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C1 Ep. 10 Seeking the Teacher Chapter 2
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Beric, Dex, and Draconos have tracked down Drac’s old mentor Crast, but other things are happening as Crast is on the trail of a serial killer! How will our heroes convince him to abandon his investigation, or will they have to solve the mystery first? Find out this week on Eberron Renewed!
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Transcript
Introduction and Setting the Tone
00:00:00
Speaker
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. Frederick Douglass
Episode Introduction and Recap
00:00:34
Speaker
D20 radio, your game is roll.
00:00:52
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to episode 10 of Eberron Renewed, an actual play D&D 5th edition podcast set in the Eberron campaign setting. I am your dungeon master, Eric. I'm Philip. I'm Trevor. Jeff's my name. And welcome. Welcome to another episode of Eberron Renewed. So gentlemen, what happened last time? We arrived in Sharn, the city of towers, in the quest to find Draconis's mentor, Krast. Yes.
00:01:20
Speaker
So we started out going to the Temple of the Silver Flame. We took a taxi ride up, which was a fun adventure for me. He yacked up everything everywhere. Very true. And then we talked to a lovely cleric.
00:01:41
Speaker
And I had to be blessed and then we she said where he told us where he thought My mentor would be and then we took another taxi all the way down yards to yak them everything everywhere yes, and then he got there we walked around and
Dex's Dark Moment and New Sword
00:02:02
Speaker
Okay, and things got dark, and I assume by this point that this episode drops, I have received feedback about how dark Dex went to a place. We were accosted in an alley by some bullies, and it didn't go well for them. Bullies? I like thinking of them as bullies. Not like thugs or something. Well, they weren't really a thread.
00:02:29
Speaker
It's not bad if we kill them if they're poolies. We didn't kill any of them. That's right. That's true. We didn't kill, oh, one of them. And we also didn't, I'm so mad I didn't ruffle through his stuff. But anyway, we had an altercation that went, I think, pretty well. And I'm gonna be picturing that for a while. But anyway, so, and then, yeah, we found, well, we found Krast and that's where we ended the episode, but we skipped over something that
00:02:55
Speaker
did yeah yeah i had a moment um and vision a fugue yes uh and received a sword my packed boon from a hooded entity that maybe is my warlock patron i don't know
00:03:15
Speaker
But I received a sword called Cursebringer that I can summon at my leisure. And yeah, we don't really know much about it yet other than I'm supposed to use it to take the light from those who misuse it and destroy servants of the darkness.
00:03:37
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not really entirely sure what's going on yet, but received some very vague, mysterious hints about my family.
Crime Scene Investigation
00:03:46
Speaker
Okay, so where we last left off, Krast was taking you all away from the crime scene. Everyone give me perception checks real quick as you begin to walk away and follow Krast. 13. 25. 8.
00:04:02
Speaker
Okay, Dex, you are the only one that notices as you're walking away, you see a couple people approaching the crime scene that are wearing similar insignias, like they're clearly in a uniform of some kind. You instantly recognize it just existing this world, that these are agents of House Kaneth, which is the Dragon Marked House that created the Warforged.
00:04:25
Speaker
during the last war. And they begin to pick up the body and remove it from the crime scene. I just say, I'm sorry, what would I call him? I assume I wouldn't call him Krast yet. What's the proper terminology for this? I mean, he's an agent of the Citadel, so probably Agent Wote. Agent Wote, is that standard protocol there? I just want to make sure it's on the up and up. Yeah. All of the warforged that have been
00:04:54
Speaker
killed that this is not the first one have been taken to the there's a Kenneth representative down here taken to his his hold where they are holding all the bodies. All right. I just wanted to make sure. Thanks. Yeah.
00:05:09
Speaker
So you all approach a small rather unassuming building.
The Red Hammer Inn and Prophecy
00:05:14
Speaker
There's a sign over the door that pictures a bright red hammer and underneath it says red hammer in. As you all walk in, you're kind of struck by the scene that's
00:05:46
Speaker
automated soldiers. And so in their body armor is the insignia of the various nations that they were sold to. And so you see insignia of Carnath, of Khair, Breland, Thrain, all of them existing together. There's a Carnathi warforged kind of fixing some shoulder plating on a Thrainish warforged. And so this is very jarring. You normally wouldn't see people from these nations just existing like this together without any tension whatsoever.
00:05:47
Speaker
going on inside.
00:06:15
Speaker
You described this as an in what what do they do here since warforged don't sleep or it appears to be kind of a repair station Okay, there's a small forge over in the corner tools around there there is a bar set up in case non warforged to come in and there's a warforged behind there that kind of nods and says
00:06:38
Speaker
Agent Wote, looks like you have brought guests with you. And he kind of nods, and this is Crucible, the bartender, and kind of signals to you all to introduce yourselves.
00:06:53
Speaker
Hi. Sparky, don't be rude. Introduce yourself. Hi. My name is Draconis. Draconis. But you can call him Sparky. Because God knows I'm going. Guys, it's just for him. OK, fine. That's me. Hi.
00:07:13
Speaker
A baric rolling. A mile. Crassed. Looks like reasonable. It's as if we can get around over at my normal table. These gentlemen I think are going to help me with the investigation. Uh, oh, wait. Okay. Take a seat.
00:07:31
Speaker
That's what you think in there, huh? Okay. Well, um, no, yeah, we need something from him. So, well, and he sits down and, um, sort of asks you all, so you all came here looking for me. Um, what do you need?
00:07:52
Speaker
We don't actually know. Yeah, we're really not sure. Did you, do you still have the, uh, the thing that, that Graham Graham told us what Graham cracker? What's her name? Graham Graham. Oh, well, what's wrong with Graham Graham? Honestly, for your character, nothing. I'd call her Graham Graham. It said the fiend blood must find the shaper of his kind of his own. I thought maybe. Um, did you write down the whole thing?
00:08:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I have kind though. So apparently I have some errors here. Fiend blood must find the shaper of his own. The darkness will creep into the light. The light that holds the shadow must venture into the darkness to stop the sun from snuffing out. Okay, you're missing an opening line to protect the youth. The fiend blood must find the shaper of his own.
00:08:49
Speaker
I listened, I mean, I've listened to each of these episodes a lot so that I can do the, buying the curtain. The Eberron Reviewed, that's such a good name. That is certainly what it'll be from now on. I love it. So, Barak, you relay that to him and what kind of vision did she get that she described that, like, what vessel brought this to her?
00:09:13
Speaker
Feel like she said it was a creature a humanoid dish creature appeared to her, but it could have just been a voice But I think there was actually a corporeal be in corporeal being I thought was just a dream side. I got nothing Eric Eric does not or I don't remember Eric might well I I served in the last war and I
00:09:38
Speaker
Did you share your last name? I said it when I introduced myself to the bartender. So Crass definitely took note of that. I served in the last war and I was nearly mortally wounded in battle at the Battle of Butterfield with, I believe, somebody that you share blood with, Beric. Yeah.
00:10:07
Speaker
I was caught behind enemy lines and when I was finally resting up after some people saved me, I had a vision as well about having to harness the light to prevent the shadows from growing large. That was actually the next day when I woke up is when I dedicated myself to the Silver Flame. I did not have religion prior to that.
00:10:38
Speaker
I was just a soldier. And, um, so I, I feel like whatever Graham has to offer, like she, she sent you to find me for a reason because I share something with
Crast's Vision and Suspicions
00:10:51
Speaker
her. Uh, the vision was brought to me by, it was a woman's voice coming from a figure made of brilliant silver lights that told me that. So I would, you know, now that you mention it, I believe that's what Graham said. I believe so. Okay.
00:11:06
Speaker
That's that's actually that did jog my memory that that was said that's not just me. Oh sure yup yup yup yup, but And the reason I said what I said crucible I
00:11:19
Speaker
I'm an agent of the King Citadel now. I'm not a roaming paladin like I used to be, just righting wrongs and helping those in need. So I have a duty here first. Okay. Sparky, you haven't changed since the day we parted. I would have laughed harder, but I got a stern look.
00:11:45
Speaker
But I need to finish up this case. Now he kind of looks around and lowers his voice. The murders aren't the reason I'm down here. The murders started up not too long ago, but I'm investigating a group named the Swords of Liberty.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah, actually, we were told that by a priest up top. The warforged down here don't know that. They think I'm just here investigating the murders. The Swords of Liberty are a militant group that want democracy to reign over Greenland. But they go about it in their terrorists. They go about it through violent means. And the king obviously wants them dealt with.
00:12:35
Speaker
I think that the Swords of Liberty are behind the murders because I've heard murmurings amongst their ranks that they don't believe in warforged sentience. They think that there's a switch somewhere that somebody could flip to bring the warforged to heel. And so if they made a move against the King of Breeland, they would flip that switch and all the warforged would suddenly be soldiers for their use again. That's obviously
00:13:02
Speaker
nonsense, but that's the conspiracy theory. And he kind of sits back up and starts talking normally again.
00:13:14
Speaker
In terms of the murders, I'm not the only one with thoughts on what's going on, and in fact, my liaison, since I've been down in the Cog Spruce, can bring some more light. I'm sorry, Spruce? Spruce. All right. Do I know Spruce at all? No. Okay. And you see a warforged walk over to the table.
00:13:35
Speaker
He has this intricate tree-like design on his forehead going up over the top half of his head, and brilliant yellow eyes shining, and he sits down. Hi, I'm Spruce. Nice to meet you all. I'm feeling you two are going to get along really well. I very much believe that as well. It's almost like Krast is drawn to a certain type of person for his proteges.
00:14:04
Speaker
Crass called me over here. I'm assuming you all have come to help help us figure out the murders. I mean, that's why we're here now. Yeah, like that's not why that's not the why but it's the wherefore. Well, you notice like in spite of his voice and his kind of disposition. There is a tired nature to him almost burdened.
00:14:30
Speaker
his demeanor doesn't quite match his vocals, essentially. This is Jeff. Hi, I'm Jeff. They're not still cranking out Warforged, right? If there is a Warforged, it was built for the war, it fought in the war. You know this as a person that lives in this world. Right. Part of the Treaty of Thronehold was that no more Warforged could be made. Okay, so any Warforged we see has
00:14:54
Speaker
battle experience in the 100 years war what's it called last war the last war yeah okay just want to make sure yeah okay well I'm glad that you are here I mean it's it's really scary almost half the warforged that live in sharn live down here in the black bones and
00:15:13
Speaker
Um, we're just trying to, trying to make it. We, we were made to follow orders and once we were given freedom, most of us didn't know what to do with it. So we're just trying to find honest work and do what we can to make it. And these murders have been, everybody's terrified. We don't know why or how it's happening. Um,
00:15:40
Speaker
Are we sure it wasn't Barashia? He hates warforged. He hates a specific... I know. But I'm sure you saw outside, Krast went to go investigate. His name was Leatherneck that was killed.
00:16:04
Speaker
The humans have this urban legend down here in the black bones called Jack and Irons that is this supposedly ghostly figure that
00:16:19
Speaker
hates Warforged because he was a smith down here and the story is really long and drawn out, but essentially he hates Warforged because we are great workers. We don't tire, we don't need to eat, we don't need to take a break.
00:16:36
Speaker
A lot of people think it's a ghost killing people. Which... Interesting. Sife, over there, thinks that the humans that work over at the Tain Foundry are behind it. I just would like to stop being afraid, personally. I don't care who's doing it, but it needs to stop. Well, yeah, I mean... Hey, Phyllis, can we have a quick conference? Yes.
00:17:05
Speaker
We'll be right back. One second. Okay. I mean, we still don't know what we're supposed to get from Krast.
Agreeing to Investigate Murders
00:17:14
Speaker
We're here. The more we're able to spend time with him, the more we might understand what's going on. So I mean, are we getting this now? Well, and I've known him for a long time. And
00:17:27
Speaker
There's nothing that we could say that would get him To not finish something. He's said he's gonna do sure So if we want anything and also I feel real bad for spruce. I don't want him to be scared anymore either I know I like him
00:17:45
Speaker
Barrick, are we in? I think so. All right. We'll do it. Great. I spit in my hand here. Put it up. Spruce has been here longer than me. There were a few killings before I got down here, so he's honestly one of the most knowledgeable people I know in regards to what's been going on.
00:18:12
Speaker
Um, if you, if you want to ask him some questions, um, because I, I unfortunately have to deal with some paperwork and things like that in regards to, and sending communication back to the Citadel about leathernecks murder. Um, but if you all want to hit the street and get a start on this, you can, or you can wait for me. It's up to you. But, um, yeah, spruce is a great, a great guy to know.
00:18:41
Speaker
Um, okay. Well, good luck. I guess we'll hang out with Sprucey. Well, no, he's not leaving. Oh, I thought you said he was going and checking out. No, I mean, he, he has to wait for the Kenneth people to get back to him with their autopsy and stuff like that. So, um, how, how many murders have there been so far?
00:19:00
Speaker
Oh wait, hang on, I'm sorry. Do we know if Spruce knows the real reason, or does Spruce also just think that Kast is here solely to investigate the murders? I mean, Kast told you that the Warforged don't know why he's here, so you would be under the impression that Spruce would probably think that he's- Also that, okay, I just didn't know since he's his Prodigator's Ward or whatever.
00:19:24
Speaker
Yeah, and I know you said Projekt. Is he training him to be religious or be a power? No, he's just training him to replace you.
00:19:32
Speaker
Well, because I need to know... He's got a drag-shaped hole. It is hard. Well, actually, like, because if he were to pick up another protege in the sense of, like, picking up another paladin, he would probably think of him, like, as a brother type thing. So I need to know my... Just somebody he's taken under his wing. Okay. All right. How many murders have there been? When did they start?
Murder Patterns and Theories
00:19:53
Speaker
The murders started four weeks ago, and Leatherneck was the eighth murder in the past four weeks.
00:20:02
Speaker
Yeah, about two a week. Pretty consistent? Yeah. Every Wednesday and Friday, they're dead. Well, we're not that consistent, but I mean, it's not like seven people died in the first week and now 11x died. Right, right. It seems like it's happening where people are. At least the one we saw wasn't in a back alley, you know? It was kind of like
00:20:26
Speaker
Well, that's a good question. Did the murder happen there? Did they move the warforged to be seen? You know what I mean?
00:20:44
Speaker
But the killer moves abnormally quickly. Like people can't get a beat on him. And yeah, they can't quite make out who's doing it. Usually they're heavily dressed, cloaked, that sort of thing to where they can't be seen.
00:21:04
Speaker
deck slowly shrugs off his cloak. Because like, they're like busting through like the chest of the warforged. Yeah. And ripping off arms like, when that's like in a second, like double handed rip and run away. I mean, I don't know that. But you know, I feel like there have been so little clues left behind.
00:21:31
Speaker
I don't think a human did it. I don't think a living thing did it because it's too, too well done. There's no clues. There's no footprints. There's nothing like that. It's I'm not superstitious, but I am a little stitches. Is there a lighthouse around here?
00:21:56
Speaker
Not nearby, there's one a couple levels up. Okay, I'm just absolutely certain that's where the murderer lives. Is there by any chance? There is an abandoned carnival. Is there an abandoned amusement park anywhere nearby? We're scaring Draconos. No, seriously guys, is there an abandoned amusement park? I don't know what you guys are talking about, but I don't like it.
00:22:16
Speaker
I'm just assuming this is going to run like a Scooby-Doo mystery. Yeah, we're the meddling kids. Krast and you're our stoner doll. Yeah, you're absolutely Scooby. Krast kind of interjects himself at this point and says, well, as much as I would like to think it's a ghost and we could, you know, get a priest in here to take care of it and banish it or whatever.
00:22:43
Speaker
Ghosts aren't this malicious. I mean, body parts are missing. They're gruesome murders. I feel like Dex would, and you may make me roll for this, be putting things together, things coming and going that quickly, having just learned about interplanar travel. Like, I want to ask if he's versed in that sort of thing, and if he thinks that might be... Would I get to roll to see if I'm picking up on that, or can I just ask? Because I can ask. I think that Dex has...
00:23:12
Speaker
Is there a chance, now we've recently come across some instances of interplanar travel, I mean, very recently, about 30 minutes ago, some neat things happened. But is there a chance that that's what's going on here? They're popping in, doing some damage and popping out? I mean, or have you seen reason to believe that's not the case? I mean, if they had a doorway open to another portal, why not take the body with them?
00:23:41
Speaker
I mean, I mean why why leave anything behind if you can just Take take your murder victim into a plane or portal if they're just trying to scare them Yeah, I mean was what we don't know their their goal. Maybe it is too frightened there. You said yourself That these are I kind of look over at spruce like you know the thing we were talking about you said you use the word terrorist This is inciting terror
00:24:08
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that is possible. I can see what you're saying. Is there any consistency in the trophies that he's taking? No other – it's different parts that are being taken.
00:24:25
Speaker
There's no consistency to that other than, generally speaking, there has been a limb missing and then some other part of the body taken.
00:24:39
Speaker
Um, from what I can tell though, um, that that's a theory that I had early on when I first started investigating the murders. But as they continued, they're not collecting, there's been some repeat parts. Like they would have three right arms at this point, but it would be the right arm and then a different internal piece. And none of the victims have been, uh, decapitated.
00:25:02
Speaker
Things like like there's um, there's some inconsistencies with that theory. I think Dex is you know wheels spinning still He says uh, you know, I'm not proud of some parts of my past you guys know some things about me But I can't do this part in character. I just need to explain what I'm thinking. Um, that's right
00:25:22
Speaker
Given his thieves guild past and things like he may I don't think he ran with Assassins, but he was certainly aware of the the people who had the that specialty and that's what this sounds like to him is It's not interplaner. It's not like I wanted to ask that but I think I think I think he'd say I Mean it sounds like you're just dealing with it was a very very trained very stealthy
00:25:49
Speaker
uh, killer, uh, somebody who's put a lot of time and effort into learning the ways of, uh, in circles I used to run, we called them assassins. That's what they are. Uh, but it's very specialized. It's, it's get in, get them dead, get out. Yeah. Uh, I think I, and they're tricky to track down, but we're here to help.
00:26:08
Speaker
And, uh, we're on it for you. So, um, spruce are actually crass continues as well. If you want to go to the heart of, of what I think is the beast with the swords of Liberty, they're actually stationed out of dragon eyes district. Um, it's in lower Tavok landing, a level up, um,
00:26:29
Speaker
So they're not based down here. I can't get close enough in that district because the Swords of Liberty know my face. I've been on their trail for a while now. So if we are going to investigate them closer, you all could certainly do that because they wouldn't know your faces. Is there consistency in the weapon being used?
00:26:55
Speaker
No, because it's it's almost like tearing. I mean, an early theory that I had was it was bestial in nature. We had an wild animal down here.
00:27:08
Speaker
Um, cause there are animals that subsist off of organic matter, like wood, even non-organic items like metal. So it's, it's not entirely impossible for something to be eating warforged, but once again, it seems too consistent and the internal
Questioning Motives and Suspects
00:27:27
Speaker
stealing seems too surgical. Well, it's not eating them. Well, the limbs that have been cut off are gone. So, are the Sons of Liberty swords of liberty?
00:27:45
Speaker
Accepting of all kinds that are not warforged. Are we gonna be able to talk to people with all a Sparky here? Um, yeah, they they take all kinds anybody that's willing to help with the cause As long as you hate the monarchy then they'll take you in
00:28:05
Speaker
All right. Um, spruce times and says, um, there are some, some other theories aside from the swords of Liberty, just because they don't live here. Yeah. They hate war forged, but there are some more forage that live in their district that haven't been killed just down here. So yeah. Um, we, no offense.
00:28:29
Speaker
Maybe think that it might not be the Swords of Liberty. And so if you want to talk to the other people that are here that have been kind of closer to the murders and have opinions on it, you can.
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah. So he points out three warforged in particular. There's scythe. Everyone give me a perception check real quick. We're doing that when you said no offense. I heard KNOW. No. And then fence. And I was like, man, they've sentient fences in this land. You said perception. Yes. I got 13, 6, 12. OK. All of you notice
00:29:17
Speaker
Scythe has the same markings that Barash pointed out on the Warforged that attacked the train as marking them as servants of the War of Blades.
00:29:29
Speaker
So yeah, there's there's scythe and there's twig over there and he points to a warforged sitting in the corner that is easily six seven Like and covered in adamantine plating like this was he was a big deal back in the war This is and his name is twig. I like and he's actually the only warforged in the establishment wearing clothing He's wearing orange and teal robes and lastly and I have to ask you to
00:29:58
Speaker
Be gentle, well Twig found Leatherneck. And so he's still recovering from that, but any questions you have about the murder scene before anyone else got involved, just
00:30:13
Speaker
be delicate. He found found him but did not witness it is what you're saying. No, he his story has been kind of inconsistent. He claims that he saw something but then says that he came upon the body. So you may want to talk to him. And then lastly, I have to ask you to go easy on on this guy. Um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um,
00:30:40
Speaker
Warforged a little bit taller not quite as tall as twig, but he's his plating is copper rather than traditional warforged metal and So yeah, he he almost you would you would call him gaunt if he had cheekbones and things like that like very skinny lanky Do we each want to take one and split it up just do it real quick Okay, or do we want to go with group teach one?
00:31:11
Speaker
We can split up, I don't mind. Yeah. Alright, who do you want?
00:31:18
Speaker
Who do you want me to have? Honestly, Draconos, I would prefer you not talk to Twig, but the other two. That's fine. He's a little big, a little scary. Yeah, take your pick. Yeah, he's scary. Look at you. My horns are beautiful. I think he should talk to Umber personally. Okay. Because the other one might be a terrorist.
00:31:41
Speaker
Right, right, right. What was the first one? No, you got the skinny one with the copper. Yeah, no, no, no. What size has Lord of Blades markings? That's what I forgot what his name was. I'll talk to Umber. I'll take Twig because, I mean, honestly, out of character, you know more about Lord of Blades, and Beric would know more about Lord of Blades. That's fair. And have better questions for Scythe, if that works for you. Yeah, it's fine.
00:32:08
Speaker
All right, so where do we want to start, Eric? I mean, who wants to jump in first? All right, I'm going to walk over, Twig. I'm going to say, hi. Spruce goes with you. Spruce goes with me. Okay, okay. Yes. Excuse me, I'm sorry, Twig. Spruce told me that I should come and talk with you. First off, I just want to say I'm very sorry for what you went through today. That's really, really terrible and really difficult. But having said that, we need to get some clarification.
00:32:37
Speaker
I know you already talked with Krast and probably with Spruce and with who knows who else can it people, but I'd like to hear your story as well, please. Well, I saw Leatherneck on the ground.
00:32:57
Speaker
I still saw a figure looming over him. I saw it from a distance and I didn't know what I was looking at, so I called out and the figure took off. I was within feet of dying. How big a assailant would you say? I mean, you're a very large person. Were they your size? Smaller than me.
00:33:28
Speaker
For reference, Dex is like 5'10". So, you could say? A little bit bigger than you. Okay, alright.
00:33:42
Speaker
Okay, um, did you and then so you saw you did, did you see him killed or did you see him? He was already dead and you just happened to catch it right at the last moment. I rounded a corner and he I saw
00:34:02
Speaker
Leatherneck on the ground. I didn't see the killing blow. I didn't see how he was killed. Did you see if the attacker had? Obviously you know that there are pieces of Leatherneck missing. Did you see did the attacker have his arm as he ran off? When you mention pieces of Leatherneck missing, Twig just breaks down.
00:34:23
Speaker
and starts sobbing, and Spruce kind of puts a hand on his shoulder and turns to you and says, if you want to know more about the bodies, you can go check out Slogar's Forge Hold. That's the can of house where they're taking them. But I think, unfortunately, Slogar's Forge Lord is not going to be able to tell me if they saw
00:34:45
Speaker
the attacker with the arm. If you'll answer the one last question for me, I will leave you, leave you be. When I talked to him when I first saw him, he just said he didn't see a weapon. He didn't see anything. The figure just ran off. All right. Well, I whiffed on that one, guys. Cut. Two. Hi. Do, um, Draconos and Umber. Hi, Umber.
00:35:12
Speaker
He just kind of his neck snaps and looks at you and like snap snaps like just okay like pops up like he just instantly kills himself hot they seek to tear us apart that's not good who's who's they they want to divide us
00:35:35
Speaker
I gotta tell ya, I'm not 100% on intelligence, so I'd love- could we not play the pronoun game? I need more specifics, if that's okay. He just kind of looks around, not looking you in the eye, and then comes back and... They tainted us. Are- are you okay? He just stares at you.
00:36:05
Speaker
Can I stand on a chair? I'm short. So like, can I, cause you said he's like, how tall? Tall and lanky. I mean, he's, he's a little bit taller than, um, than probably you. Like not, not as big as twig, but I mean, he's not a monstrous figure that looms over you.
00:36:24
Speaker
Oh, okay. Because I think my character is like 5'8", so he's kind of... Well, I mean, he's probably around 6' even. Oh, 6' even. Maybe a little bit shorter, but... All of my friends. Cool. Okay, so then, never mind the chair thing. Give me a perception check. Okay. 16. You notice in his hand kind of clutching, he has like a...
00:36:53
Speaker
a bag. And you hear jingling in it, but he's like clutching onto it. And it's kind of shaking as he looks around. Okay. But that's just something you notice about about him. Can I want to reach up and just kind of touch like the side of his arm? Oh, before you touch him, he recoils says
00:37:16
Speaker
They want to tear us apart. And then Umber like backs away and tries to get out of the way from you. Hey, hey, hands here. Hands are up. I'm not going to touch you. I eat. Oh, he's just like. Yeah. OK. Oh, well. Goodbye. We're like point five for two at this point.
00:37:43
Speaker
Barrick walks over to Scythe. Do you mind if I sit down? What do you want fleshy? I'm looking to find out who killed these warforged.
00:38:02
Speaker
Well, that's an easy solution. Go to Tane's Foundry and kill the guards over there. Why are the ones killing Warforged? And why do you think it's them? Because you fleshies hate us. We work harder. We work longer. We're not weak. You know, my, uh, my ma said that, uh, the Warfire she served under her were some of the most remarkable individuals she ever met.
00:38:31
Speaker
Yeah, we are remarkable. Uh, so I'll walk in through here seeing, seeing some of you on the street begging, seeing some of you killed. Uh, I know it would tear her up and.
Scythe's Accusations and Tensions
00:38:49
Speaker
So I'm trying to do right here. So I'm looking to find the real person responsible for it. And if your only basis for blaming people attains foundry is the assumption that all humans hate you. Well, you're not from down here. I'm not. Okay. You know, you want to know why the war forged are begging out the street because some of the foundries have decided that they don't like the fact that we're cheap labor.
00:39:19
Speaker
that can work harder and longer than what they call normal creatures. So they stopped hiring Warforged because it was bad PR. Dragon marked houses don't want Warforged workers. People terrified of us because we were made to kill. And now we try to leave that life behind, do something better. And people still recoil at us, fear us.
00:39:47
Speaker
Yeah, that's why Warforged get murdered down here. Because of fear, anger. Because of what we are, what we were made to do. So you want to do right by us? Go talk to the people at Tain's Foundry. I'm going to. Good. But.
00:40:10
Speaker
I would like more to go on than that. For example, I believe you. I believe there are people who murder warforged out of nothing but spite. In fact, I know it to be true. I believe there are people who don't hire warforged out of nothing but spite.
00:40:26
Speaker
But what's going on here doesn't seem random. It doesn't seem inspired just by random hate. Someone's doing something peculiar. They're mutilating warforged corpses to send a message to their warforged. Get out of black bones. Get out of sharn. Go crawl in a hole somewhere. And we found our hole. And we want to make sure that we find exactly the person who's doing this because if I go
00:40:54
Speaker
Let's say I do what you advise. I go over and I just kill everyone I find at Taines Foundry. And then it's not them. Well, then I haven't done you any good. For one thing, I've shut down a foundry. And maybe one day, a different owner comes around, wants to hire a warforged. Well, that's done you no good there. And if I haven't killed the right people, then I haven't stopped the murders. Oh, don't get me wrong. Taines Foundry hires warforges. They're not one of the ones that
00:41:24
Speaker
throughout the cheap labor, but they treat them like machinery. More warforged have died in the past four weeks inside that foundry than the horrible murders that happened out in the street. Well, that's, that's dreadful. But if I may say so, it would seem to me that if they were out for killing warforged, they're doing a fine enough job mistreating them in the foundry and have no need to hunt them in the street.
00:41:53
Speaker
So whoever's doing this is doing it in the street. It's not doing it in the foundry. He's not doing it cheap and legal by overworking him. It's something different.
00:42:07
Speaker
Give me an investigation check real quick. That'll be a 20. You notice as you're kind of watching scythe rant, the insignia that you initially noticed that marked him as Lord of blades follower. It, it looks different from the ones that you saw on the ones that attacked the train. This looks hand carved almost as if it was done to himself. Uh,
00:42:34
Speaker
and you also notice as you kind of glance around, you see some other figures kind of standing in the corners paying close attention to your interaction. Since my interaction is over, can I roll to see if I also notice that to kind of be on guard? Because even if we went concurrently, my interaction is over by now. Yeah, go and give me an investigation check.
00:43:00
Speaker
It's 24. Okay, yeah. You can see some figures just eyeballing Beric and Scythe in their conversation. Okay, I have my eye on that now. Are they war-forged? Yes. Okay, just a second. We're the only non-war-forged in here, right? You three in Krasst are the only non-war-forged in the place, so... Not all the war-forged work attains Foundry. If they wanted to ensure that their boss couldn't bring in more cheap labor, and he's forced to hire humans again, because all the humans that used to work in the Foundry are now on guard duty, standing around with swords in their hands,
00:43:31
Speaker
Then, and they make a lot worse wage than if they were actually working in the foundry. Then it makes sense that they would take matters in their own hands and try to get all of the warforged to leave Blackbones so their boss has to hire humans again. That does make sense. And I am absolutely going to go look into Tane's foundry.
00:43:52
Speaker
Are there any other leads you can think of that I should run down if that one proves to be a dead end? No other leads worth mentioning. A lot of people in here have stories of ghosts and beasts and whatever. They're lying to themselves because they don't realize that people like you hate people like us.
00:44:13
Speaker
I would like to say that at least people like me do not. But, can I ask you, do you know anything about the swords of liberty operating in here? I heard a suggestion from someone that they might be involved in this somehow. Swords of liberty don't operate down here in the cogs. Whoever told you that is living in a fantasy world. Alright. They operate to have explaining. Alright. Any reason to believe that they would hunt Warforged?
00:44:42
Speaker
Other than being, I mean, same reasons I just laid out other than they don't work in the foundry. So there's less motivation, but they probably still hate war forged. Any other criminal organizations over here that might have something to gain from, from killing off war forged. Y'all are rather intimidating as it were.
00:45:07
Speaker
There's not. I mean, there's thugs. There's groups that try to run the streets, run protection rackets, things like that. But none of them have a problem with the war forged there. There is much of a prize. We are in the city. I mean, go up 2000 feet. You're not going to find anybody that looks like me. Looks like a minotaur. Ork, we're down here. Wow.
00:45:34
Speaker
To that, I would suggest you consider that standing next to the king at all times, there is a warforged. Is that nothing? Well, I mean, it's a great PR stunt. This warforged paladin. Oh, we have a soul. Like people need affirmation of that.
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah, it might be a war forged might be somebody in really neat looking armor. That's a parlor trick. I've never seen it face to face. I've heard the stories. I've read the stories in the paper. I don't care. Because that's one war forged out of how many citizens? That's fair. So yeah, go check out Tain's Foundry.
00:46:25
Speaker
We'll do that. I was going to say, I'm a drink. I thought the same thing. Buy an oil can. What was my twig? I was like, I'm going to get him a drink. I'm going to get him some lacquerum down. Is Crest still in here? Like him and? Yeah, Crest is waiting on a representative from. What was his name? Sponge? Slogar. Spruce. Spruce. Yeah. Sprucey.
00:46:53
Speaker
No, just spruce. You don't just get to give people nicknames immediately. Some people don't like that. Spruce is one of them. I've decided.
00:47:00
Speaker
He seems kind of happy. He just said that he was like a deep, intense, tired fatigue is always on him. Yeah, but I hear the voice. So because my interaction was very short, so I did not go and join. I went and sat down. I didn't join either. I mean, I wasn't listening. I didn't pick up on any of that. No, I think that we all regroup and share experiences.
00:47:26
Speaker
Can I- I wanna ask Spruce, um, about, um, Umber.
00:47:34
Speaker
And do you know like something he was I just tried to kind of comfort him a little bit and like reach my hand out and I couldn't even get my arm fully extended before he Ran away and he keeps he kept saying Like they're gonna take parts of us Which I mean I can kind of assume what he's talking about, but he would never say who they are
00:48:00
Speaker
Are like have you have you talked to him? Do you kind of need a grasp? Um umber umber's mind is broken I I think something happened in his creation or in the war. Why does it look so different? Um, I I can't tell you that I mean uh there they did a lot of Experimenting with warforged to try and make us different or better. He was like a beta. Um, yes, possibly I I haven't seen any other like him
00:48:27
Speaker
But I think his mind's just broken. That's how he talks. That's how he is. He speaks in vague riddles almost of just the plight of the warforged. I mean, he's right. These murders are tearing us apart as a people. I mean, Scythe has gotten dozens of new recruits to the Lord of Blades because people are scared and they think it is people killing them.
00:48:57
Speaker
And so, yeah, they're getting angry. So, I mean, yeah, it is tearing us apart. Like, that's one of the things he says so often. It exposes our flaws, things like that. He's right. He just can't communicate well.
00:49:14
Speaker
I share with the group that the only thing that I learned is, well guys, talking with Twig, and I tell ya, I tried to be as sensitive as I could, but he's just not ready to talk beyond what he gave me. And basically, that is that he saw the attacker, but not, or what he believes is the attacker, but not the murder itself. And he said that the attacker was pretty standard size, a little bigger than me.
00:49:42
Speaker
and that the attacker ran off. Not disappeared, not phased out, not whatever else. Just literally just ran out of view. So that's all I got. Syeth is extremely convinced that the people at the Tain's Foundry did it because the Tain's Foundry hires Warforged as cheap labor. All right. And I couldn't get him to suggest any other thing.
00:50:12
Speaker
I mean, the motivation he presents is plausible, but it seems to be coming from a place in him that's mostly
00:50:22
Speaker
He's pretty bitter about some things that he's been through. So I don't know how... I don't know how soundly based it is, but it's worth talking to them. Yeah, absolutely. And is Krastas still here, right? Yes. Okay. Hey, did... What he just said about the foundry and stuff, like, I'm assuming you've thought of that. Is that... How much of a possibility is that? I mean, it's possible. I, um...
00:50:53
Speaker
It's just the motivation doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, Tain's Foundry does use Warforged as labor and hires, I think, the most Warforged out of anybody in Blackbones. So even if, I imagine the guy running it, Mole Rick, would have gotten wind of his guards doing stuff like this, because, you know, people talk, and I imagine he would have shut it down if it was them. But it's, I mean,
00:51:20
Speaker
anything's possible at this point. But I really think Swords of Liberty are behind these attacks. All right, team, what's next? Well, Tain's Foundry is probably closest. Since we can't really investigate the ghost angle. Well, I mean, you also do have the opportunity to potentially go investigate the bodies. I'm sorry, Barrett would not have said that with any amount of derision. Barrett fully considers that a plausible explanation. That was me slipping in.
Slogar's Forge and Investigation
00:51:51
Speaker
Uh, yeah, there's the foundry there's checking out. Here's the thing. I know that, that I'm not going to, uh, get much insight from checking the bodies. I don't, I mean, I hadn't seen a war forged in person until we.
00:52:05
Speaker
the thing we did on the train. So I'm not going to learn anything. We met a couple dozen. I know we could talk to the people who work there. Could we visit the foundry on the way to, I forgot the name, where the Swords of Liberty are?
00:52:25
Speaker
Like are they in the same direction? Hey, what is the black bones? Because we talked about the cogs and all of a sudden people started saying black bones. Cogs is a district or black bones is a district in the cogs. Cogs is a level of the city. Got it. It's like a mall, right? Right. Levels and this is. Thank you for putting it in terms of that. I, a 60-year-old girl, can understand. Are we in justice right now?
00:52:51
Speaker
No, this is like the crappy end of the mall next to Sears. God, I really, I really want to change into something. I just need to figure out what and when. Kenneth is down in the cocks. Okay. Well, the places that we're close to are house Kenneth who have been examining the bodies. So that might be a, I don't know how neutral opinion we're going to get from a dragon marked house who made these, these people. Right. But, and then the foundry would be the, seem like they're the two places that are close.
00:53:22
Speaker
Swords of Liberty is most likely to end up in a sword fight just on spec from my opinion That sounds fun. Let's do let's have a I think Canis will be quick. I've got a couple questions I want to ask that. I don't I don't think they'll get the more great. Yeah slow guards for told you guys Hey, Phyllis
00:53:41
Speaker
I think we ought to run. I've got a couple of questions I'd like to ask at House Canada. I think it won't take us very much time. It won't pull us too far off the trail. If you guys are amenable to that, we can go take care of that real quick and then we can head on to another side. That sounds reasonable. Are you okay with that, Papa Bear? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Sparky. Go ahead. I'll catch up with you all later. Is there a place that you want us to meet up with you?
00:54:08
Speaker
I mean, Blackbones isn't that big of a district. I know the places that you have leads. I can just walk a path. Obviously, I can't go up to Dragon Eyes district. So if you're up there, then I'll just, if I can't find you down here, I'll assume you're up there. But Blackbones isn't that big. It's like two and a half blocks. All right. So walk, walk, walk. You come to a stone building that looks more well kept than most things in the cogs.
00:54:35
Speaker
and you see the the signage of house keneth on the outside and walk through the door and there's a little reception area as soon as you walk in and there's a woman sitting behind the desk that kind of brightens up as you walk in and say well why hello there welcome to slogarth's forge hold i'm morla keneth what can i do for you
00:54:56
Speaker
Uh, yeah, we've been, uh, we, we've joined with crass wote in the effort to find out what's happening to your creations, uh, down here in the black bones.
00:55:06
Speaker
Oh, those murders are just so terrible. I mean, I see him bring the bodies in and it is just awful. Yeah, it's not like those murders that are great. You're right. These are really bad ones, particularly bad murders. Sometimes there's clean murders. No, listen, can we speak to somebody just a little bit about the condition of the bodies as they've come in? We won't take up much of your time, but we think that it could help us.
00:55:31
Speaker
Oh, well, you know, we sadly just got one in. And so they're back there working real hard, just trying to figure out what what exactly was done to the body. So they're a little busy right now. Well, could we go on back? Observe. Well, maybe if one of you was a member of the house, I could give you authorization to go back. But and that's when Dex slides. They're here, right on the chest. They can be anywhere. OK. Well, then what Dex does is command.
00:56:00
Speaker
He slides up the sleeve of his shirt and on his bicep is suddenly the mark of making. Go ahead and give me a deception. I mean, it's there. It is absolutely a part of his body. There are other elements that a member of the house would have, like a sigil ring, so you're just trying to get around. But no, I'm going to let you make this deception check.
00:56:23
Speaker
Not that one. You. Pardon me. Screw you, green die. You're really bad. The D20. It's a deception. Yes. All right. That's an 11. Okay. You pass. It wasn't that. I mean, she is kind of like, she's never seen you before. She's like, what?
00:56:41
Speaker
Where are you from? I've never seen you down here before. Yeah, I'm from yonder and we We got to get back there. That's in that's an on dare. Yeah Sorry, I say yonder. I coughed. I'm in on there All right. Well slow car is back there examining the body right now so you can go go go see him I suppose
00:57:00
Speaker
Yeah, it actually specifically says the thing about Dragon Marks. Changelings can perfectly recreate them, but do not, obviously, get any of the abilities to come with it. My compatriots here are going to come with me. They're on my side. They're with us. Oh, that's fine. Obviously, they're with you and you trust them, so going right ahead. As we walk down the hall, I go, guys, did you see that? When did you get a tattoo? Oh, God.
00:57:30
Speaker
And just in front of his eyes, just for the hell of it, I'm suddenly covered in tattoos. And then back. I'm going to keep the dragon mark on me for as long as we're here. In here.
00:57:48
Speaker
I think I say as we walk back, I've kind of, I've kind of hamstrung myself. I'm expected to know things that I can't ask questions about now. So I need for you guys to do some of the questioning, uh, about, about, about the mechanics of these guys. Cause I can't do it now. They'll know that I'm not a member. So, um, as we walk back and say, Hey, Hey, what up fam? I say, no. Um,
00:58:18
Speaker
What can I say? Hi, we're working with crass now. We heard that you You see a figure that was previously standing over a table examining the familiar body that you saw before whip around and he has Kind of shoulder length jet black hair with a little bit of graying around the temples and a small tuft of hair on his chin that has gray
00:58:41
Speaker
in there as well and he kind of was taken aback and, hi, who are you?
00:58:53
Speaker
I say my name is Dante Caneth and I'm here working. Look we've been sent here by this is this is a true statement of
00:59:18
Speaker
We were brought here by the prime minister, and now we are helping Krast Wot investigate these murders. And I would like to just talk with you a little bit about the bodies. Well, I mean, Agent Wot is overstepping his bounds in the first place by investigating these altercations. I mean, this is House Kenneth property that's being damaged, so it's our job to investigate it.
00:59:48
Speaker
And that boy, Dex, doesn't like that boy at all. Why? Huh? Why? He just calls the sentient being property. Oh. This house can't have made, like, literally made them.
01:00:01
Speaker
Oh, okay. I thought he was just saying that, like, they're, like, on our side. Okay, now I... No, they literally made them, but they are sentient beings. The longer we're in the city, the more Barak's instincts on dealing with slimy people come back. Because I feel like Barak has some skill in holding polite conversation with people who are just awful.
01:00:25
Speaker
Is he like how? Because I kind of want to just like, because I didn't really look at the body because I was very much like, you know, craft, trying to be involved him. So while, while this conversation is happening, can I kind of start making my way to? Yeah, give me
01:00:44
Speaker
Because I want to I want to like see like if I can look at the details of it. Yeah, we'll do an opposed check. Perception versus. Let's do deception.
01:00:58
Speaker
I'm, which one am I doing? You're doing deception. Oh, okay. Um, what do you add for deception? Charisma. Charisma. Um, 16. You pass. So, um, Slogar is pretty focused on this random member of his house that has just walked in, um, that he doesn't really notice you kind of walking around looking at, and they have tables lined up with
01:01:21
Speaker
the other seven bodies there as well. So you're kind of able to look at them. So as soon as Slogar says this dreadful thing, Barret kind of goes, well that's the Treaty of Thronehold for you, huh?
01:01:38
Speaker
Well, obviously, we made them to be sentient. We made them to be good soldiers. And I uphold the Treaty of Thronehold. Any warforged that we hire, we pay a livable wage. But, I mean, it's a murky area with jurisdiction.
01:01:56
Speaker
Nobody outside of our house is going to know warforged anatomy not going to be able to investigate something like this So I don't know what agent who thinks he's bringing to this investigation other than slowing us down by getting the Citadel involved Well, you're looking at the anatomy. He's looking at the motivation of the person doing it Well, it's pretty clear that the motivation is just hatred of warforged
01:02:19
Speaker
I mean, uh, listen, we don't know that that is clear. We don't, we don't, we don't know that that is clear. I'm sorry. We're, we're looking at it from both angles. That's why we're here to talk to you as well. You mean an investigation check while they're talking. And I go ahead and I go ahead and, uh, and, uh, I say, craft will not withstanding. I am also a Kenneth and I want to get to the bottom of this from both sides.
01:02:48
Speaker
Okay. Well, um, I mean, you can look at the bodies. That's, that's fine. Um, we haven't really picked up on a pattern or anything like that. Um, obviously parts are being taken. Um, yeah, we heard that it looks like they're being torn off as opposed to cleaved left.
01:03:08
Speaker
Cut. Well, it's not clothed. It's not surgical strikes. And he kind of steps aside and is showing you where Leatherneck's arm used to be. If you see this, I mean, it's not tearing so much. It's hacking like somebody is using a blade, but they're not proficient with it. All right. That's very different than what we. They're just messy wounds. See, I mean,
01:03:34
Speaker
I don't know who told you that it was tearing, but. That's why we're here. Yeah. All right. Well, that's the, you know, and that, that is good to know because obviously with, with my expansive knowledge of the war force being a cannon, um, I could not think of a creature powerful enough to rip an arm off that short of short of a dragon, which people would notice. Yeah. Well, I mean, certainly nothing that would be down in the cogs without people taking note of.
01:04:02
Speaker
That's good to hear with your investigation check real quick. What'd you get 19? Okay. You notice as you're just kind of looking, um, regardless of where openings were or what was cut off, there is a pattern that you pick up on of a deep single wound right here in the center of the chest. Um, so yeah, just a deep solid one time
01:04:30
Speaker
Uh, do warforged have hearts? No, they don't have internal organs or like a, like a central, like, I don't want to say battery, but I mean, honestly, you would not know that. I wouldn't know. Excuse me. I have a question. Yeah.
01:04:51
Speaker
You said you know the anatomy of Warforged pretty well. In their chest, specifically kind of right, and I'm gonna kind of gesture, like right here. For humanoid creatures, for me, this is where my heart is. What is it? Actually, Tiefling hearts are in your butt.
01:05:11
Speaker
Are you jacking with me? Don't, don't jack with me. I was like, I haven't read up on enough to know if you're wrong. I have a butt heart. It's in the shape of a heart. Anyway, continue. What, obviously they don't have organs. What, what is here?
01:05:39
Speaker
I mean, they're just their body. I mean, the the inside of the warforged, except for the armor plating is wood fibers. And so I mean, are they all attached kind of. You're getting into territory that I, from a proprietary standpoint, cannot divulge. So I'm sorry. Oh. Can you think of anything that someone would do with
01:06:09
Speaker
spare warforged parts, as it were, I mean, other than repairing a warforged or possibly as a prosthetic? No, I mean, during the war, a lot of, especially Carnathi soldiers, because they didn't really use warforged as much, would take parts of warforged as trophies. But a whole arm. I mean, it would seem like a very difficult trophy to show off much. Yeah. Once again, I mean, you could not conceivably
01:06:39
Speaker
You can't stitch Warforged parts together and get a Warforged. It just doesn't work like that, so parts would not do any good. How many years were the Warforged in production? We started... Jeff is asking. Oh, okay. Sorry. Somebody doesn't know their house history. No, Jeff is asking, because I want to try to spin it into something. Warforged got created, what, Philip, about 30, 40 years into the war? There's like early versions of it. Yeah, I mean, there were like...
01:07:08
Speaker
less sentient versions and then titans were made which were gigantic and then they made the more sentient ones but it's been decades of warforged running around battle I'm gonna I'm gonna try a gambit guys are you are you ready to be asked to leave yeah real quick before you do that because after I kind of asked that and he doesn't really give anything
01:07:30
Speaker
Can I, if I look, if I like, if I look into where the holes are in the center, can I see anything besides just like darkness and shadows? Okay, and you can't see through like, through it, like if you were to lift up a part of their chest plate, you wouldn't you would just see wood fiber. Okay, okay. So here's what I do. I say, Hey, fellas, can you give a can you give me just a minute with slow guard? Just just a moment? No, I'm not. I'm not asking you to leave the room even necessarily. I just want to
01:07:58
Speaker
The other bodies are over on some tables. Trevor Burrus Where Draconis is standing. I go over and join Draconis to look at the other bodies. Trevor Burrus Okay. Quietly. Listen, Slogar, first off, I appreciate you protecting our family's knowledge. But I will be perfectly honest. I think that he has a good point to every one of these
01:08:21
Speaker
bodies has that same wound. And I was in fabrication, and so I don't know much about animation of them. That's not where I
01:08:38
Speaker
It's not where I was so what is going on there? Why can you think of a reason why they'd all have this particular slash? I mean initial I mean calling card maybe of the killer letting them know it's their work
01:08:54
Speaker
Um, initial attack, they go for the chest, maybe sneak up behind them, reach around, stab them in the chest. Uh, I, I, I don't know. So there's nothing, no, there's nothing special about that spot is all I'm asking. I was a limb fabricator. So no. All right. I, uh, I activate my will ability to detect magic. Okay. Uh, hi.
01:09:17
Speaker
Examine each of the bodies. I want to basically look to see are there any arcane markings on them? Is there any residual magic from the wounds? I mean, there's obviously residual magic from the bodies. Sure. There's more magic coming from Leathernecks body than the other ones, just because they're fueled by that. But you don't notice anything out of the ordinary with the magic that you're detecting. Okay. Nothing jumps out at you.
01:09:47
Speaker
So, and they all have this, they all have this same central wound. Yes. Except for Leatherneck, but that's because his whole chest was kind of ripped open. Okay. So he is the first one that is different in regards to... Well, he's the only... Most of them had a stab and he had like a grip. But his was the only one whose chest was manipulated. There very well could have been a stab there before the chest was taken away. That's not, yeah. But I meant like, no, sorry, no one else has had their chest ripped out. That's correct. Okay.
01:10:16
Speaker
All right. Um, are we ready to move along? I was going to ask, uh, yeah. You have much being done here. I would presume you do. You have much contact with Tain's foundry. Um, are they a licensee?
01:10:32
Speaker
More like a loose partnership. They manufacture mundane metal, things like that. Nothing remarkable, nothing Kenneth will occasionally buy from them, but there's honestly better foundries in better parts of town to buy from. We heard there were some problems in the way they treated their war-forged employees. Have you heard anything about that?
01:10:57
Speaker
I'm nothing substantial, but then again, I've never been in the foundry. Can I ask, um, Eric, the receptionist when we walked in, what does she look like? She's a human late thirties. Late thirties. How old is Slogar? Slogar is in about his, you would guesstimate late fifties, early sixties. Okay. So he's in my parents. He's in Dante's parents generally. Yes. Got it.
01:11:27
Speaker
He's troubled by all the things these young'uns don't know about war force. And we're leaving, right? Yeah, I can't think of anything to do. As we start to leave, though, I turn around and say, hey, slow guard.
01:11:37
Speaker
My generation of Canis, we're not going to do this property garbage. We're not our parents, and I'm thankful for that. Slugger just rolls his eyes at you and says, well, good luck having everybody steal everything that you create if you're not going to claim ownership over that which you work hard to bring into this world. I'm going to say, buddy, f*** you. And we leave. No. No.
01:12:00
Speaker
I step outside the door, I turn into a warforged, I come back in, I punch him in his face. That's not a joke. Oh, okay. Oh. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, yeah. You guys, you see, all of us went, oh, okay. Roll initiative for the last time. Yeah. Do it. Let's roll initiative for the last time. I'm going to give a, as we leave, I'm going to wave goodbye to the receptionist because she seemed very nice. You have a blessed day. Thank you.
01:12:29
Speaker
Bye. Bye. Later, cuz. See you at the reunion. You know what? Maybe. Party's a party. Okay, so. So now I guess we start. You want to go our way to the. I mean, it's nearby. It seems like a reasonable thing to follow up on. Make a move. You want to go to the foundry and I want to get in a fight. We could do both.
01:12:54
Speaker
Okay. So you all approach Tain's Foundry. Um, you actually noticed that one of the rivers of lava that flows down here flows into the building. That's clearly used in their processing. Um, but there are a couple of guards standing out front, um, of, of the foundry. Um, they don't really pay you much mind until you approach them, obviously with the intent of entering. So human guards. Yes.
01:13:18
Speaker
We're involved in the investigation of the war-forged murders that have been going on down here, and we were hoping we could have a word inside. Why do you want to come inside?
01:13:34
Speaker
Well, we just know that this is one of the few places that hires warforged. And since we are investigating warforged murders, not necessarily saying there's any correlation, we just want to talk to some people that are around warforged more and be able to discuss things. Workers talk and all. YouTube talking, give me a diplomacy check. Oh, I see. I was just about to I was just about to prime of an intimidation check.
01:14:04
Speaker
What type of check was it? Diplomacy. Diplomacy. Or persuasion. That's what it's called now. Oh, okay. Charisma. Yeah, 19. 19. Yeah, they kind of look at each other and nervously shift and say, well, okay, we'll take you up to Mulrick's office, but just don't mess with anything, the work going on in the foundry. Just go talk to him if you really need to for the murder and get out. Okay, thank you.
01:14:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'm in the bold of those terms. Now, who's more Rick? Or is he going to introduce himself to us now? I think they said he runs the place. Right? Like they said that when we were in the tavern. I think so. I think you're right. Your guy said that I don't think he said a lot of things and they were all very angry.
01:14:54
Speaker
Yeah, he's not a happy camper. So the two guards lead up some stairs and there's noise of the foundry going around, but as you approach the door to Moerich's office, you hear kind of a consistent pounding noise. As they open the door to you, you see two other guards that have
01:15:15
Speaker
Pinned a warforged to the wall and there's just a beardless dwarf standing in front of him just Constantly pounding punching this warforged kind of where the armor plating is not over his gut And he pulls back and looks at you and says, what do you want? Well, it was something else but now it's to know what in the nine hells is going on here I'd one of my workers is acting up What can I do for you? Well, you can Let that man go right now
01:15:45
Speaker
I'm sorry, who are you? My name's Beric Rowan. Okay, nice to meet you Beric Rowan. What are you doing in my foundry? Well, I have some questions for you, but first we're gonna deal with this. I don't think so. I was just about done with him anyway, but now I think I'll keep him around since you're getting so lippy with me. All right.
01:16:14
Speaker
I mean I'm like because I don't hang around Warforged very often so I'm kind of just I'm trying to figure out what to do and I'm kind of trying to read them as well because like I'm not first to run into battle very often. I lean over.
01:16:52
Speaker
You okay Yeah, give me just a second. And so I kind of I kind of like shimmy my shimmy my shoulders a little bit kind of live so yeah kind of loosen up and then I'm gonna use my thaumaturgy and let me just What other like
01:17:01
Speaker
Mordor. Mordor. Mordor. Mordor. Mordor. Mordor. Mordor. Mordor. Mordor. Mordor. Mordor. Mordor. Mordor.
01:17:10
Speaker
Torches around is there anything like yeah, there's some ever bright torches that can I? Is a question. Can I do two of the things at the same time? Yeah, although okay, so I'm gonna kind of step forward and then as I
01:17:31
Speaker
Cause I'm going to shout and it lets me, you know, three times as, as, as, as much as I can. Um, and like.
01:17:43
Speaker
So because I can change the way my eyes look, so I want them to be fully just hot red. Okay. Almost kind of glowing. And then as I shout, I want every torch that I can see to just like burst into like as hot, fiery, bright as possible. I like this.
01:18:06
Speaker
And I want to yell just like in the lowest, like growliest voice he could possibly do. Just like a like I don't really want to growl into your microphone, but just like leave them alone and just let it boom through the place. And then as I do that, I like I hold my axe, but just like let it sit on the floor. OK, go ahead and give me an intimidation roll with advantage.
01:18:35
Speaker
I swear to God, if you roll once. If I ever needed a natural 20, this is the time. Yeah, you set up so much. Oh, my goodness. Mollric just falls backwards into the corner of the room and just starts shouting like, you get that demon out of here, you get go.
01:19:04
Speaker
I won't, I won't hit him anymore. Just get out. And, uh, I take a step up and say, uh, no, you're not going to hit him anymore, but our boy stays. Now are you ready to answer some questions? What do you want? Why are
Confrontations and Worker Conditions
01:19:17
Speaker
you here? No, no, no. My question's not yours. Thanks. We're looking into the murders that have been going on. The war forged killings. And, uh, while just about half an hour ago, I was expressing
01:19:30
Speaker
Significant doubt at the amount of blame that seemed to be clustering around you. I walk in here and you give me a reason to just doubt all my fond feelings that I held for you. This is not very long ago. He's a worker. He wasn't working hard. Yeah. I can't dock his pay. Warforged don't need food. They don't need houses. But you can dock his pay. That's what you do with an employee. I can't dock his pay any lower. I have to pay him something.
01:19:59
Speaker
Yes. They pay him like a penny. We don't. What questions did we actually have for this guy?
01:20:07
Speaker
They were barracks. Barracks the one that talked about the foundries. We don't... Well... Kinda. If you're... I'm not murdering Warforged if that's what you're saying. They're my workers. I need them. Well, someone is and we have... Yeah, I know who is. Oh, right. I would like to hear that. It's Jack and Irons. The ghost. Yes. And why do you think that? Does it make sense? Why? The story of Jack and Irons. He's been killing people since the day he died. People that were better smith than him or worked harder than him.
01:20:35
Speaker
He's a jealous entity. The Wolf Forge come in, they can work longer and harder than he ever did. So of course he'd kill them all. I mean, I would say that sounds like nonsense, but we just saw a demon make fire to get real big. I don't know what's what anymore. You know, I suppose one notable thing about Moork real quick that I didn't describe. He is beardless and bald. He is a dwarf with no hair. He has eyebrows. But that's not necessarily. It's weird. It's weird, but it's
01:21:06
Speaker
It's something other dwarves would mock him for. Okay, so it is shameful. Even if it was natural balding and natural weird listening. Because dwarves don't go bumping. That's not a part of their genetics. That must be nice. So anyway, it's Jack and Ions. It's the only thing that makes sense. Well, it's not the only thing that makes sense. It's one thing that might make sense. As we don't have all the information yet, we don't know what the only thing that makes sense is.
01:21:36
Speaker
How about any of your workers? We hear there's plenty of people who object to the fact that you hire Warforged. Yeah, they object to me hiring Warforged because they're not as hard of workers as the Warforged are. Yes. Of course I'm going to hire them. People that don't need to sleep or eat. Come on. You have such an excellent managerial motivation skill. Well, he's the only one that slacked off in the past month. Yes.
01:22:00
Speaker
Can I go up to the war force that was getting beat up and just kind of check on him? I mean, the guards are standing over him. It would be hard. You have to get through some armed men to get to. OK, well, yeah, if I if I start to approach them, that's fair. Yeah, I will say, based especially on your check, that they they see you walking towards them and they just immediately back up next to more against the wall. And so you can take a look. I mean,
01:22:27
Speaker
The warforged, I mean, some of the wood fiber that makes up his lower torso is is dented and torn a little bit, but it's nothing serious.
Warforged Finite Nature and Threats
01:22:37
Speaker
I mean, he'll he'll be fine in a couple hours. Okay, I'm just gonna assume he kind of fell. So I'm just gonna kind of help him up and then go back to the party. Okay. I hear warforged disappear here. I mean, there's accidents, they die, they fall into the lava, there's nothing to
01:22:56
Speaker
Pull out. They accidentally find themselves beaten to death in your office sometimes? No! I've never beaten one. Like I said, they're my workers. I don't want to kill them. Like, they can't make anymore. It's a finite amount of people. It's not like they can procreate. There's not going to be more Warforged. So if I go around killing Warforged, then I'm killing my workforce. That will never come back. I don't think there's anything else we can learn here. Right before we leave though. Because I got to do this now.
01:23:24
Speaker
I lean in where only Mulritt can see me, get nice and close to him. I say, we're going to come back. We're going to check on you again. And I don't want to see anything like what we just saw. And I give him a big smile with sharp teeth, bright red eyes. Say, you understand me?
01:23:42
Speaker
He has no words. He is utterly sh- because you're a vampire. You have fangs, but you look like a person. No, they aren't fangs. It's almost as though every one of my teeth has been filed. Shark teeth. Okay.
01:23:56
Speaker
Which is something that I would be able to do because I would have seen multiple creatures with sharpened teeth. He just kind of frantically nods and I pat him on the head. I say good boy. Wow. I pat him on his bald head.
01:24:17
Speaker
Okay. Have we exited?
Conclusion and Teaser for Next Episode
01:24:21
Speaker
Yeah. I'm going to get a turn. I'm going to be like, did you see me? I think we all walk out and we all just go, oh my God, that worked, right?
01:24:32
Speaker
So yeah. I'm over there coughing because I've never gone that low in my voice. Tune in next time as we go to Dragon Eyes. Yes, thank you for listening and we will see you next time. Once again, I am your Nudge Master Eric. I'm Philip. I'm Trevor. Jeff.