Logjam

Hex 37.10. A lumber camp with multiple mills just south of Capstan at the end of Logger's Run. Renowned for the giant processing machine called the Gretch-O-Maticus that swallows barrels of black oil like the OGRE Oomek swallowed the sea. The camp was founded by a group of privateers, most prominently Gretch Peelar, a wickedly brilliant machinist with a hunger for profit and power. Gretch saw a wonderful opportunity for both when he staked his claim and built the grand machine, a multi- story lumber mill that runs every hour of every day, chomping, sawing, munching, and mulching trees from the eastern mountains.

what's going on

• Logjam is functioning at half efficiency because the Gretch-O-Maticus has ceased operations and is locked down. Workers are scrambling to fulfill their lumber orders.
• The Gretch-O-Maticus is abandoned, but for one person: Gretch Peelar, who is a bit out of sorts and living in squalor inside of the Gretch-O-Maticus observation office overlooking the mill's ground level floor.

GRETCH PEELAR

The creator of the infamous processing machine called the Gretch-O-Maticus. Gretch invented the huge, multistory milling, grinding, and packaging machine to automatically load barges with lumber, steel, and other raw materials harvested from the eastern mountains. Gretch no longer leaves his office in the Gretch-O-Maticus building, preferring to communicate through a glass porthole at the top of his observation perch.

• Traits: Panicked, defiant, obsessive.
• Motivation: Find a way to destroy the monster he created and escape both the danger and his legacy.

GARIN BURDGEWOODER

The foreman of the Logjam Lumber Union, Garin struggles with the Gretch-O- Maticus shutdown. Goods are backed up and workers are quitting daily due to the strain and stress.

• Traits: Stressed, churlish, on the verge of a conniption fit.
• Motivation: Get the Gretch-O-Maticus back online before the dungeoneering goons pile into town and fix the problem their own way.

quests

GHOST IN THE MACHINE

Garin Burdgewooder asks you to do something about the Gretch-O-Maticus. Some lumberers claim the place has a mind of its own, but no one can investigate.

sights and sounds

1. A goblin cook flips flapjacks for a crowd of hungry lumberjacks.
2. A WUNGALOPE pulls two carts of lumber into a dusty trail, headed out of town.
3. Two lumberjacks whisper and snicker to each other as the PCs approach.
4. A boggle in a hard hat atop a tall wooden pole rings a bell.
5. Buzzsaws whir and growl as huge tree trunks are split into even timbers.
6. A wug dances on spinning logs in the river as they crash into a muddy inlet.

rumors

• There used to be a steady flow of mill workers headed to Logjam, but rumor has it that the Gretch- O-Maticus is a meat grinder...literally. Folks believe it's haunted and eating the workers.
• Workers are struggling to keep up with the lumber demand in Logjam, causing a massive shortage in the dungeon industry. The doors are locked shut, and the sputter-jacks have gone haywire and attack anyone that tries to come near the building.

gretch-o-maticus (dungeon)

The Gretch-O-Maticus is a massive lumber mill that reaches into the sky, belching black smoke from its chimneys, and spitting grimy industrial runoff into the Black Rill river. The building that houses the Gretch-O- Maticus is enormous, rundown, and rusting.

what's really going on

A WISP that calls itself the Liberator has taken over the Gretch-O-Maticus. The Liberator's goal is to make the machine's creator pay for felling the wisp's forest, and displacing all of the creatures in the area. In retribution for all the horrible misdeeds that the Dungeon Era has committed against the natural world, the Liberator is feeding the machine's workers to the Grinder.

The Liberator has ensorceled the minds of local GREMLINS to help achieve the goal, reprogramming Logjam's sputter-jacks, and enlisting them all to build the Liberator a mechanical body: a giant mess of wires, cables, and cogs in the shape of a massive humanoid.

AREA 1: THE ENTRANCE

Sputter-jacks (sputter-bots programmed to be skilled lumberjacks) erratically patrol the perimeter and guard the locked entrance, flailing their axe arms and yelling “Timber!”

• The sputter-jacks (as SPUTTER-GUARD L2-B, with Magnificent Axe and Buzzsaw armaments) attack anyone that approaches them, but they are easily distracted.
• The door is chained from the inside (the work of GREMLINS) and leads to Area 2.
• There is another entrance through a broken window a few stories up to Area 3, but there's no easy way to climb.

AREA 2: FACTORY FLOOR

Rusty metal, rotten wood, and a large squeaky pulley system under a cavernous factory ceiling. Dark-leafed trees are stacked on conveyors. Bundles of cables snake across the floor, presumably to run the machine, and giant barrel drums line walls. A set of stairs near the back leads to an observation deck overlooking the factory floor.

• The drums are empty except for one that is connected to a large tube with an iron valve set to “off.” The giant hose runs below the floor (see Area 8).
• Setting the valve to “on” re-activates the Factory Floor of the Gretch-O-Maticus, which will start eating the trees within its grinder.
• Once powered, bundles of cables spring to life and attempt to ENTANGLE the PCs and feed them to the grinder (+2 Attack).
• The observation deck has a door leading to Area 3. If PCs approach, they see a goblin peeking out of the observation deck window, feverish and panicked.
• This is Gretch Peelar, haggard and frightened. He shakily passes the PCs a tiny scrap of paper through a small porthole in his sealed up office: “Quiet! The machine's listening. Get to the control room up top to shut down the engine long enough to breach the engine room and free everyone. You've got to save them! Before...before...” There is an unsettling mechanical belching sound. “Before it eats us too!”
• All Peelar knows is that somehow, the Gretch-O- Maticus has come alive and eaten or kidnapped the workers. Those remaining are trapped somewhere. To make matters worse, there are wild GREMLINS running around.
• Gretch's only advice is to make it all the way to the Control Room at the top floor, in order to briefly override the controls and shut down the power, buying enough time to breach the locked Engine Room below.

AREA 3: THE CATWALKS

Above the factory floor is a web of catwalks that stretch out to many different rooms. Footsteps pitter-patter and echo from everywhere.

• The catwalks lead in every direction, criss-crossing up and down, and it's difficult to determine what leads where. Following a causeway path leads to 1 of 3 destinations:
• Area 4: The Warehouse
• Area 5: The Sawmill
• Area 6: The Grinder
• A shuffling noise from down one of the catwalks abruptly stops if the PCs investigate it. A group of GREMLINS (L3-G)—ensorceled by the Liberator—spy on the PCs, waiting to strike.
• Sputter-jacks also walk the catwalks, some stripping the machine for parts and carrying them away into the Warehouse. If cornered, they reveal that they all serve “The Liberator.”

AREA 4: THE WAREHOUSE

Huge storage bay cluttered with crates, cogs, tools, boxes, lumber, drums of oil, and giant coils of cabling and tubes. Below, GREMLINS busily sort parts into piles and buckets, sputter-jacks with lightning sticks prod prisoners, and bundles of live wire cables hang from the ceiling.

• The catwalk from Area 3 overlooks the warehouse floor. On the other side of the warehouse catwalk is a door to Area 6: The Grinder.
• Many prisoners in chains, appearing to be Gretch- O-Maticus employees, are slumped on the ground. Ten sputter-jacks with lightning sticks prod a few prisoners to their doom at the Grinder (Area 6). If the PCs attack, the sputter-jacks rush to take the prisoners to the Grinder, leaving four of them to defend the Engine Room doors with lightning sticks and the aid of the live wires. Notable Gretch-O- Maticus prisoner-employees:
• Lola Mudfuffle: A shrym woman in overalls, and the first to notice strange behavior from the sputter-jacks. She reported it to Gretch Peelar, but he ignored her.
• Handers Zim: A boggart man in rubber boots is scared out of his wits, and so upset with himself for coming in on his day off. The sputter-jacks sprung out and snatched him mid-shift.
• Mister Poknar: A goblin, with a hood over his head, who the GREMLINS call “The Poker.” Poknar is the ruthless pit boss of the Gretch-O- Maticus appointed by Gretch Peelar himself to keep everyone working around the clock. He is despised by everyone.
• The GREMLINS are gathering parts to build the Liberator a new mobile body.
• Blinding flashes of light snap on and off from a huge, iron archway that leads to The Engine Room (Area 8), which practically rumbles with energy. The live wire cables hanging from the ceiling strike PCs that approach entry to the Engine Room.

AREA 5: THE SAWMILL

Chugging, creaking, churning water wheels powered by the dirty water of the Black Rill river. The sawmill isn't in operation, but scores of GREMLINS mill about chomping on buckets of cogs and wires, arguing with each other, some even fighting.

• A practical forest of felled trees dense with leaves lies on a series of stagnant conveyor belts.
• Upon closer inspection, the trees rustle with activity. Roll 1d6:
• 1-2. A random hostile CRITTER that was previously living in the tree before it was cut down!
• 3-4. GREMLINS!
• 5-6. Sputter-jacks!
• Several broken down sputter-jacks sit lifeless on the conveyor belts, some missing limbs.
• Stairs climb to a boxy wooden floor at the very top of the Sawmill where a door leads to The Grinder (Area 6).

AREA 6: THE GRINDER

A massive, metal mouth of teeth spikes, and crooked blades. Two GREMLINS argue over whose “turn it is.”

• The entire floor made of gears and belts feeds the Grinder.
• Stepping into the room activates the floor and starts feeding directly into the mouth of the Grinder!
• The controls are located next to the Grinder mouth.
• Two GREMLIN mechanics keep the Grinder operating at peak efficiency, eating prisoners one by one each day. As full blown loyalists, the GREMLINS Scrunch and Boil, have sworn their allegiance to the Liberator.
• Scrunch constantly greases the floor, causing slips.
• Boil re-activates the Grinder whenever it is tampered with.

AREA 7: CONTROL ROOM

A long steel staircase leads to the top of the Gretch- O-Maticus and a control room with windows that catch the shadows of the giant windmill built on the outside of the factory.

• The top of the staircase is booby trapped with clearly visible bear traps and tripwires (Nimbleness Check to navigate them without slipping up).
• A GREMLIN sits at the switches. If alarmed, they open up the walls of the tower exposing the entire mill to the elements, which are so windy, it is difficult not to be swept away, but the GREMLIN is strapped into his chair and ready.
• The control room contains a panel of complicated control switches made out of metal and wood that shut down the mill and fold in the windmill's petals.
• This only hinders the Liberator momentarily, who will eventually get things up and running again.

AREA 8: ENGINE ROOM

A cold, dark room with rusty metal walls and floor. Bundles of cables lead down two flights of rusty, metal stairs to a series of huge engines.

• The Mega Engine is the largest engine, as tall as a house. It is cold, dark, and huge bundles of hoses and cables twist across the ceiling.
• When approached, the engine whirs to life and laughs menacingly. It is the Liberator, a WISP (L8-B) that dwells within the Mega Engine.
• The Liberator controls the entire Gretch-O- Maticus but is still reliant on the spark technology that runs it.
• PCs can attempt to dissuade the Liberator from wreaking further havoc, but do so with Disadvantage unless two criteria are met: they apologize for the misdeeds of the Mucklands' corporations, and they propose that the Liberator focus its energy on bringing life to the Land of Eem rather than cause death.
• A half-complete mech, built from steel cables, beams, hoses, wires and cogs, vaguely in the shape of a humanoid lies on the ground, parts strewn everywhere. Several GREMLINS work on it, but scatter when approached.
• If the Liberator is thwarted, the WISP escapes to its new body (as obsidian GOLEM L6-C), even though it is not complete yet.