# March 23, 2026 | Money or Blood > [!Summary]+ meta > **Role Call**: [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]] • [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]] • [[Kouneli]] • [[Brian d'Orien|Brian]] • [[Cheeto]] • [[Styx]] > **Where We Are**: [[The Cogs]] — Drummond Independents, Ashblack > **Tagline**: "We'll figure something out. We always do." [[E10 - Happy Hammers|↶ Last Session]] | [[The Bleeding Veil| Campaign Home ↝]] ## This Session [[Tresca Teesbeak|Tresca]] leads the party through a brutal ritual to extract the Burning Idol from Drummond's forge — a Fernia planar focus that's kept the foundry alive for centuries. Three waves of elemental defenders — magma mephits, a fire snake, and steam mephits — nearly exhaust the party to death while she works, but [[Styx]] strikes the glyph at the critical moment and the forge dies. On their way out to retrieve [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]] from the artificer, the party runs straight into [[Yadha-Ro]] — a twelve-foot Daask ettin here to collect from [[Drummond]] and not particularly interested in who pays. [[Kouneli]] puts her to sleep, the party breaks down the barricaded office door with fists and eldritch blasts, and finds... nothing. [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]] is gone. [[Drummond]] is gone. The session ends in a dark, empty room. ^session-summary ## Session Log ### The Idol in the Forge The party stands inside Drummond's forge with [[Tresca Teesbeak|Tresca]], who has identified the source of the forge's power: a Fernia planar focus — an idol at the heart of the foundry that's been feeding it for centuries. To complete the mission [[Lhara]] sent them on, they have to kill the forge. - [[Tresca Teesbeak|Tresca]] doesn't sugarcoat it. There's no way to extract the idol without shutting the forge down permanently. She needs the party to keep her alive while she works the ritual. "Don't let anything touch me." - She sets to work — eyes closed, hands moving through precise arcane gestures, drawing orichalcum into a crucible form at her feet. The forge responds badly. ### "This would be a hilarious way to TPK" The forge doesn't go quietly. It fights back in waves — three rounds of elemental resistance, each worse than the last. - **Round 1: Magma Mephits.** Two magma mephits claw their way out of the forge floor, spitting molten rock. The party starts taking constitution saves immediately. Exhaustion begins stacking early, and it never lets up. - **Round 2: Fire Snake.** A fire snake coils out of the forge's core — faster, meaner, harder to pin down. The party is already flagging from exhaustion when it arrives. [[Brian d'Orien|Brian]] fires eldritch blasts with the enthusiasm of a man who can barely keep his eyes open. Misses. - **Round 3: Steam Mephits.** Two steam mephits materialize as the ritual enters its final phase. Steam breath strips 10 feet of speed from anyone it catches, targeting in cones that hit multiple party members at once. [[Cheeto]] fails his con save. [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]] fails. The table's consensus: "We're all very tired." - Through all three rounds, [[Styx]] does the most critical work: protecting [[Tresca Teesbeak|Tresca]] while she concentrates. [[Kouneli]] slings Mind Slivers from the back — one of the few party members actually landing hits, because saves don't care about the exhaustion-fueled disadvantage on attack rolls. - [[Cheeto]] uses Battle Medic to patch up [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]], rolling a hit die to bring the monk back from the edge. It's not much. It's enough. ### Killing the Forge [[Tresca Teesbeak|Tresca]]'s eyes snap open. She yells to [[Stoke]]: "Prepare the crucible." [[Stoke]] pours molten orichalcum into the form at her feet. She looks at [[Styx]], who's closest, and says: "Take that hammer from Stoke. When I tell you — hit this glyph." - [[Styx]] strikes. The orichalcum shudders. The runes flare. The steam mephits start to dissipate — fading into nothing like smoke in a sudden wind. The deep orange glow that has defined this space for centuries begins to dim. - The heat pulls back. The rhythmic churn of the cogs goes quiet. The air, which has been thick and shimmering since the party arrived, goes still. - [[Tresca Teesbeak|Tresca]] reaches under the crucible and pulls out the result: a small orichalcum statuette — bluish, shimmering, metallic — of a figure sitting in meditation, with a crystal set atop it like a crown. ### Don't Remove the Stopper [[Tresca Teesbeak|Tresca]] wipes her forehead with the back of her hand. Visibly exhausted. "It'll be warm, but it's safe to touch. Don't remove the crystal stopper." - "You don't want to know what happens if you take out the stopper." Beat. "Maybe it's a day for directness. If you take out the stopper, you will unleash the endless fires of Fernia." - [[Cheeto]], from somewhere behind: "Don't touch that." [[Styx]] takes the idol. It's warm — the perfect temperature, right on the edge of too hot. Like washing your hands on a cold day and the water hits just right. - [[Styx]] pockets it. The forge shudders one last time. The ancient foundry — operational for centuries — starts to feel like a beach at low tide, the water pulling back. The light dies. The billows go silent. Everything goes dark and still. ### What Was Left Behind [[Stoke]] sets down his maul and stares into the dead forge. Across the room, his warforged crew stands at the door, staring in. Nobody says anything for a long moment. - [[Kouneli]]: "I'm sorry, Tresca, for what you lost. But I think we should take a quick exit from this forge." - [[Tresca Teesbeak|Tresca]]: "Sure. The sooner we're ready to leave, the better." - From behind, [[Stoke]]'s voice: "We'll figure something out. We always do." But you can tell he doesn't really sound convinced. This was his crew's livelihood. The labor strike won them one silver a day and Sundays off. Now there's no forge to work at all. - [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]], in a moment of deeply ill-timed flippancy: "There's always the fighting pits." [[Stoke]] does not respond well. You get the distinct feeling that the orc monk's commentary is not going to be welcome much longer. ### Where's Tendy? The party heads for the exit, looking for [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]]. He was taken earlier by Auger to see the artificer — that's what the party asked for. But he's not with the warforged crew at the door. - "Where's Tendy?" Auger: "Took him to see the artificer. Isn't that what you wanted?" - "Where's the artificer?" They point back to the courtyard. "In Drummond's main office. Where we keep the artificers." - [[Kouneli]], whispering urgently to [[Brian d'Orien|Brian]]: "Why would she say it like that? 'Where we *keep* them.' That's a weird way to say something." - The party crosses the courtyard toward Drummond's office. And that's when the ground starts shaking. ### Yadha-Ro Boom. Boom. Boom. Rhythmic footfalls. Coming around the corner — twelve feet tall, two heads, built like a siege engine. [[Yadha-Ro]]. - Skin the color of forge slag, grey-brown and pitted with old scars. Both heads wear their hair in thick, tangled braids threaded with copper wire and small animal bones. A crude iron prosthetic arm on the right side — riveted plates, exposed joints, zero aesthetics — grips a battleaxe. The flesh arm on the left holds a heavy morning star. - The bigger head — Yadha — booms: "Drummond, you worm! We're here to collect!" Then a quieter pause as the pale yellow eye on Ro's head tracks the party: "Oh. You're not Drummond." - Ro, with her milky eye and lopsided grin: "Money or blood. Money or blood." ### Talking to a Wall (with Two Heads) The party tries diplomacy. It goes about as well as expected when you're exhausted, carrying a bottle of infinite fire, and the thing you're negotiating with has an IQ split across two skulls that disagree about everything. - [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]] tries smooth-talking them. "We're not Drummond." Yadha points at the sign: "Drummond house." "Does everyone who stands outside a house belong to that house?" Ro: "Oh, Yadha. They think we're both stupid." - [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]], sensing an opportunity with the ettin's female form: "See, we got the nice tusks. That's the way you tell the good mates, right? The stories of my lovers belong in great scrolls and on beautiful tapestries. The stuff of legend." The table collectively buries their faces in their hands. - [[Kouneli]] attempts Persuasion. Burns a luck point. Still not great. Ro looks at him with that lopsided grin: "Seems to me there's plenty of blood and money right here." - [[Brian d'Orien|Brian]] — the charisma guy — finally speaks up. "We are not the guys you're looking for. Usually when I pay money or give blood, it's to get something in return. And I'm not receiving anything. So if we could just get out of here..." Solid delivery. But not solid enough. "Roll initiative." ### The Fastest Fight They Never Had [[Kouneli]] casts Sleep on [[Yadha-Ro]]. Despite the ettin's advantage on saves against being knocked unconscious, both heads fail. The twelve-foot enforcer crumples. - [[Kouneli]] yells: "RUN!" and bolts for Drummond's office door. It's locked. Boarded up from the inside. - What follows is one of the most undignified sequences in the campaign: five exhausted adventurers taking turns punching, kicking, and blasting a locked wooden door while a sleeping giant lies twenty feet away. - [[Brian d'Orien|Brian]] runs full speed into the door. Makes some progress. [[Cheeto]] kicks it like a tired cat pawing at a screen door. [[Kouneli]] whacks it with his quarterstaff. [[Brian d'Orien|Brian]] hits it with an eldritch blast that mostly just scorches it. - [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]] burns a focus point for Flurry of Blows — one, two, three strikes — and on the second, the door breaks inward. It had been barricaded with a thick board bolted across the other side. ### The Empty Room As the dust settles, the party peers into Drummond's office. The same room they negotiated in last session. Dark now. No one at the desk. No forge glow reflecting off the walls. - No Drummond. No Tendy. No artificer. No one. - The office was boarded up from the inside. And it's empty. - And that's where we leave it.