After arriving in Riatavin, we found Armitage sheltering in the Undercity Grotto as recovering from being ambushed in The Pewter Shield. He warned us about a vampiric alliance being sealed through Ottillie's wedding and urged us to investigate Farnar, the Shield's proprieter.
Returning to investigate the ruins of The Pewter Shield, we met Alistair Kincaid and discovered Farnar's ledgers showing he betrayed Del Veign to the Auttencort. We also found coded messages hinting at a revolution during the wedding. The coded message use numerology
A rumor near Exposition alley clued us in to Farnar's presence at the Northwest Tower. Traveling there, we fought the vampire Captain Arsene and his thralls. Though Arsene escaped, we discovered three prisoners:
Nine days remain until High Harvest Tide and the wedding.
Orazio is the most capable of conversation, not being dead or beaten. He has a golden cage around the lower half of his face and he is surrounded by books that look well-used. As we enter the room, he puts away his book.
"He'll be back you know" Orazio said, referencing Captain Arsenne.
Kira: "Will you still be here when he does?"
Orazio: "That remains to be seen, the place is clearly compromised."
Gavin: "Why are you here?"
Orazio: "Ostensibly for safety, though that seems less justified now."
Kira: "Why are you number 8 and why are you on the list?"
ORazio: "The answer to both is somewhat symbolic. I'm a servant of the Auttencort, though lately also in the employ of the Rhinduan. I imagine I represent something somebody would like to destroy in a public way. Tethyr is in poor shape and I suspect that people outside the kingdom are agitating those with nothing to lose inside of it."
Kira: "Who hurt Farnar?"
Orazio: "They themselves the Gati Amari. The list of people is theirs."
Gavin: "Why do you have this cage on your face?"
Orazio: "It protects the books."
Gavin: "How? Do you eat them?"
Orazio: "A compulsion. They call me the bibliophage"
Gavin: "Why do you eat them?"
Orazio: "I spent many years in Candlekeep. It was a way to be sure I would not be welcome back"
Kira: "Why don't you take it off?"
Orazio: "If I take it off, I'll eat the books."
Alistair: "What do you get out of eating the books?"
Orazio: "It is literally a curse, bestowed by rival academics at Candlekeep. If you wish to expel someone from academia, make them destroy the academia. The cage is a gift of the Auttencort that prevents me from harming books."
Gavin: "Why are you being protected when Francesca, number 1, is dead?"
ORazio: "Arsene is impulsive and new to the ranks of the undead. He was a Rhinduan captain. When the Auttencort came, they installed their people and they brought certain more well-positioned people, like Arsene, into the fold. He has been a vampire for only weeks and his impulse control is very poor. Francesca arrived with certain expectations, did not get the respect she expected, and she laid into him. He made her a snack."
Gavin: "What can you tell us about the Gati Amari?"
Orazio: "Amnians by way of Calimshan. Incredibly skilled, unclear motivation, theatric, political. Though they won't turn down payment for the right job."
Kira: "How long have you worked for the Auttencort?"
Orazio: "About two hundred and twelve years" (We know that he's worked for the Auttencort longer than Aureltaran's been in existence as a cohesive political unit.)
Bikke: "What do you do for the vampires?"
Orazio: "I'm an historian, researcher, and broadly knowledgable."
Kira: "What's your opinion of the Auttencort?"
Orazio: "They're monsters. The ones who are human are the worst humans I've ever known. But at least they provide some safety and they help me avoid eating the books."
Bikke: "What's the relationship between Farnar and the Auttencort?"
Orazio: "Farnar is greedy. He takes money to do a job, he takes money to tell others about it."
Kira: "Did Francesca work for the Auttencort also?"
Alistair: "I don't know everything about her, but I know she was a merchant who owned her own business."
Orazio: "She's Savelli"
Orazio then shared the background of Tethyr and the Rhinduan dynasty with us. (See the link to the shared source material from the DM.) Emeric, the current regent of Tethyr, is a vassal of the Auttencort. Short version: the consortium of the Auttencort and Corsi could bankrupt the Tethyrian royal family.
Bikke: "What't eh Gati Amari's motivation here?"
Gavin: "They're Calishite. Calimshan may benefit from a destablized Tethyr."
Orazio: "Tethyr is a political buffer between Calimshan, Amn, and Aureltaran. If it falls, those kingdoms will have a race to claim what's left. The Gati Amari are politically motivated mercenaries working against the nobility in this city, all of whom are corrupt. The method they're using is fomenting a popular revolt in the name of Zharanda Star Rhinduan- a symbol to inspire the citizens of Tethyr to end her bloodline."
Gavin: "Would the marriage strengthen or weaken tethyr?"
Bikke: "Their plan is to forgive themselves of their debt to the tethyrian nobility.
Fundamentally, we have uncovered a scheme run by the Auttencort, with Corsi participation, to bankrupt the Tethyrian royal family the Rhinduan.
Kira: "Where do you lie on this event?"
Orazio: "I don't care for Etienne. I find his pride in ignorance repulsive. They've treated me well as a possession, but I'd rather be more."
Gavin: "Do you need them to keep the device functional?"
Orazio: "No, but they are my protection and my access to knowledge, so I won't turn against them without a plan and a soft landing."
Kira: "What would happen to the Auttencort should you die?"
Orazio: "Killing me would be a deep insult to Elara Auttencort. I'm a status symbol."
Bikke: "How do we get in touch with the Gati Amari?"
Kira: "How do we stop this wedding? If we want to stop this, we have to stop the wedding, but we couldn't even challenge the weakest vampire?"
Orazio: "I'll need an offer before I'll answer that."
Alistair: "Can you manipulate the weave enough to be invisible or disguised?"
Orazio: "I've generally preferred to move in disguise. I'm good at being nondescript."
(Orazio is the equivalent of a spy movie's macguffin usb drive, but with pointy ears.)
We chose to extricate Farnar and Orazio and bring them to the Grotto to meet with Armitage. Orazio took his books with him.
Kira did notice that Orazio had a book written by the elves that she was interested in. She took it.
Alistair brought back Francesca to return her corpse.
Barrick asked Armitage to keep Farnar alive. Farnar agreed.
Kincaid introduced himself to Armitage.
We decided to chase down Rowan. Gavin did a sending, received an image from Rowan about where he is. After describing the image to Armitage, we determined where Rowan is likely being held.
We short rested, then headed out to rescure Rowan.
At about 4 in the morning, we reach the small lake on the northern edge of the city. There's a tower, very likely the prison where Rowan is being held. The tower has a gate and is well-secured. It is also near a city guard outpost, so knocking on the front door will likely involve more attention than we want.
We used our rough map of the city sewers to find a likely alternate entrance to the party and we started traversing the sewer.
We decended about 40ft to get here and it is quite dark and damp. The sewer has a low ceiling that we're crouching under, about 5 feet high. The walls are damp and the floors are stone, so we can't help but make an immense amount of noise as we traverse throught the cramped space. The only sound we hear that is not coming from ourselves is an occasional whoosh of water occasionally accompanied by a rumbling underground.
We see apparent condensation on the walls, but it's not clearly the result of water in this passage.
Exploring the passage, we discovered a Gelatinous cube packed with bones.
After defeating the cube, Kira and Barrick spotted a fissure in the wall of the sewer that opened out to a cavern with luminous mushrooms. Kira examined the mushrooms and determined that they were valuable flora, many related to the Feywild. Kira searched through her bag, bit into a plant, and whispered a question, "How would feywild plants end up in a Riatavin sewer?"
Kira heard a soft chuckle in reply, "I had them put there, my people needed them."
Kira also noted that the large, tentacly yellow plant in the back corner of the room is a natural healing aid. Consuming one of its tendrils is the equivalent of a healing potion (2d4 + 2) Kira then spoke to the rest of the party, "These plants look similar to the plants that Verduna had." Kira plucked some of the tendrils from the healing plant and fed them to Bikke to help him recover from the fight with the Gelatinous cube.
Bikke discovers jewelry and manacles on the bones left behind by the dead cube. It has apparently been used as an oubliette.
Kira harvested about half of the room in 15 minutes.
Deeper into the passage, we discover some large pipes in a room with a muddy, mucky floor. Gavin put his ear up to the pipes and he hears a vibration and he hears the pipe flushing a massive amount of, apparently, water. The water rushes for a couple minutes, then tapers off.
Finding a break in one of the pipes, we explored it and found another break in the pipe on a platform. From the platform, we discovered hundreds of dessicated, old, waterlogged corpses- like a large mass grave.
Examining some of the corpses, Barrick recognized that these have probably been here for 150 years. Older daggers, clothing fashions and such are quite old.
The valve in the wall has an unclear function. There is a large opening in the pipe it's attached to and it's probably functional, but it's not clear what the effect will be.
Hugh started searching the corpses for house signs or sigils given the likely relation of these corpses to the Tethyrian civil war. The corpses started to move, and another fight began.
We fought and killed the zombies, including a giant zombie clot.
We opened all the valves in the room at the base of the tower and climbed Kincaid's rope to the tower entrance itself. From there, we entered the tower to continue our rescue of Rowan.
From the tower, we see that the lake has been draining into the reservoir below. We continue searching the tower and find Rowan in a room. He's chained to the bed, perhaps in a playful manner.
There are also two individuals in the room wearing heavy red leather armor. Lillian and Khalil.