12. Exploding People Report

General Summary

13th Eyre, 998 YK, very early morning

They take K'zzal back to the Clifftop Adventurer's Guild.
They long rest, so it's no longer early morning.
They get paid by Lhara for the bounty on K'zzal. She tells them she doesn't have anything suitable for them right now, but she'd get in touch when she did.
The party make their way down to High Walls, where they are ambushed by a group of cultists. The cultists politely declare their intention to kidnap Terfel Glas and kill the others.
The cultists are push overs, but it turns out they have a spicy secret. They sometimes explode???
Even though the party manage to take a couple of them alive, only one actually survives after all the exploding.
The survivor was a man named Zhare, who was approached by a skinless man and told to kidnap Terfel. Warden gave him some money and told him to go, and stay out of trouble.
Terfel went and told Teral ir'Soras about the corpses and the damaged tents from all the explosions. He said he'd sort it.
The party took the single intact corpse to the area where they've set up their tents. Warden examines the corpse, but is unable to work out what it is.
Terfel has a chat with Daine about the kalashtar who saved him, Lakashtai. He shows the party a green crystal, which Lakashtai left at his bed side after awakening him.
Kalshana feels pain and fear from the crystal, but no one else can.
Daine tells them that he first met Lakashtai in a gambling house in Hareth's Folly named the King of Fire.
Warden starts talking about his "friends", confusing everyone. He says friends are all around, and demonstrates this as a rat approaches the party and then speaks common. ???
"Your aid of Valerya Hooke was appreciated. If you need a favor from her new family, whisper it to the wind. We will find you." says the rat. How strange.
They decide to go visit the kalashtar district. They go up into the upper city and ask for directions, and are told that the kalashtar community is in Overlook.
They make their way there, and as they head north to where the kalashtar are supposed to be, Warden and Kalshana spot a black heron.