To Catch a Spy

Suspicious Behaviour

24th Uktar

(24th November 2023)
Ryder & Nyx try to arrange a meeting with the mayor, but find Isaris is being more resistant than usual. Ryder asks her to take a message to Onora, and the two wait downstairs. They hear Onora's voice, but something seems off.

Onora: "Good grief, Isaris, you almost scared me to death! I told you I'm busy for the entire afternoon! No exceptions!"
Ryder: "Did she just say no exceptions?" Ryder quizzes Nyx as he gingerly makes his way to the bottom of the staircase.
Nyx: "She did, I'll take a guess you're going to make an exception?"

Town Hall

They follow upstairs and find Onora alone in the office. She bids them enter and begins to make small talk with them while they sit opposite her desk. Ryder tries asking her whether she's heard anything since their 'talk on the beach'. Sensing that she's behaving strangely, Ryder asks Nyx to listen to Onora telepathically.

Onora: She shakes her head. "I'm afraid not. I'm just waiting on a teleporter to take me to Ebonport for the afternoon, on another... errand." She eyes Nyx warily.
Ryder: "Hmmm I'd have thought they'd be scrambling. We really must pick a warmer, more secure meeting spot in future too like..." He tails off with a feigned chuckle awaiting for her to finish that sentence.
{Telepathy} "We never met on the beach that night Nyx. Can you link her without her knowing? I can't put my finger on it but something is off."

The Mayor's Office

Pushing a little further, He casts Rope Trick, a spell he's used preiovusly to create a private meeting area to speak with Onora and tell her about the dragon. However, when she sees the rope rise into the ceiling Onora doesn't seem to have any idea what he's doing.
Ryder immediately teleports behind her and puts a dagger to her throat, telling Nyx to find out "who Onora Scott is."
Nyx summons a blade and stands over her, and the two begin to interrogate her, tying her to the chair.

Nyx: She spins the blades, watch one get moved and sneers as the next slams into her temple to wrack her mind with psionic energy. "I'm done being nice. Where the fuck is Onora? This'll only get worse and I'll simply knock you out and have him keep bringing you back to experience it again and again until you tell us"

The Mayor's Office

Despite the interloper refusing to answer, they hear the real Onora call out for help from behind the wall. Ryder disarms the disguised mayor in the chair, finding two daggers, an auroch horn pen, and onora's sending stone. Nyx opens a hidden door to find the real Onora Scott tied up on her own panic room.

Nyx: She moves and cuts her free. "Get yourself situated, names Nyx by the way" She pats her shoulder as this was the first time she was officially meeting her then heads back to Isaris, grabbing the dagger and shifting the press it close to her temple once more.
Onora: She sighs gratefully and gets up off the floor, cradling her arm and moving in to the main office. She glares down at the clone of her in front of Ryder. "You'll kindly stop wearing my face now, Isaris."
Isaris: The bound Onora's form shifts and wavers before fading away in what appear to be wisps of smoke, leaving Isaris in her place, tied to the chair, her face set in a grim scowl.

The Mayor's Office

They continue interrogating her, and now that Onora has been found, she seems more willing to talk. They discover:

• Isaris is a spy planted in Fate's Haven by the Flaming Branch, long before Siouxsie Crowe took an interest
• Since Siouxsie Crowe took over, Isaris has delivered coded messages to her via prearranged drop off points in the woods.
• She would arrange the drop off points using a sending stone
• The dragon at the camp is from the Shadowfell, and Siouxsie Crowe made a deal with it to get it to work for her.
• Isaris was promised she would receive a warning, if an attack from the dragon was due.
• The stone circle near the West Camp is a teleportation circle, used to transport forces from the Shadowfell to attack Fate's Haven.
• The last piece of useful information she'd managed to send to the branch included details of the guards' training and a bounty she had arranged for Ryder & Allora to attend.

After this, they lock Isaris in the panic room, and take Onora to the safety of the Inn to recover.