Player Handout 2: A Vision
You stand in the glorious Artificer’s Workshop, surrounded on all sides by parts for golems and other metallic constructs. Nearby tables and workbenches are covered with tools, clasps, and bits of wire and wood. Vaguely humanoid limbs and rods made of adamantine and mithral have been sorted into piles by length and thickness. Shelves groan with cogs, wheels, gears, and other parts of all shapes and sizes. Huge basins of flowing lava ring the perimeter of the room, ready for use in the Sacred Unmaking.
At the back of the room rests the sacred altar of Gond Wonderbringer, an unusual and amazing design. It is covered with whirling gears, rows of pistons, and innumerable other moving parts, all moving up and down, left and right, in and out… a dizzying symphony of perpetual motion. The clash of metal upon metal and the constant grinding of unseen cogs cause the entire chamber to reverberate with a deafening cacophony, but it is music to your ears.
Beyond all the thrashing machinery, there is a large bronze coffer at the very heart of the altar. It’s difficult to make out, and would certainly be impossible to reach, because of the endless undulation of the pistons and the constant whirling of the cogs, whose edges seem very sharp indeed. Reaching into that metallic maw would surely result in at least the loss of a limb, and perhaps far worse if you were to be grabbed up and pulled into the heart of the thing.
A control panel, covered with levers, gauges, dials, and other indicators, stands to one side. If there is any relationship between the individual controls and the actions of the machine, however, it is not at all obvious. There are four levers, two status indicators, a dial, and a button that draw your attention and seem to be of particular importance.
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Somehow you know that you have just completed and confirmed the entire control sequence and the altar is ready to be opened. All you have left to do is push the glowing red "Confirm" button and then you will be able to add the Artificer’s latest creation to the temple’s collection of treasures.
The dial is marked with positions numbered 1 through 100. It is currently set at 67.
Next to the dial is a large red button. The button seems to be made of some kind of crystal, and it is illuminated from within by periodic flashes of light, as if daring you to press it. It is labeled "Confirm."
There are two colored pieces of glass (numbered 1 and 2). You remember that these indicators automatically change color from red (locked), to yellow (partially unlocked), to green (unlocked) depending on the progress of the control sequence.
Both indicators are currently emitting a green glow.
Long wires dangle from the bottom of the control panel; their ends have been twisted together to form a closed loop.
The levers are labeled from left to right, A through D. All four levers are in the DOWN position.
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Suddenly there is a horrible noise, as if the very fabric of the world were suddenly tearing apart. The entire temple lurches violently and you find yourself falling forward, directly into the altar… and then you know no more.