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[kumagroo]

Well, Joven and I are back in Gate Pass.

I know, after all I’ve written, especially the part about us working so hard to make it out of the city; you’d think that would be the last place on this world I’d find myself! Yet, here I am… Here’s what happened:

It was a couple hours until sunrise and a rider approached while ole’ curmudgeon Damner was keeping watch. Turned out to be a tiefling I’d seen around Gabal’s school (though his name eludes me right now). Shealis sent him to make sure that we’d uphold our end of the bargain sharing Ragesian secrets with the Shahalesti. He ate a little with us, not striking me as particularly friendly, but then again, seeing as how he’s part demon, he wasn’t exactly rude either. Of course, it wasn’t until folks were cozy that he sprung the other part of the surprise on us. Seems like Shealis wanted one of our group to stay with her to “guarantee” the bargain. Against all better judgment, I agreed and Joven did as well. We both understood that we’d offered ourselves as hostages, but I still worried for the safety of the band known as The Coming Storm. To assure that lines of communication would remain open, I showed the demon-spawn how to manage a Sending ritual and whispered to the others some key phrases to pick out within my message to know that I am fine.

That done, Joven and I turned back to meet Shealis somewhere outside the Gate Pass walls. We assumed, quite naturally, that we would discover the passage the eladrin had made to the Singing Chasm, but it turns out that Shealis wasn’t quite ready. With the agony of being teleported through what seemed like astral fire, we found ourselves back in the city, just on the other side of the wall. The streets were empty and my heart plummeted in realization that the Inquisitors had been admitted. Gabal’s school, Shealis explained, was semi-surrounded by a growing number of the Ragesian wizard-haters, though none risked getting too close to the gates. Despite her disdain for Diogenes, a grudging respect shown though as she explained how he had proven to one Inquisitor that his dispelling magic had no effect on a slab of masonry lifted up and then tossed at the Ragesian with arcane force. Amazing to consider that a man could be decapitated by a large rock, and even stranger and horrifying to hear that the body does fountain out blood if one’s head were to suddenly and violently get ripped off.

Our destination was a different Resistance safe house: the Temple of the Knights of the Aquiline Cross. Such strange bedfellows they would make with the cell under the Bacchanal Temple. Here, we learned of Shealis’s last minute mission: the interrogation of an Inquisitor. We began to lay out plans for the capture of one using martial force and using me as an arcane bait…just swell. I fear the protection the Ragesians put over their Inquisitors is going to make this very, very difficult. Still, how ironic would it be to inquire at an Inquisitor?!

That raven has been seen, the one that Ozric claimed was an imp. It seems to be keeping a close eye on Shealis and the case that formerly held the Ragesian plans. We shooed it away before nearing the safe-house.

I received the message from The Coming Storm. Riding out from the watch tower, they found themselves once more set upon by Black Horse mercenaries, undoubtedly led by their leader. The ambush laid out for them was sprung early and despite the usual poundings Damner seems to absorb like a dishtowel, the mercenaries are probably done for. Hard to believe but that same lieutenant at the Poison Apple pub, (Kathor was it?), was again captured and again released. Even I might not have been capable of such mercy.

That evening the Coming Storm arrived at the fledgling kingdom of Marben Diamondheart, who is apparently the third son of the king that Ozric once lived under. Suspicious that these strangers were spies, Marben had an interesting (and very convenient) method to test their integrity: He put them to work! It would seem that Milo, Zane, and the tiefling (What was that guy’s name? I’ll have to ask Shealis…) discovered that the larders had been raided by kobolds under a lazy dwarven watch. Meanwhile, Oz and Damner, being the surface-dwelling dwarves they’ve become, apparently fixed a lift system that their idiotic foreman had screwed up. I missed the opportunity to see Milo get lowered into the gear works to actually handle the repairs. As nimble as he is, I hear he came very close to losing a couple of fingers. There was some heavy drinking followed with some offers to Damner and Ozric to join Marben as advisors, but the next morning, the journey to the Fire Forest of Innenotdar continued. I wonder how Zane feels throughout this: a veritable Coaltongue look-alike, allying with Shahalesti eladrin and dwarves, killing every half-orc they encounter. He seemed all-too-comfortable with everything for my tastes. I don’t trust him.

Their journey took them to the edge of the fire forest, where they apparently met a father and daughter living in a cottage. From what I can tell from the Sending ritual, both are wizards: the former grouchy and hostile, the latter a seer or, perhaps, a lunatic. No matter the case, the group accepted their hospitality while outright rejecting the young woman’s plea to take them through the forest away from any Inquisitors. One such Inquisitor, with necromantic summoning power, accompanied by Ragesians and goblins, led an attack on the house just before the group set out, nearly killing the young woman, but The Coming Storm dispatched them prior to heading in to the Fire Forest…