In the distant future, the continent is covered by a great forest. A druid artificer named Dr. Morris has discovered the seed of the Delorean Tree whose magical fruit allows the eater to travel back in time.

Here is a summary of yesterday’s (April 26, 2017) time traveling Eberron adventure at The Dice Latte. Thank you Jung Yong (Dunhill), Jihyena (Black Horn) and Joey (Rolf Redburn) for playing and making an awesome story together!

The Branches of Time Part 1: The Harvest of War

In the future, the sentient constructs known as the warforged have evolved into an advanced race, but the eldest among them, called the Warforged Ancients, have retained their original bodies. Components for these ancient models have ceased to exist, so the ancients can no longer repair themselves.

Dr. Morris has asked three brave souls to travel to the days of the Last War when the warforged were first invented. He has asked them to retrieve the original blueprints for the first warforged made by Aaren d’Cannith, the creator of the warforged.

The time travelers ate the Delorean fruit, and with a flash of bright light their minds leaped into the bodies of three individuals in the past. They were Dunhill, a cleric of Dol Dorn the god of strength at arms; Rolf Redburn, a half elf bard who struggles to keep alive the musical legacy of his forebears; and Black Horn, the first warforged paladin of Dol Dorn.

They found themselves in a tavern in Eston, a city in the kingdom of Cyre before the Day of Mourning when Cyre would be turned into a wasteland. It was 969 YK, and the Last War had been raging for decades. In the tavern, Rolf was singing raunchy songs for the soldiers who were enjoying a brief respite from battle, while Dunhill and Black Horn looked upon each other with amazement. But soon they recognized each other as time travelers who had shared the magical fruit and they remembered their mission. Rolf wove into his songs subtle hints about the events of Aaren’s life from the historical record, hoping to get a reaction from the crowd. If events played out as foretold, then Aaren would soon be excoriated from House Cannith, his dragonmark flayed from his body as was tradition. After being exiled, he would vanish from the historical record.

One older nobleman drinking alone took notice of the songs and watched Rolf with a knowing expression before leaving the tavern. Black Horn pursued him and discovered that he was none other than Merrix d’Cannith, father of Aaren and a prominent member of his House. It was Merrix who first built the warforged titans, intelligent constructs built for war but which lacked the soul and true sentience of the warforged.

Merrix was astounded to meet Black Horn, whose body was that of a warforged only two years old, but whose mind was clearly more advanced. Seeing that Black Horn was a follower of a deity of warfare, he determined that perhaps Black Horn might be the instrument to convince Aaren to abandon his pacifist ways.

Aaren was a philosopher who hated to see his creations being used as weapons of war. He even hated the name “warforged”, a term coined by his father to emphasize their military purpose. Aaron petitioned his House not to sell the warforged as slave soldiers and machines of war, but his protests fell on deaf ears. It was all Merrix could do to keep his son safe from their political enemies. He wanted nothing more than for Aaren to abandon his position and return to the fold of House Cannith.

Merrix asked Black Horn and his companions to talk to his son and convince him of the error of his ways. They found Aaren in his chamber, under house arrest. But even now, he was busily writing letters to the leaders of the warring nations imploring them not to use his warforged creations for war.

The time travelers revealed their true identities and purpose to Aaren then asked him if he could aid them in their quest by providing the ancient warforged technology needed to repair their elders in the future. Dunhill said they could help spread Aaren’s message by spreading a new faith among the warforged and teaching them that they have a choice. Rolf suggested that perhaps they could even build a new line of sentient constructs that would be called by a different name to help spread Aaren’s message of peace.

Whether Aaren truly believed that his guests came from the future, he was intrigued by their proposal. He offered to help them in one year’s time after he had time to consider their proposal. Rolf warned him that he would be excoriated by then, but Aaren refused to relent in his decision. He would remain in Eston and if the time travelers were true to their word he would meet them again.

Black Horn agreed to remain by Aaren’s side as his guardian while Dunhill and Rolf leaped into the future. They arrived 15 months in the future after Aaren had been excoriated. Black Horn reported all that he had seen during that time. Aaren’s father had been assassinated, which stripped Aaren of the last remnants of protection he had within his house. Following his excoriation, he traveled alone with Black Horn to minister to the damaged warforged of the war and help them where he could. After three months, they were back in Eston when the city was besieged by an undead army from Karrnath. It was late at night when the time travelers reunited, but unfortunately Black Horn reported that Aaren had snuck off in the night, most likely to help the suffering warforged left on the battlefield.

The time travelers searched for Aaren on the silent field. There was a lull in the siege as the armies had fallen back behind their lines. The field was littered with broken warforged and the bodies of human soldiers. All was quiet, but a few immense shadows could be seen lumbering across the field of the dead. They looked like giants covered with spiked all over. Dunhill recognized them as the cadaver collectors, hideous constructs used by the Karrnathi forces to collect bodies that could be raised as undead warriors. The collectors gathered up great handfuls of corpses and skewered them onto their spikes.

From one of these grim shadows came a short and piercing scream. The time travelers saw to their horror that the still living Aaren had been skewered by a cadaver collector. They rushed to save him, fighting the hulking monstrosity until at last it fell with a well placed strike from Rolf’s rapier which severed the cords of its artificial muscles. Aaren was grievously wounded, but Dunhill tended to his injuries and was able to revive him. The time travelers and Aaren retreated before Karrnathi scouts arrived to investigate the commotion.

Now Aaren believed the time travelers, for what they had foretold came true. He agreed to help them, but he revealed that he had fused the blueprints of the original warforged with the matrix of his mind in order to keep the secrets from falling into the wrong hands. Now he offered to meld his consciousness with one of the time travelers so that the blueprints could be carried into the future. The time travelers agreed that Black Horn would be the best candidate for the task, being a warforged and one of Aaren’s own creations.

Aaren held hands with Black Horn, and the scars of his excoriation glowed faintly, tracing the region where his dragonmark had been flayed from his skin. The light passed into Black Horn, and his Ghulra (the unique identifying rune that each warforged is born with) changed into a larger and more elaborate design. As Aaren’s body fell lifeless, the new Black Horn spoke for the first time.

“Now we are ready.”

The time travelers buried Aaren’s body and gave him the proper rites to honor his passing. Then with a bright flash of light, they returned to the green groves of the future from whence they came. Upon their return, they were greeted with a great celebration. They saw once more the aged warforged ancients, and the time travelers now realized that some of the elders carried holy symbols that resembled the sword and shield of Dol Dorn. But the swords were replaced by plowshares, and instead of the shields there were great bales of wheat. The ancients looked upon the time travelers with amazement and greeted them.

To be continued…