Summary
- After some discussion on what to do next, the party splits into three groups.
- Dax and Warden go to meet with Zae Tarkanan, an aberrant-marked halfling girl who can speak to and control rats. They manage to enlist her help in locating the Order of the Emerald Claw.
- Kal and Lozaal go to look for temporary housing for the people of Fallen. Neither know how to approach this, so they go to a pub to talk it out. They decide to go look for a "housing agent", but then a rat seeks them out and gives them instructions to go to High Walls.
- Leonus stakes out the safehouse in Deathsgate, but before anything happens he is approached by a small group of rats. The rats tell him that the Emerald Claw are in High Walls. He thanks them and then sprints, jumping from bridge to bridge to get down faster.
- They meet up in High Walls and learn that the Emerald Claw have a skycoach. Lozaal flags down a skycoach and offers the driver 3000 gp for the skycoach, which the driver accepts.
- The voice of Richtus echoes over the district, revealing that necrotic Blast Disks are hidden throughout. He wants news of Greykell ir'Ryc, and will detonate the disks in 30 minutes if nobody offers up her location.
- The entrances to the district have been sealed and the guards murdered. The party go to a southern gate to try and get it open, and encounter resistance.
26th Olarune, 1000 YK
- They discuss what to do after contacting the Blackened Book.
- Warden suggests turning into Big Bird and flying around with Locate Object, but Big Bird can't fly and he doesn't have Locate Object prepared.
- Lozaal suggests perhaps asking Daask for help. Their relationship with Daask is complicated and strained, they've helped and hindered them in the past. Kalshana mentions that Yadha-Ro saw her when they stole the sword from Karg, and she doesn't want her legs broken.
- Dax remembers that Zae Tarkanan once offered them a favour. She can talk to the rats, she potentially has eyes everywhere. They just need to contact her, maybe Warden can talk to a rat.
- They re-unlock the door and leave. Dax re-locks the door after they leave.
- They head down to the lower city to look for rats. Lozaal suggests taking the fun way down and just jumping. They all have feather fall, right?
- Dax would rather save her spells for emergencies! Warden says he has feather fall. Lozaal, calling the bluff, grabs Warden in a bear hug and drags him to a ledge, prompting him to shout and explain he doesn't have it prepared!
- Dax suggests getting a skycoach down, and Leonus's player is AFK so there is no complaint. Lozaal sighs that nobody complains when Dax suggests it!
- They discuss buying soarsled's to avoid having to keep paying for a skycoach, or maybe even buying a skycoach! It'll cost a lot, maybe between 1,800 - 2,500 gp.
- They're going to split up, some people will go to try and organise shelter for the refugees in Fallen and the others will go look for rats to try and contact Zae.
- Lozaal and Kal are going to find temporary accomodation for the refugees. Dax and Warden will go to find rats, whilst Leonus stakes out the apartment. Lozaal asks if Dax is sure about having all of the blast disks in one bag of holding, in case it gets stolen or something. Then some random pickpocket would have 32 blast disks.
- Lozaal warns Leonus to hide or run if he sees a really hot elf. They don't explain this any further.
- Dax and Warden head down into Dragoneyes to look for rats. They are not the right audience for the kind of entertainment in offer here (like Velvet's!). Lozaal will be disappointed.
- Warden spots a rat and goes to talk to it. Dax stays on look out to make sure nobody mugs them, given the weird display Warden is putting on.
- The rat is very polite! It knows Zae, but it asks what's in it for them. Warden laments that Kal is the one with the cheese.
- Warden gets a ration off of Dax and gives it to the rat. The rat reveals it was pulling their leg, and already informed Zae. It helpfully didn't mention this until it had taken a bite out of the ration.
- The rat is named Rodney, and organises a meeting in Dragon Towers. Zae'll find them. Warden is very concerned that apparently the rats can talk to Zae at a distance.
- They get a skycoach up to Dragon Towers. A rat meets them at the lift and tells them to follow it, and leads them to an alley way. Within are Zae and a mysterious dwarf who seems to be an amalgam of different creatures. He's very friendly! His name is Brom! He regenerates really good, but stuff doesn't grow back right.
- Brom talks about House Tarkanan and their plight, that aberrant marks are getting stronger and they have to keep a low profile.
- They ask Zae to look for the Order of the Emerald Claw. She sends the message, and her rats track them down and manage to get a coherent story together. They left the apartment hours ago and headed down to High Walls, they have a skycoach. They ask Zae to keep watching, and she agrees. They say they owe her a favour, but she says she already owed them a favour. She's done a lot though.
- Warden turns into a giant eagle and flies him and Dax down to High Walls.
- Lozaal and Kal are in a pub discussing how to approach the housing issue. They don't know the first thing about acquiring housing! There must be somewhere with affordable housing. Maybe some kind of housing agent? It might involve filling out forms. Khorvaire likes forms.
- Kal explains forms to Lozaal, you fill it out and then give it back!
- There's a bit of a commotion in the pub as someone spots a rat. Lozaal gets his hammer ready to deal with it, prompting a soft "noooo" from the rest of the party.
- The rat says, in a womans voice, "the people you're looking for are in High Walls. Dax says go." and then runs away.
- Kal explains that this must've been the rat girl! She controls the rats, she's not a rat. Okay, they'll go to High Walls to speak to the housing agent!
- A rat scratches Leonus's boot to get his attention. His mace of warning isn't warning him of danger, so he's chill. The rat speaks and tells him that the men are in High Walls, and Dax says to go. He takes a few seconds to compose himself, thanks the rats, and sprints.
- Leonus shaves several minutes off of the journey by using the ring of jumping and leaping from bridge to bridge.
- A random passerby uses feather fall on Leonus, thinking he's falling. The person asks for his name so they can collect the bounty, and he rants at them for interuppting an investigation. He wasn't falling, they slowed him down! The spellcaster relents, intimidated, and Leonus leaps away again whilst yelling "it's the principle!"
- Lozaal goes to Darbucks to get a coffee while he waits for a skycoach, not understanding the urgency of the situation. Kalshana tries to get him to hurry, explaining that High Walls is where the attack happens. Lozaal isn't sure they'd try and attack again?
- "Are you saying you don't want your spiced latte?"
- "Well, if they can make it quick"
- The goblin making the drinks calls out Kalshana's name wrong, Kelshina. And then calls out for a Larzuul. Lozaal takes the drink indignantly.
- Kalshana, who thinks mayonnaise is spicy, finds the latte a bit hot for her.
- Lozaal intimidates the queue for the skycoach to get through quicker. He still has to wait for one to come and it's super awkward.
- Dax and Warden arrive in High Walls first, then Kal and Lozaal, and Leonus arrives last. He's not even out of breath! He is cardio-man. He's a bit hot though.
- Lozaal and Kal are confused, thinking the housing agents were here. Dax explains that she sent the rats, that the Emerald Claw are in High Walls and they might be planning to do another terrorism.
- Dax and Warden go to look for rats, hoping the rats have seen the skycoach. They go to a less busy area in High Walls and Warden uses speak with animals and calls out for any rats.
- A couple rats emerge and Warden speaks to them. The rat says that Zae is sleeping, but the rat points them to the north. Lozaal asks how well he knows that rat, and he says he doesn't. The rat says their name is Penny.
- Concerned that there could be a skycoach chase, Lozaal flags one down and says he'll give them 3000 gp for the skycoach. They gladly accept! They give a quick crash course in how to fly it, and offer to fly it for them for the moment. 3000 gp! Life changing amounts of money. The pilot picks the rest of the party up, it's faster!
- Richtus's voice echoes above the din of people, and delivers a threatening speech. Blast disks have been hidden throughout the district, they have 30 minutes to bring him news of the Laughing Wolf, or he will detonate the disks.
- Leonus leaps out of the skycoach, causing confused shouting from the others. What's he doing!? He says he's going to try and help, he won't attack Richtus he promises! This was an emotional reaction, not a logical one, but Leonus doesn't have a therapist right now to unpack that.
- Lozaal wants to leave the pilot outside of the district and then fly the skycoach himself.
- Lozaal thinks Richtus will detonate the disks anyway, he's an asshole.
- Leonus is looking for blast disks and trying to keep people calm.
- Lozaal has a plan to bluff Richtus! They have 32 bombs in the bag of holding, they could lie and say it's the ones from around the district. Is it worth the risk that he calls the bluff and detonates those?
- They have other plans, they can try and get one of the gates open to get people out. They have a skycoach, so they can get out! That's the most promising plan right now.
- They're gonna go to a gate, drop the skycoach pilot off with instructions to get the Watch, and then try to get the gate open.
- Leonus is flagged down by a rat, who has found a blast disk! Leonus and the rats look for the disks! He also shouts at people to get away from him, to reduce casualties if one of them detonates. Rats fan out and look for bombs.
- They head to one of the southern gates (other than Leonus who is looking for bombs). They see two Karrnathi Undead standing by the gate, but nobody else on this side. They fly over the wall, and Dax and Warden get off to look around. Lozaal tells the pilot to run and get help, and they do.
- Warden doesn't find any blast disks around. Dax opens the gatehouse door slightly, sees a necromancer and a bunch of skeletons, and then closes it. It'll be a fight, then.
- Lozaal flies away to get Leonus and bring him to the others. Kal throws down a rope and Leonus grabs it, hanging from the skycoach. Kal tries to pull Leonus up, and Leonus climbs at the same time to get up faster.
- Leonus rolls into the skycoach and holds up the blast disk. "Hi guys! I found a bomb!"
- Kal says they're gonna go kill some Karrnathi douchebags! Leonus asks if she'd like to rephrase that. They have a debate about this, wasting the limited time Richtus gave them before he detonates the blast disks.
- When the skycoach comes into sight again, Dax casts Mirror Image on herself.
- Kal and Leonus jump from the skycoach and get ready to assault the gatehouse.
Richtus's Speech
A voice that is familiar to Leonus rings out over the din of people, though it's raspier than you remember.
"People of High Walls, I am very disappointed in you. We came to your district peacefully, simply wanting to know the location of someone of interest to us, and you refused to be civil. Well, we can be uncivilized too. As I speak, the checkpoint guards have been eliminated and every entrance to the district has been sealed off, how thoughtful of the city to provide us with military-grade gates."
"Blast disks, like the one we demonstrated last week, have been hidden throughout the district. You have 30 minutes to bring me news of the Laughing Wolf, or I will detonate these blast disks. Many of you will die immediately, and those will be the lucky ones, as the fallen rise again to prey on the survivors. There will be no escape, all of you will die one way or another."
"I am at the entrance to Cogsgate. Any attempt to attack me will result in the detonation of the blast disks. You have been warned."