Returning to KB&S on the 5th of Suntide, the party decided the next order of business was to find out who stole Arkorow's letters. They talked to Roswell Trenek who, besides directing them to Zender Stormwood who knows lots of things, told them that they need special glasses or lenses to read the Capital Times properly (and upside down); the basic articles without lenses are just dramatic articles to sell papers.
They also had a quick chat with Ebnon who didn't know anything about the break-in at the Birdspire, but they did find out he knew some thief or criminal by the name of Gleros.
Zender Stormwood, the Half-elf known as the Healthstone, had several theories. Particularly one involving Duke, his parents, the missing artifact of the Ordus Arcanum in Gate of the Clanless, and Sky Baron Gephostos of Ascalon, the Floating City. Particularly, he believes the artifact at the Gate is the fire component of Emissary's long-lost divine relic, Novae-Gambit. The disappearance of the component coincides with the arrival of two caithuna men and a red dragonborn roughly Arkorow's age; three people who are now either dead, missing, or in hiding.
His theory also states that the ice component belonged to the Ice Mage, Sophia Veers, who died years ago, and has since made its way via nefarious purposes to Sky Baron Gephostos, which coincides neatly with the secession of Ascalon that happened this year. No rumors surround the air component, but the earth component has popped up in history every now and then.
The party also learned that the human man who robbed the Birdspire Prime was accompanied by a drow woman, drow man, and dragonborn woman, and the party then went into the District of Commoners to attempt to track down any suspicious activity that might be related.
After much shenanigans, and Mordus joining rowdy dwarves in punching Zephyr in the face, they tracked down three key locations. After avoiding most of the traps, they sauntered into a tiefling, Irsawk Firetouched, who clearly loved nothing more in life than fireballs. After some interrogation, they got an image of a human man with the help of the detect thoughts spell. There was also clearly some affiliation with the Red Blossoms, though the tiefling was not a member.
Afterward, and while the burning building crumbled into dust behind them, the party escaped in a Water Wagon that was hidden in a secret shaft in the building, and they rode off into the sunset towards KB&S.