TTTB 02 - The Forgotten Manor

Having dealt with the Street Kings ambushers, the party continue on their original objective, heading towards the large manor that Braun Sparrow mentioned the kid Dorian hangs around. Arriving at the manor, the party finds that it is quite sizeable, which is very strange for the slums. Along its perimeters, there is an iron chain link fence that keeps out unwanted visitors. There is also graffiti all over the walls of the manor, accusing the occupants of being murderers, traitors, betrayers etc. The insides did not seem to be occupied or lit at the moment. 

Ever a vigilant ranger, Red spots a set of small footprints leading around to the back side of the manor. The party follows, and sees the footprints leading up a wall, where a small figure sits 30ft up, eating an apple. Henk hails the boy, who comes down after some brief conversation. He is undersized, covered in bandages, and walks with a limp. The party finds out that the package contained medication for another kid that was sick with Blue Death, but had passed on, which was why Dorian had stopped coming by to collect.

Dorian himself was now also infected - Peregrin tried to cure him with a healing word, but it only helped to alleviate the condition, and not cure it. Dorian warns the party against coming too close, as the Blue Death was infectious. It had started spreading decades ago, and had decimated the slums. He also warned the party against poking their noses into this, as there was a reason the situation was like this. When asked about the manor, Dorian mentioned that it belonged to the person that started all of this, Lord Presh.

After Ara gives Dorian a gold piece, the party parts ways with Dorian, who promises to check in with Halra Rylan. 

In the dark of night, Red sneaks out with Alberus for a lesson. With the devil’s help, she tracks down Diggory Thorton, who is hiding out in the sewers. Red also sees a wererat wizard, who apparently lives in the sewers. Red leaves Diggery with an arrow in his foot as a warning, but opts to leave him alive as a resource, which Alberus is surprisingly ok with. 

Winsor Spriggley, is thought to be working under someone else. 

Suddenly, three people burst into the tavern, including a haughty Half-Elf female named Mila Milonkahl who wields a stave. Wigan, the bartender, does not seem to like them. Another person, wearing full plate armor, is leaning at the entrance. A Half-Elf wizard then pushes the party off their chairs with magic, causing Mila to ask where they got all their gold from. 

Henk intervenes, and Arno Ross gets in his face. The party is having trouble finding openings. The guy at the door is a Ze’Terrian who is seven feet tall and human. Moore Xan Vanaris offers a draw but Arno tells him to do his job, and the Z’Terrian lowers his arm and deactivates something on his gauntlet, revealing crystals and dials and various other contraptions. It turns out that Mila is backed by the Oswins and has an emblem to prove it.

The intruders leave, and the other half of the party enters the tavern a short while later. After explaining the situation, Wigans face shows concern at how bad it could be. The party decides to spread rumors about Mila's team, the Penta Moons' defeat.

They then head to the Winecrown District to find Lord Basil.

The party arrives at the manor where Lord Basil resides, and they are greeted by a throng of Fate and Sentinel guards. After declaring their intentions to speak with Lord Basil, they are escorted to the dining hall where they are introduced to the portly Lord. He seems to have overindulged in life's pleasures, and the party quickly learns that his latest obsession is a recent shipment of automated golems - the next big thing on the market. Apparently, other noble houses are equally interested in this new technology.

As they converse, the party notices that the servants in the manor are of other lower races, which hints at Lord Basil's elitist attitude. However, they soon learn of a recent problem - the prototype golems are incredibly expensive, and the manor has been storing them in a warehouse. Unfortunately, someone has broken into the warehouse, rendering a few of them defunct. They now only have two golems left, and they need to be delivered to their intended buyers. Lord Basil keeps strict logs of who can access the warehouse, but unfortunately, the alarms never got triggered.

In exchange for finding the perpetrator alive, Lord Basil offers an extra 200 gold coins. The party accepts the task and heads to the warehouse, which is guarded by a security team. The section where the golems are stored is blocked off by an 8ft by 15ft container, and the security team is careful to avert anyone who is not part of the corporation away. Once inside, they find five golems made of metallic material, but none of them are familiar to the party. Three of the golems are broken, and there seems to be surgical damage to their chest areas. A fist-sized object has been removed with expert precision.

After some investigation, the party learns that the other two golems are powered by a power source, but they are unsure of what happened to the rest. They decide to lay a stakeout, and their patience pays off at 3 am when a gauntleted hand comes in through the window.

The room goes silent, except for Henk.

The party observes as two hooded figures climb into the warehouse. A man in armor and a smaller figure open the crates. The smaller figure enters the container while the guy guards the outside. The man in armor, immune to disease and sleep, and resistant to poison, stays outside. They are a construct with no hair and a metallic head. The smaller figure presses the golem's head to her own head, and the party sees a glint of light rapidly approaching the power source. 

The party jumps into action. The one with the gauntlet and casting the silence is Nala'weh Evictis, 

Zurick punches her to stun, before changing his mind and punching Henk to stun instead. The robot orders the party to deal with the guards while Peregrin and Red stay behind. They fail to convince the guards that they are just playing "Guards, they're here." Peregrin rolls a net 20 to intimidate the head of security, Jim, to stay quiet. Yinsen Forgeborn is the name of the guy. The party follows them into the slums, and one of the shacks.

Yinsen provides an explanation to the party. The golems are not destroyed, they are saved. The other robot lady is Bera Soulsmith, and they are part of the race called the Warforged. The Warforged are not native to this land, and war has driven them abroad. There was a conquest by Ze'Terria, which the Warforged lost, about 200 years ago. 

A tower then rose between Ze'Terra, Yule, and Rostas right in the middle. The tower was older than anything they have seen before. There was a war for the secret of the towers, which Ze'Terria won, and what lay within was terrible. It was the birthplace of the first mindless soldier Warforged, before they gained sentience. 

The Ze'Terrians found a way to revert Warforged into those subservient beings. They have started shipping them as roombas. The ancient race's research into the psyche was so powerful they could manipulate it with ease, but they decided to use it to enslave an entire race. While in the tower, a Warforged managed to activate the defenses of the tower, and the Ze'Terrians have been trying to get back in since then but have not been successful. 

The power cores contain the "souls" of the Warforged, and they can be restored into another body. Nala'weh helped them sneak out as mindless. In Presh, there are others, not just these five golems, but they seem to be out of reach. Yinsen has a wife and a kid. Nala'weh came to Stensia to both lead her people from war and also to help the Warforged that saved her when she was a child. Bera tells Henk that there is something wrong with his brain and memories, and they can help him if Henk helps them get into the tower.

The Team FTJ had no choice but to return to Lord Basil's manor, despite their apprehension. As they entered the grand hall, an attendant approached them, warning that Lord Basil was in a foul mood. The man had already thrown several champagne glasses, and was flying into a rage.

Wolfram had informed them that Minor Lord Basil was fond of food and drink, a pretty good entrepreneur and businessman who usually had underlings at his disposal. He had a shallow web of contacts, making them easily replaceable. When they arrived at the harbor, the three guards were very scared and believed they would lose their jobs. The team had no choice but to face Lord Basil and hope for the best.

After some convincing, they managed to trick Lord Basil into thinking that a robot had come to live. As a result, they received all of their rewards and were able to keep the bodies. 

The next day at lunch, the Street Kings accosted them.

Four more individuals in urbanish trench coats burst into the pub, surveying the surrounding area. Their eyes turned to Ara, who sat at the team's table. The leader approached them, asking if Ara was Bele. The Street Kings had found Braun Sparrow, and they were holding him captive.

It took them three days to get the information of Bele out of Braun. Braun had the information that they wanted, but the Street Kings had got to him first. They wanted Team FTJ to come with them to get Braun and the information. Ara was confident that they could take all four of the Street Kings, but Red heard from Alberus that she could kill them now and decided to ignore him.

The team followed the Street Kings to another seedy pub, where Braun was tied up on the side, with a couple of loose teeth on the floor. There were around ten people on the first floor, and two or three on the second floor. They didn't look like true adventurers, just thugs.

Ara sat in the chair across from the leader, Lord Winsor. Now, they had his full attention, and he wanted to know what their deal was. The team played musical chairs for a bit, and Lord Winsor asked them to compensate him. Peregrin went off on him, and Lord Winsor attacked them with his 15 mooks. The team was in for the fight of their lives.

The team was barely able to emerge victorious from the ferocious fight, their bodies bruised and battered. But they were not left empty-handed. Among the spoils of their victory was a small bag containing three spherical crystals, two of which were broken and no longer lit, while the third one glowed with an ethereal light. Henk immediately recognized these curious objects, for they were Memory Crystals.

Henk carefully picked up the glowing memory crystal, and was hit with a flood of memories that weren't his own. The name "Herg" echoed through his mind, and he knew that these were most likely memories belonging to Deus Bloodrune, the missing member of their team.

As they examined the memory crystal further, they learned that every so often, representatives from higher up houses would interact with each other through proxies. One such proxy was Trym Radcliffe.

Their attention was soon diverted when Braun revealed some crucial information. The fake Ara was scheduled to meet with Lord Goolie Bell at the Slayer's Shanty the following afternoon, around 2 pm.

Lord Goolie Bell was known to have a fancy blue hat, and was rumored to be a powerful and influential figure.