First Mission: Mines, Moonstones and Ragamoffyns (Oh My!)

[Jareel [GM]]

[Excerpts from Aahn's Journal of the Four]

The Four have successfully found the missing children of the Cogs in
some kind of sorcerous facility that can be reached through a secret
entrance in the old Iron Mine. Through the use of colored rods, called
keycharms by Patch, they have explored the facility somewhat. I do not
know how much of the facility that they have explored, as it resists my
attempts at seeing beyond. Currently, I can only percieve through the
Four, so I know what they know and no more. ...

The Chamber of Nine Doors still has three doors which thwart them; the
White, the Black and the Green. Although Jake and Vyn have hatched an
audacious plan to go with the clean linen from the laundry room, since
they have not seen the clean linen re-appear anywhere the Four has
explored to date. I hope that the magic which transports the linen is
not restricted to inanimate objects, as they have already lost some of
their possessions to the fickleness of arcane magics. ...

Never in my life has my Inner Eye failed me as much as it has of late.
The Bishop has assured me that through adversity comes strength and
that I must remain steadfast in my faith. Still, it bothers me that I
cannot pierce the viel of the Cowled Man, nicknamed Raven by the
Lizard-on-a-Stick(tm) vendor, Lazarus, nor can I follow these
mechanical spiders, known to Ethan as Clockwork Horrors, back to their
lair.

...

I have spoken to my brother Faer about these "Horrors". He seems
greatly bothered by the fact that they even exist on this plane. He
speaks of many things which I do not comprehend, but I understand that
whomever created these mechanical spiders is either a fool or a madman.
Faer says that House Cannith funded an expedition through Morgrave
University to Xen'drik to find "lost" creation patterns; as it is the
nature of that House to do so.

The expedition found what was thought to be the ruins of a mining
outpost. Scattered about the perimeter of the outpost were stone,
hammer-shaped obelisks that glowed faintly when the sun set. The
expedition leader, much to his later regret, declared that they were
merely the equivalent of everbright laterns and that the expedition
should not waste resources on studying them further. Within the mining
outpost they found what they were looking for, or so they thought. To
improve mining effeciency and ore processing, the Xen'drik artificers
of the mining outpost created "living pattern" automata, artificial
creatures that could replicate themselves out of stone or raw ore. The
plan was simple. Burrowers would dig out the ore. Shapers would
create either more Burrowers or Drones out of the mined ore, each Drone
being made out of pre-programmed ore types; a single type of ore per
Drone. The Drones would crawl out of the mines and stack themselves
neatly in the warehouses of the outpost. When the Drones were shipped
out of the outpost their animating energies were absorbed by the Forge
Web, which was apparently the source of life for Drones, Burrowers and
Shapers alike.

The expedition found the creation pattern for the Shapers, but not
Drones or Burrowers, and more distressing the Forge Web. It was agreed
that the "pattern" for Drones and Burrowers was held within the Shaper
pattern. One of the expedition, a Dwarven Engineer named, Khurl, noted
that they had but a single Shaper pattern, which he believed meant that
any Shapers they made from the pattern would only mine the same ores
that this particular outpost mined. The leader of the expedition
stated that records showed that this outpost was a source of mithral,
gold and iron for the Xen'drik; and if that's all these things mined
for House Cannith and it's clients, he could live with that. Khurl had
other doubts, but they were either not recorded or lost.

The day before the expedition left the outpost, a minor member of House
Cannith, Evaan d'Cannith, found a hidden cache of notes concerning the
"living pattern" automata. One of the original creators thought that
if the "living pattern" automata could be freed from their dependecy of
the Forge Web, they could be converted into war machines. The leader
of the mining outpost felt that this was an unnecessary expenditure of
the outpost's limited resources. The researcher felt that the leader
was being short-sighted and stated that he would seek support for his
ideas elsewhere. As the discovered notes belonged to the outpost
leader, what became of the researcher remained a puzzle to be solved by
another expedition. Faer hopes that whomever is creating these
Clockwork Horrors did not find the research of that Xen'drik artificer.

When the expedition went to leave the mining outpost they discovered
that the stone hammers were not merely night-time illumination. The
illumination was a minor side effect of their true purpose, they were
part of the Forge Web. The vast majority of the expedition's van was
composed of early model or "dumb" warforged, and as soon as the first
warforged crossed the threshold of the Forge Web, all of their
animating energies were ripped from them. Only the self-aware
warforged seemed to have any chance of surviving the effect of the
Forge Web; even so, seven out of the ten of them succumbed. This
greatly upset the leader of the expedition and nearly drove the chief
artificer insane with grief, although each for different reasons. The
leader was upset because without the warforged he could not bring back
all of the ingots of gold and mithral the expedition had uncovered.
The artificer was distraught that seven of his "children" had been
slain. It was decided to leave the ingots and the "dead" warforged
behind. The notes and the creation pattern were what really matter,
after all. The Chief Artificer vehemently disagreed, and refused to
leave his children behind. The expedition leader told the Chief
Artificer it was his choice, he could either leave with the rest of the
expedition or remain behind for all he cared. The Chief Artificer
stayed.

Rumors held that while the expedition returned safely, without the
secret to the Forge Web House Cannith artificers were unable to empower
the Shapers they made to create Drones or Burrowers. Further
expeditions to Xen'drik to find either the Forge Web independent
"living pattern" automata or Forge Web creation patterns were
unsuccessful and the project was cancelled in favor of improving the
creation of the warforged.

...

I have tried to contact the minds of Cedric, Jaera and Needle. Being a
warforged, like Patch, Needle has always been difficult to contact,
even at close range. Jaera is, by nature, distrustful, and her will
strong, so oft I get little but vague emotions from her. Cedric,
though, is like a shining beacon. His faith in the Host, especially
Boldrei, glowed brightly within him. For the past few days, the only
one I can reach is Cedric, and his once bright light is dim, cold and
beset by mindless rage and distruction. He suffers at the hand of this
Beast, and I can do naught to help him as I know not where he is. I
pray that the Four can find him soon, or at least bring back something
that was his so that I may be able to get a better vision of his
whereabouts.

...

[iKitten]

*bump*