Lieutenant Dale asks several more questions about the creature and the other events that transpired atop the mountain. Soon enough, he nods, satisfied that you didn't bring any evil spirits back down the mountain with you.
"See? All's well that ends well!" Macbannin says. "I'll just need to a little purification ritual to clear away the energies of the Bleak Gate, and then you can be on your way."
The mayor murmurs as he moves his hands in mystic patterns over each of you. The process only takes 10 minutes, and once it is done, the soldiers disperse and you are free to go.
"Thank you again for everything, my friends," Nevard says once you have departed Macbannin's manor. "This is where we part ways for now, but I will fulfill my end of the bargain and reach out to Gale. I am sure she will contact you soon. In the meantime, I ask that you pay heed to the vision of the fire dragon at the factory. My nephew Heward may be in trouble if you do not go there tonight!"
Melenae grimaces but nods, knowing that they have little choice.
Turning away, as they begin to head to find some late night transport to take them to the factory, Mel examines Lucien closely. "Lucien, back there, you seemed to....change. How are you feeling? Can you think straight?"
"I am fine, mon petite." Lucien replies. "Eet has been a... new part of me, ever since our time on Axis Island. I am still myself, just with some... abilities that I did not have before. I do not believe that I am a danger, or going to lose myself but if you think it is a danger you 'ave my permission to pull my tail and bring me back to myself."
His tail wraps playfully around Mel's leg for a moment. "I agree, we must go, but we purchase some coffee on the way, non?"
Fortunately, you are able to find an all-night coffee shop at which to purchase some caffeine to stimulate your minds on the way back to Sechim's Alkahest & Etchings.
As you arrive at the factory in the wee hours of the morning, you notice torches in the alley between Heward Sechim's factory and the adjacent firedust factory. The small protests outside the two adjacent factories have dispersed this late at night, but a pair of sleepy guards stand in front of the chained doors of each.
"We must make a circuit of each factory." Lucien says. He has removed his armor, claiming that it was 'too reestricteve' and is now moving with a remarkably light step. "We must warn the guards also. Perhaps you ladies should do zat, sey will take you more seriously."
The guards in front of the other factories seem disinterested in your warnings. They say a group of people came with a wagon full of supplies, presumably to make a delivery to Sechim's factory. They have been hired to only protect their own facilities if anything directly threatens them.
Quietly circling the buildings, Lucien can see a red-scaled lizardfolk atop the roof of Sechim's Alkahest & Etchings. He is setting up a pulley to lift up supplies, while in the alley beside the factory, a second lizardfolk coordinates a pair of human men as they unload several crates from their wagon. They have yet to notice the tiefling.
Lucien hustles back to the front to explain what is happening. "We must intervene, quickly!" He suggests. "I suggest you confront them from a distance. I will try and get closer to act as back-up."
The would-be arsonists are distracted by their work, so you find it easy to get into position to execute your plan.
"Stop what you're doing!" Mel commands, stepping forwards and attempting to look both confident and intimidating, hands resting oh-so-casually on her pistols.
The arsonists curse and reach for their weapons!
Lucien leaps out of the shadows and slashes at the pulley the arsonists have constructed, attempting to sever the rope!
Melenae pulls her pistol and fires at one of the human workmen, taking a few steps back to distance herself from them
Lucien quickly severs the pulley's rope, causing the crate it is holding to go crashing to the ground. Melanae clips one of the human men with a glancing shot to the shoulder.
Before they can react, Thalia's eyes go black as she conjures a twisting pattern of subtle, shifting colors that weaves through the air. The humans and the lizardfolk on the ground stare at it in fascination.
"Don't attack them yet! That should hold them for now!" the deva says.
The lizardfolk on the roof, however, is not fascinated. He withdraws a scroll from his pouch and attempts to cast it.
He succeeds, conjuring a wall of fire in the alley down below! The flames intersect the wagon, cutting Mel and Thalia off from the fascinated arsonists. The flames also ignite the materials in the wagon, setting it ablaze!
"Thalia, are you able to put that out?!" Mel yells in a panic before doing what she does best and tries to distract their leader.
She then snaps out of existence for a second before reappearing 20ft further away from the flames.
"No! I do not have the spells to do so!" Thalia says. She takes a few steps back as she remains focused on her hypnotic pattern. Her starry owl takes to the air, circling above to keep tabs on the fascinated arsonists.
Lucien charges the mage, swinging his long sword!
The mage dodges both attacks that comes his way. He steps back from Lucien and targets him with a burning disarm!
Lucien lets go of his sword and grins at the mage, an expression which is swiftly distorted when his face widens into a tooth filled maw and he leaps on the pesky conjuror!
Melenae keeps back from the fire and takes a shot before glancing around to see if theres anything to help put this fire out.
Lucien scores a critical strike with his claws, then Melenae clips the lizardfolk on the leg with her bullet. The eladrin glances around, spotting a water tower on top of the factory. Knocking it over or blasting a hole it in should extinguish the flames!
The wounded mage curses as he turns to flee, exposing his back to Lucien. He jumps down to the street below, but he grunts in pain as he twists his ankle!
Lucien lashes out in an attempt to halt the mage and then leaps after him, sliding down the wall and using his claws to slow himself just enough to do no lasting harm.
Mel rushes to the water tower and, standing off to the side fires at it in order to start blasting holes to weaken the structure and provide a leak for the fire, hoping her aim is good enough for it to spurt over the fire itself.
Mel shoots a small hole in the water tower, but more will be needed to burst it! The mage struggles to get back to his feet as Lucien lands nimbly behind him. He concentrates on a spell--
--and breathes fire on the tiefling!
"Crap, come on, come on come on!"Mel mutter, whilst re-aiming and firing again. "Thalia, are you doing okay there?!"
"I am doing my best to maintain my composure as I manipulate the fundamental forces of the cosmos," Thalia says with a bit of strain in her voice.
Lucien stumbles as he lands and takes the full brunt of the fire! This doesn't stop him lashing out at the leader though! His smoldering claw cuts deep!
Lucien rakes his claw across the lizard's face, and with a strangled cry, he falls, unconscious. Melanae fires a few more bullets into the water tower, and finally a torrent of water gushes forth, extinguishing the flaming cart.
You move to swiftly arrest the remaining arsonists, slapping manacles on their wrists while they are still fascinated by the swirling hypnotic pattern!
As soon as they snap out of their hypnotism, Mel crouches down to their level with a scowl, fiddling with her pistol as she does so. "Who sent you to do this? Who hired you for this job? "
The two human men look to the burly lizardfolk with them. He scowls at Melanae. "I ain't talkin'," he grunts.
With the prisoners restrained Lucien takes a moment to apply the curative wand to his burns, letting out a hiss of relief as the pain fades. That done he marches over, his face still morphed and growls into Mel's ear.
"Take him over there so he can see what happened to his boss. I'm still hungry."
Once the lizardfolk has been removed Lucien lets the morph fade and speaks to the humans man-to-tiefling.
"Listen monsieurs, there is going to be trouble for zis. Fines, prison time, ze owners of these ware'ouses are not going to let this go away. You help me now, explain what happened and I can ensure zat ze blame falls on those who actually fought back against us. You understand me?"
The human men are easier to cow, but unfortunately, they don't know much. They make it clear that they were just hired to do a job. The two lizardfolk brothers were the masterminds behind the arson attempt.
It soon becomes clear that the lizardfolk are not going to crack easily. As the authorities from Parity Lake arrive on the scene to assess the damage and investigate further, you march the lizardfolk to RHC headquarters, where they can be held in a secure cell until a thorough interrogation can be performed. As the sun begins to rise, you trudge off to your homes to get some well-deserved rest after a long and harrowing night!
***
You wake up in the early afternoon, feeling refreshed. As you gather to continue your investigation, a sudden breeze gusts over you, and a yellow canary flies a circle around you. The breeze speaks with a woman’s voice, elegant and tinged with a Danoran accent.
“Your character comes recommended by a dear friend of mine. At his suggestion, I would like to arrange a meeting so you and I may discuss a mutual enemy. Speak to the wind a time that is convenient for you, preferably within the next two days, and my canary will guide you when you are ready. The meeting will occur in my territory, because while I trust my dear friend, I confess I find him a poor judge of character. After all, he associates with me.”
Lucien looks at the women with a distinct look of confusion. He mouths Gale?
"Thalia, what type of magic is this?" Mel asks, a little suspicious.
Mel clears her throat, "Tomorrow at midday, the fourth day of summer." She confirms, pulling a time out of thin air, hopefully enough to give them some preparation time, a full day should do. "Will the canary find us?"
The wind lingers for another minute or so before dispersing, but the canary remains.
"Whispering wind," Thalia says. "It will carry our words back to her. The canary is an animal messenger. I think it will guide us to her at the appropriate time." The deva holds out her hand, and the yellow bird alights on it.
"By the way, when I slept earlier, I had a vision," the shaman says. Her eyes become black and starry as she recounts what she saw:
"I sat in a field of grass, the night sky overhead, the planets hanging huge and low. Breeze whipped the grass across my skin, and a tiger stalked me, somewhere out in the dark.
"A light flared overhead, an old blue star called Mishados, and it began to drift downward. Not to the horizon, but toward the earth. Then other stars rattled, like grains of sand shaken loose from a wet glass, and their descent turned to a plummet, turned to a streaking rain of light.
"They fell in all directions, but I knew where Mishados would fall, and I knew I must catch it."
Thalia's eyes return to normal. "I know not what it might portend."
Lucien raises one dark eyebrow at these ominous pronouncements. "Most troubling, Ma Belle. Should you speak with Monsieur Nevard about eet?"
He looks to Melenae, "Did you sleep well, Ma Petite? I was tired enough that I slept like a... stick?"
"I ....I don't know what to make of that Thalia. Lucien's right, get to talkin' to Nevard and he might be helpful." Melenae says, concern across her face. "Either way, that does not sound like a positive vision with everything fallin' towards the earth."
She blinks a few times, trying to imagine the vision heself, but she is not one with a big imagination and more for concrete evidence and eventually gives up pretty quickly.
She grins at Lucien's ridiculous use of language. "Log, Lucien, nobody sleeps like a stick. You sleep like a log"
"I slept fairly well thanks, I was bloody shattered though. The constant nightmares recallin' the hill did not make it as restful as I hoped but at least some rest was to be had."
Slumping back down she keeps an eye on the little canary. She hadn't planned for it to stay, and she worries it will overhear everything they might have planned. "Hey, Lucien, let's go get some breakfast for Thalia whilst she starts on the paperwork. Our new colleague must be a whizz at it all!" She suggests, trying to get a chance to talk to him without the little yellow bird.
The canary follows Thalia as she ducks into the RHC office, allowing Lucien and Mel some privacy.
"So, Ma Petite?" Lucien asks with a smile as they head towards Alucard's Fine Pastries - which the entire RHC knows as the best place in town. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Oh you know me too well Lucien. I just feel like we're rushin' into all of this without knowin' the bigger picture or the plan. Now I know we're on the path to speak to Gale, but how much do you trust him to not try and kill us. Do we not need to make preparations for when we meet him? After our last meetin' with him, I can see this all going south and fast." She says quietly, as they walk along the street.
"I theenk Gale is a woman, Melenae but I agree. We are rushing after a goal that ees... murky? Murky at best. Still, if we can stop whatever Gale ees planning then that ees good for the city as a whole." Lucien gives one of his danoran shrugs, "What else can we do? If we pass eet up the rope of command then it will be ignored most likely."
"Oh, semantics Lucien, you know how it is in this world sometimes. You're right, Im also worried if we pass it too far up, word may get passed along as the more people that know the harder it is to keep it quiet. Well at least let's discuss how we will respond to any proposals to ensure that Flint has the best opportunities it can. We both agree we cannot make too large a diplomatic outreach yes? We'd most likely lose our jobs if we do." She says as they reach the bakery window. "Oh look! They have fresh croissants with that Danoran pastry, my favourite!"
As they leave the bakery, laden with baked goods, she continues to think aloud. "How about we see if we can get our hands on anything useful at the constabulary and keep our ears to the ground to see if anything unusual has popped up in the last day or two that we don't already know about."
Back at the constabulary, Melenae hands out the pastires among any colleagues that wish, heading to Thalia for the first pick before trying to pick up any information whilst they are all enjoying their treats.
The pastries are a hit at the station, with all of your fellow officers gathering around to partake of the tasty confectionaries. Besides your squad, the most prominent constables in Flint are a group consisting of a knight named Carlao, a technologist rogue named Serena, and an eladrin evoker named Kaea. Carlao is the nominal head of the group, but Serena is the brains and face. She and Kaea get along like sisters, but both have their eyes on Carlao.
Currently, their group is assigned to investigate a group of Drakran occultists who have recently gained the ears of several politicians. The RHC suspects they are trying to recover relics from the old demonocracy.
Amidst griping about their own case, though, Carlao reveals that he had some time to look into Doctor Wolfgang von Recklinghausen, who Nilasa Hume met with shortly before her death. A few eyewitnesses came forward after the fact and revealed the man that allegedly stole the documents from her while she was impaled on the fence matches the doctor's description, though the witnesses claim she gave him the documents before expiring.
The RHC has acquired the doctor's case file from the Danoran consulate. The file reveals he was staying as a guest at a hostel called The House of Blue Birds in North Shore. His two references was a local surgeon named Dr. Barnaby Camp, and he listed as his secondary contact Lynn Kindleton, a professor of human biology at Pardwight University. The file also has a record of his address in the Malice state of Arrovia, a brief bio that lists his educational background across three different countries and his practice as a surgeon. Von Recklinghausen is in Flint on a Danoran visa, and he had been visiting the consulate to try to arrange passage further south to Ber.
"We have some time before the meeting tomorrow and the smugglers' meet-up. Shall we try to track down this doctor?" Thalia asks.
"That seems wise." Lucien agrees. He's been watching in amusement as the, in general extremely patriotic, Risuri consume danoran pastry like it's the best thing they've ever eaten. It probably is, but he's learned not to make those comments aloud any more.
"How do we want to approach Monsieur Doctor? The full majeste of the law, or with more... subterfuge?"
"Mmmmhmmm, sounds good to me." Melenae agrees, mouth half full with a pastry of her own, her second this morning!
Finishing off her pastry in two big bites, Mel licks her lips with satisfaction. "If only Risur made such good treats. Ah, well back on hand eh? I think we should go in honestly, he's a doctor, and if he wants to continue workin' as one he may well be willing to forgo some information and these documents."
Melenae goes to grab a third pastry, but is disappointed to see they're all taken. "Now is a good a time as ever."
You head first to the House of Blue Birds in North Shore. The staff here recalls “the doctor with the foreign accent,” and remember him rushing in, claiming he was coming back from a surgery, and asking for water and a towel to wipe blood from his hands. Then he hurried to his room and a few minutes later exited through a back door.
An hour afterward, a man with a pencil thin mustache came to the hostel and asked about the doctor. He showed a police badge with the name Officer Roger Porter, so they let him into the doctor’s room. After five minutes of flipping over mattresses and pulling any stray personal item into a small bag, the officer left.
One of the cleaning staff noticed him wince in pain a few times, and thought she noticed a bandage and dressing on his chest. She didn’t see any blood, but when he left his shirt did have an odd black stain there, and he smelled oddly like scorched engine grease.
You remember a similar smell in the vision of Nilasa Hume that appeared to you atop Cauldron Hill.
When the staff talk about a "foreign accent", Mel asks "Like Constable Fesh's accent, or different to that?"
Melenae tries to piece together a few of the Doctor's previous errands and contacts and is fairly successful after a few hours work but needs some help from Lucien and Thalia to put the last few pieces together.
Lucien takes up Melenae's good work, and once it leads into a small danoran enclave he goes in alone to finish the job.
"No, not Danoran. Different, somewhere more...exotic," the staff replies.
You spend the rest of the afternoon canvassing the streets, eventually managing to find people who recall seeing a man matching Wolfgang's description. The doctor fled in an erratic southward route from North Shore to Parity Lake. He started to head toward Bosum Strand, then went deeper into the industrial district. The last anyone saw of him was in a very bad part of town, near the turf of local crime lord Lorcan Kell...
Melenae harrumphs as they find the final piece of news. "Of course he did. Most likely involved in a loada crap we don't want to be meddlin' with on top of everythin'."
"We don't wanna get wrapped up in all this today with tomorrow's meet, but maybe we can go prod a few bears in the area and get some up to date intel on Lorcan."
Melenae suggests they head the deeper parts of the industrial district and start hunting for information with any known informants of the constabulary.
Lucien, who has always been kept at arms reach from most of the Constabulary informants, who don't take kindly to 'foreigners', follows along and tries to be helpful - mostly by keeping his mouth shut and occasionally being intimidating!