The ranger is badly injured, and the rest are separated and their fates now entwined with that of the Materialists... what waits for our heroes as they skulk around the city of Redrock this week?
Today's roster:
- Eoghan and Cana: the quarter-elven and half-wolf ranger team told of only in whispers
- Felecia: the night-elf bard who fell into a trance and mumbled almost the entire time
- Garamond the Vain: the human paladin of Utar still sad about getting blood on his armor
- Gent: the human wizard who only ever wanted to not flub a spell under pressure
- Zodias: the salamander immolator with a burning desire to burn all the burn burn burnity burn
Eoghan had just crashed through the outer wall of an apartment in the slums, catching an errant piece of wood through his shoulder and rendering his arm useless. The pain caused him to momentarily black out, and a vision was offered up before him: a sacrificial blade and stone basin set upon the table. Eoghan knows that sacrificing his blood into this bowl will give him the power to escape his predicament, however he also reasons that the cost will be more than anything he might gain. As he comes back to consciousness, he sees that the guards are now a bit more than angry at him after dealing with his prior attempts to fight them off and escape. Eoghan and Cana escape to the rooftops, where they are sure to be easily tracked.
After their little mishap upon exiting the secret tunnel from the recently compromised rebel hideout, Gent and Zodias apprehend Rolph's son, Jim, and cart him along to a new safe-house. When Garamond moved to help drag Jim along, his new keepers Vivec and Rodrick made it clear that he was to do as told. If he hadn't been such a nice guy they may have lost their heads in that instant. Zodias fills in the role of muscle and "encourages" Jim to join them by lighting small fires under his feet.
At the new safehouse, Vivec and Rodrick set up to receive constant feedback form their network of eyes and ears in the 4th District as the government deals with the chaos there. Gent sets out to get back to the Arcanist District and meet with Justin at Magic 'R' Us, but needs a guide. Rodrick points him to a house up the street, and tell him that Seamus will find him a safe route out of the slums and up to the Arcanist district, giving him a small signet ring to help prove the authenticity of the instructions to Seamus. Seamus is able to lead Gent past all of the checkpoints and related government activity, and also divulges many details of his own past.
Zodias chooses to go look for the group's wayward ranger and takes to the slum's rooftops. After climbing to the top of a brothel/church/bathhouse, he's able to determine Eoghan's position - mostly by watching a state wizard crumple into a pile of deadness from afar. He quickly makes his way over to Eoghan to help deal with the rest of the guards and wizards tracking the ranger. Utilizing his mastery of fire, Zodias is able to drop two large balls of flame on the ground, drawing them up through the building, and instantly igniting the whole structure. Eoghan takes the magical compass and amulet from the wizard he killed, and the two make their way off into the ramble of the 4th district away from immediate danger.
Garamond and Felecia sit-out the next hour or so in the safehouse, alternately playing with the fire mittens and talking to Jim about his role in the day's events. It's obvious to Garamond that Jim is an idiot, but he gleans a useful bit of information for the mission he's able to receive from Vivec. Vivec sends Garamond, Felecia, and Rodrick to Prelate Cephus' office to steal some sort of magical MacGuffin that will be essential for the Materialist's cause. She doesn't actually know what it is, so just tells them to figure it out when they get there. Garamond mentions that they need to take Jim with him, as he knows the location of some holes in the outer wall of the city which will allow them much easier access to the High Arcanist's office. Rodrick and Vivec grin appreciatively as they also know of Jim's traitorous involvement in the earlier raids on their headquarters. Rodrick disappears for a few minutes, coming back looking like quite the dapper businessman, and escorts Garamond et al out of the house.
After traveling through the slums for a bit, Jim points out a small pile of rubble obscuring a makeshift tunnel. The group passes through to the outside of the city where they see the ever-present black front of Ratu's power out across the red, rocky expanse. As they travel along the outside edge of the city wall, the group encounters two corrupted fire elementals which are quite similar to Zodias' companion Torch. Garamond discovers that he can purify the elementals when he applies the divine power of Utar to their forms via the conduit of his sword. This has the minor side effect of killing them, but they are at least cleansed. The group travels along the wall without further incident and re-enters the city at the edge of a park in one of the wealthier districts.
Gent finds his way to Magic 'r' Us in the waning daylight of this plane, however he is unable to locate Jusin. Oddly, everyone in the district seems to be headed in a particular direction, so Gent and Seamus follow along doing their best to look like they belong there. Upon arriving at a large, well-to-do plaza, Gent sees that there appears to be a large argument between two factions of the wizarding population: those that back the state implicitly, and those that feel the state is ignoring the needs of its citizenry. The heated discourse quickly devolves into a magical slap-fight as harmless spells start getting tossed back and forth with abandon. Not wanting to get involved, Gent persuades Seamus to pass a note to Justin to come back to his shop. As the battle becomes more intense, Gent is forced to sacrifice some of his magical prowess to protect Seamus and get his message delivered.
Back at the shop, a bruised, bloodied and disfigured Justin explains the situation as Gent attends to some of his wounds. Justin is able to undo some of the transfiguration spells, and pulls out a magical trans-dimensional safe to keep his new book out of various other hands. Gent then heads back to the purple cockatrice in the hopes of preparing for the next arduous day ahead.