The Forgotten Forge (Naomi)
From Toosigma
| Title | The Forgotten Forge |
|---|---|
| Author | Philip Mann - Naomi |
| Campaign | Convergent Threads |
| Session | The Forgotten Forge |
| Posted | |
| Game Date |
The game began with Hero, Rook, Kara, and I returning from a Luca Syara play…
Luca sent me a personal invitation to include my friends, which I found delightful. I have thought at times of our conversation on the roof of the theater two weeks ago. She did not seem to be concerned with any of the people that came to the Diamond Theater to see her works, so I am flattered beyond words that she sent the invitation. The play was absolutely wonderful and, though she was unable to be there, I hope to speak with her again in the future.
As we walked in the rain across the Middle Menthis, Hero spotted a shadowy figure stooping over something on the ground. I thought that the figure who I could not see may be injured and in need aid, so I quickened my pace. As we approached, the figure bounded over the edge of the bridge. I ran to the edge trying to see through the rain where the person went, but there was nothing below where the person could have gone. While I looked, the others discovered a body that the figure had evidently been stooping over.
The body was in a pool of blood that the rain was trying to wash off of the bridge. The man died of a massive blow that ripped a huge gash in his chest. I did not examine him very closely as Hero seemed to be doing that already. His identification told that he was from Morgrave University, and that he was in some sort of specialized area. I could not place him or where he was at the school. In truth this is not completely due to my lack of time in the city and around the school. It is also in part because I have tried to forget that place and never go back…I wish that I could have talked to her, that I could have done things differently, even that I could have simply left without her seeing her at all…
The next thing I heard told me a lot about who had assailed this man. A large warforged came over the near side of the bridge yelling “Die flesh-bags!” as he employed a huge battle axe against us. I do will never know why he hesitated when he had me completely off guard, but the split second that it did nothing allowed Rook to intercede before he could crush me.
During the fight, the people in the adjoining towers got word to the Watch. While Rook countered our assailant blow-for-blow, I felt that there was little I could do until the fight was over. As my friend became damaged, I realized that I would either have to use my abilities now against our enemy or later to help my friend. I ducked in between the swings of the mighty weapons and to the side of our attacker. Gathering the energy that I would later use to repair Rook’s damage, I held it in my hand until it became twisted and black. I dodged under the backswing of the mighty axe, touching my hand to his uninjured leg, and releasing the destructive power into him. For an instant, I thought that he would turn his actions against me as the pain surged through his body, but Rook struck the final blow and brought the fight to an end.
When the body of the warforged came to rest on the ground, a tiny sphere elevated from his chest and shot skyward. I surmised this to be some sort of messenger device, an imbedded magic item, which could be used to convey a final message to whomever he worked for. Almost immediately, Hero set to work searching the human body while I attempted to locate anything identifying on the warforged. I could hear the Watch getting closer and suggested to the group that we not linger long enough to be suspects. I found it somewhat difficult to convey how important it was to leave without letting them know that I had been in a similar situation with the Watch in this area before. Their reluctance to leave brought more insistence from me, but we were too late.
We were intercepted by the watch just feet off of the bridge, by Sergeant Dolom. I didn’t actually expect to run into the Lieutenant on an evening so rainy, but my relief at seeing the dwarf again was short lived. He seemed quite certain that we were the assailants and that we were going to have to go to the garrison to answer some questions. To that end, mayhap it was good that he did not remember me because it is likely that he would recall hauling me in before and that might just make me a criminal with a history in his eyes. I thought quickly about how to get out of this, how to avoid going back there again, but Hero just wouldn’t stop lying about what had happened! What happened to the sweet and charming guy that I knew Kayli liked? Maybe he was still sweet and charming, but he was rapidly losing all points for honesty.
Karakashtai, or Kara, jumped into the middle of the yarn Hero was calling our account of what happened. She admonished him and told Dolom what had happened, the truth as far as we had witnessed it. The sergeant seemed willing to accept her explanation, but just barely, when he finally told me to put my hands down. He gave everyone back anything that had been surrendered as a weapon and sent us on our way.
On our way past the patrol, a stranger whose features were obscured in a cloak stopped us. He showed us a House d’Cannith signet and told us that Lady Elaydren d’Cannith wished to meet with us at a tavern called the Broken Anvil. He said that we should be there tomorrow morning, and I got the distinct impression that we should not miss this meeting. We agreed and continued on our way…
Everyone separated at the Eyrie with Hero going back to the shop, Kara going upstairs to bed, and me going back to work. I talked with Kayli about making sure that she would get some time off in the future, and mentioned that we might have to scout for some more help so that she and I can go to a play together.
I woke Kara in the morning and then went to the shop to find Hero. Phellious said that Hero was still asleep and that he would wake him in a moment. I told him that Kara and I were going to get something to eat at the Eyrie and then we would make our way to our meeting place. The old man said that, if Hero knew where we were going, he would meet us there.
When Kara and I arrived at the Broken Anvil, Hero and Rook came shortly after. Inside, we were met politely by one of the barkeeps and were ushered to a table near the back where Lady Elaydren was already waiting for us. She questioned us somewhat about the evening before and again, Hero did a lot of talking while skirting most of the questions or lying outright. He even called Kara’s integrity into question by arguing whether or not she was qualified to tell whether the dead body we found was in fact dead. I wonder if is just that he gets like this when he is nervous.
Lady Elaydren asked if we had recovered a journal that the dead man should have had on his person. I could not say for sure if the journal was there or not as I was looking for the assailant more than I was paying attention to what the assailed had in his pockets. Hero said that he was certain that he did not have it on his person when we arrived, but the look that Kara gave him meant that she probably knew something to the contrary. Fortunately, the situation did not degenerate as it had last night, and our host struck a bargain with us to recover the journal. When we left, Hero and Rook headed back to the shop for something while Kara and I returned to the bridge.
The rain had washed everything away. I we had not seen him last night it would be very difficult for anyone to know that a man’s life had painted this bridge just an evening before. Looking around for any clues, I saw that there was nothing below the bridge that the warforged could have landed on. Thinking of ways to get under the bridge, I infused my sandals with the ability to walk under the bridge and I went over the side. From building to building, the underside of the bridge was clear. Like the walking surface above, there was no indication that anything had happened here last night. When I returned to the top, we had an observer. This man was an elf who seemed very curious about the way that I had gone over the side and returned. I told him that it was just a basic spider climb; he eventually shambled along on his way.
Somehow Hero came up with the journal. While it appeared to be blank, I could tell that there was some form of magic on it that probably was used to render the text invisible. That, however, was not what caught my eye. The front of the journal carried a symbol of House d’Cannith that has not been used in several hundred years. I knew then that we could be getting into something between the factions within that house. For now, I chose to leave the implications aside. We then we sent a message to Lady Elaydren to setup a meeting to return the book.
We met at the Broken Anvil again, and Lady Elaydren confirmed my thoughts on the magic of the book when she used her signet ring to reveal the text. She then told us of an ancient family foundry that she and her dead associate were attempting to locate. Within the foundry, somewhere, there was a schema that she wanted us to recover. She offered to pay well for what appeared to be a short jaunt into the Depths, so we agreed to go along. It would mean missing another evening at the Eyrie, but it could also mean a good bit of income that could be used to hire one or two more staff. The Larans have been so kind to me, and now I have the chance to help them in some small way. We were paid for retrieving the journal as promised and I divided the payment equally between all of us, including Rook. The warforged tried to give the money back to me as payment for repairs, but I told him that he is certain to help me when I need it in the future. What I meant, but did not say, was that I would have done so should he have asked; even if I had not been there when the damage was done, and even if he had not been injured while potentially saving my life by reacting so quickly.
We made our way down into an area near the sewer exchange that we were looking for. From here, we would require someone with a more recent knowledge of the area. A goblin hocking wares caught Hero’s eye, but so did someone else who seemed to be following us. He informed Kara and I that someone was there, but didn’t want us to look directly at the cloaked figure. I stepped closer to Rook, fearing that there could be a fight very soon.
Hero negotiated with the goblin and he began leading us into the sewer. The sandals that I enjoyed so much in my normal travels now seemed somewhat inadequate amid the dank smell and the unidentifiable squishy things on the ground. As we neared the bottom of the stairs and prepared to enter the sewer proper, there was no doubt that this person was following us. We rounded a corner and prepared to meet him with the best tactical advantage that we could muster when he was attacked by a warforged that none of us had seen. At the same time, two shifters emerged from our other side and began rushing at us. Fortune, however, was on our side as a violent discharge of water disrupted their advance and knocked one of them to the ground.
Unsure of the greater threat, I went with what I knew; I enchanted Rook’s weapon and prepared to repair damage should he need it. In spite of our divided attention, the fight was over rather quickly as the assailing warforged fell and the shifters fled. With this warforged, however, no messenger deployed. I remember that, “Die flesh-bags!” was how he announced his attack, as with the one before. Clearly we had a common foe behind the scenes attempting to wipe us out.
The human that was following us survived the assault and introduced himself. Kaine, as it turns out, was not following the group as a whole. He was following Karakashtai who, as he explained, was the last of a dying Kalishtar bloodline. Now, this was getting interesting. He continued telling her of her family and that her close relatives were gone, and then he mentioned something: Dreaming Dark. This phrase brought forth a moment of seething hatred and anger, the likes of which I could scarcely have imagined…and then it was gone almost as quickly as it had come.
Some of the group wanted to rest here, but I sensed that we should press on rather than wait for the escaped shifter to return with friends. Also, I was not interested in spending any downtime in the water or crammed into a narrow stairway. This appeared to be the good choice since the symbol that was on the journal was just down the passageway from where we entered the sewer. Hero and Rook attempted to open it, getting sprayed by acid in the process, twice. It was obvious to Kara and I that the journal was probably the key, but Hero seemed to want to play leader of the expedition for some reason. Before they tried a third time, I ushered them out of the way and held the book before the symbol on the door. As expected, it opened and we went inside. This seemed to be a secure place to rest while we contemplated how to descend through the opening that we found in the floor. I repaired the damage that had been done to Rook, closed the door with the book, and everyone took their rest. I closed my eyes and thought long and hard about the Dreaming Dark…
After everyone rested, Rook fastened a rope that he had to an overhead anchor point. One-by-one we descended the hundred feet or so into a hallway below. The hallway then opened into a huge underground room with the remains of several entire buildings within it. We had to climb down from the hallway to reach the floor, and we were set upon by a swarm of beetles and two horrid rats. The swarm attacked everyone who was not engaged by a horrid rat. For the beetles, it seemed just a matter of burning enough of them with my torch to scatter the swarm. In short order, the assault was over and, relatively uninjured, the party continued on but staying closer together this time.
All of the buildings down here seemed to have fallen in on themselves long ago, save two. In the first we found a magical font that was filled with water which seemed to have healing properties. In the second, we found the foundry.
The mighty adamantine-laced doors were rusted together, but the building seemed to be intact otherwise. Rook boosted Hero to the roof, where he found that part of it had fallen onto the floor below. He said that it looked like an artificer’s workshop, which was motivation enough for me to get up and get inside. I dropped onto the slab that had come from the roof, noting the remains of an iron defender sticking out from under it. Everyone joined me inside of the room, to be greeted by the scraping sounds of two more iron defenders preparing to attack.
This fight went well in spite of the fact that many of the attacks against the guardian constructs were less useful than they might have been. I enchanted Rook’s weapon as I have in the past and then turned my attention to my staff. I have passively avoided fighting so far, but I could not continue to let the others get hurt if I could do more. I knew what would hurt these constructs, so I gave my staff that power…My blows were decisive and both of the creatures fell quickly after I joined the fight. One became little more than a mass of component pieces after a single strike with my now-enchanted staff. It felt good knowing that I could use my abilities to help myself as well as others. But the feeling was not without the realization that I could also give my weapon the ability to hurt anything I chose, including those I traveled with.
Hero, playing leader again, rushed to the back of the foundry where an altar or workbench of some kind seemed to be located. There were three large holes in the surface, a triangle, a square, and a pentagon, with a corresponding set of rods off to the right. In my mind, I could see the shapes as numbers (3, 4, and 5) and thought to try the rods in that order. Before I could say anything, however, Hero grabbed the square rod and placed it in first…the shock that we received indicated that he had chosen poorly. I told everyone to step back, though most required no telling to be well behind me, and I placed the rods into the holes in the order that seemed so obvious to me. Each one became locked into the hole, with the placement of the pentagonal rod the vault surrendered its contents to me. There was a bag of gold and one of silver, and gold ingots, all bearing the ancient mark of House d’Cannith. These things did not interest me so much as the map and the schema, but I placed everything into a bag that I had with me. I figured that sorting this out later would be far better than trying to do so in here, especially since nobody wanted to rest inside of such a secure room.
We climbed back out and a flash of a flaming bolt narrowly missed me as it passed overhead. I dropped low onto the roof as another bolt flew past. Everyone climbed down from the roof and moved around the large pile of rubble that blocked our view of who or what was shooting at us. As always, I followed Rook closely and we soon came upon a large warforged who announced something to the effect that the Lord of Blades commanded our death. I suppose that explains the connection with the battle cry of the last two warforged that attacked us.
In spite of being heavily outnumbered, the assailant handled himself well. Rook drove him back with hard blows and I gave some of my own with my still enchanted staff. I kept expecting more to show up, but our blows eventually took him down…alone.
Though Hero wanted to go back the way we came, including the ten story climb back up the rope, I managed to persuade the group to continue down the passage that was right next to the foundry. This worked to our favor, as it came out in Lower Dura and didn’t require that we returned through the sewer. We went back to the shop where Hero lives, divided up what we found, with some of the older money from the vault being assessed for collector value. I did, however, take one of each type of coin and one ingot to start a collection and I kept the map, schema, and journal until we met with Lady Elaydren again. She took the schema, and asked to have the map for a bit to use her substantial house resources to examine it. I agreed, without attempting to consult the rest of the group for I am more interested in finding what lies in the past than what I can gain by selling a single artifact now. Lady Elaydren seems genuine in her desire to track these things down, and I think that helping her may ultimately help me. Besides, as an antiquities dealer, I cannot imagine that Hero would have an objection. She said that she wants to retain our services in the future, and we agreed to meet at the Water’s Edge in Upper Dura in three days.
