Session 5-O.3

1629, Fire Season, Death Week, Freezeday to Waterday Eve

Dramatis Personae

Events

The group was welcomed into Dwarf Mine by a group who took the caravan and most of its members aside to inspect it¹So that the people who were actually present could peel off.. Berra and Maalira found themselves with a bit of free time, and talked to T’Dwarf, who was either overseeing the room or waiting for someone to talk to him. Berra asked if he wanted to find out what had happened before the Battle of Heroes, to make the result that people saw. He did, and told them to come with him.

The pair were led deep underground, and finally into a room 10m in every direction. There was a cross-shaped niche on the other side of the room, and in it was someone who looked like Berra, holding out her arms in the Death Rune. T’Dwarf introduced it as Simulacrum B, and told it to come over and listen. It did, walking very like Berra. Berra looked for a few moments and then poked it in the face and pointed out it was not her because it should have poked her to find out too. The Dwarf considered this.

Berra told some of the story of what had happened with Jar-eel, adding details about Harrek, and mentioning she was leaving out a lot. After the story, T’Dwarf escorted them upstairs and upramp, and gave them instructions on where they would be sleeping. Berra had a niche, and Maalira was told how to get to someone who would meet her to take her to her room.

As she was making her way to the designated meeting point, Maalira saw a bleeding Dwarf. She asked if he was alright but he seemed to be just getting on with things and did not know what a healer was, and did not want to stop. After it asked her if it was alright to keep going, Maalira ran off to get Berra²“I am pretty sure you will be remembering where your not-lover is sleeping.” – GM
“I do not think there is any chance of not knowing.” – Maalira. However, by the time they had returned, the dwarf was lost in the busy corridors. They set off to try to track it down, but soon found themselves lost and having to mark their trail with one of Maalira’s lozenges, scraped on walls, just to try to get back to anywhere they knew.

As they were walking, they suddenly heard an announcement, in T’Dwarf’s Voice: ‘ALL UNITS NOT UNDER LEVEL ONE ORDERS CEASE MOVEMENTS AS SOON AS IS SAFE TO DO SO.’³It was also underfoot, in native Mostali, but they could not hear it, and did not notice the floor grumbling slightly.

They continued trying to make their way back, but were stopped by two Dwarfs who explained to them that movement had to cease. They were kept there through a second announcement, ‘UNITS MAY CONTINUE TASKS WHICH DO NOT REQUIRE MOVEMENT OF UNITS FURTHER THAN ONE STANDARD METERED LENGTH.’ After about 10 minutes, T’Dwarf arrived in person to ask Maalira about the bleeding dwarf and what exactly had happened. He sent one of the nearby dwarfs to fetch Version X1138. While they waited he had the story of what had happened from Maalira. When Version X1138 arrived, the story was told again. The experimental dwarf immediately noticed two things that were not obvious to Maalira or Berra. First, the described blood was far too liquid for a dwarf. A clay dwarf would ooze a slip-like substance. Second, and even more worryingly, the wounded dwarf had asked permission from Maalira to go, despite the fact that Maalira had absolutely no authority over him.

T’Dwarf put Maalira in charge by giving orders to X11. “Working under supervisor Maalira, making suggestions as required, your own objectives are: 1) Full investigation of hypothetical malfunction outbreak in upper mine, 2) Preservation of the life and health of your supervisor, 3) Preservation of the life and health of other crewmates, 4) Preservation of your own life.” Berra waved at X11, recalling him from the last time they had fought things underground together.

X11 suggested that they go to the ‘epicentre’, and once Berra had found out from Maalira what an epicentre was, and Maalira had had time to work out she was in charge, they did that. With the dwarfs now halted, it was possible to follow the blood trail. They elected to find out where the bleeding dwarf was, not where he had been, in the hope of extracting useful information and stopping a hypothetical malfunction outbreak. The trail led to a ventilation shaft, and its access cages. One had a pool of blood in it. They travelled down for a bit, looking for blood, and Berra suggested shouting at the dwarfs on each level. Version X1138 approved of using localised networks for information gathering.

Eventually they were able to track down the correct level, and as they walked towards the fan shaft, they saw the bleeding dwarf coming back the other way. He was determined on his task, but rather confused as to what he was doing, and had not obeyed the instruction to stop. Maalira ‘repaired’ him so that he would not die, applying First Aid and some magic. He said that he had left his post to come and deal with a fan issue, and had been struck by one of his work-mates. Berra wandered up to look at where Ermenaggalg had been working in the fan shaft. Version X1138 followed, and found that the Dwarf had only visited one of the control panels, and had not left blood smears on anything. The Air pressure was slightly high in tunnel Delg, which he had been checking on, but that was all. Berra practiced running up the slightly slanted walls of the tunnel, drawing comment from Maalira and X11.

After some time they managed to get through to him that something was wrong, and he snapped out of it, looking very worried that he had not raised an alarm. He was a clay dwarf old and senior enough to have a name, Ermenaggalg. He was able to report what had happened in greater detail when he was no longer confused, including orders he had given to collapse the tunnel he was in as a matter of last resort. He was unsure why he had gone to check the fans instead of raising the alarm.

Version X1138 used the signalling apparatus in the travel cage to inform T’Dwarf of what was going on⁴T’Dwarf had guessed some of it, as he had followed the blood trail backwards and worked out where it had originated., and they were ordered to report to Tunnel Delg. Or, rather, Version X1138 was, and the other two went along because they had started it and were going to finish, or just because it seemed like the right thing to do. As they set off, they heard the most extreme orders yet. ‘ALL UNITS INCLUDING THOSE UNDER LEVEL ONE ORDERS CEASE MOVEMENTS AS SOON AS IS SAFE TO DO SO. DEFENCE UNITS SEVEN AND TWELVE TO DELG NEXUS.’

At Delg Nexus, where there were dwarf warriors and sorcerors, T’Dwarf had more orders for VersionX1138: ‘Access to Tunnel Delg is granted. Use of travel cage is limited to crewmates. Control of travel cage is limited to Version X1138, and is not to be delegated. Explanation of travel cage workings are not to be given to crewmates or supervisor, except in support of objective 1. Over-ride code Herom Gulbrag may be used on the defence engine.’

Version X1138 and Ermenaggalg moved a pump-cart down the stone-etched rail in the tunnel, with Berra and Maalira as passengers. Ermenaggalg then took a smaller individual cart back, leaving the three alone, at the cart terminus. The rails continued right down to the seal door, which was open. Berra was too busy looking around to take things in, but the other two noticed that behind the door there were three dwarfs waiting. Two others were therefore absent or not visible. Version X1138 spotted a pistol and a bowling ball being held by dwarfs, but nobody threw or rolled one. However, the dwarfs were definitely ready for combat. Once Berra had spotted the group as well, there was a short stand-off, and then Maalira was attacked in spirit combat.⁵Everyone in the group failed Intimidate, which was the first selector. Maalira got a special on a POWx3, and thus came to the spirit’s notice.

Maalira was swiftly defeated by the spirit, which did not render her unconscious, but instead made her confused. She began to act as if the Darkness was her greatest asset and personality trait, and meanwhile the spirit attacked Berra, who was now looking most threatening. Berra, however, had noticed the struggle Maalira was having⁶Eventually… and cast Spirit Block, and then ripped the spirit to shreds, destroying it.⁷That makes the second time this has happened. It seems that she really hates underground spirits, and there’s probably a Prohibition joke there somewhere.

Berra checked that Maalira was alright, and the White Lady coldly told the other two to deal with the problem. They shrugged, and started forwards, preparing and casting magic as they went. The dwarf with the bowling ball rolled it, but Version X1138 could see that it was going to stay short. He put an arm out to stop Berra, and the ball exploded short. Maalira felt something kick her in the back and knock her over, but the other two were fine. They continued on towards the door, with Version X1138 and the other pistol dwarf shooting at each other – in both cases the bullet spanged off armour.

Maalira noticed that the wall was bulging not far from her, but elected to concentrate on the fight, trying to cast beneficial magic on Version X1138. She could not keep the slippery magic in mind, however.

Meanwhile, Version X1138 had struck the right arm off one of the hammer dwarfs, but it was not efficiently getting out of the way. Instead it stayed in position, and dwarf behind it could not attack. The third dwarf pulled a crossbow out and aimed at Berra, managing to hit her through the melee, but the bolt bounced off her shield magic and her armour. After a little time she managed to get her Fireblade working, and cut the head off the hammer of the dwarf facing her. Version X1138 attempted to give her support, but Berra did enough damage to the dwarf that she killed it eventually, especially as it continued to use its weapon as a poor sort of club. When Berra spotted the Burning Engine coming closer, Version X1138 called out the override orders and had it stop in place. Berra then cut the third dwarf in half, through its iron armour. Version X1138 shield-barged the last remaining dwarf to the ground, and it stayed there, confused. He guarded it.

Berra stepped into the room, and trod on something that clicked. She had the presence of mind to stop where she was and ask Version X1138 what was going on. Unsure of what she had stepped on, he called in the problem to Delg Nexus, and the mine manager talked him through what he had to do – in this case, just push down hard enough that the trigger was reset, as if the weight of a dwarf was on it. After that, he could instruct Berra in exactly how to get out without setting off anything else.

Version X1138 had the burning engine keep the confused, one-armed dwarf still until they could drag it out to have Maalira heal it. Out there, Version X1138 noticed that Maalira was standing next to a large bulge in the wall, which was a shrapnel trap. He had the others move away safely, and the trap went off without injuring him much. The useful things were moved out of the room, and Version X1138 sealed it. They put the dwarf onto the mine cart, and as they prepared to leave, Berra put the head of the warhammer she had cut off on the cart. The two dwarfs began pumping the hand-cart back to Delg Nexus.

• 1
  So that the people who were actually present could peel off.
• 2
  “I am pretty sure you will be remembering where your not-lover is sleeping.” – GM
  “I do not think there is any chance of not knowing.” – Maalira
• 3
  It was also underfoot, in native Mostali, but they could not hear it, and did not notice the floor grumbling slightly.
• 4
  T’Dwarf had guessed some of it, as he had followed the blood trail backwards and worked out where it had originated.
• 5
  Everyone in the group failed Intimidate, which was the first selector. Maalira got a special on a POWx3, and thus came to the spirit’s notice.
• 6
  Eventually…
• 7
  That makes the second time this has happened. It seems that she really hates underground spirits, and there’s probably a Prohibition joke there somewhere.