Investigating Badrin's Disappearance

In Dunladur proper- the city has restricted areas for people not cleared by the dwarves- which we are not. We have free reign in the trades and craftsmen district, where we are, but likely the consortium is in the more protected area of the city. Which is just a good excuse for a heist tbh.
Antares wanted to search for Badrin, even though Wan Mei wrote him off as mostly dead. But he's the boss, so we start tracking him back, using the usual path from the Earthen Urn to the Cask, where Basdrin was staying. On the way, Silas and I kept an eye out for people following us, and Antares tried to look for signs of trouble. Which he promptly found in an alley- trash bins overturned, deep gouges in the earth, like feet being dragged, and bootprints walking off to the cobblestone main road. The bootprints were hobnail boots, consistent with hosue guards in the city.
We sent Silas off to talk with the shopkeeper across the street, since he's by far the most likable of us, and he's really good with dwarves while he's wearing that belt that gave him the beard. They remembered seeing a set of house guards they couldn't identify came and roughed up a man in the alley. When I went to ask followups, trying to see if they killed Badrin under the guise of trying to help out an unfortuante acquaintance, they said he was able walk away. Well, be frog marched away, but it meant basdrin wasn't dead when they left with him.
Not knowing which house the guards came from, therefore not knowing who to investigate, we swung by The Cask to check his rooms. Likely they were not occupied still, since they'd taken Badrin himself. We got to the Cask, got rooms so we could go upstairs, and I quietly picked the lock to Basdrin's room. His room was trashed- the writing desk ransacked, bed turned over, clearly items were missing but it was hard to tell what was missing. Someone had broken the window from the outside in, and clearly used a housebreaking harness to get into his room on the second floor. We didn't find anything useful left in his room- any secret cubby holes or convienient codes were already taken. The B&E could have been hired out, or from the house guards themselves, more likely the hosue guards since the archbreakers crack down on crime fairly hard, and there isn't so much organized crime, like a thieves guild.
Antares tried sending to Basdrin again, saying to make an inocuuse noise if he was still alive, for fear of being overheard. No response. So in a complicated bit of magic bullshit, Antares adopted the illusion of Basdrin, using the amulet, letting Alfy scry on him, and then using that description to scry on Basdrin. Alfy was able to scry on him, in a stone dungeon which just doesn't even stand out in a dwarven city. By sheer luck, a captor stepped into view, and Alfy was able to see an insignia on his uniform. A foaming mug (classic dwarf) in a spiked mace like mug (less cliche). I was able to recognize the insignia as the Grimbrew house, another old house known for brewing caught in a mostly one sided rivalry with the Greatshaper house. Apparently Grimbrew ale is an acquired taste- I'll pass on acquiring it.
 
Antares was itching to go after Basdrin, but was shit house on spells after using sending so many times. And we didn't know where the Grimbrews even were within the city. So he took one of his patented 4 hour meditations while I popped off to go talk to an Auricles contact in town, Thelwin.
 
Thelwin is in the trades district; he runs a textiles shop. He'd closed up shop for the night, but standard protocol got the shop open long enough for him and I to have a quick chat.
The Grimbrews do have escalating tensions with the Greatshapers- even more than usual. Family members in the same public spaces are resorting to fist fights, which is always a smashing sign amongst the nobility. The Grimbrews seemed to be applying more economic presure than normal, and there's clearly some underlying conflict, though Thelwin's not totally sure what that underlying tension might be.
 
He was able to provide a map to the Grimbrew stronghold in the city, along with the other strongholds of the great houses. Techincally public knowledge, is's a suspicious piece of paper to carry around with me for too long.
 
After warning Thelwin briefly about the current hijinks the consortium is getting up to, and warning him not to put humans on caravans between the dwarven cities, I went back to the Cask. With three more hours before Antares was able to go, Silas and I hung out quietly in the common room.
 
Maybe not quietly enough- a young woman, probably elf, pink hair pointy ears, approached the table upon hearing the name Antares. She claimed to be working for Basdrin, looking for information for Antares. After a few questions, and deciding to let Antares confirm the information, we waited for Antares to come down.
 
Once Antares was up, he questioned Aura and she seems trustworthy. She reported some hunters leaving Nyrithyll would come back sick. The flu like symptoms came on suddenly, leaving bed ridden and weak for days before passing as qucily as it came. Whey they left again, seemingly fully recovered tounts relatively close to Nyrithyll, would never return.
 
So what's left is to determine the plan. We can all absolutely sneak to the Grimbrew tower, the four of us can sneak in and break Basdrin free. Do we teleport him out to the tower immediately? Do we bring him to a safe place in a city to try and solve the issues with the consortium? Leaving the city will inevitably make it more difficult to return, and the issues with the consortium will only grow and turn into another Ardenmore. But Nyrithill is currently, clearly, under some sort of attack from the inside. We also have the axe of the old dwarf kings, as just a fun thing to throw into the mix. Decisions decisions.