Devarus seems a bit antsy as he sees the light of his mother's home. Yet, when Elsara notions for the group to go one way, the half-drow could only solemnly nod, and if at the reigns guide the lizards on to the stables. But he kept a look at the distant house for as long as possible before it may eventually disappear from sight. "Here's hoping their actually up. And if not, Miss Elsara can do the honors of trying wake them. You seem to have a greater repoir with them." He'd say after they disembark eventually to try heading on inside.

It seems Catherine and Horace stayed up after they got the message about Gendan being whisked away. Catherine greets the party as they head inside. She says, "Horace is in his office waiting for you."

Vale atún heads towards the office after a nod of acknowledgment to Catherine. 

"Hello, Miss Darkwing." Elsara says brightly to Catherine, forgetting the solemnity of the moment as she is happy to be back. She nods and follows through to go meet with Horace.

Both slightly happy and slightly disappointed, Devarus inclines his head to Miss Darkwing in greeting, but lingered for a second or two in trying to get a gauge on her. Less so out of suspicion, and more so just to see if he might gleam if she knew anything about what the top cat might've hurried them on for. Not that they what they sent wasn't urgent of course. But, he needed something to help better prepare for whatever was to come.

Insight: 18.

After he gives a sheepish smile and catches up with the others.

At the office is a somewhat tired looking Horace. He greets the party and says, "Good Evening. Now please, tell me in more detail what you were saying about the gargoyles? The 25 word limit on the Sending spell is quite restrictive."

"Hi, Mr Sweetcane!" Elsara replies brightly. "Oh, right. Erm, I was in the carriage, the others saw better." She looks to the others.

Seeing neither Runt, who had been worringly quiet, and Val hadn't stepped up, Devarus did so after clearing his throat. "There were two gargoyles. Both easily the size of giants, and flew in as fast as I imagine can, considering how swiftly they came upon us. I fired a few arrows after them, but I doubt any landed before they disappeared as swiftly as they made themselves apparent."

He rubs chin. "I remember it being uncomfortably quiet and the smelling the cinder just before they rushed her. As wells them saying Debts to Belial, King of Gargoyles, must be paid." He confesses. "Did she ever mention anything regarding something like this to you?"

Catherine had followed the party into the office this time. It seems whatever Horace was going to say was important enough for her to be present as well. The orange furred Tabaxi listens quietly to Deva explain.He then says, "I can't say for sure from just the reports and paperwork but it seems like Gendan might have been a warlock. It is possible that she had a pact of some kind with the archfiend, Belial." He pauses for a bit before continuing, "The issue is that Belial resides in those parts of hell which have not been well-documented. Additionally, the fiends that reside in these undocumented parts of hell tend to be extremely strong. I'm afraid we will just have to hope Gendan can fulfill whatever she owes to the archfiend and gets back to us."

Elsara listens quiet. "So... we can't do anything?" Elsara reaches for the metallic tome on her hip, looking over for a particular page. "I can try and contact her, maybe we can at least see if she is alive and okay."

Horace looks over the spell and says, "It might be worth a shot. Though with archfiends from such deep layers of hell, there may be some issues with the spell."

If you want to use Sending then roll 1d100. If you roll lower than a 15, the spell fails. I know it says 5% but that's for the other planes. 

"Gen? If you can hear this, please respond. We're back at the guildhall, and wanna make sure you're safe. If we can help, just say." Elsara utters as she attempts to cross the mystical boundaries to let her words be heard by Gendan.

Planar Boundaries Toll: 73

Elsara sends the message and waits. After some waiting what seems to be just longer than usual, Gendan replies back. Gendan tells Elsara that Belial is making her work for him now. She would probably not be able to come back any time soon. Though she is currently unharmed.

Elsara lets out a sigh of relief. "She's not hurt, but it looks like Mr. Belial is needing her for something. Gen won't be able to come back for a bit, but I think she'll be alright, at least for now."

Devarus breathes a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear. Can't say I'm exactly thrilled to know she's somehow gotten herself tangled up with a being of that sort. But, I hope she can get it sorted without too many delays and too heavy a heart." He says, then after rubbing at his forehead turns on Horace. "On another subject, if you don't mind staying up a bit longer, we do have our report to give on that missing persons case in the Grassland. For as it turns out, it did have some connection to that bit of business with Affectus we discovered last. Worst still, we learned one of the bastards tied up with that had to have been at this for a few human generations." He explained, and if bade to elaborate, Devarus gives the full details of the sordid affair; including everything from the journal to the circle, as well as tidbits about the affected family.

Elsara suddenly recalls where she actually is, now that the fiasco with Gendan has a current resolution. "Oh, do you want our report now Mr. Sweetcane, or would you prefer to wait until the morning?" She asks, ready to give a report about the affectus uti encounter they had.

Horace says "Thank you. Since Deva has given me an oral run down of what happened, I believe giving the official written report in the morning would be okay." He then leans back in his seat and says, "Now there is one important detail I want to discuss with you all. The research into Affectus Uti seems to have run dry at Maldore. Though my friend and the gifted students there are still having the time of their lives discovering increasingly new things about this school of magic, I have different concerns. I have noticed that we have made very little progress finding the identity of our foes and where they are stationed. Moreover, the Council is starting to get impatient. They do not fully realize the danger we might be in if we leave the paladin and the jester and whoever else they might be working with, to their own devices. For this reason we must be careful with our resources. That being said, I believe we need to redirect our research to try and find who they are and where they are operating from." He turns to look at Catherine waiting for her to continue the briefing.

Catherine says, "Based on what we know so far, we have a few avenues we can devote our attention to. Firstly we can reallocate our limited resources to searching for the Mio Misaki mentioned in Ravengar's text. Other than the Paladin and the Jester, the Lich King is the only one we know of that has extensive knowledge on this 9th school of magic. Since Ravengar himself has not be successfully contacted by anyone since his ascension, this Misaki is the closest link we have to him and finding her or a descendant of her might point us in the direction of our foes as I can't imagine there are many people in this world who know how to use this Affectus Uti. Alternatively we can try looking into this Zorgon Draith. That is not a name recorded in any history book so we need to find out anything we can about this person. If we learn the true history of this Paladin, then perhaps we can use him to find the Jester as well? Lastly, our third option would be to wade through Rurik's official records and documentations, trying to find any living relative of Ravengar. Maybe we can draw out a family tree from it and find out a list of suspects who might have accessed Ravengar's notes on Affectus Uti and gained knowledge of its use from there. Sadly we have enough resources to focus on only one of these threads at a time."

Horace then turns the question over to the party, "So as people who have made first contact with the forces of Affectus Uti, which of these should we focus our resources on?"

"Well I'd personally be happy to look through the records." Elsara pipes up, eager to let her scholarly side flourish a little. She hasn't had as much time to bookkeep since her joining the guild, save for the few days stint she took for the initial research. "But I don't want to force people down that path." She quickly adds. "I know not everyone's into books and reading."

Devarus nervously chuckled. "Books and reading is fine. Though my leanings are to those of the less dry sort." He admits before looking to Horace. "That is, assuming by 'we' you meant us and not some other group, if not those scholarly friends you mentioned. If its them or another research team, having them look through official records would be for the best place to start. And if you meant us, well... there are worse vacations out there."

Horace clarifies, "No, I was not talking about your group. Sorry to disappoint Elsara there but you are currently our best resource against the enemy as you have experience dealing with them first hand. It would be a waste to have you read through mountains of records. No, the task I have for you is to take a ship to the main land. There you are to establish a second branch of the Guild. Catherine believes that if Affectus Uti is present in this island it is likely it might be active on the mainland as well. Though you are free to explore and take detours as you see fit since at this point, we still don't know what random ruins or farmstead might have been effected. Plus, if any ruins or caves end up being free of this foul magic, then perhaps any gold or equipment found within would be helpful."