D&D 5E Eberron Campaign thread

[Rabbitbait]

Here's the latest entry. All homebrewed until the end where it start into Sharn, The Missing Schema - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Spoiler

A couple of days pass, giving you all time to carry out some personal errands. This includes Dusty and Chronk going to Morgrave University to try and research the details of the valley in Darguun that you found the map of and anything more about the legend of Mur'taal. You meet with Professor Gydd Nephret, a researcher in hobgoblin antiquities and someone that Chronk has met before. She is unable to shed much more light on this, but Dusty is (as usual) not very subtle in his approach and it is obvious that the professor thinks you are hiding something.







The evening of the 12th arrives and you all catch a skycoach up to Skyway. As you fly over this part of the city that floats in the clouds, you marvel at the beauty and opulence below the the top of the city demonstrates. You see guards everywhere and a skycoach of guards stops you before you land to check that you have an invitation or reason to be there.

You arrive at the Cannith mansion along with a collection of nobles disembarking from various vehicles and make your way inside. You find yourself in a massive and incredible entrance hall leading into a collection of halls. In the halls nobles mingle in groups while elven entertainers thrill and enthrall with amazing, illusion filled performances. Food, wine and other substances are brought round by warforged servants as well as a huge and artistic refreshment tables.

You look around to see if you can see anyone you know, and amongst the nobles you do spot some people you have seen before. First up you see Alden d'Orien, who you had promised not to tell anything of his involvement in the slavery of warforged. The word had gotten out anyway and you avoid him. You also see his Kalashtar servant, Vishtai, who Ashana exchanges some pleasantries with telepathically.



You also spot Gydd Nephret who looks surprised at seeing you here, along with Sergeant Germaine Vilroy, who you thought had disappeared. You make your way to talk with her and she gives you a quick signal that you interpret as 'don't say too much'. She is talking with a stern man who looks you all up and down as you arrive.



"Ah yes", says Vilroy as you approach, "this is the group I told you of some time ago".

"Yes", says the stern faced man, "I recognise them". He faces you. "Greetings, friends from Blackbones. This not a place I had expected to see you. I am Captain Saj Kalaes of The King's Citadel. No need for you to introduce yourselves. You are known to me already". He proceeds to name you all and connect you to an event that he somehow has knowledge of. He pays particular attention to Chronk (as the war hero from Darguun) and Topsy (as the instigator of the Warforged Troubles down in the city).

"But I believe you know Captain Vilroy", he says which indicates a recent promotion, "she will be taking over the leadership of the Daggerwatch garrison. She mentioned your help in rooting out some of the corruption there. Well done, if it weren't for some unsavoury aspects to your relationships we would be tempted to contract you for some specialist tasks. If you ever decide to clean yourselves up feel free to report to the Captain and she will have work for you".

You continue to move through the crowd and suddenly Chronk is spotted by a familiar face. It is the boss of the Cannith Compound that you invaded, Garavantus d'Cannith. His nose has a plaster over it and still looks bruised and sore.



His eyes widen and he retreats to another group of people. You see him interrupt them and then start pointing at you. A man laughs at him and he starts gesticulating furiously. The man sighs and leaves the group to walk towards you, followed by a beautiful elven woman. The man is twitchy looking and disheveled but obviously commands the attention of the room.



"So", says the man "you are Topsy and company and you are also the ones who punched Garavantus in the face. Very interesting".

He sees your nervous looks. Öh, don't worry about that. We have bigger fish to fry. Topsy, I saw the prosthetic arm you designed. Ingenious. There were a couple of faults and redundancies I noticed that might reduce the durability though. I'd love to talk with you about it".

Topsy lights up and the two of them start talking in depth about arcane fomula and design. Topsy quickly realises that the person he is talking to is an absolute genius.

As they talk the lady turns to face the rest of you. "I apologise for my friend", she says, "he often forgets the normal formalities. I will not". I am Lady Maza ir'Thadian, councilwoman and owner of the fine restaurant known as The Oaks. He is Merrix d'Cannith, head of the Cannith household in Breeland".

As you introduce yourselves you realise that you are talking with two of the most powerful people in Sharn. You spend some time talking with Lady ir'Thadian as she enquires about your doings in the city. She is impressed with the (cleaned up) version of your exploits and suddenly asks.

"My apologies for being forward, but you seem very capable. Last week an attempt was made on my life. Next week I need to send my bodyguard to my family in Wroat which leaves me in an awkward position. I do not want to use the city guards to protect me for various reasons, but if you are as capable as you sound you may be just the people I need. Would you be willing to meet with me in The Oaks next week for a meal and I will hire your services for a week at 1,000 galifar each. She directs this last question at Ashana who, to her eyes, is the obvious leader of the group.

Ashana agrees, seeing this as an excellent opportunity to get involved in the upper echelons of the city.

Suddenly Garavantus storms over, "This will not do. Why are this band of thugs still here. They attacked me Merrix, attacked me, and gods know what they found out in the records from the compound. Get your warforged to take them out and deal with them".

Merrix looks up from his in depth conversation with Topsy and scowls. Suddenly a cold intensity shows on his face. "You forget yourself Garavantus. Events are deeper than you think and you embarrass yourself. The party is over for you. Take your wife and go home".

Garavantus sputters with rage for a moment and then sees the focus in Merrix's face. A look of fear appears on Garavantus' face and he hurries away, gathering his protesting wife from a circle of nobles and exiting quickly.

"He does have a point though", Merrix says, "I forgot to tell you why I invited you here. Tell me about warforged. What do you think of them". A little unnerved by the change in mood, Topsy answers, explaining his feelings that Warforged are equal to the other races - a new form of life".

Merrix's face lights back up, "Yes, and not just a new form of life. A better form of life. A form of life that is infinitely able to improve itself. I knew you were a kindred spirit. Blue told me last time I visited Cog Carnival what you were doing and I think this war you are starting is excellent and needed. No more should warforged be treated as inferior beings. No more should they have to scrabble in the darkness".

By this time he is getting quite loud and drawing attention to himself. Maza quietly excuses herself and disappears into the crowd. Merrix realises his mistake and whispers to you, "this is not a conversation for the open. Come with me".

He leads you through the house and down some stairs until you find yourself in a huge but messy workshop/study/laboratory. "Sit, sit", he says as he shoves piles of paper and machinery off chairs for you. As he sits he suddenly exclaims, "I forgot! Make yourselves comfortable, I'll be back in a moment".

Topsy quickly looks through the papers to see if he can find anything interesting. It is all interesting and reflects the fevered brain of a genius, but he does not spot anything useful".

Merrix returns with Gydd Nephret in tow. "This is Professor Gydd Nephret", he says, "she is an expert in hobgoblin history and is various cultural antiquities. She has found records of an item that I think will be very useful. As you'll know, as part of the terms of Thronehold we were forbidden to use or build Creation Forges. Well Gydd has discovered records of an ancient item, found in a hobgoblin ruin but dating back to the age of the giants that we think might help us bypass that rule. I'd like to be the patron of your group and use your services to retrieve this item. Are you keen?"

Topsy immediately agrees on behalf of you all.

"Great, great. This is fantastic. There's nothing stopping you is there though? Are you the members of any other organisation? The Clifftop Adventurers Guild? The Deathgate Guild? Any of the other dragonmarked houses?"

"No, none at all", Topsy says, "We are free agents and happy to have you be our patron"

You all look nervously at each other, knowing that Delgo and the Boromar clan might not be happy about this.

"Right then", Merrix says, "here is a map of part of the sewers in the cogs that leads to a closed and abandoned Cannith workshop. You will need to find it, get in a retrieve a schema. This is not a normal schema, it is ancient and looks like a large cog with runes written on it. When you find it, for the gods sake do not bring it here. That would be way too obvious. Instead, cover it up and take it to Gydd at the university"

The sewer entrance is close to your base. Dusty realises that these sewers are the territory of several clans of shifters and goblins. You may be mugged or forced to pay a toll.

You agree to take on this task and return to the party for a short while before flying back down to the Cogs. It is now extremely late, so you sleep.

The next morning you get up ready to head to the sewers, but a messenger arrives bringing a message to Topsy requesting he meet with Delgo at his earliest convenience. Topsy and Chronk decide to head up to the Queen of the Damned before you start your mission.

Delgo is waiting there with Alicia Lund who has a look of great excitement on her face. Delgo tells you that he hopes you have enjoyed your rest as he now has a lot of work waiting to be done. Some small talk ensues during which Delgo realises that you are doing some work for Merrix. He does not seem impressed and reminds you that you have an understanding and that he does not like surprises. Chronk does not like this and reminds Delgo that he always said he would remain a free agent.

After some back and forth, Delgo abruptly dismisses them, "Go, I need to think about things. I thought we had a solid understanding but it seems that it ain't as solid as I thought. I need to take some time to rethink our relationship".

As you leave you hear Alicia say "Does that mean you don't want him to build the machine any more?".

Delgo replies "if he is doing work for the d'Canniths I don't want him anywhere near this. I don't know if I can trust those guys any more and that means...". The door closes and you hear no more.

Topsy and Delgo return to homebase and you make your way down the sewers. You follow the map through the sewers, getting shaken down by a shifter gang. As you fight them Dusty realises that one of the group is related to him. He tries to stop Chronk killing him but without any luck - Chronk smashes his skull in.

After defeating this foe you continue. The winding tunnels of the sewers would make you lose your sense of direction if it weren’t for the map you carry. Following the tunnel, you round a corner to find a large iron door on the south wall. You are not alone. There is a hooded person in front of the door. The person is wearing travel gear and you can see a longsword in its scabbard by his belt and a lit oil lamp on the floor.



They look up to you and you see metal and wood on their face. Bright yellow eyes and a knife-like ghulra sigil on their forehead. They are holding a mallet and a chisel in their right hand and a heavy iron cog in their left hand. The cog has etched runes on it and fits the description of the Schema.

“Hello, I’m Bloody Spear,” says the warforged with a quasi-feminine voice, “I’m here following House Deneith’s bounty. I’m assuming you’re here for the same reason. I couldn’t get in,” they say, pointing at the huge iron door, “it’s bolted shut.”

After a moment they continue, “but I made this, maybe that rich professor will pay me my 100 gold coins for this. Does it look convincing?”

 

[Rabbitbait]

And the latest entry, where things all went wrong at the end.

Spoiler

You talk with Bloody Spear for a little while. You realise that she has been sent to retrieve the shema by House Deneith but has realised that since she cannot open the door she already failed. She offers to join you and help you succeed but you decline so she heads off through the sewers.



From where you stand, the door appears not to be designed to be opened. It has no apparent hinges and the sides appear to be bolted to the wall. It appears more wall than door. There appears to be an illegible eroded inscription on it. You clean it up to read it. “Restricted Area. Permanently out of bounds as ordered by King Galifar I, Year 32 YK”

This door has been locked for over 900 years. However you have an artificer with you and no door can stand in the way of an Artificer with time on his hands. After 2 hours of work you finally crack the door open and enter. A dark hallway lies before you after you pry open the ancient iron door. The thick layer of dust on the stone-tiled floor reveals that no one has stepped inside this part of the city for hundreds of years. The old schema must be inside.

You explore through an ancient, but smaller than expected, facility. Topsy picks up interesting items all along the way. You are attacked by swarms of rats and failing defense systems but finally make your way into what appears to be the last and largest chamber, the laboratory itself. The room, excluding entry, is roughly 30 by 30 feet. There are a total of eight vats of various sizes by the walls. All of them are six-feet tall but of varying volume. They are filled to the top with liquid substances that radiate a faint green light. It could not be water, not after this long. The liquid inside the vats is blue or green but it appears to be thicker than water. The way it bubbles, it appears similar to oil. From where you stand at the entry, the vats do not appear to be empty.

The floor is littered with metal implements, rusty instruments, and all kinds of laboratory paraphernalia. It looks as if someone had trashed the place before abandoning it. It was not a recent event; the dust layer is thick in this chamber too.

There are two metal tables in the middle of the room. One is empty, but the other one has something on it. The object on the table radiates faint green light. It is two and a half feet long and appears to be a brown colored stone cog. There appear to be circles of inscriptions on its face. This may be the schema you have been looking for.

As you approach with the intention of grabbing the ancient artifact, it begins to vibrate; a thumping lowpitched vibration you can feel in your bones. The vibration is stronger and weaker in a pattern similar to that of a heartbeat. The schema rises from the table, floating a few inches from the table’s surface. Something catches your attention. The little trinkets and pieces of laboratory hardware littering the floor vibrate and start moving. Smaller objects collide into bigger ones to create an exponentially larger thing. Before you stand, within several heartbeats, 6-feet tall bodies made mostly of metal.

The don’t have hands but instead their arms end up in sharp blades. In the middle of their faces, eyes of green light glare at you from beneath foreheads bearing identical cog-shaped ghulra sigils. There are clear differences but no one would blame you if you said they were some kind of warforged. Your eyes are involuntarily drawn away from the scene as the schemas vibrating pitch changes. Suddenly, the strange warforged-like creatures violently lurch towards you.

A battle ensues. The warforged are tough, but you are victorious. You search the room and find many small items of interest to Topsy, but then at the bottom of a chest a magical scrollcase keeping the plans within in perfect condition. Topsy looks at them and recognises them as the ancient plans to build a creation forge. This is very confusing as the first warforged were created 33 years ago, but yet here are the plans for building a creation forge from over 900 years ago. Topsy wants nothing more than to get back to home base and examine them.

The schema itself is a mystery. The runes on its faces shift and constantly move around. Some seem to sink in the stone while others emerge from it. Topsy identifies that the language on the stone is an old and almost unintelligible dialect of Giant. Even with this information, no one is able to read the schema. The words on it appear to be jumbled by some kind of cipher.

You leave the ancient facility and return home. You decide that, as per instruction, you need to get the schema to Professor Nephret as soon as possible but Topsy is already totally absorbed in the creation forge blueprints so you leave him behind. None of the rest of you know how to fly a skycoach but you are able to find one of the Warforged staff with that knowledge so ask him to chaffeur you there.

You fly your skycoach up to Morgrave University and Nephret is delighted to see you have succeeded. You leave the schema with the professor and walk back towards your skycoach. you hear coming from the direction of the Professor’s office the sound of glass breaking and a woman screaming.

You turn to see a group of five hooded men jumping out of Professor Nephret's office window. One of them is carrying what appears to be a heavy object covered in cloth. Nephret jumps out behind them throws herself at the man carrying the covered object. Both fall to the ground and the object is revealed to be the schema. The thief covers it again while one of his allies pulls a rapier and stabs Nephret in the stomach.

They then start running towards the edge of the tower. You pull out your weapons and start shooting and are able to kill one of the assailants, but the rest jump off the edge of the tower. You run to the edge and see four men falling in slow-motion. Suddenly another skycoach swoops out of nowhere, catching the assailants and then flying away from the tower.

You look back and recognise a badge on he outfit of the fallen assailant. It is the symbol of the Emerald Claw.

The Order of the Emerald Claw is an outlawed organization of Karrn patriots and Blood of Vol worshipers. Originally a group of elite shock-trooper style knights in the service of the crown of Karrnath during the Last War, it has spread throughout Khorvaire and operated underground since its dissolution in 976 YK.
The Order continues to operate in a semi-terrorist fashion to this day, proclaiming their desire to see Karrnath once again rise to power and garnering support from the Blood of Vol.

You quickly run to your skycoach and begin chasing the emerald claw in their skyship. The skys are busy and they do not notice your pursuit, so you are able to make it within bowrange. However as soon as you start shooting they become aware of the pursuit and suddenly their skyship lurches upwards. You follow, but no longer have a clear shot, since you can only see the bottom of their ship. However 3 of the emerald claw suddenly leap from the ship with soarsleds under their feet. They fly directly towards you shooting as they approach. You manage to shoot two of them out of the sky before they get to you and as the final one approaches, Chronk reaches out with his unexpectedly long arms and grabs the sled from beneath him. He plummets. Chronk jumps on the sled, intending to fly up to the enemy ship but has never used a soarsled before which turns out to be harder than he thought. As you continue flying after the ship you see it is heading towards a building right on the edge of Skyway above. The building is hanging slightly over the edge of Skyway with an empty berth waiting for the ship. It docks quickly and as you approach suddenly three massive ballistae bolts narrowly miss your ship.

You continue flying up, and see the pilot of the other ship let go of the wheel. He runs to the edge of his ship and you see him casting a spell. Suddenly all of you and your ship are enveloped in flame. The ship slows and starts decending. Chronk has been badly blasted, but is still on his soarsled and uses it to start flying towards the wizard. He can see others in the building reloading the ballista and the wizard pointing towards him. Three more bolts fly towards him but he is able to avoid them all.

Meanwhile Dresk, Dusty and Ashana see that their warforged chaffuer has been killed. Dusty runs to the control panel and looks at the controls. He chooses a lever and pulls it. The ship starts to point downwards and accelerates - downward and fast. Dusty is thrown off the ship so Dresk pulls himself to the front of the ship and pushes a button. Suddenly the sublimanal high pitched sound that comes from the ship stops and the ship plummets. Chronk had bought everyone featherfall tokens some weeks ago and these automatically activate.

As you fall, you see the burning ship crash into the side of a building, spraying the streets and bystanders below with wood and masonary. You land in a nearby street in time to see Chronks actions above.

Chronk flies directly towards the wizard. The wizard, with panic in his eyes, mutters a few words and points at Chronk. Suddenly Chronk is enveloped by another fireball. It is too much. He falls from the sky, his sled flying off in a random direction. His feather token activates and Chronk falls limply in a marketplace some distance away.

You look up and you see three skycoaches filled with guards congregating towards your fallen, burning skyship.

 

[Rabbitbait]

This is the last session from the DM's guild module, Sharn, The Missing Schema - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Blimmin good fun. However I think I'll need to add a bit to it it for the character that landed in the trash piles between the plateaus. Some sort of one against many scavenger battle.

Spoiler

You run to Chronk and Ashana quickly casts a healing spell and then you duck away as guards start to swarm the area, organising citizens to put out the fire of your crashed skycoach and questioning others regarding what happened. You see one noting down the registration details and suddenly remember that you stole this skycoach from Daask a long time ago. You make your way home where you take a quick rest.

Topsy has been examining the blueprints while you were away and in the short time he can see that technology has evolved a great deal since these plans were created. There is quite a bit that does not make sense but Topsy can see that to operate a creation forge it needs people with the dragonmark of the maker.

Topsy is surprised to see you arrive back so soon and dismayed to hear of the theft of the schema. He decides to go and report to Merrix.

"I'll fly up in the skycoach and be back soon" says Topsy.

"Um, about the skycoach...." says Dusty.

Topsy flies up in a cab and meets with Merrix who is very interested in what has happened. Topsy asks if he wants them to try and get the schema back.

"Yes", says Merrix, "but I might not be much help. This needs to be done with all haste as the emerald claw may try to get it out of Sharn".

He summons two of his warforged guards and tells them to follow Topsy's orders - even to the extent of sacrificing thier lives.

Topsy also tells Merrix about the blueprints he finds and Merrix suddenly becomes very serious, "What you have found, Topsy, is highly illegal. I totally live to the ideals of the treaty of thronehold and will tell you this very clearly. Burn those plans. They will lead to nothing but trouble".

Topsy, feeling very troubled returns to home base and explains what has happened. By this time you have all recovered somewhat. You decide to attack the emerald claw warehouse and spend some time planning how to go about it. You then fly up on a hired cab (with the driver paid an exorbatent amount), check on Professor Nephret (who has been magically healed and is fine) and then reconoitter the area.

You note that this is a cargo warehouse on the edge of Skyway. The building overhangs the edge and has a dock for skycoaches to attach to. The building has a roof, but the currently docked ship is not completely covered by it. There are 4 ballistai in the building, but only 2 are currently manned. You see three people standing around a table intently looking at what might be the schema. In front of the building stands 5 guards.




You make your plan and as the sun is setting your skycoach flies well above the building, with the sun at your back making it harder to see. As you fly off the building you all jump, using more feather tokens you have bought to land off the ship. Already the plan goes wrong. Dresk misses the target altogether and floats down to the ground a mile below. Dusty jumps off the port side rather than starboard and lands on the roof. However the rest of you land on the ship of the emerald claw and rush into the warehouse, catching them completely by surprise.

The wizard that caused you so much trouble before is killed before your enemy even gets time to react. But react they do, and the battle commences. During the battle the two warforged impress with the damage they are able to accomplish, Dusty makes his way down into the building but gets caught in a grappling match with a cultist and spends a long time with both of them both trying to thow the other over the edge. During the battle, while trying to get at Topsy, one of the claw throws a table that Topsy was hiding under which falls down to a lower level, along with the schema. Dusty jumps down to retrieve it but is followed by two cultists who beat at him with flails till he falls unconcious. Ashana is able to heal him, but as he opens his eyes this is noticed by one of the cultist who beats him back into oblivion. Meanwhile the guards from the front of the building run in, joining the battle.

Chronk and Topsy are focussing on the apparent leader of the group, a tall man with a dragonmark on his neck. With everything moving around Topsy is unable to identify which mark.

"Stop, there is no need to fight here", the man says, "you are fighting for the wrong side. Stop attacking and I will explain, I can make you rich". However once Chronk is raging there is no stopping him. The man summons mechanical beings from the shadows in the room and they sacrifice themselves, taking the blows meant for the man. Topsy notices that the man is only defending himself, at no point does he attack.

It become obvious that your group is going to win this battle.

"Please stop", the man says, "I am not part of the emerald claw, they have been forcing me to help them".

"Do not turn on us now, Arthemis", shouts one of the cultists, "this was all your plan".

Chronk grabs one of his hobgoblin artifacts he had found under the forge, a set of knuckledusters. He punches Arthemis and the smell of burning flesh fills the air as electricity erupts from the item, destroying it but burning Arthemis to a crisp in the process.

One of the cultists, seeing that they have lost grabs the schema and rolls it to the edge of the building. He then pushes it off. The two remaining cultists then make their way to the edge of the building, salute you, and jump. They plummet and then slow down, obviously under the effects of the feather token. You are unable to follow them, having used your tokens to create your surprise entrance.

Ashana quickly heals Dusty again, using the last of the power from another of the hobgoblin artifacts and you start to look around. One of the warforged has been killed, but other that that you are in one piece. Topsy is able to examine the dragonmark on Arthemis that seems to be more intact than the rest of him and identifies it as a greater mark of making. This man is a d'Cannith.

Meanwhile, Dresk finally lands in the trash piles that lie in the crevasses between the Sharn plateaus. As he struggles to move through the trash he sees something above him. He dodges to the side and is narrowly missed by the schema that plummets into the trash pile and stops deep in the rubbish, but cushioned from the fall and intact.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Urgh. After much delay I went to write up the latest session, which we did a couple of weeks ago. I spent about an hour writing it up, clicked save, and got an error message on Roll20. That writeup is gone forever.

Given my current workload, the fact that we are temporarily fostering a newborn baby and my general tiredness I won't be writing that up again. So short summary.....


The group were hired to protect Councillor Maza but failed. As she died she transformed into some sort of horrid giant cockroach creature. Dresk, Dusty and Chronk killed many guards trying to get away. Ashana was taken by the guards to a watch garrison.

Topsy, realising that everything has gone to custard, went home, packed his things and left on the first lightning rail out of town. Chronk went into hiding in the undercity. Dresk and Dusty went back to homebase to heal.

The guards seeing Chronk flee into the undercity start flooding into places they do not commonly go, searching for him. This is turn riles up the warforged who are down there. After a day of skirmishes suddenly the undercity explodes, with warforged rioting. They smash doors and windows and start heading up the towers shouting that they will take the city for them.

Chronk makes his way to a friend, Gaard, but in the safehouse is a small troops of goblins and ogres gearing up for battle. Gaard takes Chronk aside and tells him that he had better get his friends out of Topsy's forge quickly if they want to live.

Meanwhile Ashana is forced to stand in front of the council who question her about what she saw. They get agitated and start talking about how to wipe the Boromar clan out. However they are unable to take a vote as only those who support the mayor are there, the other councillors supporting councillor Ilyra Boromar. The council as it stands are evenly split. There is one more councillor who would vote with the Mayor, but he has been ill and unavailable for the last two weeks.

After this they release Ashana who goes down to the bar that Dresk used to work at, The Anvil, to try and get a message to you. But it is impossible to get to due to rampaging warforged.

 

[Rabbitbait]

As you all go about your seperate tasks each of you hears a voice in your head - obviously a Sivis message sending: Message from Delgo. Asking group to come immediately to Weeders Tavern, Tumbledown Ward. Fate of city at stake. The family needs you".



"On my way, boss", replies Dresk

"Family First. Count me in. Be there soon", replies Dusty.

"Too dangerous to do. Could be followed as rest of the crew has a city watch death warrant. Will try a way to communicate", replies Ashana.



Topsy gets the message while sitting in a first class lighting rail carriage heading away from Sharn. He does not reply. He has his schema for a creation forge as well as schema for other ancient hobgoblin items. He is heading for Zilargo to try and find the resources and privacy to build.

Chronk is at the forge, grabbing the soar sled and some supplies before heading to hide in the lower city. He ignores the message. He plans to lay low for a few days and then leave the city, returning to Darguun to follow the map that he found below the forge.

Topsy and Chronk have exited the game

Ashana is first on the scene, but holds back in case she has been followed or if the tavern is a trap. She finds a safe place to watch the tavern from, just in time to see Dresk arrive. She uses telepathy to speak in Dresk's mind: ""Dresk do not look around. I am released free and unharmed. Unfortunately, you and whoever else didn't accept the summons has now got a death warrant and if captured in Sharn will be executed. I don't know if I am under surveillance. I will stay hidden and watch what this call to meet is about."

Dresk pauses, nods, and then enters the tavern. The tavern is full of halflings and as Dresk enters he sees many of them put hands on weapons. Everyone watches him with hostility as he approaches the bar. He introduces himself to the barkeep and answers a couple of questions. The barkeep signals the patrons who visably relax and go back to drinking. He then escorts Dresk into the kitchen and shows him a trapdoor to climb through.



Meanwhile Dusty arrives at the bar, having stopped to pick up some snacks and to send Sargeant Vilroy a coded message, warning her of trouble. He hears the same message from Ashana, but ignores it and enters the bar. He is also led to the trapdoor.



The trapdoor reveals a ladder leading down to what looks like a large saferoom. There are sleeping cots, backpacks, and crates with supplies thereabout. There are also a collection of people waiting here. As well as Dresk and Dusty there is Delgo, three other halflings and a pale half elf. Delgo introduces everyone:



A female halfling is wearing fine clothes and a golden tiara with a shiny emerald. She is Councilor Ilyra Boromar, currently in hiding as she fears that the Mayor and his followers would like her dead.

A middle aged halfling wearing dark leather armour looks at you with cunning and cruel eyes. He is the boss of Clan Boromar, Saidan Boromar.

A worried looking halfling, swaying as he stands with a mug of beer in his hand. This is Norm, an unlikely hero, but a direct cousin of Saiden and trusted by him. He may not look like much but is famed for his almost unnatural luck.

Norm is Simon's new character - replacing Chronk

The pale half-elf stands, watching you enter. She looks very capable, beautiful and scary. Her name is Sylviel Oathshadow, but she is known as 'The White Widow'. She is more than an Boromar enforcer. If you do wrong to the Boromar clan, her face will often be the last thing you see.

Sylviel is Shun's new character - replacing Topsy

"Hey youse guys, thanks for coming", says Delgo, "it's times like this we find out who our friends really are, and it's slim pickings right now. We are in real trouble guys. The mayor has turned the council against us and we've heard that Daask are gearing up to take on our bars and safehouses. There's some irony in saying that if we want to survive we need the law on our side".

"Thank you Delgo", says Ilyra, "my cousin is exactly right. We need the council to protect us, and at the moment the scales are evenly balanced. The mayor has turned many councillors against me and the vote is currently tied. Our only hope is councillor Borian Haldorak. He has long been an ally of mine but he has not been at council for some weeks. It is reported that he is fighting an illness. We must check that he has not been neutralised by the other side".

"That's where youse comes in", says Saiden in a sneering and nasty voice,, "we needs ya to go and check on him and get him safely to the council chambers. Even if he is sick, this is too important. I wants ya to check that he's still loyal to the cause though, and if he's not then you do what needs to be done".
"What, try to convince him to your point of view?", asks Dresk.
"Nah. Kill em", replies Saiden.

"My apologies", Ilyra interrupts, "murder is not something the Boromar clan normally partakes in. However sometimes there is a need to take drastic action, and this may be one of these times. We will leave it to your discretion. Delgo speaks highly of you and I think highly of Delgo's judgement".

Delgo turns to Dresk and tells him he has a different mission. He knows that Dresk had dealt with the gnome, Sundry, in the past and asks him to track down a broach that Sundry often wore using his particular abilities to find lost objects. Sundry was doing some work in Khyber's Gate for Delgo and has gone missing. Delgo suspects he knows what has happened but wants Delgo to pinpoint where the broach is and then report back.

The rest of you all head up to the Adamantine Tower in the Highhold where Borian Haldorak lives. Mostly dwarves live in Highhold, so you get some funny looks as you make your way to the address provided. You make your way down a long hallway to a door right at the end. You try to open it but it is locked. After 3 tries you manage to pick the lock and enter a chamber where the lavish lifestyle of Councilor Borian Haldorak is obvious. The stone walls are carved with epic scenes of dwarves fighting hordes of orcs and giants. The wooden furniture is sturdy and fine. There is an unfinished statue of Councilor Borian in the middle of the room. It is still bare rock from the waist down. Exquisite carpets and vases decorate the room. A large red curtain separates the living area from the bedroom.

Dusty hears a noise from behind the curtains so goes up and takes a peek. Behind the curtain he sees the dwarven councillor Borian Haldorak, along with 3 of the cockroach creature emerging from the bodies of guards. The floor is also swarming with what looks like some sort of larvae. He ducks back, but too late - he has been seen.

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE", roars the councillor as the roaches pour from the room, but he does not seem to be giving you a chance to do so. Sylviel summons an illusion of fog to surround her and throws bolts of psychic energy at the enemy. Norm appears to be in the depths of the enemy, but somehow in his drunken stumbling the enemy has trouble landing a blow. His quarterstaff and feet kick and swing randomly but always seem to luckily hit a target.
After a couple of hits Haldoran reveals his true nature as another cockroach rips him apart from the inside and joins the battle.

You are able to defeat this enemy, but it ain't easy. After this you search the apartment, finding a secret room with a chest as well as documents on his workdesk. The most significant objects you find are:




You also find a stained piece of parchament. It doesn't look like much but Dusty's keen nose picks out that there are subtle variations of scent across the page. Could it be a message written in pheromones?

You return to Weeders tavern and the saferoom. Ilyra and Saidan have gone, but Delgo is there with Dresk. He is worried to hear about what had happened to Haldorak and you discuss the possibility of more people holding cockroaches within. Dresk tells you about his mission where he followed the trail of Sundry's broach, but found it led to something that looked like the top of a termite mound. A moist organic tunnel led underground vertically with an acrid smell emerging from the depths. Dresk felt nervous about going down there by himself so came back.

Delgo suggests that you all go together, examine it and consider bug extermination if it is the lair of the cockroaches. He then leaves to inform Ilyra of what you have told him. He tells you to return here when you are concluded.

 

[Rabbitbait]

And last weeks game:

ou go with Dresk to the location he has found, behind a market in Khyber's Gate amongst piles of trash. It looks like an ant mount with a massive hole at the top, 7 feet across. You secure a rope and Dusty climbs down, carrying the rope with him. It's an easy climb with the sides of the holes have plenty of handholds. It's fairly solid but feels organic, moist and warm. From below an acrid smell rises. The hole decends 40ft before opening up into a large chamber where Dusty pauses. In the chamber are goblins, ogres and a basilisk on guard. But it is pitch black down here and although all inhabitants have darkvision Dusty is able to stay hidden from view. The hole decends further, into another chamber below and then further as far as Dusty can see. The inhabitants are chatting with each other about:

a) how bored they are

b) how unfair it is that they have to be down here while everyone else is having all the fun

c) how much it stinks down here.

Sylviel climbs down after Dusty and casts an illusory wall in front of them to hide them better. Sylviel readies herself to throw an eldritch blast at the Basilisk if they are discovered. Luckily because as Norm climbs down behind them his hand slips on the rope and he plummets. He catches himself partway down the rope but slams against the wall, alerting the guards.



Sylviel throws eldritch blasts at the basilisk, killing it before it gets a chance to act. Ashana and Dresk climb down and join the battle which is completed fairly quickly. Norm recogises one of the Ogres as a Daask enforcer.

You explore further into the chamber and find not much of interest, but Dusty and Norm are ambushed by peircers that fall from the ceiling in a subchamber.



You use another rope and climb down another 40 feet into the next chamber, in the same order as before. The chamber goes off two ways, to the left is some sort of storage area and the passage to the right is filled with webs. Dusty moves into the storage chamber where he sees guards carrying crates and barrels around. He sees a familiar face also doing the same. It is Sundry, the gnomish fence that he met once before. Sundry yells at Dusty to leave, but starts shooting a hand crossbow as he does so. The guards also move into attack. The battle is on, but the noise seems to attract attention from the webs and from the other side giant spiders emerge, also attacking.





This battle ends up being very close, especially as the guards and Sundry are mere vessels for the cockroaches that inhabit them. As the hosts take fatal injuries the giant cockroaches emerge, ripping their hosts apart to attack you all. You are able to kill the roaches, but as you do so they explode in a shower of acid, burning and hurting you.

You are badly hurt, so you take some time to rest. Searching the chamber as you do so and finding some useful items. You use a rope from the supplies to climb down to the bottom of a hole where a rouch rock stairway bends away to the south. You climb down these ancient and worn stairs, avoiding tripwires and find yourself in a passage with many alcoves, nooks and crannies. Norm finds a pile of green glowing eggs in the first nook and pokes them with his dagger.

The egg pops, the force of the pop causing other eggs in the alcove to pop and larvae are thrown out. They let out a high pitched squeal as they emerge which seems to be a signal as nearly a dozen ill-formed cockroaches climb out of other nooks and crannies up the passageway. The larvae start crawling towards Norm as the cockroachs move in to attack.

 

[Rabbitbait]

A battle ensues, but you are able to defeat the cockroach larvae and spawn without too much difficulty so you make your way further into the complex, destroying eggs and larvae as you go. You find yourself in a warm, damp stone chamber with a stone table rising in the middle. Around the outside of the table are carved heiroglyphs and symbols. You are able to decode the ancient goblin language and it says “Blessed is the great Dhakaan”. It is obviously an ancient ritual table. You search around the rest of the chamber but find nothing of interest.

As you are searching, you notice light coming in from the passage you recently left. Someone is coming. You extinguish your light sources and hide in nooks and crannies. You see three humanoid figures coming your way, looking in the nooks and expressing disgust as they go. As they get closer you recognise The Lord Mayor, Cathan ir’Demell, Councillor Javan Tomollan and Councillor Sava Kharisa, all carrying torches and examining the mess you have made.

You all manage to avoid their notice, except for Dresk who is in plain sight as they enter the chamber.

"You there", says the mayor, "who are you. What are you doing down here?"

Dresk stutters and stammers, unsure of how to respond, until he finally gulps out "killing bugs?"

The Lord Mayor speaks with fury in his eyes: “Look at what you’ve done! You are unmaking the work of a decade. I have given my life to Sharn. Given my

life to the city council. And you decide you have the right to walk in here and destroy my legacy? You are nothing but an obstacle in my path. Prepare to

die. You will become the food of the next generation.”



Everyone else was hiding and readying attacks while this exchange was occuring, and with those words you all realise that a battle is imminent. You launch at the three nobles and catch them all by surprise. It is still a tight battle and each time you defeat one of them a giant cockroach climbs out of their skins and the battle starts again. In the end you are victorious. You loot the bodies and get the signet rings from all three of them. The mayor also has a very strange looking sword that seems to ripple as you look at it. Syviel recognises it as a famous weapon, the mayor's vorpal sword - passed down between Sharn mayors for many generations. She grabs it and hides it away.

You then explore the place throroughly, but you have cleared it. You climb back up into the city. It is now night and battles are still happening between bands of warforged and guards. As you make your way up there is plenty of shouting and screaming as Daask mercenaries break into buildings and beat or kill the inhabitants. You help a little as you go to stop these attacks, but you are focussed on returning to the tavern where you find Delgo there alone. He is delighted to see you and stunned at your report of the three you fought. You give him the signet rings and he leaves to inform Ilyra immediately. You are exhausted so decide to find a place to stay. You are not sure what your home base will look like, so you make your way to Sundry's store. You know he is dead so you should be able to rest safe there. You pick the Kundarak lock and disable a glyph trap, and are able to rest there. Sundry's store has plenty of useful and/or illicit gear so you are able to stock up.

Dusty notices a crate of corrupted dragon shards - his family are obviously smuggling again.

Over the next couple of weeks a lot happens:

• You find that your home-base, the forge has been destroyed. The interior has been burnt out and all the equipment either burnt or smashed. You find some small bones that you assume must be Tresca's.
• Councilor Ilyra Boromar enacts a power grab and becomes the de facto Lord Mayor of Sharn.
• Ilyra removes the death warrant from your heads and arrests ten out of the thirteen remaining councilors, even her allies. She has Saiden do small but deep cuts in their skin to discover who are roach thralls and who are not. His small experiment reveals the presence of two more roach thralls, which are killed. Three councilors escape the city and are presumed to be roach thralls.
• a great number of people believe that the Boromar Clan assassinated nine councilors only to take control of the whole council and place Ilyra as Lord Mayor.
• Ilyra is able to meet a delegation of warforged and starts drafting an agreement about warforged rights. The warforged uprising ends.
• The battles against Daask continue, with the entire bottom part of one tower destroyed. Many guards are killed and the bottom parts of the city are complete chaos. This is an ongoing problem.

Each of you rests, recuperates and does what is needed over that period. After two weeks you are all summoned back to Weeder's Tavern by Delgo. He looks very tired.

"Hey, good to see you guys. A lot is goin on at the moment. I'm afraid I need to ask you another favour".

Delgo explains that over the last couple of weeks the Daask mercenaries have been attacking and destroying Boromar owned or controlled premises. With Ilyra as mayor they have been able to use the watch to try and hold them back, but Boromar is in trouble and the guard are getting low on troops.

He explains that a few hours ago Daask forces group of monsters have taken over the entrance bridge that leads to Wroann’s Gate Ward, thus stopping trade and travel for all travellers approaching by road. He says they have sent guards, but none of the guards have been able to remove the monsters. Knowing that you have some great skill, he asks that you go and attempt it.

You agree and head down towards the bridge. As you approach you can see the bridge. It features two watchtowers on each end. The southwest watchtower is larger than the others and there is a barred portcullis-style gate on the west side of the bridge. On the bridge roam 7 gnolls, watching carefully in all direction and the bridge is covered with bodies of citizens and guards. A merchant on your side of the portcullis is arguing with a man so well hooded that you cannot see his face. The merchant just wants to take his wagon out of town, but the hooded man will not back down and the merchant stomps off in a huff, strangely leaving his wagon behind.

Dusty, Dresk and Ashana approach the portcullis, with Dusty taking the lead and requesting that the man open the gate. While he is doing this, Syviel makes her way, climbing along the side of the cravasse the bridge crosses and hiding under the bridge and Norm sneaks up to the northwesterly tower and clambers over the roof to have a good view of the gnolls. He gets out his bow and nocks and arrow. As he is doing so, he slips backwards on the mossy surface and the arrow flies high into the air, landing in the shoulder of the gnoll captain.

"We are under attack!", the captain yells. The gnolls automatically take positions watching the bridge from all angles. "Up there!", another yells, pointing at Norms leg dangling from the roof of the tower. All the gnolls grab their bows and send a volley of arrows at Norm. As Norm is currently lying on his back on the roof he has excellent cover so he is not hit.

Dusty realises that an attack is happening and starts backing away from the portcullis. The man says "Ah, another to add to the pile under the bridge", and removes his hood revealing that he is a medusa.

Dusty sees this and immediately freezes in place - petrified solid...

 

[Rabbitbait]

While this has been happening, a Class V: Automated Infiltration System (V.A.I.S.) has been hiding in the merchants wagon. This was all part of the plan to get Vais close to the bridge so that when trouble occured he would be ready to help. Vais is a Boromar operative and known by Norm and Sylviel.

With Dusty petrified and the gnolls firing at a tower roof, Vais sees his opportunity and fires two bolts into the medusa, catching him totally by surprise.

Vais is Spud's new character, replacing Dusty
"Start killing the hostages", yells the medusa, and you see movement followed by a sharp scream behind an arrow slit in the tower to the south of you. Dresk cannot abide this and runs to the door of the tower. It takes him a couple of goes, but he manages to smash it in. Upstairs in the tower he finds 4 goblins and 10 bound hostages (2 dead by the time he gets there). He easily slaughters the goblins and begins untying the prisoners - a bunch of innocent townfolk.

While this is happening a massive battle is happening on the bridge, beginning with an exchange of fire between our heroes and the well deciplined and trained gnolls. The medusa ducks for cover but is peppered with fire from Norm and Sylviel who has also made her way up to the top of a tower.

Realising that he is in trouble, the medusa shouts "Fight to the death!", and then suddenly can no longer be seen. He has disappeared.

The gnolls are slowly whittled down till they are finally defeated, while the goblins from the far tower flee, and run from the city.

As the last of the gnolls are defeated, you hear cheering from the city behind you. Looking back you see people in the windows and balconies of the towers clapping and yelling with joy and the defeat of these Daask miscreants. You see a contingent of guards head out from the nearest tower and Commander Vilroy is leading them. She congratulates you on a battle well done and gets the troops to man the towers once more.

Ashana rushes to the dead hostages and is able to revive them, bringing them back from Dolurrh. One of them is an important personage in house Jorrasco and when he realises what has happened he offers to get Dusty restored to flesh free of charge.

You all take Dusty to the main house Jorrasco enclave and then return to Weeder's Tavern. By this time the news of your exploits has arrived ahead of you and the halflings in the bar applaud as you enter. You go down to the saferoom and find Delgo, Acting Mayor Ilyra Boromar, and the boss of Clan Boromar, Saidan Boromar.

They all congratulate you for a job well done but have a very serious demeanor.

"Let me explain", says Ilyra, "these are bad times, bad times indeed. While you have done well to win this battle, we have been losing many more. Daask is throwing all it's effort into destroying Boromar. We have lost all of our properties on the lower levels and they have started guerilla attacks on premises near the towertops. We don't have a lot of strength left".

"Look guys", continues Saiden, "it's kill or be killed now. We don't have long before it's all over. We gotta take the fight to them. We've been looking for the ways to get in to the Daask base and when we know we can throw everything we have at them".

"I know how to get in", says Dresk, "I used to work with those guys".

"That changes everything", says Ilyra. You spend some time with Dresk describing what he knows of the entrances and protections. He doesn't know a lot as he was only a mook, but it gives some good intelligence".

"Right youse guys", says Saiden, "You look real beat up. I'm going to put the call out. Go home and take a rest, and meet us in 12 hours in the main house Orien enclave.

You climb up the ladder back to the bar, Norm leading the way as he wants a drink. However as he gets close to the top he notices that there is no sound - he can no longer hear anything. He opens the trapdoor and sees an illusion of a floor hiding the trapdoor from view. He climbs up through that and into the kitchen where he sees the cook lying dead on the floor in a puddle of blood. He goes to tell you all to hold back, but finds that he makes no sound. You look out into the main bar where you can see a narrow view of more dead bodies. Suddenly a gnoll passes by the door. As he passes he glances around and notices you. He frantically and silently gestures to someone else and then draws a weapon.

Roll initiative.