You get to the top of the lift and the Warforged are up there with the goblin, waiting for you. They are all in very poor shape. Topsy decides to take them to his shop to do some repairs and Dresk and Chronk decide to join him. You hail three skycoaches and head back to Topsy's house as Dusty and Ashana take the boy, Caden, back to his father. You arrive back at the Unicorn Estate and make your way into where you are greeted with joy. Alden d'Orien gives you a reward of 50 Galifar each, and tells you that if you ever need help you can call on him. But he is also very clear that he doesn't want to be implicated in any of this business and asks you not to mention him when you report to the people that hired you. You agree and then head to Topsy's house. Topsy, Dresk and Chronk had arrived some time before and they had found the house and workshop in chaos. Someone had been in there, turned the place upside down and taken Coal. The only clue you find is some coarse brown fur. Topsy had already sent a message to the Daggerwatch Garrison and before too long Sergeant Vilroy arrives piloting a small skycoach. She is all business, and she sends the warforged away. Topsy tells them to come back in a week and he will help them with repairs. She then gets your report and then follows up with the Goblin. The goblin spills his guts, telling her everything - about the chest, using the warforged as slaves, Garra and her address, and how Alden d'Orien arranged all the slaves for them. "Look, I'm just a person", he cries, "I'm not 'the goblin', my name is Mike. It's not my fault I got messed up in this. I just wanna go home now. I've told you all I know, please, just let me go". Dusty looks uneasy - they have already broken their promise to Alden. "I'll let you go when I have finished with you", Vilroy says to Mike the Goblin, "but I think we need to get to this Ogre's building straight away". "I've already told you what I know", whimpers Mike. Vilroy drags Mike onto the skycoach and you all follow. She takes off and you start heading towards Terminus. Part way there she looks at Mike and says, I think I'm finished with you now. I'll let you go, just like I promised", with that she draws out a dagger, slits Mikes throat and pushes him off the skycoach. Mike plummets out of sight and Vilroy looks at you. "I always keep my promises", she says with a wry smile. You all look at each other. This is a side to Vilroy's personality you had not seen before. You continue flying towards Terminus, but suddenly arrows fly at you from every side. Ashana immediately goes down, unconscious and losing blood badly and others of you are hurt. You see gnolls in strategic sniping position all around you. Somehow you have flown into an ambush. Note - Ashana rolled a 20 for first death save so stablised but remained unconscious. Things could have been very different Vilroy crouches down and whispers to Topsy, "You have gotten messed up in stuff you should have stayed away from", with that she pulls out a dagger and stabs Topsy twice. Dresk sees this and quickly pulls out his net. He throws it at Vilroy tangling her up and then Chronk barges her off the skycoach. She starts to plummet but then a magical effect kicks in and she floats down to a suspended balcony below, struggling to release herself from the net. "Oh no, my net", says Dresk, "I might have lost it". "It's just a bunch of fucking holes tied together", yells Dusty, "we can get another. Topsy, fly us out of here". The skycoach has now stopped moving and the gnolls continue firing at you. You all hunker down while Topsy tries to work out the controls. He does this without many problems and the skycoach zooms away faster than Vilroy seemed to be moving it. The gnolls suddenly launch out of their positions and you see they are flying on some sort of magical disks. They appear to be moving faster than you and the ambush becomes a chase scene, with you dodging in and out behind buildings and the gnolls attempting to pin you down. As Topsy flies, the rest of you fire your missile weapons and spells at them. Eventually you kill three of the gnolls and the remaining two retreat. You fly back to where you dropped Vilroy just in time to see her throw off the net and run up the street. You chase, but seeing you follow she dodges into a nearby doorway which looks as if it goes into a building of some prominence. You follow in, seeing her red cloak on the floor in the doorway. You enter a busy but quiet temple where robed gentlemen draw circles in the sand around a massive dragonshard. There is also a largish looking bearded man with ill-fitting but shiny plate armour. "Oh this really is enough", says a small robed man, walking towards you, "who do you think you all are charging in here like this?" "Did you see a lady run in here?", you ask. "No, just all of you charging in like you own the place". You realise that he is indicating a wider group of people than you, and take a second look at the bearded man. His armour looks familiar, in fact it looks exactly like Vilroy's armour. "Did that man just run in here as well?", you ask. Hearing that, the man turns tail and runs. He is chased and tackled, a previous injury slowing him down. The room erupts, with robed men running for the exits yelling. Dresk quickly pulls out his writ from Vilroy, "Watch business, no need to panic people. Our apologies for the disturbance, we will leave you to your worship now". This calms people down a little and you pull Vilroy outside and into the skycoach. You are all badly hurt and need to decide what to do with Vilroy. "This is getting too big", says Topsy, "I think we need to get our patron involved. We need to go somewhere safe and private". Topsy then pilots the skycoach back to clifftop but not to his shop which he feels is no longer safe. He lands the ship on the landing of a small non-descript door and knocks. After a few minutes the door opens and his childhood friend Jaela stands before him. Dresk recognises her as one of the people who played Sharn Chicken. She looks at Topsy, at the rest of you, at the blood and at the captive who again looks like Sergeant Vilroy from the watch. "I know I've been encouraging you to get out of the house, Topsy", she says, "I didn't realise you'd take me this seriously. Quick, you'd better all come inside before the neighbours see you". You scurry inside, with the tied up Vilroy. You get Jaela to send a message to Delgo and wait for a response. While you wait you patch up wounds, heal Ashana, Topsy brews up healing salves and Jaela provides a wholesome meal. There is a knock at the door. Jaela opens the door and sees Delgo and an entourage. Her eyes widen and she ushers them inside. This small apartment is now very crowded. "Hey, that was an interesting note you sent", begins Delgo, "very interesting. I thought I'd better come and have a look for myself". His eyes turn to Dresk. "I wondered what had happened to you, Dresk, you failed me and I lost a lot of money and the chance of something very interesting. I'm not happy at all. Let's call that strike one huh?". Dresk looks down "I'm very sorry Mr d'Gallanda. I won't let you down again". "No, you won't", says Delgo and turns his attention to the rest of you, "So how's about you all tell me why you are holding my old friend Germaine Vilroy hostage huh?". You fill in Delgo everything that has happened so far. During the conversation Dresk mentions Alden d'Orien's involvement. Dusty shoots Dresk a dirty look, but Dresk hadn't known they were meant to keep that secret - he hadn't been there when that was agreed. "Well Dresk", says Delgo, "you may have just made up for your error before. That's some very interesting information that I can use". Dusty protests, but Delgo explains that this is just how business works. The cat is out of the bag. "And you say this is a changeling?, Delgo asks and you nod in the affirmative. Delgo questions her, but when no new information is apparent he turns to one of his retinue, "Knuckles, take care of her". Knuckles walks up and puts a sword through her chest. Vilroy immediately transforms to her real form of a changeling. "Oops, sorry about the mess", Knuckles says, looking around, "Do you have any blankets or something?". Jaela provides blankets to knuckles who wraps them round the corpse, mops up some of the blood and then throws the gruesome package over his shoulder. He exits through the front door. "Now that that business is attended to", says Delgo, "we need to find this Garra and stop whatever is going on. I want whatever is in the chest. I'll head back to the club and arrange for a squad, but you'd better get there right now in case she tries to scarper". You are all tired and wounded but reluctantly agree. "I'll see you back at the club when this is all finished", says Delgo as he leaves with the remainder of his retinue. "I think I'd better come with you all", Jaela says, "you all look exhausted". You all jump into the skycoach and head to the building in Terminus where Garra lives, landing on a landing at the top of the small tower. You slowly make your way down the crowded and dirty tenement, until you find a young boy who is able to help you find Garra's apartment. Dusty knocks but there is no answer. He then rigs a tripwire across the door 'just in case' and picks the lock of the door. He swings the door open and steps into the apartment, quite forgetting his own tripwire and falls flat on his face. As he falls he sees four creatures stand up from behind couches and an overturned table who pepper him with arrows. A battle ensues, during which Chronk makes good use of the overturned table, using it to pin two of the Kenku to the wall while you bash at them, and then smashing the last Kenku to death with the table. There is nothing of consequence in this room, but another door leads further into the apartment. Chronk smashes through the door only to see one of the gnolls from the air attack desperately throwing documents into a brazier. Tied to a bed in her undergarments and unconscious is Sergeant Vilroy. Chronk smashes the gnoll into the brazier and burning papers spread everywhere. The bed catches alight. Dusty quickly unties Vilroy and drags her from the apartment while Chronk finishes the gnoll and the rest of you gather the papers that remain. By this time the bed is burning well. As you sprint back up the stairs to the landing you here a magical alarm as automatic 'create water' spells activate throughout the building. You get back to your skycoach soaked and fly back to Jaela's house. It's getting late and you decide that you have had enough for one night. You start to get ready to rest, but then Topsy who has been looking through the papers gasps. He has found a receipt for a first class ride in the lightning rail leaving in 20 minutes. You realise that you need to get there fast. No rest for you. Level up at the end of this session - however any spent spells, abilities or lost hitpoints will not have been recovered.
