The Silenced Steward's Cache

Beneath an antechamber scented with old perfume and candle grease, the party found the private strongroom of a minor noble whose ambition outstripped his caution. The noble lay toppled at his writing desk, two clockwork constructs—polished bronze warders with keyholes at their spines—stilled around the door. The room was arranged as a careful, ostentatious ledger and trophy room rather than an armory: gilded wardrobes, locked chests, a display case for a handful of personal effects, and a small safe bolted into the floor. The constructs appear to be automaton retainers and guardians produced by a local artisan; scavenged pieces from them will be useful to an artificer or tinker. The noble’s true treasures were his signet and paperwork—items that grant social and political leverage as much as coin.