15th of Sypheros
Morgan awakened to a knock on his door. A courier delivered an invitation addressed to all three of them - Baron Trelib d'Medani, patriarch of the House of Detection, requested that they join him for dinner that very evening. When he next met his companions, they discussed the invitation and agreed to attend. They spent the day doing some follow-up investigation (including visiting Victor again, though they discovered that he had not been seen for a few days at his local haunts). That evening, they arrived at Baron Trelib's townhouse in Dragon Towers and dined with him.
After supper, Baron Trelib revealed the real purpose of the meeting - he needed them to find his daughter Zelina and the Silver Basilisk, a family heirloom that went missing a week ago (Zelina was trying to track it down when she also disappeared). He told them a bit about the Basilisk, including that it was stolen before by one of the Notorious Six (Vraam, the changeling), and subsequently recovered by Victor Saint-Demain. They pressed him when Gerard sensed that he was holding back, and they learned several things:
-Baron Trelib would have gone to Victor before them, but he had a falling out with the inquistive over a month ago when Victor tried to join the Warning Guild. It was an unprecedented request, as he was not even a half-elf, much less a blood relative of the Medani family, but Victor ensured his own refusal by approaching Baron Trelib with his usual haughty, arrogant demeanor. This argument occured on the 6th of Rhaan.
-House Medani's Sharn enclave is currently quite desperate; they've lost many personnel in the past few months due to the escalating gang wars (and even more recently, due to the unusually violent Wildnight celebrations). Their reputation (and the Baron's, even moreso) is hanging on the success of the prison in Wroat that he worked so hard to have built, and the escape of the Notorious Six is not helping matters much. Because of these things, his enclave is also hard up for cash, which means that the reward he can offer the companions for their services is modest at best.
-Morgan remembered something he heard long before the meeting; Baron Trelib is a close personal friend of King Boranel. He realized that the long-term benefits of having an influential man like Baron Trelib in their debt might outweigh the cons of taking a job with such meager monetary rewards.
They asked for Zelina's notes on the case of the Silver Basilisk, as well as something that Zelina owned (specifically, a comb with some of her hairs attached). Trelib promised to send a courier first thing tomorrow morning with both of these items.
"A Twitchy Old Fence"
16th of Sypheros
Once again, Morgan was woken by a knock on his door; a Medani courier had finally arrived with the items the Baron had promised to deliver, including the case file on the second Silver Basilisk theft as well as a silver comb belonging to Zelina with a few loose strands of dark hair attached. He contacted Esan and told him that they would all meet at the Cathedral of the Cleansing Flame, where Gerard lives.
When Morgan arrived and called on Gerard, the Thranish clerks were somewhat unhelpful, and Esan ended up arriving before Gerard was even summoned. Once they were all gathered, they reviewed the case file together. The only lead that seemed worthwhile was the name of an illicit exports dealer named Vraam Poli (there were several other names on the list with Vraam, but they were all crossed off). They decided to visit this Vraam at the listed address in Boldrei's Hearth.
When they arrived, they discovered that the address was actually an inn called the Copper Kukri; a full parade was in march just outside the door, giving the whole main street a rather carnival-esque appearance. They stepped out of the cacaphony into the Kukri, and were met by a doorman called Yuri. After a healthy bribe he was pleasant, though ultimately unhelpful. He said that Vraam was out enjoying the celebrations, but should be back soon. Gerard spotted an old man sitting at a booth near the door who seemed very interested in their conversation. He told the others this as they sat down to wait, and they agreed that the old man was probably Vraam. He walked out of the Copper Kukri while they were deciding what to do. They followed, and Esan spotted the old man trying to slip away into the crowd. Esan took off like an arrow in flight, catching up to their mark quickly and subduing him.
They took him into an alley and interviewed him. He was in fact Vraam; he tried to bluster his way out of his predicament at first, but when he realized he was cornered, he became slightly more helpful. He did in fact receive a visit from Zelina, but he had no interest in an item as 'hot' as the Silver Basilisk. He did muse to Zelina that if it were him, he'd have the Basilisk melted down and moved out as something less conspicuous. Simple divinations would reveal its original form, which would be enough for many unscrupulous collectors who disliked the House of Detection. He mentioned the name of a silver smith whom he knew was shifty enough to do such a thing - Calinto Mulhar, a recent immigrant from the Shadow Marches who lived in Cassan Bridge. He mentioned this same name to Zelina, who seemed very interested in Calinto when she left. The companions noted that Zelina most likely disappeared shortly after her meeting with Vraam, so they decided to go to Cassan Bridge.
"Shining Star Silver"
16th of Sypheros - late afternoon
When they arrived at Shining Star Silver in Cassan Bridge, they found it in complete disarray. Calinto was brutally murdered minutes before they arrived, and his shop was torn to pieces. Closer inspection of his body revealed that he was beaten to death, most likely by someone's bare fists. They did find something very conspicuous in Calinto's workshop, however; the last mold he used was for the handle of a cane. Morgan's experience as a crafter revealed something more - it wasn't balanced for a regular cane, but a sword cane. Morgan recalled that Victor uses a sword cane, and their suspicions of him grew at an alarming rate. They agreed that they should scry on Zelina before doing anything else. Morgan found a large puddle in an alley off the street, and began casting the spell. It succeeded, and he saw Zelina bound and gagged in a windowless cell that might have once been an office, if the ruined furnishings at the edges of the wall were any indication. During the scrying, the door opened once, and Morgan caught a glimpse of Durok's wide, broken face peering in on the prisoner.
"Falling Through the Gray"
16th of Sypheros - dusk
They decided to visit Victor next, but as they were leaving, they became trapped in a bit of pedestrian congestion - some sort of commotion up ahead was blocking the road. A goblin woman pushed past them with a basket balanced on her back. She dropped it 'accidentally', and several dangerous vipers uncoiled and attacked Morgan and Esan. The woman used the distraction to deadly effect; she took her walking stick and swung it with surprising force at Gerard's neck, which cracked with a sickening crunch. Morgan and Esan watch helplessly as their stalwart friend collapsed, dead before he hit the ground. The subsequent fighting was short and brutal - Gerard's killer used several potent spells against them, but suffered several counterattacks including a freezing blast from Esan and a ray of exhaustion from Morgan; in the meantime, Morgan's metal dog Skoth tore into the vipers, who found their dangerous poisons useless against the homunculus. Eventually, she was brought down, severely weakened by Morgan's necromancies so that she could not resist Esan's death grip. They interrogated her just long enough to learn that she worked for Khelizan, who apparently hasn't given up on them yet; like the previous assassins, she did not know where the execution order originated. Esan snapped her neck while Morgan plunged a dagger into her stomach, and they took Gerard's body back to the Cathedral, hoping for a miracle.
"Archeirophant Ythanna Morr"
Gerard was apparently too valuable of an asset to the Church to be discarded when a method existed to have him returned. One of the few people in Khorvaire who has the means to bring back those killed by an assassin's blow happens to be Gerard's technical overseer in Sharn, the Archierophant Ythanna Morr. Ythanna agreed to use the powerful resurrection prayer on Gerard, though the cost may ultimately be higher than anyone expects. With Gerard back among them (though weakened for the moment), they continued to Victor's house in Clifftop as they had originally planned.
"CAUTION: These Materials May Be Highly Combustible"
They found Victor's place dark and locked up. After some deliberation, they broke in and searched the place; it was in major disarray compared to the neat order they had seen during their previous visits. Morgan searched the filing cabinets, Esan went upstairs to Victor's loft, and Gerard checked the papers on his desk. Morgan found some financial papers that revealed a few interesting things:
-Victor makes regular contributions to an orphanage in the Gate of Gold district.
-He recently made a purchase of 20,000 gp, though the report doesn't say of what
-All of his financial papers are filed by the same clerk; Bengen Burtuckle
Gerard found some interesting blueprints with all sorts of weird notes and numbers, but he could not decipher them. He called Morgan over to help. Morgan almost immediately realized that they were trajectory and speed calculations of a deadly nature; he also found a time circled on the blueprint - 5:32. This is the same time that Baron Trelib's lightning coach is scheduled to depart in just a few hours! Esan interrupted Morgan's grim musings by running down the stairs, advising them to grab what they could and get out of the building immediately. He had smelled something sulphurous upstairs, which was the only warning he needed. Seconds after Morgan ran out the front door, the water tower exploded in a brilliant ball of acid, fire and debris. A chain of subsequent detonations tore into the office and loft, obliterating Victor's old home in just a few seconds. They found bits of charred flesh and the remains of Victor's sword cane among the debris, but decided that this was inconclusive at best, considering their other evidence. They knew that the crowds of Wildnight's opening celebrations would cause no end of difficulty, so they immediately left for the Terminus Station in Lower Tavick's Landing, trying to beat their shadowy nemesis to Baron Trelib's parked rail car.
"A Moment of Brash Heroics"
They arrived at the train station less than an hour before Trelib's car was scheduled to depart. Morgan knew that the Baron would have already boarded at this point, so they didn't have much time. They rushed to Platform Twelve, but were stopped by a half-dozen warforged guards who obviously 'belonged' to House Orien, if their stylized unicorn horns were any indication. The companions managed to talk their way through, however, and they got to the Baron's car. They evacuated it, explaining to Trelib what was about to happen as they ran. Even then, they could hear the distant roar of an approaching out-of-control train. They realized that the collision would kill a lot of innocent people who wouldn't have time to evacuate the adjacent platforms, so they did something incredibly risky and brave - they boarded the Baron's private rail car and had the conductor start it up. They would ride the car out of the station and meet the approaching train head-on, away from vulnerable civilians. They started up the car and it shot out of the station like a magic missile. They managed to jump off onto adjacent platforms (with Esan holding the frightened conductor in his arms) just in time, and the two trains collided in a deafening explosion of fire, electricity and shrapnel just outside the station.
Seconds later, an arrow barely missed Baron d'Medani, instead landing in the wall just beside him. All three of the companions saw an ivory gargoyle flying away, though Scrimshaw was gone too fast for them to launch a counterattack. On the shaft of the arrow, a note was attached:
"House Medani has doomed itself with its own arrogance. You pathetic fools could not hope to catch me. There is no one in Sharn with the wit to match the greatest inquisitive in history. Tonight, the chimes at midnight will sound the death toll of the scion of House Medani.
Victor Saint-Demain
Master Inquisitive of Sharn"
