Ep. 11 Seeking the Teacher Chapter 3

## Listen

Ep. 11 Seeking the Teacher Chapter 3

—George R.R. Martin, *A Clash of Kings*

The party travels through the Cogs, investigating different leads. They finally find out who the murderer is, and suffer a tragic loss.

## Synopsis

### Hired thugs

Draconos, Beric, and Dex continue their investigations into the warforged murders by heading to the place that Crast told them to go to in the beginning; Dragoneyes, where the Swords of Liberty are stationed. While they're walking, Dex and Beric notice footsteps behind them and realize they're being followed. Beric checks to make sure time hasn't stopped again and looks over his shoulder. He sees three creatures duck into an alleyway, but can't exactly make out what they are. They turn to follow.

An orc, a shifter, and a hobgoblin all leap out and attack Drac, Beric, and Dex respectively. The orc rounds the corner with his greataxe raised, but Drac manages to headbutt him in the throat and spins with his battleaxe, which goes straight through the orc's neck and decapitates him. Drac bangs his axe against his shield with a triumphant yell.

The hobgoblin runs for Dex and misses, and when he turns to attack again Dex has his cane readied like a baseball bat and hits him right under the chin, snapping his neck back and killing him.

Beric summons Curse-Bringer and as the shifter comes at him he leans forward and lunges straight at him. The shifter sees the blade coming and tries to move it aside with his hand. He manages to move it just enough that it it doesn't go straight through him, but slices his arm open and he starts bleeding badly. Beric pivots and brings the blade down next to the shifter and demands that he yield. The shifter is holding a hand over his arm, trying to suppress the bleeding, and he yields.

*"What's your business here?"
"Why are you following us?"
"What the hell, dude?"
—Beric, Draconos, and Dex*
The shifter just wants to leave, but Beric has some questions for him first. Dex flips his ribbonweave out next to his face to intimidate him, and the guy sighs and asks that they just don't kill him. He was given money to follow three people following the party's description, but he didn't get the name of the person who hired him. It was a person of medium height with salt and pepper hair who was wearing dark blue robes.

They recognized the description matching Slogar, and Beric suggests they leave for the forgehold right away to avoid a meeting with a Cannith Enclave. Before leaving, Beric hands the shifter a healing potion, but the shifter kicks it away and limps off.

On the way they see a commotion at Tain's Foundry. Scythe has six warforged with him and is screaming at Mulrick and three other guards. There's a back and forth, with Scythe mad about the treatment of warforged and Mulrick shouting that for every warforged who dies under his care, there were ten people killed by one in the war. After considering if they should intervene, the party decides it's not their problem and continue to Slogar's Forgehold.

### The Forgehold

Morla Cannith greets them again when they get to there. She tells them that Slogar has left for the day and she doesn't know where they can find him. He's a very private person and she doesn't even know where he lives. They ask to visit his office, and when she hesitates Dex "Dante Cannith" assures her it's fine. She relents but says she'll go back with them, that way if Slogar finds out she can assure him that they didn't steal anything.

Beric makes small talk with her in hopes of causing a distraction so Draconos and Dex can investigate, but she keeps a close eye on them. Beric decides to escalate things. He makes a small gesture in behind his back and a fire starts in the lobby. Morla rushes to deal with it. While she's busy with that, Drac and Dex scramble to find anything they can. Drac notices some golden chain links around the bodies; they're spread around, some in receptacles and some inside the wound on Leatherneck's chest. He grabs two of them.

Morla quickly makes a hand motion and water falls on the fire. They strike up a deal that if she doesn't tell Slogar they were there, they won't tell Slogar about the fire. Morla says Slogar is kind of scary and agrees.

### Sneaky Slogar

As they exist the forge, they notice Umber turning down a corner, picking up scraps of metal and putting them in his pack. As he goes further down a shadow moves behind him and they see a figure following him. They sprint after him and just see a figure sneaking up behind him and reaching for his back. Without a second thought, Beric throws a lighting lure, but misses, and Dex goes to trip him with his ribbonweave. Umber turns around, horrified. The figure goes down and Dex runs up to him and flips the ribbonweave over, ramming it against the back of his neck. Drac runs up from behind them and yanks the hood off. It's Slogar.

Slogar says he knows it looks bad, but it's not what they think. After a brief back and forth, Beric turns to Umber, who is staring at them in shock. He tries to console him, and Umber utters the same type of phrases as before. *"They want to expose us. They want to hurt us."* Beric asks who "they" is, but Umber just repeats himself. *"They want to expose our flaws. They want to purify us. The flaws of* us*. The flaws in us, the flaws around us."* At this point Umber is on the verge of running off. Beric activates his detect magic. It looks like the same magic around the other warforged, but something is a little off. Slogar admits that there is something about the murders Cannith has been keeping a secret: all of the ones killed were made the same day, in the same batch, in the same forge.

He doesn't know what's special about these in particular, or even how someone has that information. All the dates are protected from outsiders. That much energy could be disastrous, and he was trying to disable Umber before whoever it was that was stealing parts got to him.

While they were questioning Slogar, they notice Umber has taken off. They turn back to Slogar and demand to know where the rest of the warforged from his batch are, but Slogar refuses to tell them, saying it's Cannith information. Beric has a back-and-forth with him until Dex just threatens to stab him.

*"On the other hand, not doing it is going to prevent us from saving those people from being murdered."
"And on a third hand, not doing it might get you stabbed, Slogar."
"Oh, I really don't think you'd be dumb enough to stab an heir to the House of Cannith."
"You have got no idea how dumb I can be."
—Beric, Dex, and Slogar*
While Beric and Dex are intimidating and reasoning with Slogar, Drac follows where he thinks Umber went. There's commotion outside the Red Hammer Inn and he heads that way.

Meanwhile, Beric is telling Slogar about his contact in the citadel, and how interesting a story tonight's escapade would be if he wanted to tell someone. Slogar relents and tells him about the other warforged. It's Spruce, Scythe, and Twig.

### Murders at the Red Hammer Inn

The inn is nearly empty. Drac looks around and sees Scythe leaning up against a wall, puncture wounds in his chest, his leg gone, and the plate that had the sigil for the Lord of Blades is missing. Spruce lays on the ground near the table they sat at earlier, his head gone. He hears a sound behind the bar and goes over; Twig has puncture wounds in his chest, but is still barely alive. He's confused, and doesn't know why it happened; it was Umber. He attacked them and then took off back the way he came from.

Draconos runs out of the inn in search for Umber. As soon as he rounds the corner he sees some metal scraps with the gold chain links from the morgue scattered about. He uses Thaumatergy to get Dex and Beric's attention, and takes off in that direction. Crast comes up from behind, and Drac tells him it was Umber.

Dex hears Draconos and doesn't waste a second. He grabs Beric and starts running. They get to the inn and see the the gruesome scene, and start looking for a trail of some kind. Beric sees the scraps of metal Umber had been putting in his bag and takes off.

Meanwhile, Draconos and Crast have followed their trail to a warehouse with what appears to be a door hidden behind some crates. Inside Umber is standing over a table, and he turns to face them.

*"They tained us with their touch. They are impure. I am pure. I can make us pure."
—Umber*
### Frankenstein's Warforged

The body parts he's been collecting have been connected and are laying on some weird looking machine that's pulsing bright blue light. It has strange inscriptions all over it. Drac charges at him, intending to cut him down. Just before they make contact Umber turns and smashes his hand on a rune. A light erupts and the body starts moving right before Drac lops off his head.

Just then Beric and Dex catch up and burst into the room. The creature is massive, about sixteen feet tall. It has multiple breastplates covering it's body, including one with a Lord of Blades sigil from Scythe. Spruce's head sits on top, with its bright yellow eyes and intricate tree design.

It brings its arm down in a great sweeping motion, trying to knock Crast and Drac aside. They both take some damage but are still on their feet. Drac uses a spell to bless his comrades and then puts Hunter's Mark on the creature. The creature becomes wreathed in tendrils of shadows as Beric puts his Hexblade's Curse on him. He rushes to Draconos and heals him with the amulet. It tries the same sweeping motion with its arm, this time targeting Beric and Draconos, but fumbles. Some of the connections Umber made with the spare parts weren't great, and his arm flies off and lands 20 feet behind him. He brings his other arm around, this one considerably smaller, but misses.

Drac jumps up and swings his axe with a Searing Smite, but doesn't get a hit in. Beric adds a Hex to his curse and casts Create Bonfire underneath the massive creature.

Dex notices the strange machine the body was attached to is still active. It's pulsing with energy, and the beat is steadily getting faster. Blue light is shooting out, but it seems to be imbued in darkness. He turns back to the fight and attacks the creature's knee, which he's been trying to knock out. The ribbonweave wraps around its leg and snaps the bindings. The leg comes completely off and the giant creature falls to one knee.

Beric summons Curse-Bringer and runs towards it once more. The swords gives an ominous warning. *"It is coming. You are not ready."* Beric jumps up on the kneeling leg and hacks at its chest. It rears back in pain, looking pretty bad but still alive. When Beric safely jumps off the creature he sees the creation forge acting strange like Dex saw. Crast sees it also and makes a run for it. The giant warforged swings and hits Crast in the head. Crast falls down on all fours, but quickly gets back up.

With them dealing with the creation forge, Dex focuses on the creature. He moves closer and swings the ribbonweave up over his head and throws it at the things neck. It wraps around and the wood fibers start splintering, and it makes one last desperate swipe.

It grabs Draconos by the shirt and pulls him forward. Its putting so much pressure on him that the armor he's wearing starts breaking and falls to the ground.

The dark energy that had been building in the creation forge erupts, and through this magical energy floats the lich that took Jacob. He looks at Dex specifically, and reaches down to grab Draconos by the back of the throat. They both disappear back into the portal and it closes. The creation forge is no longer pulsing light, and Draconos is gone.

End of episode.

## Locations

* Sharn, Breland
	+ Tain's Foundry
	+ Slogar's Forgehold
	+ Red Hammer Inn

## Spells

* **Beric**
	+ Create Bonfire
	+ Cure Wounds
	+ Detect Magic
	+ Hex
	+ Lightning Lure

* **Draconos**
	+ Bless
	+ Hunter's Mark
	+ Thaumatergy

* **Morla Cannith**
	+ Create or Destroy Water

## Quotes

"I'm your Hexblade, Philip."
"I'm Trevor."
"Jeff.
"I'm a demon."
"I'm just a perfectly normal guy. Just Jeff Humanman."
*—Philip, Trevor, and Jeff*

"I outlasted the other Trevor!"
*—Trevor*