The Septarch's Disappearance
Arc 9.
Rescue on the road
Leaving Freya to watch the keep, the party rode for Fallcrest and came on a fight near ancient ruins: Iron Circle mercenaries ambushing two travellers. The party killed the mercenaries and their officer.
The two travellers were Ruin, Marked of the Hinge, a warlock, and Vaelin, a rogue. They had just retrieved stone tablets from Ioun's temple in Fastormel, and the Iron Circle wanted them. They were on their way to Fallcrest to see Voren. Everyone camped together, and the pair stayed with the party from here on.
That night Agatha dreamed her god rebuked her. She had killed the enemy officer after he surrendered. She has not forgotten it, and neither has the campaign.
The tower is empty
They reached Voren's tower the next afternoon and found him gone. Purple ichor on the floor of his office, and signs of a struggle.
The only recent visitor had been a grocer delivering food. Hidden in the basket: a rune-inscribed coin with markings like those already tied to the mind flayers. The grocer across the street described the caller — a tall man in dark purple robes with a hood. Witnesses saw him, spoke to him, touched him, and could not remember him afterwards.
Asking around Fallcrest
- The Lord Warden already knew. He had nobody to spare for the Spider Queen and pointed them at the Riders.
- Banner was sceptical, but offered a trade: investigate the Shrieking Mire and he would see about freeing up people. Riders Garran and Ysolde had come back from the southwest having found a field of dead Iron Circle they had not killed, and a stone tablet with runes like the coin's, but more of them. Ysolde touched it and it said: "From mist to mist the dead shall march."
- Leander knew nothing about the purple-robed figure, suggested Sparky for the runes, and mentioned a rumour of a black dragon over the Mire.
Murder in the alley
On the way to Sparky they found a man dying in an alley — a Silver Raven courier, a knife in his side, a silver raven brooch, and a satchel. He was dead before they could do anything.
A man appeared over the wall: "That does not belong to you, please give it back."
The fight nearly killed several of them. They won. On the body: brigandine, a very dark cloak with an Iron Circle clasp, two good daggers, 250 gold. This was Tarmon Vale, an Iron Circle spy-hunter.
The coded message
In the satchel, a scroll case engraved with a raven perched on a mirror and the words "truth is seen in reverse." Inside, a coded note. Jocelin worked out the cipher:
"Contact established with the Lord of Mist. Vale to confirm Gulthias' pact at Mire altar. High Circle arrives in four days."
Sparky Thornapple filled in the rest. The High Circle is Iron Circle leadership. The runed coin is an Underdark spell anchor — one of a connected pair. And the "Mire altar" is almost certainly the old temple in the Shrieking Mire, dedicated to Gozreh.
The Iron Circle and the vampire are working together, and the party had four days.