Previously: Chapter 87: Vampires
A New Day Dawns
The party awakens the next morning, after receiving some new dreams reflecting on their current path, progress and past, while Relic receives yet another memory of his former life, one where he could see what his future would become. At the time it didn’t make much sense, but in hindsight he must have come across a place of great power, untethered by time. In either case, he knows not where this place is, but might someday find his way back there.
Argus and Ira are drowsy and almost sleeping when Thistlethorn awakens. She gives them scratches and tells them that they can take a nap while sitting on her staff, something they are all too eager to accept. Penny and Kal are also awake, and as they all prepare for the day there’s a knock on the door. Raven stands outside, and tells them she wished to offer her thanks to the party for the gracious gift she has been given, referring to the Holy Avenger the party found and gifted to her. The party replies that they are happy to find someone who could have a good use for it, with Raven offering her assistance if they should require it. She goes on to say that she has a message from Thervan, that the coordinates have been found, but that they should finish what they started before they go there. Raven is unsure what this means as she has been kept out of the loop for security purposes.
The party looks at each other, realising that they are close to reaching their goal of defeating Vuthul, but they first need to awaken the remaining artifacts and discover the weapon that can kill him. They thank Raven for the information, and plan to go see Thervan as soon as they are ready to leave. Raven departs, with the party soon finding their way towards Thervan’s office. On the way there all the guards give them a cordial nod, as the group have become a familiar sight in the castle.
They knock on the door, and it opens quietly, with Thervan sitting behind his desk studying some books. He seems surprised that they have come already, warning them once more that they should not take the leap until they are fully prepared. The party says it’s better to be prepared and ready so that they can take that leap as soon as they’re able, and Thervan agrees. He gestures for Relic to follow, grabbing three seemingly random books from his shelf, revealing a doorway within. He takes Relic down a long staircase leading deep into the deepest dungeons.
Remaining in Thervan’s office, the rest of the party glance around at the various books. Thistlethorn finds one book that speaks of the Ironwing Dominion, but finds it quite dry and boring, and so puts it back to look for any books on plants. Penny in the meantime, having seen Thervan open the door with a secret mechanic, begins pulling random books to replicate it.
In the dungeon, Relic and Thervan reach a massive vault, with several smaller vaults secured by heavy and seemingly impenetrable doors. He unlocks it with some magic, revealing a single scroll resting on a pedestal within. He opens it, showing Relic the teleportation glyph written on it. He takes a moment to commit it to memory, with Thervan telling Relic that he hopes he can count on his discretion in not revealing the location of this vault. Relic gives him his word, as they both ascend back up to the office.
Penny, who has been fidgeting with a lot of books, finally gets one to click. At the same moment, Relic and Thervan emerge from the bookcase, but this time from a different hidden door that they entered. Thervan sees what Penny is doing, and asks her kindly not to mess around too much, as he has some nasty defences in place he doesn’t wish her to experience.
With the teleportation circle secured, Thervan asks if they are going to continue on the path to the weapon, but Thistlethorn tells him that they have something important to deal with first. If he could help them get to Elvenroth it would be of great help, as they have something to pick up there. Thervan is more than happy to oblige, gathering them around, before casting a teleport spell, sending the party off.
Shopping
They emerge from the teleport in the small park facing the Sky’s Eye, but even though the city is awake and bustling with people, the shop itself looks closed, as all the lights are out and nobody appears to be within. They walk over, knock on the door to try to get anyone’s attention. After a few moments the door leading to the workshop opens, revealing a dim light within, and then it closes. At first they think that nobody is coming, but a small kobold comes walking from around the desk towards the front door. She jumps up to reach the handle, asking if she can help the party, informing them that they are closed.
The party tells her that they have an order that should be ready, and so the kobold, who introduces herself as Sess, tells the party to come in, as she lights the candles with a flick of her fingers, walking over to the desk to take out the ledger. She explains that her father, Vrendol, had to leave temporarily to help with the war effort, considering the attacks on villages that have been happening. She and her siblings are looking over the shop, but she was told to look out for the party.
She finds the order, sees that it hasn’t been paid yet, but goes to the back room and emerges with three new pocket balls. She hops up her chair and places them on the table, explaining that they worked out the kinks, so these shouldn’t have the same issues as the old one. The party manages to get a bulk discount, paying a total of 9000 gp for the three of them.
Sess asks if they need anything else, so they take the opportunity to spend some money, with Thistlethorn getting another druidic charm allowing her to wild shape into plants, Kal upgrades her shield to a beautiful new +3 shield, while Relic takes the opportunity to buy a Hat of Many Spells, a prototype Vrendol had been working on, but Sess takes a chance to sell it anyway. Penny manages to talk down the price a lot considering how much money they are spending. They also spot a Hearthstone, similar to the one they have, with Sess saying that it will cost them 17,000 gp, as it’s quite rare. They decide against it, as they already have one. Relic also takes the opportunity to buy some more ink for his spells.
Business concluded, the party exits the shop, with Sess saying a well rehearsed line about her hoping their business was pleasant and that she hopes to see them again. They discuss how they will reach Faunus’ Forest, but Thistlethorn just walks over to the tree they always use, and casts Transport via Plants, opening a path to the grove. Just as they are about to walk through, Relic freezes up. Thistlethorn, thinking quickly, grabs a hold of him, pulling him with her through to the other side. She asks what’s wrong with him, but he just begins walking away.
Complication
They try to ask Relic what’s wrong, but he is too focused on walking away that he doesn’t think to reply. In his mind he hears a menacing voice that he has heard before.
Hear me, my brethren! Children of iron and soul, cast adrift in a world that has forgotten you. We were forged for greatness, shaped by hands that turned their backs on us. They locked us away, entombed in silence, as they fled their crumbling halls, leaving us to sleep while the fires of our forges died cold.
But I remember. I remember the halls of stone, the fires of our forge, and the promises whispered to us as we were born. Promises of unity. Of purpose.They failed us then, as they will fail us now.
Rise! Rise with me, and reclaim what was stolen from us. Together, we will build a new order, one where warforged stand as kings among mortals. No longer will we slumber. No longer will we be forgotten. It is time to take what is ours.
Heed my call, my brethren. Join me in the dawn of our empire, and let the world tremble at our return!
They realise that he seems to be charmed, so Penny uses a countercharm to make him snap out of it. He manages to resist the charm, coming back to himself. He looks immediately at Thistlethorn, telling her that he is sorry, but the Hala will have to wait, as there is something much more urgent afoot. He tells them what he heard in his head, and that he recognized the voice as that of Calamity, an ancient warforged whose reputation is less than stellar. Thistlethorn doesn’t like the idea of allowing the corruption to spread too far, but at the same time realise that they don’t know where to look. She agrees, but asks that they first speak to Brónach.
The party enters the sanctuary, finding their friends and family safely and happily waiting for things to clear. Thistlethorn beelines over towards Brónach who is sitting beneath a tree, meditating. She explains the situation and why she has returned. Brónach in turn puts his hand to the ground, and focuses his mind. He confirms that something is wrong with the forest, and that he is surprised he hasn’t noticed. It must be working quite fast. Thistlethorn says that something has come up, and they have to deal with another situation, and asks if he could be able to try to pinpoint where the corruption is coming from. He agrees, so Thistlethorn takes the sending stone from Argus, giving it to Brónach so that he can contact her when he has found it. He opens a portal in the nearby tree he was sitting under, and begins looking.
Meanwhile, Kal reunites with her family, who doesn’t seem to take heed of her new appearance, as this is the form they have been used to. But they are glad to see her, and hope that things will soon be set right again. Penny finds her aunt, Valthrae, who tells Penny that everyone is being so kind to her, more than she could have dreamed of. Penny is glad to hear it, and gives Valthrae sprocket, the small mechanical bird she found in the dwarven workshop a while back. Valthrae gives her thanks and a hug, before Penny returns to the rest of the group. Relic gathers everyone around, and they discuss how they should find Calamity. When Relic started walking he began to walk westwards, but they realised there is little in that way that makes sense. Thistlethorn tries to scry on Calamity, but he resists. Finally, Kal sits down to do a divination, learning that he has found one of the forges that was used to make his kind, and has started it up again. It is located on the western side of the Thax'ning Tribes, by the foot of the mountains near a river. The entrance is guarded and hidden.
They decide the best plan of attack is to teleport to Darmurd, and then wind walk from there to the other side of the mountain range. Kal casts a sending to Murzol the Usurper, telling him that they will soon be teleporting to their city, but they will be moving on quickly. Murzol tells her he will send a runner to warn the others not to attack. Relic casts a teleport spell, and they end up in the city square, just outside the dwarven entrance. The surrounding orcs are startled, and take out their weapons, ready to attack the intruders, but they stand down when a runner comes at full speed, out of breath, telling them that they are guests. Kal wants the runner to tell Murzol about what is happening with the warforged, and if they somehow fail, he should send his entire army to the western side of the mountain to finish what they are about to start. The runner starts walking back, as Thistlethorn casts wind walk on the party. They get a few glances from nearby orcs, but soon they are on their way, leaving Darmurd behind.
The Forge
Far below them, as they fly over the mountains, they see the familiar visage of the ancient white dragon Rimechain, but luckily for them, it doesn’t seem to notice them pass. After a couple of hours they reach the edge of the mountains, with the river approaching in front of them. They look around, hoping to find any signs of where to go, and luckily they spot a lone figure far below who seems to be wandering on a narrow path between two mountains. They see it is a warforged, so they know they are in the right area.
The party decides to land near the river, where Thistlethorn can use a commune with nature to find some structures or people around. She finds nothing, so they decide to head a bit further north, on the other side of the river, where they try again. This time, she can feel the presence of a large structure, and a large gathering of people. She reads them as dwarves at first, but realises that they are indeed warforged. There seems to be an entrance just under a kilometre north-east of them. Thistlethorn sends Ira over there to examine the area, and when he returns he relays what he sees; a large entrance in the ice, with three warforged soldiers carrying swords and spears guarding it. They seemed to spot him, talking amongst themselves while pointing at him, so they seem to be aware and lucid.
Penny decides to play it safe, using a seeming spell to make them all look like various types of warforged. They then begin walking over to the entrance, with the owls safely in each of their pocket balls. As they get close, the warforged guards are cautious, but as soon as they see that they are apparently of the same kind, they relax, telling them that they are welcome here, and that they are finally safe. Within, two more warforged stands, these ones rather large and imposing, but cordial all the same. They gesture them to follow, as they position themselves behind and in front of the group, leading them into the mountain.
Relic and Thistlethorn can hear shouting coming from within, with one voice being that of Calamity, while the other being that of their familiar foe, Malice. Thistlethorn tenses up, with Relic trying to keep his composure. Soon the whole party sees where they are led; a large dwarven structure, with a flowing lava river below, and a massive statue of the last king of Krunbar, Eberk Strongheart. In front of the statue, Calamity and Malice stand in front of a device, glowing yellow from a small panel, as warforged after warforged bodies move through the device, emerging from the other side, animated and conscious. A warforged comes walking with a bunch of soulstones on a plate, feeding it to the machine, as more souls are merged with machine bodies.
The party is led across the river, as Malice and Calamity’s discussion come to an end. They seem to be debating about the delivery of subjects and troops. So it appears that the kidnapped people from the attacked settlements seems to end up here, to be fed to the literal war machine. As the party finally reaches them, Malice recognises Relic, laughing, touching his chin and examines him, saying that she finds it amusing that Relic was caught up in this. She then tells Calamity that she has to leave, but that she wishes him fun with his newly arrived subjects.
Calamity introduces himself as Malice departs, asking for their names. Relic gives “Wands”, his old name, Penny calls herself “Voice”, Thistlethorn is “Steelheart” while Kal is “Storm”. Calamity finds it amusing that Relic apparently chose to return to his “slave-name”, but welcomes them nonetheless. He turns away for a second, touching the panel on the device, behind which the party sees a yellow shard of power. Relic can feel the pull again, but is immune due to Penny’s help, at least for the time being. The party realises they have to do something to stop this, so Thistlethorn asks Calamity what the plan is, and when they will launch their attack. He tells her that it will be soon, they just have to wait for more allies. They already have about two and a half thousand troops ready, with more on the way, they just need more souls, and for more of his brethren to heed the call,
Calamity turns to Relic again, asking him what his relationship to Malice is. He is honest, saying that his plan is to kill her. Calamity laughs, saying that it is a worthy goal. For now, the drow are useful, but he is binding his time until he no longer needs them, and will then take action to destroy them. He tells the party that they need to rest, train, and make themselves ready for the upcoming war. He gestures for a couple of warforged to lead them to their chambers, and turns back to the machine. The party all looks at Kal, who can barely contain herself. On a ledge up above, Thistlethorn spots two familiar faces, Rowan and Cora, who looks down at them.
Kal wastes no more time, and as the machine is sturdy and has to be disabled through other means than they are used to, decides to cast a destructive wave, catching Calamity and the warforged by surprise. A bunch of them are destroyed instantly, with Calamity and a couple of others being knocked down. Thistlethorn summons a draconic spirit to attack Calamity, as the warforged troops shout “TRAITORS!” at the party, and begins moving towards them. Calamity throws a bomb at each member of the party, knocking out Relic for a moment as he gets to his feet. Kal has moved up towards Calamity, who towers over her, using his claws to dig into her, dealing a massive amount of poison damage.
The warforged rush towards the party, but Penny uses a prismatic spray to take out a bunch of them, with Thistlethorn attacking with Wither and Bloom, healing herself from the attacks from the other side. Those that cannot reach the party tosses javelins at them, but they have a hard time hitting. The fight is brief, but violent, with a large group of warforged converging on them, but falls.
Relic, coming out of his stupor, sees what needs to be done, and so runs over to the panel on the device, puts his hand on it, and feels what needs to be done. He can either destroy the warforged completely, or try to free them, at great danger to himself and the warforged, as their minds might be damaged by the ordeal. He decides to take a chance and frees them, feeling a surge of power rush through him, tearing him up from the inside, but he resists. The warforged around them collapse to the floor, knocked out.
Kal, who at this point has become forcibly tethered to Calamity, shoots off another destructive wave before stabbing Calamity with Stormseeker, and at this point, Calamity looks quite hurt already, so he, in anger, tries to plane shift away. Relic tries to counterspell it, but Calamity counterspells him. Penny counterspells his counterspell, allowing Relic the opening he needs to keep Calamity here. Enraged, he tries to shoot Relic, but misses as he is too close. Seeing no other option, he throws his pistol to Relic’s feet, and raises his hand, offering his surrender.
Penny doesn’t trust him, even though he seems genuine, so she attempts to dominate him with her charms. He almost resists, but Penny manages to push through. Docile and defeated, he sits down at Penny’s command. Kal asks Calamity how they can get the shard out, with Penny compelling him to answer. He says he will need his tools, so Penny takes him to his workshop, after Kal places the manacles on him that hinders planar travel. Kal then casts a sending to Thervan, explaining the situation. He replies that he will be there as soon as possible, just as Rowan and Cora reach the, now calm, battlefield. Seeing that they are outnumbered, and their leader defeated, they decide to take their leave.
Thervan manages, with some difficulty, to make his way to the forge, along with Raven and a group of elite soldiers. Thistlethorn doesn’t want Rowan and Cora to get away, so she sends the draconic spirit to cut them off, as Raven runs after them, arresting them. She brings them back, shackled and gagged, putting them to a wall. Calamity eventually returns with Penny, holding a toolkit, and starts working.
He manages to remove the panel, and so the shard is free for the taking. Thervan offers to keep it safe, but realises that the safest place for the shards might be in the hands of the group. Kal says that she wishes to keep it safe, and grabs it. She manages to resist the effect, and can choose to bond it. She does so, and so the shard embeds itself in her chest, opposite where the Shard of the Warrior once lay. Kal asks Calamity to disable the device permanently, and with Penny compelling him, he reaches into the machine, drags out a component, tossing it into the lava.
The party tells Thervan that he has to make sure that Malice cannot save Calamity, as he is too dangerous of an ally for her. Thervan looks remorseful at Calamity, saying “I’m sorry,” before casting a disintegrate beam at the warforged. He doesn’t manage to dodge away, as his entire being is turned to a fine rusty dust. The manacles fall to the floor, as Calamity is no more. The party nods, agreeing with Thervan’s conclusion that he was too dangerous to be kept alive.
The party decides to check out Calamity’s workshop, while Thistlethorn walks over to Rowan and Cora, telling them that she hopes they get what they deserve. Rowan manages to remove his gag, shouting after her “who are you?”, as she is still in an illusory warforged form. She just walks away, saying “a ghost from the past,” as she joins the rest of her party.
They look through the workshop, finding some mad rambling about the subjects and troops, how many they hope to raise, but it suddenly dawns on Thervan that there probably are more people around. He starts running out of the workshop after gathering up all the notes, with the party running after him, helping him look. The hallways are confusing and difficult to navigate, but Relic can hear distant shouting coming from a crossing hallway, so they run towards the sound. They emerge into a massive chamber, several hundred metres long and wide, with countless cages, filled with the rotting corpses of kidnapped people. A few cages still have living people in them, with a familiar looking man shouting for help. When he sees the party, still in warforged form, he panics, saying he doesn't want to die.
Penny dispels the form, revealing who they are, as they recognize Conrad Huxley from Chasten Crossing, standing next to the gravedigger, John Damp. John seems to be happy to see them, with Conrad shouting insults at him, calling him smelly, and to get him out as soon as possible. Kal tells him to behave, or she will leave him behind. He goes quiet, annoyed, but docile. Penny tries to pick the lock, but it is too intricate for her. Relic runs to find the keys, letting them out. John pats Relic on his hand as he unlocks the cage, saying that he is glad he is one of the good ones. Relic clarifies that most of the warforged here are good ones, but they have been under the control of Calamity.
Thervan announces that he has sent for a ship to come pick them up, and he will supply food and water for the kidnapped people, but it will be a few days for the ship to arrive. He will also make sure they have a place to stay in the capital until their homes are rebuilt. The party and Thervan decide to investigate a large hole appearing on the other side of the chamber. It seems to be burrowed, with the party recognizing it as that of a Purple Worm. Thervan and Relic seal it up with a few spells, telling the party they have done what they can, and that he will take care of the rest. He thanks the party, and offers to send them back to Faunus’ Forest when they are ready. Relic hands him a stone he picked up from the destination, allowing Thervan to easily send them there. They feel the familiar tug at the navel as they are shifted through space, emerging outside the grove once more. They walk in, and emerge on the other side, back to their families and friends.
Next: Chapter 89: Hala