"Does the ring itself seem to be important here, is it magical?"

He blushes slightly. "Minorly, yes. It was a Ring of Sustenance, I'd intended to give it to Kiana when I proposed. But that was supposed to be all, it wasn't supposed to be a ring of... babau summoning."

"Small game for anyone who can teleport, I would imagine. - if he did the teleport himself, as well."

"Surely whoever's in charge of the Condemned would have noticed if he'd been wearing a magic item that could teleport."

"Are you confident it was him - would there have been any benefit to assuming his appearance, given that he was hostile immediately on arriving on the scene -"

"It sounded like him. I don't know if magic would do that."

"It depends on the spell. A basic illusion, such as Disguise Self, does not alter the caster's voice. A simple transmutation spell, such as Alter Self, does not perfectly duplicate an individual's voice, but it can sometimes affect the caster's voice — for example, if I were to Alter Self into select boy, my voice would likely take on a lower pitch, but would not necessarily be identical to his. Greater skill with impersonation can largely mitigate this issue for a skilled caster, and more specialized transmutation or illusion spells can sometimes allow for someone's voice to be duplicated more directly."

"If he'd looked like a demon cultist Seelah might not have stopped me from killing him, and he wouldn't have gotten his spell off."

"And he is not otherwise accounted for."

"I don't know, we just got back."

"Was he a halfling?" asks the Sarenrite. "Supposedly they're looking for a halfling who deserted from the Condemned earlier this afternoon."

"—Yes, he is."

"Did he let slip any potentially related sentiments about the Crusade or anything else that would explain the timing?"

"He seemed upset the other day when that woman accused him of theft? But — if he can teleport he could have left any time he wanted."

"When he stole my ring he said something like 'you can't have it.' I don't remember his exact words."

"Sounds like if he'd been sent to the gallows to begin with none of this ever would have happened."

"It sounds like there were a lot of people who wanted to hurt him already, and it didn't make him any kinder. If they had tried to kill him earlier, he might just have teleported away, and started trying to hurt our friends sooner..."

"...Where did you get the ring?" Blai asks Elan.

"Master Darek Sunhammer's shop in Nerosyan."

"Firsthand, not secondhand, so it's not like he had any previous attachment to it?"

"Yes, firsthand. As far as I know Curl had never even seen it."

Sigh. "Well. Who's generally on tracking deserters, they need to know this one's plausibly more than they'd have bargained for."

The Sarenrite cleric can provide a name.

And... he might need to pick up a batman or something at some point, maybe he'll ask the officers if they've got anyone good for the job in the evening meeting, then he could send a runner with messages like that... where might he find that person.

Over there (the cleric points), near the command tent.