Adam put together a great finish to our current chapter before the time jump, bringing to a close the Cannith auditor and Droam trade storylines, at least for now. Can't wait to see what comes next.
Kharduum Steepmine (Hill Dwarf Cleric)
“Big Von” Vonmond (Mountain Dwarf fighter)
Roza (Tiefling Sorcerer)
Frank (Mountain Dwarf Cleric)
Kronos Kole (Human Rogue)
Con'nor (Half Elf Paladin)
It's been tense since arriving back at the Outpost, our brush with Isabella Cannith has left us more than a little anxious, and the impending visit from the Auditor is on the forefront of our minds. We've heard rumours that they will be appearing today. As a precaution we have sent Di, along with the seeds to "Finland" accompanied by Kamakani, Ichabod, Ashford and Kem Bir, to perform reconnaissance.
On the horizon we could see a vast metal beast, steam projecting from the metal pipes along its top. Frank had heard of these "trains", they are powered by caged elementals, normally air or fire, trapped on this plane of existence.
Later that day, the news of the Auditors arrival proved correct, he arrived at the edge of town, a dignified looking Gnome in an ornate robe, flanked by four 7ft tall clockwork automatons. The Gnome brusquely introduces himself as Urgi Bolsong, he recognises Roza and seems to know her family.
Kronos sends word out to his urchin collective to keep an eye on everything.
Urgi insists on going straight to the vault and refuses any refreshments, he starts going through the inventory and questioning Con'nor about missing items, using his magical ring to cast "Zone of Truth" but Con'nor truthfully didn't know enough to rouse his suspicions too much, although he did insist that we'd receive an itemised bill for anything missing. He starts taking the magical regents and placing them into his magical bag of holding.
Upstairs, Big Von hears loud noises coming from the woods, heading outside he sees most of the villagers heading out towards the edge of town, he calls down to us as we are showing Urgi Bolsong to his quarters for the evening, Bartholemew Creeditchs old room.
As we reach the edge of the village, we can see that Stripe and the Gnolls from Droam have arrived, and the people of the Outpost aren't happy to see them, it's like a powder keg about to blow. I get to the front of the crowd and speak to them, imploring them to see beyond prejudices of the old world and into the new world, where we can work together, that the "monsters" have offered us a trade deal and that they can bring back those we lost to the eldritch abomination. Con'nor agrees and helps to try and sway the baying mob, we just about get through to them and prevent carnage and bloodshed.
Stripe insists on heading into the village to start collecting the materials for the trade, we tell him that there is an Auditor present and that we will have to wait for them to leave, he isn't deterred until Lazlo, the blacksmith from Droam interjects, and points out that we don't want to start a war with the capital by marching in and taking things from a Cannith Auditor.
The Gnolls set up camp on the outskirts, as I try my best to host them.
In the meantime Kronos sneaks onto the Auditors great steam powered ship that's docked at the shore, via climbing the anchor. Exploring the ship, he finds a lab type room with 4 large cylinders, one is open, but he sees nothing inside the others.
Another room is a bedroom, spartan and dull, the papers on the table reveal this to be Urgi's room. Reading through the papers, Kronos discovers that Urgi is frustrated with being sent to these backwater towns and outposts, but upon realising that our Outpost is located by Balthazar Canniths, he hopes to uncover its secrets and get a promotion, especially as Isabella hasn't yet noticed the importance of the workshops by our Outpost.
He also finds a large stack of poetry written in flowery Gnomish handwriting, it is beyond terrible.
Suddenly the air vanishes from the room, like it's been instantly vaporised, he struggles to escape and is left exhausted.
In the morning, we convene and try to come up with a plan to salvage the trade deal, the plan is to utilise the memory airlock to wipe Urgi's memory, grab the bag of holding, and hopefully convince him that there is nothing to see.
We await at the vault door in the almshouse, but hear nothing, where is Urgi? We go downstairs and Con'nor convinces the Automaton guarding the bedroom to let us knock, the door is opened, but he's already dead. The guards want to place us under house arrest and start to usher us away, Roza turns invisible and casts it on Vonmond too, they get into the room and take a look at the body, Roza finds the bag of holding and the ledger, while Big Von helps himself to Urgi's magical ring. I stay in the Almshouse with one guard, while the others follow the other party members outside.
I detect magic on the Automaton and discover that they are powered by transmutation magic, I quickly cast dispel magic on the guard to power him down, then head downstairs to the body. Roza and Big Von have already left, but Kronos appears behind me, glad he's here to help. I cast "speak with the dead" on Urgi's body and his spirit awakens, he's disoriented and vague, he was killed by the sudden loss of air, exactly how Kronos was attacked. But he still holds onto the notion of "classified information" so we can't get much out of him, but we find out that he was looking for something in particular, the seeds we suspect, but he didn't find them, and isn't sure where they are.
Back in the village, they find another body, Frank can't quite make out the cause of death, so Con'nor comes and fetches me to take a look, he died of sudden asphyxiation, some time after Urgi. We question his family, and there doesn't seem to be any connection to Urgi, it just seems random. Con'nor and Roza recognise the signs of an elemental attack. The 3 automatons on the village hear this and say they are heading back to the boat to make a report.
Stripe and the Gnolls turn up, still wanting to go ahead with the trade deal, we due our best to explain the precarious situation we're in, and we ask them about the elemental attack. Stripe and Lazlo say that this looks like a rogue elemental, and that we're all in danger, Stripe seems even keener to go, we suggest that they start by taking the reposed bodies, as they need to be loaded up anyway, and manage to convince the Automaton guarding to vault to let us pass and start this process.
While Stripe and his pals start work, we come up with a plan to try and take down this rogue elemental, Roza says that she knows of an incantation to banish the elemental from our plane, but can't remember the full passage.
We plan to head to the ship and use Rozas incantation to draw in the elemental then trap it into the containing unit.
When we arrive we see that the 3 automatons on the ship have been destroyed, quickly we Kronos rigs the doors so it can be snap shut once we force the elemental inside, as I further secure the others, just in case. Roza takes her position in the cylinder and starts chanting to draw the elemental near, when all of a sudden the 3 broken automatons rise from the ground, the elemental is in the room powering them, we can feel its presence even if we can't see it. The Automatons charge and Vonmond, Con'nor and Kronos meet them in battle, as Frank and I bring divine blessings to the whole party.
I use sacred flame and take my best aim for where the elemental is and catch it with divine fire, Roza uses erupting earth and causes massive damage to the Automatons, taking one to the ground, but the elemental raises it back up and then zooms over to where Roza is chanting, Con'nor pulls her from the cylinder and Frank uses his Tempest domains gust to try and push the elemental inside, as I barely flicker the creature with sacred flame, but I manage to heal Con'nors wounds.
The remaining uncorrupted Automaton manages to dash over and shove the elemental, already fighting against Frank's gust into the cylinder, Kronos quickly triggers his rigging and shuts the door tight, the elemental raging inside.
As we leave, I'm pretty sure Kronos finishes off the last automaton to stop its report and we head back to Stripe and the Gnolls, we recover the bag of holding and decant the ingredients out to them, hopefully now we have the trade deal in place, and our guild members can be returned to life at last. I feel particularly thankful that we can reverse the terrible fate that befell them. Plus we have a handy bag of holding for future adventures.
It looks like a lot of change is on the horizon, Vonmond and I start helping to expand the outpost, and learn smithing skills as we go, it comes naturally to us, perhaps this is Moradin's guidance, my altar to him is expanded into a small temple, that I plan to run as a soup kitchen/ walk in clinic.
Roza continues her research into the seeds with Ichabod and Ashford, she also uses her family connections to keep an eye on the Cannith in the capital.
The New World is nearly upon us.
Really did wonder how I would get on with this one! Erupting earth was fun though! It was a tense/busy one!