217 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
217 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
---
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campaign: Avalon Adventuring Academy
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type: session
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session_number: 4
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date: 2025-11-26
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arc: leyline
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status: run
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next: "[[session_5]]"
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---
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# The Descent
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> [!quote] **READ ALOUD – Elias leaves**
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> Elias runs a hand through his hair and looks at the hatch like it personally insulted him.
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“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.
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>“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.”
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>He forces a tight smile. “Have fun in the forbidden sublevels.”
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Give them a moment to tie up any loose ends on the surface before they descend.
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>[!quote] **READ ALOUD - The Hatch**
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>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.
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>Now that you’re looking straight at it, it’s obvious this isn’t “just” plumbing access.
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>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.
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Joe recognizes this- its a mageball play diagram.
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>[!quote] When Joe notices:
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>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.
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>[!quote] Elias comments:
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>“It looks like a routing diagram. Same idea as a playbook — don’t overload one lane, don’t leave one wide open.
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You jocks want to earn your scholarships, here’s your chance.”
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Up close, they see:
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- Four crystals, one at each corner: **Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right.**
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- Faint lines etched between them like routes on a field diagram.
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- Three lines are thin, one is thicker. The thicker one is a high-risk, all in lane.
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- In the center, the amber Avalon crest sits over a small circular rune.
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- A small line of text along the bottom reads, in tiny script:
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**“LOAD MUST BE DISTRIBUTED – NO LANE LEFT EXPOSED.”**
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Have joe make a athetics check DC 13. On success, he knows which order to hit the buttons.
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>[!quote] On success
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>As you tap the crystals in your chosen sequence, the etched lines flare to life one by one.
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>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.
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>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.
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>Bolts slide. Wards unwind. The hatch shudders, then relaxes.
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>[!quote] On failure:
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>You start the sequence, tapping the corners in the pattern you decided on. At first, the lines flare, but then:
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>One lane — the thick “all-in” path — suddenly surges brighter than the others, swallowing the load. The plate heats under your fingers.
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>“UNSAFE LOAD DISTRIBUTION DETECTED – LOGGED.” runs across the bottom of the hatch.
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Joe must then take make a DC 12 con save or 1d4 lightning.
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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.
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>[!quote] When they enter:
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>A vertical ladder drops into darkness. Faint blue light pulses at intervals below, in time with the rhythm you’ve come to recognize.
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Soren hears a whisper:
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>[!quote]
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>"Roots remember games before they're played."
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Joe feels the rungs vibrate like the crowd stomping at a game.
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>[!quote] **At the Bottom**
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>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.
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>A single, flickering crystal strip tries and fails to provide “adequate lighting,” pulsing a sickly blue-white.
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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).
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# The Antechamber
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After they enter the first door (an easy lock- if joe tries to lockpick, let him. if soren tries knock, that works too).
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>[!quote] **Inside the next room**
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>The next room is cramped but busy — the kind of place only maintenance techs and people who die in boiler accidents usually see.
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>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.
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>A wall-mounted **console** hums with a faint glow, showing scrolling text and sigil graphs.
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Several thick, rune-inscribed pipes run through the far wall, all labeled with worn metal tags.
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## Stuff to Interact With
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1. **Dead Construct**
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- 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.
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- If they try to loot it, it gives a **Tap Calibration Wand**
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2. **The Console**
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- A shitty old interface- fallout, but arcane.
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- On arcana or investigation dc13:
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>[!quote] On Success:
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>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.
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>Then you hit a section of **Error Logs**.
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>- ERR_B2_LOAD: Draw anomaly – pattern divergence from A-series root.
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>- SAFETY FLAG: DISTRIBUTION TAP (NODE B2) approaching redline.
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>- AUTO-THROTTLE ENGAGED – SURFACE BLEED INCREASED TO COMPENSATE.
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>- NOTE: Students reporting “echoes,” “visions,” and “network instability” considered acceptable collateral.
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>- ADMIN OVERRIDE: LOG REDACTION IN PROGRESS – AUTH ID: [REDACTED]
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>- WARNING: ROOT OVERSIGHT PROTOCOL ACTIVE – USER: D’_ _RRIS (LOCKED)
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>[!quote] On Failure:
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>You see two errors:
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>- AUTO-THROTTLE ENGAGED – SURFACE BLEED INCREASED
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>- LOG REDACTION IN PROGRESS – AUTH ID: [REDACTED]
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3. **Labels on the walls**
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- Metal tags on pipes:
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- "FEED - FIELD GRID"
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- "FEED - SUBWARD LAYER 2"
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- "FEED - CAMPUS NET"
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- One tag is missing, screws empty.
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- On a DC 10 Perception, someone notices something is missing.
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4. **Heavy Door with Rune Lock**
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- This leads directly to the **junction chamber**.
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## Core Ideas
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- B2’s load was throttled on purpose.
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- Admin accepted surface weirdness as “collateral” to keep something else from exploding.
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- Someone with redacted credentials is scrubbing logs.
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- There’s a locked “root oversight” user still in the system.
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# The Junction Chamber
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> [!quote] Room Description
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> 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.
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>
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> When the door creaks open, the air on the other side is suddenly cooler, but _thicker_, like it’s full of invisible water.
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>
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> Node B2 is a **cylindrical chamber**, maybe 40 feet across and 25 feet high.
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> 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.
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>
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> 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.
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## Puzzle Interface
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On the ground around the central trunk, there are **arcane calibration circles** and a **control pedestal** with a few obvious handles / dials.
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The four branches have these labels (some partial, some damaged):
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1. FIELD GRID
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2. WARD ARRAY L2
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3. NET RELAY (LIMITED)
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4. \[SCRAPED OFF] - only a faint triangle sigil remains.
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The party can clearly see:
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- Field and Net branches are over-bright. Clearly overworked.
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- Ward branch is faint- underfed.
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- Scraped branch is just weird. It flickers with a pulse, off-beat from the main pulse.
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## Mechanics
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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.
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## Interactables
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1. **Control Pedestal**
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- Four sliders, labeled:
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- FIELD
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- WARD
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- NET
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- UNKNOWN
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- A big central dial, labeled, INTAKE
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- A gauge showing "STRESS", currently in the yellow zone, bordering red.
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- Solution:
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- Turn the intake down slightly, FIELD/NET as well, WARD up a bit, stress goes down.
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- Otherwise, stress spikes.
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- On a DC 14 Arcana/Investigation save:
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>[!quote] On success:
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>“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.”
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>“If you slam any one branch too low or too high, the stress gauge goes red. Stress in the red too long = something breaks.”
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- Goal: 3 good adjustments before 3 bad ones.
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### On bad adjustments:
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1. Echo Surge
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- Each creatrure makes a DC 13 wis save
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- On fail, for 1 round, you have disadvantage on attacks/skill checks as a delayed echo yourself interrupts.
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2. Static Elementals
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- 1-2 small Arcane Wisps form. They flicker and "scream" in the sound of the PA announcements and crowd noise.
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3. Branch Flare
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- One branch overloads briefly, causing:
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- FIELD: Illusory Mageball players materialize and run phantom routes, tackling anyone near the trunk (DC 13 str save or prone)
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- Net: Everyone hears a cascade of half-formed whispers and gets Int save DC 13 or has disadvantage on their next mental check.
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- WARD: A ward backlash throws sparks. Dex save DC13 or 1d6 lightning.
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### Success- Stabilizing B2
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> [!quote] On success:
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> The hum in the chamber drops from a painful buzz to a low, steady thrum.
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> The gauge on the pedestal eases down into the green.
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>
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> 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.
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>
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> The unknown fourth branch flickers once, like an eye opening in the dark… then settles into a quiet, unsettling pulse.
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Little do they know- the unknown branch is now better fed.
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### Failure- Destabilization
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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.
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>[!quote] On failure:
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>There’s a rising whine, like a kettle boiling somewhere under your feet, and then all four branches flare at once.
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>The gauge slams into the red, and a harsh, mechanical voice barks: “FAILSAFE ENGAGED. RE-ROUTING. ROOT OVERSIGHT PRIORITY.”
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>The lights go out for a second. When they come back, the room feels… drained. Like the node is sulking, not dead.
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## The Plate/ Inscription
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Once things calm down, if they party looks around, they find a plaque, partly hidden behind the conduit, which reads:
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>[!quote] PLAQUE
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>ROOT TAP SYSTEM – DESIGN REV. 3
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>PRIMARY: A-SERIES (ROOT)
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>SECONDARY: B-SERIES (DISTRIBUTION)
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>TERTIARY: C-SERIES (OVERSIGHT / RESEARCH) – ACCESS RESTRICTED – SEE DR. K. D’_ _RRIS”
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And a maintenance note, scratched into the wall:
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>[!quote]
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>“If B2 keeps redlining, tell admin to shut the C-line off. They won’t. Not after what they paid him. – T.”
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## Epilogue
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> [!quote] As they finish up in B2:
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> The double heartbeat you’ve all gotten used to fades to a single, slower beat. For a moment, the world feels _less loud_.
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>
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> Then Soren hears, very faintly, curling up from the trunk and the conduits and the stone itself:
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>
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> “Roots remember what rivers forget.
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Roots remember what _they_ bury.”
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Ben recieves a message on his phone:
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>[!quote] Elias:
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>“Hey. The tap just… _changed_. Whatever you did, the hum up here just dropped. Also, three different campus systems just rebooted at once.
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You alive down there? Because administration sure as hell noticed something.”
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