The human wizard Kyllar had ingratiated himself with the Clifftop Adventurer’s Guild, who had then outsourced a task to him and the party: to bind and capture a fiery elemental to use in an experimental airship. It was more a bounty than a contract, and the party learned of several other adventurous groups combing the Cogs for an elemental as well. After searching some lava pools in vain, and generally adventuring all around this area of Sharn and running into all sorts of old acquaintances, the party happened upon a foundry, run by the society of warforged to which Gofer (and Bulwark) had belonged.
Noticing the symbolic broaches of the community (a femur with a gear for the ball joint), attached to various member of the party, the foreman, Wrench, greeted the party cordially and allowed them into the foundry. They got to chatting, and soon the party had convinced the foreman to use the foundry to help summon the elemental. This is no small task, but Wrench agrees on behalf of the community, and indeed will work harder and quicker if the party uses this downtime to clear out a nearby neighborhood that has become Daask turf. The party agreed, and dutifully demolished the shanty town, slaying the small number of Daask gangster brutes there, and then returning to the foundry’s break room to rest while the workers set about getting stuff ready to summon an elemental.
The halfling rogue known as Shadowale had wandered back from drinking or gambling or murdering or whatever he was doing, and brought up to speed, though Rhogar the dragonborn fighter received a missive from his Guild and had to bail on the endeavor shortly after Shadowale arrived.
The party’s rest is interrupted by a frantic warforged, whom they recognize as Gofer. The party sleepily begged for more sleepy time; drowsily asked Gofer when he showed up here; and languidly asked him to explain just what he meant by “Get up, the Foundry is being overrun!”
Gofer exasperatingly explains that someone must have seen the party attack the Daask shanty town and informed the brutes... because they just assaulted the foundry moments ago, overpowering the Foreman and his two assistants, who had remained behind (with Gofer) to help the party summon with and deal with the elemental.
The now-conscious party, consisting of Kyllar, Shadowale, the human monk Turnin and the gnome barbarian Gnofulk, weighs their options, and thinks they can probably summon the elemental and deal with the intruders, so long as they are careful. While not a worker in the foundry, Gofer is vaguely aware of what needed to be done to summon the elemental, and agrees to help the party, declaring that a journey of one thousand miles begins with a single step, and that the first step here should be towards the canals.
The party sneakily heads into the Lava Canals, stumbling only a little bit. They cross small bridge over the canals, and on the little platform on which they stand in the corner of the room, the party notice a strong chain looped into the wall. Gofer informs them that pulling on this will raise a stopper outside, and allow some lava into the canals of the foundry. The gnome barbarian Gnofulk and Shadowale start pulling on the chain, though it makes a lot of racket, and their huffing and puffing for strength and focus in their efforts are pretty loud. A patrol of satyrs-like beings is attracted from the direction of the entrance, and another group, led by an Orc approaches from the direction of the Crucible room.
The party takes a few minor wounds from the satyr bowmen, but Gofer and Shadowale work diligently on the chain. Screened by the rest of the party, Kyllar’s kobold eagerly watches while Kyllar himself throws a fireball as the cohort approaching from the direction of the entrance, which draws blood from most of them, and badly singes the hair on the rest. Gnofulk follows up with a few thrown javelins, and then joins Turnin in defending the bridge over the canal, which is now starting to flow with lava.
The intruders crashed upon the party in waves as the lava flows freely. Gofer points out a large spigot nearby, and he and Shadowale start to diver the flow into the foundry’s canals while the rest of the party weathers the attacks.
Turnin bravely holds the bridge, even managing to slay a charging beast man with a dart to the eye, but eventually succumbs to injuries. Gnofulk advances to protect the unconscious monk while Gofer moves to drag him away from the dangerous clashing of weapons.
Blows are traded on the bridge, with Gnofulk managing to shove a satyr into the now freely flowing lava. Kyllar’s kobold administers a very small healing potion to Turnin, reviving him. With the bridge holding despite the momentary loss of Turnin, Shadowale flings himself over the canal to slice at some of the remaining satyr archers.
The unorganized assault on their position is failing, and the orc commander finally joins the fray, throwing his axe and severely wounding Gnofulk as he attempts to charge the bridge. Gnofulk weathers the orc’s blows, and eventually pitches him into the lava as well.
The patrols defeated here, the party takes stock of their summoning situation. The party notices that while the spigot has diverted some of the lava into the canals, some is still flowing right back outside. From the look of things, Gofer thinks that the spigot is functioning normally, and is in fact, not designed to diver all the lava. Kyllar conjures a magical barrier to assist the spigot and divert ALL the lava into the canals, which soon start to overflow a little.
The party searches for a way to make the foundry a little more wild and unsafe (that is, more conducive to “accidentally” spawning a fiery elemental). Everyone but Gnofulk, the shortest in the group, notice magic bellows handing from the cavern’s ceiling, and start working them, aerating the river of lava and teasing gouts of flame from it. The lava continues to flow, the bellows making the river hotter and hotter.
The party works the bellows with such diligence, that they do not notice another small patrol of Daask entering the area behind them. As Gofer continues to work, the party repels the attack, with several more brutes being tossed into the flowing lava.
Gofer is getting nervous now, and the party feels they are on the right track. Hearing a shaking from the next cavern room, the party abandons the bellows and enters the room containing the Crucible, a device usually used to safely heat up the metal so the workers can work with it.
Now, the lava seems to be heating it beyond the usual safe thresholds, and Gofer thinks it is only a matter of time now, so the party gets to planning. Kyllar unpacks the gear provided him by the Clifftop Adventurer’s Guild; bracers are given to Turnin and Gnofulk, who will have to grapple the elemental to attach them, and the final controlling collar is kept by Kyllar. Ever the planner, Kyllar also summons his familiar, which flies into the actual foundry and casting area of the complex, and notices a straggling group of Daask fighters smashing casting molds.
The party fans out, surrounding the rattling cubed Crucible. Suddenly, the Crucible cracks, though continues to rattle, and fiery elemental emerges, spilling out onto the floor next to Shadowale, and slamming into the halfling.
Frostbolts from Kyllar streaks into the elemental, as Turnin strikes it and Shadowale disengages. Gnofulk lunges, and manages to attach his bracer to the fiery elemental, weakening it. Turnin soon follows suit, but finds that while weakened, the elemental is not yet controlled, and it slams into the monk, knocking him unconscious.
Gofer nervously notes that the lava still seems to be dangerously hot – and another elemental starts to spill out from the cracked wreckage of this Crucible. The party orders Gofer to go twist the spigot back, and Kyllar dismisses his conjured barrier near it.
Kyllar summons a disembodied hand to clasp the control collar to the weakened elemental. His kobold drips another healing potion down Turnin’s throat, and the party gives the newly arrived elementa a wide berth while they frantically plan.
In an usual instance of self-sacrifice, Shadowale catches the attention of the new elemental, and begins drawing it towards the foundry’s casting area. Kyllar cradles his kobold, and casts Spider Climb on the elemental, Turnin and Gnofulk, who migrate to the ceiling of the cavern room.
As they approach the last patrol still ransacking the casting area of the foundry, Kyllar conjures a large illusionary elemental which startles the patrol as the real elemental sloshes after Shadowale, who took advantage of the distractions to stealthily sprint past the patrols. The party lurks, watching the Daask beasts first attempt to fight the closer illusion, and then fall to the burning predations of the real elemental. A final Frostbolt from Kyllar ends the victorious rampaging elemental before it can wander away to cause more harm.
Impressed but rattled, Gofer approaches the party, and suggests that they leave now, before anything else happens. On the way out, the party finds the unconscious forms of Wrench and his two assistants. The party works to stabilize the fallen warforged while keeping an eye out for any more Daask patrols. Wrench regains himself, and agrees with Gofer that this is not the time for apologies or discussions.
The group retreats from the Cogs, stopping briefly outside a dull, uninteresting tower level at the behest of Gofer, who helps his metal comrades enter the building. The community will be in touch with the party later, once they have a chance to regroup, but for now, Gofer suggests pressing on and delivering the elemental to the Clifftop Adventurers, and their venture partners before anything else happens.
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