A New Order

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## Welcome Home

The party approach Grimmholm, seeing that parts of it are burning and noting the flags with red hands on them – indicating Zaldran has control of the city. Carric casts sending to Vakon and Maurice, who provide vague replies indicating they are captured and being watched. After much complicated discussion of plans, they decide to don light disguises, fake names and a cover story (travelling magicians) and approach the city from the Wymmsly direction. They enter the city surprisingly easily, provided with a permit by the hobgoblin guard to allow them entry and exit in 2/3 days. Inside the walls, there is not much activity in the streets and the people seem on edge. It is noted that the town hall area specifically is avoided by citizens. They arrive at the dancing dagger to see if we can find out any more information, when they see 2 guys (Imarus and Drayton) get thrown out of the building by hobgoblins. They ask them what was going on and what’s happening in the city, and they say Vakon, Maurice and Rayner were captured along with anyone else who fought back when they invaded. The party then went to lurk in the bushes and talk more about the situation with them, where they explain that they are rebels against Zaldran and they're trying to kick up a fuss where possible. It is also revealed that Zaldran is currently not in Grimmholm, and instead substitute captain Merdug is in charge. Imarus and Drayton are wowed by the fact that the party are the well-known people who dealt with the snakes, and are happy to try to assist us in creating a distraction to lure the guards away from the outpost should we need to sneak in there. They introduce the party to someone called Gidget who has a glass eye which Carric is interested in receiving.

He offers to hand it over for 10gp and Zaldran's sock, so the party decline. The party then purchase rooms in the Silver Badger in and prepare a plan to let Kiira take a look inside the guard outpost. Carric casts Invisibility on her and Mirik casts Enhance Ability to increase her dexterity. After failing to climb over the wall she slips through a gap into the compound and after doing a sweep of the exterior finds roughly 20-30 hobgoblins inside the building. She sneaks in through the scaffolding covering gaping hole in Harmend's office and begins to look around for a prison cell. She narrowly avoids some hobgoblins wandering through, but draws their attention by throwing a ball bearing and getting bumped by one as she tries to squeeze past one of them. After finding several offices, a locked door to the interrogation chamber and an unmarked door she escapes successfully before too much heat is garnered. Whilst this was occuring, the other party members had a surprisingly pleasant interaction with the hobgoblin guard before heading back to the Inn to wait for Kiira's return. She comes back and informs them of the brief pieces of information she has. Carric and Mirik put on an evening magic performance for the Inn. Sometime in the night, Carric recieves a message from Maurice telling him that she is being held in a cell underneath the Guard Outpost, but there is a secret tunnel that leads right to it that can be accessed via a hidden button in the Temple of Gold. She warns him that the hobgoblins guard the prison heavily. Hearing this, the party have a brief discussion and plan to continue their business in the morning...