Ashana opens her eyes and you see their normal Kalashtar glow. Immediately something in the back of Topsy and Chronks' heads tells them they are in danger and that the need to kill Ashana immediately. They are able to hold that urge back, but as Ashana sees them with hate in their eyes she feels a sudden suspicion. She questions them and the calm and centred manner they ask the questions in is totally unlike Topsy's normal frantic babble and Chronks barely contained rage. Ashana is now quite sure that her friends have early stage infection from the Quori. Their minds are being taken over. She calls over one of the healers and asks how much it costs to purchase curse removals. It is expensive but affordable and you manage to talk Topsy and Chronk into accepting the cure. Immediately they return to their normal personalities. Ashana asks what you found and you explain the obelisk you found under the forge. You all quickly travel to the shrine of Il-Yannah and Ashana reports to The Enlightened Havakhad. He is very concerned about this and tells you he will send a delegation to the forge tomorrow to destroy the obelisk. He recommends you avoid it. You agree to do so, but decide you want to clear out the rest of the complex you have found - you don't want any more surprises down there for the delegation to come across. You all decide to take some of the ancient weapons you found last time and return to the depths. You find another pile of bones, but this time as you are watching they start moving, forming into 3 more Minotaur skeletons. Dusty draws out his ancient weapon to attack, but he had not listened to Topsy's warning to only take a few at most. He finds that the 4 items he selected have somehow combined and now look like some sort of ambulatory metal arm with sharp blades moving. He feels a voice in goblin in his head but somehow understands what it is conveying "Just lie still, this surgery won't take long. We'll have it out in no time". He finds himself attacking his own weapons as they attempt to open him up surgically. He manages to grab a hilt and throw the weapon into the lava. At the same time, Ashana has turned 2 of the skeletons and Dusty has resisted being charged into a lava pool. One of the skeletons flees and you are able to pick the other two off. You follow the final skeleton down a winding corridor until you find it huddled against a large stone door carved with goblin heirogliphs. You kill the final skeleton and Chronk and Topsy examine the pictures. Chronk can't make any sense of it but Topsy, who has studied some ancient hobgoblin culture recognises the story. THE TALE OF MUR'TAAL "Raat shi anaa, with Mur’taal, a hobgoblin warlord of great skill and pride. One day, an ancient crone told him of a legendary vale in which laid a trial that only the greatest of heroes could overcome. Seeking to prove himself worthy of his ancestor’s weapon, he took off to complete the trials, but never returned. For many years afterward, stories were told of the great Mur’taal, of his skill with the chain and keen tactical insight, of his peerless atcha and unsurpassed devotion to muut. Then many more years passed, and eventually, as all stories do, the tale of Mur’taal faded into common legend. Then, much later, it came to be that the Dhakaani Empire found itself engaged in a fierce battle with their ancient enemies, the Tairnadal. The Dhakaani needed a champion to confront the peerless warrior leading the elven war host. A young duur’kala, Miishka, took it upon herself to follow the legends of Mur’taal, traveling to the Vale to retrieve the lost hero of the dar. Along the way, she faced three great trials – the Test of Courage, the Challenge of Wisdom and the Trial of Honor to see if she was worthy of entering the Vale to retrieve Mur’taal. Driven by her muut, her duty to reclaim him as the champion of the Empire, Miishka passed all of the challenges set before her and found Mur’taal trapped in his own Trial of Honor, unable to see the solution. As Miishka questioned him with the wisdom of the duur’kala, Mur’taal realized that only his pride and atcha, his dangerous desire for personal glory, was holding him back. Instead, he needed to follow his muut, his duty to his people. In understanding this, Mur’taal completed his final trial and was freed from his entrapment. The two heroes returned to battle, and Mur’taal, newly humbled by his experiences in the Vale, easily defeated the horselord of the Tairnadal forces by playing on the elf’s own arrogance and need for personal glory. Thus, the field was won by the Dhakaani. Raat shan gath’kal dor, “The Story stops, but never ends…” Chronk opens the heavy stone door. Inside is a massive chamber with more stories showing the bravery and skill of Mur'taal carved all over the walls. In center of the room is a massive stone casket flanked by weapon racks. In front of the casket stands an ancient suit of armour, positioned as if standing guard. You spread out and start exploring the room. Chronk notices that there are more inscriptions on top of the casket, but the casket is too large to easily see them so he climbs on top for a better view. As he does so suddenly the weapons in the racks animate and fly in to attack, and the armour also starts moving attacking anyone near it. You manage to defeat the animated objects and then decide that you want to see what is in the casket. It takes all of your strength, but you manage to put the lid off where it falls on the floor and breaks into several pieces. Inside, wearing a white robe and holding a scroll case, is a massive hobgoblin. He does not look dead. He simply looks asleep. Obviously there is some sort of magic here preserving the body. You take the scrollcase and find a map inside indicating a valley in Darguun. You return the the forge and take a nights rest. Topsy takes the time to examine the papers you found in the secret Cannith compound to see if they can offer any more information. There is enough technical information to see that this workshop was trying to find a way to create new warforged without needing to use a creation forge (therefore meeting the terms of the Thronehold Treaty, if not the intent behind it). It looks as if they were having no success. You note that there is some letters about a particular type of Kyber crystal from Zilargo that they were using. They had managed to convince the gnome that owns the mine that the crystals has been corrupted and were of little use, but in actuality they were central to the effort. They were smuggling the crystals in to try and keep the Zilargo authorities in the dark about the mine. Lately the smugglers had been arrested and there were no crystals coming into Sharn as a result of this. There was a real risk that the workshop would run out. All the communications regarding this were to Galavantus from someone who signed off 'Mx'. The next morning a visitor arrives at the forge. This is not someone you would usually see down here, garbed as they are in the finest Sharn fashions. He explains that he is Viktor, one of the organisors of the soiree at the mansion of Merrix d'Cannith that you have been invited to. He is here to check that you will be suitably attired and understand the social norms at events such as this. Upon learning that you do not have any high quality clothing he quickly measures you all and arranges for clothes to be sent, "They won't be tailored, there is no time for that, but they will do in a pinch". He also explains some of ettiquite expected and informs you that you cannot take weapons onto the premises. "My master looks forward to meeting you", he says, "he has been following your exploits and thinks you will be able to have a very interesting conversation. Until then." He leaves, leaving you wondering what this event is all about.
