It is a humid and hot day. Almost every day. You’ve changed out of your boots and into some sandals. [-1 coin for anyone not from the Blazing Garden]
The Neko village Baharil is pleasant. You’ve spent two weeks getting to know everyone there: Pepper Mint the inn-keeper who you rent rooms from [-1 coin for everyone]. Spear Mint the slime-berry farmer who loves playing a game of dice. The quiet and earnest blacksmith Perfectly Fine who has been patiently teaching Flower how to make Shuriken. Perfectly Comfortable the flower vendor and his pet tortoise June love just hanging out with you. Cheery has gotten to know the local gadgeteer Cardboard Box and has been working with them on figuring out some of the mysterious objects in their collection and improving the fan systems in the buildings. Rai-Nekos from the other villages and surrounding farms come to meet you, the travellers from far away. [Everyone not a Neko gains +1 reputation with the Neko community of the Pride Coast.]
You’re getting comfortable. You’ve almost forgotten that you wanted to keep travelling to the library of the Sol-Alliance. When Cheery mentions this one day over a jug of Slime-Berry Bounce (a cocktail with a lot of fizz and slime-berries floating in it) Perfectly Comfortable (the flower vendor) exclaims “Well, if it’s books that you want, there must be books in the tower!” “What tower?” Chanaky asks. He means the fallen tower that you slept in on your way to the village weeks ago. “Impossible!” you say, “When we spent some hours resting in that tower we saw nothing but fallen beams and rubble.” But Comfortable is adamant. He insists that the former occupant of the tower was a powerful and knowledgeable Neko, and he is sure that they owned books full of magic and knowledge. The villagers have been telling stories about that tower and its deceased (or disappeared) inhabitant for generations. The ones they tell you make no sense or sound like they are meant to scare children into behaving.
When you ask Perfectly Fine the blacksmith about it, she shrugs and mumbles something about letting sleeping spiders lie.
The one villager who is really excited to talk about the fallen tower is Perfectly Legible, the self-proclaimed village librarian and archivist. They’ve spent the last two weeks copying any and all leaflets, books, brochures, lists, and recipes you had about you to archive them into the village library; they’ve interviewed Chanaky about the Murk and Cheery about Stahlfeld just to write everything down and archive it in the library. They don’t think there is much in the tower. They know all the stories about the Neko Wizard that is supposed to have lived in the tower. They suspect that the Neko might not have been a wizard at all but just an old man who lived in a tower. But you can borrow the book of stories about the Neko Wizard of the Fallen Tower if you want. They insist on coming with you in case you do find something interesting.
[This will only be a short excursion. Everyone packs a day bag (5 slots) with some food (3 rations; 1 slot) and some small items (Legible: field journal + pencil case: 1slot; rope: 2slots; lantern + fuel: 1slot. What else might you need? Distribute these things amongst yourselves; not everyone needs to bring rope, e.g.) and grabs their weapon of choice.]
On your way to the tower Legible points out plants and bugs and names them, rattling off facts about them. Cheery is fascinated and so your walk to the tower takes longer than it usually would because the Field Archivist and the Librarian are geeking out and that slows the group down. You take a break [-1 ration for everyone, re-arranging of packs; opportunity to pee; write down notes, practice with their new shuriken].
When you finally get to the fallen tower it is just as unassuming as the last time you saw it. There is no sense of danger. The tower almost looks like it was supposed to be lying down. except that its door is now looking up at the sky and the entrance now is a hole in what used to be the floor boards.
In you go. One by one, through the hole.
Inside it is not quite as bright as outside but it is not gloomy. Instead it is a comfortable half-light. As your eyes adjust, you look around. Yup. Same as last time: nothing but fallen beams and rubble. But you notice that you are only looking at the ground floor. The tower is much longer from the outside.
What do you do?
– Look around the room -> see holes in the wall that look like they used to hold stairs. They lead towards a corner that is filled with debris and broken beams.
– go look at the tower from outside, see if you can get into the rest of the tower from outside -> the window slits are too far off the ground for you to reach them. The former top of the tower actually has a visible trap door but that too is out of reach.
[If no one else does it Legible suggests investigating the corner that presumably some stairs used to lead to.]
You start moving bits out of the way.
Everybody gets to roll a d20 3x
1-3: a pretty stone that seems to have been part of the masonry has broken loose. Sparkly!
4-6: some wild animal seems to have tried to make a larder here. You find 10 nuts.
7-9: a small rodent has died in this rubble. You find a small rodent skull.
10-12: a boomerang: can be used to stun one enemy for 2 turns one use per combat. Can be used to retrieve items, and trigger switches. It’s a little banged up but works just fine. Maybe get it fixed up by a craftsman (1coin for repairs)
13: a blue candle stub (this candle helps you see hidden doors (3 charges left)
14-17: a coin!
18-19: a handful of screws with bolts.
20: a cool looking knife with a good blade
Once you’ve moved enough of the rubble, you can see that there is an opening. Legible is excited and rushes on through. Excitedly they shout “You guys! There’s a whole ‘nother room over here!”
This room used to be another floor in the tower. More beams and masonry have fallen. Broken furniture is lying around. Some type of flying animal have made their home up high with nests that are stuck to the wall. There’s a third floor but the entrance to that is also up high. You could use some of the beams that used to hold the stairs to reach it.
Take a break. Rest. Eat. [-1 ration for everybody] Re-arrange your packs, trade your found items if you want to.
Who is going to climb up and help everyone else get up there? (Deftness check for the volunteers)
Once you’ve reached the top you realize that you’re going to have to get down again. And not all of you’ve got room on the edge of what used to be the floor. (Insight check or the group talks about it. An insight check will also reveal that going down the wall that used to be the floor is going to be a little tricky, seeing as it is covered in an oozy slime-mold. A floor-board has come loose and could function as a foothold.)
Before you climb down and get everyone else there:
The room has more intact furniture in it. There’s also a pile of broken beams and rubble.
Once everyone is in the third room:
There’s a bookshelf with books. It is attached to what used to be the wall… You cannot reach it. Maybe pile something to reach? Or get the books down by breaking the bookshelf? Or lasso them down?
There’s a pile of rubble. And a table. And a wardrobe [empty].
There’s a chest. Not locked (or locked if someone has lock picking skills they want to show off).
The minute something is disturbed (the bookshelf, the rubble, the chest, the wardrobe) a bunch of mechanical spiders with ø20cm come out and swarm you. 5 to each character. They can climb the furniture, they can climb you. They don’t hurt you badly, but they will nick you. little cuts on your clothes, and eventually your flesh. Actually they won’t even do that if you don’t move. They’ll just climb all over you all the time. It’s when you try to fling them off and fight them that you’ll get hurt.They are impossible to hit.
Have everyone do a Deftness and Insight check. The moment someone passes both they have found out that the spiders have a small button on the top and if you push it they switch off and retract their legs and just become a flat metal sphere.
If no one passes, Perfectly Legible shouts out “Oh! There is a story about the Wizard’s Spiders in one of the books at home. In the story you tap the middle of their back and they become immobilized! Try that!”
The group needs to figure out a way to get the books off the bookshelf. Insight check.
Loot:
as many of the available mechanical spiders as you want. 1slot each.
books:
most books crumble as you get them off the shelf or open them. The ones that stay intact are:
- weird little book with lots of handwritten notes in the margins
- a large, slim volume that only has printing on the first pages, most of the book seems to be empty pages.
- a thick squat volume with schematics and circuits and interesting drawings of machines
- a beautifully illustrated volume that looks like it is fairytales
Legible insists on carrying all the books because they want to copy them all for the village library. You can take your pick after and send the rest to the Helical Archive (3 Coin / book for each PC from the Archive) or have Legible make you a copy 3 coins per book before you send it off to the Archive.
in the chest:
- d20 gold coins per character [have each player roll and the highest roll is the one you go with]
- 1 Basic Potion per player: If imbibed during Combat, the potion restores 1 Heart. 1 Potion provides 1 day’s nutrition. 1 slot
- 1 mossy rope ladder 1 slot
- 1 whistle on a chain that plays an enchanting melody 1 slot
- 1 ring with a dragonfly on it that can flap its wings 1/2 slot
The group as one rolls the d20 3 times; the rolls get added and the result determines which of the following devices the adventuring party receives. They will have to share.
41-60: instant camera that will save up to 10 pictures and print on a strip of paper that is fed into a slit at the top. (Can print picture immediately, save a picture, print a saved picture, delete a pictur (ancient tech) 2 slots
21-40: device with an immense amount of music on it and the ability to record even more sounds. (buttons for list of songs in alphabetical order, ability to create a playlist, volume up and down, record) 1 slot
1-20: N KIA 3210 (“Oh! A communicator! The village has one too!” Legible shouts. They explain that this device lets you talk to other people who have a similar device. It will also let you very slowly type out a message and send it to another communicator. It also has a game with a snake that eats seeds and grows and the game restarts when the snake bites itself.) The device has a number that is used to call it. It has been handily scratched into the back of the device. It also has a phone book with several numbers already saved into it: Archive, DO NOT ANSWER, Elwood, MOM. Legible says they will give you the number of the village’s communicator and then you can call the village any time. 1slot
You eat your last ration, climb out of the tower (Deftness check) and walk back to Baharil where you are greeted by the children of the village who all want to hear what you saw and found. Pepper Mint the innkeeper gives you all a hearty meal on the house. And Legible runs back to the village library to start copying the books you found. Perfectly Fine the blacksmith is ready to teach Flower Possum more Forging. Cardboard Box is ready to practice Gadgeteering with Cheery Littlebottom.
XP: 1 point for the adventure, 1 point for finding out how to deal with the mechanical spiders and for figuring out how to get the books down, 1 point for each PC for taking Perfectly Legible along. Everyone gains better Reputation with the Rai-Neko and the village of Baharil in particular.
The group should think about whether they want to keep Perfectly Legible in their adventuring party. Legible would be delighted. They would leave their apprentice and nephew Folding Box in charge as Acting Village Librarian.
Perfectly Legible is a Rai-Neko Scribe (https://breakrpg.blogspot.com/2023/07/option-menu-re-skinning-and-modifying.html). Non-Species Abilities: Journey Journal (functions like Factotum Pack but with knowledge and is a notebook); Folklorist. They speak Hashi-Ban and Bright Speech. They have a history of Scrivener. Their purviews are Herbalism and Beast Lore of the Blazing Garden and the History of the Rai-Neko.
They get excited about knowledge and facts.
Their Quirk is Big Nerd: they have a Special Interest that they know a lot about (nothing super-useful: a type of game, the history of uniforms, the linguistics of a certain language, the life-cycle of a specific group of animals, something like that) similar to the Scholar Follower type. They are not socially adept and will have a snag on most Aura checks. When they get started on their favorite subject, the person they are talking to will have to accomplish a Grit and Aura check to change the subject or leave the conversation. If the Grit check is a natural 20 but the Aura check fails then they leave the Big Nerd feeling hurt.
Should the other participant in the conversation also be a Big Nerd (even if it is a different subject), a Master Craftsman or a Scholar, they will immediately hit it off and both will tell each other about their Special Interest.
