In the previous session the constables of the Royal Homeland Constabulary of Risur managed to save a witness and the evidence from overwhelming forces trying to destroy them. That earned them level 4, which we handled between sessions. I prefer level-ups to just happen, not to play time needed for training, because that frequently clashes with the story timing. So in this session the group interviewed the witness, Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen, and examined the evidence that the dying Nilasa had given him (stolen from the Danoran consulate).

It quickly became clear that the doctor wasn't really involved in what was going on, other than having tried to aid the dying Nilasa and having been passed the evidence she stole. But he had later encountered the shadow man that had given the group some trouble at several occasions, and wounded him with his rapier. That had left a trace of a black oil on his weapon, which he knew to be witchoil. Witchoil is an evil substance able to capture souls of the dying, and when loaded with such souls can be used to fuel dark magic. The constables decided to let the doctor go.

The documents from the Danoran consulate were reports from the Danoran head of security, Julian LeBrix. He had been investigating items disappearing and being smuggled out from factories in Flint which were Danoran-owned. The items were frequently large, for example thick steel plates, and taken together suggested some large construction project, like a battleship. During that investigation Julian also discovered flasks of witchoil hidden in some factories (where industrial accidents produced lots of soul for it to capture). But after reporting that to his superiors, his investigation was shut down. Using the ritual to detect planar energy the constables visited the factories in the report, talked their way in, and found flasks of hidden witchoil.

On their way to the RHC headquarters the constables had already overheard people talking about the skyseer Nevard Sechim planning a public announcement on Dawn Square the next day in the afternoon, telling the population of Flint of the visions he had when he visited Cauldron Hill (with the help of the constables). The next morning, at their status meeting with their boss they didn't mention that they had encountered Gale, the eco-terrorist they were supposed to hunt, but reported on finding the doctor and his evidence. Their boss, Stover Delft also had gotten word of the skyseer's announcement, and asked the group to provide security.

So the group visited Dawn Square the morning before the event, still using their ritual of detect planar energy. That made them find a warehouse with a strong source of energy from the Shadowfell. The source turned out to be a witchoil-powered golem, who attacked the group while a group of technicians in the back of the warehouse was trying to destroy evidence of their activities there. Some group members went and killed the technicians to save some of the evidence, while the others battled the golem. The golem hit hard, but not very precise; but he did spray some witchoil on the people battling him in close combat, which gave a nasty aura that damaged the person touched as well as the people around him. With a group full of close combat specialists that was quite nasty, although they managed to counter it in part with a wall of light from Eldion, the invoker.

After the fight the group discovered that the technicians apparently had modified jaguars (the cats, not the cars) by replacing their hearts with withoil tanks protected by steel plates. But the jaguars were gone already. And in the floor of the warehouse was an iron ring which they could identify as being usable in a ritual to move to the Shadowfell plane. The technicians in the warehouse had been half in the Shadowplane and half in the prime material plane, so one by one they just faded into the Shadowfell. Even the one they had kept alive was gone, so they couldn't interrogate him. With that we ended this session.