14 Dualahei 838

The adventurers fill their bellies at the Ready Room, which is the bar they met Question in.
Everyone in the city looks exhausted as they pass, the residents cleaning up after the chaos of the rfight. It seems practiced, as if they’ve done this before far too many times.
The infirmary is a converted guildhall, the entire place crowded with cots and the smell of medicines and herbs and old blood.

A blonde elven woman approaches the group in front of the infirmary to welcome the group.
“I am in need of an adventuring party, such as yourselves,” she says. She also spoke with the Emerald Onclave.
“I am here researching some special minerals.” She shows us a small amount of ruidium from inside her cloak, almost as if it was a forbidden material.
She introduces herself as Aloysia Telfan and says she is on a mission for the Consortium of the Vermillion Dream. The consortium is not a group we have heard of before. They’re based out of Ank’Harel, on the continent of Markett, which is on the other side of the planet.
Aloy says that she and the others at the consortium believes ruidium gets it’s powers from the moon, Rudus.
It’s a powerful magical mineral, and everyone is seeking it out.
She wants to understand why the mineral is appearing in Bazzoxan, when previously it has only showed up in Markett.

We go inside to visit Maggie and see how she is. Dermot is there, praying to the luxum at the foot of Maggie’s bed and Wonder comes and joins him. Ayo is there as well, and we chat a bit.
“That was nice of you,” Mick says after Eveneem heals Maggie for a few hit points.
“Is it nice if it’s your duty?” Eveneem asks, without pretense.

There is a drow woman who appears from the next room.
“Thank you, we’ve been short staffed. I am Baffa Der.” (Bautha Dyrr)

A young, battered watchman stops us as we go to leave the infirmary. He hands Eveneem a small carved stone rabbit.
“Can you please take this to the wall of the unforgotten,” He whispers, “Please give this to a priestess…her name is Kaly’m, tell her this is from Navum.” The young man looks to be on death’s door, and the carving he handed to Eveneem seems to hold significance.

We leave the infirmary and head to the wall of the unforgotten, where we hand the carving over to Kaly’m, who blesses each of us with an extra inspiration. After we leave the wall, we head back to the Ready Room, for drinks and a decent night of rest.

The next morning, the adventurers wake up in the inn.

They start talking to Question about her research, and she once again points us at the Betrayer’s Rise.

Wonders asks after the figure he recognized, and learns that she is Zalakass, the Archheart. She was a champion of the Archheart, a demigod, and was tortured and maimed by the betrayer gods to send a message to the Luxon. According to legend, she went into hiding or hibernation in the north, maybe near esselcross. She slept for hundreds or thousands of years, starting a crusade when she awoke. She also gathered a small, but zealous religious faction, the emblem of which is a scorched wing. The Drow Doctor at the infirmary was wearing a brooch of a scorched wing.

The order/cult is known as the Sentinels of Memory; they hold that the past should remain in the past. Wonders goes to the bathroom to check if any of his spots look like a scorched wing. He spots one on his left shoulderblade.

Question warned us that Aloysia and the Consortium are little more than arms dealers, and that they do not seem interested in the morality of their clientele. They have also engaged in theft and sneaky dealings with Question and Yusef.

Ali did some thinking (quizzed the DM) about the order of the Cobalt Soul.

Ali, who is an ungrateful, shallow little snot, spent 5 gold to have her new goggles modified to “look cooler.” Then she got hoodwinked into having her fortune told.

The craftswoman/fortune teller has a significant tattoo on the back of her neck of a dagger overlayed with a half moon. Eveneem recognizes it as a symbol of The Clasp - the primary crime syndicate in Taldorei. It has been largely overrun and eradicated by the Myriad from Wildemount.

We finally head to the barracks.

We discuss entering the Betrayer’s Rise with the Taskhand. He advises us to bring a guide, among whom are both Question and Yusef.

He also suggests that we clear out a cave of cultists of the Cyclops Betrayer God, in exchange for which we will be compensated 200gp.

We go to the infirmary afterwards. Maggie is resting but recovering.

Wonders walks up to the doctor and says “Doc, I have a spot that I need you to look at.”