04/01/2026
The Students of Life and Death decided to do some reconnescience before rushing to the Church of the Sacred Flame to see if Gwenna's fathers were being kept there.
The group spoke with Marsha, a kindly old neighbor that Gwenna knew growing up. She told the group there was no sign of struggle, but the Sacred Flame acolytes had been watching the house for weeks since Telen and Shane disappeared.
Marsha also gave the group her savings of 50 platinum pieces to help them find Gwenna's parents.
Brynn lead the group to the converted church of Tyr which now housed the fires, soot, and smoke of the Church of the Sacred Flame. The group concocted a plan in which Otho would pretend to be a messenger sent from on high, literally descending from the ceiling with Roach claiming he was the Firelord the church had been awaiting.
The plan worked on many of the acolytes who were awed by the display, but the head priestess named Flavana was not buying it.
However, when Otho produced the book he'd found in the Arrowhead Isles about ritualistic sacrifice through fire, Flavana took is gratefully and considered the group to be non-enemies at the very least.
Now on speaking terms with Flavana and her head enforcer, a man named Smoke, the group got the rundown on what was happening in Trine.
Apparently the Saffron Society and the Church of the Sacred Flame were in conflict, with the Church attempting to burn out the sins of the crime syndicate while the Saffron Society was having trouble with how popular the Church was getting in Trine.
There was also a third party, some group that was killing acolytes and thugs on both sides, though Flavana had no idea who that could be.
Flavana claimed they'd been watching Gwenna's house since her fathers had been taken by the Saffron Society because they wanted Mercy, the legendary assassin, to help them cut the head off the snake: Diamond Jim and Jihyo Chiss, leaders of the Saffron Society.
While the Students committed to no such thing, they did decide to head to the Effervescent Bathhouse, where the Saffron Society had their headquarters.
Ridley used a scry spell to try and find Telen and Shane, Gwenna's parents, and found them both in what looked like a basement safehouse playing board games.
They were also there with the girl the group had seen in their scry of Goldcrest and her teddy bear, a girl named Amecia.
The group did some digging and found that Nandeer Smithy, a prominant Trine politician, was missing his daughter, who was named Amecia.
Gwenna used her contacts to find an old operator named Serena who met with the group and told them that high-ranking family members and nobles had been going missing for months, and the third party Flavana had mentioned was actually one guy, and the group made the connection it was likely Goldcrest.
Serena got the group a meeting with Igon, a high ranking member of the Saffron Society, who the group had a run in with last time they were in Trine.
Igon seemed to be working on a small army of automatons, and when the group told him the Church was trying to recruit for an operation against the Saffron Society, Igon activated his automatons, who began marching out into the streets of Trine.
He also called Otho "Firelord" which proved he'd either seen or heard about the events at the church earlier that day.