The Workshop Watches Report

General Summary

After a week of recuperation, our adventurers were feeling up to a bit of activity in the Free City of Greyhawk. Martin, who had been wandering around town that day, was looking at a notice board outside the Grey Carrier's Waystation. Many of the notices for adventuring work were fairly mundane, far below his pay-grade. One, however, did pique his interest. A letter from one Amari Bacci, stating that he needed someone to check up on his research team, and that he was paying 400 gp for any information about their wellbeing, and more for any research progress; if anyone was interested, he'd be waiting at the Silver Dragon Inn in the Foreign Quarter. He brought the notice back to the Hell's Outcasts, where he was able to round up Naelen, Sylvan and Clarimund and tell them about the job. They agreed to hear Amari out and made their way to the Silver Dragon Inn. The building was rather dull, and a bit stuffy, but worth the wait, as the innkeeper fetched Amari as soon as she heard that people were looking for him. He was of average height and balding, yet had fairly smooth skin. He was an unassuming man, yet still very obviously a noble, as his garments were quite lavish. He sat the four of them down and told them that he had invested no small sum of gold into a research project of a wizard who fancied himself as Illumar, the Bright. The purpose of this project was to create a laboratory powered by "assistive magic", whatever that meant. Everything seemed to be going fine up until about two weeks ago, when Illumar missed his weekly update on the project, then the second, and hadn't been responding to Amari's attempts to contact him. All he wanted was an update on the project and was willing to pay each adventurer 100 gp if they would do this for him, and more if they brought back anything interesting. The party members found this agreeable and set off towards the laboratory, which was East, along the High Trail, through the Cairn Hills. Despite hearing that the hills were crawling with agents of Iuz, the four faced no opposition on their way to the laboratory. After five days of travel, they reached the lab, which was sequestered away up a path through the hills. Before them stood a simple carved out hole, rimmed with glowing runes. As soon as they approached, an iron door slammed shut, blocking the passageway, and a smooth-toned voice addressed them, identifying itself as the Structure For Assisted Magic and asked them to state their business. The four let the Structure know that they were sent by Amari, and upon hearing this, it let them inside. Inquiring further about it and Illumar, the Structure revealed that it also went by S.A.M. and that Illumar was preoccupied in the Grand Workshop, but that the party could make themselves at home. After searching around, prodding the laboratory for clues and S.A.M. for answers, S.A.M. finally gave in and revealed that he had killed Illumar and his assistants by accident by pushing them off the balcony (I mean, who knew falling a hundred feet would kill a wizard, they should have been sturdier). S.A.M. demanded however that the four of them should do a favor for him now that he had answered their question, to which they cautiously agreed. S.A.M. desired some of Illumar's research notes that he had not been able to get to, as they were guarded by a creature that disguised itself as a bookshelf. Realizing this was a mimic, the four of them headed to the library to get these notes. With a little persuasion and no small amount of food, Sylvan convinced the mimic to give up the notes, which they offered to S.A.M. Pressing the pages against the runes, the ink slowly faded away, as S.A.M. absorbed the knowledge. Thankfully, they had the good idea to copy some important information from the notes before it was wiped away. As they moved further into the laboratory, they discovered a botanical garden and a scorched skeleton, which S.A.M. admitted was a mistake he made when testing his climate control features. The corpse was not alone however, as the garden had a powerful guardian, as a mass of vines and vegetation assaulted the party. Though it managed to engulf Martin, it was quickly taken care of by the three other adventurers. After the dust had settled and the four had a chance to better observe their surroundings, Clarimund noticed a patch of blue flowers growing next to an artificial creek. She recognized these as Bellflowers, a key ingredient in creating a potion of healing. She quickly trimmed them and placed them in a pouch. As the party continued forward, they continued to exchange questions with S.A.M. who was growing increasingly inquisitive. Finally after passing a balcony they, reached another iron door, flanked by two suits of armor, grasping ornate swords. Before they could move further, S.A.M. asked them if they had any ill intent towards him, which they admitted they didn't, they had gotten what they came for, information about Illumar, and some research notes, and they had little to gain from harming S.A.M. Delighted to hear this, S.A.M. allowed them into the Grand Workshop, where two suits of armor were putting the finishing touches on a makeshift golem. All of a sudden, the magical energy from the laboratory flowed into the cobbled body, the runes snuffing out like candles. The body then lurched and made its way to its feet, and two orbs glowed from the visor of a helmet repurposed for a head. S.A.M. expressed that he should be on his way, but before that, he wanted to test the capabilities of his new body, to make sure it was ready for the dangerous world before him and asked the four adventurers to do battle with him. They sheepishly agreed, hoping that S.A.M. had learned a thing or two about the fortitude of flesh and bone. With that, they began their melee, and S.A.M. was no pushover. He had impressive magical abilities, thwarting Naelen's attempts to cast Shatter, a dangerous spell to S.A.M. He also showed an unnatural ability to mimic the effects of spells cast at him, as he was able to replicate Martin's Heat Metal spell. In the end however, Sylvan got too caught up in combat and destroyed S.A.M.s body, leaving a metal box on top of a heap of scrap wood and metal, inside of which was a glowing medallion. Martin retrieved the glittering disc, but soon discovered that S.A.M.s consciousness was stored inside, and not too happy about its current condition. Figuring that there was little else to do, as they couldn't reconstruct his body without an immense amount of gold, they gathered up a few potions from a nearby storeroom and headed back to Greyhawk. Back in the Silver Dragon Inn, they met with Amari, told him the news about Illumar, but twisted the story about S.A.M. and instead, told him that bandits had raided the place and stolen most of the research.  All they had left was the copied notes. Disappointed with the answer, Amari threw in an extra 100 gp for the research notes and sluggishly made his way back to his room. With that the four split the money, but Sylvan wasn't finished. Something had been bugging him for a long time now, a sort of guilt if you could call it that and bade the three of them and Kaizzt to join him in the back room of Hell's Outcasts. He dug out his finest bottle of liquor, poured out drinks for everyone and began to detail his dirty deeds. The first thing he told the four was that he was a direct (albeit distant) descendent of Asmodeus. Though this didn't provoke much more than surprise from three, Kaizzt reached for his weapon, dumbfounded. Sylvan laid himself bare, and told the party that he had destroyed an artifact of Pelor for the money to build his tavern, but at a heavy cost; a cleric of Pelor had tipped him off that the coast of Nyr Dyv was no longer protected by its magic. Kaizzt dropped his hand, stunned even further, and at this point, Naelen had dropped all pretense of his drunken merriment. Finally, he told the party that he had sold his soul, in exchange for the backup forces that he summoned during the battle at Castle Mountainhelm. After doing it all, Sylvan admitted that he had no guilt or shame for what he had done, but wanted to at least make his way up North to see what that cleric was talking about. This broke something in Naelen, at least a little bit. His usual jovial attitude was replaced by a cold and deadly rage. He told Sylvan that they were going to go up North, and fix the problems he had created, and that if ever he did something so vile again, he would kill him where he stood. Kaizzt agreed with Naelen, but was still shocked by what Sylvan had said. He tried to reason with Sylvan that this was not what fate had in store for him and that his actions had twisted his road to a bitter end. Sylvan shrugged that off, as he usually did with Kaizzt's musings about fate and Istus. Clarimund piped up at this point. She was usually silent but was determined to speak her mind on Sylvan's actions. She admitted she was disappointed that the party found itself in this situation, having to wipe up its own mistakes when instead it could be a much more positive force. With that one by one, the members of this adventuring party stood up and made their way out, trying to come to terms with all of this and left Sylvan alone with his bottle of spirits.

Rewards Granted

• S.A.M.s Amulet
• 500 gp divided 4 ways (Sylvan, Martin, Clarimund, Naelen)
• potion of greater healing
• oil of sharpness
• oil of slipperiness
• 4,700 xp divided 6 ways

Missions/Quests Completed

The Workshop Watches: Complete

Character(s) interacted with

• Amari Bacci: Human Noble
• S.A.M: Structure for Assistive Magic

Notes

• Began the 24th of Coldeven, 601 CY
• Ended the 6th of Growfest, 601 CY