Written by: Antonio "Mistral" Laudati
Disclaimer, this is all from my understanding and recollection. I do not claim that everything in here is 100% accurate. If anyone has any corrections and/or additions to the information located in this article, please feel free to add them.
I arrived with Aelias, and Lesile at our Base Camp on the morning of Saturday the 14th of September. Once there we were brought up to speed on the events of the previous evening. There are a slew of tunnels running under Blackwood and Chimeron that that the Happy Mining Company wished to investigate however there were many golems and crab like creatures roaming them. Thus, they asked for assistance from a group of adventurers.
We learned from Dr. Lamia,I am not sure if I am recalling her name correctly…I am bad with names, that an ancient group for people called the Draconians once lived in something called “The Black City” (I think). Friday night a device of some sort had been found that could play recordings from sulfur (yellow) colored “data crystals”, each crystal containing a record left by those who had come before. Dr. Lamia had one of her assistance transcribe these recordings so that the information can be shared with all and to ensure that it is not lost in the case of the recording device being destroyed beyond repair.
Our first task was to locate the rest of Dr. Lamia’s team, which had gone missing. We began our search by exploring the same tunnels (caves) that they had. During our search for Dr. Lamia’s fellow researchers, and through a lot of are exploration of the tunnels, we encountered ruby and sapphire (red and blue) constructs. The Ruby constructs appeared to be resistant to magic, while the Sapphire constructs seemed to be susceptible to it (only in the limbs), however their bodies were significantly tougher than those of mortal men and their armor. Finally there were “Berserkers” that were bright red construction that generally charged us with exceptionally share bladed arms. Thankfully, these constructs were not particularly stable and collapsed upon taking any damage.
We finally found the researches in a laboratory/research area in which they were conducting experiments to learn more about what was happening in the area. Several of the researches were trapped behind a Stasis field, although I am unsure why or how that happened Aelias was able to utilize his magic in order to free most of the researches and the others were freed before the place collapsed, but I am getting ahead of myself.
After resting for a bit to recover our strengths, we felt rumblings like that of an earthquake. Only small rumblings at first, but then soon enough they became larger and larger until the entire area we had been in was caved in. Emerging from the cave was a giant worm-like creature, with a dozen or so segments. While we initially tried to just let the creature be, it quickly became clear that it saw us as food. Personally, I did not feel like feeding the wildlife.
As things think was huge, and at least as strong as a Giant (OOG it was swinging a fair amount of “boulder”) we all tried to stay at range and either hit it with lightning bolts or opt for hit and run tactics. Eventually this creature followed us all the way back to base camp.
Once we had more space I thought hat we were more equipped to deal with this thing, but it had another trick for use. As we damaged the segments of this creature, they broke apart and began attacking us on their own. While I don’t feel that they were are strong as they were connected, the shear mass of them made for a difficult fight, but in the end we mad it through.
The next place that we ended up exploring was a Laboratory of some sort. There were all sorts of experiments that appear to have been conducted and those tools were littered about the place. Of note, there were a couple of crystalized flowers, which appeared to be flowers that were petrified but instead of turning to stone, they turned into crystal. Once we learned what we could, we headed back to base camp.
Later that evening, we made for a library that Dr. Lamia had asked to gather books from. I believe that Dr. Lamia and her fellow researchers were forced to feel that library due to all of the constructs in the area. When we arrived in the library, there was another group already there, that were intent on destroying everything there. While we saved what we could, in the end the library was destroyed.
Through our journeys, we found more “Data” Crystals” which give us a bit of insight into what happened to “The Black City” may hundreds of years ago. Dr. Lamia had her interns take transcripts of those recordings, so the information can be share with any who are interested.
Sunday morning, we set towards clearing out the last of the constructs that inhabited the tunnels. On our way thought these particular tunnels, we were blocked by several stasis fields. In addition, the constructs that we were facing weren’t always “correct” some would have twisted legs and many were two Sapphire constructs fused together that grew arms when you separated them down the middle. There were also some crab like creatures that were attacking us. We discovered that the crab-like creatures didn’t want us, but rather the gems that were powering the statis fields. That worked for us, as nothing we had could crack them.
As we made our way past the Stasis field, we saw a lit forge. I am not sure if it was directly producing the constructs, they seemed intent on guarding it. Finally, we made it to the source of energy that was powering and revitalizing the constructs. We encountered a group of constructs seeming teathered a power source. Once a construct took enough damage however, it separated from the power source and generally went after the attacker. It took a lot of resources and everyone’s efforts, but in the end, we won the day.
At the end of it all, we found a map depicting the caverns under Blackwood, Chimeron and what we think is the location of “The Black City.” We also found another recording in which the speaker made a desperate plea not to let whatever they trapped in “The Black City” out.
I am sure that there are things that I missed and stuff I forgot, but this is my summary of what happened as we explored the caverns under Blackwood.
Mistral
Realms Adventurer