S11E16 - The Warforged Strike Back

The session opens with the heroes arguing over two urgent problems: rescuing their friends and finding sails for their newly acquired galleon. During this time, Brine-9, still tied and gagged, starts suffering withdrawal symptoms. Ike tries to help by giving him one of the vials he still had from the other warforged, but Brand stops him and casts lesser restoration on the pirate warforged, magically curing both him and Ike of their addictions. Then, Brand casts zone of truth on the pirate and interrogates him. The pirate, feeling surprisingly good about no longer needing to hide anything, promises to do good and to lead his friends down the right path.

Then the melody of Harder, Better, Stronger starts drifting up from below deck. It cannot be Brine-9: he is gagged, tied up, and above them. Nemo follows the sound below deck. He finds Paquito looting the ship. He also finds a dismembered warforged, stripped for parts by his own crewmates. Nemo, after accidentally breaking the warforged’s head off checking to see if he was alive, tells the adolescent sailor to be careful when looting in dangerous places and, while he’s there, takes inventory of the remaining loot and then goes back up.

After more debate, Pietro realizes Augur has been gone too long. His cat is on neither of the two ships the party is commandeering. Ike also goes below deck to try to help the sailor, but doesn’t find the cat. He also inspects the dead warforged and, on doing so, its head comes alive and looks him in the eyes.

Later, while still discussing what to do, Ike goes below deck to inspect. Besides the alien engine powering the ship, he also finds the corpse of a pirate warforged that their mates keep for spare parts. Paquito asks Brand to become his squire. Brand accepts. Paquito is eager to begin training immediately and acquire a legendary weapon as soon as possible. Brand, less excited about 4 a.m. wakeups and naked ice-water discipline, tries to manage expectations.

Then Lyra smells smoke coming from Skeldharbor. She climbs the mast and sees the town burning and tells the rest. The party fires up the galleon’s engine and reaches the harbor in a matter of minutes.

When they arrive, they notice several buildings on fire and two piles of corpses on the docks. Ike borrows a spyglass from Paco and sees that one of the piles of corpses is made up of heavily damaged warforged and the other is dead guards and townsfolk. Sister Helka is talking to the priest who arrived from Ironwound and they are both looking at the party’s two ships which are unmistakably visible as they approach the harbor.

Nemo and Lyra row halfway to the pier, and Sister Helka and her guards row out to meet them.

The party wants to hand over Brine-9 in exchange for sails and they will be on their way, but Sister Helka doesn’t want anything to do with the sails. Unable to reach a deal, Helka goes back to town and sends one of the fishermen that the party hired to talk to them. The fisherman is reluctant, since the party did goad the bandits into setting the town on fire. Still, a deal comes together: Brine-9 for 250 gp, new sails, and the tip that the visitors from Ironwound, including the angel, are still in town. As the fishermen are returning they hear a cracking noise and some shouting saying “the head fell off!” as an attempt to disguise the sailor’s murder of the pirate’s captain.

Lyra takes a very close look at the pier, gets really bad vibes, and the party decides to try their luck in the evening.

They hide the ships until nightfall, then disembark and Paco and his crew stay ready to flee at a moment’s notice. Light rain begins to fall. Lyra wild shapes into a black cat and slips into town, the rest of the party listening through their telepathic link. She goes to the inn, finds Little Sebastian, their pony, still there but their rooms have been emptied. She lingers in the inn’s common room and listens for any clues but gets nothing and leaves. Soto suggests finding the prison. Lyra finds the garrison but it’s too small to hold prisoners. Next, the party thinks of the temple of Valkur where Helka lives and they go there.

At the temple, she slips inside and spots three people lying in wait. Eight cages hang from the high ceiling, but she cannot see who is inside. She tries to make friends with Helka’s young acolyte but the priest, despite being very fond of animals, tries to keep her in his room, then takes her out of the temple and shoos her away because “the temple is busy tonight.” Lyra transforms into a spider and climbs back in. From the walls, she identifies the ambushers: the battleforce angel, Mon and his mastiff, and the priest. Then she finds Klik, Klak, and Jinu locked in the hanging cages.

Outside, the rest of the party waits. Then Mon steps out to pee. The party pounces. They wound him, grapple him, gag him, tie him up, and drape him over Little Sebastian before he can raise the alarm. His pants are still down.

Moments later, Mon’s mastiff sniffs something and goes out to inspect. It notices the party and starts barking. The angel and the Ironwound priest join the fight. The mastiff carefully grabs Mon in its mouth and pulls him off the pony. As they flee, Little Sebastian kicks out. Unfortunately for Mon, the hooves land exactly in his private parts, eunuchizing him.

The party quickly reduces the priest to charred meat, but then the angel grabs Soto and takes to the air. On his turn, Soto punches the angel unconscious 70 feet above the ground. As they fall, he kicks off the angel’s body, lands in the tree canopy, and buys himself enough time to cast levitate and smoothly float to the ground. The angel crashes into the ground. Then the party’s paladin steps in and turns the celestial into pulp with his warhammer. Inside the temple, Ike moves toward one of the cage levers ready to activate it. Forty feet above the floor, Lyra drops wild shape outside Klik and Klak’s cage. She tries to crawl across the ceiling, loses her grip, and crashes onto the marble altar, nearly killing herself.

The session ends in medias res: the heroes are battered, their friends are still dangling overhead, and everyone is already celebrating the victory they have not quite finished earning.