Quixotic Pursuits - Part 2

Following on from here. 

If you are accompanied by the White City Genocide Squad, they will take all Old Capital artefacts and technology for themselves, and try to kill you if you have a problem with this. If you make it out together, they will try to kill you anyway, because you know the location of the facility. 

If you are accompanied by the Old Errant, he will follow you down into the earth - he is still an adventurer at heart after all. He will be visibly appalled by what you find down there, especially the plight of the Pilots-in-Dreaming, and, if he makes it out, will advocate for spending a week or two burying the entrance in earth, as much as your are able. 

The Facility

The Approach

North of the Hide is a square, black stone shaft leads into the earth at a 30 degree angle. It is 10ft at a side, and around 100ft long. Eventually the shaft terminates in a set of iron doors. They are closed but not locked. Standing in front of them is Kyton, the perimeter guard. 

She is a tall, rangy, lean-muscled woman whose face is oddly impossible to focus on or remember. This is really unsettling. She is quiet, and polite, and will tell you that you cannot pass. At her feet and pushed to the sides of the corridor are five desiccated human corpses - the remains of past would-be thieves. She wears clothing unlike anything you have seen, vaguely similar to White City harnessing. If you brandish weapons or show hostility, she will draw a strange looking knife from a chest sheath, perform a duelists' salute (any Bravo will recognise it as such), and attempt to kill you. 

Kyton, the Perimeter Guard

HD3, skinsuit (as light armour), ablative knife +2, movement: as human, disposition: dreamlike, courteous, diligent, professional, incorruptible and unpersuadable. She has forgotten everything about what is actually behind the doors that she guards. 

As a Pilot-in-Dreaming, Kyton cannot be killed. If you kill her she will WAKE UP as she was ten seconds before the killing blow. This doesn't protect her for being restrained or badly wounded. Every time she dies and WAKES UP, she loses slightly more of herself. After one death she will become confused and fearful; after two, angry; after three and thereafter, animalistic. 

Kyton has two suicide pills in her chest harness, and will attempt to swallow one of these (they work immediately) if she thinks she is going to be restrained or wounded such that she cannot stop you entering the complex. 

Ablative Knife: as a +2 knife with a further +2 expanded crit range. If it crits, all of these bonuses become +1. If it crits again, it is a normal knife. A third crit breaks the weapon permanently. 

Inside

Once through the doors, you enter the facility proper. A central shaft runs between all floors, and walls facing onto it are open, fenced with rusted cast-iron railings. They will give way on a 1 in 4 chance if someone is thrown against them, or other significant force is applied. 

There are no wandering monsters in the facility, and no sources of light that the PCs have not brought with them. 

Level One

Rooms - Level One

1. Entry. Guarded by Kyton. Heavy iron doors, rusty but unlocked. The passage north leads to the surface. 
2. Shaft Walkway. The central shaft is open space. The circle in the centre is a heavy iron chain mechanism that hangs from the ceiling of the chamber, and descends straight down into the shaft. The walls facing into the shaft are open, but guarded with rusted iron railings. The northeast corner is a set of iron stars (like a NYC fire escape) that descends down to level two. 
3. Bedroom One. Iron door, unlocked. A simple iron bed frame, and rotted wooden furniture - a night stand, a wardrobe. Small insects and other vermin scurry around, disturbed by the light. There are 16 glass vials in the room, arrayed neatly on the floor against on wall, filled with clear liquid. If tasted, they will be found to be sugary water. 
4. Bedroom Two. Iron door, locked. Bacchon (see bellow) holds the key. A simple room furnished identically to the first, but also containing a small iron lockbox full of 4d6 glazed ceramic tokens: the currency of the Old Capital, each worth 20s. There is also a board game with small ceramic pieces. If you show it to a Pilot-in-Dreaming who is still sane (there are none in this dungeon), they can explain the rules to you - something like chess, but involving pieces that can move backwards and forwards in temporal space. Bluffing, and the expenditure of resources to facilitate this travel, are the key skills in play. 
5. Armoury. Iron doors, locked. Bacchon holds the keys. On the walls hang 4 spears and 2 swords, and two helmets that are much too large to be wielded by a human. There are also 2 intact ablative knives +3, a suit of ceramic light armour +2. These are each worth 800s and 2000s respectively, to collectors in the capital. Stacked into iron shelving on the walls are 43 of the glass vials containing sugar water. 
6. Mess and Recreation. Iron door, unlocked (the southern door to the armoury is locked). Iron furnishings, a table, stove, chairs, and a cleared area with the rotten remains of matts and soft furnishings on them. Smells of dust and ancient decay. Nothing moves, and the air is stagnant. 

Level Two

Rooms - Level Two

1. Shaft Walkway. Identical to the first level, but with small, brightly-coloured growths and lichens that spread across the iron railings. These patches respond to light, 'rippling' towards it. If you touch one of them with bare skin, you can a single point of acid damage. 
2. Storage. Iron door, unlocked. Dense racks of iron shelving, now rusted and covered in the same neon-bright growths as the railing around the pit. The contents of the shelves have mostly rotted into dust, but a dedicated search will reveal three sealed iron boxes throughout the room. Each contains even chances of 2d10 imperishable rations, a strange, apparently spring loaded pistol (fires once and is then useless as a weapon, worth 2000s loaded or 1500 unloaded to a collector), 4d10 ceramic coins, or a Manipulator Helm (see below). Along the south wall, the brightly coloured growths have accreted into two solid forms: one of human size and shape, and one of human shape but nearly 10ft tall. Both are inanimate, and would be easy to pull to pieces, although touching the stuff will ruin gloves and inflict 1 acid damage to bare skin. 
3. Hazards Room. Iron doors, locked, Bacchon holds the key. A long, central iron table houses various iron tools: hammers, vices, knives, etc., a single spring-loaded pistol, and a Manipulator Helm. Iron shelving units along the eastern wall holds three glass spheres on iron stands. Each sphere houses a white orb at its centre - absolutely white, like a void in space, obviously unnatural. Any adventurer will know that these are Exterminator Orbs, and that to go near them means death. They hum loudly, like fluorescent lighting. The orbs are spatially fixed - moving the glass containers does not move the orbs that they contain - the glass is in place to stop someone carelessly moving too close to the orb. If any part of you comes within range (range is equal to diameter of the orb - in this case 10 inches), you die without a save. This is true of anything living. Also lying on the shelving unit are 2 glass vials containing samples of biological matter infected with the Anathema. They are not contagious if the glass is not broken. The iron door to the west is locked, and leads into a small, box-like cell. A fourth exterminator orb hovers in space at the far edge of the room, and another human-shaped mass of the brightly-coloured growths has grown up around it, such that the orb forms the 'head' of the figure. The 10 inch space around the orb is completely empty. Like the others in Storage, the lichen-mass is inanimate and acidic.

Level Three

Rooms - Level Three

1. Shaft Walkway. Identical to the upper two levels, but now entirely grown over with a thick mat of acidic lichen and coral-like growths. The growths will bend towards light sources - not fast enough to be a threat to an adventurer who is being careful, but enough to engulf someone unawares or pushed into them. Being attacked this way deals d4 acid damage, and has a 1 in 3 chance of ruining your armour, shield, or weapon (your choice). 
2. Air Controls. An ancient mechanism with a single, large iron lever built into the north wall. It is covered in acidic lichen, like all other iron surfaces down here. The lever is currently in the down position, which pumps all air out of the corridors in the Quarantine Vents. If moved to the up position, these pumps will stop functioning. They can be turned on and off this way, although every time you grab the lever you take 1 acid damage. Otherwise this room is bare stone. 
3. Quarantine Vents. Bare stone corridor. All doors leading into it are iron, sealed, and unlocked. If all doors are closed, and the pumps are working, it take about 20 seconds for the air to be pumped out of the corridor. The doors are designed to close themselves after you open them and step through, but they can be propped open to allow airflow. 
4. Testing Room. A large, rifle or cannon-like contraption is built into the floor, pointed directly into the mouth of the corridor to the east. The whole machine is made from iron, and completely grown over by acidic lichen and coral growths (they attack light in the same way as the ones in the Shaft Walkway). Clearing it off would expose you to 6 instances of d4 acid damage, but if you do so you can see that it is clearly a type of cannon. In the alcove to the north, there are four glass vats of acid. At the end of the corridor to the east is the Wounded Extremophile.

Level Four

Rooms - Level Four

1. Landing. Stone room, dominated by the Turbine. Immediately in front of you as you descend the stairs, you can see a ten foot tall human figure frozen in the Sisyphean act of holding the turbine blades in place and preventing their turning. Beyond that, a second ten foot tall human squats on all fours, staring hatefully at you. The first warbody, stopping the turbine, is Kyton's, and the second is what remains of Bacchon.
2. The Second Extremophile. The stone walls have been haphazardly eaten away by the acidic coral growths. In this room they form a gigantic human figure, sitting cross-legged, its blind face turned towards the turbine. It is inanimate, but will responds to light like the growths further up. The acid-bitten stone walls have been engraved with text - what looks like your name, in minuscule characters, over and over. Other characters will see their own name. It feels like evil does in a dream. Time cuts together. If you read your the writing, make INT saves with disadvantage until you pass. For each failure you lose one point of WIS, and take d2 slashing damage. You don't know how you have been cut - it could have been you, or one of your companions. 
3. The Turbine. A monstrous iron engine, totally covered in acidic coral, that moves the chain and brings up matter from below. It is currently immobile thanks to the eternal labour of Kyton - if her warbody is slain, the great turbine will being turning again. If this happens, then every hour of the chain moving has a one in three chance of bringing a Deep Thing up from the depths into the Level Four Landing. Bacchon, if he is alive, will ignore all other threats to kill a Deep Thing, and, once killed, dump its body into the Lower Quarantine Vents. 
4. Lower Quarantine Vents. The pumps from the third level also suck the oxygen from this one. If they are working, and all doors are closed (as above, they are unlocked but designed to close after you), then it takes 20 seconds for the air to be completely sucked out of the corridor. There are probably a thousand dead Deep Things in the corridor; the result of Bacchon's labours. Not all of them have stayed dead, and not all of them require oxygen to live. 2d10 Anaerobic Worms infest these corridors, and will stir to life when they sense your presence. Halfway down the northmost corridor, the Unknown Husk sits, trying make its throat form words. 

Bestiary and Dramatis Personae

Bacchon

A Pilot-in-Dreaming, slain and revived so many times that he is now entirely incapable of complex thought. Protects the fourth floor landing and Kyton's Warbody, and is mindlessly hostile to interlopers. Bacchon is currently inside his own Warbody, which benefits from his WAKE UP ressurection while he is inside it. If you can restrain it or cut him out of the chest, the body will deactivate, and may even be useable by another. 

HD8 (HD1 for Bacchon himself)), Iron Gauntlets (2x d10 damage, can make melee attacks at a range of 15ft), armoured as chain, speed: twice human, disposition: animalistic guardian. 

Kyton's Warbody

Fixed forever into its labour of keeping the turbine from turning. Will not defend itself, and, since Kyton is not inside it, will not resurrect by WAKING UP. 

HD8, no attacks, armour as chain. 

Unknown Husk

The corpse of a thief that somehow made it to the very bottom decades ago. It has been colonised completely by spores from below, which have hijacked the nervous system and believe themselves to be the original human. In reality nothing of the original body remains. Will try to shake your hand and be friendly (it is truly awful to listen to), and will defend itself in a confused way if attacked. 

HD4, x2 unarmed attacks (-2 to hit due to clumsiness, each deal an additional d4 acid damage and have a 1 in 3 three of ruining a piece of gear), armour as chain (rotten leather armour over a spongy mass devoid of organs), speed: as shambling zombie, disposition: cheerful, curious, lonely. 

Deep Things

The things from below. Every time one comes up the chain, roll a d3.

1. 2d4 Anaerobic Worms. Thin, black, whipping, barbed things about three feet long, which store energy chemically inside their bodies. They are blind but attracted to heat and movement. HD1, barbed body (d6, or d10 if it grapples you), armour as leather, speed: human, quicker than you'd think, disposition: mindless, heat-seeking. 
2. Spore Mass. Everyone in the room takes d3 acid damage, and must make a CON save. On a failure, you lose control of a random limb for d6 minutes. While the spores control your limb, it will attempt to kill you however it can, so that they can spread through the rest of your body.
3. Anomalous Entity. A mind from below, brought up in a sticky slurry of tar and primordial soup, very old, very strange. Looks like a tar-black slime, and will attempt to read your thoughts in order to communicate. This does d6 psychic damage to everyone in the room per turn, with the dice size shrinking each time it ticks (d6 > d4 > d3 > d2 > 1 > 0). If you are still alive when it hits zero, you will find that the Anomalous Entity can speak common psychically, although it is only interested in the poetics of pressure, heat, time, and gravity, and will bore of you quickly. HD2, takes maximum 1 damage from individual physical attack, unarmoured, speed: as slime, disposition: curious. 

The Wounded Extremophile

Looks a bit like a gigantic nautilus shell on the back of an enormous, armoured insect body. A cluster of bright eyes stare out from above its finger-like mouth parts. It bears an obvious puncture mark in its shell, stained with dark ichor. It is actually dying, but this will take centuries - if you enter the Testing Room it will crawl slowly down the shaft and attempt to devour you. 

HD20 (only attacks at +5), x4 barbed feeding tendrils (range 30ft, d4 piercing damage, each hit will draw you 10ft closer to the thing), mouth parts (2d12), armour: as plate +2, speed: 10ft per round, disposition: implacable and hungry.

Items

Manipulator Helm

A circlet worn instead of a helmet. If you concentrate while wearing it, you can pick things up psychically (INT check to use as mage hand for one minute. If you fail the check, you cannot try again for one hour).

If you try to use a Manipulator Helm on an Exterminator Orb, you will find that you can sacrifice d3 max hp to give the orb a direction and speed of movement. It will never deviate from this course.