After discussing with the guard, Lukas had been released on good faith but the capatain of the guard had instructed Gregor to find him solid leads and to report every new clue to him directly.
Just as Lukas had been released, Heindrich came to Gregor to tell him Lukas was already missing ! This wasn't gonna be an easy case.
On the billboard, amongst a few pointless notes, there was a message left with Sigmar's rune and signed by "the brotherhood of Sigmar" calling to purge all the mutants and heretics", that felt odd but it would need some investigations to get them anywhere.
A few visits to the local inns and to the brothel gave them some useful intel, the brotherhood of Sigmar seemed to be an outcast band led by the former judiciary champion, Ulbrecht Van Taal with ties to powerful organisations.
With very few leads, our heroes decided to go look for the deceased's adress and went to check on the registers at the public library. The librarian was a nice fellow and Gregor and he had grown a mutual respect and esteem, almost a nascent friendship.
Thanks to him, our party got the adress of the dead dwarf and learnt they had to go to the trading guild to check on his testament.
Just as they were coming out of the library, a loud scream was heard from the nearby temple of Sigmar. A dead body had been left on the stairs !
The body looked suspicious and upon first inspection, a tentacle was coming out of his left sleeve !
Gregor knew he had to call the guard right away so they took the body inside the temple but just as they did, the tentacle left the handless arm and appeared to be a weird creature with 8 tentacles around a weird bladder like head !
The new victim had papers on him identifying him as Mr Friedrich, the weird tentacley animal animal attached in place of his severed hand was clearly a set up to pass him for a mutant of some kind.
The priest's aid Elsa also gave some very useful information about the brotherhood of Sigmar, after seeing the body infront of the temple, she couldn't help but cry "this had gone too far !" and after a bit of questionning, she finally admitted having been part of the brotherhood but leaving it out of fear.
After reporting to the captain of the guard again, our heroes headed to the traders' guild to see about the 2 victims.
They were received by a rather obnoxious individual who drop-fed them information against money.
They did learn something extraordinary though : both of the victims had previously had testament with the same person as heir : Rufus Hagen. Even better, Rufus Hagen was a member of the traders' guild !
It also turns out both the houses of the victims were neighbours...
Our heroes reported to the guard and warned them to protect the people around and headed to the houses of the deceased.
Arriving at night, they tried to enter the premises but both houses had been locked and sealed which felt odd since the second victim had yet to be buried, it's almost like it had been locked in advance !
Fearing they might make too much noise (player note : and because, as a sort of running gag, our mage once again forgot he could cast "zone of silence" to protect them from making any noise), our heroes headed back home to get some rest.
On the morning after, they went back to the houses which were being emptied. They encountered an individual who got immediately suspicious of them, his name : Rufus Hagen.
They played it like they were investors looking for opportunities to make profit and invest VAST sums of money. That very quickly lifted enough suspicion for Rufus to let his guard down a bit. However he rapidly told them off and advised them to take an appointment at the traders' guild (which they had done already).
Ophelia did follow Rufus and his men though and found their hideout further down the docks ...
On their arrival to the brotherhood's hideout, the captain of the guards asked the men in fonrt of it to give them access and to get Ulbrecht Van taal out and they refused right out. The captain of the guard was clearly embarassed because his position and connection to the city council tied his hands and he seemed like his hands were tied.
He did however tell Gregr and his friends if they were able to confront Ulbrecht publicly into a judiciary duel, he could bypass higher authority...
Our party rapidly found the entrance to a basement behind a barrel...
In the room, there were several men, 2 of which were wearing fine plate armours
After telling them to surrender, the leader who identified as Ulbrecht Van Taal firmly stated that he'd only come out if they made him and his croonies started attacking, an ogre joining the fight !
With the higher ground in his favour, Harandil fried a few of the lightly armoured ones with fireballs while Gregor was tanking most of the attacks. Harandil then cast iron fist and granted hismelf formidable combat power, also starting to get real fired up and swearing like a gipsy.
The pair, aided by Ophelia who was aiding them from afar, finally got rid of the whole with only Ulbrecht left standing.
"you have proven your worth, I'll come outside and fight you for honour"
Held on the city center square, in presence of many witnesses and the city guard, Ulbrecht and Gregor started their duel, Gregor would be representing the victims of the murderous scam the brotherhood had been scheming with Rufus Hagen and Ulbrecht would be defending Rufus Hagen and himself.
With 2 fighters of great prowess and used to the exercise, the fight was intense, brutal and quick. Tanking the brutal hits from Ulbrecht and waiting for the opening, Gregor finally found the right time to give his opponent a deadly blow, thus putting an end to the case, sending Rufus Hagen into a panic !
Rufus used some of his influence to avoid getting emprisoned but Ophelia returned to the party with papers she had found in the hideout while the duel was taking place, one of the letters clearly indicated the tie between Ulbrecht and Rufus, bearing Hagen's seal. The guards captain felt relieved but also a little anxious, some much bigger stakes were in play and would only unfold later...
The party had solved the mistery, Lukas Drauer was saved from being judged for a crime he hadn't committed and the band had gained a few riches from the hideout, Gregor gaining a triple blessed copper amulet which would protect him in his future quests !
The construction of teh temple was also saved and the poor dwarven victim would be buried in its foundations as a mark of honour.
Who knew what would happen next !
