And Gerald Dies Again, and Again

Pharast 18, 4712, continued

With six automatons activated, the Coopers' combat in the armory continues. Daryle lets a few arrows fly, while Roscoe miss his two attempts. The automatons strike back, but one misses Omok, while two others fail miserably at their attacks. Thorne, who happens to have a small paint vial, throws it against one of the automatons and successfully covers its eyes. Darelle engages a new opponent, and it's general mayhem in the automaton armory. Automatons are slowly being destroyed, but the Coopers all suffer wounds.

As Gerald delivers the killing blow to the automatons standing in front of him, it explodes, embedding a large shard of shrapnel in his skull. Gerald now looks like a shiny unicorn. A giant automaton activates and joins the combat. Thorne uses his wand of webbing and attempts to stop it. Unfortunately it barely stops. The giant automaton heads straight for Gerald. Omok, meanwhile, is engaged in a brutal combat of his own, so he summons a land shark to help him. Darelle, who's fighting another automaton next to him accidentally steps near the shark and gets bitten. Rowen maneuvers himself behind the automaton fighting Darelle and joins that battle.

It eventually takes all of Roscoe, Gerald, Thorne, and Daryle's efforts to slay the large giant. It explodes in a shower of sparks. Most of the party manages to step out of the way but Gerald suffers another wound.

With the battle wrapped up, the Coopers explore the rest of the armory. In the southwest corner they find a curtain of lightning that stretches from wall to wall and from the floor to the ceiling. Rowen comes up with a clever way to walk through the curtain. He will build a circuit that will conduct the current using pieces of the destroyed automatons. Thorne looks at the curtain and attempts to discern a way to disrupt it, but he cannot find one. Gerald steps forward and also looks at it. Omok casts a spell and travels through stone and emerges on the other side. Thorne, sensing a great prank, shoves Gerald through the curtain. The sorcerer makes it across but not before suffering significant damage.

Mad and ticked off at his brother, Gerald drags Omok through the doors and Gerald closes the doors and wizard lock them. Gerald takes the steward's head from his backpack, who survived the lightning curtain. At the back of the room is a large console bearing rows of gems, placed in front of the Emerald Spire. The gems pulse and seem to randomly light. On each side of the room is a large sarcophagus-like structure standing, with a smaller one in the north wall. The air positively shimmers with electricity. Omok takes a step forward, but as soon as he reaches the middle of both large structures on either side, doors slide inward, revealing a brand new automaton. The automatons emerge from their coffins and attack Omok and Gerald. The sorcerer makes a run for the console with the steward's head firmly in his hands, but he is tackled by one of the automatons. At the same time, the smaller structure also opens, and another swarm of reclaimers comes out and joins the fray. Gerald and the head soon disappear under the swarm. Omok manages to flee by merging with the stone wall again and coming out on the other side.

Unaware of the drama taking place next door, Rowen comes up with the clever idea of creating a circuit to discharge the lightning curtain. He will employ bits and pieces of the destroyed automatons, and create an arch that should discharge enough electricity out of the lightning curtain to render it inoffensive.

When Omok emerges from the stone he reports to the Coopers what has happened next door. Roscoe, determined to rescue his brother, braves the lightning curtain, taking some damage. Omok joins him and casts a dispel magic to counteract Gerald's wizard lock. Inside he finds that the room is as the hobgoblin described it, minus the automatons and the reclaimers. In the middle of the room is a bleached skull with a piece of metal sticking out, the last remnants of the sorcerers. The reclaimers devoured everything else. Rowen meanwhile successfully shorts the lightning curtain, and the remaining Coopers enter the heart of this level. A lively discussion ensues as to whether Gerald should be resurrected for the second time, and eventually Roscoe decides that it would benefit the expedition to do so.

Gerald is thus brought back from the dead a second time, and he begins his third life. Confused, Gerald only remembers being attacked by the reclaimers. He doesn't know what happened to the steward. He then notices that his gear is missing. Naked, without spell, and without any equipment save for that piece of metal sticking out of his skull, Gerald enters into a rage and he rushes the console. The automatons and the reclaimer swarm emerge from their resting place and Gerald is soon engulfed again, much to the horror of his friends and family.

Fully engaged in combat, the Coopers have no time to question what just happened. Rowen uses a fly spell to cross the space above the battle and he reaches the console. Omok consults the orb of command and asks which button Rowen should push. The orb tells him to push the 57th button from the top, but because Omok did not think to ask for the proper sequence and not just the first button, Rowen is unable to shut the factory down. With combat going poorly, Thorne spikes the doors to the coffin closed, hoping that more automatons will not come out. The swarm and the automatons already in the room pursue the battle, while Rowen pushes random buttons. More automatons in the hall behind them activate and try to enter the room, but Darelle disactivates the circuit that shorted the lightning circuit and the automatons are effectively locked on the other side.

Noticing that Rowen was not attacked, Darelle realizes that by flying over the enemy she will avoid combat. She summons her blue pegasus and crosses over to the console, then sends the pegasus back to fetch each member of the party. With the automatons defeated, the Coopers find themselves on the safest side of the room. Rowen continues to push buttons, and he eventually discovers the proper sequence to turn the level's defense mechanisms off. 

Once again Roscoe resurrects Gerald. The sorcerer has now been reborn three times, and he suffers from a permanent piece of automaton sticking out of his skull. Nude and without gear, hurt, and badly needing supplies and healing, the Coopers decide to return to Fort Inevitable.