The human wizard Kyllar was able to get the party on the good side of the Clifftop Adventurer’s Guild (feel free to ask him how he did it), a guild focused on exploration and adventure, particularly around the continent of Xen’Drik. This guild, in cooperation with House Orien (couriers) and House Cannith (inventors) are seeking to build a new airship. The next series of their tests requires more power, and they have offered up a bounty on a certain kind of fire elemental.
Several other groups have taken up the bounty, and along with the party, have descended deep into the foundations of Sharn to hunt, as it is the closest likely place to find an elemental. The area is known as the Cogs; large caverns beneath Sharn, and home to slums and foundries. Shanties litter the area, and the landscape is pitted with lava pools, and several bridges have been built to cross the rivers of lava that have carved their way into the landscape.
The full party, along with Kyllar’s newly hatched (but as-yet-unnamed) pet Kobold entered this cavern of the Cogs from the northeast, diving right into the most populated area, and wasting no time plying the locals for any rumors of fire elementals. The adults in the area regarded the party warily, trying to interpose themselves between their curious children and these armed topsiders. A few kind words and magic tricks (erm, illusions!), as well as recognizing the gnome barbarian Gnofulk, who has been down here a lot, and the locals were convinced that the party meant them no harm. The party learned from the locals that these elementals are uncommon, and if they were to manifest, it would be near a very hot heat source, such as the lava pools to the south.
The party gleefully scampered south, and started rooting around the shallow lava pools. Finding nothing of interest in the pools, the party looked around, and noticed what appeared to be a cave bored into one of the rocky pillars supporting the cavern. Treading carefully around the pools, the party entered the cave, whose interior was illuminated by a soft red glow of tiny lava pools inside. The party ventured in, and soon found themselves under attack by small, red-frilled snakes defending the smoldering pools they called home.
The human monk Turnin ran parallel to the nearest snake, and holding the very end of his staff, swung in a wide arc and connected, but only managed to toss it a little ways back. Gnofulk smushed onewith his mighty axe; Kyllar blasted away with a frosty ray, while the dragonborn fighter Rhogar and the halfling rogue Shadowale stabbed at the critters. Turnin ended the fight with another odd arc swing, which tossed the last snake into a pool of lava where it slithered deeper and decided to remain. The nuisance over, the party continued through the cave, quickly finding another passage that lead to an overlook and a steep drop down into one of the lave rivers. Winding carefully along the path, the party edged back into the shanty town and away from the diversion of the cave. They noticed another massive support pillar for the cavern had been bored into with signs of industry. This was the mark of a foundry!
Faint clangs emanated from the huge “building”, which had no doors as the foundry was constantly in use. They walked inside, and were greeted by a stout old dwarf, who, upon noticing their weapons, quipped that the party did look like they were here to work a shift. Indeed they weren’t, and the party inquired whether or not and fire elementals had been seen in the area. The dwarf laughed; no elementals would be found here. This operation runs like clockwork; elementals are wild; feral things. He suggested the party look elsewhere, dismissed them with a wave of his hand and turned to return to his work supervising the work.
The party left the foundry complex, and as they crossed over a bridge into another area of this Cog, a boisterous, screechy voice greeted Gnofulk; it was Zeekee, the goblin manager/trainer of Rhaaal the Orc, whom the party had met on the train in the bar car. Zeekee thanked Gnofulk for sparring recently with Rhaaal, though he noted that the Orc was still having trouble with – what did you call that move? – Gnofulk’s “sucker punch.” Zeekee was off to pick up lunch for himself and Rhaaal before the latter competed in some uh.. less-than-legal fights soon. Shadowale asked about the odds of the fight, but Zeekee didn’t know; he doesn’t check the odds. Confidence was high however, despite still having trouble with sucker punches. When pressed the goblin didn’t know anything about elementals, but did warn against entering three particular neighborhoods in this Cog – those were now run by the Daask. Blood would likely be spilled if the party encroached upon their turf.
Zeekee bid farewell, and the party picked their way through a few more non-Daask neighborhoods on their way to a larger expanse of lava pools. They ventured further and further out, looking for any sign of heat or flame that could hit an elemental’s presence. While they searched in vain, there was a rumble and creaking, the lava flows cracked, shifting the pools, and the party found themselves on a small rocky island surrounded by about 40 feet of lava on all sides.
After some cursing, Kyllar saved the day, conjuring the trusty magical disc to ferry the party back and forth across the bubbling lava to safety. Rhogar was the last to be ferried over, and as the party collected themselves, they realized that Shadowale was nowhere to be seen. Mayhaps the Halfling got bored of the quest and wandered off to see the fight?
The party backtracked into the slums, and on a narrow street, noticed the soup shop that Zeekee had mentioned. The party walked in and was greeted with a squeak of delight from the owner behind the counter. It was Zoop, the cowering goblin short-order cook from Snarg’s Bistro on the train car, now the proud owner and operator of Zoop’s Soups. Soups were on the house; Rhogar, Kyllar and Gnofulk trying the “soup with meat” and Turnin choosing the “soup without meat.”Zoop related to the party that Snarg was still “riding the rails” with his bistro car, but he had had enough of that life, and opted to open up a shop in Sharn, and in the Cogs, where rent was cheap. As the party slurped up their meal, he warned them to steer clear of the Daask neighborhoods. As for fiery elementals, Zoop suggested trying somewhere hotter? As the party bid farewell and resumed their task, Kyllar’s guts began to protest against the meal, and he became violently ill, spewing the soup into the river of lava nearby. His pet kobold patted him reassuringly on the back.
The spittle was wiped from his chin, and Kyllar led the party into the nearby Fizzo’s Tavern for a few digestif drinks to help cope with Zoop’s soup. As they sipped their drinks, the party chatted with the satyr barkeep. They learned a little bit why the locals had been eyeing up the armed party with suspicion; the ever-zealous Church of the Silver Flame had been preaching again, with a more-than-usual emphasis on scouring evil from Eberron. There had been a few scuffles here and there, and the denizens were a bit worried that violence would visit them soon. About fire elementals... Fizzo was unsure. Occasionally one would manifest, and destroy a few buildings, but that was very rare. If they did manifest with any regularity, it would be further out; away from the (slightly) cooler populated areas.
The party left Fizzo’s, and this apparently being a particularly busy and congested part of town, immediately bumped into another familiar figure, and again from the train; Asmund, the (formerly) concussed paladin, clad in plate and his face obscured by his usual mask.
Asmund greets “Friend Kyllar” and inquired as to what he was doing in the Cogs. Kyllar summarized the task at hand, and inquired the same. Asmund stated that he was scouting the Cogs; his Chapter Commander thought there was an Evil lurking in this Cog, and needed more information. So far, Asmund has scouted several Daask strongholds, and was on his way to report back to the Commander. The party asks if Asmund would help them fight the Daask, but the paladin refuses. Tensions are high, and drawing blade against them, even if only the Daask criminals were slain, would simply fan the flames and increase tensions in Sharn between the denizens (orcs, goblins, satyrs, etc) and the more gentrified races (elves, etc). Tensions are high enough due to the ministerial branch of the Silver Flame. Asmund bids the party farewell, and they continue on to several large lave pools.
As Gnofulk relieves himself into a pool, producing a very satisfying sizzle, Kyllar readies a spell to detect magic, hoping that maybe an elemental would somehow trigger it. Surprisingly, something is resonating from one of the pools, lurking just below the surface. Pausing for a second to consider his options, Kyllar decides to lob a “good-sized rock” laying nearby into the pool.
With an ominous rumble, something large slithers out from the pool, sloshing lava as it bears down on the party. It has a vaguely snake-like face, and its long arms brandish a trident and a shield as it’s lithe body undulates menacingly towards the party.
Kyllar is quick to act, and blasts the beast with a particularly cold spell, bloodying the beast immediately. Gnofolk wickedly slashes the beast, though the burning mantle of the monster injures him as well. The slithering thing lashes out at Gnofulk poking him with the trident and batting him with his tail, though the blows seem weaker than they should be, given the slither’s . Rhogar run forward slashing once at the beast, and readies himself to counter further attacks.. but the monster is slain; molten blood oozing from the wounds and multitude of scales, which sundered when they were forcibly cooled by Kyllar.
The party gathers their breath, and Kyllar ferrets out the magic item; a shield, and readies a ritual to identify it. The party takes a break. They prod the dead thing with their boots; take a few swigs of water; and stretch a bit. Kyllar triumphantly identifies the item as an Arrow-Catching Shield; a magical item that will give the bearer an edge in blunting the ranged attacks of their foes. Rhogar eagerly lifts up the shield, though it will take some time for him to master the new shape and weight.
The party skirts a Daask neighborhood, and crosses another bridge into the third borough of this Cog. A smattering of Daask-controlled shanties lay against another rock face in the west, monitoring traffic across another bridge and way up into the lower tower areas of Sharn. On the eastern end of the borough, is few other abandoned shanties, and an uneasy looking foundry, with a unique but recognizable symbol above it: a femur bone with gear for it’s joint.
Like the other foundry, this one appears to be in constant operation, and also has no doors. A din arises from within, and as they enter, the party can see workers swiftly moving to make adjustments to machines and cleaning up messes as quickly as they can. The party is soon greeted by a Warforged, whose appearance, after the train incident, startles Turnin. The Warforged identifies himself as Wrench, and he begins to soothe Turnin and talk with the party. The society recently acquired this old defunct foundry, and is working on getting it up to speed. It’s a bit of a fixer-upper, and they’ve had their mishaps, but they are learning the ropes quickly. He mentions of the mishaps resulted in accidentally super-heating some metal, which manifested a fire elemental, which rampaged through part of the foundry.
The party asks more about the mishaps, and if they could be replicated. Wrench assumes so, but asks why he’d ever want to, as the elemental caused such a dreadful mess. The party explains their task, and asks again for assistance. After some hesitation, Wrench agrees, though it will take him a long while time to reorganize the foundry, in order to reduce possible collateral damage from the procedure. He calls a few other Warforged over to begin preparation, while the party mulls over what to do in the meantime. They mention maybe assaulting the small Daask neighborhood on the other side of the borough, which perks up Wrench’s auditory holes. If the party were to clear out that neighborhood, the society will redouble their efforts preparing to manifest an elemental for the party. The party agrees to the new terms, puts on their game faces, and begins to cross the street.
Small satyr-like creatures, standing watch atop some of the sturdier buildings, raise the alarm as the party approaches, but distance is quickly closed. Kyllar is first to act, sprinting toward the first tower and jumping as high as he can…
At the apex of his jump, Kyllar unleashes a resounding clap of thunder, which muddles the brains of the tiny satyrs, and tosses them off of the roof, far away and out of the fight. Kyllar lands and crouches near the base of the building, hoping he wasn’t seen by anyone else. Gnofulk is next to arrive, and hurls several javelins toward the other tower-like structure as he advances, wounding the last satyr sentry. With a long running start, Turnin enters the battle, using his quarterstaff as a pole to vault up incredibly high towards the tiny wounded satyr atop the structure. With a mighty horizontal swing at the apex of his jump, Turnin clobbers the little satyr, cracking his skull and propelling him off the roof. On reflex, he grasps the roof ledge and hangs there while Rhogar charges in, looking block potential reinforcements from some pathways into the rest of the shantytown.
Reinforcements do arrive moments later, and three bestial men converge on Rhogar, trading vicious blows while Turnin dangles above the melee. Meanwhile an Orc and bestial man arrive from another direction, and descend upon an unaware Kyllar, felling him before turning to face the Gnofulk who is now bristling with rage.
Turnin drops down into the melee, and swings his quarterstaff with gusto while Rhogar slashes with his blade; both party members deal out serious injuries, and manage to fell one foe. Gnofolk and his attackers trade a few blows, though nothing hits. Turnin lands a few more strikes and Rhogar belches draconic flames, ending another foe while Gnofulk takes a beating. Seeing an opening in the fighting, Kyllar’s pet Kobold scampers around the fray and feeds a small, patented healing potion to Kyllar, just like he was taught to. Kyllar crawls a little bit away from the fight, and blasts the Orc with a cone of fire.
Leaving Rhogar to deal with the last bestial man on that side, Turnin leaps up, and kicks off the wall of the structure, propelling himself into the other fight. Soon, the Daask brutes are no more. Most of the shanties were simple lean-tos; blown away by Kyllar’s opening Thunderwave and exposing nothing more than sleeping pallets. The party quickly searches the sturdier structures, and finds a few weapon racks with low quality instruments of war. However they do find two casks of the “Rye Not?” whiskey from House Ghallanda. They quickly roll the casks back to the safety of the foundry, and take the opportunity to rest while the workers ready the foundry to manifest the elemental…
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