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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PHDungeon" data-source="post: 5360884" data-attributes="member: 86320">This is Melek's 3rd journal:You've got to love it when things go pretty much to plan. I just wish that happened more often.We cast the ritual magic that would allow us to operate underwater and approach Starke’s island fortress from polluted waters of the Grimmsburg harbor. As we arrived, we were attacked by a small pack of oversized, clockwork eels, presumably created by Starke. These weren't really that much of a threat, and we quickly dispatched them before they could raise the alarm. Even with the ritual magic allowing us to fight underwater my vaunted fire magics were somewhat negatively affected but not to any huge extent, and I still managed to make myself useful in the battle.Next, I cast a ritual to allow us to locate the Hat of Disguise that Starke frequently wears, in hopes that we could pin point his location in the sprawling complex. Fortunately, the ritual worked, and it appeared that Starke was not terribly far from us.We then cast a passwall ritual that instantly created a tunnel into the compound, which we directed towards where we believed he would be found. The harbor water of course rushed into the tunnel. We were swept into the bottom level of Starke’s lair in a great flow of water. As anticipated, the water even knocked out at least one ward spell.We found ourselves knee deep in water, in a room with a permanent teleport circle inscribed in the floor. Bella wanted to spend some time studying the circle, but when I pointed out that we had to get to Starke quickly she agreed.After a quite short trip we found ourselves at a set of large doors. Our detection ritual indicated that Starke was likely behind them. The doors were made of metal and locked with a complex gear lock that was built right into the door. Bella then tried to use her thievery skills to open the doors. She failed miserably with the result being a large explosion, as she triggered an undetected ward. I thought I was far enough away but, alas, I was not. I suffered some injuries, but thanks to Bjorn’s healing powers, I recovered quickly.As I mentioned, the door mechanism was an intricate puzzle of gears, so I gave Bella some tips on opening it. She ignored those tips and followed her intuition. Good thing the ward only went off the once. Still, the third time is the charm. Bella managed to open the door. Confronting us was a line of Warforged who somehow had been alerted to our presence (I wonder if the ward going off had anything to do with that <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />). Behind the warforged was a huge laboratory where Starke and a band of dwarven lab assistants were obviously trying to make a massive war forged, one at least as large as a giant. 4 people were strapped to tables showing us that life forces or souls are clearly part of Starke’s process. Mayhem then ensued. Fortunately, my Wall of Fire spell gave the warforged an unpleasant choice- stay where they were and burn in my flames or fall back, thus allowing us access to the room. They chose the latter.Starke’s immediate counters of a cloud of toxic gas and some silly swarm of clockwork bees weren't particularly effective. Actually, that isn't at all fair to my companions, especially not to Bjorn. Starke’s attacks were plenty dangerous, and without his healing magics we would have all perished. Thor is especially good at keeping those doing his business up on their feet.After some time hacking through the warforged that were still clustered near the entrance, we managed to force our way fully into the laboratory. Turak went into what was essentially single combat with a dwarven artificer, while Vesna and Bjorn were embroiled in combat with the warforged. Bella went after Starke, and I went after targets of opportunity as they presented themselves. A bunch of idiotic dwarven lab helpers were foolish enough to throw themselves into the fray to fight and to die, for we were showing no mercy to Starke’s allies.The battle proceeded, as we were forced to waste time dealing with Starke’s minions. Then Bella pulled out all of the stops and tried to kill Starke with a flurry of frost bolts from her crossbow. She wasn't anywhere near as effective as she hoped, for his clockwork armor was damn tough to penetrate, but she did manage to significantly weaken him. Starke struck back with a massive blast of lightning unleashed from his armor, knocking both Turak and myself off our feet. It felt like it almost killed me, but I was somehow still alive. I found myself lying on the ground surrounded by Starke’s minions who were eager to kick a down tiefling. Fortunately, my shield was just enough to save my ass from their barrage of attacks, and soon I once again felt Bjorn’s healing powers wash over me.I crawled to my feet, and it was my turn. I'm loathe to admit how much my diabolic heritage relishes putting the hurt on those already suffering. But it does. And it does so quite effectively. I cursed Starke and unleashed a storm of magical fury upon him. It was still not enough to kill Starke, but it was enough to make him regret his decision not to flee when he had the opportunity. Turak had finished off the dwarven artificer and was now upon him, and thanks to the aid of Turak’s spirit allies and a well placed bolt from Bella, Starke would not be making an easy escape.Turak finished off what Bella and I had started. Bravely ignoring the crackling lightning that was now streaming from Starke’s armor, Turak strode forward, suffered the pain and put Stark out of his (and our) misery with a mighty blow from his maul.The clean up after that was swift, as Bjorn and Vesna brought down the remaining warforged.Then a very interesting thing occurred. In a room attached to the lab we discovered a sentient Warforged from the southern lands, a warforged whose existence dates back to the lost empire of my people. He had been locked in a cage by Starke, and presumably Starke had been using him to “reverse engineer” the lost art of warforged creation. It transpired that he'd been betrayed by Bella (imagine my shock and surprise) and sold by her to Starke. He wasn't happy about that, and wanted little more than to track down and kill Bella. He also seemed to automatically treat me with a considerable amount of respect and deference. Which, I must admit, made a very welcome change from the usual way that my kind are seen.If time and opportunity allows I have to try and pick his brains, if he has such a thing. He'll have a unique perspective on so many things, combined with knowledge of many things long forgotten.Fortunately, warforged don't seem to be all that bright and he bought into Bella’s <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> that she had no choice, fearing for her life if she didn't deliver the warforged to Starke. While I don't really doubt that it would have made things uncomfortable for Bella, I'm pretty sure that she had lots of other options and did what she did at least as much for the riches that it gained her as from fear of Stark.He wishes to return home. Unfortunately (albeit not surprisingly), he doesn't know the make up of any teleport circles there.  And I certainly don't trust what the Scarlet Academy will do if they find out about him. Apparently they were also seeking him when Bella betrayed him. I’m not sure if they knew that he was sentient, and I’m not sure that they'd care.It’s not clear what we're going to do with him. For the moment, at least, we don't have to worry about it. First we need to look through the fortress and make sure that there are no more significant enemies here, particularly on this level. We will also be sure to take the time to more thoroughly explore this lower level. Bella claims it is Starke’s personal sanctuary, and she thinks he likely stores many of arcane secrets and worldly wealth down here. We are eager to find all the interesting and valuable items before soldiers of the Jarl come in grabbing and smashing everything in sight.</blockquote>

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