Back to the Lab Again
The party continues the search for Gregory, Dakka and Orrnar, heading into the center of the district. Once they have located Dakka, he leads them to the laboratory where he was held captive, where they gain a new member, and are attacked by the one known as "The Architect."
Emelyne determined she could not transcribe the Locate Person scroll, just before purchasing three roasted rats from a trenchcoat-wearing vendor and eating them whole, bones included.
Moving to the center of Cog Bottom, Craum cast Locate Creature and picked up a moving trace of Dakka. Tracking the signal to an alley in the factory district, Emelyne prodded a pile of crates and barrels until they found the right one. After confirming his identity, they freed a critically injured Dakka, whom Craum partially healed. Dakka explained that he had pulled a lever to escape his cage in another nearby district laboratory. Following a short rest, the group followed Dakka back to the hidden lab, where Valerie picked the lock of a caged Tiefling named Naoki as Dakka pulled a release lever to free him.
Reentering the main chamber, the party discovered an abandoned facility featuring hanging corpses, four entity tubes, and a central vat infusing arcane energy into a flesh-and-mechanical golem containing Ornnar's remains. As Dakka freed Ornnar's body, Gregory emerged from hiding, revealing he had been lying low since the enemies left. Suddenly, telepathic speech echoed in their minds from the Architect—a woman with her eyes and mouth sewn shut. Gregory rushed forward and turned a valve, destabilizing the vats and initiating combat as the chamber primed to explode.
While Emelyne, Craum, and Diablo worked together to shut off the arcane flow feeding the central golem, the frustrated Architect unleashed her imperfect creation: a devastating, mechanical-undead hybrid constructed from Ornnar’s torso and head with grafted limbs. Accompanying skinchangers mauled the party, sapping Charisma from Valerie (-4) and Diablo (-1). Although the Architect resisted Emelyne’s Sleep spell, Diablo used Step of the Wind to grapple and drag her across the floor. In response, she drew a wand and unleashed a Cone of Cold, knocking down both Diablo and Renatus, while a skinchanger felled Naoki.
Valerie, Gregory, and Craum quickly revived their fallen allies. Refocusing, Diablo landed a fatal blow on the Architect by smashing her head into a glass tube, then threw her body at the Ornnar-golem and unleashed a volley of strikes. Freeing himself from mind control after Dakka cast an illusion of a bucket over his head, the Ornnar-golem screamed in pain, ripped his own chest open, and collapsed.
Following the battle, the remaining skinchangers turned to dust. Emelyne inspected the Architect's corpse, retrieved a skin-bound book, and harvested several organs—including her eyes and tongue—during a quick autopsy. Valerie carefully extracted an obsidian gem from Ornnar’s chest, securing an arcane focus that functions as an explosive dealing $3\text{d}10$ force damage.
With the threat resolved, Dakka announced he was leaving the party to attempt to restore Ornnar. Craum briefly hesitated, torn by his connection to the only other member of his kind he had met, but ultimately resolved to stay and uncover his origins. Gregory offered to guide them safely out, revealing his true identity as a Yuan-Ti from Draelwyrm. Before parting ways, Diablo asked Dakka to spread the legend of Diablo Dorado, Valerie cautioned Dakka against reckless curiosity, and Renatus summoned his echo as a farewell gesture so Dakka could inspect it one last time before departing with Ornnar's remains.