Session 99

Dain continues to search through the instructor's office, but is unable to locate a manual containing the necessary mental commands to create the appropriate Runelink. Moving out into the hallway, he checks the next instructor's room and finds a virtually identical room with minor differences, but finds another Wand of Runelinking and pockets it, along with a book that explains the fundamentals of how Flow Cells work, including the principles involved with modifying Stormsilver to store Flow and how to collect Flow from the atmosphere. Afterwards, figuring all the instructors likely have similar information available in the rooms, he decides to return to the main hub of the college. Upon arriving in the hub and moving about thinking of where to explore next, Rylin spots a section of the wall near the research department that appears to be shimmering. Investigating, he finds that the wall is illusory and Dain determines there is a door on the other side. Opening it up, the party proceeds upstairs and finds several rooms with signs labeling them as the offices of the Registrar, the Director, and Security. The offices of the Director and Security are locked behind Runelatches, so Dain proceeds into the office of the Registrar. Finding an office similar to that of the instructors with a more decorative layout and a more clean desk with chairs facing the Registrar's seat, Dain checks the desk drawers, finding a locked one with an unconventional lock that takes some extra time to pick, but Dain has no trouble opening it. Inside, he finds another Wand of Runelinking, which he pockets, and a small notebook labeled 'Commands' which seems to contain the mental commands necessary for all levels of access, including 'Full Access'. He tests the command, creating a Runelink on his own arm, and then the rest of the group. He covers his tracks by turning off the light in the room and closing everything up. Proceeding downstairs, he tests it by waving his arm across the Runelatch barring the Research department, which whirrs and beeps before flashing a green light, and sliding the metal doors to the sides.

Entering the Research department, the party finds a long corridor with rooms on each side, each with a door and a window looking in. Each room appears to be identical, containing workbenches, crates full of spare parts for Forgeborn, and a mount used to prop up the inert / inactivate Forgeborn found in several of the rooms. The only rooms that appear to be different are one with a forge and some blacksmithing equipment, and one in which there is a rope cordoning off half of the room where there is a Dwarven skeleton slumped against the wall amidst scorch marks and some charred schematics on the workbench, which Dain recognizes as those of the Forgeborn Bombardier which the party encountered in the forest on their way to intercept the Forgeborn Infiltrator convoy. Dain had also provided some advice to the creator of the design during his last visit to the college, where the creator had been involved in a small explosion due to poor regulation of the Flow inside of the Forgeborn Bombardier's internal reserve. Unable to discern exactly what happened here, but figuring that he had failed to solve the Flow regulation problems, he exited the room and continued on. While walking down the hallway, Summer was trailing behind keeping her eye out for threats and spotted something down the hallway darting across the hall that the party seemed not to notice. Proceeding cautiously forward, she was startled when a glowing green Forgeborn trailing wisps of green smoke-like energy and semi-translucent attacked her from behind.

The party responded quickly, getting a few good shots in before the Forgeborn Ghost turned and ran straight through a wall, like there was nothing there. Frantically looking around for the spectral attacker, it reappeared further up the hallway, using hit and run tactics to attack the party members, before making its way through the walls to Rylin at the far end of the corridor, where it grabbed him and forced him into the wall with it. It then pushed Rylin into the blacksmithing workshop, attempting to shove Rylin's face into the still hot coals, but Rylin was able to nimbly maneuver out of the way. The Forgeborn then ran through the walls again, but not before stopping to slam the door to the workshop closed and breaking off the door handle, leaving Rylin trapped inside. It then pulled Merrick through a wall into another workshop, kicking him against the wall, and then out into the hallway where it clawed Summer savagely. As the party looked about frantically trying to think of a way to keep the Forgeborn in place so they could take it out, Gardain reached forth attempting to attack it while it moved to escape Summer's reach and a mark appeared on his arm, at which point the Forgeborn seemed to go slack, like in some manner of stupor. The party took the opportunity to wail on it, dealing some massive damage. Merrick managed to finish it off after it managed to pull Dorin into the blacksmithing workshop with Rylin and making quick strikes against a few more of the party members, as his Fire Bolt disabled its Phase Module and blew it apart, sending its parts flying across the floor. Dain quickly rushed over and yanked out what he identified as the Phase Module, and then the party moved forward down the hall.

Around the corner, the party saw two corridors, one leading downstairs, and also a doorway, which they heard an odd monotone shrill tone coming from. They moved down to investigate the noise and found a room full of Forgeborn strapped to tables with advanced Runetech restraints which they could not remove. Summer found a Runelatch that appeared to control the restraints, but despite having 'Full Access', their Runelinks seemed not to work here. Summer suggested perhaps only Glondor's Runelink would work here, and the party proceeded down the nearby hallway. Seeing a strange green glow off to the left, Merrick went to investigate a window into a room where he saw a sign that said "Enrichment" and a large chamber with a hatch connected to a large glass tube with a glowing green liquid inside flowing back and forth, along with some sort of complicated looking control panel nearby. Spooked by this and worrying it could be dangerous, the party decided to go the other way. Proceeding down the hallway, Summer investigated a window into a room where she spotted two Dwarves working on a hulking Forgeborn and several workbenches with lots of parts laying about. Motioning to Dain, he came to look and confirmed that these were his uncle and cousin, Glondor and Gloin.

Making a gesture at Summer and the others to move down the hallway, they were startled when Rylin walked face-first into some sort of invisible barrier, separating them from Dorin, Gardain, and Balvin, who also found a similar barrier behind them. Glondor then called out to Dain, chastising him for being so hasty and hot-headed, like he has always been, and letting him know that Gloin had originally planned to burn his plans and destroy his Steel Defender, but that he convinced him to take credit instead, and he thanked Dain because if he hadn't stopped Gloin, they wouldn't be here today, and that Dain had paved Reshyk's road to the future and enabled King Rangrim's plans to come to fruition. He said it was a pity that Dain wouldn't be there to see it, given that Gloin was always such a disappointment -- a comment which seemed to greatly anger Gloin. Then, a group of four Elite Runeguard turned the corner behind Dorin, Gardain, and Balvin, and advanced, seemingly not restricted by the barriers. The battle commenced, and the three began to fend off the Elite Runeguard while Dain, Merrick, Summer, and Rylin tried to deal with Glondor and Gloin. However, Summer quickly determined that her arrows would bounce off another invisible barrier protecting the two Dwarves. And the others would similarly attempt to target Glondor with various spells, each dissipating harmlessly across the barrier. However, Merrick figured spells that were not projectiles might have a better chance, and managed to target the inside of the workshop with a Sickening Radiance spell, which was effective and put quite a dent in Glondor and Gloin before Glondor managed to dispel it. Glondor taunted Dain after Dain attempted to bring down the barrier with a Lightning Bolt, saying that he didn't have enough power to bring down the barrier, as it was being directly powered by the Flow Repository downstairs, and he could fling spells at it all day and never get anywhere. Gardain pulls another trick out of his hat, somehow manifesting another mark on his skin, which causes ice to form on his body, hardening his skin, to his shock. Glondor deploys a miniaturized ballista which begins pelting Dain with arcane bolts that pack a punch, and Gloin begins working to Counterspell Merrick's attempts to target Glondor while trying to target Merrick with some manner of spell, but he repeatedly fails, a fact which seems to anger his father Glondor, who repeatedly calls him a useless idiot.