After the nighttime dock fight, the party rested and resumed its remaining assignment: framing the Azri Family with rumors of a missing shipment, false talismans for sale, and accusations of corruption reported to the Army. Sira spread some of the rumors, while Vesper worked to circulate them and Adam’andiel found no useful Army-supply contacts. Wyn crafted a false talisman, and Adam’andiel made a second, bearing a grinning skull with bat wings. When the Azris showed interest, they asked whether the party could provide more; they agreed to meet and purchase talismans.
Vesper visited Colonel Rithert, who welcomed her, while Sira gave him the party’s findings about noble corruption and accused the Azris of stealing the shipment to sell it to the Hellbreakers. Rithert welcomed the information but said it was not enough. Rin and Wyn tried to provide the Army with further information, and the Azris began to grow suspicious. The party arranged for investigators to catch the family with the false talismans. Rin and Adam’andiel attempted to lay false tracks, while Wyn entered invisibly but could not find a suitable place to plant one. Rumors then spread that the Army blamed the Hellbreakers for the theft. Sira countered the accusation and directed people toward the planned meeting; Vesper’s deception brought the Azris and the investigators together. As the Army arrived, the party escaped over a wall, and they saw the Azris arrested. Wyn later stole from the rich and gave to the poor, making the Hellbreakers’ involvement known. With the family jailed, rumors blaming the Hellbreakers for the talisman theft were cleared.
Vesper established an information network among ordinary residents and spread a rumor that the Azris’ political allies planned to break them out of prison. The city’s wealthy, powerful upper ranks largely remained aligned with Cheliax and resisted change. Weeks after the gala, Elidir was still quarantined and watching for Hellbreakers, but Quoster was finally permitted to leave. He told the party to meet him at the docks with everything they needed. Vesper arranged for Animal Messenger birds to carry information to the Hellbreakers’ base at Seringalo. Before the party could depart, Jenvirick returned injured from an Army raid: the soldiers had captured everyone else at the warehouse, knowing they were Hellbreakers. She warned that the prisoners faced public execution and that an assault on the prison would likely be suicide.
Jenvirick proposed using explosives to break into and out of the prison, with additional blasts elsewhere to occupy the Army. She reported that a veterans’ home run by the Azris secretly manufactured munitions, and the party agreed to steal them, as well as target Army supplies and mounts for their escape. Wyn revealed he had a wyvern. With no riot demanding the Hellbreakers’ release and residents keeping to themselves, the party went to Soldiers Aegis, the veterans’ home. Wyn disabled a trapped entrance after Adam’andiel intercepted its force-blade attack. Inside, Sira found a hidden vault containing a magical shield, a runestone, and a bomb-like item. The party also discovered a ritual workshop. Its mage was knocked unconscious, tied to a washroom toilet, and questioned. He described the munitions rooms and said two other people should be present; after insulting Vesper and rejecting her offer of a job, he was handed to Rin, who killed him.
The vault’s shield spoke to Adam’andiel, identifying its inhabitant as Jaz, a former champion of Iomedae whose soul had entered the shield. Jaz called Adam’andiel a fellow servant and offered to protect the group, while saying he hoped to turn others toward honor. The party then confronted the other occupants: a clockwork soldier, an engineer, and a mage. In the fight, Wyn destroyed the soldier with an Ignition Spellstrike, and Vesper killed the mage and engineer with magic. Afterward, Vesper healed the party. They identified the runestone as a wounding rune and recovered one Eternal Eruption and two Frozen Lava munitions. The remaining bomb-like item is unidentified, and the party is still at Soldiers Aegis with the prison rescue and planned attacks on Army supplies ahead.