Recap for Larissa. We heard you were traveling abroad. Please Don't Go Girl.
Gneon summoned all of us again and commissioned us to search his Alumignome facility on the outskirts of Grimhold. He mentioned that he sent a message to his miners, but that he never got a response. He suspected the same people involved in the previous job we worked on. He even went so far as to file a report with Marston about the suspicious activity. Marston requested One More Night to finish his rounds across the city, then he would investigate.
Gneon offered the group 2000 gp each for the job. The group agreed with the caveat that they are paid 1000 gp each Tonight and the rest upon completion of the investigation.
We did a little shopping for supplies before heading out, including welding goggles for Cordero's eyes, in case we ran into the furry lycanthrope beast again. Then we set forth on Owen's flying stone carpet to travel the 4.5 miles across the badlands toward the mining facility. Call It What You Want , but we felt we were on a suicide mission.
The flight proved uneventful thanks to our Dwarven trifecta of darkvision. Once we arrived at the facility, we circumnavigated the perimeter of the dig site, but didn't see anything suspicious. Eventually, we came across a metal building. We searched for clues around the building, but saw nothing, not even light. Owen lowered the stone carpet down to stairwell. We approached slowly, taking it Step By Step. At this point, Rathos put on his newly acquired mining headlamp so he could see (silly Human) and possibly break in to the building. We asked that he be careful. We implied that If You Go Away too far out of sight, we'll lose contact. It was then that Cordero realized he could cast Open/Close to open the door as long as it wasn't locked. Sure enough, it swung open. Turns out that Cordero's cantrips were made of The Right Stuff.
Once inside, we scouted the building and saw a huge Alumignome processor, complete with all manner of levers, buttons, and gadgets on the first floor. We searched the second floor and found the sleeping quarters of the Gnomes. After seeing signs of struggle and picking some locks on the chests, we found personal belongings, a long-barreled pistol, and some silver sheets. Arken wandered up to the third floor and saw the Human sleeping quarters. No mess up here, but nothing else of note either, other than the entire building having no windows.
After some searching, we heard the door slam shut and eventually we all heard the sound of steam building up in a mechanical device, similar to a tea pot starting to boil. Cordero hid in a chest and the rest of us took cover and drew our weapons. After nothing immediate happened, Cordero made his way down to the machine and saw all the levers turned up to maximum power. It was then he cast a Message spell and began to Whisper to each of us that we needed to get down there and help shut that thing off. We all got there and proceeded to shut down levers, but it was difficult, even despite buff spells.
Owen devised a brilliant plan to use his stone carpet to provide leverage against the levers. We all pushed and successfully moved them to the off position.
After that, we heard the distinct pop of a summoned creature and two giant red glowing centipede's appeared next to us. The centipede's were soon joined by badgers, bears, gorillas, and acid spewing slimes. It was at this point that Rathos sprung into action. He put on a spectacular display of acrobatics, tumbling, and sword play that made Zorro look like a chump. He managed to sneak attack every one of the creatures at one point or another and decimated their ranks. Unfortunately, we were so outnumbered that most of us were badly beaten and bloodied up. The bigger creatures got a hold of us and squeezed. We battled with steel, magic, and psionic might, but it wasn't going well for most of us.
At this point, Arken withdrew and went into the greatroom area of the main entrance, hoping to find the caster. He eventually let loose a shotgun blast off that sprayed the entire area, but didn't appear to have an effect. Cordero eventually joined him and revealed a "glowing" spot outside the front door where there was magic thanks to his Detect Magic. Arken charged his rockshot and blasted the area outside the door. It was then that a furry, mangled, three-eyed beast fell out of invisibility. He reached a mighty arm out towards Arken and grappled him. Cordero tried to help, but it appeared that he would Never Let Go.
Eventually Cordero struck him with a nasty axe slash and he released Arken. He was beaten until he turned to mist. Once he was floating away slowly, Owen decided he had enough of this thing and blasted it with a maximized Fireball. The mist was no longer detected after that, but we're uncertain if we killed it or it simply escaped faster than we could see.
That brings us to where we are now. Licking our wounds and searching the building one last time before heading down to the mines. Owen took a massive beating, but after a healing potion, he's Hangin' Tough.