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Blade rested for enough time to heal and regain his abilities. He
discovered by this time that his palantir was being blocked and couldn't
communicate. Believing someone would eventually come to investigate he
began studying the creation forge trying to see if he could learn how to
use it. As the days passed he also further taught the warforged about
the Lord of Blades and they quickly became loyal worshippers. Dave ate
the bodies of the gnomes to survive and on the 4th day Blade realized he
was out of time as Dave at the last gnome body. Dave hadn't bothered to
use a corner to relieve himself and the entire room was a mess and
smelled horrible however the warforged couldn't smell and Dave didn't
care. Blade had spent enough time working with the creation forge to be
confident that it was beyond his skill to use now but that he would need
to be careful to avoid damaging it. There was only one door out the room
and it wasn't big enough for the creation forge to go through. They had
fully searched the room over the past four days and confirmed there were
no secret passages anywhere in here. Trying the handle of the door he
found it was locked.
Deciding that a frontal assault was too dangerous he politely knocked on
the door. On the other side he heard some voices.
"Somethings in there" a voice said. "I think it's trying to get
through."
Blade then heard a machine start powering up but he couldn't tell from
the sound what it was. He noticed though that the door, which was made
out of metal, was starting to heat up. Concerned that the person on the
far side was trying to blast through he had the warforged move the
creation forge out of direct line of the door. The door continued to get
much hotter but wasn't destroyed and eventually they heard the machine
power down and the door cooled off again.
Again Blade politely knocked on the outside. Again he heard some voices
talk about something trying to get through, though the voices were more
muffled then they had been, and the door started to heat up, though not
as much as the previous time. When the door cooled off Blade knocked yet
again. This time he politely asked if anyone was there. As he knocked
this time though he could tell that the sound the door made when being
knocked on was different and sounded more solid then it had before.
Again he heard some very muffled voices and the door started to heat up
but nowhere near as much as the first time. Believing that he was being
sealed in Blade decided he needed a different tactic.
Realizing they had no resources or tools Blade decided to improvise. He
had some of his warforged pick up one that looked a little tougher then
the others and togher they used him as a battering ram to break down the
door. When the warforged being used a battering ram got hurt from the
damage they rotated and used someone else as a battering ram. He
intentionally did not let Dave help with the battering ram as he was
afraid that Dave would kill one of the warforged. They eventually
managed to break the door partially off it's hinges around the time the
2nd warforged got hurt.
Deciding they had done enough for now, Blade instructed Dave to bash the
door. Dave swung with his hammer and eventually completely knocked the
door off it's hinges however the door didn't fall over, it just sort of
sat there. Looking past the gaps they could see the door had some large
metal plates stuck on the outside, enough that it was more of a cube.
There wasn't enough room for everyone so Blade, Dave, and one other
warforged began pushing the door cube down the hallway it was in. With
the first push Blade accidentally got his arm wedged between the door
cube and the wall. Blade eventually managed to free his arm without any
damage besides some serious scratches on his armor. They pushed the door
cube as far as it would go. At the end they could see through the gaps
some light from above indicating a ramp going up but the door cube
couldn't make the turn. They had passed two closed wooden doors however.
Opening these door they discovered they were very small rooms with pipes
in them going from the ground up through the ceiling. In one of the
rooms the pipes were very hot, scalding to the touch even. The 2nd was
cold, not icy but definitely cold. Listening Blade could hear water
gurgling through them. Blade considered breaking a pipe and climbing
through it but they were too small and he was concerned the water would
flood the room where the creation forge was and he had learned enough
about the creation forge to suspect water would damage it.
Not able to think of any other options Blade told Dave to turn his
hammer around and use the other end of the anvil as a pick to dig
through the wall. Dave didn't really understand what Blade said and
began smashing the wall with the blunt side of his hammer. He eventually
managed to break down the wall where the party saw bedrock. The entire
party began slowly tunneling through the bedrock trying to reach the
surface. Dave did most of the work but when he got tired the warforged
tunneled as best they could with their bare hands. Dave soon began
complaining about thirst and had to take more frequent rests. Blade took
a knife that had been salvaged from the gnomes and used it to carefully
puncture one of the cold pipes to create a small stream of water that
wouldn't flood everything. Not having a bucket, or any other way to
carry the water, he had the warforged use their hands to collect as much
water in their hands as they could and water Dave. He wouldn't let Dave
drink directly from the stream as he was afraid Dave might try to break
the pipes to get the water faster and flood them out. Although slow it
worked and Dave was rehydrated, although very hungry. A few days later
they broke up into a cellar.
The cellar happened to be full of food and ale. Blade had Dave start to
eat and drink his fill. Despite drinking several barrels of ale it did
not appear to impair him. Blade checked his palantir and found it was no
longer blocked. He reported in his status to the Lord of Blades. He was
not given any instructions back beyond the obvious "keep the creation
forge safe and return it to the Bladelands as as possible" which didn't
surprise Blade. Unknown to the party, this was the cellar of a tavern.
In the common room Kletus had been drinking heavily and gotten
completely drunk. He was so drunk that when he tried to leave out the
front door he got turned around and wandered into the cellar where he
saw Dave, Blade, and a small army of warforged. Scared he turned around
started to run away. Blade chased after him to capture him, both to
avoid raising an alarm and also to learn about where they were. Kletus
managed to stumble out into the common room before Blade reached him.
Kletus was still so drunk he couldn't find the front door and stumbled
into a wall near the cellar door. Looking around Blade saw he was in a
tavern that was full of mostly gnomes but there were a few other species
as well.
The barkeep, seeing people coming out his cellar, came up to Blade.
"What are you doing in my cellar?" He demanded.
"My comrades and I were semi-accidentally teleported here. If you help
us return home you will be well rewarded. Do you know anyone capable of
teleporting us away?"
The barkeep just looked at Blade dumbfounded "Teleport spell? I don't
know anyone capable of that level of magic."
"Gnomes are known for their magic, given the high percentage here I
assume we're in Zilargo. Could you direct me to someone capable of doing
so. If you do and then come with us I am certain will be given the
greatest of rewards."
"Wait a minute... us?"
The barkeep looked past Blade and was flummoxed as he saw Dave open yet
another barrel and start chugging it. Especially as he quickly saw how
much he had eaten and drank already.
"You're going to pay for the damages."
"Of course" Blade said trying to placate the barkeep. "But I have no
money on me". Blade indicated his lack of clothes, pockets, or anything
else to hold money in "However if you come with all of us when we get
home you will be well rewarded. Again it would be best if we were
teleported away as we were teleported here."
The barkeep then seemed to notice all the warforged as well for the
first time. He sputtered a bit about teleportation and then took the
pipe he'd been smoking out of his mouth. He tapped it out, placed it
carefully in his pocket, then went back behind the bar. He wrote out a
sign which he carefully placed in a prominent location. Reading the sign
Blade saw that it said "dreamweed smoking no longer allowed". The
barkeep then went up the stairs to the 2nd story and closed the door
behind him.
Deciding the barkeep was a waste of time, Blade tried getting help from
the rest of the gnomes but they were all too drunk or stoned to be
useful. Kletus had gotten back up and was stumbling around near the
cellar door. A gnome that had been standing near the front door watching
everything soon came up to Blade.
"Hi, I'm a representative of the magical refugees association" he said
introducing himself. "If you come with me I can help you and your
comrades get home."
Blade thoroughly believed this stranger and decided to follow him. He
went back to the cellar and ordered two warforged to come with him as an
escort and the rest to remain behind and protect the creation forge at
all costs. Blade also decided to leave Dave in the cellar as further
protection, and also out of concern Dave would interfere with any
negotiations. The gnome also told Kletus he should come along as well
for some reason. Kletus had spent enough time in Zilargo to know this
gnome was a "public" face for The Trust, the Zilargo secret police, and
decided to go along with him. Outside another 4 gnomes surrounded the
party and escorted them away.
The party was guided to an abandoned building, inside were even more
gnome guards which moved to surround the party.
"Ok" the interviewer said "Who are you and how did you get into that
tavern?"
"We were teleported partially against our will" Blade replied. "You said
you could help us get home, will you do so?"
"Yes, yes, of course.. however, where is home?"
Blade tried being evasive but the gnome continued to press the question.
Eventually Blade said he had been teleported there from Sharn about a
week ago. The interviewer picked up at hearing this. "You were in Sharn
a week ago?"
"Yes"
"So you saw the mourning then."
Blade, not knowing about the 2nd mourning thought the interviewer was
talking about the 1st mourning. "No, I was not at the mourning, I don't
know anything about it."
This went back and forth for awhile with the interviewer thinking Blade
was talking about the 2nd mourning while Blade thought the interviewer
was talking about the 1st mourning. Eventually the gnome got mad,
believing Blade was intentionally talking nonsense to be evasive and
motioned to the guards to attack. Seeing the guards start to draw their
weapons, Kletus tried convincing the gnomes that he wasn't associated
with Blade and the warforged in any way but the gnomes didn't believe
him.
Blade started by channeling the power of the Lord of Blades,
intimidating the gnomes. Blades's two warforged fought some guards on
their own. Kletus pulled out a pistol and began firing at the gnomes to
defend himself. Blade used his sword on the gnomes. The battle was well
matched but it began turning towards the parties favor when one of the
gnomes tripped and accidentally ran his short sword right through one of
his teammates, killing him instantly. Kletus kept firing with his pistol
which did great damage when it hit but had a tendency to misfire.
Eventually, one of Blade's guards collapsed, immobile. Blade's other
guard was obviously about to collapse as well while Kletus wasn't doing
so well. Blade himself was in pretty good shape due to his armor
protecting him. Blade, seeing that he couldn't reach the guard that had
collapsed, used his powers to heal the injured warforged. Kletus fell
shortly thereafter, alive but bleeding out. The gnomes focused on the
2nd warforged guard and he eventually collapsed as well despite Blade's
healing. Blade began swinging wildly at the gnomes and also used his
smite ability on them. It was close but Blade eventually managed to kill
the last gnome before he collapsed himself.
Kletus was still barely alive, knowing his warforged could wait and
deciding Kletus would make a useful asset, he attempted to perform some
first aid on Kletus. Blade didn't really know anything about first aid
however and while he didn't make things worse was unable to save Kletus
who eventually bled out from his injuries. Blade used his magic to
restore one of his warforged guards. Having no ability to restore the
2nd warforged at this time, but knowing he was salvageable, they picked
up the 2nd warforged and carried him out the building heading back
towards the tavern.