Chalice

In the city of Tiverton, a young Gnome tinkerer and a Warforged servant carying a box of scrolls walk down a busy street before stopping in front of a small metal house nestled tightly into the alley between two much larger stone buildings . The Gnome enters the house. The Warforged ducks to fit the Gnome-sized doorway and follows.   "Where would you like this, sir?" The Warforged asks.   "Back here on my desk." The Gnome replies, already climbing onto his stool.   The Warforged carefully walks to where the Gnome is seated, easily dodging the many tools, parts and contraptions hanging from the ceiling. The Warforged has been coming here for repairs for several years now and they are used to working around the clutter. They set the box on the desk and the Gnome begins digging through the scrolls before finding what he was looking for. He pulls an especially long scroll out and begins unrolling it onto his desk.   "This is it, Chalice!" The Gnome addresses the Warforged. "This is Sabar's big break! When I got the news that ol' uncle Calybar died and left me a box of his old work I knew it'd be something great."   "Was your uncle also a tinkerer? Are these schematics of some kind?" Chalice inquires.   "Calybar wasn't just a tinkerer, he was an artificer. And one of the best at that. In fact, his methods for creating automatons were likely used in creating you. In a way that makes us related!" Laughs Sabar. "But this..."   Sabar gestures to scroll laying open on the desk.   "This is his greatest work that he never completed."   Chalice leans in to examine the scroll. It appears to be schematics of some kind. Most of the scroll's contents go completely over Chalice's head, so they read aloud the one thing they do understand: the title.   "Imbuement of Sentient Automatons with Innate Arcane Capabilities... Indefinitely Discontinued. Why was his work discontinued?"   "I'm not exactly sure. It looks like he was nearly finished. Perhaps he wasn't able to work when his health started to fail? No matter. I'm certain I'll be able to complete his work and once it's finished I'll be able to turn you from an ordinary servant into a spell slinging machine."   "Are you certain this is safe? Or that it will even work?" Chalice asks while tilting his head skeptically.   "Of course it will! And then the artificer guilds will be lining up to get me to join!"   Chalice pauses for a moment to think. If this works then they would never have to serve drinks to an ungrateful noble again.   "I trust you, Sabar. What is the worst that could happen?"   Upon successfully granting Chalice spellcasting abilities following several months of work, the two go to show their results to the top artificer guild in the city. A noble responsible for funding the guild decides to sit in on the demonstration of Chalice's abilities. Sabar and Chalice decide to show off Chalice's quick mastery of the shield spell. Sabar uses a wand of magic missle on Chalice for them to block. Chalice cast shield as they have practiced and the missles are blocked, but something else happens as well. Upon casting shield a wave of black energy emenates from Chalice and everyone in the room screams in pain as their veins pulse with necrotic energy. The noble and Sabar collapse to the ground... dead. In their panic, Chalice begins to run and guards give chase. They are able to escape and leave the city, their home, but can now never return.