February 19, 118
The party have a few hours left before nightfall, and Elvish decides to use this time to try to get the "word on the street" about the various prelates and the election, hoping to corroborate what Aralakk told him and Calanon. The best place to chat up the priesthood is at the Eminent Cathedral, which is directly attached to the Palace Massive, where the party was imprisoned not long ago. This makes Elvish going there possibly dangerous if he's recognized.
Elvish decides that it's worth and risk, so he disguises himself and makes his way to the cathedral. He manages to avoid being recognized and gathers some information about the prelates. He learns that the main topics of conversation are Severn and Sahril - specifically, why they have yet to publicly proclaim support for anyone. In Sahril's case, many believe it's because she's generally shown little interest in politics in the past, but in Severn's case opinions are divided. Some feel that, as the head of the Inquisition, he has information that incriminates all of the candidates, making him not want to vote for anyone. Others feel that he must have information that he's using to blackmail the others.
The other big topic of conversation is Gorith. After his very public proclamation of having captured the Archprelate's killer, rumours have started to get out that the killer has since escaped, which is starting to look very bad for Gorith. Elvish begins to understand why Gorith is so desperate to find them, as Kaplan's escape will be terrible for his reputation if word gets out to the common people.
Eventually, night falls and everyone returns to Ash-Daughter's hiding place in the Undercity, except for Calanon, who stays behind at Aralakk's temple. Mindful of the fact that several groups have managed to find them already, they decide to set a watch, with Grrrr Yip taking the first shift.
Only about an hour has passed when the door suddenly bursts open, and six dark-cloaked figures wielding daggers flood into the room. Grrrr Yip is caught by surprise, and several of them run up to her and attack. She manages to regain her senses before they take her down, and she shapeshifts into bear form, letting loose a roar that immediately awakens the rest of the party.
The rest of the group pick themselves up off the ground and join into the fight; the battle quickly devolves into total chaos as a dozen combatants battle in the small hiding place. During the fight, Elvish catches one of the figures with a magical Suggestion spell, which he uses to "suggest" that the figure go stand in the corner and not fight.
Eventually the party defeat the other five figures, although not without sustaining some major wounds themselves. As the party's healers take care of these, they investigate the corpses.
The figures turn out to be a group of human men, wearing dark red cloaks over leather armor. Each is carrying two elaborate (but still practical) daggers and a small coinpurse, which they loot. Only one of the sets of robes remains in decent condition, the others mostly destroyed by magic and weapons, so they take it. The men don't seem to be carrying any sort of identifying mark.
Elvish turns his attention to the man standing in the corner. Using two Charm Person spells (the man resists the first), he magically gains his trust, and asks the rest of the party to leave the room while he interrogates him.
The man is very reluctant to speak, even under the influence of the spell, but Elvish's charisma eventually convinces him to open up. He gives his name as Sadrith, and tells Elvish that he's a member of a group called the Guild of the Twinborn, a guild of assassins. He isn't able to answer too many question about them, as he claims that the group is very secretive and lower-ranked members are only given information on a need-to-know basis. Membership apparently pays extremely well, which is why he joined.
Sadrith doesn't know where the group is ultimately based, but he tells Elvish that he personally is from the south, in the Second Empire, and that he and his companions are here on a job to kill Kaplan. He does know the location of their temporary hideout in Vornheim, which Elvish manages to wring out of him - it's a building in the New City, the middle layer of Vornheim. Elvish also convinces Sadrith to tell him the current password, which is "the chimera turns". The group change their passwords every week, but the last change was earlier this day, so this password will still be valid for nearly a week.
Finally, Elvish asks him if he knows anything about the assassination of the Archprelate, but Sadrith replies that he does not.
Having learned everything of value that he can, Elvish steps outside to discuss what to do with Sadrith with the rest of the party. While some of the group want to spare his life and let him go, they eventually decide that it is too dangerous to leave him alive, as he could report back a great deal of information about them. Ash-Daughter enters the room and runs him through with her rapier, killing him instantly.
The party next discuss where they will spend the night. Ash-Daughter's hiding place is clearly not safe, but they're not sure if anywhere else is any safer. They discuss returning to Leravith's home and seeking her protection, but they eventually decide that it's too far out of the way from the surface of the city, plus they're not sure if she would agree to take them in in the first place.
Eventually, they decide that, since their enemies seem to be able to find them anyway, there's no point in hiding down in the Undercity. Elvish and Dark Star do their best to disguise Kaplan so that no one will recognize him, and they head out to the Outer City to find an inn to stay at. They eventually settle in at an inn called the Greasy Thatcher, and Ash-Daughter heads out to the temple to update Calanon on everything that has happened.
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