tl;dr - the party took over the Kaijitsu mansion in Magnimar and investigated the Foxglove Townhouse (with a lot of insanity along the way). There is a question at the bottom of all this, so please just jump there if you don't want to know how things have been going.
Game Update: Kaijitsu mansion in Magnimar...
After a prolonged (out of game) delay, my group was finally able to continue their playthrough this weekend. Before the break, they had just arrived in Magnimar and sold off their remaining treasure from The Misgivings (too rich for Sandpoint to afford according to its stats). They took up residence for a few days in The Stag and Raven inn in Naos to do so, with the Arcanist going out on the town to ask questions about the area (and make it so she could roll Knowledge: Local without my tabletop penalty of "new to town" of -2 for the first two days - need to get your bearings first before that skill can be properly used imo). The Samurai and Slayer, along with the Cleric went to sell the items while the Bloodrager spent her time getting obliterated in the taverns in the area.
While going about selling things, the Samurai (who recently managed to move his relationship with Ameiko to the point where she gave them her father's mansion to use as a base of operations in Sandpoint) found a note in his backpack written in her handwriting stating simply "16 Cliffside Road." After getting lost with a few bad Knowledge: Local rolls (and the Ranger and Arcanist deciding to use a Feather Fall scroll to leap off the cliff and drift down to the lower city - for the adrenaline rush), the Cleric and Samurai located the mansion only to find that it was in awful shape. The wall was white-washed with faded blue tiles on the top and the gates themselves were barely hanging on. Beneath the wooden plate with "16 Cliffside Road" carved into it was another with the Minkaian symbols for "Kaijitsu" (at which point, the Samurai realized just how wealthy the Kaijitsu family is). The mansion beyond the wall was a three story traditional Minkaian affair.
The Samurai and Cleric went in through the gates to discover the house and grounds in even worse shape than they expected. Every window was missing, the gravel gardens were rucked up and littered with a variety of feces and the fountain pool between the gate and building was empty and stained with urine. The front sliding doors to the mansion were gone and the interior was dark with shadow. In the background, they saw a traditional storehouse and a delapidated shrine sitting near the cliff's edge. Picking their way across the yard, they discovered the interior floors were creaky, the internal sliding walls were missing along with the tatami that would normally form the floors. The first floor was hard-packed dirt, with only the structural support walls still in place, along with a creaky old staircase to the second floor. Four piles of belongings were found in the front room, evidence of someone living in the place - rags and random collected remains of lives piled into rough assemblages of ownership.
As they climbed the stairs, they heard voices (young, excited and scared) and called out, letting the owners know they had heard them.
Unfortunately for the Arcanist (who chose to run up the stairs), the weakened staircase collapsed at that time, dropping her into a closet filled with a Spider Swarm, which caused all sorts of chaos, ending with her newfound Familiar (a small Fire Elemental they named "Enfuego") casting Burning Hands for her and nearly setting the house ablaze.
A gnome, easily mistaken for a youth, stepped out and asked who they were before making sure they would not be harmed if they did come out. The Samurai promised them all safety in exchange for revealing themselves and quickly discovered there were 6 human youths, a halfling in his teens and the gnome, who was actually middle-aged but could easily pass as a human child if he tried. The gnome told them that they "belonged" to the men downstairs, who had them go into the streets in the mornings to beg and turn in most of their earnings in exchange for a roof over their head and a few loaves of bread or whatever they'd come up with that day. Promising that they would be fed and housed if they agreed to help clean up the place, the Samurai found out that three of the four men whose belongings downstairs answered to a fellow named "Ricar" who had connections to the thieves' guild and who was their "leader."
After gathering everyone together, they decided to start cleaning up the place and prepared for the evening, when Ricar and his allies would return. The Cleric saw to their various ailments while the Bloodrager went to purchase cleaning supplies and foodstuffs while everyone else began cleaning the place up. In the evening, everyone took up hiding places around the house's interior while the Samurai sat on the porch, waiting. When Ricar and his allies came through the gate, they stopped, asked who he was and what he was doing there and were told that he represented the Kaijitsu's interests and that they were no longer welcome.
"We'll see about that," said Ricar - only to get a pair of arrows through the chest from the hidden Slayer above. His neighbor went down the next round and the Samurai charged the third, taking him down in no time. The fourth panicked and ran back into the street, screaming about being attacked and managed to get away...
The next morning, a Sergeant of the City Watch showed up with a handful of men, telling of a homeless man who had been "attacked and thrown out of his home." It turned out that this was an old friend of theirs, who had come to Magnimar shortly after "guest starring" at the beginning of Thistletop - she had joined the Watch as a cleric, healing their injuries and taking control of "special investigations" (that did not extend to the "Star Murders" as the Watch had taken to calling the various mysterious murders taking place around the city). Realizing who they were, she sent the other Watchmen back and investigated, only to realize that the troupe really were friends with Ameiko from Sandpoint. After spending some time in the city library, she discovered that the house did indeed belong to Lonjiku Kaijitsu (whom the troupe advised was dead). Unfortunately, without any proof of their affiliation with the Kaijitsu family (notwithstanding their efforts to clean the place up and basically move in), they had no right to the place either (a fact which the Sergeant of the Watch simply chose to ignore). She told them about this and advised them to provide documentation so they would not be evicted post-haste.
In a scramble, realizing it would take at least a week in the winter storms that were blowing through the area to get a message to and from Sandpoint (and with no interest in returning to the Stag and Raven and have to pay for the children's room and board), they paid for a Sending spell to be sent to Ameiko, requesting the deed to the property, along with their allies, Lyrie and Orik (whom they had made companions through high Diplomacy rolls upon meeting them). Ameiko said she would get to work on it...
While waiting, the troupe heard from the children that the third floor of the house was "terrifying" and "filled with demons" and chose to investigate. The top floor was little more than a single chamber with four pillars holding up the roof. Four Minkaian armor stands stood around the chamber, with a glass case in the center holding a perfectly preserved suit of Oyoroi. Unfortunately, the floor had become the home of a series of Giant and House Centipedes, which immediately moved to attack. The Arcanist proceeded to tell them that the armor was not only magical, but likely had to do with the fact that the house wasn't in worse condition and hadn't been infested with anything more than homeless people and a few oversized bugs. After dispatching the centipedes, they cleared out the remains while the Samurai sketched out an image of the Oyoroi to send to Ameiko to inquire about.
The Samurai sent for more tools and paid a troupe of carpenters to come in and start shoring up the place while they awaited the deed from Ameiko. They then (FINALLY) set off to find the Foxglove Townhouse.
Finding the first floor of the townhouse boarded up, they decided to use the key they'd discovered in the Misgivings, only to have the door open for them and find Aldern and Iesha Foxglove staring at them and asking how they could help. Without a pause, the Slayer put his boot into Aldern's chest and began screaming that he was a necromancer and a murderer while the Sergeant of the Watch looked on in horror. Aldern and his wife began calling for the guard (there being a tower just down the street). They came at a run and then arrested the Slayer for "assault." The Sergeant then sent the others to the Watchtower with the new guards, entering the house to investigate what was going on with another guard.
Unfortunately for the Sergeant, once they were in the trophy room, the creatures pretending to be Aldern and Iesha attacked, slaying her companion Watchman out of hand while nearly slaying her in a single round. Backing away, she cast a healing burst on herself before managing to escape out the front door and flee to the Watchtower and tell the others that they had been (at least somewhat) correct. The entire party then went through the building, looking for the two, but Aldern and Iesha had escaped over the garden wall at this point, their mission complete. The Arcanist discovered the hidden cache of documents... and they returned to the Kaijitsu Mansion...
As you can tell, this was a long game session, with a lot of RP going on. We started at 1pm and played until 1am, with only a few breaks for food and miscellany along the way. Not bad for a return game!
As a side note - I noticed several folks mentioning their PCs took the information about the Misgivings to Justice Ironbriar. I saw no such information to lead them in that direction, so the troupe I am running have no knowledge about Ironbriar's involvement. As above, the monsters in the Foxglove residence RAN after their encounter with the Sergeant of the Guard (so I am planning having them show up later at the Sawmill). If anyone can offer suggestions as to how to involve Justice Ironbriar before their encounter at the Sawmill, I'd be intrigued to hear about it.
