22. Clearing out the City of Lost Name

We have a dragon lance! Sterling is holding it, as the brave knight that he is.
 
Now we need to figure out how to tackle the dragon army. Not in a "Us 5 are going to defeat an entire army, plus a skeletal dragon" but in a "What do they want, and how can we best frustrate them?"
 
I think our best option is to go to the least patrolled portion, and see what we can gleam there. Which rules out the Threshold of Heaven, because that is where there are most soldiers, trying to figure out how to drive the city. So we can look at the dark temple where Lord Soth was at, or the manor.
 
There are currently 6 dragon army soldier bodies in the garden - we can use their armor to disguise Mal and Sterling, and the rest of us hide while they walk. The treant helped us get some of the bodies, and then we started to undress them. They have scale mail, but only tatters of cloaks. Sterling kind of breaks some of the dragon armor, and places it over his own, then helps his brother. Meanwhile, Arinona, Waah, and I help find pieces of the cloak, so that she and Mal can mend the cloaks, and we can all disguise ourselves. I don't remember seeing any gnome soldiers, but there are goblin ones, so maybe they won't notice my height, since they won't notice Waah's.
 
With our disguises in place, we are ready to move south. I think that we need to figure out what they want, which means intelligence. The manor seems to be the best place for that, so we can learn what they are trying to do, and figure out how to best stop them. Of course, when we head that way, we go around the long way, trying to avoid being seen. In this area of the city, there are a lot of trees, but not all of them look ok. Some look diseased, and it may be because there are 7 undead things eating the bodies of the dragon army soldiers. I suggest attract their attentions, and then scrape them off on some more dragon army soldiers, but Mal pipes up that they are undead, and will simply chase their quarry to exhaustion. I guess our best option is to sneak around them. Unfortunately, they notice us, and now they got to go.
 
Sterling is the first to attack, and I move in to help him. When the creature gets close to me, Sterling valiantly protects me, and the rest of the group joins us. We defeat the undead, and send them back to where they came from. We continue heading south, and we notice some soldiers protecting some workers who are working to fix a crack in the city. They are filling the cracks with something, and smoothing things over. I wonder if the workers are there by their own will. There is a human officer, and 3 siveks, plus the workers. The craftspeople are a mix of humans and goblins, and they are not armed, so I guess that they are not there willingly. Either way, because of the siveks, we decide it is not a good idea to try and attack this group. Siveks fly, and could carry the news of our presence to people who should not know about us. So we avoid the group, but now at least we know they are trying to fix the city so that it can one day fly again. Hopefully that doesn't mean they are close to making the entire city fly again.
 
Next, we have a series of bridges to cross. First, a 500 ft one, then a 700 ft one, and finally a 400ft one. We observe a little, and notice that if we are able to time our moves just so, we can avoid the patrols around here. And just like that, we reach the mansion.
 
The east side of the house has a collapsed roof and walls, but it looks like the rest of it has been salvaged. At the south and SE there are doors that lead to a carriage house, all of which are guarded. We have seen a crew or another use a wagon around here. We approach from the east, and our goal is to engage with JUST that one door guard, out of sight from the other ones. Arinona goes and turns the guard into a rabbit (I love it when she does that!), and then enter the carriage house. Which, obviously, does not have a door that leads into the house, which seems like a major design flaw.
 
Inside the carriage house there is a wagon with a metal reinforced prison cart with something inside that shakes and growls. We defeat the 3 soldiers in there, and the one in the south door comes in to help. When there is only one of them left standing, he realizes that he needs help, and tries to go into the house for reinforcements and to sound the alarm. Not on Sterling's watch! He is able to stop that soldier before he can do anything. Arinona then goes to check on the cage, and it turns out to be a dragonelle from where Clistrin took us to see them, and she frees it. It looks a bit confused, as she is dressed just like the dragon army soldiers who put it in the cage in the first place. After she speaks to it, it seems less suspicious and goes on with its plan to escape.
 
Inside the house, there is a mud room full of spears and cloaks. We remove those from the area, and hide them in the cage where they had kept the dragonelle. If nothing else, it'll slow 6 people down in the future. From there, we enter the manor proper, and see tables and chairs, with some soldiers sitting and eating. Some of them look over, and without as much as a grunt, they continue to eat. We walk past them, and go check some doors. In the furthest room, there is debris, so we close that back up. Then there is a room with beds, probably where soldiers take turns sleeping and resting. I see about 8 people in there, and I think they should not be allowed to wake up. Luckily, Sterling does not object to having fewer dragon army soldiers, so I sneak into the room and start stabbing. Unfortunately, the first guy I attack wakes up screaming, which doesn't help me with what I'm trying to do. All of a sudden, a bunch of unarmored people start to wake up, and they have to go. Waah and Mal help me out, while Sterling and Arinona take care of the guards who had been trying to eat up until now. No luck with any of them chocking on their lunches. It is time to teach these guys a lesson.
 
Once done with all these jerks, we explore the rest of the first floor. There is also a kitchen, and the cook seems pretty uninterested in things. However, he soon realizes we are not part of the army, and attacks. He was a weird one, but no problem. Around here, we find a small chest, that Waah asks me to check. I give her the go-ahead, and as she opens it, it explodes like thunder in her hands. Oops - I didn't notice it was full of thunder. I need to apologize.
 
We go upstairs, and notice there are 2 doors. Sterling decides to listen at the doors like sneak, and I could not be more proud. One of the rooms has a person, and the other has more than one person writing on books, according to him. We go for the room with only one person first. Sterling kicks the door in, and I enter. I see a golden dragon sivak, and hit him. He simply looks over and Sterling, and then his lackeys come in and surround us. Well, then Sterling loses his mind and attacks me! ME! I run into the hall, behind Mal and Waah, trying to tell them that Sterling has gone mad. Before I can tell them properly, the sivak comes out and breathes on us. I feel week, and fall onto the stairs.
 
Mal helps heal me, and see that Sterling has come to his senses already. No one gets between Sterling and I, so this golden jerk has to go. I go and stab him to death. His magical essence lashes out, but I'm too fast for it. Now it is time to put a stop to these officers of his, even thought I would prefer to ask them questions.
 
Surrounded and leaderless, they apparently realize that they are at a disadvantage, so they surrender to us, and I DO get to ask them questions. Waah has a great idea, and tells them that we will ask them all questions separately, trying to get the best information. We'll also be able to learn what it is that they want, since this commander has so much paperwork.
 
The golden sivak is Commander Husk, and he reports to Belapheyon. The two dragon army leaders are Belapheyon and Lohezet. They at the threshold of the heavens. The password to get there is "By her will, the world". The reports indicate that the engineers have completed the majority of the work in shoring up the cities's most intact districts. Husk also had a key, and it matches the chest in his room. Inside, we find a large pearl, and a large sack labeled "payroll" with about 200 lbs of silver inside it, about 10,000 coins.
 
We look into the other room, and find it is a library-type room. Their paperwork was very clerical. They were reading, copying, and summarizing information for the army. From the officers, we learn a few things.
Belephayon and Lohezet lead the contingent, but they don't get along at all. The commander of the army isn't in the city. His name is Dragon High Master Ken Saldi Fire-eyes, and he is leading the army contigent that is attacking Kalamann. We should also beware that Belephayon is a fanatic, and claims to get commands from the Dragon Queen herself. Apparently, Lord Soth kind of operates on his own, receiving his orders directly from the Dragon Queen. He has his own army, and doesn't have to justify any of his actions. His group is in the south temple. They are all death knights in there, all undead, and all scary. Beleyphayon has control of the center of the city, and is probably there right now. Lohezet's research is what brought them all here, since he is fascinated with beasts and magic. We lock up these jerks, and take the money and paperwork with us.
 
I wonder if we can use this animosity between them to our advantage. After all, it seems Soth gets to do whatever he wants, and that has got to be hard for Belephayon, who does everything right, to bear. Also, if we want to be able to check out the Threshold to Heaven better, it can't be overrun with stupid dragon army soldiers - can we set fire to this house and create a distraction while we go look at the center of the city? Really, the biggest problem will be the undead in the southern temple.