With the repairs to the Storm's Grace completed, the party was asked by Selene d'Lyrandar to accompany her to Sharn. She had some House Lyrandar business there, but was confident that there would be work for them within the bustling city.
Selene d'Lyrandar was tied up in contract negotiations for several days, so the others explored the city. Then Selene d'Lyrandar received a telegram from her old acquantance Max Murock, asking Selene d'Lyrandar and her friends to meet him at The Jam-Jar. The party headed there that very evening, and found themselves a table while they waited for Max Murock. Arc showed up in new persona, Alvalor Altener, a lovable Half-Elf rogue. It soon became apparent he had a slight drug problem though, disappearing to purchase some Skooma for a fix.
Max Murock arrived soon after, and introduced himself to the party. Wearing a fedora and trenchcoat, Max Murock was trying to give the appearance of being a Private Inquisitive. He explained that as part of his attempted seduction of Nora ir'Roole, he had accepted the job of finding her missing husband, Drevin ir'Roole. However Max Murock was in well over his head, so wanted the party's help to finish the job, and hopefully impress Nora ir'Roole. The only clue that he could offer was that Drevin ir'Roole was known to sometimes frequent the Half-Pint Inn - indeed, sometimes he hired out the entire place. Max Murock had a magical device that had been recently invented by a professor at Morgrave University, Canton Busby, that allowed him to carry images of people with him. He showed the party an image of Nora ir'Roole in an attempt to impress upon them why he was so desparate to seduce her.
Agreeing to the job, the party headed off to the Half-Pint Inn. There, they witnessed a member of the City Watch refusing entry of a half-elf to the inn. Arc followed the half-elf, and found that he was one of the owners; but it had been closed as it was a crime-scene. Selene d'Lyrandar bribed the City Watch guard to let them in; she, Smith and Elias Minch headed in the front door, while Arc and Daellin instead chose to investigate around the back. There they found a vagrant, half-drunk in a corner. They interrogated the vagrant, and found out that he had seen several masked individuals pulling an unconscious body out of the inn a few nights prior. One of the masked individuals had been injured, with his cloak torn. They had been heard saying 'Fear Reveals Truth' (the party's first meeting with the Fear Reveals Truth organisation), and mentioning something about 'Overlord Val Gultesh, The Shaper of Nightmares'. The mention of the overlord suggested some connection to the Lords of Dust, fiends who sought to release the overlords upon Eberron.
Inside, Elias Minch found a torn part of a glamourweave cloak, though he was not able to identify the tailor that had made it. He also founds several pieces of a red mask stylised to look like a dragonmark, that looked like it had been shattered in a fight. He recognised it as the type worn by the actors of the Silvermist Theatre. There were also blood marks, that led to the back door of the inn. The party reconvened, and discussed what they had found. Daellin decided to go and speak to the vagrant again; following him out of the alley, he was able to bribe him to provide a bit more information; chiefly that one of the attackers smelt incredibly badly. The vagrant also provided a shattered gem that had been dropped by the assailants.
This led the party to conclude that they had three possible avenues of investigation:
- As one of the assailants had been wounded, they could investigate the nearby House Jorasco healing house, and see if they could get any information on anyone that had been brought in.
- See if they could track down the tailor that had made the glamourweave cloak, as it was probably custom-made.
- Investigate the theatre where the masks were used.
Deciding that the theatre was the strongest lead, the party headed to the Callestan district. They stood out there, but before they could find somewhere to disguise their appearance, a goblin pickpocketed the pieces of the broken mask from Elias Minch, and ran through the crowds. Selene d'Lyrandar, Arc and Smith immediately gave chase, with Elias Minch and Daellin cautiously watching the crowd that was watching. The chase led through several streets, and was at one point interrupted by a pack of feral dogs. The goblin got past quickly, as did Selene d'Lyrandar, Arc and Smith, but when Daellin and Elias Minch followed they couldn't get past the dogs until Daellin shot one of them with an arrow.
Eventually Selene d'Lyrandar got close enough to the goblin to use a Gust of Wind spell, which both knocked the goblin down, and got Smith close enough that he could grapple her. The goblin explained that she had been hired by someone from the Silvermist Theatre to pickpocket anyone carrying a mask like that, and to let her employer know. Letting the goblin go, the party continued to the theatre. There Selene d'Lyrandar disguised herself with an illusory copy of the broken mask, and Arc became invisible to follow on. They entered the theatre, but only found a pile of four cloaks and masks, which they returned to the rest of the party. With Selene d'Lyrandar having the abilty to disguise herself magically, this meant that the whole party could disguise themselves like the assailants if necessary.
One of the found cloaks was the glamourweave cloak that Elias Minch had found the scrap of; this contained the mark of the tailor that had made it, Thurick Divandi, based in the Upper Menthis district. It also smelled very badly rotten, as if the wearer was undead or had a similar affliction.
Deciding it was late, the party decided to camp for the night in the Silvermist Theatre, before heading off to find the tailor the following day.