Adventure Three, Session Thirteen

EXT. NOBLE DISTRICT, VARUUMAE CORONA - NIGHT
When we last left our heroes... they had just escaped The Tower of Light, having witnessed, first hand, the destruction of the teleportation circle from an explosion that also claimed the lives of a Custodian named Prentan, as well as one of the royal guards under Ederitch's command, a man named Walton.
After their flight from the tower, the party found themselves split into several groups. The main group, which also included the Inheritrix Naiya Arabata, decided to get out of town in order to complete their mission on foot. Naiya informed them that she had a "contact" at a stable house, where they could possibly covertly acquire some horses.
Clickwild and Tesken, comprising a second group, made it back to The Doubtful without much incident. They arrived roughly the same time as a "messenger squirrel" sent by Warren. This squirrel had tied to it a note that from the first group explaining to meet them at "the second town on the road to Sage." And after reuniting with the remainder of the party, the newly reformed group set out to do just that.
Meanwhile, as they attempted to blend into the crowd of commoners, the first group (with Naiya) found themselves being followed by a group of "men in black" with black turbans. Soon, the party was cornered, as eight of these men blocked the main road ahead of them. The party ran back the way they came, with the black turbans in hot pursuit. Mangy managed to fire off a few Web spells, in order to slow them down.
Just as the enemy was beginning to catch up with them, a door to a seemingly deserted building opened near Sendry. A man in white robes poked his head out and motioned to the party. "Please come! I've been sent to help!" Almost simultaneous with this, the other half of the party happened to wander down a connecting street. The two halves saw each other and reconnected, then everyone quickly decided to trust the stranger in white. They all ran into the abandoned building, mere moments before the black turbans caught up to them.
The man in white introduced himself as Talal al Hadi and explained that he was a member of "The Brotherhood of the Weave," sent to protect the PCs and Naiya. He asked if they had The Tapestry of Meeros Tilva, which the party did not. Naiya seemed to grow increasingly more concerned with all this tapestry talk and demanded to know what the party had discovered about the item. They told her most of their story, which didn't seem to abate her concerns. In fact, she took Clickwild aside and they had a heated discussion, which Sendry used his lip reading ability to eavesdrop upon. Apparently, Naiya was advocating leaving the party behind, but somehow Clickwild talked her out of it.
They rejoined the group and, after a awkward moment, Talal began to shepherd them towards an underground exit through the sewers. As they reached the eastern border of the city, where the sewer drained into the river beyond, Talal explained that he had more friends along the road and that the party should seek out the mage named Figley Bahasarat who lived in a tower in the small town of Tarsel.
After thanking Talal, the party set out from the sewers and back onto the King's Road, headed east. They first passed the small town of Seerad, and by midnight of the first day, reached the outskirts of Tarsel, signified by a few flickering lights from its various windows.
As the party approached the town, they saw its small territory wall and gate was wide open. Further, nobody seemed to be around. There was no man at the watchpost. The party warily entered, and in the distance they could see Figley's tower. The party reached the wooden double doors of the tower and found them unlocked. They allowed themselves in, once again to find the place seemingly abandoned. On the first floor, a large bonfire had recently burned out. In the ash pile were the remnants of many books. Apparently this fire was a book burning! There were many library style shelves along one wall, all of which had been wiped clean of books.
The second floor had a large centerpiece dinner table, with eight table settings with partially eaten food still on them. On closer inspection, the food was cold but had not yet turned.
The third floor showed signs of a ritual. A large pentagram was etched into the wood floor, surrounded by candles and a circle of salt which was broken in one spot (the salt scattered).
On the top floor, they found Figley's quarters and several guest rooms. Exhausted, the party decided to rest here, but all within Figley's room, in order to keep a better eye on each other. They took turns maintaining a watch, and around five in the morning, Sendry (on his watch rotation) noticed something through the window. A flash of light! He went to the window and took a better look. Below was a procession of torch bearers. Somewhere between eight to fifteen of them. They walked in a straight line and all entered one of the larger two-story buildings.
Figley woke the party and a large group of them (basically everyone but the inheritrix, Clickwild, Temerity, and Tesken) went to go investigate.
As they crept outside, closer and closer to the building, they saw that it was a tavern named "The Thirsty Camel." Through the window they saw the last of the torchbearers disappear below the main bar, probably into a cellar of some sort. Tommison turned herself invisible, and she followed Sendry and Teffa into the tavern and behind the bar. Here they discovered a hatch in the floor and proceeded to open it, as quietly as possible. They were met by a short wooden set of stairs, which they cautiously descended.
The three managed to not alert anyone to their presence and found themselves in a spacious root cellar. At the far corner of which stood (seemingly) all the torchbearers. They appeared to be simple townsfolk, yet all of them conversed in a language none of the three had ever heard. They busied themselves assembling something like a shrine, built of wood collected from the nearby woods. Apparently that is what they'd been doing before they returned. Collecting wood.
Once complete, they turned to head back upstairs, and the three narrowly avoided being caught. Tommison and Teffa went back upstairs before the townsfolk, but Sendry remained behind. Once the coast was clear, he approached the wooden shrine. He found it etched with arcane looking symbols, none of which he recognized, but likely of some importance. Sendry carefully removed one of the pieces of wood, thus defiling the shrine. He took a piece from the back, so it wouldn't be quite as obvious.
He then set about going back upstairs.
Back at the tower, the remaining party suddenly heard a SOUND down below. Someone had just entered the tower! Tesken pulled her battleaxe and ran downstairs, headstrong and foolhardy. She came to a sudden stop before an older man and his acolyte, both in matching robes. After a bit of back and forth as to why either party was here, it was determined that the old man was indeed Figley, and the tense situation was diffused.
When Figley explained that he had no idea what the townsfolk were up to, Tesken decided to go find the rest of the party and ran out into the night...
To be continued...