of its arms off. Victoria holds up her necklace, mutters a prayer and casts Sacred Flame, which the mech dodges. Persephone recharges her fire breath, readjusts her footing and kills the mech with her fiery blue flames.

I Am the Loot King
Carter investigates the room to find an engineering key card, and he discovers them on two goblin bodies. Victoria confirms that they are the engineering key cards and points to the wording, she thinks they might need to learn how to read again. They were unable to understand the Common her crew was speaking without the translators so it seems like the language has changed.

The group returns to the elevator and they make their way to the engineering deck. As the elevator descends, the party notices they’re being pulled towards the wall and that feeling is growing more intense. Carter understands what’s happening and prepares to be on that side while avoiding his companions. The elevator starts to screech as the gravity shifts as they move to decks without gravity regulators turned on. As they stand on the right hand wall of the elevator, Carter complains there should be some sort of single main generator to solve this problem. They continue slowly grinding along but then gravity starts to right itself again, Victoria notes that it is interesting that gravity is functioning on this deck. It could mean nothing, but she is unsure. Persephone suggests it could be that this floor has miraculous gravity, but Victoria quickly dismisses that and advises everyone to be ready.

Entrapment
The doors open and there is a wide, empty lobby with very dim lighting. It is quiet, nothing seems to be going on. Carter turns his flashlight on. The lobby is shaped like the letter T and the elevator bank is at the bottom and they cannot see around the corners on the opposite side of the room. They cautiously move forward and Carter peeks around the left corner and notices a door, when he looks around he sees the other side is identical.

Carter goes to the door on the left side, he pushes the button and the door opens to reveal a long hallway with high ceilings and covered in red laser beams. Victoria says it looks like the security system is active on this floor and warns them that if anyone touches the red lights it will trigger the system be it just an alarm or an automated defense system with guns. She thinks it’s possible the aether-cores still have this floor running, Carter and Persephone wonder if someone arrived before them. Victoria’s bracer jack confirms that the A-Cores are up ahead. They check the other side and it is an identical room.

Victoria suggests that the computer to turn off the defense system may be on the other side of the lasers if someone is able to scout ahead. Carter is operating under the assumption that there is someone else here. He asks everyone if he should try to trip the alarm to see what happens and summons his Mage Hand. He asks if he should trip it and inches the Mage Hand closer to the lasers. Victoria and Sebastian exit the room and peek inside. Persephone smacks Carter’s actual hand, which causes the Mage Hand to bump into the laser. Gun turrets pop out and fire a concentrated blast directly upon the spot the Mage Hand tripped the beam for a few seconds.

Victoria and Persephone urge Carter to try to go through the lasers but he really does not want to. He searches around for either another way or something to help him through. He spies a small hallway that connects the two rooms that do not have any lasers. Sebastian noticed some of the elevator doors were damaged on their way in, and suggests they grab one or two of those to use as shielding to cross the room. Carter throws out the idea to use the Mage Hand as a distraction so the guns will concentrate fire on it rather than them, Victoria thinks it’s a clever idea but the system is capable of firing on more than one place at a time.

Sebastian and Persephone get one of the doors and between the two of them are able to use it as shielding. Carter points out the hallway as a safe place the two of them can pause for a break, and Persephone expresses disbelief that he won’t join them. Carter reluctantly agrees, but when he tries to squeeze in, the hallway is not wide enough for all three of them to fit. Persephone scowls at him as she and Sebastian ready themselves to push forward without him.

Sebastian, Persephone, and their door cross into the laser beams and immediately get fired upon, the force pushing them to their knees on the floor as they take a little damage. They manage to get up and press forward. Sebastian crumbles under the weight of the fire, slips out from under cover and takes some damage, but Persephone manages to maintain their grip on the door, and they make it to the safe hallway.

I See a Backwards 4
They spy a pedestal embedded in the wall with a panel on it that glows softly. Percy and Sebastian move forward to take a look and see that it is a touch screen with four buttons that are labeled. They yell back to Victoria that they can’t read the labels and she asks them to describe what they see. Persephone says she sees a backwards “4” and Victoria is confused.

Persephone clarifies that they’re looking at a panel and she was trying to describe the runes so Victoria can translate. Percy will shout out the description and Carter will try to transcribe so Victoria can read. Persephone describes a backwards “4,” an upside down “U,” a backwards “L” kind of with an extra line. Then imagine a  “Z” but don’t connect the two lines. Sebastian chimes in that it’s like a diagonal equals sign. And that is the first word on the top left of the panel. Victoria does not know what it is.

They try another one, the bottom right. Carter comments that seems like a weird order and Persephone calls back that they’re going by easiness to describe. Sebastian calls out an upside down “U,” an upside down and backwards “2.” Victoria looks at Carter’s drawing and thinks that may be the “ON” button.

Next is the top right button. Sebastian says it looks like the word “SPAT.” But the top left of the “T” is missing and the “A” doesn’t have a crossbar. Carter has an “S” a “P” “N” and an almost “F.” Victoria looks and says it reads “STOP” and suggests they hit it. Nothing happens.

Bottom left looks like the upside down “U” again, and Persephone asks Carter to imagine an “M” but the last line cuts off in the middle and diagonals in. And there’s two of those. Upside down “U,” “M”-thingy, “M”-thingy. Victoria does not know what it says.

Carter asks Victoria how many letters the word “OFF” has, and Victoria says it’d be three. He calls for Persephone and Sebastian to hit the last button they described, and the lasers turn off. The hallway is now clear. Sebastian asks if there is a dictionary or something they can learn from to make this kind of thing easier, Victoria says they can work on it when they get back to the ship. Carter is already making notes of the runes and trying to decipher them in his sketchbook. Sebastian casts Lay on Hands on himself to heal up and they’re ready to move forward.

Victoria marches towards the door at the end of the hallway and they go through. The next room is an enormous chamber. The left hand wall is lined with strange glass vats that are empty. Straight from the door is a wall that has an enormous vault door on its center but is otherwise covered in blank display monitors and computer apparatus. The floor is covered in bodies, some goblin and some not. The right wall has been blown open so it goes to the outside world and there is sunlight coming through.

The One Time It's Not Technology
Persephone looks at the dozen bodies and notes there are dwarves among the goblin. There is also a large rectangular vessel that looks like it crashed through the hole in the wall and into this room. Victoria points and remarks that this was probably a suicide mission. The Cyber Federation sent a ship to crash in here and blow the aether-cores and take down the dreadnought. Carter asks if they’ve heard of The Cyber Federation, Victoria states that they’re at the center of all the goblin conflicts and the closest allies to the Elven Empire.

Persephone goes to look out the hole and because of the gravity it looks like the outside world is on a sheer cliff. Carter asks if they need to be worried about bone mites, Victoria says they shouldn’t be an issue so high up. Persephone asks where the aether-core reading is and Victoria points behind the vault door. Carter looks around the bodies but doesn’t find anything of interest. Victoria looks at the vessel and thinks she might be able to get it running so they can get back home.

Persephone asks how the vault door works, Carter looks at her in disbelief, and Victoria points out the handle to spin. She tries the door but it doesn’t budge, Carter goes in to help but it still doesn’t move. Sebastian tries to get a running start to try to get some extra force behind it but misses. Victoria asks what is wrong with them and orders them out of the way, but she fails to open it. Carter suggests they all need to work together and tries to get them to huddle to do a team cheer. The four of them manage to spin the handle.

The door swings open gently revealing a dark, circular room. It looks similar to the A-Reactor on The Brunhilde. The domed ceiling above is blackened and crumbling, the floor is littered with scrap metal and debris. The pillar that should be at the center of the room is broken and lying on its side, dividing the room in half, but there are glowing white crystals embedded inside it.

Carter turns on his flashlight and scopes out the room. He sees goblinoid and dwarven bodies. Victoria moves towards the aether-cores and at the same time Carter spots movement from the back of the room. One of the large bodies begins to rise and he sees electric sparks coming off of it. He fires an Eldritch Blast at it. The blast lights up the room and they can see the hulking body. It looks like a troll they’re familiar with, but it has a robotic visor and it is decked out in cybernetic body armor. Out of its back are twelve 3 ft. poles that start charging and arcing lightning between each other. The troll’s movement begins to blur and double and it blinks out of existence and blinks on top of the pillar, looming over them. Victoria says it’s a cyber-troll, but it shouldn’t be alive. It looks like the cybernetics are the only thing keeping it going.

In Which Sebastian Yells at a Cyber-Troll
Sebastian pulls out the patch they found earlier and slaps it on; his heart starts pumping, the blood vessels in his eyes pop giving him a bloodshot look, and his veins start popping out. He’s amped up and yells as he starts running towards the cyber-troll, but his axe-swings miss. Persephone blows on the crystal of her staff and pulls a purplish green spark out and casts Faerie Fire, but the troll makes the save and nothing happens. She looks disappointed but Wild Shapes into Toasty. Victoria fires upon the troll, hitting it as it snarls. Cyber-troll swipes at Sebastian with its claws, dealing some damage, and then it teleports behind them to block the door. Carter casts Hex on the troll and casts Eldritch Blast but misses as he moves back.

Sebastian yells at the cyber-troll and chases it across the room, hitting it with a critical strike. Starting at his shoulder a blue glow travels down his arm and engulfs his axe as he adds a Divine Smite to the blow. The force of damage cracks the breastplate of the cyber-troll and green blood and oil spills out. His second attack misses. Persephone turns around to face the cyber-troll and bites it. Victoria fires upon it again but misses. The cyber-troll tries to attack Sebastian but misses. Carter tries to recall how much knowledge he has about trolls but doesn’t come up with much, and fires Eldritch Blast again, missing as he moves away from the troll again.

Sebastian takes two swings at the cyber-troll, missing the first but striking on the second. He notes that the cyber-troll is not reacting to damage the way a living creature would, there is something abnormal about it. Percy scoots back a little bit and her throat fills up with blue flame as she breathes fire on the troll, managing to singe it. Victoria tries to fire upon the troll again but misses. The cyber-troll tries to claw Sebastian but misses, recharges its teleport, and vanishes then reappears on the pillar, ten feet from Carter. Carter hits it with an Eldritch Blast and moves out of the way.

Sebastian yells “I told you not to run away from me!” and charges at the cyber-troll hitting twice with his axe. Persephone moves closer to the cyber-troll and prepares to bite if it gets close. Victoria tries and fails to shoot it again. The cyber-troll swipes at Sebastian, critically hitting him and knocking him back ten feet.

Sebastian falls to the ground, looking like he was downed by that attack, but due to his Relentless Endurance he wobbles back up to his feet. Persephone moves to stand protectively in front of Sebastian and prepare a bite if the cyber-troll gets close. Victoria holds up her symbol, mutters something about unity and staying together, and casts Cure Wounds to help Sebastian. Carter fires an Eldritch Blast but misses. The cyber-troll moves to hit Persephone and manages to strike her lizard form. Carter fires another Eldritch Blast and misses again.

Sebastian runs back up to the cyber-troll, missing with his first swing but hitting on the second. When the cyber-troll approached Percy to attack her, she bit it dealing some damage. She bites it again and rips out its throat, killing it. The cyber-troll’s body twitches, the rods in its back spark until they let off one final pulse wave, and then the body is still.

Let's Get the Fuck Out of Here
Sebastian runs up to rip the visor off its face, revealing part of a troll skull fused with wiring and mechanics. Carter takes the jawbone of the troll. Victoria limps over to the aether-cores and starts stuffing them in a bag saying she never wants to see this planet again. Sebastian approaches her to ask what to do about the patch since he is still amped up. She tells him to take the patch off, sit down, and drink some water, but he’ll be alright. Once Sebastian takes the patch off he feels exhausted. Persephone helps Victoria gather the cores. Carter is still operating under the impression that someone else may be here so he checks out the room. He’s looking for more signs of life, scoping the rafters, examining the room, but all is clear.

Victoria orders everyone to get into the crashed ship and slides into the driver’s side. Carter watches closely as she works on the wiring for about twenty minutes, and then the vehicle fires up. She flies the ship to where Dag and Dirk are waiting and picks them up. The ship flies safely over the field of bones. Carter drinks the goblin whiskey on the ride.

Victoria checks in with Watt who reports that The Brunhilde is in rough shape, but she will fly. The party can hear Watt telling Primina that her next lesson in ship mechanics will be installing aether-cores. Carter creepily asks Primina if she’s being treated alright and his question is met by awkward silence before she responds that she is fine.

Dag is still clutching his legs in pain and unable to walk. Persephone uses Cure Wounds again to help him out. He thanks her for the heals and she tells him she’s glad he’s not dead.

They make it back to The Brunhilde, the aether-cores get installed and they’re all set to go. Dag asks Victoria where they’re going, and she says “We’ll see.” She presses a button on the console and music comes on the speakers. It’s upbeat electronic music with a smooth jazz guitar and sorrowful vocals, it sounds like Humility by the Gorillaz. As they blast off she says “Let’s get the fuck off this rock.”

Carter finds a private area of the ship to commune with his patron using the jawbone. He’s in a new spot now so he wants to check with his patron to see if he’s still on the right path and doing the right things. In response Carter receives a maniacal feeling of joy tinged with fear and anger.

After a six hour journey The Brunhilde stops hyper-jumping and maneuvers into an asteroid field. Eventually a humongous asteroid comes into view and Victoria calls Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian over to watch. As The Brunhilde gets closer to the asteroid they see a sprawling metropolis; a disc of skyscrapers, highways, and lights, all protected by a blue forcefield. Victoria says “Welcome to the eight-part city of Viananaelius, or as everyone calls it, Outlaw’s Horizon.”

The Party

 * Sebastian Crenshaw: A half-orc paladin. An absolute monster in combat.
 * Persephone Goldpetal: A firbolg druid. Doesn't understand technology.
 * Carter Huttenburg: A human warlock. On the right path.

NPCS

 * Victoria: A tiefling woman. Captain of The Brunhilde and definitely in charge.
 * Dag: A male tiefling. Not dead yet.
 * Dirk: A male tiefling. Also not dead yet.
 * Watt: A male gnome. Teacher of ship mechanics
 * Primina: A young woman of mysterious origins. The MacGuffin

Music

 * SuperQuest Saga Theme - by Brian

Behind the Scenes

 * In the podcast version there is extra audio at the beginning with a scrapped intro where Will tried to introduce everyone. He would have been your "coy dungeon master for this evening."
 * This is the first and only episode where the all players introduce themselves with their full names.

Out of Character

 * They have a house rule that a Nat 20 on initiative automatically goes first.
 * Will had the words written out for the laser puzzle console and had Special Guest Jake and Freeland describe the letters to Brian, who would draw what they described then show Will.
 * The button in the laser room they didn't solve would have made all the lasers move. The "STOP" button stops them moving.
 * Will skipped Carter in round four of combat with the cyber-troll, so Carter takes two turns in round five.

Nat 20's (6 total)

 * Will (Initiative for blade mechs)
 * Brian (Eldritch Blast)
 * Will (Dexterity Save for blade mech)
 * Freeland (Mini Gun)
 * Freeland (Axe)
 * Will (Attack by cyber-troll)

Nat 1's (7 total)

 * Brian (Investigation)
 * Freeland (Strength)
 * Will (Strength for Victoria)
 * Brian (Eldritch Blast)
 * Will (Dexterity Save for cyber-troll)
 * Will (Gun for Victoria)
 * Brian (Eldritch Blast)