Characters
Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman
Ulu, the party's urska mom
Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword
Johanna, lycan bard and fallen noble
Imperious, a cambion adolescent with a big sword
Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest
Morwenna, harpy devotee of St. Vionka
Events
A gray storm turned the streets of Braelin to mud, but that didn't stop Anastasia and Morwenna from visiting the shrine to Saint Vionka--or what was left of it. The shrine had been thoroughly burnt, and the skulls that Sister Eliza kept had almost all been smashed to pieces. Morwenna positioned the remaining skulls so that she might see through them with her magic and keep an eye on the area in the future--which might prove useful since the remains of the shrine were so near the cemetery and the church.
Speaking of the churchyard, they also checked to make sure Kaul's grave was intact, which it was. They ventured over to the church, which was being renovated by a smattering of Brother Jacob's men and a few workers from the town. There, they met Eitori, an eastern swordsman who was supervising the reconstruction.
At the schoolhouse, they met Imperious--Embrelle's newly arrived little brother. Together, they investigated the schoolhouse. They found no evidence of Aivra inside, but it was obvious that the school was still in use--though it appeared that religious indoctrination was now part of the curriculum.
Back at the Kaul House, Johanna asked their butler D'Orleac about his strange situation. He took her down into the basement, to a lonely spot where his bones lay entombed beyond a brick wall. He explained that when the house was constructed, he was led to this spot and slain by Pandora Rue. She then used her sorcery to bind D'Orleac's spirit to the house so that it would always have a guardian. This, he claimed, was all part of whatever master plan the twins had in the works for the generations to come. Johanna offered to release D'Orleac from his eternal servitude, but he did not actually seem bothered by his status as a bound specter.
Most of the group reconvened at the Blue Room after checking with Embrelle that Imperious is actually her brother; they then watched as the tea house's owner fawned over the boy and plied him with more breakfast than he could eat. However, while at the Blue Room the group got their first look at the Thorn, one of Brother Jacob's allies. The Thorn was a bog elf woman with greenish skin and pink hair; she was with Eitori, who seemed to be her bodyguard.
Anastasia took her dress uniform to Crispin Telimov, the tailor, as a pretext to see how he was feeling about Braelin's occupiers. Telimov played his cards pretty close to his chest, but he may be ally for the Hounds if they delve a little deeper into Telimov's past or what he wants. They did, after all, suspect him to be a crack shot.
On the way to the general store, Ulu and Varro made conversation with Irenya, their maid. Importantly, they learned that she had taken shelter in the Kaul House while on the run from a bad situation; it was then that D'Orleac made her an offer of "employment." In return for a safe place to say, Irenya acted as the house's maid...and provided D'Orleac with a little of her life essence. It was by drinking her vital essence that D'Orleac was able to shape himself a physical body from the ectoplasm of his spiritual material.
At the shop, they saw that Yungfang had a black eye. It seems that Brother Jacob's soldiers were demanding discounts and not above getting physical in their bartering. While Varro helped Irenya shop for fabric (Raenessa was sewing the girl some new dresses), Ulu and the Nokoviks reaffirmed their commitment to aid one another. As Mei-Lin said, "You can only run so many times before you pick a patch to stand and fight over."
They also saw that Braelin's jail was in the process of being expanded by Jacob's soldiers.
Dario and Johanna paid a visit to the Honey Pot, which was a hive of activity now that it was the sole drinking establishment in Braelin. Doctor Ilsa was not exactly happy with this development; she had her reasons for being fond of Embrelle. They invited the doctor to visit Kaul House a little later--once there, they were able to reveal that Embrelle had survived the fire and the two old war comrades were reunited. Doctor Ilsa expressed a desire to help the resistance to Brother Jacob's reign, but she explained that the cult had stolen something from her and she couldn't really move against them until it was safely back in her possession. When pressed on what the item in question was, she admitted it was a preserved severed head that was crucial to her experiments. She clearly wanted to divulge as little about it as possible, The group began to hatch a plan to get it back.
Doctor Ilsa also recognized the name "Ugly Zillah." Zillah was not outwardly ugly, she said, but rather had an ugly, corrupted soul. The woman was also a sort of doctor--but she was infamous for concocting artificial diseases and plagues.
That very night, Morwenna and Imp flew into the cult's compound under the cover of night and the still-pouring rain. They figured out where the head was being held and learned that it was constantly under guard. That will give the group something to work with next time.