The Smoking Note of Frenia

A lonely note found at the bottom of a young captains case writings

Marco:
The supply run for Rigo is finally arrived. Check that everything is there when the boys bring the boxes over: fifty swords, seventy daggers, three dozen bows plus arrows. Then there are the rocks, the boss called it anorthite. Be careful with the six vials of black liquid. Could be poison, they only called it essence. Final box contains fae wings and unicorn hair.
Get everything to his mansion as quickly as you can. I don't want something this hot sitting in our lair too long and the lordship doesn't like waiting. Use the rivers route

Like gold our call rings,

Freldor

Two Peasants with a Glass of Wine by David Teniers the Younger

The above note was found by a group of adventurers I hired prior to my promotion. They found it in the smugglers den they turned upsidedown. The calling at the end screams Goldteeth to me -- the established smugglers between Elion and Frenia. Back then I only asked myself: "Why are they bringing these things into the city?"
Essence could be illegal and the magical ingredients incur heavy taxes, but why go through the trouble of smuggling weapons, which someone with money can buy with ease? Why go through the trouble of having it smuggled? The only reason I can think of is that they, whoever they may be, do not want to be publicly associated. Even then this felt like danger and it turns out my feeling was right. Then there is the masked balls that have been happening in the underground. Before they left, the adventurers were able to attend one. They told me of incendiary speeches rallying attendees against perceived decadence and sinful behaviour. The situation turned sour later, when multiple people were publicly killed in front of the crowd, who seemed eerily happy. Then there was the elf who they kept in a cage.

---

But before the adventurers could do more for me things changed. They had to leave on some errand outside the city and when they were gone, Commander Lorro handed me the promotion to captain. I had been suspicious before, since he didnt approve my request for manhours on this issue. Perhaps he did not want me looking into the dirt of Rigo of Frenia, the most prominent noble Lord in the city. That was the reason I hired the adventurers in the first place.
The promotion definitely turned out to be more effective at binding me from acting further. I am simply to busy with other duties now to actively pursue it. Then it happened. The massacre in the Great Library. Insurgents storming the building armed with weapons no one can trace, killing researchers. It was my wakeup call. I should not have let it rest. And then I made the link. Freldor, as I was able to confirm via my connection to organised crime, is a pseudonym and I have the dooming sensation it is an alias for Commander Lorro. Yesterday the adventurers returned. I allowed them access to the Library, and they found a mask they said looks like one from the masked balls. It was worn by one of the insurgents.

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This is all far bigger than I had dreamt. I fear I am out of time. If the richest noble and the commander of the city watch secretly conspire with these mysterious zealots, then I may not be able to keep this city safe. I cannot trust the rest of the watch fully. Perhaps the adventurers can be hired once more for this?