The Age of Worms / Flood Season pt. 9 / Galen the 24th, 3592 CE / 7-26-20

The morning after Lulu's painful cure from Lycanthropy, the party begins discussing next steps. They are interrupted by a knock at the door. It is Shensen Tesseril, returning, as promised with a reward for the party in the form of two magic items. The party attempts to gain more information from the half-drow, and though she is able to reveal some interesting details about the conflicts between the Drow noble houses, she can offer no further clues to the location of the Wands of Sacred Water. The party decides to head back to The Treasury of the Sky in order to off-load some extraneous loot. When Kerwin Aldersun inquires whether they have selected a team name, they reveal their new moniker: Not By Choice. The dwarf is delighted and says he looks forward to return business with party, assuming they bring him stories of their adventures. Deciding to follow up on separate leads, Nari goes looking for Annah Taskerhill, the leader of the noble-born group of Adventurers calling themselves the Stormblades. Meanwhile, Lulu and the rest head to the Church of Akuras, hoping to negotiate use of additional Wands of Sacred Water from the temple's reclusive priests. When they arrive, they find a priest named Ike Iverson watching over the penitent, but Lulu is rebuffed when she attempts to gain access to the church's high priestess, Embril Aloustani. Tempers quickly flare, especially when Marrow begins to make blasphemous statements in the presence of the haughty Iverson, and soon Lulu finds herself sitting and waiting for the town guard in defiance of the priest's demands that she leave the premises. Meanwhile, Nari has located Annah Taskerhill at the upscale Coy Nixie. Annah is hoping that Nari has sought her out to accept her offer of admission into the Stormblades, as the young sorceress's reputation has made her famous even in remote Cauldron. But Nari disappoints Annah with her response, informing her that she has chosen to throw in her lot with the newly christened Not By Choice. Nonetheless, Nari has a business proposal for Annah. Before negotiations can begin in earnest however, they are interrupted by Captain of the Guard Terseon Skellerang, who is seeking to speak with Annah's father. Annah introduces Captain Skellerang to Nari. With the Captain's aid, Nari is able to use the name and description of the ringleader of the attack on the Lucky Monkey to make a positive identification of their suspect, a disgraced former guardswoman named Triel Eldurast who Captain Skellerang had thought dead after being accused of the murder of two of her fellow guards and escaping with seemingly mortal injuries into the wilderness surrounding Cauldron. This conversation is likewise interrupted by a harried guardsman reporting a disturbance at the Church of Akuras. Knowing it is probably related to her teammates' visit to the church, Nari accompanies Captain Skellerang to investigate. When they reach the church, Captain Skellerang begins negotiating a peaceful resolution between Lulu and the stubborn priest of Akuras. Priest Iverson softens somewhat in his stance when he is informed that Sarcem Delasharn and quite possibly the missing priests of Peladon have been murdered for the sake of the missing Wands of Sacred Water, and he reluctantly reveals that he does not know the location of High Priestess Aloustani, who takes occasional walkabouts without disclosing her destination to her fellow clergy. Nonetheless he vehemently defends his mistress's honor, while also agreeing that he will ask advocate that she meet with the Church of Jeda as soon as she returns. Though the peace has been restored, Doctor Marrow has been permanently banned from the Church of Akuras for her blasphemous remarks. With little left in the way of leads, Not by Choice decides to return to the Church of Jeda and petition the aid of their sacred artifact, the Star of Justice, and its powers of holy divination. High Priestess Jenya Urikas agrees to the request, and after carefully crafting their question, the party receives a response that tells them an answer awaits them, and that they should "trust the liar." Upon returning to the Butter Bath, Not By Choice finds that the prophecy has indeed come true, as one of Milton's poppets hands them a message that has been slipped under the door. It is an offer of information in exchange for gold if the recipient of the message comes alone to the Lakeside Pavilion at midnight. As the owner of Butter Bath, the party decides Milton should be considered the message's intended recipient. but Nari decides to use her powers of transformation to stealthily observe the meeting in the form of a tiny fox. At the midnight hour, Milton journeys to the Lakeside Pavilion where he had previously received his prize for winning the Crater Lake Monster Hunt. The incessant rains have raised the lake's level so that now much of the land surrounding it is submerged, and Nari finds herself wading through a swamp in order to find a place to observe. As Milton enters the pavilion, a local rake named Ptolus steps from the shadows. Ptolus is an information broker, and upon receiving the asked-for payment of 500 gold pieces, informs Milton that not only is Triel Eldurast behind the loss of the wands and the murder of Sarcem Delasharn, but that she and her fellow cult members of the Ebon Triad intend on ransoming the wands back to the leaders of Cauldron for an exorbitant price once the threat of loss to life and property becomes unavoidable. Ptolus also reveals that the cult has made their home in one of the many underground ruins that run beneath Cauldron. This one in particular is referred to as the Ulat-Kini ruins and can only be reached through a lava tube on the side of the volcano. Though he is a gangster, Milton believes Ptolus's assertion that he does not wish to see his home of Cauldron destroyed in a flood, and Ptolus offers to provide similar services in the future if the party requires information. Armed with this new knowledge, Not By Choice makes plans to plum the depths of the Ulat-Kini ruins and retrieve the Wands of Sacred Water before it is too late.