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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7997434" data-attributes="member: 6816692">After spending a few hours in the city of Vendricce, looking for more information on Leone Quintal, we get the rumor that a certain Cardinal Testamenta Suchdol might still be in the same convent she visited when she arrived 3 weeks ago. Burton, who arrived here in advance, got even more as he found out that someone had been asking for Leone 4 weeks ago. In addition, a man fitting Leone's general appearance left Vendricce on the yacht Isabella quite some time ago, heading for Seobriga. He adds that the Isabella belongs to a certain Manuelle Carucci, a friend of the Quintal family, so it would be quite possible that this was truly Leone.We're really glad that Burton made good use of his many connections and thank him for the details. For Burton, this is no big deal – as long as we don't make him join our deadly fights, he's more than ready to lend us his bag of tricks.(He's still a bit traumatized after the events on Axis Island. But we're truly happy that this little goblin is still loyal and willing to work for the RHC)We then visit the convent incognito and spy on Cardinal Testamenta who is busy performing a mass. To no one's surprise, she uses a mix of classic Clergy supremacy and a mish-mash of everything “demonic” in her rhetoric before blessing all attendants in the name of Triegenes. We follow her a bit afterward, but fail to gain any more information about Leone.Sensing that Auryn's constantly clenched fists and her short-spokenness might be a sign of trouble, Carlyle takes her to a quieter place at the Vendricce docks and asks her about her state of mind. She sighs softly and then states that Crisillyir and its citizens are giving her strong headaches right now. She found it hard to stay calm when she heard Testamenta's hateful rhetoric and the woman's hypocrisy regarding demons and her own use of demonic artifacts is making her sick. That, plus the fact that she is an Ob agent who just revived their archenemy for her own gain really fill her mind with murderous thoughts right now.What's making this even worse is the fact that none of the mass' attendants even batted an eye when she called for the complete dominion of her holy forces over the “evil east” and the eradication of her people.“It has been 500 years now, and they still haven't changed a bit, Gabriel. And what is even worse is the fact that... all the people from Crisillyir that I met in Flint... Cippiano, you... they gave me hope that things may have changed. But these people don't seem to understand the meaning of 'coexistence'. There can be no peace with these war-mongers.”Touched by the bitterness in Auryn's words, yet seeing that she got a point there, Carlyle exhales sharply and slowly shakes his head.You're not going to go on a murder spree, will you?” he replies with a certain humorous undertone.Auryn laughs softly, leaving the doom and gloom for a moment while shaking her head.“Nope. I won't cut off heads for thinking ugly crisiylliri thoughts. I promise.”"And I promise that every violation of Eladrin people and properties, including their territory will be met with severe retaliation.”(This whole Crisillyir issue is really affecting her. She cannot really wrap her head around why regular Crisillyiri wouldn't be averted to such blatant propaganda if what remained of her people – sans Mad King – had left the path of vengeance. Especially as the Eladrin with their long life spans remembered while an age had passed for the humans. Plus, she really invested a lot of time and effort into curing Gene and his blatant rejection was like a punch in the face.In her inner thoughts, she already strategized about how to deal with Crisillyir and the whole colonial issue in the future and at that point, she realized that some kind of war against the Clergy might be inevitable. But this time, it better resulted in a “the world vs. the Clergy” scenario. She had not given up hope completely, as she knew that people could change and maybe someone would be willing to try something akin to Sawyer in one of the Crisillyiri colonies.And yep, she has to constantly face the urge to annihilate whoever seems to threaten her people or the Enclaves. Because, how else should she deal with people who deny her kin the right to exist? Even if she knew that this might have been very well the path that led Kasvarina to darkness.But to be honest, Auryn didn't think too highly of “mortal humans” before she actually met them either. First, she saw them as invaders, threats and enemies. Then she realized how harmless and pathetic they were. Then she met their greed and was utterly disgusted. It took years and the influence of Morris and Milena Dawkins to make her respect them)So next we go to Seobriga to check if and when Leone Quintal arrived in the city. But it seems like he never made it there and some local dockers and sailors can tell us that the Isabella had a rendezvous with the Cold Vessel, a liner to Alais Primos she met at high sea. We suspect that Leone used this opportunity to switch ships and divert his trail. So Alais Primos should be next on our list.As the Crisillyiri capital is far more into the mainland, we guess that wandering around as an Eladrin wouldn't be the best of ideas. So Auryn and Carlyle do their best to disguise her as a human woman.(Carlyle is really talented when it come to make-up and disguises. He mixes some of the stuff himself and uses it to hide his Deva markings every day. He's always more comfortable blending in with the crowd than sticking out.We also joked about who would need more time for their individual morning routine... Carlyle, who puts a lot of effort into shaving, lotions and said make-up, but doesn't need that much for his hair or dress or Auryn, who doesn't do much make-up and simply needs cold, refreshing water, but tends to let her unseen servant go wild on her hair and has the more elaborate and complicated wardrobe)As soon as we are in Alais Primos, we try to ignore the temptation of a longer sightseeing tour and directly follow Leone's trail to the pink cathedral of St. Tromboni (Auryn shakes her head at such a gaudy, distasteful non-style), ask a few people and find out that Signore Quintal had rented a room in a pension a couple of days ago. As this doesn't lead us much further, we then decide to pick up Delft's hint and visit his old contact, Joe Hobner.So we head to Hobner's import business where we are met by a laid-back, yet charming man. When we mention his old comrade, Stover Delft, who recommended him as a guide for Alais Primos, he warms up even more and invites us to a drink to have a chat about his past as an RHC agent. He then tells a few anecdotes about his misadventures with “dear Stover” and then asks us about our reason for being in Alais Primos.(this came a bit of a surprise, as no one in Flint knew what kind of man Delft had been during his time as an active field agent. He didn't share the mimic story though and... considering Hobner's true nature, this was so surprising in hindsight)So we tell him that we're looking for one dangerous man with especially dangerous metal-manipulating powers who goes by the name of Leone Quintal. Hobner nods seemingly knowing and offers us a drink. Both of us choose the wine (hey, we're in Crisillyir!) and while Auryn takes a sip and notices that the wine is unusually bitter for such a fine one, Carlyle actually smells that something is off even before he tries it.“This is strychnine. Don't have any more of that, Auryn. It is poisonous.” he says sternly while drawing his Kukris, pointing them at Hobner.“You. Talk. Now.”Hobner puts up a half-smile as if he wasn't too surprised that someone noticed the poison, then pulls out a strange sizzling device called Dazer (I see what you did there) and tries to electrocute Carlyle. Needless to say that his attempts are quite futile and he quickly ends up being knocked out.Before we tie up “Hobner”, Carlyle asks Auryn whether she is feeling any kind of numbness or over-stimulus and Auryn replies that her fingertips are tingling, but that she's fine otherwise. Carlyle doesn't want to risk her health though, so he starts mixing an antidote. While he's at it, the backdoor opens and a small group of kobolds, led by a prominent figure with red scales, enter the scene.“No reason to be surprised” says El Extrano, bowing gallantly before twirling his tendrils.“Well, this time it actually is a surprise to see you”, Carlyle replies while eyeing the other kobolds carefully.As soon as they see what Carlyle is up to, they hand us small vials of antidote and say that they knew this man was preparing to poison someone, which is why they brought these in advance. We thank the kobolds and El Extrano, who goes on to tell us that he and his Bruse got interested in the “conspiracy”, and that their trail led them here. He realized that this Hobner guy had been replaced by some conspirator and so he was curious about what he was up to.El Extrano asks us to maybe take a little more time to chat with him, but we suggest that we probably do so elsewhere and add that we'd first have to tell our Chief Inspector Delft that his old friend is dead. That, and we need to get information from this assassin. Which we are more than willing to share with the kobolds.So we take the assassin and teleport back to the RHC where we bring the bad news to Delft. First, he seems shocked, but then he's fuming in rage over the death of his close friend Joe. We agree that we'll interrogate the man, who turns out to go by the name of Robert the Black, together. Robert unfortunately isn't really an Ob himself, but seems to be rather hired by them to discard of nosy RHC agents. Just a job, he explains.Carlyle smiles grimly at his explanation and casually mentions that assassins like him better consider the damage they do and that now we're going to leave him alone with the man whose friend he killed. So good luck with Delft.(There is his rather ruthless side again. And yep, Delft was really glad that we brought Robert to him. To be honest, we don't really know how dark Delft can become when it comes to people who crossed him or his friends.)We return to Alais Primos to meet up with El Extrano and his gang again. We tell him that Robert didn't know more about the Obs and our kobold acquaintance doesn't seem surprised at all.“Sorry that we weren't able to save poor Joe” Extrano says while smoking his oversized pipe.We reply that the beran spies were of great help already, so no hard feelings. El Extrano then explains that his kobolds got quite the functioning spy network among the dock workers in Alais Primos, so he would totally lend us his hand should we need it. We agree that both our nations have suffered from the Obscurti conspiracy, so it would be in both their interest if we joined forces in terms of intelligence.Carlyle is curious about the reason why the berans would be so interested in Crisillyir in the first place and Auryn muses that it might trace back to the reign of the Dragon Tyrants who wanted to keep a close eye on their rivals. She then adds that Ber has always been wary of missionaries and been friendly to Elfaivaran refugees, so maybe they just wanted to make sure to know about Crisillyir's possible actions and reactions in advance.El Extrano doesn't know more about this subject, but he seems genuinely friendly. He then hands us the Kodex of the Little People and asks us to read it so we may understand the perspective of the smallfolk. We reply that we do value his input and wouldn't dare to treat goblins or kobolds as less than the larger people just because of their size. The kobold seems contempt with this answer and then share his latest information about Leone Quintal with us: That he heard the man traveled to Enzyo Mons a couple of days ago. So it seems as if we'd have to scale a volcano next.</blockquote>

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