Returning to the Ironhand Gnomes hideout, Jasper discovered that there was two pretty diametrically opposed camps. They agreed that the Gondian gnomes were helping Gortash build and maintain the Steel Watchers. They agreed that this needed to be stopped. But the strongly disagreed on the approach.
Wulbren – the leader of the Ironhands that they had rescued from Moonrise Towers – wanted to use the fabled Runepowder to create a bomb and destroy the Iron Foundry. Including all the Gondian Gnomes. This would destroy both the means of production and the knowledge to recreate it. Barcus – the gnome they had met several times in their adventures attempting to rescue Wulbren – favored talking with the Gondians first to find a better solution.
Needless to say, Jasper favored Barcus’ approach. But he told Wulbren he would “take care of the problem” so that he didn’t run off and take matters into his own hands.
The Steel Watch Foundry was heavily guarded by patrols of Steel Watchers, and surrounded by a high wall. This was not a terrible impediment to their capabilities, but they waited for nightfall to enable a more stealthy approach.
Once stealth was better supported, Jasper located an unsecured air vent. It was too small for any but him to enter, but once he was inside it was a simple matter to teleport the others in with him.
They soon came upon a Banite Priestess and her lackeys berating a number of gnomes. They wore colors of some form, and their leader appeared to have lost both his beard and his eyesight. The banites were threatening to kill both the gnomes and their captive families (apparently not yet aware that Jasper had already rescued the latter).
Needless to say Jasper did NOT find this at all acceptable, and so leapt into the fray.
Minsc giddily charged in to keep the Steel Watcher supporting the banite patrol busy.
Karlach was only too happy to take out her frustrations with Gortash upon his lackeys.
Jasper felt the high priestess needed an education in the finer points of courtesy and respect for gnome-kind.
While Jaheira discovered that – for all their seeming-invulnerability – the Steel Watchers were still quite susceptible to electricity…
<Zanner Toobin>
Upon taking a lift down to the lower level they made a gruesome discovery. Gnome brains in cannisters hooked up to some sort of central panel. A central panel which looked disturbingly Illithid in design… At which point Zanner quietly informed them what the Steel Watchers actually were. Not automatons, but an unholy marriage of Balthazar’s necromancy and Illithid technology. Captive Gnomes were slain and turned into zombies. Their brains were extracted and wired into Illithid devices. Their bodies were embedded in the torsos of Steel Watchers. This effectively turned them into centrally controlled, remote-operated, armored zombie golems. Jasper wasted no time destroying the devices. Nobody deserved to be forced to exist like that.
Continuing on towards the central chamber on the lower level, they encountered Gortash’s “masterpiece” – a titanic multi-limbed Steel Watcher standing guard over the central “Neurocitor” maintaining the links to every Steel Watcher in the city. This led to a massive brawl as they used every tool in their repertoire to disable and destroy the massive abomination.
After they defeated the Titan, Zanner sabotaged the “Neurocitor”. He rewired it to generate a feedback loop which utterly destroyed it and the remaining Steel Watcher Brain canniesters.
At which point they all scrambled for the exits.
As they left the ruined Foundry – leading the surviving Gondian Gnomes, they were confronted by Wulbren and his followers. He demanded that the remaining Gondian Gnomes be turned over to him to be “dealt with”. Even his followers were blanching at the prospect of this clear act of murder. But at this point Marcus had finally had enough and discovered his spine. He ordered them to arrest Wulbren instead – deposing him for losing sight of Glittergold’s path in his zeal. Wulbren spluttered and rage, but his guards sided with Marcus. The Ironhand gnomes had a new leader.
With Gortash’s hostages freed and his Steel Watchers disabled, it was time to confront the man himself. But first they had to reach him. He was ensconced at the top of Wyrm’s Keep, but there was an army of Flaming Fists guarding the way. And Jasper did not particularly wish to slaughter Flaming Fists doing their jobs. So stealth was in order.
Once they snuck their way into Gortash’s chambers, Karlach confronted him about his betrayal when she was young. She protested that he had taken *everything* from her, and she had trusted him as her benefactor. He seemed utterly unperturbed, claiming it had been for her own good – and had made her stronger.
At this point Gortash was done talking. He smirked as a force field formed around him, and tossed small object in their direction. The battle was joined!
Gortash had set up a variety of magi-tech devices in the area spewing flames, projecting shields, and making other mischief. Fortunately these devices were quite susceptible to electrical overload, and Jaheira took them out of commission.
Minsc and Karlach took on Gortash’s Banite henchmen.
While Jasper kept Gortash himself busy.
When they were able to concentrate force upon him, Gortash grew to giant size – and fought back straight up. But even this was not enough to save him.
When he finally fell the hand of Bane reached down from above to reclaim him.
Karlach was still furious. Gortash’s death gave her no comfort or relief. It did not give her back the life he had stolen. It did not change that she was living on borrowed time – eventually being forced to choose between death from her infernal heart or returning to the Blood War. She screamed in rage and frustration at his dead body.
She felt empty and drained. And she could not reconcile the unfairness of it all. But ultimately she decided all she could do was live the life she had left to live. Save who she could save. Be the hero she could be. And all she asked was that when her time came, that Jasper would be there with her. And how could he say no to that? For a friend? Anything.
And now they had all three Netherstones. It all came down to this. The Emperor. The Netherbrain. Orpheus and the Githyanki. They would descend into the depths under Baldur’s Gate, confront the Netherbrain, and see how all these strands came together.
Author’s Notes: So I decided for this episode to make heavy use of SeeDream – to shake out what all I could do with it. One thing I have discovered is that for best results I will often render each character in the scene doing something similar in an individual DALLE-3 image, and then use those as reference for generating the composite SeeDream image. I used this combination extensively in this set – both for obvious images like running from the explosion and for composing many of the scenes with Svirfneblin, Steel Watchers, and/or Banite Priests – all of whom have complex renders to make work in a traditional text render.
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