Warforge Project

The Warforge Project is a secret undertaking of the Archon in the Mürekkep ve Çelik ("Ink and Steel") campaign: the making of warforged, soldiers of metal driven by arcane power, to guard the emperor. It was led by the master Yotun, with the help of Castor.^{1 2}

Purpose

After Emperor Conrad died in battle in a way no emperor should, the crown wished to prevent another such death. An old plan, drawn up long before but never carried out, was taken up again. Yotun wanted guards that would not tire, fear, hesitate or leave a fight, loyal to the emperor alone, that could neither be bought nor turned to serve other lords; the task came to him from the spymaster. The emperor himself would not be turned into a warforged and could still die of old age: the aim was only that no emperor should again fall in battle. After the death of Conrad the Conqueror the Archon made tireless and ever-watchful construct guards.^{1 3 4 5}

Making

After Castor became a master, Yotun reminded him of his promise of two months' work and showed him the first metal soldier. The work was an imperial secret, and the spymaster had Castor's background checked. Yotun needed him to build a mechanism that would turn force into heat, using Castor's skill at changing elements.^{6 7 8}

Unlike an ordinary golem, the warforged was meant to be a thinking, conscious being; Yotun pursued that side of the work with White, the council's master of divination, and other teachers guessed at it only from his requests. The power source was the hardest problem until the council of coloured masters provided about two kilograms of Bloodstone, a very rare and powerful material, of undisclosed origin; with it the first prototype came to life. Castor solved the remaining technical problems and learned the dwarven runes that carry power from the bloodstone chamber through the body like veins, though storing and renewing the power remained unsolved.^{2 9 10 11 12 13}

The shipyard in Neptune

Five prototypes were sealed inside great blocks of stone, each several tons in weight, and sent by teleportation circle to a shipyard the Empire had bought in Neptune two weeks earlier under the pretence of building a great ship. From there they were to go on by land, a few days apart. White asked Castor to guard the shipyard for the week of the transfer.^{14 15 16}

White is an aasimar, bald, with raised tattoos running from his head down his spine and eyes of a pale blue glow. He keeps apart, in the farthest tower of the Archon, which floats on a chain. He told Castor of the northerner Skolpa, who had raised the winter wolves in revolt and sacked Purva, and of the burning of coastal towns and the killing of priests on the way to Neptune; he did not know whether imperial intelligence was involved. He also foretold that Castor would not be alone in his future, and would have to take with him people who did not wish to board a ship.^{17 18 19 20 21 22}

The first block arrived and was moved aside by a stone golem, and a great wagon drawn by eight horses, guarded by the Scarlet Spears and witch hunters, carried the prototypes away one at a time.^{23 24 25}

Spoiler: The attack on the shipyardRevealSpoils: Mürekkep ve Çelik #14 · Say what you have read

Seven undead attackers struck the shipyard while three prototypes remained. The defenders destroyed them all. Glyphs carved on the attackers' foreheads held a special dispelling magic, which put out the magic of one prototype; the bloodstone stayed inside, so the machine could be repaired at great cost. Whoever sent them seemed to know both what lay in the blocks and when the local gangs would attack. The dispatches were sped up until only the disabled prototype remained, and on the sixth day Castor's task ended and a new mage was named to guard it.^{26 27 28 29 30 31 32}

Delivery

At the emperor's court in White City, the Archon's delegation entered with four great warforged, Yotun and Castor walking beside them and some twenty mages who had worked on the project behind. An official thanked the Archon and its masters in the emperor's name for the weapons lately delivered. Yotun told Castor that the fifth prototype was lost, sunk to the bottom of the sea by his own guess, and that the Archon wished them to speak as if there had been four from the start.^{33 34 35}