When the SAINTs come marching out

The Plan

The next day Markos shows up as promised, together with Scurti and a bald and clean shaven dwarf with a blue and a brown eye, who looks to be in his thirties, if he was human. Tellmacher introduces him as 'the Specialist' and he has quite the story. Deep, deep underground there are tunnels that connect all important parts of the Midtal; Arks Ximmer, Bearstett Prison, Tallsite Citadel, Festull Base, etc.

And deep under the Five Centuries Monument there is large bay and ancillary rooms that contain ancient golems. The plan is for the party to go down there, activate them and send them out in the city. In the chaos this creates, it should be possible to get the document that Zayn is after.

The Specialist explains; there are five Panzerkampgolems II (PzKpfg II) down there, also known as SAINT; Superautomatische Infanterie, neue Technologie (Super Automaton Infantry, New Technology). Getting there via the tunnels is almost impossible; there are many patrols and all kinds of magical alarms and defenses. But there is an escape shaft that ends in an Military Police post right next to the Five Centuries Monument.

The MP post consists of a large room with desk, a table and chairs, and a small kitchenette. Next to that there are two cells, a toilet, a storeroom, an armory, and an office for the duty officer. In that office there is a trapdoor hidden under a filing cabinet. There's even a special knock code for anyone coming up the very tall shaft to announce there presence."There used to be drills, those are long gone, I don’t think anyone has ever used the ladder for close to a century."

Markos interjects: "make sure the MP's won’t be able to raise an alarm when you access that ladder, I don’t care how."

The PKG Storage consists of a control room, this is where the maintenance crew are most of the time, outside of the cleaning and upkeep, there’s nothing to do but play cards. Markos: "our inside person should have taken care of the crew but be prepared to take them out should things not have gone to plan".

There’s a toilet off of the control room, there's also a door with multiple locks and no label or sign, "I’ve always wondered what’s behind it, I’ve asked around but no one knew, no one even knew who has the keys". From the control room there is a door to a corridor where the ladder ends, the corridor continues on a long way to the main tunnel network. A door to the right, directly after exiting the control room leads to the bay.

The bay is an enormous room that holds the golems. In the past more were planned but never produced, after that it held other golems and similar constructs but those were all removed over the years, leaving none but the five. They are at the back of the bay, near them is a shaft up to the city, the exit is hidden under one of the monument's statues, and on the opposite side of the shaft is a large reagents storage. The crew chief has a key to unlock it.

"Used to be they were started up every day, then every week, every month, now once a year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if soon it’s going to be once every however many years. Trust me, if the Council of Chiefs keep going like this then in a decade none of them will be in working condition. Anyway, this is what's needed to get them running, mind you this is per golem, not for all five". He hands over a list:

•    Abominable Salts; 10 kg.

•    Diamond dust; 100 grams.

•    Fillip of Effervescence; a dram.

•    Nevercold Brass Slivers; 10 kg.

•    Nodules of Fecund Amber; 20.

•    Oneiric Pearls; 5.

•    Ray-Drenched Cinder; 1.

"There’s a wheelbarrow in the reagents storage, you should be able to bring everything with one trip if you load it carefully. There's a problem though; apparently they still haven’t resupplied the stock of Nevercold Brass Slivers so they can’t even activate the automatons, can you believe that?" Markos: "you will need to source this somewhere and bring it along with you. How much do we need?" The Specialist: "10 kilos per, so 50 kilos, but I’d bring double that, just in case."

"So, there are receptacles at top of the left boot, they are marked clearly, but the lids can get stuck. Just use a crowbar, there should be plenty of them there. Then press the large, green button next to the lids, if it doesn’t work, kick it. That should start the boot sequence. Once it’s up and running it will say: 'aktiviert' (activated)".

"It should be in autonomous mode already. Read it the instructions as written on these pieces of vellum, word for word, don’t leave anything out. If you make a mistake, tell it: 'Zurücksetzen, Archon' (reset, archon), that should allow you to restart from the beginning. Once done it should respond with 'verstanden, Befehl akzeptiert' (understood, command accepted), then get out of the way as it will start to move."

He hands our friends five pieces of vellum with the instructions. They are numbered one through five and look identical except for two sets of numbers at the end of the instructions. Markos explains that the golems should be activated the next morning between eight and nine in the morning for maximum effect. He lets the Specialist answer any pertinent question and then they leave, letting our friends continue with their planning.

Both Boldrek and Kieran are skilled in Geography and they soon figure out that the numbers on the instructions are coordinates. It doesn't take too long to work out the locations given are for Tallsite Citadel, Bearstett Prison, the House Ditta offices, the Thal Sivale offices, and Helfrau Schwestern Bank (HSB). They have a problem with the last of the five targets and decide to change the last two digits of the number so the golem should no longer go to the main entrance of the bank but to a different part of the building.

Meanwhile Zayn and Izzy go out to source the Nevercold Brass Slivers. They entertain the idea of stealing it all from Nathos Alchemy Arsenal but decide against it. Instead they go around other alchemy suppliers where Izzy will go in disguised and try and get a good price. They aren't too successful and at the third place they eventually pay 4 gp per kilo, buying a full hundred kilos, most of which fits inside the Tea Cosy of Holding. They also stop by Maurice's place but there is not too much he can help them with, though he would love to hear from them once they have done what they are going to do.

The barbarian and paladin go for a quick reconnoiter of the MP post and finds that it has a large window, showing two Ott inside, one at the desk and one sitting at the table. They get a pretty good look at the layout of the place and then return home to share what they have learned and then get a good night's sleep.

The Execution

Early the next morning our friends go to the Five Centuries Monument and now see three Ott inside the MP post. There is some discussion of what to do and eventually Zayn makes himself and Boldrek and Kieran invisible as Izzy steps inside disguised as an MP. She holds the door open long enough for the others to get inside.

"There's a fight outside the Wench's Flask, we need more people," Izzy tells the MP at the desk. "Why didn't they use the whistle?" the man comments, annoyed. But still, he and one of the two people at the table grab their gear and rush out after Izzy who has quickly turned the corner and cast her own Invisibility spell.

Going back inside, the bard quietly opens the door to the duty officer office and inside sits a sergeant at a desk who looks up and sees no one. She calls out in confusion and the man who took over the desk responds; "coffee?" She'll have a cup and all four of our friends wait with bated breath, all invisible and unable to see each other. The three have formed a conga line to move safely together.

Once the coffee has been brought and the man has returned to the desk, Izzy strikes, stabbing the sergeant behind the desk with a dagger. Unfortunately she has no way of doing this silently and the other MP is alerted. This sets off a combat that is neither silent nor clean. In the end there is blood all over the place and two MP's lay on the floor.

They quickly move the filing cabinet away and open the trapdoor, finding a very deep shaft with a ladder made of rungs set into the bedrock, just as promised. They have plenty of rope and decide to hang the bodies of the two Ott from the trapdoor so they hopefully won't be found, leaving anyone who comes across the scene to wonder what happened. Zayn closes the trapdoor and puts the filing cabinet back on top of it before using a Gaseous Form spell to follow the others.

Their descent has not gone unnoticed and a figure appears at the bottom of the ladder and he soon shoots a crossbow up at them but getting nowhere close; shooting straight up isn't easy. Clearly the maintenance crew hasn't been taken care of by this inside person and Izzy takes no chances; casting a Fireball spell straight at the figure, killing him instantly.

Once down, it looks like this was the only crew member still on his feet; they find the others unconscious on the floor of the control room, with no outward signs of injury. They put all four of them in the toilet and then barricade the door. The control room has a large window that looks out into the bay and in front of it a wide control panel with all kinds of blinking lights on it. Against the opposite wall are bookcases all filled with large binders, each neatly marked with terms like 'Variable Control Impedance 4' and 'Dosimeter Variance Tolerance 3', each containing many, many pages filled with diagrams, formulas, and dense text.

Zayn is still in gaseous form and that one door with multiple locks looks too interesting to ignore. The door also has many mystical sigils on it but he still decides to slip through the cracks and see what's inside. It's dark in there but he sees a small room with a pedestal in the middle. On top of it, under a glass dome is a pitted, faceted rock, about the size of his fist. All facets have been inscribed with red-orange sigils. On the floor around the pedestal three hexagrams have been drawn with some blueish metal like substance.

The warlock really wants whatever is on that pedestal but he also realizes that he can't grab it in his current form, and he has used both his spells today already. With some regret he retreats from the room, focusing on the fact that his true mission here is to gain information that can lead him to his mother.

Our friends step into the bay, it is large and high but not very well lit, it smells of grease and coal, their footsteps and voices echo as they walk on. Looking through the dark, they see at the back of the room the outlines of five massive shapes, at least twenty feet tall, standing neatly in a row. As they come closer five lights turn on in the ceiling one by one each accompanied with a clanging sound, and standing there they see immense brass and stone golems, made to resemble soldiers, an Ott crest of centuries past on their chest

All five stand perfectly in line, unmoving. “Tsssst,” there’s a sudden sound of pressure releasing and light smoke wafts from behind them. Sparks scatter along the floor from a copper cable laying between two of them. The one furthest away is flanked by movable scaffolding, with rags and buckets hanging on it, a copper cable runs from the golem to the wall.

They inspect the imposing war machines and find that there's a hatch in the chest where someone could enter it. Next, our friends go over to the reagents storage and realize they forgot to take the key from the crew chief. Once someone has fetched it they open the door and find a neatly organized room and a wheelbarrow. All what they need is stored separately and with clear signs. Once they have all they need for the SAINTs, they loot what they can, Izzy taking all the remaining diamond dust, nearly two and a half kilos of it.

Loading the Panzerkampgolems goes just as the Specialist told them and soon enough they have all five of them topped up. They start up the first one and read it the instructions. It moves to the ramp and goes up it, of to its destination. So far things are going pretty well, though they are definitely making haste; the fireball made quite the noise and Zayn's foray into the locked room could have tripped all kinds of magical alarms.

The next three automatons are sent off and the last one is instructed as well. But as it leaves it pulls the copper cable that was connected to it from the wall and there is a huge shower of sparks as the golem stops in its tracks. "Why am I here?" is says, sounding confused and childlike. In the conversation that ensues he identifies himself as Fünf, though later he tells them that he always liked Johannes as a name, yes, Johannes Fünf, that's much better.

It seems he's been here for centuries though he was never sapient the way he is now. He's heard of the above but has never been there, he would love to go so he asks if he can go there as he was instructed by them. But Kieran tells them he is in charge of him and wants him to guard the entrance to the bay.

Zayn has a different plan though and he instructs the golem to go through the large observation window into the control room. The SAINT hardly fits in there, even on all fours but he manages to get inside. The warlock then asks him to open the door with the three locks, Fünf has no problem ripping the door from its hinges. Then he is asked to grab the stone on the pedestal. He does so and immediately all kinds of spells go off in all colors of the rainbow. The golem seems unharmed though and after clambering back out into the bay he drops the item into the tea cosy, held open by Zayn.

There is some discussion about how to leave and the party decides to go up the ramp. The half-orc lingers and goes to Johannes Fünf, telling him that he should go up there and not do what he was instructed earlier, but instead run, as long and far as he can. "They will try to destroy you. If you stay you will be enslaved," the warlock tells the automaton, feeling a certain kinship.