After waking in their interdimensional clubhouse and discovering that they had been blessed by St. Cuthbert, Loskid attempted to take credit for the blessing, while Hilde figured she'd somehow unlocked a magickal blessing by investigating the observatory. Melgarin looked to Elanor and (ignoring the blessing, because, you know, weird shit just seems to happen) asked what the group should do next. Hilde recommends infiltrating House Riavadhi. Melgarin and Elanor agree, and Loskid grudgingly acquiesces to come along.

Hilde teleports the group into the observatory. At that point, Elanor scouted ahead while Melgarin, Hilde, and Loskid played tiddlywinks, hoping that she knew what she was doing and that she wasn't getting herself into trouble. Elanor overhears a conversation, returns, and Hilde magickally spies on the room she reported to him…

Thifirane Rhiavadi:

More than three centuries ago, the demodands sent a few of their kind to our reality. Disguised as humans, they mated with humans and other denizens of this plane. Most of their spawn were stillborn, but a few survived. They in turn mated and produced the next generation with demodand blood. As the generations passed, all obvious traces of their demodand ancestry faded away. Today, we recognize this sacred lineage by an invisible birthmark: the sign of Carceri!
We call these honored descendants ‘the Shackleborn,’ and their sacrifice is the key to unlocking a portal to Othrys, the first realm of Carceri. Here, demodands and countless other fiends have languished for near-eternity. In Cauldron, we have found more Shackleborn than anywhere else in the realm, and in Cauldron, we have the perfect conditions for the ritual of planar junction.
For the past several years, the Cagewrights have labored in secret to build thirteen soulcages to drain the life energy from the Shackleborn. These soulcages hang from an artifact called the Tree of Shackled Souls - the device that gathers the life energy needed to unlock the prison doors of Carceri. All of the preparations are now complete. The Shackleborn are safely in our hands and ready to give their lives to change the world forever. All that remains is the ritual itself, and it is already underway.
Once the ritual is complete, Cauldron won’t be the same quiet little burg it is today. It will be the font from which the darkness gushes forth, a roiling pit filled with doom and despair for our enemies. Almost immediately, fiendish armies will sweep across the land and lay waste to surrounding territories, enslaving the weak and carving out new dominions. Naturally, we expect resistance on all sides, and that’s where you come in.

Vervil Thazo:

All eyes will be on Cauldron. We’ll have their worst fears to toy with.

Thifirane Rhiavadi:

Precisely. As kings raise armies to confront the legions of Carceri, your slavers, merchants, mercenaries, spies, and assassins will methodically search for weaknesses from within, soften their resolve, and convince them that their only true choices are to yield or die. And there is one group in particular that has been nipping at my masters’ heels for far too long. Your organizations have tangled with them before… you know whom I speak of. I trust that, as your first services to the Cagewrights, you can see to these meddling gnats with all possible haste.

Elanor sneaks around some more, steals some notes (and a book), and gets a bunch of animal companions who accompany her back to the room. After a cursory review of the documents, Hilde teleports the group to the temple of St. Cuthbert, while they try to figure out how to find the Tree of Shackled Souls…

Shackled City Home
Last time: Session 59
Next time: Session 61