Blood & Scales - Nerd Squad

6:00AM You wake up to the sound of thunder. The type of thunder that can rattle a whole Aigrei clipper and reverberate through your bones. You've slept a good while of your journey but there is still a ways left.   Outside the seas are harsh. You see lightning in the distance revealing the many jagged, rocky, islands that poke out from the waves.   Odi and Confidence leave their rooms to investigate the sound of a stringed instrument being played to find Kelvin in the common area with a Qanun. He speaks that war might be inevitable in the The Bay of Kamard between Elves and Humans. He lets Confidence play the instrument for a bit.   In Ioanna's room there is a tapping outside of her window. She looks out to see a crow. One of the crows flies inside, seemingly very curious about Ioanna. One by one more crows fly in until around 60 crows are now hopping about Ioanna's room.   Firn, along with the rest of the party notices the growing squaking and comes to investigate. The crows don't attack anyone but they seem agitated as soon as Firn enters. As Odi and Kelvin come to see what is going on the crows take off and fly out the door into the ship and head to the top deck. The crows sit on a mast, watching Ioanna. A single crow moves forward and chirps at Ioanna which Jar translates...   Bad magic... here to watch... don't trust the elves... Unnerved by the appearance of the crows, Ioanna decides to try a new convenient spell, remove curse. She touches where the staff had touched her... and falls unconcious to the floor. At the suggestion of Kelvin you bring her down to the surgeon's quarters and place Ioanna on a table. The sergeon readies to determine the source of her illness, until Ioanna wakes up. Ioanna awakes noticing that the curse still remains but remarks that she had a very strange dream. She asks the group to come back to her room. Ioanna tells the group she woke up in a different body, and saw Immeshar, though she spoke with him and he appeared not to know her. She says she was in the town of Welf and that Immeshar had seen her in the town before. He was hungry and asked for food, he seemed to be in hiding. Immeshar asked her to apologize to a man named Itzal for him. You are told there is only an hour left before arriving in Ilstese . The group decides to ask Imarra about her powers she demonstrated in the fight against Rasmus Vasa and she reveals she is an Aasimar.   At long last you finally arrive in Ilstese. You enter the citadel through a waterway that makes its way into the center of the city. As you start to look around the town that expands outwards from you, you notice that the entire city is eerily calm, in fact, you don't see a soul. As you start to approach the docks, robed figures appear from behind buildings on all sides of the boat and slowly begin approaching the boat in unison. A voice booms from above, telling the elves to escort your party to the colliseum.   Kelvin escorts you off the boat and you are flanked by the robed elves. You are lead through the town where you see elves of all sorts peeking out at you from inside windows. After about 15 minutes you enter into a beautiful colliseum, made of a marble-like stone. More robed figures are up in the stands, in a circle stretching completely around the arena. An older elf now approaches you, he introduces himself as Viceroy Peressy and greets you, specifically for being the first non-Aigrei persons to enter the city of Ilstese . Peressy questions the group a bit where you are from and how you came around the powers that you posess. He also asks about your reason for needing to travel to Ilstese, and the curse Ioanna has. Peressy informs you that this is all a precaution to protect the citizens of his city from a potential timebomb in Ioanna.   Peressy informs you that your group must stay by her side while she delivers the message. He dismisses his guards around you, and Ioanna says:     Align the powers of Kamard to pledge fealty under my Empire, or the Fey of Aigreigos will suffer the same fate as my kindred.   Ioanna stands rigid and the black of the curse quickly spreads to every last visible bit of skin. As this happens, the two closest to Ioanna, Odi and Imarra fall unconcious to the ground.   Firn, Confidence, and Ferron start to hear a bubbling sound and you see what looks like black ooze, flowing from Ioanna's legs. It bubbles and spits and they see black shadowy tendrils starting to reach out, growing bigger every second. Firn jumps in between Ioanna and Odi and begins hacking at the tendrils while Ferron pulls Imarra's body away.   They find out that the tendrils are weak to fire, but every time they are hit they find some of the black mark on themselves, and its growing quickly. Slowly chipping away at it, when they hit the shadowy arms it solidifies and cracks apart. They manage to neutralize almost all of it when Confidence falls to the ground, Firn burns up the rest of the ooze, and slowly, they start to see the curse start to flake off of Ioanna, and then Confidence and Firn as well.   As the curse fades from Ioanna, she wakes, along with Odi, Imarra and Confidence. Peressy informs the group that now that they are no longer a threat they will have a room waiting for them at their royal guest suites. He dissapears along with the other elves except for Kelvin. Odi and Imarra rush to help heal Confidence and Firn and Confidence catch the others up to what happened with the ooze monster.   Kelvin leads the group through town over to the inner walls and takes you through a series of tunnels before arriving at the guest suites. Kelvin leaves you and Firn begins to investigate the room for signs of traps or listening devices. Odi casts detect magic to discover the door has some sort of charm on it to alert others if it is opened. Firn finds a panel behind a painting by the bed that contains nice elven smithed weapons.   Ioanna tells the group that while she was unconcious she spoke to her patron, a fey god called the Frost Prince, and that he has commanded her to find a way to bring him to the land you are in. She was given a choice to continue to the city of the dead or return back to the living.   Odi says that when him and Imarra were unconcious they shared a dream from the perspective of Itzal who was rowing to Ra'uel . They headed into the cave you previously found on the island and retrieved a staff that used to be held by the statue, but in order to take the staff he needed to cut out Itzal's tongue. Imarra also mentioned that Itzal appeared to be an old friend of Immeshar's family, a sympathetic soul outside of their island.

Taking some time to recover from the day's events, the group rests in the 'Guest Suite' and Odi and Ioanna do their best to recall and record details from the visions they experienced.   The door opens and several guards make way to present the Viceroy Peressy . He apologized for the theatrics with the colleseum previously but explains that they were warned ahead of time by the surgeon of the ship you rode over on that a very ancient magic inhabited Ioanna and they had no way of knowing how explosive her situation might be. The group avoids direct answers when he asks more about you but eventually Peressy gets around to asking if you would like to have a professional relationship with the Aigrei Alliance .   Peressy tells you that the Azhiraxu , are a naturally violent species and while they didn't forsee their army coming, they don't view themselves as being at all responsible for provoking the threat. Should you meet Beowa Immeshar Ra'uel again he says to tell him that the Aigrei Alliance will not bow down to barbarian threats.   He asks if you might have any insight into Immeshar's methods and how he cursed Ioanna. Ioanna neglects to tell him that Immeshar had a staff and he seems surprised, asking if he had any magic items on his person that he used for the curse. The group backs her up and hides the information of the staff from Peressy. He moves on to ask specifically about the naval battle that happened outside Grenna. Odi recalls a beam of energy shooting out of Immeshar's ship.   The group declines to take any work from the Aigrei directly. Peressy says if you are to come across any insights into Immeshar's motives or military intel they would compensate you handsomely. Closing the conversation, he says that if you wish to be ferried to another location other than Crandlewood you may ride on a trading ship to a nearby port. Peressy leaves.   Ferron reminds the group that he has some unsettled business with the Archduke Sigeric Mavely back in Crandlewood that the group pledged to help him with.   Confidence remembers that she still has a box that she took from back in Rasmus Vasa 's lab. She opens it and finds a small piece of wood. The box claims that is it wood from the Elder Tree . Casting identify, she is able to tell that it is a wand that will grant bonuses specifically to evocation spells.   You leave, with Kelvin , to the nearby pub. Everyone except Imarra gets a shot of tranquil to get the party started and Confidence begins playing music on her hurdy gurdy.     As the group finally enjoys some time together without the threat of a curse hanging over them. Odi, seeing Kelvin sitting alone comes over and tries to get him to dance and firn manages to persuade some elves to join the fun. Kelvin attempts to deflect Odi's insistance that he needs to flirt with another elf. Kelvin ends up taking his own try at playing for the bar on his Qanun.   While Kelvin is playing Odi talks to an elven man at the bar who seems to be watching Kelvin a bit more than the rest. He convinces the elf to ask Kelvin to dance. Firn and Ioanna demonstrate dances from their homelands and Kelvin looks quite taken with Galen .   You head out of the bar and the group meanders over to the city library and meet Olgarch   Odi finds a Pexwa-Aigrei Elven Dictionary and begins to take notes.   Ioanna finds a spellbook in Pexwa , called "Tianih Spells". She learns this is named after the homeland of the halflings in this world.   Confidence finds a scroll in Pexwa which appears to be an Atharia historical text and speaks about "The War of Flames". Confidence jots down some notes.   The scroll tells you of an ancient king known as Komeleon Vekriat , who ruled Atharia when it was at war with the Azhiraxu . He was a powerful sorcerer and used the power of the land as a weapon against his enemy but drained the life from his people and land as a result.   Odi speaks to Olgarch about his research into the elven language and she helps him understand some of the puzzling anomalies within the syntax and grammer.   Sensing that she was missing some vital information, Confidence decided to takes notes on the previous chapter as well. "Attagat Who Challenged the World"   This scroll tells the story about a human named Attagat who shot the raven isoxu Kaxu . Kaxu gave him the power of magic in exchange for his release. Attagat used this magic to conquer other tribes and rule over the human lands. Another human named Muagu defected and came to another fey group called the [Yeni , for help. Kaxu tricked the Yeni to bring more of their people from another realm this time bringing the Aigrei with them and convinced them to take down a "Tree that Touched the Sky". After the tree fell the fey peoples realized they could no longer leave this world. Attagat would wage a war against the Isoxu itself and with the Aigrei's help he was finally brought down.   After reading through this lore, Imarra realized that the name Attagat was the same as the name Immeshar spoke of the staff he obtained from Ra'uel . The same staff that Immeshar used to curse Ioanna.   You all speak about Immeshar. Wondering how he managed to amass such a powerful army in just four years. How the dragonborn ended up in Ra'uel , and the other mysteries you've encountered.

8:00PM Firn breaks through the lock of an empty restaurant accross the street and Imarra runs up to the Inn to bring Ferron back down. Tulio Fonstiwere gets tied down and carried to the bartop of the restaurant for interrogation.   As Confidence moves to pick up the sword that Tulio was carrying, it dissolves to dust in her hands, and so does the hand cannon he had and the mechanical owl. Confidence uses the spell Command to force him to tell you everything he knows.   Tulio reveals that he's from the town Gataña which Odi knows from when he first arrived in this world. He seems to imply that the elves have taken over the human settlement to extract their own needs out of their mines. When asked more specifically about the killings, he replies that while he wasn't extremely familar with the process, Rasmus Vasa made a poison out of the blood of Azhiraxu from the dragonborn colonies that were being wiped out by the [Aigrei . At first they thought they might be able to coat a blade with it, so their first victim was cut many times but ultimately they had to finish the job by other means.   Tulio mentions that Archduke Sigeric Mavely was a large part of the funding for the operation and he's invested in mass producing the poison once they've perfected it. He implies that this is all part of a larger movement to push back the elves within The Bay of Kamard . He says that Devin Seboya was the man who traveled with the elves on their genocidal tour and harvested the blood from the Dragonborn bodies.   Him and Rasmus aquired magic abilities after investigating some ruins down in the Islands of Mathis . They beleive that everything they do is in the right since they must be blessed by the Isoxu.   He says he doesn't work with any Aigrei himself, but he lets Rasmus Vasa work with Sylvester on the sap trade.   Tulio says that Iago Tridega 's premiere will be his last game. He doesn't know the details but tells you Rasmus is planning on assassinating him tonight.   As you huddle again away from Tulio, discussing what to do now you start to hear the sounds of an angry mob. Tulio tells you The anger is rising. I told you already, you're at the tip of the iceberg. The war has already begun.   Tulio suddenly emits a thunderous sound and his binds snap all around him. He makes a move to escape but he's caught in mid-air by Odi's Hold Person and Imarra casts Guiding Bolt which instantly kills him and he falls to the floor.   Catching up with the mob you find out that Iago was killed in the middle of the arena, and the crowd is blaming an elf that was found on the scene. You work your way to the front of the crowd and you find, Daylor Kenezzar tearfully shouting to the crowd. We tried to ignore their agressions. And now my friend is dead. Rasmus Vasa stands utop one of the gondola cranes and in front of him is Lydiala , bound and gagged and looking quite wounded. Rasmus holds a hand cannon to Lydiala's back. Ona stands behind a table in a small kiost nearby, filled with crates of gunpowder and handcannons.   Odi casts Calm Emotions which works on all but some of the crowd, and Rasmus. Firn rushes forwards towards Rasmus but he shouts back at her Stop or i shoot! Odi throws his dancing sword at Rasmus and hits him in the hand, causing him to drop the cannon but not before triggering it, sending a bullet straight into Lydiala.   Firn tries to grapple Rasmus while Ioanna and Imarra attempt to reason with the crowd but quickly get called out as [Aigrei sympathizers. Ioanna reaches out to Daylor, and tries to convince him that Rasmus is lying to them all but he doesn't understand how a human could use magic. Ioanna responds by using fly. The crowd gasps and Ioanna floats up to Lydiala and grabs her, taking her down near Odi. As she lets Lydiala down black smoke starts to come from Lydiala's mouth, and from the wound in her back. Lydiala starts convulsing and weakly asks Odi whether you were able to find Gesper. He tells her you did and manages to get a small smile out of her before her eyes fall back into her head and bone spikes start erupting out of her body with her skin warping into scales.   Confidence uses Dissonant Whispers as Rasmus tries to rile up the crowd and goads him into teleporting away from Firn. Ah to hell with it. He says as he rears up to attack.   The crowd flees as your battle ensues. In a climactic moment a flock of crows gather around Rasmus' mechanical hawk, Rasmus takes a potion to grant himself the ability of flight, and Imarra sprouts wings and joins Ioanna and Rasmus in an aerial battle. Firn delivers the finishing blow as she jumps from a crane to Rasmus in the air and hit him square in the chest with her axe.   You scare Ona away from her kiosk and destroy as much of the handcannons that you can.   You collect the bodies of Rasmus, Tulio, and Lydiala in a cart and bring Daylor back to his flat. He is flustered but willing to trust you. You tell him that the Morningstar need a leader like him, but he is still insistent you look to see if the Aigrei took his sister Karmen Kenezzar . He gives you back the amulet of his brother, knowing that you will likely travel to Tariel before he is ever allowed to set foot there.   Returning to the Seldarine Hotel you bring the body of Lydiala up to Moritz and Veia Linory . Firn and Ferron stay behind to watch over the cart with the other two bodies.   You talk to Mortiz and Linory who are greif stricken with the loss of Lydiala. Linory tears up and thanks you for bringing her body home, as well as Gesper and gives you credit for a royal reward. He also dubs you, for whatever its worth, the title Knights of Grenna. They wish you well and bid you goodbye.   Down below Ferron and Firn are approached by a squad of mages baring the authority of the [KAAHRP District they move to arrest them as the rest of the the party is heading down from Linory's room.   As the whole group joins in to resist the arrest another elf tells the group of mages to stand down. He explains that Sylvester has been suspended from his post and all arrests and processing have been stalled until Maruk arrives in an hour. The elf's name is Kelvin and he offers to let you wait for Maruk back at KAAHRP Castle in a lounge with food and drinks.   You rest while you wait. After an hour the doors open and Maruk is introduced to you. He questions you further for your reasons that you need to travel to Ilstese and offers to hear you out there. Ioanna at last informs him about the curse she is under, and that she will die unless she travels to Ilstese by tomorrow, as well as a brief of your travels so far.   You tell Maruk about your discoveries about the murders. He admits to you that he was the one that ordered the kidnapping of Karmen due to Sylvester informing Maruk that she had been ordering the killings herself. He says he will release her by the end of the night and they will do their best to make sure she resumes her role as the head of the Morningstar Essembly.   You request to talk to Karmen Kenezzar yourselves and he grants the request. You head down under the castle to the holding cells and the guard allows you to enter her cell and take off the blindfold. She is suspicious of you after being manipulated and tortured but you request that she be allowed to come up to the lounge with you. The guard allows it and as you head up the elevator she seems to slowly understand you are the real thing and that she's going to be released.   You speak with Karmen for awhile in the lounge. She is relieved to hear that Rasmus is dead and was also taken aback by Tulio's envolvement in the schemes.   Ioanna asks about her previous life in Tariel. She was in line for the throne, ahead of her younger brothers, but she and Daylor were exiled after being accused of funneling taxpayer money away from Tariel corporations and towards the royal family, which she denies fully.   Maruk enters the room again and apologizes to Karmen for everything that they've done to her. He also apologizes to you as well and you trade in your Quester bages in for a small green stone with the symbol of the Elder Tree , the symbol of the Aigrei Alliance . Maruk gives you a guard, named Zillopher to accompany you until you drop Karmen off at Daylor's flat and head to the boat.   You wait only a moment as Daylor and Karmen reunite. They ask you to reach out to them again if you come back to Crandlewood.   As you head down to the docks you pass what sound like several street fights, and at the wharf the elves have taken what looks like complete control. Zillopher takes you down the dock to a clipper where you ask Ferron if he still wants to travel with them. Of course he does. You each find a cabin in the ship, and try and get some sleep as the boat rocks to the wind and waves, sailing out to Ilstese. 

As a group you head towards the hallway at the far end of the room as Imarra uses mage hand on the lever to make the stairs rise again and buy you some time. The hallway is lined with shelves, sporting all sorts of oddities. Noticing that the shelves have a labeling system the group slows down to investigate.   Confidence and Odi each take a page of parchment with pressed Kordali Flower (3 flowers each)   Odi also takes a jar that seems to be moving slightly, as if it has a small creature skittering around in it.   Confidence also grabs a small chest labeled "Twig. Elder Tree"   Firn, unable to read, grabs a jar at random.   You also find several coffins, one which might have something inside of it and is locked. On the shelves you detect that one of the small chests is actually a mimic, which Firn motions to attack but Odi steps in and flings the mimic towards the direction of the hallway you came from.

  You continue forward down the hallway which becomes more rudimentary and rocky until you come to a small opening only big enough for a single person to crawl through at a time. Through the other side it opens up again, only to face what looks like a cave in. A small amount of light escapes in from a crack in between the rocks. You notice the floor of this room is different, made up of what appears to be a fine sand.   Attempting to work on the hole in the wall Ioanna notices a figure cross in front. She quiets the group and listens to hear the voice of a child. She calls out and you find out the child is a Korsu and this passage connects to one of their many underground tunnels. The child's name is Mura and he's hesitant to let you through since "uplanders" are not allowed in the tunnels. Once he learns that you are Questers he realizes that he knows about the note that you were left by the other Korsu. He says that there may be a secret message hidden in it.   After some looking over the message yet again Ferron gets an idea. He lights a small flame on the sandy floor and begins to sing.  Xusase mu bobretu kunteruethu eltu xe' tsasmaii tas petre gi witwalaha gurleda gihakue fein tas  As he does you see the small flame start to grow and slowly move across the sand like a snake. It moves in a circle around the center flame and expands outwards beginning to fill up the whole room. As he finishes his song, the flame, now lighting up the entire room suddenly goes out and Ferron, as if falling into water, sinks completely through the sand, disappearing. After a few moments you hear his voice through the crack.   Ferron teaches the group the song, which he says is a prayer to Xali'a . You all fall through the sand and end up in a small room in a pile of sand, the room connects to the hallway and Mura leads you through the passageways. You follow him until you arrive at a ladder, Mura tells you to "tip the doorman" and says goodbye. Ioanna gives Mura an emmis.   You ascend the ladder and find yourself in a small shack, inhabited only by an old blind man. Everyone in the group tips him one katspr. Outside the shack you find yourself behind the statue of Attagat in the center of town. You notice an abnormal amount of crows flying overhead. Northbound.   You head straight down to the KAAHRP Anthropology Office finding the door locked. Confidence opens it with a spell and you find Kwesk Andalus still sitting in the back of the room, he doesn't even notice you enter. You grab the dictionary of Athari'las and set down the tablet to decipher.   The tablet reads: Burtu tenoed gi olas gi OleonDweba bur Azhiraxu demu batawitKomeleon Vekriat galtaed klibili hei Azhiraxu tethwanamuCandxu, yiniatua, bordaTalb itu den Canxu den batakorsa  Question brought forth in a seminar in Olean (holy place): is eating dragonborn flesh sinful? Leader Vekriat (ancient human ruler) ordered an inspection for dragonborn ancestry. Humans, fey, other. Answer: if not human, not legal. (Can't eat part-human dragonborn) - Imarra  Demuai sang ha gestu.Lema hei solmgayi Sizat demuai glabutri yew xe aotasi, tindemola batasang ha tsisa  Leather and flexible/good handbag for/ polish leather slowly for the duration two day otherwise / becomes stiff and splits - Firn (or whoever filled in for Firn)  Balsku kin tra gelsk candxu ja Yiniatua,hacaku wew Azhiraxu tethwanamuAzhiraxu xu, dwi, obudenteyu,bo gagated famazanad suna halaTiciten zel dweba ja jio kistana  Poison which can kill humans or fey depending on dragonborn ("born of dragons") anscestry. Dragonborn blood boil distill plus pummelled Sharpscale with whispers Victim must eat or be injected   -Confidence and Ferron Albright  Lukusku mu wa sisitiaLorbiu mu haxala melaku, drutua tanur juebiuLior tanur eltu, dwebaFamfam ha Famfarutint sisitia busiadwiArraku sisitia Azhira balskuQuaran’bak Famtint ha Quaran’korsu ha Faru sisitia vo ahiatimoruFamarraku ha Quaran’bak Tint sisitia gexiQuaran’kilsa ha yityit sisitia demueltuDen dweba demu mu sorbuleon azhiraxu  [it is a] medicine of many cures Find [the] bladder of [its] breath weapon above [the] kidney Cook above [a] flame [and] eat Black and copper cures heartburn Green cures dragon poison Brass and gold red cures libido Blue and ancient metal yellow cures to be tired brass and silver cures fever not eat body of priest Born of Dragons  Ioanna Silversnake and Odinfell “Odi” Tellwylde   From this tablet and from the information you had learned before, you feel fairly confident saying that there is an attempt to use Dragonborn blood, harvested from the genocide Dragonborn of Ra'uel and possibly elsewhere, and turn it into a bio-weapon that could be used against the [Aigrei Kwesk Andalus confirms that Azhiraxu (dragonborn), can only be created by a dragon mating with an elf or a human.   From the tablet, you also find out that the random jar that Firn grabbed earlier is a preserved "breath weapon bladder" that allegedly cures "poor libido".   You stash the tablet with the other materials in the room.

The next morning you wake to the alarm and Ferron groaning, surprised why he is tied to a plank. Odi demands that he explain his actions from the preivous night and the truth he was going to tell you. Once everyone is up, and you have your morning coffee, he tells you.   Ferron never had any information that Iago would be at the ball. He only told you this so that you would attend the ball. He didn't believe Iago was the killer and wanted to try and convince you that Sigeric was guilty so that you might frame him. From his view the elves would be none the wiser, we would get to Ilstese and a terrible man would be punished.   You ask why he hates Sigeric so much, and he tells you that Sigeric is the reason his daughter was burned alive. Ferron grew up on Tiridasa as an orphan raised by fisherman. He entered the business himself when he grew older, found a loving wife and had a child. His wife passed away after a couple years and he raised the daughter by himself. One day when he was returning from was returning from work and saw smoke in the sky in the direction of his village. He encountered some soldiers who laughed at him, saying the town chose their punishment when they refused to pay their taxes. The archduke had ordered the entire town be burned to the ground and when Ferron returned he found his house was destroyed, with the body of his daughter inside, a drawing she had made showed Ferron and her on a boat together. It's been nine years since.   Ferron turned to piracy as a career but kept an eye out for the Archduke, vowing for revenge. He found out that Sigeric owned an estate outside of Crandlewood that he visited a few times a year and Ferron decided to stay in the city to find a way to take him down. Several jobs got him close but not close enough.   Of course you all are understanding with his story and tell him after Ioanna is saved you might be able to come back and help him seek his revenge, as long as he doesn't double cross you again.

3:30pm Heading out from the KAAHRP Anthropology Office you decide to give a visit to Veia Linory at the Seldarine Hotel to see if he has any insights into Gesper's disappearance.   After being stopped briefly by the hotel clerk you make your way to Linory's room. Moritz speaks through the door and gives permission to talk to Linory, who is thrilled to hear from you. He tells you that Gesper had spoken of being interested in trying some mind altering substances and that he might be wandering near the bars by the cliffside. Gesper was wearing a bright orange tunic and holding a satchel and a coin pouch, stolen from Moritz. Odi talks them into letting him look through Gesper's room for a moment and manages to find a scrap of what looks like a promo for an event. Linory asks that before you leave Crandlewood that you stop by to say goodbye.   Heading into the city center you find a board of flyers and find a paper that matches the scrap that Odi found, it is for an "All Aigrei Dance at the The Corner House . You decide to head down and get a room at the inn in order to rest, however before you do, you remember that you know the location of Daylor Kenezzar 's house which is conveniently in the same direction within the The Conclave district.   Ioanna and Firn stay behind in an alleyway while the rest of the group continues up to see Daylor. Ioanna summons Tundi to fly up and investigate the murder of crows. The rest of the group knocks on Daylor's door and immediately warns him to look after Iago tonight after the Aggro fight. Daylor mentions that Iago's trainer will be at the game as well as, an assistant from the Conclave, and lastely Rasmus Vasa .   As this is happening, Tundi joins the flock above, and while Ioanna isn't able to view through her eyes, she quickly finds out that Tundi's path is cut short. Tundi's been killed.   The group heads down to The Corner House , straight up to the inn at the top of the building. You encounter the old man at the front desk of the inn and breeze past him after you spot Gesper's name in the ledger on his desk and get his room number. You find a leather satchel in the room and traces of a liquid you are able to identify as sap , as well as what looks like fresh vomit, which is still warm. You all rush up to the rooftop.   On the roof you see a figure with platnum blond hair wavering by the edge. Firn and Odi rush in, grabbing him by the tunic and throwing him backwards. It's Gesper, and he's very intoxicated. You take him back down to the hotel room and lay him down, to which he immediately throws up. As you talk, debating what to do you notice that Gesper seems terrified, and seems to think you're Dragonborn. Odi casts sleep on him.   You rest there for a bit, and Gesper asks where "his guy" went. You find out he's talking about the drug dealer who gave him sap, a human with black hair and sharp cheekbones. He calls him "Mr. FunStory", who dropped Gesper off at the inn and said he'd be back later. You try your best to disguise Gesper, making his hair dirty and covering him with a poncho, and hiding his ears.   On your way back, Odi hears a skittering from within the jar in his sack. A voice which Odi has never heard before echoes through his head.   Hungry   Odi thinks back to the voice. "What do you want?"   Meat   Odi grabs some kababs from a nearby street stand.   You return to the Seldarine Hotel and bring Gesper in. Moritz and Linory are shocked and thankful to you and Linory promises to be nice to him.     Odi goes to the bathroom and carefully unscrews the jar, revealing a Pseudodragon . You ask for its name and it responds.   ...I am Jar

6:00PM The party debates the merits of disguising Confidence as Gesper and travelling back to The Corner House since you learned that the killer was set to meet back up with Gesper later that night.   You head into Ursula's Bar & Inn . Back in your room, Odi introduces the group to Jar whom Odi identifies as a Pseudodragon.   The group exits through the back of the bar and you keep a lookout for anybody following. You make it to The Corner House which is slowly gaining [Aigrei patrons for the dance. You head up to the inn on the top floor and make camp in Gesper's room. Confidence disguises herself as Gesper while Odi, Imarra, and Ferron try to enter the dance to keep an eye on her while keeping their distance from the elves.   Back at the top floor, Firn hears a mysterious ticking noise coming from the room next door. She goes to investigate and finds a mechanical frog with lights coming from its eyes. Gesper! Gesper! It is time to meet! it says. Firn promptly throws the frog out a window as soon as it says I will self destruct in 10-   At the party a drunk looking young elf has stumbled up to the stage and gives a speech to the rest of the party on how disenfranchised their generation is, and how they're going to fight for their right to stay in Crandlewood. Ferron and Imarra get pushed out of the dance. Confidence is approached by an aigrei girl named Aisla who asks if she wants to take sap up on the rooftop.   Ioanna is at last able to summon Tundi who tells her that he was killed by a large metal owl.   Confidence heads to the roof and meets with Aisla who offers to take sap with her. Tundi, who is now riding on Confidence jumps at Aisla and forces her to drop her pipe, breaking it. Confidence says she has a pipe back in her room and the two walk back down the stairs, past the rest of the group moving to intervene.   As soon as Confidence and Aisla walk into Gesper's room the rest of the party storm the room. You learn that Aisla saw the man less than 30 minutes ago and that he threatened to kill her if she didn't deliver the drugs to Gesper.   Ferron stays to watch over Aisla and Jar while the rest of the party leaves to see if they can track down the dealer. Heading down to street Confidence wanders out, disguised as Gesper still and a voice beacons out to her. Confidence isn't able to see anyone and Ioanna sends Tundi out to investigate. Suddenly Tundi flies through the air as if it was kicked. Ioanna rushes in to try and grab whoever is invisible but finds herself pierced by a blade, but, she manages to get a hold of their clothes.   After a few chaotic attacks in confusion the invisibility is cut to reveal Tulio Fonstiwere . He fights with magic and casts out of a large hand cannon as well as from a mechanical owl which joins the fray from above. He gives you a good fight but you manage to team up to take him down and pin him to the ground without killing him.

It has begun to rain. Since you have a bit of time before the "brunch" appointment with Iago you decide to head over to the KAAHRP Anthropology Office to speak to Flanders about the mysterious notes you discovered. After asking the innkeeper Ursula for some rain gear you head out into the storm. You find Flanders on his way out the door and show him the mysterious notes. He guesses that this may have been given to you by the Korsu , as they would be the only people who may still be fluent in the ancient language. Since he was heading to a meeting, Flanders leaves you in his office with access to his Athari'las language resources. You decide to try and power through with as much of the translation as possible. The pictographs can be transliterated into Athari words, and the Athari can be translated into Pexwa (common) Transliteration: Sul famdemu mu tannon Satum derusulpetre nin Te’ esanu nineltu mu eltu mu Xali’a Mai felue sul tas sitasa kaks Se kaksabat thuxa Iso thued xe’ Within the shadow of the wall Under a courtyard where You smell smoke from the flame of Xali’a (an isoxu) Someone at this dance works They pervert the gifts Iso (god of the isoxu) gave us Leaving the Anthropology Office you head up to The Inner Ward , a walled district deep within The Conclave district and make your way over to the Palace [Conclave] . On the way, you decide to go over your leads and tactics you should use when questioning Iago Tridega . Once you finally sit down, face to face with him, he seems friendly and mentions he is nervous for his big night tonight, entering the Aggro ring for the first time in years. He trains with his personal trainer Jaris , whom he also went to the theater with in a timeframe that matches up with the third murder. Iago mentions that the crowd that tends to hang out around The Corner House tend to be much younger than Iago Tridega so he doesn't visit often. He skirts around the topic of why he was in The Briny District but eventually divulges that he was visiting Selia the Oracle to try and get his fortune read. Iago willingly speaks about his version of events from the night of the fourth murder. He claims that he was the one who trailed a suspicious man and an elven girl and rushed in to help the girl only to find her suffocating, alone, before smoke begins coming out her mouth, and spikes of bone erupt from her skin, then she dies. Iago yelled for help until an elf came wandering by, taking the girl off his hands. Iago describes the alleged killer as tall, skinny, black of hair, younger than himself, and wearing a trenchcoat. Iago also reveals that he suspects the disappearance of Karmen Kenezzar has to do with the sap blackmarket trade. Iago is conducting his own investigation into the The Morningstar District involvment in buying sap from [KAAHRP District. He says he thinks this con runs to the top of both organizations. Iago gives you the address of this training facility in the Conclave. You warn Iago to stay with friends tonight, for he may be in grave danger. In order to head north you have to walk east, past the city walls, and then up into the The Morningstar District near where you met Enrique . On the way there you run into Lydiala , Linory's guard who franticly informs you that Gesper has run off the previous night. You decide to stop by Enrique's building and ask his neighbor if she had seen him recently. The neighbor tells you that she only knows that there is a Pascal who lives next door, but no Enrique. You knock on his door and when you don't hear an answer, send Tundi through the space under the door. Nothing seems too amiss, until you notice four metal barrels. Finding this odd you decide to knock down the door. After investigating you try and open one of the barrels and are shocked to find them filled, completely, with blood. Within the apartment you also find a small bottle of sap, and notes dated for a meeting with Rasmus and participating in some sort of vote. With much debate, you crack open the other barrels, which are also filled with blood, and fix the door to mask the intrusion. You take a growler full of blood... just in case you need it. You continue heading north till you get to the Temple of the Isoxu , where a sweet smelling smoke drafts from the chimney. You look over the map with Ferron and decide to check out the headquarters of the Morningstar Assembly, which looks like it has a quartyard. After using Tundi to get a quick look around the ground floor you find that there seems to be fairly vacent, with activity only on the second floor. Firn decides to shimmy up to a ventilation shaft to sneak inside, as she does so she overhears a conversation. In the room above Firn, she recognizes the voices of Rasmus Vasa , Enrique , and others that you don't recognize. Firn makes her way around to the other side of the door and unlocks it for you. You all successfully rush in and hide within a storage closet while the people in the meeting upstairs pass by, unsuspecting, breaking from their meeting. investigating the ground floor, you find: -A dissasembled mechanical crane -Letters addressed from Devin Seboya -A large clock that does not tell the time -Notes to a councilmember from Tulio Fonstiwere  You investigate the large statue in the middle of the courtyard, It is of a woman, clad in armor and holding a morningstar mace with the ball towards the ground. You find that by pushing on the mace you it will click and move left and right. When you move the mace you then find that the minutehand on the clock also moves. After discovering that a dagger on her belt also moves and turns the hour hand, you figure out that the clock needed to be at 7:35. The tiles underneath the statue shift and form a staircase spiraling down below the complex. As the Assembly reconvene, Ioanna sends Tundi to go and listen in. You hear Tulio Fonstiwere 's voice. It seems like Rasmus is in control of much more information than the others. He hears the people in the conference notice the noise from the new staircase. Your group rushes down the stairs before anyone can catch you. Ioanna casts darkness above you and you pull a lever at the bottom of the stairs which retracts the spiral staircase. Around the room you see many scientific tools, and instruments, piles of junk and suits of armor as well as 30 barrels like the ones at Enrique's house. A suit of armor turns towards you, asks for the password, and not satisfied with your answer draws its sword and attacks, along with four other suits of armor. After a difficult battle, you hear the stairs beginning to make their way back down to you. Panicking you grab a tablet on the table, filled with Athari writing and head down a hallway, away from the sounds of Rasmus and others, walking down the stairs. 

Taking some time to talk amongst yourselves and inform Ioanna about what you saw in the morgue since she had been using Tundi at the time, you come to terms that the elves are hiding a significant amound of information from you. Ferron offers to make a trip back to The Corner House Inn to check the registry for any of your suspected names and is quite insistant on going alone. You compromise and have him take Tundi with him.   Realizing that you don't have the whereabouts of the latter two witnesses you make a trip back to KAAHRP Castle to speak to Ganonshe about the missing information. He is nervous while speaking to you and Odi presses him on the reason he left out so much vital information. You find out that Ganonshe was only placed onto this case in the last few days and that the prevous case lead took off with Maruk to Ilstese before you arrived in Crandlewood. He admits that some of the information about the condition of the last two bodies were kept secret because his bosses were worried about the word of tortured elves breaking out after being leaked to an unaccountable third party. Ganonshe tells you that the first victim, Kleister, was being bound by magical means and alive when the cuts were applied to his body with a blade. He also reveals that the last witness claims to have seen Iago Tridega pull the victim into an alleyway which lead to their determination that he was the primary suspect.   You head over to the entrance of the The Morningstar District to track down the house of Enrique , who found the body of the 3rd victim. You knock on the wrong door first by mistake though the resident inside is no help in pointing you towards Enrique. You find him in the next unit over and are suspicious from his nonchelant attitude towards finding a body outside his house.   Enrique tells you some information that you hadn't heard before. He tells you about the Korsu , a secretive organization located under the city that your Quester badge bears the symbol of. You ask Enrique if he happened to see anything strange about the body of Flagan but he seems not to know anything outside of the strangle marks. He also mentions that he was at a show at the amphitheater that day, and that he happened to see Iago Tridega there.   Odi asks Enrique about the drug called Sap which Ganonshe mentioned earlier. Enrique says that you might want to speak to Rasmus Vasa if you want to know more about the Sap trade.   You head out of The Morningstar District and into The Briny District towards the location of the 4th witness.   After making your way through the district you find yourself at Cove Rot . You find the bar that Octavia works at and speak with her once she is able to get a moment away from her boss.   Octavia tells you that she was on her way home from work when she saw Iago Tridega and a young elf girl walking together when the man guided her into a dark alleyway. Octavia stayed nearby, sensing something was wrong and heard the girl gasping for breath, but by the time Octavia came over to her she was dying and lasted only moments. Iago had dissapeared. You ask her to take you back to the place where she saw the murder, she does, you investigate the area and manage to find a needle behind a crate.   After speaking to Octavia you see Ferron who was heading to find you. Tundi tells you that he made a stop on the way back that smelled like beer. Ferron explains that he wasn't able to find any of your suspected names on the list but did find a strange name, a royal from the city of Tiridasa named Archduke Sigeric Mavely . Ferron finds it strange that the Archduke would go to such a seedy inn, especially at the same time as the victim was there. Ferron stopped by a bar at the way back and found out from an old friend that Sigeric would be at a ball in the The Briny District later that night, and so would Iago Tridega . He tells you that The Armistice Ball is attended by many of the faction leaders every year and is a celebration of unity within the city. He also says that Sigeric is a person known throughout the city by many as a cruel man who uses fear tactics to get what he wants. The ball is at 10pm, 7 hours from now.   When asked about what Iago might have been doing in the Briny District, Ferron says that he might have been here to see The Oracle . You make your way over to her small residence and find a discheveled teenager, clearly going through some sort of withdrawl. You get a lot of sassy answers from her but she reveals that she is able to see the future when she uses the drug Sap, which is normally a hallucinogen. Unfortunately she is out and she already owes her dealer money. She offers to give you free readings if you meet with her dealer and obtain some Sap.   Reluctantly Odi and Confidence head to the dealer back in Cove Rot and talk to the dealer. You find out that the dealer and his crew are all elves so Confidence disguises herself as a young elf in order to pose as an innosent youth. After a stressful conversation the two manage to convince the dealer to sell them some of the Sap, though on the way back you notice an elf following you. You're able to make your way back to the Oracle and she happily gives you each a reading. To her surprise you are all quite difficult to read and she remarks about your disconnection to this world. By contrast she seems like she is able to read Ferron just fine.   Your readings are: Ioanna: "you are one with no future, you are one with no past, Iso does not see you in this realm, you are invisible, you are dead walking. I cannot tell you your future, as you do not exist. There is a glimmer in the past, and you must follow that glimmer. I do not know what that means, but there is no future for you in the present"   Confidence: "like your friend you are lost in time. You have messed with time. You are a victim and also the agitator. Things will get worse before they get better.   "What about prince Linory?"   "Linory will be safe. His cousin is in terrible danger."   Firn: "You are from a world outside of this one. There is a place for you here as well. You will need to die first. There is also a glimmer for you in the past. Things have not been uncovered. Look around, there is more than you saw before, when you are given the chance, seek it out."   Odi: "There is a vast amoung of knowledge within you. Knowledge that is lost. Your knowledge is wasted here in this world and you do not belong. The more you learn, the deeper entrenched you will be, but only you can help your friends with what it takes to escape."   "and what of Immeshar?"   "That future is dark. I cannot see one way or another. I see several times meeting with him. The blood of so many is at his hands. So many before. So many to come.   "Can we stop him?"   "yes"   "What are we missing?"   "You will find it"   Imarra: "A voice from the past tells me that you are missed. You must guide someone. You must take shelter in the rain when you need to, but like your friends you do not belong. so although you will want to protect you cannot stay very long."   Ferron: "You are not like them. Ferron Albright. You will find the revenge you seek. Your heart is dark and full of wanting, wanting for blood and solace. You will find it at some cost. There are words that you cannot read, words that are old and have been used for so much pain. Find these words, and you will find your revenge."   Ioanna asks one more question. "Is anyone that I talked to today responsible for the killings?"   "No one who you spoke to has murdered... recently... or will murder soon."   "What about Sylvester?"   "Sylvester... Sylvester is responsible for many deaths, he is not the committer of them." 

You rise early the next day and head to the KAAHRP District(landmark:0f481f12-2ada-4309-b96c-7c3766b79a5a) towards the @[Seldarine Hotel . The elves aren't outside yet and you hear a bit of commotion from inside the hotel only to find Gesper being pushed out of the door by Moritz and Lydiala with Veia Linory following them.     You join the entourage and follow to KAAHRP Castle , encountering another guard in front who is suspicious of the large group but quickly scolded by Lydiala for treating a royal in such a way.   You are lead inside and on the way bump into an elf named Flanders who seems fascinated with you, he invites you to come visit sometime if you ever need help with information about the city.   You continue on and reach a room with an elven man with a chisled jaw and dark green robes who introduces himself as Sylvester . Immediately after Lydiala introduced her leige to Sylvester, Linory excuses himself from the meeting, citing that your group has more pressing needs than his own. Linory, Gesper, Lydiala, and Moritz leave the room to leave you alone with Sylvester.   Your group tells him that you have valuable information on the war that needs to be shared with the military commanders at Ilstese . Sylvester deflects, claiming that you would be more of a risk to be brought to Ilstese than the risk of losing the information that you supposedly have. Instead, Sylvester offers an arrangement, your services as a non-partisan investigation group to track down and capture or kill a killer of elves, running amok around Crandlewood, in exchange for your guarenteed passage to Ilstese and/or a meeting with Maruk .   Accepting the proposition, Maruk brings in the bailiff Ganonshe who runs down the details of the murders in question.   1. Kleister Sindalin, 92, Male, killed in the woods of the Stormfair district, throat slit. Found by a merchant named Ona 2. Sorea Tisirel, 65, Female, found in the water just west of the wharf, drunk, shot with an unknown projectile. Found by a fisherman named Abel. 3. Flagan Parpestor, 101, Male, found across the river from the amphitheater, strangled. Found by Enrique. 4. Gaketa Mobien, 84, Female, found behind a house next to the city walls, autopsy under way. Found by Octavia in the Briny District.     -The primary suspect is a human male known as Iago Tridega , personal muscle of The Conclave -He was last seen yesterday entering the The Briny District -Widely known for killing a man in a fight but did not stand trial -Trained soldier -Witness placed him at the scene of the crime -Likely a member of a dangerous Pro-Humanist group responsible for growing anti-elf resentment -Tan skin, Muscles, Crimson leather armor, black eyes, black hair, scar on cheek   Recognizing the name of Ona you head back to the Stormfair district and Odi attempts to lead an effort to get her to offer information, but the old woman grows suspicious of your group and quickly throws you out.   You decide to stop by the house of Che , father of Ivette who heard about the elf body, found on the wharf and suggests you head down to the docks now in order to catch Abel . As you make your way down through the massive gondola system you catch the eye of a few suspicious sailor types but keep moving forward. You find Abel near the end of the docks and speak with him for awhile. He seems nearly insane but suggests the girl might have fallen off of the rooftop bar The Corner House .   As you make your way back you are ambushed by a group of sailors wearing teal headbands. They are dealt with fairly quickly and you suspect they are from The Lotan Briney , taking revenge for your acts on the Erinyes . After the fight you intimidate the crowd and push forward to leave the docks first. You are questioned by a guard at the top but he lets you off easy, convinced by your story.   You head over to The Corner House and split the party to investigate the Inn and the rooftop bar. Confidence, Ioanna, and Firn speak to an extremely bored innkeeper who looks up Sorea in his book of records and finds a match. He remembers her and a human man coming to the inn together, and leaving without paying. Confidence asks to see the room they had (which is currently occupied), and upon inspecting the room she realizes she is having terrible hallucinations and hearing singing in her ears. It goes away after a minute or so. The group heads back out to meet up with the group on the roof.   Odi, Imarra, and Ferron head to the rooftop and chat up the few people hanging out there. Two elves are making out in a lawn chair, two humans sit at the edge of the precarious edge of the roof and one stands back, apparently intoxicated. Odi is mocked by the elves but he does learn from one of the humans that her brother (Josef) saw the murder happen on this rooftop.   You meet back up together and decide to head out of the Corner House and over to see Josef . Josef is initially suspicious of you but reveals that the man Sorea was with was on the roof with her that night and Josef heard a large cracking sound coming from a strange device held by the man.   Before you go any further you decide to stop in at the hospital in KAAHRP and see if you can get some more information from the autopsies. After meeting with the doctor, Garren , he takes you down to the morgue and prepares to show you the slabs themselves but has difficulty with finding the fourth slab. He shows you the first two bodies and you quickly find irregularities with the second body having an injection wound. The doctor moves to show you the remaining two but finds the slabs locked. Apologizing he claims that the Aigrei Alliance authorities must have decided that these slabs be kept consealed for the moment. He offers to gather the coroner's notes for you and leaves you alone in the morgue for a moment. Confidence immediately casts a spell and unlocks the remaining slabs, unveiling a horrifying sight.   The third victim Flagan Parpestor is indeed strangled, but also has scales jutting out all over his body. He also has an injection wound.   The fourth victim Gaketa Mobien has sharp pieces of bone, breaking the skin and shooting out all over the body, like rapid growths, she has scales like Flagan and also has burn marks near her abdomen. She also has an injection site.   After leaving the hospital, Ferron leads you all to a public rest area, where you discuss the implications of what you just saw.