Return to the Machine Temple (Mission)

"Myself, Wivaun, Throk, Fidelius, and Takrend all headed towards the machine temple at dawn. The trip there was uneventful, if winding. The only things of note were the tracks of a giant badger and an occurance of the mysterious lantern that several others have seen.

The temple was reached and breached by means of breaking symbols of Iacto. It appears that there is a specific identification method involving hands or arms of those in the Iron Kingdom though I did not try and determine it due to not wanting to be barred from the temple.

Upon entering, the golem that Throk had previously identified was seen, about 10ft tall and wielding two shields. It was dispatched quickly and an amulet was found on its body which Rayne has not identified as being linked to another amulet somewhere else.

A puzzle room was found in the next chamber. By walking on steps of ascending and then descending clicking times, you can bypass this puzzle. They go to a high of 24 in the center of the room and a low of a few seconds on the edges. There were three openings connecting this chamber to the original entrance.

The first opening, immediately to the left of the entrance stairs, led to a dead end with a construct built into the wall. It appears to be guarding a restricted section and will open for those who know the phrase, but cannot be opened by magical means. We ignored this and moved on.

The second opening, directly across the entrance stairs, leads to an offering room. Two altars are there that when items are placed on them, slide open and lead to a offering storage chamber below. I investigated and found the knife now holding me hostage down there as well as a tunnel likely leading to whoever stole the offerings. I suspect duergar.

Past the offering chamber, there is a prayer chamber containing the scepter of Sanus Tersus and a mechanical assistant. We attempted to obtain a way to translate the language of old but the assistant can only speak one language at a time. They were largely useless but informed us that a dread beast would be summoned should we try and take the scepter. It is said to contain the powers of both creation and destruction and is what Sanus Tersus used to create the Iron Kingdom. I would suspect animation capabilities.

The assistant also informed us the temple was built 400 years ago and that we were the first visitors in 19 years with the last seeming to be Skepsis, leader of the Abandoned. Opting not to take the scepter just yet, we moved on to the last opening.

The third opening, directly to the left of the entrance stairs, leads to the priests chambers. There was little to nothing there besides Vizigo who was contained in a cell by some sort of jailer. The nature of the jailer was unclear but upon death they and all their equipment dissolved into ash. We removed Vizigo and traveled home over the next two days."

―Agamemnon Fireheart's adventure log