Eberron - Construct (Fortress) set piece encounter

[Postmodernist]

So my players are about to try and sabotage Construct (https://eberron.fandom.com/wiki/Construct_(fortress)), complete with an encounter with the Lord of Blades. I want there to be some urgency around the encounter, so the fortress will be on the move, with maybe waves of warforged joining the fight every few rounds, but I also want some skill and trap-like encounters. Dodging an explosion is an easy one that comes to mind, but I'm curious if anyone has suggestions for any others. Oh, and if anyone could direct me to any maps that could work for Construct, I'd be obliged.

[Dr.Samurai]

Marked For Death was written way before we learned about the warforged colossus. One option would be to change Construct from a city carried on the backs/shoulders of warforged, to a city built into and atop a defunct warforged colossus that is carried on the backs/shoulders of warforged.

If you go this route, you can have warforged activate some of the colossus weapons on a recharge, the refresh mechanic representing them being able to jury-rig another use out of it. This could be the laser beam, the giant mallet arm, etc.

(A warforged colossus is not so big as to be an entire city, so if you don't enlarge it, maybe instead there is an immobile colossus carried in the city that can be used for defense.)

As for traps, nothing readily comes to mind. What if the warforged that are carrying the city can be led to perform some synchronized attacks/defenses? So if they hunch quickly in unison there might be a saving throw to avoid being knocked prone from the city lurching? Or if a group move slightly in a different direction, make a save to avoid falling through the gap created in the city (fall prone to the ground below and take trample damage from warforged, and you need to make your way back up?)). Not sure how strong or capable the PCs are but if they do something to destroy parts of the city, the warforged beneath that part can be ordered to abandon that section, so it would collapse to the ground below and those warforged would climb up to join the fight.

If you do wind up using a colossus as part of the fight, that could be a skill encounter to infiltrate it and operate it against the Lord of Blades and its soldiers.

[Mastikator]

Argonth is the largest flying fortress in the eberron world. There were several others constructed over the hundred year war, maybe the Lord of Blades recovered a broken one and restored it, but not fully so it's slowly falling apart. An interesting and dynamic combat might be that each room the fight takes place in breaks apart piecemeal and the combatants have to constantly move into a new room.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKEFrLOWoAIhbs3?format=jpg&name=large

[Postmodernist]

Thanks for the input. I'm going to use some maps of Argonth I found on Reddit.

[Mastikator]

Also very important! Do not forget! If the players try to plead with the Lord of Blades that they're both in jeopardy because something bad (like the fortress is collapsing, or a bomb is about to go off, or whatever you choose) is about to kill both sides, he must reply with "Yes, exhilarating isn't it!"