Five years after the Symposium of Wonders, our group had dispersed around the city. Kyamu had moved out of the city to the outskirts following a breakup with his live-in girlfriend of 2 years. Aiden and Vel had become compatriots in cons, working together to earn money on the streets. Tobias had moved into his own apartment, while Kowara had gone off to school as planned. Effi was married to the explorer Arko Adi — who’d been exposed as a bit of a fraud — and Saleen was still working as a domestic servant.
It’s Lore and Kada where the story begins, though: one night in the summer, a pair of shadowy figures entered the Oveda mansion and killed Lore in his sleep. The same night, Kada was killed in similar fashion at his family’s home. By morning, Effi had discovered Kada’s death and tracked down Dyta, who pieced it together with Lore’s fate. The two of them moved quickly to gather up Tobias and then headed to find Aiden and Vel.
Near the Lakeside Occult Society, the two groups rendezvoused and witnessed an attempted attack: the shadow hounds found the wrong target, though, killing Tannith (the boy Aiden won his Symposium ticket from) before leaving the scene.
The group hustled to Kowara’s aunt and uncle’s residence, only to find that the mahksi couple do not speak any human languages. Tracking down Kyamu, they found him wallowing in depression in a filthy shack out between Moru Kel and the Seta stilt village. They convinced him to return to the city to help translate, and then found the path that Kowara used and managed to track her down in time to save her from an attack by a pair of shadow hounds.
After letting her aunt and uncle know that she was okay, the group decided to contact Darvis and his mother Aura Lee for assistance hiding out at a local brothel — the Pearl, where Aura Lee works and Sindra manages. After some negotiations, Sindra agreed to let them stay for a couple of nights if they helped “transport” some items into the city undisturbed (and without interference either from local criminal organizer Pyko or the Bronze). The group made their way out of town, spotting some thugs hiding and keeping an eye on the road and bypassing them. They negotiated with Sindra’s contacts and got the chest (on a mule cart), surviving an attack by a giant octopus when they skirted the thugs on a seaside path on the way back to town.
They picked the chest’s lock, leaving obvious marks of tampering and discerning that it contained 50 bottles of an expensive — and presumably untaxed — messino (a port-like wine). Aiden forged a document claiming that the shipment was for the Marghoz and was to be delivered immediately, and they managed to slip the goods into the city. Sindra noticed the tampering but let it slide, though she did dock Vel’s pay after he copped to it.
Meanwhile, Dyta and the rest had tracked down a tusk-reader who might know something of the mysterious necklace Vel wore (which Aiden had determined was instrumental in the hounds failing to find the correct quarry). And the group managed to sell the octopus’ giant ink bladder to Marbalay for 50 gold crowns.
Level 2 awaits . . .
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