S06E04 – A Valley of Deranged Warforged

The heroes decide they are going to try to get out of the Desolation Desert by crossing the capricious sandstorm that blocked their way two days earlier. They tie a rope around everybody, including the camels, and they venture into the storm. When the expedition gets to the other side they find out they have only lost the camel that had all their provisions, Rupert, their compass, Albrecht their healer and Caelynna who was actually dispensable.

Albrecht and Caelynna fell into a sandpit connected to a very old underground temple with a scrying pool. The pool showed them the moment when Gravel, the revenant from the Gerico, was brought back to life. Eventually the group reunites outside of the temple, rescues Rupert who was dying buried in sand and continues their journey to the Clockwork Head.

A few days later the group arrives to a swampy jungle inside a valley. While they sleep they discover that the valley is patrolled by deranged and decrepit warforged intent on making puree out of them. The heroes reason that their sorry state has to be due to the proximity of the tower and they rejoice. After dealing with the first wave the group abandons the hammocks they had set up for the night and they sleep tied to tree branches.

The next day the heroes are blocked by an Akira-sized warforged industrial automaton. He rambles about protecting the Clockwork Head from intruders, finding his brother to excuse himself for something terrible that he did to him and looking for food. The fact that warforged don’t generally need to eat doesn’t catch much of the heroes’ attention. Instead Ada gets Fenna to whistle to the jungle. A young baboon comes out. When Ada informs that the rest of her plan is to feed the baboon to the industrial automaton, a quarrel ensues. The tension increases and Ada ends up shooting at the baboon. The arrow misses both the baboon and Fenna but the monkey wisely decides that the dark swampy jungle is a better place to preserve his genes. Ada then tries plan b which involves messing up the automaton’s delicate mind. The rest of the group chimes in and eventually they convince the automaton to leave them alone. While the automaton is leaving he breaks the neck of the only camel left and pulls it with him as he leaves like a kid dragging a rag doll.

The group eventually finds the Clockwork Head perched near the top of a large waterfall with a lake below. The group finds a big mouth at the edge of the lake that looks like an entrance but the special ops dragonborn squad they met in Barkinon ambushes them. Albrecht tries to fight the leader to death but the group ends up breaking duel etiquette in order to keep their healer alive.