Aele examines the silver scroll tube. "These engravings are old Archontean pictograms. The scroll tube is easily worth twenty-five or thirty imperials, but would fetch four times that if we can find a collector. I'd estimate its age at three centuries."
"What's inside?" Cabe asks.
Inside the ornate silver tube, Aele finds a single sheet of translucent, high-quality vellum. He unrolls it and studies it by lantern light. "It isn't a spell or a deed—it’s a detailed architectural blueprint of the Gosterwick Town Council Hall. Dorn, bring Swift close to the back side of the map, would you?"
When Dorn complies, faint "ghost lines" appear in shimmering ink. These lines reveal a hidden sub-basement and a tunnel system that connects the Council Hall directly to the cellar of the party's own townhouse in the burgeoning town of Gosterwick.
Aele notes that in the bottom-right corner, a name — well, actually more of a designation — is etched in elegant calligraphy: 'For the eyes of the Master of Keys only.' "This map couldn't be more than twenty years old, twenty-five at the outside. But the chest itself, and this scroll tube, are much older."
Dorn moves to study the map over Aele's shoulder. "So someone added the map to the scroll tube only a few years ago. Probably an adventurer stashed it here for safe-keeping, then got themselves killed in the dungeon, or forgot about it and never returned. Look," he says, pointing with his index finger, "this route bypasses the main guard stations. If we ever need to reach the town’s inner sanctum secretly, this is our secret route."
Cabe touches the map, thinking. "We can't assume that nobody else knows about this, but you're right: it's probably not common knowledge. There is a residue here, cold and coppery. This map was once kept in a room where someone’s heart stopped suddenly."
Dorn eyes the blood-binder. "Your powers are that precise?"
Cabe shrugs, "Educated guess, but yeah that's what my pact powers reveal."
While Aele and Cabe continue to study the map, Dorn goes back to the chest. Several bundles of heavy, embroidered silk are used as padding for the coins; the silk itself is of high quality. "I'd say we could get forty imperials for this silk from Creon, or maybe from another merchant on the Street of Silks."
Dorn digs further in the chest, then holds up a heavy brass key ring with three keys on it. "What do you want to bet one of these fits a secret door in our townhouse cellar?" Aele surrenders the vellum map to Cabe and joins Dorn in studying the keys. The second key has a small sunburst engraving.
Aele points to the second key. "This sunburst suggests the key may open a room or chest somewhere in one of the ancient administration buildings of Arden Vul. "
Dorn singles out the third key, which is much smaller and more delicate. "This one may go to a diary."
Aele concurs, "Yes, or to a jewelry box or other curio."
The wizard-priest digs further in the chest and produces a small, leather-bound book. Aele’s Intelligence (12) allows him to quickly scan the first few pages. It isn't a diary, but a private record of "donations" and "expenditures" related to the early construction of Gosterwick. There are mentions of "Theron" (likely Theron Glesteon, the administrator of the House of Coins). "This journal records payments made for 'tunnel reinforcement' beneath Gosterwick. How much do you want to bet that said tunnels do not appear on official town records?" He shakes his head, bemused. "We need to be very secretive with this, and with the map." These are secrets that someone doesn't want revealed."
Next, Aele scrounges around in the chest and produces a gold ring set with a dark carnelian stone, carved with the image of a scales and a sword. "Hmm, probably several centuries old." He hands the ring to Dorn.
Dorn turns it over, studying it by the light of his sword. "We could probably get fifty imperials minimum."
Aele nods agreement, "Yes. And likely twice that from a collector."
Dorn says to the wizard-priest, "What troubles you. You look like someone just forced you to eat something unpleasant."
Aele arches his eyebrows. "I think it's likely that a previous owner, or maybe the architect, or our Gosterwick townhouse is the person who placed the map and this journal here for safekeeping."
"Not good," Dorn decides. "That would mean there may be someone who could enter our townhouse without our knowledge."
Cabe has rolled up the vellum map and returned it to the scroll tube, which he hands to Aele for safekeeping.
"Gentleman, what's your pleasure?" Cabe asks, looking at the heavy grate to the east versus the passage west back to the intersection.
"I'm not sure we could break or move that grate," Dorn says. "There's a bit of clearance at the bottom. You could fit, Cabe, but I doubt Aele and I could while wearing our armor. I suggest we go back to where the halls meet."
Presently, the party return to the intersection. Dorn wipes a speck of rat gore from his greaves. "The doors to the north look like they lead to the 'big chairs.' The blue light to the west... well, that feels like more of those brass clockwork things. Or something stranger."
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Cabe closes his eyes, focusing his Heart Thrum once more. "I'm picking up muffled, steady thumping from beyond the doors. It isn't a heartbeat—it’s too mechanical—but it’s heavier than the spindly whatever you called it that we passed earlier."
"An automaton," Aele says.
Cabe reports, "To the west we've got blue light and I'm getting a faint, high-pitched humming vibration that makes my jaw ache."
Aele has been listening at the double doors. He stands up now and nods to acknowledge Cabe. "I'm picking up magical energy from the west, yes. Most likely a workshop or some apparatus of the past age. The heavier thumping beyond the double doors to the north is steady and unchanging, probably not an immediate threat. I say we go west. We shouldn't tarry. The automaton we inactivated may wake up and realize there are intruders here."
Dorn and Cabe acquiesce and the trio moves that direction, drawn by the high-pitched hum and the flickering cerulean glow. The air grows noticeably drier, and the scent of ozone—the same smell Cabe noted on the lens earlier—becomes thick enough to taste.
The hallway opens into a circular chamber about thirty feet in diameter. The walls are lined with floor-to-ceiling brass conduits and glass tubes that pulse with that strange, blue light.
In the center of the room stands a luminous font: a waist-high stone basin filled not with water, but with a swirling, liquid-like energy that casts dancing shadows across the vaulted ceiling.
Hovering three feet above the font is a spherical brass object. Unlike the spindly automaton bypassed earlier, this is smooth and polished, with four retractable mechanical arms tipped with different tools. It isn't patrolling; it is slowly rotating, dipping its tools into the energy of the font.
"Why does it keep dipping its tools into the ... magic swirly stuff?" Dorn asks. Aele glances down at his boots, supressing laughter.
"Well, it sure as hell isn't stirring it, that's for sure," Cabe decides.
The high-pitched vibration is coming from a cracked conduit on the far wall. Sparks of blue energy jump from the crack to a nearby pile of discarded metal. Cabe says as much, then adds: "But no heartbeats. I don't scent any blood, just that hot copper smell and a hint of an odor like ... burnt hair, maybe."
Aele nods. "That's caused by the energy discharge. I've seen Athelbyn reproduce it in his lab." When Dorn and Cabe give him blank looks, he explains, "Oh, a friend of mine. He's an apothecary in Newmarket."
Dorn keeps his shield up, squinting against the glare. "That's a lot of power in one room. Aele, is the font dangerous, or is it a prize?"
Aele ponders for a moment. "It may be both," he decides. "This is likely a recharging station for automata. If we can figure out a way to safely interact with the font, it might be useful, possibly a key to other locations on this dungeon level. The cracked conduit on the wall looks unstable."
Party Status:
Hero HP AAC Notes
------ --- ------ -------
Dorn 35/34 21 1 Temp HP.
Cabe 33/31 17 2 Temp HP.
Aele 27/27 15 2/3 Surges.
Dorn says, "I'm going to walk the perimeter, see if I can detect any other exits from this chamber, or perhaps a secret door. Aele, see if you can figure a way to stabilize that cracked ... whatever that is sparking on the far wall."
"It's a conduit," Aele says.
Dorn begins a slow, methodical circuit of the circular room, keeping his back to the wall and his buckler raised. His eyes, trained by years of looking for structural weaknesses, scan the brass-lined masonry for the telltale signs of a hidden seam or a recessed lever.
Meanwhile, Aele approaches the cracked conduit. The blue sparks jump with a sharp snap-crack, casting erratic, jagged shadows. The air here is thick with the smell of scorched air.
Aele realizes that the Luminous Font is the heart of this room's power, and the cracked conduit is a "bleeding" artery. If it isn't stabilized, the build-up of static could eventually discharge in a dangerous arc—or worse, alert the floating drone to their presence.
The wizard-priest moves closer to the sparking conduit, but doesn't approach closer than two arm spans. He begins formulating the idea of using the silver scroll tube to short out the circuit, thus stabilizing the overall mechanism.
As Dorn reaches the far side of the room, near the discarded pile of metal, he notices something interesting. The floor dust is disturbed in a straight line, parallel to the wall.
Dorn succeeds at a Perception check: He taps the stone with the pommel of Swift. Thud. Thud. Hollow. "There's a secret door here, tucked behind a section of brass piping."
The spherical drone continues its slow rotation over the font. It has noticed the party, but because they haven't touched the basin or attacked, its central eye remains a neutral amber. However, as Aele gets closer to the sparking conduit, the drone's tools stop moving. It is "observing" the wizard-priest closely.
Aele asks Dorn and Cabe, "Do you think we could use the silk we found in the chest to insulate this conduit?"
Cabe stands close to the hovering drone, his athame ready in case it takes any hostile action.
Dorn says, "It could work. Also, I have fifty feet of silk rope in my pack. It doesn't catch a spark like wool or dry cotton might." Dorn tosses the coil of silk rope to Aele. With Cabe watching the floating drone with white-knuckled intensity, Aele approaches the brass pipe. He uses the wooden handle of his mace to carefully press the loose end of the silk rope against the cold brass, then begins to wind it in a tight, overlapping spiral. The blue sparks hiss against the fabric, turning the silk a shimmering, translucent violet, but the snap-crack noise dies down.
The humming in the room drops an octave. The high-pitched vibration that was making Cabe’s teeth ache subsides. The spherical drone watches for a moment longer, its amber eye pulsing once, before it returns to dipping its tools into the Luminous Font.
With the room stabilized, the trio gathers by the section of wall Dorn identified.
Dorn: "The secret panel is right here. It’s a 'push-and-slide' mechanism. Where do you think this might take us, Aele?"
Aele shrugs, "I'm not sure, but from my recent reading and research, it may lead into the Logistics Archives."
Cabe leans his ear against the stone panel, activating his Heart Thrum ability. "I hear something. Not heartbeats... it sounds like running water. But it's rhythmic, like a pump."
Aele returns the hank of silk rope to Dorn, minus approximately five feet of it that he used on the conduit. "Before we check out this hidden panel, let me have a look at the pile of metal near the font." Aele sifts through the cold brass and oxidized copper, and finds (per Spark table):
-
A solid brass cogwheel about the size of a dinner plate, etched with the numeral "7" in Thothian script. It’s heavy and perfectly balanced.
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A small, cracked crystal housed in a lead casing. It no longer glows, but Aele senses it once held the "instructions" for a mechanical servant.
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A tuning fork made out of some strange material — a dull, grey metal that feels strangely heavy. When Aele accidentally taps it against his mace, it emits a low, resonant tone that causes the blue energy in the Luminous Font to ripple in synchronicity.
Aele bundles these three items into his pack then joins Cabe and Dorn. The big fighter says, "No traps as far as I can tell. But just in case, stand back while I trigger this panel's catch."