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Venture-Captain Hestia Themis, a woman of small stature, but great importance within Cassomir, sweeps locks of thick, raven hair away from her face. As she starts to speak, shrill horns bellow an alarm. Hestia pauses for the signal to quiet, and as the trumpeting ring fades, her booming voice continues.
“Colleagues, the city of Cassomir declared a state of emergency this morning. Late last night, a swarm of rats poured into Cassomir’s streets, spilling from every sewer grate within the Old Cassomir district. As the city guards dealt with this infestation, a large assault force of derros penetrated Swift Prison. Within a few hours, the derros emptied the Swift, and marched their new slaves into the Darklands. Normally we defer incidents like this to the authorities, but I offered our assistance. There’s an item of interest, a church bell called the bell of obedience, that may reside in Swift Prison’s chapel. We want to catalogue it and may never have another opportunity to explore the Swift unsupervised. While investigating the derro invasion, head to the chapel and inspect the bell. If possible, I want you to determine whether the Chapel’s bell is in fact the legendary bell of obedience without taking it from the prison. Cassomir’s constabulary is as of this moment fighting Cult of Nature’s Cataclysm devotees at the south entrance to the prison. The constabulary agreed to distract the cultists there so that you might approach the Swift from its north side and enter the prison from the south gate behind the cultists.”
At that moment, a teenage boy enters through the Cassomir Lodge’s front door and Themis gestures him over.
“This is Nefti—I believe some of you may know him already. Though he works with the Aspis Consortium, he helped us rescue a fellow Pathfinder when this derro business began. It seems Nefti happened to be serving a debtor’s term inside the Swift when the abductions took place. For his testimony to last night’s events we secured his release. He agreed to escort you to a spot north of the Swift where he will tell you all he knows. Any questions?”