Session 98

As the group sets out toward Greentide, Dain briefly considers contacting Glondor to try to bait him into a trap, but decides not to, remembering that Gloin is the incompetent one, not his uncle. He has a conversation with his uncle Thovil where Thovil asks Dain what he plans to do next. Dain tells him about his plan to confront Glondor and Gloin and take down Glondor for good. Thovil agrees and asks Dain to knock a few of his teeth out on his behalf, but then asks Dain to consider a touch of mercy on Gloin's part, reminding him that Glondor was a very overbearing, shitty father, who constantly pushed Gloin to be something he wasn't because he was jealous of Dain's success in Runesmithing, and that he constantly criticized and put down Gloin for not being able to live up to Dain's talent. He said that Gloin needs to answer for his crimes, but that maybe he doesn't need to die. Dain agreed and said that he didn't necessarily want to kill Gloin, just to bring him to justice. As the ship continued on, and they came upon Greentide three weeks later, they saw plumes of smoldering smoke rising up across the city. Arriving at the docks, the harbormaster greeted them and filled them in, telling them that the city wasn't in the best position to be receiving trade vessels, and they would have to wait before bringing goods into port. He explained that the Forgeborn had gone crazy and were rampaging throughout the city. Dain tried to dispel this notion by bringing the three Forgeborn from Frostport off the ship and explaining that they were not feral and had simply come to life by the will of Aellor. The harbormaster seemed to think Dain was crazy and told him the Runeguard weren't rounding them up for nothing, and to watch out for the ones with yellow eyes, as they were out destroying things and murdering folk. Dain didn't seem to believe this, and Merrick took it upon himself to cast Arcane Eye to get an aerial view of the city to try to gather some information as to the situation. Surveying the streets, he witnessed what appeared to be a very fast Forgeborn pursuing a frantic Human woman running through the market. After a brief chase, the Forgeborn caught up to the woman and appeared to stab her through the chest. As Merrick and the rest rushed to that area of the road to attempt to save the woman, they found her dead on the street with a smashed up Forgeborn Render lying by her side and several Runeguard gathered around her shaking their heads looking glum. As they walked through the streets, Gardain noted that it looked like a war zone with all the shell shocked looking people and injured. He said that he had to contact Marnia to figure out what to do next and made his way to go communicate with her while the party took stock of the situation.

Continuing through the market area, they came across a lone Forgeborn with blue eyes humming to itself a monotone melody, looking around curiously as it wandered the abandoned market stalls. The group spotted a lone Runeguard creeping up behind the Forgeborn with a warhammer primed to strike, and Dain cast Vortex Warp to displace the Runeguard and pleaded with him to understand that the Forgeborn with the blue eyes were not a threat and that they were innocent new life. However, the Runeguard seemed not to care and indicated that they were the property of the Imperium Arcanum and if they would not obey orders, they had to be rounded up to be studied or dismantled. Dain wanted to reason with the man, but the man said nothing short of Aellor herself appearing in the city square to proclaim them a new life would convince him. So Merrick decided to try to commune with Aellor to ask her to do just that. However, he did not get the result he hoped for, as The Deep One appeared instead, savagely slamming a tentacle into Merrick, sending him flying into a nearby building. He then grabbed Merrick and demanded to know what he was doing, and as Merrick tried to talk his way out of it, he tried to deflect and not reveal the true purpose of his communing, and mentioned the Runeguard nearby. At that point, as Dain continued to try to reason with the man, one of the Deep One's tentacles whipped through the air, crushing the Runeguard into a fine, red paste. A stunned Dain quickly decided that solved their problem and went to speak with the humming Forgeborn. Merrick managed to get the Deep One to release him, but the Deep One threatened Merrick, telling him not to try contacting "the others" again, before disappearing. Speaking to the Forgeborn, Dain convinced it that it wasn't safe here, and that it should follow him, whereupon the group headed to the Giant's Teacup, hoping to meet up with Gardain. Upon arriving, they were greeted by Hasina, the Ettinor owner, who made a point to mock Dain's height before offering him her smallest room for the night. As Gardain arrived, he introduced another Dwarf who came in with him as Rylin, whom he said Marnia had hired to help out, since she believed the party would need some additional assistance for the tasks to come. He said that they would need to leave for Shimmerwind to go meet with Marnia the next day. Some of the party then decided to play poker and dice to pass the time, and after Rylin attempted to swindle Gardain by rigging the deck, amazingly Gardain pulled a set of cards that Rylin was positive wasn't possible given that he was stacking the deck himself, and accused Gardain of cheating. This angered Gardain, who threatened to knock Rylin out if he said that again, and Rylin decided to push his luck. As Rylin accused Gardain again, Gardain went to punch Rylin and strangely there was a flash as his arm connected, sending Rylin flying backwards into the wall. The party, stunned, asked Gardain how he did that, to which Gardain was just as confused as them, looking at his hands. Rylin started to babble on about some sort of mark he saw on Gardain's fists, but when he went to show the rest of the party, they could not see the mark. As Dain arrived back from shopping for potions, he seemed not to care about this development, and suggested the party get to bed for their journey ahead.

The next day, the party went to leave the city, telling the Runeguard at the gate that they were bringing the four Forgeborn accompanying them to the college to be studied. Passing through, they witnessed a large group of Forgeborn outside the city walls surrounded by Runeguard, who moved away from the group before gesturing to a Dwarf atop the city walls, who then aimed and fired one of the Flow Stingers atop the wall at the group, vaporizing them in a matter of seconds. The group was shocked by this, but decided to move on after a brief argument where Merrick wanted to do something, saying this was genocide, but Dain managed to convince him that they didn't have the means to make a difference here and they would have to stop them some other way. Continuing on to Shimmerwind, the Runeguard at the gate seemed suspicious about the Forgeborn accompanying the group, but directed them to bring them to the Runesmith College "with the rest of them". Ignoring this advice, the party proceeded to the industrial district where they went to meet with Marnia at her home. They arrived to see that there were a Dwarven man and an Ashenfolk man in Marnia's home that they had seen before -- Darrak and Einkil. Marnia asked to be filled in on the full story, and after recounting it, Marnia offered to let the Forgeborn stay in her home as they wouldn't be safe out and about. The group discussed their next move, and Dain's plans to confront his uncle and cousin. Marnia said that they would undoubtedly be at the Runesmith College and that though there were plenty of Dwarves who knew the basics of Forgeborn construction, Glondor and Gloin were the masterminds and if they could be removed, that should thoroughly shut down research and development into them. She said that Glondor would know they were coming now and that they needed to find an alternative route into the college, as the Runeguard were sure to know Dain's face now at least, if not the rest, and asked for ideas for how to get in. The group was unsure how to get in without rousing attention, so the Dwarven man, Einkil, suggested that they find a shipment of raw materials in the foundry bound for the college and hitch a ride, but said that once inside, though the security in the shipping area would likely not be as tight as the front door, they would stick out if walking about in full armor and with their weapons. Dain also took a moment to cast Sending to try to goad Gloin into the open, hoping he was foolish enough to come out and confront him, but regretted it immediately when Gloin replied by telling him to fuck off and come get him, realizing he just gave Gloin the heads up that he was coming for him. Marnia seemed disappointed that Dain did this, saying that even though they knew they were coming, he had just taken away any element of surprise. The group agreed this was the best plan, and as the topic of The Vault came up and the prisoners that escaped, Dain mentioned Jeryl, the Vesperkin Runescribe who helped them, showing the one talisman he has left, to which Darrak seemed perturbed by, asking how Dain knew of such things and how a Vesperkin of all people would know anything about Runescribing. Dain explained what happened and Darrak seemed bothered by this. Afterwards, Marnia also wanted to get the party's input on what comes after, confronting King Rangrim. She said that simply strolling into the Royal Court and taking him down is one thing, but if you remove the King, Reshyk is certain to descend into chaos. She said that King Rangrim has two sons, and the Chamberlains only step in to take over if the Felbor family line ends. She pulled out a map to explain the layout of the Royal Court, and said that there would be Runescanners and Runelatches everywhere, and that the inner rooms of the court are lined with a metal called Zegrumite that would prevent teleportation. Marnia said she would continue to investigate while they deal with Glondor and Gloin, but that the party needed a solid plan to get inside. She suggested that the party get going immediately and take advantage of the cover of darkness to get in while most of the college's instructors and researchers had gone home for the night.

Heading to the foundry nearby, the party managed to sneak by some of the workers and into crates loaded with iron and copper destined for the college. However, Gardain and Balvin were not quite as sneaky as the rest and were seen. The workers questioned them, wondering what they were doing, and Gardain managed to weave a tale of how he stubbed his toe and that's why he was walking funny, and that he was new there and didn't know where he was going. Fortunately, the worker seemed to accept this, or perhaps just didn't care, and went about his business. Balvin gave Gardain an incredulous look before they climbed into the crates with the others and pulled the tops on. Pulling out the air crystals Summer had stashed from Seryndor to breathe, and ignoring Gardain's sudden need to relieve himself, the party waited eight hours for the workers to come and get the crates and begin moving them. After an hour-long trip, the party realized they had stopped moving and freed themselves from the crates to take stock of their surroundings. They saw that they appeared to be in a very dark warehouse with a lone tunnel off in the distance lit by lights -- however, Merrick then spotted a Runescanner on the wall pivoting back and forth. Avoiding getting too close, the party decided to search the room, and after some time, they eventually located a door that was hard to see because of the monochrome appearance of Darkvision making it appear to be part of the wall. Proceeding through the door and down a narrow hallway, they found stairs that led up to the next floor, which appeared to be the Production Area of the college where the party had been weeks before while exploring the college. They saw a number of half-constructed Forgeborn around the floor, and Dain deduced that the lack of original projects being created here meant they had probably moved construction of the Forgeborn to the college to make up for the destruction of The Nexus. They then moved out into the main hub and attempted to enter the research department, but were stopped by a Runelatch that they had no Runelink suitable for. Dain suggested they check the Instruction area in case the instructors' offices had one of the wands used to create the Runelinks. Proceeding into the Instruction area, Dain moved past the classrooms and to the second floor where the instructors' offices were. Proceeding into one, he located a locked drawer on the instructors' desk, and after unlocking it, found a wand inside. After casting Identify, he determined that it appeared to be one of the Runelink wands, but though he could understand how to operate it, he could not glean how exactly to grant specific access to certain areas, and figured he would need to find some sort of documentation or hint so that he could know how to grant himself access to these restricted areas.