The Bleak and The Pearl [SoloDark] Part 12 - The Grunkheart Golem

 

Doors to either side are locked and require DC18 DEX to open.

This is a 40' by 30' research library with a 20' by 10' alcove along the south wall storing many important texts about the running of the Monolith and about experiments towards fighting the Bleak. [SoloDark (SoD): 99 Rest 16 Information + 73 Assist 41 Danger]. The books are still in generally good condition, partially because of defense system installed which was also once an assistant used in running the complex.

In the center of the room is a strange stone automaton (the Grunkheart Golem, aka "The Librarian") connected to the floor with four rotating wheels that spin upon a central axis. The top wheel has four mouths and four ears and four eyes and can answer questions as well as communicate. The eyes reflect the mode/mood: red = attack, blue = processing, green = librarian, black = off. They are currently in red mode. The Librarian is waiting for a passcode to back into its processing and helpful state.

The second wheel down has 3 long and articulated arms capable of reaching 15' out from the center. They are equidistant around the wheel and each arm can strike for 1d10+2 damage. They hands attached (with seven digits) are capable of retrieving books from the shelves as well (but not the more restricted alcove). 

The third wheel has four orbs which extend out on thin arms if needed. Red casts Hold Person. Blue casts Telekinesis. Green casts Protection from Energy. Orange casts Wall of Force. 

The fourth wheel, closest to the ground, has enough space that it can rise up and slam down. The bookshelves are designed to absorb this impact. 

The Grunkheart Golem (The Librarian)

AC 18, HP 40, ATK 3 slam +8 (1d10+2) and 1 slow, MV none, S +6, D +0, C +6, I +3, W +0, Ch -2, AL L, LV 8 Golem. Immune to damage from fire, cold, electricity, or non-magical sources. The bottom wheel's "pound" causes all targets in near to require DC15 CON or speed halved 1d4 rds. For the four orbs, spells are at +2 to cast.

Three questions about the current state of The Librarian (SoD Oracle):

• Is it still fully functional as its original function? 17 ==> Yes, but... requires repair.
• Does the House Grunkheart still have the password required? 4 ==> No. This requires a trip to somewhere else.
• Will it be mindlessly aggressive? 5 ==> No, but... it will defend the library.

The strangest door off the main Artery, as Rance calls it, was once brightly colored and still retains some elements of its glory after all these years of water and weathering. It is better sealed than the others, giving no indication of cracks or taint, still resisting mold and decay. The front has a series of interlocking wheels that make up some sort of opening mechanism the adventurers have not seen before. Despite time spent listening, no one has heard any sound from inside. 

On the door, in very faint letters, are markings in a complicated language that neither Rance nor Tom recognize. Terk mentions that some of the oldest books in the library in the Lighthouse use this text and Cal has been trying to decipher it. Progress is being made but more about the language is lost than found. Tom's theory is that was a secret code for the five families to communicate about the construction of this place. [1]

Now that the other avenues are starting to get explored, Grunce wants to knows what is behind the door and tasks Tom with getting opening while everyone re-kits after backing away from the large crocodile's lair. 

It eventually takes Tom, Rance, Nelf, and Terk some time to figure it out before the proper arrangement of wheels is made and the door releases with a deep hiss as the space beyond depressurizes. The siblings pull back and stare at the adventurers. 

"You're up, bigun!" Tom calls to Grunce who stands, takes a breath, grips his axe, and pushes the door open. The room beyond is a library. An extensive one. Rance almost forgets himself and goes to walk in but Grunce pushes him back. "Watch it, Uffolt, this place is full of surprises." 

One such surprise is in the middle of the room. A...structure. Like some primitive totem full of strange angles and shapes. Four wheels of differing sizes have been stacked on top of each other. The bottom one thick and heavy. The top one smaller and covered in strange carvings that look like a parody of the human face. Another one near the bottom with four orbs and a fourth, above this, wider than the others by a notch, with long...appendages. 

As the door is pushed open and Grusk is standing there holding the others back, the thing begins to "wake up" as some of the shapes in the primitive face start to glow red. The long appendages stretch out just a bit and start to resemble complex arms like those of some strange giant bug trying to imitate a human. The wheel with the four orbs starts to spend faster and faster while the heavier wheel on the bottom lifts up. 

In on time at all the thing seems to be fully "on" and one of the shapes in the face-parody starts barking in an unknown language: "ERIYL TOROL....ERIYL TOROL!" [2]

Grusk, entering the room, shouts back: "Yes, yes, Eriyl Toural." Then stops as the "four orbs" disk stops and points the red orb at him...which flares and then turns off... before spinning back around to the Blue orb and Grusk flies back past the door and slams into the others. The half-orc manages to twist with the movement and prevent anyone from suffering more than embarrassment. [3]

The door slams back shut and moments later, when reopened, Grusk finds himself running into an invisible wall. Despite the "barrier", the calls of "ERIYL TOROL!" are followed by "FARON IX!"

"Well, this is a funny thing," says Inar. 

***

Rance and Tom sit around with Cal Grunkheart around the oversized stone table on the second floor of the Lighthouse. Outside, the sounds of Grunce night can be heard in the distance. Yet another festival being thrown by Mayor Marr to distract the people from the encroaching darkness threatening to devour the town. The drunk calls and loud shouts as the city folk let their worries free. 

Gryffin Grunkheart and Father Marnit enter the room. The young guard officer tosses an old scroll on the table in the direction of Cal. 

"Here, cous, this is what mother gave me." 

Gryff, a junior member of the officers of the Grunce guard, is Cal's cousin and middle son of the Lady Moreena Grunkheart, current matriarch of the House. Once the party had returned to the Lighthouse and told Cal about the strange door and the even stranger contraption inside, Call summoned Gryffin to talk Lady Grunkheart to find out if the current House library has any note about the commands or passwords to control the machine. 

The library in the Monolith potentially will answer all the questions the Keepers have about saving the light. [4]

Unfortunately, Lady Grunkheart was unable to find anything conclusive about how to get past "The Librarian," so the team has to take a different approach. Hence the scroll that Gryffin tossed to Cal. It is a map. A few miles northwest of Grunce is the Everburning Forest, a place of thick trees and constant smoke from fissures deep beneath the ground. Somewhere in there, and the map shows roughly wear, was Jonias Grunkheart's old workshop where he studied and puzzled at pre-Barthic technology that later formed the basis of the Lighthouse and the Monolith. [5]

Cal looks over it and then hands it to Rance. Rance and Tom look over it and then call in the other two who had been playing cards in the next room with several Keepers. 

"Pack your bags, boys, we're going on a walkabout." 

MECHANICAL NOTES

1. Is the language an actual secret code? 9 ==> No, but... it is an old Barthic language that was largely lost by the time of the construction. Not secret, per se, but something from the past. Jonias was tapping into some old technology/lore when he built this place. 
2. Just rolled 4 times on Random Realities to generate some syllables. Probably won't try and make any functional degree of Grunkheart's language.
3. The Librarian failed it's Hold Person spell but managed to get the Telekinesis off. Grusk made his DEX save to prevent from damaging himself and the others. The Librarian gets the Wall of Force spell to seal off the room. 
4. I'll save any rolls related to that fact once they figure out how to get past the Librarian or ending up fighting and destroying it though the thing hits like an absolute truck.
5. Is the map easy to read? 9 ==> No, but... it shows enough details to get them roughly to the spot once they actually explore. 

DOUG'S NOTES

Tried my best to create (in GIMP) a rough sketch of The Grunkheart Golem. I think it works ok. I want to start working in more and more of my own illustrations to this even though I absolutely suck at it. 

Once I got a "boss monster" in a room right off the main "artery" I had a slight problem about what kind of "boss" would be around 30' away from action that has already taken place and not yet involved. I decided it would either be a cool, higher powered undead, or some thing more "magi-tech". I basically flipped a coin and then got to work making a weird golem that turned increasingly weird. I went from wanting it to be a "fight" to something that could be worked deeper into the lore. I spent half the time of this session doing a very prep-is-play format. 

From here we will try out the first hexcrawl of the series which is kind of exciting for me. It will be a bit more of a "point crawl" than hex crawl but I have ideas. 

The name "Everburning Forest" was because I just used a quick "generate a site name" and it was "Immortal Fire" or some such and I wanted to "bleak" it up. There's been a building towards the classic trope of age-of-technology becomes age-of-magic and I am down for it.

With something like an hour of writing and designing some the backstory, the actual play here is at a minimum but so it goes. The GM-Doug + Player-Doug aspect offers opportunities like that.

CREDITS AND RESOURCES

This game is played using Shadowdark and SoloDark, both by Arcane Library and Kelsey Dionne (et al). The map in this delve is "The Halls of Amon-Gorloth II" by Dyson Logos with added annotations and colors by me. 

The page of the Voynich Manuscript (an inspiration for the strange pre-Barthic language that will be featured in this next bit) was taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica and has the caption: "Botanical or pharmaceutical illustration, Voynich manuscript (page 99 verso), 16th century; in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University." 

Other resources used in this campaign are

• Knave 2nd Edition by Ben Milton
• Random Realities by Cezar Capacle
• The Monster Overhaul by Skerples
• Bestial Ecosystem Created by Monster Inhabitation by Courtney C. Campbell and others.
• The Book of Random Tables: Dungeons, The Great Book of Random Tables, and The Great Book of Random Tables: Quests by Matt & Erin Davids. 
• The Solo Adventurer's Toolkit One & Two by Paul Bimler
• GM's Miscellany: Dungeon Dressing by Raging Swan Press.

The illustrations for this delve are a mix of elements from the game/map as credited above, Pixabay stock art (often used more for effect than precision), elements made by me, modifications of maps using Gimp, and various pieces generated using ChatGPT4o [or some combination of multiple of these things].