Don’t Trust Ladders . . .

Poor Clarity wasn’t feeling very well, so we decided to go shopping in the Lower Ward while she mustered the strength to travel. Søren had heard that he might be able to find some interesting parts for his modifications on Gear Street. We found a place with a bunch of Modrons in front of it, which Søren explained as being unusual since they were a race from Mechanus (Does their Power not usually let them leave? Is Søren also unusual, or is he different since he’s Warforged?)
 
Inside the shop, we met a quadrone named Echo who had been “broken free” from their programming and now resided in Sigil. Søren and Echo mentioned some sort of group called the Hierarchy, but they didn’t say much about it...weird. Need to ask him later! There were a lot of Grey Dwarves and Gnomes at the shop as well - they looked different from the Gnomes I’m used to.
 
Echo knows a lot about metals and was particularly interested in the Harmonic Copper that Søren had. He didn’t know much about his other materials, but suggested Søren visit either some Satyr twins in New Market (is that the Marketplace?) or talk to a Xaositect, which Søren did not seem eager to do. Søren then asked if Echo would want us to bring him any particular metals in exchange for discounted work, and he mentioned two:

Telstang (which I recognized as coming from one of the Material Planes - eavesdropping on my brothers really pays off!)

Cold Iron (found on Ysgard and apparently wards off the Fey...wonder if that will be a problem for Doc?)

As we were preparing to head to the Foundry District, Doc heard a Modron named Riggs talk about being able to make an autoloading crossbow with a piece of Harmonic Copper. Along with the fact that Echo can make me a sick magic string for my lute using the same material, sounds like it would be pretty useful if we’re able to find more! I also need to come up with some plans for a unique instrument that Echo can make me, cause he apparently takes commissions. Maybe Clarity and Søren will help me with the design!
 
Speaking of Søren, apparently Warforged were made in response to The Bloom emerging over 100 years ago, meaning Søren was around for the war that followed. He said he didn’t witness the interplanar wars as much, but he did see a lot of the internal conflict that happened on Ysgard. He seemed really sad when he mentioned it...it reminded me of how Haruni used to look when I asked her about what happened all those years ago…
 
After we finished up at the shop (really need to get the name of it - next time!), we headed over to the Foundry District with Clarity in tow. Apparently, the huge Foundry (super hot!) is home to the Believers of the Source (AKA The Godsmen).The whole place was full of these Goliaths guarding the way to various gate towns, which Doc deduced were tied to the Lower Planes (he’s so smart!). Uuuuuuunfortunately, we met a Dragonborn named Yalkulash who told us we’d been duped (DUPED) by Tivvum because only Godsmen were allowed to use the portals. He originally wasn’t going to help us, but then he saw a mark on Søren’s hand and offered us assistance in exchange for coin. Søren told us the mark is an aberrant dragonmark, granted to him by a dragon on Ysgard in exchange for doing “something he should not have done” (which sounds hella ominous).
 
Caelen used his amazing persuasion skills and good looks to convince Yalkulash to let us put down a deposit of only 50G. Yalkulash then pointed us in the right direction and got us waived past the guards, with the promise that we’d return with something of great value from the Caverns of Thought.
 
We headed into the bowels of the Foundry in search of the portal with Doc leading the way, when all of the sudden a ladder attacked us! It was super scary and almost killed Doc, but I was able to get to him in time. I think Doc was really cut up about the whole thing because he’s usually the most perceptive guy ever, but I told him not to feel too bad cause none of the rest of us noticed either - mimics are super sneaky!
 
After fighting off the creepy ladder, we took a short rest, and I played a friendship song (AKA You’ve Got a Friend in Me). :) I think it might’ve been too strong, though, because Caelen never really seemed to wake up at the end of our time resting - he seemed in a bit of a haze for the next few days. Maybe he hasn’t been getting a lot of sleep? I’ll make sure to play him lots of goodnight songs, like my Haruni used to: then, he’ll be sure to get a restful sleep!
 
It took us awhile to figure out the portal key, but Søren eventually figured out that you need to speak the runes in Giant (I hope he’ll teach me some soon!). Doc led us into the Portal like a pro, and we popped into the Ironridge Mountains. The whole experience was a LOT easier then when we’d travelled by The Bloom.
 
But the place is kinda spooky - iron-like spikes protruding from the ground into the sky and terrible wind kinda spooky. I’m lucky I’m not a smaller Verdan - I’d fall right over!
 
Clarity sent Gwydion to do some scouting, but he immediately got swallowed by a Wyvern we had to fight! Clarity and I did a super cool tag team with Søren, though, where she made him big, and I made him fly. Unfortunately, he went unconscious half-way through the fight, but fortunately, the Wyvern flew right under him, so I dropped him on the creature like a bomb! Fun fact: Wyverns are not beasts. Do NOT cast Animal Friendship on them.
 
After the battle, we went to go find some shelter for the night, as we were definitely pooped. Looks like trekking through the mountains will be no walk in the park - we were even having a tough time figuring out what direction to go in!
 
We took watch that night (Søren goes into “low power mode”), aware that we were sharing the cave with some potentially hostile dwarves. The rest of the party was scared they were going to attack us, but when I met them, they seemed really nice. Of course, I don’t speak Dwarven (gotta learn that), so I tried to speak in their head. That got them scared for some reason, and they responded with a vision of a tentacle being, so I showed them a picture I drew of us being friends. They just stared at me, then walked away after that. I drew another picture of us all having a tea party, in case we see them again. :)
 
After they left, we found some sort of Moon Flower, and Clarity said it had abjurative and evocational qualities (so good?) I picked it and gave it to her. Back on the road, we encountered a party of Gith, who said they were journeying from the Astral Plane to Sigil when they encountered a group of Ilithid. After we offered to take them to Sigil (and I gave them a heating pad for their sick friend), they came clean and said the group they encountered were actually The Mercy Killers, which are there enemies and who slew their young. Saying they hailed from Toonerath Tu’narath, Sreka Cireka, Smeaz Simyaz, and Urlon were surprised by our generosity and asked us to help their friend, who’d defended them. I offered to restore them, when they revealed to me that it was a baby red dragon (so cute!). We gave them some rations to make it through the mountains, and they thanked us before heading out once more.
 
I think some of the party is concerned they may have not been good people, but I don’t regret helping them. Haruni always said that it’s never wrong to help those that truly need it, and based on what they said and how that poor little dragon looked, they did. Who knows, maybe we’ll meet again some day...