The Rabble meet with Zorlan d’Cannith who implores them to find Merrix’s secret laboratory and put an end to his experiments which threaten all of Sharn. The heroes follow Mickey Bishop to find the secret lab, but Mickey leads them instead to the hideout of the warforged assassins sent by the Lord of Blades to kill him.
Player Characters: Balkris, Jeeves, Mickey Bishop, Reckoner, Sane
I.
After the Rabble defeated the Beholder sent against them by Merrix d’Cannith, Sane harvested the precious crystals and tried to sell them in the market. In the meantime, R. Sativus succeeded in repairing the Delirium Stone with help from Sane’s magic of mending. The gnome diviner was able to use the power of the stone to ward off the effects of Merrix d’Cannith’s Delirium Machine, at least for those within the proximity of the stone.
However, the rest of Sharn began to succumb to strange dreams and nightmares. It seemed that the Delirium Machine was becoming more powerful day by day, and Merrix, its creator, was growing ever bolder in its use. Soon there were reports in the Korranberg Chronicle and on the Listening Stone broadcasts of violence erupting throughout the city as the residents of Sharn experienced delirious visions, causing them to attack their unsuspecting neighbors out of inexplicable terror and fright.
When a week had passed, Sane eventually sold the crystals to a former acquaintance of Balkris and Reckoner. The buyer was Zorlan d’Cannith, a powerful artificer from Karrnath and the Baron of Cannith East. His position as a Baron of House Cannith made him a rival of Merrix d’Cannith. Zorlan used the opportunity presented by the transaction to beseech Balkris and his fellow adventurers once again:
“You have undoubtedly seen the news about the pandemic of frightful dreams. My spies inform me that Merrix is in possession of an eldritch machine that is causing the nightmares throughout the city. They also tell me that your associate, Mickey Bishop, knows where it is. Merrix stands in my path of ascending to become the baron of a united House Cannith. But more urgently, he and his experiments pose an existential threat to Sharn and its people. You are the only adventurers with the knowledge, resources, and strength to stop him.”
Zorlan gave the heroes a strange device called a mabaranic infuser and instructed the heroes to place it over the irianic conduit on Merrix’s eldritch machine. In addition, he asked a dwarf cleric of Olladra named Hammott from the Mror Holds to join the party and aid them on their quest.
The heroes and their new companion named Hammott prepared to set out to find Merrix d’Cannith’s secret laboratory. But they were given pause when they received an urgent message via speaking stone from an old associate, the gnome codebreaker Alicia Lund. The message indicated that Alicia was in trouble and needed their help. Meanwhile, the members of the party also received word that warforged assassins were plotting attacks on both Big Mondo and the Vadalis estate. Were these the same warforged killers that Mickey had seen in his dreams?
The heroes pondered their options and considered waiting for the assassins to come to them so they could take advantage of the defenses of House Vadalis. However, there was no telling when the assassins would make their move, and in the meantime the city would further succumb to the power of the Delirium Machine. The heroes decided to ask their friend in the Sharn Watch, Chief Inquisitive Kavill, to look into Alicia’s message. They would first deal with Merrix d’Cannith then take the fight to the warforged assassins.
Now the heroes looked to Mickey Bishop to guide them on their quest. But Mickey had other plans in mind for the Rabble. While he was under the influence of the Delirium Machine, Mickey saw not only flashes of Merrix in his laboratory and its location, but also visions of his own death at the hands of warforged agents of the Lords of Blades. In the visions, the warforged had ambushed him in an old foundry in the Cogs called the Phoenix Forge.
Mickey knew that these were visions of events to come and it was only a matter of time before the warforged would find him. Instead of leading the Rabble to Merrix in his secret lab, Mickey saw his opportunity to ensure his own survival by leading the heroes to the Phoenix Forge. He would eliminate the warforged hit squad before they could get close to him.
II.
It was evening when the Rabble arrived outside the Phoenix Forge located deep within the bowels of the Cogs, though the time of day had little meaning in a place that had no sunlight. The Phoenix Forge and Foundry had once been a vibrant center of production selling armor and weapons to the armies that fought in the Last War. But now that the fighting was over, there was little need for arms in such large quantities. The stockpiles were stacked high against the walls of the Phoenix Forge’s warehouse where they gathered rust from neglect and disuse.
Sane scouted ahead and saw that the workers, a mix of humans, dwarves, and a handful of warforged, were clocking out. Most of the humans and dwarves looked weary and disillusioned by their seemingly aimless work. From their disgruntled conversations, Sane gathered that they toiled in the forge and foundry because someone continued to pay them, but they saw little point in their labors during peacetime. Only the warforged strode with a sense of purpose, but the other workers looked askance at them and gave them a wide berth.
Meanwhile, Mickey tried to remember what he had seen during his dream to find a helpful clue. He recalled a holy symbol worn by one of his assassins which he described to the others. It was a fan of blades splayed out like the legs of a spider. Hammott recalled seeing such a symbol after the Last War when he served in a healing house frequented by warforged. Some of them carried this symbol and spoke in dark whispers of the Lord of Blades. They called him a messiah who summoned all the warforged on Khorvaire to join him in the Mournland where they would forge a new nation.
Upon hearing this, Reckoner suddenly spoke up in a loud and booming voice.
“Why should we form our own nation when we can strive for our rights here among mankind? Confining ourselves to our own lands will do little to convince others that we deserve to be treated decently. We must stay and prove to society that we ought to be considered the equals of all sentient beings.”
Jeeves concurred that forming a separate nation for the warforged was a bad idea, but for a very different reason.
“The Mournland is such a dirty place. Why would anyone want to live there, warforged or not? Besides, a healthy degree of social stratification is preferable for the service industry, particularly for gentleforged like myself.”
Upon hearing Reckoner and Jeeves’ words, the warforged began to gather around to hear more, asking if the adventurers had any pamphlets that stated their respective points of view.
Seeing his opportunity, Mickey informed the warforged laborers that he and his companions were city ordinance inspectors and they had come to make a surprise inspection of the Phoenix Forge. The warforged did not question him but invited the Rabble to follow them on a tour of the compound.
III.
Once inside the forge, the warforged led the party into a large central hall where the forges and furnaces were kept. Numerous doors along the walls of the hall led to storage chambers and other parts of the facility. The warforged dutifully lined up in a row to undergo inspection. They stood shoulder to shoulder except for two warforged in the middle who left a gap between them, as if someone ought to have been standing there.
When questioned about the gap in their lineup, the warforged answered that their coworker, a warforged named Steel, was absent. Balkris remembered Steel as one of the candidates that ran against him in the election. Upon hearing this, Sane immediately ran outside and searched the premises for the missing warforged.
Meanwhile, Reckoner, who had supported Steel’s in his election bid, was dismayed by the poor working conditions of the warforged workers. He began to give a passionate speech extolling the strength and virtue of the warforged and why they should not allow themselves to be impressed. Rather, it was up to them to show the world their true worth and value.
As if in reply to Reckoner’s speech, a whispering voice echoed through the chamber, low and dark yet reverberating so that all could hear it piercingly. The voice seemed to address Reckoner and Jeeves.
“Welcome to our fold, brothers. The Lord of Blades awaits you. Join us in ridding the world of these filthy fleshborn.”
Four doors along the walls of the hallway opened, revealing a warforged behind each door. Mickey recognized them immediately as the assassins from his dreams. As the four warforged assassins stepped into the hall, the eyes of the warforged workers glowed red, and they raised their fists in salute before turning to face the Rabble.
IV.
Sane had arrived at the barracks of the warforged workers, located just outside the forge. Each worker had a cell with their name on the door, and the simple latches on the doors were easy to unlock. The rooms were barely more than closets, but each contained trinkets and other personal possessions of the workers, like a small wooden doll pieced together from pieces of scrap in the shape of a warforged, or a faded portrait of a human woman whose identity could not be discerned.
Inside the cell that was marked “Steel” contained stacks of paper. They appeared to be Smith’s notes for the speeches that he have during his election campaign. It appeared that he had gone through a great deal of effort to sound more human and reach out to both the warforged and non-warforged constituents.
Suddenly, the sound of battle issued from the forge. Sane rushed back to find the brave Balkris and their companions locked in a fierce struggle with a large group of warforged. Four of them looked like no other warforged that she had ever seen. Each of them looked unique and distinct. And they were trying to kill Mickey Bishop!
One wore a hooded cloak and carried a long knife and a crossbow. The next wore black armor and wielded a fell sword. Another wore the vestments of a priest and carried a holy symbol like the one seen in Mickey’s dream. The last was a heavily armored warforged carrying a greatsword that was taller than any of the heroes save for Reckoner.
As Sane joined the fray, the Rabble rallied themselves and fought back the warforged, being careful not to seriously harm the warforged workers. For they guessed that the “others” had turned the workers to their cause.
Soon half the workers had been disabled and two of the assassins were destroyed. Hammott, wishing to bring an end to the fighting, used the magic of Thaumaturgy to project a whispering voice resembling the one that he had heard before, commanded the warforged workers to stand down. The workers, believing it to be the voice of the leader of the “others,” lowered their arms and halted.
Then Hammott spoke to the workers of his memories of the war. For he had felt the horror of the war repeating itself, as he watched warforged fighting against warforged like brother against brother. He beseeched the workers to speak to the “others” and convince them to stand down as well.
The workers stood between the Rabble and the two surviving “others,” beseeching them to lower their arms. Each spoke of the need for warforged and humanity to coexist, and that perhaps the philosophy of the Lord of Blades was, in fact, highly inappropriate.
The “others” seemed to be convinced by the workers’ words and lowered their arms, allowing themselves to be captured. The leader of the assassins relinquished his greatsword, a dread weapon of vengeful strength, as a sign of his surrender. The battle had been won.
V.
In another room adjacent to the hall, the heroes found Alicia Lund and Steel bound by chains. Alicia had suspected that she was being watched when she sent the Speaking Stone message to the heroes. Shortly after sending the message, she was ambushed inside from her apartment in Little Plains.
Steel revealed that the “others” had tried to recruit him to their cause and kidnapped him when he had refused. Despite losing the Cogs election, Steel still believed in the chance for true reconciliation between humanity and warforged.
Upon the body of one of the fallen assassins, the heroes found a list of names. They appeared to be people and places in connection to the Rabble.
1 Alicia Lund
2 Big Mondo
3 Eranna d’Ghallanda
4 Erol Potellas
5 Father Gregor
6 Frankie by the Docks
7 Inquisitive Kavill
8 Jeb Givens
9 The Junkyard
10 Vadalis estate
Now the heroes understood the rumors they had heard about the threat to Big Mondo and the Vadalis estate. They had saved many of their friends from a gruesome death at the hands of the vengeful warforged. Big Mondo gave the heroes a small reward in gratitude for saving him from the would-be assassins.
However, Merrix and his Delirium Machine were still at large. And the power of the eldritch machine grew stronger day by day. Each new morning edition of the Korranberg Chronicle was filled with more and more reports of strange nightmares and incidents of violence until finally riots began to erupt across the city. The Sharn Watch was spread thin in its task to maintain the peace, for many of its own members were succumbed to these nightmares. King Boranel issued a state of national emergency as Sharn descended into chaos and madness.
The Killing Blade
Treasure
– 6,500 gp (Zorlan d’Cannith)
– 500 gp (Big Mondo)
– Sword of Wounding
Sword of Wounding
Weapon (any sword), rare (requires attunement)
Hit points lost to this weapon’s damage can be regained only through a short or long rest, rather than by regeneration, magic, or any other means.
Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack using this magic weapon, you can wound the target. At the start of each of the wounded creature’s turns, it takes 1d4 necrotic damage for each time you’ve wounded it, and it can then make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, ending the effect of all such wounds on itself on a success. Alternatively, the wounded creature, or a creature within 5 feet of it, can use an action to make a DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) check, ending the effect of such wounds on it on a success.