Moving up the stairs behind her companions, Miakoda points at the Red Mantis guarding the top of the staircase. "This one will fall as the others did. Let the sons and daughters of the Mantis God walk in their own blood for a change."
HP 68/81
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (-2 to all when raging), DR 4/-, 2 cold resistance
Fort +10, Ref +5, Will +3 (+2 Will when raging) [Defiant luck]
CMD 24 (26 vs. grapple)
Rage: 1/24; Harrow points: 2/3; Auspicious Mark (1d6+1) 0/1; Defiant Luck: 0/1
Effects: RAGE!, blessing of fervor
"Where's Vencarlo!" Nebbin demands as he moves past Emi to attack. Ignoring the fire for a moment, he barely gives the Mantis a chance to answer before driving his blade into the assassin's chest.
ENDRIN ISLE: Garrison Hill--Vencarlo's Home (19 Desnus)
It appears that the last assassin would rather die than betray his order...so Nebbin obliges him; the man's essence turns to red mist, mixing with the black smoke from the spreading fire. Speaking of spreading fire...even as Nebbin takes a deep breath after cutting down the last assassin, he notices the flames dancing rapidly toward him, filling almost all the room.
At the foot of the stairs, Miakoda's whiskers twitch irritably. "Anyone else smell that? A chemical odor?"
Andrezi says something in Auran, the language of air elementals. The small summoned creature transforms into a tiny whirlwind, moving to literally suck the flames away from any source of fuel for it to burn.
Emi orders everyone else to check for any places they may have neglected to look downstairs, and starts calling out for Vencarlo in the burning room. She moves around to get a view of the room as best she can while avoiding the flames. The smoke and heat (and that's all, nothing else! sez Emi) are causing her eyes to tear and water so badly she can hardly see a thing.
Gasping as combat ends -- and then coughing as he inhales smoke -- Nebbin looks around to see if he can spot Vencarlo. If they can save him, the house itself doesn't really matter.
ENDRIN ISLE: Garrison Hill--Vencarlo's Home (19 Desnus)
Neither Emi nor Nebbin sees any sign of Vencarlo through the raging inferno upstairs. The efforts of Andrezi's summoned elemental help battle the blaze a bit, but any flames it manages to scoop up and expel from the home seem to be renewed by the rest of the rapidly spreading conflagration. Also, they seem to weaken the elemental as well each time it willingly sucks up any flames into its form.
Downstairs, Firinne and Miakoda, begin to search the other rooms downstairs that your group bypassed earlier. Meanwhile, Andrezi notices smoke starting to form on the ceiling of the room where you first engaged the Red Mantis assassin.
"Nothing!" Firinne calls out as loud as she can after opening the door to the nearest room. Miakoda pounces off the stairs, rushes to the next closest room, and opens its door. "No sign of Vencarlo!" she yells.
"We can't just leave if he might be in there!" Nebbin yells to Emi . "Andrezi, do you have anymore magic that could help?"
"I've got a spell that might serve. Let's get close, and I'll conjure some magical water."
Emi is eager to put Andrezi's suggestion to use.
"Can you make me a path? I know the rooms, so I can get in and out quickest."
"Anyone carrying water, give it to me so I can soak myself."
Emi takes her own water and pours it over her head.
ENDRIN ISLE: Garrison Hill--Vencarlo's Home (19 Desnus)
As Andrezi fights the fire with his spell, he opens a passage for Emi to scramble forward, throw open the door to Vencarlo's sleeping chamber, and slip inside. She doesn't linger long there, but there's no answer to her calls for her instructor, nor is there any sign of the man in the room or inside the small closet off the room. Much of the clothing in the closet remains, indicating that Vencarlo didn't take his time, pack up, and leave in a leisurely manner. She also notices that smoke is pouring through the western wall, and soon flames start licking the wall as well.
From downstairs, Miakoda and Firinne call upstairs that there's no sign of Vencarlo in any of the ground floor rooms. Firinne calls out nervously that the fire has passed through the ceiling and is now starting to spread downstairs as well. With another twitch of her whiskers, Miakoda cries, "There must be some kind of accelerant! That's what the chemical smell must be!"
Andrezi's spell extinguishes pretty much all of the flames upstairs and most of the fire spreading downstairs before the aqueous orb's duration expires. Fortunately, by then the new plumes of black smoke sent skyward by the blaze have alerted the citizens still dealing with the fire at the academy, and a bucket brigade helps to put out the new fire. Thankfully, Vencarlo's home has been saved, though the west side of it will require extensive repairs before it will once again be livable.
Once the fire's out, three men wearing the Arkona family crest on tunics atop their armor--along with another fellow in street clothes--glare at the party.
"Saw them at the academy," one says softly to the others. "Aye--mighty strange coincidence that they move here and another fire just happens to break out...." The hands of all four men stray to the hilts of their swords.
"Coincidence would be a misnomer," Andrezi says, hands open an in front of him. The universal sign of 'peace' or 'I mean no harm'. "It was good fortune really, as I was actually on my way to see my friend Vencarlo. He was not there, but the fire in his place was."
"Fortunately, I wield a degree of magic and I was able to put out the worst of the blaze. With any luck it was enough to prevent it from spreading to other households."
He says this all a bit matter-of-factly, hoping that a dose of earnest truth will allay any finger pointing.
Emi is incensed by the men's accusation, and her temper is already up.
"How dare you! I am Master Orisini's student as well as his... close friend. We came here from the academy straightaway to check on him and inform him of the fire at his academy. We haven't found him here either. He is missing."
Emi watches the man who isn't in uniform closely as she says the last part. His presence might be a coincidence, but if not the lack of Arkona livery makes him the likely boss.
Nebbin looms, adding literal heft to Emi's words.
ENDRIN ISLE: Garrison Hill--Outside Vencarlo's Home (19 Desnus)
Between Andrezi's soothing words (and the slightly incendiary ones that escape Emi's mouth) as well as Nebbin's looming presence, the guards seem uncertain how to proceed. Then one speaks up, pointing at Andrezi.
"I've seen his face hereabouts a few times. Never looked or acted suspicious. Don't think there was any incidents immediately thereafter."
The Arkona guards confer, whispering quietly amongst themselves. "If not you, then who set the house ablaze?" asks one of the men, a bit calmer in tone. His hand still remains poised to draw a weapon.
Your suspicions about the non-guard subside a bit as the encounter plays out: For one thing, the Arkona guards pay him no mind as they talk amongst themselves, trying to decide how to proceed. The non-guard also makes no attempt to influence the Arkona guards one way or the other.
Andrezi moves closer to the guard, speaking low so that no one esle can hear him. "I don't want to cause alarm among the citizenry, so you might want to keep this in confidence. But inside of the place we encountered assassins. Red Mantis. I do not know why they were there, but I mean to get to the bottom of this. They were after my friend, though only by sheer luck was my friend spared their murderous intent."
Nebbin, barely able to hear Andrezi somehow, nods in agreement. Though he's not sure Master Orisini was in fact spared ... though he hopes so.
ENDRIN ISLE: Garrison Hill--Outside Vencarlo's Home (19 Desnus)
The guards are all very skeptical; perhaps they've never even heard of the Red Mantis (as that's well above their pay grade).
The three guards are inclined to not press matters any further, provided your group gives them one piece of Red Mantis gear--a mantis mask--so they can reasonably expect to be believed once they report back to their lord about the fires and the apparent attack on Vencarlo.
Andrezi has no qualms handing over one of the masks to provide proof to his words. "Stay vigilant. This could become a real problem otherwise, and the people need you."