Investigating Blackwood

General Summary

After hightailing from the vault, Kano Jiro’s three magic items in hand, the party took rest at their boat. Lincoln, upon seeing the devastating battle outside Jiro’s house, returned to the house to try and save his friend. Inside the house, a massacre guilted the floors and walls. All were dead, except Kano who was barely clinging to life. As Lincoln was escorting Kano out of the house, Felix heard someone approaching from the basement. Jinsu appeared drenched in blood. He pursuded Felix to allow him to join the party as the ventured towards Blackwood. Kano didn't get his slippers back, as Alda has taken a shine to them.
Upon arriving at Blackwood, Kano and Kail opted to stay with the boat while the rest of the party explored the town.
From a passerby they learnt that the town is presided over by Lord and Lady Blackwood, who seem to be well liked by the common folk.
The party went to Watanabe Pub, a previous haunt of Lincoln when he was touring in the area. They decided more information could be found here than the alternative, Joltz Nightclub. Inside they met Geoff, the bartender (who replaced Jeff, the proprietor when Lincoln was last there). He was a tremendous flirt and he and Lincoln got on famously. The rest of the party found the waitress, Tiffany, who was a true gossip. She mentioned the recent attack on the Blackwood mansion.
They headed to the Blackwood estate, once Lincoln had returned from one on one time with Geoff, and met with Lord William and Lady Loretta Blackwood. The house, a two story mansion intricately decorated with natural decals, and built entirely from the black wood for which they are famous, was filled with workmen, fixing up the damage caused by the raid. Lord Blackwood was happy to enlist the party’s aid in investigating what happened. He relayed that the raid took place one and a half to two weeks ago. Nothing was taken, only damage was caused.
In investigating the mansion for clues, the party noted that the Lord and Lady shared a number of features, angular faces, dark hair and eyes. These features were shared by many people in the paintings in the ancestoral gallery. While in the gallery, inspecting a painting of Isaac Blackwood, which was several hundred years old, Alda noticed an earily familiar figure in the background, seemingly Alda herself.
More thorough exploration of the mansion found a staircase leading seemingly to the roof. Exploring this way, they discovered several stories above the mansion that were invisible from the outside. They housed vast libraries of family records. Alda search Isaacs records and discovered references to Harold and Judie. Isaac and Elsa (Isaac’s wife) died 60's, in YR870's.
Somnis took interest in the first entries in the library, named Sophie and Sophacles. He discovered that Sophie left Material Plane at a ripe old age, claiming duty as her reason for leaving. Sophacles was considerably more boring in his records, and mentioned another person, Charlyze.
Also, on this top floor, they discovered a stand that, until recently held the Ebony Light, and it was now indeed missing from the house.
The party shared with Lord and Lady Blackwood some of what they’d learnt, specifically Alda’s possible relation to the family. The Blackwoods assumes Alda to be some sort of relation to this Judie. They promise to see if they can find Harold and Judie’s surnames for Alda.
Having grown suspicious of Jinsu and his motives, an argument turned into a fight, turned into an interrogation. Jinsu revealed he knew a little more than he’d let on. That the Gifts of the Eight can have some control over the Eight. That Kasumi is in Barkstone, and seeing them together would lead the party to find something out about him. He was not going to leave the party to research, as he claimed, he was going to see the cloud giants. As he slipped into unconsciousness he uttered, "She's alive".
Somnis, using his Magic Ball of the 8, detected that the Ebony Light was moving South East and so that’s where they headed.

Character(s) interacted with

Isaac Blackwood (friend to Harold), Sophie Blackwood, Sophocles Blackwood, Charlize Blackwood, Elsa Blackwood (Isaac's Wife), William Blackwood (current lord of Blackwood), Loretta Blackwood, Geoff Bartender, Jeff Insert, Tiffany Waitress, Carol Nail Salonist, Jeffery the Carpet, Jørgenson.