As the Party stand in the former Tharchion's bed chambers the severity of the situation is palpable. Zoran Gul informs them that this heinous crime needs to be resolved within the next couple of days before the arrival of a Lich Diviner. Lucian, Sigrid, Finn and Farraine move into the adjoining room, Garrick following silently in their wake. Finn wanders over to Varrax and begins to question him around the events of last night. Once more he tells of how Thoss gave his verbal report of the interrogation of Farraine around midnight and left soon after and he recalls that the Tharchion was still alive at that point. He tells them of how Eseldra had assumed command of the keep upon her arrival a few days ago from the capital - Nethwatch Keep being a frontier post and therefore an ideal location for the negotiations to be held. When asked whether the Tharchion had any enemies the undead bodyguard advises that he had been her bodyguard for over 100 years and in that time she had never been the subject of an attack.
Finn thanks him for the information and begins to search the room for any hint of a clue. Lucian asks the bodyguard for permission to take some of the ashes from the pile in the bed chamber and grabs a small vial from his robes and proceeds to fill it up with the former Ex Vampire. He asks the bodyguard if anyone in the castle will be able to verify that these are indeed the remains of Eseldra. Varrax, unable to say exactly, suggests that they seek out one of the Red Wizards. Leaving the scene of the crime the party head down the corridor to speak with Nyh Ilmichh. Lucian knocks on the door to their room and proceeds to enquire about the potential to analyse the ashes to determine that it was indeed the Tharchion who met their end. Nyh advises the party to seek out Khandur Ulmarik who can be found in the basement of the keep. Under further questioning from Lucian it is established that Nyh believes that Rath Modar and his sect need to be stopped and Rath himself needs to pay for his crimes.
The party make their way down to the basement of the Keep and find themselves in a long corridor. Off to one side there is a large door, opening it reveals an expansive room with 6 cauldrons, a look of horrified realisation spreads over the face of Farraine, so this is where he was taken last night. The Fighter stands nervously in the doorway as Finn, Lucian and Sigrid head inside, a silent Garrick joins him and observes the trio as they investigate the room. As well as the cauldrons, a bounty of torture tools hang from hooks, glistening clean giving no hint of the damage they may have wrought. Finn eyes them closely and has a feeling that he has seen them before, from a certain book that came into his possession. With a growing sense of unease Lucian, Finn and Sigrid make a hasty exit from the room and the party continue down the corridor to a second door.
Opening the door reveals a number of undead creatures standing at various workbenches. In the centre of the room is an ethereal creature, bound in chains. Lucian recognises the creature as being a wraith. Nervously , Finn asks the wraith for assistance and explains that the party are looking for Khandur. The wraith turns and glides over to another doorway at the other end of the room. The party cautiously follow and enter the room beyond where they notice a distraught Khandur on his knees. "it's gone" he says "The Pyx has been taken". Lucian asks what it is that he is talking about, Khandur explains that the Pyx of Soul Capture is what powered the wardings protecting the keep and in itself is extremely dangerous to the undead. Zoran must be informed of this development and Finn agrees to pass on the message, leaving the rest of the party to question the Wizard. Farraine asks if Khandur is aware of anyone who might have been able to steal the Pyx and is told that only Khandur himself has access to it. Probing further Farraine asks if there is anything out of place that may give a clue as to who else may have taken it. Nothing seems to point them in any particular direction. Sigrid asks for further details about the Pyx itself to see if she is able to locate it through magical detection but it seems like the spell is ineffective. Turning their attention to the Vial of ashes, Lucian asks Khandur if he is able to analyse it further to determine the source.
Cut to a slightly out of breath Halfling knocking on the door of Zoran Gul, it opens with a slight creak.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Sir, Khandur sent me, the Pyx has been taken"
Pushing past Finn, the Vampire hurriedly heads back down the corridor to alert the guards. With his room vacated the halfling takes the opportunity to search the Vampire's quarters for potential clues. His small hands glide over the wall, face pressed up against the stone, eyes narrowed in concentration. Despite his efforts Finn finds nothing. This is turning out to be a lot harder than he had imagined. Moments later the sound of footsteps approaching echoes down the hallway, Finn quickly exits the room and stands nonchalantly in the corridor. Zoran is leading a frightened looking Khandur, flanked by two armoured guards. He's marched to his room and forcefully tossed inside, an angry Zoran tells the Red Wizard that he shall be questioned later that evening. "Can I watch?" asks Farraine. "If you wish" the Vampire replies.
Finn takes Zoran to one side and asks for more information about the Pyx specifically around the security arrangements surrounding it.
"Who knew the Pyx existed?" - Everyone
"Who knew where the Pyx was kept?" - Everyone
The sound of the slap of the halfling's palm as it smacks into his forehead resonates through the entire Keep. Shaking his head Finn tells Zoran that having a single item that both controls the security of the entire castle and is one of the few items with the ability to kill the leaders of said castle, is probably not something that everyone should know about or where it is kept. The Vampire blinks in surprise at this unexpected level of candour but agrees with the Halfling's assessment before returning to his quarters.
Regrouping, the party decide that the next person to be questioned should be Thoss Tarek and they head off down the corridor in search of their room. Lucian knocks on the door and it creaks open as such a door is narratively obliged to do. Thoss peeks from behind the door, "Yes?" . Lucian steps forward and begins to question the Grand Inquisitor on the events of the previous night. He tells them that the Tharcion seemed calm and relaxed before she took her blood bath. This revelation seems to trigger something in the Halfling's synapses and he abruptly dashes off down the corridor. Bursting into the Tharcion's bed chambers he quickly reaches inside of his pouch and retrieves a small glass vial. He bends over the bath tub which contains a large quantity of slowly congealing blood. Filling the vial and securing the stopper he pops it back into his pouch and bounds back to his buddies. In his absence, the questioning of the Inquisitor yielded little in the way of new information so the party take some time to discuss what they have found so far. The discussion didn't take long. Finn even suggested a cunning plan to try and trap any potential suspect but despite the ingenuity of his scheme the best course of action was to try and find out some more information from other keep residents first. Sigrid has an idea of her own and conjures three ravens and commands them to perch in sight of each of the rooms on this floor and should any of the doors be opened to indicate such to her upon her return.
The next target of the party's questions is Rho Halthar the Chief Diviner of Nethwatch Keep, surely they would be able to shed some more light on the events that took place the night before. Finn asks Varrax if he can take them to see Rho and the undead bodyguard leads the party down the stairs and through the dining hall. In the corner of the room Varrax presses on a section of the wall that looks just like all the rest and a gap appears, growing larger a door reveals itself and beyond lies a secret passageway. Once more Varrax takes the lead with the party following behind him down the darkened corridor. As he rounds a bend and enters a room beyond, the party hear him shout, "There's been another!". Rushing to catch up with him, a horrific scene reveals itself to our heroes. Rho is slouched over his scrying pool, head submerged. Lucian investigates more closely and discovers a knife wound in the Wizard's back and traces of magical poison that have been left by the fatal blade. Farraine recalls that the Pyx prevented scrying within the keep and with it gone and the ward protections broken Rho was likely to have been able to discover the identity of the murderer. They have surely been killed to prevent the truth from being uncovered.
Varrax heads back up the passage to report this latest development to Zoran, and the party begin searching the room for any possible clues as to who may have performed this heinous act. Their investigations are interrupted by the slave girl, Cressa who had served them the night before. She reports to our amateur sleuths that Khandur is dead, it seems that whoever started this trail of death is not only still in the keep but still laying siege to its residents. Sigrid and Farraine rush off to see if Sigrid's Ravens might be able to offer some extra intelligence on the situation. As they reach the corridor outside Khandur's room, Zoran and Thoss are stood outside. Sigrid speaks with her Ravens and discovers that only Khandur's and Zoran's doors have been opened since the party left to seek out Rho and only Cressa has entered Khandur's room when she delivered his food and discovered his lifeless form. A number of Red Wizards have now gathered in the corridor outside of Khandur's room. They look nervous, their kin are being picked off one by one and they may well be next to breathe their last. Sigrid enters Khandur's bedroom and studies the latest Ex Red Wizard. There are no marks on the body, no knife wounds. Looking around the room Sigrid notices that there is a potion bottle on the bedside table, the label suggests the contents was "Mother's Helper" a well known sleeping potion to aid slumber. Upon closer inspection the label looks to have been added from another bottle, it seems the prescribed contents was a cunning ruse. Zorran Gul is infuriated and barks at the guards who were posted outside of the room. They are confident that the only person to have entered the room since the Wizard was locked inside was the slave girl who brought him his food and screamed when she noticed Khandur was dead.
Back in the secret scrying room Finn and Lucian are questioning Cressa about what happened. She tells them that she was commanded to take the Wizard his meal and upon entering the room noticed him lying on the bed. She tried to wake him but he didn't respond, once she realised what had happened she screamed, dropping the tray of food and fled from the room. Finn takes the young girl to one side and speaks softly to her, he sympathises with her position and understand that she has the unique ability to pass without being acknowledged and must therefore see things that other people miss. He asks if there is anything that she may have observed in the last 24 hours that may help our heroes in their investigation. She tells Finn that she noticed Nyh Ilmichh poking around in Khandur's laboratory. Finn thanks her for her assistance and requests that should there be anything else that she discovers, to seek him out immediately. With this fresh knowledge, Finn and Lucian head off in search of Nyh. Garrick stands for a moment, wondering if anyone has actually noticed that he has been left behind before shrugging his shoulders and turns to follow in the tracks of his companions.
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