Eberron Adventure: Session Forty

So there they were…

Breakfasting themselves in Ghallanda Hall.

The mimosas were flowing freely as Turnin the human monk, Rhogar the dragonborn fighter, Gnofulk the gnome barbarian, Kyllar the human wizard, Comfort the tiefling sorceress, and Whudyalookadah the gnome druid devoured an odd breakfast consisting of eggplant parmesan, waffles, bacon, and sausages… all ordered by Comfort and prepared by the warforged cook known as Chef, under the watchful eye of the Hall’s veteran barkeep and waiter, Bud Miller.

Chef had been working hard to perfect some signature dishes… but perhaps the eggplant would have been more suited for dinner… Over the meal, the adventurers got down to their business.

Turnin had spent the time after the warehouse fire meditating on the Wizened, but could gain no insight into the shriveled, now super-dead man’s goals. The monk had likewise been unable to identify the magic imbued in the items recovered, and handed them over to Kyllar.

A few ritual spells later, Kyllar presented to the party a +2 Scimitar known as “Free Samples” that regains health for the wielder; prayer beads known as “Remembrancer” that aid a monk’s Ki recovery; and a very mostly shredded and badly burnt, non-magical, indecipherable book.

Turnin reclaimed the beads; the destroyed tome was tossed in the newly reclaimed bag of holding, and the scimitar was ignobly sent to sit among the party’s spare weapons, piled high in Gnofulk’s room.

As long as folks were showing stuff off, Whudyalookadah produces something he found. An odd broach on a scrap of orange robe that had gotten caught up in his claws when he was a T-rex.

Turnin snatches up the broach, and turns it over in his hands while scratching his intellect-boosting headband… but the monk remains ignorant, and passes it down to Kyllar. The wizard notices that the broach was a femur, with a gear for the ball joint. The wizard also notices that he has the same broach. As does Turnin and Gnofulk (and presumably Shadowale too, where ever the halfling was).

The trio of broach-wearers thinkback, remembering their first encounter with a real, living warforged. They had saved a courier known as Gofer, and he had given them the broaches to wear and mark them as friends of the community of warforged. The party had never bothered to determine the name of the group.

Finishing up the meal, the party debates what to do next. Gofer would be a solid lead, but they aren’t sure where to begin tracking him down. Their only other lead is the warforged operating the little foundry in the Cogs, but the party is thoroughly convinced that the warforged there don’t like the party after the fire elemental favor got out of control.

The party decides to risk potential wrath, and venture down to the foundry.

They depart Ghallanda Hall, winding their way around the massive towers of Sharn, traversing sky bridges, and eventually make their way down, beneath the tower foundations, into the cavernous subterranean spaces that constitute the Cogs, traversing the main path as they had done many times before.

As always, the heat is oppressive down in the Cogs; waves of it radiating off from the dammed up lava river harnessed for industry.

The party is recognized and welcomed with waves and well-wishes, and children run up to fist bump Gnofulk, as he is “kid sized,” and a local hero for suplexing the fanatical paladin Steve Carlsburg von Brighthammer Jr. off the magical dam and into the lava. …While also “kid sized,” Whudyalookadah is probably spitting or glowering something, and receives zero fist bumps. Turnin repeatedly pesters Kyllar for fist bumps, and the wizard grudgingly relents on every sixth pestering.

They eventually arrive at the foundry operated by the warforged. Sort of.

The foundry and the surrounding neighborhood, which was once dominated by the Daask, sits on a little island, joined to a larger strip of land by a bridge. Erm. Was. The bridge, destroyed for an unknown reason and by unknown means as the failed crusade in the Cogs unfolded… is still out.

The party look forlornly at their goal, separated from them by about 40 feet of a lava river. After a long while of boasts (Turnin could just jump it if he wanted to) and ideas (Comfort could teleport some folks over), the party valiantly give up.

They remember there is a second avenue to the island; a stairwell/corridor coming at the island from above ground and out of the outer cavern wall of the Cogs. While it was barricaded last time the party was poking around (during the failed crusade), they decide it’s probably an easier entrance than this destroyed bridge.

Wimps.

They depart the Cogs, pop back up into the city, weave around the foundations of the massive towers of Sharn, and descend via this alternate route.

Thankfully, the alternate route is open this time.

With a careful eye, Rhogar pauses to examine what remained of the barricade. As he recalls, it was essentially a haphazard wall of melted metal blocking the path. He sees no metal, and no signs of ‘splosions or fights. The barricade appears to have been purposefully and meticulously dismantled.

They descend, and exit their rocky path onto the foundry island. Being underground, the foundry is mostly a pillar spanning the rocky ground and ceiling, the insides carved out. They approach the wide maw of an entrance… and hear nothing.

The human wizard Kyllar summons his familiar, which does a quick circuit of the facility, but sees no warforged. The party enter, and proceed to poke around. They see the foundry machinery, tools, and conveyers and such, all in about the places they saw them last time. It’s a foundry, but seemingly abandoned.

The party backtrack a bit, leaving the abandoned foundry and hoping to find the orc girl Grrrraaaa, and they soon do. She is running about her Cogs neighborhood waiving the ax gifted to her by the party, and all in all having a grand old time. She sees the party approach, and runs up excitedly, still brandishing her ax.

Grrrraaaa excitedly thanks the party for the ax, and tells them that swings it every day, and wants to become an adventurer when she is a bit older.

The party asks her if the Daask have been back, and she scoffs. Nope! You sillys. You chased ‘em all away! Remember?

Then the party asks if she knows what happened to the warforged. Graaaa informs the party that they up and left the other day. She saw ‘em while she was practicin’ adventurin’. They were all carryin’ boxes, and marched right up that (alternate) path.

The orc kid also informs them that among the warforged there were two scary-lookin’ figures.

The first was a warforged with what looked like a crown, shiny coat thing, and a staff as big as he was. Grrrraaaa has no idea if it said DieFi or not… it was like, hundreds of feet away.

The second figure was scary, but super-cool. That one wore black, fancy-lookin’ armor, and had a skull wreathed with multicolored flames. How rad is that???

Turnin blinks a bit, and scratches his intellect-boosting headband. That second one sounds an awful lot like Skull Buddy… you know, if Skull Buddy got an armored body and all. But what are the chances of that happening?

Kyllar criticizes the kid for not knowing the names of these scary dudes, reading what may or may not have been on the rods or for knowing what was in the boxes, and she frowns. Wizards are jerks. Kyllar may have made an enemy today. The party departs, deciding that they should check out the other foundry in this part of the Cogs, to see if they know anything about what the warforged foundry was up to.

They depart the Cogs via the alternate route, pop back up into the city, weave around the foundations of the massive towers of Sharn, and descend via the main route back into the Cogs.

More fist bumps are passed around, and soon the party is standing in the entrance to the foundry operated by the regular Cogsfolk, peering in.

It is far larger than the other foundry, and a picture of metallurgical industry. Scaffolding abounds, and the walls are lined with huge vats of liquid metal. It is oppressively hot, and dozens of workers from a variety of races pour molten metal into molds and casings.

A dwarf, with a great big bushy red beard and dreadlocks sticking out from under his hard hat sees them enter, and hurriedly waddles over, gesturing enthusiastically to his head. This is a work zone! It’s dangerous! Turnin covers his head with his hands. Dudley shakes his head and jabs a finger up a scaffold staircase towards an office overlooking the foundry floor, and leads the party up.

The peculiar dwarf waddles behind a desk, and offers chairs to the party as they crowd around, and begins to answer questions.

The party learns from the dwarf that the warforged left, and his bosses – he’s only the foreman on shift – are eager to acquire it. Business is BOOMING. They be swamped with orders, mon. Unfortunately, Dudley isn’t too knowledgeable about the warforged. They never really competed for orders, and the dwarf can’nae recall losing a single order to them. The warforged seemed busy, but he has no idea what they were working on, or for whom, or why.

Turnin and Kyllar are keen to know if the foundry would want any investors on acquiring the abandoned foundry, and Dudley promises to run the proposal past his bosses.

Rhogar wants to ride the small electric rail the foundry uses to moves goods out of the foundry, and Dudley obliges. Rhogar crams himself into a little cart, and the dwarf flips the switch… and the dragonborn fighter starts moving down the line, grinning wildly while he discerns some of the intricacies of travel by rail.

The rest of the party walks a bit behind. A few hundred feet later, the tiny train stops. It is a short route.

Rhogar exits, rejoins his companions, and the party heads north. As long as they are down in the Cogs, they should visit their second-favorite goblin, Zeki, now on the city council and representing the Cogs.

The party follows a meandering street known as “Rhaaal’s Way.” When the crusade was launched, the party was unable to convince the orc to join them, and instead pointed him at a residential neighborhood, and told him to warn people. The orc did, but mostly cleaved through some crusading paladins instead. Still Cogsfolk lives were saved, and then boom, street named after him.

At the end of “Rhaaal’s Way” is a statue of the orc himself. But a terrible one. It barely looks like an orc at all. It’s magically gold and shiny, but just an abysmal work of art. Maybe the Cogsfolk will get an actual artisan to replace it someday.

A house sits in the little cul de sac, and the party walks in, knowing it to be Zeki’s home office. The main room is spacious, and the party sees a number of sitting stools along the wall, and a small goblin in nice robes and little librarian glasses sitting at a large desk piled high with paperwork.

Zeki jumps up from his desk, and warmly welcomes the party, gesturing excitedly to some of the stools and clapping Gnofulk on the back. It is soon apparent that Zeki and the party each have something to ask, and the goblin cedes the floor to the party, who ask about the warforged and their foundry.

Unfortunately, the goblin doesn’t know much yet. They left, but it was one business down here in the Cogs. The goblin apologizes for not knowing much. The warforged kept almost exclusively to themselves. Zeki has no clue what they were working on.

Kyllar has a thought, but it is pushed back as the party moves onto hearing about Zeki’s request.

The goblin announces that the Race of the Eight Winds, an annual Sharn sporting event, is coming up very soon.

Zeki spins a little backstory for the party. You see, back before Sharn had all these huge magical towers, there were only a few districts, all pretty low to the ground (or in the case of the Cogs, underground). These districts had an annual race with traditional flying mounts. As Sharn grew, the tradition persevered, and continues to this day. It's a race, and it’s a heckuva time! There the race! Gambing! Snacks! Uh… you name it.

Gnofulk is practically bouncing up and down on his sitting stool. He wants in soooo badly.

Which is good, because according to Zeki, the Cogs needs a replacement… well… everything, as it turns out.

The goblin informs the party that the Cogs had a jockey. Who was a gargoyle. So he was also the mount. But the gargoyle is really sick now, and Zeki thinks it may be poison due to the severity of the illness. Point being, a replacement is needed, and if Gnofulk will do it, well heck, the job is his - and the pint-sized barbarian immediately agrees no questions asked.

The rest of the party is offered positions in the Wing Guard for the Cogs – a group assembled for the race to help train, feed and house a district’s mount… or at least raise funds enough to cover those expenses. The party agrees to help out.

The party departs, a little concerned that they have this new adventure while they still have this big outstanding mystery… As they debate what to do next, Kyllar voices his thought, and convinces the party to return to the foundry operated by the warforged. While all the machinery and such appeared to be there, the party didn’t investigate too much to see if there were any clues as to what they were working on.

So, the party departs the Cogs via the main route, pop back up into the city, weave around the foundations of the massive towers of Sharn, and descend via the alternate route back into the Cogs near the warforged foundry.

They walk in, and find it still abandoned.

They sweep through looking more diligently at the machinery and the areas immediately surrounding it.

Near the back is the little channel of lava diverted from the larger river into the foundry, and used to heat the metal and power the little forges and crucibles. The party notice a half dozen wire cages - shaped a bit like coffins – around. A few are suspended over the little lava channel by strong looking booms.

Comfort remarks that the coffin shape would totally hold a person, and the whole apparatus could be used to dry out corpses, resulting in the dryer zombies the party had been encountering. The rest of the party thinks that is a ludicrous idea. The tiefling shrugs, knowing she is totally on the mark. The boys will catch up eventually.

The gnome druid Whudyalookadah apparently has the keenest eyes, and spots a number of molds and casings that seem to be important.

One mold half looks rather rod-shaped, and Kyllar confirms that it is a mold for a DieFi rod by placing one into the mold.

The other molds appear to be for simple blades and armor, but upon closer inspection, the armor is far too thick to wear, and the molds appear to be for warforged bodies.

The party doesn’t know much about the warforged in general, but know enough that they were produced for the war… and then production stopped. Virtually no one (outside of the rulers of House Cannith) probably know anything about how a warforged is imbued with agency. It seems weird to just build warforged bodies. Kyllar takes a few of the smaller molds and places them in the bag of holding for safe keeping.

The party departs the Cogs, still conjecturing, and arrives in the district of Greyflood. They move quickly down the main drag, which is bustling with goods and shoppers, and soon arrive at the “5 4 3 Orcs and a Cart” warehouse… currently being cleaned out by some city-paid laborers, who convince the party that there is nothing worthwhile inside. It’s all been burnt to ash.

The dragonborn fighter Rhogar provides the party with a little more backstory, once they are out of earshot from the workers. His contact in the City Watch passed along some information to him.

The “Orcs and a Cart” company had been brutalized by the Wizened since apparently the very beginning of the party’s involvement. Two of their five strong crew disappeared when the party was investigating the original Greyflood disappearances. The three remaining members tried to persevere, but closed up shop a few days ago and hadn’t been seen since…

Given the disappearance and closure, another shipping company was looking to acquire all the boxes and stuff in the “Orcs and a Cart” warehouse, and was probably within a few days of doing so.

As shown with the foundry acquisitions, this whole “acquire the other company’s loot” is pretty normal for Sharn businesses.

With Rhogar’s additional information, the party can deduce that their fiery actions prevented the Wizened and his zombies-in-crates from reaching their intended destination… but they do not know exactly where that was.

As conjecture flies about, Turnin is getting a little worried. All this stuff popping up from the party’s past… what if that being with the technicolor flaming-head and nifty armor was Skull Buddy? He leads the way to Felmore’s Emporium.

*ding*

The door opens, and the party peers into the shop all at once, because Scooby Stack. Half the doodads aren’t flipping or buzzing. Felmore absent-mindedly welcomes the shoppers inside, but recoils a bit when he recognizes the party. The shopkeeper looks exhausted and has some bad news.

Skull Buddy is… well… gone.

He leans over the counter and he and Turnin walk through the whole thing with baby steps. It’s been a long couple of days for the shopkeeper, and he wants his customer to have all the info.

The monk brought Skull Buddy into the shop a while back. Felmore, who used to build the toys knew pretty quickly that Turnin’s Skull Buddy wasn’t a toy. Everyone then determined that this Skull Buddy was not a lich; nor a demi-lich or anything all that crazy. But it was still odd.

Felmore – with Turnin’s blessing – handed it off to the warforged who work, well, worked in his shop. They tinkered for a while, and disappeared two days ago, taking that nice suit of armor with them.

The party surprisingly takes this all in stride. Felmore is relieved, and ushers them behind the counter and into the back workroom. He relates to the party that his arrangement with his warforged workers was… at best… impersonal. They wandered in a few years ago (after the War), and he gave them some shifts. Everything was amicable for literally years. They even put all Felmore’s tools back before leaving. The only things they took were the Skull Buddy and the suit of armor.

Turnin asks Felmore to let him know if he hears anything, and the shopkeeper agrees, and Kyllar offers up Kaz as a potential backroom assistant to Felmore. That could be hugely beneficial. Felmore will gladly pursue that option in the coming days.

The party departs, slowly trekking back towards Ghallanda Hall after a long day of walking all around the Cogs, and a great many other places in Sharn.

They’ve uncovered a number of clues, but no hard truths yet about all these events dug up from their past...

The Wizened and warforged community were definitely cooperating. But the arrangement between them, and the goals of each still elude the party...