Therendor 9-13, YK 999Having successfully raided the Flamekeep Archives for information, the Wolves had to decide what to do next. The discussion broke down into two camps, as Lysander suggested going to Thaliost to investigate Archbishop Solgar Dariznu, while Pel and Brand favored sending a message to Alestair Marktaros in Korth and then going to Trolanport to try and find Cardinal Hetrion.
Still uncertain about where they were headed but sure that they needed to find a safer place to discuss it, the Wolves split up as they headed back into Flamekeep. Luggoth and Lysander went to the inn where they had been staying to pack their gear, while Maechen and Pel went to the nearest Sivis message station to send a message to Nalos Venteri. After his response didn't come back in about 10 minutes, they went back to the inn to meet up with the rest of the Wolves.
Brand, meanwhile, went to the Lightning Rail station and, using his House connections, he purchases lightning rail tickets for the Wolves at a discounted rate. The tickets would take them to Sigilstar, leaving with the evening train in about four hours.
The rest of the Wolves met Brand at the Lightning Rail station, where they found a quiet corner at one of the station taverns to talk further. While enjoying a light meal of Thranish cuisine and ale, they wondered about whether or not anyone was tracking them, or whether their infiltration of the Flamekeep Archives was not yet a matter for law enforcement. Pel suggested letting the lightning rail leave without them and taking a different route out of town, but given that no state of alarm or even hints of anything wrong had shown up, the Wolves determined that this was more of a step than necessary.
However, it was deemed necessary to split up and keep their eyes open while waiting for their train to leave. Brand went into the staff lounge and chatted with local members of House Orien, while Pel and Luggoth (using the hat of disguise) wandered through the station, changing identities continuously and keeping their eyes open for anything unusual. Lysander and Maechen returned to Flamekeep proper to see if they could pick up any information. None of them found anything out of the ordinary, or anything to suggest that the burglary of the Archives was known to anyone outside of Erv, at least not yet.
Four hours later, as the sun began to set on Flamekeep, the Wolves boarded the lightning rail for Sigilstar. After a nine hour journey, during which they rested and used healing magic to regain their strength, they arrived in Sigilstar, the "crossroads of Thrane." Upon arrival, Pel sent another message via Sivis message station that read "Nalos Venteri, currently in Sigilstar, please send word."
When no immediate response came, Pel joined the rest of the Wolves at an inn located at the station, Crossroads' Rest, where they rented several rooms and rested. Early in the morning, they had meals of biscuits, porridge, spicy beef and fruit and vegetable skewers. Lysander then used his mirror to scry on Alestair Marktaros and watched him sleeping in a room somewhere.
Discouraged, the Wolves were ready to move on, but Pel continued checking the message station, and a few hours later, still early in the morning, he received a reply from Alestair. It read: "My friend, is the way clear for me to return to Thrane? Are you on the trail of those who have framed me, and who mean our mutual friend harm? Please, tell me where your plans take you?"
Pel responded with: "The way is not yet clear, many posters yet up in Flamekeep. We have discovered some information in regards to a previously thought disbanded group and we leave today for Trolanport, hopefully to see our mutual friend."
And Alestair responded: "Would like to speak more freely, any way to divert to my location?"
The Wolves, running low on funds, nevertheless decided to secure an airship to Korth to speak with Alestair as soon as possible. Lysander agreed to perform aboard the Pride of Thrane, the airship bound for Korth, and secured passage for himself and his companions for only 300 gold as a result. His performances were adequate, but not much more, perhaps due to the distracting nature of the mission they were on.
During the travel, the Wolves kept a low profile, but Pel adopted various guises to try and her some rumors. He heard some terrible things about Solgar Dariznu, archbishop of Thaliost, hearing that he engaged in public burnings, that he rarely emerged from his mansion, that the city was a hotbed of political unrest and dreary, broken citizenry, and that shifters should not enter the city and expect to leave with their lives.
20 hours later, in the very early morning, they arrived in Korth. They found Alestair, in his Nalos Venteri guise, waiting for them at the airship tower, and he gave them directions to The Boar's Head, a disreputable tavern in a bad part of town. The Wolves went there, separate from Nalos, and ordered bread, stew and ale to munch on while they waited for Nalos. He soon joined them, and they told him what they had discovered.
Nalos suggested that since he could not return to Thrane, that the Wolves should go to Thaliost and look into Archbishop Dariznu, try to find some proof of his involvement in the plot or continuing involvement with the Cleansing Flame. Nalos would take the Beginner's Luck to Trolanport to meet up with Verodin and the Cardinal. He told them that some within the church were working to oust Archbishop Dariznu, and that the secret organizer of these forces was Oura Gellast, a half-elf paladin who lived in Thaliost. He suggested that she would be a good place to start if they were investigating Dariznu.
Nalos, Maechen, Pel and Lysander worked up a code that they could use to communicate, and then they parted ways.
When the sun finally rose, the Wolves took the lightning rail to Rekkenmark, and then took a ferry across the river to Thaliost, arriving at midday to find a dreary, rain-soaked city. Pel used his skills to disguise most of the party, while Luggoh wore the hat of disguise to hide his shifter features from the potentially hostile town.
They got a recommendation from one of Nalos' local contacts to check in at Yarin's Place, a circumspect inn where they wouldn't be bothered. After checking in, they did some information gathering, and it didn't take long to find out that Oura Gellast was in one of the chapels. Pel disguised himself and entered the chapel, finding it relatively empty, but seeing a half-elven woman in armor talking to the priest at the front. The priest broke off his conversation to approach Pel, and Pel explained that he was seeking Oura. The priest pretended she wasn't there, asked if there was somewhere she could contact Pel when he next talked to her, and Pel gave him the name of Yarin's Place.
Pel left, and as he did, a child sitting out in front of the church got up and began to surreptitiously follow him. Pel didn't notice, but Lysander and Luggoth spotted him. Lysander cast invisibility to track the child, and Luggoth simply moved as quietly as he could. Maechen followed as well, carrying one of the rings of communication while Pel carried the other.
Lysander watched as the child stood outside the inn and watched Pel order a drink and casually sit at the bar, and then followed the child as he walked back to the church and went inside. A few moments later, Oura walked out and headed over to the tavern, followed by Luggoth, Lysander and now Brand.
Oura came into the bar and sat down with Pel to talk to him. It was clear that these precautions were to make sure that Pel wasn't an assassin, as she had been the subject of assassination attempts before. After she determined that Pel wasn't evil, and didn't seem to mean her any harm, they all walked back to the church.
Oura led them to the priest's private chambers, where they could talk. She revealed that Solgar hadn't been seen outside of his mansion in two and a half months, since the last time a shifter was burned in town. She also confirmed rumors they had heard that the priest's pet was a dire tiger, brought back from Xen'drik, and learned that he mostly sent Bishop Valtar Talandros out into town to carry out his orders. Other than a few Knights of Thrane who patrolled the property, Oura didn't know the details of Solgar's security.
Lysander used flight and invisibility to check out the mansion, finding a half-dozen guards patrolling the grounds and timing it out to determine that there was about a thirty second window to get in without being spotted. He was surprised to see that the mansion was relatively small and somewhat rundown, and that all of its windows were painted black, preventing anyone from seeing in.
Determining that their best course of action was to get Talandros out and try to infiltrate the mansion looking for information, the Wolves arranged with Oura for her friend the priest to call Bishop Talandros away during the next day. After resting for eight hours and preparing spells, they had the priest summon Talandros and then, after the bishop had left, they approached the gate.
Pel cracked the gate lock quickly, and the Wolves sprinted across the grounds to the heavy wooden doors. The door locks proved a little more tricky, and one of the guard patrols was coming around the corner as Pel feverishly worked at the lock. Lysander used a ghost sound to distract them long enough for Pel to crack the lock and get them all inside.
Once inside, they found a long hallway leading to some stairs, one set leading down into a foyer with a heavy pair of doors beyond it, the other leading upstairs. Brand spotted tiger tracks going upstairs and human footprints heading down, and so they began moving downwards. Then they heard it, a low growl from upstairs, and as Lysander readied his bow and Pel readied a scroll of web, they saw the dire tiger emerge.
Brand tried to charm the animal, but it resisted. Luggoth drew his bow and aimed it as Maechen turned invisible, but Lysander began singing and managed to soothe the beast, holding it fascinated.
Pel cautiously moved downstairs and went to the doors, but then they opened of their own accord, and Solgar Dariznu was there, holding a mace and wearing armor. He began talking to them, asking what they were doing in his home, although it seemed clear he knew more than he was letting on. He asked them to please release his tiger, which Lysander reluctantly did. He explained that he was a harsh man, but a fair one, and that Cardinal Hetrion was the corrupt one, so devious he had fooled even noble servants of the Silver Flame into following his plans, a loyal and dangerous servant of the Lords of Dust.
Even masters of reading mood and expression Pel and Lysander couldn't get a read on Dariznu, but Luggoth picked up on hostility as Dariznu began pushing him about the death of his family, finally asking him if he was sure they hadn't done something to deserve it. Luggoth loosed his arrows, which thudded into Dariznu with no visible effect, and Maechen tried casting magic missiles but met some kind of resistance that defused them before they struck their target.
The tiger charged, and Brand and Whitehearth stood ready to attack as it ran down the stairs. Luggoth shifted and flew into a rage, leaping off the balcony to attack Solgar with his greatsword moments after Solgar cast something that Maechen recognized as an arcane spell.
Maechen put it all together. Devious and crafty, invulnerable to most weapons, resistant to magic, an arcane spellcaster... Solgar Dariznu was a Rakshasa! When his lightning bolt failed to elicit a response from the Archbishop, he knew he was right, and Solgar, the truth now revealed, let his humanoid tiger form show.
Lysander put up an illusory wall of fire to block the dire tiger, but it leaped through and slashed at the bard, only to be met with vicious attacks from Brand and Whitehearth. While Whitehearth nipped at the tiger's ankles, distracting it, Brand stabbed relentlessly at vulnerable points, stabbing the tiger in its flank, its forelegs, its shoulder and one particularly painful and damaging blow that destroyed its right eye.
Trying to figure out a course of action given that the Rakshasa had them out-matched, Pel fired a scorching ray at the wall to set fire to the house. Angered by the attacks on his tiger, Solgar cast a rainbow blast of energy at Brand, who continued to move and strike with Whitehearth, again severely wounding the dire tiger, which was now gushing blood and looking considerably weaker.
Maechen, detecting the mood of the combat, cast flight on himself and flew to Lysander, preparing to cast a flight spell on him as well. Lysander, Brand and Whitehearth continued to attack the tiger, which bit Brand but dealt only a small fraction of the damage it was receiving.
Hoping to save his tiger, Solgar accepted a call for the battle to stop. He tried his best to corrupt Luggoth, telling him that the rest of his friends could go if only he would stay. That if he stayed, Solgar would promise him a confrontation with the man who killed his tribe, the man who had personally killed his father. He argued with the Wolves that Luggoth didn't need justice or good to triumph, that he just wanted revenge, but Luggoth replied that the Rakshasa didn't know him at all.
Once Brand was sure that Luggoth didn't want to stay, he dimension leaped over to him and dimension doored out, taking Luggoth, Maechen and Whitehearth with him. Pel cast Sanctuary on himself and fled, and a suddenly very alone Lysander used the wand of darkness he had for cover and fled as well.
The Wolves didn't stop running until they were quite far from the Rakshasa's mansion. A retreat for the Wolves was rare, almost unheard of. And now, they faced the difficult question of what to do next?
XP:Luggoth 1200 XP
Pel 1200 XP
Lysander 1200 XP
Maechen 1500 XP
Brand 1500 XP
