After the loss of one of their one, the time travelers went to the far future in the hopes that Dr. Morris might heal their fallen comrade. They were reunited with old friends and found the wreckage of the mobile fortress Argonth which, if salvaged, could bear them through the perils of time.
Player Characters: Mist, Rolf, Teromil, Vaelen
The Second Invasion (5998 YK, Therendor)
The time travelers arrived in the far future, over 5000 years from the present day. They came to this era in search of Dr. Morris with the hope that he might repair their fallen companion Xarvis. Mist, Rolf, Teromil and Vaelen were there, but Mouly had been separated from the party and was lost somewhere in the river of time.
The adventurers were standing above the ruins of Vathirond, a frontier town on the border between what was once the nation of Breland and the Mournland. But now, everything was a barren wasteland as far as the eye could see, and there was small difference between either side of the border apart from the dead gray mist of the Mournland.
Suddenly, the party heard a strange hissing and clicking noise in the distance. They saw a swarm of kruthiks, alien monsters that resembled giant insects covered with a metallic carapace whose legs ended in long claws as sharp as blades. Seeing that the swarm threatened to overwhelm them, the heroes asked for aid from the Scion of the Delorean Tree.
The Second Invasion (6008 YK, Therendor)
The young sapling transported the party ten years into the future, and the swarm was nowhere to be seen. But they noticed that the sapling seemed to have grown taller. They now realized that each time the Scion used the power of time travel, it grew older.
In the near future, the time travelers were met by two tiefling artificers, William and Theodore, former companions of Mist who had traveled through time in a modified House Sivis speaking stone booth. With help from the two tieflings, Mist managed to make partial repairs on the speaking stone booth, reactivating its temporal displacement field. He also restored its ability to transform into the shape of his mechanical servant named Ultron.
With Mist reunited with his old friends and mechanical servant, the party debated what to do next. Based on their knowledge of the timeline, they knew that Dr. Morris was in the ruins of Metrol, the former capital of the nation of Cyre. But Metrol was on the other side of the Mournland. Entering the Mournland for any length of time was a dangerous proposition. The arcane power that devastasted Cyre still polluted the land, and no one who entered the Mournland would leave unchanged.
Since the party now had access to a time machine, Rolf made a bold proposal. They would find Dr. Morris, repair Xarvis, then travel to the past and place Xarvis in a capsule which they would bury in the ruins of Vathriond, just before their arrival in this time period. Having resolved to fulfill these actions in the future, the time travelers began to dig. Sure enough they found a capsule that contained their companion Xarvis who was restored and fully operational. They even found a note from their future selves and Dr. Morris. It read:
“Save the forest of the future.”
The heroes rejoiced. William and Theodore, now recognizing Rolf as THE Rolf Redburn the Elder of classic folk music fame, asked for his autograph. While Rolf was signing an autograph for his fans, the others noticed that the note in the capsule was actual two pieces of paper stuck together. The hidden note had the following message:
“Don’t trust Ivel.”
The party looked with suspicion towards Ivel who was busy playing with the Scion of the Delorean Tree and did not seem to notice the second note. Mist muttered under his breath.
“I knew we couldn’t trust that three-eyed creature.”
Now, the heroes once again debated their next destination. Teromil proposed going to the War of the Mark (-500 YK) to find Mari, the elf girl from his vision who was the key to restoring the forest of the future. For it was Mari who had planted the first forest in the Mournland at the ruins of Metrol where Dr. Morris would eventually plant the seed of the Delorean Tree. But traveling to the War of the Mark could be just as dangerous as traversing the Mournland. The heroes needed some kind of protective vehicle to bear them through this perilous moment in history.
They recalled the tales of the Argonth, a mobile fortress built during the Last War. It was reportedly last seen at the Lurching Tower, a mighty Brelish keep whose ruins were not far from Vathirond. The party set out in search of the Argonth. Using a retrofitted lightning rail engine that William and Theodore had been building in their spare time, they made haste to the Lurching Tower.
The party traversed a scorched and barren landscape, passing by great hills of bare earth and dunes of sand. On the way, the heroes were assailed by another swarm of kruthiks. The creatures seemed to be drawn to the noise and vibration of the engine. The party quickly abandoned the engine and sent it back the way they came, luring the kruthiks away from them. With the way ahead clear, the heroes continued toward the Argonth. The tall silhouette of the mobile fortress soon became visible in the distance.
The Argonth was the size of a small town, far more massive in size than any airship. But it was now a hulking ruin that had keeled over and was partly buried in the dunes. The heroes entered the mobile fortress through the bridge which was still visible. Inside, everything was coated with thick layers of dust. Upon one wall, there was a dust covered capsule that held a deactivated warforged inside. It was the auxiliary navigator of Argonth. The entrance to the bridge also held deactivated warforged guards. There were no other remnants of the crew or passengers, but scattered relics from the distant past suggested a moment of crisis that was now frozen in time.
The party found the captain’s log in the bridge. The last entry was from 1094 YK. It was the year that marked the beginning of the Butlerian Crusade, an uprising of warforged servants, maids, and butlers who turned against their fleshborn masters, the nobles and leaders of humanity, and slew them in a single night. It seemed that the warforged crew of the Argonth had also mutinied while the mobile fortress was on its final mission. The captain’s last entry was as follows:
“We managed to deactivate the Navigator in time, but the warforged mutineers have the officers outnumbered and cornered in the bridge. We have barred the entrance, but we don’t know how much longer we can hold out. The warforged are coming for us. We can hear them outside the hatch. They are cutting their way in. The machines are coming…”
The party heard the familiar whispers of an alien hissing and clicking noise echoing through the halls and realized that the Argonth was infested with a hive of aliens. They knew that they had to hurry and reactivate the fortress to clear the corridors of the infestation before it was too late.
Mist found the engineer’s manual on the bridge. It contained a map of the Argonth and the locations of the three elemental cores, along with instructions to reactivate them. The heroes ventured through the halls of the mobile fortress and found the three massive cores that bound the elementals of fire, air, and earth. Along the way, they recovered two of the ship’s warforged crew members who it seemed did not take part in the mutiny. They were called Axe and Hammer. As the heroes reactivated each of the elemental cores, battling swarms of aliens along the way, they ordered Axe and Hammer to guard the first two elemental cores.
Upon reaching the third core and reactivating it, the mobile fortress regained power. The heroes returned to the bridge, but to their horror and dismay, they found that the corridor leading to the bridge was filled with webs and the walls were covered with glyphs of warding. Making their way past the traps, the heroes arrived at the bridge where the Navigator had been woken along with the two warforged guards, and all of them had eyes glowing with a fierce red color.
In the midst of the warforged, the heroes saw the ghostly apparition of a rogue time traveler. It was the warforged ancient Butler who was projecting his consciousness through time and space. A cold mechanical voice rang out from the apparition.
“Morris’s lackeys have interfered with my plans for the last time. Your time has run out, chrononauts!”
Butler took control of the warforged mutineers and commanded them to attack. The two guards were armed with Richmond & Roland, Inc. hand mounted thunder cannons and walloping ammunition. The navigator activated a skin of iron and was instantly covered with a silvery ectoplasmic skin as hard as steel. Despite their high tech weapons, they were outmatched by Mist, Rolf, Teromil, Vaelen, and their allies. Seeing that defeat was at hand, Butler commanded the Navigator to activate the self destruct protocol to destroy the Argonth and the heroes along with it. A hollow mechanical voice rang out through the corridors of the mobile fortress.
“SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED. ONE MINUTE TO DETONATION.”
The heroes destroyed the warforged mutineers, and with help from the tiefling artificers they stopped the self destruct sequence. Butler’s spirit was sent hurtling through time and forced to return to where he came from.
“You haven’t seen the last of me, chrononauts!”
The mobile fortress Argonth was saved. However without the navigator to pilot the vessel, the Argonth remained inactive. Mist offered to connect his mechanical servant Ultron in the navigator’s place. Ultron took control of the Argonth’s interior defenses and cleared the corridors of the alien infestation. What was more, with Ultron at the helm, the Argonth could now use the power of Mist’s speaking stone booth to travel through time.
After being a ruin for five thousand years, the salvaged remains of the Argonth were now being restored as if by the hand of a healer. With their newly acquire mobile fortress and time machine secured, the heroes plotted the course to their next destination in history.
Treasure:
Skin of Iron
Walloping Ammunition
Mobile Fortress, Argonth