Out with a Bang

***Zor, Eyre 19, 993 YK***

Hohenheim, still unconscious, was taken into custody and the remainder of the group followed the officers to the city watch headquarters. On the way, Siegfried discovered a note that had been slipped into his pocket. The note was from Chance and read: “Find my missing man, Ril, and return him to me. You have one week.” It seemed that their plea to Chance hadn’t fallen on deaf ears after all. When they arrived at the watch tower, they spoke with captain Vick and convinced him to let them speak to Hohenheim in his cell. Hohenheim told them to speak with Dr. Jones at House Cannith in the hopes that he could do something to get Hohenheim out of jail.

The party left Hohenheim, but before leaving, decided to speak with Vick about his “dealings” with Chance and the Tyrants. After some urging, he admitted that the watch sometimes looks the other way when the Tyrants ask them to. They are specifically turning a blind eye to the abduction of a changeling known as Ril because the Tyrants wish to deal with it themselves. Also while in the tower, Rohagar was approached by a woman seeking help. She recognized that Rohagar was in House Tharask and asked her to help find her missing husband, Nayan d’Cannith. He’d last been seen at the park in Dragon Towers when the two were having lunch. Rohagar told the woman that she’d look into it. The party deduced that kidnappings were becoming an issue and that they may all be related. So far they’d heard about two shifters from Daask, Kaziim and Fenn, Ril, and now Nayan d’Cannith.

They made their way out of the tower and headed to House Cannith to meet with Dr. Jones. There, they told him of Hohenheim’s plight, while leaving out the specifics of his arrest. Jones apologized, stating that the House’s policy was not to interfere in the duties of local law enforcement. If a member of the House breaks the law, they are dealt with like any other criminal. The party also asked him about Nayan d’Cannith, but he didn’t really know the individual well and had only vaguely heard about the situation. He also mentioned that he wasn’t surprised the Houses weren’t doing more about it, as he feels they don’t do enough for their members.

On the way out, they were stopped by Dalen d’Cannith, who apologized for Merrix’s behavior the last time they’d met. He didn’t know why Merrix had refused to help Hohenheim, but he wasn’t about to let a House member be turned away so quickly. He gave them a copy of Hohenheim’s House credentials and told them to come to him if they needed any help. He asked if he was going to regret helping Hohenheim. “Probably” was the answer they gave him. Meanwhile, Hohenheim was busy breaking out of jail. He spent time prying a bar off of the cell door and had begun squeezing his way through the newly-created gap.

The party returned to the city watch tower. While they attempted to bargain with Vick for Hohenheim’s release, he extricated himself from the jail cell. Also, as the party made to depart, a hooded shifter entered the city watch tower and pulled forth an Eberron dragonshard from his cloak. With stilted speech, he said “Now you will see what House Tarkanan can do.” At which point, his partially-concealed aberrant dragonmark began to glow hotly and the dragonshard flickered. A brief moment later, the man exploded. Fire and arcane energy erupted forth from him, tearing his body apart, and causing a great amount of damage to the nearby area, reaulting in a number of injuries and deaths of city watch officers and civilians.

Hohenheim, seeing this as an opportunity, decided to reveal his escape to the remaining city watch. Not only that, but he took credit for the attack that had just taken place. They attempted to recapture him, but during their attack, Hohenheim cast a spell to disguise himself as a changeling while out of sight, and then feigned death after he was injured. Believing him to be dead, the House Jorasco medics bagged him and tagged him and took him with the other victims to the local morgue. There, Hohenheim regained consciousness, disguised himself as a halfling, stole a lab coat, and departed the Jorasco facility, meeting back up with the party after they gave statements to the city watch testifying that they didn’t realize Hohenheim was a changeling.