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The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith
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<blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 3489839" data-attributes="member: 30035"><p><strong>Azlin's tale, part 3</strong></p><p></p><p>My new comrades and I weren't sure if we wanted to continue looking for the warforged killer. We weren't getting far tracking him down 'til we heard that the crazy warforged, Copper, was the one handing out the gold links we were finding.</p><p></p><p>Artemis decided to give the search one more day. The day after the riot we went back down to the Red Hammer and found Blackbones very quiet. There was a big crowd of warforged out front of the inn. We were told there were three dead warforged inside: Ash, who'd been helping us; Link, the warforged who'd come to Artemis for help; and Shadowblack the rabble-rouser.</p><p></p><p>We found them all dismembered. Ash's head was missing. One of my companions noticed that they all had copper shavings in their hands, as if they'd scratched something made of copper. </p><p></p><p>Artemis decided that our first course of action should be to find Copper. He asked around some more and finally learned that the crazy warforged stayed at the Tain foundry. Funny no one mentioned that before. </p><p></p><p>Turned out that even though the foreman doesn't like warforged, they let some of them stay in barracks in the forge. That's where Copper stayed. His little cupboard was completely empty, but Artemis noticed a false panel at the back. After Sten broke through it we saw a crevice leading off into the stone. </p><p></p><p>We left the foreman at the entrance and headed down the winding passage, with Sten and Conshru carrying lights. Too bad they didn't have goggles like Artemis. He could see even farther than I can. </p><p></p><p>It smelled bad down there, like offal or decay. Gwaenna ran into a trap that set a bunch of spinning and stabbing blades going. Conshru had to have his fastieth run out and carry her to safety. Artemis got across the blades, though he was hurt, and the changeling Xil fell right in them. I guess pretending to be a warforged made him clumsy.</p><p></p><p>Sten got across the blades and called out that he saw something like a big snake in a cavern at the end of the passage. I couldn't see much of the cavern from where I stood. But I could see when the separate legs and torso of a warforged - or maybe two different warforged - started attacking Sten and Artemis.</p><p></p><p>I summoned up a divine axe to hit the torso piece that was grabbing at Sten, and prepared to try to jump across the spinning blades. Sten destroyed the torso. Artemis sent the legs flying into the blades, which cut them apart.</p><p></p><p>Then Artemis yelled that he had a spell to get me across. He swapped places with me and started trying to turn the blades off, while I fought with a thing made of chains and scrap parts that was attacking my companions.</p><p></p><p>The snake thing Sten had seen came out from behind a rock and attacked Xil. I moved over by Gwaenna to deal with another scrap monster. That goblin is pretty impressive. She dealt with the thing herself. </p><p></p><p>I moved around to face the snake-creature and so did Gwaenna. When she hit it there was a big flash and it just disappeared. Artemis announced that he'd disabled the blades, but we'd noticed a door at the other end of the cavern. He came back to the cave and started looking the door over.</p><p></p><p>There was a long tunnel beyond the door. Before we stepped through, Artemis gave me a sphere he carried. He said it's a hammer sphere, a magic device that can summon a hammer like my divine axe only it does more damage than the axe does. I appreciate how he's always trying to help everyone. </p><p></p><p>We came out of the tunnel into another cavern that looked like an artificer's lab according to Artemis. Copper was there, claiming he'd been waiting for us. He started spouting some nonsense about someone coming and some other stuff I really didn't pay much attention to. Then he drew a wand and blasted Sten and Artemis.</p><p></p><p>Whatever hit Sten hit me too, as I was standing near him. Xil attacked Copper with his staff-spear. Artemis did something to Sten that made him tougher and Sten turned on Copper. </p><p></p><p>I took up a flanking position opposite Xil and drew the adamantine warhammer I'd acquired the previous day. Copper had a dagger that seemed to do a lot of damage to Sten. It burst into flames when it hit especially hard. Copper himself was very resistant to damage. Conshru threw a lightning javelin at him and missed, and Gwaenna's spell didn't hurt him either.</p><p></p><p>A dog-like construct emerged and attacked Artemis, but I guess he dealt with it because he came over to help with the warforged. Copper fired his wand at Gwaenna and Artemis. Then the rest of us surrounded him. He retreated over to the entrance, but Xil followed him and knocked the wand out of his hand. Then Sten took him down.</p><p></p><p>All the while there had been something strange going on with a shape on a slab, and some dragonshards flashing on the wall above it. Just as Copper fell, the last shard went dark and the shape rose up and threw off the black silk sheet covering it. It was another construct, but this one was very big and cobbled together out of all sorts of warforged parts - including Ash's missing head!</p><p></p><p>The thing's fist burst into flames. Conshru gestured at it, but his spell didn't have any effect. I decided to take cover behind a boulder and ward myself with divine magic. I used my gauntlets to throw my hammer at it, but I missed.</p><p></p><p>The construct attacked Gwaenna first with one of its long arms. It tried to hit me, too, but thank the Host it missed me. Then Artemis took a hunting horn out of his pack and blew it. A moment later eight constructs appeared, encircling the bigger one. But that didn't stop the monstrosity from grabbing hold of Sten.</p><p></p><p>I stepped out of cover and hit the thing as hard as I could. My hammer met its metal hide with a satisfying clang. Our opponent dropped Sten and destroyed three of Artemis's summoned constructs with a sweep of its arm. They weren't much use against it, but at least they gave it some other targets.</p><p></p><p>A ball of fire came flying from Conshru. That halfling loves fire. The thing wiped out three more of Artemis's constructs an instant later. Conshru hit it with another fire orb. It responded by hitting Gwaenna and Xil and one of the remaining constructs. Xil collapsed. Artemis healed the changeling with an amulet he wears.</p><p></p><p>We surrounded the monster. It destroyed the last of the constructs. Artemis threw a knife at it that he'd crafted to hurt warforged. It tried to rush Gwaenna. Conshru blasted it with another orb. Gwaenna got back on her feet and sent a bold of lightning through her sword. I kept pounding it with my hammer. </p><p></p><p>Finally Sten lobbed a flask of alchemist's fire on it and a couple of heartbeats later it crumbled into a heap of assorted waroforged components. </p><p></p><p>After we caught our breath Artemis and Gwaenna searched the chamber. They took the wand Copper had been using, along with a magic ring he wore and another wand. They found a magic bag too, and pried a mithral piece out of what had been the monster construct's chest plate. When we'd done with that we brought the Tain foreman down to see what Copper had been up to in his secret lair. </p><p></p><p>I'm not sure what I'll be doing next, but it sounds like it will be with this group, whatever it is.</p><p>______________________</p><p>Quips & Quotes:</p><p></p><p>Zora: "Artificers aren't allowed to dip into the company funds. 'Ooh, the House really needs a <em>ring of protection +4</em>!'."</p><p></p><p>sniffles: "Luckily Shadowblack is dead so he can't blame us for the deaths."</p><p>Devo: "No, he saved his one standard action..."</p><p>Hedrin: "... to say 'J'accuse!'."</p><p></p><p>DH: "I contradict myself enough. You don't have to help me."</p><p></p><p>patv: "You find a secret lavatory behind the panel."</p><p></p><p>patv: "Can't you put your wands away when you're done?"</p><p>Devo: "I'm still playing with them."</p><p>sniffles: "He's always 'playing with his wands'."</p><p></p><p>Devo: "Someone has to pay for all these deaths."</p><p>sniffles: "That will be one gold piece each."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="sniffles, post: 3489839, member: 30035"] [b]Azlin's tale, part 3[/b] My new comrades and I weren't sure if we wanted to continue looking for the warforged killer. We weren't getting far tracking him down 'til we heard that the crazy warforged, Copper, was the one handing out the gold links we were finding. Artemis decided to give the search one more day. The day after the riot we went back down to the Red Hammer and found Blackbones very quiet. There was a big crowd of warforged out front of the inn. We were told there were three dead warforged inside: Ash, who'd been helping us; Link, the warforged who'd come to Artemis for help; and Shadowblack the rabble-rouser. We found them all dismembered. Ash's head was missing. One of my companions noticed that they all had copper shavings in their hands, as if they'd scratched something made of copper. Artemis decided that our first course of action should be to find Copper. He asked around some more and finally learned that the crazy warforged stayed at the Tain foundry. Funny no one mentioned that before. Turned out that even though the foreman doesn't like warforged, they let some of them stay in barracks in the forge. That's where Copper stayed. His little cupboard was completely empty, but Artemis noticed a false panel at the back. After Sten broke through it we saw a crevice leading off into the stone. We left the foreman at the entrance and headed down the winding passage, with Sten and Conshru carrying lights. Too bad they didn't have goggles like Artemis. He could see even farther than I can. It smelled bad down there, like offal or decay. Gwaenna ran into a trap that set a bunch of spinning and stabbing blades going. Conshru had to have his fastieth run out and carry her to safety. Artemis got across the blades, though he was hurt, and the changeling Xil fell right in them. I guess pretending to be a warforged made him clumsy. Sten got across the blades and called out that he saw something like a big snake in a cavern at the end of the passage. I couldn't see much of the cavern from where I stood. But I could see when the separate legs and torso of a warforged - or maybe two different warforged - started attacking Sten and Artemis. I summoned up a divine axe to hit the torso piece that was grabbing at Sten, and prepared to try to jump across the spinning blades. Sten destroyed the torso. Artemis sent the legs flying into the blades, which cut them apart. Then Artemis yelled that he had a spell to get me across. He swapped places with me and started trying to turn the blades off, while I fought with a thing made of chains and scrap parts that was attacking my companions. The snake thing Sten had seen came out from behind a rock and attacked Xil. I moved over by Gwaenna to deal with another scrap monster. That goblin is pretty impressive. She dealt with the thing herself. I moved around to face the snake-creature and so did Gwaenna. When she hit it there was a big flash and it just disappeared. Artemis announced that he'd disabled the blades, but we'd noticed a door at the other end of the cavern. He came back to the cave and started looking the door over. There was a long tunnel beyond the door. Before we stepped through, Artemis gave me a sphere he carried. He said it's a hammer sphere, a magic device that can summon a hammer like my divine axe only it does more damage than the axe does. I appreciate how he's always trying to help everyone. We came out of the tunnel into another cavern that looked like an artificer's lab according to Artemis. Copper was there, claiming he'd been waiting for us. He started spouting some nonsense about someone coming and some other stuff I really didn't pay much attention to. Then he drew a wand and blasted Sten and Artemis. Whatever hit Sten hit me too, as I was standing near him. Xil attacked Copper with his staff-spear. Artemis did something to Sten that made him tougher and Sten turned on Copper. I took up a flanking position opposite Xil and drew the adamantine warhammer I'd acquired the previous day. Copper had a dagger that seemed to do a lot of damage to Sten. It burst into flames when it hit especially hard. Copper himself was very resistant to damage. Conshru threw a lightning javelin at him and missed, and Gwaenna's spell didn't hurt him either. A dog-like construct emerged and attacked Artemis, but I guess he dealt with it because he came over to help with the warforged. Copper fired his wand at Gwaenna and Artemis. Then the rest of us surrounded him. He retreated over to the entrance, but Xil followed him and knocked the wand out of his hand. Then Sten took him down. All the while there had been something strange going on with a shape on a slab, and some dragonshards flashing on the wall above it. Just as Copper fell, the last shard went dark and the shape rose up and threw off the black silk sheet covering it. It was another construct, but this one was very big and cobbled together out of all sorts of warforged parts - including Ash's missing head! The thing's fist burst into flames. Conshru gestured at it, but his spell didn't have any effect. I decided to take cover behind a boulder and ward myself with divine magic. I used my gauntlets to throw my hammer at it, but I missed. The construct attacked Gwaenna first with one of its long arms. It tried to hit me, too, but thank the Host it missed me. Then Artemis took a hunting horn out of his pack and blew it. A moment later eight constructs appeared, encircling the bigger one. But that didn't stop the monstrosity from grabbing hold of Sten. I stepped out of cover and hit the thing as hard as I could. My hammer met its metal hide with a satisfying clang. Our opponent dropped Sten and destroyed three of Artemis's summoned constructs with a sweep of its arm. They weren't much use against it, but at least they gave it some other targets. A ball of fire came flying from Conshru. That halfling loves fire. The thing wiped out three more of Artemis's constructs an instant later. Conshru hit it with another fire orb. It responded by hitting Gwaenna and Xil and one of the remaining constructs. Xil collapsed. Artemis healed the changeling with an amulet he wears. We surrounded the monster. It destroyed the last of the constructs. Artemis threw a knife at it that he'd crafted to hurt warforged. It tried to rush Gwaenna. Conshru blasted it with another orb. Gwaenna got back on her feet and sent a bold of lightning through her sword. I kept pounding it with my hammer. Finally Sten lobbed a flask of alchemist's fire on it and a couple of heartbeats later it crumbled into a heap of assorted waroforged components. After we caught our breath Artemis and Gwaenna searched the chamber. They took the wand Copper had been using, along with a magic ring he wore and another wand. They found a magic bag too, and pried a mithral piece out of what had been the monster construct's chest plate. When we'd done with that we brought the Tain foreman down to see what Copper had been up to in his secret lair. I'm not sure what I'll be doing next, but it sounds like it will be with this group, whatever it is. ______________________ Quips & Quotes: Zora: "Artificers aren't allowed to dip into the company funds. 'Ooh, the House really needs a [I]ring of protection +4[/I]!'." sniffles: "Luckily Shadowblack is dead so he can't blame us for the deaths." Devo: "No, he saved his one standard action..." Hedrin: "... to say 'J'accuse!'." DH: "I contradict myself enough. You don't have to help me." patv: "You find a secret lavatory behind the panel." patv: "Can't you put your wands away when you're done?" Devo: "I'm still playing with them." sniffles: "He's always 'playing with his wands'." Devo: "Someone has to pay for all these deaths." sniffles: "That will be one gold piece each." [/QUOTE]
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