Session+of+October+19

=Sterngate, Breland -- 22-24 Olarune 998 YK=

Evening, 22 Olarune

 * Sterngate was never meant to be a refugee center, yet the fortress, already overcrowded with nearby villagers, soldier reinforcements, and a few nameless adventurers, now has to find space for 250 freed Cyran slaves and another 100 Gnomes.
 * That evening, in an alcove above a crowded dining hall, a middle-aged Cyran woman is found dead, killed with a table knife found by the body. Words were carved into her body. The Slayer of Cyre's Children had struck again.

23 Olarune

 * Husband, a Warforged working for House Vadalis, has been tirelessly caring for the horses entrusted to Sterngate's Livery stables for the past two years. He reported that his boss, Dover d'Vadalis, had abruptly saddled his Magebred Horse, mumbled something about business he had to attend to at PrairieHearth (the Vadalis enclave), and ridden off. This had taken place two nights ago.
 * The northbound Lightning Rail from Zilargo brings an entire House Sivis Message Station -- speaking stones, transcription gear, Gnome notaries, the works. They set up shop in a sturdy tent next to the House Ghallanda Inn in the huge assembly courtyard. Message activity from the freed Gnomes is immediate and intense.
 * The southbound Lightning Rail takes the first group of freed Gnomes back to Zilargo -- and somehow, the rest of the Gnomes are already dressed in proper clothes and look comparatively well-fed. The Cyrans, for their part, are still reeling from the murder the night before.

24 Olarune

 * Golandar Kolkarun, Sir Crest, Elatzi d'Medani, Ariel the Dark Lantern, Rock Silverbreath of Clan Droranath and Marcus Meldrum of the Sovereign Host took two wagons into Marguul Pass, hoping to either flush out the Manifest Legion mercenaries who had attacked the last decoy caravan or find evidence that they'd been there.
 * Climbing more than a half-mile above sea level in the first ten miles, the group bypassed the trash-strewn campsite where the Bugbears had been, following the tracks of two horses into a narrow canyon leading to a small cottage. Terraces for crops were cut into the hillside, bare in the midwinter chill.
 * Instead of the Manifest Legion, they found a pack of Dire Wolves, feeding on the carcass of a horse. The pack leader, a Fiendish Dire Wolf, eviscerated one of the horses pulling a wagon. The House Orien drivers abandoned the wagons, but eventually the groups managed to defeat the wolves. The pack leader, injured, fled into a cave. The party had yet to decide if they would go further into the canyon to find the other horse, and maybe their riders, or pursue the wounded creature into its lair.
 * // Let's say they chose the cave... //
 * Pursuing the wounded creature into the cave, the party found that it had a mate: A Winter Wolf with a litter of newly-whelped pups. They managed to defeat the she-wolf and the wounded pack leader, but not before Rock took the brunt of the Winter Wolf's breath weapon (which didn't really hurt him) and the Fiendish wolf's Smite (which did). Marcus stabilized Rock, as Golandar moved to slay the pups, who were clearly less than a week old.
 * Elatzi had a better idea: Three Fiendish Winter Wolf pups would be highly valuable to House Vadalis. Bringing them to their enclave should guarantee an audience, and perhaps a tour of the grounds. From there, it would be possible to determine what the House has been up to...breeding Worgs and small Winter Wolves for the Goblins, not delivering Magebred Horses for paying customers, and holding members of their own House captive.
 * Before moving out, they checked on the dead horses and riders. One was a magebred horse with a Human rider wearing Brelish livery; the other was a standard riding horse with a Hobgoblin rider from the //Rhukaan Taash// Clan -- Lhesh Haruuc's birth clan. The savaged remains of a diplomatic pouch were found. The Darguun horse was wearing //Horseshoes of Speed//; the Brelish rider wore a //Ring of the Darkhidden// and Low-Light vision goggles.
 * With the danger passed, the Orien drivers returned to duty, and the group loaded the two corpses on a wagon and found a way to secure the three pups. Marcus kept them alive with healing and a modified Create Food during the trip back to Sterngate.
 * When the group passed the Bugbear campsite again, they found a cluster of Kobolds ransacking the debris for anything of value. One Kobold came to the party and said he had something to show them. "Something" was two things: An Orc corpse -- the archer you'd handed over to the Bugbears -- and a Brelish-army-issue breastplate lying in the mud and snow. The breastplate's front and back halves had once been riveted together, and there was blood on the inside surfaces. Before rejoining its fellows (dragging the breastplate behind it), it says: "Chok'ma wants you to know...Quiet Grave has your scent now. He freed the Druid, but they parted ways. None of you are safe."