---
campaign: Avalon Adventuring Academy
type: session
session_number: 4
date: 2025-11-26
arc: leyline
status: run
next: "[[session_5]]"
---
# The Descent
> [!quote] **READ ALOUD – Elias leaves**
> Elias runs a hand through his hair and looks at the hatch like it personally insulted him.  
“All right. You go down, I’ll stay topside and make sure nobody catches on that someone’s popped the tap-cell hatch.” He holds up the sap-tap. 
>“I’ll keep this synced. If the heartbeat does anything _really_ stupid, I’ll send you a message. If you start screaming, I’ll… file a report, I guess.”
>He forces a tight smile. “Have fun in the forbidden sublevels.”

Give them a moment to tie up any loose ends on the surface before they descend.

>[!quote] **READ ALOUD - The Hatch**
>The hatch sits half-buried between the last two supports of the home bleachers, a slab of old metal bolted into cracked concrete. Someone tried to hide it under a mix of scrub and trash — ticket stubs, a crushed soda can, what might once have been a hot dog.
>Now that you’re looking straight at it, it’s obvious this isn’t “just” plumbing access.
>Set into the top of the hatch is a **rune plate** about the size of a clipboard. Four tiny crystals sit at the corners, pulsing faintly. In the middle, the Avalon crest glows dim amber.

Joe recognizes this- its a mageball play diagram.
>[!quote] When Joe notices:
>The lines are routes. Small circles marking “players.” Little arrows showing how the “ball” — or in this case, **power** — is supposed to move across the field.

>[!quote] Elias comments:
>“It looks like a routing diagram. Same idea as a playbook — don’t overload one lane, don’t leave one wide open.  
You jocks want to earn your scholarships, here’s your chance.”

Up close, they see:
	- Four crystals, one at each corner: **Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right.**
	- Faint lines etched between them like routes on a field diagram.
	- Three lines are thin, one is thicker. The thicker one is a high-risk, all in lane.
	- In the center, the amber Avalon crest sits over a small circular rune.
	- A small line of text along the bottom reads, in tiny script:  
	 **“LOAD MUST BE DISTRIBUTED – NO LANE LEFT EXPOSED.”**
Have joe make a athetics check DC 13. On success, he knows which order to hit the buttons.
>[!quote] On success
>As you tap the crystals in your chosen sequence, the etched lines flare to life one by one.
>Each corner you hit sends a soft pulse of light across the plate — first to one side, then fanning out across all four paths. The thicker “high-risk” line lights up, but never stays bright for long; the others pick up the slack.
>When you hit the last crystal, there’s a low _thunk_ from inside the hatch. The Avalon crest in the center shifts from amber to **green**, and the whole plate cools under your hand.
>Bolts slide. Wards unwind. The hatch shudders, then relaxes.

>[!quote] On failure:
>You start the sequence, tapping the corners in the pattern you decided on. At first, the lines flare, but then:
>One lane — the thick “all-in” path — suddenly surges brighter than the others, swallowing the load. The plate heats under your fingers.
>“UNSAFE LOAD DISTRIBUTION DETECTED – LOGGED.” runs across the bottom of the hatch.

Joe must then take make a DC 12 con save or 1d4 lightning.

If they say fuck the puzzle, DC16 str check with a crowbar. Or thieves tools dc 15 to bypass the lock. This IMMEDIATELY alerts administration.

>[!quote] When they enter:
>A vertical ladder drops into darkness. Faint blue light pulses at intervals below, in time with the rhythm you’ve come to recognize.


Soren hears a whisper:
>[!quote] 
>"Roots remember games before they're played."

Joe feels the rungs vibrate like the crowd stomping at a game.

>[!quote] **At the Bottom**
>You step off the ladder into a low concrete chamber, barely tall enough for Joe to stand up straight. Pipes and conduit run along the ceiling and vanish into the walls.
>A single, flickering crystal strip tries and fails to provide “adequate lighting,” pulsing a sickly blue-white.

The room has a single door- it is thick, and made of metal. There is a rune plate which shows solid amber (standby/locked, not hostile).

# The Antechamber
After they enter the first door (an easy lock- if joe tries to lockpick, let him. if soren tries knock, that works too).
>[!quote] **Inside the next room**
>The next room is cramped but busy — the kind of place only maintenance techs and people who die in boiler accidents usually see.
>There’s a half-collapsed **maintenance construct** in the corner, like a cross between a janitor cart and a crab, its limbs twisted and crystal eye dark.
>A wall-mounted **console** hums with a faint glow, showing scrolling text and sigil graphs.  
Several thick, rune-inscribed pipes run through the far wall, all labeled with worn metal tags.

## Stuff to Interact With
1. **Dead Construct**
	- Investigation DC 12: This wasn't the work of students/ It was overloaded. Melted plastic blown out from the inside. It is equipped for calibration and safety- not "security" like the constructs in the detention room.
	- If they try to loot it, it gives a **Tap Calibration Wand**
2. **The Console**
	- A shitty old interface- fallout, but arcane.
	- On arcana or investigation dc13:
		>[!quote] On Success:
		>Lines of text scroll past in a cramped system font. Most of it is boring — power levels, maintenance schedules, ‘Calibrate Field Pulses Every 30 Days Or Else’ warnings.
	>Then you hit a section of **Error Logs**.
	>- ERR_B2_LOAD: Draw anomaly – pattern divergence from A-series root.
	>- SAFETY FLAG: DISTRIBUTION TAP (NODE B2) approaching redline.
	>- AUTO-THROTTLE ENGAGED – SURFACE BLEED INCREASED TO COMPENSATE.
	>- NOTE: Students reporting “echoes,” “visions,” and “network instability” considered acceptable collateral.
	>- ADMIN OVERRIDE: LOG REDACTION IN PROGRESS – AUTH ID: [REDACTED]
	>- WARNING: ROOT OVERSIGHT PROTOCOL ACTIVE – USER: D’_ _RRIS (LOCKED)
>[!quote] On Failure:
>You see two errors:
>- AUTO-THROTTLE ENGAGED – SURFACE BLEED INCREASED
>- LOG REDACTION IN PROGRESS – AUTH ID: [REDACTED]

3. **Labels on the walls**
	- Metal tags on pipes:
		- "FEED - FIELD GRID"
		- "FEED - SUBWARD LAYER 2"
		- "FEED - CAMPUS NET"
		- One tag is missing, screws empty.
		- On a DC 10 Perception, someone notices something is missing.
4. **Heavy Door with Rune Lock**
	- This leads directly to the **junction chamber**.

## Core Ideas

- B2’s load was throttled on purpose.
- Admin accepted surface weirdness as “collateral” to keep something else from exploding.
- Someone with redacted credentials is scrubbing logs.
- There’s a locked “root oversight” user still in the system.
# The Junction Chamber


> [!quote] Room Description
> The door to the tap cell is heavier than the others, banded with dull metal and etched with a dozen overlapping ward circles. As you approach, the sap-tap in your pack/at your belt starts pulsing faster — like a heart speeding up in anticipation.
> 
> When the door creaks open, the air on the other side is suddenly cooler, but _thicker_, like it’s full of invisible water.
> 
> Node B2 is a **cylindrical chamber**, maybe 40 feet across and 25 feet high.
> In the center, a **vertical crystal trunk** rises from the floor and disappears into the ceiling — a translucent “tree” of light, with **four thick branches** extending outward and merging into the walls as glowing conduits. Each branch is engraved with faint labels.
> 
> Sigils flicker and crawl along the surfaces like ants. The whole room hums with the same double-beat rhythm you felt above… but here, it’s so loud it makes your teeth vibrate.

## Puzzle Interface
On the ground around the central trunk, there are **arcane calibration circles** and a **control pedestal** with a few obvious handles / dials.

The four branches have these labels (some partial, some damaged):
1. FIELD GRID
2. WARD ARRAY L2
3. NET RELAY (LIMITED)
4. \[SCRAPED OFF] - only a faint triangle sigil remains.
The party can clearly see:
- Field and Net branches are over-bright. Clearly overworked.
- Ward branch is faint- underfed.
- Scraped branch is just weird. It flickers with a pulse, off-beat from the main pulse.
## Mechanics
Admin has throttled B2 so it wouldn't overload the unknown fourth branch. To compensate, it's bleeding excess into the field + net, which is what's causing the network issues. The system is unstable, but not yet exploding.  I want them to stabilize B2 by moving power elsewhere.
## Interactables

1. **Control Pedestal**
	- Four sliders, labeled:
		- FIELD
		- WARD
		- NET
		- UNKNOWN
	- A big central dial, labeled, INTAKE
	- A gauge showing "STRESS", currently in the yellow zone, bordering red.
	- Solution:
		- Turn the intake down slightly, FIELD/NET as well, WARD up a bit, stress goes down.
		- Otherwise, stress spikes.
	 - On a DC 14 Arcana/Investigation save:
		 >[!quote] On success:
			 >“This is exactly what it looks like: distribution controls. You can’t shut the tap off completely (the dial has a safety lock), but you can adjust how much each branch gets.”
			 >“If you slam any one branch too low or too high, the stress gauge goes red. Stress in the red too long = something breaks.”
	- Goal: 3 good adjustments before 3 bad ones. 
### On bad adjustments:
1. Echo Surge
		-  Each creatrure makes a DC 13 wis save
		- On fail, for 1 round, you have disadvantage on attacks/skill checks as a delayed echo yourself interrupts.
2. Static Elementals
	- 1-2 small Arcane Wisps form. They flicker and "scream" in the sound of the PA announcements and crowd noise.
3. Branch Flare
	- One branch overloads briefly, causing:
		- FIELD: Illusory Mageball players materialize and run phantom routes, tackling anyone near the trunk (DC 13 str save or prone)
		- Net: Everyone hears a cascade of half-formed whispers and gets Int save DC 13 or has disadvantage on their next mental check.
		- WARD: A ward backlash throws sparks. Dex save DC13 or 1d6 lightning.
### Success- Stabilizing B2


> [!quote] On success:
> The hum in the chamber drops from a painful buzz to a low, steady thrum.
> The gauge on the pedestal eases down into the green.
> 
> The FIELD and NET branches dim slightly, their glow less frantic. The WARD branch brightens, lines of runes along it filling in like ink spreading through paper.
> 
> The unknown fourth branch flickers once, like an eye opening in the dark… then settles into a quiet, unsettling pulse.

Little do they know- the unknown branch is now better fed. 
### Failure- Destabilization
Stress gauge locks at max. Braches flicked. Field output drops heavily. Net goes jittery. Ward gets a modest boost. Unknown sucks everything left to stay online.
>[!quote] On failure:
>There’s a rising whine, like a kettle boiling somewhere under your feet, and then all four branches flare at once.
>The gauge slams into the red, and a harsh, mechanical voice barks: “FAILSAFE ENGAGED. RE-ROUTING. ROOT OVERSIGHT PRIORITY.”
>The lights go out for a second. When they come back, the room feels… drained. Like the node is sulking, not dead.
## The Plate/ Inscription
Once things calm down, if they party looks around, they find a plaque, partly hidden behind the conduit, which reads:
>[!quote] PLAQUE
>ROOT TAP SYSTEM – DESIGN REV. 3
>PRIMARY: A-SERIES (ROOT)
>SECONDARY: B-SERIES (DISTRIBUTION)
>TERTIARY: C-SERIES (OVERSIGHT / RESEARCH) – ACCESS RESTRICTED – SEE DR. K. D’_ _RRIS”

And a maintenance note, scratched into the wall:
>[!quote]
>“If B2 keeps redlining, tell admin to shut the C-line off. They won’t. Not after what they paid him. – T.”

## Epilogue

> [!quote] As they finish up in B2:
> The double heartbeat you’ve all gotten used to fades to a single, slower beat. For a moment, the world feels _less loud_.
> 
> Then Soren hears, very faintly, curling up from the trunk and the conduits and the stone itself: 
> 
> “Roots remember what rivers forget.  
Roots remember what _they_ bury.”

Ben recieves a message on his phone:
>[!quote] Elias:
>“Hey. The tap just… _changed_. Whatever you did, the hum up here just dropped. Also, three different campus systems just rebooted at once.  
You alive down there? Because administration sure as hell noticed something.”

