Characters: Julian, Terus, Cael, Anthony, Grim, Balin.
NPCs: 2 Blinking Jaguars, Knights of the Sheild wizard, Knights of the Sheild guards, Edirra Swiftstar the Harper Agent, 3 Harper Strikers, Sergeant Shelden of the Cleansing Flame (Markets), Sergeant Clough of the Cleansing Flame (Fortress), Constal Joseph "Plaguebane" Throffson, Lobi-Tongo witness (Wainwrights), 4 Shar sewer guards.
E 26 Alturiak 1374 - L 26 Alturiak 1374
2125 XP
Although the other half of the party had recently learned of the Zhent and Harper presence within Zaz, Julian and Terus moved forward with their plan to investigate the inner-workings of the Knights of the Sheild mercantile guild. Julian managed to Dispel the magical aura within the greenish ink he had been covered in, and then the two thieves proceeded to Spiderclimb up the walls of the Knights of the Sheild guildhall. Arriving on the upper level they found the mansion to be largely cleared out. Unlit hallways led to empty rooms, however in the back of the upper level they found two large double doors and signs of movement from within. The two blinked into the master bedroom suspecting to find Fitch Creighton himself stirring, however all they found were two Blinking Jaguars. Even with the magical collars the Blinking Jaguars standed no chance for the two experienced thieves. Another door swung open as a Guildmage casted Dimensional Anchor upon Julian. Terus and Julian ferociously attacked however, the Guildmage was able to escape with a well-timed Teleport.
Somewhat shaken, the two moved with haste down the stairs and subdued a couple of un-prepared Guild guardsman. They reached the entrance to the underground level of the guildhall and recomposed themselves. Now invisible, and moving with great care, the two thieves pushed downward through the basement levels. Julian found a very large trap door, leading down to an obviously tunneled out space. These dark caverns led them deeper below the city, and they found much of the Guildhall’s missing furnishings. In addition, the two found evidence of continued sea trade even after the quarantine had been initiated 4 days ago. A personal letter to the Knights of the Sheild dockmaster was signed just 1 day ago under the name Cutlass. As they moved farther down these deep caverns they reached a great underground sea port. Being actively operated by numerous Knights of the Shield ship workers. A trade ship was just leaving the horizon under black sails as the rocky sea doors closed with silent mechanics. Clearly, the Knights of the Shield were remaining active in illegal operations.Meanwhile, the party continued to converse with Edirra the Harper and learned more of her recent actions in the Zhent organization. She told the party of two suspicious locations in the Zaz sewer system that might offer more knowledge of what has been happening. The party agreed that the best option would be to act as if this Zhent cell had destroyed itself from within so that the Harper presence would not be expected. They then arranged for Edirra and the remaining 3 Harper Strikers to stay with the halfling Umarra Greypebble in the southern Wainwrights. After that the party moved towards the Fortress of the Faithful to re-join Julian, Samael, and Terus.
With the dew day’s sun rising quickly, the party joined up in front of the Fortress and found quite a disturbing sight. Sergant Shelden of the Fortress District informed the party that during the night a lynch mob of Lobi-Tongo converts had hung 3 Knights of the Cleansing Flame. In response for the terroristic action, Constal Throffson had ordered the public hangings of all those involved. Now almost 20 Zaz citizens hanged from the streetlights along the Fortress. Throffson personally met with the party and told them of the dire situation and the desperate need for the populace to fear instigating more violence and that he had imprisoned the Lobi-Tongo leaders for interrogation proceedings. The party decided they must quickly investigate the two suspicious locations that Edirra had told them of before other Zhent cells figured out theirs had been compromised.
With the need for quickness the party decided it would be best to Teleport through the other quarantine zones directly to the Wainwrights to investigate the first underground location. Terus led them with the Teleportation however, they were seen by at least one Lobi-Tongo convert whom promptly told a guard post of other Lobi-Tongos. Nonetheless, the party continued on and entered the sewer system. Although they had been in the bloody streets of Zaz for the past 4 days the sewers showed more blood and death than they could have imagined. The party moved through the winding Wainwrights sewers for a while, and reached a fairly large secret door that Julian disabled. Inside they found relatively clean sewers, with no signs of blood or dead bodies. Whoever had been managing the sewer entrances above was doing an especially good job in this area.Julian and Terus stealthily moved ahead of the party and were able to knock unconscious 4 sewer guardsman fully covered in black protective clothing. Their uniform bore the symbol of Shar, as well as another symbol, which was most likely, some secretive mercantile guild. The remaining party members disguised themselves in the black sewer guard uniforms and moved toward some of the louder areas of these clean sewers.
They arrived at a massive underground room where many tributaries of sewer water joined and left the city. The great room was filled with wagons and robed merchants actively trading many goods including, wild animals, precious metals, food, and slaves. The merchants payed homage to a large altar to Shar as their caravans arrived and left from a large underground tunnel leaving the city to the southwest. Disgusted with their sight the party could find no evidence of official Zhent activity, although undercover Zhent agents could still be operating under the guises of merchants and guardsman. They left the protected sewers and moved underground towards the Markets District to investigate the second suspicious location Edirra had described.
