September 1, Year 3488 (SE 118)
Arik wakes the rest of the party, and they quickly search the rest of the room, rapidly coming to the conclusion that P'hla is definitely not here anymore. Knowing that she was radiating an aura of evil the previous day, Iriellis casts a spell to detect evil and sweeps it around the area. The spell fails to detect anything of note.
Expecting trouble, the party outfit themselves in their gear and step outside. It is an hour or so after dawn, and everything outside seems normal, so they split up and begin asking nearby bystanders if they've seen P'hla. After about twenty minutes of searching, Arik finally encounters a citizen who claims to have seem her; he points out the direction that she went in.
Arik gathers the rest of the group and they head off in that direction, hoping to find some clue regarding where she is. Iriellis' spell to detect evil is still active, but she doesn't detect anything before it runs out. They travel down the street for about fifteen minutes before Arik stops them and tells them that he recognizes the area. Last night, when he tailed one of the cultists, the man turned out to be keeping an eye on a building not far from where the party currently is.
Decided that this is very unlikely to be a coincidence, the party ask Arik to lead them to the building in question, which he does. He takes them to a particularly run-down section of the slums, to a small dilapidated building with boarded-up windows. Again, they speak with some bystanders, and Iriellis finds an old man who recognizes her description of P'hla. A few silver pieces are enough to convince him to tell her that he saw P'hla, or someone who looks like her, walk into the building that Arik pointed out.
Now convinced that P'hla must be inside, they start planning on how they will get inside the building themselves. Sharla steps forward and knocks on the door, hoping to use her magic to immediately hypnotize whoever answers. Unfortunately, no one answers at all. She tries to open the door, but finds that it's barred.
With no one answering and the door blocked, the party decide to force their way in. Handing the Gauntlets of Ogre Power back and forth, several party members attempt to smash the door open. Finally, Zedlyn succeeds; with the sound of splintering wood, the door flies open. Standing behind it are three figures, ready for a fight!
One of the figures is known to the party - it's Grif, the dwarf who met with Flossaria a few nights ago. He has a battleaxe drawn and is ready to charge. Next to him is a human warrior who the party don't recognize, also ready to fight. Standing behind them is an unexpected sight - a lizardman, but different from the other lizardfolk that the party have encountered. This one is taller, with a more refined manner and appearance than its bestial counterparts, and is wearing elaborate robes.
The party don't have much time to analyze this strange lizardman, as it immediately begins casting a spell the moment the door breaks open. Acting quickly, it unleashes a fireball into the group before any of them have a chance to react; Iriellis is instantly knocked unconscious by the blast and most of the rest of the group are severely injured.
As the party begin to react, Grif and his warrior companion charge forward, and the lizardfolk casts another spell, dropping Adokas to sleep. Zedlyn hurls one of his gnomish grenades before kicking Adokas awake and fleeing with the unconscious Iriellis in his arms, but he fumbles the preparation and the device fails to explode.
The party, realizing that they are outmatched, begin to flee. Before leaving, Sharla tries to conjure an illusion of the floorboards rising up to block pursuit, but the enemies see through it and are unaffected. The lizardfolk mage has time to cast a third spell; this one conjures a web of sticky material that binds Adokas and Sharla, the two party members who hadn't yet managed to flee, preventing them from moving.
Zedlyn continues to flee with Iriellis, but Arik, seeing that Adokas and Sharla are trapped, charges back into the fray in order to buy them time to escape, while Flossaria supports him from a distance with her crossbow. Grif and the other warrior step forward to engage him, while the lizardfolk at the back pelts him with magic missiles. They manage to cut down the human warrior and injure Grif, but Arik cannot withstand the mage's attacks for much longer.
Sharla and Adokas finally free themselves. Adokas hurls a flask of flaming oil at Grif before the party disengage and run away. Grif goes down screaming, and behind them as they flee, they hear Zedlyn's grenade finally explode.
As they run down the street, the last thing that they see before turning a bend is someone dragging Grif out of the burning building - a human (or something similar, like an elf) who they don't recognize and didn't take part in the fight.
After running to a (hopefully) safe distance, the party stop and regroup. Iriellis has awoken from the blast, and she and Flossaria heal the rest of the party as best they can. They're still quite injured, so they decide to retreat to a nearby Temple of Slid. At the temple, Iriellis is healed for free, while the rest of the party pay for the services of the temple's healers.
A few hours later, the party are rested and healed, and they decide to return to the scene of the fight. When they arrive, they see that the building is badly damaged by the fire, and the surrounding building are slightly damaged as well. Nearby bystanders and residents appear to be warily keeping away from them. Iriellis uses another spell to detect evil, and sees nothing. The party conclude that it should be safe to search the building.
There isn't much left of the building itself, due to the fire, but they discover a trapdoor that leads down to a small basement. The basement is very full, with three beds and many boxes and crates stuffed into a small area. One of the beds has several cut ropes lying on top of it, leading the party to guess that P'hla might have been captured and tied up there. Sending Iriellis and Zedlyn upstairs to keep watch, the rest of the party search through the boxes.
Some time passes, and within the half-hour, Zedlyn and Iriellis see a squad of ten city guardsmen approaching the building. They inform the two adventurers that they have been seen fighting within the city, and that they must be taken in for interrogation. Iriellis tries to defend the party's actions, telling the guard captain that they were only looking for their missing friend, and that they were only defending themselves, but the captain isn't swayed. She tries to invoke Ayal, warning the guard captain that he will be very upset if they're taken in, but the captain still isn't swayed. Finally, she brings up their relationship with Lieutenant Hadia, claiming that she will be able to vouch for them. But the captain is still resolved that they must be taken in for questioning.
While this is happening, the rest of the party are downstairs, searching through the boxes. Many contain mundane food and supplies, but a significant number contain ancient-looking religious relics and idols. Unfortunately, most are too worn or damaged to be reliably identified. Soon, they hear the commotion occurring above; Sharla decides to hide, while everyone else decides to go along with the guards.
As Sharla is emptying out a crate to use as a hiding place, she finds, at the very bottom, a map with a location marked in the desert to the west - one that doesn't correspond to any location that she knows. She has no time to study it in detail, though. She hides in the box as the guards come down to take the rest of the party away. They don't notice her hiding spot, and everyone else is led away, leaving Sharla alone in the darkness.
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