A rest, a rank, a sword, and many dead Kobolds
For the next week, the party rests and gets some serious R+R, or as much as a group of adventurers like this can do. Anya spends her time researching the war between dragons and giants. After speaking to their father about necromancy, Thryn is warned about the dangers of being a mage during any time of warfare “Someone with a sword can only kill those within their reach, us however can affect entire armies with a flick of our wrists.”. Aranar spends their time camping nearby Ironmaw and trekking in every day to train Thryn with how to use a longsword. During this time, Anya got her tattoos at the monastery, sponsored by Priest Kizat, and taken into The School of Searching by Priest Natida.
During their week of downtime, Aranar notices that his movements are being tracked by a series of individuals that are all wearing similar weathered robes. They blend into crowds well, but seem a little unnatural, a little out of place. Aranar could have sworn he saw two different individuals with the same face in different parts of the city.
On this day after Aranar trains Thryn, three of these figures follow Aranar out of the city. Not knowing that Aranar is onto them, they are very obviously on his trail. When Aranar returns to his camp, he takes a minor defensive position and awaits his would-be ambushers. The ambushers made one fatal slip, the fighter they were tracking had a big iron on his hip. As soon as the shots had rang out the forest fell silent again, be it for three bodies hitting the ground, and as they lay there the magic that had disguised their features as humans fell away and three Kobolds lay dead on the ground. One of these Kobolds had not done as much due diligence as the others and had a few scraps of paper in his pockets, as Aranar searched them and hid the bodies he realised the Kobolds had begun to operate from within Ironmaw. Breaking, packing, and hiding his camp, Aranar returns to Ironmaw proper to meet up with Thryn and Anya.
Conducting a multi-prong investigation, the trio deduce the most likely hiding spot and warehouse of these Kobolds. Thryn runs rings around a bureaucratic official named Canwin to determine where would be the best place to search, Anya strikes out during the night and day to scout and case these locations, and Aranar runs interference the best he can; Given the shiny armour it comes naturally to him.
After finding the warehouse in Nightport, Anya leads the party out on a stealth mission. Flawlessly approaching the doors and awaiting the next swapping of the Kobolds striking out from the warehouse, the party enter into the warehouse and conduct their raid. After less than a minute the entire warehouse is under the control of the party, and the leader of the Kobolds is taken hostage.