Session 91

The next day, Dain has breakfast after recovering from his late night excursion and decides to chat with the owner of the Relieved Librarian, Amber Redfist, who is one of Gardain's cousins. He tells her about his business investigating the Forgeborn being distributed around the world, but she just kind of nods along, not knowing what to say to that. Amber mentions that she was once a member of the Veskim Nul, the group that maintains the grand library of Hat'aellor in Shimmerwind, and that she specialized in alchemy, though she never quite found more than a handful of unknown pieces of information since Hat'aellor already knows so much. Once the rest of the party awoke, they set out to the Runesmith College.

Arriving at the Runesmith College, the party greeted Tora, who greeted them and took down their names after hearing their story about wanting to enroll. She began admissions forms and then offered them a tour of the college to allow them to see the facilities. Before touring the college, however, they had to pass through some sort of archway which they would later learn was meant to scan them for any suspicious magics or illusions to ensure they were who they said they were. All except Lurka (Summer) were able to pass through without issue. When Lurka passed through, however, the archway began to glow red, prompting a security officer to come over with the Runeguard. They told her to halt and produced a crystal that Dain recognized as the same as the type he recovered from Duzen'exak in Seryndor -- Ettranite. The officer used a piece of metal that distorted the air around it to strike the Ettranite, which produced a sharp tone that filled the air, causing a pulling sensation inside Lurka that she did not recognize. After several times feeling like something was being pulled from her, the officer stopped and gave a thumbs up indicating that Lurka was all clear. Confused, they proceeded, where Tora walked them through the central hub of the college and pointed out the four wings of the school -- Instruction, Production, Demonstration, and Research. She began with the production wing, giving them a brief history lesson along the way, telling them of Riswynn Jendor and Sundar Grayfist, responsible for creating the fundamental Runetech that would enable Dwarves to advance to where they are now -- the Flow Condenser, Flow Cell, Flow Diffuser, and Flow Generator. She also made mention of the recent Forgeborn which has become a trend with prospective students all looking to create their own variants, mentioning the "inventor" being Gloin Brawnanvil, Dain's cousin, which angered him. Dain attempted to refute this and told Tora of his family history, but she had no frame of reference to debate this and though she was impressed with his family's legacy, she had nothing to say regarding the feud between him and his cousin. Entering the production area, there were Dwarves everywhere at workbenches assembling various Runetech projects with the guidance of their instructors. Among these projects were several attempting to assemble basic Forgeborn units.

Proceeding to the demonstration wing of the college and continuing their tour, they saw numerous variants of Forgeborn being tested, including a very nimble looking Forgeborn who very rapidly sliced and diced a training dummy with its arm blades before doing a double front flip and bisecting it. The party was in awe and Lurka asked Tora what would happen if they ever went rogue or began to think for themselves -- though Tora indicated this was impossible as they were nothing more than highly advanced spells that came about through a better understanding of Aurum which allowed them to give the Forgeborn more complicated instructions. Lurka wondered whether the Wellsprings could cause this to happen, but Tora indicated that Aellor's Wellspring has not erupted in nearly a millennia and would not be doing so anytime soon. They also witnessed a hefty Forgeborn with a tube-like arm point it towards a distant training dummy only for a gout of flame to erupt from the tube and explode on the training dummy. This seemed to disturb a couple of the group members.

Finally, proceeding to the research department, they were told they could only see the public projects which did not require clearance, and that they would need to be accompanied by Runeguard. They walked through the department seeing some of the projects being worked on while Tora told them about some of the loftier goals of Runetech, including being able to synthesize food that won't spoil. As they walked past the many windows into the laboratories, Dain stopped when he saw a room where several fancy looking Runeguard were all standing guard around none other than his cousin, Gloin, who appeared to be working on a very large metallic arm along with some other researchers. However, upon closer inspection, he was pretty sure Gloin wasn't doing anything of value and was just fiddling with parts. After Tora commented confirming Gloin's identity to the group and again reiterating that he was the "inventor of the Forgeborn", Dain decided to confront his cousin in a fit of frustration. He used his Runelink to gain access to the room and poked his head in, calling out to Gloin. His cousin seemed startled and fumbled for his words asking Dain what the hell he was doing there. Dain alluded to his plans to right what had been wronged and that he would be seeing more of him, and Gloin taunted him further, calling his Steel Defender "ancient trash". Dain seemed to indicate that Gloin probably couldn't even open his Steel Defender. However, Gloin produced a tool and did just that after a bit of difficulty. This seemed to put Dain a bit off-guard, but he retorted by saying that if he truly understood how they worked, he could open it without a tool, reinforcing his point by waving his hand and closing up his Steel Defender's chest. The bickering continued until Tora interrupted and asked what was the meaning of this. Dain explained in a vague way, alluding to "family business", before telling Gloin that he would be seeing him later. Tora seemed a bit cross with Dain due to his behavior and concluded the tour after showing them one final project, an improvement over the Flow Stingers which adorn the walls of Reshyk's cities and act as a defensive measure. Several Dwarves stood behind a solid Shadesteel wall and fired a weapon with several long tubes around a cylinder which produced bright blasts of radiant energy that incinerated the target. Tora referred to this weapon as a Runecaster.

Returning to the front area, Tora collected the group's admission fees and gave each of the party members (except Dain who already had one) a Runelink, a glowing band that fitted to their wrist before vanishing, that would give them access to the college once their admission was completed in one week. The group decided to head back to the Relieved Librarian to wait it out. During this time, Dain managed to improve his Mithral Armor. Dain also spent some time speaking with the Veskim Nul at Hat'aellor looking for more information about Ettranite, and in the process, revealed to them that he had been on an expedition to Seryndor, as well as having seen the Fringe and Maelstrom of a Wellspring firsthand. The Veskim Nul took great interest in this and paid him a good amount of gold for him to allow them to extract his memories of these events to record in the Chronicle, a magical cube used to store vast amounts of information.

After the week had elapsed, the party returned to the college and spoke with Tora briefly who gave them their class schedules. They head inside to the Instruction wing and attended a fundamentals class where they all listened as the instructor explained the history and mechanics of inventions such as the Flow Cell, which particularly interested Rakhad (Merrick), who realized he could inexplicably understand Dwarvish despite never learning the language -- a fact which disturbed him as he heard a guttural rumbling that he identified as The Deep One acknowledging it. They listened as the instructor gave them a rundown of how the fundamental components of Runetech worked and their purpose. After the lesson, he ushered them to the production area where they were given the chance to apply their burgeoning artificing skills in a practical manner. While Lurka was inexplicably able to apply her limited knowledge of artificing she picked up from Dain and the classroom to produce a miniature vat that could produce alcoholic drinks much quicker -- Rakhad just made a mess on his workbench, earning a facepalm from his instructor. Meanwhile, Dain decided to explore the research department on his own since it was seemingly less busy during the day, with researchers wanting to avoid the student population. Dain's Runelink still granted him basic access to the research department despite his long sojourn from the college. As he explored, he found a Dwarf tinkering with a Forgeborn with a large chest cavity containing what he recognized as Ettranite, along with several implements made of various metals, some of which he recognized as Stormsilver, Petrasteel, and Shadesteel. The Runesmith then closed up the Forgeborn's chest and activated it. He then produced a magical light from his hand, at which point the Forgeborn glowed briefly before the light was snuffed out. Curious, he questioned the Runesmith, who later identified himself as Arnan, and learned that this Forgeborn was being equipped with Ettranite so that it could be used to temporarily disrupt magic produced by specific schools of magic, and he got a further education in how Ettranite works from this Dwarf. He learned that the only school of magic the Dwarves have been unable to find a metal to use to disrupt is Divination because no known metal can be used with Ettranite to disrupt it. The two talked for a time before Dain thanks him and leaves, heading for the demonstration area.

In the demonstration area, after finishing her brewing project, Summer had meandered about the college listening for gossip, learning about how the Ashenfolk had been applying for membership to the Runesmith College in light of the findings at the Catacombs of Blackfrost, and how more had been discovered by an expeditionary team King Rangrim had dispatched that revealed there was an entire city down there where the Dwarves of the Drakantal Empire had made their final stand against the Voidspawn. This was being met with varying levels of controversy. She also overheard two Runeguard talking about a shipment of Forgeborn with large arms coming in from "The Nexus". Running into Dain, the two observed the demonstrations going on, where they witnessed a disturbing sight… a team of Dwarves unloaded some Forgeborn from a large crate and installed some kind of module in each one before activating them all and barking out a string of commands in Aurum which Dain identified as being physical characteristics rather than just a spell -- and afterwards, the air around the Forgeborn began to distort, and once it clarified again, they were looking not at Forgeborn, but what appeared to be humans, who had the exact physical characteristics described by the Dwarf who was shouting in Aurum. They decided that Gardain and the Underminers should hear about this at once.

Arriving back at the Relieved Librarian, Dain finds Gardain quite drunk. He tries to sober him up, feeding him two entire plates of bacon, which seems to work, but as the two head over to Marnia's home, Gardain got out all of a few words before collapsing on Marnia's floor. She sighed in annoyance and dragged him to the couch before Dain explained to her what they had seen and learned at the college. This greatly disturbed Marnia, but she said they had other things to worry about. She said that while they had still no information on the identity of the whistleblower, they had learned that they had been transported to The Vault, Shimmerwind's maximum security prison. She asked Dain if their party's skills include jail breaks…