The Text Ages 3: tl;dr

So the Order succeeds on their mission, turns in Lucan's dessicated (but still technically "alive") corpse to the Black Lanterns and are generously rewarded. They take the opportunity to pump some more gold into Magnus to turn out handy haversacks and other such utility gear for the party. It's around this time two new party members join up: Pesky (gnomish cleric) and Tayin (human druidess).

Continuing the Xulu series of adventures this one is Shadows of the Last War. Technically it's the second in the series and designed for players of 2nd level. The Order is currently 7th so needless to say I did a lot of editing for this one. Why the writers thought a trip to the Mournlands was appropriate for level 2 characters I'll never know.
Elaydrin D'Cannith, the party's first patron reappears, sending them a message to meet her in an inn in Sharn. When they arrive they find her obviously travelworn and bedraggled. She only has time to shove them a bag and mention an important mission with the possibility of great wealth before the door bursts open. It's the spike-covered Warforged Cleaver and he's brought another team of weird, warped warforged with him. They immediately open fire into the inn with crossbows. Elaydrin flees into the back while the Order prepares to fight. Just when they're about to wade into combat there's the sound of smashing wood and glass and a massive, ogre-sized warforged bursts through one entire wall of the building.

This was meant to be a challenging, dramatic fight. Cleaver is a powerful cleric at this point and he's already buffed himself and his minions. Plus the warforged charger was meant to be a big part of the challenge...however I had not counted on Team Monkey...

Pesky and Tayin both begin spellcasting and both summon a pair of giant dire apes. The apes immediately flank the giant warforged charger and proceed to rip it's metal arms off. The two god-monkeys quite simply tear him apart in less than a turn. Meanwhile Glorin wades into the mass of warforged and begins hacking them to bits. Then Magnus decides this fight is too boring and decides to make it fun...with fire! He pulls out a Necklace of Fireballs he'd gotten ahold of a while back and lobs one of the beads just outside so the blast engulfs the warforged in the doorway.

It's only a few rounds later when the smoke begins to clear...Cleaver is dead, the warforged charger is in pieces and the warp-forged are scattered like chaff. It's about this time that Sharn's city watch shows up to find Glorin attempting to pry the adamantine plates from the body of the warforged charger while the rest of the Order is going through the backpack Elaydrin left them, all while standing in the middle of the charred remains of the inn's front door.

What followed was a wonderfully amusing attempt by the Order to talk their way out of being arrested. Shara starts by claiming that it was the warforged who used the fireball spells...until the watch captain points out that they were the ones who had been burned to a crisp. Then they start attempting to justify it as self defense while the watch captain drops increasingly unsubtle hints that this whole thing would just go away if they'd stop digging themselves deeper and just bribe him.

Eventually they figure that out, give the man his bribe and get out of there. They investigate the pack Elaydrin left them and find that it's full of supplies, healing potions and cash as well as a note explaining that she wishes to hire them for an expedition to the Mournlands to recover an important item from a House Cannith research facility in Cyre called Whitehearth.

She goes on to explain that she and her superiors know the PCs have one of these objects already, a schema. They would like to hire them to retrieve another and they can discuss the fate of the schema already in the PC's possession later. In the pack she's provided traveling supplies and money for a House Orien caravan traveling to Darguun where they can find a small town called Rose Quarry where they can find a map that will allow them to locate the Whitehearth research station, the only one currently surviving.

So, eager for adventure and cash, they head out. The trip is mostly uneventful except for a battle with some wyverns (the highlights of that being Nolan attempting to grapple a Wyvern and being successful only 50% of the time and Magnus terribly misjudging the range and area of effects of his Necklace of Fireballs. It gets confiscated by the rest of the Order). There's also a small earthquake that nearly collapses a wyvern cave on their heads but they manage to make their way fine.

When they arrive in Darguun they look for a contact of Elaydrin's an ex-Orien human who has access to an elemental land cart and would be willing to transport them to Rose Quarry. Before that though they have to cause some trouble with the locals. When raiding a wyvern nest they found a set of goblin war tapestries and with a bit of investigation they learned that these were made for a specific hobgoblin family which happened to live in the city. So Nolan, Glorin and Magnus decide to pay this fellow a visit and give him his tapestries and collect a reward.

Unfortunately the hobgoblin noble had already payed for those tapestries, and paid quite a bit. Now it was bad enough they never showed up but months later there are some suspicious looking outsiders with his property looking for a reward. He gets mad, Nolan gets snippy and he orders his guards to gut the human. Unfortunately a small brute squad of bugbears was no match for Nolan and Glorin. Intimidated by the Order's fighting skills he offers them a reward: three large "Death's Head" pearls which he tells them are worth easily 500 gold each.

So the three head to the market to hawk their gemstones but each merchant they speak with hems and haws over the gems before declaring they just can't afford to buy these incredibly lovely stones but they can send them to someone else who will. This happens over and over for about an hour before another human steps up and tells them they're in trouble. The Death's Head pearls are a local custom for marking enemies. By walking around with the pearls they're advertising that they've got a price on their head. So before they can get away and rejoin the rest of the Order they're attacked by a group of bugbear and goblin assassins. Fortunately they manage to defeat them and they make sure to keep the pearls hidden until they're out of Darguun.

After that's dealt with they hire the services of Elaydrin's Ex-Orien friend and they head towards the border of the Mournlands where Rose Quarry is located.

(Out of the four-part Xulo adventures the "Shadows of the Last War" adventure is definitely the weakest of the set and this section of the adventure had the most problems. When the PCs arrive in Rose Quarry they're meant to find Rose Quarry in ruins, covered in glass. Later they learn that the source is a super-weapon stored in Whitehearth. There are several problems with this. First, it's stated that Rose Quarry is the source for all the marble house Cannith uses. That's pretty major, but apparently it's been destroyed for about two years and not only has no one attempted to rebuild the place but no one seems to realize that it's been demolished. Even more confusing the place was destroyed by a superweapon in Whitehearth...which means that a Cyran branch of house Cannith destroyed a Cyran village..owned by House Cannith. What the hell? )

Anyway, that's just a minor rant and to help explain that this adventure has been heavily modified from the original. 

So, the Order arrives in Rose Quarry. The entire village is coated in a thick sheet of what appears to be formerly liquid glass. The Order pays Failin, their transport, to wait about a mile away should they need him for an escape. They spend some time scouting the place out and quickly spot what appears to be a small military camp in the center of the of the village and more careful examination revealed that the soldiers were dressed in the regalia of the Emerald Claw. 

They decide to wait until nightfall to sneak into the village...at least the characters who were actually capable of being sneaky (Nolan, Shara, Jack and Magnus' homunculus "Little M") did. They manage to get past a couple of Claw patrols and made it into the center of the village. They were looking for a map of secret Cannith facilities so they reasoned the main House Cannith Foundry near the center of town would be the best place to look. They find their way there only to learn it is the center of an Emerald Claw excavation. The surround the building, peering through the windows. They spot a team of human soldiers aided by a small team of burned, reanimated dwarf corpses, ripping chunks of broken glass out of the ground and tossing them outside. 

Planning to head back and regroup they begin to retreat but an unfortunately poor Stealth roll results in the team being spotted. They have time to find new hiding places before the Claw soldiers rush out of the foundry. The soldiers, including several Karnath skeletons, spread out and begin searching for the intruder (they only spotted Shara). Unfortunately, the group was badly outnumbered by their enemies. Fortunately, Little M communicated their situation to Magnus via their telepathic link and reinforcements were on their way. 

While the Emerald Claw are closing in, Tayin transforms into a pterodactyl, grabs Peski in her claws and tells Magnus to hop on her back. Unfortunately Glorin is just too heavy and spends the fight slipping his way across broken glass while a robot rides a dinosaur into battle. Poor Glorin...

Once the reinforcements arrive all subtlety is out the window. They trounce the emerald claw as well as their undead minions then charge downstairs to get ahold of the map. Turns out it's not just some piece of parchment but a giant bas relief on the floor of the building. There are several locations marked, but none are labeled. The map is meant to be solved using a puzzle encoded into the statues ringing the carving. The Order has no time for such things, instead Magnus uses several infusions to boost his Knowledge (Geography) to insane levels and then rolls a natural 20, effectively allowing him to pinpoint those locations which do not appear on any public map of Cyre, narrowing it down to just a handful of places. Fortunately one is just over the border of the Mournlands so they decide to tackle that first.

However, when they leave the chamber below the foundry they run into Garrow, the leader of the emerald claw expedition. Garrow is a doppleganger cleric of vol, who's currently appearing as a vampire (something the Order is not looking forward to fighting after having to deal with Lucan). He's already expecting them so he's desecrated the area and as soon as they climb up the stairs he also reanimates the Claw soldiers they had just killed, then uses a Sonic Burst to shatter the mass of molten glass stuck to the ceiling causing huge shards to rain down. While the Order fights them he uses an Obscuring Mist spell and a potion of invisibility to pull off a "vampire vanish" trick, claiming that he will return with the full might of the emerald claw!

The Order makes a run for it with the Claw in pursuit. Fortunately two things work in their favor. First a small earthquake strikes, shattering huge sheets of the glass across the village, creating very difficult terrain. Second the Claw were never actually trying to catch them, just putting on a show of it at Garrow's orders. The doppleganger's true plan was to get the Order to lead him to Whitehearth, so they run out of Rose Quarry followed secretly by one of Garrow's undead minions: a ghoul vulture.

They pay Failin a bit more to take them to the edge of the mists surrounding the Mournland and wait there for them to return, then the Order simply walks into the Mournlands.

 

So the Order plunges head-first into the Mournlands. They've been pretty wound up by the fearsome reputation the place has and they play it safe for the most part. They cautiously skirt around most of the random encounters and plot hooks that dot the landscape (such as a crew of warforged unearthing the damaged hulk of a warforged titan) with one exception.

A day or so into their journey the players come across the remains of a vast battle between Cyran and Thranish forces. Corpses, untouched by decay, practically fill the small valley but there's an oddity...in addition to the forces of Cyre and Thrane there appears to be a small squad of Valenar elves among the dead as well, dressed in a style that suggests they died at some point after the Day of Mourning.

This piques the order's curiosity and so they investigate: checking bodies for loot, looking at uniforms and generally trying to figure out what happened and if there's anything valuable in it for them. Peski comes across what looks like the commander of the Valenar elves and uses a Speak With Dead spell to start asking some questions. The first thing he asks is "What killed you?" and as a GM you don't get opportunities like that often. As the elf begins to answer the ground shakes and trembles and a gigantic crustacean covered in a mat of corpses, weapons and debris pulls itself to its feet...with Peski clinging to the top of it's shell. 

The Carcass crab lays into the Order with a fury, nearly chopping Magnus in half and lacerating Nolan as he tries to penetrate its sword-and-spear armor plating. All the while Peski is shrieking on top of the thing. Fortunately the Order eventually prevails against the abomination and they make away with a fair amount of loot. 

They continue on until they are only a few days from where they hope to find the entrance to the Whitehearth facility. They decide to rest and make camp at a small, crumbling watchtower on a nearby hill...the only defensible location for miles around. During the night however something bizarre happens. The Order is ambushed by a gigantic mass of glowing white energy: a living spell. However, unlike most living spells this one is not an eternally burning fireball or a stew of negative energy...it was actually the remains of a complex divination and communication spell caught up in the Day of Mourning and unable to complete its purpose. Finding the Order it descends upon them...completing its task and dissolving in the process. 

The Order is cast into a catatonic state while their minds are gripped by the power of the spell and they find themselves experiencing events that occurred mere hours before the Day of Mourning...when Cyre was still a living nation. 

This is where I diverge heavily from the published adventure and instead send the Order on a flash-back mission. They essentially take control of several pre-generated characters sent on a mission deep into Cyran territory to infiltrate the Whitehearth facility and try and neutralized a House Cannith super-weapon commissioned for the Cyrans. The characters and the players controlling them are...

Number 11 (Jack): The only surviving warforged produced by Project Juggernaut, an attempted warforged super-soldier program. This left Number 11 without much in the way of intelligence, wits or willpower but with plenty of skill in dismembering his enemies. He has a couple of extra levels on the other characters (and unlike most of them his levels are all PC and Prestige classes).

Lt. De'Florintz (Glorin): The youngest son of a powerful Brelish noble house. His rank far exceeds his skills (both in combat and in leadership) but some powerful political enemies arranged to have him put in charge of this critically important mission...hoping for him to be killed in action or at least shamed. 

Sgt. Kale (Tayin): An extremely experienced and skilled soldier but with an unfortunate tendency to speak his mind to superior officers. 

Duvbar (Magnus): Although De'Florintz is the ranking officer on the mission the gnome Duvbar is the actual brains behind it. He's a black lantern and Number 11 has been instructed to consider his orders before all others. He is also the only one who can get the team home: he has a crystal enchanted with Word of Recall. 

Willim (Shara): Willim is a low-level magewright who has been given a four month-long crash course in wizardry in an attempt to bolster Breland's battlemage regiments. After three weeks he was taken out of the course, told he had graduated and given a big sack of scrolls and wands that he barely knows how to handle. He's the arcane consultant for the mission after the more experienced mage already tagged for the job was unexpectedly killed. 

Kev Durin (Peski): Kev is the healer for the mission. A heavily decorated adept who has been the celebrated for being the sole survivor of several extremely difficult missions over the past several months. What people don't know is the reason..he's recently become addicted to the use of a Berserker Sword. 

Siri "Deadeye" (Nolan): A halfling sniper and expert assassin. Crazed little murderer with a bow. 

The team is debriefed in Breland, told that they will be teleported into Cyran territory while nearby Brelish forces engage in some feinting maneuvers to draw away any Cyran security around Whitehearth. Once there they are to infiltrate Whitehearth using a set of crystalline magical keys and directions obtained from a Cannith prisoner. A powerful variant of the Final Messenger has been implanted in Number 11 to transmit all that he sees and hears during the next 24 hours back to Breland in the event of his death. 

The team is teleported into enemy territory and they make their way towards Whitehearth, located in a nearby hillside with its entrance concealed by a permanent illusion. However, when they arrive they find troops camped outside of the hill. But they aren't Cyran troops...they're from Thrane! After some time spent pondering this and carefully examining the troops they realize that they're extremely battle-worn. Bandages and walking wounded are in abundance...which is an oddity for Thranish troops given their large number of adepts and clerics. 

So they hit upon an unusually cunning two part plan. First Siri sneaks into the Thranish camp using an invisibility potion and proceeds to find and ransack the commander's tent. Within they find his journal revealing that the small force was part of a much larger Thranish offensive, a major assault into the heart of Cyre. They were carving their way through the Cyran forces without much difficulty and may have reached the capital when they were suddenly attacked by an unknown weapon or spell. Beams of violet energy from the sky carved huge, mile-long trenches and practically disintegrated those it touched. Faced with this seemingly unstoppable super-weapon the Thranish forces retreated in disarray. 

With this knowledge in mind De'Florintz and Willim both circled around the Thranish forces and, with a bit of minor disguise-work, dressed as ordinary Cyran peasants. They approached the Thranish troops from the direction they had come and when they "stumbled on" the Thrane's camp they did an impressive impersonation of devout Silver Flame followers and warned the Thrane troops that a large unit of Cyran warforged were heading in this direction. Desperate to avoid further battle the Thranish troops picked up camp and left post-haste. 

So the team regroups and readies themselves to enter Whitehearth.

 

So the "Flashback" group has just entered the Whitehearth facility. They had been forewarned that it was concealed by a permanent illusion but some careful searching easily located the entrance. They had also been provided with a series of color-coded, crystal tipped "keycharms" to let them through the several layers of security that protect Whitehearth and information on the proper order to use them. 

The entrance to Whitehearth was an adamantine hatch sealed with a blue lock located somewhere beyond the the illusion-screened cave opening in the side of a hillside. However a quick search revealed no less than four adamantine hatches scattered through the small cave network. This should have been the first indication that their intelligence may have been faulty. They try their blue-keycharm in one of the hatches only to receive a nasty electric shock. Not wanting to be fried any further they examine the remaining hatches and Willim/Shara is able to discern that most of them are not true adamantine but a false "plating" made using adamantine dust and detritus alloyed with iron. They try the key in the "true" adamant hatch and it opens right up. 

The hatch drops them into a large, spherical room. These rooms are one of the odd features of Whitehearth. They're basically large spheres of hollow metal with a single opening and a control panel which can fit several keycharms. By placing a correctly colored keycharm in one of the slots the room with spin in such a way that it's opening lines up with a doorway. They've been giving the proper sequence of key-charm colors and positions to lead them quickly through the facility to the weapons development chamber where research on the Cyran super-weapon should be going on. Hopefully without alerting anyone in the facility until it is too late. 

They pass through the first rotating chamber without difficulty and make it to the second. Its at this point that the luck, self-control and IQ of the group all seem to plummet at once. 

The party has just piled into the second rotating chamber and are consulting their notes to make sure they know the proper sequence of keycharms to use at this point when the room begins to move on its own...someone from outside is "opening a door" to try and use the room. The group panics as it moves into place and a woman dressed in a House Cannith uniform and with an armful of alchemical  reagents walks into the room...straight into a group of panicked adventurers. Before anyone can do anything clever like grab her or shut the door Duvbar/Magnus steps forward with a drawn knife and tells her to turn around and leave...which she does very promptly and quickly...closing the door behind her and then screaming at the top of her lungs about intruders. 

Feeling immensely stupid the team bursts through the door and into what appears to be an alchemical laboratory. They begin attacking the researchers, trying to prevent a general alarm throughout the facility. Most of them are simply Experts or Magewrights and it takes just a single crossbow bolt or sword strike to take them down. However one of them proves to be more capable and launches a fireball at the PCs. They're left singed but the explosion sets off the chemicals in the room and quickly roasts both the wanna-be battlemage and the rest of the researchers. Fortunately the PCs all survive and there doesn't seem to be any sign that the rest of the facility was alerted so they decide to investigate this room. The fire destroyed most of the valuable alchemical materials but they find a locked back-room and after picking the lock they find a large supply of raw alchemical reagents as well as a glass-walled vault of some kind containing a neat row of small chests. The glass has been magically treated but one of the players has a chime of opening which they use to unlock the vault and the chests in the room. Investigating they find each chest contains a single item. The first is a large ring in the shape of a jeweled beetle. Attempted identification reveals that it is a ring of regeneration. De'florintz\Glorin immediately claims it and pops it on a finger. Almost immediately the jeweled beetle animates, crawls up his arm and begins burrowing into his skin. De'Florintz manages to rip it off and hurls it to the ground where it crawls away into a corner. 

Next Siri/Nolan tries on an unidentified cloak. She feels a surge of incredible power and vitality, coughs up blood and dies (cloak of poison). At this point the group is feeling suspicious...but not suspicious enough not to try putting a necklace found in another chest on Number 11. Nothing seems to happen (it was a necklace of strangulation...but of course it wouldn't affect a warforged). Emboldened by this Willim/Shara tries on a colorful robe...then becomes a mumbling idiot (robe of powerlessness). So after two casualties the group decides that it's probably not worth trying out the other gear they've found in this room. They leave, towing the imbecilic Willim along with them. 

At this point they go back to the rotator room  and try out the key-combo they were given. The first sign of trouble is when all the lights in the chamber suddenly shut off...and it begins to rotate downwards...into a large spiked pit. Fortunately most of the group manages to keep their footing well enough to not fall into the pit...except Duvbar who falls straight down. He lives, tries to climb back out and falls back down again before he's halfway up. It takes him almost falling a third time for anyone to actually suggest that they throw him a rope and simply pull him up. 

Reunited they try and figure out what went wrong. It's pretty clear they were given faulty intelligence but with a bit of experimentation they're able to reset the rotator chamber and head back to the alchemy chamber and poke corpses until they find one still breathing. They heal him and interrogate him to determine the correct sequence of keys to use on the rotator to go to the high-security research wing of the facility. Just to be sure they drag him along and keep him at swordpoint while they try the sequence out. Fortunately it works and so they tell him to wait in the rotator chamber and head into the hallway...at which point he closes the door behind them, plugs in his own keycharm and runs further back into the facility screaming about intruders. After much face-palming the PCs head deeper into the facility...they're nearly at their goal so all they need to do is grab the research or bust up the machine and use the recall gem to escape. 

They burst into a large chamber which appears to be a massive magical foundry. Four large, egg-shaped tanks (about 30' tall) sit in each corner of the room and a single large crystal vat of what appears to be molten metal bubbles in the center of the room atop an elemental furnace. large pipes allow molten metal to flow into the egg-shaped tanks. Flanking the large vat are a pair elemental forges where bound fire-elementals heat metal and earth elementals shape "hammers" of hardened stone to pound it into shape. 

Overseeing all of this on a balcony above is the master artificer for Whitehearth, a half-crazed artificer called Vin D'Cannith. He and his work crew stare in shock as the PCs stumble into the middle of their top-secret project. The PCs are the first to act, firing arrows and crossbow bolts into the assistants working the forges, determined to throw as big a wrench into their project as they can. Number 11 and Kale wade in for battle...this is their first chance to shine!

Vin cackles when he sees this and casts a single spell...Dominate Living Construct. Suddenly Number 11 is on the wrong team (although of course I still allow Jack's player to keep control...he doesn't mind the change in targets). Kale and Kev are suddenly under assault by the warforged super-soldier while Vin cackles above. Both D'Florintz and Duvbar are terrible shots and their weapons simply cannot penetrate Vin's magical defenses...and Number 11 is carving through the two melee combatants with remarkable speed. Duvbar grabs both D'Florintz and the still-stupid Willim, activates his recall gem and the three simply teleport the hell out of there...leaving Kev and Kale to their fate. 

The two fight valiantly against 11 but the warforged is built much tougher and he's equipped with far superior weaponry and armor (he was intended all along as the "final boss" encounter, thus built much stronger than the other characters available.). They both go down fighting...

At this point Number 11 is the only character left (conveniently, since he's the focus of the "flashback" spell). As he raises his arm-blade to finish off Kale there's the sound of tearing metal from behind him and a massive impact flattens the warforged and a second blow destroys him...he never got a look at what it was that destroyed him. 

With that the flashback ends and the Order is left staring at one another at midnight in the Mournlands

 

So, back in their own time the Order takes a bit of time to digest the info they've gotten. They're pretty sure that the Schema they were sent to find will be in the weapon-development laboratory of Whitehearth and now they know the keys they'll need and the proper sequence to trigger them! Unfortunately they only have a single keycharm given to them by Elaydren, they know they'll need at least 3 others to properly complete their mission. 

So, following Magnus's map and landmarks remembered from the vision they make their way towards the Whitehearth facility when they run into an unexpected encounter: 

They are hailed weakly by what appears to be a badly wounded dwarf wandering the Mournlands, he collapses to the ground just as the Order approaches. They use some goodberry wine (which functions in the Mournland) to heal some of the unfortunate dwarf's wounds and he introduces himself and explains his situation. His name is Keldor Smoothstone and he's been a bit down-on-his luck. He ended up in Daargun after his adventuring group disbanded and he incurred some heavy gambling debts. He joined up with a band of hobgoblins who make forays into the Mournlands for loot and valuables. He was badly wounded by a horrific beast that attacked the salvagers and they abandoned him. He's been wandering desperately ever since and begs the Order to let him stay with them.

They agree, although they explain that their mission is private and they may not be able to explain what they're doing to him. He agrees, just wanting to have someone watch his back until he can get out of the Mournlands. 

The group heads towards Whitehearth where they find it's illusionary concealment is malfunctioning, switching between scenes of wilderness, forest, desert and snowfield which makes it easy to pick out the right hillside. They find the adamantine hatch that they recall from their vision and fortunately the one keycharm that they have fits and allows them access. They head into the rotator chamber which is clearly functional (although the everbright crystals set in the walls are unsteady and dim). There are 8 passages accessible from this room, only half of which could be accessed with a blue keycharm (the southeast passage is the one they know they'll want but it requires a green charm). 

The first chamber they check turns out to be a magically operated laundry chamber. Interesting but not helpful. Keldor is getting increasingly nervous with this place. He confesses he's uncomfortable with large amounts of magic and the flickering lighting is causing him to fear being trapped by a malfunctioning doorway. 

The next chamber turns out to be some mess hall (mostly empty beyond a few corpses untouched by decay). Nolan discovers a magical cabinet that seems to flavor, warm or chill different types of food placed within it. He falls in love, but his pleas to take the cabinet with them back through the mournlands fall on deaf ears. A search of the corpses reveals several Blue Keycharms (distributed among the party so they all have a copy) and a pair of brown-colored keycharms. 

Returning back to the revolving chamber they decide to continue investigating the blue-keyed rooms. The next one they take a look at turns out to be an office of a higher-ranking Cannith agent. The documents in the room are purely logistical and painfully dull...although Nolan notes with interest the large amounts of adamantine recently transported to the facility and sent to the research wing. 

The next chamber opens into a long hallway and they decide to send Shara down to investigate while the rest of the Order waits near the doorway. She sneaks down and finds several doors at the end of the hallway. Peeking through one of the open doorways she sees it was originally some kind of dorm chamber for Cannith staff...however something horrible has happened. The corpses laying in beds and seated in chairs throughout the room have somehow begun to merge...strands of still-moist flesh and tissue stretching and congealing between the bodies like some kind of hideous fungal bloom made of meat. Gnawing at these strands of flesh are several large canines that seem to be dire wolves covered in patchy fur and huge tumorous lumps. The largest has a disturbingly humanoid face rather than a dog's muzzle. 

Shara is shocked by the sight and starts to sneak away but flubs her roll and the keen senses of the wolves pick her up. She shouts an alarm and turns to run back to the others...only to see two other wolves pad from another doorway at the end of the hall...cutting off her retreat. She's surrounded by gigantic, deformed wolves and far, far away from her allies. 

Fortunately the bizzare man-faced wolf growls at the rest and they oddly stand down. Then even more oddly that wolf begins to speak! The wolf is Rrorsa, one of the animals kept here as a test subject by Cannith. She can only speak simply and haltingly but explains that her pack begin to change after the humans died (herself especially, gaining intellect and the ability to speak). She allows the rest of the Order to approach and shares what little she knows about the facility with them. Rrorsa then proposes a deal...She'd love to be able to leave the facility but many of her packmates are still trapped in their cages in one of the testing chambers of the facility, guarded by a hideous beast. If the Order can reunite them then Rrorsa is willing to give them a few of her possessions: a magical pearl and a green Keycharm. 

The Order convinces Rrorsa that they can be trusted and heads off to find the rest of her pack. Before they go they find a chamber Rrorsa hadn't been able to open (locked with a Brown charm) which proved to be the personal chambers of a high-ranking Cannith guard. They loot some nice swords and a suit of chainmail and a red keycharm. 

The Order follows Rrorsa's directions to the testing wing of the facility where they quickly locate the kennels where Rrorsa's packmates are kept (fortunately the magic that produces fresh food and water and cleans their waste is still active). Before they can free the wolves they're assaulted by Alpha and Beta a pair of flesh-golems in the shape of large canines. Fortunately the Order manages to put down both golems before suffering any major injuries. Jack patches everyone up as best he can, using a custom health-transference spell (reversed vampiric touch) to heal his companions. 

The trapped wolves are freed and reunited with Rrorsa who thanks the Order for their help. Before she and her pack leave for the surface they mention that someone else has been through the area recently...someone who looks like Magnus but smells different. 

At this point Keldor tells the Order that he simply can't stand the place any longer and offers to stay in the caves and keep an eye on the entrance until they're done. This is agreed and the Order presses onwards...

 

So the Order is still poking around the Whitehearth facility. They locate one chamber which has a set of large full-length mirrors. Investigating reveals that they are some kind of illusion-based library designed to record and play back scenes or dictations. However the "library" has been damaged by the wild magic of the Mournlands and the Order's attempt to activate it causes the mirrors to shatter and creates a Living Spell formed from a Color Spray and Confusion spell. Fortunately most of the Order manages to avoid being driven mad by the Living Spell and they find a connected chamber that seems to hold a scrying device designed to watch over different chambers within the facility. It's controlled by a sphere studded with holes for the various keycharms. Currently a red Keycharm is stuck in the control orb...the metal handle has melted and fused the thing in place. Magnus is unable to remove it but he does manage to fix up the device itself with a couple of repair spells. Semi-functional the device projects the image of a large room covered in workbenches. At one end is a large box or chest made from clear crystal and standing over it is a warforged in heavily decorated robes making arcane passes over the chest's surface. This glimpse lasts just a moment before the scrying device malfunctions again and the red keycharm lodged in it bursts like a firecracker.

The Order continues to investigate finding more corpses (including the alchemy lab that they raided during the flashback...they decide to give the room of cursed objects a wide berth this time) and spare keycharms. They also find what appears to be a testing chamber for combat spells and magical weapons. Unfortunately (for me at least) they choose not to fiddle with any of the levers that would have released undead trolls (former targets for the testing) or a living fireball spell.

Finally they come to the final rotator chamber and they remember the proper combination of keycharms to avoid triggering the pit trap this time around. They head into the huge room where Number 11 went out of control during the flashback and find some major changes. Of course all the Cannith magewrights are dead but it looks like someone has been messing around here anyway. The vat of molten metal has been filled with boiling, molten glass and the tubes that piped the liquid metal now face skywards and are ringed with new runes (mostly burned to slag). It's possible to see here that the ceiling can open up into a skylight and that the opening is ringed with a layer of solidified glass much like Rose Quarry. Apparently this was the device that destroyed that town. Fortunately it seems like it was a one-shot deal since it's clearly heavily damaged although it is still half full of glass kept molten by the elemental furnace it rests on.

The huge egg-shaped metal objects are still there but two appear to have been broken apart with great force. Another one of them appears mostly intact but it seemed to have sprung a leak and is apparently empty. The final one is still intact and filled with some sort of opaque green goo. The team decides to leave these things be and instead heads towards the extremely large doorway at the far end of the room, a door big enough to move whole wagons through. They approach and hear what sounds like voices from within. Moving stealthily they get closer to try and listen in. There are two voices: one is raspy and harsh the other is deep and resonant. Both have the clearly metallic cadence of warforged.

The first voice: "They have been moving through the facility...but I assure you I am in no danger."

The second: "Nevertheless, you are too valuable to our cause to risk. If you are threatened then retreat...we will find some other way to retrieve the schema. That is an order."

The third: "As you wish...my Lord of Blades."

This is the point where Magnus almost wets himself with joy...which is pretty damn impressive for a creature without a digestive system.

 

The crew hang about, listening in on the conversation between the warforged in the next room, whose is called Athame, and apparently the lord of blades himself. They manage to peek through a crack in the door to see what appears to be a full sized magical projection of a warforged (covered in spikes...must be the LoB) speaking to the robed warforged they spotted earlier. Their conversation is mostly on Athame's discoveries within the Whitehearth facility. They're clearly after the schema within the crystal chest but apparently Athame has been distracted by the "toys" the Cannith artificers were developing and has been delaying his retrieval of the schema.

 

They can also see the center of this room is dominated by some kind of huge glowing green crystal with several large cables running from it to other ends of the room.

 

**Minis tip**
A hummingbird feeder with the right shape (easily available from thrift stores) and a mini glowstick from walmart makes a great "ominous glowing crystal" centerpiece for a battlemap for under 3 bucks.

 

 

It's at this point the Order decides to make it's appearance. They bust the large doorways wide open and Peski aims a wand of Dispel Magic at the Lord of Blades' projection and snuffs it out. They spread out to face down Athame...who laughs at them. He sends a bolt of lightning at the crystal which travels down one of the cords and into a large, sealed alcove in one end of the room...which bursts open revealing a massive adamantine-plated warforged dragon!

 

**Mini-tip #2**
Want robo-dragons? Look for Metal Ages dragons on ebay. I got a collection of 4 for under 20 bucks. They seem more expensive now but they're still cheap compared to minis of a similar size and quality. In general check out toys for minis...they tend to serve very well. The metal ages dragons also come with cool eggs that I used as the dragon's mini-creation forges.

 

This is by far the biggest and most deadly looking enemy the Order has faced. They press on gamely though but then Athame tosses another lightning bolt and releases a second dragon! Peski notices that each dragon is still attached to the crystal by a series of long cables and so he directs a shatter spell at it...destroying the crystal...and releasing a large storm elemental. The next turn he is taken out by a critical hit by one of the dragons. Athame laughs some more before vanishing in a puff of smoke. The party now faces two huge metal-beasts and a rogue lightning bolt elemental. This is their greatest challenge ever and their healer has already been killed (which is the first PC casualty since I began playing with this group). They are freaking out.

 

Until it is Jack's turn...and Jack decides to try out his latest spell. Phantasmal Killer. Normally phantasmal killer isn't a great spell....it allows two saving throws and most enemies are going to be good at at least one of them (fortitude and will) and anything immune to mind-effecting spells is going to ignore it which is a pretty big list. It's hardly overpowered.

 

But...here's the thing. The warforged dragons are just like warforged...they're living constructs. But they don't have class levels, just racial HD...which means that they have a constructs saving throws (which are all bad) combined with the ability to be affected by mind-affecting spells.

 

Jack targets the first dragon. It rolls below a 5 on both it's saves and dies instantly. My amazing super-encounter is falling apart...

 

Next round jack targets the second. It rolls pitifully as well, whimpers, curls into a ball and dies. Oh god...oh god...this is horrible. I may have to literally murder the actual players at this point.

 

Everyone cheers Jack on as he turns towards the last remaining enemy....guess what? Elementals can be targeted by phantasmal killer too...of course this one has a great Fortitude save it won't....A 1!? HOW CAN IT ROLL A 1!!?

 

I lack the willpower to murder anyone at this point...I am defeated...I curl into a ball and whimper while stroking the dragon toys I bought 6 months in advance when planning this encounter....I am a broken game master.

 

So the order is standing victorious above the robotic corpses of two warforged dragons (excepting Peski who is unfortunately still in one of them). Athame has vanished and there's no sign of any new challengers so they quickly investigate the chamber. They discover the dissected "corpse" of Number 11 strapped to a table and disassembled. While Nolan and Tayin (the more morally inclined of the Order) work on extracting Peski's corpse so that he can be brought back to Breland for a proper burial Magnus and the rest of the Order focus on opening up the crystal "chest" that Athame had been examined.

Seeing as it is unlocked Magnus flips the lid open and is blasted backwards (and knocked out) by a powerful warding glyph. Ignoring the smoking warforged his companions examine the contents of the chest. They find not one but two adamantine schema, both identical. It seems that the Whitehearth artificers were thoughtful enough to create a copy. After reviving Magnus with some oil of mending he examines the two tablets and confirms that both are functionally identical, although it's easy to tell that one is also far, far older.

With that they conclude that their work here is done. After Jack performs a bit of mending and patching (as he is the only one with access to healing that can work in the Mournlands: a combo of False Life and a custom-made reversed version of Vampiric Touch). Gathering the schema, their fallen companion and a few choice pieces of adamantine scrap from the worshops they head back to the entrance. They are in for a nasty surprise.

Waiting for them at the entrance are about half a dozen skeletons in the uniform of the Emerald Claw as well as a woman sporting a black-and-bone motif. Flanking her are two hulking, 9-foot tall skeletons covered in bloody slime. One of them has Keldor gripped in its claws and and the woman has a knife to the dwarf's neck. She introduces herself as Malvora of Vol and demands that the Order hand over the schema they found in exchange for Keldor's life.

Fortunately for Keldor, Nolan and Glorin aren't willing to risk his life in Magnus's proposed "fireball everything" strategy. Realizing that they've got two copies of the schema they decide that they can afford to go through with the hostage exchange (there's no indication that the Claw is even aware that there is a copy). Nolan carries one of the schema while one of the Karnathi skeletons brings Keldor.

Fortunately the exchange goes smoothly...but the egotism of the Claw gets the better of them. After Nolan hands over his Schema and prepares to head back to the rest of the Order with Keldor the dwarf starts laughing and pulls out a hidden crossbow and aims it at Nolan as his features warp and his form lengthens...transforming into the visage of the vampire they battled in Rose Quarry. At this point the "I told you so's" started coming from Jack, who had always been suspicious of Keldor.

Perhaps he simply assumed that the Order, wounded and outnumbered, wouldn't be willing to press the issue to combat (or that the Claw would easily dispatch them if they tried). Well, he was not counting on the Order's fury when played for a fool (and I was not counting on them being so intact after the battle with the warforged dragons).

Nolan and Glorin immediately engage the vampire before he can retreat back to his companions while Shara and Tayin pelt Malvora with arrows and spells respectively. Magnus uses one of his hold undead scrolls on the vampire, hoping to replicate his previous success against Lucan, unfortunately there is no effect. Jack takes a gamble at this point...not only was he suspicious of Keldor's identity but he had an intuition after the first battle that they were not actually fighting a vampire at all (just goes to show that you should be careful pulling tricks when playing with your significant other, NJ saw right through me). So he uses his last remaining Phantasmal Killer spell (damn sorcerers) against the vampire. Although he fails to kill the Claw leader outright the spell definitely causes a reaction as he screeches in fear and leaps backwards from the horrific vision...clearly proving himself not undead.

With the jigg up the skeleton hustles back to malvora with the schema, only to be taken down a moment later by a wand-shot from Magnus. While Glorin and Nolan chop and maul the giant skeletons the not-vampire Claw leader casts a fog spell to try and cover his escape and sow confusion. After a few more frantic rounds of flailing around in fog and darkness the battle is over and the Order evaluates the situation...

Unfortunately Malvora snatched the schema and used a Dimension Door spell to escape while the heroes battled her skeleton minions. Unfortunately her boss was not so lucky...the fog was not enough to stop Glorin and Nolan from catching him and beating the tar out of him. After his death his body reverted to its true form...a doppleganger. Rushing after Malvora the Order made it outside just in time to see her boarding a brand new version of the Jade Fury...the airship began to lift off as they made it outside but they were forced to retreat due to heavy fire from the ship's crew and they could do nothing but watch as it rose into the air.

Despite this setback they still had the schema they came for and they began their trek back across the Mournlands. Fortunately on the way back they managed to avoid most of the hazards of the place, although in one case they had to put down a pack of ghoulish wolves. However, with the mist border in sight they had to deal with a massive earthquake, running to avoid a small landslide and evading massive cracks in the ground that vented plumes of fog into the air. They broke through the mist just in time to see their ride preparing to leave without them and hopped aboard the elemental land-cart for the trip back.

Checking in with a message station upon their return to Daargun they learned that Elaydrin was on her way to meet them. Upon her arrival they handed over the schema and she rewarded them with a casket of coins as well as several other valuable, and clearly personal objects: an emerald broach, a magically powered music box decked with gold and silver and a pair of elven-wrought platinum rings. Together they caught a ship heading back to Sharn and she began to speak with Magnus about his research into the schema that was already in the Order's possession. By the time they landed back in Sharn Elaydrin managed to negotiate for House Cannith to temporarily take the Order's Schema (the one they found under Sharn) for research on the condition that Magnus be allowed to take part...as well as a hefty fee.

And so things got a bit quieter for the Order for the next several months as Magnus and teams of Cannith researchers (including the occasional assistance of Merrix D'Cannith himself) begin to try and unravel the schema's mysteries.