Eberron Adventure Journal: "The Forgotten Forge"

Lharvion 12 - Lharvion 14, YK 998

Our story begins as the adventurers took a contract with Jaina Dewell, of Dewell Potions, to deliver a box of potion components to the Dewell Potions Shop in Dava Gate. For their trouble, they were paid with a potion of cure light wounds each.

The rain was pouring down in Sharn that night, and the party walked through sheets of water across the labyrinthine walkways of the City of Towers. As they reached a skybridge between Dalannan Tower and the Kelsa Spire, Pel spotted a figure in a dark cloak moving quietly through the rain. Lightning flashed, illuminating the figure and a dark shape lying on the bridge for a moment, before the cloaked figure dove over the side of the bridge.

The party moved forward to investigate, and they saw that an elderly human was lying dead on the bridge, a leather satchel clutched tightly in his hands. Before they had much chance to investigate, the cloaked figure returned, leaping from the underside of the bridge to attack! The figure was Cutter, a warforged barbarian in service to the Lord of Blades. She swung her axe wildly and inaccurately, chopping first one side of the bridge and then the other as Pel nimbly dodged her attack. Her mithral-laced form resisted many of the attacks levelled against her, but Brand was able to sink two arrows deep into her form, and William moved in to finish her off with a strong stroke of his two-handed greatsword. The adventurers watched as a final messenger lifted from Cutter's body and flew off, presumably informing the Lord of Blades of what had transpired.

With the battle over, and the Watch clearly on the way thanks to citizens shouting from other platforms, the party took a moment to inspect the body. It was Bonal Geldem, a provost of Pre-Galifar Studies at Morgrave, and the party discovered that the satchel, in addition to containing writing implements, paper and a snack, contained some kind of well-made leather journal.

They didn't have much chance to inspect it, however, as Sgt. Dolom of the Watch arrived with two other guards. He blustered and demanded to know what was happening, but Lysander quickly convinced him that they had intervened on Bonal's behalf and killed a renegade Warforged. A poor inquisitive, Dolom had his guards pick up Bonal's body for transport to Morgrave, and told the party to move along, and "perhaps leave these kinds of things to the Watch in the future."

The party then delivered their potion components, earning a small tip in response from Jaina's uncle Malin. They decided to spend this tip at an inn where they could get a better look at the journal. On their way to the inn, they were intercepted by another cloaked figure, one who held out a signet ring indicating he belonged to House Cannith. "If you would know the truth of Bonal Geldem's murder," he said, "go to the Broken Anvil tavern at dawn." With that, he disappeared into the rain and the night.

The party arrived at a tavern and inspected the journal. They found it to be of high quality, with a mithral thread woven primitive version of the House Cannith seal on the cover and entirely blank pages within. Lysander detected a strong universal magic aura from the book, but Tock was unable to identify it, as his spell wouldn't properly decode the magic, clearly of an older age.

After retiring to their apartments to rest and recover, the party met up once more and journeyed to the Broken Anvil. There, they met the Lady Elaydren d'Cannith, who told them that Bonal had been trying to recover a schema by locating a foundry from Pre-Galifar Sharn, located beneath the sewers of Dorasharn Tower. She also used her signet ring to activate the journal, revealing the pages to be full of notes, maps and other work done by Bonal. She offered the group 1,000 gold, plus 100 gold to outfit themselves, if they would journey into the sewers, find the foundry and recover the schema. With William encouraged by the promise of combat, Pel and Lysander intrigued by the potential information and Tock interested in pre-Galifar magic, they were an easy sell.

From there, the party used Bonal's map (given to them by Elaydren) to find a Rat's Market in the lowest inhabited level of Dorasharn Tower. They met with a goblin named Skakan, who informed them that he had spoken with warforged and knew that they were seeking the E-213 Valve Cluster. His attempts to extort money were whittled down considerably when Brand bargained with him and William backed up the bargaining with physical intimidation. As they bargained, Pel and Tock noticed a shifter eyeing them warily, but he vanished into the crowded market when he was noticed. Skakan lead them to a narrow staircase descending down into the darkness, pointed the way and said "The valve cluster is down there. Pleasure doing business with you!"

As they entered the staircase, the party was wary of a trap, and indeed they found one. A warforged rogue attacked them, and was quickly dispatched by William's sword. A final messenger detached itself from the rogue's body, flew up and out of the sewer. When they emerged into the sewer, with a series of 12 valves discharging sewer runoff into the shallow water, they were attacked by the warforged's minions, a pair of razorclaw shifter. The shifters moved in, attacking Tock and Lysander, but they were quickly dealt with by the party.

Moving down the waterway, the party discovered a circular metal hatch set into the tunnel wall, engraved with arcane runes and bearing a glowing symbol of mithral depicting the same icon as Bonal's journal. Pel inspected it, determined that there was an acid splash trap attached, and couldn't find any easy way to open it. Instead, he held aloft the journal, which glowed, and the door glowed in response and slid open.

Once inside, the party found a vertical shaft about five feet wide descending into the darkness. Using the climbing gear they had purchased earlier, they sent a sunrod down, learning that it bottomed out at about 90 feet. They each descended down the rope and walked down the corridor that they found at the bottom, until they emerged at the entrance to a large, open chamber.

Dropping down the six feet from their entrance to the floor of the chamber, the group was set upon by swarms of carnivorous beetles. Tock used his magic to ignite his mace, and Brand lit a torch from the mace, offering some weapons against the vile swarms. William, meanwhile, ran farther into the chamber, encountering a pair of Horrid Rats, which he smashed one by one with no damage on his own part. After the beetles swarmed over Brand and Pel, the party fled to where William was, and the beetle swarms dispersed.

The party then located the ruins of a former temple, which still had a serene aura indicating that its battered shell retained some of the calming, sanctuary effects of its former use. Rather than rest, however, they pressed on, discovering the long lost forge of House Cannith that they had been seeking. The door was trapped and featured an amazing lock, and the forge had solid walls, but William climbed the twenty foot walls and found a gaping hole in the ceiling. He threw a sunrod down to see what awaited him below. There he saw stone and rubble that had crushed a metallic dog-like creature, and across the way, he saw two more of them, their eyes glowing with arcane light. With a hearty cry of "Metal dogs! Hurrah!" William plunged down into the forge.

The rest of the party soon joined him, as William engaged in battle with two Iron Defenders. The Defenders put up a good fight, injuring and nearly killing Pel and hurting William as well, but they were eventually defeated. When they died, each Defender popped an iron rod out of its forehead. One was triangular, the other rectangular, and the party realized that the other dog probably had one as well. Working as a team and spending about twenty minutes, they managed to lift the stone and pull out the remaining rod, which was pentagonal in shape. These shapes corresponded to depressions in the wall of the forge against the far wall. In the meantime, Brand and Pel searched the shelves along the southern wall, locating a number of items, including a masterwork small chain shirt, masterwork heavy mace and a masterwork rapier.

William and Pel reasoned that the rods should be inserted in order of how many sides they were, triangle first, rectangle second and pentagon third, and this worked, unlocking the forge. Within they found gold, silver, gold ingots, potions and the schema they were seeking.

The party began to climb out of the hole, and as William climbed out, he tried to remain prone, but he was still struck by a flaming crossbow bolt. A metallic voice cried out "Weak flesh! Now you face Saber, greatest of the devoted followers of the Lord of Blades. Throw down the schema and walk away. This day does not have to end with blood on my hands."

Lysander used a Silent Image spell to throw up a cover of fog, as Brand used his dragonmark to teleport outside and find cover. Using the fog as cover, the party began climbing up onto the roof, looking to see if they could find Saber. As they did, Lysander began singing a war ballad about a brave soldier who had faced down 200 warforged all on his own.

Eventually, the party spotted Saber, staying under cover across the chamber and trying to find another shot with his crossbow. Pel moved out under cover of shadows to try and get behind him, as William disembarked to the floor of the chamber and Tock did the same. Brand kept Saber covered, waiting for an open shot, which he got when Saber moved out into the open, trying to get closer. The party jockeyed for position, and when Saber finally spent his last flaming crossbow bolt on a failed shot at Lysander, they moved in to attack. Saber put up a brief but impassioned fight, but ultimately William brought him down with a swing of his greatsword. Pel, who had been waiting, used his cloak to catch and smash the final messenger, preventing news of Saber's battle from reaching the Lord of Blades later.

With Saber's magical sword now tucked away in Pel's belt, the party went up to the surface, met up with Lady Elaydren in the Broken Anvil and gave her the schema in exchange for their gold. She expressed her gratitude, and told them to check in periodically with the House Sivis message station at the Barmin Tower for more work in the future.

XP Reward: 1020