Artificeries and Administrators
Heroes of Phandalin Meeting Agenda #
17th of Uktar, Prepared by Darina #
Time Meeting 09:00 Master Carwyn: Master of Abjuration 11:00 Magus Nixim: Master of Conjuration 12:30 Lunch @ Ruby Flask 02:00 Arcanus Warmorn: Master of Evocation 04:00 King Korboz: Head Administrator of Gnomengarde
The day started promptly at 8:08 with a uniformed gnome knocking on the party's door. She introduced herself as Jirna, your Law Abjurer and Guide for the duration of your stay in Gnomengarde. She handed out Visitors badges to each of the party members that can be used to contact her, and will allow her to find you if you are reported missing. While the party ate the provided breakfast, Jirna explained the ground rules for their stay here.
Gnomish law is far too complex to explain to outsiders, as long as you are with me I am authorized to excuse any accidental misdemeanors that can be explained by a lack of knowledge about it. But if I am not with you, you will be held accountable for your breaches to the full extent of the law. The best thing you can do if you get separated from the group is to send me a message asking for help, and then stay put with your eyes closed and touching nothing.
We'll allow you to keep your weapons on you as your go about the city, but we will be putting a device that lets us see if you've drawn them. Any uncalled for weapon usage is a serious offense. That goes for spellcasting too, Master Carwyn's got magic-detecting obelisks up all over town, we'll know if you cast any spells here and you'll have to account for them.
With that out of the way, the party set off for their busy day. Moving across the lake and into the southern side of Gnomengarde brought the party to Gnomengarde's craftsman quarter. Jirna explained that much of gnomengarde is independant contractors that assist the workshops on individual parts of their inventions. Craven noticed the same dilapidation and abandonment that he noticed on the north side of town to a lesser degree here.
Carwyn's Workshop #
The elderly gnome and his 4 apprentices were waiting for the party as they entered the decidedly sterile feeling workshop. A huge single pane of thick glass portioned off an observation/testing chamber on the far side of the room. The gnomes all wore the same blue colored uniforms.
Carwyn Notes #
Abjuration deals with all things protection and absorbtion. Wards, Detection, Diversion are its strengths. Carwyn is responsible for the obeslisks that detect magical spellcasting within Gnomengarde. It is most useful for protection, but Carwyn was convinced that any problem can be solved with Abjuration.
Carwyn's speech impediment leads to tension with his head apprentice, a confident woman named Rybar.
Rybar asked Jirna about the status of an ongoing investigation regarding tampering with records. Jirna told her that she couldn't tell her much, but rest assured it's being looked into.
Demoed #
- A somwhat portable totem that absorbed elemental damage within a 10ft radius.
- A shield that would defend its user even if they were not proficient with using shields.
Discussed #
- Obelisks that are capable of warding areas for miles, given enough power.
- Was interested in a wild magic source, cautioned the party against Nixim's conjuration.
- Vrizz is a name that Carwyn didn't recognize.
Nixim's Workshop #
Purple uniforms adorned the four apprentices and Nixim that waited for the party as they entered the workshop meeting room. It was identical in every way to Carwyn's workshop, save for the occupants.
Nixim Notes #
Conjuration is the magic of planar space, time, and relations. Creating items, teleportation, and transdimentional spaces are all within its realm. Nixim is responsible for the portals from each workshop to the Grand Hall. It is most useful for teleportation and creation, but Nixim was convinced that any problem can be solved with Conjuration.
Nixim was a slow and ponderous talker. His apprentices took a back seat to the conversation. He seemed very knowledgable about the posibilities and speed bumps related to Conjuration.
A softspoken apprentice Alaston asked Jirna about an investigation on the way out, Jirna gave him the same answer she gave Rybar.
Demoed #
- A chest that manifests any mundane non-consumable for an hour or until another item is conjured.
- A tent that constructs itself and is larger on the inside.
Discussed #
- Teleportation highways between points of power. Teleportation's major limitation is the power required to sustain the link between places.
- Portable fortresses that may be deployed and re-packaged to make traveling safer.
- Was interested in a wild magic source, cautioned the party against Warmorn's evocation.
- Vrizz is a name that Nixim didn't recognize, but when the party brought up Deppeg, that name he remembered. "I remember a Deppeg, he was an apprentice somewhere..." Nixim agreed that the Opal Bizarre made sense for where Deppeg worked.
By now it was lunch time, and Jirna led the party northwards out of the carftsman quarter and past the consumer quarter. According to Jirna this is where the majority of consumer good are produced and sold that are less complex than those that the workshops churn out.
The Ruby Flask is a human-scaled tavern obviously built to accomodate guests to Gnomengarde; it is known for a mushroom-based wine. A nod from Jirna to the proprieter produced lunch, which Jirna shared with the party.
Over lunch, the party brought up the strange memory lapses going on in town but Jirna brushed them off. They also pressed her about the investigation and Stuu managed to convince her to let them in on it.
We've been looking into reports of tampering with records from each of the workshops. It's disturbing work actually as we've found that a similar tampering has happened as high up as the palace records. It's not overtly harmful in its manifestations, feels more like an infantile prank. People are making invoices and receipts from people and places that just don't exist. It's bizzare. Smells like money laundering or corruption but why go to so much trouble?
When asked about Transmutation and why there wasn't a workshop related to it, Jirna was puzzled. She remembered reading or hearing something about a transmutation workshop but didn't remember details. She figured she could find out more if she looked through the Archives, or asked Dirna. With some more encouraging, she promised to look through those tonight and bring what she found to the party tomorrow.
With lunch complete, the party trekked along next to the residential quarter to find Warmorn's Workshop. On the approach the party noticed that many residences have fallen into disrepair, a school and adjoining playground looked abandoned.
Warmorn's Workshop #
Only three gnomes greeted the party at Warmorn's workshop. Each of the gnomes had short hair and bright red uniforms with close cropped sleeves. Warmorn was missing both eyebrows and her hair was obviously singed. Again the workshop greeting room was identical in every way to the other two.
Warmorn Notes #
Evocation is the magic of raw energy manipulation. It is most useful for raw destruction, but Warmorn was convinced that any problem can be solved with Evocation.
Warmorn was very excitable and enthusiastic about her work. She only had two apprentices, and one of them, Jana, kept studious notes of everything Warmorn was interested in.
She asked both Stuu and Rovu to demonstrate their abilities while Jana took notes. The party got a glimpse of an absurd security system leading deeper into the workshop. When Warmorn examined Stuu's gemwork crossbow she was interested until she realized it was all based on Transmutation! Bah.
Demoed #
- Semi-autonomous turret cannon capable of climbing up walls and independant targeting.
Discussed #
- Really big guns. Like the Magic Missile spell but insanely large.
- Didn't seem to keen on taking a "safe" approach, scoffed at Carwyn for this.
- Was very interested in a wild magic source.
With the gnomish artificers out of the way, the party trapsed onward to meet King Korboz, head administrator. Jirna led them through the 'palace' corridors past a fair number of offices that were empty in spite of it still being working hours. When prompted about "Who works here in this office?" Jirna appeared to get visibly confused, flustered, and eventually blew the question off as a stupid one saying that they should hurry or they'd be late.
They arrived at Korboz's office and the middle-aged gnome greeted them cordially.
I'm happy to finally meet you in person! There seemed to be some back and forth about your coming this way or us going there for a while... anyhow. What sort of problem are you seeking an arcane solution to?
The party took this opportunity to explain that they were looking to reopen the Lost Mines of Phandelver's Pact, Forge of Spells included, and wanted to see if any Gnomish workshops would be willing to help. Korboz was impressed, and he was confident that any one of the workshops would jump on that opportunity. There's clearly a lot of rivalry going on with the workshops, and it would be a pretty big ordeal for a workshop to pack everything up and move, so he recomended that the party single out one of the workshops they'd like to make this offer to. "We'll still hold the meeting in the Grand Hall tomorrow, so think about anything you'd like to talk to all of the artificers present about."
After that conversation, things turned to the mystery that had been brewing in the party's minds. They asked Korboz to give them free reign of the city to investigate the oddities that they have been seeing. In spite of a compelling argument, Korboz didn't go for it. "The political issues that would arise from outsiders being allowed to go anywhere and see anything... there's a lot of trade secrets in Gnomengarde, I'm sure you can understand the position that puts me in."
The party brought up one final thing, hoping against hope to get more information about the whereabouts of Inventor Vrizz. For the briefest moment Korboz glanced at a portrait he had face-down on his desk. The party pushed, asking to see it. He hesitated but pulled the frame up to reveal a family of three gnomes. One clearly is Korboz, the other he told the party was "Fentra, my daughter," but the last he grew flustered with. "I don't know who that is. That's me, that's Fentra, but I don't recognize that person." The gnomish woman in the portrait was about Korboz's age and wore an artificer's uniform in Greenish-gold. The king's whole disposition changed as he looked at her and he slammed the portrait back face-down. "I.. I don't want to talk about this anymore. If you're finished I have lots to do."
Jirna took that cue and ushered the party back to the guesthouse. "I think I see what you're seeing finally. I'm going to go first thing to the archives and look around." Back at the guesthouse, the party immediately noticed something off. There was an extra pack among their traveling gear that didn't belong to any of them. Craven investigated and found that an Alarm spell was rigged up to it, but the spell didn't go off when he started going through the pack.
The pack had all the contents you'd expect an adventuring pack to have, its contents were similar to all of the rest of the party's packs. Thieves' Tools and Tinker's Tools were the stand-out items, as well as a journal tucked away with a number of letters. The party recognized the letters as the ones that they had sent back and forth to Gnomengarde, but they were different from what they remembered.
