The group heads down into the tunnel one by one, lighting it with spells. They quickly find that the stone of the tunnel walls carry some luminence of their own, almost like bioluminescence. They follow it in silence until they reach another tunnel, this one wider and built like a sewer, though a sewer where the sewage has been blocked off by brickwork. The water still runs, but anyone using the tunnel is in no risk of stumbling into the sludge. The wider tunnel continues both left and right of the tunnel they followed originally. On the wall to their left they find symbols and assume them to indicate a direction to follow.
They hear voices further up the tunnel and approach them as silently as they can, with mixed results. After a few hundred metres they arrive at a broader chamber, with walkways spanning the space above them. A number of men and women of various races stand on the upper walkways or sit on chairs, playing card-games and drinking out of glass bottles. They carry weapons, but none are drawn. While the group discusses if they should attack, one of the men lowers his bottle and stands up, shouting for them to show themselves. Reginald and Golkir step forward and talk to the man, who asks if they’re passing through. When they confirm, he asks to see their guest passes. They claim that they ‘paid Jonathan’ but that he must have forgotten to give them their passes. Reginald manages to sell the lie and the man grunts. He cannot allow them to pass without, but he will offer them a discount of 5 silver rather than the initial 2 gold per head. The group all pay and they continue down the tunnel, each with a guest pass in hand.
The tunnel continues for a good while, containing more checkpoints that allow them to pass once they see their guest-passes, until they eventually hear more sounds of talking and laughter. The tunnel broadens into a veritable underground village; there’s people everywhere playing games on barrels and tables, people drinking themselves into stupors. A man barges through the group and into an alley where he vomits noisily. It reminds them of Sharn, rather than the cleaner Flamekeep they have seen above-ground.
The group has a quick huddle to strategize, and Zildar breaks off, joining a nearby game of poker. He strikes up a short conversation with a dwarf in the group during a hand and learns that the ‘half-orc in white’ has been seen often with a person called ‘Hammlen Leth’. The hand played, Zildar thanks them for their time and buys them a round of beer, noticing that FAF had been intensely observing the game from afar. Reginald asks around the area and learns a little more, namely that the half-orc is usually seen around the area in the daytime. The name Hammlen Leth crops up a few more times, but the group is still in the dark as to who that is and what they look like. From the bartender in the tavern they learn that Hammlen is a busy man and that he passed through and up about an hour ago.
The tavern is built with three floors; the ground floor, the first floor and the second. Thuun observes the stairs up to the first and notes that anyone going up is asked to show their guest passes, and that they clearly have more on them than the passes owned by the group. Reginald tries to discern what the additional content is from a distance, but cannot glean much. Thuun waits until someone comes down from the first floor alone and stalks them outside. A gnome in a ragged tuxedo glares the bugbear to leave him to his alley business. As the gnome leaves the alley again, Thuun swipes their guest pass without them noticing.
The group examines the special pass. A circular image has been stamped onto it with ink, but the effect is strange, like the image constantly shifts even as they look. The ink appears to still be liquid. The pass carries no name or information about the holder, so it should work for anyone just as well as it worked for the unfortunate gnome. Reginald wonders if he could create forged copies, but he doubts it would be possible without the specialised equipment they must have used to create the effect. They observe the process of buying the special passes, and it seems that the bartender sends the requests up to the second floor, and they then send the requested passes back down.
Since Thuun acquired the special pass, they agree that he should be the one going up. The pass allows him to come and go as he pleases, after all. And if it should get hairy, the bugbear still has the sending stone he borrowed from Reginald. The gnome they swiped it from has been going from stairway to stairway, shouting at them to let him pass. Thuun shows his pass and is allowed to go up, finding a floor much like the one on the ground, just much nicer. The guests are playing various games of chance on small tables or drinking from fancy glasses. Behind a bead curtain he sees a large poker-table, where the patrons have escorts practically on their hips as they play. Thuun goes to the bar and asks if they have seen Hammlen Leth, claiming to be an acquantaince in town looking for him. He manages to get a description from the young man behind the bar; Hammlen Leth is a young elf with blonde hair and green eyes, but his most distinctive feature is a gnarly scar on the right of his face and a squeaky voice. Thuun thanks him and sits down at a spot with a good view of the first floor, and waits. On the ground floor, Reginald joins games of chance and puts his old charlatan skills to work, fleecing people for a tidy sum of gold as they wait for word from Thuun.
Thuun only waited a few minutes before a door opened up and a group of people came out, one of them a short elf with a nasty scar. Leth talks to the others for a moment before walking off, passing the bugbear without any special notice. He accepts a drink from the bar and heads downstairs, followed by Thuun and eventually the whole group as Leth heads out of the building and down the street. FAF and Reginald manage to keep a low profile, but Golkir, Zildar and Thuun are too brazen, and before long, they notice a large amount of thugs staring at them from the buildings and alleys, and Leth turns around and demands to know what they want. Golkir decides honesty is the best policy and tells Leth they are looking for a half-orc in white. Leth says that he might know something, but he cannot be sure. Golkir throws him 30 gold, to which Leth replies that the half-orc is called Tommlen and lives in room 23. Thuun throws him another 15 gold to learn that the half-orc’s surname is d’Tharashk. Their business concluded, Leth leaves in short order. Reginald stalks after Leth, FAF keeps an eye on Reginald from afar and the rest head for the motel and room 23.
Leth follows the road until he arrives at a sturdy-looking door built into the wall. He glances around himself and knocks. Reginald does not catch exactly what he says, but it is a short phrase, and he is then let in. Reginald shape-changes to look like a random dock-worker and approaches the door, but has no idea what the password is when a man behind the door demands it. When it is clear that Reginald has no business being there, the man tells him to leave before he calls security.
Thuun, Golkir and Zildar find the room in question quickly. While Zildar wonders if he has some magical means of opening the door, Thuun steps up and kicks it down with one decisive blow. Within is an ordinary-looking room and a half-orc dressed in white armour. Before Thuun has even set his foot back down, the half-orc is on his feet with his hand on the grip of a crossbow on his hip. But before he can draw it, the bugbear and half-orc look each other in the face.
“Thuun?”
“Thomas?”
The ‘half-orc in white’ that they have been chasing is their bounty-hunting friend from Sharn, Thomas Rutmar. Or as his real name is, Tommlen Aashta d’Tharashk, a member of House Tharashk. Thuun introduces Zildar and Golkir, as those two did not come along for the bounty-hunt back then. They fall into talking until Reginald and FAF arrive. FAF busies himself with fixing the broken door as the group discusses why they are in Flamekeep. Thomas’s joviality quickly fades as he learns they have come to find Algo. They learn that Thomas killed Albert Kornit because Albert had come too close to Algo’s trail, something Thomas could not allow. The reason Algo is being hunted by House Cannith is that she is a warforged not made by House Cannith, which should be impossible. Thomas does not wish for her to fall into their hands, as he does not believe that they could learn what they hope for and still leave Algo alive. Thomas is reticient about telling them any more about Algo, let alone where Algo is currently. He asks if they would help him with getting Algo out of the city unseen, as House Cannith is clearly too hot on their heels for them to stay ahead too much longer. As both parties are unsure, Thomas says he will talk it over with Algo and contact them within a day, to which the party agrees.
As they leave, they discuss whether they trust Thomas’s word or if he intends to leave the same night. Reginald changes his looks again and hides in an alley to keep an eye on Thomas while the rest of the group head back towards the tavern.
Cookbook Overload 