Golden Vault: Gnomeregan part 1

No, it's not actually called Gnomeregan. It was on our brain, though. A deep gnome city in the Underdark is overrun with killer robots and they need us to save it. We gathered some superficial info in Waterdeep, then started on our merry way. Right into a grell ambush. Good thing for my weapon of warning.

We quickly disposed of the grells, with Brandon executing the last one by thrusting his rapier critically through its brain. Only I got hurt a bit, but walked it off. Then, we approached the gnomish city to talk to the refugees. The mayor, an older woman called Braith, gave us a map of the city.

The overseer of the city defenses, an engineer called Tixi, started replacing her limbs with mechanical parts. When asked to stop, she went mad and unleashed the guardian robots on the unsuspecting populace. Our objectives are to turn off the robots with the failsafe switch, then neutralize Tixi.

And so we entered the city through the front gate, opened up by gnomish wizards and watched by the survivors of the town guard.

The city rests on islands of lava, except the central overlook, which is carved into a huge stalactite.

The dwarves were adamant on fighting, and I agreed that it would be good to test the enemy's strength. We marched into the old town, and were promptly set upon by mechanical dogs. They were tough, but not overly, and we destroyed them in short order (by rolling two critical hits). We proceeded to loot the town hall, as marked by the mayor, relieving it of a cache of healing potions and other alchemical tools.

I then stuffed the party into the bag of holding, and sneaked across to the abbey. We met two escaped convicts, a goblin and a bugbear, as well as a monk hiding in the walls. I agreed to take them outside, with the monk safely in the bag, and the convicts following along as best they could. I then sneaked back to my buddies.

Back into the bag they went, and we entered the generator district. I avoided the main generator, where I heard mechanical noises. Instead, we looted the infirmary, taking several health potions and healing kits. We also took whatever we could from the jail, including stripping the dead guards of their arms and armor.

Then, we sneaked into Smoldertown, and located a heavily guarded building where the failsafe should be. I decided on a one-man ambush, to demonstrate my crits. Unfortunately, I rolled really, really bad, and couldn't manage a hit.

Then, we were in for a surprise. The mechanical dogs were able to jump up on the buildings, where we had thought ourselves safe.

To make matters worse, an observer bot also showed up and started a wailing siren. I went invisible with some dust of disappearance, then shot it down. But not before two more robo-dogs answered the call.

We had to end there, mid battle. To be continued...