202 The Fat Fence:
A note from Kuust advises the PCs that Mr Tinlea is out of town. Dilgaur and Cron, a pair of Boromar thieves come to the inn offering to sell an exquisitely worked sword which they “acquired”. X00 buys the blade and examines it over the course of the following days. Eventually he translates the inscribed words on the blade using his magics: It reads “The Keepers of the Past” on one side, and on the other “The Undying Council”. Further investigation reveals that the writing is ancient elven and that the sword is likely to be a family heirloom from a noble house of Valenar.
On the same evening as X00 buys the blade, a fence by the name of Sal Diveer approaches the group with a proposition. Mr Tinlea has crossed him and now holds four soarwood triptychs for which the Gnoll has not paid. Sal gives the PCs the address of a Daask flop-house which is being used to store the items. When the PCs raid this tiny dwelling, they find that a pair of black-robed warforged have beaten them to the prize, but only stolen two of the triptychs. They give the two triptychs to Sal and assure him that they will attempt to find the rest.
Asking around, Yaphet eventually discovers that a pair of warforged had been seen around a tower in Callestan. Investigation discovers a tower mostly populated by squatters but with a tidy street home to a gang of shifters. The group searches the tower fruitlessly until X00 notices a strange glow which is invisible to everyone else. Pinpointing the glow to the shifter area, Yaphet talks and bribes her way into the homely, rural shifter complex with X00. Watched by several bemused shifters, they recover an invisible box which only X00 can locate as well as the last two triptychs which had been recently plastered into the wall.
X00 examines the box and after much experimentation concludes that it exists on another plane which is somehow coterminous with the prime material plane. It interacts with psionic energy and psionicly aware individuals, but only he can see its glow. The mysterious voice in Law’s head is aware of it too; it calls the item “the Heresy” and says that it is dangerous.
203 Heresy:
After a succession of attempts to find out about “the Heresy” from the Church of the Silver Flame, the group is approached by a richly dressed woman named Seathis and her mithril, silver and rune inscribed warforged companion, the Spider. Seathis reveals that they stole the Triptychs from the flop-house and planted them and the invisible box in the shifter community for the PCs to find. This pair now hire the group to find a box of warforged parts stolen from House Cannith and last seen in the Grayflood area of Cliffside. A few hours investigation lead to a warehouse converted into a temple of the Silver Flame. However, while the priest seems genuine, the church has a large number of guards hired by a noble called Menen and who seem to be members of a dark cult to a being called Kizan. The components are recovered from a secret room containing other valuables.
204 What Lies Beneath:
After battling undead in the sewers, the PCs are hired to kidnap a magewright working for Daask in the Cogs. They descend to the Cogs and kidnap the pot-spicing magewright, Durleet Loth, but on their way back to Dura run into a fleeing waitress, pursued by a band of black-robed cultists. During the fight, Yaphet attempts to help, disguised as a goblin then an orc and screaming a battle cry of the Church of the Silver Flame, but is mistaken for an attacker by X00 and subdued by the group. Having rescued the maiden and captured their friend, the group returns to the surface, escorts the former to her home and workplace, and interrogates the latter.
During the interrogation, Law reveals that he once worked as an assassin for the Church until he became sick of the endless cycle of murdering people in their beds. When he refused to kill a target, he in turn became the target of Church assassins and went into hiding in the lower reaches of Sharn. Deciding to release the orc some distance from the Inn, Qrasity follows and speaks to Yaphet, before she vanishes into the night. The group descends to the Cogs once more to root out the cult who appear to have worshipped the same being as the cult they encountered in Cliffside. With information about the cult’s location from the waitress, Chri, they discover a large empty complex with dozens of bunks and a secret door leading further beneath the Cogs. The PCs interrupt a summoning ceremony in a large chamber divided by flows of lava, slay dozens of cultists fighting on a mezzanine floor overlooking the chamber and drive off the cult leader, a spellcaster and martial artist.
Claucee:
A half-orc Boromar block captain and food vendor. She serves a Karrnathi stew made of vegetables and unidentified meat. She is quite attractive except for a sizable facial scar from some childhood disease. She appears uncharacteristically cultured and polished.
The Cogs:
This section of the city, deep underground, is a honeycomb of passages, just wide enough for wagons. It is hot, smoky, and smells of sulphur, all by-products of the lava which serves much of the area’s industry. The unpleasant conditions result in a variety of similarly undesirable businesses such as tanneries and slaughterhouses, as well as a large population of warforged. Many buildings and wagons bear the mark of House Cannith.
Chri:
A waitress/stripper in Lower Dura
205 Turn, Turn, Turn:
The PCs are hired to destroy or spoil a shipment of exotic fruits and vegetables by a human named Muadeh. On their successful return, a Kalashtar named Nevitash awaits. He requests the PCs help in stopping a gang harassing the Kalashtar community in Gate of Gold. A reasonably thorough investigation of the gang arouses their suspicions regarding the Kalashtar’s motives, but when they approach the gang house disguised as Kalashtar, the hostile reaction of the inhabitants provokes a fight. The gang members fight with a disturbingly military structure and are led by a platemail-clad man, barking orders. After defeating the inhabitants and killing their leader, the group discovers a barracks-like arrangement, several chests of money and a secret door. Behind the door is a small room furnished only with a chair and its slumped occupant, the beaten, bloody and quite dead, Beljon d’Deneith.
While asking around about the gang, Xia notices the body of Durleet Loth hanging from a tower near Malleon’s Gate.
206 Awakening the Sleeper, Part 1:
The PCs fetch Kava and return to the gang barracks to show her the unpleasant sight of her dead friend. She identifies the man in platemail as Vic d’Deneith, one of Tolan’s men, who has been promoted to White Blade since she last met him. On the way back to the Inn again, they are ambushed by a Daask with accents indicating an origin outside Sharn. This is confirmed when they receive a note from Kuust at the Inn warning them of the attack, but which arrived too late. Seathis and the Spider return and offer to reveal the location of an ancient temple beneath Sharn, unlooted and sure to be filled with treasure. In return the PCs are to hand over any “items of scientific and intellectual curiosity”. Negotiating deadly traps and foul undead creatures, the PCs discover a wounded and unconscious humanoid in some form of magical stasis. When Qrasity touches the body, an ancient seal on a nearby door is broken and a voice tells him that he must destroy the creature sealed within.
207 Awakening the Sleeper, Part 2:
Beyond the sealed door, deep beneath Sharn, Yaphet masks the sonic powers of the hideous aberration with his bardic orations, the group destroys its physical form and dispatch it to its home plane. Returning from the depths with the body of the humanoid creature, the group is intercepted and attacked by the sorcerous cult leader and a number of borrowed followers. These were easily dispatched at the cost of several sacrificial victims whose life force had been bound to the sorceror by dark magic. These unfortunate “minions of Kizan” transformed into tortured, inhuman, monsters as foot-long, razor-sharp blades of bone erupted from their wrists and bony spines and ridges protruded from their bodies. From a surviving cultist, the PCs learn of the cult’s cell structure and that these cultists were borrowed from another cell. As he is about to reveal the location of this cell, the cultist’s head explodes wounding many with bone fragments.
208 Exposition Boulevard:
Seathis and the Spider return and request the body of the humanoid, a half-dragon, which they claim according to the agreement. Their patron authorises a release of information in gratitude.
“Thousands of years ago, before Humans arrived in Khorvaire, the Darkhaani Empire ruled the land. In general, they did not worship Gods as humans do but rather followed philosophical teachings. This temple belonged to one of the few religious sects acceptable to the central culture of the Empire. They taught respect for planar beings which verged on worship but did not wander into the fanaticism which the Darkhaani so despised.
It seems that this temple has been the site of various planar conjunctions over the years, one of which seems to have attracted the attention of a druidic sect. This sect were possibly related to the Gatekeepers, although his research could not determine this for sure. It seems that this sect sealed a planar gate within the temple and that the half dragon was part of the ritual to fix the seal. The group’s entry must have disturbed the seal and awoken the half dragon from his magical slumber. Without studying this creature and, if possible, speaking to it, he is unable to discover more.
Their patron is concerned primarily with discovering the secrets of the past to supplement his already considerable scientific and magical knowledge. While they cannot name him, they reveal that he holds high rank within House Cannith. The PCs gained his attention be virtue of the two warforged; he is always on the look out for enterprising warforged who seek to rise above the narrow stereotypes placed upon them by human society. He hopes that in time he will be able to discuss such matters with the group in person and apologises for the unfortunate need for secrecy in these matters, which is apparently best for the safety of both parties."
Shortly after, the PCs are on an errand when they see the woman in the red dress speaking with another woman. The former spots the PCs and flees, escaping Xia thanks to local knowledge and magical tricks. Subsequent discussion with her companion, a member of House Tarkanin (an elite criminal organisation modelled on the great houses) who refuses to give her name, reveals that the woman in the red dress’s name is Eulamin. She is a thief and con-artist from the upper levels of Sharn who frequently contracts third parties to unknowingly help her with her scams. She is often followed by black clad men whom she jokingly calls her protectors. Although they do not work for her, she knows who they do work for.
It appears that a tall blond man in an eye-patch is investigating the death of the warforged and the cloaked figure with the red blade.
209 Power Play:
Garret Garrot has learnt of the location of a cult cell. He offers to reveal this information, but in return, he has a job for the group: “A man named Lorez Reed has recently fallen in with Daask. He doesn’t realise how dangerous Daask is and needs a little persuasion. We want you to kidnap his sister.” Remembering the fate of the last person they kidnapped for the Boromar’s the group accepts, but devises a plan...
After the simple kidnapping, the PCs give Garrot their terms. They will hold the sister until the Boromar’s have dissuaded Reed of his intent to align with Daask. Garrot reluctantly agrees and introduces the group to a street urchin named Ruby who guides them to the entrance to an old water pumping station past which, the cult meets. Finding the corresponding location on the surface, the PCs assault the cultist temple and destroy the second cell. There is, however, a third...
Lorez Reed
A middle Dura politician. He has no major backers and seems prepared to deal with Daask. He is an important man, but ranks behind Councillor Hruit (who represents the Bazaar merchants), Jimmy Crev (the Boromar’s man) and Dorethe Rick (independent, but with upper level backers).
210 A Demonstration of Power:
On a busy daytime street, the PCs are attacked by a pair of Daask assassin: a minotaur and a harpy. They slay the former, but are forced to flee for their lives from the arcane powers of the latter.
Nursing their wounds at the Inn, a distraught woman named Tola comes to PCs with tail of woe. Her husband, Gaut, a skydock worker, has been missing for a week. Investigations show that Gaut was far from an ideal husband. His foreman describes his frequent alcohol induced absenteeism and his mistress reveals his low life companions. It seems that Gaut annoyed the wrong person, with fatal consequences. The PCs approach Garret Garrot with a few guarded hypotheses, and are told to stay out of it. The PCs do so and explain to Tola that her husband got mixed up in something and was probably killed.
Back at the Pride of Breland, an agent of the Brelish crown named Deltrinova meets the PCs and seeking information about the warforged’s amulet, and offering a substantial, but un-quantified, reward. The PCs promise to look into it.
211 Laundry Day:
Muadeh Ebby hires the PCs to deliver a package. On the return trip, a shoplifter is roughly ejected from the shop of a dwarven merchant. The dwarf retrieves his axe, but leaves the corpse. A large satchel attracts Yaphet’s attention and is found to contain a book marked with a symbol of Kizan. While the book is indecipherable, the package is marked with an address in the Cogs. The group raids the address, but finds only a few cultists present in a small dwelling. Subterfuge and trickery reveal the location of the cult temple, deep in the Cogs. After a bloody battle, a letter to the is discovered in the cult leader’s office:
My Dear Eloric,
I was most pleased to hear of your recent success. I trust your plans continue apace? I shall certainly be enjoining the Six to bless your progress in this matter. Rest assured that should you require my aid, you need only call. On the matter of the paraphernalia we spoke of, I shall be dispatching the book shortly. As usual I have ensorcelled it with the usual protections and misdirections should any of your congregation possess the relevant gifts. As to my own affairs, while they may lack the grandeur of your own association, they remain profitable enough. Our monstrous friends seem to have ceased their meddling in my affairs, perhaps due to a rather unhealthy fixation upon a band of troublemakers which their leader seems to have acquired. I suspect he will meet a bad end one of these days, which will of course, be to my pleasure and advantage. The expedition I alluded to previously will definitely be proceeding, it is now a matter of timing and the collection of last few pieces of information which I require to ascertain the location. I would very much appreciate the assistance of any promising believers you believe may be appropriate, but we shall speak of this on another occasion. Please pass my regards to Isabella.
May the Six guide, advise and protect you, Dorethe
212 For Whom the Ill Wind Blows:
Over next few days, the weather turns uncomfortable. A hot wind from the south, whistles up the hilt of the Dagger River. The piercing whistling noise makes it hard to sleep, with noticeable effects on the populace: people are tired, edgy, and hostile. Street violence increases. The nights and days are interrupted by random fights. Amidst this civic unrest, rumours abound: children are being kidnapped and sacrificed to dark cults, a major underworld operation is imminent, several people burst at the seams and explode into a pool of bugs, watch patrols go missing in the Bazaar.
The tall, blond, one-eyed man who the group had heard was asking about the fight between the warforged and the man with the red glowing sword approaches the PCs. He is given the same non-committal answer as Deltrinova.
A local arrives at the bar with a story about a group of Deneith Blademarks harassing shopkeepers and it seems that Deneith have finally recovered the body of the dead White Blade, Vic d’Deneith.
Kuust sends a message to the PCs in the mid afternoon – Mr Tinlea will be leading a group of Daask to Precarious to oversee the arrival of a shipment of Dragon’s Blood to Lower Dura. He doesn’t know exactly where or when but it will take place tomorrow evening. That evening, Garret also sends a message advising of a Daask operation in Precarious. Unwilling to cool their heels, the group seeks out the Daask operation themselves eventually, after some fruitless investigation, delayed messages and confusion, the PCs find Mr Tinlea and a strong Daask band on the move. They quickly devise an ambush and after a bloody battle, Mr Tinlea falls over the sdge of the cliff, cursing the group before crashing through the floating docks below, and into the deep water of the Dagger River.