Falling Into Place

## **Synopsis:**

In Chapter 8: Falling Into Place – Beezaura, Safira and Erland stewed in the aftermath of their fight as Armand Valliard entered to address them.  What followed was a lengthy discussion that gave us a number of new leads to follow – assuming we could take the crafty Tiefling at his word.

First and foremost, we learned that Jillian had been kidnapped by a barbarian tribe that makes their home in the Chaki mountains – a few days north of Urin-Chupa.  This was peculiar for two reasons.  One, the barbarian society is a solitary one – so they rarely travel so far from home.  And two, there were rumors of a shaman from this tribe having secret meetings with Gheed Lamar, one of the ringleaders of the Gentle Void.  Armand was skeptical that Jillian would remain alive for much longer, but if we had any chance of retrieving her we would have to either track down the carriage that picked her up or sneak into the barbarian camp.

Beezaura took the conversation in a different direction – pressing for information about the Lightwhistle Estate Club.  Armand confirmed the leads that Beezaura had already acquired and added a new name to the list: the healer Michael Ainsley from Urin-Chupa.

It became clear that Armand would not be assisting us directly in any kind of rescue mission, though he filled us in on quite a bit of Jillian's backstory that could prove useful in planning our next move: how she acquired her title during the war, her first encounter with the harvesting yards and the existence of a wishlist that contained other names she believed she could trust.  Despite the wealth of information that he confided in us, Safira couldn't shake the feeling that Armand wasn't the type to do anything for free – and we concluded our discourse unsure of how to proceed.

Back in the wine cellar, Orba and Graven's deliberation was interrupted by two members of the staff who entered a state of hysteria upon discovering the slain gnolls.  It was not easy to rein them in, but we managed to lay out a plan that all parties agreed to stick to: we would fetch the Captain of the Guard and paint Graven as a brave protector, having dispatched the vicious creatures while on a routine errand to bring up barrels of wine.  The Captain was easy enough to find, but his suspicions were difficult to temper – and Graven was forced to drop his mute act and mention the involvement of Winston Muldoon.

Upon hearing the name, the Captain of the Guard's tone changed considerably.  He sent for Mr. Mollefaire, and as we waited – the Captain recalled the last time he crossed paths with Winston.  Years earlier Mr. Mollefaire had hired him to install an illegal teleportation circle, which was later used for a robbery at the estate.  Mr. Mollefaire ordered the Captain to kill Winston, but he took pity and spared the old man's life.  Our discussion was suspended when a guard returned with the news that something was going on upstairs, and we made haste to see what was happening.

At the front steps, Pullnik had arrived and was arguing with Mr. Mollefaire – desiring access to the estate as he believed there were dangerous individuals present at the tasting.  Mr. Mollefaire denied him entry, but agreed to allow Pullnik to set up a perimeter around the estate, and knowing that it was us he was looking for – Safira and Erland snuck upstairs and out the window.  Not finding the opportune moment to make a getaway, they jumped back in on the first floor to a private meeting room where Beezaura had just finished discussing business with Iris Isaiah.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: no natural ones were rolled in this Chapter.