stevekenson | [RPG] Swords Against Khyber

Chapter 6: The City of Towers

Arriving in Sharn, the fabled “City of Towers” in Breland, the party accepts an invitation by Lady Eladren d’Cannith to visit the House Cannith Tower and meet with Baron Merrix, the head of the Breland faction of the Dragonmarked House. There Merrix makes them a tempting offer: he will supply them with considerable equipment (magical weapons and armor, cloaks of concealment, protective amulets, and so forth) in exchange for recovering a few particular items from former House Cannith forges in the Mournland. The party readily agrees and dines that evening with the Baron and his guests, Baron Elvinor Elorrenthi d’Phiarlan, the matriarch of House Phiarlan (Marik’s house) and Imre Lavelle, the dwarf “Curator of Acquiistions” for the Wayfinder Foundation. Merrix and guests are most interested to hear about the party’s adventures in the Mournland.

That night, they’re awakened by Lady Elyadren with dire news: Angwar Keep and the nearby village have come under attack. Merrix arranges for a House Orien scion to teleport the party back to Angwar at once, where they discover a force of warforged has decimated the keep and neighboring village, slaughtering most of the inhabitants, and leaving behind a few iron hounds to finish off the rest. They destroy the iron hounds in the keep and learn from the handful of survivors a force of several dozen warforged emerged from the mists of the Mournland, crossed the Brey River (by simply walking across the riverbed) and assaulted village and keep. Apparently, they were looking for the party, but no one knows why.

The characters arrange to send word to Merrix and to Professor Namuras in Sharn before heading into the Mournland, both to carry out Merrix’s first errand and to find out more about these warforged and what they want.