The Guardian of Soliton

"The Guardian of Soliton" is the 8th episode of the Dungeons and Dragons campaign, Sword of the Godslayer. It follows episode seven, "False Appearances".

Synopsis
Azula'', Lira and Marley, who were joined by Auren and Firroth, are solving the case of the missing children. Meanwhile, Rob, Nicolas, Minos and Nong-Poi investigate the source of the golden scroll that made its way into Rob's bag.'' =Plot=

Across the City
After Azula, Lira and Marley left to investigate the case of the missing children in Soliton, Rob, Nicolas, Minos and Nong-Poi decided to their own investigation, this time, about the people who abducted Rob and Minos the day before.

They traced their step back at the city docks, were they met members of the Thieves' Guild. Looking around, they found the female elf who first offered them a ship playing a game with the dockworkers. They tried joining the game, but the elf immediately left in hurry. They followed the elf through the alleyways of the city, which led them to a mortuary. The elf entered the establishment and exited with a large bag. The elf continued walking around the city and the group remained close behind.

Manor
The elf finally reached the rich district where she sneaked inside a large manor. Nong-Poi followed her and climbed through a second-story window. She sneaked in and discovered a bath tub full of blood. The group realized that the manor is the house of Captain Hrothgar, who deputized them the day before, and they concluded that he is probably a vampire.

Rob and Nicolas made their way inside the manor and confronted the Captain. After some persuasion, he readily confessed the truth. According to him, he has no idea why he suddenly became a vampire and that he just woke up one day feeling the effects of the condition. He also claimed that he is fighting the effects of his transformation, and even refuses to feed on human blood. Eventually, he craved into his newfound thirst, but Seiveril helped her by providing blood from corpses of dead people.

Meet Sei
The female elf that the group has been following introduced herself as Seiveril, Captain Steffan's ward, and a member of the City Guard. However, she is given the position of a spy, and works undercover as a member of the Thieves' Guild.

She listened to the party's story and remembered the night she escorted them to the Thieves' Guild. However, she denied knowing anything about golden scroll, but she told them that one of the smugglers from the Guild was found dead and decapitated. The party surmised a connection there somewhere, and, with the Captain sensing some sort of conspiracy involved in all these, he ordered Seiveril to join the group in their investigation.

Making Sense of All These
Sei led Rob, Nicolas and Nong-Poi to the house of one of the Thieves' Guild smugglers. The group interrogated him until he admitted to placing the golden scroll in Rob's backpack. According to him, their group smuggled in a golden scroll from one of their foreign agents, hoping to sell it to a rich client in the city. However, curious as to what the magic item does, they consulted a wizard from the city's university. The wizard told them the scroll is a terrible item, with enough power to destroy the city, and that it shouldn't fall into the wrong hands.

The leader of their smuggling group, the gnome that was decapitated recently, had a changed of heart and heeded the wizard's warning so he decided against selling the scroll to their rich client. They were planning to smuggle the scroll out of the city, when the state of panic was declared, and the docks were closed. Coincidentally, that's when the Godslayer expedition arrived at the docks, looking for a way outside the city. Desperately, the gnome ordered him to hide the scroll into one the member's bags, and ordered another agent to take it out once the group is on their ship. The smugglers didn't anticipate that the party will botch their escape from the city and that they will be caught. What's worse, they didn't expect the one holding the scroll to be captured by a third party.

The smuggler continued his story and claimed that just last night, the original owner of the scroll managed to find them, and slipped into the city. He claimed that he came looking for his scroll, and that when his boss, the gnome, couldn't bring it, decapitated him right on sight. The smuggler has been in hiding since, that's when Sei found him bringing them to their current situation.

As the party is taking in all these information, they asked the smuggler if he at least knows who their client in the city was. He answered that he didn't know his name, but he gave a concise description. Sei couldn't believe it when the description he gave matched that of Captain Hrothgar.

The Golden Scroll
Seiveril still refused to believe that his mentor, Captain Hrothgar, is involved in all these. She left the three on their own to confront the captain himself. Nicolas, Nong-Poi and Rob decided to talk to the wizard whom the smugglers consulted with, to know all the information they can have regarding the scroll. They arrived at the university, where they found the wizard alone in his office.

The wizard admitted that the smugglers indeed consulted with him regarding the scroll, and also claimed that it wasn't the first time he saw it. Twenty years ago, he saw a version of the magical scroll, and that it was used on a ritual to remove a person's soul from his body, thus removing its connection to Psyche, making unable to perform any spellcasting. There was a rich family who didn't like that their son has sorcerous abilities, so they found a way to remove it from him. They hired an individual, who known only as The Alchemist, and he used the scroll to perform the ritual on the young boy. The wizard claimed he was there when it happened, but was there only to observe and study.

The ritual was successful, but it left the boy nearly insane. All of his connections to the Psche was removed, and he didn't just lost his magical abilities, he also lost traces of his humanity. The wizard was horrified by this event, but the family paid him enough gold to keep his silence. He has never mentioned about the incident since, until today.

The wizard added that the golden scroll the smugglers brought to him was similar but more powerful. Instead of performing the ritual on an individual, it will affect a greater number of people, and requires more components to complete. Some of these components are souls of innocent individuals: children. The three started connecting the threads together. Finally, they asked the wizard who was it that performed the ritual twenty years prior, and he answered that it was the Von Schreiber family. The mother and father were already dead, but their son, the one whose soul was removed, is Dominic Von Schreiber, and is now the head of the family.

Return of Inverno
As the three headed out of the university, a figure appeared waiting for them: Inverno, the assassin that Azula and the rest caught the day before. He shot crossbow bolts towards the wizard, but the party defended him. The three fought against the assassin, with Nicolas nearly losing his life. They eventually defeated him and killed him for good. Nong-Poi took his crossbow and looted poisoned bolts off his dead body.

Afterwards, the day is closing in and they decided to return to their inn.

Back at the Inn
Meanwhile, Azula, Lira and Marley, together with Auren and Firroth are fighting several shadowy figures. Firroth chased a voice into a room alone, while the rest followed behind. Firroth fought an unseen opponent, until Azula entered the room and saw two creatures who both look like Firroth.

They decided to tie down both "Firroths" and brought them back to the inn, locking them in separate rooms. They deduced that one of them is a doppelganger and they want to figure out who. With Azula's detect thoughts spell, they managed to find out the who the fake Firroth is. When they confronted him, he turned into Denise Von Schreiber. He told the group that they cannot stop what he and his master has already planned out. Annoyed, Firroth promptly beheaded the doppelganger.

Nicolas, Nong-Poi and Rob finally arrived at the inn and the two groups discuss their findings. They deduce that Dominic Von Schreiber is planning to use the golden scroll to remove the souls of the citizens of Soliton, using the children as ritual components. While discussing, Nicolas was confused with their new companions, Firroth and Auren, and denied knowing them. While the two struggle for an alibi, they heard noise coming from outside the inn.

An angry mob, joined by the Burgrave himself with several guards, gathered outside the inn. They are led by Baron Dominic von Schreiber, who is accusing the group of kidnapping his sister Denise, and with conspiring with Captain Hrothgar. According to him, his sister discovered that the captain is a vampire, and suspected that he was behind the children's disappearance. She was about to arrest him, when the group that the captain hired to investigate caught her instead. Baron Von Schreiber demanded in front of the crowd and the Burgrave, that the group be arrested.

Annoyed by all the noise, Firroth tossed outside the decapitated head of the doppelganger who disguised as Denise. The group didn't want to fight the guards, and decided to surrender instead. The group stepped out of the inn and were chained one by one. As they are being escorted towards the prison, a fog cloud enveloped around them. Nicolas, Nong-Poi and Rob recognized the voice of Sei, and she told them that she will help them escape.

Godslayer Expedition

 * Auren
 * Azula
 * Firroth
 * Lira
 * Marley
 * Minos (mentioned)
 * Nong-Poi
 * Nicolas
 * Rob

Soliton City Guad

 * Denise Von Schreiber (doppelganger)
 * Steffan Hrothgar

Free City of Soliton

 * City Burgrave
 * Baron Dominic Von Schreiber
 * University wizard

Others

 * The Alchemist (mentioned)
 * Inverno

Next Episode
This episode is followed by episode 9, "The Assault on Von Schreiber Manor".