Expedition 121: Sparksouled Diplomacy

#### Summary of the Ironwood Compact’s First Ambassadorial Visit to the Sparksouled of Highhall. For the Eyes of the Captain of Port Vrall, Marzipan of Kiore, Yezra Stormfriend of New Tidelight, and Active Members of the Ironwood Compact **Only**.

Written by Valorie Vayer of New Tidelight, who undertook the diplomatic journey alongside Uzmir ag Ghanim and Ellie of the Ironwood Compact on the 6th of Bloom, 367 AoP.

During the White Week of Bloom of this year, the Ironwood Compact informed the public of a violent threat made against four residents of the town, the Varok family, who until recently were trapped in stasis in the former Bluewood. Though they are now citizens of our town, the Varoks were once citizens of Highhall, a great city of the old Empire of Stone, where mechanical wonders were manufactured and bound by powerful magic. Highhall, despite the cataclysm that ended the last age, endures still, and its current citizens fear the Varoks, who were among their former masters.

The modern Highhall is the city of the Sparksouled, thinking humanoids built from metal and animated by magic. Once these creations were the servants of Highhall’s human and dwarven citizens, but in the three centuries since the Empire fell, the Sparksouled have grown far beyond their programming. They do not wish to return to servitude, anymore than a mousefolk or Imperial servant would wish it, and indeed have organized their state around an egalitarian, non-hierarchical ethic.

The Sparksouled are, however, artificial life forms created by the Imperial citizens of Highhall. They were built to follow instructions from and to not harm the former citizens of Highhall, to not speak the “unclean tongue” of Common, and to otherwise conform to the mold of their engineers. They cannot choose to ignore these directives; they are magically constrained from doing so by an artifact known as the Engine of State, once the heart of Imperial Highhall.

The Varoks, therefore, are a threat to the Sparksouled: as the Engine of State designates the Varoks as citizens, they have the authority to compel the Sparksouled to obey their instructions, merely by speaking to them. The Sparksouled also cannot try to harm the Varoks, except by incredibly contrived methods. Therefore, to protect themselves from this potential threat, the Sparksouled threatened to attack Vrall if we did not force the Varoks from our midst.

It is the joint opinion of the Ironwood Compact that this threat was unprincipled and that we were bound to oppose it. The Varoks have committed no crimes by either old Imperial nor modern Vrallian law, and it is unethical to attack them based on the fear of what they might do. Furthermore, the threat from Highhall was almost certainly a desperate gambit: because of the Varok’s status, a counterattack using them against Highhall would have been a swift and crushing victory, as the Varoks could have compelled the Sparksouled to surrender simply by telling them to do so.

However, though the Compact was agreed to not give in to the Sparksouleds’ threats, we did not find a war with them desirable either. Ignoring the costs of waging it, none of the Varoks seem like the sort of people who would maintain strong ethics if given dominion over an army of servile robots. Even if the Sparksouled did not follow through on their threats, they could continue to threaten and undermine Vrall in other ways.

Therefore, through Sendings and other magical methods of communication, the Compact arranged a diplomatic meeting with the Sparksouled of Highhall to negotiate a peaceful settlement. Uzmir, who had led discussions with the Sparksouled previously, and further was the most knowledgeable about the history of the East and its cultural codes, would lead. Ellie and I accompanied him, as both of us had some experience with diplomacy.

The journey to Highhall is a trial: the shortest route, from the Truewood across the Burning Hills, is through harsh, lava-scorched terrain. The other approach, through the Greying Desert, takes one through miles of unpacified territory, the Felwood and the Savannah, and the Mageline, under the ground, cannot reach Highhall except through intersections controlled by a powerful Beholder. Even we, master adventurers, found ourselves exhausted by our preferred route through the Burning Hills.

Highball is a tall, walled city surrounded by fields and watchtowers. It was under the largest such tower, a semaphore communication platform, that we met with Ambassador, Highhall’s chief diplomat and a key political figure. Ambassador was well-known to us, but Second, an ancient, porcelain Sparksouled with a great knowledge of the history of Highhall and the Sparksouled, was not. We employed magic to translate our words and increase our focus before beginning negotiations, and then got down to business.

Ambassador proved, despite his name, to be a pugnacious negotiator, who made no effort to conceal, or possibly affected, a disdainful and mistrusting attitude towards us. He blamed us for the deaths of the Sparksouled heroes Dragonsbane (killed during an expedition orchestrated by the fiend who attacked our town this past Fall) and Ironguard (killed at the behest of the Fey of Ferroc, who the Ironguard was actively attacking for, apparently, no reason beyond personal distaste). We explained that there had been fiendish interference involved, and brought up the Compact’s many good deeds toward Highhall, from sending lost Sparksouled to them to killing the dragon Kazreme, but Ambassador refused to consider these deeds reasonable recompense for killing the Sparksouled’s champions.

Despite how unpleasant they made it, Ambassador and Second confirmed much of what we had inductively gathered about the Sparksouled’s condition. They admitted that the Engine of State still compelled them to obey certain laws of Highhall. We learned that the Sparksouled could not learn Common because of it, and that it could be used to write new laws that the Sparksouled must obey. However, it could also be altered to abrogate the old laws of Highhall, thus freeing the Sparksouled from any threat from the Varoks.

We offered to attempt to alter the Engine of State, under watch from the Sparksouled, to free them from their compulsions. This seemed like the most unobjectionable path to peace for all of us. Unfortunately, the Sparksouled no longer had access to the Engine.

In addition to the four Varoks, Ambassador explained, a fifth citizen of Imperial Highhall was alive in the East: the Archmage Visek, a dwarven master of Enchantment magic, who had survived the apocalypse of the Age of War through some eldritch chicanery. Visek had entered Highhall, stolen the Engine of State, and absconded to Nexus, the massive tower in the Grey Desert where the Mageline magicians conduct their experiments. The Sparksouled could not follow him, compelled by the Engine; indeed, they could barely explain the situation to us.

In order to free the Sparksouled from the Engine, we would need to enter Nexus, overpower Visek, and then recode the Engine of State to liberate the Sparksouled. Ambassador in addition demanded that the Compact make recompense for killing Dragonsbane and the Ironguard, before we even launched a mission into Nexus.

Initially, he commanded us to destroy the stockpile of humanoid corpses that the Liefsend Vampires held outside of the city. Apparently, inside of Liefsend, undead reanimate as uncontrolled hazards, and thus the Liefsend vampires store the corpses they intend to reanimate as servants in a separate location, through a pass defended by large Magnetite spires that force back the Sparksouled. Ambassador commanded that we torch the stockpile, “to make up for adding to it.”

This would, of course, have abruptly escalated our cold war with Liefsend, when we were not prepared to wage a hot war. Fortunately, we were able to protest and find a compromise mission: the dragons Dai and Kell of the Burning Reef, far to the north, had raided Highhall some time ago and kidnapped over a dozen Sparksouled, for reasons that were unclear at the time and later revealed to be almost entirely idle cruelty. Ambassador agreed that rescuing these Sparksouled was also a fair recompense for the destruction of Dragonsbane and the Ironguard.

After the Ironwood Compact had liberated the Sparksouled from Dai and Kell, we would need to enter Nexus to take the Engine of State from Visek. Ambassador said that he had information that could guide us to the Engine, but he refused to share it with us unless the Sparksouled had some collateral against betrayal; if we could alter the engine, after all, we could easily compel the Sparksouled to simply surrender entirely.

After we agreed to this reasonable stipulation, Ambassador removed, with some pomp, several thin metal discs, offering them to us and saying that when we needed to offer collateral, we should break them, and they would point to the thing we valued most in the world, which we could offer to the Sparksouled.

We considered this for a moment, and then promptly presented the flurry of reasons this was both untenable and disturbing. The Sparksouled, at the very least, had not made these discs themselves; they were apparently the work of one the Mageline magicians.

After running through the many possible ways these discs could fail, pointing to powerful individuals, large land masses, indestructible magic items, or things we could not possibly move, however, we did have a long and I am sorry to admit quite acrimonious discussion about what the best collateral would be. I was, at this point, quite fed up with Ambassador’s inability to actually submit a plan that satisfied both his paranoia and his desire for compensation from us, despite the fact that he surely knew that we could have won a battle against his people with the aid of the Varoks. I grew short-tempered, and Uzmir at last brought the discussions to a close by offering to submit himself as a hostage. It was a moronic plan; Uzmir would have been the best Compact member by far to lead an expedition into Nexus. But, as no other method satisfied Ambassador, we agreed to end the negotiations.

We did extract some promises from Ambassador in turn. He agreed that while the Compact worked to fulfill his demands, Highhall would not attack any of the allied nations of the East and would not spy on us. Highhall would, upon fulfillment of our quests, ally with us against the Timeweft and Liefsend and draw up formal treaties with the Nations of the East. Thus, despite rather extortionist beginnings, the Compact’s missions will put us on track to a permanent alliance with the Sparksouled, if we continue to act in good faith with them. Permanent peace is worth fulfilling Ambassador’s demands, however churlishly they were made.

While we negotiated with Ambassador and Second, other Sparksouled crept around the semaphore tower, clearly curious to see us, though they did not interrupt our negotiations. When we finished, however, they approached to talk. One Sparksouled, in particular, offered us a tour of Highhall: the champion Weftbane, defeater of countless Timeweft, and a horror to look upon.

Weftbane is made entirely of True Glass, to better defeat the Weft, and thus resembles a floating circulatory system surrounded by the overwhelming sensation of having a knife pressed to your back. The sheer horror of his presence was matched only by his boisterous enthusiasm: he had heard of the Compact’s mission into the Citadel of Drakehall, and applauded our success on a task even he had not been able to attempt. With him as our eager if sometimes bumbling guide, we set off on a whirlwind tour of Highhall.

It is a magnificent city. Unlike the warp and ruin of so much of the East, where every good work of the Empire seems to have collapsed and their evil deeds have run amok, in Highhall order and beauty have been preserved. Square fields tended to by agricultural Sparksouled grow cotton and plant oil, alongside with a few potatoes and other roots. The city walls are well-maintained and durable, keeping the Sparksouled safe from the many threats of the East. The city itself is subdivided into well-organized districts for manufacturing, commerce, recreation, and housing. Port Vrall could learn much from the Sparksouled about city planning, and public artwork. Mechanical wonders, from moving staircases they call “escalators” to great alchemical refineries, are common sights. Ambassador’s ferocity in defending his city is well justified.

As we walked, we gathered a great deal of information about the Sparksouled as well. They “eat” sunlight, using large, expanding recharging ports, much like plants. They sleep, in a way, but this more resembles an elven trance, where they are aware of their surroundings. Healing magic affects them, though poisons do not.

The Sparksouled are immortal, to some extent: their physical bodies wear out, rust, and break, but they can be continuously repaired by replacing parts and components. However, Sparksouled have mechanical brains, and replacing parts of the brain can “reset” a Sparksouled, causing their memories and personality to reset back to what they had when they were first built. Thus, like the Ship of Theseus, each Sparksouled goes on forever, but becomes unrecognizable to themselves over time.

Though the Sparksouled cannot achieve immortality through self-maintenance, repair is still a moral necessity in their society, because they cannot build more Sparksouled. Only a select few foundries and machines in the old Empire of Stone could manufacture entirely new Sparksouled, and few of these survived, none in Highhall’s possession. Only one, the Manufacture Hulk, was known to Highhall, although Ambassador did not wish to tell us any of this; Weftbane let it slip when we were turning a corner.

The perilous state of the Sparksouled’s long-term existence also clarified why Ambassador was so angry that we destroyed Dragonsbane and the Ironguard. Each permanently shattered Sparksouled is one less that exists for all time. The Sparksouled act with immense care to avoid losing members of their society: great refineries process plants into oil for Sparksouled maintenance, manufactories build replacement en masse, and watches are constantly kept to keep out threats. The Sparksouled are a classic disaster-expecting society, to quote a famed historian.

The Sparksouled’s ability to replace parts of their bodies also helps explain their somewhat unusual government structure. The Sparksouled are ruled by a Council that is elected through some procedure we did not learn. However, the Council cannot compel the Sparksouled to perform labor; their principal power is determining how rare parts are distributed. Though Highhall has enough materials to keep every citizen in good repair, parts made of rare materials, experimental devices, and high-quality work, are in limited supply. They are assigned on a meritocratic system, offered to worthy Sparksouled in exchange for work for the city. Sparksouled that undertook agricultural work received higher-quality agricultural components; Sparksouled that achieved scientific breakthroughs received experimental devices to perform alchemy or spellcraft. Weftbane earned his True Glass frame after decades of victories against the Timeweft, replacing parts one at a time. He proved to be a well of information about their combat tactics; a good source for future research.

Though the lure of better parts and luxuries lures many Sparksouled to labor for the state, personal freedom is the central virtue of their society. No hierarchies, forced servitude, or even protracted wage labor appears to be present. The Sparksouled do not appreciate being given orders; which perhaps also explains some of Ambassador’s reluctance when compromising. The Sparksouled, he told us, can gain freedom only after going for a century without receiving an instruction; this shift is signified by a shift in their eye color from white to some other shade.

Rather concerningly, this means that the Sparksouled that we have seen in some of the dungeons of the East, such as Mountain, are still receiving orders from someone or something. This should be investigated at a later date; Ambassador has said that any Sparksouled, in any condition, that we can transport to Highhall will be accepted and, if necessary, contained for us.

What the Sparksouled do with their liberty, however, is not alien to the sensibilities of folk. Sparksouled fashion clothes for themselves, make art, engage in science, and form friendships and clubs for all sorts of hobbies. Literature and art have a high place in their society, as a key form of self-expression. Both Ambassador and Weftbane mentioned that literature, history, and science from abroad was of great interest to them, as well as visual art, magical devices, and other rarities. Ambassador also mentioned that gold, spell components, and wood was in somewhat short supply; trade with Highhall could potentially be quite lucrative, if the aforementioned travel difficulties can be solved.

After hearing that foreign music was of interest to the Sparksouled, I decided to offer what I could then and there to build up trust and interest in foreign relations, and offered an impromptu concert. Interested Sparksouled agreed to finance a Teleportation Circle to return us home—we hardly wanted to object, the Burning Hills were a trial—and gathered to hear my songs; I decided to run through my whole repertoire.

They would have missed all of the rhymes and references through Tongues, but even so, they were overcome with emotion, and we saw an incredible display: a hundred Sparksouled overcome with emotion, their eyes literally so filled with feeling that they glowed and cast a rainbow of colors over my rude stage. It as in that instant that I was finally and fully convinced that, however hard they might have had to become in the East, and however difficult our initial meetings had been, the Sparksouled were an inspiring people. They had not lost freedom, virtue, and love in this harsh continent, as so many other peoples and nations had. They would learn much from the wider world, and in time, give much back to it.

We departed via teleport circle, carrying offerings from Sparksouled grateful for my work, leaving behind my Requiem for 4437251 in a permanent Illusion in the Highhall Cemetary. We had a difficult task ahead of us, and even from the start it had proved trying. But the end goal was worthy, and that means the task must be done.

**Expedition Result: Expedition is considered a Success**

**Expedition Level:** Story Mission; max XP

**Expedition Loot:** Valorie gains 90gp in raw metals, 230gp in minor gems, and 100gp in art objects, along with a book of Sparksouled Poetry and a rusty iron key. The group as a whole gains access to a one-use source on the Time-Weft from Weftbane’s testimony.