The Flameborn

Telv's smile quickly turns to anger. "No clear and present threat? Are you kidding me?! They're a dragon cult! By the time you determine they're a threat it'll be too late and you'll have a dragon on your doorstep that'll make Calmont's arson look like a cozy campfire!"

Jorsk Hinterclaw lets out a guffaw. "Are ye kiddin', girl? If they're able ta pull a dragon outta their arses yer hardly a match for em regardless."

"Mr. Hinterclaw makes a valid, if somewhat crude point," Posandi interrupts. "That aside, Citadel Altaerein has been occupied by tribes of goblins and orcs alike, monsters of all sorts, and more than one cult in the past, and we've been fine up to this point. The nasty things there deal with each other, and we don't need to spend taxpayer gold on every new group of ruffians."

"By all means," Selma Ann Sendari interjects. "We aren't saying you shouldn't investigate, only that the Council won't be offering a monetary reward for it. You'll still have adventurer's looting rights and all that."

Trini Spizzlegig, for her part, looks annoyed. "We would also highly encourage you to register as an official adventuring party," she adds. "Most businesses in the town offer a discount to registered adventurers, and on top of that if you are registered then we can reward you retroactively if and when," she glares pointedly at Hinterclaw and Posandi, "You can show you performed a service for the town."

Sayl's glare matches Trini's, complacency is nothing more than vulnerability, but in the interest of tact, she simply turns to Trini instead, "Thank you for the suggestion, miss; I would need to discuss that with my companions first, but it seems a good deal."

As an aside to Telv, she whispers "You're right, but it won't help us to pick fights. The reasonable ones already want to see us investigate - the others will listen only to proof. Let's go find them some, alright?"

"Thank you for the advice," Orinda says with a nod towards Trini. "Could I trouble you to point us towards the correct paperwork and procedures to register ourselves as an adventuring party, in the event we do decide to stay as a group?"

Trini flashes a mocking grin at Posandi, who seems sour at the notion, and give you directions to the registrar's office. "Good luck adventurers. I, for one, am rooting for you."

"Adventuring party, huh? Good business... I'd be up for it." Mateo nods.

With everyone in agreement, after a brief discussion, the group heads to the registrar's office to begin their new adventuring party of The Flameborn.

Sayl heads next to the Quarters to repair her shield.

Orinda asks around town about why Voz's shop is closed, finding out that Voz left town soon after the fire and the call. Finding this a bit suspicious, she goes to inform the others, starting with Sayl.

Sayl does her own digging as Orinda leaves to find the others, but despite her efforts she cannot find anything to suggest it's more than unfortunate timing, which she relays to the others at her first opportunity

The party takes a rest, then in the morning turns to the question of the items they acquired from the citadel the previous day, with Sayl and Telv each taking one of the silver weapons, and Sayl pitching in to have the potency rune moved from the shortbow they found to Telv's axe, leaving the bow itself and the arrows, as well as the dagger to Mateo, and selling the extra two silver weapons to fund a silver rapier for Mateo instead, as well as selling the extra Thieves' Tools to repair Mateo's set.
Orinda has no use for any of the equipment found in the citadel, and opts to pass on it all in favor of a larger share of the gold from it's sale.
During that day, Sayl tends to the group's wounds while they await the completed rune transfer.

You return to the citadel the next day, intent on clearing the southern wing. The dingy room to the south of the entrance hall is littered with toppled bunk beds and broken furniture, and doors to small but more private bedchambers hang open along the western and southern walls. In the room’s center, bed frames are stacked upon each other to form a sort of fort, with filthy and ripped bedding draped over the top to form its ceiling and walls.

As the party moves through the room, Orinda notices a movement in the "fort" occupying the middle of the room, and after alerting the party as she releases a wave of flame at it
It's occupant - a brown goblinoid - then reveals itself, taking quite some offense to Orinda's action, grabbing her, slugging her in the head, and slamming her unconcious into the floor within the blink of an eye, before rounding on Telv and attempting to repeat the performance, but Telv manages to catch the grab and instead push the goblinoid to the floor, leaving her open to a flurry of attacks from Tunare, Telv, and even Orinda thanks to a swift heal from Sayl, while Mateo tries to threaten her into giving up now.
The furry goblinoid seems heedless to Mateo's words, and stands, getting a much more successful grab onto Telv, though the action seems counterproductive and staying in range of Telv's axe ends with the goblinoid quickly put back on the floor from her wounds

Sayl tries valiantly to stauch the bleeding, but Telv seems to have hit a major artery with her strike, and the goblinoid quickly bleeds out.

Sayl freezes in place for a moment as she senses the life leave the goblinoid, dropping her tools and walking off to a far corner of the room with a stonily pensive stare
I couldn't... This can't... I can't *let* this keep happening, what if, next time, it's..."

Telv walks over to her sister and simply....wraps her arms around her. "I'm sorry sis...I must've nicked something important." She sees the look on Sayl's face. "Please don't beat yourself up over it. I'm sure the gods are just saving it for when you need it most"

Sayl leans against Telv silently for a moment, the same look on her face; eventually, she responds, "I don't want it in their hands when it's... when it matters. I don't want to lose you just because they aren't feeling charitable..." and returns her sister's hug.

Sayl nods, more to herself than to Telv, "You know what, yeah you're not going anywhere, and I'm going to make sure of that!"
She then looks over to the fallen goblinoid, "... We should bury her before we move on - she wouldn't let us stop until she was down, but, we still attacked first..."

"Burying her is a good idea," says Mateo. "I'll help."

After burying the bugbear, the party explores the citadel at a fairly fast clip, passing through several rooms including a concealed one containing some kind of summoning implements before heading into a room full of training dummies. Another door leads to a very different looking room. Its flagstones painted entirely black, this sprawling and irregularly shaped room contains a circular, sunken arena in its middle. The arena’s edges are painted deep crimson, and an ominous crimson pentagram fills the center. Standing off-center in the pentagram is a human man wearing black-painted heavy armor and wielding a sizable greatsword, and as you enter the room he's in the middle of swinging it directly through a tiny humanoid creature with leathery skin and bat wings. The creature is cleanly bisected and falls to the ground before its body spontaneously ignites and burns to cinders. He notes your entrance over his shoulder and begins to turn towards you when two more of the creatures descend from the rafters, both intent on attacking him. "Great," he grumbles as he shifts his grip back onto his sword. "More blasted hell monkeys."

The party springs to his aid, though Orinda's flame proves about as ineffectual as the knight's first sword swipes against the new pair of foes, one of them darting past to bury it's stinger in Telv before alighting on the rafters, the potent poison proving too much on top of the wounds from fighting the bugbear. Sayl is quick to her sister's aid as Tunare's fangs find insufficient purchase on the devil still at ground level; Mateo's efforts against the same foe prove more successful but still lack lasting effect as the devil regenerates it's own health and counters Mateo and Tunare with a sting each, which only the latter manages to avoid.
With her flames of no use, Orinda instead sends a spray of multicolored light up to the devil in the rafters, leaving it too blinded to strike back, but not too blind to evade Telv's axe.
While the group beside the door spends time with none able to touch the others, Tunare and the Knight combine to take down the devil they've cornered with Mateo harrying it.
Sayl's flame proves no more impactful than Orinda's, prompting her to use a sling instead, landing a powerful hit as the knight strides over and cleaves the remaining devil in twain.

No sooner have the devils fallen, however, than Mateo collapses as well, the poison burning through his veins despite Sayl's aid. Following his collapse, Sayl panics for a fleeting instant before a calm determination settles in her eyes and her hands weave near miraculous aid, fighting against Mateo's failing body to hold him away from the grip of death, expelling the poison moments before it could claim him.
With the emergency past, Sayl continues to treat Mateo, leaving the question of the Knight to Orinda and Telv.

"Thank you for the help with those things," Orinda says to the knight. "I don't know if we'd have come out alright without it."

"Your assistance was quite welcome as well," the knight replies to Orinda. "Not strictly necessary, but welcome."