and More...

Name: Gorath

Gorath is an Uthuk. And a merciless one at that.

He started his life on the planet Mangonarr in the Outlands. The Dragon Empire had not colonized his planet and life was rather primitive. He lived in a tribe 200 members strong. He grew learning up Hunting and Farming, but his biggest training came in fighting and raiding. Their Uthuk tribe was a parasite on the region, sucking it's resources dry and then moving on. Neighboring people were always in terror when the Uthuks were nearby.

The Uthuks, and Gorath in particular, worship the dark goddess Yllan. She saved the tribe from death and starvation ages ago, and they repay her in blood. One of the core activities of Uthuk society is the bonding ritual. In this ritual, the spiritual leaders of the tribe, the Qi'noks, weaved tales of astounding beauty and grotesque horror as they described the thousand faces of their goddess. They channeled their energy into the people as everyone fell into an hallucinogenic blood orgy. 

Gorath was never the strongest. He was tall and very tough, though. His best quality was his presence. He had a the strength of a leader, and he could always stare down an opponent. But he was young. His future was unclear. Already, fighting and raiding was not fulfilling any more. As he was about to turn 18, his future seemed to be nothing more than raiding villages and dying in the process. He wanted something different. He was always intrigued by the Qi'Noks, but he had not received the gift of the "Qi'Bacc" from his goddess. Not yet...

Gorath turned 18. His 18th birthday marked the start of his ritual initiation. He was strung up by his arms and legs parallel to the ground, and his limbs were stretched to their limits. He endured this torture for 27 hours. Then, to finish the ceremony, the tribal chief walked up and thrust a knife into each shoulder. All who lived through this ceremony were welcomed into the tribe as a new person. Some died. Some lived. But this time was going to be different. Almost as soon as the knives pierced his flesh, a vision of Yllan appeared before him and yelled: "Unleash Yourself!" With a primal scream, flames burst suddenly from Gorath's body, engulfing him and the tribal chief as wounds appeared in the chief's shoulders and blood spewed from them. The fire burned the ropes away and Gorath fell to the ground, still on fire. The chief fell back on the ground and died quickly. Everyone was too stunned to help him. Gorath managed to put the flames out, as the people stood awestruck and confused. Nobody knew what had happened. Nobody but the Qi'Noks. 

It didn't take long for Gorath's wounds to heal, and then the Qi'Noks arrived to tell him of a new future. Gorath started learning the ways of magic. Under the tutelage of the elder Qi'noks, he was able to harness his magical abilities. Amazed at the power within him, he realized that this was the future that he wanted. Gorath was never able to determine what had happened at his initiation, but he suspected that the other Qi'Noks knew and weren't telling him. After years of training, he was admitted into the ranks of the priestly class. The goal of the Qi'Noks is to see all of the faces of Yllan. Once Gorath became a Qi'nok, his lifelong goal was to witness all of them and finally "Touch" the goddess himself! Life, though, added a little twist. Two nights after he became a Qi'nok, he witnessed a very telling omen. Raving and drooling outside at the dead of night, high on I'tala root, a blood red moon shone down on him. He knew what this meant: Death and Change were coming. He had never seen this omen before, but by the next day, it had already come to pass.

Giant metallic beasts, the likes of which no one had ever seen, came out of the sun. The tribe scattered but was completely captured by the slavers. Nobody had a chance of escaping as long as the slavers had "Technology". Gorath later learned that this was the first wave of the Dragon Empire's colonization efforts of his planet. The tribe was thrown into large barred cells, twenty people to a cell. They were all sanitized and branded. They were taken to a slaving center in the largest starport on the other side of their planet. They didn't even know the city existed. Here they were indoctrinated and learned their place in the galaxy.

The Uthuks were not about to be slaves, though. One fateful night, the Uthuks, chewing away on their I'tala root, started raging and broke free of their cells. They fought hand to hand with their captors. It looked like "Technology" was going to turn the tide, but finally the Uthuks defeated them, and slipped into the night. Most of the tribe died that night, remembered by Gorath as "The Night of Thinning". The rest scattered throughout the city, learning what they could about this new "Technology". Some tried to go back to their tribal lands and were captured again. Gorath wouldn't think of going back. He had tasted this new "Technology" drug and wasn't letting go. He learned that they lived on a planet and that there were thousands of others, each with their own uniqueness. Gorath had an Epiphany: "A thousand worlds for a thousand faces! I have found the path! I WILL reach You, Yllan! You will be my Blood Mistress, and I will become your Master!!!!!!"

Gorath left his home planet, never to return. Needing money to travel, he took to doing what he knew best: Raiding, but now as a Mercenary. Sometimes, he would be an assassin, sometimes a tracker. But always, a killer. Before he kills, though, he always tells his victim: "Your blood is my Apotheosis!" As he travels from planet to planet, he visualizes the unique character of the world, performs a bonding ritual, and finds himself one step closer to Immortality.

---

Gorath must find a way to hide his alignment or he can have an amulet or ring of undetectable alignment. No one will trust you anyway... your an Uthuk. We will work on that.

How did Gorath get to Thonia? 
Can Gorath cast teleport? If not a powerful Mage teleported him to the planet. This Mage was never met in person but Gorath was paid 50,000 talons, credits, to capture G'Banrak. Gorath may get the sense that the Mage was a Dragon Duke. Gorath knows that G'Banrak is a vital key in acquiring some information about the Gates. Contrary to popular belief, not all citizens of Thonia know anything about the Gates. Gorath knows only that the gates exist. G'Banrak will definitely not leave willingly and may need to be subdued. Gorath was told that some menace is attacking the planet Thonia.

How did he get to the Tower of Glass?
Gorath arrived in a small cave north of the Tower of Glass. Gorath knows that the tower is some sort of power center and was told to enter the tower area via tunnels. On the way to find a tunnel entrance in the northern mountains, Gorath may Spot thousands of zombies gathering near the edges of the force field. The zombies appear to be coming from the West. Gorath wasn't interested in zombies although he knows Zombie Corp may be. Gorath knows that Zombie slave labor is a huge commodity especially for some worlds with hostile environments. 

Gorath crawled for days on his belly, going progressively deeper underground; until he found some sort of shaft protected by a force field. Gorath noticed a change in the fields timing and managed to climb past the field at a moment of failure. Gorath climbed for hours until he came upon a n air ventilation unit. Gorath attempted to bypass the unit but managed to stop it. Multiple droids were alerted. By the time Gorath exited the shaft, dozens of buff droids surrounded him, most of the droids were heavily armed.

One platinum droid was quite cordial and invited him in for refreshments. Gorath was asked to relinquish his weapons and must make a Hide Check or reverse pick pocket Check for each weapon he attempts to hide. Gorath noticed that his magic gloves were faulty or failing (he might have been able to hide a weapon or two) roll against a chance of spell failure to determine each item that may be hidden. If it fails, the weapons are relinquished to the droids.

Gorath had never seen such workmanship that the droids possessed. They were quite fancy and armed. Obviously nothing he had ever seen before. A knowledge robotics would give more info.

Gorath was then placed in a room alone for 2 days. He is fed well and he has access to some computer terminals to query.... If he has a reasonable use device he can ask the AI questions. The AI will be quite reasonable but most of its answers will be vague or almost unrealistic.

He can also try a listen check to hear a noisy group of humanoids gathering in a nearby room. If he hears them he realizes they are about 2 rooms away and he hears them through the ventilation shafts. Of course Gorath has been relatively quiet since he hasn't had anyone to communicate with.

Gorath may have ideas about entering the ventilation system. Gorath believes he is in a lower level of the tower of glass. Gorath also gets a sense (magically wizard eye, clairvoyance, ESP ... something) that his stuff is stored on the next level above.

Player: JC

Name: Milo Fasthand

Environment
Around 450 halflings live in the shire where Milo Fasthand grew up. Milo Fasthand's feels comfortable with shipboard life and any island small enough that the dominant terrain feature is the sea that surrounds it. Milo Fasthand grew up with cold winters, but warm summers.

Family
Both of Milo Fasthand's parents are alive and healthy. Milo Fasthand has 3 older siblings and 3 younger siblings. Three of Milo's grandparents are living (his mother's mother died of an illness a few years back). Milo Fasthand has 2d12 living relatives.

Milo Fasthand's family is poor. Although they have never had to beg for food and shelter, they own little property other than their gunsmith shop and their income barely covers basic needs. Milo Fasthand's family holds to the letter of contracts and agreements. Milo Fasthand's family supports the current political structure and rulers. The male members control Milo Fasthand's family. Milo Fasthand's family’s ethical reputation matches their private ethics. Milo Fasthand's family has worshiped a patron deity (Yondalla) for years, but may not observe religious commitments consistently. In general, Milo Fasthand's family is upstanding, but one or more members of family are known to be disreputable. Milo Fasthand's father is an expert gunsmith (and the best marksman in the shire).

Milo Fasthand's great-grandfather was an artisan of unmatched skill who left a legacy of excellence that is still used as a standard gauge of quality. Milo Fasthand's family frequently use and improve their shooting skills and could be prepared for combat with a few days of last-minute preparation.

Education
Milo Fasthand learned basic wilderness survival skills. Milo Fasthand learned a craft -- gun-smithing. A top-notch instructor, Milo's father, taught Milo Fasthand more advanced small firearms techniques.

Major Events
Milo Fasthand took a two-way trip with his oldest brother on a new caravan route to a trade fair in the capital of his homeworld to learn about trade, caravans, firearms, and the world.

Milo Fasthand edged someone out in some affair of the heart, and they hold a grudge. Unfortunately, Milo is now leaving town and in his absence his rival may succeed in winning the favor of their common desire. Or will she wait for Milo to return?

Friends
Milo Fasthand doesn’t make friends easily, but Milo Fasthand is a good friend to those he has. Milo Fasthand has a few close friends.

Player: Mike

Name:  Gordon

Centuries ago the Church of Malaki, called a Cult by some, prophesized the
coming of the Karuk Nactoral. It wasn't soon afterwards that the Dragon
Empire came to the planet of Alak, the home of the Church. Remaining within
the shadows, the Cult began to gather the technology the Dragon Empire
brought with it for their own sinister ends.

The day of prophecy had come. The Karuk Nactoral was finally to be born.
Strenuous genetic engineering had finally found the key to unlocking the
being that would allow the Church of Malaki to rise to prominence, the key
to perhaps even overthrowing the Dragon Empire and claiming galactic
domination for themselves.

The child was named Gordon Veyers, in honor of the two scientists who had
'created' him, Dr. Karik Gordon and Dr. Jim Veyers. Gordon was given the
best of everything as a child. He was trained in multiple weapons, trained
in stealth and deception. And he proved to be everything the Church had
hoped for. Incredibly fast, enhanced healing capabilities, and even
extrordinary innate combat abilities. He was everything the Church had hoped
for except for one thing.

He found the philosophical standards of the Church evil and vile. He
rejected their teachings and scorned their rituals. It was not long before
the Church came to the descision that he could not be the Karuk Nactoral
that had been prophesized. Even worse, with him to stimulate research, it
was possible other factions could duplicate the powers he possessed.

The order for execution was easyily obtained.

When the guards came for Gordon, he knew what they were coming from. He had
long suspected that he could not live with the Church long. Springing into
action, Gordon killed the guards who had come for him.

Taking their weapons he quickly moved through the underground compound that
housed the main branch of the Church. Following a route he had memorized
earlier, Gordon gunned down his 'creators' and then activated another one of
their projects, this one a gateway.

Knowing they had not yet found a way to stabilize the gate, Gordon jumped
through anyway. Time stopped and he felt his blood boil and his bones burst
from cold. And then he was through.

The gate had brought him to some strange, unknown planet. There was no way
to tell where, but then again, there was no way for the Church to follow
him. He was safe, for now.

Player: David

Name: Orendil

Climate
Whether it’s a tangled jungle or sparser pines, trees are the dominant feature of the landscape, that makes Orendil feel at home. Orendil welcomes the cold all year long, although where he comes from seasons are still discernible. The length of day and night changes greatly from season to season.

Education
Orendil learned basic wilderness survival skills. Orendil has advanced studies in a formal church setting. Includes training as an acolyte or special functionary for religious practice. Orendil studied biology and geology.

Events
Orendil had an earthshaking brush with greatness, such as meeting a king or being contacted directly by a god. Orendil found a unique aptitude or talent such as extremely keen vision or a knack for ventriloquism. Orendil's home community is faced with a new faith recently created, a schism tears an existing faith apart, or a prophecy is announced.

Family
Sometimes Orendil's family had to beg for food and shelter. They own no property and income barely covers basic needs. The female members control Orendil's family. Orendil's family maintains a low level of readiness including a few weapons and an occasional discussion of how to defend against raiders or low-level monsters. Orendil's family is known for involvement in the community and acting to help others. Orendil's family’s ethical reputation matches their private ethics. Orendil's family has no specific political stance. Orendil's family is deeply committed to a patron deity (you choose which one). Orendil's family is known as stalwart companions. Orendil's family are like most laborers and servants. Orendil's family has no ancestors of note.

Relationships
Both of Orendil's parents are alive and healthy. Orendil is an only child Orendil's father’s parents are deceased. Orendil has other relatives out there somewhere, but doesn’t know who or how many. Orendil doesn’t make friends easily, but Orendil is a good friend to those he has. Orendil has a few close friends. A particularly good instructor taught Orendil the basic skills (choose alive or dead, note NPC details) Orendil has no known enemies, yet.

I was born into a poor elven family in a forest settlement in the northern regions of (insert location). I grew up amongst the evergreens and snow, learning how to hunt and trap from my father. My mother's grandparents taught me to follow the ways of (insert appropriate nature deity for setting). Although religion held little interest for me, I did my duty, learning my prayers and my parables. My parents, though respected members of the community, never achieved nor cared particularly for material wealth. It was during a foraging trip that an event occurred which brought change into my life. It was an extremely cold day, and the snow was coming down in large and numerous flakes. I was ready to turn back towards the settlement, but I saw something about 100 meters away in the snow. What it was, I didn't know, but it appeared to be glowing with a bluish-white light. As I approached, the glow diminished, but I saw what appeared to be an animal in the snow. It was a doe, and upon inspection it was clearly sick or internally injured. Killing doe was not allowed at that time of year. Not knowing how I could help, touched the doe's coat and said a quick prayer that my grandmother had taught me. As I turned to walk away, I felt warmth behind me. Turning around, the doe was gone. I confided in my grandmother the story. She insisted that I had the "Gift of (insert deity)".

Player: Ryan

Name: Alahandra Windchacer

Climate
Highlands, cliff dwellings, and any other rugged terrain makes Alahandra Windchacer feel at home. Alahandra Windchacer grew up with cold winters, but warm summers.

Education
Alahandra Windchacer learned basic wilderness survival skills. Alahandra Windchacer spent time seeking animal skins or meat in the wilderness. Alahandra Windchacer studied "defenses against the dark arts" and learned ways to fight monsters and battle the influence of black magic.

Events
Evil men came and took her from her family when she was a child. She attempted to aid in the defense of the community against the raiders but was forcibly taken prisoner and was used in one of the  bio wizard weapons. The last she saw of her village was her parents murdered in front of her. She does not know if anyone made it out alive.

Family
For some reason, Alahandra Windchacer's family's economic status was difficult to measure. Perhaps Alahandra Windchacer lived a solitary life on the frontier as a trapper or scout, living entirely off the land. The oldest members control Alahandra Windchacer's family. Alahandra Windchacer's family relies on magical protection. Alahandra Windchacer's family is known for involvement in the community and acting to help others. Alahandra Windchacer's family's ethical reputation matches their private ethics. Alahandra Windchacer's family has no specific political stance. Alahandra Windchacer's family is deeply committed to a patron deity (you choose which one). In general, Alahandra Windchacer's family is upstanding, but one or more members of family are known to be disreputable. Alahandra Windchacer's family is considered the "upper crust" of the home community. Alahandra Windchacer's family produced a wizard or sorcerer of some repute.

Relationships
Both of Alahandra Windchacer's parents are deceased, murdered at the hands of the collectors. She has an identical twin who was strangely absent the day of the attack. Alahandra Windchacer remembers her grandparents, but they have passed away. Alahandra Windchacer has few living relatives that she knows of. Alahandra Windchacer's significant friend is dead or captured. Master Willowtree taught her the basic skills of fairy magic, and a little sneaking about on the side. One or more local villains have chosen to direct their hatred toward Alahandra Windchacer, perhaps because of some minor adventure Alahandra Windchacer completed.

Player: Mandy

Name: G'Banrak

NPC Sorceress Aasimar

Name: MBK-808

Robotoid Sphere

Player: Keith

Name: Amio

NPC Drow ISPD Agent

Adventure 31

Waiting in the Tower of Glass

That night after everyone is asleep and the lights are dimmed, a loud crash rings out! As Milo, Amio, Gordon, Alahandra, G'Banrak and Orendil investigate, they see a large humanoid crawling head first out of the ventilation shaft. He calls out "Can I get a little help here? I might be stuck!" Everyone looks at each other quizzically, and Gordon decides to try and lend a hand. He helps the man down, and in the dim lights the party sees a seven foot tall man with bull- like horns coming out of his head and tattoos all over his body. Even with these grotesque features, though, he is quite handsome! Gordon introduces himself, and Milo asks the man who he is and what he is doing here. The man is Gorath and he is a scout for a salvage company. He got a tip about a large cache of ships and he came to check it out. Then he was captured two weeks ago. After hearing the party through the ventilation shaft, he spent the past week trying to get into this room. The rest of them introduce themselves, and Gorath winks and smiles at G'Banrak. Most of them go back to bed, except for Milo, Orendil and Gorath.

Gorath checks out the room and heads to the elevator. Milo asks him if he knows how to get the elevator to work. Gorath says he's real good at making things work and punches the keypad while commanding it to "Work". After a few minutes of this, Amio yells at them to shut up. Jhelai and Super-Commie are dead asleep. Finally Alahandra flies over and asks about the ventilation shaft. Gorath said there was no way out of the room that he came from, but Alahandra tried to fly through the shaft, until it branched off too many ways. She came back and they told her to try and pick the lock. Amio, tired of trying to sleep with all the ruckus, came on over. Finally, Alahandra picks the lock and the doors open. G'Banrak and Gordon come over when they hear the cheering and everyone piles in the elevator. Everyone except Jhelai and Super-Commie.

Milo manages to get the elevator moving and they end up on another floor similar to the one they just came from. After searching around for a few minutes, Milo barely notices the seams of a door right by him. He and Alahandra try to pick the lock for a while, but get nowhere. Orendil, frustrated, rams the door. Then Gordon and Gorath join him. After many hits, Orendil dents the door and gears start grinding. Then the door opens up into a lounge with a few tables, a pool of water, and two cleaning droids.

The party starts looking around. Orendil, feeling destructive, knocks a "vase" off of a table and breaks it. One of the cleaning droids comes over and cleans it up as fast as it can, whirring happily. Orendil liked it so he proceeded to happily knock all of the vases off of the tables. The party quickly found that there was no way out of the room except for a locked door. Alahandra started trying to pick the lock, as everyone else went to sit at the tables. After 20 minutes, a blaster shot rang out from over the door, aiming where a humanoid would have been standing if it were trying to pick the lock. It nearly missed Alahandra. The door didn't open, so she kept trying. After a couple more shots, the door opened. Excited, she went in the room just to find a laser beam trap almost slice her up. With the door open, everybody came over, making sure not to get in the way of the blaster. Milo slipped in and used his "Plot Device" mirror to disarm the laser traps. Then Alahandra successfully placed her bazooka-like gum over the blaster emitter, rendering it puttied and disabled.

The new room they are in has an elevator shaft and shelves fifty feet high filled with boxes. Alahandra flies in and Milo and Gorath walk in. As soon as they step on the floor, it opens up to a 30 foot pit. Milo jumps to the shelf ledge, but Gorath falls in. Everyone else just watches. Gorath tries to use his ring of jumping, but it doesn't work, so Gordon throws down some grippers. Milo and Alahandra start looking through boxes. Alahandra finds her gun in one little box. As Milo is looking through another, he accidentally knocks one off of the shelf. It falls a long way and when it hits a small robotic beholder comes out and start flying back up. Gorath starts climbing back up the walls. The robot flies up to Milo and says "I am MBK808. How can I be of service to you." Milo starts to introduce himself and the robot flies away to Gorath and shoots a ray at him. Gorath, surprised, actually gets healed. MBK says that he came here to turn off the protection field but was captured. He starts showing everyone where their equipment is and the party decides to help him shut the field off.

AS they finish up getting all of their stuff, the elevator activates and two robots come out, one behind the other. One of the robots fires off a net weapon and hits half the party. Gordon then pulls out his machine gun and peppers it full of holes until it breaks apart. The next robot tries to fire a cold weapon but it mainly hits the robot in front. Milo shoots it with a blaster and it crumbles to the floor in pieces. The cleaning robot quickly comes by and cleans up as much mess as it can. Milo pushes the robot hulk out of the elevator and everyone piles in. We tell MBK to take us to the shield generators. MBK says that the elevators need an electric charge to work, so he gets in there and shocks the button and the elevator moves to the next floor. Almost as soon as they are there, they can feel a huge surge of energy, and Alahandra and Orendil start feeling a bit ill. They move out of the elevator and they can feel the energy subside. MBK says this is where the shield generators are. The party asks him how to turn them off and he says there is a control room one level up.

So they go up and they come into a semicircular room, where the circular wall is a 50 foot tall window looking onto giant cylinders. The other half of the room has a whole bunch of controls. Milo excitedly goes over to the controls that are on a platform and starts to play with them. Everyone else is running around looking out the window or at the other controls. Milo goes "AHA!" and presses some buttons. Suddenly the lights dim, and red emergency lights come on. A bunch of silent alarms go off on the console by Milo. "I think I got it," Milo says. Then MBK comes over and says "Let me try." A purple ray shoots from his large eye and immediately disintegrates the entire console, with Milo just getting out of the way! Then Gordon joins the party and unleashes his acidic light Machinegun on the rest of the controls. Loud klaxons sound as the party decides it is time to get out, but the elevator doors won't open. No Power. MBK comes over and disintegrates a hole in the tube. Looking down, the party realizes they are at least 1000 feet up in the air, and there are no ladders going down.

Meanwhile... Super-Commie and Jhelai wake up and find no one else around. The lights are dim and the alarms are going off. They can't get into the elevators, and they can't figure out where everyone went! Scared they get down on their knees and start praying to their gods. Not sure what is going to happen, they weap for their meager future.

The party decides to tie all of their ropes together and climb down the rope. But they only have about 400 feet of rope. MBK flies down to near the end of the rope and blows a hole in the elevator door. The party starts climbing down. When everyone is down the rope, they realize they can't get the grappling hook loose. MBK goes up and blasts through the rope at the hook and then dislodges the hook, but he can't hold it, so it falls. Milo catches the rope, but the hook flies right by him. Once they look around they realize they are in a Hangar and there are two ships that can hold 4 people each in it. Almost as soon as Orendil and Milo start looking for a way into the ships, the wall behind the elevator explodes, damaging Gordon and almost getting Amio. Coming through the giant hole in the wall are a giant treaded robot and three little walking robots. They immediately start shooting at Amio and Gordon.

Orendil finds a way into his ship, and Gorath and G'Banrak follow closely. Milo is still trying to get in his ship. MBK goes over to the outside hangar door and starts disintegrating 10x10 foot sections of the door in front of Orendil's ship. The big robot tries to blast Gordon away, but he absorbs most of it. Amio is taking some damage from the two smaller ones. Gordon tries to hit it with his acid machinegun, but the acid magic fails and the bullets bounce off of a field in front of the robot. G'Banrak tries to cast a spell but it doesn't work. Milo gets in his ship, but just as he does a plasma grenade goes off right by Amio and showers the back of his ship in flames. Amio just gets out of the way. Gorath gets away from the closing robot and goes over by MBK. He tries to cast a spell but it fails. Gordon then pulls out his screamer rifle and destroys the large robot. Amio manages to kill one of the smaller robots.

Orendil gets his ship going but is obviously not piloting it right. G'banrak jumps off the ship and goes over by Gorath. Milo tries to use his rod of Flame-Extinguishment, but it doesn't work. Gordon kills the other small robot and activates his wings of flying. MBK-808 opened a hole about 15x20 feet, and Orendil is going to go for it, but he accidently hits reverse and the ship flies back into the back wall of the hanger nearly destroying it. Gordon barely got out of the way. Amio finally kills the last robot, but G'Banrak and Milo can't get their magic to put the fire out. Then, Orendil decides to fly the ship out of the tiny hole, and he gets out! But the ship immediately start to plummet! Then another large treaded robot comes out of the other room, and Gordon jumps out and flies away. Gorath manages to get a Fly spell to work and yells that he is jumping out and can carry one more. He starts running for the opening. G'Banrak follows and jumps on his back. They fly out the hole. Amio braves the fire and jumps into Milo's ship. Milo tries blowing the door away with a plasma cannon, but it just leaves a hole. Then MBK flies out of the room as Milo pilots the ship through the hole. Meanwhile, Alahandra decided that she is in a falling rock and jumps out of Orendil's ship. Orendil pulls of an amazing flying feat, though, and manages to ditch the ship on the ground without hurting himself!

As everyone gets out of the tower, they see that the Shield is off and that there are a bunch of robots running out of the tower. Some of the party also see the colossal horde of zombies coming through what would have been the shield and another army of robots going out to greet them. Milo's ship is flying, but they can't see through the fire so they are almost flying blind. Gordon and Alahandra are flying around. Gorath was falling because G'Banrak was too heavy for his fly spell. All of a sudden they disappear about 200 feet up. MBK-808 is too happy because his task is done: the shield is down. He is spinning around in the air firing all his beams.

Will they make it out of the Meltdown Blast Radius? Will they have to fight more robots and zombies? 

Is the robotic sphere useful anymore? Where did Gorath and G'Banrak go? 

Will Jhelai and Super- Commie confess their love for each other before they are vaporized in a nuclear melt down?

Note, that the following chapter represents knowledge unknown to most of the party.  Any change in character attitude based on the following information constitutes meta-gaming.

All of a sudden G'Banrak and Gorath materialize into a small 10 x 15 efficiency apartment. G'Banrak immediately senses trouble and asks "Where Are We?" Gorath seemed to refuse to answer; so with a slight sense of danger and without further consideration, G'Banrak  tries to cast Hold Monster on Gorath. 
Gorath shrugs it off and scrapes at her with his contagion claw giving her cackle fever. She responds by trying to cast Dominate Person and Gorath overcomes it, as well. Then Gorath hastens himself and casts Dominate Monster on her, but her will is strong. G'Banrak, becomes desperate and casts a mass suggestion and calmly states,  "Stop attacking me. Calm down and tell me why you have captured me." Gorath, overcome by the suggestion, stops what he is doing and tells her, in a menacing manner much different from before, "You are my bounty!"

"What?!"
"Yes, I am a mercenary and I had to capture you and bring you back to this planet." Gorath says menacingly.
"Who sent you?"
"I don't know."
"Where are we?"
"In my apartment."
"On what planet?"
"Aphex."
"Oh great. Back on Aphex. What city?"
"Carr."
"Who are you going to bring me to?"
"No one."
"How are you to deliver me?"
"They will contact me now that I have you on the planet."
"How much are they paying you?"
"50,000 draconian credits up front."
"How much after you deliver me?"
"200000 credits."

Sitting down on the bed, G'Banrak starts feeling really hot and gets a short fit of the giggles. After they pass she says, "Hmmm. What if I made you an offer. Don't turn me in, and the both of us go back to the planet Thonia. I can promise you much more money if you help me get to the City of the Gods. Then after that mission is complete you can deliver me to the people who hired you. Sound good?"

"Are you telling me that you can promise me over a million credits on top of what they will pay me when I deliver you?"

Twirling her hair, "Well, I don't know about that, but I can promise that there is much more than money at the City of The Gods. My people are an ancient race, and as long as our recorded history goes on Thonia, the City of the Gods was there and nobody knew how it became so."

After thinking about it for a couple of seconds, Gorath says "No. I will not side with you."
"Why not, there's much more money in it for you. You should be able to appreciate that. You're a mercenary!"
"No, I'm not in this for the money."
"What are you in it for?"
Gorath's eyes start glowing red, "I want to kill you!"
Shocked, "What? Why do you want to kill me? I'm harmless."
"I hate you! I loathe you! I want to bathe in your blood!"
"What will killing me do for you?"
"I will be one step closer to my life's mission!"
"Which is?"
Stepping closer, "I will become a GOD! Your blood is my apotheosis!"

Feeling that Gorath is a little psycho, "With a shocked look, "No it's not! If you come with me you could meet the Gods and become a god at the City of The Gods!"
"I will not side with you!"
"I can help you achieve your mission!"
"I Will NOT Side with you!"
"Well if you will not help me then I might have to kill you!"

Goading her, "Kill me, then!"
"I don't want to kill you, its not in my nature, but I also don't want you to follow me..."
"Kill me, or I will kill you!"

Thinking carefully about her spells, she realizes that she cannot kill him, so her choices are either to run away or get him to change his mind. Fleeing would only cause him to come after her more vigorously.  So, finally she casts her most powerful spell, Wish. "I Wish that you would come back to the City of Gods with me as an ally, help my friends accomplish their mission and then you can deliver me to your employer and you can help me defeat him."

With a flash, Gorath's mood changes and his eyes change from red to yellow to almost white. Finally, he says "I will go with you."

G'Banrak takes Gorath's hand and she teleports them both back to the location near the Tower of Glass at the southern entrance.

Adventure 32

Exodus to the City of the Gods

Nobody but MBK-808 notices Gorath and G'Banrak disappear. Almost as soon as Gorath and G'Banrak disappear, 7 robotic gargoyles fly down to attack the two ships: 3 on Orendil's ship and 4 on Milo's. One
of the mecha-gargoyles attacking Orendil's ship misses and hurts itself severely. Milo, wanting to get the other people on board, lands his ship on the ground. Orendil, bails out the top hatch of his ship and
runs toward the Tower to get away from the gargoyles. Gordon flies down, blasts one away, then his gun breaks, and Alahandra starts flying down and shoots at one. Amio jumps out and shoots at the
closest mecha-gargoyle, and Milo tries to use the weapons just as the gargoyles take out the weapon systems. One gargoyle flies up to attack Orendil in the back, but Orendil quickly slices through it
with his sword. Gordon get his screamer and shoots at one on Milo's ship, while the others try to rip through the ship. Amio blasts one to pieces, and Milo takes a quick shot or two through the hatch.

Finally, as the last gargoyle renders the ships power system inoperable, it is blown away.
Seeing that the ships were totally flightless, the group start heading away from the tower as quickly as possible. As soon as they realize that Gorath and G'Banrak aren't there, they come running from the other side of the tower. As the group distances itself from the tower, they spot a large number of vehicles and robots moving toward the city of the gods. After a few minutes they come to a road where there are a bunch of transports heading south. From Milo's map they determine that it would take a week to walk to the city, so Gorath and a couple of others decide to grab a vehicle. When the next hovercraft came by they pounced. The driver, a very female looking robot, tried to run Gordon over, but missed, and Gordon blew her away. The hovercraft came to a crashing halt, and the driver flew through the windshield. MBK flew in through the window and into the back of the hovercraft to see six "Iron
Maidens". He immediately tries his disintegrate ray but misses and it disintegrates the whole back wall of the vehicle. He then fires a couple more rays doing a little damage. Gorath pulls open the side door and fires his plasma rifle but misses and blows the other side door away. Two of the robots jump out of the back of the vehicle and look around for targets as one jumps out the right side of the vehicle and fires at Gordon. Another tries to jump past Gorath and Milo, but Gorath trips it and it falls to the ground. The last two in the vehicle back up and blast MBK. Milo shoots at the one on the ground, and Gordon uses his screamer at the robot that just shot him, destroying it. Amio, from off the road, shoots at one of the robots behind the vehicle.
MBK, feeling quickly charred, gets out of the way and flies up to the top of the vehicle to observe. The robot by Milo and Gorath stands up and fights with Gorath. G'Banrak fires a whopper of a lightning bolt and hits two of the robots and Gorath, dealing a ton of damage. 

Orendil jumps into the fray and slices through the wounded robot by Milo. Another robot jumps out of the vehicle and shoots at Gordon, while the two behind the vehicle fire at Amio. Gordon and Amio each
kill a robot, and Milo and Orendil finish off the other two very quickly. Fearing reprisals from other passing vehicles, everyone jumps in the vehicle, with Orendil driving. 

After half an hour, they notice that their magic items are working again, and they see two Very Colossal robots walking toward the city of the gods. After a few more minutes they start to see a large sparkling city up ahead and they start questioning G'Banrak on what she knows about this city, which isn't much. Milo also notices that there are no large creatures of any kind. Up ahead, they see that the vehicles and robots are trading fire with the weapons lining the city. They pull over, as other vehicles fly by them, and they ask MBK how to get in the city. He says that there is an entrance on the south side of the city that they could use. They go around and avoid
as much of the vehicles and blasting as possible, and they spot the tunnel as they get to the south of the city.
They get out of the van, and start to make their way in when MBK flies up to about 30 feet and starts firing rays at everybody.
Immediately feeling a double-cross, everyone starts firing at it, knowing what this little robot can do. MBK fires some more rays and then aims his anti-magic field at G'Banrak and Alahandra. G'Banrak tried to cast Hold Monster on it but was caught in the Anti-Magic field. Gorath, not being in the anti-magic field, dropped his plasma
rifle, hasted himself and cast a chain lightning after getting cover. The Chain Lightning looked like it was going to totally destroy MBK, but then he all of a sudden looked fully repaired and undamaged. Amio's only weapon had been negated, so he ran over to Orendil to get a weapon: he got the rocket launcher.
Milo realizing that electricity might not hurt it, changed tactics.  Milo hit it with a tanglefoot bag and then snagged it with his grappling hook. MBK fell to the ground, and Orendil cleaved him in two. Then MBK appeared immediately 3 feet higher than where he was and was fully healed. The hook and goo where now on the ground. MBK
started flying back up. Then, Gordon sliced through the rope with his Screamer by accident. MBK then negated Gordon's Screamer Rifle, so Gordon took out his blaster pistol. All of the party are hit at one time or another by the blaster rays, laser rays, negation rays, death rays and disintegration rays. Luckily, the entire party has lived through the Death and Disintegration rays, and overall nobody has been hurt too badly, yet. More unusual tactics commenced: Alahandra emptied her bag of holding and tried to fly up to MBK, but got caught in the anit-magic ray and fell to the ground. Gorath cast a Dispel Magic and it did nothing. G'Banrak cast a detect magic and it showed nothing until at the very second that MBK was cleaved through (for a second time) and then reappeared. More people shot at it. MBK started aiming his anti-magic ray at the magic users. Then, when they split up, MBK aimed it at Gorath. Amio hit MBK with an anti-tank rocket, but when the fire cleared away, MBk was still there. Orendil and Gordon shot at it. Milo then tossed another tanglefoot bag at MBK, and snagged him with a
grappling hook, but Gorath hit MBK with an empowered fireball and when the fire cleared, MBK was up there with the goo and the flaming hook and rope falling to the ground. Amio picked up Gorath's Plasma Rifle and fired at MBK.
G'Banrak casts a hemispherical ice wall to trap MBK but he got out, along with Orendil, Milo and Gordon. Alahandra then tried again to fly up and snag MBK in the bag of holding, but missed. Milo snagged
MBK a third time with a grappling hook and MBK started falling again. Gorath shot at MBK with his blaster, then readied an action to dispel magic on MBK right as he was about to die. Amio blasted MBK with the plasma rifle and fried it, but MBK just reappeared. This time, though the dispel magic went off at just the right time and when MBK died his body fell to the ground and another MBK appeared right above it. MBK's remains were being teleported away, and another fresh MBK teleported to the exact location as the first. 

Adventure 33

Dare to Enter the City of the Gods

Gorath shouts, "I don't know how long it will last, so we better tie it up!"

Milo and Gordon tie up MBK with all of his eyes pointing forward. Then they mount him to a pole and stick it in the ground, so MBK is looking straight up. As the pole is shoved in the ground, MBK wakes up and says "Hey?!? What are you doing? Let me down!" 

Milo says "Not a chance!" and goes back to the group.

They start moving into the tunnel with flashlights and night-vision goggles. The tunnel is a rocky tunnel with a dirt floor, but it is supported by a metal infrastructure. As they get about 50 feet into the tunnel, Milo notices some sensors on the two walls. Moving up stealthily, he disables them. Another 50 feet into the tunnel, they notice some more sensors and Milo disables them too. Then they notice what looks like an intercom system on the wall. Ignoring it, they move on and the floor turned into a metal grate. Thinking its trapped, Milo rolled his "Globe of Trap Springing" onto the grate, and a mine immediately exploded injuring Orendil, Gordon and Amio. They sent Alahandra to scout out ahead.

She flew about 50 feet down the tunnel, and the grate stopped. But then she spotted more sensors, and proceeded to disable them. After going 100 feet down and disabling 4 more sensors, a metal wall fell down from the ceiling and blocked the tunnel. Alahandra announced this through the communicators, as Milo and Gordon notice that a large tracked robot entered the open end of the tunnel. Alahandra flew back to the party as they tried to hide along the walls of the tunnel.

The party wanted Gorath to power down the robot, but they waited to see what it was going to do. Then, when the robot got to within 60 feet, it started speaking in many languages. Finally, it said "Exit or Die!" Milo nods quickly to Gorath and says "OK, We Give Up! We were looking for a bathroom. Is there a McDonald's around here?" The robot doesn't respond, but the party starts moving slowly down the tunnel. Then as they were passing the robot, they pulled a maneuver, known in a far corner of the universe as the "Iraqi Surrender Gotcha", and quickly powered down and disabled the robot.

They went back to the grate, and Milo started making a path through the minefield. At one point he accidentally tripped a phosphorus grenade, but he got out the way. After the fire cleared, he continued and cleared a path through the field. After the group got to the other side of the field, Milo noticed that one of the sensors was still active. Realizing that this might have been what revealed their presence, Milo disabled it. They make it up to the metal wall, and Gordon says he'll try his plastic explosives. The rest of the group gets Way back. Gordon measures up the wall and concludes he will have to use 5 pounds of c-4 to blow a hole in it. He places the c-4 on the door and starts setting the detonators, when....

BOOOOOOM!!

Blowing Gordon back some 10 feet, but not hurting him too badly, it dented the door severely. Gordon failed to mention he didn't have any experience with demolitions.

Amio says "Damn it! Get out of the way!", and launches a rocket at the door, blowing a large hole right through it. They go through the hole just to find more sensors. Milo starts disabling them, and after 150 they get to a door with a card slot next to it. Alahandra immediately tries her electronic lock pick. After a few seconds, machinery sounds start emanating from the door and then the door opens into a small round room. Alahandra flies in and says "It's an elevator! Look!" They go in and see Up and Down buttons. Knowing that they want to go up, but thinking that if they go down they might confuse anyone watching, they debate over elevator direction for 5 minutes. "Oh please!" said G'Banrak as she pushed the up button.

They go up and in seconds they stop and the doors open to a vast network of clear tubes in front of them. 30 feet below them, looks like the ground, but it is actually the top of a plateau. Beyond that they see the mountains. In the tubes ahead of them are many pods flying to and fro. They can see that there are things in the pods, but they can't see any features. They step out of the elevator and it's doors close and it shoots down. Now they are on a small tower with nowhere to go. 5 minutes later an empty pod appears that can fit three in the front and two in the trunk. Amio and Gordon get in the trunk, and Gorath, Orendil and G'Banrak get in the front. Milo gets in Orendil's lap and tries out the controls, as Alahandra holds on to G'Banrak.

The controls are in a language that Milo doesn't understand, so he puts on his "Helm of Comprehending Languages". All of a sudden he realizes that he is looking at numbers, but there is an oddity about them. He realizes it is a base-12 system. So he sees that his is at ~08. He tries ~09 and they fly off very quickly. They pass up a large tower on the right and a Gigantic tower on the left. Within seconds they are at another tower like they just left, but they are on the other side of the plateau. Milo tries hitting 000 to that they can get to a "base" and they are flung out to the east and down to the surface of the plateau. Once at ground level they fly forward to the base of a tower. 11 heavily armed and armored robots notice them and approach. As Milo tries to quickly press in any numbers, the console powers down.

As the robots approach, the party tries to talk to them:

Milo: "We're Ambassadors from the Dragon Empire. Take us to your leader." Orendil: "We're plumbers." Robot: "Dragon Empire does not register." Milo: "Yes, well we are here on urgent business. We need to see your leader." Gorath: "We're plumbers." Robot: "Get out of the pod."

They get out of the pod, but before they can say anything about Amio and Gordon, the pod speeds off. "Ooof!" They don't try to communicate with Amio and Gordon over the communicators, so as not to give them away. They are made to wait there for a few minutes, and as they do, two separate pods come up. Large tracked robots get out of each and move on down the base of the tower. Then, a large pod comes and the robot orders them in. The robot gets in the main seat and they quickly fly off. As they are flying through the city, all but Gorath notice that in another speeding pod there was something that looked like an MBK unit. They end up in the base of one of the towers and the robot orders them off. As they are getting off, G'Banrak recognizes the style of the room. They are in a room very similar to the rooms from the Tower of Glass. This room didn't have a computer terminal, though. The robot and the pod leave, and they search the room. They find a person in one of the beds. He is in a dirty uniform, but no armor or weapons. He wakes up and says, "Hey! You're here to rescue me?"

"Not Quite!" says Milo. They learn that his name is Mussa and he is from FrogTown. He is the last of the squad of 10 that was sent to investigate Boggy Bottom. When they radioed back to FrogTown, they were ordered to investigate the City of The Gods. As they got near the shield they spotted millions of Zombies trying get through the shield, so they went around to the west side of the shield. Once they got there, the shield went down and they started their approach. They were soon mowed down. The gun turrets  were much stronger then anything they had back at FrogTown. All but Mussa were killed. He was wounded and he passed out. They must have brought him here and healed him. When he woke up, a droid delivered some food, and he decided to take a nap. He said that was just a few hours ago. Alahandra asked if he knew if anything had happened to FrogTown and he said no. But then he asked her if she knew anything and she claimed ignorance and curiosity.

Mussa then asks for a gun and says lets get moving. The rest of the group blew him off. Milo wanted to wait to see if they would send anybody for them. Gorath and G'Banrak went to get some sleep. The rest of the group just called it a night. 

The next day the group got up and began to strategize. They figured they could take the robot easily and steal his pod. Milo gave Mussa a blaster pistol. They waited for the morning food. When it arrived, the pod was way too small for them, so they didn't do anything. After the robot left, Alahandra flew up the shaft and found 4 more rooms like this one above them. They waited. Later, the next robot arrived; this time with a large pod, and they quickly disabled the robot. Jumping in, Milo had an idea about the numbers. Orendil's suggestion to change the first number. He tried a similar  sequence and they went up 50 feet to the next level. Congratulations followed.

Then they went up to the next level. Gorath and Alahandra thought they should check this level for more people, so Alahandra flitted around. She opened one door and there was a security robot's back! She quietly flew back to the pod and strongly urged them to go! They went up to the next level. Then again. There was yet another one of those rooms. Going up one more level, they found themselves in a tube crossing. They went up again and were in a computer room with many robots manning the computers. Milo hastily punched in the next level and they ended up in a suite. The pod could not go up any further. The suite was nicely furnished with a bed, two meeting tables, a computer, a bathroom and many windows looking out of the tower.

They quickly got out, except for Milo who wanted to make sure the pod stayed. Milo contemplates disabling it, but then is unsure about fixing it. G'Banrak says that if it gets broken, it might get sent back to Maintenance. So Milo leaves it. As soon as he gets out, it flies away. Gorath leads Milo over to the computer and gets him working on it. The rest of the party searches the room, and Mussa goes to the bathroom. G'Banrak looks out the window and sees another Huge tower not far away. The searchers find Nano-bots all over the room cleaning things. Milo activates the computer and it asks for Captain Riesling's passcard. Orendil notices a picture on the dresser and says that it must be his. Milo tries his electronic lock pick but it doesn't work. All of a sudden they hear a noise from the tube; thier pod swiftly left the room, and another car was coming! They all get in position, with Gorath and Orendil taking the point. Then the pod appears with 11 Heavily armored robots. Milo yells out, "So there you guys are! We waited and you never came back for us, so we came to see Capt. Riesling.", but the robots don't listen and start getting out of the pod.

Adventure 34

Exploring the City of the Gods

Alahandra and Milo pull out their holdout lasers, and Milo destroys one with his first shot. G'Banrak continues to use her magic missiles, and the robot is starting to look really damaged. Gorath casts an empowered fireball on 5 of the robots and kills the one
closest to him and the one engaged with Orendil. Then he immediately casts another fireball on the rest of the robots. Orendil, enraged that he couldn't kill the robot in front of him, moves up to the robot that G'Banrak was firing at and slashes it to pieces. The remaining three robots throw nausea grenades at Milo, Gorath and Orendil. Milo was able to get out of the way, but Gorath and Orendil start getting really sick. Alahandra and Milo fire lasers at one
robot and it goes down. G'Banrak magic missiles another robot at the back of the room.

Gorath pukes and runs over the bed towards the bathroom. Orendil pukes right in front of one of the last robots. The two remaining robots throw barbed web grenades at Orendil and Milo and they get caught in the webs. Alahandra destroys one of the last robots. Milo tries to escape his web but gets hurt by the barbs in the process. Gorath's nausea subsiding, moves over to the elevator and fires a laser rifle at the last robot. Orendil pukes on the web, and almost on himself. Alahandra finishes off the final remaining robot.

With combat over, Milo tries to use his Escape Artist skills to get out of his web and he gets out with no problem. Orendil, his nausea now subsiding, yells for help because he is covered in a barbed, puked on web, and he REALLY wants to get out! Gorath starts searching the robot bodies. The rest of the group hovers around Orendil, wondering what they can use to cut him out for a couple of minutes. Gorath, hearing enough of that
conversation, throws a dagger at them as long as they stop yapping and cut the man out! G'Banrak does the honors, and the rest of the party starts looting the robots. Gorath gets shocked by one of the robots as he is looting it, but thinks nothing of it. They find and
distribute 17 different grenades throughout the party. Milo tries to wake up Mussa but he is too sleepy. They continue searching the suite that they are in.

Meanwhile... (Time shift!!)

In the trunk of the pod, Gordon and Amio were just waiting. They felt the pod stop for a few minutes, but then it started moving again. After not hearing any voices from the front for a few
minutes, Gordon shoots a hole through the back seat of the pod, and sees no-one up there! Then he blows a hole out the back and looks out. After a while he sees they are going in circles. With both of them feeling a little claustrophobic, Gordon opens up a hole through
the back seat large enough for them to climb out of the trunk.

Getting up front, Gordon can read the numbers but doesn't know what they mean. He tries 001 and the pod immediately goes underground and they end up in a large room with over 70 other vehicles and three maintenance robots. The pod pulls into a parking space and it shuts off. Gordon tries getting the pod going again, but it does nothing. Gordon then
calls Milo over the radio! Milo just happened to be sleeping and answers groggily. They start discussing where each of them are and they decide to call again in a few hours, after everyone has a chance to sleep. Gordon goes over to another car and finds that it is shut
down, too. All of the pods he finds are shut down, and pressing on the buttons doesn't work!

Change of Tactics: Gordon goes up to one of the robots and tries to get it's attention. It ignores him, so Gordon shoots some of the other cars. It still ignores him. Amio curiously watches a genius at work. Gordon, now quite impatient, blows a hole in the robot with
his screamer. The robot assesses the hole and continues on with it's work, queuing itself up on the suddenly long list of things to fix.  Gordon totally destroys the robot in a fury. Another robot assesses the damage and queues the robot up in It's work list. Gordon, shocked that they ignore him, decides they are no help and destroys the other two robots, as well!

Amio, tired of this display of Machismo, goes to sleep in one of the pods. Gordon gets to work on fixing a pod himself. After a while he gets one looking really nice and clean, but it still won't start. Somehow, he even painted flames on it and put big fins on the back.
A couple of hours later, he calls up Milo again, who yells at him to get some sleep. As they are on the radio, another six damaged pods come in and park. Gordon gets some sleep.

The next morning, Milo calls Gordon and tells him what the plan is. Amio yells that he is hungry, bring some food. They just wait.

Going back... (Restoring temporal continuity)

After searching the suite, they find:

1 pressure suit, 1 glowwand, many uniforms, 1 medkit, 1 sniffer, 2 infrered sensors, 1 pair of ultraviolet goggles, 13 tubes of quieting gel (Aquamute brand), 5 packets of spatiate drugs, 2 packets of spin- dizzy drugs, 4 packets of dedication drugs, 10 packets of stim drugs,
5 packets of stabilizer, 1 inhaler, 1 eardot, 1 rune visor, 1 throatdot, 1 set of morphic tools, 1 strobe beacon, 1 foldable tent and 1 c-cell.

Milo tries to call a car. Later, a one-person pod appears. They let it go, and later a six person pod appears. They put Mussa in the back and he finally wakes up. They all get in and Milo pushes 001. 

Amio was climbing up the tube to see if there was a quicker way to get out. Gordon yells at Amio to get out of the tube. But the pod goes into a room with huge cranes and robots repairing robots. They yell for Gordon and Amio and realize that they are not there. Many
other tubes come into the room, and they notice that many robots, like the ones from the tower of glass, are being repaired. They try 001 again. The pod backs out and flies around to the end of another tube. This tube has a clear door that is locked. Behind it is a large room with hills and grass and caves, and, over yonder, a family of bears. Curious and confused at the same time, they try 001 again. This time they get to another room like the last, but it is a
glacier with a frost giant. They try again. A desert with 2 fire giants. Trying again, they get back to what looks like the first room they got too. 

Everyone really starts to wonder what this 'City of the Gods' really is. They think this place might be a zoo, alien research facility, or even a repopulation ship. Wondering why 001 doesn't take them right to Gordon and Amio, they try 002 and get a large storeroom with
huge crates stacked very high, a large roof mounted crane, and a computer terminal. Immediately feeling greedy about what could be in those crates, they get Alahandra to go open one of the crates. She unlocks it, but it doesn't open. She says that there is a number on it. Milo goes up to the computer and it asks for a number. Milo punches in the number from that crate and the computer pulls up a manifest. It has clothes, tools, spare parts, and lots of other things.

Amio yells over the radio for some food. Milo tells it to get some tools and it asks for an id. Milo pulls out his Plot Device ID of Capt. Riesling! But, the computer says that Milo doesn't look like the Captain. So, Milo tries again but is denied access. The computer warns that another failed attempt will get them in trouble.

They get back in the pod and try 002 again. 4 hill giants this time. They try 001 again and get to another storage room. They try 001 again. They get to a room with a long rows of doors that look like crew quarters.

They try 103, just for the kicks, and they get to a level with long rows of 10x10 clear cubes with cooling equipment on top. The cubes have humanoid figures in suspended animation in them. There are halflings, humans, half-orcs and many others. Milo tries the nearby
computer, but it needs an ID. He tries the plot device, but it is denied again. Gordon suggests destroying some of the cooling equipment over the radio. They try to talk to the computer but get no important info out of it.

Getting bored with the computer, they get back in the pod, yet again. With a sigh of despair they try another code, and it goes to another storage room. Throwing caution to the wind, half the party starts breaking open crates. Milo really wants to get some tools!
After 20 crates, they find one with the Tools that Milo wanted. Milo, finally getting some satisfaction, and the rest of the party wondering about his materialistic instincts, get back in the pod for more adventure.

Adventure 35

Searching the City of the Gods

The group also notices strange alien floating creatures coming from behind a tower to the southwest.  Milo concludes that this must be the location of the monster generator. 

The group closes the blast shields.  Milo works on the computer in the observation deck and soon some robotic units appear in a pod.

Orendil is surrounded by some tangle foot grenades and someone the group just met, name unimportant is killed in a grenade explosion.  The robots try using electrical shock but don't manage to hurt the party.  After all the robots are dispatched, Gorath is shocked while investigating one.

The encounters another MBK unit as it enters from another elevator shaft.  The group befriends this MBK unit as well.  He claims to be MBK743 or something like that.  The group briefly converses with it, and the MBK doesn't appear hostile.  The party decides to go into an elevator shaft with it and return to the ground floor, to cross to the tower they believe to be inhabited.

The group realizes that they are in a large round chamber with a roof a few hundred feet high and just as round with the elevator shaft descending to the base and ceiling.  Gordon flies around and sees that the shaft has been damaged.  Alahandra tries to rig the elevator to work, but it appears to lack power.    After a few minutes of searching around, the group discovers that the walls are not only pitted but contain hundreds of 10m holes with shafts leading in all directions.  The group explores and looks in a few holes.

Within minutes of descending to this lower level, the group starts to hear an unnerving scream.  A well armored Beholder appears seconds later and begins an assault on the party.  Gordon opens up a barrage of bullets.  Amio is shaken with fear, Milo is turned to stone, G'Banrak is put to sleep, Gorath fleas, and Alahandra flies away invisibly.  Orendil navigates around the elevator shaft, but is surprised to see a hole materialize in the wall which lies between the Beholder and himself.  Orendil watches as Gordon guns the Beholder down after dozens of shots barely penetrate the Beholder armor and its natural skin.  Orendil's own blaster shots did little.  Just before Milo was turned to stone, the MBK reactivated, but was stuck to the staff.  

Adventure 36

Beneath the City of the Gods

The MBK responds, "You will find out."

Gorath backs up 5 feet and throws a frag grenade into the shaft and down the hole.  It explodes down in the hole.  Alahandra turns invisible and goes in the hole she goes to the end and sees the mirror and goes down the hole a few feet.  She casts fairie fire on a gold piece and drops it down the hole.  It descends for a ways and disappears over 100 feet down.  She attempts to fly 40' down, but turns after a bought of fear and flies back out.  Gorath jumps up to the edge and peeks in but can't see anything else.  He asks Gordon to look and Gordon sees the mirror tilted at such an angle that would allow something down the shaft a clear view through the shaft.  Gordon fires a laser and it hits the mirror and turns down the shaft.  

Gordon flies to another hole and another, each hole appears to have a mirror.  Gordon attaches the MBK on the statue of Milo.  Gorath and G'Banrak contemplate teleporting back to the observation deck where they recently spent some time.  Just as they start discussing this, the party hears some more screaming from the ceiling.  Gorath says he's going, tries to teleport with Milo, but fails.  Gorath realizes the MBK unit on Milo's statue is looking at him and dispelling his teleportation.  Gorath gets angry, tosses the MBK to the floor.  

Orendil grabs the MBK slaps it in a sleeping bag and tosses it into a shaft, but the bag hovers in the shaft.  Orendil then grabs the bag and ads a water purifier to it, it still floats.  He then tosses in a diagnostic monitor, laser pistol, and a gun cleaning kit to weigh the sleeping bag down, and it finally works.  He pushes it down the horizontal shaft.  Gordon then pushes it to the next vertical shaft and it drops away into the darkness.

As Gordon crawls back towards the main room, MBK743 reappears and asks why Gordon did that.  Gordon proceeds to cut some stalks off the MBK.  While he is doing some cutting, a ray hits Gordon in the back, he is unaffected.  Orendil runs past Gordon to get to G'Banrak.  Amio readies his gun.  G'Banrak shoots some magic missles.  The MBK hits Orendil with a beam, but Orendil saves.  Gordon is hit numerous times as he cuts away at the MBK.  The MBK trains its Anti-Magic field on G'Banrak and Orendil. 

The group then hears more Beholders roar.   Gorath yells at them to get out of there.  Alahandra flies over to G'Banrak.  Gordon continues to peel MBK eyes.  Orendil readies and action to slice. 

G'Banrak grabs Orendil and Alahandra jumps on G'Banrak's back as she teleports to the observation deck.  Alahandra yells to Gorath to save the others.  Gorath slaps at Alahandra just before she is teleported away.

Amio and Gordon get ready for a fight.  The MBK fires wildly.  Gordon fires back.  Two Beholders appear.  One shoots Amio.  The other hits Gordon and slows him before he too falls asleep.  They hear Amio say everything's cool just before he falls asleep.

Gorath teleports with the statue of Milo back to the safely of the observation tower. Alahandra wants the group to teleport back down to pick up Gordon and Amio.  Gorath objects to teleporting into an unknown situation.  Alahandra wants to get the elevator working.  Gorath believes it to be suicide to return to the lower level.  G'Banrak is torn.  Orendil states that he has no emotional attachment to either guy.

The elevator comes up but it is empty.  They decide to go to the Monster generator to try to complete the mission. They choose to leave Milo behind as a statue, safe in the observation deck. Alahandra hits the emergency button to blow the blast doors off.  Orendil goes to break the window.  He smashes the window with his sword.  The robots appear to be getting closer to the outer walls.  Gorath casts fly and G'Banrak and Orendil levitate down.  They run to a door in another building.

They notice that some of the tubes and pods are damaged.  They slowly make their way to the tower and avoid a large glob of black goo oozing from the hole in the tower and dripping down the side of the tower. 

Alahandra notices a door 50 feet off the ground and that the tower is surrounded by what appear to be boulders and rocks.  Then Alahandra finds another door concealed behind some rocks at the same level they were at.

Adventure 37

Entering the Main City Tower 

Milo is sleeping inside a coffin of stone when suddenly he returns to flesh.  He slowly realizes that one blast shield window is smashed and that something just whisked out the window.  Milo decides to climb down the side of the observation tower and call the others.  The party answers him and tells them that they are at the base of the center tower, the largest tower of the city.

As Milo makes his way to the tower, he sees Jhelai scaling the plateau with a rope.  Milo helps Jhelai and Jhelai explains that he has been tracking the group through comm chatter.  Milo and Jhelai arrive just in time to see a giant land shark get tossed out the side of the tower right towards the party.

Gorath and the group dodge away just before the Bullette lands.  Gorath then charms the beast.  The robots that tossed the creature out quickly close the large hanger.

Alahandra resets the locking mechanism and the group makes their way to the main tower and enters it.  The lights are fading an flickering everywhere and the air is stagnant but metallic.

The group encounters multiple police robots but mostly ignores them.

The group enters a network of labs and finds an android working on some sort of cure.  They inform the android that the people she was trying to cure are long since dead.

The group finds a Holo-Library and can't really understand much about the info stored on the digital cubes.  After a while, they do figure out where the captains quarters and armory is.

The group attempts to break into the armory but fail.

The party heads to find the Commanders quarters, encounter some vegetable people but Orendil slices through them with his ginsu blade before anyone else can do a thing.  After breaking into the commanders quarters, Milo uses the computer terminal there to access the tower AI.

After establishing some respect by the AI it reveals some info.

The AI can not place the constellations it observes.  No extrapolation can be made except that it is somehow in the past, however unlikely.  According to the AI calculations, over 190,000 years have past since the stars positions.  The AI has trouble with accepting the results of this calculation.

The AI figures it is on a mythical planet Thonia.  Its databanks only suggest that Thonia was the starting location of a great menace which over hundreds of years wiped out inhabitants of 3 sectors of the Dragon Empire.  Thonia is located just outside the Rimward Barrens.

The data suggests that some unnamed Beholder from Thonia; of course this is a direct conflict of data that states  that no hostile life lived on Thonia, united all Beholder breeds and kin to form a united frontal assault on the Dragon Empire.  The Dragon Empire took many years to defeat the Beholder Regime.  The Beholders introduced technology vastly superior to that currently held in the Dragon Empire.

The AI does know that the ship was transporting a group of Beholders.