Chapter 1 - The Mine Fire Investigation Part 2 Session 2

General Summary

The party meets in the Tavern of the Undercity district, Grace and Rex gamble while they await the arrival of the Detective. They intend to continue their investigation of the fire through investigations in the city this time. Lyra is a little tipsy, and there is some attempts to sober her/ her attempts to get Grace to not be covered in soot. Lyra tries to give the party a fake name of Myra but it doesn't really work. Grace takes it at face value. The Detective works it out and when they leave the Tavern pulls her to one side to get her version of events to do with the fire. Lyra's version of events is only known to the Detective
The party head up to the Middle district where the well off merchants and business owners live. This is also where they find the Guild Hall for the Mining Companies and Smelters. They talk with the secretary, a halfling man. He is rather taken aback by the group. Grace flirts with the very confused Halfling. They are shown to Gloria Wright's office.
Grace confronts Gloria with arrest but tones it down at the request of the Detective. Gloria is not happy about the allegations of being something to do with the fire. The Detective shows her one of the shards and while she is distracted Grace swipes a weight to look at. Gloria has no clue what the crystal and says that there has never been any gems in her mine. Grace reads some of the paper work on the desk. Grace tries to take the paper but Gloria stops them. It was trading paper work from the week and the party decides it is suspicious when Grace reveals what it is. At the threat of going to the station Gloria reveals that she has been taking advantage of the increasing prices using a stockpile of metals. The party realizes she is hiding something else and Rex threatens to frame her if she doesn't reveal what it is. She demands they leave and in the rush with lights out they grab some papers. Rex runs and after a final harrowing threat from the Detective helped by Lyra she shoo's them out of the office.
They look over the paper work and have evidence of trades, plans to auction metals and a letter from Gloria to Agatha about potential plans to get Kolden's out of business. Detective is looking the other way with the party's illegal acts like theft. The party splits, Lyra and the Detective head to the Academy while Rex and Grace look for where Agatha lives. The Detective gets the Warforge guard to go with Rex and Grace.
Rex and Grace ask the secretary where Agatha lives. They convince him to give the address to the Warforged. They overhear the neighborhood it is in. Grace and Rex try to loose the Warforged and manage to get to the area before it does. They ask a woman where Agatha lives under the claim of being mail people. Grace breaks open the door. They find the place looks like something happened. Someone was pulled down the stairs. Grace takes downstairs while Rex goes up. Grace finds that the dining room and kitchen haven't been used in a while. Grace takes food. Rex finds nothing in the bedroom that he thinks in Agatha's so decides to trash the room. The second is more disrupted, Rex finds a note that says:

We have your sister, you know what we want.

The warforged catches up as they leave having walked rather than chased them. It registers a break in and investigates the house itself.
The Detective and Lyra end up at the Academy lower entrance, they choose to get help from the lazy looking secretary named Ettie. Ettie messes with them at the request for a wizard, getting Berich first. Berich mentions that Professor Victor and the Arch-Mage are present. The party considers waiting for the Arch-Mage's meeting to be over but Ettie says that her and High Priest Irrizion might be there all day. Ettie warns them about getting their heads bitten off in more ways than one. The Detective mutters something to Lyra as they walk up the stairs that insinuates the meeting maybe more than that. Ettie gives them a terms of service before they knock on the office. Madam Sylayla is not happy to be disturbed. She is a Yaun ti woman. The Detective shows her the crystal and asks for help with the investigation. Sylayla is not happy with Ettie for not using her sending stones. She lets them in her office where they see a Drow figure in the robes of the priesthood. Hood over their head. They talk in a strange way, calm but unnerving. They are having tea. High Priest Oraz Irrizion is asked to leave with the Detective insisting to keep things off the books. The Detective explains what they know about the shard, having magical charge and being part of a larger whole. Being explosive. He permits the Arch-Mage to keep the piece for her investigations on the promise of it being returned after. Lyra reveals to the Arch-Mage that she was there and that it exploded on touch killing everyone else present. Arch-Mage's whole attention moves to Lyra for moment. She ends her meeting with Oraz early to research but they still get the healing supplies that they came for. Once out in the corridor High Priest Oraz Irrizion comments about it being good to see Lyra on her feet. They appear to know about how Lyra healed.
The party meets back up at the fountain. The Detective follows up the investigation of the house, by returning to the house. The detective is confused that the living room has been tidied and the bed room trashed. Even more confused to find the trashed room is Gloria's not Agatha's. In Agatha's room he finds an odd badge that at first he nor anyone else in the party recognizes. On showing it to Lyra he turns it over and recognizes it. Only Lyra sees him realize and pocket the badge. Rex asks the neighbor, Simon about if they heard anything. They heard an argument half a week ago.
They return to confront Gloria with what they know. Gloria claims to have done what they want and that her sister will be returned. She doesn't trust the group to be able to sort it. The people who took her sister want Kolden's out of business. Apparently he has a habit of pissing people off.
They go to talk to Kolden's a few doors down in his own office. The Detective has to take charge with Rex and Grace. Grace has some suspicions of Kolden's. Detective gets the Warforged to fetch Lyra for more intelligence in the room. Rex and Grace are sent out the building. Lyra is reluctant to go in and convinces the warforged to fetch the Detective by claiming to be a civilian in distress. Lyra is convinced to go in and they as a pair talks to Kolden's. Kolden's knows of no one else that might want to run their business out of business.
They hear a commotion out in the corridor, to find that Agatha has reappeared. No one saw her enter the building and she insists that she walked in. There is some suspicion that she had maybe been in the building already.
To be wrapped up in the start of the next session.

Rewards Granted

The Detective now has a strange badge of an unknown organization.

Missions/Quests Completed

The quest to investigate the mine fire is complete for now. However as the fires are still being fought in the mines there may yet still be more evidence to come to light and more to learn about what the party has already seen.

Character(s) interacted with

New Characters Introduced Gloria Wright - The head of the rival mining company. A head strong gnome that firmly denied anything was wrong. She was the prime suspect for the fire, however she was being manipulated by someone who had kidnapped her sister. She claimed to have done what was asked of her in exchange for her sister but has not disclosed exactly what that was.
Agatha Wright - The kidnapped sister returned while the party was speaking to Mr Koldens. Strangely without anyone seeing her enter the building and insisting that she did walk in. The party is rather confused by this turn of events.
Oraz Irrizion - The High Priest of the Temple of Lady Thea in the City of Ares. They were in a meeting with Madam Sylayla and appear rather close. They were there to organize more supplies for the healers working on helping those injured in the fire recover. Curious about the mystery but excluded by Detective Bernard wanting to keep this low profile.
Madam Sylayla - The Arch-mage of the Academy of Magic. The Detective and Lyra chose to visit the Academy to help learn more about the shards they had collected. She was willing to help but warned them that the research would take time as she too had seen nothing like the shard.
Ettie - The young girl working on the lower front desk of the Academy. She doesn't do much work or care about getting in trouble. She messed with Lyra and the Detective by first getting Berich when they asked for a Wizard. She eventually lead them to the Arch-Mage but kept saying not to blame her if they got their heads bitten off... in more ways than one.
Reoccurring Characters Berich - The rather shaken wizard who went into the mines with the party. Thankfully not in too much trouble from his professors after going back in against their wishes.
Mr Koldens - The party payed a second visit to Mr Koldens after hearing about Agatha being missing to ask him who else might want to bury his business but he insisted there was no one he could think of but Gloria.
Hush and Briony - The owners of the tavern who were just going about their normal day as the party talked through their plans. However Briony has her ear on the group after thinking she overheard them insult their beer.

Related Reports

This session is a continuation of the quest from the first session Chapter 1 - The Mine Fire Investigation Part 2 Session 2

Report Date

21 May 2022

Primary Location

Ares

Related Characters

• Berich
• Detective Bernard
• Madam Sylayla