The Valley of Ends

Resfaen

The guard captain leans back in his chair as he takes a deep breath and seem to relax for a moment, "As you are hells bent on this venture, while I can guess either out of some altruistic needs or because they invade your home, which is not my concern which but I can see you're going to invest time into this so let me save you some time. Good and bad, it's probably someone outside the town but we suspect they can disguise themselves and I have to believe they're very deceptive as he got through our drag net. We asked the Pelor church to try Scrying but instantly blocked so that was a dead end. The bad part of town? Not actually that good a hiding place, there very few people there and they get noticed,"

Onyx

Onyx asks the neighbors and nearby shops, about half the people just response with "No, I didn't see anything" or "I wasn't home" and similar excuses, keeping their contact with Onyx short. He does get some answer his questions and reaction to the Shield. A few gives same or similar statement about that kind of glow from the killer and they got away in a cloud of darkness. Three testaments varies from the others' details.

An elf brewer neighbor adds  "I saw some priest from the church investigate the area and taken that fellow to the church"

Firbolg merchant adds "I saw him fl;ying out from that dark cloud towards that mining part but the guard said I was seeing things"

Human neighbor "The cloud dark was weird, I stare it wasn't darkness like normal but dark myst rather a shadow"

Salys listens to the information they've gathered, "Sounds like the mine is our best option for the moment."

"Thank you for the help, we appreciate it." Resfaen says and then nods in agreement at Salys's words. "Mine will be our first stop after we head back to home and gather the rest of the group."

”I think that guy was looking for me, or to be more precise for the Lantern. It seams to be part of a set. If his item, wich is most likely his sickle, is anything like the lantern, we must avoid to be knocked ou by it. There is a decent chance that you loose your soul and that means you are gone. No healing or praying can bring you back. I think that is the worst case, but i think that it is a real danger in this fight. I can completely understand if any of you would want to stay out of this fight.”

Once we are back at the mansion, i would like to check with Salys and the servant if anyone could use the mansion key to create the entrance or if it is only useable by the owner. Also how long does it take to activate the key?

That guy seems to utilise some form of darkness, do we have anything to counter it?

Lastly, does anyone got a spare dagger that Onyx could borrow? He picked up a battle manoeuvre to throw daggers and darts but didn’t had a chance to stock up yet.

Robin follows Resfaen and Salys as they leave the guard station. "Would you two mind if I accompany you?" She requests as they make their way back through town towards the strange doorway she had tracked the assassin to previously. "I would like to learn more of this assassin, as I was on his trail before, but have not caught up with him as of yet. The weapon they wield is of interest to me, as it seems to be some sort of strange soul-eating weapon or something."

Onyx inquiry to Servant

"Whoever has the key and has attuned it is the master of the Residence, While some agreement and paperwork is needed to alter the Residence, the master is only one capable of changing the location of the door. The door itself when repaired is a door. I can open it for those who are permitted entrance by the master but I can not bar the door if someone gains entry," The servant explains. 

So what is everyone doing? Note the party is in two-three groups.

Salys has a spare dagger he'd be happy to pass to Onyx, but would admit that he has nothing he can do about the darkness.

Resfaen looks Robin up and down, "Sure you can accompany us for the time being and then the group can ascertain your abilities. Depending on how things go, you can even accompany us on future adventures. We should probably head back to the house now and meet up with everyone else and compare notes. Thank you for your added help back there it was much appreciated."

Robin gives a saucy smile as she pushes her red braid behind her shoulder. her emerald eyes are amused as she nods. "Lead the way then..."

(Not sure how to proceed. Want to go to mining faculity now (lucnh time) grab silver dragon and go (evening) or take a long rest and come tomorrow? or something Im missing)

Once back at the house Resfaen explains to the group that Robin will be accompanying them for awhile to prove herself as she also seems to have a vested interest in the murderer and thief. She also explains the guards were not very helpful but they did say the culprit is probably outside the town walls already as they have way of disguising themselves. There is a "seedy" part of town, but the guards somewhat implied that nothing much goes on there. So we can head in that direction or continue on with what we have been doing. WE could check in with the church to see what their crying attempts accomplished, which is not much to my understanding, but we can inquire.Other than that, we do not really have any leads to go on.

We might want to look into hiring some guards for the house as I am sure the culprit will be back as they are after the lantern that Onyx carries around. If no one else has anything on their list of things to do, we might inquire with the city as well to see if they have any new reports on this cult or if they have any other jobs to be done.

Note the guard says the culprit is proably still in the city, while they can disguise themselves, only people with permission from the city leadership can leave the city and is difficult to obtain. There are checks before anyone I'd let through the gates. 

Within the manor, the two groups share they came across in their search before attempt to prepare for the killer. Visiting the Aurora Ink Magic item obtain a Dispel Magic for 320gp and some more manure weaponry (I assume not silvering).

A visit to the temple is less cooperative with refusal to  until Resfaen starts asking and they're more accommodating to the familiar face. They bring out a daylight spell scroll asking for a 200gp donation for it. When insuring about the search and their attempt to scrying, they are a lost for a moment before speaking, "Scrying spell are capable of failure and being blocked. our attempt to locate him was a success but before we could close on his location, the silver mirror displayed someone else instead, A fiend of bone and fire before it fully closed the connection. Afterward, any additional scrying attempt ended in failure,"

Anything else the group wan t to ask while at the temple?

"Thank you for the clarification on the scrying, the guards must have misunderstood, or I misunderstood them. That is good news, I guess, but the part about the potential demon involved concerns me. If I learn anything new I will be sure to pass the information along." As Resfaen hands over the money for the Daylight scroll.

Onyx pays for the Dispel Magic scroll and a few minor supplies. He hands the scroll over to Robin and spreads the daggers all around his armore where he can easily reach them.

Salys would spend some time making sure the manor is put back in order while those final errands are run, and then get ready to go visit the strange woman from before, bringing the whip as potential payment.

After Resfean inquiries at the temple and Onyx trip to the shops, the party meets up with Salys, who's concern about their residence left him back there mending what he can alongside the Servant and a few unseen servants. Repiaring the front door and the cages for the mounts at the least.

Arriving in the old mining processing part of town, they attempt to retrace their steps to find the seers but they find familiar building but try to follow their previous steps to find themselves walking in circle in the afternoon sun but its quick to notice the party is being watched but before the party can act, a circle of arcane energy appear in front of them as a large red ape like creature emerge and it let out a roar only (20) feet away from the party.

Roll Initiative:

Robin - 25
Red Ape: 19
Rogi - 18
Resfaen -- 18
Onyx - 17
Salys 17
Del - 12
Cythriel - ?

Resfaen Initiative: 11

"What the hell is that!" Resfaen yells out.

“More importantly, where is the summoner?”

16

Initiative 11