Entrance B: The Hérmes Mines

Modern mineworks (golem excavators, elemental borers). Megalithic ruins (repurposed as warehouses). Tailings (luminous, toxic). Stores (locked).

• Search stores: Mining gear, ropes, helmets, picks, 5 wall-breaker potions (page 7) in sturdy flasks. Encounter 2d6 patrolling mining company mercenaries (as 2HD veterans).

Initial Exploration

Great Engines

Boilers (trapped elementals). Pipes (sturdy valves). Conveyor belt (new-fangled). Control tower (offices). Machine shop (locked).

• Release elementals: 1d4 hostile 8HD fire elementals released. Bad idea. Sturdy road and rail (1 watch). Main shaft into tunnels guarded by 2d6 company mercenaries (as 2HD veterans). Heavy elevator, cannot be used without authorization tower (1 watch).
• Visit control tower: 2d6 harried managers (as bandits). Switchboard controls heavy elevator. Negotiate: televocalizer authorizes heavy elevator.
• Poke around: 3 hidden golem control cards (as scrolls of charm person, only affect golems). Patrols by overseer (challenge).
• Break into machine shop (locked door): Wood golem parts (for 2 golems). Caged wood golem (harmed by mundane attacks, but damage is halved) named Pinot Gris. Convinced it is a real boy (spell virus).

Further Exploration

Reopened Vault

Magical portal (broken down). Obelisks (mostly scorched). Ancient machinery (tinkered with).

• Examine portal: Side passages bypass main shaft, slow path (3 watches) to Deep Mines (page 22).
• Unburned obelisk: Conceals abandoned cage with 3d10 undead giant shrews. Failed excavation experiment.
• Search the machinery: Hidden gate to union longrooms: study halls, revolutionary posters, subversive golem literature, distillery.
• Union treasury (locked, peep hole): 1d10 upset miners (normal humans). An invisible intruder stole 4 golden keys. from the control

Regional Challenges

6. Dumpster fire: Tailings lit by arsonists (poisonous fumes). PCs must wait 1 watch or risk being poisoned (without masks: save vs poison or die). 7. Protesting miners: Score of miners (normal humans and three 3HD leaders) demand wages lost due to mine closure. Refuse scabs entry into mine. 8. Angry overseer and lackeys: Demands proper bureaucratic confirmation (in triplicate) from director to pass. As bandit leader and 6 bandits. 9. Company mercenaries: 8 lazy company mercenaries (2HD veterans).

Collapse

1. Guards flee. 1d8+1 terrified wood golems (can be harmed by mundane attacks, but damage is halved) break for freedom. Poisonous mercury fumes belch from the mine (PCs with a movement rate of 60’ (20’) or less must save vs poison or take 3d6 damage from choking). +d6 to collapse checks. 2. Heavy elevator collapses. Great engines threaten to explode (INT check to find controls to douse elemental flames). Doused: mining company awards 1,000gp. Explosion: Main mine collapses, a hundred miners unemployed. +d6 to collapse checks. 3. Lurid waters vomit from the mine. The deepest passages are sealed. A box floats in the middle of the toxic waters. Inside is the fabled work, Remembrance of Things Past, printed on plastic sheets, bound in ceramic tiles (500gp).