Ruins of Power and Unwanted Surprises

Combat erupted as the guardian golem hurled a massive stone, knocking Ro’Zaad unconscious and shoving the party back. Valerie summoned illusory duplicates with Mirror Image, Thalia applied Hunter’s Mark, and Naoki placed a Hex. Renatus summoned his echo and unleashed two critical strikes, while Emelyne and Valerie failed their spellcasts. The golem then emitted a pulse that slowed Emelyne and Valerie before blasting Thalia with a 46-force-damage beam that cracked her ribs, though Naoki healed her with nature magic. Transformed into a deathly Form of Dread, Renatus found the construct immune to fear, but Emelyne landed a massive Firebolt and Valerie performed an inspiring fan dance from behind cover. Slagging off the golem's second attempt to slow them, the Vanguard pressed the attack until Craum landed the killing blow, causing the construct to dissolve and leave behind a smooth black Xoraxan power core. Emelyne studied the orb, realizing it could power constructs, and Craum agreed to let her test its applications on him.

Entering the ruins with Emelyne's Light spell and Valerie's lantern, the party traversed a hall lined with statues. Valerie missed a trap, taking a blast of blinding poison that Naoki cleansed with Lesser Restoration. Placing the power core into the door, Emelyne unlocked it, reclaimed the core, and led them into a chamber littered with destroyed constructs whose arcana cores had been ripped out. Craum and Thalia discovered a small, three-foot automaton built in the style of Ornarr rather than Craum. When Emelyne inserted the orb into a central receptacle, the side doors opened, and the small construct reactivated. Identifying itself in a broken voice as 8TT1Y—or "Bitty"—it recognized Craum as the "Ambassador" and agreed to guide them through Laboratory 8123, though security lockdowns prevented it from sharing more until they found additional memory chips.

Heading west, Emelyne spotted tripwires among four statues. Valerie proudly disarmed one, but overconfidently failed the second, plunging through a trap door into an acid disposal room where she took 15 damage. Swimming to safety, Valerie used Sending to inform Emelyne she was alive and searching for an exit. Ascending a staircase, Valerie attempted an "Indiana Jones" swap with a ration to retrieve a microchip on a pedestal, failed, and reunited with the group. Inserting the memory chip into Bitty played a 1,319-year-old recording from Doctor Kraigle discussing power surges pulled from an ancient obelisk.

Moving east, the group narrowly triggered an electric trap that shocked the entire party and knocked Valerie unconscious before Craum provided a healing potion and Naoki restored everyone with Aura of Vitality. Reaching a large acid pool chamber, the party spent considerable time repairing a power cable; Naoki used Thorn Whip to drag the cable across before Renatus used Misty Step onto a central crystal, slipping into the acid to attach the wire and re-power the room.

Retracing their steps, Emelyne uncovered a secret compartment with an automated potion dispenser that could upgrade Bitty as a camp follower. In a nearby library, Emelyne found mostly gibberish, but Craum discovered a book written in Xoraxian containing a lockbox, which Valerie picked to reveal a second microchip. Craum also recovered a Knock scroll for Emelyne and a map of an ancient Xoraxian city. Craum and Emelyne noted that the obelisks in the dungeon bore an uncanny resemblance to the glowing lights from the location where they had awoken after their deaths.

Inserting the second chip into Bitty revealed log entries from Kraigle's assistant recorded 1,287 years ago. The recordings explained that Draxion scholars transferred their souls into automatons to extend their lives—sacrificing the ability to reproduce—and discovered that focusing immense magical energy into the monoliths could restore vitality to the undead. Resting briefly, the party proceeded down a western hallway toward a room featuring four colored runes. Without hesitation, Craum cast Firebolt on the red rune, triggering an overhead fire trap that severely burned the party while activating an illusion of Kraigle, who warned that they would die for trespassing in his secret laboratory.