The Forgotten Forge

In The News

Sharn Inquisitive: Sul 1 Lharvion - Crime Pg 2
Bonal Gedem Murdered - Bonal Gedem, provost of the department of Ancient Sharn Studies at Morgrave University was murdered last Sul near the Kelsha Spire. He suffered a serious blow to the back of the head from a heavy sharp object. His murderer, a warforged, was confronted at the scene and disabled by a group of bystanders.

Sharn Inquisitive: Sul 1 Lharvion - Special Interest Pg 4
Axe falls from the sky - Falling objects are not uncommon in Sharn, but this is a case of Olladra's providence if we have even seen one. An exceptionally well made axe, of masterwork quality, nearly fell into Jurel Tarven's lap last night as he was sitting on the stone steps outside his lower level home. "I had been down on my luck lately," the human street sweeper reported, "and it was looking like I was going to loose my home - and that meant moving to The Cogs." However he was struck with some divine providence: "I was praying to Olladra for some luck, and suddenly this great big axe hurtles from the sky and makes a deep gash in the rock between my legs! At first I thought it was an ill omen, but when I took it to the shop to be appraised I changed my tune. I sold it for more than 300 gold. Thats as much as I make in a year!" We wish Jurel the best with his new found money, and luck.

Chronicle

This story begins, as so many in Sharn often do... with a body.

It was a warm summer evening. One of those evenings that come after a searingly hot Sharn summer day. The lower levels teamed with those out enjoying the evening. But here, in the upper reaches, near the University, the party of three adventurers met only a few people as they passed through the labrinthine lattice of rock, high in the air. Cora, Thaspar, and Sadie were seeking out Bonal Gedem, of Morgrave University, who had requested their escort this Nymm night. They did not expect, however, to run into the gnome so quickly.

As the trio made their way through the wealthy neighbourhoods around the University, the evening gave way to thundershowers and soon the entire city fell behind the gray haze of pounding rain. They trudged on, but as they approached the bridge near Kelsa spire, Cora noticed a shadowy figure slip over the railing of the bridge. Rushing forward they found a gruesome sight.

A gnome lay murdered on the cobblestones of the bridge - his body laying in an expanding pool of rain an gore. The back of his head was torn open by something sharp and heavy. Cora and Thaspar quickly examined the corpse and found the indentifaction of Bonal Gedem, provost of Sharn Antiquities at Morgrave University. He also found a small leatherbound book with markings resembling the House Cannith seal. Meanwhile, however, the murdered had climbed beneath the bridge and was readying a surprise attack from behind. Luckily for Cora and Thaspar, Sadie shouted the alarm just in time to warn them of the attack.

While the other two were examining the body, Sadie had tied a rope around her waist and clambered down below the bridge. In the rainswepts night she had percieved a figure ascending the opposite side. With her superior cliffwalking climbing skill she quickly re-scaled the bridge and shouted warning before the assailant could attack.

Cora desparately tried parley, but it was no use. The massive warforged barabarian had nothing to say but "Die weak flesh!" Jumping from the railing she dived into combat with gusto whirling her sword menacingly at Thaspar. But the trio prooved to much for her. Cora quickly flanked the warforged and scored a nasty hit, while Sadie began raining arrows on her; and before she could even land a blow Thaspar deftly reached out, grabbed the axe from he hands and hurled it behind him off the skybridge. The warforged became maddended with rage, but weaponless she was no match for the three and quickly fell. As her body keeled over onto Cora, her final messenger - a finely crafted winged construct - left her body and flew off into the night. The image of Cora was the last thing frozen in her mind.

Surprsingly, the town watch was prompt at the scene of the crime. Seargent Dolom, in charge of Security in the area came swiftly through the swirling mist and pouring rain. His feet splashing to a halt in a newly formed puddle, he demanded to know what was going on. Fortunately for both Thaspar and Sadie, Cora's golden tounge made short work on any protestations.

"I'm so glad you're here officer, there's been a murder"

Seargent Dolom left giving each party member a small reward for their bravery against the warforged, and the party made their way off into the murky night, to try to answer some of the nagging questions in their minds - why did Bonal leave before they arrived, and what was this mysterious book about. They had opened it and found the pages to be quite blank. An unsettling mystery.

But they would soon be drawn even deeper in. As the trio approached a docking site to catch a skycoach, a hooded man approached, and arranged a rendezvous with his mistress in the Boar's Tusk Inn at dawn.

After spending the night at the inn, the three were greeted in the morning by the lovely sight of Elaydren d'Vown, an ambassador for the Aundarian House Cannith. She thanked the trio for dispatching the warforged but seemed extremely insistent on seeing the journal: Bonal's strange book. However, by this time the PCs had claimed that they did not have it and that it fell over the bridge. She was greatly distraugh, but they agreed to search for it, then meet again at noon.

Thaspar, Sadie, and Cora used this time to investigate the professors quarters at Morgrave University. A friend of Cora's let them into Bonal's lab, where he had been living for two weeks, afraid to leave. While Thaspar and Cora searched the room, Sadie climbed out on the ledge and around to a service catwalk that run under the University. Tracing the path backwards she came out into a University hallway from an unlocked service closet. It seems somone had come around the outside of the building and broken into Bonal's lab, forcing him to flee.

No closer to knowing what Bonal was doing they met with Elaydren at noon and presented the journal. Elaydren explained that the journal had information about an ancient House Cannith heirloom, somewhere in one of the forgotten forges under Sharn. When the lady pressed her House Cannith symbol against the journal it flew open, and silver ink slithered to the tips of the pages, revealing the journal's contents. Flipping quickly to the end the lady found the map and instructions to the forgotten forge. There was a secret door near Valve Cluster E-123 that lead to a long shaft. Somewhere at the bottom was the heirloom. On the spot she offered the three a reward of 1000 gold with 50 in advance if they undertook the mission.

"The heirloom is a seven pointed star, and the journal says to bring fire," the lady said as they accepted.

With a combination of Sadie's superior knowledge of the sewers, and help of goblin named Shakkan the three had no trouble finding the valve cluster. Unfortunately at the valve cluster, trouble found them.

Suddenly, from the shadows a nible warforged lept out at Thaspar, thrusting his notched dagger toward the elven monk's heart. But Thaspar's senses were keen from years of monastic training and he percieved the blow in an instant and quickly avoided the blade and immediately countered with a hard uppercut. Alerted to the presence of the warforged, Cora turned and swung her weapon at the assailant, but he blow missed the mark. Sadie was turning to join the melee when she noticed two shifters charging towards her, daggers held high. They had just reached her when her arrow struck a tender spot in the warforged, who let out a howl of pain. The howl was quickly silenced by Thaspar, however, who wasted know time in delivering the disabling blow to the wounded construct. Fortunately for Sadie the cruel daggers of both shifters miraculously missed, and seeing that their leader had fallen, they fled back into the sewer.

Unscathed, the three descended into the murky sewer, and quickly found the door marked with the House Cannith symbol. After removing a bloated corpse clinging to the door, the easily opened it using the symbol on Bonal's journal, opening a door onto a long vertical shaft.

Wind was rushing up from below to escape high in the tower above as they carefully descended the rope. Only Sadie was an experienced climber, so they took it slowly, with Sadie coaching the other two over the most difficult parts. By using lots of rope and several pitons they all made it easily to the bottom of the 300 foot shaft.

At the bottom, the shaft leveled off and became a tunnel, which went on for some time before opening up into a large, dark chamber. They hopped down from the tunnel (which was about 6 feet above the floor) and set off into the darkness.

But then, they noticed a strange chittering, like hundreds of insects. And it was growing louder! To their horror the three saw a huge swarm of writhing beetles descending on them. The betteles swarmed over them, eating them alive. Faced with no other options they ran. Thinking quickly Sadie picked up Cora (since she was a slower runner) as they fled with a few of the more persistent beeltes clinging to them. The beeltes pursued vigourously, but Cora, thinking quickly remembered the alchemist's fire she had bought for the trip. Bobbing over Sadie's shoulder, she reached into her pack, and hurled the alchemist's fire right into the center of the swarm. Suddenly the beetles burt into a sea of flame, and while some tried to continue pursuit, the swarm quickly dissipated. All that was left were burnt husks and a few lone beetles who fled into the darkness.

But the danger hadn't subsided. As the three ran they almost bumped into three feeding horrid rats. Giant rats, with hard chitonous armor, barbed tails, and forked tounges - these were dangerous adversaries for wounded adventurers. As quietly as they could. the party slunk away, around the other side.

The larger room was filled with many ruined walls of buildings. Climbing one they found themselves inside a tranquil temple. The temple felt safe, and after searching the ruins they came upon a font full of liquid. Cora, alway impetuous, took a drink and found her wounds melting away. Sadie and Thaspar did the same, emptying the basin.

The trio left the temple feeling rejuvinated and ready to find that heirloom. It didn't take them long, winding through piles of rubble, to find a large, intact building. Unfortunately the door was locked with a grotesquely complex mechanism. They were just about to give up when Cora decided to scale the building - and there they found a gaping hole in the roof. Sadie and Thaspar jumped down, but Sadie caught her foot on a stone and tumbled to the ground. This was just in time to see an Iron Defender, a large metal dog bearing down on her. Its first bite rendered her unconcious.

A fierce battle ensued. Cora threw her darts from the roof, while Thaspar fought hand to hand with the beasts. The creatures were extremely difficult to defeat, but Thaspar miraculously stayed out of their teeth for long enough to do it. His monk senses and reflexes were keeping him alive, but for how long. Suddenly one of the defenders lunched at him, his iron teeth closing around his unprotected neck. But in a flash of heroism Thaspar grasped the dog's jaw, pushing it together at the last second. The dog lunged again, but this time Thaspar spun and punched the dog square in the back of the mouth, dashing him to the floor, defeated. Togehter Cora and Thaspar finished off the other defender.

Once Sadie had been revived (she was only a little hurt from the tumble off the roof) they made to open the huge vault that had been discovered at the far end of the room. Each dog had a different shaped rod its head which matched a slot in the vault, and after a while they figured out the combination to open it.

Within the vault they found plenty of treasure, the heirloom, and a cryptic map. This was a great find, and the party spent the night in the forge, recuperating.

The next morning (or so it felt in the pitch black) they set forth again. But as they left the forge they were suddently attacked by a flaming crossbow bolt. The force crumpled Cora like a rag doll. She was dying. An unnatural voice came from behind the rubble:

"Now you face Saber, the greatest of the followers of the Lord of the Blades. Throw down the schema and walk away. This day does not have to end with your blood on my hands!"

"Schema?"

"The star. The star. Throw down the star."

But as the party hesitated Saber, the warforged attacked with another arrow. Thankfully this one streaked off into the blackness. The party ran, scaled the forge and returned to the inside. Fortunately Saber was not an adept climber, and he fell several times attempting the climb. Meanwhile Saide was waiting. When he finally did near the top she swung over and stabbed her dagger down at the unprotected warforged. Alas, he dagger embedded hard in the rock of the wall. Enraged, Saber ran back to retrieve his crossbow. Shots were exchanged, but in the end Sadie was severly injured. As Saber returned to the door of the forge, she crawled, injured, across its roof. Unable to climb, Saber started breaking through the wall with his sword, until it broke, and then with his stone fists.

Meanwhile, Cora has stabilized, and in a stupor she threw caution to the wind and drank the contents of one of the bottles they had found in the vault. Once again she was lucky - it was potion of cure light wounds. Instantly healed she called out for everyone to do the same. Envigored, Sadie fired again at Saber, and he was forced to flee. Cora climbed on the roof and the pair fired arrows and darts at the fleeing warforged. Sadie pursued him into the darkness and fired off one last shot, without any great hope of stopping him. But as her shaft found its mark Saber stumbled, and then fell. Within seconds the horrid rats were upon him: tearing him apart, looking for organic material.

After this the trio made quick their escape, and hid out the following night. The next day they met with lady d'Vown, who recieved the star and gave them their reward. She also asked about the strange map, but the three decided to keep it to themselves for the moment.

A job well done, the three went out into Sharn to spend their newfound wealth on bigger and better things.

Timeline

• Sul 22 Nymm - Found Bonal Gedam Murdered
• Mol 23 Nymm - Agreed to retrieve the heirloom
• Zol 24 Nymm - Descent to the forge, retrieved artifact, camped in foundry for the night
• Wir 25 Nymm - Return to the surface
• Zor 26 Nymm - Recieved reward from House Cannith

People

Lady Elaydren d'Vown
Ambasador four House Cannith in Aunduar. Asked the heroes to retrieve a seven pointed star for here.

Shakkan
A goblin from the rats market. Unpleasant, but knows his way around the E-1 sewers.

Garl
A gnome who teaches at the University and friend of Cora's. He let the three in to Bonal Gedem's office.

Heroic Actions

• Thaspar - escaped twice from death at the hands of an Iron Defender. The first time he forced the dogs jaw closed as it lunged for his neck. In the second instance he shot his fist out and punched the dog in the back of the mouth, before its jaws could close.
  
• Sadie - Thrust herself over the rooftop and plunged her dagger hard into the stone wall (completely missing her warforged assailant).

Heroic Quotes

• "Oh officer! We're so glad you're here!" - Cora
• "3 shifters already dead!" - Bryan, "Don't worry, they'll make more" - Jon
• "Theres got to be at least a hundres shifters in Sharn" - Jon, "Nintey-seven" - Bryan (Actually after invenstigating it turns out that there are several thousand shifters in Sharn)
  

Adventure Names

• Robert - U Can't Touch This
• Robyn - The Beetle Burn
• Bryan - Sadie Wolfchild: Vault Owner

Statistics

Date Played: Sunday, September 4, 2005
Session Length: 9 hours!
Experience Gained: 807/character
Foes Vanquished: Disabled 3 warforged, chased off 2 shifters, destroyed a beetle swarm, avoided several horrid rats, smashed two Iron Defenders
Vaults Obtained: 1
Shifter Deaths: 3
Shifters Left: 8497