May 6th

A total of 8 additional traps, all non-magical, are disabled by Zeiss while Kolson pours over the area. There are the standard away of mundane Woven items you'd find in any home, but nothing out of the ordinary on the magical front, though he notices that rune has faded from the Orc woman's hand. The group does find a basement, filled with an unusual assortment of what Kolson believes looks like magical analysis equipment. Nothing too advanced, though even he doesn't recognize everything down here.

When searching upstairs the group, being thorough, at first finds it to be fairly normal looking. A simple two bedroom affair, with one bathroom, one bedroom clearly belonging to the Orc. The other one is a bit odder. There's flakes of some kind of ash that they find here and there, barely noticeable, and after some thorough investigation they notice the window has very recently been opened and shut. Further, there are a few tufts of amber fur present.

The Orc Woman, if looted, was equipped with a headband, necklace, two rings, a chestpiece under her robe, the robe itself, a belt, gloves, boots, and a bracelet. All of the above are clearly magical.

Looting the house will only yield the gold stored in it (12), unless you want to grab the unknown devices down below.

Zeiss and Kolson will make sure that the Orc woman' equipment doesn't have a tracer on it or any kind of trap, then loot everything she possesses. We'll do the same thing with the gold.

Zeiss will examine the woman's body (for tattoos, scars, and such), and he will put a blanket on it once it is done.

Kolson will retrieve the ashes and the fur we found. At one point, Zeiss had negotiated with a yellow mage to cast Scan on Sareth's house when he had been kidnapped, so we'll ask this mage to do the same thing on these samples. The ashes are probably from a burned letter, so we want to know what was written on it; as for the fur, we want a description of the person it came from. We'll welcome any other details.

Zeiss will take a look at the clothes the furry person left behind to determine their race (a banderling because of the shape of their pants? a half-elf half-banderling? a lycanthrope?). With Kolson's help, he will also examine this person's possessions to profile them (what kind of person they are) and figure out which specialized shop they might have gone to.

As for the devices, we will have our people grab them to take it back to headquarters. Kolson will give directives on how to do it to make sure we don't break anything; get a cart if needed.

If the Scan results on the ashes and the fur yield results, we will keep pursuing the leads. If we do get a good description of the furry person, we'll ask the Aluvia military (through the General and his men) to arrest any suspect. Official reason: they're Separatists. Unofficial reason: they threaten the Exchange. Personal reason (which I'll tell the General only if my Persuasion fails): they might have captured Zeiss' father.

We also know the furry person wasn't alone, so they might be accompanied.

The woman in question has no tattoos or other markings of note.

(2g burnt on Scan service) The ashes apparently were organic at one point in time, but something about them is sufficiently off that the Yellow Mage can't really figure out what they were. The fur is much easier, and belonged to an older Banderling who seemed to be ill, and had a lot of magic pumping through him for some reason.

The furry person's clothes were clearly Banderling of make. Kolson takes some time attempting to profile him, which provides some oddities; for example, whoever it is never really did anything, or disturbed their room. They appeared to just sort of sit around or lay down. Most of the furnishings are coated with a layer of dust, untouched, and half the utensils in the bathroom are unused.

A cart is procured to carry all the chemical, magical, and electrical devices back to the Veil. Another gold is burnt greasing some palms so this looks less suspicious than it is.

*ahem* Where is Zeiss, personally, when the cart is being brought back towards the Veil?

With Kolson and the squads while we go back to the Veil, in case someone needs to be convinced to look away. Of course, we're discreetly prepared to hold a defensive formation if need arises.

I don't want to presume so... nearest entry-way point for the Veil or trying to be circuitous?

Nearest. Don't have time to lose. We'll try to avoid Aluvian patrols too.

The group has no trouble avoiding patrols, and due to their choice of nearest spot they thankfully avoid any Aluvian entanglements.

Upon arrival they notice the what-should-be hidden Veil entrance very open, as if physically ripped open, with ice sporadically covering the jagged edges of the ripped wall, floor, and ceiling.

*reads the post*

Well, here's the other reason of why I chose the nearest Veil entrance, but I have to admit I didn't think we would get anything from it.

We'll make sure they didn't blast this entrance just to throw us off their trail; once we are reasonably certain they did go this way, we'll give our squads a description of who we're looking for (we know there should be at least two of them), then go in and try to capture them, alive. Zeiss and Kolson will take point to look for any tracks, magical or otherwise (any fur?). If one of our squad members is trained for this, we'll have them join us. We will spread out the squads to cover a larger area, but not too far away since we're savvy enough to know that it's a bad idea. Advoc will be in the center of this formation to serve as a liaison between everyone. The squad carrying the equipment will be in the rear.

If the yellow mage we consulted is still with us or not too far away (or even part of our squads, I know I would offer them a permanent position), we'll have them cast Scan to look for tracks.

I also warn the Blades of another possibility; we're following the trail of the people who attacked us, and not those who escaped. If that is the case, I want at least two of them alive. Be prepared, and ready your weapons.

It becomes fairly clear fairly quickly that whomever found this entrance-way has been tearing it apart as they go. The walls, ceilings, floor, and people are all blasted, ripped, broken, and in some cases frozen. More than a few corpses are found as they go. Something about the corpses bothers Kolson.

Kolson will ask for Zeiss' help in analyzing the corpses.

What races are they? What social class are they from by looking at their clothes? Any of them the people we're looking for? One faction in particular? Maybe even Exchange employees? How are they placed on the ground?  What killed them eactly? How much mana would have been required to cause so much damage?

Otherwise, we'll examine the corpses through magical means and otherwise. Weaving too.

If we don't find anything else, or do not need our input again after any discoveries made, we'll keep following whoever did that. Still cautious, but more in an hurry than before.

The corpses smell wrong, and if examined magically have a magical aura on them (all of them) that Kolson does not recognize. They are of mixed races, all lower social standing, all Exchange employees. A few are strewn over carts and one is leaned against a wall, but most have fallen to the ground. Near as you can both tell they were bludgeoning and clawed to death.

Zeiss tells the squads that we'll come back later to identify the corpses, burn them, and keep one for examination (which we'll do in a cell). For now, we have to find the thing that killed them and do something about it.

Deploy in formation, and let's keep moving.

From what Zeiss and Kolson know about Tuskers, could one of them have done this?

The squad seems shaken by the situation, but tries to keep their obvious fear from being visible. Tuskers are unlikely here, the damage is too small scale. The gashes and marks on the walls and people are from much smaller hands.

Hmm.

We'll keep moving forward. Weapons at the ready, Detect Traps check and all that.

No traps, of course, unless Zeiss decided to trap his own base.

The sounds of screaming and sickening crunches is audible ahead. Within just a couple more minutes the party will round a hallway corner and see one of their own, an Elven woman, being held bodily up in the air almost a foot by a Banderling man of some kind, claws bared and hissing incoherently. There is an odd odor in the air, almost acrid, and the freshly dead are littered about you.

Kolson, after a moment's thought, realizes he recognizes the Banderling, though only barely; It is Zigund of Seeker.

Kolson quickly says "It's Zigund", which Zeiss doesn't really care about right now since one of his people is going to get killed by this "thing".

Zeiss will attempt to take advantage of Zigund's supposed hate for him, and attracts his attention by yelling "Hey, ugly bastard!" and run up to him with the intention to free the woman from Zigund's grasp by attacking him. As soon as Zeiss has his attention, Advoc uses one of his two remaining uses of spells for the day and cast Pillar of Light on Zigund.

Pillar of Light:

Zeiss' weapons:

Kolson commands the squads to follow this plan; surround Zigund and attack him, and as soon as someone is injured, they switch up with one of their colleagues to keep the pressure on him. Meanwhile, two squad members will rescue the elven woman.

Once it's safe to do so, Kolson will dual-cast Fire spells on Zigund, maximized.

Orb of Firerend: