"Hrmph, no. But we must find this 'Lorielei the Divine Hand' person quickly."
"that sounds like an excellent plan, do we have a place to start looking? "
"The temple, i think."
Kirin nods. "Any of you happen to be familiar with the Church?" He talks as they walk, making conversation more than anything else.
Absylon arrives at the cannith compound to begin talks...
And this is one of the places where House Cannith manufactures the products that makes society in Khorvaire, and to a lesser extent Sarlona, go around.
------------------------
IN WROAT:
Finding churches belonging to the Sovereign Host in Wroat should be easy. Wroat's the size of Saint Louis and it's twin, Saint Paul (i.e. Central City in DC Comics' universe). Finding Lorielei the Divine Hand is soon going to be harder than you think.
(at level 5, some of you should have Perception +9 or better, so we'll reduce this to a Perception roll - saving time on RPing legwork and investigation. I suggest you take 20, just rolling means about an hour's work. Taking twenty can mean a whole day, or three days of work. -- deduct about 5 GP each for food expenses.)
Aid another
Autosucceed on aid, +12
3 days later, you are led to a Church of Arawai. It's built like a Gothic Cathedral, with stained glass. It's almost like a Church of the Silver Flame, except not as Cathedric, if you get what I mean. Churches to the Sovereign Host appear more austere than the monolithical Silver Flame church houses and Cathedrals. But are no less full of light during the day.
Today is the feast of Saint Bolivar, who fought at the last stand of Wroat during the War of the Mark, and routed House Tarkannan for the land of Breland. There is a passion play in the streets about the battle.
The woman you are looking for definitely serves here, but no way to discern her from the throng of feast goers.
Absylon walks up to the door and will knock or if guards are present speak, greetings gentleman, I am here on business to speak with the artificers. Would you allow me in?
diplomacy
Without informing the others of what he is looking for, Xov searches for hints as to why or whether anyone here is connected to Cannith:
"This is probably work better done by one of you. People tend not to like my questioning methods."
Ebran, too, keeps his eyes out for their target. Her being a Cannith, he looks perhaps for folks wearing garments that seem odd in order to cover up an inopportune dragonmark.
It certainly is taking awhile to find anything in here.
A woman wearing clothes was passing candy to the kids. She is wearing a full dress, with a split leg going up her left, and to her waist. Her clothes are purple and white, and she had the symbol of the sovereign host embroidered on her left breast. She's unusual since she is wearing a high collar. Other than that, she was slim, and where the dress could reveal -- she had muscular sinuous left leg.
Her eyes were peircing, however.
Ebran grabs Xov's attention and surreptitiously points her out to him.
Kirin tries to subtly question the servants of the Church. He notices when Ebran signals Xov and moves over to speak with the woman. His own House affiliation is plain to see in his expensive Lyrandar blue and silver clothes, his signet ring, and the Lyrandar crest he wears as a pendant.
The young half-elven noble smiles at her and the children. "Suffer the children to come unto the Host, for theirs is the future," he quoted the famous Sovereign Host saying.
"What? Who are you?" she asks.
Kirin's smile doesn't slip and he glances off as one of the children runs back to his parents with a piece of candy. He looks back at the woman. "Kirin d'Lyrandar." He puts out a hand to shake with the woman. "A pleasure, Miss..."
Xov observes the person Ebran points out.
Something about her seems suspicious...
She slaps Kirin's hand away. "Please don't do that until we are properly introduced!" she says.
Kirin's grin turns wry as he withdraws his hand. He turns his head from side to side as if looking for someone. "I hadn't realized formal introductions were necessary. Who shall I draft to make them?" He doesn't sound insulted in the least at having his hand slapped away. If anything, he sounds amused and still quite pleasant.
Hrph, this woman displays the lack of manners typical of the Brelish. But something seems off about her...
She then says, "I am Michaelina d'Cannith, how do you do?" she says. Shaking your hand. "Sorry about being off guard, the King of Blades have been after me for the last month and one half."
King of Blades...who does that refer to?
And she freely acknowledges herself as a Cannith heir, despite supposedly posing as another. Strange.
"Sounds like a bad customer. I'd be jumpy, too, if someone called the King of Blades was after me." Kirin smiles at Michaelina. "I don't mean to be forward, but... is it anything I might be able to help with? I am always available to help a lady in need." From his mouth it sounded more like a line than an offer of help, but he was, after all, a Lyrandar. From his clothes and his manner Kirin clearly had means.
Othan lets others do the talking, but scans the crowd for any signs of trouble.
Perception
Ebran, too, keeps an eye out for trouble.
"Yes, well, shall we go into my office?" she leads you into the church.
Kirin smiles and nods. "Lead on, lady." He follows her wherever she leads.
Ebran looks for any identifying marks on the warforged before whispering to Xov that they are perhaps being spied upon.
As Ebran follows her, Xov slips within the crowd, and adjusts his magical hat to assume the appearance of a slim, dark-haired Brelish human. Then, he catches up with the group and his quarry and follows Ebran and Kirin.
bump
The office she has happens to be an out of the way Vestuible (auggh!) and she says. "Okay, so you are the ones Caius said that were coming, and you had a question for me?"
Kirin nods. "He said to ask you about the destruction in Eston."
Xov initially remains silent as Kirin speaks, waiting for the proper moment to interject.
There is a possibility that our Citidel contact already knows the information I seek from this Cannith sorcerer, so I must be careful about handling this.
(Sorry to make you wait two weeks)
"Oh yes, the destruction in Eston," she said. "It's simple, we don't know how it was done, but a black cloud came from what we thought was the center of Cyre. More like a gray mist under a black cloud. It was slow moving enough for my family and I to escape, but not on the last Lightning Train out.
"When the mist came it over came Eston, things blew up and a whole regiment of undead from Karnnath was swallowed. Then the Cannith factory in Eston also blew up suddenly. I wondered if our Creation Forge was also destroyed, but it wasn't. However, in return of my reports, I'd like to ask a favor.
"There is a dungeon near New Cyre and the Cyran Mournland border. I want you to go in there and get a Cannith puzzle box."
Kirin wrinkles his nose in distaste. "A dungeon in the wilderness? I'd much rather climb down into a sewer. At least then you'd know you'd be able to take a bath and have a drink when you came back out."
He sighs and looks down at himself for a moment. His fine clothes would look out of place in a manicured urban park, much less out in the middle of nowhere. Eventually, though, he shakes his head and looks back at the woman. "But I can never say no to a woman in need. If you give us a map I'm sure we can see to it."
She provides you with a map to an old Cyran fort two miles east of New Cyre. "I won't give you my report unless you bring me that puzzle box," she says.
Ebran looks to Xov. "On the way, we will need any recent intel we can pick up. Old defenses, new defenses, recent sightings in the area."
'Cannith South hiding something'? Maybe this is related.
Still disguised, Xov speaks up
"You may have my assurance that we shall retrieve this box for you, Ms. Michaelina. "
He pauses before adding,
"Since you do not seem to truly be a part of this temple, where shall we find you when we return?"
She acknowledged her dragonmarked status before we had even introduced ourselves, he though,
so she cannot be too careful. Let us see what she will inadvertently reveal.
Kirin nods at the woman and stands, smiling at her. "Hopefully when we return with your puzzle box you and I can talk more. Over dinner?"