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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 1708689" data-attributes="member: 3448">Session 14 (cont'd):Sister Aurora nods, starting to understand.  "Is there a heretical church in this city?""Nusaybian, you mean?  Sure, outside the city walls." The guard describes how to find it.After some brief questioning to make sure he has told them everything he knows about Boren and his companions, the group heads away.They quickly reach the small Nusaybian church.  The building is not particularly unusual for a church, although the construction is substantially more solid and imposing than the other buildings in this section of town.  The most striking thing about the church is the imposing stone wall that surrounds its enclosure.  A single heavy iron gate bars the only entrance.  When this church was built, they obviously wanted to be ready for riots or worse.The gate is closed, and Sister Aurora loudly rings the bell set next to the gate.  After a minute or so, a middle-aged man wearing a priest's frock approaches the gate.  Sister Aurora easily identifies him as an ordinary priest, although the cut of his vestments are slightly different from what a priest of the Church Imperial would wear.  He stops short as he looks at the group outside the gate, and particularly at Sister Aurora.  While some of the orders exist in both Churches, only the Church Imperial includes the Rays of Truth."May I help you folks?" the priest asks, remaining behind the closed gate."We just want to ask a few questions," Melania responds.  She describes the body they saw at the guardhouse.  "Did he come here?""Once or twice.  I assumed he was passing through with one of the merchants.  Why?"Sister Aurora cuts in.  "We want to find out some more information about him.  He had a tatoo on one shoulder, of an eagle in flight, with a spear in its talons, above the motto 'Valor, Honor, and Victory' and the numeral IV.  Do you know what that means?"The priest looks very uncomfortable.  "Look, I didn't know him well.  He's not a regular member of my congregation, just someone passing through.  I'm a loyal subject of the Empire, and so are the parishioners.  We don't want any problems, and just want to live in peace, worshipping the Gods as our forefathers did..."Melania nods.  "We understand.  We don't think there's anything wrong with how you worship." Sister Aurora begins to interrupt, but Lhovrik and Dove quickly shush her.  "We just need to get some information about this man.  He's been involved in a murder, and we need to find out more about him.  We know that he didn't really have any meaningful connection to you or your parish.  But if you start covering up for him, we might need to take it up with the guard...""You have to believe me.  I never knew he had that tatoo." The priest pauses and sighs.  "It means he was a member of the Nusaybian Royal Guard.  But I swear, I never knew he was a Guardsman.  I don't know whether he's still in the Guard or retired.  I had no idea."The group presses the priest a little longer and confirms that he knows nothing else about the matter.  With that, they thank him and leave.Lord Lhovrik turns to his companions.  "I think we now know everything we're going to find out.  The merchant, if he wasn't really a spy, and his companions were Nusaybian, and included at least one Royal Guardsman.  They killed Brother Moreth, for who knows what reason, and then they left that night.  We can't possibly catch them by this point.  We might as well head back to Lir Sanek."This time, the rest of the group is forced to agree.  They inform the sergeant of the guard of what they discovered; while he pays a little more attention to the fact that the unidentified corpse was an elite Nusaybian soldier, it's clear that he lumps these deaths in with all the other killings that go unpunished and has no interest in worrying about it.  They also return to the Aretash priory and are shown in to see the prior.The prior listens as impassively as ever as they describe what they have discovered.  "Thank you for this information.  The followers of Aretas are grateful.  I do not know why these Nusaybians would have wanted to kill Brother Moreth, but I will pass this information along to others of my order." Once again, the group cannot tell whether the prior is completely controlling his emotions, or whether he simply does not care about Brother Moreth's death.In the late afternoon, the group boards a barge heading down the River Sanek and begins the last leg of their journey home.End Session 14</blockquote>

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