A storm appears to be brewing on the distant horizon and the temperature has increased as time reaches near Late Blaze; Echo Houlegate and Aglaomilia Hithe make their way to the Immortal Wizard with their new charge Chloe, to meet up with Edric e'Teasam and Atholos Kor'gan.
While waiting for the Women to meet them, both Atholos and Edric feel the need to drink something strong; Atholos finds a seat as soon as he gets his drink, but Edric stays behind to talk to the Innkeeper Adrana. He informs her of their investigation for the Lawbearers, but she seems surprised to find that Radek was among the victims. Based on what she says, it appears that Radek’s death was being kept quiet for some reason- suggesting the Slavers had someone following up their own investigation.
Aggie, Echo, and Chloe arrive. Chloe is introduced to the rest of the party as Aggie's "Sister", before Aggie pays a Courier to take her back to her own lodging at the Emperor's Rule. The party then leaves to go speak with Slave Master Solear- the Orc from the Slaver's Grounds who'd told them to meet him at the Slavers' Hall when the auction was over.
Solear was mostly tight lipped- especially about Radek’s gambling habits. However, he reveals that he might have been at the docs in the Granite District the night of his death for one of two reasons: First, because he owns a private boat that he keeps docked there due to the city's ordinances... But also because Radek had a couple of "women friends" from the district Pleasure Market- one of which was named Ozenea.
After a little deliberation the group heads to the Granite District, deciding to seek out Ozenea first. With a little help from a local in the market center, they locate her in a brothel known as The Wicked Tiefling. Inside, Aggie finds the Madam easily- recognizing her style of dress from her own years in such a profession. She inquires about Ozenea, but is told she was currently with a client; the party decides to wait until she is free.
Meanwhile Echo spots the Khenra male she'd tried talking to earlier at the Slaver's Grounds and decides to speak to him again. Drunk, he reveals that Radek liked his drink and often went gambling with another captain from the Slaver’s Grounds. He also reveals that Radek he had a temper- and that he'd often take it out on the slaves, upseting many of the Captains.
Finally Ozenea approaches the table and, after a less-than-best first impression thanks to Atholos, the party convinces her to speak to them. She leads Aggie, Echo, and Edric upstairs while Atholos decides to keep watch outside the Brothel. Once in her chambers, Ozenea tells the group that Radek was more than a customer, and that she'd planned to leave the business in order to start a family with him... But that they'd had to keep their relationship a secret until she could leave, because the Madam had a rule about dating. She mentions Radek’s temper too, and says that it had landed him in the Lawbearer’s Hall a few times- but is quick to inform them that he'd never laid a hand on her. It's also revealed that Yannick, the husband of the second victim, was Radek's cousin; they were close, and Radek had gotten him a job at the Salt Yards a few years ago.
After the conversation they leave her in her room to meet up with Atholos outside. They deliberate for a while on whether or not to visit the docks to check out the boat Radek owned and then visiting The Golden Ball where he used to gamble- or venture over to The Prow bathhouse where Ja’hal Bavathi, the only survivor of the attacks, works. In the end they decide to visit the bathhouse.
Ja’hal seems to still be frightened by the events and is reluctant to talk at first. After some convincing, however, he tells the group that he was out after curfew getting water from the river to fill the baths. He admitted that he goes to that particular spot in the river because it's across the street from his girlfriend Gielda's house; that night he'd stopped in to see Gielda, then went by the riverbank afterwards to collect the water- at which point he was attacked by a large, scaled, blue creature that crawled out of the water at him.
He said that it'd seemed to be trying to communicate with him- but he was frightened, and so he "shot a purple blasty thing that Gielda had taught him" at it and ran away. The group thanks Ja’hal for his time, and leaves to investigate the site of the attack and try to speak with Gielda.
While investigating the scene they find numerous claw marks, as well as a dried puddle of goo covering a blue scale. Edric, with the help of his familiar, identify it as belonging to a young blue Behir.
Behir: A semi-aquatic solitary beast found in numerous locations; their colors and patterns are indicative of the specific environments to which they're native- with blue suggesting this one as being of a coastal nature, likely smuggled in for sale on the black market due the the creature's rarity.
While talking about how weird it was that a Behir was in the city, Atholos informed the group that The Jagged Tooth (the workplace of Firelight, the Tabaxi victim), was known as an exotic mount vendor- but that the creature seemed a little outside the shop’s usual expertise. Wild Wood Exotic Pets, however, was known for their willingness to procure rather rare creatures for a modest fee.
They decided to speak with Gielda anyways since they were across the street, and made their way over to knock on her door. After explaining why they were there when she answered it, Gielda invites them inside- leading them into a sitting room much bigger than the house seems to be. She expresses that she's a rare artifact collector who specializes in magical items. Edric then notices that a pin she wears on her dress is the same symbol as his own Patron.
Atholos, uncomfortable, used his Divine sense and realizes that both she and Shujonk radiate with Fiendish energy- though does notice that Gielda didn’t seem particularly more fiendish than expected for her bloodline as a Tiefling. Meanwhile, Aggie inspects the artifacts lining the entry hallway; after a bit more conversation, Gielda invites Edric back at a later date to discuss magic- then invites Aggie back for a personal showing of “the nicer items” in her collection. Eventually she moves to simply inviting the whole group back for a social visit in the future.
At this point conversation turns to Ja'hal and the investigation. Knowing that she's a magic user, Edric allows her to inspect the scale. After examining it, Gielda confirms what Edric had told the group: That it was the scale from a young Behir- likely a few weeks old, or maybe freshly hatched, and probably looking for food. She also informs the party that Behir tend to nest in hard to access places, and generally go out of their way to avoid such populated areas because of how solitary they are by nature. After mentioning that Ja'hal said he believed it tried to communicate with him, she also confirms they speak Draconic- but that they're mostly ambush predators with lightning breath weapons.
After a bit more conversation the group leaves Gielda’s house. They begin discussing their next course of action when they heard the ringing announcing Last Light and the start of the city's curfew. Deciding to see if the curfew applied to them, but unwilling to make the trek all the way back to the Lawbearer's Hall, Echo uses Thaumaturgy to enhance her voice in order to flag down a couple of the City Guards- who are, understandably, freaked out by the event. After calming down, however, they look over the party's contract and inform them they're allowed out until Night's Shade- but that they should stay in a group and keep the papers on them at all times, as any Guards they encountered would want to see them as proof.
After the guards leave, Atholos and Edric have a brief conversation about the evil nature of Ed's cat. Ed dismisses it before suggesting turning Shujonk into an Octopus and having him scout the water to find the lair. Atholos, however, suggests Shujonk act as bait for it, hoping that it tries to attack them.
