Clover's Log
The party reunites!
Our surprise hosts haven’t fully relaxed, but they’ve been watching us since we entered what’s left of this city and have at least determined that we’re not an immediate threat. Their leader introduces herself as Taila, her two companions as Kellen and Bolis, who appears as though he’d just as soon kill us and be done with it as offer us tea and a bed for the night. Nevertheless, we’re making headway in our new diplomatic relations when the door splinters and comes crashing in at our feet. Just outside, lowering his large, metal foot, is none other than our long-slumbering Warforged, Keys. It seems he awoke to hearing Nyx and Brendel discussing how to enter the house and opted for the quickest solution. There’s a tense moment with our not-quite-friends, but Oman’s quick, silver tongue smooths the situation over.
Opening up, Taila reveals that the airships beyond the barrier belong to other elves who are sending information, spells, and weaponry through to our world to aid in the fight against the Church. Some are decoys so when the Church finds the pods they feel satisfied that they have confiscated what got through. In keeping with the pattern of everything we know being wrong, we also learn that elves call the Good Lady the Dark Lady. Unsurprising, given that we now know she is responsible not only for ordering the slaughter of all elves on sight but also the Shattering itself. Also unsurprising is that the Syndicate are simply pawns for the Church, an unfortunate revelation for Brendel, who recently decided to join their ranks. They want the scales for the Warforged regeneration nexus for their own purposes.
The news that struck me most is that they might have seen my father. Brendel sent a magical message to contact him and, miraculously, got a response. He is one day north of our current position and, from the sound of things, he is another Warforged, like the one we found in the underwater hideout in Rift City, the one who gave us our mission to find the dragon scales needed to fix the nexus. Unclear when I will get to meet my real, flesh-and-blood parents. If ever.
We head out looking for a building with emerald windows one day north of the piercing near the crescent remnant. We travel through the dwarven tunnels Brendel found for the first half of the day and eventually come out in a warehouse. As we begin to explore, frost starts creeping in, and we have the unsettling feeling that perhaps the monstrous and very deadly hoopers are nearby. Making a hasty exit, we come out into lush vegetation unlike anything we’ve seen out here so far. And we are in a city run by automatons. They are waiting for the return of their master, whom they don’t know but expect back any day. He seems to have been gone since before the Shattering a century earlier, so I fear they will be disappointed. Still, we may return to look into their files, as Nyx is fascinated by this place.
On our way out of town, I get the feeling we are being watched. Before I can determine the nature of the threat, some being made of what seems to be only shadow attacks. We win the fight, and I decide to stealthily run ahead to see about more trouble. And I find it. First, angels are circling above, and they’ve cornered some elves and Warforged in an old building. Unfortunately, one angel spots my companions on their way to my position, and we are drawn into battle. We manage to save one of the elves from the angel, but in the process, Keys is completely destroyed by a powerful magical weapon specially designed to dismantle his kind. We give the magic mace to Brendel in case we run across more hostile Warforged, pack up as much of Keys as we can salvage, and find the building where my “father” is hiding. As luck would have it, the building is an old Warforged factory. Perhaps we can restore our ally.