As effects of the Delirium Machine worsen and threaten all of Sharn, the Rabble embark on their final quest and infiltrate the Sharn Forgehold to confront Merrix d’Cannith in a battle to determine the fate of the City of Towers.

Player Characters: Balkris, Jeeves, Mickey Bishop, Reckoner, R. Sativus, Sane, Timber

I.

A week had passed since the events at the Phoenix Forge, and the situation in Sharn grew more dire with each passing day. More and more people suffer from the visions and nightmares caused by Merrix d’Cannith’s Delirium Machine. The streets of Sharn began to look like scenes from the Last War as panicked citizens fought one another, desperately struggling to defend themselves against the imagined terrors that plagued them in their waking dreams.

The Rabble, safe from the mayhem in their underground bunker in the junkyard, listened anxiously to the news reports on the Listening Stone as they debated what to do next. They had to stop Merrix from causing any more harm, but Mickey Bishop knew from his dream visions that Merrix’s laboratory was a subterranean stronghold that was heavily guarded. How would they infiltrate the facility? All manner of ideas were put forth. At one point the Rabble even considered storming the lab on a convoy of war elephants. Meanwhile, the reports on the Listening Stone grew more grim as time passed.

The Anvil Inn had been terrorized by looters, its proprietor Eranna d’Ghallanda missing amidst the carnage. House Vadallis was under siege from rioters on the street. Even Big Mondo had retired to one of the Boromar safe houses to ride out the turmoil. But perhaps the most heartbreaking news came when a woman and her daughter visited the junkyard. It was the family of Jebediah Givens. Jeb had been defending their community in Highwall from the violence when he was struck down and killed by the rioters.

Seeing the distraught widow, the Rabble realized that time was against them. It was then they had a flash of inspiration. The heroes decided to disguise themselves as an entourage of foreign dignitaries led by Balkris who would disguise himself as an ambassador from the distant land of Sarlona. With their course of action decided, the Rabble put their plan to the test.

II.

Mickey led the party to a small and secluded alleyway in the Cogs. They passed through an illusory wall and entered a lengthy corridor leads below ground whose walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of brass. At the end of the long passage, they found the entrance to the Sharn Forgehold laboratory, guarded by a great metallic beast and a squad of heavily armed warforged. When the heroes announced themselves, the warforged allowed them to pass, almost as if they had been expecting the arrival of foreign dignitaries.

Inside the facility, the heroes were greeted by a large spidery-looking warforged that called itself Steward 88. It seemed that the Forgehold was expecting a discreet visit by clients from foreign lands who wished to purchase Merrix’s portable magefire cannons. These advanced arms could be used even by individuals without the gifts of the lowliest magewright, allowing any commoner to wield the power of arcane weaponry. Surely, such weapons on the market would tip the balance of power on the continent.

Steward 88 told the heroes to entourage to the crystal repository and then departed. But the heroes had no intention of going where they were expected. Timber led the party through the shadows of the hall toward the rooms that Mickey remembered from his dreams as being Merrix’s private quarters. Mickey suspected that the way to Merrix’s lab was through this area.

Along the way, the heroes were startled to see Catalina, R. Sativus’s sister, leading a group of wand-wielding guards in service to Merrix. R. Sativus was dismayed to see her older sibling here, but she kept her silence as Catalina and her security team passed by without seeing the heroes, thanks to Timber’s ability to shroud himself and his companions with the surrounding shadows.

As they came near to their destination, they passed by a chamber called the Obedience Dome. Here they found an unruly warforged worker being punished for lack of discipline and behaving in an “irregular” way. The warforged heroes Reckoner and Jeeves recognized the techniques used to instill fear in warforged being utilized in this facility and were filled with anger upon seeing their fellow warforged being treated so… inappropriately.

At last, they came to the antechamber to Merrix’s private quarters, which were guarded by warforged turrets mounted to the ceiling. When the Rabble approached, the turrets declared sternly:

“Unauthorized visitors must leave the premises. You have 12 seconds in comply.”

The heroes did not wait for the countdown to finish but dealt the first blow to the turrets with a volley of spells and weapons. Twelve seconds later, the turrets had been reduced to a heap of scrap metal. But the skirmish had also set off the Forgehold’s security system. Alarms began to blare and footsteps were heard rapidly approaching from the distant halls.

The heroes barred the entrance behind them, sealing the door and warding it with magic, then pressed on. Beyond the antechamber, they found Merrix’s personal laboratory. The Rabble destroyed the lab, hoping to foil whatever dark experiments the Cannith baron was concocting. Upon entering Merrix’s private room, they found a secret passage leading to the lower level of the facility as well as a hidden letter confirming the villain’s arms deal with the terrorist organization known as the Swords of Liberty.

III.

When the heroes descended below the Forgehold, they found a large hall carved from volcanic rock. There were four silver pillars that glowed with a dim luminescence, casting queer shadows across the walls. In the center of the chamber stood Merrix d’Cannith. His body was covered with warforged plates and metal wires, and he sat upon a floating seat high in the air. He was working upon the Delirium Machine, which was also a mighty creation forge. It was an enormous structure shaped like the trunk of a tree made of solid cobalt wrapped in brass bindings, with a central hollow that glowed with a blinding light. The heroes guessed that this glowing cavity was the Irianic Conduit.

When Merrix saw the Rabble, he was startled yet not entirely unprepared. He had been expecting someone to interfere in his affairs and had taken a number of precautions. He conjured a wall of force to separate himself from the intruders. The hall was also covered with magic runes and symbols designed to thwart the efforts of any intruders foolhardy enough to enter the baron’s lair.

Now Merrix knew that the heroes had come to put an end to his work, and he tried in earnest to dissuade them, claiming to be using advances in technology to bring about a world of perfect harmony obedience. But the heroes were not so easily convinced. They had suffered too much from Merrix’s schemes and were united in their purpose to rid Sharn of the mad artificer and his twisted experiments.

Seeing no other course of action, Merrix called upon his warforged minions to slay the adventurers. From hidden alcoves along the walls, winged warforged sentinels appeared, and from the silver pillars emerged a pair of steel predators. And from the glowing hollow of the Delirium Machine and Creation Forgen stepped forth a warforged warrior taller than any the heroes had ever seen – a warforged dreadnought.

To their horror, the heroes realized that the metal plates and fibers of these constructs were mixed with pieces of flesh and bone taken from human corpses. These were not any ordinary warforged but a twisted amalgamation of construct and undead, carrying the stench of rot and decay.

Merrix commanded the Warforged dreadnought:

“Arise, Waldrin d’Cannith, scion of Karrnath yearning for home yet doomed never to return. Fulfill your purpose to me, and perhaps I shall permit you a glimpse of the lands you long to see.”

Reckoner’s mood darkened, for he recognized the name of Waldrin as the Cannith artificer responsible for experimenting on his former commander Raylan Givens. And Reckoner knew in his warforged heart that the fearsome dreadnought standing before him was built from the limbs and bones of his former commander.

The twisted combination of Waldrin and Raylan spoke only a single haunting word.

“Home… home…”

Now the heroes saw the true horrors that Merrix was capable of. Raising their swords and staves, they leapt into their final battle for the fate of the City of Towers.

Balkris flew into a rage and fought furiously with his blade. Jeeves fell upon his foes in a tempest of fists. Mickey summoned his eldritch magic, Reckoner wielded his radiant warhammer, and Timber brandished his fearsome claws, while R. Sativus called upon the fates to guide her and her allies. While the others fought fiercely, Sane found a gap in Merrix’s defenses and carried the Mabaranic Infuser toward the Delirium Machine, ready to cast the arcane device into the Irianic Conduit.

“No!” Merrix exclaimed. “You know not what you do! This is the last Creation Forge, the only means for new warforged to be born. You are committing an act of genocide!”

Shortly after he spoke, the heroes dealt Merrix a mortal blow and he fell upon the rocky floor. The cables and wires that had sustained him with life-giving energy after his previous injuries aboard the Platinum Egret were severed from his limbs. As he laid dying, Merrix remembered his days in the guise of Professor Moonsong at Morgrave University, and his childhood among the orphans of the Silvermist Poorhouse. He felt tired… and was almost glad to finally rest.

With their master dead, the warforged guardians stood down and fled the chamber. The heroes stood before the eldritch machine, pondering what to do with it. After hearing what Merrix had said, a desire had been planted in Jeeves’ heart to hold a warforged sire of his own. But he knew that he also had a greater responsibility to the world and the people whom he served. And so, Jeeves took up the Mabaranic Infuser and plunged it into the Irianic Conduit himself.

When he pulled out his arm, he was startled to find that he was holding in his hand a radiance metal orb, almost like an egg or a cocoon, wrapped with strange runes inscribed upon its luminescent surface.

The forgehold began to shake and crumble, and the Rabble fled the collapsing compound, leading the warforged servants and workers in an exodus from the forgehold. Moments after they emerged in the streets, a massive explosion ripped through the Cogs as the Delirium Machine and the Sharn Forgehold were destroyed.

Epilogue

The people of Sharn returned to a semblance of normalcy after the “Incident” that had shaken the city. But things were never quite the same again. People went about their everyday lives once more, but they looked upon their neighbors with a mixture of fear and paranoia. The truth about the Delirium Machine was buried along with the ruins of Merrix’s stronghold. But as rumors spread of the events in the City of Towers, tensions rose among the nations of Khorvaire. What was this new weapon that might be used against them? How could the nations defend themselves against it… or procure it for their own use?

Despite the loss of the Sharn Forgehold, Cannith South still had considerable resources at its disposable. Merrix d’Cannith returned to public life and, in an uncharacteristic move, joined forces with Zorlan d’Cannith in a merger of their factions. It was not long after the merging of Cannith South and Cannith East that Jorlanna d’Cannith, the matriarch of Cannith West in Aundair, saw the danger of being on the outside of the deal. Therefore, she joined Merrix and Zorlan, and together the three barons became the leaders of a newly united House Cannith. At Merrix’s suggestion, they formed closer ties with House Vadalis, allowing the magewrights of both houses to pool their resources and conduct cutting edge research that combine the arts of artifice with animal husbandry and druidic magic.

What people did not realize was that the real Merrix had perished in the destruction of the secret Creation Forge in the depths of the Cogs. In his place was the changeling Mickey Bishop, driven by the will of the dark patron that had granted him his eldritch powers. And only the Sovereigns knew what inscrutable purpose drove his actions.

With the mystery that began with an encrypted letter having been thoroughly resolved, the members of the adventuring company known as The Rabble went their separate ways. Sane the halfling rogue received a startling message from her parents who had disappeared long ago, leading her toward her next adventure. The others returned to their lives before the mystery or embarked on new quests. What secrets they would unearth on their future adventures, only time would tell.