# January 05, 2026 | You Get What You Pay For > [!Summary]+ meta > **Role Call**: [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]] • [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]] • [[areas/ttrpg/the bleeding veil/campaign resources/cast/Kouneli]] • [[Styx]] • [[Cheeto]] • [[Brian d'Orien|Brian]] > **Where We Are**: [[Sharn]] > **Tagline**: Never trust a shifter in a sewer. [[E3 - Down the Drain|↶ Last Session]] | [[The Bleeding Veil| Campaign Home ↝]] ## This Session The party ventures into the sewers beneath [[Sharn]] looking for an ancient laboratory, guided by a shifter who's definitely-totally-not-suspicious. After the guide immediately betrays them (shocking), they pry open a thousand-year-old door, meet a warforged with entrepreneurial spirit and questionable ethics, survive multiple rat encounters, and discover the schema they're after is defended by very angry metal constructs. Session ends with [[Cheeto]] getting absolutely gutted by a homunculus and floating murder-swords appearing from the hallway. ^session-summary ### Session Log ##### This is what 10 Gold Pieces gets you The party's sewer guide [[Thi-Chaik]]—a shifter with yellow eyes, pointed teeth, and "I'm definitely going to betray you" energy—leads them into a trap the moment they arrive. - Two more shifters drop from the ceiling, and the "guide" immediately attacks [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]], I don't suppose he's getting that 30 GP after all - [[Styx]] wangs a beautiful sneak attack kidney stab, [[Cheeto]] does some very acrobatic cat-girl kung fu nonsense, whacking a shifter with the one-inch punch, and [[Brian d'Orien]] discovers his new eldritch powers are... not great - The guide gets hit with [[Brian d'Orien|Brian]]'s eldritch blast, drops to his knees, and then just *vanishes*—leaving two unconscious shifters and a lot of questions ### Loot the bodies, obviously In the aftermath, [[Styx]] immediately goes through the shifters' pockets (as is tradition) and definitely planned on sharing the spoils. - 10 gold each (getting that investment back!), plus an opal necklace with the Red Jackals rune - [[Kouneli]] checks if it's magical, gets very uncertain wizard noises—he's still learning his craft, okay? - The party has an extended Social Security-style argument about how to split the money since they *just gave* this gold to the guide, with [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]] proposing a first-principles contract framework while everyone else just wants their money back ### Enter: Bloody Spear, warforged entrepreneur After exploring through the sewers the party discovers a warforged tinkering in front of a massive iron door, working on a cog with a hammer and chisel. - Meet [[Bloody Spear]], who gave up attempts to enter the laboratory and has decided to just *make* a schema to sell to "that rich professor" for 100 gold (the hustle is real) - When asked if it looks convincing, the party lies fiendishlyh "oh yes, very convincing" (wink wink) - [[Cheeto]] invites them to join the party, and after a long awkward pause, [[Bloody Spear]] says "No one's ever asked me to join them before"—instant warforged friend acquired ### A door that really doesn't want to open After some investigation they conclude the massive iron door has been sealed for approximately one thousand years. - The inscription reads "Restricted area permanently out of bounds as ordered by King Galifar I year 32 YK"—[[Brian d'Orien]] recalls this was during a period when physical engineering dominated over the arcaner arts, so maybe the door can be manipulated mechanically - [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]] and [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]] spend TWO HOURS with a crowbar, complete with a Kenny Loggins-style montage, shoulders getting sore, forearms tired, passing the crowbar back and forth - It finally clicks open, revealing a hallway so dusty nobody's been here in centuries ### The mystery of the floating murder swords The party explores a storage room where three sets of crossed swords decorate the walls (nine total, because of course). - [[Cheeto]] kicks some debris, screeching metal sounds, and several swords fly off the wall—most clatter to the floor, but two remain floating menacingly in the middle of the room - [[Kouneli]] tries to determine what's happening with his wizard knowledge, sneaks down real low to peek at them, concludes "looks magic" and immediately retreats back up the stairs (solid threat assessment) - After [[Kouneli]] confirms they're probably animated by magic, the party decides "fuck those floating swords" and uncharacteristically moves on, surely they won't regret it! ### Murked by rats [[Styx]] picks the lock on another storage room and immediately notices vermin footprints everywhere in the dust. - Upon investigation, multiple swarms of rats emerge from holes in the furniture and absolutely *dogpile* [[Styx]], who goes down screaming while the rest of the party is still in the hallway - Everyone rushes in, [[Brian d'Orien]] continues his streak of missing literally everything with eldritch blast (these are new powers, man!), [[Kouneli]] starts mind-slivering rats (which is either cruel or hilarious) - [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]] brings [[Styx]] back with healing word, and [[Cheeto]], brimming with martial confidence, swings his quartestaff at the swarm, which is immediately swarmed, taking him down - [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]] brings [[Cheeto]] back too—full-service cleric keeping everyone alive one rat attack at a time - [[Bloody Spear]] charges in swinging manically, and the party finally clears the rat swarms ### DEE DEE, THE LABORATORY [[Brian d'Orien]] enters the largest chamber—clearly the main laboratory—and immediately spots the schema on a table. - Eight six-foot vats filled with thick, bubbling, faintly-green-glowing liquid line the walls (definitely not ominous), floor littered with rusty instruments like someone trashed the place centuries ago - The schema (a 2.5-foot cog radiating green light) starts to *vibrate with a heartbeat pattern* as [[Brian d'Orien]] approaches, then floats off the table - [[Kouneli]] tries to arcana-check if it's safe to touch (unclear!), [[Brian d'Orien]] just goes for it anyway—and when he grabs it, all the metal debris on the floor starts flowing together like mercury ### The amalgamatrons would like a word Six-foot-tall constructs made of scrap metal coalesce in heartbeats—warforged-esque but *wrong*, with blade arms instead of hands and glowing green eyes. - [[Cheeto]] prepares to bonk them with a quarterstaff, [[Styx]] misses with a bow (shaking hands), [[Cyran Forge-Acolyte Unit 10-D|Tendy]]'s sacred flame does basically nothing (surprisingly ineffective!) - [[Brian d'Orien]] tries to grab the schema and run, discovers it's *impossible to move*—but when he disengages and backs away, the constructs don't pursue (they're guarding the schema) - [[Bloody Spear]] sprints in to help, [[Kouneli]] mind slivers one and reports hearing scraping metal sounds back in the hallway (those floating swords!) ### It's been real, Cheeto Once again brimming with martial confidence, [[Cheeto]] approaches the passive homunculus and whacks them with a quarterstaff. The constructs, which had been standing still while the party tested them, suddenly snap their heads toward [[Cheeto]] in unison. - Homunculus 1 slings a blade arm directly into [[Cheeto]]'s gut, shakes it, and lets them slide off onto the floor - Everyone's shocked that the big scary [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]] has finally decided to contribute, watching as he winds up and flings a dagger at the construct to help... which completely whiffs, sailing wide of the target. Cut to [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]], hands down at his waist, shuffling his feet on the floor and looking down—the physical embodiment of "I meant to do that" - As the party takes stock, [[Kouneli]] hears the ominous sound of scraping metal from whence they came...