Campaign 1 • Chapter 14

## Violent Ends

Within a few days, the party returns to Silverthorne on a cold morning at the end of the month of Yule. The three day festival of the Winter Solstice is well underway and they approach the gate to the sounds of music and festivity. They are greeted by Alyssa and Evan at the gates, where the two inform them that they are currently waiting on the delegation from the Vigil Protectorate to arrive. Both are dressed in expensive finery, but though in public they are cheerful and bombastically friendly, once taken into a private room in the gatehouse they quickly appraise the party of the situation.

According to Dwent, the recipe and supplies they found in the separatist hideout were ingredients for a substance known as Drakenfyr, a highly explosive liquid that activated when exposed to the slightest amount of arcane energy. If placed in the right place in the sewers, it could blow up the entire citadel, taking with it the important nobles that would be at the gala the following day, including the Vigil delegates. However, sending guards to scour the city in the middle of the most important festival of the year would cause mass panic, so the situation had to be handled discreetly.

The party agree to meet up with Evan that evening at an inn called The Sun and Cider, which has an entrance into the sewer system regularly used by the Crimson Veil. Making their way there, the party runs into Evelyn, who tells them that she had come to the city for the festival. She rejoins the group, and with Evan leading the way they head into the sewers under the cover of darkness.

Taking a quick route towards the sewers beneath the main keep, they find the gates broken into, and shortly after run into resistance as a group of separatists tries to delay them. Fighting their way inch by inch through the sewers, disarming the explosive barrels along the way, they finally manage to clear all eight they find without setting any off, wiping out the small group of separatists that were guarding them.

Exhausted, they return with Evan to the surface, and he takes them to his office in the citadel, where he leaves them to rest while he informs the Queen of the developments. While sleeping, Castiel has a vivid dream where he sees the same abstract humanoid figure of crackling white energy holding out a hand to him. When he takes it, a tendril of that energy connects them and builds into an almost uncomfortable heat. When it snaps, a wave of exhaustion washes over Castiel. The entity then shows him the same distant silhouette of a mountain cliff with towers rising at its peak, and the vision ends.

Several hours later, Evan returns with Aldred Dwent in tow, and the group settles down to celebrate and have a few drinks. While relaxing and discussing the events of the past few days, Aldred ponders how the separatists managed to get twelve large barrels of such a dangerous liquid into the city. Confused, the party says they found only eight, and Aldred informs them that he had sent a messenger with the exact number the previous night. As the realisation abruptly dawns they hear a low rumble beneath their feet, followed shortly by a massive explosion. The last thing the party sees is the roof and walls of the office collapsing inward, and then nothing but darkness.