The deal with the old scholar is simple – she provides the map and a copy of their codex, you keep 3/4 the treasures if you bring back a detailed map and description of the tomb. Professor Al-da-farad says they’ve found a previously undisturbed royal tomb from the ancient Foxul Empire. This one is deep under the Frostbane mountains and even though this is four hundred leagues from any known border of the Foxul Empire. The scholar’s evidence is a set of accounts that detail funds and supplies being sent out to the Frostbane mountains during the last years of the empire for a project called “Operation Ceramic Dream.” Al-da-farad is convinced that the phrase “Ensure our most potent treasures remain ready” means that there is a hidden archive of imperial treasures hidden away. The treasures themselves aren’t as important to Al-da-farad as the chance to prove herself to her academic peers. The party aren’t going alone though, as Al-da-farad has used the last of her funding to hire a dig team to tunnel to the tomb entrance. The dig team won’t be going into the tomb, as they have no interest in exploring a potentially dangerous dungeon.
It took the dig team two weeks to cut through the hard unyielding basalt but when they did they found the entrance exactly where Professor Al-da-farad said it would be. Once a few metres in, the miners were able to follow a set of seams in the rock that led directly to the entrance. The seams seem to be the legacy of whatever geomagics were used to seal and bury the tomb and they don’t match the tomb entrance at all. The tomb / facility is cut directly out of the mountain rock. The walls, floors, and ceilings are finished rock. There are often patterns cut into the floor to mark out workflow and machinery safe zones. The entire complex is utterly free of dust and without any signs of corrosion or decay.
GM Notes: the decidedly unusual quirk of this tomb is that it’s actually a partially finished war factory that’s looking for investors to bring it up to full capability. Everyone in here are terracotta constructs. The tour guide will offer a tour of the facility with the intent to persuade the party to provide the needed capital to bring the factory up to full working condition so that it can bring in significant returns and serve to crown the princess as a queen through conquest.
The Facility
A: Guardroom – Two thirds of the room is surrounded by a gapped low wall that provides defenders with excellent cover and protection from those trying to gain uninvited entrance to the tomb. Though there is clearly space for 12 guards, there is only 1 terracotta warrior in position. The warrior assumes a defensive posture and moves to guard the door leading further into the factory tomb. After 5 minutes, the tour guide will walk into the room to greet the party. The tour guide will be pleasant or on guard depending how the party interacted with the terracotta warrior. Either way, they’ll smooth over any immediate misunderstanding.
Tour guide: “Welcome to The Facility in Distant Stone in the 841st year of our most glorious Princess Glorianna. It has been some time since we had any visitors. I’m afraid the princess herself will not be available until later. In the interim, please let me conduct a tour, so that you might avail yourselves of knowledge. As you are undoubtedly aware, this is a reserve facility, built deep into the mountain to ensure its survivability and privacy.“
B: Armoury – The armoury is filled with bronze weapons that are arranged on racks so that a large number of soldiers can rapidly equip themselves. There are hammers, hooks, javelins, and octagonal shields. A lone terracota worker sits at a workbench at the centre of the west wall. They are polishing a large bronze shield.
Tour guide: “As you can see, we’ve optimised the armoury for rapid deployment and long term storage. It does give us a limited offensive portfolio in the immediate, but using bronze ensures a solid baseline tactical capability. Once deployed from the mountain, siege and ranged weaponry would be locally sourced.”
C: Factory – A large open space two thirds filled with machinery. There are five parallel production lines of moulds and kilns down the centre of the room with 3 metre wide spaces between them. Above the moulds are floating hoppers that have chains dangling from them. Most of the chains are for moving and securing a hopper, but the one with the red handle opens it. The hoppers are all empty. At the end of the production line are stanchions for quality control. All is cold and inactive when the party enter. There are 10 terracotta workers stood impassively by one line of the production lines.
Tour guide: “this is the primary factory floor. We’ve utilised synergies and common patterning to create a production line that can make itself, its crew, and the primary products. This factory installation can go from a standing start to producing 50 terracotta warriors a day, with a suitable depth of inventory. Outsourcing is required for equipment. If you please stand behind the yellow lines, I’ll arrange a demonstration.”
The tour guide walks over to the start of the nearest production line and presses a large blue button. Two the terracotta workers move to man the machinery. First they position a mould set, then the buckets move to pour clay and water into the top. Once the mould is full and tamped down, the two halves are squeezed together and moved to a kiln. “To save time on the demonstration, we’ll use an already fired warrior.” The workers then step across to the 2nd production line and open a kiln to reveal fired warrior. They move it using a crane to a stanchion. They then work quickly to finish the terracotta and then retrieve an ampule from the stores. They inject this into the warrior to the sound of a desperate scream coming from the ampule. The tour guide will matter of factly state, if asked, that soul injection always seems to make that noise and that its part of the process of making sure that all constructors made by the process are utterly and irrevocably loyal to Princess Glorianna first and their current leader second.
D: Clay Face – The room opens up onto a mining face but rather than mineral ore, the material of interest is clay.
Tour Guide: “This clay is of the finest quality and is the reason the facility is located so deep within the mountain. Accessing the lode from inside the rock protects the facility from intrusion, optimises supply delivery, and prevents contamination.”
E: Stores – The stores are divided into two sections. Two thirds of it is precut sections of clay in paper wraps. The back third of the room is a freezer unit. A set of thermodynamic runes are mounted along the side of the freezer, keeping the temperature inside at around -20°C. Should the internal temperature rise higher than -10°C an alarm will sound causing workers from the factory to scurry over to try to fix the problem. They have spare runes and the equipment needed to build new freezers. Inside the chamber are 350 small ampules. 40 of them have a gentle blue glow. The ampules seem to be a good fit for an injection device on the factory stanchions. A set of fifteen 3 metre long rods sit in a secured glass case. Each rod is made out of dark steel and is engraved with necromantic runes. There’s a slot at the end of the rod for an ampule.
Tour guide: “As you can see, we are well provisioned with the fundamental material needed. The critical path concern here is a supply of the souls needed to empower the terracotta form once it is fired. You can use the souls of the dying enemy, but that requires a greater essence specific density than volunteered souls. Please be careful with the soul extraction rods as there is a long lead time on their replacement. Of course, investors such as yourselves would never be considered for this process.“
F: Workshop – A room filled with the tools needed to deploy and maintain the production lines. These vary from ordinary hammers and spanners to more esoteric tools specifically for the moulds in use. There are also machines for maintaining the tools and making new tools. Two workers stand idly here, next to an empty work order board. If anything is added to the board they will stiffly move to complete the order. They are capable of manufacturing any mundane item that is less than 15 kg in weight, if they have the materials, of which they have very little other than clay and stone.
Tour guide: “Tools, tooling, and machines. The facility’s logistics position requires a deep inventory of tools to minimise disruption.”
G: Well – There is a half metre high brick wall around the 2 metre wide hole of the well. The sound of rushing underground water can be faintly heard. Instead of a bucket and pulley, there are 3 screw pumps. 1 empties into a pipe system that flows into the factory for the machines, 1 empties into a channel that flows to a trough along the factory wall, and 1 empties onto a bucket stand. There are 52 buckets hanging on the walls.
Tour guide: “The water supply is an example of how we’ve been able to leverage hydrological opportunities. The water here is particularly crisp and the high mineral content compliments the clay.”
H: Office – At the western end of the room, a set of cubicles surround a large meeting table. The cubicles are bare save for a simple desk and chair. The eastern end of the room has a set of work benches with miniature versions of the machines in the factory. There is a drawing table, a set of supplies, a small potter’s wheel and a miniature kiln. A nearby cabinet is filled with detailed abstract pots. A note board on the wall is primed and ready to track a new manufacturing run. Amongst the paperwork are plans for additional rooms for the facility, labelled “soul extraction, quality control, reconnaissance, and gift shop.”
Tour guide: “The production office is suitable for managing this facility but would require advancements in scale to cope with expansions in production capacity. This concludes the tour. Please be seated at the table and I will inform you of when the Princess will join you for negotiations.”
The tour guide then waits by the door to the appartment and will attempt to prevent anyone from passing any door. The facility is not safe for unescorted wanderings. If asked, it will simply ask for patience and that the princess will be ready soon. If attacked, it will cry for aid, summoning all the terracotta warriors from their stations in the facility. After a 20 minute wait, the tour guide will open the door south and lead the party into the apartment.
I: Library – The walls here have been decorated with delicate floral frescos in pale pastel colours. The bookshelves stand away from the walls and are separated by wide passages of tiled floor. On the shelves are books about corporate management, self improvement, terracotta, factory design, and light romance novels. They are all written in Imperial Runic and have become dry and brittle with age. The boundary with the apartment is a simple wooden partition.
J: Servants Quarters – This room has been subdivided into seven smaller rooms. Five of these are quarters for the tour guide, a butler, a cook, a maid, and a sage and each are furnished accordingly. In each, a terracotta servant waits for instructions from their princess. The other two rooms are a kitchen with a pantry and a cleaning room. The pantry is completely bare and the cleaning room is dry but not dusty.
K: Apartment – The walls and floor have a luxurious hardwood panelling. The ceiling is the rock of the mountain which has been carved into concave pockets. The floor is furnished with thick rugs. There is a chaise-lounge next to a dining table for eight with stiff wooden chairs next to the door to the library. The south of the room is segregated by a thick curtain, behind which is a huge bed 3 metres square. The fireplace is cold and empty. There is a small bookshelf next to the wardrobe.
Tour guide “May I present to you, her most resplendent majesty, Princess Glorianna Felicity Poloxanad Thruma of the House of Planx-Granote-Mlun, holder of the Crown of Three Birds, listener of the Great Complaint, wielder of the Third Eye Staff, Companion of Honour in Blue, Captain of the Hardened Dragoons, and Speaker of the Word Most Drastic.”
The Princess Glorianna is reclining on the chaise-lounge. She gestures for the party to sit at the dining table. She makes polite conversation about how the party found the tomb. She is unconcerned by the fall of the empire or the many centuries that have passed. The terracotta maid appears and supplies the guests with a simple green tea. The princess will apologise that she has yet to stock up on biscuits.
She will negotiate with the party in good faith. She’s interested in several things. Foremost she needs capital for purchasing, so that she can expand the facility’s capability and then wage her wars of reconquest. In exchange she’s offering a 1% share in profits and land per 100k invested. If the party isn’t interested in direct investment, she can offer a licensing deal for sale of the terracotta warriors or contracts to supply the facility with metal or souls. In either case, she also stipulates that any contract will require the party to swear fealty to her and that one of their number shall become a terracotta construct, with a bespoke custom body, of course. She’s flexible on some of the details but won’t go below 25k per 0.5% return or 15% above the going rate for metals and souls. If the party and her are unable to come to a deal, she’ll bid them farewell and good travels and beckons the tour guide to escort them out. She gives them a few business cards and a brochure in case they change their mind.
Dramatic Persons
Terracotta Soldier – At 8 foot tall and 3 foot across at the shoulders, each soldier is identically imposing. Their shape is humanoid but they lack fine details in exchange of surfaces shaped to deflect attacks. Mute except for a set of prerecorded standard military phrases, they are basic but capable fighters. They never tire, are immune to mind effects, and are highly resistant to damage from sharp edges. If they have the space to move, they will use their bulk to isolate a target and will always focus their attacks on largest enemy. They are found at locations marked with a shield in the facility, armed with hammers and wearing metal armour. When defeated, they crack like pottery and fail with a bright flash of released soul energy.
Terracotta Tour Guide – 5 and half foot tall, the tour guide is shaped like a middle aged human with a lot of detail in the face and hands to allow them to be suitably expressive. They will pretty much say yes to any request that doesn’t damage the factory, its supplies, or intellectual property. They come across as too eager to please and a little bit smug about the qualities of the facility. Despite efforts otherwise, they are convinced the party are a group of potential investors and will only be shaken from this view by sustained violence. They will avoid conflict themselves, instead calling for the soldiers.
Terracotta Workers – 6 foot tall and wiry, the workers are strong, deliberate and precise. Their functional shape lacks any decoration beyond a rudimentary face, an engraved staff number and a speech spell even simpler than the soldiers.They don’t seem to be hampered by their limited ability to communicate and are highly skilled at running, maintaining, and building out the facility but they have almost no other skills.
Terracotta Servants – Unlike the workmen, the servants’ terracotta forms are unique and presumably bare a resemblance to a real person with impressions of clothes in their forms. It is clear that unlike the workers and the soldiers, these are the intact souls of people ensorcelled into terracotta forms. The butler is a short and stout older man with a stiff back and a fanatical devotion to the princess. The cook is a tall young man with a pointed face and sharper elbows, but their downcast manner is that of the defeated. The maid is abstractedly pretty like an impression of the empire’s beauty standards and she is fully rebellious. The sage’s face is gaunt, their body pear shaped and after 800 years in here she is very lonely. Magic ensures the loyalty of action of the servants, but they are freer to express their opinions. If attacked, the butler will flee but the others will attempt to fight back.
Terracotta Princess – From her sharp angular face to her delicate ears, from the hair that could be individual strands to her finger prints, the terracotta form of Princess Glorianna is a resplendent piece of masterwork pottery. Her face is fully expressive with bright white pearl eyes. Unlike the other residents of the facility, she is wearing actual clothes and has a wardrobe of regal attire and lounge wear. When she greets the party she is wearing a floor length dress of black and white weaved fabric. She is a capable diplomat but her expertise is necromancy with the entire facility being one of her design in her pursuit of eternal life. If forced to fight, she’ll move into the second rank behind her soldiers when they rally to her.
Epilogue
Should the party depart without a deal or without violence, they will begin to hear of and then see terracotta warriors in small numbers acting as bodyguards and mercenaries. Over the next few years, they’re numbers will increase, a city will be conquered and then a huge terracotta army will be raised in conquest. if the party choose violence, then extensive learning is required to replicate the princess’ control magics to enable the creation of new warriors. Non-sentient souls are only 1% effective at powering the constructs.
Image Credits – Map by 6d6RPG- CC-BY-4.0, Female Figurine by Sophie von Oertzen – CC0, kiln by woody – CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0