Path of Exile Hideout Competition

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO5Cku56Iq4
Pics: https://imgur.com/a/pTTOnzl

Guided Tour


The exiles have taken over the Templars' secret laboratory hidden in the catacombs beneath the city of Oriath. In these well-guarded, dank, and misty halls, what secrets are they keeping?


Molten liquid pours into the abyss below, turning water into steam. Steam which flows through pipes, jetting toward the surface, turning turbines which spin cogs which set strange contraptions in motion.


A vast variety of volumes line the walls of the "planning room", where researchers, including an expert on maps, industriously pour over reports searching for findings to present when next the conference is called. Or at least they are all supposed to be. One is reading a treatise entitled "A Statistical Study of the Effect of Proximity to Kuduku on the Efficiency of Fusing Orbs". A large machine in the corner of the room pulls the moisture from the air, preserving the papers against the effects of the mist.


Where research fails to uncover answers, interrogation may succeed. The Templars kept a wide assortment of tools and chemicals for just such a purpose, in plain view of the nearby cells.


Where interrogation fails to loosen lips, nothing is wasted. More material is always needed for experimentation, and the prisoners can't be allowed to starve.


The main hall hides a deadly trap for intruders. It is illuminated only by a dim eerie glow from curious tanks which seem to attract bugs, moss, and flesh-eating fungus. The darkness, heavy mist, choking fumes, and spores veil the traps on the floor until it is too late. The exiles dispose of bodies here to grow the mushrooms in this grotesque garden.


Guards stand ready nearby to deal with any more bodies reanimated by the fungus, and bar entry to the vault. Any research venture requires funding, and that funding ought to be well-protected. What was once a holy gravesite has been repurposed with a few clockwork trap additions as an extra security measure.


In the lab proper, Niko experiments on strange minerals from deep beneath the earth. Surgical researchers prepare their tools for their next test subjects. Einhar supplies some monster corpses for use in today's experimentation. A surging power cable draws power from a subject chained to a table. Human and monster experimentation takes place here. I'm sure it's for great advances in credible science.


We bid farewell to today's subjects, and move on to the lab's main floor,
where a great many steam engines concentrate power into one of the lab's greatest achievements: the crafting bench. In one corner of the lab, an alchemist concocts the thaumaturgic chemicals required to keep it running.
Today, some power has been diverted to research matter transferrence. If it works, when the switch is flipped, the two exiles in pods will instantly switch places. Ignore the broken glass and body from the previous trial, this time Helena is sure it will work.


Through the iron gates is the restricted research section, where only authorized personnel are allowed. The scrolls from ancient lost civilizations, heretical tomes, and descriptions of unknowable cosmic horrors housed within require researchers with a certain level of mental fortitude.


At the back of the lab lies what may be the Templar lab's greatest discovery,
a consecrated shrine containing a relic of immense power. The foremost masters of cartography and exploration determined that the site was concealed behind the rear wall of the lab. With a bit of explosive power, the shrine was unsealed. The staff of the lab is very excited about what they could do by siphoning off some of this artifact's power.

with the game master hidden behind: