"Yes. We can take him off your hands for you. It can't be too clean to keep his body around and he's probably got people who'd like to see his body receive a proper burial. We can talk about your offer after we've returned from taking this body back. But first, my friends and I will perform before we leave."

Carrhae leads Strife and Mercy back down and tells Strife to get Trini and send a Message to the rest of the party know about what the three of them just saw and that they should be careful.

"Excellent." The Lord Commander says, holding his gaze upon you in a way that is a little creepy, yet still inviting.

Mercy’s hands twitched over her daggers while Thurl was turned away from them, but she managed to control the impulse to just start stabbing the bastard. “Where’s the head?” Her tone was cold, disapproval writ across her features.

"Gone. Sacrificed in the name of the Air Prophet, Aerisi Kalinoth, our leader."

Her eyes narrowed, her hands clenching into fists. After a few moments, she took a deep breath and slowly relaxed the tension in her body. "I see..." Her voice had warmed, though it called to mind a raging wildfire barely held at bay rather than a welcoming hearth. Moving forward, she knelt by the corpse and pulled her Mask pendant forward as she began to pray for the poor knight.

Carrhae notices the commanders lingering gaze, but she says nothing. He can gaze all he likes. I'll give him what he deserves at the proper time. "Do you like music? There's a song I was thinking of doing for our performance. I can sing and Veracity can accompany me with her flute. She's an excellent flautist, aren't you, Veracity?" She says, making idle conversation as she leads him downstairs so that Mercy can pray and cool off.

After the others left, Mercy stood and walked around the edge of the Pinnacle, gazing outward as she thought furiously on the situation and what they knew versus what they needed to know.

Perception: 18

Insight: 24

You take your time and scan the valley. Daewen didn't see any prisoners, but you know that each haunted spire leads to the Elemental Temple further below. Perhaps they missing pepole are there? But where? Where could the Temple of Air be? You see a river in the canyon that runs east into what appears to be a massive cave system. Could it be there? 

Roady DaewenDawn busies herself with setting up a makeshift stage in the main hall of the tower. She grabs a bed sheet from the room Mercy was recuperating in, and hangs it up along one side of the stage, creating a makeshift dressing “backstage” area for the bards to ready themselves before taking the stage for their performance. She then grabs a bunch of the candles that were on the dinner table and arranges them at the front of the stage, creating plenty of lighting for the ‘actors’ while on stage. Finally, she rearranged the chairs in the room into a makeshift audience, all facing the stage. 

Earlier, on the roof:

They sacrificed the head of an already dead body?! What madness is this? My oh my, he is so twisted and obsessed he can't even grasp the horror, just a noble achievement, Strife thought, impressed that even by Infernal standards, Thurl's depravity was viciously indifferent. She wished she hadn’t discovered this atrocity until after she had performed. We can't afford to have him wonder whether we might be less enthusiastic.

Strife addressed Thurl, careful to repress her disgust. "None of us ever met this knight or even knew the name, but I was given the impression this was once quite a champion, a formidable foe of Orcs. A sacrifice of great substance therefore, which I assume fulfilled the requirements of the moment? Indeed I hope that your prophet shall aid you in smiting the villains who operate within the Sacred Stone Monastery."

Later, at the concert:

Strife played together with Trini and Carrhae, performing a number of songs, recounting stories, reciting poems, and providing musical accompaniment for Trini’s memorable dances. The lyrics to Strife’s final song paid tribute to their deranged hosts.

We fly swiftly through the air
Soaring, gliding up in the sky
Our ambition and our altitude
Carry a purpose very high

We have ample courage
Our beliefs we hold dear
Our enemies we blow away
Giving rise to many tears

From a great lofty height
We can see it all unfold
We will put all matters right
For The Prophet has foretold

Those who do hear us well
Are those who listen best
Those with gifts and talent
We embrace within our nest

We act because we must
The wind is our sacred friend
We alone shape the future
And decide how it all ends

Performance  (with Advantage, +7): 20

Carrhae has mixed feelings on her first performance as a Bard. I'm proud to have shared the stage with Trini and Strife, but I regret that it was in front of these people. At least Mercy, Daewen, and Zephyr were here. "Did I do well Veracity? I've only been doing this for a few days, but I tried to do everything you taught me. Your song was wonderful. It really described the Feathergale Society to a T." Then she leans in and whispers "It was better than they deserved. I hope that our next performance is in front of a better audience."

Strife sends a whispered Message back to Carrhae. You did extremely well, and I truly needed all the help I could get. After that rooftop scene, these demented lemmings make me ill.

Carrhae responds to Strife's Message with a whisper of her own. Thank you. We'll make sure that all of these cultists get what they deserve. But first we have to get the corpse out of here and find and save the last delegate. 

In the morning after the performance, Carrhae will take the corpse away from the spire and ask Zephyr to cast Gentle Repose on the body so that he can have some small amount of dignity and she'll also bury him and mark the spot so they can go save the remaining delegate without having to carry the body around. "I do not know who you prayed to, but I ask that they receive your spirit and keep it safe. I swear that those who desecrated your corpse will receive divine justice. I'm sorry that I took so long to find you." As the words come out of Carrhae's mouth, her head is bowed and her fists are clenched so hard in rage that her knuckles are turning white.

When she's finished paying her respects she will cast Identify as a ritual on the ring.  

The ring is a typical gold ring worth about 500gp. 

"Just a regular ring. I can sell it for a nice sum when we get back to Waterdeep and use the money to buy something nice. Maybe I can tell a story about how we got this ring by fighting off the Fearsome Fiends of Feathergale Spire and their pet manticore so that we can get a little extra."  At that point, Carrhae pockets the ring and returns to get her horse from where she left it. "Now that I come to think of it, I forgot to name you." She turns back to her friends."Do any of you know a good name for a Celestial Warhorse?"

OOC: "Phillipe" was the name of Belle's horse in Beauty and the Beast...

OOC: Carrhae is going with Cynosure. 

TEMPLE OF HOWLING HATRED

An enormous chasm splits the earth as far as the eye can see in the pervasive subterranean darkness. A crude, narrow stairway hugs the rock alongside the chasm, twisting madly in hairpin turns around sharp outcroppings. Jagged and uneven, the stair threatens to spill travelers into the chasm’s mouth. After several treacherous miles, the stairway terminates on a broad, flat landing that juts out over the immense black chasm. In the gloom, a lost dwarven city lays in ruins beneath the glittering cavern vault. Broken statues stand in the midst of empty plazas, staring sightlessly into the darkness. A huge step pyramid rises at the edge of the precipice, and from the moat that surrounds it a misty waterfall whispers over the chasm’s ledge.

According to the dwarf historian: The Cult of the Howling Hatred established its temple in the southwest quarter of ancient Tyar-Besil, where the dwarves built a palace in a vast cavern upon the edge of a great chasm. Where the cavern’s glittering, mineral-encrusted ceiling rose high, the dwarves constructed spacious plazas in which they carved towering statues, elaborate pillars, and enormous monuments. They worked the natural stone of the cavern and carved barracks and other living quarters into the rock, connecting them via lamplit passageways. Though it was a fortress, some commerce and art was present, with a rudimentary bazaar and dwarven skalds filling the air with chanted verse. With the aid of a friendly djinni, the dwarves constructed a pyramid-shaped palace at the center of the cavern, surrounded by a moat fed by an underground stream. Dwarven innovation provided the cavern with light, fresh water, and sewage disposal. 

Beneath a high cavern ceiling, streets connect a number of spacious plazas where wealthy dwarven families built estates long, long ago.

You start in the bottom left corner of the map. The carved reliefs of two dwarves face one another in profile to complete an arch beyond the ledge. Through the arch, the blocky contours of a lost dwarven city sprawl in the subterranean night. From somewhere within comes an agonized wail, followed by a breathless ramble of whimpering pleas. Then the whole city seems to join the chorus with the screams of creatures mad from torment.

To say the least, Carrhae is not feeling reassured by hearing the sounds of tortured screams echoing throughout the temple. "I fear for the safety of the delegate in this location. I hope that we aren't too late and that she isn't one of these broken souls."