Ep. 10 Seeking the Teacher Chapter 2

## Listen

Ep. 10 Seeking the Teacher Chapter 2

—Frederick Douglass

Beric, Dex, and Draconos investigate the murders of the warforged in the Cogs. Draconos and Dex intimidate people left and right, and Beric let's people in a position of power know what he thinks of them.

## Synopsis

Dex, Beric, Draconos, and Crast all start heading away from the crime scene that Crast was investigating at the end of the last episode. As they start walking away, Dex notices a couple people with House Cannith insignias on their clothes approach and start taking the body away. He asks Crast about it and is told this is normal; House Cannith were the ones who created the warforged, so there's a Cannith representative where they're holding all of the bodies.

### Red Hammer Inn

They walk to a small building with a sign on it that has a bright red hammer painted on over the words Red Hammer Inn. They find only warforged inside, but what's strange is that these warforged have the insignias of different nations on their armor; they see Karrnath, Cyre, Breland, and Thrane. It's quite unusual because all of the nations don't usually get along, but no one is fighting. Everyone seems to be at peace and are even helping each other with repairs and look to be friends.

Crast approaches the bartender, Crucible. He introduces the party and orders a round at his usual table, telling Crucible that they're here to help with his investigation.

Once settled in, Crast asks what help they need from him. They're unsure and explain Gram's vision. Crast looks thoughtful and starts telling them about when he was in the war. He was serving under Urik, Beric's mother, and was wounded at the Battle of Butterfield. He was caught behind enemy lines and when he was recovering from his injuries a figure of silvery flame came to him, and in a woman's voice told him he had to harness the light to prevent the shadows from growing large. The next day he dedicated himself to the Silver Flame.

He agrees to help them, but he has to finish his case first, which isn't actually the murders. He's investigating a militant group called the Swords of Liberty, who want democracy to rule but go about it in violent, terroristic ways and the king wants to put a stop to it. The warforged think he's here only to find the murderer, and Crast believes the Swords are behind it. They think warforged aren't entirely sentient and that there's a switch in them that will make them into mindless soldiers for the king. Crast brushes that off as being nonsense, but it's what they believe.

There are other theories on what's going on, though. He calls over to Spruce, a warforged with intricate tree designs that go over the top of his head and brilliant yellow, shining eyes. He acts like he's happy, but his demeanor doesn't really match that. He tells them about the warforged in the Cogs. Most of them live in Blackbones; when they were given their freedom after the war ended they didn't know what to do with it. They're all terrified, and they're just trying to make an honest living. Some people think the murderer is from an urban legend the humans have called Jack and Irons. It's about a smith who hated warforged for being naturally great workers. They don't tired, eat, or need breaks, and that makes them better workers than any naturally born creature. Scythe, another warforged thinks it's the human in Tain's Foundry who are behind it.

Crast tells them it's been four weeks since the murders started, and Leatherneck was the eighth victim. Drac questions how this could be happening in places that are heavily populated. The murderer has been seen, but he's wearing a heavy cloak and flees before anyone can get a good look at him. Crast isn't sure if it's a living thing that's doing it; they're breaking through the chest of the warforged and ripping arms off, and it seems too strong to be something so mundane. He also dismisses the idea of the Jack and Irons myth; ghosts just aren't that malicious. Dex, having just witnessed a gate opening a few days ago, thinks it might be something from another plane. Crast disagrees with this also; if they went to the trouble of opening a portal they could just be taking the body with them.

Beric asks about the type of body parts missing, thinking something may be creating some kind of super warforged. But the parts aren't right for that; it would have three arms, and different internal pieces and none of the victims have been decapitated. Having been in a thieves guild and, while not working with them but having known of them, Dex thinks this is the work of assassins. It sounds like a trained, stealthy killer.

The Swords are based out of Dragoneyes in lower Tavick's Landing, and Crast suggests they go there to investigate. They already know his face so he can't, but they don't know Beric, Dex, or Drac.

One of Crast's earlier theories was that it was bestial in nature, but the internal parts missing seems to be too surgical. Spruce chimes in and says there are other theories, and they should talk to the other warforged at the inn about it. He points three out in particular: Scythe, who has the same markings that Barasha pointed out on the lightning rail linking him to the Lord of Blades; Twig, who is easily 6'7" and covered in adamantine plating and the only warforged wearing clothing, orange and teal robes, and who found Leatherneck's body. Spruce warns them to be careful around Twig; he's still in shock from finding his friend dead. His story is a little inconsistent, though; sometimes he says he just found the body and sometimes he says he saw something. The last one is Umber, a very unique looking, lanky warforged. He's not quite as tall as Twig but still very tall. He's covered in copper plating and if he was human would have a gaunt look to him.

### Questioning

They split up to talk to the different warforged; Dex and Beric agree that Drac should not talk to Twig.

*"Honestly, Draconos, I would rather you not talk to Twig but one of the other two."
"Yeah, that's fine. He's a little big. A little scary.
"Yeah, take your pick. Yeah,* he's *scary.* Look at you.*"* *"My horns are beautiful."
"I think he should talk to Umber, personally, because the other one might be a terrorist."
—Dex, Draconos, Beric*
Spruce accompanies Dex when he talks to Twig. Dex acknowledges that something bad happened to him, but he needs to get some more information to help find the killer. Twig saw Leatherneck on the ground and a figure looking over him, but he was at a distance and couldn't make out who or what it was. He could tell that it was somewhere between his and Dex's height, who is currently 5'10". He rounded the corner and Leatherneck was already on the ground, so he didn't see the killing blow. He called out and the figure took off. Dex asks if the killer had any pieces of Leatherneck, and Twig breaks down. Spruce steps in and tells Dex to back off, and if he wants more information he can go to one of the Cannith representatives. Dex tries to get more out of Twig, but it's clear he's done talking.

Draconos tries Umber, who is neither in shock from seeing a gruesome murder nor a potential terrorist. Despite that, he doesn't get much out of him. He's asked a question and the only thing he'll say is, *"They seek to tear us apart. They want to divide us. They tainted us."* He just stares off, not responding to the questions at all. Drac notices a bag in his hand and reaches to touch the side of Umber's arm, but Umber recoils with a start. He backs up and gets away from Drac.

Beric approaches Scythe and politely inquires about the murders. Scythe is annoyed and says "fleshies" like Beric hate warforged, so it's obviously just someone at Tain's Foundry. Beric brings up his mother and the warforged who worked under her, saying that not everyone hates them and he's trying to find proof instead of theories. Scythe scoffs and says not here in the Cogs; people hate and fear the warforged, who were created to kill. They hate them working there because they take the jobs of "fleshies" by being better workers, and they're trying to send a message for them to get out of Sharn. Beric insists that there are other ways they could harm them at Tain's Foundry and it's not certain that they're the killers, but it's something to look into. He notices the insignia of the Lord of Blades looks handcarved, like it was done himself.

They all meet back up to discuss what they've learned, which unfortunately is not much. Drac pulls Spruce over and asks about Umber, and why he seems to unsettled. Something happened to him in his creation that left him with a broken mind, and that's just how he is. He is right, though; the murders are tearing them apart and everyone is terrified.

When Beric shares what he learned form Scythe, Crast doesn't buy it. Mulrick, the person running Tain's Foundry, would have found out if his guards were doing something like that and shut it up. It's not completely implausible, but he still thinks it's the Swords.

### Slogar's Forgehold

After some discussion they head out for the Cannith forgehold and then to Tain's Foundry. They walk in and there's a receptionist who welcomes them to Slogar's Forgehold and says her name is Morla Cannith.

*"We've joined with Crast Wott in an effort to find out what's happening to your creations down here in the Blackbones."
"Oh, those murders are just so terrible. I see them bring the bodies in and it is just awful."
"Yeah, it's not like those murders that are great. You're right, these are really bad ones. Particularly bad murders."
—Dex and Morla Cannith*
They ask to go look at the body and Morla tells them they can later; Cannith members are examining it now. Dex slides his sleeve up, and there on his bicep is a Mark of Making, the dragonmark of House Cannith. Morla is surprised that she's never seen him before, but says they can go on through. Slogar is doing his examination right now and they can talk to him.

*"Where are you from? I've never seen you down here before."
"I'm from… uh… yonder. And we… we gotta get back there."
"That's in Aundair."
"Yeah, sorry, did I say yonder? I coughed. Aundair."
—Morla, Dex, and Beric*

Standing over the body of the warforged is a man in his late fifties with shoulder length black hair with a little gray around the temples and a small tuft of hair on his chin. He's a little taken aback when he sees them and asks who they are. Dex steps forward and introduces himself as Dante Cannith, to which Beric gives a thumbs up. Sticking to the truth as much as possible, "Dante" tells him they've been sent by the prime minister and they're helping Crast investigate the murders and they want to talk to Slogar about the bodies. Slogar is annoyed at the mention of Crast and thinks he's overstepping his bounds by investigating at all; this is House Cannith property that's being damaged, and therefore it's House Cannith's job to find out what's happening. Dex stops talking out of anger at sentient beings being called property, and Beric, having dealt with "slimey" people a lot in his past, steps in and brings up the Treaty of Thronehold, which recognizes warforged as not belonging to anyone. Slogar doesn't care; they're still from Cannith.

Slogar isn't interested in finding out who's doing it; it's obviously just people who hate warforged. He shows them where an arm has been removed. Whatever is doing this isn't tearing the limbs off, it's more like hacking it off with a blade, but they're not skilled with it. Drac notices there's a pattern of deep wounds right in the center of the chest and asks if there's something equivalent to a heart in a warforged. There's not; the inside of a warforged is just woodfibers. There aren't even any organs.

Beric wonders what someone would even do with the spare parts. Following his line of thought, Slogar says you can't stitch warforged parts together and get a functioning warforged out of it. Sometimes during the war Karrnathi soldiers would take parts as trophies, and this time be similar.

Thinking a member of House Cannith will confide better without outsiders around, Dex asks for a minute alone with Slogar and Beric and Drac go over to the other bodies in the room. He says Drac was right that it looks strange that the bodies all have the same wound, and he's not involved with the making of warforged so he's not sure what the significance of that is. Slogar suggests that it might be a calling card, or maybe just the way the killer attacks; going to the chest first. Other than that he can't really think of anything.

Beric and Drac are called over again, and Beric inquires about the relationship with Cannith and Tain's Foundry. It's more like a loose partnership. Tain's Foundry sometimes sells them mundane metals and things like that, but it's nothing remarkable. They treat their warforged poorly, but Slogar hasn't heard of anything more sinister going on.

As they leave, Dex turns back and informs Slogar that his generation isn't going to do this property garbage like what's going on now. Slogar just rolls his eyes and says good luck having everyone steal everything they create.

### Tain's Foundry

As they near the Foundry, they notice one of the rivers of lava flowing into the building. It's used in the processing. There are a couple of guards standing out front, and Beric tells them they're investigating the murders and need to talk to Mulrick. The guards look at each other nervously but let them in, telling them to not touch anything or interfere with the work at all. Talk to Mulrick and get out.

A consistent pounding sound is heard as they get closer to Mulrick's office. They open the doors and see two guards holding a warforged against a wall as a beardless, bald dwarf punches him where the armor plating weakest. All thoughts of the investigation done, Beric demands to know what's going on. Mulrick shrugs and says one of his workers was acting up, and did they need something? Beric orders him to let the warforged go, and Mulrick looks at him a little incredulously and asks who he is. Dex leans close to Drac and asks, *"You feel like being scary?"* Drac gets a calm excitement about him and say, *"I can be scary."* He takes a minute and his eyes turn a bright glowing red. He shouts and as he does the torches along the walls burst into a brighter flame and he holds his ax but let's it sit on the floor. ***"Leave. Them. Alone."***

Mulrick falls backyards and yells that he'll stop hitting his worker, just get the demon out. Dex steps closer and agrees that he'll stop hitting him, but the demon stays. Beric questions him about the murders, saying just about a half hour ago he was defending him and expressing doubts about the blame being placed on him but now he's changing his mind. Mulrick insists that it's Jack and Irons doing the killing.

As they're having this conversation, Drac heads over to the warforged and the guards back away as he approaches. He pulls him up off the ground and makes sure he's not seriously injured, then goes back to Beric and Dex.

Mulrick points out that the warforged are the best workers around, and they're a finite resource. It would be stupid of him to kill them just to being lazy. Dex leans in close and threatens that they're gonna come back, and they better not see anything like that again. His teeth grow sharp and his eyes are red, and he adds, *"You understand me?"* Mulrick nods frantically. Dex pats him on the head and calls him a good boy. They leave the building, and everyone breathes a sight of relief that Drac, the happiest and most cheerful person on Eberron, was able to keep up his intimidating presence.

End of episode.

## Locations

* Sharn, Breland
	+ The Cogs
		- Blackbones
		- Red Hammer Inn
		- Slogar's Forgehold

## Spells

* **Beric**
	+ Detect Magic
* **Draconos**
	+ Thaumatergy

## Quotes

"I'm not superstitious, but…I am a little stitious."
*—Crast*

"Hey, what is the Blackbones? Cause we started talking about the Cogs and all of a sudden people started saying Blackbones."
"Blackbones is a district in the Cogs."
"The Cogs is a level of the city, and then it's like a mall, right? It's got levels and this is…"
"Thank you for putting it in terms that I, a 16-year-old girl, can understand."
"This is like the crappy end of the mall next to Sears."
*—Jeff, Eric, and Philip*

"Excuse me, I have a question. You said you know the anatomy of warforged pretty well. In their chest, specifically right here, [gestures towards chest] for humanoid creatures, for me, this is where my heart is."<
"Actually, tiefling hearts are in your butt."
"Are you… jacking with me? Don't… don't jack with me. Cause I was like, I haven't read up enough to know if you're wrong."
*—Trevor and Eric*