Adventure 55

**Real World Date: 3/1/2020**

**In Game Dates: December 30th, 5001 M.E. - January 1st, 5002 M.E.**

**XP: 5000 (Total: 247,418)**

## NPCs Met This Adventure

* Thewlin Mandrake - lawyer hired by General Cornelius to help with Zorna’s case
* Ulmora Redshield - current captain of the Urban Ward
* Blade - drug dealer working out of the **Drunken Pegasus**, sells Dragon’s Blood
* Orlanna - college student who took Aust and ”Trish” to a party where Dragon’s Blood is being sold
* Zenyr - distributor and dealer of Dragon’s Blood in Almonte
* Tevra Felheim - Dwarven priestess of Aubade and member of the Almonte Conclave

## Summary

### Half-Brothers and Half-Drow

Aust is notified of a disturbance in the jail cells of Fort Ostoril and heads down as someone is requesting his presense. He arrives and finds Avar Pelegrin. After some conversation, he also sees a vision of Avar's history, realizing he was overdosed with the **Sacred Elixir** because the cult thought he was a chosen one, but the prophecy was that the first born would be the chosen one, and his father, before conceiving him in a ritual, had Velcora Shadowblade locked up in his barn and she was pregnant with Aust before. Avar is his half brother.

Aust takes him and sets him up with a room to be taken care of. He is met by Maris who is in her true form. She offers to accompany the group to Almonte. She doesn't know who is there, but she has seen many of them in person and if she is with them, she might recognize the member of **The Sisterhood** that is undercover in Almonte. The same is also true the other way, so she shapechanges into a Half-Drow woman and claimed she will go by "Trishdara" or "Trish".

### Visiting the Prisoner

After some housekeeping and arranging for a short list for Deputy Ministers, the party teleport to Almonte, with Rabbit and Maris in tow. They arrive at the Teleportation Hub in the Embassy District and are asked to sign in. Wrax convinces the man there that his name plus entourage will suffice. They head to the Prison District to find Zorna. Upon arriving there, they have to sign in and surrender their weapons. The area is protected from teleportation and magic. They leave Rabbit and Maris out in the lobby as they go inside.

Upon arriving to the cell which is solitary and alone, they find Zorna meeting with Thewlin Mandrake, a lawyer. They question him, discovering he was paid by General Cornelius to defend her in court. Her reputation is destroyed as she was arrested and dragged through the quad at school, making sure almost everyone saw her get arrested. Dhamon offers her a position at his **Lost Star Spire** when this is over. In the mean time, they ask her who could be responsible for the corruption and distribution of Dragon’s Blood. She says this goes all the way to the top.

### Splitting the Party

The party split up. Aust finds out there is a local drug dealer at the **Drunken Pegasus** named Blade. With Maris accompanying him as “Tishdora”, they head to the bar and identify him. When they approach him, they pretend they are looking for his supplier because they wish to help sell Dragon’s Blood. Blade is more concerned with hitting on Orlanna at the bar and getting invited to a party she is going to. Maris works her charm and gets Orlanna to invite them all to the party.

Wrax decides to take up a more direct approach. He takes on the disguise as “The Rat” and has Rabbit take on the guise of his servant, “Gregory”. They go to the common area at the **Pentad School of Wizadry** and begin offering the sell of a new drug instead (Called “Ozz”, made of crushed up Pieces of Ovmar), telling the kids to spread the word that this is his territory now. He also makes it obvious where he is staying and after an after an afternoon of great sales, he returns to the inn to set the trap.

Dhamon heads to the main barracks of the Urban Ward in the Garrison District, convincing one of the guards to let him meet with Ulmora Redshield. She is standoffish and not very helpful, but she claims her participation of allowing the Dragon’s Blood to sell on the streets is only because she follows orders. Other than that vague statement, she is short and asks Dhamon to leave. He does so, suspecting she knows more than she is telling. He heads back to the inn.

### After Party and Hotel Rooms

Aust, Maris, Blade, and Orlanna head to the party. Blade Sells some Dragon’s Blood but he also gets pretty drunk. He tries and fails to hook up with Orlanna. Maris actually disappears with Orlanna upstairs and claims she will meet Aust back at the inn. Aust asks some questions of the drunk Blade and get a name: Zenyr, his distributor. With that information Aust heads back to the inn.

Wrax and Rabbit wait up at the inn, waiting for an attack. Rabbit stays downstairs as a scout. Eventually he runs up and into the room, telling Wrax that several thugs came in asking about “The Rat” and some people gave them this room number. The thugs think they have the drop, but Wrax tears them up pretty quickly, interrogating one of them. They tell him they were sent by Zenyr and they tell him where he can be found.

### Burn it to the Ground

After the party regroups at the inn, they head to find Zenyr. They turn invisible and move through the crowds unnoticed as they make their way to a shop that is a front for Zenyr’s operation. They find a secret trap door leading downstairs and sneak up on Zenyr meeting with a couple lieutenants. They take out the men and Zenyr surrenders.

He has little information on what Dragon’s Blood actually is or comes from, be he has a map of all his distribution locations are, including this basement, which is filled with Dragon’s Blood. Dhamon instructs Zenyr to leave town and never return. He agrees and leaves. The party burn this place to the ground and head out to the other eight places, burning them as well. They then return to the inn to sleep.

### Everyone is a Suspect

Wrax and Maris have the ability to move into the Ethereal Plane so they do that to follow Ulmora Redshield as she is summoned to the chambers of the Almonte Conclave. All the members of the council are there, and they ask about the fires last night and for Ulmora Redshield to update them on the investigation regularly. They are interested on what was going on and who destroyed all those buildings. Maris states that none of the appearances of the council seem familiar, so either none of them are actual members of the **Sisterhood** or they are in disguise.

The party regroup and realize they need to have a private talk with Ulmora since getting Aust close can allow him to see if there is an illusion. They also need direction on who exactly might be pulling the strings as none of the council members seem more suspicious than others. They sneak into her house at night, while festivities for the New Year celebration are going on outside. They reveal themselves and ask her direct questions.

### Eliminating Suspects

Ulmora Redshield tells them she gets orders from the council, and these orders cannot be faked or sent by anyone but a member of the council. However, it doesn’t need to be signed, and the orders didn’t have a handwriting she recognized (it could have been dictated). So one of the council members was telling her to release Zenyr when he was originally arrested and sent the anonymous tip to arrest Zorna. She can tell it doesn’t add up, but she has to follow orders.

They do ask which members of the council voted for Almonte troops to be sent abroad to Seldarindor (which is what the **Sisterhood** wanted). She states of the eight members, only four voted and the tie vote always falls to the Premier, Miranda, who voted for yes. Only **Ethmore**, **Josiah**, **Nephora**, and Tevra voted yes. The rest voted no. **Josiah** is the leader of the University District where the drug first started selling, but the most suspicious in Ulmora’s opinion, is Tevra. Her vote seemed out of character.

### It’s Not What It Looks Like

The party sneak into the residence of Tevra Felheim in the Civic District. They find a room guarded by two guards on the second floor. They quietly take out the guards but the door is locked. They fail at attempting to pick the lock, so they move onto the master bedroom. They find Tevra sleeping alone in her room. They wake her up and claim she is in no danger, but she runs out of the room and down the hall. She sees the unconscious guards and runs into the room with her key. She finds two Dwarven children safe asleep in their room. Upon seeing they are okay, she returns to her room.

She explains her vote was done because someone kidnapped her children. She would have never voted yes, but she had no choice. Aust can see she is who she claims she is, and since Maris does not recognize her, that means she is not a member of the **Sisterhood**. However, a **Sisterhood** member did kidnap and blackmail this council member to get a yes vote. There are eight more people that sat on that council and they need to find the one that’s behind all is.

As they finish their conversation with Tevra Felheim, the rest of the city celebrates the new year beginning....