Like Clockwork

After managing to find directions to “The Burrows”, a gnome community in the South Ward of Waterdeep, Traveler and his fellow cellmate/escapee head out to find Antikythera Ulam. She is the gnome tinkerer that High Priest Thurin had lent an ancient tomb to. In it, written in a long forgotten language, was perhaps secrets to lost magics. She was keen to experiment and create something new.

As the two adventurers find themselves nearing “The Burrows” throngs of drunken gnomes dance in the streets surrounding the tall pair. Traveler holds up his backpack and any other essential items above his head, safe from sticky hands, as a sea of bodies, knee high, surround them.

Soon chaos and screams can be heard from further into The Burrows. Dancing gnomes turn into fleeing, screaming gnomes. Koltira grabs a passing gnome and tries to figure out what is going on. It seems dozens or more creatures are wreaking havoc and plundering the gnome houses. His grandmother’s collection of antique spoons were being taken! Koltira bends some metal around the gnome providing him with makeshift armor. Emboldened by his new armor, the gnome charges back into The Burrows, making his way against the tide of fleeing gnomes.

Traveler and Koltira try to keep track of the gnome and soon find him back in his house. He is on the floor while two clockwork-like creatures try to remove and take his rough metal armor. Another is scavenging through the drawers and has a collection of spoons it is taking.

Traveler and Koltira soon make short work of the creatures and see that the streets are now only populated by the odd clockwork creature making their way in the same direction, each holding its own treasure of metal. Pots, pans, hinges, horseshoe nails, spoons.

The follow the creatures as they seem to be headed in the same direction that they are, looking for Antikythera Ulam. It seems each party’s destination is the same. They arrive at a large, for a gnome community, stone building.

They enter a find a chamber with a conveyor belt running through the center of the room. As each creature enters they deposit their metal booty on the conveyor belt, the belt taking the items into another room. When items are too large to fit through the conveyor belt’s slot, creatures will often team up and take the item to a large circular door. After making a series of musical chimes, the door opens for them and they exit.

Traveler simply waits for the creatures to repeat their process and steps through using Echo. Koltira waits for Traveler to continue to move into the complex but Traveler remains motionless with a completely blank stare. It takes a while but he eventually realizes that Traveler’s consciousness has been transferred to Echo. So Koltira moves through the locked door on his own my simply shifting the rock and metal and then forming a wall behind him.

As they move through the complex they are assaulted by 4 clockwork guards who try to stop them. Traveler and Koltira are able to overcome them but not without some grievous wounds.

They explore further, Traveler discovering private rooms which seem to be converted into improvised prison cells. They then discover a large chamber with a vaulted ceiling. Along the ceiling are a series of sunrods which help to grow a series of gardens here. A clockwork creature here tends the gardens as well as the sweet smelling stew cooking in the middle of the chamber. This clockwork creature is different from the others. He is more shoddily created. More cobbled together with odd and now slowly rusting pieces of metal. His movements are more jerky and random. He greets them warmly and offers them food.
They discover his name is PoT. He has served the Ulams for years. Some weeks ago Antikythera was very excited about her new creation, which seemed could make decisions on its own. But it soon decided what was best for Ulam and The Burrows. It began making other clockwork creatures and programming them with its own missions. PoT is allowed to serve food to his mistress but she is now held captive by the clockwork creature, which has named itself Mind.

PoT has a key to the chamber in which Antikythera is being held but Koltira has already deformed the door already. Traveler and Koltira are greeted by two clockwork sentinels, which attack the moment they try to pass through to the chamber beyond.

After defeating them, they discover a vast chamber. This one is different in that its floors and walls are covered in brass plates. A huge circular clockwork creature floats in the center of the room, while a large creature moves over and around Mind adjusting things, adding things and making alterations.

In the far end of the room hangs a cage from the ceiling. In it a small gnome women lies despondent. Traveler reaches out to her telepathically. She is in fact, Antikythera. She seems quite proud of her invention, Mind. Alright, it seems to have gotten out of hand a little.

Traveler asks her the whereabouts of the book he came for. She pleads with him to help her escape and stop Mind. He repeats his request for the book. She repeats the request for her life. She tells him that she doesn’t know where the book is. She’s been in this cell for a couple of tenday. Traveler tells her he’s been in a cell as well.

Not able to risk body and limb, Traveler and Koltira keep safely around a corner while Traveler summons Echo to attack the creature defending Mind. Each time the clockwork creature hits Echo, Echo vanishes, only to be re-summoned again and again.

This seems to confuse Mind, as it repeatedly states that it seems to be caught in an endless loop. A Halt-And-Catch-Fire situation.

It reboots.

The two of them take their opportunity and attack while all the clockwork creatures seem to be rebooting. They are able to sever Minds communication with the others and eventually destroy it.

Releasing Antikythera, she leads them through her workshop, all the while despondent about the destruction and changes caused by Mind. She takes them to a workshop, now quiet, where it looks like clockwork creatures were constructing other clockwork creatures, but definitely geared more to combat. There sitting on a pedestal in front of a creature who’s purpose it would seem to be that of translating and creating instructions based on the books contents.
Antikythera offers the book to Traveler. She tells him that it came from an ancient civilization of Netheril. It came to prominence soon after the elves taught the other races about the Weave and how to wield magic. The land was fraught with orc invasions until someone discovered the Nether Scrolls. These magical scrolls seemed to be able to teach someone powerful magics. Each time they read them they would learn new powers, as the scrolls didn’t simply teach magic but imparted them.

Some mages began experimenting with planar travel, discovering the Ethereal Plane, the Shadow Plane and perhaps others.

During a period of massive orc invasions, there were a couple of “stories”, more fairy tales than anything else, which hinted at a city, Dalekeva, which was able to disappear, never to be heard of or seen again.

Soon, though, archmages were able to cast Mythallar. Power and permanent spells. That is when Netheril began floating cities to protect its citizens from the orc hordes below.

There is more in the book but the book is written in an ancient language and even a Comprehend Languages spell can only give incomplete meanings of passages as it speaks in more than just language. Other figures and drawings are sometime incomprehensible.

One more educated in the arcane arts would be necessary to delve further.