OttC Session 2: Searching for Isaac

General Summary

Picking up from where they left off in Session 1: Interrogating Children, the party deliberates for a few minutes and then decides to stake out the Temple of Bhaal to see if Isaac will show up.  They are hiding for some time when Yona and Cyrci see a shadow walking by the building.  The figure stops for a very brief moment to look into the temple then continues on its way, attempting to look casual.  Yona leaves to follow, and Krisi and Cyrci follow shortly after, maintaining a respectable distance.  Aerwynn and Jennevieve Lancaster remain in the temple.
As Yona follows, it is clear the figure is aware he is being followed.  At one point he even turns around, seemingly to give Yona a good look at his face, before proceeding on his way.  Yona is increasingly nervous, but he fits the description of Isaac from the files and her conduit power tells her that he is trying to show her something, so despite her nerves Yona decides to continue following.  Eventually the figure stops in front of a rundown house, points directly at the front door, and then leaves the area at a brisk pace.  Yona hesitates for a moment before attempting to enter the house.  The door is damaged, clearly having been forced open, so Yona enters easily.  Cyrci and Krisi decide to abandon the chase in order to follow her into the residence.
Inside they find Folwin, father of one of the ruffians the party arrested earlier named Jhaan, tied to a chair and unconscious.  The man appears to be uninjured; no sign of a bite wound.  He is standoffish during initial questioning, and denies having harmed his son, but the party arrests him anyway.  Krisi takes him back to The Window while Yona and Cyrci return to the temple.
Back at the temple, Aerwynn spots Cornelius Humperdink opening the door to the temple, looking inside, and then immediately turning around and leaving.  The man is easy to catch, as he does not flee in a straight line and after a short distance he trips and makes no attempt to stand.  He just lies there staring up into the other side of the city as Aerwynn, Cyrci, and Yona catch up.  Cornelius claims to have completely forgotten he wasn't supposed to be there.  The Doormen talk this over for a short time before deciding he is not a threat to anybody and let him off with a warning.
Back at The Window, Folwin is still being stubborn.  Krisi attempts to intimidate him, and fails, then follows up with a daunting roar.  The roar is much more successful, causing Folwin to wet himself.  The party elects not to send him a clean pair of pants.  The party discusses options for a while, and Yona draws up a sketch of the man she saw to be distributed to other Window patrols.  The party then takes a long rest.
In the morning, Cyrci plants her newly created tracker.  She created two "watches" whose faces are compasses which always point to each other.  One is sewn into Jhaan's jacket and Cyrci keeps the other on her person.  Yona brings Jhaan's newly cleaned clothes in to his room, and has a brief conversation with him about the beatings.  Jhaan removes his shirt, revealing a large number of cuts and bruises that are clearly the result of physical abuse, and claims he left home to be with his boyfriend Vulluin.  Yona gives him an address, which is later revealed to be her mother's home, which he can go to check in once a week and confirm he is still doing well.  Jhaan is cooperative with all of this, but still refuses to say anything about the incident with the vampire, once again repeating that his friend did nothing wrong.
Yona also checks in with Vulluin, and gets confirmation that he would like to be released alongside Jhaan.  Vulluin would very much like to.
Meanwhile, Krisi is talking to Devdan, the youth which had given the others so much trouble during interrogation the session before.  Krisi respects Devdan's spine, and wants him to work as a squire for the Order of the Door.  Devdan, though initially skeptical, does eventually agree to "show you assholes how its done" and join up.
Krisi then brings the party together for a pep talk, using his conduit power to grant inspiration (not bardic inspiration) to the entire party.  Yona goes to interrogate Folwin, who admits to having a strained relationship with his son ever since his wife died on a mission for The Window.  Folwin supported her work, but Jhaan did not, and so Jhaan blamed Folwin for her death.  The issues were further exacerbated when Jhaan began seeing Vulluin around 12-18 months ago.  Folwin initially denies that this ever escalated to beatings, but Yona uses her conduit of intent power to see if the man is intentionally hiding things, and he is.  He clearly knows exactly what he is being asked about.
At first Folwin continues to deny the charges, but then he grabs his head, groans in pain, and then slowly looks back up and confesses his crimes.  The sudden change of attitude is unusual, so Yona rolls arcana to understand what is happening.  Using the inspiration she got from Krisi, Yona determines that Folwin is still under the effect of a powerful charm, likely from a vampire, and was being compelled to tell the truth during questioning.  
The party regroups, discussing these new developments, and concludes they very much need to talk to this Isaac person, but they do not know how to contact him.  The youths have also been released at this point, and Cyrci tracks Jhaan passing through the Temple District.  They also look up what happened to Jhaan's mother.  The reports say that she was on a mission to Celestia, which is normally a safe place, but it was being invaded by primordials at the time.  Jhaan's mother died when an air elemental forcibly ripped all of the air from her lungs.  The party debates whether to go after Jhaan or Edward DuThane first, but while they are debating it becomes clear that Jhaan has completely passed through the Temple District into a residential region of the city.  They decide Jhaan is probably not contacting Isaac just yet, so instead they go to the Vigrid Embassy in hopes that Edward DuThane will know something.
Edward DuThane is easy to find.  He is reading a fancy book, wearing a fancy suit, drinking from a fancy goblet of wine, and otherwise looking as pretentious as possible at his post in the Vigrid Embassy.  Yona explains that they are searching for a vampire, and recaps the investigation leading up to this point.  Edward DuThane says the Temple of Bhaal would be a terrible place to be feeding on people; it is both public and somewhere people aren't supposed to enter.  The ideal situation would be much the opposite: a private location which it would not be unusual to see people enter and leave, such as a residence.  He also says vampires are generally highly distrusting of law enforcement due to "lazy profiling" that tends to result in unjustified suspicion.
Edward DuThane further explains that if there is a vampire in the city, he would not have been able to enter the city after the doors closed.  New arrivals are given a medical examination, which a vampire would not be able to pass unnoticed.  This means that Isaac must have been living in Sigil for nearly twenty years before this incident, and has only slipped up recently.  This implies that something has changed recently.  Edward DuThane theorizes that Isaac had revealed himself intentionally for some reason.
Yona explains that they want to find Isaac in order to help him, not to arrest him.  They want to make sure he has a way to feed and sustain himself safely without involving children and feeding on people in abandoned temples.  Her persuasion check is extremely high, but Edward refuses to disclose anything without consent from the other party.  Instead, he asks the party to leave that investigation to him for a day so that he can try to track down Isaac himself.
After agreeing to this, the party departs.  Yona stops by Sybil's Apothecary, an apothecary owned by her mother Sybil.  Yona explains the circumstances, and Sybil readily agrees to let Jhaan stop by every now and then for a good meal.  On the way out the door Cyrci, who had been otherwise silent for the entire encounter, suddenly and gleefully announces that she intends to marry Yona.  The session ends there.

Report Date

11 Oct 2020