You all decide that of your tasks, rescuing Alicia Lund from the secret Cannith compound is the most urgent. So you make your way down to the Stores district, leaving your ship in the neibouring district of Callestan at The Anvil. Dresk and Dusty go and surrepticiously watch the place first, noting a large number of people going in and out of the building, all of them wearing grey robes. You also see the hobgoblin guards at the door carefully looking at all people approaching the building through small monocles. Then Cronk approaches and tries to act as a drunken passerby, seeing how easy it is to draw the guards from their posts. They are not to be shifted and so he returns to you all. You also sneak round and check out the back door which is locked, and when you listen you hear plenty of noise from the other side. You group up and decide to look for the sewer entrance that you were told might exist, and before long you find a manhole, covered in deitrus of the towers above. You lift the manhole and find yourself in a dry sewer, but not far away is a door with the Cannith symbol emblazoned on it. Topsy checks out the door and finds it both trapped and locked and is easily able to remedy both problems. You make your way up a short tunnel leading to some stairs going up. There is light spilling down the stairs and you hear voices, chatting about the details of their domestic lives. Dusty decides to make use of his new purchase, a cloak of many fashions, and turns it to the same grey as the workers robes. He then wraps it around himself, signals to you all to follow and enters the area with confidence. You find yourself in a small laboratory. It smells clean and sterile, and the center of the room is wide open; all of the lab tables have been pushed against the walls. Four magewright researchers work at these tables, and all of them have a warforged head on the table in front of them. The heads’ cranial plates are open, and the researchers are tinkering around inside and scribbling notes as they observe their skulls’ reactions. Some are speaking to their skulls, and they occasionally sputter out an unintelligible reply. The researchers look up in surprise as you enter. They all leap to their feet and one stands in front of you "Stop it right there, you shouldn't be here, where is your identification". Dusty tries to bluff his way through but no-one is falling for his grey cloak. "Stay right where you are", says the leader, "Geedar, go fetch the guard". Chronk looks ready to attack but you manage to stop the researcher leaving the room and reveal just how dangerous this situation might be. These are not adventurers and are easily cowed. You intimidate them into going into a corner of the room and being tied and gagged. You then continue onwards, opening a door leading to the south. A grey robed man sits at a desk scribbling at some notes. He doesn't look up and says "Get out, I said I was not to be disturbed". Dresk rushes up and grabs him. He is about to start shouting but Chronk also runs up and punches him in the face, smashing his nose and knocking him unconcious". "Who is this guy anyway?", says Dresk as Topsy rushes in ands starts clearing the papers off the desk and out of the desk. A quick glance at the papers reveals reports into an ongoing effort to animate warforged without the use of a creation forge, as well as personal communications between the receiver of the letters, Garavantus, and someone else who signs their name "MX". Dresk has found a name badge on their unconcious victim that reveals him to be Chief Artificer Garavantus d’Cannith. Uh oh, you just assulted someone important from one of the main dragonmarked houses. As you realise this you notice a stone figure that appears to be merging out of the wall beside you. It morphes into a statuelike figure and smashes Topsy with one of his arms, almost killing him with one hit. You all start to fight back, but find that your weapons have no impact on the creature whatsoever, however Ashana's spells seem to still have an impact. Chronk looks around and sees a rune covered paperweight on the desk. He grabs it and smashes into the constructs face, causing it to crack. From that point on you are slowly able to beat the creature into rubble. You then explore the room further, finding a small bedroom and then through another door a bar area beside a huge laboratory. This laboratory is engulfed in the sounds of fiery welding tools, screeching blades, and crackling firebolts. A dozen researchers in beige lab coats move back and forth between long lab tables. The center of the room is brightly lit, but the walls are cast in shadow (see “Lighting” in “Area Information”). Twelve magewright researchers are hard at work. Four are taking apart warforged bodies on lab tables; three are operating welding tools and creating unusually-shaped warforged armblades; two are holding up tower shields while two others shoot firebolts at them; and one is sitting at a desk, recording research notes. You note that two of the researchers are gnomes - male and female. You duck back in before they see you and Dusty comes up with a plan. He takes Garavantus' clothes and puts them on, and casts a spell making him look identical to him. He then ducks out into the bar area and shouts towards the gnomes, "You and you, in my office now". The two gnomes look nervous and then make their way to the office, through another door. Unfortunetely they enter the door before you are able to head them off and when they walk into the other room they see the other tied up researchers. They go to leave but you firmly shut the door and usher them toward the office. "What is this, what is going on sir?" they ask Dusty. You know that you are meant to be rescuing a female gnome, so you signal Chronk who bonks the male gnome on the head, knocking him unconcious. You then tell the female gnome that you received her letter and that you are here to rescue her. She seems to have no idea what you are talking about and starts getting more and more frantic until Chronk slaps her face to try and calm her down. You hear a crack and she falls to the ground unconcious. You are still unsure whether she is the one you are to rescue, so Topsy suggests searching her for a dragonmark. Realising what that entails, Ashana steps forward and tells the males that they will not be examining her body for marks, sends them away and does the examination herself revealing no dragonmarks. This was not the correct gnome. This means that you need to explore further into the complex, so Dusty decides to continue to facade as Garavantus, taking you for a tour through the complex. This works well and the workers barely look up from their desks. Dusty takes you through the laboratory and up some stairs where you find yourself in some sort of library or repository. Textbooks and almanacs on arcane technology are intermingled with folders full to bursting with notes scribbled in House Cannith research shorthand. It's a large space and there doesn't seem to be a staff member present at the empty desk, so you split up to explore the shelves. Dusty rounds a corner and finds a female gnome furiously copying a binder of research notes into a notepad. She looks up, sees him there and quickly shoves the binder back in a guilty manner. She looks like she is about to run, but Ashana is at the other end of the aisle. By this time you all arrive and you are able to ascertain that this is indeed Alicia Lund, the gnome you were sent to rescue. However she has no idea who you are and says she never sent the letter. But, she says, it is time she left as she has found the information she needs. She shuts her notebook and asks you to lead the way. You head back towards the stairs but as you get out onto the balcony you see the front doors in the level below smash open and a troop of Hobgoblins rush in, weapons drawn. Some of them are armoured, but some are wearing robes with wands drawn. The guards from the front door have also joined them. "Everybody stay exactly where you are", shouts one of them, "there is evidence that a spy is in here", nobody gets to leave until we work out who it is". Dusty, still appearing as Garavantus looks down at the hobgoblins, "What is the meaning of this? You must leave this building immediately". The hobgoblin captain looks confused for a moment and then turns to one of the door guards, "Check him". One of the door guards pulls out one of the small monocles that you saw earlier and looks at Dusty through it. "That's not Garavantus, it's an illusion", says the guard. "Get them", shouts the captain and the armoured guards start running for the stairs. Dusty pulls out his bow and starts shooting guards and in response one of the hobgolin mages points his wand to an area just behind Dusty. A fireball blossoms into existence, hitting most of you and setting one of the shelves of books on fire. Ashana takes the brunt of the blast and falls to the ground, burnt and dying. You suddenly realise that these hobgoblins are tough. Dresk runs to Ahana and drags her back to a safer location where Topsy heals her. He then runs to the front ready to take on the hobgoblin warriors coming up the stairs. A battle commences and Dresk is knocked down several times only to be healed again by Ashana. Alicia looks at you all, "This is the most unsubtle rescue attempt I have ever seen. Good luck, I might see you again. I doubt it". She then runs to the back of the library, runs through a door and you can hear her shouting "Fire, there is a fire in the library, run for your lives". There is a sudden rush at the other end of the balcony as a door opens and researchers rush out. They see the smoke pouring out of the library door and panic, rushing down the stairs and towards the front entrance. "Stop, none of you can leave", the hobgoblin captain shouts down to Alicia is among them and you see her somersault of the balcony and then run out the front door. Chronk and Topsy run to the back of the library to see if there is another exit, but are suddenly swarmed by more door guards who rush in, are surprised to see them and then attack. Dusty sees that you are fighting on two fronts, and likely to lose. He also sees that Alicia has escaped. He jumps off the balcony, and runs out the front door. He sees Alicia run down a nearby alley and follows her, dropping his disguise as he does so. He begins quietly tracking her. Back in the building the battle is continuing and looking very bad for you all, but you slowly manage to turn the tide, eventually killing all the hobgoblins. You are badly hurt. You leave the building. You have lost the spy you were supposed to rescue but have aquired a lot of interesting papers that will be well worth studying. You make your back towards your skycoach.
