Session 58

Summer is taken into custody by the Enforcers and taken to the Enforcer's headquarters, where she is thrown in a cell. The party follows and questions the Enforcer's flimsy evidence and demands to speak to the Chief Enforcer. They are introduced to Liam Blackstrand, a surly man who doesn't seem to care that the evidence is thin, and dismisses the party's attempts to clear Summer's name. However, Dain gets an idea and suggests they find a priest in town who can cast Speak with Dead so they can question the victim, Luisa, herself. They ask Liam for directions to the nearest temple, and he directs them to a small temple across town.

As the party approaches the temple, they are hit by a nauseating smell of sewage and waste. They press on into the temple and find a priest, a Human man named Wilfrid Brightwood, who tells them he will help. The party questions him about the smell, and he sighs and informs them that that is due to the magistrate, Brandis Corbin, not maintaining the sewers.

Wilfrid leads the party to Luisa's family's home and they are greeted by the distraught family. There is a brief conversation between Wilfrid and Luisa's mother before the grieving parents lead the party and Wilfrid to Luisa's room. The parents can't bear to look inside, so the group enters and closes the door. Wilfrid begins a ritual to awaken Luisa and the room goes cold, like a crypt, and the body reanimates. The party questions Luisa about whether she saw her attacker, the weapon used, or anything distinguishing about them. Icarus casts Alter Self to take on Summer's appearance and they ask if she looks like the one that killed her, and Luisa says that the killer was taller and darker skinned. Luisa also says that the wound burned hot shortly after she was stabbed. Luisa then laid back down to return to her rest, and the party asked Wilfrid to accompany them back to Enforcer headquarters to report what they learned.

The party presents the new information to an unimpressed Liam, who balks at the mention that they spoke to Luisa, and says it sounds like nonsense, and refuses to release Summer. So the party decides to investigate the crime scene and heads off to where it happened. They find a plain city street with a dark spot looking like pooled blood that someone had tried to clean, but done a poor job of. Investigating the scene, they found a trail of barely noticeable drops of blood leading to an alleyway that was a dead end. Dain decided to cast Detect Magic and noticed that the end of the alleyway was giving off Illusion magic. Dain attempts to push his hand through the stone wall at the end of the alley and is met by a surface that feels more like wood. He feels around for a door handle and finds a crevice where he is pricked by a poisoned needle. A bit more cautious, he uses Mage Hand to open the door (and Eskall, not paying attention, gets hit in the face by the door) and steps through, finding a dark stairway leading down and to the right. They follow the stairs and find another wooden door at the bottom that leads into what looks like a small, unlit tavern. There is nobody inside, so they move in to investigate, finding plenty of alcohol, but nothing else of much interest. They proceed back up to the street where Grim notices someone peering down the alleyway at them and the party gives chase. Icarus teleports in front of the unknown person and takes on the form of Luisa, believing the figure to be her killer, which startles and frightens the supposed killer. Dain takes the opportunity to cast Vortex Warp to pull them back to the rest of the party, and Grim becomes large and grabs her. They unmask the figure, revealing a darker skinned Elf with black hair. The woman is understandably confused and threatens the party. They briefly question her, but get nothing, so they drag her to Enforcer headquarters.

Arriving at Enforcer HQ, the party attempts to convince Liam that this Elven woman is the real killer, but due to an unfortunately phrased question and resistance to Eskall's Zone of Truth magic, they are unable to get a confession out of the woman, even after searching her cloak and finding a dagger that matches the profile of the wound in Luisa's back. They let her go and decide to stake out the "squeakeasy" they found in the alleyway at night time.

The party approaches the illusory wall in the alley at night and open the door, and are greeted by a startled and angry door guard, ready to strike with a dagger. After explaining that they are there for information about Luisa's murder, the door guard escorts the party down into the tavern where they are introduced to Caliope, a Vesperkin woman serving drinks, who feigns ignorance of the details of the murder and claims to not know who did it. After a bribe from Dain of 100 GP, Caliope's memory clears up and she points the party to a house in the residential district where they can find the one who did it, Celia.

Approaching Celia's home from around the back, the party breaks into the cellar, where they find a workbench with tools indicating either someone of the alchemist's trade, or a poisoner's. While investigating, Grim notices a figure poke its head around the corner of the stairwell and gives chase, tackling Celia upstairs. The party questions her and successfully uses Zone of Truth to finally get a confession out of her, during which she admits that the reason Luisa was killed is because she found the speakeasy. Suspecting Caliope now, the party brings Celia to the speakeasy to confront her.

The party questions Caliope, who feigns ignorance and threatens Dain, telling him that he's in over his head and should leave. Dain refuses, and Caliope attempts to cast Hypnotic Pattern at him, but he uses his Ring of Spell Turning (getting a nat 20) to turn the spell against her, which she saves against. Dain then pulls out his Wand of Fireballs and threatens to detonate it in the room if Caliope doesn't back down. She lets slip that even if they told the Enforcers about it, they wouldn't do anything, so he lets it loose, killing everyone in the tavern except for the party members.

The party heads back to Enforcer HQ and confronts Liam about his suspected involvement with the bootlegging operation, and demands that he release Summer. He refuses and attempts to attack the party members, but they quickly overwhelm and kill several of the Enforcers, including Liam. Having caused so much chaos, and not wanting to wait to be charged for attacking the Enforcers, the party quickly leaves the city in the dead of night and camps outside the city, before continuing along the road, arriving at the city of Odracanath after a little less than two weeks.