8 October 2014 (into the lair)
After some discussion, Diamond flies the team over the fence by what proves to be the stable block, a relatively blind spot in the guards’ patrols. They move to look into the white tower, and are surprised to find what seems like a combination of a Core Earth garage and an Ayslish blacksmith’s workshop. There’s a large (twenty or so feet long) metallic dog-like creature inside, perhaps the victim of some sort of transformation; it notices the group, but doesn’t take any interest in them. There’s also a control panel with a large red button on it.
In any case, the tower is all one large internal space (it looks as if it was designed for the maintenance of tall things, which can be got in or out by opening more of the front), so it seems unlikely to be where Babbage is being kept.
The team moves to another building, staying out of sight of the guards. This one’s bare inside: a bell and rope hang from the ceiling, and a stairway leads down into the earth. The team takes the rope, on the basis that this is probably the alarm bell, lights lanterns and heads down.
The space below is a stone-walled corridor with limited bracing of the roof; Thorfin is unimpressed with the workmanship. After a short distance there’s a junction, with a door to the left (sounds of large animals resting) and corridors to the right and straight on. As the party moves forward, two mastiffs attack from the front; Diamond and Stephen shoot them, but this makes noise. Guards boil out of doors both to the front and to the right; Thorfin blocks the door in front and uses his mace to break the sword-arms of the guards, Stephen shoots the other guards who got out before he arrived, and Diamond and David deal with the better-equipped and better-armoured guards from the rear. (Diamond shoots them in the face; David’s bullets do enough damage that their armour doesn’t really help.) Two more mastiffs are further down the corridor, but do their best to look uninterested in the carnage.
With some of the guards patched up enough to answer questions, Thorfin learns that Babbage is in the torture chambers on the lower level: “Past the Vikings, turn right, turn left”. Another hazard is likely to be Polyphebo, Amethyst’s apprentice.