Delta Company, subject of an experimental task force conceived by Shadow Regent Ferin Blackleaf, will be rapidly deployed to the island city of Minandrinal, home base of perennial Quastarte rival the August Order of Mages, to investigate a murder. The client is May Phlouwurz, half-sister of half-elf April Swiftlight née Shouwurz, the prime and only suspect in the murder of her husband, Vageiros Swiftlight. Despite April’s confession to the murder, May is convinced that April is not culpable. Delta’s mission is to seek the truth, preferably one consistent with May’s theory of innocence. As April is an alumnus of Quastarte, the diplomatic tension between the August Order and Quastarte requires that Delta’s true origins and allegiances be concealed from everyone except May, already in the know, and official Quastarte diplomatic liaison Neni Moondrifter, a reliable ally. Probably.
No connection to Minandrinal from the Hall of Doors has been discovered so the team of “Silverymoon” investigators travels by mundane wizard portal to the western end of Minandrinal where frustrated May awaits their arrival. A nearby park bench permits some frank discussion among the Quastarte defense team. May fills them in.
April confessed to the murder even as she hauled Vageiros’s body from the island wilderness up to the east gate in the middle of the night. May asserts that it is impossible for her to have deliberately brought harm to Vageiros as they shared a deeply committed, loving relationship. Both were steeped in the town’s culture of arcane academia. Although May travels a lot, she kept in touch with April and Vageiros who both seemed professionally satisfied, economically stable, free of vice, and without any conspicuous new acquaintances, projects, or interests. Regrettably, the literal body of evidence was burned on the orders of town magistrate Trafaren Dawnmane upon April’s confession. May eagerly encourages the investigators to begin interviews at the magistrate’s office where April is detained. Andrakis proposes establishing a base of operations first at the nearby inn where May is already lodged for her stay.
Gladz sisters Nefu and Colo, proprietors, welcome the newcomers to the Drunken Darling Inn, if they are willing to share the one vacancy. The gregarious sisters entertain Tanagra, Tambourine, and Max at the bar with libations, food, and town gossip. It seems that the room between May and the investigators is rented indefinitely by shady itinerate merchant Vanorin. And maybe, just maybe, April had some occasion to deal with Vanorin.
Meanwhile, invisible Andrakis has surreptitiously slipped away from the inn and located the outside windows of April’s cell where he attempts to quietly interview her without attracting the attention of Trafaren, the magistrate, or Neni, the Quastarte liaison. April is too distraught, loud, and possibly crazy to keep cool. She merely reiterates her confession to the murder and draws attention to Andrakis who attempts to evade his way back to the inn. Neni psychically intercepts him outside. Andrakis cancels his invisibility and fortunately finds a sympatico ally in Neni. They discretely exchange notes. Andrakis learns that April may have had contact with a shady itinerate merchant by the name of Vanorin.
Back in the inn, the reunited party catches up at a quiet table and agrees that Vanorin is a person of interest. He has been away from town since a few days after April’s arrest, so it might not be too difficult to locate the magically locked ledger he supposedly keeps in his room. Andrakis arranges a diversion to join the sisters Gladz for their nightly basement apartment mahjong match later tonight. Until then, a formal visit to the magistrate is in order.
Max obsequiously introduces the investigators to the inconvenienced and prickly magistrate and requests a recap of the official investigation. An east gate duty guard, Stran Bronzeorb, answered a late-night banging at the gate to find April in possession of the corpse of her husband, Vageiros. April offered her unsolicited, unensorcelled, unrevoked confession of murder; the case was closed; the body was burned; sentencing was interrupted only by the arrival of malcontent May and, more recently, her obnoxious, prying team of investigators. The magistrate allows that the guard MIGHT be available for interview, not that it matters at this point. And a zone of truth will be tolerated on April only with her consent, an unlikely prospect. April herself has nothing to add to the magistrate’s account. The investigators excuse themselves but not before Andrakis upside-down reads the guard roster which places Stran at the east gate tonight at midnight.
Later in the evening at the inn, Andrakis makes good on his mahjong date with Nefu and Colo, removing them from culpability of, or interference with, the planned break in. Tanagra masterfully picks the lock to Vanorin’s room. Max’s detection of magic confirms the arcane lock on Vanorin’s business ledger on a table. Tanagra, surprised to learn she is the smartest person in the room, determines the ledger will be unlocked by a passphrase and proposes a search for clues to said passphrase. Tanagra’s heady confidence dissipates somewhat when she turns to investigate some bookshelves and conks hear head noisily. Downstairs, Andrakis, desperately trying to bring his otherwise primo mahjong game down to a losing level, slams down his tiles to cover Tanagra’s concussed ruckus. Fairy Tambourine swoops up the bookshelves of pulp fiction and shipping receipts and locates a grocery list atop, unremarkable except for the peculiar capitalization of the words TWO and FOR. Max notices a similar pattern in a letter of complaint on a side table: ONE and MISCHIEF. Catching on to the pattern, Tanagra locates a love note on the bedside table: THREE and MONEY. A quick search finds neither FOUR nor ZERO, so Tanagra incants over the ledger: MISCHIEF FOR MONEY. Max no longer detects the magical lock.
The ledger lists several transactions with slightly fewer customers. Among the transactions are two of immediate interest: April S acquiring one keg of sheep’s blood (paid) and April S acquiring five alchemical syringes (paid). The potential reagents for blood magic are weird but hardly illegal. Tanagra replaces the ledger, toggles the lock with the same passphrase, and they exit quietly. Tanagra’s skill at picking Vanorin’s lock open is matched only by Tambourine’s skill at reengaging the lock closed.
Slightly poorer Andrakis joins the others in the dining room. Neni, waiting just outside the inn, joins them for a huddle. Andrakis and Neni are updated with the ledger information. Neni does not know of Vanorin’s other customers, nor does she deduce a purpose for copious amounts of sheep’s blood, injected or otherwise.
Neni returns to her evening as the investigators head to the east gate to meet guard Stran Bronzeorb just starting his shift along with his immediate subordinate, Ckahrll. The guards explain that nobody goes through east gate until it opens at 6 tomorrow morning; the wilderness beyond is dangerous at any time of day but particularly unwise to travel at night. Once the conversation turns to the murder, Stran sends Ckahrll away under the pretense of fetching back some coffee. Stran then relates how he was startled by a banging on the east gate which he opened to find a sobbing, confused April with her freshly deceased husband. The body had some light wounds, perhaps, but also notably misshapen as though crushed. For what it is worth, Stran does not personally imagine April is guilty of intent to murder. Persuasive Andrakis convinces dubious Stran to permit them out the east gate on their own responsibility.
Tambourine, with Tanagra’s help, immediately locates bloody footprints arriving from the wilderness which they backtrack southeast toward a cliff face. A wolf attacks Tambourine from the undergrowth. Tanagra dispatches it before it can injure anyone, but the noise attracts a particularly large wolf who charges from the unscalable cliff above. Although more formidable, this one also is no match for Tanagra’s greatsword. Andrakis’s mirror imaging reaction to the attack causes a side effect of silent invisibility. Accustomed to Andrakis’s bizarre wild magical effects, the rest of the party ignores his sudden absence and continues exploring along the base of the cliff. Max’s torch attracts another wolf which accommodatingly runs right to its demise on Tanagra’s sword. Tambourine and Max locate the apparent source of bloody footprints where they emerge from a door in the cliff face obscured by relocated shrubbery. The door swings open from an unseen force of tremendous power and confidence, that being Andrakis.