War of the Burning Sky: The Scouring of Gate Pass

[Fax Celestis]

You have each been told to meet someone by the name of Torrent¹ at the Poison Apple Pub a little before midnight on New Year’s Eve, and to use the alley door. This seems a bit strange, as the pub has been closed down since its owner was arrested.

The people of the city know an army is on the way, so the streets are fairly deserted and normal festivities muted, letting you travel fairly unmolested. The pub is in a poorer district about a mile from the western city wall, filled with slush-covered cobblestone streets and dark, snow-filled alleyways. The evening is dark and claustrophobic, the multistory buildings of the city looming in the night, no lights in most windows.

The pub is a two-story building attached by a rooftop bridge to a neighboring house. The door and windows are boarded up, and the curtains drawn (though a faint light can be seen upon close inspection). A notice has been posted on its door:

"Trehan Finner, owner of the Poison Apple Pub, has been taken into temporary custody under the protection of the city guard, until such time that he can be questioned by representatives of the Ragesian Empire, and found innocent of hostile collusion. The Poison Apple Pub is hereby closed until further notice."

The adjacent building connected by the bridge is the Finner residence, currently unoccupied. Down the street from the pub is a stable where some of you have left mounts, and you have been told to enter through a side alley entrance to avoid being seen. The door is locked, but you've been instructed to knock. As each of you do, Torrent opens the door a crack a few moments later. After checking to make sure it's safe, she lets you in, gesturing casually to a table where she has set up a lamp, a map, several mugs, and a small keg of beer.

Helionaluxis arrives first, followed by Sovorian, Lyanne, Cyrick, and lastly by Varcolac.

The darkened pub is mostly empty now, its many tables and chairs pushed to one wall and covered with sheets. A single table sits in the middle of the room, with enough chairs for all of you. A small oil lamp and a keg sit on top of it, along with several mugs. At the back corner of the common room beside the bar, a staircase leads upstairs. The windows and door facing onto the street are closed, and you know they have been boarded up from the outside. On the wall behind the bar hangs a bronze bust of the former emperor of Ragesia, Drakus Coaltongue, a regal, aged half-orc with a scar cutting diagonally across his face. You and Torrent are the only people in the room.

As tall and strong as the typical warrior, Torrent is a distinctive looking woman with tanned skin and short white hair. Under a dark winter coat she wears a breastplate decorated with blue wave-like etchings, and a holy symbol² is tied to her wrist with a leather cord. Her demeanor is smooth but forceful, like an ocean wave.

Once you all arrive, she says: "Thanks for coming. Have a drink. Just because we’re about to go to war doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate the new year."

Spoiler

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¹Knowledge (Religion) DC 20: Torrent is a devout follower and a priestess of Leviatan, god of the sea.
²Knowledge (Religion) DC 13: The icon on her wrist is that of Leviatan, god of the sea.