The heroes fight for their lives against a gargantuan warforged and find hidden secrets beneath the Silvermist Theater. Having survived the trap laid by Merrix d’Cannith, Balkris runs in the local election for the Cogs, but fails to secure the office. The unexpected victor of the election invites the Rabble to a meeting aboard an advanced House Lyrandar airship, the Portent King.
Player Characters: Balkris, Mickey Bishop, R. Sativus, Reckoner, Timber
Timber remembered a moment long ago when he had been in his master’s cabin in the woods. Timber’s master had told him a story about another shifter and former pupil who had wanted to learn the deadly arts of the assassin. When the master refused to teach him, the pupil grew angry. He stole a magic medallion with the power to enhance one’s fighting prowess and fled from the woods.
The master told Timber this story with the hope that if Timber ever came across this other shifter, he would defeat him and recover the medallion. The master said that if Timber proved himself worthy by beating his opponent, he could keep the medallion and prevent it from falling into evil hands.
Now Timber saw the medallion that his master had described. It was embedded in the metal plate of the warforged titan in the Silvermist Theater, just below the round sheet of hardened glass that contained a humanoid brain.
The gnome illusionist Salleon road atop the titan, his ankles seemingly shackled to the machine. Upon his head, the heroes could see the gleam of a metal plate, not unlike the one they had seen on Flash the goblin who had been lobotomized.
Salleon conjured an illusory projection of a bearded man. It was Merrix d’Cannith, the baron of House Cannith South, who spoke to the heroes.
“Welcome adventurers. Or shall I call you the Rabble? Yes, I have done my research, so I know all about you. This will be the last time you meddle in my affairs. Now it’s curtains for you! Get it? Curtains! Ha ha ha!”
As the illusion vanished, the gnome repeated Merrix’s final words, like a voice on a loop from a broken Listening Stone. The warforged titan lurched forward, steam spouting from its pipes and joints. It took a fighting stance as one might expect of a martial artist, and eyed Timber with seeming recognition.
Timber, Balkris, Reckoner, Mickey Bishop and R. Sativus readied themselves, but Jeeves had been too close to the sleeping gas explosion and was knocked unconscious.
From a distance, Mickey Bishop and R. Sativus attacked the titan with a volley of spells while Balkris roared and leaped forward with his rapier. He severed the cables on the titan with his blade, but they stitched themselves back together as the titan repaired the damage. Then it lifted its leg and kicked the nobleman across the hall. Balkris nearly struck Timber as he flew through the air.
Now the titan’s immense weapons, a mace and an axe each larger than a warforged, swung at Timber and Reckoner. Reckoner caught the blade with his shield and felt the tremendous force of the titan’s power reverberating against his shield arm.
Timber and Reckoner held the line, but the warforged titan had other weapons in its arsenal. Its chest plate opened to reveal a crystal orb, glowing and crackling with energy. The titan fired a bolt of lightning from the orb. Timber stood his ground and bore the brunt of the attack. He fell to the ground, his charred body smoking and crackling with electricity.
Seeing his comrade fall, Reckoner knew he had to disable the machine quickly. He tried to disable the titan by striking its leg. But when the titan’s knee momentarily buckled, he saw a vision of Skirmisher the brave warforged who had died in the junkyard. It seemed to Reckoner that Skirmisher was looking down at him and had raised up his pipe to strike Reckoner’s. But it was the warforged titan whose mace came down upon Reckoner and crushed him into the floor. Yet Reckoner was not so easily destroyed. He rose up with his battered shield, holding back the weight of the titan’s enormous mace.
The distraction allowed Balkris to climb onto the machine. He severed more cables but found himself entangled by them. The titan seemed to ignore the damage to its hull and strode through the party’s front line. It was heading straight for Mickey Bishop and R. Sativus, its primitive intelligence directing it toward the spellcasters.
In that moment, Timber regained his strength and leapt onto the titan. Remembering his master’s teachings about the importance of finding his opponent’s weak point, Timber discovered a chink in the titan’s armor and concentrated his attacks on that spot, pounding the reinforced metal with a flurry of blows.
The titan, no longer able to withstand the assault, crumpled to the ground, its damaged leg buckling where Reckoner had struck it. The black glass shattered and the brain inside withered and decayed with unnatural speed, as if it had been kept in stasis by necromantic energies. Salleon the illusionist was crushed beneath the titan as it fell.
Yet Reckoner, enraged by the vision of Skirmisher, continued to beat upon the disabled titan with his warhammer until it was smashed to pieces. The sound of the hammer ringing upon metal echoed loudly through the empty halls of the Silvermist Theater.
Timber stepped between the pieces of the fallen titan. Finding his master’s medallion, he pried it loose from the metal hull held it closely. At last, he had fulfilled the promise he had made to his master long ago.
II.
Having survived the attack of the warforged titan, the heroes descended to the hidden rooms below the theater. There they found a ledger belonging to Mother Strayne, the matron of the former Silvermist Poorhouse. It contained the names of all the children who had passed through the orphanage. It also recorded who had been recruited by the Smilers gang. One line had only a blank field for the name.
In a room that appeared to be a former refectory, the heroes found an effigy of a boy made of small bones, scraps of old clothing, and broken toys. A cloaked figure was hunched in front of it. When they approached, the figure stirred noisily and cast off the cloak. It was a clockwork construct in the shape of a man, yet it was unlike any warforged. It was far more primitive and seemed to have only a childlike intelligence, but it identified the heroes as intruders.
“Defilers of the master’s shrine must be disassembled!”
Two more clockwork constructs arrived from a nearby room. Their arms transformed into cannons, and they fired a volley of bolts at the party. The adventurers were forced to defend themselves against these mechanical guardians.
In the ensuing battle, Timber knocked over the effigy and shattered it. This enraged the clockwork men who aimed their cannons at him. Timber caught some of the bolts fired at him, but there were too many for him to dodge. Once more, he was struck down by a bolt to his back. But his companions used the distraction to regroup and launched a counterattack. Soon, the clockwork men lied in pieces.
“I am growing tired of all this fighting,” said Reckoner.
One of the disabled constructs began to speak, but in a child’s voice. The garbled mechanical voice seemed to repeat Reckoner at first, but in truth it was a recording of a boy’s voice.
“Tired… I’m tired, Mother Strayne… I’m tired…”
The clockwork gears sputtered one last time before going still.
Among the scattered pieces of junk on the ground, Timber found an old letter that had been stuck inside the effigy. He bore the family crest of House ir’Tyran. It appeared to be a letter from Sterryk ir’Tyran addressed to Merrix d’Cannith when he was a boy living at the Silvermist Poorhouse.
Young Merrix,
I regret it had to end like this. I sent you to the workhouse to learn humility. After all, the good prince must learn to see himself through the eyes of his people. Only the pigs know what it means to be a wolf. From mud shall you know yourself.
However, my orders were clear. You were not to befriend the children. Pigs dream of leaving the pen and dining with the farmer. Best to keep their pen locked, lest they trail their filth through your house.
By now the Daask will have slaughtered your young comrades. This will hurt, I am sure, but know that strength is always forged in the crucible of loss. There is another lesson here; those killers have no idea I am directing them.
Never play your hand if another can play it for you! If you play the game with honor, tricksters will run rings around you. To make it in this world, even a prince must know how to cheat.
If it helps, none of the killers will survive the night. I have ensured that. Remember also this lesson: the wolf that hunts too cautiously attracts the hunter. Learn when to strike and always do so with overwhelming force.
Hate me if you wish, but know your grand uncle assigned me this role to raise you as a statesman. You are a piece of clockwork, my prince, and I am the engineer who winds you up.
With love,
Sterryk ir’Tyran
In the final room among the ruins of the orphanage, the heroes found the former dormitory where the slaughter had taken place long ago. Between the battered and broken remains of small beds were scattered the bones of both the children and their killers.
Having seen enough, and perhaps more than they wished, the heroes exitted the Silvermist Theater. Soon after, Chief Inquisitive Kavill arrived at the scene with the Sharn Watch to finish the raid. He found the kidnapped victims who were used as leverage over the civilian hitmen on the Menthis Steps. Each was missing a finger, ear, or toe. The victims were rushed to the nearest House Jorasco healing house to receive emergency medical care.
III.
When a week had passed since the raid on the Silvermist Theater, the six companions of the Rabble were awarded their salary as deputies of the Sharn Watch with a bonus for undertaking such a dangerous mission, receiving 200 gold galifars each.
Moreover, elections were held to choose a new representative for the Cogs on the Sharn City Council to replace the scandal-ridden Nolan Toranak.
There were six candidates in the election, and one of them was Balkris d’Vadalis. The other candidates were Del Sork, a dwarf worker and supporter of Nolan Toranak’s anti-warforged platform; Mr. Molarc, a sewer rat and write-in candidate; Steel, a warforged veteran of the Last War; Lobana Petrievna, a pious follower of the Silver Flame; and Big Mondo, the halfling mob boss from the Boromar Clan.
In the run up to the election, Balkris had written about his adventures in a column published in the Korranberg Chronicle, embellishing upon his many heroic deeds. He ran on a platform offering new real estate opportunities by launching redevelopment projects.
“I see such great potential in this district, once the poor tenement neighborhoods are transformed into trendy cafes, restaurants, and art galleries.”
Del Sork tried to run on the same platform as his former patron Nolan Toranak, promising to send all the warforged to the scrapyard and build a wall around them. But without Nolan’s resources to drum up support, he found his message falling on deaf ears. The denizens of the Cogs threw rotten fruit and eggs at the dwarf. The warforged in the city, though small in number, had all turned up for the election. They listened to Del Sork’s jingoistic speech in eerie silence and watched as the beleaguered dwarf was booed off the stage.
Mister Molarc, despite being a write-in candidate, had the support of several members of the Rabble, including Mickey Bishop, R. Sativus, Timber. R Sativus was particularly interested in the sewer rat and even went down to the sewers to advise the rat’s caretaker, a halfling named Sasca. Mister Molarc ran on a platform of feeding the hungry and giving everybody more cheese.
Steel the Warforged promised to fight for all the people of the Cogs, whether they were man or machine. All of the warforged cheered for him in their somber military fashion, loudly clankly their fists upon their metal chest plates, including Reckoner who alone among the Rabble chose to support Steel. Despite being the only warforged candidate, a large number of non-warforged voters also supported Steel’s message of fighting for a better future for everyone.
Lastly, there was Big Mondo, who ran on a populist platform. He appealed to the voters by presenting himself as one of the people, despite the fact that he spent more time in the upper levels of the city and seldom came to the Cogs.
His ruse succeeded, and the people of the Cogs, hoping that Big Mondo would truly serve their interests, voted him into office. The only other candidate who came close to him was Steel, who had the majority of the warforged vote as well as veterans from the Last War.
From a distance, few people saw that the candidate giving the speech was suspiciously tall for a halfling. Little did anyone suspect that the halfling who gave the speech was not Big Mondo at all but the changeling Mickey Bishop.
IV.
Big Mondo wasted no time consolidating his newfound political power. Taking inspiration from Balkris’ redevelopment platform, he began to take out loans from the Kundarak Bank and bought up large swathes of real estate in Lower Dura and the Cogs. He pushed out his rivals in the Boromar Clan that were involved in the dreamlily dens, finding the drug trade to be distasteful.
The dreamlily den in the Silvermist would be closed and reopened as a casino instead. Big Mondo also took out a lease on a newly built Lyrandar airship called the Portent King, converting the state of the art vessel into a mobile casino.
Meanwhile, Balkris was shocked that he had lost the election, and to Big Mondo no less! It was a humbling experience for a scion of a noble house who had never known want or defeat. The rest of the Rabble were equally disappointed that their favorite candidates had not been elected – save for Mickey Bishop, who was now in the good graces of Big Mondo.
Being dismayed by the local politics, Reckoner, R. Sativus and Timber turned their attention to the Steel Rats gang in the junkyard. They began a program to teach new skills to the orphans of the street gang. Reckoner taught them about chivalry and R. Sativus tried to teach them some useful magical cantrips, but the children had a hard time with their lessons. However, they quickly took to Timber’s martial arts instruction. They flocked to him each morning, eager to learn more so that they might grow stronger and more fierce.
Being doubly disappointed, R. Sativus consoled herself by magically sending taunting messages to Merrix d’Cannith. She hoped to draw him out and make him falter with an endless stream of verbal abuse. She even used excerpts from Sterryk ir’Tyran’s letter found in the ruins of the Silvermist Poorhouse to show that she knew more about Merrix than he might wish.
The wolf that hunts too cautiously attracts the hunter.
V.
Meanwhile, Mickey Bishop saw a golden opportunity in the aftermath of the election. For whatever devious ends he had in mind, Mickey wanted Balkris and Reckoner to reconcile with Big Mondo. Therefore, he arranged a meeting between the mob boss and the Rabble aboard the Portent King on her maiden voyage as a flying casino.
Despite reservations on either side of the table and their differences in the past, the adventurers and the halfling mobster were able to see eye to eye and recognized the potential for a partnership. Thanks to Mickey Bishop’s skills as an intermediary, Balkris and Reckoner no longer had the ire of Big Mondo and the Boromar Clan.
While Balkris, Reckoner, and Mickey met with Big Mondo, R. Sativus and Timber explored the rest of the ship. This was indeed a cutting edge vessel with a retinue of trained guards and the latest in House Lyrandar elemental security. But neither guard nor elemental was perceptive enough to spot “the Rat” and the shifter monk stealthily gliding through the halls.
As they went about the airship, the pair spotted a nobleman arguing with the captain of the vessel. The captain was a young half-elf woman named Calypso d’Lyrandar. The nobleman, speaking with indignation at what he perceived to be slights and deficiencies aboard the ship, referred to himself as Sterryk ir’Tyran.
“Do you know who I am, Captain? I am Sterryk of House Tyran. I could have you and your sorry lot of airmen sacked and excoriated if I wished.”
“I don’t care who you are, my lord. Aboard this vessel, I am the captain and my word is law. I will not have you hurl insults at my crew.”
Sterryk huffed and stalked off toward the storage room. No one stood in his way as he walked past the guards and the elemental security system.
Alone in the cargo hold of the Portent King, Sterryk looked around to make sure he was alone. There were several large crates, each taller than a man, stamped with the gorgon head emblem of House Cannith. Then Sterryk comforted his wounded pride by speaking out loud… to one of the wooden crates.
“Soon, my precious one, you shall awaken and fulfill your purpose.”
Little did Sterryk realize that two adventurers – R. Sativus and Timber – had followed him and were watching him from the shadows. The adventurers grew apprehensive when an eerie light shone faintly between the wooden panels and the sound of mechanical breathing and the scraping of claws issued from the crate.
Against the Lightning
Treasure
– 1,200 gp
– Insignia of Claws
Insignia of Claws
Wondrous Item, Uncommon
While wearing this insignia, you gain a +1 bonus to the attack and the damage rolls you make with unarmed strikes and natural weapons. Such attacks are considered magical.
This insignia depicts a furry paw with extended claws. While wearing it the bearer suffers no harm from temperatures as cold as -20 degrees Fahrenheit or as warm as 120 degrees Fahrenheit.