Session 0005 - Mission Accomplished?

Roster

List of characters who's player was in attendance

Player characters who's player is attending the game start with 1 Hero Point, and can get more during the session.

Absent

List of characters who's player was absent

Player characters for missing players do not start the session with a hero point, and can not get any more during the session.

Session Log

After destroying the three flying swords, the party begin to search the ancient storeroom.
They find 12 more ancient Galifar coins to add to their collection. There is a crate full of broken vials, but one of them is still intact and clearly has liquid sloshing inside of it. Another crate holds nine intact ancient wine bottles.
Saferous takes a look and is certain the contents are spoiled. However, the bottles still have visible labels and may be of value to a collector.
Of the nine longswords, the three flying swords are broken beyond repair. The other six are old and a bit rusty, but otherwise serviceable. They might be worth something to the right collector.
While searching the room, Alicia sits in quite contemplation in a corner and refocuses her energy. She user her magic to lay on hands and heal the injured party members. She finds her ability is able to cure the warforged, Bloody Spear as it would anyone else.
At the same time, Saferous uses the time to reformulate his stock of versatile vials, and Rocinante casts a read aura spell on the items they have found to see if anything is magical. They discover that the one intact vial radiates magic, as are the two mechanical toys and the cog they are assuming is the artifact they came for.
Knowing the vial is enchanted, Saferous uses his alchemical knowledge to try to identify it and is convinced it is a healing potion (lesser). He also examines another vial the party acquired earlier from the gang members they killed they already know is magical, but is unable to identify it. Rocinante takes a look and is certain it is a healing potion (minor) - the weaker version of the same type of potion.
After spending a fair bit of time in this storeroom the group are convinced their job is done, so they decide to head back. After what they experienced in the Depths of Sharn, returning to Cogsgate ward in Lower Tavick’s Landing is a breath of fresh air. They now see that even the poorest in the lower wards have it way better than the people who live in the Cogs. They find a skycoach and start their way up to Northedge’s switching station in Oak Towers Ward. It is getting dark. It is cloudy but it does not appear like it will rain tonight. Clouds cover most of the moons except two.
Almost an hour later, you stand in Professor Garthen Daela’s Office again. Although it is not so late, the Professor is not wearing his scholarly clothes. Instead, he’s wearing a white nightgown. He still looks tiny behind his great desk.
The party they relate to the Professor their exploration of the ancient lab, confirming that it appears to have been undisturbed for centuries. They put the presumed artifact and ancient cog on the table and he eagerly examines it, quickly lost in thought. He seems very pleased and soon tells them this is most certainly the item his research led him to believe was there.
While examining the item the noble Haris Kant shows up to hear what news the party brings of their adventure.
Next, the party begin to show the noble and the Professor the other items they found. Haris Kant shows interest in the wine bottles, offering to buy all nine at 5 silver pieces each. He also admires the coins they found, offering three times their value in silver. Professor Daela takes a look and is convinced the face depicted is that of Galifar I, the first ruler of the kingdom of Galifar so they are quite old indeed.
Rocinante brings out the ancient leather scroll case with the blueprints and shows them to the Professor. He quickly switches his focus from the cog artifact and becomes engrossed with the blueprints. It is clear that his is shocked by what he is looking at. After a short while examining them, he asks the party rhetorically "do you know what you've found?" He explains are over a thousand years old. The lab was likely abandoned before the War of the Mark ended and Sharn was destroyed. It was likely closed off by Galifar I when the city was rebuilt.
The blueprints explain the process to build a creation forge and how to use it to make warforged. However, House Cannith "invented" this technology only in the last century. In short, House Cannith may have been aware of the possibility of sentient constructs for a long time. Still, the question remains... why couldn't House Cannith achieve the creation of the warforged until almost 1500 years later?
He is delighted with the blueprints and offers the party 250 silver pieces for them, and the party is happy to sell them for the money.
Alicia shows them the small statuettes of The Sovereign Host and the Professor offers 20 silver for the lot, including the two broken figurines. The Professor is also quite interested in the mechanical toys, showing some delight when one is demonstrated to him. He buys one of them for 5 silver and Eriana offers to buy the other one, and nobody objects.
The Professor is also interested in the small gold compass they found, offering 10 silver for it. Neither he nor Haris Kant have any interest in the swords, but do recommend they take them to a blacksmith in Sharn to see if they hold any value to a collector.
Of the remaining items, the party decide to keep the thieves' toolkit and the two healing potions.
This concludes their business, and Rocinante asks if the Professor has any other work for them. He thinks for a moment and says he very well might. He asks where the party is staying, and says he'll send word in a few days either way, but he feels confident there is something he could use them for.
The group leave the office with pockets bursting with silver coins. This has been the best bounty they have collected since being in Sharn. As the party walk down the street that circles around the tower, thinking about what sophisticated tavern to visit, they hear coming from the direction of the Professor’s office the sound of glass breaking and screaming. As they make a swift return to the office they just left, everyone sees, a hundred feet away, a group of five hooded men jumping out of Professor Daela’s office window. One of them is carrying what appears to be an object covered in cloth.
Professor Daela jumps out behind them in his nightgown and throws himself at the man carrying the covered object. Both men fall to the ground and the object is revealed to be the schema. The thief covers it again while one of his allies pulls a rapier and stabs Professor Daela in the stomach. The five hooded men approach the street rail and jump into the abyss of Sharn’s towers. You run to the scene just as Professor Daela’s warforged butler emerges from the office with a first aid kit in their metal hands. As you look down the street rail, you see the five men falling in slow-motion to a street two levels below. They continue running north, towards Oak Towers Ward.
Though Professor Daela’s nightgown is scarlet red, the man appears conscious and calm. While the warforged starts first aid procedures, he says, “Sons of Khyber! Those bastards… Listen, my friends, there’s no time. I know who they are … it’s the Order of the Emerald Claw. They’ve been fudging my research for years. But we can’t let that schema remain in their hands … it is incredibly dangerous. They must be escaping to Oak Towers Ward, to the switching station, you must catch them there!”
Before heeding his advice, Alicia uses her lay on hands ability to cure the Professor. The group then make haste to the nearest switching station. The path from the switching station to the professor’s office is not a direct one, as it is normal in Sharn. You have to go up and down levels a few times and circle a few towers to get there. If you could jump down street rails like those thieves, you would save a lot of time. But you cannot do that, so you have to make up for it by running.
Out of breath, everyone reaches the street where the switching station is. There is a large skycoach parked nearby. The thieves are boarding the skycoach. Unfortunately, the party is too far to reach them in time. When they get to the switching station, the skycoach is sixty feet away from the dock, flying away and slowly increasing in speed.
Seeing the disturbed faces of the party, the clerk at the station informs everyone that the next skycoach arrives in twenty minutes, but if you’re willing to pay extra, he has three rentable soarsleds and two small skyrafts. They cost 1 gold coin per hour each.
The party quickly pay the fee, grab the vehicles and begin chasing after the five men. Alicia, Eriana and Ferdinand each grab a soarsled, Rocinante and Sarroxtíoð grab one skyraft and Bloody Spear and Saferous grab the other.
The soarsleds are easy to use, but a bit tricky to get used to. Fortunately each of those with a soarsled are quick agile, and adapt quickly. The skyrafts are very simple to operate, with two handles to manage speed and elevation.
The skycoach is still barely within sight as everyone boards the soarsleds and the skyrafts. Airborne now and slowly gaining speed, all eyes are focused on the skycoach. This appears to be a conscious choice as glancing down, you see the abyss of towers and bridges below you. Should you fall, you may well reach the very bottom of the city, thousands of feet below, quicker than you think.
During the chase, the skycoach makes concerted efforts to make sharp turns and weave through bridges and around towers to avoid any possible angle for ranged attacks. All the while, the skycoach continues to ascend. The party follow the Order of the Emerald Claw to the highest parts of the city. The Skyway lies ahead, approaching at great speed. The castle-like towers in the Skyway are of a very different quality than the ones below, even the ones in the higher wards. Everything here has the intention to portray how costly it is. It is as if every tower competed with the others to see which was more valuable. White and golden shiny bricks, gold plated oil lamps, docking stations for skycoaches in almost every tower, wide streets with trees and large parks with ponds.
The enemy skycoach is almost a hundred and fifty feet away. It flies faster that the smaller vehicles but not fast enough to lose the party. You see the large boat-like vessel decelerate and approach a warehouse on the very edge of the eldritch floating disk that supports the Skyway. The warehouse is at ground level. It is in the base of a short squat white-bricked tower. The tower has an opening large enough for the skycoach to enter.
Now out in the open, the party used ranged weapons to try and take out some of the crew on the skycoach. Alicia managed to hit the person and the helm with an arrow and Rocinante uses his magic to hurl his dagger with deadly accuracy at the same target but misses. Three of the crew return fire with their own crossbows, hitting Rocinante but missing everyone else (one of them fumbles and hits his own ally).
Sarroxtíoð pulls off a lucky shot with a sling and temporarily stuns the helmsman, who is quickly supported by the fifth member of their crew to continue to steer the skycoach.
As they approach the warehouse, two 6-feet long bolts fly past each skyraft, one coming within inches of hitting! There are four siege ballistae mounted on the warehouse’s docking bay. The way you’d need to approach this, you are sitting ducks against the ballistae. One good hit would be enough to destroy any of your flying devices.
Everyone in the group quickly steer hard to the left and approach the Skyway off to one side. The group quickly disembark and run along a nice cobbled path lined with lamps containing a row of finely tended trees, heading towards the warehouse.