The March Begins

From Lexicanum

Jysson

It's another ordinary day in Sigil, at least as ordinary as things get for recent arrivals to the City of Doors!

While walking down the street in different parts of the city the characters suddenly stopped - clutching at their heads, affected by a painful relentless squeeze on their brain-box. The  only way to negate the pain was to head in a specific direction across the city. Left with little choice the disparate characters made their way through the maze of the city, ending up outside a small two-storey building in a side-street just off the Bazaar.

Gathered now in a group, each clutching at their heads, they looked a the building in front of them. The sign over the door, which was unlocked, read Jysson - which meant nothing to any of them. On entering they discovered a dusty long-abandoned clerk's office. They also  just discovered that the pain had abated when a voice called out form the darkness at the back of the room apologising for any inconvenience!

Heading toward the back of the room, they couldn't see the source of the voice. Suddenly, a small grey cat  leaped up on the table and looked at them. It then said "Nope, it wasn't me!" and pointed his nose toward the table where a huge book lay. The pages of The Book flipped open revealing a humanlike animated face in the gutter between the pages.

The book apologised again for the roughness of his summoning, explaining that he hadn't done it in such a long time, he'd forgotten how painful it could be. The book went on to explain he was in need of adventurers to take him and his associate to the gate-town of Automata.

At this point the cat piped up and explained that he was a petitioner from the Beastlands who had been sent to deliver a message in Sigil by the Catlord. On completing the mission he too had been summoned by The Book, which had informed him that in his previous mortal  life he had been the clerk who'd owned the shop. He had bought The Book form a wizard named Heiron and  had been paying for The Book in instalments. He had of course unfortunately defaulted the payments when he'd died and The Book had now to be returned. The problem was that now, being a cat, he can't even carry The Book!

Jysson and The Book offer the party some gold hidden before he had died and  the deeds to the house if they help them. 

Automata

 Fortunately Jysson had already located a portal to the Gate-town of Automata, so in short order the party set out – Jysson instructing Fiara to take a sheaf of blank paper from one of the desk drawers.. Vega led the way, followed by Fiara and Hothfin; Dronic, with some help from Petherwick carried The Book and Atreuss brought up the rear. Unfortunately for the party the optimum route chosen by a cat was not really the best for a party of humanoids carrying an oversized intelligent Book!  They quickly found themselves lost in the twisting maze of Sigil’s back alleys while Jysson peered down impatiently at them from nearby rooftops. Eventually, after a brief altercation with a bunch of thugs that tried (unsuccessfully) to rob them, they stopped outside a scribe’s shop near the Hall of Records.  Leaping up onto Petherwick’s shoulder, Jysson told them that this was a portal to Automata, all they had to do was step boldly across the threshold and tear a sheet of paper precisely in half as they did so.
 
One by one the party did as instructed and one by one, rather than finding themselves in the shop they appeared in the middle of a square of neatly arrayed identical houses. Almost immediately they were approached by a large armoured guard of the Fraternity of Order, who firmly, but politely instructed them that they should report to the Hall of Arrivals, and pointed across the square to where a long, though orderly queue snaked out of one of the buildings. Somewhat reluctantly the party joined the queue which moved with glacial slowness, but eventually the reached the doorway. The entrance to the building was guarded by two hulking armoured figures which turned, with the unmistakable crunching of gears, to silently scan each of them as they passed over the threshold. Beyond the doorway there was a large hall with several desks behind which sat modrons of varying types. The party were greeted by a tridrone which assigned each of them in turn to a desk for processing. Fiara however was singled out for different attention, and found herself sitting on a bench with other “undesirables” , one of whom who shrugged helplessly at the tiefling.
 
In rigourous order, the other party members were subjected to a seemingly endless and at times apparently pointless questions, at the end of which each was handed a pamphlet - the Automata Good Visitor’s Guide which proudly proclaimed itself to be an extract of the by-laws of Automata. It was explained to them that the guide also contained their permit to visit the town. The duodrone also requested 5 sp in “processing fees” As they left the hall to wait, Petherwick opened the book discovering it to be a 42 pages of closely-typed dos and don’ts (mostly don’ts) unfortunately for the unwary visitor most of the items listed also contained numerous references to amendment whatever, of paragraph x, of subsection this, of section that, of volume the other, of the City Ordinances. Fiara meanwhile found herself escorted by two of the hulking guards into a room where her interview was conducted by tridrone. After nearly three hours of intensive interrogation, she too was finally issued with a pamphlet.
 
Finally all back together, they headed off down the broad streets, The Book issuing direction that took them past the neatly ordered identical buildings of the town. Eventually they came to a stop outside what should have been Heiron’s shop – unfortunately the sign outside the door proclaimed it to be a Purveyor of Fine Meats and Viands.  Going in, they spoke to the proprietor who informed them he’d bought the shop from Hieron a few months ago. He had no idea where the wizard had gone, but did suggest they might check out The Divine Machine – which had been Hieron’s favourite tavern. Dronic purchased some cold roast spiced ocelot and Fiara bought some cold sausage. Atreuss meanwhile had a quick word with the proprietor pointing out that Thri-keen were an intelligent species and he probably shouldn’t be selling steaks!
 
 They headed off next to The Divine Machine which was a lively enough tavern. Curiously, despite the fact that evening in the inn was sized for halflings – apart from the tavern-keeper - there wasn’t a halfling in the place!  A few minutes later perched, slightly uncomfortably, on too-small chairs at a table that was rather low for them; they sipped at their three-quarters of beer and pondered their next move. Spreading a few beers around, they asked the patrons about Hieron, but no-one seemed to know where he was, so they settled down for a meal. After dinner, Atreuss headed out for some fresh air when a voice called to him from what passed for an alley here ( and would have been a major boulevard in Sigil). The voice asked him what they were planning on doing with The Book. On being told that they planned to return it to Heiron, a slim figure stepped from the shadows and gestured him over. The figure, a female tieAutomatafling, introduced herself a Muenscall, a friend of Hieron’s. She told him that Hieron had fallen foul of the Council of Anarchy and was in hiding. As the party had an Aasimar paladin with them she felt it safe to assume they weren’t agents of the Council, and told them to head for the Hall of Order, they could find him an a cupboard in the office in the northern corner. They had a quick sortie out to locate the Hall of Oder, but arrived just as it was closing, so returning to The Divine Machine they took rooms for the night.
 
Next morning after a pleasant night’s sleep in the comfortable ( though small) beds on the tavern they headed across town to the Hall of Order. It took Atreuss several hours to get the necessary paperwork and permits but eventually they got access to the building and made their way to the office at the northern quarter. While Petherwick distracted the tridrone with a request on the regulations for garbage disposal. Atreuss went to investigate the closet which turned out to be a stationary cupboard. Heading to the back he knocked an whistled as instructed by Muenschal. An invisible door opened in the back and a man peered out at him blearily. Once Atreuss explained why they were there, Hieron invited them in and one by one they filed through into the Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion behind the closet. Petherwick was last, having thanking the tridone who had just got to the town ordinances for rules for the disposal of aardwolf  carcasses. As he headed to the closet the door to the office crashed open and a harsh voice called out – “Right lads, grab the old fool. Kill the rest".

The Great Modron March

 The owner of that harsh voice turned out to be a female elf, clad in flowing robes – who immediately charged into the room followed by a bunch of disreputable looking thugs carrying shortwords.
 
As Hothfin moved to block her path as she charged forward toward the cupboard, Fiara, dropped The Book. Ignoring it’s muffled protests, she used her innate ability to cast mirror image and drew her sword. Vega meanwhile, instructed Heiron to close the door of the Mansion. To give him cover while he did, she closed the door of the cupboard. Petherwick meanwhile, trying to hold off two of the thugs with his quarterstaff, looked to the modron that stood blinking in puzzlement at the chaotic scenes unfolding in it’s normally orderly office and suggested he might like to summon aid.
 
Not waiting for Heiron to react to Vega’s instruction, Atreuss re-opened the cupboard door and charged out – engaging the wizard in combat. The wizard dodged the blow and cast a Confusion spell on Fiara who wandered off aimlessly, heading into the cupboard. Vega then, drawing her sword, dashed out to help her comrades. Hothfin was wounded by one of the thugs, just and the enemy mage disappeared. As the battle against the thugs continued, Jysson emerged from the cupboard, observing to anyone that would listen that she had reappeared inside the Mansion and as a wizard duel was now taking place there, he though it would be safer out here!
 
With Hothfin’s help, Vega and Atreus were making short work of their thugs while Petherwick, though wounded, was not only managing to hold off two of the thugs on his own, but also managing to keep up a running dialogue with the modron sanitation engineer.  Having disposed of their own thugs, Vega and Atreuss moved across the office to help their wizard. Petherwick had managed to drop one of his opponents and Vega made short work of the other. As the final thug fell a loud sonorous bell ran out from somewhere outside followed by sounds of chaos and confusion. As if responding to a summoning, the modron in the office immediately headed out of the office. While Hothfin began attending to his wounds, Vega went to check on Heiron. She found both Heiron and the other wizard standing in the marbled hallway both listening to the bell with an incredulous look on their faces. Somewhat acidly she asked if they had stopped fighting?
 
They both looked at her an in chorus said “of course!” before vanishing. While the others began clearing up the mess in the office, Hothfin joined the throng of modrons and other sentients heading out through the corridors. When he arrived at the front of the building he could see the immense gears in the centre of the square had opened and uncounted numbers of modrons were pouring out, forming into ranks and marching out in ordered lines.    This seemed to be causing huge consternation with the inhabitants of Automata. As he watched, Heiron and the other wizard appeared next to him and surveyed the scene. The other wizard muttered something about “reporting to the Council” and vanished! Heiron turned and looked at Hothfin, saying “something is grievously wrong with the multiverse!”
 
The mage turned from the scene and, accompanied by Hothfin headed back to the Mansion, as he did he explained that once every grand cycle the  Great Modron March   occurs, when a vast army of modrons marches out across the planes for their own unfathomable reasons. The problem is that this march is a century early, something that should be impossible! As no-one is expecting the march no one would have prepared the way and the result would be chaos as the modrons would simply march in their pre-programmed aeons old route irrespective of anything that had grown up in place since the last March!
 
After dining with Heiron in the Mansion, the party returned to Sigil. They retrieved the gold promised from under Jysson’s bed and secured the deed to the house as their reward.