Death on the Skybridge
While wandering on a rainy night in
Sharn, reveling in their intoxication, the party came across a body lying on the rain-soaked steps. The corpse was an old man, and Myco confirmed that he had recently been killed with a blade of some sort. As the party inspected the body, a warforged, armed with a scimitar, attacked, demanding a
“pouch” from the corpse. He was swiftly defeated by the party, though not after
severely injuring Calo.
Calo, thanks to an Obscuring Mist
conjured by Myco, pocketed the contents of the pouch owned by the man (which
included some gold). Myco also relieved the warforged of his scimitar. The
commotion of the battle drew the city guard to the skybridge, who promptly told
everyone to lay down their weapons. Caelin appealed to the watch captain, Dolom
(a dwarf) and explained the party’s circumstances. His claims were corroborated
by bystanders, who had observed the conflict. Satisfied, Dolom rewarded the party
with gold for defeating the murderous construct and offered his assistance in the future.
Aftermath of the Attack
The party retreated to a tavern and
holed up in a private room, enjoying one of Calo’s fine wines and trying to
make sense of the day’s events. The papers found on the body identified the man
as Provost Bonal Galden, a researcher at the Morgrave University.
The remaining papers were some odd magic diagrams. Caelin and Glimdrom pored
over the papers, and were only able to determine that it was arcane research
about artifacts from Xen’drik. Xen'drik was the mysterious (and largely unexplored) continent to the south of Khorvaire, and Morgrave University was known for sending numerous expeditions for loot...er...artifact recovery.
It was then that the party heard a
knock on their room door. Cautiously opening it, they were greeted by a half-elven
youth, who gave them a letter and package. Caelin inquired as to who asked for
the boy to deliver the package, but the half-elf had no idea. Calo,
exercising caution, asked the boy to open the package for them, fearing a trap.
When nothing seemed amiss, he tipped the boy a silver and sent him on his way.
The letter requested for the party
to meet the mysterious sender at the Broken Anvil Tavern the next day, and was
sealed with the insignia of House Cannith (the major artificers of Khorvaire).
The book, also bearing House Cannith’s insignia, contained only blank pages,
which proved to be resistant to water and blades. Glimdrom determined the book was
a powerful magic item, and Caelin found it was beyond his power to activate.
Myco and Glimdrom retreated to
Sharn’s underbelly to sleep, while the remaining three slept in the inn; Caelin
and Zanfan alternated watches, paranoid after the warforged attack.
Meeting Lady Elaydren d'Cannith
The next day, the party stopped by
a temple to heal Calo (discounted thanks to Zanven’s piety and negotiation skills). After
arriving at the Broken Anvil, they party scouted for exit routes in case they were ambushed. Satisfied that nothing was out of the ordinary, the party entered the tavern.
They were greeted by Lady Elaydren
d’Cannith who invited the party into a private room to discuss business. Nursing
a hangover from last night, Calo was all too happy to enjoy free libations,
even pouring some wine in his waterskin for the road. She stated she wanted to
hire the party to locate a pre-Galifar Sharn artifact that Bonal had been
researching, located in a foundry in the Dorisharn Tower.
The warforged that had attacked the night before was a soldier of the Lord of
Blades, a powerful warforged extremist who seeks the eradication of non-warforged. The party would have the take the E-213 Valve Cluster to get to the
foundry.
She then used her signet ring, bearing the symbol of House Cannith, to
touch the seal on the book, activating the book's magic. Lady Elaydren turned the pages, now filled with writing and diagrams, until she came to a map that detailed the route the party was to take. She also described the artifact, a
7-pointed star-shaped adamantine plate, and offered to pay 200 gold upfront for accepting the quest and
800 after its recovery.
The party agreed to this
proposition, and asked for a small loan from House Cannith in order to purchase
a Wand of Cure Light Wounds and an Everburning bullseye lantern.
Glimdrom also returned Bonal’s notes to Lady Elaydren, which she identified as potential locations for other schema. Lady Elaydren promised Caelin that after
they retrieved the plate, she would see if House Cannith had any information on
the item he was looking for. As the party left, Myco covertly left behind a
sample of his product for the noble, hoping to expand his clientele.
The Rat's Market
The party journeyed to the Rat’s
Market, the best place to find a guide that would take them deeper into the sewers. Calo introduced the
party to Shaken, a portly and ill-tempered goblin. Caelin managed to negotiate
a reduced fee for the goblin to guide them. During negotiations, the party
spied a shifter (a humanoid descended from lycanthropic stock) observing them from the market crowd. When he noticed they had
spotted him, he blended back into the throng of shoppers.
Descent into the Depths
The party traversed passage after passage, going deeper and deeper into the old sewers. As the party climbed down a cramped staircase into a wider tunnel below, Myco was ambushed by a warforged concealed in a side passage. Further down the large
sewer tunnel, the party could hear more individuals headed their way.
Zanven, Calo, and Caelin fought the shifters that attacked the party from the tunnel, while Glimdrom and
Myco (along with his psychotic baboon) finished off the warforged. The
battle was not won without cost: Calo, Zanfan, and Myco took severe wounds from
the agents of the Lord of Blades.
As the finishing blow was landed on the
warforged, a small device separated from him and flew swiftly away. Unfortunately, Myco was not fast enough to destroy it. Caelin
identified it as a Last Messenger, a small construct that would send a message to a predetermined person upon the owner's death. It became clear that it was not wise to linger. The party found a few daggers, some gold, and a set of masterwork thieves’
tools on the bodies. Myco quickly hid the corpses and the party continued, wary of
future attacks.
