Our heroes followed the trail through the slums of Nochet and drew some followers who were trying to work out if they were muggable. They located a building with a broken amphora outside its door and were discussing how to enter it when Xenofos decided he’d simply kick the door down. This proved to be an uncomfortable experience, as the building was warded, but he did gain entry, followed quickly by his cousin. Varanis knocked down one of the internal warding wands, thereby allowing everyone else access to what turned out to be something of a temple. Berra failed to cast Shield and then had her Rune Points drain away when she tried again. She came in shamefaced a few moments later.
While the party was entering the building, someone else was deciding what to do about them coming in. Unfortunately, they were too late to stop him, as he appeared to simply vanish. A few attempts were made to wave swords around in hopes of encountering flesh, but alas! The man made good his escape, or else stayed and listened to them. Berra stuck by the door, and Zinat could find no trail leading out of the one upstairs window, but neither could they locate the man who might still be inside.
A search of the place led Nala to conclude that it was a temple to Eurmal Murderer, though Varanis was absolutely certain it was trollish in nature. Before the party could come to any concrete conclusions about anything, Nala, who was probably still coming down from her Holy High, called on Maran Gor and created a fissure in the middle of the building. Varanis and Kesten both fell, in spite of Xenofos’ best efforts to catch them.
Rajar and Dormal circled the Hulta palazzo at a distance, and were seen but not interfered with by the Hulta guards. They picked up a skirmish site and eventually tracked the survivor(s) of the skirmish to the Great Hospital, passing through a market. At the market they learned that Varanis had fought a pitched battle there and personally slain 500 Hulta guards (and Lord Hulta himself). However they deduced that there was no evidence of so much as a fist fight at the market and it was unlikely the Hulta had a standing army of 500 guards. Pausing only to correct the tales they went on to the Hospital.
At the hospital they made a completely optional donation and learned that Varanis and her company had gone back towards the Hulta palazzo. Upon making their way there they had a brief conversation with the gate guard who was convinced to tell them which way the party had gone. And they managed [more passed track and area lore rolls] to pick up the trail of the group, but mostly to hear the sound of the earth crumbling and cracking.
Rajar and Dormal found the group as they piled out of a collapsing cluster of houses - something to do with small earthquakes making distinctive sounds in a place like Nochet. Dormal strongly advised the party to leave, as the local population seemed to be eyeing them up rather avidly. With weapons drawn, they made their way out of the slums.
Varanis insisted they stop by House Hulta so that she could finally check on Lenta and reassure herself that the green-eyed girl was unharmed. There were a few sad sighs and longing looks, but Lenta was otherwise fine.
Meanwhile, Mellia made her way to House Hulta, to warn the family that Lord Rillo Hulta had been poisoned, as well as stabbed, and that he would need to stay for some time to recover from his death. Mellia had been informed by her servant that her Vingan cousin had slain a significant number of Hulta guards and was now in trouble. Her news was received by the House and it turned out that rumours of Varanis’ violent acts were somewhat exaggerated.
Berra got Rajar and Dormal caught up on the events and the party made their way to the Hospital to have words with Lord Rillo Hulta. His behaviour made it pretty clear that Nala was justified in her distaste for the man, as he steadfastly refused to provide them with any information that would help them investigate his murder, although he did provide a decent sketch of the man who had killed him. Berra demanded answers, but Lord Hulta responded by insulting House Saiciae, thereby derailing the questioning. Even when it was pointed out that he was doing that, he kept throwing insults and not answering. He also refused to cooperate with Kesten, presumably because whatever he was hiding was not something he wanted to have shared with the Hulta matriarch (or because he was hiding something that could only be shared with her).
At this point, after everyone had left the room, Dormal made an offer of his own to Lord Hulta: He offered to carry a message that would be hard to trace as he, Dormal, was not Hulta and would not be expected to work for Rillo. Rillo threw a few insults Dormal’s way, but Dormal did not rise to these. He also suggested that Rillo had been attempting to buy information, which suggestion Rillo leapt on a little too eagerly ruling that out as his actual goal. Rillo indicated that he would like Dormal to carry a message to a certain place and bring back any response, and to come back the next day for the details (and paid a few lunars for the service).
[Dormal took the opportunity to report his findings to Grandmother before nightfall, but this happened offscreen. He also put the feelers out for whether his Cousins had managed to annoy the Gaffs, the dockside gang whose territory they had invaded and partially demolished, enough to get prices put on their heads.]
