As you make your way towards the castle you notice that the trip gives your lungs time to recover from the smoke. The trip takes you through town and over a bridge which overlooks most of the city straight to the castle gates. As the morning turns to afternoon you are greeted with walls of stone towering over you and guard paroling all around the castle itself. On first thought you notice it's much more protected than most of the other parts of the city but then again why would it not be?

The guards command you to halt as you approach. One well armored guard walks out of a guard booth right outside of the gates.

"What is your business here citizens?", says the man in a gruff voice.

<<Secret to Piper>>
[Secret to Piper:
Piper follows the wagon making sure to keep a steady eye on the rat creature in the cage. While she is following she notices that the creature itself seems to shrink. Not a lot but enough for the small mouse to notice. You wonder if it will return to it's normal form given enough time. By the time you make it to the castle you notice guards out in the front. They take the creature inside of the walls and that's where you are stopped. The walls are far too high for you to climb. You look around waiting for the rest of the group trying to find another possible way in but from what you figure short of going over the walls. You are likely stuck without more investigating.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:34, Mon 08 Jan.

"Our business is varied.  We just came from the fire at the library.  The foeman the authorities have taken in is severely dangerous, and possesses abnormal physical properties.  We must warn whoever has custody of him, in detail."  Aeress' answer may have been right or wrong, but it was decisive and delivered without hesitation.

Piper and Mosii appeared shortly after the group began getting questioned by the guard, having taken up a watchful position nearby.

When Aeress spoke Piper gave a nod of agreement as she had nothing else to report at the moment that wasn't already known.

Quentin suddenly thinks he should provide an alternative take on the group's business here. "We are here to make an appointment with Roland Stonecroft to report our numerous findings related with the recent rat problems. The matters are somewhat urgent and there might be benefit in acting swiftly, so the sooner we are to meet him, the better. For both sides involved, I think. We have two recommendation letters, some material evidence and..." Quentin looks at Piper who is here and not seems particularly concerned "...the details about some additional material evidence that should have been already deposited in this castle." He then waits for the guard to respond.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:13, Tue 09 Jan.

Hunter stood straight and tall but relaxed. Quentin had said to let him do most of the talking, and Hunter was happy to let him.

Lirian remained silent on the background, hearing Aeress and Quentin talk with the Guard. She was aware half elves used to be mistrusted, and didn’t want to interfere. After all, Aeress and Quentin, coming from noble families, would know more the needed etiquette than herself …

The guard looks at Quentin with an eye and takes a look at the letters without removing them from Quentin's hand. He calls a guard over from the guard post and says in a loud manner of fact, "Escort them to Roland and when they are done, escort them back. We can not have citizens moving behind castle walls without authorization from the king himself."

The man gives a salute and gestures you past the gates as they open for your arrival. As you walk past this guard seems much more friendly and welcoming than the other. He points out a few places of interest being more excited to bring you inside. To the right of the castle gates on the inside is a huge barracks housing a number of soldiers waiting at the ready. Further through a very big path that has statues and gardens it leads directly to the castle. He takes you around the other-side of the castle to a pretty huge tower that stands up almost as tall if not taller than the castle. It's a good distance away from the castle but when you get to the huge oak doors that are set by ornate designs on the front. The man opens the doors without any issue.

Inside you find the bottom of the tower leads to a pretty open room with windows that look out to the castle walls but little else other than two spiral stairs cases that lead up towards other floors. A huge massive rug is laid out with a set of couch and chairs.

"Please sit.", says the younger guard, "Roland will be with you shortly."

You think to yourself, that seems odd. How does he know you are here. The guard heads back to the front door where he promptly stands quietly watching and waiting but making no sounds.

Inside of the room there isn't much. A table assortment of crates, torches, nick-knacks are around the area but nothing of interest.

As the guard asked the team to sit, Lirian sat on a chair, leaving her staff and bow leaning agains the table, showing respect to the king’s advisor expected to come.

She made an effort to avoid humming again, waiting to see what came from this meeting
This message was last edited by the player at 15:24, Wed 10 Jan.

Quentin sits down onto a chair facing the entrance (or into a chair facing the entrance, depending on how comfortable those are) and then waits for Roland, holding a bottle of wildfire in his hands and looking between it and the entrance, just taking time to rest.

After a few moments, Hunter went to the couch and sat down, Jenkins following close behind. However the goblin soon got bored, and began poking through the boxes and knick-knacks.

Hunter coughed. "Jenkins!" he said sternly and baeckoned him over. In a quiet but firm voice, too quiet for the Guard to hear, he began telling him off. "Jenkins, if need be, do you think you could find this place again? Could you scale the walls and fund this place in the dark?"

Jenkins stood like a chastised child with head bowed and one arm clasping the other behind his back. She nodded solemnly and then sat down quietly next to Hunter.

Aeress knew a particular way to sit in a chair in armor as to spring up as soon as possible.  It wasn't particularly comfortable, but having her spear to lean on made it much better.  She wasn't sure which item of business was being attended to first, and honestly didn't care it was just nice someone responded at all.  Either that or a score of men at arms were about to emerge and arrest the lot of them.

Mosii wandered over to one of the crates and jumped up to the tallest one, before taking a seat.

Piper held on and, once Mosii was settled, leaned against the cat's head as they waited, her eyes softly closing as if a nap was imminent.

As you sit down waiting on Roland there is a large sound from above that sounds like machines and steam. Up above you see a circular device dropping from the ceiling not at a fast rate of speed but fast enough to catch your attention. Inside is a dragonkin in a green robe with some golden garnishes. A number of different bottle hang off his belt and as the device touches the floor with a loud mechanical thud the dragonkin steps out onto the carpet.

His scaly skin and golden eyes seem to gleam in the light of the tower. Upon first glance this is not who you expected as the king's advisor. Dragonkin are pretty rare and usually related to clans whom they share deep connections with.

"Welcome. My name is Roland citizens. But as I understand you already knew that and you are looking for me. I have a feeling that judging on your look this might not be a good meeting? Am I correct?"

The dragonkin speaks with a certain flair that just isn't found in this region.

Lirian was surprised to see another Dragonkind. He was the second one she had seen, and all of them in the last two days...

Well, at least maybe he would not mistrust her as half elf. Humans and elves used to, but would a Deagonkind too? She was surprised by his words.

“We apologize for our looks, but we have guessed the matter was too urgent to arrange ourselves after the incident in the library, Excellency” Lirian said. “While the issue that brings us here is not good, I guess Italk in all my comrades name when I say I hope this meeting to be informative and constructive for everyone, and good for the city, if we can help”
This message was last edited by the player at 15:32, Wed 10 Jan.

Quentin stands up from the chair and makes what he thinks would be appropriate bow. "I hope, a good enough meeting as far as things go nowadays. At least, we have some catch to report, though the situation does remain dire." Quentin then names everyone pointing at them with the hand still holding the bottle. "Aeress, Hunter, Kaiy, Lirian, Piper, Quentin. We sort of had it thrust upon us to do stuff about this rat problem. In very unofficial sort of way, so it's just now we got here to report and maybe somehow coordinate. Lirian will later brief you about the details if you are not familiar, but so far, our accomplishments:
- Wiped out a small hidden base of the cultists out of the city, but connected to it via sewers.
- Got informed that the base was busy gathering some ingredients, not sure what they are.
- Also got two prisoners who might know the details. The guards should now have them.
- Found a substance there that makes rats grow real fast. Like in a matter of minutes. Used up the only dose we had checking this fact.
- Found a substance that might cure the rat-borne disease. Used up the only dose we had and are now waiting to see if it will have any effect.
- Found some wildfire and a reference to some of its ingredient easily found in the sewers.
- Found a long-forgotten section of the library, containing who knows what, Hunter and Lirian will provide the details.
- Found a very> interesting person-or-thing who is a someone behind this rat problem and was very upset with us poking our noses around. The guy is not natural and is just refusing to die, so would be a thrill to look at. The men here in the castle should now have him.

Hmm..." Quentin looks around at the others "That's about it? We also have two recommendation letters, but most of the stuff above is not yet written down, so I guess we just answer your questions and then think what we are to do next?"

Roland listens to the list of things that have happened.

"Not citizens at all then?" He says with a watchful eye, "Sellswords?"

He walks around them rather than sitting down and pondering what to do. "The king is aware of the rat plague that is threatening us. It seems now it's only got worse and possibly about to get a lot worse. I won't lie when I was informed by the guard they had brought me a creature, I was surprised to see just an infernal. They swore to me that it was a giant rat thing but I am guessing somehow the transformation ended."

He grabs a flask sitting on a desk off to the side and pours a glass to drink. "I am sorry where are my manners? Ale anyone? Please forgive the flask being an alchemist we tend to do things a little different than nobility. But let us talk next steps."

After he hands out the glasses to whoever wants one he sits down as you explain. "When the rat plague first hit. I informed the king as I do that this was no simple plague. Anyone with half common sense knew that. Rats as big as dire wolf made no sense. The king in his infinite wisdom did what the king does which is mainly ignoring my requests. I fear that even with the information you have brought me, it might not be enough for him. You see the king has a love for trade. Anything that hurts the trade business is normally ignored. I am sure he hoped that this would be sorted with the guards going down into the sewers and now sending the poor people to their doom. Still enough if what you are saying is true we need to launch an attack. I understand that you have been dragged through this enough but I need to ask you another favor. Would you see this plague driven out of the city? I need to ask you, to go into the sewer. I can lend you soldiers who can help you clear the way. I can't guarantee it will be lot but at least a handful of extra men can go with you. Any more evidence you can give me will make the king finally listen to reason."

“I would not say sellswords, Excellency” Lirian said, trying not to take offense of the word. “According what Ezekiel, in the Temple, told me, we’re chosen. I don’t know by whom or why, and neither does him (or he didn’t tell me), to fight this plague, and I won’t flee this mission. Also whoever is behind it says we’re marked, as it is shown in this note” Lirian added, handing him the note found on the rogue following Quentin when they were going to the graveyard.

“Not that we’d refuse any reward or help, but it seems we’re involved into it, regardless of our wishes. I cannot talk for the otheres, but I'll try to help in whatever way I can”

Roland turns to Lirian, "I would be happy to offer a reward. Even a feast in your name if you were to resolve this quietly. The king won't take kindly to me going behind his back but something has to be done. We can't let this plague take over the city. I know nothing of the "chosen" or marking you are talking about but Esekiel is a wise creature. Some would even call him otherworldly. There's so much weaved into this plot that we must get to the bottom of it. Who has masterminded this and why are they doing this?"

Hunter stood when the elevator came down, and bowed when the advisor made his appearance. He followed the conversation closely.

"My Lord, Percival Gallagher at your service, but I go by the name of Hunter now. My Cousin, Sheldon Gallagher is a respectable merchant in town, he runs a caravan supply outfit among other ventures.

"My Lord, There is no plague. You are an alchemist. Quentin here is an alchemist. You have been advised that there is an alchemical substance that creates these giant rats, by applying it to regular rats; that there is an alchemical type of wildfire; and that this sickness is artificially induced and that therre exists an alchemical substance that is probably a cure."

"Now I ask you, Lord, what havoc you could wreak if, thus armed, you were lurking in the maze of sewers with thousands of rats available for instant soldiers. Guardsmen,  adventurers, mercenaries could chase you all day every day and you have but to run and hide and create more rat soldiers. You could open a sewer entrance to let them run wild in the city above."

"I don't want to go down there, not like all the other attempts up to now. That's just playing there game, puts us in great danger and is likely to achieve nothing. We need to be smarter, Lord. What do we need to do? We  need to find the alchemical supplies or manufacturing and destroy it. We  need to take out the leadership, these alchemicalists. We  need to find their base, their headquarters. You're completely right, "Who is masterminding this?" One hundred percent. But how do we find this person, by walking into a maze filled with instant enemies?"

[Private to Kai Wasser: I believe the previous player for Kai visited Ezekial and gained a lot of information on the Infernals.]

"One option might be to send a magically controlled rat or invisible entity to explore the sewers, and tell us where to go. If we dind a base down there or alchemical store, we attack it. Another option is to attack the leadership if it is based above ground. This infernal that the guards brought in, where does he say he is from? Where is he based in this city? Could a mage mark him and release him and see where he goes?"

"Also, my Lord, you haven't officially recruited us yet. You could send us against anywhere or anyone that you suspect  is the headquarters, and if you're right then take the credit, if you're wrong you have no idea who we are or what we were doing and you certainly didn't authorize it."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:29, Thu 11 Jan.

Aeress was quiet, and added what she thought Ronald needed to know that others hadn't spoken of yet.

"My fellows I have fallen in with make the case well.  I was traveling, and got caught in all this, and am only discovering some of these details as I go.  I am a victim of the conspiracy that brought this plague, I believe.  I won't bore you with the details but the conspirators had a rare family possession of mine and knew enough to lure me into a trap with it.  I don't believe they are doing this all just for me, my ego is not that big, but for whatever reason I was targeted specifically.  I only mention this to drive home how sinister this all seems to be to me, and I do not have the experience the rest do.  Possibly we were all targeted specifically, I do not know.

"As for me, though I am the last scion of House Veles and we have fallen from grace, I am still sworn to carry out my chivalric duties.  I came here on errantry, and ridding this city of this foul scourge certainly counts.  Though Lord Gallagher here makes excellent strategic points.  I strive to be a knight errant not a knight idiot."

"I do not follow how ignoring problems that will likely harm the things that are important, somehow makes them cease to be."  Piper spoke up, her eyes half opening before she lets out a small yawn.

"As a visitor to this fair city, looking to take in its wonders and experience the hospitality on offer, to be rudely kidnapped by some nefarious cult for unknown but undoubtedly evil ends, I believe that I can say that having that sort of thing go on certainly won't be good for trade in the long run.  Though I may just be a humble fool, and your King a wise man, so who is to say."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:47, Thu 11 Jan.

He listens to all of you shaking his head and scratching scales underneath his chin.

"Bah. Of course you are right. I can't send you down into the sewers it just seemed the only place that seemed to produce these rats. Judging by the numbers who haven't come back I would venture to guess their origin is there. However, Master Gallagher is it? Is right. Let us go see this captured infernal. I was going to study him and gain knowledge from his mutations. But it might be possible to gain more from him by extracting the information in other ways."

Roland puts his fingers together in a terrifying fashion that for the first time let's you see his more harsh Draconic blood. Green dragons are known for being intelligent but plotting beasts.

"Follow me." he says.

He leads to a spot under the spiral stairs down into the basement of the tower. Torches light the walls as you go down until the very cold basement. Cob webs dot the upper wooden floors over head as you walk deeper around a circular dungeon with solid iron cages and locks. Inside each cell is a bucket and some straw.

"Here we are." he says taking a torch off the wall and holding it close to the cell door.

Light from the torch illumination the cage where you can clearly see the Jester in shredded clothes covered in blood. He seems in worse shape than you would imagine but still not dead.

"How is it still alive?"  Aeress practically hissed.  "That is no man, nor beast.  It is an abomination."