#eleint

I had known that the Library had aquired a property in the North Ward.  It was primarily Lydia and Luna cleaning it out, and I decided that I would leave them to it.  They’re quite a pair.

Apparently it was bombed earlier today.  Luna came to retrieve me and ask for my service in casting Speak With Dead.  The guard rebuffed her at the scene of the crime (I waited in the house; no sense pinning more scandal on myself that truly necessary) but we went to the precinct building and went to the morgue there anyways.

I ended up casting a Zone of Truth (always fun) and two Speaks.  She seemed to get helpful answers.  On our way out, she gave some information to the guard posted outside and reassured me that, while this was highly illegal, she would maintain that I was not involved and was coerced/just accessory.

We had a nice time meeting the neighbors — there’s a nice couple (who I can only assume are genasi) who run a blacksmithing place nearby which I must visit at some point, and one of the magic supply shops that Luna frequents is also on the same alley.  The proprieter is friendly enough, might get some books on arcane theory from him at some point.

Then Trollskull Alley/Mannor got bombed, because we can never know peace.  The explosion was terrifying enough, but seeing the fire... it felt like I was burning.  Hiss, Sig, and Luna ran in and tried to help out.  I shook myself out of it not too long after and tried to assist where I could, but I was more than a little spell-shocked.

Then the guard showed up and we didn’t manage to find the person who did it and we didn’t find the person who ran away and we ended up meeting and defenting a kobold who was one of Chip’s old merc buddies and some changling showed up and demanded that we take her to Tamworth and it was all so much.

I talked to a little boy who had found the fireball necklace that was used — two beads left.  The guards were harassing him, poor kid.  He probably just had to watch his friends, his family, burn up in front of him.  I calmed him down, got the necklace, and when he left, I gave him some gold.  It’s nothing compared to what he’s lost, but it’ll help him.  He’s going to need it.

We think it was an automaton.  Hiss overheard a lady describe it as a “puppet without strings,” the same way people sometimes talk about Bluevolt.  We went to the Library first (had to introduce “Baby-Eater” to Tam and convince Shard that Chip had died.  Both agreed to hang around the library and work) before heading out to the temple of Gond.

Got attacked by a mechanical bird before walking in, but the priestess was cool.  They do have a nimblewright there, an old fellow named Nim, who’s a known troublemaker, but not one to bomb a street.  He did admit to creating a nimblewright of his own.  As punishment for attacking visitors, the priestess cleaned his room and gave us a nimblewright detector.  And an offer of 500 gold for the death (or arrest) of Nim’s nimblewright.

I know it’s not Blue, but it still feels... bad.  I know their workings inside and out and I know how I would.  But I don’t know if I could face Bea with the full knowledge of how I could kill them.