Ep. 3 Destined Manifest Chapter Two (C2)

## Listen

Ep. 163 Destined Manifest Chapter Two

—Jeff

We get a glimpse into Hob's day job with a brief flashback, and then it's action time at the warehouse once again. They take out the remaining warforged, and start searching for the manifest. They find not only the manifest, but some kind of machine that has identifying marks from the warforged on it, as well as three schemas, which Erys takes. There's commotion outside, and a new group of warforged and a woman who keeps striking intimidating poses it waiting for them. She doesn't buy Reynard's story that they just stumbled upon the place, and orders her warforged to stop them from leaving. This doesn't work quite as she intended, as Hob tackles several of them at once, clearing a way for his friends to flee.

## Synopsis

### Hob's day job

On a typical night in the Lower Menthis Plateau, Hob follows after an inebriated Viggo Boromar. Hob makes sure he doesn't bump into the wrong people and get stabbed, which is useful when Vigo *does* bump into someone and almost starts a fight. After the halfling is knocked down, Hob offers him a a hand up, and Viggo claims he stumbled on a rock. Hob offers the human he bumped into a gold coin to replace the drink Viggo made him spill, and while the man seems upset still, a spilled drink is well worth a gold coin.

### The warehouse

Back in the present time, the crew is still being attacked by the warforged guards. Hob is *pissed* at being knocked down, and even after the rest of the warforged have been taken out he keeps stinging at them. He's broken from his fixation when Reynard comments that he needs to make up for "the earlier part of the fight." Erys takes a look at Hob's bracer, trying to figure out what she did wrong with it.

Sigil is concerned about the fight, with Erys adding that they seemed to be strong for regular guards.

They go into the warehouse, Sigil leading the way and Erys covering him with her crossbow. Milo is looking for some kind of office, while Reynard hangs back and takes any gold he can find from the bodies.

The office they find is modestly sized with a lot of paperwork on a desk that's covered in runic writings. There's a wall safe about six and a half feet tall with intricate arcane locks, which Erys is automatically drawn to. On the desk is an inventory of the items that have come into the warehouse. Milo calls Reynard over to check it out, and right away the elf notices a file with the label "safecode." Erys deflates a little, having missed the opportunity to break the lock herself.

The safe turns out to be a big room, and in the middle is a large machine humming with arcane energy. Everyone but Reynard—who's looking for accounting files that he could steal from—goes in to take a look. There's a large glass cylinder in the center of the machine, thrumming with green energy and taller than anything else in the warehouse. There are slots on the machine, three of them being occupied with wooden schemas. Erys very carefully slides one out.

Sigil gasps, recognizing the ghulra—an identifying mark of a warforged, similar to a fingerprint—of one of the warforged they had just attacked on the schema. It appears to be some kind of augment system, like the strength of the warforged was being fueled by the machine. Sigil is very concerned, claiming that this shouldn't be allowed or even possible. Erys continues pulling the remaining two out, and the energy lessens after the last one. Milo suggests sabotaging the machine, but Sigil warns that tampering could cause it to explode, and even if it didn't, it could harm any warforged attached to it.

Reynard hears footsteps, and after some disagreement with how to deal with that he peeks his head around the corner to see two groups of three warforged, and one human woman who looks like she's adjusting her pose to be the most threatening she can manage. Reynard reports back, and Hob leads them out. Erys hangs back, thinking they can't pretend to be lost with her wearing goggles and a face mask.

"*I round the corner and I see this woman, looking increasingly more intimidating with each pose change she does.*"
—Jeff
The woman sees them and gives a cheeky greeting. Reynard plays it off as if they've just stumbled upon this area, and while the woman doesn't quite believe him, she's confused enough that she humors him. Of course, even if they did come here by accident, she knows they've seen too much and can't just let them go.

Meanwhile, Erys reactivates the magical defenses they've breached, trying to make it look like they didn't break in. As soon as she exits the warehouse, Hob tries to get everyone to just move towards the skiff. The woman orders the warforged to stop them, but Hob rushes at the warforged, scoops three up in a tackle, and slams them against the wall. He casually brushes his shoulder off and looks to the other warforged, and then the woman again, and says they actually need to be leaving.

End of episode.

## Quotes

[0:58:00]

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