5E Forgotten Forge (IC)

[Rokku]

"Trouble, most like," says Tera, "but we're done 'ere now, yeah? I'd like to get home before the storm gets any worse."

[HappyMooCow]

Guts scratches his head and says to himself after seeing something fly off... "was the warforged possessed?"

[garter_snake]

Alkur peered off into the storm, at the rapidly fading dot that flew out of the chest of the warforged.

"Oh, that's not good."

Alkur turned to look back in the direction of the assassin warforged. The synthetic he had chosen to hide behind had moved over it and was now talking down at it. Its behavior is remarkably similar to the male dominance rituals of the Northern-Zilargo Speckled Finch. Fascinating. Well, leaving aside curious synthetic behavior, what was that flying object?

Possibilities:
1. A bird made a nest in the assassin synthetic's body.
2. Some sort of minor construct or familiar was embedded into the synthetic's body.
3. Some conditional spell was used. Perhaps a variation of Message that uses a physical medium to increase the range?

Two and three are the more likely. Therefore...


Alkur repositioned himself behind the human seafarer. "Mmm, doubtful." He said in response to the human's question. "Leaving aside the question of whether synthetics are susceptible to magic jars and other such effects, the subject appears to still be animate, and its disposition unchanged. That was probably a familiar of some type, intended to serve as a messenger, incase its attempt at murder failed."

[Teucros]

Gaethis watches the metallic thing flying away and continues her muttering. "More Cannith tricks causing a mess. Great. Juuust great"

[Pinnacle]

"Maybe you should fear us, traitor," the warforged hissed at Gauntlet. The humans guarding her looked nervous and tightened their grips on their weapons

Dolom ignored her, sighing and unloading his crossbow. "Yeh, I suppose that's everything covered, and we can take things from here. I actually wish we were a little less crowded." He nodded towards a few people creeping towards the end of the bridge, gawking at the scene on it. Most wore cloaks against the rain, but some seemed hurriedly pulled on over night clothes. "So.. thank you for your service in this matter, but in the future I advise you to call for the Watch when you can. If you think of anything else useful, please bring it to any guard station." He started to move towards the body, but then seemed to notice Gaethis's wound. "Er, Miss, do you need assistance reaching a healing house?"

Someone in a dark blue cloak--a human male one might guess from the size and shape of him--moved towards Slade. "I saw you with them, right?" He motioned for the paladin to follow him, and then beckoned urgently to the adventurers still on the higher Skybridge.

[lonewolf1210]

The last comment criticising them for getting involved broke the camels back from Faces point of view.
This arrogant selfrighteous seargant must be taught a lesson.

Face moves back towards Dolum and also goes for a hearty handshake, thanking the dwarf for his valuable duty while he has both his hands busy with unloading his crossbow, resulting in a bit of an intentionally awkward moment and Face looks like to reconsider and goes for a hug instead, with his slippery fingers doing their own work.

[Teucros]

Gaethis hesitates for a second. "Thank you, sir, but I will deal with this myself"she finally replies.

The rogue grins at Face's shenanigans and then frowns as the cloaked man enters the scene. Not exactly subtle, are we?

"I can't say that the guy inspires confidence, but he seems to know more about happened here. I say we follow for now." she suggests to the others.

[Rokku]

Tera sighed.

"I just wanted a nice quiet night with my sewing."

She hops down to the mysterious stranger.

[Jon D]

Boneyard moved to follow the cloaked figure. There was more going on here than a simple murder, that was for certain. The flying object that had sprung forth from the fallen warforged was a messenger, he's seen them during the war, but he seemed to remember that they were very rare.

Clearly there was more to be learned, and something bigger brewing.

[Rhyvurg]

Gauntlet scoops up his sword and follows along, happy to be included in a group activity.

[Pinnacle]

"Er, thanks," said Dolom, looking confused at Face. "You remind me of an inquisitive I've worked with."

He didn't seem to notice as the changeling palmed his badge.

[HappyMooCow]

I follow the man, "you got me."

[Pinnacle]

The person under the cloak was a young human man, fair with blue eyes and dark hair. He was well-dressed, but not extravagantly--possibly a servant or assistant of a wealthier person. He kept his cloak pulled down around himself, but that was as likely to be due to the rain and cold as anything else.

"I don't mean to sneak around the Watch," he said, eying the dwarf sergeant nervously, "but I want to report in before I get stuck talking to them... but I wanted to catch you before you went away and I couldn't find you.

"Provost Geldam was late for a meeting with my employer. She sent me here to fetch him, thinking he just lost track of the time... and this is what I find here. If you want to learn more about the unfortunate death of Bonal Geldam, she'd be the one to talk to. And I'm sure she'd want to speak with you. I suspect she may even have an opportunity for some capable adventurers like yourselves... She'll be in the Broken Anvil's tavern tomorrow morning at dawn."

He shrugged. "The Broken Anvil is in Lower Dura, but it is run by House Ghallanda. If nothing else, I can promise you a fine breakfast."


Dura was the oldest of Sharn's quarters, but as the city expanded Dura was forgotten. Now it was the poorest of the quarters, with even Upper Dura being largely middle-class and Lower Dura often being snubbed as little better than the Cogs beneath the city.

[Rokku]

"Well the night's looking up then. Nobody can say Tera Beauregard ever turned down a job offer and a free meal. I'd be happy to meet with your mistress."

[HappyMooCow]

OK, I will do it and dine. :)

I announce it to the other party members.

. The dead person was important to some lady who will be at the Broken Anvil's tavern tomorrow morning at dawn. The Broken Anvil is in Lower Dura, run by House Ghallanda. Free food, so I am there.

[Teucros]

It's not as if business hasn't been slow lately, thinks Gaethis.

Well, then. Let's see where this takes us.

[garter_snake]

Alkur followed behind the large sailor as he went to the hooded man. Might as well see what this was about. Also, no reason to tempt fate and stand near a defective construct any longer than was needed.

"I don't recall it being said that it was free..." Alkur muttered in response to the sailor's jubilation.

[HappyMooCow]

No one promises a paladin a fine breakfast that he has gotsta to pay for. That is just pure evil.

[Pinnacle]

The man smirked.
"Lady Elaydren will provide breakfast," he said, "That is one thing I can promise for certain."

He nodded to the adventurers, shot a nervous glance towards Sgt. Dolom, and turned to leave down a long flight of stairs headed towards the city's lower levels.

[HappyMooCow]

Okay, totally going to be there at his breakfast. What are you guys going to do now? Want to go drinking? I ain't got no sailin to do. Maybe I can sneak in some moonshine to that breakfast.

[lonewolf1210]

Face hides a smile as he pockets the badge and starts thinking about how to use it in the future.
Then he moves away from the group quickly to get to this mysterious man that seeks their attention, without it getting too obvious that he is in fact part of this group.



While listening to the man, Face also closely memorizes his face, mannerism and voice, to be able to impersonate him. He leaves the direct responses to the rest of the team and only speaks again as the man had already turned to leave.

"Sounds intriguing." He thinks for a second calmly then suddenly springs into quick action, with only a few quick words explaining himself: "Well, see ya´ll there. I´ve got some shopping to do." With that, he jumps over the rail muttering arcane words of feather fall and vanshes into the rain.

Having left the others behind, Face has 2 goals that he would like to accomplish that evening: Buying some clothes that roughly resemble those of the guy they just met(they dont need to hold up to a close inspection) and meet one of his contacts among the tyrants to inquire if he knows anything about a Lady Elaydren. He would like to know who he is dealing with before they meet.

[Rhyvurg]

Gauntlet claps the man on the shoulder. "You can count on my help!"

[Pinnacle]

Face:

Clothing was easy enough to find in Sharn. Face found a set of second-hand clothing that more-or-less resembled the man's for 5 sp, although the cloak was noticeably inferior. He also found a better set that was closer, for 5 gp.

As far as his contacts new, there was no noblewoman in Sharn by the name of Elaydren. There was a member of House Cannith with that given name, though. She lived in a townhouse in Middle Central.
Unfortunately, that was all the information Face could find on that night's investigation.

Everyone:
While Lower Dura as a whole was a somewhat seedy area, the neighborhood immediately around the Broken Anvil was... somewhat nicer.
The inn itself was set into a corner of its tower, accessible from the center.
The tavern was roughly triangular, with the kitchen opposite the entrance. The tavern had several round tables scattered around it, with private dining areas set into the side rooms that could be separated with curtains. There was also a door in each wall that presumably led to the guest quarters.
At this time, there were not many patrons in the tavern.
A plump, middle-aged halfling woman greeted the adventurers at the door. She seemed to be expecting them, and directed them to a large round table with only one occupied chair which contained an attractive human woman in her late twenties or early thirties.
"Lady Elaydren," said the halfling, "your guests have arrived."

The human looked up. She looked exhausted, and apparently hadn't noticed the group approaching her table.
She wore a blue gown, and blue and silver ornaments in her dark hair, that matched her blue eyes exactly. There was an opening on the gown's right sleeve that put her Mark of Making on display. She really didn't seem to fit her present environment very well.
"Oh," she said, "Yes. Please, sit." She motioned at the empty chairs around the table, as well as the empty glasses and bottles of assorted drinks in the middle of it.
"I'm glad my assistant took the initiative and asked you to meet with me. He was right, we have much to discuss."

[Teucros]

Gaethis takes a seat but igores the drinks for the time being. "A man is dead, a warfored maniac attempts to kill us and House Cannith takes an interest in the situation. Yes, I believe we do."

The half-orc looks around her. "Not the establishment I'd have expected from a member of the older houses. I assume that we will be made some sort of unofficial offer?"

[HappyMooCow]

I am a sailor and a paladin of vengeance. I will have a pitcher of ale. I need to make some money and kill some evil and make people happy oh and I need to get revenge on someone - someday I run into them until then I am a mercenary with morals.

Guts says in a drunken stupor.... from drinking at the tavern all night.

[Pinnacle]

"I can see why you might think that," Elaydren said to Gaethis, "but not exactly. If I were trying to be that discrete, I'd at least wear an outfit that hid my mark... No, I was staying in this inn because it's a convenient location. Since he had to name a meeting place before speaking with me, Reyn chose it because he knew I'd be here... Of course, since I had to go to Upper Central last night to meet with that Watchman, it would have actually been easier to host you at my townhouse.

"As you say, Cannith is an old house. The man who was murdered last night was Provost Bonal Geldem of the School of Pre-Galifar Studies at Morgrave University. He was helping me plan an expedition to find an old Cannith foundry that's, well," she pointed down, "in the ruins of old Sharn, below here. There's a certain long-lost heirloom that I was researching that he believes is there.

"There is an element of truth to what you say," she said delicately, "I'm sure you've all heard of Cannith's fractured leadership after the Day of Mourning. Baron Merrix controls Sharn. I work for Baroness Jorlanna. I'm not an enemy of the local house, certainly, but I am somewhat on my own here."

To Slade she said "Well, I expect I might be able to help you make some coin, then. I was hoping at least a few of you, who I am told handled yourselves quite well against the assassin, might be willing to pursue that sort of work. As for evil souls... Battleaxe--that's what the murderer calls herself--claims not to have been working alone.
"That's exactly the reason I find myself suddenly in need of acting quickly."

[HappyMooCow]

We will get them.

[Teucros]

By the great spirits.... Gaethis could have screamed at the paladin who would have her and the rest of the group just go along with Cannnith machiniation just like that. Still, the half-orc manages to control herself and keep her voice cool and professional.

We will? Maybe, maybe not. What is this artifact? Is the foundry guar-well, they always are, so what should we expect? And how much do you pay?

[garter_snake]

Alkur climbed onto a stool. It was half-ling size, so a bit small for him, but it was close enough.

Alkur stayed quiet as Elaydren and Gaethis spoke to each other. He didn't have much experience with the politics of the Dragonmarked houses, but he knew their history a bit.

The Canniths... their the ones renowned for being expert artificers. The Lightning Rail, the Warforged- both of these were Cannith designs. SO her story is that she's an outsider of the local branch who came here to look for some artifact in the lower depths of the city. Her partner was murdered by the rogue construct, and now she's looking for additional assistance.

"A question." The gnome spoke up, as the others were expressing interest on the job. "Besides you and Provost Geldem, who knew of this 'foundry'? And did anyone know that you were planning on a expedition to it?

Also..." Alkur hesitated. "I'm not familiar with what you mean by 'foundry'. Is it a mages workshop, or something more nuanced?"

[lonewolf1210]

Face gets the cheaper variant of the assistants clothes, but then decides not to use this new disguise for now. Keeping an ace like that hidden is also worth much.


Face arrives at the meeting wearing his dark cloak and a hood darkening his face. He sits down at the ladies invitation and simply starts eating breakfast, appearing as if his focus was mostly on that, while in fact he was listening very closely.
Interesting. Intrigue, Murder and Mystery that suddenly appeared right in front of me. Who am I to say no to such signs of the Traveler?

Turning to Gaethis he speaks for the first time in this meeting:
"While I understand your hesitation and I also dont like to be volunteered by someone else for a mission like this, ..." here he glares punishingly at Guts " ... I for one feel like fate is giving me a nudge and I will join whoever else will come along. And I am also not that worried about negotiating payment beforehand for a mission like this one. Once we have the artifact, we can still negotiate and we are in an even better position than now.
Finally, I believe that if Lady Elaydren is interested in aquiring this artifact, ..." Face trails of mid sentence for a second, and continues in Lady Elaydrens voice " ... then Lady Elaydren should go down there and aquire it." He pulls down his hood, appearing exactly like Lady Elaydren, except her clothes of course(and the area of her dragonmark hidden from view by the cloak). With that Face continues with his breakfast without any further explanation.