"Good work out there with the illusions."

She grins, a little tired but still upbeat. "Thank you! Good work yourself with that halberd, if you hadn't been so efficient finishing the blind one off this morning I don't know if we would have made it." A quick nod of acknowledgement. Yes, magic is very impressive, but actually finishing the mantises off is also rather important.

He chuckles. "Those assassins were quite dangerous. Hopefully we track down and catch the flying one soon. That they were able to lose the marines says much of their skills."

A nod. "Hopefully! But not today. Swinging weapons may work as often as you have the strength for it, but I'm pretty out of magic until I get some sleep." There's a rueful note in her voice as she acknowledges her limits. 

A quick shake of her head. "Definitely a good use of my spells, though, and with how much magic they had on them I'm sure it'll turn out to have paid well, once they run the numbers. And hopefully this is the last murderous evil cult running around the Korvosan sewers! ...Anyway, I need to get to sleep. Do we need a debrief, or can I just go?" At the mention of sleep, the exhaustion in her tone becomes more audible. This has actually been a lot of running around for her, and even more so for the sort of sewers adventurer who carefully only ever does one run a week and spends the time in between preparing.

"You are free to go. I've already drawn up a report on what we encountered down in the abandoned tunnels."

She nods, a little slowly. "See you tomorrow, then." Out the door and back home. She can write down some thoughts once she's back, do some practicing to make sure she's memorized everything she was supposed to, and mostly not need to do anything important. It's been a day.

KORVOSAN CARRIER
OATHDAY, SARENITH 18th, 4708

MORE CULTS ARE AMONG US, RED MANTIS ASSASSINS CAPTURED BY GUARD

Why are there so many murderous cults in this damn city. Hundreds are already dead to the blood veil, and now this? Who even hired them? Eight confirmed red mantis assassins, but if there's eight the Guard knows about there must be dozens they don't. Whatever was limiting the papers to printing good sounding press about bad events isn't working anymore. House Arkona and the Bank of Abadar announce joint funding on a cure for the blood veil. The papers can't agree on where the cure came from, but speculation runs wild about someone finding the missing seneschal's secret notes.

House Arkona is adding itself? Did she not offer enough money to cover it? Well, she doesn't actually need the money, and it's probably worth it for them just to be able to say they funded it. Even if the Bank does decide to split their payment between her and the Arkonas, she's fine with that, and it's possible they're not even asking that much. The Arkonas... were probably either the targets of the Mantis or the people who hired them, and either seems possible from this. She'll withhold judgement until seeing how their funding for the cure actually works. If they try to sabotage it, she will know not to trust them in the future. If not, well, that doesn't tell her much. This might point against them hiring anyone, if they have the money for this? She doesn't know how expensive anything relevant is, though, maybe they can easily cover both.

Good to know the papers aren't saying anything about the secret source.

And, of course, the assassins are in the paper. Unsurprising. Speaking of yesterday's adventure, does she have any mail today?

The Bank has no mail for her at this time.

She will report to the guards, then. Today is definitely not going to be calmer than yesterday. Well, calmer than yesterday was expected to be. Hopefully it will be calmer than yesterday turned out.

The Guard assigns her patrol duty with Captain Paras's squad. They're going to be covering Citadel Crest in the Heights.

Oh good, a nice calm patrol. That should be a welcome break. She greets the (diminished) squad, listens to them tell her their memories of Juan, and eventually they all catch the Blessing of the Watch and are off.

For the first couple of hours, their patrol is calm and uneventful. They catch a pickpocket. It's really quite boring. Very few seem interested in doing crimes in the city's richest ward today.

The guard patrols aren't all incredibly dangerous! She knew that her experiences couldn't actually be normal, but she's never actually seen it like this before. Well, that's what comes of usually going to the guard for a reason. She knows these shops, but it's new to be looking at them from this perspective. She's pointed to a few locations which are harder to see, the inconvenient corners people try to flee around, and notes for herself the choke points for possible walls to suddenly appear out of. It's nice to actually be the one learning from the guards, letting them work in their actual experience rather than seeing them in the middle of combat which they aren't really used to. They're clearly much happier like this.

She hears some stories of Juan's exploits in the area. Apparently at one point he managed to catch a pickpocket only by running straight into a wizard coming out of the Gilded Orrery, and that was a delightful bit of groveling. It's a nice peaceful few hours, even with the other guards quietly and dutifully mourning as they work.

From the air, the Temple of Asmodeus in Korvosa looks like a large blood red five-sided star. When Tencednil's patrol next passes by, some sort of crowd has gathered along the front entrance. The Church has cleared an area at the front of the temple.

That... is a little worrying? If the Church has cleared an area they were probably prepared for it, so this isn't a riot right now, but it's still a large crowd and Korvosa is not at its stablest. She shifts over to the corner of Captain Paras's vision, finds something which looks a bit odd — there's a crate sitting in the dark there with what might be a crack, perfect — and calls his name while standing between him and the crowd to point to the crate.

Once he's seen it, he can choose what to do about it. Not her job. He really shouldn't miss this, though.

Captain Paras looks over and sees the crate and the gathering. He holds a hand out to slow the squad down.

She slows! Good, he didn't miss it.

Your time is up.

Gate.

A loop of fire, twenty feet in diameter, appears in the middle of the street. Heat pours from it like a roaring flame. A barren, volcanic desert is visible through the portal. Indistinct wails and screams can be heard faintly.

Devils begin marching in formation out of the gate and up the steps of the temple.

She stops dead in her tracks. 

That's a Gate. 

She has seen more ninth circle spells in the past three weeks than she expected to see in her lifetime, of course. The Disjunction was spectacular, but mostly in its consequences. The Wishes were uniquely directed at her specifically, and she will most likely never see them surpassed. She couldn't make any sense of whatever was going on with Morgethai's demiplane — though knowing there was time dilation woven in there helps — but it was a delicate work of art, intricate beyond belief and obviously absurdly capable. 

Gate is none of those. It's a spell out of legend, yes, but not only out of legend. She has heard of the real Archbanker of Abadar running incredibly expensive trade through Gates, transporting ludicrous amounts of wealth across planes in the paths upon which Wish diamonds are borne. But while Miracles and True Resurrections may be the generally known pinnacles of the cleric's art, a Gate is in many ways the most important. (She's heard something about ninth circle clerics also being able to decide what they want to have prepared on the spot? That sounded like it was probably a myth, but maybe. Not really important.) The other well-known spells require diamonds, after all. This, a Gate for transportation, is the sort of thing a ninth circle cleric can simply do every day, whenever they want. It was the sort of thing she sometimes dreamed of, when she thought she would be Ulon's.

And, of course, it's out of her Detect Magic range. That's... for the best, really. This close to the Asmodean Church, Aspexia Rugatonn herself must be on the other side of that, and she would rather not be sixty feet from the Most High of Asmodeus on Golarion. It's generally not a safe place to stand. Especially given the other atypically powerful person she was so close to just a few days ago.

The devils are followed by soldiers in full plate and some very fancy looking clerics of Asmodeus. The procession lasts almost a full minute before it ends.

Ornher Reebs, archbishop of the Church of Asmodeus in Korvosa, strides down the steps of the temple. He greets the newcomers quickly and then walks through the gate.

It closes behind him.

That's... a lot of devils. That's a lot of devils. And a very impressive cleric, apparently taking the place of the known Korvosan very impressive cleric? There are shenanigans going on. Is this Cheliax? Is this Asmodeus? And whichever it is, why now?

...well, that's obvious, isn't it. The throne lies empty, and they must want to claim it. What's changed? Not important. Something has, and now an outsider is trying to claim Korvosa. Everyone is going to need to respond to that, and with this many devils looming behind their backs, it will have to be fast and quite unified to get anywhere.

Alternatively, she and Mother are going to be leaving the city soon. Janderhoff was nice, maybe it's better when you aren't constantly short of breath.