EBERRON
02/26/05
SEGMENT 047
A NEW DIRECTION PART IV
The following is an expanded version of what was said while gaming. I figured it would not hurt to have a “What has happened before-“ segment. It has been slightly edited since I’m sure Cedious would NOT talk about his direct theft of goods in Sharn and the likes.
“It began on a rainy night in Sharn a few months ago. We were returning from a night of drinking and gambling when we came across the just slain body of a Morgrave University professor named Bonel Geldem. The killer was a warforged that we in turn killed.”
“We?”
“Boddynoc Grinkle, a gnome artificer, Khora a human cleric, Bonds, a warforged barbarian and Temper a warforged fighter and myself.”
“Go on”
“We identify him as Bonel even as the police show up. Sgt Dolem was the investigating officer. After prove our innocence we are released and are contacted by Lady Elaydren.”
“How were you contacted?”
“Someone wearing a Cannith ring told us to meet her at the Broken Anvil Tavern. Since we were all jobless we went. She was waiting us inside.”
“How was she dressed? What did she do? Anything you can tell me would be appreciated.”
Grumbling in his mind Cedious continues. “She had a dark blue cloak on. Very fine and well crafted. Black hair with expensive and possibly magical hairpieces. She wore a Cannith ring also. She was very quiet and polite to us. She offered us all drinks and we accepted. She introduced herself as Lady Elaydren d’Cannith …or was it Vown? Anyway- she said she was an employer of Bonel.”
“Lady Elaydren Vown …now married to a true blood and known as Elaydren d’Cannith. Go on.”
Cedious takes a handful of seasoned nuts and puffed rice. “Bonel was hired to locate a family heirloom. An heirloom lost long ago. Bonel was close to discovering where it was. By using a lost journal from Cannith forefathers, he had leads but could not discern where the heirloom was. He was to meet her that night but was struck down. She then offered us 1000 gold and a favor from House Cannith if we picked up from where Bonel left off. Since she paid some up front, we all agreed.”
“Boddynoc tried to decipher the journal. He did figure out a few things about the heirloom in question.”
“Oh- like what?”
“It was a creation Schema. A device that aided in making magic work when creating things. This one was specific to warforged. He had hoped it would tell him how to create a warforged but it did not or he did not get that far.”
“The creation of a living and thinking warforged requires several schemas. This one merely speeds thing up. From years to a week or ten days. Go on.”
“Well we located the value gate to the sewers numbered as E-213 within the Dorasharn Tower. After working out arrangements for a guide with a goblin and some shifters that is. We found the main entrance by using the magic of the journal and a ring Elaydren gave us.”
“In time we found the Foundry . Most of the structures were in ruins but the Cannith building was still intact. Inside were several Iron Defenders, which we defeated with ease. Eventually we found the piece and tried to get out.”
“Describe it to me. In detail.”
“It was a 7 point star. Adamantine I believe. One point at the top and one at the bottom. To the one side were three points and the other side were two points that looked like they could fit into each other if there were two of them. There were runes on it.”
“Did anyone else see or handle it?”
Unsure if he should say anything, Cedious looks at his large friend.
“Well?”
“We .. I didn’t know it at the time but Boddynoc had it studied and a copy made by a gnome friend of his.”
This news takes her back. She was not aware of this. “Who?”
“I don’t know. Boddynoc was looking to get into a group of pro-Zilargo gnomes named the Trust.”
She takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly while looking at Beth. Beth merely continues to smile and shrugs a brief shrug.
“Who has it now?”
“As per the agreement, we gave Elaydren the piece but kept the journal, ring and the copy. She was so happy, I don’t think she realized or cared that we still had the journal or the ring.”
“Sloppy. Go on.”
“A warforged was there, trailing us. It tried to get the schema but failed. We didn’t hear from her again for a few months until recently when she tried to contact us. We arrived at the House Sivis message station just after a warforged with several kobolds had attacked. We were to meet her at the Broken Anvil again.”
“When we showed up, she was a nervous wreck. She wore ratty clothes and her was a mess. She wasn’t wearing any hairpieces. She was on edge and scared. She gave us a haversack that contained instructions, money and supplies and before we could ask anything more the warforged attacks the tavern along with his kobold friends. She disappears during the disturbance.”
“And within the sack…?”
“As I said- supplies and money. Also in the sack were instructions on how to find the Rose Quarry in Cyre and boarding passes. We left immediately for Darguun.”
“I suspected Whitehearth may have had a piece. Our own research suggested it. Go on.”
“From here, everything kinda falls apart. We were to meet a guy named Failen. Instead, we arrive to a city in a riot state that is hunting down non-gobloids. Khora falls, killed by a big Ogre.”
“To make matters worse, a necromancer was following us and making small attacks to slow us down.”
“The Emerald Claw.” She hisses.
“Yup.”
“Who is this Failin?”
“Don’t know much. Guess he once worked for you or at least Cannith south. He was suppose to know where the Quarry is.”
The Baroness is lost in thought for a moment as Cedious takes a few drinks of his alcohol and tries some
Karrnath Sausage.
“So we are forced to not us him as a resource. We come onto a trade house along the river where the Emerald claw has been. It appeared a vampire- undead creature was among the crew. Later we learned he was a changeling. Anyway- they took the horses and had left for the Quarry. We were told of a ranger whom could lead us there and so we go. I forget his name. It was obvious he did not like the warforged in our group. On the way we were joined by a fighter with an unique fighting style. He used over-sized weapons of mass destruction. The Emerald Claw tried to kill him. He joined us if only to get another chance at them. The ranger led the five of us into the woods and hills after paying him some money. We had thought the quarry was outside the mists but we were wrong. The mists seem to move forward and back. On this day, the quarry was inside the mists. So in we go.”
“Describe the mists to me.” Jorlanna asks with special interest.
“It is easy to get lost in. The mist blocks visibility. Sometimes we can see murky images ten feet away and other times we can’t see the hands before our faces. Sometimes I felt …an awareness within the mist. No doubt just my nerves. It was an unpleasant experience in truth. Somehow we kept together and emerged on the far side. Then it got freaky.”
Beth smirks as Jorlanna seems to try to guess what he means by freaky. Finally she stops Cedious and asks to be more specific.
“Freaky. It got scary and unnatural.”
“How so?”
“The bodies of soldiers were still there, as if they only were struck down within a minute of our arriving. There was no decay, rot or smell. They were perfectly preserved.”
Jorlanna silently makes a note in her mind about investigating the preserving powers of the Mournlands for possible food storage and transportation purposes.
“We followed the horse tracks to the Rose Quarry. There we fought and defeated a small army of Emerald Claw members. I myself took out their leader- the changeling. We explored the ruined town looking for the clues that were said to lead to where the secret facility was.”
“Whitehearth.”
“Yup. We found where they tried to destroy a map room but we were able to figure it out and went there.” Says Cedious looking away to find the fact it was they that destroyed the map room. “Getting in was easy enough, even with the electrical magic traps and security measures taken. Inside we found all the workers had died but remained pristine just like the soldiers outside. However, the inmates still lived.”
Jorlanna notes that humans die but not animals as Cedious continues. “Wolves, some experimented on, lived there. They were trapped and could not escape the facility.”
“How did they survive? Did they no longer require food?” asks Beth in awe. It doesn’t require and artifact developer to know she wants to go there now to explore.
“The wolves …uh… the wolves ate… ate the workers.”
“That facility could not have had that many workers. Are you mistaken?” asks Jorlanna.
“No. I am not mistaken. Whatever preserves the bodies also regenerates them.” If Jorlanna or Beth were disturbed by this news neither show it. “There were also magical creatures there. Our artificer suggested they were spells that took on a life of their own.”
“What else was there?”
“We found elementals that were lose and causing damage. We defeated them. We found something that used molten goo. We guessed it to be a weapon of some sort. It was …damaged when fighting the elementals.”
“Go on Cedious.”
“After defeating them, we found the Creation Schema piece we were looking for a duplicate piece.”
“Duplicate?”
“Yup. Both were made up of Adamantine and diamond shaped. Like the first piece, it had runes inscribed on it and had small rods and prongs sticking out of the back.”
Jorlanna looks at Beth. It is as if they each know what the other is thinking. “Continue Cedious.”
“We also found a 2ft round plate.”
Beth sits upright. Jorlanna continues to stare while taking a sip from her Aundair wine. “Go on please. Give details.”
“The plate had similar runes and markings as the two pieces we had. It looked like the pieces fit together on it. Boddynoc dug through the journal and found a drawing of it. It was called a Base Plate. It was the main piece of the Creation Schema.”
“Where is it now?”
“We …Elaydren stole it from us.” Cedious lies.
“Where is the journal? Stolen also?”
“Yes.”
Jorlanna stares at him while holding her wine close to her mouth. Finally she says- “Continue.”
“We tried to get back directly since we told we would be paid by Elaydren in Darguun. Instead we got lost and separated in the mists. I found myself north of everyone. I met up with Elaydren and Boddynoc in the city later.”
“Details.”
“According to Boddynoc, they ran into a bugbear patrol still looking to kill any non-goblinoid. The two warforged and the fighter with the big weapons were killed for no reason other than the pleasure of the bugbears.”
“The bastards.” Chimes in the ½ Giant whom has heard this story before but without the lies.
“It must have been quite the adventure.” Adds Beth to Cedious. “Traveling Darguun’s wilderness by yourself is very dangerous.”
“Oh- I wasn’t alone….” He shuts up quickly. Cedious is uncertain whether to mention Dar or not.
“Details dear boy. I want ALL of the details. Who did you travel with in Darguun?”
“I met a bugbear with the brightest blue eyes I have ever seen. He was dressed in copper tone armor with a red cape and black and high lites. He was a very powerful warrior whom had a thing against many of his kind. He helped me reach the Goblin City before leaving.”
Jorlanna suspects there is more to this Dar than meets the eye but says nothing.
“Anyway- I arrived on her barge- Lady Elaydren’s barge. Boddynoc arrived shortly there after. We gave her the one copy of the piece as agreed by.”
“And the copy?”
“We …ah .. we kept it in secret.”
“And the base plate?”
“We bartered for it. It wasn’t part of the original deal so we wanted something to show for it. She was quite taken with it. She seemed to know a lot about it. Certainly more than we did.”
“I thought you said she stole it from you?” asks Beth d’Cannith.
“She did. We stopped at a port in Zilargo so that she could get the money to pay us for the plate and had some flunkies rob us. After that she had us set up for a crime we did not do.”
“You seem very capable. I am surprised mere flunkies could ever rob you.”
“Did I say flunkies? I’m sorry. There were six of them. They attacked us using magic. It was really unsporting of them.” Cedious lies.
“So she has two pieces of the Schema, and two copies of each piece. She has the Base Plate and the journal that gives clues to its whereabouts and usage. Anything else?
“That sounds like it. She did steal most of my money also. I have so little to use in a city so big and grand.” Cedious says to plant ideas in Jorlanna’s mind of payment and services. “After surviving a shipwreck and a cursed island we made it here.”
Jorlanna remains quiet for a long time. Then she clears her throat and motions to Beth.
“I have a proposal for you and your large friend.”
