Iron Watch

All warforged are welcome to join the Iron Watch, provided that they are aligned with the philosophical goals of the group. The Iron Watch is a force for order within Stormreach, and members need to be comfortable with hierarchy and discipline. The Watch has no hard alignment restrictions, but law and neutrality are strong themes.

Members of the Iron Watch are assigned roles based on their classes. Fighters, barbarians, warriors, and other close fighters form the bulk of the Watch and are used to maintain order and counter simple disturbances. Rogues, rangers, and other stealth specialists perform reconnaissance, monitoring activities in the city. And the few artificers, sorcerers, and other spellcasters in the Watch serve as support, joining battle when their powers are needed but otherwise devoting their time to researching the warforged form.

The Iron Watch is a military organization. Its members serve a set number of hours each week. Many members of the Iron Watch are dedicated to the organization and never bother going off duty, but they see no shame in having interests beyond the organization.

Even when a guard is off duty, his behavior reflects on the Watch, and insubordination and criminal behavior are not tolerated. The Stormreach Guard is known for graft and corruption, but Iron Watch leader Steeljack holds the warforged to a higher standard. Members don’t have to keep the peace on their own time, but they shouldn’t disrupt it or become as corrupt as the humans in the Guard.

During the Last War you fought because you were told to, because your makers convinced you that you had a duty to the nation that had paid for your birth. Today you fight because you realize that war is your true nature. It is your purpose, and it is in battle that you truly feel alive.

War is a comfort to you, but it is not the only reason you serve in the Iron Watch. From listening to Lathe, one of the Adamants, you have learned that your people are more complex than you ever realized. You are a living weapon—not just steel and stone, but a creature of magic. Your potential and your past are equally mysterious. If you are to find the truth about yourself and the destiny of your people, it will be with the Watch.

The leaders of the Iron Watch don’t hate organic beings, but there are certain things no creature of flesh can understand. You stand awake each night while your human friends sleep and dream. You watch them eat and drink, laughing and enjoying physical pleasures. You take pleasure in battle, in fulfilling your function. But you find comfort in the company of other warforged, the only ones who understand the nature of your life.

You have little need for shelter, but even so the Watch house in Forgelight provides you with a place to socialize with other warforged, and includes research and training facilities. Thanks to the many weaponsmiths and armorsmiths in the Watch, you have access to repair spells based on your rank, and you can purchase weapons and shields with up to a +1 enhancement value at a 15% discount.

The artificers of the Iron Watch maintain an armory equipped with oils of repair and wands holding a variety of defensive spells, along with a small selection of warforged components—armblades, essence disks, and others. These tools are never sold, but rather are distributed as necessary for specific assignments. If you are facing a rampaging fire elemental, you might be given a charge of resist energ y. The items in the armory are never simply given away, and in the case of components, they must be returned after a mission.

Combat

You are a soldier, and most of your life has been spent in war. You might not be a master tactician, but you wouldn’t have survived this long if you were a fool. You’re not a petty member of the Stormreach Guard, tasked to shake down cutpurses and smugglers. The Iron Watch is deployed to combat serious threats to the city, and overcoming such challenges requires brains as well as brawn. Work in concert with your companions. Identify and eliminate the most dangerous opponents as quickly as possible. Learn whatever you can before the battle and let the artificers and sorcerers provide you with enhancement and defense. Listen to the officers and follow the battle plan. As far as you’re concerned, every fight is a war.

Advancement

The Iron Watch is organized like an army. Time served and quality of service are critical to advancement. As a member of the Watch, you are allowed to speak your mind, but insubordination isn’t tolerated. You can disagree with one of the Adamants or any other member of the Watch, but if you must challenge a superior, do it at a time and in a manner that will not threaten morale or mission. If you disobey orders and members of the Watch are hurt, there will be consequences.

Military service is the primary path to advancement, and the main activity of the Watch within the city. But the Iron Watch also seeks to unlock the mysteries of the warforged, secrets that might be held in Xen’drik. Bringing new knowledge to the Watch is as good a way to earn advancement in the ranks as stopping a riot at the Red Ring. On the other hand, allowing secrets of the warforged to fall into enemy hands—especially those of House Cannith—could have serious consequences.

The Iron Watch is rarely called into service, so most of your time on duty is spent drilling, sparring, or putting your craft skills to work. Smith, the Adamant who is also an artificer, says that the Storm Lords are afraid of appearing too dependent on the warforged; they call on the Watch against serious threats to their power, but have yet to deploy the warforged against groups such as the Titans or the Swords of Karrn. If you’re skilled at stealth, you’ll be placed on reconnaissance duty, spying on the various gangs or power groups in the city. As far as you know, Steeljack sanctions these operations; the Storm Lords don’t even know about them.

Higher-ranking members of the Watch coordinate military operations, but they serve in other roles as well. Artificers and sorcerers engage in mystical research. The most capable members of the Watch are sent into Xen’drik or the ruins beneath the city in search of components and knowledge from the past. Such operations sometimes involve full teams of warforged, but if you have adventuring companions you enjoy working with, you might be given a goal to accomplish together. If your companions earn Steeljack’s trust, he might work with you openly; otherwise, the mission is given in secret, and you have to find a way to obtain a docent or hide a schema without drawing attention.

Although the leaders of the Iron Watch don’t hate humans the way the Lord of Blades does, they’re keenly interested in protecting the warforged. You’ve heard rumors about Steel Guards being sent on covert operations against House Cannith—though it’s possible these are just stories.

Smith is right; the Storm Lords don’t like to rely on the warforged. But the Stormreach Guard is a flawed tool, and when things go bad, the Iron Watch can be relied on to clean up the mess. Law enforcement is the job of the Iron Watch, but its driving passion is the evolution of the warforged. A team of Iron Watch members could be encountered in a quori arsenal in the jungle or a Cul’sir workshop deep below Stormreach. Depending on the choices the PCs make, the Iron Watch could help the party unlock the mysteries of the past.

The Storm Lords pay Steeljack for the services of the Watch, but individual soldiers don’t receive wages; instead, the gold is invested in expanding the unit’s facilities. The leaders of the Watch have no interest in replacing humanity, but they are building a warforged community, and this effort requires sacrifice.

The Iron Watch might act as a force capable of opposing any characters who decide to seriously disrupt the workings of the city or challenge the Storm Lords. Although the members of the Watch aren’t extremely high level, they are experienced soldiers who have worked together for years or even decades. They make careful, strategic decisions based on observation of the enemy, and employ weapon augmentation, armor enhancement, and similar effects to address the specific abilities of opponents. The Watch is also very familiar with the city and can predict the movement of its quarry.

The members of the Iron Watch aren’t simply a police force; they are trying to explore the place of the warforged in the world. For a warforged player character, the Iron Watch can be a valuable ally. Even if a PC chooses not to become a full member of the Watch, Steeljack is always interested in talking with other warforged and learning about their beliefs and experiences. The Iron Watch might have uncovered secrets in its exploration of Xen’drik that could be useful to adventurers, warforged or not. And if a hero joins the Watch and rises in its ranks, he could be one of the founders of a new warforged civilization.

The docents of the Iron Council are a wild card in this equation. They might be advisors, or they might be masterminds using the warforged to fulfill a mysterious agenda. The docent Shira (SX 154) is an example of the sort of superior docent that could be involved in such a scheme. A docent of the Iron Council might even request a pairing with a warforged PC, claiming that the young warforged was specifically designed to work with the ancient artifact. Could this claim be true?

Structure

The approximately 170-member Iron Watch is based in Forgelight. Stone Guards serve in six-person squads commanded by a member of the Iron Guard. Squads are paired into platoons under the command of a Steel Guard. In addition to these ten standard platoons, Steeljack commands an elite platoon formed of members of the Steel and Iron Guards. The remaining members of the Watch focus on research and support. Warforged who can’t work on a team are quickly dismissed.

The Iron Watch is smooth and efficient, and its soldiers are among the best in Khorvaire. Most members of the Watch are fighters mixed with rangers and barbarians, and a handful of rogues, monks, artificers, and sorcerers. The typical member of the Wooden Guard is 2nd or 3rd level; Stone Guards are 4th level; Iron Guards are 5th level; Steel Guards are 6th level; and Adamants are 7th level or higher. At the moment the bulk of the corps are Stone Guards, and only three members hold the title of Adamant; however, this could easily change.

The three current Adamants of the Iron Watch are Steeljack, Smith, and Lathe.

As far as most people know, the Adamants are the ruling body of the Iron Watch. But another force works within the Watch: the Iron Council, the name given to the twelve docents the Watch has recovered. The Adamants each carry one of these docents, and the remaining nine are stored in the armory, attached to a relic that allows them to communicate with one another. These docents might simply be sources of information—advisors who have invaluable knowledge of the past that help guide the members of the Iron Watch as they explore Xen’drik. It’s also possible that the council has a more sinister agenda, and that it is using the Watch to accomplish its goals. Are these docents simply intelligent magic items? Or could they be possessed—vessels for quori spirits, phylacteries of ancient liches, or something even stranger and more terrible?

NPC Reactions

The Iron Watch is well known in Stormreach. This city has no love for the law, but for many, fear outweighs hostility; as a result, most inhabitants have an indifferent attitude when dealing with the Iron Watch. The Swords of Karrn (page 77) are specifically unfriendly.