RPG Recap: Beyond the Temple of the Abyss, 2012-10
Still exploring the museum under the statue of Cosativa, the troop poked around the counter at the east end of the room, where they found an old green backpack. They catalogued its contents, argued a bit over who should take what, shuffled gear around, and then moved on to inspect the featureless black sphere floating over one of the display stands. Watching it, Red was transfixed and treated to a strange display proclaiming the broad scope of the now-defunct empire and the meaninglessness of his life. He kept it to himself.
In the middle of the room, the group found a detailed map of the museum, but when Red attempted to copy it down, it vanished, replaced by an admonition to buy one instead. No sales personnel could be found. Red declared that he would commit the three-dimensional rotating blueprint to memory, no matter the time cost. While he did so, the rest of the group huddled within the light of one torch and walked over to have a look at the brass doors at the north end of the chamber.
As they approached, the doors opened and out clomped three robots, each something like the centurion troopers, but larger and better armed. Everybody stood and stared — except for Red, who kept on concentrating on the map. The robots tried to issue orders, but couldn’t manage anything but an incomprehensible barking noise. While the group tried to figure out what to do, Rob-E circled around behind the bots, entered the room behind them, and vanished behind the closing doors.
At this, two of the well-armed bots stormed off toward the southwest. The group cleared out of the way, and was unmolsted. Unfortunately, the bots passed close enough to the remaining dormant ooze to wake it, and a free-for-all melee immediately ensued. The ooze flowed upright and attacked the robots, which fought back. Group Leader commanded his troopers to join the fight against the ooze, and several of the fleshy adventurers joined the fray.
Eventually, the ooze was reduced to a pool of fluid and the bots immediately continued on their way down the ramp to level two. The one that remained behind went back to barking and gesturing at the party, and Yuki remarked in irritation that clearly they were all on the same side, given what had just happened. It answered by firing a searing bolt at Yuki and setting his shield ablaze. The mercenaries sprang to Yuki’s defense, along with the troopers. Delian knocked the thing over and the rest of the group hacked and smashed at it until it ceased to move.
Meanwhile, Rob-E waited for the doors on the elevator to re-open. When they did, he found himself outside a long room with a few tables in it, most of them displaying complex metal objects ranging from cat- to rhino-sized. He threw a hunk of metal into the room, saw nothing happen, and commanded the elevator to take him back where he’d come from. He was worried that the robots might be come chase him down and find him alone.
Upstairs, everyone piled onto the elevator to go exploring — except for Red and two troopers who stayed to defend him while he continued to study the map. The elevator displayed a list of destinations to Rob-E:
- The Welcome Area
- The Map Room
- The Labyrinth
- The Halls of Victory and Defeat
- The Shrines
- Administration
- Maintenance
The group decided to head all the way down to maintenance and see what they could see.
They exited the elevator into a long empty room lined with shelves. At the far end, two small lights glowed on the wall: one red, one green. The group spread out through the room, looking for loot on the shelves. As soon as they’d split up, though, the far door opened and in floated a massive metal sphere set all around by egg-shaped crystals.
As it moved into the room, twiting beams of light into multi-colored blasts, the group took various strategies: Yuki called for the mercenaries to surround him while he fired crossbow bolts, Rob-E inched back into the elevator door, pondering flight, and Delian led the troopers in a charge on the thing.
Delian and the troopers proved more or less unable to harm the sphere at all, as did Yuki. Group Leader was possessed and turned against the party. Another centurion was slowed. Things looked bad.
Rob-E boarded the elevator and went to get Red. By the time he returned, Yuki was unconscious on the ground, nearly finished off by the sphere’s light beams. Centurion Delta’s metal body was set aflame and burned to a cinder. Red called for everyone to get into the elevator to flee, while the sphere continued to pick them off one by one. Delian, who continued to fight, was thrown across the room and vaporized by a beam of light. Rob-E circled far around the sphere to attack from the rear, but without effect. He fled back to the elevator along with the rest of the group, including Yuki, who was dragged along by Centurion Beta. While Yuki and Rob-E debated about their next port of call, the sphere fired another blast of light into the elevator, disintegrating him. The elevator, reflecting Rob-E’s last wishes, began to head for the Administration level. Yuki ordered Beta to have it take them, instead, to the entrance.
Back in the Welcome Area, the group decided they’d retrieve Centurion Alpha from his entangled position in the plinth and then head out. Eloise, Yuki, and Exeter climbed, one by one, up the narrow shaft. Exeter tied off a length of rope to Alpha and Yuki and Eloise gave it a few good yanks. The trooper was pulled free of the silver webbing and crashed down to the Welcome Area below, taking Exeter with him. Exeter lived, but became entangled in the webbing, had his left arm sliced off, and was knocked out. Centurion Gamma tried to free Alpha from the webbing, but he too was entangled and shortly ceased to function.
With the rope leading back to the exit now in a heap at the bottom of the shaft, Red decided that the best way to get out was to cast Floating Disc long-from his spell book. During the hour required, the group was interrupted by a stumbling, panicked man emerging from the darkness carrying a glowing stick. They ignored him and watched as he tried to climb the sheer sides of the shaft, desperate to escape.
Some minutes later, the elevator doors opened and the floating sphere emerged. Red continued his ritual, with only twenty minutes left in its performance, but Garth was having none of it: he shoved his way in, taking the rope from Red’s shoulder and casting it up to climb out, which he then did, followed by Red and Michael, who hauled Exeter’s unconscious body.
The unknown panicked man and the remaining centurions were left behind to whatever fate might befall them, and the rope was hauled back out of the shaft.
In Memoriam
R.I.P., Delian the Elf
R.I.P., Rob-E the Automaton
R.I.P., Western Spear Centurion Α
R.I.P., Western Spear Centurion Β
R.I.P., Western Spear Centurion Δ
R.I.P., That Weird Guy with the Glowing Rod
Missing in Action
Western Spear Centurion Group Leader
Western Spear Centurion Γ
Western Spear Centurion Ε
XP
Yuki = 137 + 701 = 838
Red = 0 + 733 = 733
Exeter = 0 + 637 = 637
Eloise = 0 + 669 = 669
Experience is awarded based on treasure successfully removed from the site, monsters defeated (or survived), locations visited, use of class skills, and exceptional ability scores.