The Great Dome of the Channels

The Secrets of Five Fingers

Nearly a century ago members of the Cult of Cyriss in Five Fingers received a commandment from the leading fluxions to create a great underwater chapel to the goddess at the mouth of the Dragon’s Tongue River. At a tremendous cost in resources and lives the cultists spent two decades building a great underwater dome as part of a larger mechanism even they did not comprehend. Turbines tap both the motion of the river and the arcane geomantic energy pouring through it, just one segment of the perfect and ineluctable glory of Cyriss. While they await the Perfect Conjunction, this machinery powers the temple’s devices. Strangers are not welcome here, and intruders will be met with bloodshed.

Cyriss and the Perfect Conjunction

Each temple of Cyriss has a function in the grand scheme. This one comprises a key piece of the Perfect Conjunction of Motion Aqueous, which taps into energy lines gathered by great rivers as they spill into the ocean. Similar projects are underway near Caspia, Berck, and Ohk. The devices in the Dome remain incomplete. Their construction will take lifetimes of holy work, and each day the cultists continue designing, building, testing, refining, and tuning their perfect engines.

Setup for Adventure

A few of the many ways heroes can discover the Great Dome include:
Arcane Detection: You cannot run arcane turbines the size of those in the river without attracting some notice. Any characters casting spells on the nearby river or on Blackstone Island may discern peculiar energies nearby. Ways to find or feel magic or aura of magic (centering on nothing in particular) can be useful. A few arcanists in the city know about this (Gather Information Hard Test), but write it off as “typical arcane dispersal from a sunken arcane vessel”. Speculation hold that an Orgoth blackship sunk nearby, as several rest below the islands. An Orgoth ship does lie near the Great Dome, and adventurers seeking this salvage may stumble on the temple.
A Remorseful Cultist: Some cogs don’t ever mesh with Cyriss’ perfect hierarchy. Gunder Malstrom is one such misfit, a cultist who heard about a tunnel leading down into the rock of Blackstone Island near the quarry. He rants in a tavern while the PCs try to have a quiet beer and tells tales of the Cyriss cult’s actual goals (which he doesn’t actually know). The cultists find and dispose of him shortly after the PCs encounter him, perhaps before he is supposed to meet them again. Any investigations lead to an encounter with Igan the Warder or his minions. If any PCs worship Cyriss this can prompt interesting conflicts of loyalties. Only a chosen few may enter the underwater shrine. Any who break this taboo may become estranged from local members of their faith.
Things in the River: The gobbers of the Rigs have recently been fishing with more than usual enthusiasm. They have commandeered small fishing skiffs and are dragging a section of river where they are clustered for a few days. They are gathering buoyant clockwork servitors of Cyriss flushed out of the water channels when trying to repair one of the broken turbines and arcane accumulators, and are selling them to a scrap metal dealer eager to keep word of these items from spreading very far. The gobbers, however, are not discreet and happily discuss the possible breeding habits of clockwork fish.

The Followers of Cyriss

While the Cult of Cyriss in Five Fingers numbers several hundred adherents, only a few dozen may enter the Great Dome. The friendly, outgoing Thadish Orangegrove (male Midlunder Clr12/Exp3) is the leader of the city’s surface cult and its chief recruiter, but he spends relatively little of his time in the Great Dome. He works as an engineer in the Hundred Smokes District while making sure supplies and tools reach the dome on a regular basis.

Quarry Chief Olan Scray and the Blackstone Prison warden Haig Crimstone control access, and receive regular bribes to allow certain people to enter and leave. Neither cares about the cultists. They assign guards and watchers to cover the tunnel entrance at all hours. However, the late night shift is kept by Rastin Laster, a drunk neglecting his duties.

The leader within the dome is Sister Somerville, a clockwork priestess (Vessel of Cyriss Clockwork Priest Clr 17). She prays and toils without sleep or rest, her fleshy shell long since abandoned, and oversees every aspect of the
Dome’s operations down to the bilge pumps. She senses that the Perfect
Conjunction is almost within reach, and her infectious enthusiasm and devotion mean followers leap to obey her orders. Her tinny voice often mutters, “soon, soon, soon” when no one is near.” Sister Somerville considers the surface cultists weak creatures of flesh and has little respect for them, especially Thadish.Sister Somerville’s crucial staff include the supremely talented Master Engineer Giles Porsalo (male Tordoran Amk12) and the supremely suspicious Warder of the Dome, Igan Wornly (male Thurian Rog8/AdvSch1).

Engineer Giles lives elbow deep in the machinery and has no interest in intruders unless they come to help with the “Great Work” (as he calls the turbines of the waterwheel). Giles’ health is failing, but he holds on because he wants to live to see the Grand Conjunction. Sister Somerville wishes to preserve his mind for future generations, but has not yet received the cult’s blessing.

Igan the Warder is responsible for keeping out intruders and is much more suspicious. A fascination with abstract mathematics called him to the goddess, but the Cult values him for his less reputable skills. He turns away lower-ranking cultists with a kind “all in good time” and may imprison
or kill non-members if they know too much or (worse) damage the machinery. Clever and persuasive players trying to gain entrance by peaceful means will find Igan their primary obstacle.

Besides these three, from 20 to 30 cultists work in the Great Dome at any given time, and about half of them live there. These cultists range from 4–10 level; almost all have expert levels, several are wizards or arcane mechaniks, and many have one or several levels as clerics of Cyriss. Only cultists displaying a mastery the cult’s core principles may work in the Great Dome.

Locations

Blackstone Island Entrance: The main entrance to the Dome is on Blackstone Island, near the quarry where prisoners work off their sentences. (See Five Fingers, p. 74).
2. Tunnel: A long sealed tunnel leads from Blackstone Island underwater to the Great Dome. It is usually empty, but could include sentry servitors at the GM’s option (Liber Mechanika, p. 105).
3. Airlocks: Two massive mechanikal airlocks, locked, sealed, and pressurized, provide entry into the Great Dome. The first connects to the Blackstone Island tunnel, and requires a key kept by cultists who use the tunnel. Picking the lock requires a Open Locks check (DC 35) which will alert sentry servitors and Igan the Warder (successful or otherwise) unless PCs discover and disable the alarm. First they must find it with a Search check (DC 30) and then they must disable it with a Disable Device check (DC 35) If they fail this check it sets off the alarm.
A secondary, rarely used airlock on the northern face of the dome allows cultists to enter the river to conduct repairs or maintenance. This has a similar lock mechanism. The area outside the airlock is safe, but moving within 10 feet of the intake pipes while the turbines are operating sucks characters into the mechanism (no saving throw) unless they have anchored themselves.
The Great Dome (unnumbered): The largest open area of the chapel is the opening below the dome itself. Huge intake valves suck water into a flood room pool (area 7). Within the flood room, three massive arcane dynamos throw out coils of energy that rise up nearly to the roof and arc lightning to various pieces of geared machinery. The inner surface of the dome portrays an exact copy of the star constellations above and changes throughout the year.
4. Cultist Quarters: The senior cultist rooms contain both devotional literature and books of engineering and mathematics. With a successful Search check (DC 30), the party can find a paper in Engineer Giles’ roomed entitled “The Importance of Vigilant Devotional Maintenance for the Main Turbine”. Reading this entire boring paper requires a Intelligence check (DC 15) but grants a +4 circumstance bonus to any attempt to destroy the Great Dome’s machinery.
5. Commons/Kitchen: A kitchen and dining area that seats twelve, unremarkable except for some rather peculiar coiled platter apparatus that seems to convert electricity into heat for cooking. Removing this mechanism destroys its functionality. Various food and drink items, from Five Fingers and beyond, are stored here.
6. Engine Room: Thousands of pipes, conduits and banks of machinery power everything from the spark lamps throughout the Dome to the servitors that attend to the machinery. A PC may make a Craft (Mechanika) check (DC 20) to understand the machinery does; it transforms kinetic and geomantic energy from the river into stored power And that the amount of power being stored is massive, much more than required for tools, creating magical items, or even powering an army of ‘jacks. A PC may attempt to disable the machine with a Disable Device check (DC 40) and any mechanik will weep to smash such perfectly tuned devices.
7. Flood Room and Arcano Engines: Anyone touching the energy coils for any reason suffers 6d6 points of electrical damage per round. Once in contact with one or more of the coils the creature must make a Strength check (DC 15) to pull away from the coil as the energy locks up the victim’s muscles. If one or two coils short out the others continue to function normally. If all three short out the Dome’s spark lights all slowly fade (within 2 rounds) and the pumps stop working. The Dome floods completely within 6 hours without pumps.
8. The Repair Workshop: Lesser cultists usually work here, polishing, fitting, and correcting parts under Giles’ orders.
9. Observation Room: All the flood room, energy coils, and turbines can be seen fairly clearly from here. A novice cultist often remains here to discourage theft and encourage pious devotion to work. In combat situations the room can be warded with an energy field that permits those within to see out.
10. Chapel and Energy Coils: The large upper deck area includes considerable ancillary machinery and controls for the spark lamps, turbines, water flows, and defenses of the Great Dome. Anyone who knows how to operate this system can power lights, pumps, and electrical current in any area of the temple, including a defensive system that electrifies all doors to shock anyone touching them (3d6 electrical damage). Several walkways used for periodic inspections extend out over the turbines where the water flows down into the flood room,
A neglected Vessel of Cyriss, a metallic frame containing pistons and limbs and two almost blank black eyes in a mask (see Liber Mechanika, page 97), inhabits the chapel. This device houses the soul of the Great Dome’s original architect, a priest named Volkram, who remains to see his great work completed. The ancient architect seems unconcerned that the cultists no longer refer to him by name and mostly treat him as a piece of furniture or gear. He howls loudly if unbelievers enter the Chapel or control room.

Coming in Through the Pipes
The lower portion of the temple is buried in the riverbed, so the turbine portion meshes up with the upper level. Water from the turbine tumbles as a waterfall into the flood room. The vents into the turbines are well hidden and encrusted with river rocks and debris. Entering through the intake pipes is difficult and dangerous though technically possible. A thick metal grill designed to keep plant and animal matter out covers each pipe, and anything pulled into the pipes presses up against this grill, to escape the pressure the PC must make either a Escape Artist or Strength check (DC20) and then must make a Climb check (DC 25 to get out of the pipe. Breaking the grill (hardness 9, 15 hp) allows entry but sucks anything in the pipe straight into the turbines, which inflict 4d10 crushing damage before the gears jam. Something large and heavy, like an iron rod or thick wooden plank, could jam the gears. Once the mechanism stops, squeezing through to area #7 is time-consuming, likely drawing the attention of numerous cultists investigating the malfunction.

Explosive Potential

If the party manages to enter legitimately and includes a devout Cyrissist, they might find themselves becoming regular visitors and caught up in other projects to bring about the Perfect Conjunction. Most incursions will encounter violent resistance, however. If intruders are discovered, Cultists try to capture and silence intruders, and, once fighting starts, things can
get out of hand quickly. What happens if the party starts tampering with forces beyond their control, or setting off blasting powder charges in a room full of nexus accumulators and arcane turbines?

If you are generous you describe the smoking ruin of the machinery, the frantic attempts of the servitor machines and cultists to fix things, and the increasingly unbreathable air. If the party flees they may get out alive.

The resulting explosion of stored arcane energies should create a huge waterspout in the middle of the river as the carefully constructed machinery destroys itself. Exploding this temple will be treated as an “act of war” by the larger Cult of Cyriss, and could lead to them hunting the party.

Fonte: No Quarter 10