After you all left the Queen of the Damned, Dresk is left with Delgo. "I guess you wanna know what this is all about", Delgo states, "well, let's just say that I've been challenged in a way that I gotta respond. I've been told you're brave by those who should know and that's what I need. Someone real brave. Are you my man"? "I guess so", says Dresk, not very bravely. "That's what I needed to hear", says Delgo, "Well, the challenge won't be till tomorrow morning so you may as well stay here the night. If it all goes well you should be fine, but just in case I'd make the most of the facilities. The bar is your's the restaurant is yours and a nice room is yours. Hells, if you wanna take one of the girls who work here with you as well be my guest. All on the house. You're gonna do me proud tomorrow so consider it some down payment". Dresk goes down to the restaurant, has a very hearty meal and then heads up to bed alone. The next morning Dresk is woken by a halfling maid and told that Delgo is waiting for him outside. Dresk quickly gets ready and heads outside. At the landing in front of the club, Delgo is waiting in a luxurious covered skycoach. As you fly up to the top of the city you see this is a wise move. The higher you get the more you notice how bad the weather is, with driving rain and gusty winds. You are taken to the rooftop one of the tall towers on clifftop and disembark. In the centre of the tower stands a thin man in a blue robe. He simply stands and watches as several other pairs are dropped off. "These are the guys you'll be competing against and their handlers", notes Delgo. Dresk notes that he already knows one of them, an old friend from Daask. Soon everyone is on the tower and the blue robed man begins to speak, yelling to be heard over the weather. “Welcome to a tradition as old as Sharn itself.” The elf man waves his cloak with practiced flair, "a competition of guts and skill to test the mettle of the heroes of various guilds across the city. The representative of the guilds will compete for a great prize for their guild, a prize well sought after for some time which only became available yesterday evening. But we'll speak no more of that, I will introduce the challengers. One by one he gestures at the people on the tower and introduces them. Blueknife, representing House Tharashk Roger Ramsbane, representing the Deathsgate Guild Kal Bloodhorn, representing Daask Jaela Stout, representing the Clifftop Adventurers Guild Dresk Kruotor, representing clan Boromar "Odd to you see you here", Kal says to Dresk over the sound of the rain, "Are you all the way in with Boromar now?". Dresk gives an embarrassed look but does not respond. The blue robed man calls up the competitors to take a token each from a bag he holds out. "These are feather talismans", he declaims, "Unlike a normal feather token these will not activate automatically. You must squeeze them hard. But when you do they activate quickly and will prevent any damage from a great fall". The competitors go up one by one and take a token. Dresk is feeling very nervous about this. "The rules are simple", cries the blue robed man, "you will JUMP from the top of the tower. The last person to activate their token is the winner". He then takes a bottle which he lies down in the middle of the roof area and spins. When it stops he points in the direction that it facing and says, "Competitors, stand over there please". Dresk moves over to the edge of the tower and looks down. The wind buffets at him and when he looks down the weather is so bad that he cannot see far below him. "NOW JUMP", shouts the man. Dresk takes a deep breath and steps from the tower into empty air. Dresk plummets and almost immediately he sees a skycoach immediately below him, carrying a load of cabbages. He attempts to catch the wind and avoid but there is no time. Dresk, Roger, Kal and Jaela all smash into the coach, but Blueknife somehow manages to avoid it. Cabbages go flying everywhere and the coach tips to its side, throwing everyone off including the driver. The skycoach then rights itself and floats ahead, driverless. In the action, Dresk squeezes on his token too hard and it activates. His plummet immediately slows right down and he watches in shame as the other competitors fall out of sight. Dresk slowly drifts down between the towers, until finally he finds himself in the Cogs. It has taken so long for him to get there that the other competitors are nowhere in sight. Dresk is ashamed. He has failed Delgo. He doesn't want to go back up to the top of the tower or to the Queen of the Damned so decides to go to Topsy's house to see if his mission went any better. When he gets there, the door is locked but as he turns to leave the skycoach holding Topsy, Ashana, Chronk, Dusty and Coal comes around the corner. You had decided not to go straight to the Daggerwatch Garrison given that Sergeant Vilroy had said she did not feel safe to tell her colleagues about what was happening. You are all reunited and Dresk is quickly introduced to Coal. You enter the store quickly to get Coal out of sight. You fill Dresk in on what has occurred and he tells you his sad story. Dusty and Dresk then head to the Daggerwatch Station to try and collect the Sergeant without appearing suspicious. This is a task they totally failed at so it's hoped that the person at the counter is not corrupt. Sergent Vilroy meets Dusty and Dresk and then takes them through a winding and confusing route to get to Topsy's house in an effort to throw off potential pursuers. Dusty fills her in on events as she goes. When she arrives at the store she takes some time alone with coal and then addresses you all. "Well, you have completed the task I set you and you have done an excellent job of it. I have your reward here. She pulls out a wallet and hands a note of credit for 50 Galifar to all of you except Dresk. I would like to request that you undertake another task. I would like you to find Alden d'Orien and ask him why he has been recruiting warforged for Daask. It all seems very unusual but he certainly seems to be in the centre of all this". You agree and she leaves. You then hide Coal in the workshop and make your way to the Orien Guildhall in Dragon Towers. It is a magnificent marble building, crowded with people booking journeys, arranging transport and meeting dignitaries. You make your way to the counter and ask to make an appointment with Alden d'Orien. This is declined. Are some questioning the lady at the counter reveals that Alden has not been to work for some weeks and is not taking appointments. You try and glean his address but she does not cooperate. You decide that you need to go to your sources on the street to find out. Dusty decides that his old conspirator, Sundry, a gnomish articifer might have an idea given that he has shown good knowledge of Orien transport schedules in the past. This proves true, and Sundry also recognises Topsy as the son of the famous Tom Turvey. He gives Topsy a weird salute which Topsy does not recognise. When he realises that Topsy does not recognise the salute he says he will have a chat with Topsy's father. "You'd think now that you are an adult, and with the company you keep that Tom would give you his TRUST ". Sundry gives Topsy a wink as he says "Trust", but at Topsy's continued blank looks he drops it. Looking through his records he is able to give an address for Alden d'Orien called the Unicorn Estate in the Mithril Tower District of Upper Central Plateau. Many of the grand homes in Mithral Tower are true to the district’s name, boasting mithral filigree. The Sharn Watch seems to be everywhere in this neighborhood full of busy scions climbing into skycoaches, hosting opulent parties, and showing off their latest purchases at all hours of the day. Unicorn Estate has a grand unicorn statue and unicorn-shaped topiaries adorning the yard beyond an open, wrought-iron gate. Flanking this gate are two guards in House Orien livery. Each wears a beautiful helm shaped like the head of a unicorn. The magnificent marble home is clearly owned by one of the city’s wealthiest dragonmarked families. Seated on a patio couch are two figures engaged in quiet conversation: a haggard man in his late thirties and an attentive kalashtar who holds a rose-colored crystal in his hands. Two more guards dressed like the ones at the gates stand nearby. Ashana recognises the kalashtar as Vishtai, a devout and reliable member of the shrine. She starts talking to him telepathically and explains their mission. Vishtai holds his finger up to the man who is talking to him, says a few words and gestures to you at the entranceway. You see the man shake his head but Vishtai talks more and then the man throws his hands up in defeat. Vishtai then comes and collects you at the gate and takes you to the man who he introduces as Alden d'Orien. You explain your mission to him and he looks at you with fear in his eyes. "I knew this wasn't good", he says, "but I have no choice. They have kidnapped my little boy and they won't give him back until they have dug out whatever it is they want in the undercity. As long as I can provide strong and expendable labour they will let my boy live". You try and get him to further explain, but he becomes more upset as he talks until eventually turns his heal and goes inside. Meanwhile Vishtai is telepathically talking with Ashtana. "I have no doubt that the boy, Caden, will die regardless of Alden’s actions. Please, save Caden and return him to his father. House Orien would owe you a great debt, and you see how broken the man is. There is an enclosed lift five buildings north of this estate. Look for the medusa inside. Make sure you’re alone, as this lift will take you down to the dig site and, hopefully, Caden.” You leave and follow Vishtai's directions. Sure enough, there is a lift where he said. You open the door only to find people inside in an intimate embrace. They are reluctant to leave, pointing out the 'out of order' sign on the lift door, but you are sufficiently intimidating to drive them away. They do not look happy. You explore the lift, finding that the controls do not work. You find a hidden panel behind a carving of a medusa on the wall which has a small disconnected Eberron Dragonshard in it. You reconnect it and the lift slowly descends, with calming but yet inspiring music playing from panels in the wall as you descend. The lift seems to descend forever into the belly of Sharn. Several minutes pass as and the lift rattles and shakes, as if passing into some place it was not meant to go. This rumbling builds to a violent peak then the lift stops, and you open the doors. By the lift’s interior light, you can see into a vast, unlit cavern strewn with broken stonework from ancient buildings as far as you can see in every direction. The air is stale, and filled with dust and the scent of decay. These are the ruins of the cities atop which Sharn is built. Ahead of you yawns a fifty-foot-diameter, ten-foot-deep pit that seems to have been intentionally dug. You hear the soft sobs of a young child coming from a wooden shed on the far side to the pit. Outside the lift it quickly becomes very dark which effectively makes Ashana blind, but is no problems to the rest of you who are able to see in the dark. As you begin to explore you are ambushed by four goblins that pop up from the rubble, shoot shortbows and then disappear, only to appear elsewhere with another volley of arrows. As the battle roves around the pit you spot a large group of warforged, shackled together and sitting in the pit in the dark. You are eventually able to defeat the the goblins, but not before Ashana takes quite a lot of damage. One of the goblins surrenders when his companions fall and you are able to question him. He doesn't appear to know much, but he does know that their boss, a half-ogre called Garra, was the one who had arranged all of this. Further questions reveal that Garra lives in Moran tower in the Terminus district. He doesn't know where in the tower though as he had only ever waited outside as Garra fetched stuff. He also knows that the warforged had found what Garra was looking for. Garra had taken a large chest earlier that day and left. He had told the goblins to watch the warforged and boy until futher orders. You release the warforged and find Caden in a cage on the other side of the pit. You pass the goblin into the tender care of the warforged and send them up in the lift. Then you go up yourselves with Caden, and Topsy then removes the small Eberron Dragonshard that powers the lift. You have saved the boy.
