Bruno – learns about the cult the cultist was worshipping behind the curtain. Never heard of the cult of The Shrike .
Durrim – Recognizes the mixture of arcane work and gearforged work to tie daibolic magic into gearforged bodies.
HB – Sees the deadly traits of these infernal machines and wonders if he’s going that way with his acid dagger and the blade of Camozotz.
Ved Pinion – Is he doomed to an existence like his gearforged siblings? The Veds
Wynasia – The Perunalians have trained for war their whole lives. Are they really that different from the clockwork assassins?
Rohalin – This cult of clockwork assassins seems very familar to the cult of Selket’s Sting (demon cults 135)
Strong Start
A giant cockroach crawls out of the altar. Burned with acid but still alive. Others are dead including the cultist of Akyishigal – murdered by clockwork assassins.
Secret and Clues
Of all the demons lurking in the Abyss, few are as vile and disgusting as Akyishigal, the lord of cockroaches. His filth-slicked mandibles clack ceaselessly for the flesh and souls of humanoids.
Although Akyishigal has sired an entire race in his image, he craves followers among humans, elves, and other races as a means of corrupting civilization, rotting it from within.
Despite his repulsiveness, Akyishigal has followers among the urban dispossessed, the slum-dwelling poor, and those who lurk in lightless undercities.
Kovaks has perfected the binding of humanoid souls with infernal bonds into a gearforged body.
Kovaks seeks to resurrect the heirs of the Stross family. He has done so with the soul of Kranos Stross – the last lord of the Stross family.
Kovaks never betrayed the Stross family. That meddling Mage Orlando – Clockwork Guildmaster did so when he turned the gearforged against Stross’s soldiers.
Kovaks has only now bound the soul of Kranos Stross into a huge scorpion gearforged construct.
Kovak’s soul-rending magic may be reversible for some. Mage Orlando can attempt to use the book at the collegium to restore the souls of some of the Veds.
Mage Orlando saved Ved Pinion but not the others. It is something they badly regret.
Gearforged lose their memories when they’re transferred from body to body. Mage Orlando implanted new memories to overwrite the old ones.
Venomous Fangs (uncommon), pg 185. These prosthetic fangs can be positioned over your existing teeth or in place of missing teeth. While wearing these fangs, your bite is a natural melee weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with it, your bite deals piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic bite. While you wear the fangs, a successful DC 9 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks conceals them from view. At the GM's discretion, you have disadvantage on Charisma (Deception) or Charisma (Persuasion) checks against creatures that notice the fangs.
A celestial shadowy +1 spear of Ninkash the Southern Mother of Beer (MWB 380) that casts Anticipate Attack (Lvl 2)
A ruby divine stone of good luck (luckstone) of Rava the Crossroad Gear Goddess (MWB 360)
