Clover's Log
Brendel, Ronan, and I stand on the bridge. We don’t know if Nyx and Oman survived going over the side. The fall is hundreds of feet. Were they able to use magic to save themselves? And where is Keys? Before we can ponder our options for investigating, we are confronted by a hooded rider on a large leonine creature. He wants to know what we’re doing, so we throw Alara Stoneheart’s name at him and tell him we’re investigating the disappearances of some of the city’s elite and just fought off a horde of fiends. He knows we are wanted by the Church and is there to deal with us. He seems very serious, the type who follows the letter of the law rather than the spirit, which concerns me. That said, he lets us take him down to where our friends have possibly fallen to their deaths. Thank any deity who is not the “Good” Lady, we find them alive, next to the massive corpse of the demon.
Once there, Oman and Nyx reveal a strange encounter with a shifty man and his—as it turns out—highly illegal pet. The demon apparently landed on said pet, and the thing emerged in a rage and attacked Oman. What at first seemed a harmless gerbil was in fact anything but and has now been dubbed the “war gerbil” for its mind-boggling ferocity. The owner realized his secret was out and took off.
Back to the hooded figure. After telepathically communicating with Stoneheart, he learns we’re trying to clear our names. Unfortunately, he found us before we could, and now we have a choice to make. Evelyn sends Brendel a telepathic message with our options: we can face the consequences of going into the Rift without authorization, or we can retroactively become Rift Runners and become beholden to the Church, who will be able to monitor us. With some reluctance, we choose option two since it is least likely to end with swift executions. The Church will give us rings we have to wear while in the Rift so they can keep tabs on us. The one benefit is that if we wear them in the city, we will be able to attend exclusive parties and things. Over the course of our communications, we also learn Captain Abreena has been branded a criminal. We need to get back to Stoneheart and find a way to help him.
Reuniting with Evelyn and Stoneheart, I get the news I’ve been waiting for: I am to meet my father in four days at the vault. My real father, at long last. But first, a more pressing matter. Evelyn needs us to free the gnome Nesbit from prison, as he has information her network needs. We’re not sure how well he’ll receive us given our history, but we agreed. He’s a gangster, but for some reason he’s useful to the Truth Network. He would have escaped himself, but we ruined his plan when we escaped last time. The guards are now wise to those weaknesses.
Brendel messages Abreena to see what happened to him and how we can help. Turns out the Syndicate caught him. He’s okay for now, but he needs us to save the Warforged and destroy the Syndicate. You know…no big deal. Fortunately, this mission lines up with why we’re seeing my dad. We need to sleep on everything that’s happened, so after Evelyn gives us a list of people we need to talk to, and we learn that Oman knows Lady Kanton (something that intrigues Brendel, Nyx, and me), we go to bed. We wake up to the smell of bacon.