Session 95

After telling the group of the convoy that was is en route to Greentide, Marnia tells them that she figured they could use some extra help and had hired a mercenary to accompany them and that he should have been equipped with a glamour by Ferrek by now. He rendezvous'd with them at the Giant's Teacup and introduced himself as Lash Breathbleeder, revealing that he was actually an Ettinor, evidenced by the fact that he hit his head on the doorframe while entering the building despite appearing to be a Dwarf only some 4.5" ft. tall. After filling him in on the situation, the party decided that given the timeframe, if they left right away, they could intercept the convoy as it approaches the exit of the forest between Shimmerwind and Greentide.

They set out, trekking north for almost 2 weeks before approaching the forest in question. As they got close to the treeline, they could make out the shape of a figure standing at the edge of the forest, but could not see what it was. Summer decided to creep around behind it, and upon doing so, noticed it appeared to be a very bulky looking Forgeborn whose right arm terminated in some sort of long, wide tube. She tried to creep back to the group to inform them of this, but as she approached the group, the figure stepped out into the light to reveal itself, and a tinny voice called out, saying "Ye never should have showed your face back in Reshyk, cousin!". With that, the Forgeborn Bombardier raised its arm cannon and fired off a Fireball directly in the party's midst, dealing some moderate damage. As the party charges forward to deal with the clunky Forgeborn, they are met with several others charging forward from the trees, including two Forgeborn Soldiers, the standard combat units they saw in Greentide, as well as two of the nimble units with dual arm blades that Dain spotted in the Runesmith College. Summer darts into the trees, hiding behind one, hoping to get to a vantage point where she can pick off the Forgeborn via their vital points. However, she begins to feel like something is watching her, and while slowly turning to the side, she sees a Forgeborn Stalker slowly become visible right next to her. It immediately attacks her before she has a chance to react, and then as quickly as it appeared, it disappears again.

The rest of the group engages the other units, with the Forgeborn Bombardier proving a nuisance, emitting several Fireballs and even a Lightning Bolt, dealing heavy damage to everyone. The team manages to beat down the combat units before two of them, having sustained heavy damage, open up their chest cavities, exposing their core. Their cores begin to glow brightly and discharge electricity around them. Fearing what could happen after seeing the explosion caused by the Flow Cells in the mineshaft connected to The Vault, Merrick banishes the two while the party whittles down the rest of them. The Forgeborn Bombardier attempts to self-destruct as its allies did, but is smashed to pieces by Gardain before it could explode, with Gardain's warhammer giving off a strange concussive shockwave as it made contact with the Forgeborn. Dain found this odd and asked Gardain, but Gardain indicated it was just a regular warhammer he bought in Shimmerwind. They continued fighting, and after dealing with the rest of the combat units, they were left to deal with the Forgeborn Stalkers, who hadn't sustained any damage due to their hit and run tactics. Unfortunately, one of them got a lucky shot on Merrick, breaking his concentration on the banishment, causing the Forgeborn to reappear, and subsequently exploding, hurting Dain. However, they seemed to become visible any time they moved, so the party laid in wait until they reappeared and then quickly hit them in rapid succession. Lash and Dain then finished them off. The party sat for a moment to catch their breath and recuperate. After a moment, Summer heard a noise off to the west.

Looking to the west, out in the field, the group saw a floating platform carrying a very large crate moving across the field accompanied by a detachment of 8 Runeguard. The Runeguard had Runeshot crossbows trained on the party. Not knowing if this could be the convoy they were expecting, the party decided to charge ahead. The Runeguard peppered the field with bolts as Lash charged forward, managing to dodge most of their attacks, and the rest of the group took to the treeline hoping to use it as cover from the attacks. Once they were within range, Dain unleashed a Fireball, knocking several Runeguard off their feet and setting the crate ablaze. As Lash covered the distance to the convoy, he began to brutally pick apart the Runeguard while Summer, Dain, and Merrick took out the ones firing at them with their crossbows, with Merrick disintegrating one with a mote of light that turned the Runeguard into a bright glowing body that quickly blew away with the wind. After making quick work of the surprised Runeguard, they put out the fire on the crate and looked inside to see about 20 Forgeborn whom had strange, detailed features with smooth panels covering their entire chassis. Dain decided to inspect them more closely, opening their chest cavities, and finding the usual modules inside, with the exception of a single module that appeared to be connected to all of the strange panels on the exterior, with Aurum runes on the interior indicating some kind of illusion magic. Catching up with the group, Balvin questioned Dain about it, and Dain told him about seeing these in the Runesmith College, and that they were capable of disguising themselves as people using some sort of illusion magic. On a hunch, Dain told his father about Adamar and their dealings, explaining that he believed Adamar could possibly be involved with their development, given his advanced understanding of illusion magic.

Balvin noticed a Runeguard amongst the dead with markings on his armor indicating that he may be of some ranking. He searched the Runeguard's pockets, finding several pieces of parchment. He began to read them, revealing a shipping manifest indicating that these Forgeborn were known as Forgeborn Infiltrators and had come from The Nexus, which Summer previously heard some gossip about while mingling at the Runesmith College. Reading the attached letter, it seemed to indicate that the Runeguard, Commander Radek, was charged with escorting the shipment of Forgeborn Infiltrators from The Nexus in the Dwarven city of Frostport to the Runesmith College, and then to Greentide to board a ship called The Firefly bound for Catarvoss in Myr. They had orders to disguise them as Humans using the attached Human descriptions and then get them through customs, allowing The Nexus to then assume control of the Forgeborn remotely. This disturbed Balvin and Dain. They briefly discussed whether to escort the Forgeborn to Greentide while disguised in the Runeguard's equipment, fearing what would happen if the convoy didn't arrive as scheduled. Balvin said that they still had two weeks before Greentide would be expecting the shipment and suggested they just get out of there. He said that if they intended to go deal with the Forgeborn operators at The Nexus, they would need a way to reach the island, which was off the west coast of the Reshyk mainland. He indicated that while not a secure location, due to the presence of The Nexus, they would need special permission to charter a ship there. He suggested going to speak with his brother, Thovil, in the Dwarven port town of Rimelight, just north and to the west of Shimmerwind along the coast. He said that his brother was a deep salvage captain and he may be able to ferry them there.