"Finally 'Advantage' how can be something can be employed or turned to help accomplish current goals." Malichi's ever-present grin drop for a moment as he ponders "I always assumed he used the letters of his name for the memory device, but as I think of it, it's entirely possible he came up with the letters first and later changed his name to Tova. Hmmmm..." and the grin returns as he swerves unexpectedly towards the ARRE.

Corrected skill checks at 1 level exhaustion (been a long week)

Investigation: 9

Deception: 19

Stealth: 9

Malichi the tiefling demonstrates some aptitude with maneuvering this vehicle, and begins to guide it like a matador challenging and dodging a bull.  The Rat Eliminator (AARE) seems unwilling to directly engage, and so it mostly retreats, keeping a buffer of approx 60 feet between itself and AGGE.

After a half hour or so of this cat and mouse game, it seems you may have caught Erastus' attention, because you feel AGGE suddenly lifted airborne with rapid acceleration, while a deep booming sound, likely the gnome's voice, is much closer than before.  Looking out the viewport, you see that AGGE has been set on a wooden surface, likely a table or workbench, and a giant hand withdrawing.

It does not yet appear that Erastus has noticed that AGGE is occupied.

"Hey, Malichi, I'm going to hop out and start lighting a few torches.  Hopefully the tiny flames and smoke will catch his attention.  Maybe you can drive the AGGE around a bit more.  If Erastus comes over, but hasn't gotten the point, I'll try to hit him with an arrow or two on exposed skin.  Shouldn't hurt him, but hopefully he'll at least notice us!"

"That sounds like a good idea Zensiro" Malichi tells you "I have an idea!" Malichi looks across the surface of surface they're on looking for an ink pot

Perception: 10

If he spots one, he'll drive towards it after Zensiro and anyone else who wants, gets out of Aggie, then he'll head towards it with the intent of knocking it over, driving through the ink and trying to write something large enough to be spotted by Erastus

The tiefling does not spy any obvious ink pots, but as he engages the drive and begins to move the vehicle, the giant hand reaches out and seizes AGGE once more, lifting it into the air.  A giant eyeball appears outside the viewport, and Zensiro immediately begins waving a lit torch about, trying to draw attention.  The eye blinks in confusion, and then seems to focus.  It widens in alarm.  A booming, unintelligible voice makes some sort of query.

The AGGE is set back down on the table surface.  Do you exit the vehicle?

"Well done, Malichi, that got his attention!"  Zensiro will hop out quickly, attempt to light a few more torches, and wave a lit one around while running back and forth between the lit torches on the ground.  He'll also do a fair amount of yelling, although he knows that the massive Erastus will almost certainly not be able to hear his miniscule voice.  "We're all down here, you giant!  Please tell us you know how to restore us to our normal size!"

"Zensiro, can you teleport up to his ear and actually get inside it to yell. Maybe that'll get his attention" Malichi suggests

Malichi gets out of Aggie and starts lighting torches as well

(That is a great idea, but I'm guessing it's well beyond the 30' limit of misty step to reach Erastus' ear ... DM?)

(Standing, yes.  If he were to bend down to get a closer look, it's possible.  If you wish you could take the ready action in case this happens.)

(Do I wish to, yes.  Do I think it's the safest course of action?  No.  ;-)

With Malichi's excellent suggestion, Zensiro will prepare to fey step his way to as close to Erastus' ear as he can get, should the giant inventor lean within range.  In the meantime, he will continue to attempt to attract attention with the torches.

Erastus Unibrow, famed inventor and entrepreneur, was at his workbench, tinkering about, his mind mostly going over and over recent events, trying to discover where his subjects have been teleported to, and how to recover them.  Several days had passed now, and no one in town, nor in the surrounding settlements had seen hide nor hair of the adventurers that had so recently departed his laboratory.  As he muttered and muddled to himself, a small commotion in the room caught his attention.  The Rat Eliminator was behaving strangely, wait, no, there were two of them!  Upon closer inspection, the artificer exclaims, "The Gopher Eliminator!  I thought you were lost!  Now what are you doing here, tormenting your cousin?"

With that, he reaches down and lifts the AGGE to his workbench, reaching for some tools to more closely examine the strangely-behaving device.   Turning away, and then back again, he notes that the automaton has once again begun moving around the bench, behaving oddly.  As he picks it up for a closer look, he notes sparks of fire from within.  Peering inside, Erastus sees something incredible:  His missing adventurers!  "What in Haven's name are you doing in there??" he stammers. (This was the booming noise the party heard).

Setting the AGGE down gingerly, once more, he reaches for a magnifying glass, and bends toward the workbench surface to reassure himself that he was not hallucinating from lack of sleep.  As he does so, he feels a puff of air in his right ear canal, and some sudden itching, as Zensiro finds himself sitting in the old gnome's outer ear, hanging on to tufts of white hair.

Zensiro attempts to steady himself, using one of the strands of hair as a rope, which is then used to fashion a makeshift harness.  He then yells into Erastus' cavernous ear canal, "Erastus, it's me, Zensiro!  My friends and I were shrunk by your teleportation machine and we've come back!  Please don't squash us!  Some of us are in the machine and I'm currently sitting in your right ear.  I hope you can hear me!  Maybe give me a slow nod for yes?"  He braces himself in the harness and waits for some indication that he's being understood.  If he receives it, Zensiro will continue, "Perhaps we could communicate if you write a message that I can read, and then I can speak to you like this.  I really hope you've figured out how to undo your machine's work!"

After the itching in his ear, the gnome hears a buzzing, similar to that of a mosquito, and feels something tugging at his ear hair.  His first instinct is to slap away whatever insect might be looking for lunch or a hiding spot,  but his hand pauses mid-strike, much to Zensiro's relief.  Seeming to realize the communication problem, he gently cups his hand to his ear, allowing the elf to climb on, and sets him back on the tabletop.  He then pulls a few boxes of assorted clockwork parts, gem fragments and bits of wire and string down from the shelves and sets to work.  In short order, he has assembled a device which seems to be a black box with two sets of wires leading to two hollow metal cylinders.  The artificer picks up one of these cylinders, and directs his booming voice into it.  From the other cylinder, you hear understandable words in a more natural register.

"Hello!  Is this working? Can you hear me?  Tell me, are you all safe?  What happened?  Did I teleport you to some evil mage who shrank you?"

"My word, what a fantastic and convenient device for our situation!  Erastus, I can hear you fine now, can you hear me?  We're all intact and have had some incredible adventures in the tiny world.  I'm afraid that your machine seems to be the cause of our current state.  I hope that's not too upsetting, as the shrinking is still a remarkable result!"

"My machine?" repeats Erastus. "Impossible!  I've been over the design... although that crystalloid matrix I installed to avoid mirror-image twinning may have polarized the beam into quantum frequencies... Hmmph.  Well, let's try a few experiments before I zap anybody else with that ray.  You find something, preferably inanimate, for me to enlarge, and I'll tinker with the device a bit..."

(Apologies to any real scientists for the technobabble).

"Hang on, just a second.  I think this will be easy enough to see.  It's the largest thing I have with me."  Zensiro unslings his backpack and removes the bedroll from the straps atop the pack.  He lays it on the ground and unrolls it, then takes several strides away to clear out for Erastus' large fingers.  "Standard issue bedroll, ready to be enlarged, good sir!  Feel free to pick it up when you're ready to test the device."

Erastus manages to pinch the tiny bedroll between his stubby fingers, and sets it on the pedestal in the middle of the room.  He fiddles with the knobs and adjusts the lenses of his Amazing Teleportation Device (i.e. the shrinking ray)  peering through a viewfinder to carefully focus it on the bedroll.  Fine-tuning his aim, he warns everyone to step back, and jams his thumb down on the activation button.

Once again, a crimson light bursts forth from the lens, moving in a straight line right at the bedroll.  It is unclear what happens next, but a loud POP! is head, and it begins snowing inside the room.  Or rather, large bits of fluff are floating and falling through the air, landing on all surfaces, some pieces bigger than your party.  Erastus stands, stunned, bedroll stuffing slowly settling on his head and beard, looking around him.

Taking up the metal cylinder, he says "Er, obviously that was simply a calibration error, and I'm sure I've got this figured out... just let me make a ... few... more... adjustments." While saying this he has disassembled the lens mechanism, cleaned the large ruby,  detached and reattached two wires, and smacked the whole assembly on the side.

"Who's ready to go first??"

"Ummm, does anyone else have something to test on?  I think it might be nice to see one positive result prior to submitting ourselves to the procedure ..."  Zensiro is clearly nervous and rifles through his backpack to see if he has anything else that he'd be comfortable potentially sacrificing to this unproven device.  "Hey, how about I put out a few of those torches and you give it a go with a pile of those?"

Insight 18  (To see if Erastus is genuinely confident in this try, for what it's worth.)

He is definitely confident, just as he was the first day you met him.